I cannot make this. We've been to the Fungus Faire before and it's cool. And yummy. Never heard of the documentary, but sounds interesting. --- Donovan Rittenbach <http://www.webappguru.net/~donovan> wrote: > Wow dale makes it all sound so sexy. : ) > > here's the more formal invitation: > > Saturday December 3 is going to be a great day. I have 2 outstanding > events lined up. > > Did you know the world's largest living organism is a fungus that > covers 1,665 football fields and may be 7,000 years old? Did you > know that fungus can grow over a kilometer a day? > > This was among the many things I learned last year when I attended > the 35th Annual Fungus Fair and was blown away by this unprecedented > display of mushrooms. It was spectacular. There were 3,000 > mycophiles there, and I was like a kid lost in an amazing wizard's > shop. > > Not only did they have tasty mushroom soup served in loaves of fresh > bread, but there were tons of freshly picked culinary and medicinal > mushrooms to see. Of course there were a lot of poisonous ones too, > like the beautiful Amanita Muscara. That's the red mushroom with > white dots. You know it, you have seen it. It is also why Santa > Claus wears a red and white outfit. That ties into one of my favorite > mushroom trivia questions. Why do Hindus consider the cow to be > sacred? > > Explore the mysteries of the mushroom at the 36th Annual Fungus Fair, > presented by the Oakland Museum of Ca and the Mycological > Society of (MSSF), Saturday and Sunday, December 3 - 4. > Fair hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday and 12-5 p.m. on Sunday. > > http://www.museumca.org/events/fungus_fair.html > > If you are game, they are doing mushroom forays out at Point Reyes, > Salt Point and others on December 2nd. The mushrooms that are picked > will be on display at the museum. > > http://www.mssf.org > > Shaman's Apprentice Screening > > Also for those who are interested, we are doing a screening of The > Shaman's Apprentice that evening at 8pm (time to be confirmed). It > is a mind-bending documentary about ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin's > work to save the shaman's of the South American Rainforest. It is an > incredible documentary I recently saw at an exhibit at the San > Francisco Plant Conservatory's "Medicines of the Rainforest" show, > and I loved it. > > Anyhow, Mark is an amazing and foreward thinking scientist who has > setup a program to preserve previous shaman's knowledge before it is > lost. These so called "primitive" people can cure things that > Western medicine can't, like diabetes, or alcoholism. Unfortunately > their knowledge is threatened by encroaching civilization. (What > isn't?) > > It would be a crime against humanity if we were to lose the > incredible pharmaceutical knowledge of the shamans. We must protect > this undiscovered pharmacopia, and shaman's are the keys to showing > us how we can all benefit if we do. > > The best part of this award winning documentary is, in my opinion, > when the shamans tell you how they got that knowledge in the first > place. They claim the plants told them. What do they mean by that? > Could it possibly be true? > > Oh yes my friend. Truth is stranger than fiction, and it wouldn't be > the first time an existing paradigm was proven wrong. > > Space is limited for this event. First come, first serve. > > Donovan > > At 12:38 PM -0800 12/2/05, http://www.outformations.com/~dek wrote: > >I'm doing some fun stuff on Saturday afternoon/early evening if you guys > >are interested in joining. There is a fungus fair in Oakland and a shaman > >movie at a friends house early that night. Drop me a line if you are > >interested OK? > > > >http://www.museumca.org/events/fungus_fair.html > > > >Cheers, > >Dale > >415 699-0421