The Real Alaska - New Book You Probably Won't See In Your Local Bookstore

Image from email from Thanachart

Unless you live in Thailand.  But maybe we can convince a few Anchorage stores to stock it.


Thanachart (Benz)    Siripatrachai first came to Alaska last December (2013) along with his award winning short documentary The Words I Love.  He's a Thai who was finishing film school
in New York City and he stayed with us a few of the days he was in Anchorage.  Here's my post including a video where he declares his love of Alaska.

Then in April 2014 he sent me a copy of his book New York First Time and a link to a video he'd made to promote the book.  It had, at the time over two million hits!  The book went to the top of the Thai best seller list.

Later he sent me another email saying he was coming back to Alaska because his publisher wanted him to do a book on Alaska, because, he said, there aren't many in Thai.  So he was back in Alaska this summer and we got to see him again for a couple of the days he was here. 

So, now the Alaska book is out.  If it's anything like the New York book, it will have lots of photos, chapter titles and headings in English, and the main text will be in Thai.  It will be humorous and the language will be a little spicy.

He said he'll send me a copy when he gets back to New York from Thailand where he's promoting the book at the National Book Fair in Bangkok.

Image from email from Thanachart

I'm going to try to convince him that some of the books should be on sale in Alaska.  I'm sure some people would buy it, even if they can't read it all.  And there's a sizable Thai-Lao community here who can read it.

This page shows the monk at the Thai Buddhist temple on D St just north of Fireweed.  They have lots of Thai readers and I'm sure this is one of the first books to cover their temple.  The money tree in the picture is covered with donations from many different countries.  (Benz didn't get to the temple last December, but I made sure he got there on his summer trip.)

Below is a picture Benz sent me of him signing his books at the Thai Book Fair.  He's sitting in the center in the dark blue shirt.

Image from email from Thanachart

His video for the New York 1st Time book made him something of a celebrity in Thailand, so I suspect this book on Alaska will get a lot more attention than such a book normally would.  I'm pretty sure the title is tongue-in-cheek, but we may see an uptick in Thai visitors to Alaska.

And none of this would have happened without the Anchorage International Film Festival (which will be Dec. 5-14 this year) which got Benz to Alaska for the first time. 

AIFF 2013: The Words I Love Director On Anchorage And His Film

I still have film festival video and other posts to put up.  One film maker I almost didn't record was Thanachart 'Ben'* Siripatrachai. 


The irony is that Ben stayed with us for several days of the festival and so I guess I thought I could get him any time.  Finally, I decided as we were having lunch downtown between films, I better do it.

His film The Words I Love  won honorable mention in the short docs category.  It was a film that caught my attention when I first saw the description and turned out to be a very unique film, Ben just doing seemed right to him, not following any preset rules for how to tell his story.  The audiences responded well with frequent laughs and chuckles.

Here's video we did. 






*If anyone is interested:

His nick name is 'Benz' like the car.  But in Thai, there is no final 'nz' sound, so it just becomes Ben.  So I've decided to just write in 'Ben'.  On his website he writes it in Thai (see image on top) as a final 'n.'  There really is no letter for a 'z' in Thai, though in Thai 'Benz' would  have a final 's' [เบนซ์] that wouldn't be pronounced (the squiggly line above the 's' on the end [ซ์] makes the 's' sound silent.  But in English he writes Benz.  But when he pronounced it, he said Ben.  In the image the first letter [เ] is the vowel sound 'eh'.  Then comes [บ] the 'b' sound, and finally the [น] 'n' sound. The squiggly mark on top appears to be a high tone mark [ป็], though at first I thought it was a 'Mai Dtaikhu' which shortens the vowel sound and would be found in the Thai word เป็น which is the word for 'to be.'  

So we have - เบ๊น- the way Ben spells his name in Thai.
We have -เบนซ์ -  the way Mercedes-Benz is spelled in Thai.
And - เป็น  -  the common word for the verb 'to be.'

[Update Jan 5, 2013:  I don't write Thai very often these days and I forgot a small detail.  There are two different Thai letters that represent two slightly different sounds that English uses the letter B for.  I think it's pretty easy to see the difference between ป and  บ. The first one is unvoiced and the second one is voiced.  I won't even try to explain that but if you are interested here are two sites that explain it - one in writing and one with a video. ]

 

Tale of Two Cities - Divided Between Anchorage And LA

Ice Wall Seward Highway south of Anchorage

It was several degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) when we left Anchorage just after midnight Christmas morning.  It was ridiculously warm (on the way to mid 80s) and clear as we arrived into LA almost 40 minutes early around 8 am.  (There'd been a stopover in Seattle)

So this post is going to mix some leftover Anchorage photos from a great sightseeing day with New York based film maker Thanachart Siripatrachai mid December with photos of flying into LA today.  That jumble of hot and cold, wilderness and urban has been the last year as we try to spend as much time with my mom in LA as possible, yet maintain our Anchorage activities.  So why shouldn't you go back and forth between the two too?

Anchorage sunset Dec. 12, about 3:45 pm returning from Glen Alps.









Flying into LA Christmas Day, looking south toward Palos Verdes with Catalina Island very clear in the background.  LAX in the foreground.  We were early and spent some time flightseeing over LA.









Benz (Thanachart) checking out mostly frozen Turnagain Arm.  It was about 10˚F (-7˚C) that day and while it was mostly clear when we left the house, twenty minutes later it was mostly cloudy in the Arm and soon began to snow lightly.

And there was a brisk wind.  We walked around Beluga Point checking the ice formation on the water.  It was getting really cold with the wind.  So it was a little surprising when we saw three people get out of a car.  She was wearing lots of white. They climbed over the barricade and over the railroad tracks.  She pulled off her shawl and they started taking wedding pictures.  He had on an overcoat and scarf.

We came into LA, just north of the airport headed east (earlier photo above) came back a bit, and then looped around north with this view of downtown and all the mountain backdrops clearly displayed.  When we completed the circle we were headed west right over the Coliseum.

It was the 1984 Summer Olympics that made me realize what a huge part of my life the LA Coliseum had been.  From Boy Scout jamborees to rodeos,  early Dodger games and UCLA football games - I'd been to the Coliseum for various events all my early life.

Click to see map better

And at the LA Sports arena (the white oval)  I saw Lyndon Johnson nominated to be the vice presidential candidate with John Kennedy in 1960.  Someone had given my mom tickets and we were way up near the rafters, but we were there.  And I watched the UCLA basketball team in 1963 beat number one Michigan there - getting 16 points in a row at the beginning of the game - to go on for their first undefeated season and the beginning of their dynasty.  I also spent a lot of time in the museums and rose garden there at Exposition Park as a kid.  Followed by my graduate studies next door at USC.  Lots of my formative years spent in these few square blocks below us in the airplane yesterday morning.

 After we stopped at Bells Nursery (previous post on Christmas trees) Benz and I drove up to Glen Alps and walked to the Powerline Pass trail.





























We're closing in on the airport here.  I'm looking north as LA stretches to the hills.  It stretches even further over the hills in the valley.  And south out the other side of the plane.  And east.  But you can't see it quite this clear most days. 

This part of Chugach State Park is about 20 minutes from downtown Anchorage.  Nothing out there but nature- trees and bushes, a few trails, moose, bear, and other smaller critters. 

Here's Benz, tanning, Anchorage winter style. 









To put the top ice picture into perspective, I thought I better add this one Benz sent me.  All these are sharper if you click them.

AIFF 2013: Snowy Saturday Films - 'Benz', Benoit Cohen, and Matthieu Prada

We started downtown with Harlem Streetsinger, a documentary about Rev. Gary Davis, whose guitar playing was legendary.  Nice piece of musical history and biography.  Then to the library for Lion Ark and back downtown for Delinquent Dancers - a fun, but not quite successful Bollywood film about a group of boys who escape a detention center to take part in a televised dance contest.

Then to Bear Tooth for You'll Be A Man.   Each time we got back to the car, there was
another three or four inches of fresh snow to brush off.

'Benz' Thamachart Siripatrachai

'Benz' Thanachart Siripatrachai, a Thai film maker studying in New York and the creator of the charming The Words I Love  has been staying with us and realized that I hadn't gotten any video of him yet.  So I did at lunch between films.  I'll edit it and put it up later. 





Saturday's highlight for me was You'll Be A Man  by Benoit Cohen who came from France with his producer Matthieu Prada for the showing.  (And he'll be here for tomorrow's showing too.)  Here's a bit of video of the two before the showing, talking about their arrival in Alaska.



)

Here they are after the film answering questions from a clearly enthusiastic audience at the Bear Tooth.

The discussions continued on into the lobby.

I was hoping to get to bed before 2am today, but I've missed that deadline.  I liked You'll Be A Man a lot, but I want to process it a bit before I write about it.  It  does play again Sunday - at 1:30 at AK Exp.  


[UPDATE March 11, 2014 Youtube video replaces Viddler]

NY 1st Time Book Promotion With Foreigner Swearing In Thai - AIFF Winner's New Video Goes Viral

Thanachart in Anchorage Dec 2013

Thanachart Siripatracha's The Words I Love won honorable mention at the Anchorage International Film Festival for short documentary last December.  We had the pleasure of having Benz (as he's called) stay with us for part of the festival.  His winning film was charming as is he.  He currently lives in New York where he's been studying film making.  You can see a short video of Benz talking about his first time in Alaska at this post. 

A couple of weeks ago he sent me a link to a video he did to promote his book - related to the AIFF winning film.  His book,  New York 1st Time, is in Thai about his adventures in New York.  

 

The video was a spoof of his book by talking to a farang (foreigner) about his first time in Bangkok.  In this case it was his first time being cursed by a Thai.  That doesn't happen often (a foreigner being cursed by a Thai) unless the foreigner really deserves it, as he did in this case.









Here's the viral video (it's in English and Thai):





I was going to wait to post about this until I got the book, but Benz sent me a follow up - the Bangkok post has written about this video.  Here are a couple of excerpts:

A video clip of an American retired lecturer documenting his first experience of being sworn at in Thailand has attracted more than half a million views after one day after being uploaded to YouTube. . .

Thanachart Siripatrachai uploaded the video clip of 78-year-old Nelson Howe describing his first experience of being subjected to foul language after living in Bangkok for three years. .  .

The video was made to promote a book written by Mr Thanachart about his 'first time' experience of visiting New York. Mr Thanachart, an assistant film director, said on his Facebook page that Mr Howe was a former university lecturer who he met accidentally in New York.

Mr Thanachart initially just wanted to promote his book using the clip describing Mr Howe's 'first time' experience in Thailand. But the film-maker now plans to make several more videos based on the academic's...

 By the way, as I write this, the video has 2.5 million hits. 

Alaskans Get Colorado Christmas Trees And Mexican Poinsettias

During the film festival, the creator of The Words I Love (Honorable Mention in the short docs category) stayed with us for several days.  Thanachart Siripatrachai - Benz - for short and I went for a few outings and during one we stopped at Bell's Nursery and found, to our surprise, Christmas trees from Colorado.

Down on the bottom - it says Poncha Springs, CO.

Needless to say we were surprised to learn Alaskans buy Colorado trees.  

Here's Benz taking pictures.















I don't think these particular poinsettias are from Mexico, but I did some checking and they come originally from Mexico.








From American Phytopathological Society:  

The poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd., is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae. The genus Euphorbia contains some 700 to 1,000 species. It is characterized by a single female flower, without petals and usually without sepals, surrounded by individual male flowers all enclosed in a cup-shaped structure called a cyathium. The showy red, pink, white, or bicolored portion of the plant, popularly referred to as the flower, consists of modified leaves or bracts (Fig. 1).

The poinsettia is a native plant of Mexico and originated in a rather limited region near present day Taxco. Long before the arrival of Europeans, the Aztecs of central Mexico cultivated the plant and called it Cuetlaxochitl. Because of its brilliant color, the poinsettia was a symbol of purity to the Indians. It was highly prized by both King Netzahualcoyotl and Montezuma, but because of the high altitude climate, the plant could not be grown in their capital, now known as Mexico City. The Indians used poinsettia bracts to make a reddish-purple dye. They also made a medicine for fever from the plant’s latex.  .  . [emphasis added - and there's a lot more about the history of this plant at the APS link.]

Yes, I needed to look it up too.  Here's what it says:

What Is Phytopathology or Plant Pathology?

The Study of Plant Disease

Plant pathology is an interdisciplinary science that includes knowledge of botany, microbiology, crop science, soil science, ecology, genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and physiology. Most plant pathologists have master's and doctoral degrees and are employed by colleges and universities, state and federal government agencies, industrial firms, international institutes, and as private practitioners.

In any case, let me take this opportunity to wish all my readers who celebrate Christmas, a very merry Christmas!

AIFF 2013: Choosing From So Many Good Options Friday

This is getting impossible.  There are too many options.  (Full schedule with links and times below.)

Lunch Discussion at 11:30 at the Bear Tooth:

"Guest speakers include: Tony Sheppard, AIFF founder; Ron Holmstrom, regional Screen Actors Guild Feature representative; Jerry Levine, producer, director and president of Connections Doc Film and Video; and other guests representing various groups who’ve been involved with 'Film in Alaska.'” 

This event doesn't conflict with any other event - except maybe your life.

The rest, I can only mention the films I've seen and I leave the rest for you to choose for yourself.  The links should help.


Eskimo Star - I saw a short portion of this a couple of years ago, if I remember correctly.  And I also knew Ted Mala the son of Ray back when I first got to Alaska in the late 70s.  Again, it doesn't conflict with any other events and what I saw before fills lots of Alaska and Hollywood history gaps.

Recommendations:

Some of my favorite shorts will play at the Martini Matinee at 3:30 at the Inlet Towers: Animation Hotline* - one of the few animated films that had both great original visuals AND meaningful content.
Reel Life - a great filmic comment on film reality
The Words I Love -  learning language is a great interest of mine and it's told in it own original way  (I'd note that the film maker, 'Benz' Thamachart Siripatrachai, is staying with us.)
Mr. Super Juice* - won me over with its irreverence, it pulls no punches (or juices)
Coffee Time - This one is so unexpected.  I won't say anything about it, except to say it's delightful.  Not for children.

*also playing at 7:30 in the Animation Program.  Three others I really liked in that program:

The Rose of Turaida -  a beautiful and original animation style tells a Latvian legend.
Lost and Found - visually beautiful adaption of a children's book.based on Oliver Jeffers' award winning children's picture book
Mr Hublot -  Magnificent visuals.

The Guide - I also found this short from the Biology Gone Wild Docs Program definitely worth a view - an African young man wants to be a tour guide in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park.  That's already a pretty good story, but it gets additional power by the appearance of an intellectual hero of mine - biologist E. O. Wilson - and his relationship with the young guide.  7pm

There are just too many movies. And too many of them overlapping.  I can tell you I really liked the ones mentioned above, but you might not.  Just jump in and pick something. 

11:30 AM		One Course Discourse Event | 90 min.	Bear Tooth Theatre
1:20 PM		"Eskimo Star: From the Tundra to Tinseltown the Ray Mala Story" Book Signing with Author Lael Morgan Book Signing | 80 min.	Bear Tooth Theatre
3:00 PM		Martini Matinee Martini Matinee, Shorts Program | 100 min. screens with... Mister Super Juice | Mike Wellins 2013 The Innovator | Sean McCarthy 2013 Slomo | Joshua Izenberg 2012 The Words I Love | Thanachart Siripatrachai 2013 Reel Life | Laurence Relton 2013 The Anatomy of Injury | Danielle Lessovitz Coffee Time | Maria Fredriksson 2013 Animation Hotline | Dustin Grella Door Prize | Zsa Zsa Gershick 2009	Bear Tooth Theatre
6:00 PM		Art Docs Documentary Program | 65 min. screens with... The Models of Bekonscot | Sophie Le Neveu 2014 The No Name Painting Association | Joe Griffin 2013 Pottery Wars | Michelle Naomi Swallow 2013 Stan Herd: Down To Earth | Bradley Beenders 2012	Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater
7:00 PM		Snowdance Docs Documentary Program, Snowdance | 90 min. screens with... Baking Alaska | Kari Barber 2013 Mike's Migration | Adam Kunz 2013 Open Season | Mary Katzke 2013 Seward Harbor Flipbook Vol. 1 | Kristopher Peck 2013	Wilda Marston Theatre at Z. J. Loussac Public Library
7:00 PM		Biology Gone Wild Docs Documentary Program | 88 min. screens with... The Guide | Jessica Yu 2013 Himalayan Gold Rush | Eric Valli 2012	Alaska Experience Theater - Small Theater
7:30 PM		Animation Animation Program | 120 min. screens with... Ahco on the Road | Soyeon Kim 2013 Animation Hotline | Dustin Grella Blue | Katelyn Bianchini, Rena Cheng, Asia Lancaster 2013 Caldera | Evan Viera 2012 A Clean Break | Richard Cunningham Collectors | Marcel Hobi 2013 Eye of the Storm | Christopher Alender 2011 Icarus Falls | Jesse O'Brien 2013 The Innovator | Sean McCarthy 2013 Lost and Found | Karen Star Mirage | Iker Maidagan, Dana Terrace 2013 Mister Super Juice | Mike Wellins 2013 Monkey Rag | Johanna Davidovich Mr Hublot | Laurent Witz, Alexandre Espigares 2013 Prima | Vanessa Rossi 2013 The Rose of Turaida | Ryan Grobins 2013 Yellow Sticky Notes | Canadian Anijam | Jeff Chiba Stearns 2013	Anchorage Community Works
7:45 PM		Antarctica: A Year on Ice Anthony Powell 2013 | Documentary | 92 min.	Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater
8:00 PM		Vino Veritas Sarah Knight 2012 | Feature | 96 min. ** Note: Filmmaker attending	Bear Tooth Theatre
9:30 PM		Quick Freeze Film Competition Screening Quick Freeze | 120 min.	Anchorage Community Works
9:45 PM		Mourning Has Broken Jason Butler, Brett Butler 2012 | Feature | 77 min.	Alaska Experience Theater - Large Theater
10:15 PM		Contracted Eric England 2013 | Feature | 84 min.

Moonlight In The Woods

The film festival awards ceremony was over, I took Benz to the airport, and then took the long way home to check out Campbell Airstrip in the post snow storm moonlight. 

AIFF2013: Documentaries In Competition - From Freeze Drying Your Pet and Harlem Blues, to Selling Kidneys and Antarctica

First the films are selected from all those submitted.  Then a certain number from each category is  selected to be 'in competition'' meaning these are the finalists eligible for an award in the category.  The documentary category has, if I counted right, 32 selected films (18 under 30 minutes and 14 over 30 minutes)  and 11 are 'in competition.'   Of these, three are under 30 minutes and the other eight above.

Films come from:  

• New Zealand/Antarctica
• Afghanistan/USA
• USA
• France
• Canada

• China/USA
• Mozambique
• United Kingdom/USA 
• Sweden
• Thailand (it's listed as USA, but the filmmaker is a Thai living in the US)

This is a fairly long list, so I'm going to list the documentaries in competition here with minimal information about each film and in reverse alphabetical order. (The A's shouldn't always be at the top of the list.)

The documentaries was one of the best categories last year with lots of outstanding films that weren't in competition.  So look beyond this list when you are looking for docs at the festival.  The audience favorite last year wasn't in competition. 

1)  The Words I Love

From images I got from the filmmaker

Thanachart Siripatrachai

USA

17m

"I come from Thailand. I am a bookish person and always carry a book with me. In my first year in New York City, I did not know that there was a dictionary on my cellphone. When I found a word I did not know, I would ask a stranger sitting next to me to explain the meaning. I was fascinated by our conversations. Later, I started to record their voices and put them together in this documentary to explore the issue of language."  From Glovebox.

Here's a link to a blog post of Benz' (Thanachart's nickname) project to wake people up from their eyes- glued-to-their-smartphones in the Bangkok subway, by shouting random words and then taking a picture of the people looking up at him.

And here's a link to his website which has some of his photos.



2)  The Guide

Jessica Yu

Mozambique

40m.

From the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation:

"The Guide  is a coming-of-age tale set against the restoration of a war-torn national park in Mozambique. Raised near Gorongosa National Park, young Tonga Torcida dreams of becoming a tour guide. But when he meets famed biologist E.O. Wilson, his new view of the world around him—and his future—places him at a crossroads. Should Tonga become a guide, or take on a bigger role in trying to keep the park alive?"

3)  Tales from Organ Trade
Ric Esther Bienstock
Canada 
82m
http://www.talesfromtheorgantrade.com/index.html

This film shows us the people who sell their organs because they need the cash and the people who buy them because they want to live and explores the ethics of the whole situation.






4)  McConkey
Murray Wais, Rob Bruce, Scott Gaffney, David Zieff, and Steve Winter
USA
109m

I'm guessing this one will have long lines at the Bear Tooth.  It's the kind of movie that draws a big audience in Anchorage.  Ski daredevils and one in particular.   Get your tickets in advance for this one if you want to get in.  Let's hope they schedule it a couple of times. 

“McConkey” is a heartfelt examination of the legacy one athlete left to the progression of his sports, and the path he paved to conquer his dreams. Shane McConkey is revered as a pioneer of freeskiing and ski-BASE jumping, and through his talent and ability to use his trademark irreverent humor, he inspired countless lives. In a new film from Red Bull Media House in association with Matchstick Productions, “McConkey” celebrates the life of one of the world’s ultimate innovators.

 
5) Lion Ark

Tim Phillips

United Kingdom/USA

97m

From the film's website:

Lion Ark is a vivid behind the scenes account of probably the most ambitious animal rescue ever undertaken, the finale of which sees 25 lions rescued from illegal traveling circuses across Bolivia being flown to safety in the USA.
A shocking undercover investigation leads to a ban on animal circuses in Bolivia. But the circuses defy the law. The team behind the investigation return, track down the illegal circuses and save every animal. We follow the confrontations, heartache and risks the team face, before an emotional finale sees 25 lions airlifted 5,000 miles to freedom in Colorado.

6) I, Slomo

Joshua Izenberg
USA

17 min

Neurologist drops out of rat race to slow motion roller blade.

Video is from the film's Kickstarter page

7)  Himalayan Gold Rush 
Eric Valli 
France 
48m.

"Every spring, in a remote part of Nepal, tens of thousands of men, women and children leave their villages for a dangerous trek to the high Himalaya, sometimes at the cost of their lives, to collect Yarsagumbu - a mysterious transmutation between plant and insect. Used in Chinese medicine, it is worth up to 60,000 USD a kilo – more than gold! " 

8) Harlem Street Singer
Trevor Laurence
USA
77m.


From the Harlem Street Singer website:

"Harlem Street Singer, the first-ever film to tell the little-known story of Reverend Gary Davis, the great ragtime and gospel musician. Tracing his journey from the tobacco warehouses of the rural south to the streets of Harlem, the film is a revealing portrait of an artist who impacted the musical landscape of folk music and endeared himself to musicians such as Pete Seeger, Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Jorma Kaukonen, David Bromberg, Bob Dylan and countless others. In addition to interviews, the storyline features audio recordings from Woody Mann’s guitar lessons with Davis, archival footage, rediscovered photographs, concert and informal musical sequences by the Reverend as well as contemporary artists who have been influenced by him. Harlem Street Singer celebrates the beauty and spirituality of his music as well as the human qualities that made Reverend Davis a much beloved teacher and minister. This is the exciting story of an American musical icon whose legacy continues to live on in today’s music scene."

9)  Grand Rescue

Meredith Lavitt and Jenny Wilson 

USA

48m

There was something about the trailer that suggests a gripping film. And the mountain climbing rescue story should appeal to Alaskans.  And this one had it's premier just a couple of days ago - Nov. 5 - so we'll be among the first to see it. 




From The Grand Rescue website:

"It was August 22nd around 2:00 pm when a young graduate student and his female climbing companion became stranded on a narrow ledge 13,000 feet high. A boulder had broken free and showered the climbers with rock fall leaving Gaylord Campbell with protruding compound fractures. The young national park rangers quickly went to work, relying on innate skill, instinct and trust. History was about to be made...the rescue was the first one on the feared North Face - an unprecedented rescue for its time, due to the climber's severe injuries and unknown terrain."

10)  Furever

Amy FInkel

USA

80m

Learn how to freeze dry your pet.  Actually, it's a look at people who get their pets freeze dried and the people who will do it for them.

11)  Backyard
Deia Schlosberg
USA
28m
 

“Backyard” is a story of seeing broadly and considering the greater good. Told via animations and people's experiences with fracking."  From the Backyard Kickstarter page.

AIFF 2013: Sarah Knight Talks About Her Film Vino Veritas

It's 1:30 am Saturday.  I saw Vino Veritas last night and I really want to be in bed now, but I have some video to share with folks who are thinking they might want to see this film.

Knight (r) talking to audience member after showing

It's a good film.  It's in the Virginia Woolf genre - two couples together in a house and they start talking more candidly than normal.  It's gentler than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and last year's festival example of this genre, Between Us.


It's much too soon for me to write about this film.  I need to think about it more.  For example, Benz (who directed The Words I Love) asked me if I thought it made a difference that it was on Halloween.  Yes, if it weren't Halloween we wouldn't learn that Claire had no identity of her own, except when she won the Halloween costume award each year.  But as I thought about his question more, I realized that the three characters who took the truth serum wine, were all dressed in costumes that were not who they really were.  The one who did NOT take the truth serum was dressed in his real life doctor gown.

I need more time to tease out insights like that.

Vino Veritas plays today (Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013) at 4pm at the Alaska Experience Theater.  Bring your spouse.  

In the meantime, you can watch the video of Sarah.

Blog Invasion - Trying To Figure Out What's Going On

Yesterday I had, according to Sitemeter,  744 hits. (Google Analytics says 1,192 which is about normal for them).   Sitemeter had been showing around 225 to 300 individual hits a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. Here's what the last seven days look like.  There were already 33 hits in the first half hour after midnight today. 

That's a pretty noticeable spike.    Below is today at 12:30pm.  I already have more hits than all of yesterday.  (Yellow are discrete visits, orange are page views)

Normally, when I get a spike like this, it's because I've put up a post that gets a lot of hits from links on other blogrolls, or some high profile website(s) has linked to a post.   That's not the case here.

A lot of the hits were coming from Bulgaria, Romania, Venezuela, Poland, and Spain, but also Greece and Turkey.  They were going mostly to posts that haven't been looked at in months.  There would be spurts of three or four hits on the same  few post in a ten minutes, sometimes within two minutes, then it would be on to other posts.  

There are old posts that get hits everyday.  Usually ones I never expected would become so popular over time - Alaskan Seemantham, How to Grow Tamarind Seeds, Fruit fly or Fungus Gnat? for example.  But yesterday people were hitting posts that just haven't been visited very often since they were originally posted, and many would seem to have limited appeal to Bulgarians or Poles. 

What's going on?  I don't know, but I thought I'd post this in case others are experiencing things like this.  Or if someone knows what's happening.

• Has google changed its algorithm?
• Is my blog being taken over by hackers?  
• Has sitemeter started reporting differently?

One particular post will suddenly get hits.  Then it fades away and another post gets the action.  Posts that have lain there unviewed for months.  Why is this happening?  Why these little clusters for a short period on one post and then a new one on another post.  It's like bees coming to one flower and sucking out the nectar and then moving on to another.

Does this have anything to do with another puzzling sitemeter reading?  The user, Feb. 2, was identified as Carlson and Partners in New York.  But the time was Alaska time rather than Eastern time and the eight pages on my blog it went to were the same pages I had gone to at about the exact same time.  Did Sitemeter mix up my search and their info?  Or had they invaded my computer and somehow followed me?  They're an advertising firm, but there's not much available about them today.  The company's founder, from what I can tell, Sandra Carlson, was closely connected with Ralph Lauren and had that account until she died in a car crash in 2003.  After that, I can't find anything. Not even a company website. 

I noticed once before that an advertising agency, Edelman, that had Anglo-American as a client, had visited a Pebble Mine related post..  And I've read that Edelman monitors the internet for their clients and even post comments.  I got a comment on that post not long after the Edelman hit that sounded suspiciously like a company flack hit job.


Here's the kind of thing I'm seeing:

http://whatdoino-ste...to-tok-in-13000.html
Greece  1:45
Turkey   1:45
Indonesia 1:46 

Here's what things looked like between 2:02pm (Alaska time) and 2:32pm yesterday.  I've left out eight hits that looked normal (I could see search terms or the links that got them here and they were all US or Canadian time zones.)  I do get various foreign hits every day, but these patterns are strange. (I also added in a couple before 2:02 that went to the same pages.)

From 2:02pm  to 2:32 pm

http://whatdoino-ste...g-so-well-these.html\
Venezuela 2:02  200.8.58.216
(There had been one from a Polish computer at 1:51, one from Chile at 1:53, one from Spain at 1:53;)

 http://whatdoino-ste...14/01/1972-book.html
Venezuela 2:06  190.79.100.245
Venezuela  2:10pm
Romania  2:11pm

 http://whatdoino-ste...g-so-well-these.html
Thai  2:06pm


http://whatdoino-ste...w-year-of-horse.html
Greek language 2:02pm 
????  - 2:07  11 hour time difference

http://whatdoino-ste...rday-films-benz.html
Mexico 2:07pm
UK (Brighton) 2:10pm
(There'd been one from Brazil at 1:55, and a French language one at 1:58)

http://whatdoino-ste...3_07_01_archive.html
Italy 2:08


http://whatdoino-ste...errymandered_15.html
Italy 2:08
Italy 2:10
Romania 2:13
(there had been one from Spain at 1:47pm and Venezuela at 1:48  201.243.123.246 ^?)

http://whatdoino-ste...lks-race-at-uaa.html
Turkey 2:13pm
Brazil  2:22 


http://whatdoino-ste...cidental-racist.html
???  2:18  11 hour time difference

 http://whatdoino-ste...eeting-victoria.html
Venezuela 2:13pm  201.209.4.13
Venezuela 2:26   190.79.8.59 ^?

 http://whatdoino-ste...gs-at-off-chain.html
Bangkok  2:18
Says USA, but the computer language is Russian and there's an 11 hour time difference 2:25   
(There had been one from Spain at 1:51pm)

 http://whatdoino-ste...o-start-and-end.html
Serbia 2:23 
Tunisia 2:32

http://whatdoino-ste...n-back-we-go-to.html
????  2:12   9 hour time difference
Macedonia 2:29 
(There'd been a Spanish language (es 41) at 1:54pm)
  I did check the IP addresses of some from Venezuela and as you can see they don't match, though two are really close.

Am I just being paranoid?  Is it just a mistake at Sitemeter?  Should I just be happy that suddenly my blog was discovered?  Or is someone messing with my blog?  

So, anyone have any ideas what's going on?  As I post this at 3:22pm I already have 962 hits today.