With Thanks Be To Oprah
from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Oprah the Book Fairy: The Astounding Success of the Oprah Book Club
You can bet publisher’s are going to miss Oprah as much as her viewers when her long-running show wraps up next week. Nielsen has just released an accounting of the impact of Oprah’s Book Club on the sales of the books chosen.
In the last ten years she has sold over 22 million copies of books bearing her Book Club branding.
Her full impact on book sales is hard to quantify but there are some amazing concrete numbers regarding how many books bearing the Oprah Book Club selection imprint have sold. For example, the Oprah trade paperback edition of A Million Little Pieces by James Frey sold 2.7 million copies and her edition of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road sold 1.4 million copies.
57 Years Of Luscious Airbrushed Flesh Online
Playboy puts all 57 years of mags online
CHICAGO (AP) — Good news for those who thought their copies of Playboy were gone forever when their moms found them and threw them away.
Playboy launched a Web-based subscription service Thursday called i.Playboy.com that allows viewers to see every single page of every single magazine – from the first issue nearly 60 years ago that featured Marilyn Monroe to the ones hitting the newsstands today.
“They no longer have to store 57 years – 682 issues – of Playboy under their mattress,” said Jimmy Jellinek, Playboy’s chief content officer.
Chicago-based Playboy has seen its circulation plummet from 3.15 million in 2006 to 1.5 million today and has been trying all sorts of gimmicks to attract readers in recent years. One issue, for example, included a set of 3-D glasses to better see a centerfold shot in 3-D; another turned over the cover to a cartoon character, Marge Simpson.
Macho Man Randy Savage Gone
Pro Wrestler Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage Dies in Car Accident, Report Says
The accident happened in Tampa Bay, Fla. according to Savage’s brother, Lanny Poffo.
He told TMZ the accident happened Friday morning when Savage lost control of his vehicle.
Florida Highway Patrol said Savage leapt a concrete median, veered into oncoming traffic and smashed into a tree head on.
FLAVORWIRE: 10 Novels That Will Disturb Even the Coldest of Hearts
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The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
If you take away the epilogue, this novel tells an unbelievably miserable story of confinement and misogynistic rule. In the near future, the United States is overthrown by the pernicious Sons of Jacob, who then establish the Republic of Gilead. The bank accounts of women and other undesirables are frozen, and a group known as Handmaids become the hosts for the future children of the ruling class. Atwood’s prose is beautiful and chilling, as always.
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MAY EVENTS AT INDIGO BOOKS AND MUSIC
MAY EVENTS AT INDIGO BOOKS AND MUSIC
IN CONVERSATION: INDIGO CEO HEATHER REISMAN AND BESTSELLING AUTHOR JAMES FREY Indigo CEO and Chief Booklover, Heather Reisman sits down with controversial novelist James Frey to discuss his newest book, The Final Testament of The Holy Bible. Sure to inspire conversation, Frey’s newest book is his reimagining of the Messiah as a figure living in present day. Book signing to follow. Indigo Bay & Bloor 55 Bloor Street West (at Bay Street), Toronto, ON Wednesday, May 18th, 7:00 pm.
Christo And The Sheep
Christo: Arkansas River Artwork Won’t Hurt Sheep
Christo (credit: CBS)
SALIDA, Colo. (AP) – An artist known for his large-scale projects says his proposal to put silvery, luminous fabric panels over the Arkansas River won’t hurt bighorn sheep.
The panels in Christo’s project would span eight sections along a 40-mile stretch of the river between Salida and Canon City and require drilling anchors. The project is expected to take two years.
Colorado wildlife commissioners voted to send a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management expressing concerns over how the project would affect the sheep, according to the Pueblo Chieftain.
Christo says protecting wildlife and the environment is important and he will address the concerns that were raised.
BIG THINK: “The Million Little Pieces” controversy with Oprah “really freed me to be as radical as I want, to break every rule I want, and to not have to care what other people thought.”
A MILLION LITTLE PIECES REVISITED: CAN THE TRUTH EVER SET JAMES FREY FREE?
James Frey tells Big Think that “The Million Little Pieces” controversy with Oprah “really freed me to be as radical as I want, to break every rule I want, and to not have to care what other people thought.”
The first time I started writing A Million Little Pieces I’d been searching for a voice for years and years and years, and one day I sat down and I started writing that book, and I wrote the first sentence. And it felt right. It felt more right than anything I had ever written. And so I kept going, and over the course of a couple days I wrote probably the first fifteen or twenty pages of it. And I had never worked that fast before. I was kind of stunned by it. At the end of it I looked at those pages and I was, like, I did it. This is what I’ve always, this is how I’ve always been trying to write. This is the voice I’ve always been trying to find.
That book coming out and the controversies related to it were obviously a big moment for me probably not in the ways people might think. You know, I didn’t write that book as a memoir. I’ve never thought of it as a memoir. We didn’t submit it to publishers as memoirs, even though it was published as one. When the controversy blew up and I was sort of written off by the publishing business and by the literary community, instead of being upset about it I was kind of excited. I was, like, I had to work within your system. I wrote a book that wasn’t what it was published as. I always knew I wasn’t born to work in that system, and I won’t ever do it again. You know, from that point forward I was free. I got kicked out of a club I didn’t want to be a part of, and it was awesome.
WSJ: Arthur Phillips on Shakespeare, James Frey and Literary Legacy
Arthur Phillips on Shakespeare, James Frey and Literary Legacy
By Julie Steinberg
Adding to the meta layers, the Bard play unearthed in the novel was actually written by Mr. Phillips, with the help of Shakespeare scholars. The Guerrilla Shakespeare Project will read the play aloud tonight at the Public Theater.
Speakeasy sat down with Phillips at a Brooklyn café to chat about his novel and the play he wrote to go with it.
The book confronts issues of authenticity in the form of a debate on whether Shakespeare wrote all the plays himself. Does it matter for you who wrote them?
I’m an aesthetic empiricist. If you like something, it doesn’t matter who made it. There really is no objective standard other than your own taste. You develop your own tastes, you find things that do or do not fit your tastes, and therefore are or are not “good.” Whether they have been labeled as produced by the right person is another matter. I had a poster of a painting that I thought was made by Rembrandt and was later revealed probably to have been done by someone else. The fact that he didn’t paint it, or only painted part of it, or oversaw someone else painting it, doesn’t change the experience I had with. It shouldn’t have any bearing on my appreciation.
I’m pretty well convinced that Shakespeare collaborated with other playwrights in four or five cases, probably more. I like to think how he would have collaborated with someone else. I may not like a play any more or any less, but I’m interested in that re-labeling.
In theory, forgery should be the same. For financial reasons, the forger should be punished. But in terms of aesthetic value, you should resist the urge to say “I don’t like it anymore” simply because it wasn’t whom you thought.
Would you extend that analysis to James Frey’s writing factory?
Yes. I doubt the process in Frey’s case would result in sort of things I would value, but if I did, I don’t think it has any bearing on the aesthetic appreciation whether it was him or whether it was him and three 18-year-olds.
THE FINAL TESTAMENT OF THE HOLY BIBLE available now at GAGOSIAN
“I think of it as a personal car crash for me. And I just don’t want to watch it.”
5 YEARS LATER: FREY AND OPRAH MEET!
by Kristin Watson
Five years after James Frey set off one of the biggest controversies in The Oprah Winfrey Show history, the author of A Million Little Pieces has returned to talk with Oprah in a no-holds-barred interview. What did he have to say five years later? Read on to find out.
Five years later, in an interview set against the backdrop of New York, James Frey has returned to The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Frey revealed to Winfrey that he hasn’t seen much of his 2006 appearance on the show. “I think of it as a personal car crash for me. And I just don’t want to watch it.” He added, “It definitely wasn’t my finest day.”
When asked about what he was feeling after he was confronted by Winfrey on the 2006 show, Frey said, “I was feeling shock and definitely stunned. I just wanted to get home.”
James Frey said that when he decided to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006, he didn’t know it was going to happen like that. He thought he was going to have a chance to tell his side, but he realized, “I created that mess. I created that situation.”
WaPo: “What to make of this strange, ambitious, near-brilliant piece of ventriloquism from controversial memoirist James Frey? ‘The Final Testament of the Holy Bible’…”
Michael Lindgren reviews James Frey’s ‘The Final Testament of the Holy Bible’
By Michael Lindgren
What to make of this strange, ambitious, near-brilliant piece of ventriloquism from controversial memoirist James Frey? “The Final Testament of the Holy Bible” presents the reader with a knotty exercise in genre disorientation.
The book is, among other things, a vivid re-imagining of the life of Jesus Christ, a pricey quasi-objet d’art from super-gallerist Gagosian, a calculated act of provocation, a gesture of almost stupefying egotism, and a sincere and moving examination of the nature of spirituality. The multiple ironies at hand are potentially disabling.
Carefully designed and formatted to resemble a traditional Bible — right down to the words of Jesus highlighted in red — “The Final Testament” tells the story of Ben Zion Avrohom, an alcoholic drifter in modern-day New York who undergoes a transformation after he miraculously survives a horrific accident.
The men and women who offer testimonies about their experience with Ben include doctors, cops, lawyers, priests, rabbis, drug addicts and homeless men, and they are almost all endowed with remarkable authenticity, their voices convincingly and realistically inhabited.
These variegated narratives, sketched with incisive psychological acuity, give “The Final Testament” its own weird integrity. Through these voices, Frey has made an honest attempt to follow the teachings of Jesus to their radical conclusions; in doing so, he has created a chronicle that, despite its contradictions, moves to its own inner spirit.
Toni Morrison, James Frey Among Oprah’s Final Guests
Toni Morrison, James Frey Among Oprah’s Final Guests
Toni Morrison was one of the first authors whose works were selected for Oprah’s Book Club, with the selection of Song of Solomon in 1996. Later selections included Paradise (1998), The Bluest Eye (2000), and Sula (2002).
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey’s memoir of addiction, was selected for Oprah’s Book Club in 2005. In January 2006, the Smoking Gun reported that inconsistencies and discrepancies existed in the book. Subsequently, James Frey acknowledged that he had employed a degree of literary license in the writing of the book, including altering and embellishing certain details. Following this revelation, Frey discussed the controversy with Oprah Winfrey live on her show.
Mojo- and Honey-Glazed Chicken With Roasted Sweet-Potato Hash and Black-Bean Jus
Chef Randy Zweiban of Province
For brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 gallons water
For chicken:
2 whole roasting chickens (can substitute 4 large chicken breasts)
1 cup mojo sauce (Recipe)
4 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons mojo sauce
Canola oil
Add salt, sugar and water to a large pot. Bring to boil, remove from heat and allow to cool.
Place chicken in a deep baking pan and cover with brine. Cover pan and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, remove chicken from the brine, dry and place in deep baking pan. Pour 1 cup of the mojo sauce (see recipe) over the chicken, coating it, and marinate for about 3 hours.
CNN: How Oprah has changed the way we live
How Oprah has changed the way we live
By Megan Clifford, CNN
(CNN) — From “aha!” moments to “teachable” moments, in 25 years “The Oprah Winfrey Show” has not just become a part of our popular vernacular, it’s shaped our culture. Whether you’ve tuned in each weekday afternoon or preferred to tune her out, “Lady O” has left her mark.
Here’s our list of the top five ways “Oprah” has changed the way we live.
Reading
Oprah got people walking, and reading. During the 14 years of Oprah’s Book Club, fans bought millions of copies of Oprah’s 65 selected reading suggestions. A lit pick by Oprah guaranteed additional printings and big paychecks for publishers and authors.
Controversy colored her 2005 choice of James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” when the author was forced to admit he had made up large sections of the story of drug addiction and recovery that he touted as nonfiction.
Nonetheless, it made for great discussions at Oprah-inspired book clubs across the country.
Race relations
Oprah has always credited the sacrifice and service of the men and women involved in the civil rights movement for paving a path for a poor African- American woman from the South to transform into a beloved billionaire businesswoman. In turn, Oprah’s success has inspired millions more.
Porn With A Bespoke Twist
A Porn Star Book Is Selling with a Bespoke Twist
A new limited-edition book by an adult film star aims to sell copies by offering buyers something they won’t find elsewhere.
Girlvert: A Porno Memoir is priced at a whopping $200 and limited to a mere 50.
So, what’s the twist?
Each book jacket contains one of the starlet’s pubic hairs.
[P]orn star Oriana Small, whose stage name is Ashley Blue, and her publisher are exploring what the literary-minded and sexually curious will pay for when it comes to art books.
Girlvert is Small’s autobiography of her decade-long career in the porn trade. Small, as Blue, is a widely-known performer. She is famous for her extreme sexual performances and for starring in an adult video series entitled “Girlvert.” The book is her story of what happened on stage and off, from her personal struggles to performing for the cameras to finding love.
Blue joins a new literary niche: porn star authors. Porn star-turned-”Entourage” guest star Sasha Grey, who scored the lead role in Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience,” recently released Neu Sex, a book of erotic photos. Jenna Jameson’s How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, co-written with Neil Strauss, spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and continues to sell.
And Girlvert has scored a nod from another controversial author, James Frey. “Oriana Small has pushed herself to the outermost extremes of what the body and mind are capable of — all before turning thirty years old — and now she’s made it an authentic read for the rest of us to marvel at, elevating the depravity and denial inherent in the pornographic arts to a singular literary experience,” Frey’s blurb for the book reads.
The Opening Of THE RATTLING WALL
The opening celebration for ‘The Rattling Wall’
Maybe all readings should let the bar open before getting underway.
Whether it was helped by the wine and beer or not, Wednesday night’s kickoff of the new literary journal “The Rattling Wall” was a festive celebration. Held at the Hammer Museum, the room was filled to its 250-person capacity, with stylish young literati, well-heeled PEN stalwarts, and the contributors, who fell, demographically, somewhere between the two.
“The Rattling Wall” is a print literary journal published biannually, supported by PEN Center USA West, and edited by PEN’s program director Michelle Meyering. The first issue, which includes a whopping 36 contributors, features fiction by James Frey, Blake Butler and Tod Goldberg; poetry by Tony Hoagland and Matthew Zapruder; and travel essays by Samantha Dunn and Don Winslow.
Although most of Wednesday night’s readers hail from the West Coast, Meyering hinted at the magazine’s ambitions when she told the audience that she looked forward to “building a national community of readers and writers around the journal.”
Hova Takes MOMA
Rappers Turn Heads at MoMA
By ERICA ORDEN
![[GARDEN3]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NY-AY269_GARDEN_G_20110511174610.jpg)
Patrick McMullan
Jay-Z (left) appeared as a guest of Kanye West during MoMa’s Party in the Garden.
It’s not easy to outshine Kanye West, but if anyone can do it, it’s Jay-Z.
The Brooklyn-raised rapper appeared as a special guest Tuesday night during Mr. West’s performance at the Museum of Modern Art’s annual Party in the Garden, in front of an already-frenzied crowd that erupted when he joined Mr. West onstage.
But the earlier crowd, nibbling on mini lobster rolls and mini prosciutto BLT sandwiches, did find time for other topics.
Author James Frey said he’s continuing to develop his art collection. “I just bought a couple pictures by my boy Richard Phillips,” said Mr. Frey, pointing to the artist, standing nearby.
Mr. Frey was less inclined to discuss his impending appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show next week— “I really can’t talk about it,” he said. “I signed papers.”—but was eager to mention the HBO drama he’s writing about the pornography industry.
“I interviewed the CEOs of the three biggest companies in the world,” he said. “If we get to shoot everything we’ve come up with,” he said, “it’s going to be amazing.”
ANGRY BIRDS by POMPLAMOOSE
Duo Mogul Party Crash @ MOMA
Kanye West and Jay-Z Crash MoMA’s Garden Party
by
One of the bigger sing-alongs of Kanye West’s performance at the Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night came about 20 minutes into his hour-plus set. Dressed in light blue jeans, a gray hoodie and black skytops, West bent into the mic to sing the first four notes of his 2007 single, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”
Jay-Z and Kanye West
Photo By Nicholas Hunt/PatrickMcMullan.com
“Laaaaa. Laa. La-la,” several hundred party goers chanted right along, “Wait ‘til I get my money right!”
Among those who turned out for the party, sponsored this year by Cartier, were Henry Kravis and Marie-Josée Kravis, Larry Gagosian, Michael Douglas, Jerry Speyer and David Rockefeller. James Frey, standing near one of the garden’s pools, explained that a non-disclosure agreement would keep him from discussing his upcoming interview with Oprah. He talked art instead.
“At MoMA, my favorite [work] to see is the Pollocks,” the author said. “The ferocity of it and the recklessness of it, and the abandon of it and the beauty of it. I wish I could do with words what he did with paint.”
Would he be sticking around for Kanye?
“F–k yeah I am,” Frey said.
A few of Frey’s fellow attendees, including Leelee Sobieski and Richard Phillips, echoed the endorsement of West. As cocktail hour ended, and the garden began to clear, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was chatting among a circle of guests that included Jamie Dimon. On his way into dinner, the mayor talked up the museum.
“This is one of the great jewels in the cultural crown of New York,” he said, surveying his surroundings.
So would he be sticking around for Mr. West?
The mayor paused.
Swiss Cannibal
Police: Would-be cannibal arrested after gunbattle
May. 11, 2011 04:25 PM Associated Press
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A would-be cannibal was arrested and in critical condition after being wounded in a gunbattle with officers during an undercover operation, officials said Wednesday. A policeman was also wounded.
The 43-year-old suspect used the Internet to search for a person who wanted to commit suicide and would agree to let him eat the body, police said. A Swiss citizen initially agreed but later changed his mind and informed authorities.
An undercover officer who pretended he was the would-be victim was used during Tuesday’s operation, police said. He arrived at the eastern town of Kysak to meet the suspect, who opened fire seven times, striking one officer who remains hospitalized in serious condition.
AP: Oprah Winfrey plans 2-episode interview with James Frey
Winfrey plans 2-episode interview with James Frey
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 1:26 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Oprah Winfrey’s interview with author James Frey will stretch over two episodes during the final full week of her talk show.
The shows will air May 16 and 17, more than five years after Winfrey accused Frey on live television of lying in one of his books. During a short promotional clip on Tuesday’s episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” an announcer deemed it “the biggest controversy in Oprah show history.”
Winfrey chose Frey’s substance abuse story “A Million Little Pieces,” for her book club in September 2005, making it a million-seller.
Oprah Winfrey’s interview with author James Frey will stretch over two episodes during the final full week of her talk show.“The biggest-ever retrospective of street art and graffiti.”
THE NEW MASTERS OF GRAFFITI
by Caroline Ryder
As crowds flock to LA for the biggest-ever retrospective of street art and graffiti, we showcase the artists most likely to follow in the footsteps of Banksy and Shepard Fairey.
The rise of the leading pop-art movement of our time has been somewhat improbable. From the clanging, dirty New York subways that were its first canvases to white-walled galleries in London, New York, or Tokyo, graffiti has entranced teenagers and art collectors alike. Now the movement’s birthplace is finally recognizing its most wide-reaching visual-art phenomenon with the first major museum exhibition to pay homage to the artists (or vandals, depending on your point of view) whose canvases are the urban streetscape.
“Art In The Streets”, which opened last month at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, honors graffiti – and its hip young sibling, street art – with an exhibition spanning 30,000 square feet and featuring 50 artists, a number and size unprecedented in the movement’s history.
Rodrigo Corral Lecture @ AIGA South Carolina – Thursday, May 12
Designer Rodrigo Corral to give lecture hosted by AIGA South Carolina
By blueion, but enhanced by others
Join the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) for what is sure to be an inspiring time with talented designer Rodrigo Corral.
AIGASC
A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Rodrigo has designed some memorable and fascinating book covers, including James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces; all the covers for author Chuck Palanuick (including his latest publication Tell All) and most recently, hip-hop artist Jay Z’s book Decoded.
Event Details
Thursday, May 12
5:30 p.m. Social | 6:30 p.m. Lecture
Blue Ion
301 B King Street
Charleston, SC
Discussion of I AM NUMBER FOUR @ Hampton Library, May 12
from the Anderson Independent Mail
Book discussion at Hampton library May 12
PICKENS COUNTY — The teen book discussion group will be reading “I am Number Four” by Pittacus Lore at 3:30 p.m. May 12 at Hampton Memorial Library, Easley. If you like extraterrestrial lore with action, suspense, and a bit of romance, then this book is for you.
The program is free and open to all teens. Refreshments will be provided.
For more information, call the library at (864) 850-7077 or email reference@pickens.lib.sc.us.
Oh Bondage Rest in Peace! – Poly Styrene Gone
Poly Styrene, Lost & Found
Like many of her peers, she discovered the sound of being a grown woman
Janette Beckman
It was meant to be a delicious comeback for the transgressive girl whose defiant 1977 single, “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” fired up Afro-Punk, riot grrrl, and every punk worth their peroxide. Instead, the return of Poly Styrene became one of pop’s most poignant ironies. Generation Indigo — a bubbly, cuddly, insightful record, her first in seven years—was released on the day her death was announced last week.
The loss of 53-year-old Poly Styrene six months after the death of 48-year-old Ari-Up, the dreadlocked singer-songwriter of the Slits, is a reminder: how few were those brave women who shattered all pre-existing models during U.K. punk’s first wave. This ragtag crew was the first self-determined generation of women musicians, and their influence is incalculable; today, their giddy progeny have stormed the malls with their camouflage, neon fishnets, and combat boots worn with gowns. And while their sounds may resonate differently, today’s alpha women—Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Pink — still ride the whirlwind of independent female energy that shook mid-1970s London.
Full Fathom Glu
Cross Media: Glu Mobile Announces Partnership with Author James Frey
Social Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile has announced a partnership with Full Fathom Five, the publishing company of best-selling author James Frey, for a transmedia collaboration. “We are thrilled to announce this groundbreaking partnership with James and Full Fathom Five,” said Niccolo de Masi, CEO of Glu. “Glu and James Frey have a shared vision for the future of mobile and transmedia digital entertainment…. Properties will begin as novels and games on smartphones and tablets, with potential expansions for the most successful creations into television and film.”
The first of its kind, Glu and Full Fathom Five will create transmedia content that fans can enjoy as both Social Mobile games and as novels. Full Fathom Five has already experienced success in transmedia collaboration with “I Am Number Four”, a #1 New York Times bestseller for 7 weeks, which was produced into a film by Dreamworks and Disney released earlier this year and grossed $128 million worldwide. Mr. Frey has written three other #1 bestsellers and has 10 million books in print. His work is published in 39 languages. “I’m thrilled to be working with Glu, an incredible company that makes incredible games. Partnerships like this one are going to be a big part of the future of storytelling and gaming,” said Frey.
The Rattling Wall
The Rattling Wall: New LA-based Literary Journal
May 3, 2011 at 11:34 am in Books, LA
I’m not one of those Angelinos who will claim that our literary culture rivals that of New York (sorry people, it just doesn’t–we can still love LA and concede secondary status on pizza and publishers). Nonetheless, we do have a pretty vibrant community of writers and readers. I’ve written about Chaparral and What Books Press here before, and I’m always happy to see news of a new journal or press.
On that note, The Rattling Wall is set to launch this month, and the inaugural issue looks delightful with offerings from Albert Reyes, Tony Hoagland, James Frey, and Neal Pollack, among others. They’re having a release party at the Hammer a week from tomorrow.
THE FINAL TESTAMENT OF THE HOLY BIBLE @ EXHIBITION a
Six Planets In The Sky
Six Planets Now Aligned in the Dawn Sky
If you get up any morning for the next few weeks, you’ll be treated to the sight of all the planets except Saturn arrayed along the ecliptic, the path of the sun through the sky.
For the last two months, almost all the planets have been hiding behind the sun, but this week they all emerge and are arrayed in a grand line above the rising sun. Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are visible, and you can add Uranus and Neptune to your count if you have binoculars or a small telescope.
This sky map of the six planets shows how they should appear at dawn to observers with clear weather and an unobstructed view.
Astrologers have always been fascinated by planetary alignments, and the doomsayers of 2012 have been prophesying a mystical alignment on Dec. 21, 2012.
