The 30-year El Cerrito resident has a Ph.D. in Chinese history and taught at Mills College in Oakland, Cal-State East Bay in Hayward and UC Berkeley Extension. She also has a law degree and hung out her shingle in El Cerrito for four years in the late ’90s. After growing bored with law, Ma established and became executive director of Celebrating Culture and Community, a nonprofit community group that among other endeavors promoted youth arts programs, music and dance groups representing various backgrounds and local televisions series.

More than once, an unlucky henchman gets shoved into a giant meat grinder operated by Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), a smiling drug lord who exports her wares from a Cambodian jungle compound, There are sweet moments of character interplay — Firth, Strong and Egerton make a fine team — and it’s nice to see pink flats - glitter shoes - magenta ballet flats - sparkly wedding shoes - prom shoes - glitzy flats - royal purple slip ons Eggsy’s fiancée, a Swedish princess (Hanna Alström), playing more than the butt of a cheap sex joke, But these moments rest uneasily alongside the movie’s nasty, smirking asides and bizarrely straight-faced main plot, which involves a corrupt White House and a scheme to end the war on drugs by wiping out anyone who’s ever used one of Poppy’s illegal substances..

Christine Keeler, 75. The central figure in the sex-and-espionage Profumo scandal that rocked Cold War Britain. Dec. 4. Johnny Hallyday, 74. France’s biggest rock star for more than half a century and an icon who packed sports stadiums and all but lit up the Eiffel Tower with his pumping pelvis and high-voltage tunes. Dec. 6. Bruce Brown, 80. He molded the modern image of surfer as seeker and transformed the sport with his 1966 surfing documentary “The Endless Summer.” Dec. 10.

Gallery 9, Recent photography by Los Altos artist Bill Scull, Through Feb, 1, The exhibit includes intimate portraits from Jamestown, a fishing village in Ghana in West Africa, Gallery 9 hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m, Tuesdays-Saturdays; noon-4 p.m, Sundays, Gallery 9k, 143 Main St., Los Altos, 650-941-7969 or www.gallery9losaltos.com, Mohr Gallery, Revealing the Unseen — Paintings & Drawings by Andy Gouveia & Drew McSherry, Through Jan, 26, Mohr Gallery, Community School of Music and Arts, Finn Center, 230 San Antonio pink flats - glitter shoes - magenta ballet flats - sparkly wedding shoes - prom shoes - glitzy flats - royal purple slip ons Circle, Mountain View, Free, www.arts4all.org or 650-917-6800, ext, 305..

Farmers flood fields at strategic times to stir up bugs for the cranes. Farmers harvesting corn often leave a little corn stock behind to nourish the birds. Some rice and grain farmers are paid government incentives to adopt bird-friendly farming practices, and others enjoy the feeling of helping the crane, held as a symbol of prosperity and longevity in many cultures, Roseman said. “Our goal is to provide economically viable farming that is beneficial to birds,” Roseman said. On a recent rainy day at the Cosumnes Preserve, which includes the Nature Conservancy’s 9,200-acre Staten Island — the winter home to thousands of sandhill cranes — hundreds of the birds clustered together in a field, feeding, hanging out and bobbing their long necks up and down.