Thank you very much. And tonight, I have a high privilege and distinct honor of my own -- as the first President to begin the State of the Union message with these words: Madam Speaker.

The opening words of the President George W. Bush's 2007 State of the Union Address

This opening drew thunderous applause in the chambers and a breath of great pride from Americans everywhere. But aside from an uncharacteristicly conciliatory and pleading tone when it came time to mention sensitive issues, such as the war, that was the only notable thing about the SOTU address baba Bush delivered on January 23. So I'm not going to gnash about that here, tempted as I am.

Since I've returned to the states after almost four years in China, where I daily hung my head and despaired of my home country, there have been signal moments of hope and pride and that was one of them. And they seem, even in the tide of difficult challenges, to be accelerating as we, pardon the expression, surge toward what is certain to be the longest and most exciting presidential campaign in American history.

I am pleased about and proud of our new speaker of the house. The percentage of women elected to federal positions is rising worldwide. 15.2% of The U.S. Congress are women, the highest percentage ever. Judith Warner's column in today's NY Times cites polls that overwhelmingly say that voters would support a qualified woman (and then goes on to say why polls can be hinkey).

We have in Hillary Clinton the first viable woman candidate for President. I do definitely believe she is viable. She was elected to the Senate, and has satisfied most New Yorkers, which are arguably achievements even more difficult than becoming President of the U.S. The Senator from New York has proven herself, as a seasoned and considered legislator, a hard worker and an inspired leader of a very persnickety and bull-headed major state. She's become a good politician, which I do not infer as a pejorative, politics being the art of the possible, as many of us hot headed liberals have learned as we've aged. While I continue to be enchanted by Barak Obama's luminous magnetism and ability to articulate ideals we long for, I know that running the USA and being Commander In Chief is not so much wrestling with ideals as it is parsing the difficult global and domestic realities into policies that are more productive than they are now. That might not make for the best sound bytes but there it is.

For distaff candidates to prevail they will need to outperform their counterparts. From what I saw in an interview with the first woman network news anchor, Katie Couric, Senator Clinton could use some lessons in hotseat composure and charisma from her husband, who has it to spare. In campaigning for her, he will be a powerful ally. In office he'd be as valuable (and controversial) to her as she was to him--and us.

In that interview, she certainly had most of the answers. And she didn't back down when Couric hammered at what I consider a bonehead point, Sen. Clinton's vote for the war at the beginning. (I will admit to stooping to gender-biased indignation when Couric kept pressing the point. Why was she doing that? And redeemed my reason by realizing, that's her job.)

A woman head of state is far from unknown in our world. We would catch up with India, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, not to mention England and Israel in this respect. These leaders are no better and no worse than men.

I believe Americans are ready, as never before, to weigh the merits of the candidates, the baggage they bring with them, their experience, their records and their appraisal of required reforms and factor in as a secondary consideration their genders. Save one: The high privilege and distinct honor to say for the first time, Madam President.

the sky blushes in its
surrender to the night

Yesterday was my birthday and I spent a very special of quite a few memorable moments in a stand of white birch trees in the woods of midcoast Maine, under a clear sky, talking to my sister by cellphone.

It is always a day of reflection, as it comes exactly a week after New Year's and for me the real beginning of a New Year. I celebrate several new beginnings a year; the Jewish New Year, the Julian New Year, my birthday and the Chinese New Year. Life is ever begun anew and especially this year.

Today is Elvis' birthday. Here are some frames from the contact sheet of pictures I took of Elvis at his press conference during his 1969 debut at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, a sold out engagement which marked his return to live performing. I was lucky enough to attend, courtesy of Kirk Kerkorian, owner of the International.

I realized that if I lived long enough, all my wishes would come true. What I, or any young girl, would not have given in the nineteen fifties to see Elvis in person from the first row. At the time it wasn't as big a deal to me as a Who or a Rolling Stones concert, but in retrospect, the uniqueness of the event sits side by side with other peak experiences.

After the performance, we (the press and other invited guests) were herded into a nondescript room near the showroom, where Elvis gave an unannounced, but nonetheless triumphant, press conference. These are some of my never before published pictures from the 2x contact sheet of that delightful confab with an ebullient Elvis Presley. "Do you have to be as reclusive as you used to be?" I asked. He chortled and said "I'm not that reclusive, really, I'm just sneaky." One snotty woman asked "Do you dye your hair?" and Elvis answered "Oh, c'mon." I was lucky to get these pictures.

You can read the rest of my account of this adventure on my website. They say Jim Morrison was the lizard king; Elvis Presley was the gizzard king.

Tomorrow, January 9, is the birthday of the lovely folksinger and activist Joan Baez who was born on the same day as disgraced American president, Richard Nixon. This picture is the album cover, appropriately enough, for One Day At A Time.

So in a 3 day succession (though not in the same year, of cuss) me, Elvis, Joan and Nixon and I say: a great week for menaces to society.

Reuters circulated this lovely picture today, showing dancers from the China Disabled people's Performing Art Troupe in dress rehearsal in Madrid. The dancers are deaf. I saw this piece when I lived in Beijing, on one of the schmaltzy CCTV extravaganzas, and we did a piece on the troupe when I worked at Women of China English Monthly in Beijing. I'm so glad they're getting the worldwide play and recognition. This really is a precious piece and all the more elegant considering the dancers' disability.

The video is more than 5 minutes long, but even if you can only spare a minute, it's lovely.

If you can't see it here you can watch it on YouTube

Chinese contemporary arts are really geting a lot of long overdue attention. In today's NY Times, In China’s New Revolution, Art Greets Capitalism, on the binge market for Chinese contemporary art, dominated the Arts section.

"What is happening in China is what happened in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century," said Michael Goedhuis, a collector and art dealer specializing in Asian contemporary art who has galleries in London and New York. "New ground is being broken. There’s a revolution under way."

[...snip]

Some critics here say the focus on prices has led to a decline in creativity as artists knock off variations of their best-known work rather than exploring new territory. Some are even employing teams of workers in assembly-line fashion.

Christopher Phillips, a curator at the International Center of Photography in New York, has become a regular visitor to China, scouting young artists for the center and other places. On a recent trip "I went to visit the studio of a well-known Beijing painter," Mr. Phillips said. "The artist wasn’t there, but I saw a group of canvases being painted by a team of young women who seemed to be just in from the countryside. I found it a little disconcerting."

Zhang Yimou's long awaited opera, The First Emperor, opened at the NY Met to unfortunately lukewarm reviews in December. There were great expectations, it was a decade in the making, with Placido Domingo in the first role he created, and music by Tan Dun. Everyone wanted to love it, there was much praise in the run-up to the show but opening night reviews said it fell elaborately flat, though it had fascinating aspects. It was still a proud and ground breaking opening for the Met. It is likely there will be some rewriting and restaging before it goes on tour, the talent pool for this production is nothing short of lavish.

And not so coincidentally, just last night a piece on how traditional Chinese opera is vanishing aired on NPR radio. Beautiful Chinese art is now everywhere you go, look and listen and the Western world of aesthetics is all the better for it. And me, I feel like China has followed me home and I couldn't be happier for it.