Anchorage Pridefest and Parade

Thursday was warm (70s) and sunny.  Friday was gray, Friday night it rained a lot.  But this morning the streets were dry but the clouds were still here.  I biked downtown to get in the Congregation Beth Sholom group at the parade, but I couldn't find them.  So I chained the bike to a tree and waited just before where the groups entered the parade route.  (Why the groups don't have
any body on the streets.)  There were lots of bubbles.

The Royal Court.

Here's Mayor Berkowitz (light blue) near the front of the parade with an APD car behind.

Planned Parenthood.

The Alaska Native Health Consortium.

Anchorage Public Library.

BP

Pride Youth Network

And I joined in when Congregation Beth Sholom arrived.

James was staffing the Full Circle booth and signed up the friend I was with.  They've come a long way from when we subscribed.  Back then they didn't carry Alaska grown stuff, stopping delivery when we were away was tricky, and they didn't deliver to your door.

Brian Conwell was working at the AKDems booth.  He grew up in Dutch Harbor, just graduated from high school, and is headed to Harvard when the summer's over.  This is someone to keep an eye on.  I'll bet we hear his name in the future.












Aaron just arrived in Alaska for the first time ever last week from Chicago.  He's a legal intern at the ACLU.

Kim works with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and I wanted get her take on the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why" which we just finished.  She hasn't seen it yet.  Her organization isn't using it, but she's heard that reactions vary a lot and for some it could well push people to suicide, but she's happy people are talking about suicide.  She said they were getting a lot more people coming to the booth this year.

Bryan was there with his family.  He went to school with my daughter.

Dani was there representing UAA.

Candidates tend to show up for events like this and I got to meet Dimitri Shein who is running as a Democrat for the US House.  This is the race that Alyse Galvin is in as an independent.  Which doesn't mean an Independent Party member, but just no party declared.  But with a recent Alaska Supreme Court ruling, she's running in the Democratic Primary.  Whoever wins - Alyse or Dimitri - will run against Don Young.   

It was cooler than last year and when the breeze picked up, it was getting chilly.  But all that was good for the many, many bubbles.

The hell and damnation guy was there spouting his vitriol against gays, but not too many were paying any attention at all.  I don't understand how so called Christians can interpret Christ's message as intolerant and exclusive and damning.  It's truly a feat of one person twisting the bible's meaning to support his own unchristian views.    I decided he needs to be noted, but I don't need to include a picture.  

Is Trump Walking Into Kim's Trap?

Some folks keep suspending reality and hoping that maybe Trump can pull this off.  He'll know, he's said, in the first  minute, whether he and Kim will click.

“Within the first minute, I’ll know. My touch, my feel — that’s what I do,” 

That reminds me of Bush's assessment of Putin:

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country." 

I understand how people often connect on some sort of physical/psychic level instantly.  But people don't always admit to how wrong some of those first impressions were.  Many psychopaths are pretty good at dissembling.  Ted Bundy was said to have been charming, before he raped, mutilated, and killed his victims (at least 30.)

We know that Putin has charmed Trump already, or has enough on him to get Trump to wreak havoc with Western unity, a plot that can only strengthens Putin's hand in dealing with Europe and the rest of the world.

An LA Times story offers some history lessons on summits:

"But Kennedy’s most consequential summit, which came just months into his presidency, was an unmitigated disaster, according to historians.
Despite careful preparation, the young president did not heed the warnings of advisors familiar with his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, whom he met in Vienna in June 1961. Kennedy’s attempts to establish a friendly rapport, which experts had cautioned him against, came across as weakness.
After the summit, he knew immediately he’d blown it, as did William Lloyd Stearman, a national security aide who traveled with Kennedy to Vienna.
'It was Al Capone meets Little Boy Blue,” Stearman said last week. “Kennedy was not used to dealing with a thug like Khrushchev. And the Cuban missile crisis can be traced back to Khrushchev’s feeling that Kennedy was weak.'”

Of course, this means that Khrushchev's take on Kennedy was wrong as well.  

The Times article says later:

“This [Trump] is a neophyte who has given every indication that he does not like to do his homework, and the cost could end up being very great,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “We’ve never seen a president who wears as such a badge of honor that he won’t prepare. There’s no president in American history that has done that, and certainly not on a summit as important as this.

I'm sure Trump supporters love this stuff.  They voted for Trump to thumb his nose at the 'elite' (how is a billionaire not a member of the elite?) and to do it his way.  The article goes on further to compare Trump to Nixon and his negotiations with China.  

And while Trump says he doesn't need to do homework for the summit, another LA Times article argues that the North Koreans have been preparing for this meeting a long time.  

"Kim and a team of advisors who have followed U.S. politics for decades have been studying Trump since before the 2016 presidential election, hanging on to statements he made as a candidate, such as his now-famous offer at a rally in Atlanta in 2016 to sit down with Kim over a hamburger.
“Maybe nobody else was paying attention, but the North Koreans listened to every word,” said Leon V. Sigal, director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council.
Since then, each move has been carefully coordinated, including sending Kim’s attractive kid sister (North Korea’s “Ivanka,” the media has called her) in the delegation to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, and the enormous white envelope that North Korean envoy Kim Yong Chol handed Trump at a White House meeting on June 1.
'Trump’s psychology is pretty obvious to just about every leader in the world. He doesn’t like to be criticized. He loves to be stroked. He’s interested in the bold stroke, especially if he’s at the center of it,' Sigal said. 'And that gave the North Koreans the sense that this was somebody they could work with.'”

Trump probably has a lot more experience dealing with thugs than Kennedy had.  As many have noted, he and Kim have a lot of similar characteristics.  But I'm pretty sure Kim is focused on the substantive stuff much more than Trump.  For one thing, just meeting with Trump will be a huge victory for Kim. Such a meeting IS substantive for Kim.  No other US president has deigned to meet with a North Korean leader.  But it's a concession for Trump, even though he will take full advantage of what great television it will make.

But Trump wants 'denuclearization' and Kim wants relief from sanctions.  Denuclearization doesn't happen overnight, but relief from sanctions could.  Kim could promise all sorts of things over time, and then not deliver.  Trump could call it a victory.  And probably will no matter what happens.  Trump, in his own press releases, always makes the greatest deals in world history  But, barring things blowing up in Trump's first minute assessment of Kim, we probably won't know for at least a year or two if Kim follows up on his promises.

Or Trump may not even care.  Giving Kim what he wants may be just what Putin ordered Trump to do.  Russia does border North Korea - to take one more dive that hurts the US and helps Putin's long-term geo-political power.  But Trump will paper over whatever the outcome and call it a great victory, just as he's done with Climate Change, Brexit, his tariffs, etc.  all of which would seem to be great victories for Putin.

It's in Kim's and Trump's interests to be able to declare these talks successful.  And both will want that to be how the summit is framed.

I would be more than happy forTrump to seriously ease tensions in the Korean Peninsula, but in a way that doesn't give away the farm.  Some have argued that Kim wants not only the removal of economic sanctions, but also the removal of US troops from South Korea.  And then he can unite the peninsula under his rule.  As China takes over a greater part of the waters of Southeast Asia, in ten or fifteen years, the US wouldn't be able to stop such a takeover.  Particularly if US troops leave South Korea.  

We'll see.

Once again, this weekend has proven how well Trump plays the media and makes sure his antics are in the headlines every day, distracting from all the damage his administration is doing while they can.  

"Institutionalized Conflict of Interest" - If You Know The Name Manafort, But Not A Whole Lot More

Then you need to read this Atlantic article, The Plot Against America.  The sleaziness of Paul Manafort is breathtaking, and the story fills in gaps in lots of other stories you probably know.

Early dirty work with Roger Stone and Lee Atwater.

Changing the DC lobby culture.

Profiting off of arms dealers and lobbying Congress for the most repressive regimes in the world.

The only way Trump couldn't know about Manafort was if he willfully ignored what everyone around him knew.

Some brief excerpts:

"Manafort had profited from the sort of excesses that make a country ripe for revolution. And in the early months of 2014, protesters gathered on the Maidan, Kiev’s Independence Square, and swept his patron from power. Fearing for his life, Yanukovych sought protective shelter in Russia. Manafort avoided any harm by keeping a careful distance from the enflamed city. But in his Kiev office, he’d left behind a safe filled with papers that he would not have wanted to fall into public view or the wrong hands."

There's a lot of personal info on Manafort because his daughter's phone was hacked.

"Nine months after the Ukrainian revolution, Manafort’s family life also went into crisis. The nature of his home life can be observed in detail because Andrea’s text messages were obtained last year by a “hacktivist collective”—most likely Ukrainians furious with Manafort’s meddling in their country—which posted the purloined material on the dark web. The texts extend over four years (2012–16) and 6 million words. Manafort has previously confirmed that his daughter’s phone was hacked and acknowledged the authenticity of some texts quoted by Politico and The New York Times."

"When Manafort had arrived in Washington in the 1970s, the place reveled in its shabby glories, most notably a self-satisfied sense of high duty. Wealth came in the form of Georgetown mansions, with their antique imperfections and worn rugs projecting power so certain of itself, it needn’t shout. But that old boarding-school establishment wasn’t Manafort’s style. As he made a name for himself, he began to dress differently than the Brooks Brothers crowd on K Street, more European, with funky, colorful blazers and collarless shirts. If he entertained the notion, say, of moving his backyard swimming pool a few feet, nothing stopped him from the expense. Colleagues, amused by his sartorial quirks and his cosmopolitan lifestyle, referred to him as 'the Count of Monte Cristo.'”

"His acts of rebellion were not merely aesthetic. Manafort rewrote the rules of his adopted city. In the early ’80s, he created a consulting firm that ignored the conventions that had previously governed lobbying. When it came to taking on new clients, he was uninhibited by moral limits. In 2016, his friends might not have known the specifics of his Cyprus accounts, all the alleged off-the-books payments to him captured in Cyrillic ledgers in Kiev. But they knew enough to believe that he could never sustain the exposure that comes with running a presidential campaign in the age of opposition research and aggressive media. “The risks couldn’t have been more obvious,” one friend who attempted to dissuade him from the job told me. But in his frayed state, these warnings failed to register."

"Whereas other firms had operated in specialized niches—lobbying, consulting, public relations—Black, Manafort and Stone bundled all those services under one roof, a deceptively simple move that would eventually help transform Washington. Time magazine deemed the operation “the ultimate supermarket of influence peddling.” Fred Wertheimer, a good-government advocate, described this expansive approach as 'institutionalized conflict of interest.'” 

"All of the money Congress began spending on anti-communist proxies represented a vast opportunity. Iron-fisted dictators and scruffy commandants around the world hoped for a share of the largesse. To get it, they needed help refining their image, so that Congress wouldn’t look too hard at their less-than-liberal tendencies. Other lobbyists sought out authoritarian clients, but none did so with the focused intensity of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. The firm would arrange for image-buffing interviews on American news programs; it would enlist allies in Congress to unleash money. Back home, it would help regimes acquire the whiff of democratic legitimacy that would bolster their standing in Washington."

There's a lot more in the article itself. 

"As an ordained pastor with advanced theological degrees and years of spotty service, I can speak expertly on the hypocrisy of the Southern Protestant clergy."

In the box of mail waiting for us when we got back was the January issue of The Sun.  This is a gem of a magazine with no ads.

Each month the magazine has a Readers Write section based on a topic identified in a previous edition.  This month it was Bad Habits.  Here's the link.    They're all pretty good, but the fourth one really grabbed me.

This writer chooses from his many bad habits to focus on hypocrisy.

"The highest form of hypocrisy is hating the hypocrisy of others, and I do judge my fellow hypocrites. As an ordained pastor with advanced theological degrees and years of spotty service, I can speak expertly on the hypocrisy of the Southern Protestant clergy. In the pre–Civil War South many pastors defended slavery and cited biblical justification for it. Later, Jim Crow laws had the full support of most Southern Protestant pastors. Too many also endorsed the oppression of women — at least, until women became baptized by immersion in the workforce and had enough money to pay tithes and give offerings. . ."

He goes on to say these pastors do this because their jobs are on the line if they don't.

"Who can blame us? We all want to keep our jobs, our health insurance, and our retirement programs. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor,” but no one in his or her right mind wants to join them. . ."

I started thinking:  This can't be real, can it?  This sounds like a liberal, anti-conservative setup.  But at the end he actually signs his name and location.

"Doy Daniels
Milan, Tennessee"

The Sun is a pretty special magazine and I have to believe that they check on things like this.  In any case, I would check.  I googled "Doy Daniels Milan, Tennessee."  The first google hit was a forum on Topix.com for Milan, Tennessee, in 2010.  It got straight to the point.

curious (Martin, TN) asks:

what is up whith [sic] the preacher at the milan cp church. he is rarely ever in milan?

There are various answers, and then crazy old man (Rogersville, TN) writes:

"Doy Daniels Sr ran a drywall company for years, sometimes with his brothers, most times not. Doy, Sr. was a straight up man who would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it, but would run you off if your were faking or just looking for handouts.
Doy Jr did some time years ago, seems to me he got mixed up in some investment fraud, can't remember for sure, but has kept his nose clean since then. He worked with his dad for a while, then kind of dropped out of sight. Can't tell you much about him now, haven't seen him for years."

A bit later comes disturbed from Memphis:

"Doy Daniels is a con artist. He served ten years in federal prison for his crimes against six families, though there were more. He also had charges against him for allegedly hiring a hit man to kill the person who ratted him out, right after he fled to California. Though that charge was dropped because there wasn't enough evidence, he plead guilty to it as part of his deal. I saw the plea deal. This isn't just a bunch of rumors.
He was a leader in the Latter Day Saint/Mormon church, and he used his position to gain the trust of people. Then he stole obscene amounts of money from them. I personally know some of the victims. He was court ordered to pay the money back once he got out of prison; he hasn't paid a cent. Instead, he went on to another faith and now hides behind God; hard to get a job with a criminal record.
I feel awful for the people he continues to deceive. God knows."

Here's what I get out of it:

• The letter is real and the guy is not dumb
• Its credibility - in terms of other protestant pastors - is probably shaky since rather than taking responsibility for his actions, he's indicting every other pastor and saying they all have no choice because they'd lose their jobs if they followed Christ's teachings
•  He could get another job and stop being such a huge hypocrite
• There's more going on here for him to make such a public confession for himself and condemnation of his fellow pastors

It would be interesting to hear how his congregation reacts to this.  

But there are other absorbing 'bad habits' submissions as well, many are signed, like this one.  People are outing themselves - bravely or foolishly I can't say.  One starts in a crackhouse as the writer describes the scene that ends with him shooting up.  Another is about being overly aggressive with the truth, and where the habit came from.  Sounds like she's telling her world she wants to change and figures this piece will explain her bad habit to them once and for all.  Another is chronically late for which she gives lots of excuses, but not the real one.  Until she does in this piece.  And then there's the cat lady.  All of them signed their names.  

There are, of course, some anonymous submissions as well.  That section is well worth reading, as is the whole magazine.   "Queen of Hearts" and "Dark Houses" are haunting, glimpses into other people's lives.  I'm not sure how much of these articles one can read online, but you should be able to find The Sun at your library, or you can even subscribe.

Future topics for the Readers Write section, should you want to submit a story, include:

Taking Your Time . . .  due February 1 (sorry, you have to hurry for that one)

Prejudice . . .                due March 1

Thanks, Jim for leaving copies of The Sun in the guest bedroom when we were there years ago.  

Famous People Born 1918 Part 2: ""Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says 'Make Me Feel Important.' Not only will you succeed in business, you will succeed in life."

Science

It was a good year for Nobel Prize winners.  (There were two Peace Prize winners in yesterday's post.)

Header	Died	Comments
Richard Feynman	1988	Nobel Prize Physics
Julian Schwinger	1994	"Indeed, relativistic quantum mechanics - the union of the complementarity  principle of Bohr with the relativity principle of Einstein - is quantum field theory. " *
Gertrude Elion	1999	Nobel Prize Medicine - Leukemia, Herpes Drug Pioneer
Franco Modigliani	2003	Nobel Prize Economics
Frederick Sanger	2013	Nobel Prize Chemistry 1958 and 1980
Katherine G. Johnson	**	NASA Mathematician portrayed in "Hidden Figures"
Jens C. Skou	**	Nobel Prize Chemistry

*From Schwinger's Nobel lecture in 1965

**As I write this, Katherine G. Johnson and Jens C. Skou appear to be still alive.  Johnson's 100th birthday will be next August 26,  Skou's will be next October 8

Here's some video that shows why Feynman was such a popular physicist.

xxx

[UPDATE Jan 6, 2017:  Barbara Carlson points out in the comments that this video doesn't download.  I've checked and I have the right embed code, so don't know why it's not working.  Here's the link:

https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_feynman?utm_campaign=tedspread--b&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare  ]


Business

	Died	Comments
Sam Walton	1992	Founder of Walmart and Sam's Club
Mary Kay Ash	2001	Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

The headline quote comes from Mary Kay Ash.  I think it's a great way to view the world.  I've recommended that we all treat everyone we meet or see on the street as if they were actual or future Nobel Prize winners or US presidents.  (The presidency will regain its luster post eventually.)  Here suggestion is more direct.  But it's only good advice if it's genuine and not a sales strategy.

Read the link above that tells the rosy story of Mary Kay Ash.  But then also read this story that argues Mary Kay's company doesn't do its women salesforce nearly as much good as officially claimed.


Film

	Died	Comments
William Holden	1981	Academy & Emmy Award Winning Actor
Rita Hayworth	1987	Dancer, Pinup, Actor
Art Carney	2003	Academy Award Winning Actor - Honeymooners Actor
Ingmar Bergman	2007	Academy Award Winning Swedish Director

Below is a short homage of sorts to Ingmar Bergman, De Düve.  I can't resist.  I remember first seeing this in a theater and slowly figuring out what was going on.






Sports

	Died	Comments
Bob Feller	2010	Cleveland Pitcher, Hall of Famer
Leroy Walker	2012	First Black To Lead US Olympic Committee, Coach US Olympic Team

Religion

	Died	Comments
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi	2008	Transcendental Meditation Guru To Beatles and world
Oral Roberts	2009	Pentacostal Televangelist, Founder Oral Roberts University
Billy Graham	*[2018]	"The Pope Of Protestant America" Religious Advisor to Presidents

*As I write this, Billy Graham is still alive. [UPDATED Feb 23, 2018:  Billy Graham passed away February 21, 2018.]



A Few Others

These don't fit into neat categories.

	Died	Comments
Frank M. Johnson	1999	White Alabama Judge Who Ruled Against Segregation
Ann Landers	2002	Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer - Advice Columnist
Jack Paar	2004	Investor and Host Of The Late Night Show
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn	2008	Nobel Prize in Literature, Expelled from Soviet Union
Abigail Van Buren	2013	Pauline Ester Friedman Phillips, and Twin Sister of Ann Landers

Here's Jack Paar interviewen Judy Garland:



As I mentioned in Famous People Born In 2018 Part I, all these folks, had they grown up in the same neighborhood, would have been in the same class at school.

In case you haven't figured it out, in each category, people are listed in the order that they died.

Famous People Born in 1918 Part I - Politics and Music

Getting perspective is always good.  Looking back 100 years helps do that.  So as 2018 begins, let's look at who was born 100 years ago.  And remember the babies you see this year may be on a list like this in 2118.  Treat them well.

Also, consider that if they lived in the same neighborhood, these folks would have been classmates at school.  We don't always recognize famous folks who were cohorts.  I'm grouping them by areas they gained fame and in order of their deaths.  These are just a few of the 1918 birth group who did noteworthy (a non-judgmental term) things.  I'll do one or two more posts with other categories.

Politics/Government

Two African leaders and Nobel Peace Prize winners, but overall a sketchy group.  One assassinated and two others executed.

	Died	Comment
Julius Rosenberg	1953	Death Penalty Convicted Spy
Anwar el-Sadat	1981	President of Egypt, Nobel Peace Prize, Assassinated
Nicolae Ceausecu	1989	Romanian Communist leader, Executed after fall of Soviet Union
Spiro Agnew	1996	Disgraced Vice President under Nixon, forced to resign
Kurt Waldheim	2007	President of Austria, UN Gen Sec.  Nazi past exposed late in his life.
Howard Hunt	2007	Nixon WH plumber, organized dirty tricks for Nixon
Betty Ford	201l	First Lady, Gerald Ford, Betty Ford Foundation Addiction Help
Nelson Mandela	2013	Political prisoner then President of South Africa, Nobel Peace Prize,

[UPDATE Jan 2, 2018:  AKBright reminded me in a comment below that Anchorage's Ruth Sheridan was born in 1918.  She's still visible around town and still fighting for justice.  Somewhere I must have a picture of her, but not sure where.]

Music

Some great ones in this group.

	Died	Comments
Professor Longhair	1980	"rattled the keys with a mélange of boogie-woogie, New Orleans parade beats and Caribbean rhythm."
Leonard Bernstein	1990	West Side Story and so much more
Pearl Bailey	1990	Singer extraordinaire
Brigit Nilsson	2005	Swedish soprano opera great
Marian McPartland	2013	Jazz pianist, NPR piano jazz host
Alan Jay Learner	2014	Lyricist for My Fair Lady and other musicals

Part 2 is coming.

For a longer list, see this page at Biography.

When I first did a post like this back in 2007, I had to work hard to pull names together.  Now there are lots of sites that do this, so I don't think my efforts here need to be as extensive as the original ones.

The Fog Rolled In, I Got A Flat, And We Get Picked Up By A Good Samaritan

The workers were here at 9am and finished up the ceiling.

I got a call from my friend B - he wanted to bike to Palos Verdes, starting around Redondo Beach.  It was sunny and beautiful and getting out of the house so the workers could do their thing without me around seemed like a great idea.


As we cruised around the beach cities looking for a parking spot, we entered the fog.  Low, grey clouds.
Here's a shot of it.

And it was chilly.  A very damp, low 60s. (I know, chilly is relative.) After a bit we needed to get off the beach bike path and head up hills through Torrance.   I stopped partway up the hill to watch the fog roll up from the ocean.


As we got further up, the sun was visible, sort of.







And then as we rode higher, we got above the fog.   There's Palos Verdes above us, visible.





And this, I'm pretty sure, is Malaga Bay.  You can see the wall of fog sitting there waiting over the ocean.   There were 20-30 surfers out in the waves below.

But soon we were in the fog again.  B kept checking the map on his phone to see how much further it was.  I didn't actually know what 'it' was, except "Palos Verdes."  As far as I was concerned, we were already in PV.  Should we go the rest of the way?, B asked me.  I told him I didn't know where we were going or why it would be worth the extra three miles uphill.  I was also thinking about the two foot wide bike path on the other side of the street and the cars whizzing by.  Our side had about ten feet of parking area that was also a bike lane.  Finally B said it was Terra something resort.  Then I remembered I'd just read about them hiring foreign interns and using them to replace their minimum wage workers.  Human trafficking was in the headline.  I didn't need to go there.  B suggested I might interview some of the workers for the blog.  I was thinking about when it gets dark in LA (early - about 5:30pm in late December).  We went a little further and turned around.

We'd gone about nine miles.  After about a mile my bike was getting very sluggish and making a strange noise.  When I looked down I could see my back tire was flat.  We found the nail.  B's repair kit wasn't working - no patches and his hand pump didn't work on my valve stem.   I told B to ride ahead to the car and I'd walk as far as I could and he could pick me up.  We were about eight miles from the car.  He wanted me to turn my bike upside down so people could see we were in trouble, and he'd hitch a ride in a pick up truck.  I'm not sure why I didn't want to.  I guess I was embarrassed that I didn't have stuff with me to fix the flat.

Five minutes, that's all B wanted, then we could go with my plan.

After four minutes I was ready to start walking, then a pick up stopped.  B ran and talked to the driver and soon the bikes were in the bed and we were in front with Steve Lavine who had been out for a walk.  He used to run and bike and hike, but he had various health issues now and it was even a struggle to walk.  We met a new friend who took us all the way back to the car.  He said he was headed our way anyway and it wasn't too far extra.  B was pleased to have been right and I wasn't upset I was wrong.

Oh, and Steve has a second cousin Norm LaVine who lives in Anchorage. Hasn't seen him in 25 years.   If anyone from Anchorage knows him, tell him we are trying to convince Steve to come visit him in Anchorage.

Thanks, Steve, for ending our bike ride with a spectacular show of good will.  Getting a ride back was great, but getting to know a total stranger  who'd stop and pick up two guys with bikes was even better.



I'm not that surprised, but we do get jaded by our media that tends to focus on the tiny number of people who do harm each day rather than on the 350 million other US inhabitants who are like Steve Lavine.

AIFF 2017 - Homework Assignment Before Seeing "Pale Blue Dot" ('Sarvanaam' in Marathi) SUNDAY

I've been chatting with Girish Mohite via Facebook Messenger about his film, Pale Blue Dot, which plays at the Anchorage International Film Festival

Sunday, Dec. 3 AK Exp Theater Small 11:45am   and
Sunday, Dec. 9 AK Exp  Theater Small  2:30pm

I would note that this film has only been shown publicly in India at its world premiere at the Mumbai International Film Festival.   This will be the first public showing of the film outside of India.  This is one of the Features in Competition.


In our first exchange, he told me the film was based on an ancient Hindu legend.  I asked for more information and he sent me a link to Wikipedia:

"The son questions his father - First Valli The Upanishad opens with the story of Vajasravasa, also called Aruni Auddalaki Gautama,[24] who gives away all his worldly possessions. However, his son Nachiketa (Sanskrit: नचिकेता) sees the charitable sacrifice as a farce, because all those worldly things have already been used to exhaustion, and are of no value to the recipients. The cows given away, for example, were so old that they had 'drank-their-last-water' (पीतोदकाः), 'eaten-their-last-grass' (जग्धतृणाः), 'don't give milk' (दुग्धदोहाः), 'who are barren' (निरिन्द्रियाः).[25] Concerned, the son asks his father,  

"Dear father, to whom will you give me away?"

— Nachiketa, Katha Upanishad, 1.1.1-1.1.4[26][27]

He said it a second, and then a third time.
The father, seized by anger, replied: "To Death, I give you away."  

Nachiketa does not die, but accepts his father's gifting him to Death, by visiting the abode of Yama - the deity of death in Indian mythology. Nachiketa arrives, but Yama is not in his abode. Nachiketa as guest goes hungry for three nights, states verse 9 of the first Valli of Katha Upanishad. Yama arrives and is apologetic for this dishonor to the guest, so he offers Nachiketa three wishes.[28] 

Nachiketa' first wish is that Yama discharge him from the abode of death, back to his family, and that his father be calm, well-disposed, not resentful and same as he was before when he returns. Yama grants the first wish immediately, states verse 1.1.11 of Katha Upanishad.[28] 

For his second wish, Nachiketa prefaces his request with the statement that heaven is a place where there is no fear, no anxiety, no old age, no hunger, no thirst, no sorrow.[28] He then asks Yama, in verse 1.1.13 of Katha Upanishad to be instructed as to the proper execution of fire ritual that enables a human being to secure heaven. Yama responds by detailing the fire ritual, including how the bricks should be arranged, and how the fire represents the building of the world. Nachiketa remembers what Yama tells him, repeats the ritual, a feat which pleases Yama, and he declares that this fire ritual will thereafter be called the "Nachiketa fires".[29] Yama adds that along with "three Nachiketa fires", anyone who respects three bonds (with mother, father and teacher), does three kinds of karma (rituals, studies and charity), and understands the knowledge therein, becomes free of sorrow.[29] 

Nachiketa then asks for his third wish, asking Yama in verse 1.1.20, about the doubt that human beings have about "what happens after a person dies? Does he continue to exist in another form? or not?"[29] The remaining verse of first Valli of Katha Upanishad is expression of reluctance by Yama in giving a straight "yes or no" answer. Yama states that even gods doubt and are uncertain about that question, and urges Nachiketa to pick another wish.[30][31] Nachiketa says that if gods doubt that, then he "Yama" as deity of death ought to be the only one who knows the answer. Yama offers him all sorts of worldly wealth and pleasures instead, but Nachiketa says human life is short, asks Yama to keep the worldly wealth and pleasures to himself, declares that pompous wealth, lust and pleasures are fleeting and vain, then insists on knowing the nature of Atman (Soul) and sticks to his question, "what happens after death?"[30][32]"

He also sent me this synopsis of the film.  I don't think this is a spoiler, trust me.

"A specific name underlines the existence of a given individual but Sarvanaam i.e. an Eternity is a collective notion. Even while living this life making an effort to  preserve one's own identity, often the destiny plays its cards in such an incomprehensible manner that one is imperatively left with no alternative but to ignore one's own personal existence or unique identity and dissolve oneself in the mighty oblivion of the Sarvanaam, the eternity.  The film 'Sarvanaam', the Pale Blue Dot makes you aware of this insurmountable truth.
Thus, the existence of LIFE is PALE BLUE DOT.
'Death' is an ultimate truth. Each one of us is radically aware that at some or the other point of time in life, the death, is going to come to meet us and end our role. But even then every human being feels afraid of the death of his near and dear ones rather than being frightened of one's own death. That is why, every individual gets disturbed when the same death starts lingering around in the lives of your near and dear ones. This close shadow of the death destroys the peace of mind of every individual howsoever invariable truth it may be. An approaching shadow of that evil arouses a feeling of unacceptable injustice in his mind and he leaves no stone unturned to unveil the answer of this riddle. The unbearable sorrow of this inhuman destiny and the agonising journey of every human being's life saga is the gist of the Marathi feature film 'Sarvanaam'."

Below is the trailer. I'd note that Girish sent me this and gave me permission to put it on Youtube so I could get an embed code to post it here.

AIFF 2017: Short Docs In Competition - Old Harbor, The Collection, Ten Meter Tower, Ghosts of the Arctic,He Who Dances On Wood, Family Rewritten, Perception, and Wildland

'Short Docs' are non-fiction films under 55 minutes. At least that was the rule in the past.  I mention that because one film in this category is 57 minutes.
'In Competition' means the programmers picked it to be in the running for an award.

The shorts (narrative and docs), because they're short, are grouped into programs.  To see all the short docs in competition you have to see three different programs, plus one more showing where the 15 minute short in competition plays with the 57 minute short doc.

To make it easier to find the times and locations of the films you want to see, I've grouped them and color coded them by program.

Short Docs 1: Stories of Redemption Mon, Dec 4, Ak Exp Theater Large, 3pm Fri Dec 8, Ak Exp Theater Small,  5pm	Short Docs 2:  Against The Grain Sat Dec 2, E Street Theater, 12:00pm Mon, Dec. 4, Ak Exp Theater Small  3pm Sat Dec 10, Ak Exp Theater Small, 12:30pm
Short Docs 3 Compelling Characters Tuesday Dec 5,  Ak Exp Theater Large 3:00pm Thursday Dec 7 Ak Exp Theater Small, 8:15pm	Unnamed Program (Old Harbor, New Hope)  Sat, Dec 9,  E Street Theater,  3pm

Short Docs in Competition	Director	Country	Length
Wildland	Daniel Steiner	USA	25 min
Perception: From Prison to Purpose	Garret Guinn	USA	40 min
Family Rewritten	Yasmin Mistry	USA	13 min
He Who Dances on Wood	Jessica Beshir	USA	6 min
Ghosts of The Arctic	Abraham Joffe	Australia	7 min
Ten Meter Tower	Maximilien V an Aertryck	Sweden	16 min
The Collection	Adam Roffman	USA	11 min
Old Harbor, New Hope	Joshua Branstetter	USA	15 min

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Short Docs 1: Stories of Redemption

Mon, Dec 4, Ak Exp TheaterLarge, 3pm

Fri Dec 8, Ak Exp Theater Small,  5pm

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Perceptions:  From Prison to Purpose
Garret Guinn
USA
40 min
Perception was selected as the Best Oregon Film at the Oregon Documentary Film Festival in November 2017.  Here's what their website says about the film:

"On April 14th, 2009, Noah Schultz was arrested for attempted murder in Portland, Oregon. This is the story of his transformation. During his seven years of incarceration, Noah took advantage of every program, workshop and educational service provided. He pushed himself not only to be better, but to challenge our perceptions of what it means to be an inmate."

Perception: From Prison To Purpose | Trailer from Perception Doc on Vimeo.

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Wildland
Daniel Steiner
USA
25 min

This is the kind of film Americans need to see regularly to better understand who the people behind bars are.  This film shows inmates at a juvenile work camp program that give them fire fighting skills and experience to make it outside the prison.

Here's a brief bio from Daniel Steiner's website:

"Dan Steiner has worked on impactful documentary programming around the globe for VICE, the National Geographic Channel, and Current TV (RIP). In addition, he has held numerous post-production positions at ad agencies like Wieden + Kennedy, JWT, and Venables Bell & Partners.
He received a Master’s degree in Journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2016."

I couldn't find a trailer for this film, so here's the whole film, from his website:

WIldland from Daniel Steiner on Vimeo.


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Short Docs 2:  Against The Grain

Sat Dec 2,  E Street Theater, , 12:00pm

Mon, Dec. 4, Ak Exp Theater  Small  3pm

Sat Dec 10, Ak Exp Theater Small  12:30pm

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Family Rewritten
Yasmin Mistry
USA
13 min

A film about one person's experience with foster care.




“Family Rewritten” Trailer from Foster Care Film on Vimeo.



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He Who Dances On Wood
Jessica Beshir
USA
6 min,

This is an exquisite film.  The camera writes poetry in light and patterns.  Fred Nelson modestly but confidently voices wisdom.

"When the right thing comes along, something happens inside of us. . . There's a need to speak to God, but I think that everybody has their way of doing it. . .  I know I found my joy in, not Jesus, not Allah, it's a piece of wood."

He Who Dances on Wood (TRAILER) from BRIC TV on Vimeo.

The whole six minute film is here.


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Short Docs 3 Compelling Characters

Tuesday Dec 5,  Ak Exp Theater. Large 3:00pm

Thursday Dec 7 Ak Exp Theater Small, 8:15pm

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Ghosts of the Arctic
Abraham Joffe
Australia
7 min,

The photography, the landscapes, the caribou and polar bear shots are all incredibly beautiful.  But this film is more about how brave the film makers were under harsh conditions than it is about polar bears - the presumed title characters of this film.  I checked the amount of time that the filmmaker is in the image.  I got 3 minutes and 21 seconds out of a six minute movie.  There's also landscape.  And a small amount of time with caribou and bears.  Just read their own description of the movie at Untitled Film Works:

"Ghosts of the Arctic is the result of a passion project gone wild. Our goal was to venture out into the beautiful frozen expanse of Svalbard, in winter, to search and document polar bears. During the shoot we experienced temperatures that were never warmer than -20ºC and frequently plummeted down as low as -30ºC + wind chill factor.
Most days involved two hundred kilometres on snow mobile in very difficult terrain and conditions. We experienced three cases of first and second degree frostbite during the filming as well as several equipment failures as a result of the extreme cold. Each day involved 14-16 hours in the field.
The film was released with great reviews and write-ups on notable film blogs. The piece also received a converted [did yet mean coveted?] Video Staff pick of the Month."

In a movie about polar bears, the word 'bear' appears once in the description.  It's mostly about how they braved the elements under terrible  conditions.  As an Alaskan, I'd say that -30˚C (-22˚F) is cold, but not terrible, if you're dressed right.

It would be fine to make a film about how hard it is to film polar bears in the wild, but that's not what they say their goal is and it's not what the title suggests.

But the footage is spectacular.  You can judge for yourself.  I could only find the whole video online, not a trailer.







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Ten Meter Tower
Maximilien Van Aertryck
Sweden
16 min,
**Also Plays In Martini Matinee, Fri. Dec 8, Bear Tooth, 2pm

From the film makers in a NYTimes piece:

"Our objective in making this film was something of a psychology experiment: We sought to capture people facing a difficult situation, to make a portrait of humans in doubt. We’ve all seen actors playing doubt in fiction films, but we have few true images of the feeling in documentaries. To make them, we decided to put people in a situation powerful enough not to need any classic narrative framework. A high dive seemed like the perfect scenario."

After my comments about the previous film, I appreciated this comment very much:

"In our films, which we often call studies, we want to portray human behavior, rather than tell our own stories about it." (emphasis added)

Here's the trailer:

Trailer: TEN METER TOWER by Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck from Plattform Produktion on Vimeo.

Here's a link to the whole film.

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The Collection
Adam Roffman
USA
11 min

From Adam Roffman's The Collection website:

"The Collection is a short documentary about two friends, DJ Ginsberg and Marilyn Wagner, and their discovery of an astonishing and unique collection of movie memorabilia, comprised of over 40,000 printer blocks and 20,000 printer plates used to create the original newspaper advertisements for virtually every movie released in the United States from the silent period through 1984, when newspapers stopped using the letterpress format." 

This film should be shown before the full length documentary, Saving Brinton (it's the last movie in this post on the docs in competition.)

Here's the trailer:



THE COLLECTION - Official Trailer from Adam Roffman on Vimeo.
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Sat, Dec 9,  E Street Theater, *, 3pm 

(Note: There's a 57 minute film (Journeys to Adaka) before it)

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Old Harbor, New Hope
Joshua Branstetter
USA/Alaska
15 Min

The pre-opeining night showing is about preserving a language that is only spoken fluently by about thirty people.  This film is about resurrecting native dances among the Alutiiq people in the village of Old Harbor.  I'd note the Old Harbor Village Corporation was contracted by Shell  Shell to assist with its rescue operations in nearby Kiliuda Baywhen the oil drill  Kulluk broke loose from the tug in 2013.




If you can't wait, you can see the whole film here.

#metoo and #ihave - Redefining The Rules Of Sex And Power

There are the written rules - what people are supposed to do and not do - and there are the rules a scientist might write up after observing what really happens.  The first set is prescriptive and the second set is descriptive.  Humans strive to find ways to make the world work the way we think it should.  

I'm trying to find some way to make sense of what the sudden attention to sexual misconduct by powerful males means and how things might look in five years.  Will the power balance be radically different?  Or will all this just fade away and powerful people will continue to do what they want?

The media have been full of women's (and some men's) accounts of being abused by men in power.  #metoo has been well covered.  So when I heard about the hashtag #ihave - where men were supposedly confessing to their own abuse of power, I looked to see what was there.

Disappointing.  You can look yourself.  Maybe there are some serious confessions in there, but it's loaded with unrelated stuff, plus confessions of trivial stuff, plus mock confessions.  It did get me to Steve Locke's "I have led women on, I've cheated"  and "Benjamin Law: Five Things I Admit #IHave Done."  One could say, these are a good start toward self-awareness.

Let's see, here's Locke's list:

1. "I have led women on,"  
2. "I've cheated, and 
3. acted in ways that reflected a sense of entitlement towards the exploitation of women's bodies and behaviours. 
4. I've acted in ways that could be described as 'creepy,' both sober and under the influence. 
5. I've absolutely been overly defensive when called out for my actions, and 
6. have attacked things that certain women loved most about themselves because I felt intimidated by them. The list could go on." 

He also talks about punching a wall and feeling powerful when it frightened the woman he was with.

This is a pretty good list.  But I suspect that many women would also confess to these kinds of behaviors, at least 1, 2, 5, and 6.  Part of this is about growing up, learning how to negotiate the adult world, dealing with one's insecurities.

Locke says he went to therapy (and still goes) to understand and change his unhealthy relationships with women.  

Benjamin Law's list is softer. 

1. Told female friends, "Yeah I'm mates with him, but wouldn't be if I was a woman" – because I knew of his weird and predatory behaviour around women.  [I guess he's saying he shouldn't be mates with the guy.]
2. Laughed awkwardly at sexist remarks in professional situations, instead of pulling men up.
3. Almost gone on TV to discuss a book written by a famous Australian musician who has been violent against women I know.
4. Declined disclosing my wage to a female colleague who suspected she was being paid less than me (she was) for fear of reprisal from our male boss who'd told me to keep it quiet.
5. Suggested things were far worse in the past.

I'm not saying that this list doesn't help people become aware of little ways people can passively support systems of abuse.  But what women are #metoo-ing is far more egregious than what I'm seeing on #ihave.  (I checked to see if I should capitalize #IHave, but it got be back to #ihave.)

I even saw a tweet that compared #metoo and #ihave to the public denouncements and confessions of the Cultural Revolution in China.  I understand why someone might see a connection, but the differences are far more significant, starting with the fact that the Cultural Revolution denouncements were instigated by Mao.  Not by the people who were wronged.  

And while I recognize that men's careers might be ruined by false accusations, far, far more women's careers and lives have been ruined by actual sexual harassment and assault.  When the number of men's ruined careers starts approaching 25% of the number of women's ruined lives, then we can start worrying more about false accusation.  Not that we shouldn't call them out.  But it's no reason to dismiss such accusations altogether.

The ideal would be equal power between two people so that anything that might be construed as sexual is consensual.  Here's what it seems like we have to overcome:

Taking advantage of an unequal power relationship.    (I recognize that some might argue that our society, with an assist from nature,  gives extra power to men so this is always the case.  But ask any man who's been turned down for a date, if there are many individual women who have more more power than many individual men.)  Some of the key sources of power:

• Physical Strength - men are often stronger and larger than women and can force themselves on women
• Authority - laws or customs give someone the right to wield power over another - a teacher, a boss, a pastor, a parent, a police officer, a building permit official
• Social Power - society awards greater credibility for all sorts of reasons - persuasiveness, physical attractiveness, occupation, connections, charisma 
• Economic Power - those with money have power over those without

For each of these sources of power, except physical strength, there is an implied transaction.  One person trades sexual favors - from touching to intercourse - for something the other person has the power to give or take away - a grade, a job, a dinner, a passport, a better life, etc.  For men, physical strength can be the clincher if the other forms, in the end, don't get them what they want.  

Are all these equal? Or are some worse than others?  Here's my proposed hierarchy, recognizing that these actions often combine more than one aspect.

• Forcible rape - where there is not even a modicum of consent is the worst.  
• The threat to take away a woman's  job or to otherwise make her life more difficult if she doesn't consent to his overtures.   
• The offer of something she needs or wants in exchange for sex.  

The idea here of consent is conceptual.  Technically, if someone were forced to judge, there could be different levels of consent depending on how necessary or discretionary the given or taken 'item' is.  I think readers can imagine a continuum of scenarios from essentially forced to essentially consensual.  

Sex or Power?   Some argue that all rape is about power, not sex.  As a former young man, I can't help but be skeptical.  Sometimes a cigar is a cigar.  The alcohol, music, and body contact at a bar or party can easily lead a young man to take advantage of a woman, not to exert power, but to have sexual release. But, of course, much of Weinstein's inappropriate touching was a way of showing the world his power as a relatively unattractive man to have beautiful women around him who  allowed him to touch them inappropriately.  And for some (many?) men, power is an aphrodisiac, in which case the power and the sex are combined.  

But one doesn't have to be a powerful mogul to combine sex and power.  All the men for whom sex is the game of pursuing the prey until she submits and who then lose interest after the 'conquest' exhibit some variation of this combined sexual desire and power.  

If there is no other position of power involved, if the sex is not in exchange for something else, things get murkier.  How does one determine consent?  When I was coming of age, girls were supposed to save sex until marriage.  Consent was not socially acceptable.  They were supposed to say no and the boy was supposed to somehow know the difference between a real no and a face saving no that meant, keep going.  Hollywood still gives us countless role models that sex is a hunt - think, for example, of Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother.  Just go through this list of Barney quotes and think about how Marshall, Ted, Robin, and Lily love him despite his predatory behavior.

Is There Ever Equality?  Suppose we have two college students who meet and find each other attractive enough to go out on a date.  Neither has an official position of power over the other.  Yet one might be older, or more attractive, or richer, or more talented, or more socially inept, or more sexually experienced than the other.  They may each have qualities that makes one superior in some ways and inferior in other ways.  One may be more attracted to the other, than the other way around.  Each of these conditions gives a modicum of power to one or the other, though it may change from moment to moment, or month to month.   

It's in this situation that I think we have to give people more space to make mistakes, to experiment, to grow up without serious reprisals.  I'm not talking about men who lie and cheat to get sex.  But I am talking about people who don't yet know who they are or what they want;  who aren't that comfortable with themselves or with others.  I'm talking about people who have difficulty reading non-verbal cues from others.  These people are going to make sexual mistakes.  They need some room to learn how to be in a relationship.  But they also need to recognize that another person is involved and be respectful. [Hmmm, this sounds like an ad for sex education in schools.]  If they get into powerful positions, this pass no longer applies.  Besides, they ought to have enough money to get professional help.

OK, that's a first draft for ways to think about this.

And as I was writing this - I let it sit overnight and then made more changes - I came up with another interesting project:  Make a list of Weinstein brothers films, watch them, and rate them on how women are treated by the men.  (Actually, that's a good thing to do with all movies.  My daughter first suggested that to me long ago.)  To what extent do we as movie goers accept abusive treatment of women in films and thus encourage men to model that behavior?

[UPDATE January 27, 2018:  My daughter also brought the Bechdel test to my attention.  To pass this test a movie must have:
(1)  at least two women in it, who
(2) who talk to each other, about
(3) something besides a man.
Something to pay attention to when you watch movies.]

[We started watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.  I wanted to see why it was so popular.  It's well written, fast paced, funny, and the episodes are short.  It was a good way to take the edge off after heavy shows, like Vietnam.  But really, Barney's behavior toward women is manipulative, devious, and everything that is wrong with perpetual one night stands based on the idea of the hunt.  The show does give glimpses of his inherent loneliness and fear of commitment,  but it glorifies his relentless pursuit of the one night stand, through deceit and with absolutely no regard for the women he pursues.]