Especially on a glorious day like it was Monday. It was even clear and beautiful in Seattle.
Over the always snowy Chugach Range still in Prince William Sound.
Flying over the Chugach Range with Denali in the background.
Especially on a glorious day like it was Monday. It was even clear and beautiful in Seattle.
Over the always snowy Chugach Range still in Prince William Sound.
Flying over the Chugach Range with Denali in the background.
It rained Thursday morning and I assumed that I'd be driving to Grow North Farm for the weekly vegetable pickup, but the sun came out about 2pm. So did the wind. Here are the trees in the backyard in the wind.
But the sky looked blue enough, the clouds not too threatening, that I biked to get the veggies. It wasn't bad most of the time. Lots of tree debris on the trails, but basically little stuff.
On the way back, as I was about to cross the Glenn Highway, it looked like there was rain coming down to the west (I didn't quite catch gray curtain in the photo),
This week, for instance, my Peace Corps training roommate from 1966 in DeKalb, Illinois and his wife visitor and we're kept them busy understanding why we still live in Anchorage. But it's not like we haven't seen each other since 1966. We've been in each others lives as much as people separated by a six hour plane ride can be. But it's been a while since they've been in Anchorage. Their kids were just a bit older than their grandkids are now when they were last here.
Hamilton was the first time we've been to a big entertainment event since COVID restrictions. We've been to a few movies, but at times when we were the only ones, or almost the only ones, in the theater. We were all masked Tuesday as were some of the ushers and a small number of other patrons. But we learned a family member (out of town) just had COVID and a 50th wedding event in Anchorage was cancelled because two people had COVID. While I realize that for fully vaccinated people it's not likely to be fatal, a mask is still much less disruptive than being sick for a week.
I'd found the soundtrack of Hamilton at the Internet Archive and listened casually for the previous week on the assumption that musicals are more enjoyable if you know the music. And that rap is easier to understand if you hear it more than once and can read the lyrics.
The ADN had a letter this week noting that a number of Hamilton viewers said they sat next to someone who had memorized the Hamilton sound track and sang along with each song. One member of our group at one end sat next to such a person. As the ADN letter writer wrote, "We didn't pay to listen to you." Maybe they should have a sound proof section for those who want a sing-along experience. You know, like the churches that have glassed off space for people with crying babies.
But we did have a good time and enjoyed the spectacle. While there were four empty seats near us, the place was packed on a Tuesday night. (And I suspect the four empty seats were sold, but the people weren't able to attend.)
The Atwood holds 2056 people. Our seats were not the most expensive at a bit over $100 each. So, just to make the math easier, let's assume an average of
$100 per ticket X 2000 seats X 17 performances = $3,400,000.
So, 34,000 people will have spent $3.4 million for a couple of hours of entertainment in Anchorage. Most of that money, I assume, will go to the actors, stage people, and the touring company, and various ticket sales agencies. Not much of it will stay in Anchorage. Some of the people attending will go more than once. And some will be tourists, like our friends who were here from Chicago.
This was a bit disorienting because Cyrano's has moved from its long time downtown location to the old Out North location which also presented performing artists almost always with an LGBTQ link. I still think I'm at Out North, even though all the plays listed on the wall are Cyrano productions that were presented at the downtown location. It was sort of like being at a friend's house, except they've moved and another friend has moved in with all their furniture.
The play was a little silly - a British murder mystery romp with two actors playing six, maybe seven parts, including a werewolf and a mummy. The Dramaturg's* note in the program said, among other things:
"The script of The Mystery of Irma Web - A Penny Dreadful requires that both actors who are cast be the same sex and is a licensure requirement. Insead of two men, Director Krista M. Schwarting believed that two women could successfully accomplish the same goal."
She also mentioned that the play involves those two actors to make 35 costume changes.
The opening scene takes place in an English manor. For the second scene, the stage was transformed with folding doors into an Egyptian tomb.
While the play itself didn't hold much deep meaning for me, the two actors were excellent, deftly staying in accented character through all those costume changes.
*I didn't really know what a dramaturg was either. The program says she was professionally trained in Dramaturgy. Merriam Webster online says a Dramaturg is a specialist in Dramaturgy. And that Dramaturgy is:
"the art or technique of dramatic composition and theatrical representation"
"A dramaturge or dramaturg (from Ancient Greek δραματουργός dramatourgós) is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults authors, and does public relations work.[1][2][3] Its modern-day function was originated by the innovations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, an 18th-century German playwright, philosopher, and theatre theorist.[4]"
OK, so that's one post through the canal.
My daughter and granddaughter are visiting and Thursday was our day for an adventure. We headed for Girdwood and checked out Virgin Falls, that I first learned about earlier this summer.
Soup and sandwich at the Bake Shop, then down to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. I'm not a zoo fan. Well, as a kid I was a zoo fanatic. Between the old LA zoo and the stuffed animal tableaux at the County Museum, I got to know about animals from around the world. It was only later I became aware of how difficult it can be for the animals.
The Center, as I understand it, only takes in orphaned, injured, or other found animals. And for the larger animals, there's way more room than at most zoos. Wikipedia says there are about 800 acres and these are only Alaska animals. But the small animals - porcupine particularly - the cages are way too small and they were pacing pathologically. There were two, in separate cages. One only had three legs so it probably wouldn't survive on its own. And the bald eagle was in much too small a cage. I couldn't look. These shouldn't be in cages, but I'm guessing it was injured as well.
But the brown bears have a large area. I found a 200 acre reference to the wood buffalo habitat, so I'd say the bears probably have roughly the same amount.
I got a little carried away with the bear pictures.
There were musk oxen from Northwest Alaska.
My granddaughter's picture |
Some time back, not too long ago, my Air Drop stopped working between my phone and my MacBook. I checked online but couldn't make it work. I'd get the Blu Tooth connected both ways, but the airdrop wouldn't happen.
So lots of pics on my phone just stayed there. I tried other work arounds. When I plugged my phone into my computer I got a screen that wanted to download everything from my computer to my phone and there was no way I could get rid of it other than just unplugging.
Frustrated, today I tried again. But this time instead of searching for Blu Tooth solutions, I looked for AirDrop solutions. I got this HelpDeskGeek page with a whole table of contents of approaches. Quickly I found a good prospect - Open Finder on Mac. Then Set Air Drop To Open To Anyone.
That was the magic trick. Somehow it had gotten switched to Open To No One. I'm back in business and can now post some pictures here.
But there's a large backload of things I passed on - Juneteenth Festival, Gay Pride March and Festival, and a bunch of other things.
I'm just going to focus mostly on some pics from (mainly) yesterday's bike ride to highlight changes going on.
This first pic is from June 4th. A new homeless camp showed up on the 'off-ramp' from the Campbell Creek bike trail to Dowling.
Yesterday's turnaround point was the AARP fitness spot just south of Taku Lake.
There's construction going on down the trail there (toward Dimond). Someone recently told me they're building a skateboard park.
Also heading out yesterday, I noticed someone kayaking in the creek, but there were trees around and I didn't see too much, except it was a red kayak. On my way back, the kayak was blocking the bike trail.
Didn't look good. Nobody was around. But I figure if they got the kayak out, the people got out too, but not sure why they left their stuff there. That's an old restaurant in the background that they've been slowly working on, including adding landscaping. It says Creekside something on the other side. Behind me is Peanut Farm and Arctic Roadrunner.
Meanwhile, just down the block from our house, I discovered at the beginning of the ride that an old house was demolished. It's been there at least since the 70s. It was there two days ago, but this is all that was left yesterday:
The tape says something about asbestos. It was on a double lot. Presumably Anchorage will get some new housing. A single family house? A duplex? Two houses? Stand by.
Other changes. I noticed a bike headed up the hill near the forestation at Campbell Airstrip Road at Tudor a week ago. I decided to see what was there. It's a wide new gravel path that goes up, south of Tudor. It starts not too far from Tudor but gets further into the woods. Then there's a long downhill to this long bridge across what I'm guessing is sometimes wetlands.
[UPDATED July 16, 2023: It's called the Chugach Foothills Connector. Steve Johnson left comment with this link to a Muni page describing the project and the ribbon cutting will take place July 23,2023 at the bridge in the picture below:
"The event will take place on July 26th, 2023 from 4pm to 5pm. If you are driving to the event parking is available at the Benny Benson School's Parking Lot. The ribbon cutting will take place on the boardwalk in the center of the trail."
Thanks, Steve]
And yesterday I got my summer (starting April) biking total up to 603 km. 60% of my target of 1000 again this summer.
[UPDATE July 16, 2023 below is the map of the project:
For sharper version visit the Muni website |