Paracelsus - A Remarkable Man In His Day

Mildred Bevel is the wife of very rich Andrew Bevel.  Her body has been weakening and she's now in the same Swiss health spa and sanitarium in a rural mountain location that her father was once in.  We're in the fourth and final book of Hernan Diaz' Pulitzer Prize winning novel Trust which I wrote about earlier. 

Ida Partenza, who is listed as the author of the third part of this novel, was hired by Andrew Bevel, to help him write his autobiography after Mildred has died. Ida's appearance in the story begins in 1938.   Basically Andrew is trying to get Ida to take dictation and portray himself and Mildred in the most favorable way to himself.  

Ida has learned that Mildred kept diaries all her life, but either they no longer exist or they've been intentionally withheld from her.  But 40 some years after Andrew has also died, and his old house has been made into the Bevel museum, Ida discovers the notebook that Mildred wrote while she was in the sanitarium, 'wedged into the middle section of the ledger.'  

Most of the entries are brief.  The headings are basically AM, PM, and EVE.  This one entry caught my attention.  

"EVE 

Wolf quotes Barrett letter to Browning:  'You are paracelsus, and I am a recluse, with nerves that have been broken on the rack, and now hang loosely, quivering at a step and breath.' Why all the Paracelsus suddenly?'"

What or who is paracelsus?  In today's world, such mental itches can be scratched instantly with the help of Google.  Which took me to Wikipedia.  

"Paracelsus (/ˌpærəˈsɛlsəs/; German: [paʁaˈtsɛlzʊs]; c. 1493[1] – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim[11][12]), was a Swiss[13] physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance.[14][15]

He was a pioneer in several aspects of the "medical revolution" of the Renaissance, emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom. He is credited as the "father of toxicology".[16] Paracelsus also had a substantial influence as a prophet or diviner, his "Prognostications" being studied by Rosicrucians in the 1600s. Paracelsianism is the early modern medical movement inspired by the study of his works.[17]"

"Paracelsus sought a universal knowledge[27] that was not found in books or faculties" thus, between 1517 and 1524, he embarked on a series of extensive travels around Europe.[27][28] His wanderings led him from Italy,[27][29] France,[27] to Spain,[27] Portugal,[27] to England,[27][29] Germany,[27] Scandinavia,[27] Poland,[27] Russia,[27][29] Hungary,[27][29] Croatia,[27] to Rhodes,[27] Constantinople,[27][29] and possibly even Egypt.[27][28][29] During this period of travel, Paracelsus enlisted as an army surgeon and was involved in the wars waged by Venice,[27] Holland,[27] Denmark,[27] and the Tartars.[27][29] Then Paracelsus returned home from his travels in 1524.[27][28][29] 

It's hard for me from the Wikipedia entry to abstract his main contributions.  He's a curious combination of old and new ways of thinking. 

"As a physician of the early 16th century, Paracelsus held a natural affinity with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic, and Pythagorean philosophies central to the Renaissance, a world-view exemplified by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola.[citation needed] Astrology was a very important part of Paracelsus's medicine and he was a practising astrologer – as were many of the university-trained physicians working at that time in Europe. Paracelsus devoted several sections in his writings to the construction of astrological talismans for curing disease.[citation needed] He largely rejected the philosophies of Aristotle and Galen, as well as the theory of humours. Although he did accept the concept of the four elements as water, air, fire, and earth, he saw them merely as a foundation for other properties on which to build.[46]"

He carried on a 'letter dialogue [with Erasmus] on medical and theological subjects.' (I'm old enough to remember when you communicated long distance by letter, while I know that is hard for younger readers, used to instant communication, to fathom how that could work.  I'm sure this epistolary dialogue was far weightier than most online debates.)

"Paracelsus's approach to science was heavily influenced by his religious beliefs. He believed that science and religion were inseparable, and scientific discoveries were direct messages from God. Thus, he believed it was mankind's divine duty to uncover and understand all of His message.[48] Paracelsus also believed that the virtues that make up natural objects are not natural, but supernatural, and existed in God before the creation of the universe. Because of this, when the Earth and the Heavens eventually dissipate, the virtues of all natural objects will continue to exist and simply return to God.[48] His philosophy about the true nature of the virtues is reminiscent of Aristotle's idea of the natural place of elements. To Paracelsus, the purpose of science is not only to learn more about the world around us, but also to search for divine signs and potentially understand the nature of God.[48] If a person who doesn't believe in God became a physician, they would not have a better standing in God's eyes and will not succeed in their work because they don't practice in his name. Becoming an effective physician requires faith in God.[49] Paracelsus saw medicine as more than just a perfunctory practice. To him, medicine was a divine mission and good character combined with devotion to God was more important than personal skill. He encouraged physicians to practice self-improvement and humility along with studying philosophy to gain new experiences.[50]"

Practice was a key focus for him. 

"During his time as a professor at the University of Basel, he invited barber-surgeons, alchemists, apothecaries, and others lacking academic background to serve as examples of his belief that only those who practised an art knew it: 'The patients are your textbook, the sickbed is your study.'[31]"

 "Paracelsus was one of the first medical professors to recognize that physicians required a solid academic knowledge in the natural sciences, especially chemistry. Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine."

"Because everything in the universe was interrelated, beneficial medical substances could be found in herbs, minerals, and various chemical combinations thereof. Paracelsus viewed the universe as one coherent organism that is pervaded by a uniting life giving spirit, and this in its entirety, humans included, was 'God'. His beliefs put him at odds with the Catholic Church, for which there necessarily had to be a difference between the creator and the created.[60] Therefore, some have considered him to be a Protestant.[61][62][63][64]"

"Paracelsus is frequently credited with reintroducing opium to Western Europe during the German Renaissance. He extolled the benefits of opium, and of a pill he called laudanum, which has frequently been asserted by others to have been an opium tincture. Paracelsus did not leave a complete recipe, and the known ingredients differ considerably from 17th-century laudanum.[67]

Paracelsus invented, or at least named a sort of liniment, opodeldoc, a mixture of soap in alcohol, to which camphor and sometimes a number of herbal essences, most notably wormwood, were added. Paracelsus's recipe forms the basis for most later versions of liniment.[68]

His work Die große Wundarzney is a forerunner of antisepsis. This specific empirical knowledge originated from his personal experiences as an army physician in the Venetian wars. Paracelsus demanded that the application of cow dung, feathers and other noxious concoctions to wounds be surrendered in favor of keeping the wounds clean, stating, 'If you prevent infection, Nature will heal the wound all by herself.'" 

Thank you Wikipedia for letting me find this and share it here. [Yes, I do donate to Wikipedia annually.]

It's hard to free oneself from the 'common wisdom' of the day.  It appears - and my expertise on Paracelsus is limited to the Wikipedia entry - that perhaps his theoretical understanding was still clinging to the old, while his practical knowledge was pushing forward to new, more scientific answers.  

So why is Paracelcus mentioned in passing in Mildred's diary.  Because, I assume, he spent time in Switzerland, he believed in massage and the healing properties of mineral waters, both of which are part of her treatment.  

"If an explanation contradicts the sense of who a person is, it can be damaging. There should be more attention paid to the way people describe their own distress."

"If an explanation contradicts the sense of who a person is, it can be damaging. There should be more attention paid to the way people describe their own distress."

This comes from a September 18, 2022 LA Times interview of writer  Rachel Aviv [Mental illness, as told by the patients].  The book features four people with mental health problems, talking from their own experience.  

There are lots of interesting thoughts, but this one grabbed my attention most.

I couldn't help but think about gay and transgender people having other people trying to deny their stories.  And it hit me.

People who react so strongly to LGBTQ folks are trying to deny evidence that contradicts their own world view.  Making LGBTQ people disappear, helps keep their own world view whole.  

Of course, that goes for lots of other attempts to censor, oppress, and otherwise hide that which contradicts people's dogma.  In these four tales, people with mental health problems are disbelieved because people want to believe that science can cure them or perhaps to deny the possibility they may be or become mentally ill without a way out.  Defund the Police disrupts peoples belief that police will protect them.   The Catholic Church denying Galileo's proof that the earth goes around the sun.  Everyone who ridiculed Darwin because Evolution was at odds with the story of creation.  

Of course, though maybe not obvious,  the first part of the quote refers not only to the patient (in this case) but also to the person who denies the patient's story.  

People say there may be no reasoning possible with hardcore Trump supporters.  But perhaps simply asking them to explain their world view might make their grievances understandable.  You needn't believe it,  you probably can't alter it.  But listening is the first step.  For them and for us.  I know a serious conversation for an hour might help a true believer see this "liberal" as not embodying their stereotypes.  

That's it.  That's all I have to say.  

AIFF 2021Lune- Fascinating Film Covering Many Issues

 The Bear Tooth was practically empty today.  The film was huge.  It quickly expanded from a mother/daughter relationship into mental health, race, art, parent/child relations in general, money wealth and love wealth, South African elections, dance, Judaism, Palestinian/Israeli conflict.  I'm sure I'm missing something.  I think a great editor could have trimmed it back a bit - it says it was 113 minutes, but seemed longer.  The actors were outstanding - all of them.  Watching someone off their meds is disturbing, but the actor was so good!

The only thing that bothered me, may not be an issue except my ignorance. The main actor was a white, South African who'd emigrated to Canada.  She sounded a lot more than a woman I know from London than a white South African woman emigrant to the US.  But perhaps whites in South Africa have different accents.  

I want to reiterate that there are quite a few films that will be shown live this week, as well as the whole online array of films.  I know.  We've all gotten comfortable with our various streaming subscriptions and the comfort of staying home to watch.  And it's cold out, etc.  

But seeing the last two films on a big screen was great.  And it's really safe if you're fully vaccinated.  Everyone is masked (except when eating).  They block out the two seats on both sides of your party when you reserve online at the Bear Tooth.  Far more space from others than we just had on the airplane from Seattle.  And the ceiling is much higher than in a plane.  And the food is better.  Though I was disappointed to learn that if you order from the restaurant, they no longer bring it to you.  They treat it like any other to go order.  They text you that it's ready.  Really that's what they said.  They are getting lots of take out orders and it takes up to 45 minutes they say.  But who wants their phone to ping during a movie?  Who wants to get up and leave the movie to pick up their food?  Only the person who was dragged to a movie she hates and would love the excuse to leave.  Otherwise, no one.  

This is a customer service and management inflexibility problem that's easy to fix.  They can text the Bear Tooth Theater food staff and have them pick it up and deliver it.  It's not hard.  

But other than that, pick a couple of films and get yourself out of the house and into a theater.  If you've already bought a pass for the online, still do it.  Yes, it will cost and extra $10 plus service fee, but just do it.  

And now that there are no 'films in competition' it's harder to figure out which ones you want to see.  Even then, there were films I thought were better than the films in competition.  In any case I invite, implore, folks who are watching films at home to share your favorites so others can find them.  Use the Festival's FB page or even leave comments here.  

And with all the trees decorated with ice today, it was worth being out in such a magical natural wonderland.  

OnThese Grounds is playing at 6pm tonight at the Museum

80,000 Schnitzels is playing at 1pm at the Bear Tooth tomorrow (Sunday)

For Ticket Information: www.anchoragefilmfestival.org.  That's really not that helpful.  For the Bear Tooth, go to their site and you can buy tickets online or at the theater.  For the Museum, not sure you can get them online.  Same with  E Street.  Just go.  

Happiness - A Novel By Aminatta Forna - "People want choices without consequences"

Aminatta Forna's novel starts with a Wolfer killing the last pair of wolves in Greenhampton, Massachusetts  in 1834.  One of the key characters, Jean, carries on that theme by studying coyotes in upstate New York in the 21st Century as well as urban foxes in London.  But this is secondary, though related to the main theme and main character Attila. 

Attila describes his job working in crisis zones around the world.

"'I specialise in trauma, among civilian populations principally,' said Attila.  'Much of my work is as you would imagine.  Teams of us go in, some to count the dead, others to trace the living and return them to where they should be or send them somewhere else.  I work with the survivors.  My job is less to fix the damage than to catalogue the extent of it."

'What happens then?'

'After us?  More reconstruction.  The aid agencies, the people who have won the contracts to fix the roads, mend the dams, repair the bridges.'

'I meant to the victims.'

'We file our reports, they can run to thousands of pages.  Sometimes a perpetrator or two is imprisoned in The Hague.  A few of the survivors will be called as witnesses and have their moment in court.  They get to see some general or president or warlord  whose name they have heard but who they've never laid eyes on put behind bars.  They go there wanting to face the person who tortured them, but that never happens, the system doesn't work like that.  The lawyers argue about chains of command, utmost responsibility.  Those words don't mean anything to the woman whose daughter was taken away or who's son's bones turned up in a ditch he had to dig himself.'  Attila shrugged.  'While all that's happening, somewhere in the world somebody else gets ready to go to war.'

'Wow!' Jean exhaled, not knowing what to say next.  (p. 118)

All that proceeds the next paragraph: 

Attila gave a small wry smile.  'I'm not being cynical, just realistic.  War is in the blood of humans.  The kind of people who torture and rape during war, they're always among us, every time you walk own a busy street you're passing killers waiting to kill.  War gives them license.  We tell ourselves people are ordinarily good, but where is the proof of that?  There are no ordinarily good people, just a lot of people who've never been offered the opportunity to be anything else.  As for the rest, the followers and foot soldiers - well you can't imprison half a nation.  For them and for everyone else life carries on, only not quite as before."(118)

I should add that Attila is a Ghanian psychiatrist who's in London to present a paper at a conference. It's there that Jean bumps into him (literally) while she's jogging over the Waterloo Bridge observing one of her foxes weaving unnoticed through the crowd.  

He goes on, and I had to think of all the white supremacists that Trump has unleashed:

"There was no big secret to war, Attila thought.  There would always be people who relished violence, all they ever needed was a leader and an opportunity.  If someone could unite the gang members of New York or Chicago or London, they could take over their respective cities if that person was the president they could take over the country.  A lot could be achieved by offering young men power and sex."

The book was published in 2018.  Usually books take years to be written, edited, and published, so the odds are good it was started before Trump was seen as a viable candidate, though passages like this could have been edited closer to the publication date.  

The chapters are titled Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc. as we follow Attila during the two weeks or so he's in London for the conference.  He and Jean run into each other a couple of times and then team up after Attila goes to see his niece and a neighbor tells him that the niece and her son were taken by immigration.  He tracks down he niece in a hospital bed who was let go because it was a mistaken identity (well, actually, an unscrupulous landlord who reported her as illegal so he could get her out of the apartment and raise the rent), but the boy, who'd been put in a foster home, had run away.  Jean, who's been mapping out sections of the neighborhoods to keep track of her foxes, offers to help find the boy.  Jean has also enlisted the help of night workers - street cleaners, doormen, restaurant workers, many of them Africans) to report fox sightings to her.  She recruits them to help look for the boy.  

After Jean gets ambushed on a talk radio show by the host who believes urban foxes should all be killed - Attila gives her this advice:

"Attila laughed. 'Do you know what a diplomat I once worked with told me?  That in government they are taught to treat the electorate like six-year-olds.  If you ask a member of the voting public a question on any subject most of us can only come up with three words we identify with that thing  The words depend on what our concerns are or what the papers tell us our concerns are. . .

As a retired public administration professor, I assure you I never taught my students to treat the public like six year olds, but then few government employees have public administration degrees.  And thinking about the three words can be useful. 

There are other events and characters in the week and a half that's covered in the book.  And some flashbacks to prior events.  How Jean's marriage fell apart in the States.  Rosie, an old lover of Attila's who's got Alzheimers and is living in a nursing home and Emmanuel, who's bonded with Rosie, through his job at the home as a caregiver.  Attila's dead wife Marysa also hovers over the interwoven plot lines.  

The flashbacks take us back to war zones - either those between humans and wolves and coyotes, or between humans and humans - to give us background on Jean and Attila.

Attila muses about war frequently.

"His mind was on the mission ahead which was not the kind for which he cared a seminar on frontline training  for the military.  Young men giving their bodies and their minds to battle sent by middle-aged men who only ever handled a gun on their weekend duck shoots and men like Attila tasked with the job of trying to keep the young men sane while what they were being asked to do was an insanity itself."

There's also a fair amount of discussion about psychiatry.  Here's one example.

“In Attila’s second year of medical school the psychiatric establishment was rocked by an incendiary laid treacherously by one of their own a psychologist called David Rosenhan,  Rosenhan had attended a lecture by the Scottish psychiatrist Ronald Laing a hard-drinking radical who liked to irritate his peers by challenging psychiatric shibboleths among them the notion that psychiatric diagnoses were objective and could be compared with medical ones  Rosenhan wondered if there were any empirical way to test this assertion and decided to conduct his own experiments  He recruited a group of six volunteers including (alongside several medical professionals) a painter and a housewife and himself as the seventh  Each volunteer was detailed to ring one of several psychiatric hospitals and to request an appointment, to which they presented themselves unwashed and unshaved.  They were to describe hearing voices.  Nothing too dramatic and always the same words, ‘Empty’, ‘Hollow’, ‘Thud’.  All but one of the volunteers was admitted, after which the six, in accordance with their instructions, behaved perfectly normally and told staff the voices had gone away.  Nevertheless the participants were held for an average of nineteen days, and one poor soul was kept inside for fifty-two.  When eventually they were discharged each of the patients was described not as sane or cured but ‘in remission’.  In every case the only people who suspected the volunteers of being perfectly sane frauds were other patients.” (pp 229-230)

Rosenhan was a real person.  The experiment was real.  Though Wikipedia has the details slightly different and cites cites Susannah Cahalan who challenges that it happened.  Here's an NPR review of Cahalan's book, The Great Pretender.  

I'm close to the end of the book and finding it fascinating, in no small part because many of the characters are part of an African immigrant underclass in London, taking on low level service jobs.  It's a part of London I'm much less familiar with.  

From the author's website:

"Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and Great Britain and spent periods of her childhood in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. She is the award-winning author of the novels Happiness, The Hired Man, The Memory of Love and Ancestor Stones, and a memoir The Devil that Danced on the Water, and the forthcoming essay collection, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion."

As I near the final pages, I'd say the book is about the human need to control.  To control the world, to control nature, to control others.  This is demonstrate by how psychiatrists try to control mental illness by categorizing and then treating it. By how people try to control the uncontrollable by killing it - culling urban foxes, refusing to listen to Jean who has been studying the fox behavior and who says that just killing them won't work. 

From Ayo, one of the immigrants in Jean's team of fox watchers:

"Cannot become rich from [foxes], cannot control them, not even kill them.  That's why the foxes make some people angry.  The problem with those people is that they themselves have forgotten they are alive."

A career diplomat echoes that theme.  He's holding a snow globe given him long ago by his daughter:

"'This is how most people want to live.'  He put his hand out for the [snow] globe and Attila handed it to him.  Quell held it up to the light.  'They want to be safe, they want to be comfortable.  They want to believe that they are in control of their lives, and they want that thing we call freedom.  It all comes at a price, but don't you dare mention that.  People want choices without consequences.  And we give it to them, fools that we are.  We are the "somebody" people who have no bloody intention of doing anything themselves mean when they say somebody must do something.  I blame books, films, all that nonsense.'"

 

Blooming Hoya And Dripping Icicle - The World Is Better Than Media Portray

 

These hoya flowers are past their prime.  It's a natural part of the cycle of birth and death.   

From Bloomscape:

"Hoya plants are some of the easiest indoor houseplants to care for. They are slow-growing vining plants native to tropical and subtropical Asia. They are also known as Wax plants due to their thick and shiny foliage. As Hoyas mature, they produce clusters of sweet-smelling star-shaped flowers."

 They were pretty amazing a week ago.

And even though those blooms are gone, there's a new cluster starting to bud.  

This plant has been growing downstairs in our 'greenhouse' - really a room with lots of south facing windows - for years. It does tend to bloom most years with minimal care on my part.  

Spring is technically here according to the calendar, but we still have plenty of winter on the ground and icicles hanging from our roof.

[While the drop on its way down is kind of neat, I accidentally deleted the drop that was just below the end of the icicle, still suspended by a trail of water.  The whole three foot icicle, after growing for a week or two, came crashing down just after I took this picture.]

[UPDATE March 24, 2021 1:30am:  I found the deleted album on my phone and there was the other picture.  So here it is:                                                                                                          ]

But we are getting significantly more light every day.  At Anchorage's latitude we are gaining almost 6 minutes a day - an hour in 10 days.  That's just the official 'daylight' but we have much longer twilight periods than further south.  

Yesterday I pulled out my bike - the old one with the studded tires - to ride to a routine annual physical not far from our house.  

And here's rider's view on my way home.  I'm still amazed at how well the studded tires worked on the icier parts of the way home.  

This pictures in this post are for Barbara and an Anonymous commenter  in recent days lamenting the sorry state of the world.  Our news media give us a negatively skewed view of things.   

But we also have had a lot of positive things happening.  My sense is that the anger of Republicans that boiled over on January 6 is a reflection that they feel their privilege slipping away.  They, of course, don't think of it as privilege.  They still believe in various mantras that help justify why rich people are rich and poor people are poor.  Mantras that put all the onus on the individual and ignore how social norms and beliefs, economic and legal infrastructure, and the media portrayal of some ideal USA, all combine to advantage white males.  But their anger now reflects that women and people of color have made great strides toward equality.  The election of a black president brought it all home, for many.  White males no longer can assume they get to go to the front of the line.  Now women and minorities have much better access to good education and then good jobs.  Just look at how the number of women doctors and lawyers and members of Congress have increased in recent decades.  The same is true for people of color.  For example.

Our job now is to change the conditions that produce people who understand their place in the world and work to make the world more just for everyone.  No individual has to save the world.  We all just have to take care of our selves and our families and friends.  If we have energy and resources and creativity left over, then we can help others, then we can work for a happier society. 

But when we do work to improve the conditions we live in,  we should working humbly.  Not to prove how good we are.  Not to make others grateful to us.  But in recognition that we've been lucky to have what we have and that in our own gratefulness, we want to share it.  Some of what we have we have earned through our own hard work.  Some because we've been the lucky winners of the birth lottery.

But nature itself is a lottery which affects our happiness.   I've heard that, despite what one might think, more people get down during spring and early summer than other times of the year. I did double check on that and found that indeed, spring and early summer are the worst.  And it's more so further north than closer to the equator.  So I send my hoya flowers and dripping icicle to all.  May you find pockets of peace and hope that you can fill up with good stories, good friends, good food, and good ideas.  

"Reporting back from the future: GOP's battered wife syndrome is in full force even after Trump has left office. So SAD!"

 On May 14, 2018 I began a blog post like this:

Congressional Republicans Show Signs of Battered Wife Syndrome

Medical News Today says battered women suffer from PTSD but then adds they suffer their own special symptoms as well.

In addition to PTSD, people with battered woman syndrome show symptoms that may be confusing to outsiders.
Those include:

• learned helplessness
• refusing to leave the relationship
• believing that the abuser is powerful or knows everything
• idealizing the abuser following a cycle of abuse
• believing they deserve the abuse

I then went on to look at each of these symptoms and relate them to Congressional GOP.  (You can see the whole post at the link above.)

Today, Anonymous left this comment:

"Reporting back from the future: GOP's battered wife syndrome is in full force even after Trump has left office. So SAD!"

So sad, indeed.  But the Democrats have laid out such a powerful, logical, and easy to understand case for Trump's treachery.  And it's all there in video - the presentations of the House team and the embedded video they used as evidence.  

Even if the Republicans can't see it, or are too paralyzed to break rank, everyone else can see it.  Historians have never had it so easy.  And their students have never had it so compelling.   

It's Hard To See The Handwriting On The Wall When The Wall Once Made You Rich

The decline of Alaska's oil wealth has been predicted for a long time. It's why the Alaska Permanent Fund was established.  Knowing it was a finite resource and believing that one generation wasn't entitled to use it all up, the Fund was set up to help fund government forever.  Note:  help fund, not pay all the bills.   Even before climate change became a household word Alaskans were being told to diversify.  Even before the price of oil dropped precipitously.  Even before the recent refusal of some the country's biggest banks to fund any more Arctic oil projects.  Then the oil companies didn't bid on the ANWR lease sales.  

But the oil diehards, like Governor Dunleavy, even proposed legislation to get Alaska agencies to boycott those banks.  And to offset the apparent lack of interest in bidding on the ANWR leases, The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state owned entity, was the biggest leaser in the auction, bidding about $12 million of the $14 million total bids.   This, from a strong supporter of Donald Trump and the Republican Party that is constantly attacking Democrats with the label "socialist."

It's hard to change habits.  Our brains even change physiologically so we can do those habits almost without thinking.  We all know that mastering all the hand and foot and eye coordination connected with driving a car safely in traffic is rather daunting at first.  But eventually most of us get to the point where we drive almost on autopilot, sometimes even getting to our destination without even realizing it.    

I think about Anchorage's legendary mall builder, Pete Zamarello.  A Greek-Italian immigrant to the US, he worked in construction and then switched to being a builder.  Anchorage is littered with his strip malls.  He'd figured a formula that made him rich.  But when the hot, pipeline economy ended in the 80's, he was still on autopilot.  Cranking out strip malls is what he knew how to do.  

The ADN wrote when Zamarello died:

"That optimism was on full display in 1984, when Zamarello pooh-poohed predictions of an Alaska economic crash. 'The gurus of financing say that we're going to have a catastrophe, but we're not," he told Alaska Business & Industry magazine then. "This downturn won't happen. The next 10 years are going to be even better.'"

But it did.  The blog Wickersham's Conscience wrote:

"In the Alaska real estate crash of 1984-1986, Zamarello helped kill half a dozen financial institutions, bankrupted construction companies and their suppliers and ended up in bankruptcy himself."

The bankers had also gotten into a pre-crash Zamarello lending habit.  

And that's where we are today in Alaska.  Those who have prospered most directly from oil - those in the oil industry, the oil support industry, and the oil supported legislators - are having a hard time turning off the oil habit. They want to keep doing what they've always done, even though the conditions have changed. And since everyone else in Alaska has benefited indirectly because oil made up 90% of the State budget, many others keep expecting to be able to go on living the good life with no individual state taxes and even a $1000 or more Permanent Fund payout every year.  

We're like the rich kid whose Dad has gone bankrupt, and she's having trouble with the fact that her credit cards have been cancelled and the mansion has been replaced with a much smaller apartment and she's going to have to get a job to help out.  

We often don't see what's directly in front of us.  I think about the story of the Japanese businessman watching how Alaska fishers just tossed all the fish eggs.  His reaction created a new product with a large market in Asia for fish roe.  (I can't find this story online, so take it with a grain of salt.  But I could find documentation that the herring fishery was revitalized by selling herring roe to Japan. And, of course, the indigenous peoples of Alaska had been harvesting herring roe for centuries.)

Alaska Constitution Article 8 - Natural Resources

§ 1. Statement of Policy It is the policy of the State to encourage the settlement of its land and the development of its resources by making them available for maximum use consistent with the public interest. § 2. General Authority The legislature shall provide for the utilization, development, and conservation of all natural resources belonging to the State, including land and waters, for the maximum benefit of its people.

And that's where we are now.  While the state's GOP keeps pointing to the State's constitutional duty to develop natural resources as the reason to keep pumping oil, they fail to see the most famous and sustainable and valuable resource of all - our huge, mostly untouched, natural beauty and our wild fauna a flora.  These are things the world knows Alaska for.  These are the things they come to Alaska to see.  Tourism is way below oil now as a source of income for the state, but it has huge potential.  

We have some of the largest tracts of nature left in the world.  Let's exploit it - sustainably - for tourism, for the health of the planet, for science, for spiritual renewal.   In a world fast becoming urban and electronic, Alaska is an oasis of peace and calm as well as awe inspiring powerful natural phenomena from grizzly bears to glaciers to giant mountains and volcanoes and earthquakes.  

We'll still produce the oil in existing developed fields.  The earth still needs oil as we move to more sustainable and less climate changing sources of energy.  But the world knows that we must reduce our carbon output.  Just as it was clear to people not living in West Virginia and Kentucky that coal mines had to shut down, it's clear to those not financially benefiting from oil, that the age of oil is over.  That's why the banks decided not to finance Arctic oil development and why nobody bid on the ANWR leases.  

Everyone knows but our governor and those whose incomes come directly from oil.  Even the large oil companies know.  

[Yeah, I'm not sure if the title is inspired or awful.]

Narcissists Who Are Also Psychopaths: The Dark Triad - Know Anybody Like This?

 

I was watching a video on YouTube about regional accents in the US and when it was over, a video on narcissism  showed up.  Eight questions a narcissist can't answer.  (They all involved having to admit some sort of personal weakness or listening to another person.)  Then this one was next:

Essentially, this therapist says it's impossible to work with psychopaths and he doesn't.  

And that's why nobody except complete toadies who shower Trump with praise and adoration manage to have any longevity in his administration.  This explains his relentless fight to overturn the election and his ignoring of norms and laws.  

It doesn't explain his followers.  Well, I can understand other psychopaths supporting someone who supports their horribly anti-social behavior, but we can't have that many psychopaths in this country.  

There wasn't any discussion of what happens when two psychopaths get together.  Do they bond?  Or do the quickly fight for dominance? 

Sure, the word narcissist has been used to explain Trump since early on.  Some have even used the word psychopath.  But now that we've seen Trump non-stop for four years, this description seems spot on to me.  

AIFF2020: Paper Spiders And Delusion

 I guess this is a film festival post because I'm starting with a film I saw the other night - Paper Spiders.

In the film a widow lives with her about-to-go-to-college daughter.  Her husband, a doctor, has been dead two or three years.  New neighbors move in and the mother gets upset because she sees him,

Screen shot from Paper Spiders

through the window, back into a tree on her lawn.  

She runs out and comes back to tell her daughter that he told her to fuck off.

The mom later says the neighbor is throwing rocks at their house.  One night she's sure he's on the roof.  The daughter goes next door to just talk to the guy and the wife yells at her.  "Talk to her?  He can't come within ten feet of her. Your mother put out a restraining order against him.  Your mother is deeply disturbed."

Mom knows he's an electrical engineer and she's sure he's sending some kind of waves at her that are giving her headaches.  Whatever explanation the daughter gives, the mom twists it around saying "that proves what I'm saying."

"He's trying to torture me, it's a power struggle, can't you see?"

The daughter, Melanie, tells her mom her grades are dropping and the school counselor wants to do family therapy.  The mom quickly starts talking about the "stalker" and the counselor pulls out the DSM and reads her about delusional disorder (my definition comes from The Cleveland Clinic)

"What is delusional disorder?

Delusional disorder, previously called paranoid disorder, is a type of serious mental illness — called a “psychosis”— in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. The main feature of this disorder is the presence of delusions, which are unshakable beliefs in something untrue. People with delusional disorder experience non-bizarre delusions, which involve situations that could occur in real life, such as being followed, poisoned, deceived, conspired against, or loved from a distance. These delusions usually involve the misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences. In reality, however, the situations are either not true at all or highly exaggerated."

The counselor asks if the mother recognizes any of the symptoms.  The mom's response:  "I think you nailed it.  He has delusional disorder."

Mom hires a private detective to track the man's movements.

They meet the detective for the final report.  The detective chronicles the neighbor's movements.  On Saturday he went to St Percy's hospital.  

• Mom: "You see, he's getting psychiatric treatment."  
• Detective: "I've been in the business for 25 years, so if there was any suspecious activity, I assure you, I would catch it."
• Mom:  "You understand what this means.  We're dealing with a seasoned criminal who can out maneuver a seasoned investigator with 25 years experience."

Things get worse and worse and eventually the mom moves out so the neighbor can't persecute her and sleeps in the car to stay safe from the neighbor.  

As we all watch Donald Trump claim that Biden stole the election, this delusional woman comes to mind.  She's certain about the neighbor.  Every shred of evidence offered to disprove the neighbor's evil mission is turned around as further proof of his devious cleverness.  And Trump ignores the fact that many of the judges turning down his appeals are judges he appointed!  And he doesn't have quite the agility the mom in the movie had to turn around such facts to her advantage. He just changes the subject or blames the messenger.  

Part of me believes that Trump knows exactly what he's doing, but his behavior is so, so similar to this character's, perhaps he doesn't.  

If Trump weren't president of the United States, a normal family would get him treatment.  Or at least try to prevent him from destroying their lives. Given the power/money dynamics of the Trump family I suspect he might not be challenged, even if the kids saw their inheritance being frittered away.  (I don't know whether his assets are greater than his debts.)  

And even in the movie, the daughter had a really difficult time getting her mom treatment.  She was homeless first and then involuntarily admitted only after a very public incident where she turned on her daughter for not supporting her.   

How many of Trump's supporters also have delusional disorder?  Probably not that many.  After all, their news sources all support this mass delusion.   The mom had no one supporting her delusions.  

Here's what the Cleveland Clinic says about treatment:

"How is delusional disorder treated?

Treatment for delusional disorder most often includes medication and psychotherapy (a type of counseling); however, delusional disorder is highly resistant to treatment with medication alone. People with severe symptoms or who are at risk of hurting themselves or others might need to be in the hospital until the condition is stabilized."

The mom was given medication and was in the hospital two weeks.  Even then, at the end she marches off to confront the neighbor again only to be told he's been dead for a month.  But the mom says that's bullshit and points at some equipment in the hallway to prove it's the machine he's been using to torture her.  The neighbor looks and says, "That's his chemo machine."

I don't think any of Trump's destructivenes will end on January 20th.  There are too many people who share Trump's delusions, not just about the election, but about every thing else.  Trump supporters are talking about overturning the election still.  

The Texas lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots.  Over 100 House Republicans joined the lawsuit.  And even after the Supreme Court (including three of Trump's appointees) voted 9-2 against Trump of procedural grounds and 9-0 on substance,  Law&Crime notes:

"In response [to the Supreme Court decision], Texas GOP Chairman Allen West on Friday erroneously claimed that the high court’s ruling—which was widely expected among legal experts and court watchers—created a precedent that allows states to act unlawfully in the administration of elections, leading him to float the idea that the Lone Star State should look into forming a separate nation. In other words, he is preaching secession."

And Trump is inciting his followers by insisting that he actually won the election and that Biden stole it with fraudulent votes.  

At some point, the Democrats are going to have to play hardball.   

"18 U.S. Code § 2384. Seditious conspiracy

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both."

You can see that this discussion could go on and on.  Gore and Kerry conceded their elections even though there was much more evidence than Trump has that they won.  Even Lincoln wanted to welcome the South back into the union to make that return more cordial.  But that resulted in another 100 years of de facto slavery and inequality for blacks.  (See for example White Rage by Carol Anderson.)  It seems to me the extreme behavior of Trump requires serious consequences lest these new excesses become the norm.  

AIFF2020: The Subject Took Me By Surprise

I finally figured out the Q&A scheduling [it's tricky just seeing the times, so I've put up a schedule on the AIFF2020 page above] and Hometown Pride was going to have the Q&A Thursday at 6pm.

I watched Hometown Pride this afternoon.  This is a fun and easy to watch film about a very out and outgoing gay man who comes back to his tiny Ohio hometown to dance at their annual beauty pageant. Good, not remarkable.  We've seen other versions of this story at AIFF in past years.  

Then I went for Paper Spiders.  I'd been avoiding this one because I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with a mother's mental illness, but its Q&A was also coming up.  

We paused Paper Spiders in the middle so we could watch the Q&A for The Last Days of Capitalism.  This was my favorite feature film and I was looking forward to the session.  It's not quite the same on Zoom as it is live at the festival.  But it was a good discussion.  

The back to Paper Spiders which was surprisingly good, but the mom is definitely delusional and paranoid.  But the story was well told and well acted.  There are lots of very good narrative features at this festival.  The title is referred to visually only briefly in one shot.  It leaves a lot to the viewers imagination.  

Then on to another one I was avoiding, because it looked like it was going to be heavy - The Subject.

This film follows a documentary film maker doing a project on Black young men mostly in Harlem.  The difficulties filming his volatile subjects seems to be the focus.  There's also some tension at home which escalates when he hires an assistant.  But then at the end everything kicks up a bunch of notches and we have an amazing confrontation between the film maker and the mother of one of his subjects who has been killed by gang members.  

I feel a little like a fickle boyfriend, but I've abandoned The Last Days of Capitalism and now my favorite feature is The Subject.  I don't want to say too much about it - I think I've told you more than you need to know already.  Just see it.  The issues - the relationship between the filmmaker and his subjects, particularly if the filmmaker is a privileged white male and the subjects are black kids living in poverty and violence - themselves are powerful.  But the final scene is amazing and where the issues are served up like fireworks.  

There's an interview with the director of The Subject Laney Zipoy here.  The AIFF interview was last Saturday and I haven't figured out how, or if we even can, watch the ones we missed.  

AIFF2020: Dinner In America: A Movie I Shouldn't Have Liked, But I Did

 I'm falling way behind here.  I'm pretty much picking pictures based on the photo, title, and description.  Here are some I think are worth watching.

Narrative Features

I really didn't expect to like Dinner in America   It starts off in an institutional dining room.  Someone throws up on his tray of food.  I almost stopped it right there.  But I didn't and we get to follow an out of control drug dealer (no, that's just one of his personas) have family dinner in three different homes, do a lot of crazy shit (sorry, that's the best description), and win over both of us.  This is a good movie.  Filmed in Michigan.  

Small Town Wisconsin was filmed in Wisconsin.  We even get a tour of Milwaukee.  Another main character who does lots of things that don't endear him to the others characters or the audience.  A little past midpoint we discussed abandoning the film.  We didn't.  It would have been a mistake.  

Foster Boy - This is more Hollywood than film festival.  It has two well known (there may have been others) actors - Matthew Modine and Louis Gossett Jr. - and  Shaquille O’Neal is the executive producer.  This is a court room drama.  A rich, conservative corporate attorney is assigned, against his will, a pro bono case of a 19 prisoner who is suing the foster care corporation that placed him in about a dozen homes.  A compelling film with appealing heroes and appropriately nasty villains.  

Of the three, I'd say Foster Boy had a number of loose ends - where I couldn't quite believe a) the lead attorney didn't get suspicious faster about his son's cancelled trip or b) all the dirty tricks that happened over Thanksgiving weekend.  I attribute b) to squeezing events that happened over a longer period of time into a couple days to fit the condensed time line of the movie.  The film said it was a fictionalized account of a true story.

Shorts  I think are worth watching:

Masel Tov Cocktail - I've already written about this, but I'm including it again just in case you missed my earlier mention.  At this point, this is my favorite film of the festival.  This was a tricky project and it all fit together wonderfully.  It couldn't have been told as well in any other format than film.  

 Cake Day - A good story told economically and movingly.  

Woman Under the Tree  - Maybe a bit longer than necessary, but it's a well told tale of a homeless woman.  

The Marker - Like Cake Day, a good story told well.  

Happy (Short) Films -  I've added this category because this festival is heavy with issue films.  Here are two shorts, particularly Pathfinder, that present the beauty and wonder of the natural world.  

 Pathfinder - A small group of adventurers put up a slack line high up among snow peaks in Norway with Northern Lights in the background.  Pure joy.

Sky Aelans - Also up in the mountains, the people of the Solomon Islands are protecting the mountain environment.  The camera shares some of the wonders up there worth their care.  

I still have lots of movies to see.  There appears to be a lot worth watching.  More later.  

AIFF2020: Sapelo And A Strong Recommendation For The Last Days Of Capitalism And For Grab My Hand: A Letter To My Dad

Usually Saturday is really busy during the festival with films starting as early as 9 am some years.  But we've somehow gotten into a routine with Netflix that we never watch before it's dark.  (Well, in the summer, before 8 or 9 pm anyway.)  So it didn't seem right to start til late afternoon.  We saw one documentary feature - Sapelo - one shorts program - The Best Ships Are Friendships - and one narrative feature - The Last Days of Capitalism.  

Sapelo is a documentary about. . . well, that's a bit of a problem.  It starts out, it seemed, to be about the Black people who have been living on the island, a ferry ride from mainland Georgia,  for 200 years.  There are lots of pauses to just look at beautiful vistas of the island.  But it meanders into a story about two brothers, their grandmother.  How old are the boys?  Don't remember being told.  I do remember that an older brother was 14, so I'm guessing these two were maybe between 9 and 11.  The grandmother adopted the mother too.  Some of it feels like a reality show.  Some of it feels like an invasion of the kids' privacy, particularly as we watch one of the boys having anger management problems and there's talk of his medication.  He's wearing an ankle bracelet for a while and in the end he's been sent to a detention center.  By the end I felt like these boys were being exploited.  They weren't capable of giving consent.  Was it the grandmother who gave consent?  What was she told they would be filming?  

On the other hand, a unique way of life was being captured.  Well, the end of a unique way of life.  The boys may well treasure this intimate portrait of them when they are older.  But making it public doesn't feel right to me.  

What was the relationship between the Swiss filmmakers and the people on the island.  We never see from or hear about the film makers except near the beginning when one of the boys looks up at the camera and apologizes for his language

The Last Days of Capitalism -  Wow.  Just picked this from the website knowing nothing about it and we were totally absorbed by two actors - Sarah Rose Harper and Mike Faiola.  We had no idea where it was headed.  This was not your ordinary movie fare.  This is what I love about film festivals.  Will I wake up in the morning and wonder what I was thinking?  Not sure.  I just know that we were hooked til the very end.  Recommended.  (Not saying much about the content.  Just know that it is two people probing each other.  Drugs and alcohol and a fair amount of money are involved.)  My hat is off to writer/director Adam Mervis.  

All of the shorts were worth watching.  Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad was the one that stands out as visually striking and clever and beautiful and it was the right length for the story.  Nothing unnecessary.  I just don't know why they didn't call it Gatecheck.  Be sure to watch this one.  Camrus Johnson, thanks for this film.  Latchkeys was sweet - I mean that in the best way.

Mask Murderers? And Another Misleading Headline On Race Relations

1.  Virus Notes

Yes, it's a paradox - the more you shut things down, the more it hurts the economy, but then the less you shut things down, the higher the cases go, and that hurts the economy too.  So, accept the economy is going to take a big hit.  If most people wear masks in public, we could open sooner.  Now, will that be with a few deaths or with lots of deaths?  That's the decision.  It's not the economy this time, it's the virus, stupid!

Since I wrote that note here a few days ago I ran across an article  From University of California San Francisco:

"The latest forecast from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests that 33,000 deaths could be avoided by October 1 if 95 percent of people wore masks in public."

 

 30,000 deaths!!??  Dare I call those not wearing masks in public - Mask Murderers?  It almost works, though unmasked murderers would probably be more accurate.  

And if you think there are hardcore folks who won't wear masks, because they won't give up their constitutional rights, wait until you tell parents they have to send their kids to schools that aren't COVID-19 safe.  But DeVos is all about destroying public schools and transferring public school funds to private schools.  This move by the president bleeds money from public schools, and gives Republicans new ways to point at how bad public schools are.  But I think the president's dementia is so obvious to so many people now that it will backfire.


2.  Misleading Headlines  - in March 2019 I put up a post that is still getting regular hits today on Misleading Headlines.  That article goes into the history of misleading headlines.

Well I was struck yesterday by  a very misleading printed LA Times headline, which had a much better headline in the online version.  I've seen that before.  I guess editors have more room online.  I'm not sure how many people actually buy hard copy papers because of headlines any more, but if they do, there is the pressure to make them more compelling still I guess.


The paper headline and first paragraph was:

"Outlooks on race turn gloomier

"Californians’ perceptions of race relations in the state have shifted dramatically since the spring, with views statewide having grown significantly gloomier than they were five months ago, according to a new statewide poll."

Here's screenshot of the paper version:

I read the article, and actually, it's a hopeful article.  Basically, it said that since COVID and George Floyd, people's beliefs about race relations in the US are less positive.  That's not gloomier, which suggests things are getting worse.  But what I took from that was that white people's attitudes got more realistic.  And you have to stop denying before you start changing.  So it's all good.  

When I looked for the link to the online version to put on this post, I found a very different headline - one that mirrored my take on the article:

"Views on race relations in state alter dramatically as more white people see reality of discrimination, survey shows"

NOTE:  I've put up screenshots of the headlines, but I've also repeated them with text.  I do this when I can and it seems important, because seeing-impaired readers can't 'read' images.  the programs that turn text to sound can't read images.

Magpie Visits And I'm Reading The Overstory

 Richard Powers' The Overstory is a great distraction during a pandemic.  Here's just one illuminating quote:

“He reads the encyclopedia article on mental disorders.  The section on diagnosing schizophrenia contains this sentence:  Beliefs should not be considered delusional if they are in keeping with societal norms."

Better Husband, Architecture, New Monopoly, Trump and Hitler

There are so many things to post that I get overwhelmed.  A few drafts are backed up as I write and rewrite and gather more information and then try to shorten them to focus on the key points.  I try anyway.  But in the mean time here are a few things.


1.  I Quit Being a Therapist so I Could Be a Better Husband

 "I hated the idea of being someone who spends the day helping other families overcome difficult emotions but can’t do the same with himself at home for his family. I felt like a fraud."

"Early on, the skills I refined as a therapist made me a better husband. I got good at understanding the variety of reasons people do what they do. I became more compassionate in our marriage and I was better equipped to help Nhu-An navigate challenges in her family, with her friends, and at work. I think it’s also made me a better father to our daughter — more patient, present, and involved.
Three things changed."

 It's a good piece, I recommend you read it all.  It's positive, but also critical of the medical system.





3.  If Trump's Loves Classical Architecture, He Needs To Congratulate Nancy Pelosi On Her Home Town City Hall.

Trump had just issued an order about court houses needing to only be built in classical style.  No modern buildings (like his towers).  I thought about this as we walked past the San Francisco City Hall on our way to BART and the airport Wednesday.










2. San Francisco as we flew back to Seattle.  

3.  New Monopoly Uses Credit Cards Instead Of Money

My granddaughter insisted we play monopoly.  It was never one of my favorite activities, but she's my granddaughter, so what could I do?  It turns out that each player now gets credit cards and there's this little gadget you put the cards in.  Then you type how much money, and it either a) transfers it in or out of one card (if you pass go or have to pay Luxury Taxes, etc.) or b) transfers money from one card to the other (if you have to pay rent.)

As I recall, it was relatively easy to cheat when you used paper money.  This gadget takes that ease to a whole new level.  The banker just types it in and you get your card back.  Unless you insist the banker shows what your card is now, you have no idea how much money you have.

And the amounts are in the tens of thousands to millions.  One dollar bills?  Hah!



4.  Sound Transit (Seattle) Hate Free Zone

If you want to keep out of the darker side of politics, stop here.

4.  Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies  -  I've been talking about this since at least the election in 2016. (For example this post.)  No one can say we weren't warned.

"A younger Trump, according to his first wife’s divorce filings, kept and studied a book translating and annotating Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II speeches in a locked bedside cabinet, Neuborne noted. The English edition of My New Order, published in 1941, also had analyses of the speeches’ impact on his era’s press and politics. “Ugly and appalling as they are, those speeches are masterpieces of demagogic manipulation,” Neuborne says.
“Watching Trump work his crowds, though, I see a dangerously manipulative narcissist unleashing the demagogic spells that he learned from studying Hitler’s speeches—spells that he cannot control and that are capable of eroding the fabric of American democracy,” Neuborne says. 'You see, we’ve seen what these rhetorical techniques can do. Much of Trump’s rhetoric—as a candidate and in office—mirrors the strategies, even the language, used by Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s to erode German democracy.'”

Interconnections - Oil and Democracy, Microbes and Human Behavior

The world is complicated and humans are constantly tracking down the linkages between different factors.  The first seems much easier to understand, though confirmation bias plays a big role in how easy it is for someone to understand the link between oil and democracy.


1.  Oil's Impact on Democracy

From Philosophasters

OIL IS THE DEVIL'S EXCREMENT
SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 BY DAVID JACQUES IN ARTICLES
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo was a prominent Venezuelan politician who served two terms in office with the Centrist Betancourt Administration (1947-48 & 1959-64). As Minister for Energy he was drawn into conflict with the U.S. under Eisenhower who had negatively affected quotas on Venezuelan oil by favouring new trade agreements with Canada and Mexico. Alfonzo’s response was to form an alliance with oil producing Arab nations in an attempt to regulate the global oil market. His ideas came to fruition with the establishment of 'The Organisation of Oil Producing Countries' - OPEC.
However, protection within the market and the promise of unfettered wealth arising from Venezuela’s immense oil reserves were undone by what economists came to term the 'natural resource curse'; the sudden influx of money would cause the national currency to dramatically appreciate, wages are driven up, prices inflate, manufacturing, imports and exports all slump. Though this was yet to occur for Venezuela during the early OPEC years, Alfonzo saw it all coming. In a prophetic 1975 speech he uttered the infamous lines: "ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see; oil will bring us ruin. Oil is the Devil's excrement".

• Rachel Maddow

  Posted: Sun, 13 Oct 2019 20:01:14 -0000

  Play Now
  MSNBC host Rachel Maddow talks about the oil and gas industry’s impact on democracy around the world, tying in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, the impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, and more. On October 6, 2019, Rachel Maddow came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater to read from her new book “Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth”. Maddow spoke to Dan Pfeiffer, a former advisor to President Barack Obama who now co-hosts “Pod Save America”.

I highly recommend Confessions of an Economic Hitman.  It tells the story of how international corporations funnel trillions of public dollars into their own coffers.  It's short and easy to read.  The link tells more about why I recommend it.


2.  Gut Microbes' Impact on Behavior.  

From Science Magazine

Animal sociability through microbes
Accumulating evidence suggests that the microbiota living in and on animals has important functions in the social architecture of those animals. Sherwin et al. review how the microbiota might facilitate neurodevelopment, help program social behaviors, and facilitate communication in various animal species, including humans. Understanding the complex relationship between microbiota and animal sociability may also identify avenues for treating social disorders in humans.
Science, this issue p. eaar2016

These studies are in mice and from the abstract All I could tell was that it affected 'sociability.'
I learned about 10 years ago how my body's functioning was dependent on microbes living inside me.  Finding out the there are 10 times more microbial cells in my body than human cells caused a major shift in how I understand the world and what it means to be human.  I'd note that because the microbial cells are very small, they only make up about 1-3 percent of human body mass.

3.  Census Methodology Impacts on  Gerrymandering

It's no secret that how and who the Census Bureau counts in decennial census counts impacts elections. People who pay attention to the news are aware of the Trump administration's attempt to add a question about citizenship on the 2020 census which would have (and even though it failed, still might have) the effect of causing non-citizens to hide from census takers.

But this article is about how the census bureau counts prisoners - in the community where the prison is located.  Here's the beginning of a primer from the Prison Gerrymandering Project:

"The way the Census Bureau counts people in prison creates significant problems for democracy and for our nation’s future. It leads to a dramatic distortion of representation at local and state levels, and creates an inaccurate picture of community populations for research and planning purposes.
The Bureau counts incarcerated people as residents of the towns where they are confined, though they are barred from voting in 48 states and return to their homes after being released. The practice also defies most state constitutions and statutes, which explicitly state that incarceration does not change a residence."

4.  Blogger Best Wishes and Better New Year

I couldn't find any studies on how blogging good wishes for the new year actually impacts people's
New Year.  I did find this opinion heavy and fact light article on the effects of kindness.  One link is to a Dr. Emoto (really!) who studied how kindness helps water crystals form better and since human bodies are 60% water (plus 3% microbes) being kind helps the water in your body.

There's something off balance in the number 2019.  2020 is much more in tune with human aesthetics.  So I'm wishing you all a great 2020.  Find the good in every day.

AIFF 2019 - Features Part 1: Indigenous Women, Homelessness, Coming of Age, (Young and Old), Bi Polar

There are 12 films in this group and I've got six here and will do a second post with the other six.  We've got a film here with two indigenous women actors, two films with homeless leads, a return to the home country (Italy) to save the family vineyard, a bi-polar college student, and a coming of age film.  (I know it's hokey to try sum them up this way, but the topics may cause some people to be more interested.)

I'd also note that the new website is ready and my first impression is that it's an enormous improvement over past AIFF websites.  But I haven't explored it too closely yet.  It also looks like it's possible to see every film this year, because there aren't two competing films at any given time. I think that's the case but, again, I need to check more carefully.

So, here are the first six of the  NARRATIVE FEATURES

The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open  

Directors:  Kathleen Hepburn & Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

Canada/Norway

Showing:  Sunday, Dec 08, 2019 2:00 pm   Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

From Imagine Native:

Two Indigenous women, unknown to each other, and from very different backgrounds, meet by chance. Áila is middle class, university educated and light skinned. Rosie is eighteen years old, poor, and has just been assaulted by her boyfriend. When Áila sees Rosie crying barefoot in the street, she makes the decision to help her. What follows is a complicated extended conversation between these two women as they navigate their similarities, differences and shifting power dynamics. Tense and affecting, the film employs long takes and masterfully executed handheld cinematography to unveil a story in real-time, a story that at its core is a testament to the resiliency of Indigenous women.

There are a number of interesting aspects to this film.  Not only is it about two Canadian indigenous women, it's also directed by an indigenous woman.  It also is filmed in real time:

"We had many conversations with our DP, Norm Li, and ultimately settled on shooting 16mm. This required that we develop a rather experimental process which Norm calls “real time transitions.” Once we had all of our locations, we carefully choreographed stitch points throughout the film where one of our camera assistants would have a camera pre-rolling to swap with Norm. This required five days of full crew rehearsal. We filmed the prologue scenes in three days, and filmed the continuous action sequence once a day over five days."

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Banana Split

Director:  Benjamin Ben Kasulke
USA
88 minutes

Showing  Sun, Dec 08, 2019 8:00 pm  
Bear Tooth Theatrepub

I read some descriptions and interviews and then saw the trailer which didn't match what I'd read at all.  Turns out the trailer was for another movie with a similar title.  

This excerpt  comes from  Sumbreak.  I don't want to say too much about the film.  Others have written that the basic description doesn't do justice to this film   So I've picked this part from an interview with  first time director, but experienced cinematographer Ben Kasulke.  They're talking about actress Addison Riecke who plays the little sister.  

"And yeah, with Addison, it was like you know, we saw the tape and I was like, ‘oh my god, this little girl’s great.’ And I didn’t know much about her. She has a really long history of acting. She’s a full-on child actor who works all the time, and so she comes out of the Nickelodeon World and she does comedy but she does comedy in a sort of very wholesome way. And you know I knew that she had done some comedic work.
But I knew that she had worked in The Beguiled, a Sofia Coppola film, so I knew that understood things that might have to exist as visuals or have a little more nuance to them. So she came from a good pedigree and then the word on the street was that she was just this like powerhouse actress, and that all proved to be true.
I was a little nervous. It was my first film and I you know worked with lots of younger actors and actresses as a cinematographer and spent a lot of time with director like Lynn Shelton and Megan Griffiths, who are really adept at making a set that’s conducive to safe, emotional space and getting good performances out of actors of any age, but in particular, children at times. And so I knew that I’d had some good role models as directors and people I’d collaborated with over the years.?"

Here's part of an interview with the director and writer/producer/star Hanna Marks.  It's an after the film Q&A at the Toronto Intl Film Festival.  I cut out the beginning, but it didn't offer me an option to end it early, so, if you're interested, watch as much or little as you like:

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Feral 

Director:  Andrew Wonder
USA
73 minutes

Showing:  Thu, Dec 12, 2019 6:00 pm
Anchorage Museum Auditorium

Mathew Monagle at Film School Rejects pushes films by former documentary makers who switch to narrative features.

". . .  these films ask us to simply exist in a series of moments with the main characters, exposing ourselves to their truths by seeing the world as they see it. And as of this weekend, you can officially add Andrew Wonder‘s Feral to this list of must-see narrative debuts. 

It would be wrong to say that Yazmine (Annapurna Sriram) lives on the streets, considering her actual home is a good hundred feet below them. When we first meet Yazmine, we walk alongside her in the abandoned tunnels and empty homeless camps that litter the underground relics of the MTA; with her as our guide, we eventually find our way into the long-abandoned power station she has converted into her home. But this underground life is only one facet of Yazmine’s existence. In her collection of sweaters and skirts, she can also pass among the fashionable parts of Brooklyn, moving alongside hipsters and bohemians and passing judgment on their hollow lives as she bums cigarettes." (emphasis added)

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From The Vine 

Director:  Sean Cisterna

Canada

94 minutes

Showing:  Friday, Dec 13, 2019 4:00 pm  
Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

This is a new film which had its North American premier in Canada in mid-October.  It's also been at the Napa Film Festival this month, which is fitting for a film on a vineyard.  But there's also not much out there about the film besides stock descriptions

Here's from a review from the  Devour! The Food Film Festival where you can read more:

"It’s the tale of a downtrodden man (Joe Pantoliano) who experiences an ethical crisis and travels back to his hometown in rural Italy to recalibrate his moral compass. There he finds new purpose in reviving his grandfather’s old vineyard, offering the small town of Acerenza a sustainable future, and reconnecting with his estranged family in the process.
From director Sean Cisterna, From The Vine is a delightful yet admittedly predictable affair about the need in life to not live for your work but to work for your life.
Cisterna is an experience Canadian filmmaker and with From The Vine he really does manage to get the most out of a well worn formula.  It looks great and as it launches into its story it’s always nice to see a Canadian film that isn’t overtly TRYING to be a Canadian film.  Cisterna has always had a good sense of story, it all has a genuine flow to it as we move along and it really has a strong sense of self.  That kind of narrative confidence not only comes from the script from the director leading the ship."

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GUTTERBUG 

Director:  Andrew Gibson

USA

100 minutes

Showing:  Wed, Dec 11, 2019 8:00 pm
Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

"Have you ever been walking around Allston and thought, “This place would be the perfect setting for a gritty drama about young, homeless street punks trying to find their place in the world, resisting the tedium of a forced 9-5 careerist lifestyle and simply surviving in a harsh world?” Well, so did Andrew Gibson, who’s gearing up to direct Gutterbug, a film that explores those themes listed above. Gibson is also the former head of video for Allston Pudding, so we’re excited to see him develop a full feature! The project’s synopsis, quoted from the film’s Indie GoGo  description, reads as follows: 
Stephen Bugsby, known by his street name “Bug,” left home on his 18th birthday. GUTTERBUG picks up three years later at his rock bottom. When the punk rock shows end and the drugs wear off, things feel quiet on his dirty mattress under the overpass. The suffocating atmosphere of the homeless environment and its toxic characters spark something in him he forgot he had… Before choosing death as the answer, Bug makes a choice even he didn’t see coming."

Here's an interview with director Andrew Gibson.  This film is focused on some homeless folks and the interviewer here lets us know he was once homeless.   I started it two minutes in when they began talking about the movie.

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Inside The Rain  

Director:  Aaron Fisher

USA

90 minutes

Showing:  Wed, Dec 11, 2019 6:00 pm 
Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

From WBOC:

"Facing expulsion from college over a misunderstanding, a bipolar student (Aaron Fisher) indulges his misery at a strip club where he befriends a beautiful and enigmatic sex worker (Ellen Toland) and they hatch a madcap scheme to prove his innocence.  Rosie Perez stars as a tough love shrink, Eric Roberts as an unhinged film producer, and Catherine Curtin and Paul Schulze as the long-suffering parents. The ultimate underdog film and proof that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible.
"'Inside the Rain' is an important film that deals honestly with issues of mental health, and manages to be at once humorous and poignant," said co-star Rosie Perez.  "I responded to director Aaron Fisher's script, and enjoyed working with him on our scenes together."
"Inside The Rain" has also attracted many film critics attention.  Westwood One states, "Insightful and audacious, with terrific cast…raw and heartfelt emotion." And Tribune Media Services said, ''Inside the Rain' is a captivating story where the brush strokes of life and the arts blend together beautifully.'"

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