Taking a Break

Image from Make Technology on your own time

I love this picture for so many reasons.  This is supposed to be by Banksy, the British graffiti artist featured in Exit Through The Gift Shop.   First, the idea of 'improving' a classic piece of art forces us to reconsider what we think of as classic and what it depicts.  In this case the hardworking slaves.  Wow!  Why didn't I ever think about this woman sitting down and taking a break before?


And simply taking her outside of the frame into the real world is something we rarely do in art galleries.

And with a bunch of redistricting board notes and video which I haven't posted, I'm feeling a bit like the woman with the cigarette.  Though my labors are all self-imposed.  But I'll try to get something up soon.  It's just that they keep having meetings.  Yesterday they went through Voting Rights Act expert, Lisa Handley's, initial thoughts on the private plans' statistics and then more board member attempts to get the nine rural districts needed to be in compliance with the VRA. 

The image is from a post on Altered Thrift Store Art and there are other examples, but that one was by far my favorite.

Crazy French Camera Man Documents Grafitti Artists or ?

As a blogger who carries his digital camera/video in his pocket all the time, I couldn't help but relate to Thierry Guetta, the crazy Frenchman who films everything he sees.  He says he doesn't ask, he just films. He runs a clothing shop probably on Melrose in LA when the movie starts.  He buys in bulk - I got the impression from France, but I could be wrong - then hyped them and charged $400 for a cheap T shirt.  This should have been a clue to where this movie was going.  I don't usually go through the story line of the movie, but I don't think it matters in this case because it's how the story is told that makes this movie.  But if you don't want to know, skip the rest.

[Update, 10:50am - I forgot to mention the name of the movie:  Exit Through the Gift Shop.  It's not obvious and I'm not totally sure I'm interpreting it right, but it would seem to emphasize the commercialization of the art.]

On a trip to Paris, he finds out his cousin is making space invader inspired tiles and gluing them to buildings at night.   He follows him around Paris at night as he surreptitiously puts up his tiles.  His cousin introduces him to other graffiti artists (some call these street artists because they use media besides spray paint) and he starts filming them at work telling them he's making a documentary.  Much of the film is from these hand held films climbing up buildings at night posting all sorts of graffiti.  Back in LA he meets Shepherd Fairey whom everyone knows from his ubiquitous Obama Hope poster.  But in the film, he's going to Kinko's and making giant peel off illustrations that he puts up on buildings.

Soon Thierry is searching for Banksy  [The Banksy link is well worth it!], the most famous of graffiti artists, and eventually Banksy falls into his lap (is this a clue?) when he arrives in LA alone and contacts Thierry's cousin and Thierry gets to be his LA guide. 

Banksy in disguise for interview

Banksy lets Thierry film him but always in a black hoodey and his voice altered, or with his face pixeled out. Then asks when the documentary is going to be finished.  Thierry has never made a movie, he just films and sticks them in boxes.  But he tries. The film is bad.  Banksy tells Thierry to go back to LA and put on his own art show.

This is when Thierry's clothing store experience comes into play as he hires people to make hundreds, maybe thousands of 'works' which are basically copies of famous paintings with photoshop changes and in some cases paint dripped or sprayed on them.  It's marketed spectacularly and he sells a million dollars of art.

When we left, my wife said it was all a hoax and I scoffed.  But as I think about it five days later, maybe it is.  Check out the Wikipedia post on Mr. Brainwash, Thierry's artist name.  It seems Mr. Brainwash's show was real.  But is there really this stash of movies somewhere?

It doesn't matter.  If it is a hoax, then it is probably even more amazing than if it's true.  And which parts are hoax and which are true?  I would also say this is a film where the soundtrack plays a huge role in pulling these low res visuals into a coherent movie.    And given this film celebrates artists breaking the law for their art and Thierry shoots and doesn't even ask later,  I felt no compunction at all, taking some video of the movie in the theater, so you could get a sense of it.  Unfortunately, of the three clips I took, the one I'm posting is the best, and it's not that good.  In this clip, Thierry describes Banksy at Disneyland, hanging a blow up hostage/prisoner in an orange jumpsuit, black hood, and handcuffed, onto a fence where the old west train rides past in Frontierland.  When I first went to Denali National Park and rode the bus through the wilderness and people would point out a caribou way off in the distance, or a bear or moose, I dreamed of making plywood cutouts and putting up giraffes and zebras that would be barely visible from the bus.  So I can relate to this prank.  The security guards at Disneyland weren't amused.



This is not a typical Hollywood movie.  Good fun.


[Update Sept. 18, 2010:  NY Times article about another graffiti artist  MOMO's 8 mile paint drip in NYC.]

Back in Berlin

We had our last breakfast with our friends and then got a ride to the airport.

The train was very clean and very comfortable in 2nd Class.  They even had some sections where people could be in enclosures where kids could sit on the floor with their parents. 

There's lots of graffiti in Berlin. 

It's hard to tell if and when graffiti turns into art. 

The train is now in central Berlin, almost at the station.

We're off the train.  Here's the connection between two cars.

The Hauptbanhof (main train station).

Then our daughter (who met us at the station) wanted to show us the famous department store in Berlin. 

It had an incredible array of things including Alaska salmon.  

It's cold - 7˚C  (44˚F) was the high today and it's wet.  

Report Says Sexual Assualt Increased While Gamble was Air Force Academy Commandant

[UPDATE July 12, 2011:  President Gamble was one of 21 people listed in an Inspector General report who "were not responsible for, and did not contribute to or abide, sexual assault problems at USAFA.  When informed of problems, they took appropriate action."  The full post is here.]

From a New York Times article on April 5, 1995:

The report said the percentage of female students indicating they had experienced at least 1 of 10 forms of sexual harassment on a recurring basis was 78 percent at the Air Force Academy, an increase from 59 percent of the female students who responded to the same survey in 1990-91. The questionnaires were sent to randomly selected students at each academy.

Why is this relevant?  Because last night, University of Alaska Presidential Candidate, Gen. Patrick Gamble, mentioned at the community reception in Juneau, that he had been the Commandant of the Air Force Academy.  Because of how quickly the finalists were announced and then arrived, I'd only glanced at his resume and hadn't caught that reference  [it's under Previous Assignments.]

Commandant of the US Air Force Academy. Directed all training, policy development, dormitory, food service, military classroom education and logistics support for 4000 students.  [Emphasis added]

But by this afternoon my brain had managed to link his comment and stories about sexual harassment at the military academies.  

So today I checked when Gen. Gamble was the Commandant at the Air Force Academy. His curriculum-vita doesn't mention dates, but Google led me to Wikipedia which does:

June 1993 - November 1994, commandant of cadets and commander, 34th Training Wing, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado

So Gen. Gamble began as Commandant two years after the initial study and left five months before the GAO study cited by the New York Times. 

The article does say:

Service academy officials disputed these particular conclusions and pointed to two recent incidents. After a female freshman at the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs told school officials that several young men had sexually assaulted her in February 1993, 12 other women came forward with other claims, ranging from date rape to groping. An instructor and cadet were court-martialed, three other male students resigned and three more were disciplined.

 So this would appear to have happened during Gamble's tenure.  This does indicate that not everything was ignored.  But there are twelve women cited (it doesn't say how many specific cases) and two people court martialed and three people disciplined.  Three others resigned, presumably with nothing on their records.  It does show that in some cases there was a response.

And the report says 78% of women experienced some form of sexual harassment and eight presumed harassers were impacted.  (According to Table II.1 of the GAO study they included 90 of the 517 women cadets in their sample.)

A year and a half in charge of the Air Force Academy is not a long time.  And there's clearly nothing here to suggest anything about sexual harassment on Gen. Gamble's part.  However, this issue does raise some questions about his management effectiveness.

Wednesday night, Gen. Gamble spoke of his outcomes based approach.  He said management was about people, about "giving them a clear expectations of what the outcome you want is, and not getting in the way of them getting there"

We know there was a 1991 report which reported significant levels of sexual harassment at the military academies.  So when he took command in April 1993, one would expect that he might have considered it important enough to give his management team "clear expectations of what the outcome [he] want[ed was]."

We don't know what happened.  There are various possibilities:

1. It wasn't a priority item for him so he did not make lowering the incidence of sexual harassment one of his expectations for his Air Force Academy team.
2. He did make it a priority, but was not effective in changing the outcomes
3. He did make it a priority, but the impacts didn't show up until a later study. 

A September 2003 General Accounting Office (GAO) study - the next one listed in my search of the GAO site - did include this note that suggested that sexual harassment was still an issue nine years later:

Additionally, during the survey period, issues associated with alleged sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy became widely reported in the press, and several Air Force and Department of Defense (DOD) investigations commenced. Due to concerns about the overall lower Air Force Academy survey response rates, we extended the survey period by a week to March 7, 2003, at all academies.

Another case, which may or may not have surfaced while Gamble commanded the Air Force Academy, is discussed in a Dec. 14, 1996 Colorado Springs Gazette article [note I got the article through the UAA library and the link may require a password]:

A settlement was reached Friday in the case of a former Air Force Academy cadet who claims she was brutalized during survival training at the Air Force Academy more than three years ago.

Attorneys for both the Air Force and Elizabeth Saum agreed that they wouldn't comment on specifics of the agreement. The academy also declined to comment.

"We thought the settlement was just," said Doris Besikof, Saum's attorney, after a brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Denver. "She (Saum) is pleased she has closure. That's what she desperately needed."

Saum's 1994 complaint has been among the most serious - and publicized - sexual harassment allegations at the academy. It was the subject of news reports and inspired a segment by ABC News' "20/20." Since then, the academy has significantly expanded its sexual harassment prevention efforts and toughened discipline for offenders.

In her lawsuit, Saum said she was targeted for sexual harassment from her first day at the military school in 1992. The alleged abuse culminated in 1993, Saum's sophomore year, during the vigorous and realistic Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program, the suit said. A requirement for graduation, the 20-day course teaches cadets how to survive in the wild, avoid capture, endure physical or mental torture and escape captivity. The Air Force dropped several components of the course in 1995. .  .

The times in this case leave it open whether anything was actually reported while Gen. Gamble was Commandant.  Since he took over in June 1993, the incident may have occurred prior to his arrival.  The article says it was first reported in 1994.  General Gamble left in November 1994, so the odds are he was there when it was reported.

What's my point here?  The situation at the Air Force Academy during Gamble's reign raises questions about the effectiveness of General Gamble's leadership in an issue that is significant to a large percentage of UAA students and faculty.  Remember, he takes credit in his CV for directing 

 "all training, policy development, dormitory, food service, military classroom education and logistics support" 

at the Air Force Academy when 78% of the women cadets reported sexual harassment on a recurring basis.

It's possible that the search committee has carefully reviewed all this and determined that Gen. Gamble's role was exemplary.  And I would understand that they might not wish to draw attention to the issue if not asked.  So I'm asking.  But somehow I doubt this was ever discussed. 

What action did Gen. Gamble take on sexual harassment at the Academy?

The candidates' names have been public for four days, making it difficult  for anyone outside the committee to actually figure out there might be an issue here and to contact people who were at the Air Force Academy at the time to determine whether Gamble did make a vigorous effort to change the campus climate or not.

If he didn't, that raises questions about his values and priorities, given that studies had revealed an appalling rate of complaints among women cadets.  If he did give it a high priority, it raises questions about the effectiveness of the management style he shared with members of the Juneau community last night.

And even if I had put all this together before last night, simply asking about this at a community reception wouldn't have been enough.  Gen. Gamble is a skillful speaker and could convincingly dismiss this all.

It really does require some confirmation from other sources.  Like some of the female cadets at the Air Force Academy in 1993 and 1994. 


Here's the summary of the 1995 GAO Report based on studies during 1993-1994.

Summary

In an update of an earlier study that reported widespread sexual harassment of women at the nation's military academies, GAO found that a majority of female recruits in academic year 1993-94 continued to experience sexual harassment. The most common forms of harassment included demeaning remarks and visual displays, such as posters or graffiti. However, between 36 and 42 percent of the women at each academy reported unwelcome physical contact of a sexual nature, including fondling and kissing. Academy men perceived an improved atmosphere for reporting sexual harassment, with significant declines in the percentages seeing negative consequences for reporting sexual harassment. The responses of academy women, however, showed no such change in perceived consequences.

GAO found that: (1) more than 70 percent of academy women reported experiencing at least one form of sexual harassment on at least a monthly basis, while about 11 percent of men reported such exposure; (2) the proportion of women at the Naval and Air Force Academies who reported sexual harassment on a recurring basis significantly increased from the 1990-1991 academic year; (3) the most common forms of sexual harassment were verbal comments and visual displays; (4) although men perceived an improvement in the atmosphere and less negative consequences for reporting sexual harassment, women did not perceive an improvement; (5) between 36 and 42 percent of the women were subjected at least once during the year to physical behavior that interfered with their performance or created a hostile environment; and (6) 11 to 22 percent of the women reported sexual advances that were tied to some aspect of their academy careers. [Emphsis added.]

Being Where You Can Find Out What You're Good At

A great part of individual 'success' and happiness comes from living
a) where you have the opportunity to discover your talents, and
b) where those talents are appreciated.

We rode down to the beach and the Venice Skate Plaza again and found a variety of skills.




Right near the plaza is a place where you can do your own graffiti legally, but you need a permit.







At the skateboard plaza we saw people with varying levels of skills.





































Whoops.
















And then there was this seven year old girl who skated like the board was part of her body.



This kid has an obvious innate talent here and is in an environment where she could discover that talent and where it was nurtured. She's only seven and skating with a natural skill and at a level that I only saw in a few of the skaters here over the four times I've dropped by. Finding our skills and being able to develop them; much of success is just being at the right place at the right time.

AIFF - Short Documentaries in Competition Schedule

The short docs in competition only get one showing each. It's possible one or two might be added to another feature, but don't bet on it. Click the chart to enlarge it.




Here again, just to get this up at all, I'm stealing the list from the AIFF site. Remember, on that site, the snowman in the upper left corner is a link back to the main page. Just click on it.

City of Cranes

UK, 14 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by Eva Weber

Date completed August 2007

An unparalleled and unique view of London - through the eyes and words of crane drivers.

Health, Peace and Happiness

Singapore - 24 min. - Documentary short - In Competition

Date completed 2008

Details an endearing story of friendship between two terminally ill women involving their families and the staff of the hospital.

Leave Her to Die

Canada, 49 min. – Documentary short feature - In Competition

Directed by Antonia Thomson

Date completed August 2008

An HIV-infected child was abandoned in an orphanage in Northern Thailand Her medical chart read: Leave Her to Die, but one remarkable woman’s story proves that love itself can and is... saving lives.

Reefer Madness

Canada – 23 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by Steve Hanson

Date Completed: May 2008

Reefer Madness follows Canadian graffiti artist, Fatso, on a journey across the continent to track down the rarest refrigerator boxcars shedding some light on the most recent and unlikely movement in freight train graffiti.

Monster Dudes

USA – 22 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by Lance Bauscher

Date completed 2008

Documents Boise’s avant-garde noise rock band Monster Dudes.

Splitting Hairs

Germany/USA – 28 min. – Documentary short - In Competition

Directed by F. Stone Roberts

Date Completed September 2008

Splitting Hairs is a documentary about the American invasion of the World Beard and Mustache Championships.

Anchorage International Film Festival Selections - Documentaries

Here's the list of the Documentary Features and Shorts for the AIFF. The Festival site doesn't have links up yet, so I've done what I could to fill in a bit of information on the films.

The program guide is available in PDF form. The website also says the program guide will be in the Press on November 26.

It would be nice if they had information on getting tickets on their site and prices. There are ads in the Press and ADN that say tickets are available at Bear Tooth, but that's what the website is for. If the info is there, I can't find it.

There are three focusing on Alaska - one on moving the village of Shishmareff, one on Pebble Mine, and one on a junk trip from Washington to Valdez. Another fish movie is about an Oregon tribe's battle to remove dams and bring back the salmon.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

A Nashville State of Mind • John-Martin Vogel • 88 min. USA
The alternative music scene in Nashville.


A Powerful Noise • Tom Cappello & Scott • 91 min. USA
"A documentary film about women changing the world. "

Ballou • Michael Patrei • 83 min. USA This film is about a marching band.

Crawford • David Modigliani • 74 min. USA



Junk Dreams • By Skye Borgman • 73 min. USA


Rachel: A Perfect Life • Fiona Cochrane • 91 hr/min Australia This is one where the topic might cause some people to pass (single mother, brain surgery, epilepsy) but one reviewer (?) writes:

"This film's appeal lies in the personality of its subject, Rachel Ouchirenko, and her truly brave and forthright approach to solving her biggest problem."

Secrets to Love • Tracie Donahue • 63 min. USA

"Director Tracie Donahue searches for the answers to finding (and maintaining) a healthy, happy love, by asking real couples and relationship experts the most important questions."

The Last Days of Shishmaref • Jan Louter • 88 min. Netherlands
This is a Dutch film about an Alaskan village. It looks like an important movie for urban Alaskans to see


The Wrecking Crew • Denny Tedesco • 98 min. USA
About a group of studio musicians in the late 60's who backed up the hottest groups of the late 60s in LA. The music will be good at least, based on the songlist.

Upstream Battle • Ben Kempas • 97 min. Germany

Native Americans on the Klamath River fight for their fish – against an energy corporation. Their struggle may trigger the largest dam removal project in history.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Leave Her to Die • Antonia Thomson • 49 min. Canada

"A 2 year old baby girl lay alone on a bamboo mat in a government orphanage in Northern Thailand"

Red Gold • Travis Rummel • 54 min. USA

Produced by Felt Soul Media and Trout Unlimited Alaska, Red Gold is a one-hour documentary film on the proposed Pebble Mine told through the voices of commercial, subsistence and sport fishermen of Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Reefer Madness • Steve Hanson • 23 min. Canada
Can't find much on this one - Canadian freight train graffiti artist Fatso's trip across Canada.

Splitting Hairs • F Stone Roberts • 28 min. USA
The synopsis begins:

Facial hair championships began 30 years ago in the Black Forest of Germany. “Beard Clubs” organized social gatherings that gradually became competitive. Over time, the championships drew competitors from across Europe, but it was not until the early 1990’s that American pioneers Bruce Roe and Phil Olsen discovered the event.

Singapore Graffiti

For Independent Alaskan who thought the pictures of Singapore looked 'so neat': Here's some graffiti I saw this morning on the way to the bird park
.