Cowboys and "horses", and a Patti bio-film......

[Poemsl1]

xxo- Seena
 
    Cowboys and "horses"    By Joel Stratte-McClure
U-Entertainment     "We're bringing the rodeo of South Dakota to Rodeo  Drive 
tonight," said rocker/poet Patti Smith as she sang her songs  and read her 
poems at the Ralph Lauren store on Tuesday. "We want to show  that cowboys can 
thrive in Beverly Hills," added fashion photographer  Steven Sebring, who has 
just published "Bygone Days," a compilation  of early- to mid-20th-century 
cowboy photos with a foreword written by  Smith. The two are also collaborating on 
a 90-minute biopic art film based  on material Sebring has been shooting 
throughout the world.  
"We've got 10 years of footage featuring my band, my travels, my family  and 
my recollections about the past," said Smith, who narrates the film  that will 
be screened at Sundance and shown on PBS next year. "I've seen a  lot of loss 
- my husband, my brother, my parents, many friends - but the  movie's message 
is that we're lucky to be alive and should be optimistic."   
Not that optimism is a permanent state. Smith, who turns 59 on Dec. 30,  
revealed her range of moods when she read from "Auguries of Innocence,"  her book 
of poetry that came out last month.  
"My husband (legendary MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith) died a  decade ago, 
and it took me this long to put my emotions, feelings and  sense of loss down 
on paper," said Smith, who spent two nights this week  at the Los Angeles 
Opera.  
Meanwhile blow-ups of photos from "Bygone Days" intrigued the cowboys,  some 
wearing buckskin coats, who were wandering around the Ralph Lauren  store. 
Taken primarily by John Penor, Sebring's grand uncle, the  shots include horses, 
bison, rodeos, sandlot baseball games, town fairs,  family picnics and parades 
down Main Street.  
"This is why we're really here tonight," concluded Smith, whose first  album, 
"Horses," was released three decades ago, "to thank John Penor for  taking 
these photographs and Steven for bringing them into our lives."  
And Ralph Lauren for having a store with saddles and riding gear  hanging on 
the walls.  
_http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_3319287_ 
(http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_3319287)