Oakland Museum of California Opens After Major Renovation

all photographs (c) 2010 K. Smokey Cormier

Last night I went to the grand opening of the Oakland Museum of California. It was exciting and the museum, which has undergone major renovation, is gorgeous. A delicious orange color pulls the museum’s ensemble together beautifully. It starts with the exterior signs -- beautiful against the sky.

The art gallery is so much bigger. It feels good walking through. I realize now how pinched I felt in the old, much smaller gallery.

Don't lick the paintings

The California History exhibit spreads out now too and the museum can show off their collection. The gardens are open and have tables so you can sit out there. (It was a bit too cool to sit there last night but I look forward to those warm Oakland days.)

The museum's store has been enlarged too and it dazzles. Make sure to stop by and say hello to all the friendly and helpful clerks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Disclosure: A dear friend works there. But I loved the Oakland Museum before he started working there so I feel perfectly comfortable singing its praises. And another thing, I love Oakland and will always point out something wonderful here.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I love bringing my daughters to this museum. It makes us all feel good -- there's something about the architecture here and the natural light as you travel through the levels. I love the way the walk-through is a series of broad steps up and then a series of steps down. However, don’t fear -- the museum is wheel chair accessible too.

You can read more about the design and read more information about the museum here.

Why is this museum and its renovation important for the residents of Oakland? We are inundated with depressing stories about Oakland too often. To me, the museum is like the Oakland Rose Garden (also called Morcom Park) -- it is a treasure, someplace to visit that makes you feel good. And I love art. I find the Oakland Museum so accessible. It’s so easy to go there. Since I’ve lived here in Oakland, I have always wanted to support the institutions that uplift our spirits. Plus, did you know that lots of community events happen at the Oakland Museum? Yep. They’ve got lots of spaces.

I love all the nooks and crannies at the museum. I can sit and relax for a moment before I go on to the next activity.

I took lots of photos ... so keep scrolling and you’ll get a little taste of the museum’s new look. And, if you have time tomorrow or Sunday (1 May 2010 and 2 May 2010), go and visit. The Oakland Museum of California will be open from 11:00 am Saturday until 6:00 pm Sunday. Yes, that’s right -- it will be open all through the night! It's free to get in during that entire period.

I’m sorry I didn’t get the names of the pieces or the artist ... I had limited time there last night. I’m going back tomorrow night.

This is one of the gardens. You can see the Alameda Country Superior Court just beyond.

Tortilla Art - this guy was doing silk screens on tortillas -- and they were edible!

Note: The new cafe won't be ready until July.

Questions About Australia

I received this several years ago in email from one of my friends. So, I've pulled it from my archives because it still makes me laugh. Of course, I probably get more enjoyment from it than most "Americans" because I'm from that giant peaceful neighbor up north -- Canada.

------------------------------------------------------------

The questions below about Australia, are from potential visitors. They were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a sense of humour.

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? (UK).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around naked in the bushes in Australia? (Sweden)
A: So it's true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Hervey Bay? (UK)
A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not... oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is North in Australia? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is...oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.

Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia? ( UK)
A: You are a British politician, right?

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: Do you have perfume in Australia? (France)
A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia? (France)
A: Only at Christmas.

Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross. Can you help? (USA)
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

Anne Lamott at City Arts & Lectures Monday April 19, 2010

(c) 2010 K Smokey Cormier

I placed the book there but not the mouse ... or Willy Billy Button

On Monday night I went to City Arts & Lectures to see Anne Lamott. There was a podium and she mostly stood there and talked to us about what her life had been like lately. (An exception about standing at the podium: She left the podium once to hand a cough drop to a member of the audience who had been coughing. Lamott herself was nursing a cold.)

She talked about three partamajigglyfrutu things in her life. “Partamajigglyfrutu”? Well, I didn’t have a tape recorder and that’s what my old-as-dirt brain tells me she said. It means something like chaos + joy + loved ones + rich experience + lots of colors. Of course, once again I’m relying on my old-as-dirt brain in remembering how Anne Lamott described that mysterious word.

The things were: birth of her grandson, trip to India ... and ... g'ddam it, I can’t remember the third thing.

Lamott is so generous. She gives of herself so deeply. And, humorously. I sit and listen and think: How does she do it?

She told stories about her family and friends. Interesting stories about flawed mensches that pulled me back from the cynicism and disgust I often feel about humanity. At least the humanity that is out THERE ... not my friends. My friends are what humanity is trying to be. (Those words remind me of a postcard I just bought: "Don't be a snob, hob nob")

She quoted -- really good quotes -- from other writers ... encouraging the writers in the audience to write. Write. Get down to it.

She talked a lot about the alcohol and drug problems of teenagers. That’s one of the things her latest book is about. Frightening for me, mother of two teenagers. But she was also encouraging. The biggest thing for parents is to NOT become ostriches. This is definitely NOT the time to put your head in the ground. Be alert. Give drug tests if necessary. (She didn’t advise this directly but that’s what the parents do in her book.) Keep connected and alert. Don’t be your child’s buddy. You must parent (lovingly) with all your might.

Would I like Anne Lamott to read this? You betcha. Because I want her to know how much I love it that she shares so much of herself. (And I do not mean “overshare overshare!”) It looked effortless and as if she were just stream-of-consciousness talking the other night. But, those were not effortless words. Lamott thought long and hard about everything she said (and probably wrote about all of it too). How do I know? Because it all came together. (Okay, she could be a talented channeler ... but I don’t think so.)

Advice alert! If you ever get a chance to see Anne Lamott in person, please do it. You’ll learn a lot of things that will be flooding into your subconscious ... you’ll be sitting there thinking you’re just having a fun time ... but you’ll be learning too. (Most fun way to learn, in my humble yet haughty opinion.)

If you'd like to read an interview with her, go here.

ANNE LAMOTT, CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GRANDBABY. AND ...

MERCI BEAUCOUP BEAUCOUP, ANNE LAMOTT, FOR ALL THOSE GREAT STORIES. (shouting from Oakland to Marin)


Disclaimer: Don't know Ms. Lamott personally, don't know her publisher, don't know anybody in her life. (I believe that to be true ... although there is that Six Degrees of Separation phenomenon.) I'm just an enthusiastic fan. Although I do see her at activist events from time to time and haven't yet been bold enough to gush at her one-on-one.

Mulch and T. Coraghessan Boyle

(c) 2005 K Smokey Cormier

If you're a real environmentalist, you'll cover yourself with mulch right up to your neck and then shoot yourself in the head.

- T.C. Boyle

... from an interview with Michael Krasny ... I'm reading Krasny's book OFF MIKE: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life

We Mourn the Loss of Wilma Mankiller

Photograph taken by K Smokey Cormier at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C, May 2005

We mourn the loss of Wilma Mankiller. We loved her. We didn’t know her but we loved her. We loved her for her perseverance. Perseverance is a very underrated quality. And, what is it that makes the most difference in your daily life ... and in the lives of much of humanity? Perseverance. L. Frank Baum should have written in another character for the Wizard of Oz ... one that needed perseverance. Although, I guess, courage comes close.

Being a lesbian, I always wondered about her last name. I was often called “man hater” by various people as a pejorative for “lesbian.” According to Wikipedia:

The family surname, Mankiller, is a traditional Cherokee military rank and is Asgaya-dihi in Cherokee,[5] which is alternatively spelled Outacity[6] or Outacite.

Wilma Mankiller also had ties with the San Francisco Bay Area and my beloved Oakland:

The Mankiller family lived on Charley’s allotment lands of Mankiller Flats near Rocky Mountain, Oklahoma. In 1942 the US Army declared 45 Cherokee families’ allotment lands, near those of Mankiller’s family, in order to expand Camp Gruber. The Mankillers willingly left under the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Indian Relocation Program. They moved to San Francisco, California in 1956 and later Daly City.

In 1963, at the age of 17, Mankiller married Hector Hugo Olaya de Bardi, an Ecuadorian college student. They moved to Oakland and had two daughters, Felicia Olaya, born in 1964, and Gina Olaya, born in 1966.

Mankiller returned to school, first at Skyline College, and then San Francisco State University. She had been very involved in San Francisco’s Indian Center throughout her time in California. In the late 1960s, Mankiller joined the activist movement and participated in the Occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. For five years, she volunteered for the Pit River Tribe.

She moved back to Oklahoma and her ancestral home, Mankiller Flats, after she divorced her husband and, when the chief of the Cherokees resigned, Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to be a principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. She was elected in 1987 for another term and then re-elected in 1991. Perseverance:

Mankiller faced many obstacles during her tenure in office. At the time she became chief, the Cherokee Nation was male-dominated. Such a structure contrasted with the traditional Cherokee culture and value system, which instead emphasized a balance between the two genders. Over the course of her three terms, Mankiller would make great strides to bring back that balance and reinvigorate the Cherokee Nation through community-development projects where men and women work collectively for the common good, based on the Bureau of Indian Affairs "Self Help" programs first initiated by the United Keetoowah Band, and with the help of the Federal Governments Self-Determination monies. These projects included establishing tribally owned businesses (such as horticultural operations and plants with government defense contracts), improving infrastructure ( such as providing running water to the community of Bell, Oklahoma), and building a hydroelectric facility.

President Obama released this statement:

"I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Wilma Mankiller today. As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief, she transformed the Nation-to-Nation relationship between the Cherokee Nation and the Federal Government, and served as an inspiration to women in Indian Country and across America. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she was recognized for her vision and commitment to a brighter future for all Americans. Her legacy will continue to encourage and motivate all who carry on her work. Michelle and I offer our condolences to Wilma’s family, especially her husband Charlie and two daughters, Gina and Felicia, as well as the Cherokee Nation and all those who knew her and were touched by her good works."

Want to read about her ... in her own words?
You can read her first book, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, an autobiography, which became a national bestseller.

In addition to her mother, she is survived by her husband, Charlie Soap; her daughters, Gina Olaya and Felicia Olaya, both of Tahlequah; several brothers and sisters, and four grandchildren.

We send our most sincere condolences to her family and friends.

Wikipedia biography: Go here.

Her obituary in today's New York Times: Go here.

Freaks and Folks and Flannery

unknown photographer

Here in Oakland, California it's still March 25 so I can wish Flannery O'Connor a blessed birthday.

Today's short biography from A Writer's Almanac ... another good chicken story too ...

It's the birthday of Flannery O'Connor, born 85 years ago today in Savannah, Georgia (1925), who wrote two novels and 32 short stories and who said: "I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both." When she was six, she and a chicken that she taught to walk backward appeared on the news. She later said: "I was just there to assist the chicken but it was the high point in my life. Everything since has been anticlimax."

After college, she went to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and then spent time at the Yaddo Writers' Colony. At the age of 26, she was diagnosed with lupus, the disease that had killed her father when she was a teenager. At the time, doctors told her she would live for another five years, but she survived for nearly 14 years. She moved back to Georgia so that her mom could take care of her, to a 500-acre family farm in Milledgeville where she raised chickens, ducks, hens, geese, and peacocks, her favorite. She arose every morning when the chickens first cackled, went to 7:00 a.m. Mass in town at Sacred Heart, returned home and wrote for a couple of hours each day, until she felt too weak or tired.

As she herself put it, she wrote about "freaks and folks." She said, "Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one."

In her sickly 14 years on the farm with her mother, O'Connor wrote two dozen short stories and two novels filled with her freakish, obsessive characters, crazy preachers, murderers, outcasts. Her most famous stories include "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," about a silly, annoying old woman whose entire family gets murdered by a man called The Misfit, and "Good Country People," about a pretentious young woman whose wooden leg is stolen by a Bible salesman.

Many of Flannery O'Connor's letters are collected in a volume calledThe Habit of Being (1979), edited by her friend Sally Fitzgerald. And despite O'Connor's premonition that "there won't be any biographies of me, because lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy," a new book about her life came out just last year, written by Brad Gooch and entitled Flannery (2009).

Flannery O'Connor said, "The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention."

Yes. Life's joys. The cheapest of thrills. Watching.

I love this quote: "Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one."

There's something in me that relates to Southern writers ... I am from the South too ... No? Whaddya mean? Just take a look at the map of Canada. Now place your finger on Winnipeg, Manitoba. Why, I would call that the Deep South ... of Canada.


[go here to see my last chicken story]

Irish Me

irish me
i need irishing
it's that time of year
but i don't want
leprechauns promising pots of gold
shiny shamrocks
kiss me pins
green beer

in my blood
both ancient and new
the bodhrán beats

tell me about
the Picts, Gaels, and Druids
Bridget, the Book of Kells, and the Tara Brooch
the Viking tyranny fought by Mahon and Brian Boru
and, from the time of the Normans,
tell me about Gaelic Ireland
home of the wild Irish
oh, yes, tell me of them,
defiant, from which I come

tell me about how
the Irish saved civilization
but couldn't save themselves

the bodhrán
in the center of my chest
beats the blood around

and can you explain so I understand:
how did the Great Starvation happen?
didn’t the English have any food to share?
I’ve heard rumors about those English warehouses …
full of food

talk to me of the Black and Tans,
the Ku Klux Klan of Eire
brought into Ireland
by the British government
to make Ireland
a hell

tell me about my grandfather
born in Galway
buried in Mayo
didn't like him much
but eventually I had a tribal respect
he ran the village's
cooperative grocery
living above it with my grandmother

tell the true true story
about how the Black and Tans
held him at gunpoint many times
to steal gasoline, coffee, sugar
then, as they got desperate
from losing
they gasolined and torched his home
my mother, a baby at the time


(c) 2006 k. smokey cormier


bodhrán = ancient Irish drum still used by musicians; pronounced BOW-RAN;

Broods and Breeding, Excerpt from Our Life in Gardens by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd

Chickens at the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California
(c) 2006 K. Smokey Cormier

I want to share an excerpt from Our Life in Gardens by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd. They are a queer couple and have written a couple of books about their experiences with their farm and nursery in Vermont. The excerpt is about chickens.

(Also, there's a wonderful piece in the NYTimes that you might want to read. It's called "It came. It clucked. It conquered.")

I have a special connection with chickens. I don’t remember if I have written about it before ... but here you go ... one of my first jobs as a child was to gather chicken eggs in the morning. (I know this will surprise those of you who think of me as nothing but a city slicker ... but, as I keep trying to remind people: I am old as dirt. I have had many experiences ... and a million jobs!)

When I lived with my grandparents in Ireland for five months, when I was almost nine years old, my job first thing in the morning was to go out to the chicken house and gather the freshly-laid eggs. It took some courage because some of those hens would try to peck you. Oh, they’re nowhere near as bad as geese ... but that’s another story. Some hens weren’t sitting in their straw hollow of a nest so I could easily pluck their eggs out. But, some ... the type A’s of the coop? ... would be sitting there. And they would watch me approach with fierce eyes. Remember, I was only a child ... a short one at that ... always second shortest of my class. When I got close to the hen on her nest, my face was just a bit higher than hers. Do you think she wanted me to rob her of her son and heir? ("son and heir"? ... There were few feminists in rural Ireland in those days.) I carried a cardboard shield with me. Quick! Up with it! Shielding my face, I would simultaneously reach my hand in under her and grab the egg. Such squawking! Flapping!

If too many of the hens were sitting on their babbies, they’d be alerted. I’d have to go and take a break, come back, and try again. It’s too bad. After all the effort, I didn’t like eggs in those days. Those fresh eggs were wasted on me. I would feel nauseous as I ate eggs. But, I had to clean me plate, after all.

By the way, did you know that the earliest evidence of human writing was found on ... what material? Dunno? Eggshells. Pieces of ostrich eggshells were found in South Africa, dating back 60,000 years!! Ostrich eggshells are very hard and durable. You can read about it here.


The excerpt from Our Life in Gardens by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd:

We lived at 89 Beacon Street for three months short of a year. The plant collections grew larger, and at one point included a ten-foot-tall weeping willow tree forced in the high windows of the bedroom. But in the end, it was not plants that sent us to the country. It was chickens.

We can no longer remember how we came to visit a chicken show, but it must have been the venerable Boston Poultry Show, now in its 158th year. In any case, we came home with a trio of Mille Fleur bantams, a sturdy little red rooster all spangled over with white and black dots, and two meek little hens. The hens were of an age to lay, and so, shortly thereafter, on Beacon Street, we began to produce our own eggs, generally two every other day.

Even then it was probably quite illegal to keep poultry in a Boston apartment. At first we wondered how our landlord would react, and so we quickly fashioned a pen for our chickens in keeping -- we felt -- with the grand circumstances to which they had been elevated. It was a large cage, roughly six feet long and four feet wide, with a deep tray in the bottom for sweet-smelling cedar shavings. Tucked behind the Kentia palm at the sunny end of the great ballroom, it also had Chinese export-ware feed and water bowls, and was of course kept immaculately clean. Our landlord seemed, if anything, amused. We gave him some fresh-laid eggs.

But as all chicken fanciers know, chickens are addictive, and one can never stop at three. So many of our Saturday mornings were spent driving to the breeders of fancy chickens around Boston, our favorite of whom was Marjorie George, just over the Massachusetts line in Nashua, New Hampshire. Around Easter, she sold us a tiny cochin hen we named Emma. She was hardly the size of a cantaloupe, though her body was a cloud of soft, almost furry snow-white feathers. (We kept them that way, by weekly shampoos and fluffing out with the hair dryer.) She was the only chicken who had full run of the apartment, though she mostly favored the kitchen, where she had a nest box tucked privately in one corner. Soon, she became broody, a skill for which chochins are famous, being generally considered the best of chicken mothers. Or foster mothers. For as Emma had no mate, her eggs were sterile. So we bought a dozen assorted fertile ones from Mrs. George, and twenty-one days later every one hatched.

Shortly thereafter, we had a morning visit from the chairman of the English department at Tufts, who lived in a beautiful house around the corner on Chestnut Street. Just at the moment he was lifting his cup of tea, Emma decided to show her brood the world. Perhaps seventy feet of dark, waxed oak parquet floor lay between the kitchen door and the couch where he sat. Emma proceeded that length, leading a stately procession of tiny, chirping chicks. She observed our guest skeptically, found nothing special in him, turned, and proceeded with her train the long way back. Good breeding kept him, we presume, from saying a single word about the extraordinary sight that had passed before him. But we wondered what Emma's perspective had been. Perhaps good breeding of her own caused her so politely to withdraw.

From the Album of K. Smokey Cormier

San Francisco Bay, looking North from Berkeley

all photos (c) 2010 K. Smokey Cormier

Last Saturday around 5:30pm I was at the intersection of Gilman St. and Buchanan in Berkeley ... right near the Eastshore Freeway. Near the Gilman St. turf fields. My oldest daughter was playing rugby.

The sky was beautiful. I had to take out my trusty camera and shoot. I just love the sky when it's like this. C.L. is absolutely right -- who wants sunny days! (Although, of course, the sun plays a big part in most photography.)

looking South

more South

What is this structure? (I kept thinking ... might be my future home if I get the chop ... like so many at my place of employment.) It's a beautiful structure ... I took several photos. I couldn't really get at the angle I wanted because there was a huge puddle there and I didn't have my Wellies on.

Zombieland

My daughters and I have gotten into the habit of watching horror movies for our Saturday night family-movie night. Some selections were horror lite like Ghost Cat (starring pre-Juno Ellen Page) which was not scary at all. But the horror genre is wide-ranging in flavors. Last night we watched Zombieland -- which we all enjoyed very much. It stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg (who I loved in Adventureland ... wait a minute, Adventureland ... Zombieland ... a trend?), Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. Zombieland is really a horror-comedy. We laughed like crazy! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Woody Harrelson -- I love that guy! I remember when he joined the cast of Cheers. He joined right after Nicholas Colasanto ("Coach") died. A lot of fans -- me included -- loved Coach and many folks wondered if Harrelson could really pull it off. Of course, no one could replace Colasanto. But Harrelson brought his own sumpin sumpin to the show. Little did we know then what an interesting actor Harrelson would become. He really takes a range of roles. If you don't believe me, see a few episodes of Cheers followed by Natural Born Killers and the recent release The Walker (not a very successful movie but Harrelson was good).

Zombieland: RECOMMENDED

Lucille Clifton: May She Rest in a Mighty Peace

photographer unknown

I just heard ... just now ... of Lucille Clifton's passing. She passes on to the ancients. Bless her. We earthlings will miss her most intelligent and musical voice.

One of her poems ...

Homage to My Hips

these hips are big hips.
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top


If you'd like to hear her read it herself, go here.

You can read her obituary in the NYTimes here. It's free, but you have to register.

Film: Best of

Everybody's doin' it, doin' it, doin' it ... I must have read fifty goddamn best of lists so far. Best movies of the decade. Best movies of Hollywood. Best movies of the 21st century. Best movies from countries where they don't speak English. Best movies you can enjoy while masturbating.

Well, whatFUCKINGEVER, y'all. I don't give a shit. I'm gonna put up my OWN list of best movies. These are the best movies I have ever seen in all my life. If you haven't seen them yet, it just proves that you're a miserable poseur (poseuse?) with no life, no balls (or other gonadal substitutes), no time ... ah, fuhgeddaboudit.

Actually it doesn't prove squat. Except, maybe, I watched way too many movies in my wild and wicked yoof. Most of these are available on Netflix, in case you wanna watch'em.

Best Movies I Ever Saw:

• Raise the Red Lantern
  
  
• Red Sorghum
  
  
• Ju Dou
  
  
• The Road Home
  
  
• The Story of Qiu Ju
  
  
• Hero
  
  
• Farewell, My Concubine
  
  
• The Blue Kite (Lan Feng Zheng)
  
  
• The Wedding Banquet (Hsi Yen)
  
  
• Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin Shi Nan Nu)
  
  
• Drunken Master
  
  
• The Eye (Jian Gui)
  
  
• Happy Times (Xingfu Shiguang)
  
  
• The Young Master
  
  
• Chunhyang
  
  
• Time (Shi gan)
  
  
• Yojimbo
  
  
• Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjuro)
  
  
• Rashomon
  
  
• No Regrets For Our Youth (Waga Seishun Ni Kuinashi)
  
  
• Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi)
  
  
• Stray Dog (Nora Inu)
  
  
• Ikiru (To Live)
  
  
• Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai)
  
  
• I Live in Fear (Ikimono no Kiroku)
  
  
• The Lower Depths (Donzoko)
  
  
• Throne of Blood (Kumonosu Jo)
  
  
• Ran
  
  
• The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-toride no San Akunin)
  
  
• Akahige (Red Beard)
  
  
• High and Low (Tengoku no Jingoku)
  
  
• Dersu Uzala
  
  
• Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior)
  
  
• Madadayo
  
  
• The Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei)
  
  
• Harakiri (Seppuku)
  
  
• Samurai Rebellion (Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu)
  
  
• The Human Condition (Ningen no Joken)
  
  
• Tokyo Godfathers
  
  
• The Happiness Of The Katakuris
  
  
• Chushingura
  
  
• Tokyo Story
  
  
• In the Realm Of The Senses
  
  
• Chaos
  
  
• The Burmese Harp (Biruma no Tategoto)
  
  
• Sleepyheads
  
  
• Ringu
  
  
• My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)
  
  
• Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)
  
  
• Princess Mononoke
  
  
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika)
  
  
• The Cat Returns (Neko no ongaeshi)
  
  
• Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro)
  
  
• Kiki's Delivery Service(Majo No Takkyubin)
  
  
• Castle In The Sky (Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta)
  
  
• Porco Rosso (Kurenai no buta / Crimson Pig)
  
  
• Grave of the Fireflies
  
  
• Ghost In The Shell (Kokaku Kidotai)
  
  
• Mirch Masala
  
  
• Pather Panchali (Song of the Road)
  
  
• Aparajito (The Unvanquished)
  
  
• Apur Shongshar (The World of Apu)
  
  
• Home and The World (Ghare Baire)
  
  
• Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest)
  
  
• Distant Thunder (Asani Sanket)
  
  
• Devi (The Goddess)
  
  
• Charulata
  
  
• Teen Kanya (Three Daughters)
  
  
• Agantuk (The Stranger)
  
  
• Jalsaghar (The Music Room)
  
  
• Jana Aranya (The Middleman)
  
  
• Mahanagar (The Big City)
  
  
• Baran (Hamsay e-Khoda)
  
  
• Bad Education (La Mala Educacion)
  
  
• Talk to Her (Hable Con Ella)
  
  
• Dark Habits (Entre Tinienblas)
  
  
• What Have I Done To Deserve This (Que he Hecho Yo, Para Merecer Esto)?
  
  
• All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre)
  
  
• The Law of Desire (La Ley del Deseo)
  
  
• Live Flesh (Carne Tremula)
  
  
• Belle de Jour (Bella di giorno)
  
  
• Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto de Fauna)
  
  
• The Devil's Backbone (El Espinoza del Diablo)
  
  
• The Orphanage (El Orfanata)
  
  
• Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)
  
  
• The Garden of the Fitzi-Continis (Il Gairdano dei Fitzi-Contini)
  
  
• I'm Not Scared (Io Non ho Paura)
  
  
• The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri)
  
  
• Das Boot (The Boat)
  
  
• Aimee and Jaguar
  
  
• Antibodies (Antikörper)
  
  
• M (Murderers Among Us)
  
  
• Metropolis
  
  
• Nosferatu (Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens)
  
  
• The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville)
  
  
• Elevator to the Gallows
  
  
• Les Comperes (Co-Fathers)
  
  
• Le Samourai
  
  
  
• The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste)
  
  
• Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (Le Parfum - Histoire d'un Meurtrier)
  
  
• I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime)
  
  
• Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis)
  
  
• Diabolique (Les diaboliques)
  
  
• Ma Vie en Rose (My Life In Pink)
  
  
• Winged Migration (Le Peuple Migrateur)
  
  
• Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)
  
  
• The City of Lost Children (La cité des enfants perdus)
  
  
• Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion)
  
  
• The 400 Blows (Le Quatre Cents Coups)
  
  
• Cyrano de Bergerac
  
  
• Queen Margot (La Reine Margot)
  
  
• Rififi
  
  
• Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)
  
  
• Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro)
  
  
• The Closet (Le Placard)
  
  
• Babette's Feast (Babettes gæstebud)
  
  
• Rabbit-Proof Fence
  
  
• The Magdalene Sisters
  
  
• Heavenly Creatures
  
  
• Saving Grace
  
  
• The Third Man
  
  
• Imagine Me & You
  
  
• Psycho
  
  
• Notorious
  
  
• Dial M For Murder
  
  
• Strangers on a Train
  
  
• North by Northwest
  
  
• Vertigo
  
  
• The Thirty-Nine Steps
  
  
• Kind Hearts and Coronets
  
  
• Bend It Like Beckham
  
  
• Run, Fat Boy, Run
  
  
• Keeping Mum
  
  
• Dirty Pretty Things
  
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
  
• The Night of The Hunter
  
  
• Harold and Maude
  
  
• Being There
  
  
• No Country For Old Men
  
  
• The Maltese Falcon
  
  
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
  
  
• Born Yesterday
  
  
• From Here to Eternity
  
  
• The Manchurian Candidate
  
  
• In The Heat Of The Night
  
  
• A Scanner Darkly
  
  
• UHF (The Vidiot from UHF)
  
  
• Paths of Glory
  
  
• The Brother From Another Planet
  
  
• Fargo
  
  
• Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
  
  
• The Great Dictator
  
  
• Modern Times
  
  
• The Gold Rush
  
  
• To Kill A Mockingbird
  
  
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts
  
  
• Jungle Fever
  
  
• Basquiat
  
  
• Transamerica
  
  
• Brazil
  
  
• Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua para Chocolate)
  
  
• Europa, Europa (Hitlerjunge Salomon)
  
  
• The Constant Gardener
  
  
• Amadeus
  
  
• Great Expectations
  
  
• Monster
  
  
• Death At A Funeral
  
  
• The Lady Vanishes
  
  
• Out of The Past
  
  
• Peeping Tom
  
  
• Conspiracy
  
  
• Elizabeth R.
  
  
• Trick
  
  
• Witness For The Prosecution
  
  
• Night And The City
  
  
• Lord of the Rings I, II, III
  
  
• The Matrix
  
  
• The Man In The Glass Booth
  
  
• Twelve Monkeys
  
  
• Midnight Cowboy
  
  
• Jacob's Ladder
  
  
• Bad Santa
  
  
• Bubba Ho-tep
  
  
• O, Brother, Where Art Thou?
  
  
• Seabiscuit
  
  
• The Frighteners
  
  
• Withnail and I
  
  
• Sense and Sensibility
  
  
• Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
  
  
• Shaun of the Dead
  
  
• Awakenings
  
  
• The Importance of Being Earnest
  
  
• The Fugitive
  
  
• Breakfast on Pluto
  
  
• The Front Line
  
  
• Downfall (Der Untergang / The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich)
  
  
• Monsieur Klein
  
  
• The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (eder für sich und Gott gegen alle)
  
  
• Woyczek
  
  
• The Last Wave
  
  
• The Tracker
  
  
• Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
  
  
• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
  
  
• Cape Fear
  
  
• 11:14

Happy Valentine's Day!

"heart 2010" (c) 2010 k smokey cormier

Snowfall in Washington, D.C.

Check this out .. time lapse of snowfall in Washington, D.C.

www.youtube.com

Time lapse video of the Feruary 5-6 snowfall in DC. Nikon D200 set to make an exposure every 5 minutes. 328 frames at 12 fps.

Patti Smith "Because the Night" acoustic

This is so good. Patti's voice is sooooo good in this video. I hate to be superficial (oh, yeah?) but she's lookin' good too. Sit back, relax ...



I saw her at Herbst Theater in San Francisco last week. Go here.

Ms. Manitoba: Books To Read in 2010

Okay, folks, this is my list for January 1 to end of December this year. Notice the many fiction to the few non-fiction. I'm not kidding myself. Right now it seems that I am mostly drawn to fiction. Escapism? Not sure. I do feel a lot when I read fiction so I'm not sure I'm escaping anything. Cathartic, then? I'll just have to ponder that one.

I wish you a great reading year!

Hey -- and please, I'd love to hear what you're reading.


Fiction

The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje

In the Woods - Tana French

The Likeness - Tana French

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barberry

Gourmet Rhapsody - Muriel Barberry

The Man in the Wooden Hat - Jane Gardam

About a Boy - Nick Hornby

A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

How to be Good - Nick Hornby

Feathers - Jacqueline Woodson
[children’s book]

The Most Beautiful Book in the World: Eight Novellas - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Lark and Termite - Jayne Anne Phillips

Suffer Little Children - Peter Tremayne

Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo

The Bean Trees - Barbara Kinsolver [re-read]

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson

Hamlet - Wm. Shakespeare [re-read]

At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O’Neill

The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick
[children’s book]

The Penderwicks - Jeanne Birdsall
[children’s book]

Rosie - Anne Lamott

The Diving Pool - Yoko Ogawa

The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa

Shame - Salman Rushdie

The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie

Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë

The Manticore - Robertson Davies (re-read)

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

A Thread of Grace - Mary Doria Russell

Our Town -Thornton Wilder

Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels

Song for Anninho - Gayl Jones

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Price of Butcher's Meat - Reginald Hill

Swan Peak - James Lee Burke



Nonfiction

I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna

Just Kids - Patti Smith

Running in the Family - Michael Ondaatje

In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing - Walter Murch

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them - Francine Prose

Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching

Two Gardners: A Friendship in Letters - Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence

Who named the iPad?

Adrienne Biggs is sure that the new iPad was named by a man.

(from Leah Garchik's column on sfgate.com)

Just Saw Patti Smith ...

photographer unknown, found this photo at untossedcoin.wordpress.com/.../

Yes. I just saw Patti Smith tonight. She was at Herbst Theater in San Francisco as part of the Arts and Politics series for City Arts & Lectures.

She was really wonderful. She's touring for her new book Just Kids which is about her and Robert Mapplethorpe when they were young and starting out in New York. She told lots of stories, read from her book, read a poem and dedicated it to Howard Zinn (he died today), and gave a mini 2 song concert. She sounded great! Her voice is still wonderful and powerful.

I'm about a third of the way into her book and enjoying it very much. (Review will happen on this web when I'm done.)