In Loving Memory of Mark Bittner
He went back to The River.
Click Here For Obituary
His sister and next of kin, Beth Lyons, will handle his affairs going forward as his Executor, dealing with the CA probate process and the transport of his belongings to southern Washington where she lives. His ashes will be scattered in Trapper Creek, in an old-growth forest where the family had a cabin, next summer.
If you would like to honor Mark, please consider contributing to this GoFundMe for Beth.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/remembering-mark-bittner
Your donation will help defray her upcoming expenses and make everything easier as we go forward. Judy will help Beth with the probate process and other details.
The Turning Point (markbittner.net) is the web site for Mark Bittner. Best known as the human subject of the documentary film The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, I’m also the author of a book of the same title.
Besides basic biographical and contact information, the site focuses on three areas of my work. One is The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, which includes my book and the film.
A second area is my current and primary project, a memoir titled Street Song and its accompanying set of recordings, Street Songs. The two works tell the story of the turn my life took when I abandoned everything—work, home, friends—and ended up on the streets of San Francisco as a homeless seeker. Prior to dropping out, I’d been a street singer, and the one state slid into the other. The book is finished and my agent is seeking a publisher. The music recordings are finished as well—mixed and mastered. I’m not sure how or when I’ll be getting them out. Not until the book is published. There are some song samples with accompanying videos in the section for the recordings.
A third feature of the site is a blog I call The Turning Point, which gives the site its name. (I have nothing to do with the extremist Right-Wing group Turning Point USA—neither legally, politically, nor spiritually.) I believe that we’re at a major turning point in history, one that has been a long time coming and that, at the moment, we can scarcely imagine. My years on the street provided me with a perspective that few people have. Some will find my views startling. But they’re not wild ideas. I didn’t dream them up on my own. I heard most of them from others first. They’ve kept my attention for decades, and I’ve found confirmation for them over and over. I will write about other areas that interest me, but the coming changes and what is bringing them about will be my primary focus.
