Sunday, December 19th was a rainy day spent in the hills behind Novato, where I traveled and got lost with Herbert Gold, stumbling upon some sheep and finally landing at Barinaga ranch. There, I enjoyed a lively crowd of fascinating people, a beautifully designed home and adelicious meal of ram. The meal started with soup, led into other accompaniments and salad, ended with Marcia's cheese (in true Basque order and style). Here are some photos from this day: Herbert Gold (author), Marcia Barinaga (hostess and cheesemaker) and Don A. Glaser (Nobel prize winning physicist).
In 2013, the Basque director Oskar Alegria introduced his film " The Search for Emak Bakia" at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival. An exceptional experimental film, it weaves documentary, storytelling, and history while revealing aspects of Man Ray's time in the Basque Country that are difficult to appreciate otherwise. Emak Bakia means "leave me in peace" in Basque and it was also the name of the house that Man Ray lived in. In this movie there are scenes of women sleeping whose eyes are captured just at the moment of awakening. These reminded me of some of my favorite Man Ray photos, such as the one of Kiki de Montparnasse. http://emakbakiafilms.com/fotos/?pid=1 Kiki and the African Mask, by Man Ray 1926