wet

I think I heard on the news today that this March could be the wettest on record for New York City. At least in my neighborhood I didn't see anything like the flooding they had in Queens, New Jersey and elsewhere in the Northeast.

power

to the People. Taping the incredibly insightful speakers at the No More Affordable Housing Scams conference at Hunter. Program forthcoming on MNN. So many good reasons to get involved in making the decisions that affect your neighborhood.

LES

Taking a photo break, while on a music video shoot on the Lower East Side.

nina

NDNF Contest Entry 2010, originally uploaded by ridavio.

The one, the only, the Most Famous Mizz, on the Christopher Street Piers. She graciously consented to be my entry to the New Directors/New Films Bill Cunningham Photo Contest.

Celebration of Betty

This video memorial was created for a celebration of the life of my Aunt Betty (Elizabeth) Marie Cohen who passed last year. It was shown along with a slideshow presentation that went into more explanation on the various photos. The video offers an impression from selected periods and events along with music from the era. It starts with Betty's grandmother in a picture taken in the 1880s and includes her parents, uncle and aunt.

Betty was born to Charles and Frances Davis in 1923, in Topeka, Kansas. Her brother Bill was three years older. During World War II, she was a statistician for the US military, working at military bases in Pennsylvania, Florida, and finally, at the China Lake Naval Ordnance Testing Station in California’s Mojave Desert. There she met her future husband, Nathan Cohen, then a photographer on the rocket testing ranges. Meanwhile her brother Bill had joined the U.S. Army, and was working on the then-secret project to develop and install radar to protect England.

In 1946, Betty and Nate were married in her parent's home in Wichita, Kansas. From China Lake, they came to UC Berkeley, where she worked as a secretary while he earned his M.A. During this time, their children, David and Deborah, were born. The moves the family made, from town to town, were all occasioned by Nate's career advancements, but along the way, Betty worked to pay the bills, involved herself in the community, and continually advanced her own education. Nate earned his doctorate from Oregon State, and then came to Modesto Junior College in 1954 as a biology instructor. The family moved to El Cerrito in 1963; Nate ran special programs at UC Berkeley Extension and Betty worked, again, as a secretary on campus.

Later, she enrolled at UC, graduating with a B.A. in History and a teaching credential. Betty taught at Oakland's Bella Vista Elementary School for 20 years. She was a dedicated and creative teacher who found great fulfillment and meaning in working with Oakland students. Nate and Betty moved back to Modesto in 1994, where Deborah, her husband, and their children resided, and where Betty volunteered in Deborah's classroom.

In 1996 Betty and Nate celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at a family reunion in Asilomar, California. The family reunions occurred every three years, in the midwest, mountains, southwest and west coast.

Betty was a great lover of dogs, enjoyed the Modesto Symphony, and working in her garden. Betty moved to The Stratford at Beyer Park in 2006, where she received wonderful support. Betty was predeceased by her brother William R. Davis of Salina Kansas, and by her husband Nathan. She will be deeply missed by her son David Cohen of Oakland, her daughter Deborah, son-in-law Ed Buettner, and their daughter Andrea, of Modesto, her brother Ted Davis of Wichita, Kansas, and by her many nieces and nephews, friends and colleagues.

Contributions in her memory may be sent to: NorCal Retriever Rescue - 405 El Camino Real #420, Menlo Park, CA 94025 Southern Poverty Law, Teaching Tolerance - 400 Washington, Montgomery, AL 36104

A photo album of the celebration can be seen at the link.

color

On a bright afternoon two days before the vernal equinox I finally make it over to Central Park and discover that indeed a touch of color is returning to the barren land. I think I also spotted a blue-headed vireo?

trace

Blue skies on the east coast reminding me of blue skies on the west coast...

gundlach bunschu

Another idylic setting for wine tasting - the last of the trip for some of us. Loved the tasting room here - wonderful textures, art everywhere. The wine was good too.

arrowood

The organic vineyard of Arrowood on a beautiful day in the Sonoma Valley of California. The mustard flower turns out to be a cover crop that attracts predatory birds - every thing has it's purpose in sustainable agriculture.

diner

@ the girl and the fig in sonoma.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

celebrate

A Celebration of Life for dear Aunt Betty in Modesto. It was a well put together event. Ed and Deb had albums and photos out - the cake in the background consists of cupcakes decorated as a sunflower, the state flower of Kansas, where Betty was born.

new design

 

Last week I was invited to speak at the New Design High School on the Lower East Side to a senior class working on multimedia projects and creating documentaries. I quickly discovered high school has changed a lot since I last experienced it. This class is taught on a blog and the teacher had embedded the documentary he asked me to present in the class blog and projected it from the computer. The theme of the year is Gendercide and the students are doing projects in teams or individually on related subject matter - heavy stuff. Two of them are working on LGBT-related projects and that is part of the reason I was invited. After my film was screened and a short Q & A, these two students interviewed me for their project. When we returned, the class was finishing and students were handing in their laptops to be put away. The teacher reminded them, "Don't forget to tweet one thing you learned today!"

glanced

 

@ the Armory Show

oh mickey!

 

@ Scope Art Show 

seen

 

in West Harlem on the way to dinner with a long-lost friend.

Police vs. Tales

The Romania project is ramping up again, with some forthcoming screenings scheduled, the heat is on to finish it up. This is part of the reason I am interested in anything Romanian that screens in New York.

A few weeks ago I saw Police, Adjective at IFC and this last weekend Tales from the Golden Age at the Walter Reade. I enjoyed both quite a bit, even though they were very different movies.

Police, Adjective is extremely slow, about the pacing of a police stakeout appropriately, with the bleak blue-gray palate of a cloudy day. And yet, is also bizarrely, I guess anthropologically engaging as you observe this small, mundane and obscure world revealed.

Tales on the other hand is vibrantly colorful, with two of the legends set in a rustic countryside, and the stories are hilariously absurd. They are somehow light and playful, even with the backdrop of fear and desperation that drives these bizarre situations.

It’s interesting to contrast these two movies, as Police, with it’s sober reality, is set in contemporary Romania, while the colorful Tales, set in the 1980s, looks at the final decade of the dictatorship. While I recognized much of the attitude I observed in Police, Tales was certainly familiar for the local landmarks, like the House of the Free Press, and the huge block apartment buildings, which still look the same as they did in the ‘80s.

Someone asked me this weekend, “So is your documentary colorful or dark?” And I didn’t quite have an answer.