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Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Made It To Bangkok Today - Sort Of
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Made It To Kamphaengphet Saturday In My Summer Anchorage Biking Trek
Back in May I described my itinerary - Chiangmai to Bangkok - 745 kilometers. I'm doing this on the bike trails of Anchorage. The original post gives a bit of background to this way of giving me a reason - beyond the sheer joy of being on a bike whizzing through the woods - for this technique. Knowing how many kilometers I have to cover gets me out on days my body would rather not. But once my feet are pushing pedals, I'm glad I'm out riding. There's also a map showing the distances between key points.
Kamphaengphet is kilometer 445, so I'm over half way. That's good, because biking season is also half over. ( I have an old bike with studded tires for winter, but I don't do long bike rides when there is snow and ice)
This stop is particularly special because I spent two years in Kamphaengphet teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1960s. Below are some pictures from that time - a world much more closely connected to the past than it's connected to the present.
These are from an album I put together while I was there. Black and white photos I could get developed at the local photographer shop. The place where people could get portraits done. But Kodak and Fuji slides had to be sent to Hong Kong or Australia to be developed. That was minimally a two week process. I think of my grandkids who probably don't even know about film and are used to seeing the picture the instant it's taken. (I checked with my oldest and she did not know.)
About the kid with the bare feet. No, it wasn't that he didn't have shoes. Thais just take their shoes off before they go inside. So outside the classroom would be lots of shoes.
Today I did another 16.5 km so I'm on my way to Nakorn Sawan. This is the longer between stops and I remember the dusty red dirt road in the last three hours of my trips back from Bangkok. Lots of rice and mountains that looked like growths on the mostly flat landscape. I'd note that all these roads have long since been paved.
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Enjoy A Little Thai Humor
Creativity and humor are evenly distributed around the world. The west has no monopoly.
This may take several views to catch it all.
พุง is pronounced phung and means belly
ปาก is pronounced baak and means mouth
ดนฃา is pronounced tonkaa and means thigh
มัน is pronounced man (rhymes with fun) and means fat (like chicken fat)
น้ำมัน is pronounced num mun and means oil.
The Thai words and their English transliteration in red are on the road signs, but the subtitles translate to the English words so if you don't know the Thai you might not catch it as they say it.
It does all make sense - where they are coming from and going to.
Monday, June 21, 2021
I Made It To Uttaradit Today On Anchorage's Campbell Creek Trail
I mentioned in an earlier post that last summer I biked from Santiago, Chile to Conception - all while staying comfortably isolated on Anchorage bike trails. About 700 kilometers. This year I wanted to go a little further so I'm biking from Chiangmai to Bangkok.
The first destination point was Lampang (120 km) which I got to a while ago. Today I hit km 269 which gets me to the next stop, Uttaradit. As I rode today, I was wondering if I have ever been to Uttaradit. Probably the train went through it when I first arrived in Thailand in 1967 and the Peace Corps volunteers headed for the North all took the train to Chiangmai.
But I knew that I must have been at least near Uttaradit in 2009 when I was a volunteer with the Northern Thai Farmers Association in Chiangmai and we went to a meeting in Petchabun for Thai farmers from all over Thailand.
I found a couple of pictures of the trip on a post from then. It was January and there were record low temperatures. It even snowed on Doi Suthep.
On the road somewhere between Lamphun and Uttaradit.
In Thailand, there are always great places to eat along the way.
So these are the landscapes I've been imagining myself biking through for the last couple of weeks. But actually, I've been on the beautiful bike trails of Anchorage enjoying the greening of the trees and grasses and shrubs and the various colors and gurglings of Campbell Creek and Taku Lake and Goose Lake.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal tweeted an article about making friends with a tree. That it's good for your health. I've known that a long time, but hearing the WSJ dip their toe into such touchy/feely water is a surprise. [Of course, I say touchy/feely ironically.] My bike rides last summer and this summer have been regular forest bathing experiences.
And Anchorage temperatures are so much more conducive to biking that it would be now arriving in Uttaradit.
Red necked grebe amongst the water lilies at Goose Lake the other day.
Riding under the Seward Highway bridge today. This really is better than drugs to energize me.
I've got 90 km to get to Sukhothai - an ancient capital of Thailand and directly north of where I lived in Kamphaengphet for two years in the late 60s. Back then, there was no direct road and I remember riding on the back of a motorcycle through rice paddies.
And then from Sukhothai to Kamphaengphet. The bike tour I found online does this trip in ten days. There's no way I could do that now. My knees can't take that much biking in such a short time. But I can spread the 750 or so kilometers more slowly over the summer in Anchorage. Another several weeks to Sukhothai. I'll let you know when I get there.
Friday, May 14, 2021
Biking Chiang Mai To Bangkok This Summer In Anchorage
Back around Fall 1981, the University of Alaska Anchorage swimming pool had a challenge - swim the Bering Sea over the semester. In the pool. 50 miles. I've never been as fit as I was that semester. Each swim was not just a swim, but a leg across the Bering Sea. That was a lot of incentive to get in the pool three or four times a week.
So last summer I decided I should have a mental trip in mind for my biking. I chose Santiago Chile to Concepción - a distance of about 650 kilometers, depending on which route you take. So, as I rode last summer, I was in Anchorage, but also in Chile. I looked at maps and pictures of the places I was passing. Just like swimming the Bering Sea, riding from Santiago to Concepción was the inspiration I needed to get on the bike, even on days I was feeling lazy. And once out, I never regretted it.
So I've started already this summer and thought about going from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. I wasn't exactly sure how far that was, but it seemed in the ballpark. I looked on line to see if it was doable. Not only is it doable, but there are a number of companies that will take you on the actual trip and so I picked Exo Travel because their trip was 745 km and the itinerary included a stop in Kamphaengphet - a town I lived in for two years teaching English. I've also spent six months in Chiang Mai over two years and about a year in the Bangkok area.
I've added up the miles from Exo Travel's itinerary and marked the distance from Chiang Mai for each daily destination. The 165 km from Kamphaengphet to Nakhon Sawan would be way too much for me to do in one day. I think about that trip on the main road back in the late 1960s. It was a red dirt road. Very dusty. Lots of rice paddies and some interesting hills jutting up oddly out of the earth. Of course, it's paved now - they were working on that back when I was first there.
So, as of today, I've ridden about 102km. (That doesn't count three or four early, shorter rides on the old mountain bike before the ice was totally gone.)
So let's look at today. Before riding I swept the cottonwood catkins off the deck. I have to do that twice a day right now.
There was a moose browsing by the trail as I went past the UAA student housing. I'm always amazed at how such huge creatures can be so well hidden out in plain sight.
Here's the north fork of Campbell Creek as it crosses under the Stuckagain Heights road.
So given my bike rides so far since April including today, I've covered 102 kms, so I'm about 20 kms out of Lampang. This is an old northern town that still has horse drawn carriages you can use to get around town. There are no moose, but the elephant sanctuary is nearby.
Here's are some links to posts I did at the elephant sanctuary in Lampang.
Thai Elephant Conservation Center Hospital in Lampang and the Nursery (Part 2)
Friday, December 14, 2018
Some Of The Best Things In Life Are Free
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dazzling in about 15 minutes. The fact that Night Market Sahm doesn't open until 5pm, meant we were out on the street to watch the show.
We ate here at the beginning of this year when we were working on my mom's house and it hadn't been open long. The laab was so hot I had to take breaks. But J, whose tongue is more sensitive than mine, also kept eating it because it was so good. This time, while it was still spicy, it wasn't nearly as hot and I don't think it was as addictively tasty either. But we did finish it. We ordered way too much, plus they gave us a complimentary salad. So we have snacks for the next few days.
[Laab is a northeastern Thai dish. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 60's, you could get laab, barbecued chicken, and somtam (very spicy green papaya salad) along with sticky rice (all northeastern dishes) in Bangkok if you went to a Thai boxing match. 'Sahm' means three in Thai. There's also a Night Market and Night Market Song in the LA area.]
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
From Flavor and Soul to Muslim Cool On UAA's New Book Shelf
These books were in the new book section of the library. But then I realized some of these were hardly 'new' books. So I went back to find the publication dates of all of them. I have question for the acquisition office of the library about how some of these were chosen. I know when I've asked that question in the past, there were some that were gifts which might explain a few.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3TNN7c6FjwJ_kcS80zGQebt0ptB_QGg_D9JFq0zeGmuzVOxfF9C-9Fs3oA4kyNjElXfBMpUFiFmH_MiEYbZZjWYB5y4r_5ZLWjYiBx7h62EqrEdsHgZLA4JqW_c4L4S8R7Q/s200/Arthur+Cecil+Pigou.jpg)
Nahid Aslanbeigui and GuyArthur Oakes, Cecil Pigou (2015)
"The British economist Arthur Cecil Pigou (1877-59) reconceptualized economics as a theory of economic welfare and a logic of policy analysis. Misconceptions of his work abound. This book, an essay in demystification and the first reading of the entire Pigouvian oeuvre, stresses his pragmatic and historicist premises." From Palsgrave (the publisher.)
Karen Tei Yamashita, Brazil-Maru (2010)
"A range of characters, male and female, tell about a particular group of Japanese who emigrated to Brazil in the first decades of this century. Christian, well-educated, and reasonably affluent, they sought to establish communities where Christian and Japanese values could flourish. The group prospered, though not without cost, and it is this cost that's a major theme here. A secondary theme, suggested by the quotes from the philosopher Rousseau that precede each section, is the nature of education in a new world where emigrants' children often have only 'natural and purely physical knowledge.''' From Kirkus Reviews.
'New' at the UAA library means new to the library. The review quoted above was published in 2010.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqCm5wX-W6T_8S7kWy47zjZgcozC1VAko46vG0vdKBII9rukY63JL-dJdcakskwrLWQIBAs8m7USygStCrJj1VUZmwFSkANPYDfawXP0PaDnkIZH95YRO7_kVdQddLy-eu7Q/s320/The+Mass+Observers.jpg)
Even after reading the book cover flap, I still wasn't sure what 'mass observers' meant. I guess in UK people know what this is. From Google Books:
"This is the first full-scale history of Mass-Observation, the independent social research organisation which, between 1937 and 1949, set out to document the attitudes, opinions, and every-day lives of the British people. Through a combination of anthropological fieldwork, opinion surveys, and written testimony solicited from hundreds of volunteers, Mass-Observation created a huge archive of popular life during a tumultuous decade which remains central to British national identity. The social history of these years has been immeasurably enriched by the archive, and extracts from the writings of M-O's volunteers have won a wide and admiring audience. Now James Hinton, whose acclaimed Nine Wartime Lives demonstrated how the intensely personal writing of some of M-O's volunteers could be used to shed light on broader historical issues, has written a wonderfully vivid and evocative account which does justice not only to the two founders whose tempestuous relationship dominated the early years of Mass-Observation, but also to the dozens of creative and imaginative, and until now largely unknown, young enthusiasts whose work helped to keep the show on the road. The history of the organisation itself - the staff, the research methods, the struggle for funding, M-O's characteristic 'voice', and its role in the cultural and political life of the period - are themselves as interesting as any of the themes that the founders set out to document. This long-awaited and deeply researched history corrects and revises much of our existing knowledge of Mass-Observation, opens up new and important perspectives on the organisation, and will be seen as the authoritative account for years to come."
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBzPVxprRK0modLSfyMMRvmxDkE6wH0F4d6yuHW7UG5M-Juibx_DM-zcQOfTDSVyyS2c-2n41eLExWPBv3UXYsbutU6B7PpVhu1UBzTO21-1yKHo0yywMCWG6aCSbEZW9HIKQ/s320/Celebrity+and+the+Feminist+Blockbuster.jpg)
Anthea Taylor Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster (2016)
"In the first book-length study of celebrity feminism, Anthea Taylor convincingly argues that the most visible feminists in the mediasphere have been authors of bestselling works of non-fiction: feminist ‘blockbusters’. Celebrity and The Feminist Blockbuster explores how the authors of these popular feminist books have shaped the public identity of modern feminism, in some cases over many decades. Maintaining a distinction between women who are famous because of their feminism and those who later add feminism to their ‘brand’, Taylor contends that Western celebrity feminism, as a political mode of public subjectivity, cannot in any simple way be seen as homologous with other forms of stardom. " Again, from Palgrave
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPbeXfUsyT2rq4KTwun-rGYGjdgBPpcbbhH2Y3NuolTVxX0uqkIqVETeZMCQgVx4qVw3K9KyxJ6htLsPMdX8kaCyxXVHnWKRz6RLD0Zng_ec9AE72KX1qq4AYL9h3WjuSnftg/s320/Der+Ring+Des+Saturn.jpg)
W. G. Sebald Die Ringe des Saturn (1995 German, 1998 English according to Wikipedia)
This is one of those cases where the similarities between English and German are so close that I don't have to translate the title.
It's not science fiction, or even science from what I could tell. It's a travel book of Seabed's walking trip through the rural Suffolk heath and coast where he finds traces of past glories and scandals.
Since people who can't read German won't read this book, I'll post a German description:
"Einer geht zu Fuß. Er wandert durch die Grafschaft Suffolk, eine spärlich besiedelte Gegend an der englischen Ostküste, und dort findet er, in den Heidelandschaften und abgelegenen Küstenorten, die ganze Welt wieder. Überall stößt er auf die Spuren vergangener Herrlichkeit und vergangener Schande."
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQf2sMAxde32qbyXu_sX4sdTpyJTSTDO_9a-LR_EHJdv9spjnMbg4Mg9l2knhol1dHpFn2c7xkzBjT8YqYKZ49JKRYFLfqsEEsnOszz-ZD7naE1LrOHXQ1ILVcjyKyfWIcZxM/s320/Flavor+and+Soul.jpg)
John Gennari Flavor and Soul (2017)
Another interesting looking book - this one looks at the overlap of American Italian and Black cultures. See more at the University of Chicago Press.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6Mfd-m_TH6BmFNVDW-qz3kSqFpmG_cO5q7-33EImivAS2p4BuCwGCjXQsNAIcB83PcGpAXunYaRGVdonV1D4TmL5BkEkGDzL2kTyxXKmfebsJ4crMkR8thJhW2WUI8bF7DU/s320/Inside+the+Revolution.jpg)
This is listed as a non-fiction book and Rosenberg's cached website says it's based on hundreds of interviews including former CIA chief Porter Goss, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, and "more than 150 Christian pastors and ministry leaders operating deep inside the Islamic world." The website also has a link to books on biblical prophecy. I can't tell if that's part of this book or not.
Elliot's Blog ("Generally Christian Book Reviews") tells us more about the book:
"Inside the Revolution takes the reader on a journey through the histories and present-day mindsets of three distinct religious groups in the Middle East: the radical, fundamentalist Muslims; the peace-loving, open-minded mainstream Muslims; and the Christ-following Christian converts (former-Muslims and non-). What drove Osama Bin Laden to become the man he was and relish the things he did? What do the Muslims in your town really think of Al Qaeda and jihad? How many Christians are worshiping in Iran, and how does the government treat them? The answers to all these questions (and so many more ) are developed throughout this book, a well-researched and beautifully arranged masterpiece on the roots of what has recently brought our world into its nervous instability."From Wikipedia:
"Rosenberg was born in 1967 near Rochester, New York. He has stated that his father is of Jewish descent and his mother was born into a Methodist family of English descent. His parents were agnostic and became born-again Christians when he was a child in 1973. At the age of 17, he became a born-again Christian and now identifies as a Jewish believer in Jesus. He graduated in 1988 from Syracuse University, after which he worked for Rush Limbaugh as a research assistant. Later, he worked for U.S. Presidential candidate Steve Forbes as a campaign advisor. Rosenberg opened a political consultancy business which he ran until 2000, and claims to have consulted for former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where he says that he garnered much of his information on the Middle East that he uses in his books."
Rafe Blaufarb The Great Demarcation (2016)
"The French Revolution remade the system of property-holding that had existed in France before 1789. This book engages with this historical process not from an economic or social perspective, but from the perspective of the laws and institutions of property. The revolutionary changes aimed at two fundamental goals: the removal of formal public power from the sphere of property and the excision of property from the realm of sovereignty. The revolutionaries accomplished these two aims by abolishing privately owned forms of power, such as feudalism, seigneurialism, and venal public office, and by dismantling the Crown domain, thus making the state purely sovereign. This brought about a Great Demarcation: a radical distinction between property and power from which flowed the critical distinctions between the political and the social, state and society, sovereignty and ownership, the public and private. This destroyed the conceptual basis of the Old Regime, laid the foundation of France’s new constitutional order, and crystallized modern ways of thinking about polities and societies. . . " From Oxford Scholarship.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxqfns1Gyw6xk43ug8jA1fbjBmWdYDbo1NRjWK_EsBJgbVjFWn8fqWqS_jxRkWfZnLILGRJu3i9zBQVJc98wZksHlCKCjLkhyphenhyphenp7lZgdroHR-CEfRD6iJkceEm6nPZEqE8CFGw/s320/Jan+Brandt+Against+The+World.jpg)
When I opened the book, I was surprised that someone had already made notes in the first few pages. Then I realized these notes were part of the book. The dust jacket reviews were sensational, something like these from the German publisher Dumont:
A still admiring, but also critical review, that would have Brandt taking advice from Robert Frost to keep it concise comes from Dialog International:
“Jan Brandt’s outstanding debut novel. (…) Brandt changes perspectives and times with the utmost of ease, and his novel is consequently a grandiose 360 degree view of a small world where more of the larger world outside is reflected than its inhabitants themselves can recognise at times.”
SPIEGEL online
“A stunning, wonderfully presumptuous book, triumphant in its obsession for details and lexical richness, that is aimed a world of hindrance and oppression. (…) The result is an expansive mediation on friendship, the power of music, love and other cruelties. (…) It is splendid how the 37-year old is capable of driving on his complex and multifaceted story about a handful of characters over hundreds of pages with-out ever boring the reader – and it leads one to hope for more from the pen of this manic realist.”
Rolling Stone
". . . What's frustrating is that Gegen die Welt contains several excellent sections and strands that could be crafted into terrific novellas or novels. I especially liked the character Bernhard "Hard" Kupers, Daniel's father, a funny and energetic small businessman who does whatever it takes - including arson - keep his drug store afloat, even as he indulges in gambling and adulterous affairs. The dialogue between Hard and his wife "Biggi" is pure comedy. The strongest piece of writing is the story of the locomotive driver who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after two young people throw themselves in front of his train. His story goes on for over 150 pages - the bottom half the page, while the top half continues the saga of Daniel Kupers.
Jan Brandt has many such "techniques" for tormenting his readers, and I confess I put the book down for weeks at a time. But, to the author's credit, I did decide to finish Gegen die Welt, and, reading the last third of the novel, I realized Brandt's true achievement. Gegen die Welt was published in 2011, three years before Pegida or AfD (Alternative for Germany), yet Brandt predicted the wave of right-wing populism that today is washing over the provinces. The citizens of Jericho are no different from those in Sachsen or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They see their world threatened by globalization, big box stores, automation, immigration - and are attracted to any rhetoric that promises to 'make Germany great again. . .'"
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin667XoBqqRLLDU4Q17AxfDs9XX8M5pvS2N3TRXWqWYUFJzBrEqN59cZ_6MoMMIjzygzSSKLfrk_poi3yVnNKlwVyG78EUpZ9M8F2X-iMKLTLtbYonxUbEVgF0SfL66KLHoH0/s320/Memoirs+of+Lt+Joseph+Rene+Bellot.jpg)
Joseph René Bellot, Memoirs of Lieutenant Joseph René Bellot : with his Journal of a voyage in the polar seas, in search of Sir John Franklin (1855 originally, not sure of this edition)
Here's a look at a great engraving in the original.
Patrick Jory Thailand's Theory of Monarchy (2017)
"Since the 2006 coup d’état, Thailand has been riven by two opposing political visions: one which aspires to a modern democracy and the rule of law, and another which holds to the traditional conception of a kingdom ruled by an exemplary Buddhist monarch. Thailand has one of the world’s largest populations of observant Buddhists and one of its last politically active monarchies. This book examines the Theravada Buddhist foundations of Thailand’s longstanding institution of monarchy. Patrick Jory states that the storehouse of monarchical ideology is to be found in the popular literary genre known as the Jātakas, tales of the Buddha’s past lives. The best-known of these, the Vessantara Jātaka, disseminated an ideal of an infinitely generous prince as a bodhisatta or future Buddha—an ideal which remains influential in Thailand today. Using primary and secondary source materials largely unknown in Western scholarship, Jory traces the history of the Vessantara Jātaka and its political-cultural importance from the ancient to the modern period. Although pressures from European colonial powers and Buddhist reformers led eventually to a revised political conception of the monarchy, the older Buddhist ideal of kingship has yet endured." From SUNY Press
Su'ad Abdul Khabeer Muslim Cool (2016)
"Muslim Cool is a way of being an American Muslim—displayed in ideas, dress, social activism in the ’hood, and in complex relationships to state power. Constructed through hip hop and the performance of Blackness, Muslim Cool is a way of engaging with the Black American experience by both Black and non-Black young Muslims that challenges racist norms in the U.S. as well as dominant ethnic and religious structures within American Muslim communities.
Drawing on over two years of ethnographic research, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer illuminates the ways in which young and multiethnic U.S. Muslims draw on Blackness to construct their identities as Muslims. This is a form of critical Muslim self-making that builds on interconnections and intersections, rather than divisions between 'Black' and 'Muslim.'” . . . From NYU Press
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
The King Of Thailand Cremation Ceremony This Week
Below is from an email I got as a member of Friends of Thailand, a group made up of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Thailand.
"Royal Cremation Ceremony of His Majesty King Bhumibol AdulyadejOffering Ceremony of Sandalwood Flowers on October 26, 2017At Wat Thai Washington DC, Silver Spring, Maryland(Foreigners and Friends of Thailand are invited)
**********
His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, widely regarded as Thailand's moral compass and a staunch supporter of Thailand – United States relations, ruled the country for more than seven decades until his passing on October 13, 2016. The country has been in an official year of mourning since then with many Thais choosing to wear black in remembrance of his boundless and gracious kindness.
Thai Buddhists often wait a week or more before cremating their dead but royal funerals are exceptional and over 12 million Thais have paid their respects to the late King at the Grand Palace in Bangkok since last October.
The royal cremation ceremony will last from October 25 - 29, with a series of ceremonies and processions transferring the urn and relics to and from the crematorium at Sanam Luang in Bangkok. The actual cremation day is on October 26. For many Thais this cremation ceremony will be their first experience of a royal funeral of a monarch and will allow them to pay a final tribute to His Majesty the late King.
Throughout the United States, the Royal Thai Embassy, the Permanent Mission of Thailand to the United Nations and Consulates-General, Thai communities and Thai temples will observe the cremation ceremony by offering sandalwood flowers on the cremation day of October 26. Ancient Thais believed the sandalwood fragrance will lead the soul of the deceased to heaven.
In Washington DC area including Virginia and Maryland, the Royal Thai Embassy and other Governmental Offices along with Thai Community and Wat Thai Washington DC (MD), Wat Tummaprateip Washington DC (MD), Wat Yarnna Rangsee Buddhist Monastery (VA), Wat Pa Nanachart (VA), Wat Pa Tesrangsee (VA) and Wat Pasantidhamma (VA) will observe the offering ceremony of sandalwood flowers at Wat Thai Washington DC(13440, Layhill Road, Silver Spring, Maryland 20906)Thursday October 26, 2017From 05:30 am – 06:00 pm
You may consider attending the ceremony at time of convenience from 5 am onwards, or preferably from 05:30 – 07:00 am. Below are details of the cremation ceremony at Wat Thai Washington DC:
- 05:30 am Merit-making ceremony
- 06:00 am Watch the cremation ceremony live from Bangkok
- 06:30 am Offering Sandalwood flowers begins
- 07:00 am Food Offering to monks (breakfast)
- 11:00 am Dana / Lunch
- 06:00 pm Offering sandalwood flowers ends
- 06:30 pm Cremating sandalwood flowers
Dress code: Full dress / Black or dark dress / Mourning
Sandalwood flowers : Intricate cremation flowers representing the daffodil made by volunteers will be provided for you to offer at the ceremony on October 26. The daffodil or “dararat” in Thai was His Majesty King Bhumibol’s favorite flower and often presented to Her Majesty Queen Sirikit during their stay in Switzerland. Daffodil or Dararat is offered to loved ones as a symbol of honor, bravery and hope. Dara means star while Rat is a precious gem. This dararat cremation flowers also reflect the love the Thai people have towards His Majesty King Bhumibol remembering his seven-decade long reign and uncountable contributions.
Food & Beverage : Provided by Team Thailand in Washington DC and the Thai community
Parking and Shuttle Service : For your convenience, two parking lots nearby Wat Thai are allocated at your own risk with shuttle car services available from 5:00 am to 01:00 pm."
I imagine one of the Buddhist temples in Anchorage will have some ceremony as well, but haven't made contact yet.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Facebook Thailand Ordered To Block 131 Web Addresses
"Earlier, authorities gave Facebook until late yesterday morning to make the web pages inaccessible in Thailand while threatening legal action. However, none of the URLs were blocked after the deadline passed.Insulting the king has always been a serious offense in Thailand, though with the old king now gone and his son the new king, I imagine this will be a more difficult thing to enforce because the new king has offered through his wild living, plenty of things to criticize.
The 131 web addresses in question were deemed to have content insulting to the monarchy, threatening national security, depicting pornography or being involved in fraud.
With more than 40 million users, Thailand is among the world’s most active countries on Facebook."
I found the following to be seriously inappropriate on Facebook's part:
"In response, Facebook requested an official English version of the court orders before it proceeded with blocking the addresses in Thailand."Can you imagine a Thai company telling a US government agency that they can't comply until they get official orders in Thai? Facebook needs to hire some Thai lawyers completely fluent in English.
The article quoted Facebook's official policy:
“When governments believe that something on the Internet violates their laws, they may contact companies like Facebook and ask us to restrict access to that content. When we receive such a request, we review it to determine if it puts us on notice of unlawful content. “If we determine that it does, then we make it unavailable in the relevant country or territory and notify people who try to access it why it is restricted,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
However, it appears that Thailand doesn't have a lot of power to act on its orders.
"Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha admitted yesterday that his government did not have the authority to suspend Facebook’s operations in Thailand following its refusal to immediately block the URLs. . .
'All we can do is ask for cooperation from foreign countries, the private sector and Internet service providers,” the premier said. 'It’s because we have no better options.'
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
While Dutch Men Protest Gay Couple Attack Hand-in-Hand, Anchorage Protests By Electing Two Gay Men To Assembly
He won yesterday, but he wasn't exactly right. Because another openly gay candidate, Felix Rivera, in mid-town, won a seat as well. Here's the video I took of Chris last summer. You can see he's not coming onto the Assembly without experience and knowledge about the neighborhoods he will represent.
I took some liberty with the headline. I doubt any Anchorage voters even knew about the Dutch hand-holding protest when they voted. I'm guessing that most people who voted for Christopher Constant or Felix Rivera didn't even knew they were gay. It didn't really come up in the election until the very end when one of Rivera's opponents sent out a last minute attack ad, and even that used coded language rather than say he was gay. And Rivera got 46% of the vote in a four way race. The next highest opponent got 29%.
No, Anchorage elected two gay men, not because they were gay (though perhaps some voted against them for that reason) but because they were the strongest candidates in their races.
As understated as gender was in the race, it is a big deal in Anchorage. After years and years of fierce opposition from an evangelical pastor, Anchorage finally added LGBTQ to its anti-discrimination ordinance in 2015. There was an attempt to put an initiative on yesterday's ballot to block parts of the 2015 change, but it didn't meet the legal requirements for an initiative. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz won his mayoral race in 2015 by a landslide supporting gay rights against a rabidly anti-gay opponent.
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Felix Rivera at candidate forum March 2017 |
And here's Felix Rivera at the AFACT candidate forum a couple of weeks ago.
Dutch Hand Holding Protest
While there was no direct connection between the Anchorage election, and the Dutch protest, there are a lot of indirect connections. The article says that after the attack on the married couple who were walking home holding hands, the prime minister condemned the attack. But two lawmakers took it a step further.
"Alexander Pechtold, who is the leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, arrived hand in hand with his party’s financial specialist, Wouter Koolmees, in support of Vernes-Sewratan and Sewratan-Vernes. “We think it is quite normal in the Netherlands to express who you are,” Pechtold said, according to People."Then lots of Dutch men posted pictures of themselves holding hands in support of the couple. One picture in the article shows a group of men who work at the Dutch embassy in London walking along the street holding hands.
Jay Brause, Gene Dugan, and Out North
Which gives me a bridge to mention Jay (Jacob) Brause and Gene (Eugene) Dugan, a gay Anchorage couple who sued the state of Alaska when they weren't allowed to get married here way back in 1994. They won their case! But then the state (led by that pastor) amended the constitution to define marriage to involve a man and a woman only.
Jay and Gene ran Out North, a small theater/art space that regularly brought acts that challenged conventional thinking. They played a huge role in giving Anchorage a space in which to stretch its mind and continue to reexamine long held assumptions. I'm sure Out North played a role in preparing Anchorage for this day, when two openly gay men have been elected to the Assembly in a race where their sexual preference was almost completely a non-issue. For those of you who think I've gone off in a totally different tangent, Jay and Gene now live in London where those Dutch Embassy colleagues held hands. Jay and Gene they got fed up living in a state that vigorously denied their right to get married and moved to UK. But they did come back to Anchorage to get married here after that became possible.
Holding Hands In Thailand
I'd like to make one more connection to the idea of men holding hands. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, one of the American values that was deeply embedded in me was that men do NOT hold hands.
But in Thailand they do. It's no big deal. It happens all the time. Dealing with my own visceral response when men wanted to hold hands with me in Thailand, helped me understand the idea of biases that our cultures teach us without us even knowing that they are biases. Instead we think that they are 'truths' about nature. In this case, that it is unnatural for men to hold hands. But in Thai culture it isn't and a gradually became comfortable when someone took my hand as we walked somewhere.
The Other Winning Assembly Candidates
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8hQd00Z0RFxKtDF73MUFilP8-MOF-lI-9EGrZ7e1FVyis5S9qIEDoWY3qk298ApASZYFtq2qPwA64hc0QDrTepeYBkpKHizR9pttTbhPAURTrNKowqm_JEtj4qwrpI0eWVgI/s320/Suzanne+LaFrance.jpg)
Suzanne LaFrance at the AFACT candidate forum March 12. She's won the south Anchorage seat 6 that tends to be conservative. But not always. Janice Shamberg held this seat. Suzanne LaFrance was supported by Berkowitz. In fact all the winners were except Dyson.
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Fred Dyson Introducing Joe Miller 2010 |
Tim Steele also missed the March 12 forum and I don't seem to have a picture of him in my files.
I realize this post seems to wander all over the place, but society is complicated. Lots of things are interrelated and if we look at everything as an isolated event suitable for a Tweet, then we don't get all that interconnectedness.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
AIFF2016 Documentaries In Competition Tibetan Nomads, Tuvan Throat Singers, Slanty Eyed Mamas, Thai Boxing, And Those Ruby Slippers
Docs in Competition | Director | Country | Length |
Best and Most Beautiful Things | Garrett Zevgetis | USA | 90 min |
Drokpa | Yan Chun S | China | 79 min |
Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight | Simone Manetti | Italy,Australia, United States | 73 min |
SHU-DE! | Michael R Faulkner | United States | 85 min |
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda | Carrie Preston | United States | 75 min |
The Slippers | Morgan White | USA | min |
The Cinema Travelers | Shirley Abraham | India | min |
Best and Most Beautiful Things
Garrett Zevgetis
USA
90 min
Tuesday December 6, 2016 5:30pm - 7:30pm *** Warning - one showing only!!
BearTooth
From the film's website:
"In 2009 director Garrett Zevgetis googled the word “Beauty.”
He had been working on a number of darker-themed documentaries and was determined to find an uplifting story for a future project. The search returned a poignant Helen Keller quote that led Garrett to Perkins School for the Blind outside Boston, a renowned institution where a feature documentary had never before been made. He began volunteering at Perkins. On the last day of his scheduled term, a bubbly student introduced herself – Michelle had found him.
BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS is a celebration of outcasts everywhere, following a precocious young blind woman who disappears into quirky obsessions and isolation. With humor and bold curiosity, "
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPqmKnCJPB-nZ_NtTpLNG5bLpym0UWWiyo7lGQE8wad_mq2Lel3TMMfRbQJvw3OSs59_Ax2KEwwjyZBBGSRPpZ7MxrS7ktfofHfSqHcGLAeEa1L4_xlgq2q0jnwTUDDAqMOzQ/s400/The+Cinema+Traveler+Poster.jpg)
Shirley Abraham
India
96 minutes
Thursday December 8, 2016 5:30pm - 7:00pm **WARNING - Just one showing
BearTooth
This film debuted at Cannes last May where it won a Special Jury Prize. This seems to be one not to miss. I did get see some films shown in rural Thailand on a sheet across a dirt road in Thailand in the 60s, it wasn't quite what this film seems to be documenting. The annual visit by the Chinese opera troupe probably was more like this. From the reviews, it sounds like the film captures the excitement of these events.
From a much longer article at the Guardian:
"In Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s understated documentary, we’re given intimate access to a unique experience: two travelling cinemas that travel across rural India sharing films with people who would otherwise have limited access. It focuses on the lives of the men who put the show on the road, faced with a changing medium and a demanding audience.From the Hollywood Reporter:
Shot over five years, we follow a set of men with different key roles in the process of the two companies. There’s the easygoing manager trying to provide for his family while on the road, the 70-year-old projector mechanic whose weathered hands have helped bring the joy of cinema to thousands and the many serious-minded cineastes who work around them."
"The traveling cinema world, mostly based around Maharashtra, the vast state whose capital is Mumbai, has been bringing the magic of the silver screen to remote villages for some 70 years. Setting up tents in rural fairs that often are several hours from anything even approaching a local multiplex, the screenings draw hundreds, who line up to see the latest Bollywood hits, old Hindi classics and even the odd dubbed Hollywood title.
But it’s a tradition that is nearing extinction. "There are very few of these cinemas left," says Shirley Abraham, who together with her co-director Amit Madheshiya, has spent eight years tracking those remaining in the industry for The Cinema Travelers, screening in the Cannes Classics sidebar on May 15. 'It has been petering out over the years. I don’t think they’re going to survive the march of time and technology.'"
The film's website's press page has lots and lots of links to articles about the film.
The video below features a discussion with the film makers talking about the film. The video isn't great. I haven't found a trailer.
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Screenshot from Dropka trailer |
Drokpa
Yan Chun Su
China
79 minutes
Saturday December 3, 2016 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Anchorage Museum
Saturday December 10, 2016 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Alaska Experience - SMALL
The site only lists three other festivals in addition to AIFF so we're some of the first people to see this film. From their website:
"DROKPA (Nomads of Tibet) is a portrait of the lives and struggles of nomads on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. Through intimate individual stories, the film reveals the unprecedented environmental and sociopolitical forces that are pushing the nomads to the edge of their existence. "
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBq0FJLepQ40B-sV2OkjWPBAqGxd7iaq-1u-9i_GdnN13gR2P99UxXhdNDrPRy-sFQnsT1d5yG14oWSDpEhRH3C39sHl_dZTVInwCj3xgjjyMdjAFWZoEDKHAPWRJnDGKmL4k/s200/Goodbye+Darling+Screenshot.jpg)
Simone Manetti
Italy
73
Wednesday December 7, 2016 8:00pm - 9:30pm
BearTooth
Sunday December 11, 2016 2:00pm - 3:15pm
Alaska Experience - SMALL
The trailer of this Italian movie is in English with Italian sub-titles. The trailer has the title in English, Italian, and Thai. It's about boxing. And that seems to be confirmed in the English description I found at DocsMX:
"After a painful break-up with her boyfriend, Italian actress and fashion model Chantal Ughi discovered that Muay Thai was the only way to confront the violence she suffered as a child. She went to Thailand to train for four weeks, but ended up living there for five years—training and fighting, becoming stronger than a man."
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu
Panda
Carrie Preston
USA
75 min
Saturday December 3, 2016 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Alaska Experience - SMALL
Saturday December 10, 2016 6:00pm - 7:30pm
49th State Brewing Company
Where do I start this? There's a duo called Slanty Eyed Mamas. I'll let their own words from their website explain:
"TWO GOOD ASIAN GIRLS GONE BADASS.And the movie? On her website, Kate writes about the movie:
Thoroughly modern, urban, sexy sounds from the very fresh, street infused Asian-American duo that always causes a stir...You've never seen anything quite like it--part hip hop, part rock, part electroclash, from two rock n roll asian chicks. Slanty Eyed Mama sees the world through the searing electric violin and beats of virtuoso Lyris Hung and the iconoclastic rants from Kate Rigg, aka. Lady K-Sian. Kate is also a Juilliard trained actor/playwright and a well known comedian, who has been on Fox's Family Guy, 2 seasons of the Dr. Phil show where she talked about the Asian American Experience to 5 million people, and has toured extensively as a stand up comic. Electric violinist Lyris Hung is also a Juilliard graduate who also has a metal band called HUNG, tours with The Indigo Girls and has played with Jay Z, Bono, Quincy Jones, and many others."
"In addition to keeping busy with theater and TV work, 2016 sees the release of the thoroughly original, mind bending, but gusting, comedy music and spoken word mashup film Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Tie Fun Fun Show- The movie. Shot on location in New York and directed by Emmy Award Winning actress Carrie Preston. The movie captures the downtown New York spirit with live portions filmed in an East Village Club, with musical numbers and sketches blown up and shot on location throughout the City. It examines the "East meets west experience" ways in which we see "Asian-ness" in the West through culture, media, commodities and familiar images-- Hello Kitty, Nail Salons, Chinatown bargain shopping, Pokemon, bowl cuts. Kate's Stand up weaves the show together, with sharp observational, political and outrageous out-there jokes."It premiered in New York in June, but I can't find much except their own promotional stuff. Eclipse Magazine mentions it in passing when discussing what people will find at the SOHO film festival:
"intriguing oddities like Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show"Here's the teaser.
SHU-DE!
Michael R Faulkner
USA
85 min
Saturday, Dec 3, 2016: BearTooth 6:00 PM Sunday, Dec 11, 2016:Alaska Exp - SMALL,
4:00 PM
I remember first seeing live Tuvan throat singing 20 or 30 years ago at the Fly-by-Night Club in Spenard. It's other-worldly. So this one piques my interest.
From the Shu-De website:
"Khoomei (hoo-may) or Tuvan throat singing, is an ancient vocal tradition originating in the remote Republic of Tuva, which is located in the center of Asia in Siberia, and now, part of the Russian Federation. Considered to predate modern linguistics, Khoomei, involves a remarkable technique for singing two or more pitches simultaneously. The sounds are said to come from the land and harmonize with nature itself. The Alash Ensemble are masters of this vocal art and have been touring the world, sharing their music with other cultures, for years.The Baltimore Sun did a profile of the film maker, Michael Faulkner. Here's a snippet from it:
Shodekeh, a beatboxer and vocal percussionist from Baltimore, with a vision for creating an "oasis of unity through musical collaboration," has spent his life mastering new sounds and using them, while fostering seemingly unlikely collaborations. SHU-DE! is the story of what happened when these artists came together, utilizing their common instrument: the voice and body."
" . . .The resulting film, "Shu-De!" – Tuvan for "Let's go!" — was one of the crowd favorites at May's 18th Maryland Film festival, where it had its East Coast premiere (its world premiere was a few weeks earlier, at the Nashville Film Festival). Its mix of local interest and exotic locales, not to mention its haunting melodies, proved a crowd-pleaser of the first order. It's since screened at several other festivals, and will be going on a seven-city tour in OctoberThere's something very film-festivalish about this film, and I mean that in the best possible way.
"It's amazing to see your work on a big screen — especially me being a cinephile, someone who loves movies and story in general," says Faulkner, a freelance location manager and film producer who moved from Kalamazoo, Mich., to Baltimore in 1998. 'I was really happy to notice — it's a real movie. It's there; it stands up on the big screen.'"
We don't learn much about what the film is about in the trailer, but we learn a lot about what it feels like.
From Letter Box:
"THE SLIPPERS pulls back the Wizard’s curtain on the unbelievable story and cultural impact of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Through first-hand accounts and archival interviews, THE SLIPPERS will detail the life of the Ruby Slippers after their sale at the famed 1970 MGM auction. Discovered by costumer Kent Warner, it is unclear how many pairs were found and how many pairs exist. That mystery has only helped to propel the shoes to the forefront of the Hollywood memorabilia market. They have been bought, stolen, and coveted by many. They are considered the most important piece of Hollywood memorabilia and the catalyst for the creation of Hollywood memorabilia collecting."From an interview with director White at Hammer To Nail:
HtN: So how about access? Did you have any issues there, interview-wise, or footage-wise?From the interview, it's clear this is movie is about collecting movie memorabilia, not just the Ruby Slippers.
MW: Footage-wise wasn’t so hard. I spent a lot of time trying to collect stuff. So I became very obsessed with the idea that I should collect as much of the material that’s in the film as possible, because I’m making a movie about collecting. So a lot of the things that are in there come from 16mm prints that I bought, on eBay, or on the black market of 16mm-print collecting. Or I bought magazines and newspapers and articles and…whatever I could find on eBay. So in terms of that stuff, it was just me spending time looking for it. Access-wise, for interviews, I mean, everybody was pretty great. Michael Shaw, who was one of the owners of the shoes, he was a little bit complicated to get, because he’s a little bit complicated of a person…