may be old news...

[Alyce Johnson]

The book is really excellent! If you liked the movie I think you'd totally love the book. He was basically just an aging hippie type - there are still a lot of them around in these parts. (I live across the Bay, in Berkeley, CA.)

Eventually he worked out a support network providing him with free housing (which in this part of the country is unbelievable - rent here is equivalent to Manhatten, I'm told) and also a very little bit of cash.
Most of the bird food was donated, though, if I remember correctly.

FYI in SF (& the Bay Area in general) there are many churches that serve hot meals for 25 cents, and they coordinate their serving schedule, so that you can basically live that way. I dont know if he did much of that, but he could have, at least before he began to stay at home & cook for the birds. You can also do free laundry that way, if you're homeless or totally broke - some churches have laundry facilities.

We have an absolutely *huge* homeless population here. The services for that populace are well coordinated, so a little cash can be stretched a very long way, provided you *dont* have a substance abuse issue. Also, General Assistance was until recently very easy to get, and it paid you almost $500/mo in cash money. Plus food stamps. They've now cut that *way* back, which was probably a very good idea. It was going straight into substance use for most recipients. I dont remember if the book talked about whether or not he was ever "on the dole" - but he might have been. With free housing and good community connections, you could stretch that amount of income a very long way.

Eventually he made contacts and became basically a caretaker of several different properties (off & on) in the vicinity of Telegraph hill, if I understood correctly. Little old ladies who had extra space (one of whom didnt live in SF year round, as the weather here sucks) let him live rent free in some fairly marginal spaces, and in turn he was always there (didnt drive, literally *never* left town etc) so he provided some extra security when they were home (a *big* plus in this city!), house sitting (& some pet sitting I think) when they were gone (very expensive here, if you have to pay for it), and a helping hand (a younger stronger back) whenever needed. There is a 6 month wait list with most local handimen to get basic stuff done! So that's a big deal, to have someone around who can help out with basic tasks.

Given the number of strung out bums in this town, I can guess he must be
(a) clean & sober - for real, as we are all used to the con artist street bums here & (b) just a genuinely really nice person.

People here are really jaded and it's a big impersonal unfriendly city. (Forget whatever you heard it was like back in the day - it aint the Summer of Love around here anymore, I assure you!) You dont talk to strangers here. And like I said, beggars & street bums abound. So if the neighbors took him in, he is a genuinely decent guy.

People here are hardened to all the various tricks & wiles of your basic bums, inc the almost universal substance problems. So I doubt he's done any more drugs than the rest of mainstream America, or he wouldnt have been trusted by all those people.

[TooLover]

Thanks Alyce - that brings things into perspective for me! The movie never went into real detail; the only thing they did talk about was the place he lived in and was evicted due to renovation. And yes, he did return to that place.
The movie was awesome, however, wish that they would have explained a little more of what you have just explained. At the end of the movie it keeps us wondering what he did to make his money. You just answered it - thanks!

[Monica]

Laurie, I'm sure he'll explain that a plenty in his second book he's writing!!! I'm not sure what it's called, but it goes into detail of the second chapter in the book (if I remember that correctly), and explains his life in SF and what he did...

I've seen the movie twice (once after a trip to Hawaii, then getting to see the birds themselves, then with Mark), I have the book which I won at a bird fair, and later signed by Mark himself, but I have YET to own the movie!!!!

[Myst]

Read the book, then was taken to the movie (that was a great suprise because it did not even come to my city - we drove about 50 miles to see it), and now I own the DVD also.

They were all great, the book explains a lot that the movie did not. He still visits the birds in Tucson where the ones that could not live free are at. He continues to love birds. In many ways I think the birds were his life - he could do without anything as long as he had the birds to watch and help.

It is one of the best non-fiction books I have read, and the movie is great also! For thosw who have not seen it or read it - it is a must to do both!

I saw Mark as a handyman when he could, clean living and above all a bird lover!

[TooLover]

I saw Mark as a bird lover, however, I also saw him as a hobo/gypsy, looking for handouts and making the system work to his advantage. Don't get me wrong, - the movie was great - Mark as a person really bothered me...........

[Alyce Johnson]

I kind of had my doubts about him, too, I admit.
But the fact that he was given an old computer and told to write the book, and then sat down, and did it - hunt & peck style, no less - I think said a lot about him.

I think one thing that comes thru in the book is that he is really kind of a lost soul, and in finding these birds who need him, he really finds a purpose that his life had been lacking. And in the process, he unlocks his own potential to be a lot more of a functional person, out acomplishing things in the world. He just wasnt motivated enough to push himself out there, until he fell in love with the birds, and began to do whatever he had to, in order to help them.

The first time he has to give a talk about the birds, he describes how petrified he was, to get up and speak in front of a group. He'd never done that kind of thing before. (I guess music felt different to him somehow.) But now look at him - traveling all over the world and doing book signings! What a huge change. At first even taking the bus cross town to get a bird to the vet was scary for him - for him, that was an epic journey, at the start.

I think the subtitle to the book "A love story - with wings!" is pretty accurate.

The book is really more about him and his personal growth thru all this stuff - I thought it was an encouraging look at how caring about something outside yourself can really turn people around. He was kind of a loser at the start, no doubt. But now his life is going well, and it all came about because he really wanted to help the birds he loved.

I got this book to give for Xmass gifts because I thought it was such a great *human* story of a person whose life is redeemed by caring for animals. I totally loved the story!

[spectre]

I still tend to think of him as somewhat of a bum, in the sense that he choose to live mainly off other peoples good graces rather than really work for himself. He wasn't an addict or alcoholic but he spent most of the book (where he talked about himself) making excuses for not getting real jobs, that still bothers me. He kept saying he was waiting for what was right for him to come along. Everyone I know goes and and works to make that happen for themselves. There are plenty of other friendly and able bodied people in this country out of work who are trying to get jobs.

I wouldn't buy his second book since it deals with his life on the streets and has nothing to do with birds. I think his lack of addiction or mentall defect really stands against him as far as his lifestyle. He has to be the luckiest person I've ever heard of. He was transformed through luck, at 40 or 50 something, with no real forward progress, until he spent a few years with birds, there was to much wasted life before them to overlook.

Now this is just my opinion but I beleive anyone who spends there entire life waiting for oppotunity to fall in their lap is a bum. I have the movie and book because of the parrot part and because I can focus in on that but the rest still bothers me.

Edit- I'm not looking for an argument, this is my opinion, neither right nor wrong. I just tend to be a firm believer in hard work (not money, my best friends are near the 6 figure level while I am a graduate student out of love of my discipline) and personal responsibility (when one truly has control over it) for ones place in life.

[jimpierce7]

ahem........in this area the proper referance is "free spirit" not bum!! :)

[Tiki]

I did an in-depth interview with Mark in October when he was in Brisbane. Check it out and get to know him better!

Mark Bittner Interview Link

[Freedomoflight]

I had this discussion with some people after I saw the movie.. I had my doubts about him after the movie too. But, I personally think he was not motivated- he didnt think he was important enough. Sure, he was a bum, living off other people- but if you've read the book, you see that he says- I didnt write my thoughts down until someone gave me a book, I didnt start to put it into book form until someone gave me a computer, etc. Before that, he says that people urged him to put his thoughts down, but he didnt until someone gave him the journal- that to me just says that he didnt think it was important enough until someone gave him that big nudge.
Sure, I think their are some questions of his character- but doenst everyone question their own character?