Lunch With Rich Curtner (AIFF) And Visit to Seward Highway Planning Meeting

I had lunch with the chair of the Anchorage International Film Festival to catch up on change to how things are being done this year.  Here he's checking films on his phone.  There have been some significant changes with a non-local Festival Programer who is also a film maker who lives in Norway.  Some of that has to do with which films got selected into the festival.  There still were local programmers, but the last word went to the Ida.

Also there were no 'films in competition.'  All films that were selected are eligible for prizes.  But
the juries this year are only partially local.  There are also international jurists and the final decisions rest outside of Anchorage.

And Festival Genius is out and GOELevent is in.  Those are film festival websites for managing the schedules and online ticketing.  I'm just starting to play with GOELevent and there have been some glitches - films that didn't show up when searched and things like that.

Will there be Audience Awards this year?  Stay tuned.  The board meets Saturday to work out remaining decisions.  I did a short video, but I'm having trouble between iMovie and Youtube.  Good thing I tried today so I can get this cleared up before the festival starts.

I'll catch up more on this later.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  A little cooler this morning, but no snow at all and the only ice I saw riding over to lunch was in puddles.

Later I went to Loussac to check out the public meeting on the midtown transportation project.  Basically it's focused on the Seward Highway between Tudor and Fireweed.  They've been working with some community councils and it's a big, long term project.  36th would go under the Seward Highway, then the highway would go below ground under Benson and Northern Lights.

The more I think about this, the more I think there are better ways to spend half a billion dollars.

The bottom/left is going north, the toplight  is going south.  The white box on the right side is Midtown Mall (old Sears Mall) and the white boxes on the upper left are Fred Meyer.  Seward Highway goes underground just before Benson and comes back up after Northern Lights.  They don't have any plans for the large space between the north and south lanes.  


This is another view.



But they also said that most of the traffic coming from the south is going to midtown, so there will still be a lot of traffic crossing Tudor, 36th,  Benson,  Northern Lights, and Fireweed.  There were some predictions of increased traffic in the next 20 years, but even with the long light at 36th and Seward Highway, I can still get most places in Anchorage in 15 minutes (except at 5pm when it might take 20 or 25 minutes.

90% of the 1/2 billion dollar price tag would be paid for by the Federal government, or at least that's the plan.  I can't help but think that the construction industry is going to be the big winners here and folks in Anchorage will get years of torn up roads and then some marginally improved traffic at the end.

Pedestrians and bikes should come out better with wider trails and easier crossings of the Seward Highway.  I don't enjoy crossing the highway on my bike, but I've learned how the lights work and just relax as I wait for them to change.  And I watch out for people making right turns when I have the walk sign.

The only part that I endorse 100% is a fix for the tunnel along Chester Creek at Seward Highway.  Here's a picture of the tunnel and the pipe for the creek now from the east side.  Riding on a bright day, you get into the tunnel and it's hard to see.  Even on a gray day.  And the creek is reduced to a pipe going under the highway.

This is significantly better for bikes, walkers, joggers, and fish.

The biggest benefit is for people driving north and south through midtown.  They won't have to stop for lights.  But people going into midtown will have to stop for lights and people on the east-west streets will still have to cope with lights and traffic coming off the highway.  Pedestrians get shorter streets to cross (going east and west) but it will now take two lights to get across both directions because the median between north and south lanes will be significantly wider.

I want to see clear estimates for how much time people will save.  They mentioned pedestrians who have died in this area crossing streets in the last ten years or so.  The speaker (not the slides) went on to say, "That's just non-motorized deaths."  Really?  These are deaths of pedestrians running into each other?  I'm guessing a motorized vehicle was involved in all the pedestrian deaths.  How many deaths would prevented if we spent $500 million on Medicaid including much better mental health treatment?  A lot more than six I'm sure.

Those are my initial thoughts.  More trees along the Midtown mall parking lot would improve things for a lot less, and fixing some sidewalks.  I think about the Tudor bridge with the very narrow sidewalks.  Why didn't that get reasonable sidewalks from the beginning?  Or when they widened the highway more recently?

What corners are they going to cut when funding doesn't match their current dreams?  Non-motorized transportation will get shortchanged yet again?

I need to be convinced with more details that show this will
a)  indeed improve the flow of traffic significantly
b)  make things much easier for pedestrians, bikes, runners, etc.
c)  give us more bang for our buck (or more benefit for the cost) than spending money on health care and education.

I do recognize that this money is tied to Federal highway monies, so we can get it for the roads, but not the other areas that probably would see much greater benefits.

Anchorage North-South Runway Almost Done. Quiet Starts Oct 1, Maybe

My daughter sent me a picture of the Anchorage airport North-South runway that she took as her plane was leaving two weeks ago.  There it is out past the wing to the north.  I was told a couple of weeks ago that it needed grooving, painting, electrical work, and FAA approval.  Looks like - and admittedly the picture doesn't show all the runway that clearly - most of the work is done.

Checking the project website today, there's nothing new since the August 16, 2019 update.  There really never were very many updates.  The FAQ link still goes to "Not Found" within weeks (I hope) of the two year project.

The Update Video is still the same pre-project video.  The August 16 update was hidden in the Project Documents tab.  I say 'hidden' because the project page had two other links with the word "updates" which didn't give updates.

I talked to Jason Lamoreaux again.  It's still on schedule for October 1 reopening of the North-South Runway.
FAA is due to do inspections Sept 23, 2019.

But I'm still doubtful that the airport did this as fast as it could.  We had the driest summer on record.  What if there had been lots of weather problems?  Lamoreaux assured me that the only weather dependent work was the striping at the end, and that airport employees have to live through the noise as well.  He said they were working 24/7, though the only time I went out to look at the runway, there didn't seem to be much happening.  A few guys working near the fence.

Summary  (since this is getting long)

1.  I accept the need for renewing the runway. 2.  I doubt there was any real concern of the impacts on the people of Anchorage - only to the extent they might complain and interfere.  We've been watching the Netflix series Unbelievable in which the first set of cops interviewing a rape victim are two men who just don't take her seriously.  I'm sure they believe rape is terrible, but the victim wasn't someone they were sympathetic to.  The next set of women detectives were totally different in their empathy to the rape victims they met with.   I feel like the airport's interest has been like the first male detectives.  They wanted to get the job done and how the noise affected the people of Anchorage wasn't a high priority. 3.  Their noise maps that show 65 decibel noise levels end at the airport boundaries are a joke.  The levels are way above 65 decibels over our house often. 4.  I can find no concern - other than compliance with regs - about health or pollution in their reports 5.  Even with a perfect summer for construction, I see no evidence that they are trying to open the north-south runway ahead of schedule so planes can stop taking off over residences non-stop. 6.  Because there are so many other political distractions nationally and in Alaska, people were out of energy to protest something that at least had an end point.  And few were opposed to the idea of renewing the runway. 7.  Nothing will change this time, but they're going to want to do this again in the future and perhaps this documentation (along with last year's) can be helpful in preparation.

I went through the issues last year - the noise, the clearly bogus decibel maps, and how the people of Anchorage were not a high priority in this project.  The concern was for the collective income the city will get from the jobs and all the planes this runway will be able to handle in the future.  But issues like the effects of having 80 - 120 decibel planes flying over your house regularly for four months one summer and six months the next, nah, people just have to live with that.

My complaint isn't that they're 'renewing' the runway and making it wider.  I understand that will have impacts on those of us who normally enjoy the fact that the airport is a short ride away.  My concern is the project managers' apparent lack of concern for the public, shown by the lack of updates on their website AND their apparent lack of interest in getting the project done as quickly as possible.  We have had a summer of warm, rainless days.  Conditions couldn't have been better. But apparently we're going to have to have those planes rumbling overhead until the originally scheduled deadline.  Maybe Lamoreaux is right.  He sounds like a nice enough guy on the phone, but the website had very little information other than what they were required to put up.  Normally DOT has much more information with time lines and milestones for road building projects.  We had nothing like that for this project.  And the updates, for the most part, didn't exist.

And the noise is more than an annoyance if you live right on the flight path - which covers a large swath from mid-town to South Anchorage.  These decibel levels can have long time effects on people's hearing, on their blood pressure, and on their sleep which leads to other problems.  None of that shows up in their environmental impacts.  Nor do the fumes of all these planes falling on Anchorage.  Most of the EIS addresses problems from the actual construction and not the change in flight patterns that has had ALL planes in what the airport touts as one of the busiest airports in the world, flying over much of the city.

"Mitigation and Environmental Commitments
The environmental commitments below would be implemented to minimize impacts during and after constructing the proposed project. The terms, conditions, and stipulations of all environmental permits and clearances would also be met. All commitments will be part of the construction contract specifications.
Air Quality
Measures to control fugitive dust, such as pre-watering sites prior to excavation, covering or stabilizing material stockpiles, covering truckloads, removing particulate matter from wheels prior to leaving the construction site, and removing particulate matter deposited on public roads, would be implemented during construction. No vehicles, trucks, or heavy equipment would be allowed to idle unnecessarily. All motorized construction equipment would be routinely maintained and serviced.
Noise
DOT&PF has, in extensive coordination and research with ANC operations, air traffic control and the air carriers researched all possible mitigation measures to reduce temporary increased noise from aircraft departing to the east when RW 15/33 is shut down for approximately six months for construction during construction season one and possibly construction season two. The only feasible option resulting from coordination and research to mitigate this increased aircraft noise (as predicted by noise modeling) is DOT&PF would issue a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM). The NOTAM would request air carriers to follow noise abatement procedures to reduce noise impacts over the noise sensitive areas east of the Airport which would experience a significant increase in noise during the RW 15/33 construction shut down. Air carriers can choose to adopt or not adopt the NOTAM recommendations. The public would be notified in advance of construction activities via the project email list and project web site. The public would have access to the project web site and ANC contact information for construction updates and inquiries."

There is reference to a 1978 study that talks about health effects over 65 decibels:

"FAA’s and FICON’s findings support Schultz’s widely-accepted 1978 research.13 That research indicated the level of transportation noise to which a community is exposed is directly related to the community’s health, welfare, and annoyance. Schultz’s work, and FICON’s reassessment of that work, showed cumulative noise levels above DNL 65 decibels (dB) cause community annoyance levels that make noise sensitive land uses (i.e., residences, schools, churches, hospitals and certain businesses) incompatible with airport operations.
According to FAA Order 1051.1F Desk Reference, Chapter 11, for aviation noise analyses, the FAA has determined the cumulative noise energy exposure of individuals to noise resulting from aviation activities must be established in terms of yearly DNL, the FAA’s primary noise metric."

Their map shows that the DNL of 65 ends at the edge of the airport, but that's totally bogus.  I went through all this in one of last year's posts.  They mention noise, but they don't mention the kinds of things high decibel noise does to people.

Again, maybe they did it in lightening speed.  But I only have their very undetailed assurances of that.

This is here then, so that people can start getting prepared and know what questions to ask before   the North-South Runway needs to be renewed again, in I'm not sure how many more years. (Lamoreaux didn't know.  He told me to call the airport.  I told him I did and they transferred me to him.)

Next time we want to see:

1.  Detailed plans with milestones and dates for when each milestone is met and who's responsible.
2.  More realistic measures of decibel levels where the planes are taking off over the city.
3.  Plans to measure the decibel level in various locations well beyond the airport boundaries
4.  More options for reducing the number of planes and the duration of planes flying over the city.
5.  Plans in the scheduling for speeding things up (reducing the time planes fly over the city) if things go well.

That's just a starting list.  Noise matters to people's health and well being.  Reducing what residents of Anchorage are exposed to should be a high priority next time.

City Planning Dept Holds Community Meeting On Waldron Lake Planning

Here's Waldron Lake from a 2012 post when the area was flooding.










At the church across the street from the Waldron Lake Park parking lot (where apparently people don't have legal access to park), the Muni held an initial community input meeting.

I put to pics together and you can tell if you look carefully - even not so carefully

Here's a map of the area - I added street names  The park is the area in yellow.


Here's some background from the MOA (Municipality of Anchorage - AKA Muni) website on this project:

"PROJECT OVERVIEW
Waldon Lake Park is Anchorage’s newest park.  In 2015, the Municipality of Anchorage purchased the property from the Boys & Girls Club of Southcentral Alaska for $3.92M with funds from an Alaska State Legislative Grant.
The 16.95 acre park is zoned PLI and will remain parkland into the future.  To ensure that future development of the park meets the needs of the community, Anchorage Parks and Recreation is developing a master plan."

It's hard to think of it as a new park.  My daughter played soccer there 30 some years ago.  But it's new as an MOA official park.

There were no formal presentations.  People could look at the maps and prior comments and talk with MOA employees in charge of this.

If you click on it, it will focus better

Here are some maps of the land over the years.  1960-70 appears to be when the area developed.

If you missed the meeting and want to be involved, here's the MOA web page for this.

Looking At Media Past and Future - Ron Rosenbaum and Journalism After Snowden

[NOTE: This post began focused on the folly of not preventing disaster, an idea I've been toying with for a while as I try to make the point that while we will eventually get past Trump, it's going to cost us enormously, and the wounds will never completely go way.  The opening of Rosenbaum's piece seemed a good opportunity to make the point, but as I wrote, the issues of journalism under suppression became a more important focus.  Thus you get this post which goes in two different directions.  Sorry.]

Prevention has been part of American tradition since this country was founded.  

Ben Franklin, arguing for the creation of a fire department in Philadelphia wrote that "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

We have lots of similar maxims, like "Shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted" and " A stitch in time saves nine."

Fram oil filters ran a very popular ad where the oil filter dealer says, "You can me pay now" and then the mechanic says, "or pay me later."

Image from Smokey Bear history

Smokey the Bear has been telling people since the 1950s that "Only you can prevent forest fires."

The point of all of them is that preventing a disaster from happening is MUCH less costly than repairing the damage afterwards.

Not preventing Trump's election is going to cost Americans and the world a great deal of suffering and pain, emotional, physical, and financial.

So I was a little disturbed by the opening of this LABook Review piece by Ron Rosenbaum, journalist and author of Explaining Hitler, when he wrote that he'd refused requests to write about Trump, until after Trump won the election.  I understand people's reluctance to use Hitler comparisons and I'm not saying that his words would have prevented Trump from being elected, but he, of all people, knew what had happened in the past.  He explains that he simply did not see Trump at the same level as Hitler.

Hitler’s method was to lie until he got what he wanted, by which point it was too late. At first, he pledged no territorial demands. Then he quietly rolled his tanks into the Rhineland. He had no designs on Czechoslovakia — just the Sudetenland, because so many of its German-born citizens were begging him to help shelter them from persecution. But soon came the absorption of the rest of Czechoslovakia. After Czechoslovakia, he’d be satisfied. Europe could return to normal. Lie! 

There is, of course, no comparison with Trump in terms of scale. His biggest policy decisions so far have been to name reprehensible figures to various cabinet posts and to enact dreadful executive orders. But this, too, is a form of destruction. While marchers and the courts have put up a fight after the Muslim ban, each new act, each new lie, accepted by default, seems less outrageous. Let’s call it what it is: defining mendacity down.

But the article is definitely worth reading.  It mainly chronicles how the Munich Post was the first and main newspaper to expose Hitler's past and plans.   The article is a cry, now, for people to defend the media against attacks from Trump, and the likelihood that Trump will try to shut opposition media down.

His final words about the Munich Post are not reassuring.  But his appeal to the reader is important.

"The Munich Post lost, yes. Soon their office was closed. Some of the journalists ended up in Dachau, some “disappeared.” But they’d won a victory for truth. A victory over normalization. They never stopped fighting the lies, big and small, and left a record of defiance that was heroic and inspirational. They discovered the truth about “endlösung” before most could have even imagined it. The truth is always worth knowing. Support your local journalist." (emphasis added)

A more forward looking view of journalism comes in a new book, Emily Bell and Taylor Owen's (eds) Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State.  Neiman Reports reviewer Clay Shirky says the book argues that the globalization of media means that reporters can get around local suppression by getting their stories into publications outside their national boundaries.  In this quote Shirky is discussing an article in the edited book that Shirky wrote himself:

"The potential for a global news network has existed for a few decades, but its practical implementation is unfolding in ours. This normalization of transnational reporting networks reduces the risk of what engineers call a “single point of failure.” As we saw with Bill Keller’s craven decision not to publish James Risen’s work on the National Security Agency in 2004, neither the importance of a piece of political news nor its existence as a scoop is enough to guarantee that that it will actually see the light of day. The global part is driven by the need for leakers to move their materials outside national jurisdictions. The network part is driven by the advantages of having more than one organization with a stake in publication."

A key message I get from this review of the book is that suppression of the media is much bigger than Trump, and the media is discovering ways around state censorship through the development of international media networks.

AIFF2016: Suggestions for Next Year's Film Festival

Overall, the 2016 Festival went well.  There were lots of good films, lots of visiting film makers, and some nice extra touches - like music before some films.  On the opening night, for instance, the Alaska based band whose music was in the opening night film, played before the film.  That was some thoughtful planning.

But there are always improvements to be made and here is my list for next year.

1.  Scheduling -

This is my biggest issue.  Here are two guidelines I'd like the schedulers to strive to follow.


A.  Maximize number of films someone can see.  From one time slot to another, there should be enough time for viewers to get to any of the next films.   Here's an example of what I mean.  Below is the first Saturday morning schedule. ( I realize it's hard to see the details, but you can get the basics points.)

Top row (A,B,C,D) - films that began between 11:30am and 12.  The blue-green stars indicate how many of the four following films a viewer has enough time to get to.
Someone watching film B could get to four.
Someone watching A or C could get to three.
Someone watching D could only get to two.

The pea-green circles show the number of prior films from which one could get to  the next set of films (E, F, G, and H).

Why not schedule the end times and starting times so someone could get from any of the first four to any of the second four?  This also has to take into consideration walking distance between venues.

All it takes is paying attention to
a.  how long each program is
b.  adjusting the starting times (and thus the ending times) of A, B, C, and D 
c.  adjusting the starting times of E, F, G, and H

They didn't need big adjustments as the following image shows.  A few minutes this way and that.

By starting the longest showings of A, B, C, and D a little earlier and slightly adjusting the starting times of E, F, G, and H, the movie goers' options are greatly improved.  They can see ANY of the following four films from any of the previous four films.  And it can work for the next set of films (I, J, K, and L) as well.

If someone is trying to see two particular films, it's not possible if the two are playing in the same slot.  Festival goers understand they can't see every film.   But one shouldn't have conflicts between slots.  (Slot meaning here - all the films that are showing between, say, 11:30 and 1pm, and then 1:15 and 3pm, etc.)

B.  It should be easy to see the films in competition in each category.

Films in competition are the ones the reviewers thought were the best.  I haven't always agreed, but overall, that's a good guide for picking out better films in a very crowded, generally unknown field.  So it should be easy to find and to watch the films in competition in each category.

For feature length films 

a.  they shouldn't be shown at the same time
b.  they should be marked as films in competition so it's easy to identify them
c.  as much as possible, feature length docs and features, shouldn't play at the same time

Shorts and supershorts
These are more complicated because they are shown in programs with other films.

a.  put as many shorts in competition together in the same program as possible
b.  don't have orphans - just one film in competition in any program
c.  put the films in competition at the beginning or end so someone doesn't have to sit through the whole program to catch them
d.  show more of the short, particularly the short shorts, before feature length films - this year, for example, "Arrival" was shown on GayLa night before "Real Boy."
e.  pay attention to which films are repeated in different showings - there were some shorts I saw three or four times and others I never got to see

2.  Other Issues 

Indicate Films in Competition in the list of selected films on the website
This has been the usual practice, but this year this was only done for the Docs and Short Docs.  There was a place for them to be marked, but they just weren't.  Even though the festival was notified in advance, it didn't get done.  Aside from alerting viewers, it's important information that verifies what a film maker says about her film.

Memberships - I don't know how many people are aware of AIFF memberships, what they mean, and what benefits members get. (I don't.)  Membership is not pushed on the website or at the festival.  I suspect more people would join if it were pushed a little.

Locations
49th Brewery basement room - all seats are at the same level and the screen isn't elevated so it is hard to see films,  particularly those with subtitles.  On weekend nights there was a lot of noise from nearby rooms.  Having food available is good.

Alaska Experience Small Theater - temperature regular goes from cold to hot to cold to hot.  If you sit under a vent it's really bad.  Also latecomers have to walk in at the front and opening the door lights up the screen.  Otherwise, it's a cozy little theater.

When scheduling, remember that it probably takes about ten minutes to get from the Brewery to the Alaska Experience and another ten or so to the museum.

Award titles - get them consistent
  Generally, the awards have been titled:  Winner, First Runner Up, and Honorable Mention.  But at least one of the announcers at the Awards ceremonies used other names, like Winner, Second Place, and Third Place.  I'm not sure the official names are the best.  Would someone not associated with the festival who hears "Honorable Mention" realize this is a third place honor?  It might be useful for the board to consider what names they want to use.  And then get everyone to use them consistently.

World Premiers - Mark any films that are world or North American premiers in the schedule, online, and announce it before the film is shown.

Computer Instructions  -  The audience shouldn't have to see the projectionist's computer screen.  It happened often enough - particularly at the Alaska Experience Theater - to be something worth mentioning here.



All that said, I think this was one of the better run festivals.  The volunteers were great - helpful, cheery, thinking on their feet.   The festival remains low key and, from what I hear from the film makers, one of the most hospitable festivals around.

Walkable Cities Circa 1669

As we prepare for a trip to Paris, I've been doing some reading.  Joan DeJean's How Paris Became Paris  offers lots of history of how Paris became, in many eyes, the world's greatest city.  

Image of Louis XIV, 1661 from Wikipedia

Louis XIV began by conquering land controlled by the Spanish Netherlands which thus moved Paris
from a border city to a city more in the center of the country.  Then he built fortification along the country's new frontiers.  He then wanted to get rid of the walls that fortified Paris (and most other cities then) and open Paris up.

"At a time when other European cities remained as they had been for centuries, fortified units enclosed within walls designed for their protection . . . Louis XIV decided to redefine the city.
Rather than shore up the ragtag fortifications that surrounded his capital, as many were encouraging him to do, the king announced that france was in such a strong position militarily that Paris no longer needed to be enclosed with a system of defenses.  He ordered all of its walls demolished, parts had been built by his father, while other sections dated from the reign of Charles V in the fourteenth century.  This decision sounded the death knell for medieval Paris.
The king had the fortifications replaced with parallel rows of elms, what he later described as "a rampart of trees all around the city's rim."  The green wall was soon given a mission:  it was to sere as a cours, a gigantic walkway or space for communal walking - more than one hundred and twenty feet wide and extending, in the description of one of its architects, "in a straight line as far as the eye can see."

"In 1600, there was no public walking space in the city.  Then, with its sidewalks, the Pont Neuf had introduced Parisians to a new way of experiencing a city on foot, and the Pace Royale had given them their first recreational space.  Louis XIV applied these concepts on a citywide scale.  As a result, by 1700, Paris had become the original ret walking city, a place where people walked not just to get around but for pleasure." 

No wonder that, later in the 1700s, people like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin enjoyed their time in Paris so much.  

In partnership with the official in charge of the royal finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and François Blondel, 'among the most brilliant architects of the age,'  Louis XIV transformed Paris.

"The city of which LouisXIV 'took possession' in 1660 still had the layout of a medieval city:  most of its streets were mere alleyways, narrow and dark.  This detail from Braun's 1572 map shows how such premodern streets functioned:  they helped people negotiate only their immediate neighborhood.  Indeed, in the early seventeenth century, the French word rue or street designated simply 'any passageway between houses or between walls.'  Late-seventeenth-century dictionaries further advised that 'when walking Paris, one should always take these big streets.'  In less than a century, the rebuilding of Paris had transformed the concept of a street."
"In the late sixteenth century, when municipal authorities first evoked the possibility of creating broader streets, anything over fifteen feet wide was considered impossibly huge.  By 1700, the French Royal Academy of Architecture had begun to establish norms: its members determined that a width of twenty-one feet was 'an absolute minimum.'  Several years later, Delamare noted that 'the average width of a Parisian street is now between thirty and thirty-two feet.'"

"When their plans made it necessary to demolish existing public works, in an early instance of what is now called historic preservation, the city's architects studied them carefully to determine their architectural merit.  Thus, in the case of the double Saint-Antoine gate, Blondel decided that one could be torn down but not the other, 'because of the beauty of its bas-reliefs' by noted sixteenth-centurysculptor Jean Goujon and of 'the exceptional design' of one of its archways.  The resulting blend of old and new was universally praised;  an eighteenth-century historian of the city still considered it 'the most successful of Paris' gates."

Porte Saint Antoine 1671 image from Wikipedia (click to enlarge and focus)

Wikipedia says the gate was demolished in 1788 because it was an impediment to traffic.

There's a description of paving Paris with cobblestones (seven to eight inches square, eight to ten inches thick).

From the start, those cobblestones were presented as essential to the cit's beauty.  Until the 1660s, the municipality had simply encouraged individual property owners to clean in front of their homes.  But in November 1665 the inception of official street-cleaning was announced in the press:  '4,000 men have begun to rid our superb city of dirt.'  The newsman, adrien Persou de Subligny, explained that the kind had taken time off from his military campaigns to make sure Paris was running properly and had decided on this new measure.  The following year another journalist declared that 'our paving stones are now gleaming.'

Lots to think about.  Visionary, holistic planning can do amazing things.  They did have to tear down old building but they were careful about how they did it according to DeJean.  No wholesale razing of buildings as the Chinese have done in the last couple of decades.  On the other hand, there were grand Chinese cities well before this.

No Kill, No Catch Mouse Trap And Other Maintenance Adventures

Living would be truly great if one didn't have to spend so much time just keeping things maintained.  But such isn't the case.  While the film festival was going on, we are also trying to maintain, and in some cases, even get ahead.

First issue was health.  Our granddaughter shared her cold/cough with us when we saw her over Thanksgiving.  It wasn't debilitating, but it sure was persistent.  You can tell how the news infiltrates our minds by the metaphor I started using.  My body is mostly back to normal, but there are still insurgents hiding, taking advantage of any weak points they can find.  Fortunately for you, the Film Festival kept me too busy to do a post on phlegm.

Last week we had the plumber out because the upstairs thermostat wasn't working.  He fixed that, but while he was here he noticed a leak in the new water heater that he installed in September.  (It's good to have the same guy come out.)  The good news is that it's tiny and not urgent so it doesn't have to be done immediately.  The better news is that it's still under warranty for parts AND labor.  It's good to have honest workers.  He could have overlooked it, but he didn't.

While I was cleaning things up (what I do instead of looking for something, which always leads to frustration because I never find it;  but if I clean up, I'll find other things and get something done even if I don't find what I was looking for), I found the notice we got from Subaru last July saying the passenger airbag on J's car needed to be replaced but they don't have the parts yet and will notify us when they do.  It's almost six months now.  What originally caught my attention was the part that said

". . .the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the vehicle occupants potentially resulting in serious injury or death."

So I called the number and asked why, almost six months later I hadn't gotten a new notice, that it's really a hassle not letting anyone sit in the passenger seat.   He got me a name and number of the local Subaru dealer.  The dealer set up an appointment for January (since it was going to take a week or more to get the part and we're headed out of town.)  But they called back later that day, and today J took her car in and got the new airbag.

I picked up some copies of Peter Dunlap-Shohl's My Degeneration at Blue.Holloman gallery at 36th and Arctic, and I'll do a post on that book before too long.  Peter's been blogging about his Parkinson's adventure for years now, rendering it something like a superhero comic book about fighting the forces of his disease.  You can see parts of it at his blog Off and On: The Alaska Parkinson's Rag  which I've had in my Alaska Blogs list on the right for a long time now.  It's a great book for anyone with Parkinson's and probably better for the people around them, who are trying to figure out what's going on.

I bought a mouse trap.  I'm calling it my No Kill - No Catch trap.  There's a very cute mouse who's moved in and runs around the living room and kitchen, and sometimes goes downstairs.  So far, I haven't had my camera handy when I've seen him and he moves pretty fast.

Every website about catching mice said to use peanut butter.  We only had almond butter and maybe that's too healthy.

The closest I've gotten to capturing him on the camera are footprints in the snow.  But I'm not really sure if these are mice or not or how he gets from outside to inside.  Maybe he opens the sliding glass door to let his friends in when we're out.

I've been trying to spend at least 30 minutes a day going through the boxes I throw things in to clean up when company's coming.  When they're in the boxes it seems easier to go through them and toss things or put other things where they belong.  My mom's house is a great incentive to clean up here.

And I'm looking forward to 2016 because I bought this planner that appealed to my current mood.

For each week, it's got a page with the following categories:

• Things I have to do but that can wait a day, or two, or three ...

• Small things I have to do before I can do the big things I have to do

• Things I absolutely have to do unless I absolutely don't want to do them

• Things people have been bugging me to do for a really long time

I'll let you know how it works out.

[Sorry for reposting - more Feedburner problems]

AIFF 2015: Sunday Preview

There's lots of great stuff today.  The best option is to go to the scheduling website - click here - where you can see the schedule in different useful ways.  Just put your cursor over the Schedule tab for the drop down menu and experiment.






 There are just too many interesting films for me to cover and different things will interest different people.  So you have to do it yourself.

There's a movie about Tlingit soldiers in Vietnam (Hunting In War Time), a Bangladeshi woman (Under Construction), a 90 something woman who directs her first play (Janey Makes a Play),  a horse headed for the glue factory, that's rescued and goes on to be a champion (Harry and Snowman).  Children of the Arctic follows the lives of Barrow youth.

There are a number of features - including one about three young men forced to go on an adventure together to fulfill the conditions of their father's will (When the Ocean Met The Sky.)

There's a short documentary program.

And there's an archival movie involving Alaska that was recently discovered (High Treason).

Just pick something and enjoy what an international festival like this offers us.

Below is a screenshot of the simple schedule (the links don't work here, but it's clean and fast).  Go here to see the list with descriptions.

Sunday, December 6 

 

12:00pm

Harry & Snowman Circus Without Borders 

1:00pm

Made in Alaska Shorts 

1:30pm

Janey Makes a Play 

2:00pm

Hunting in Wartime 

2:30pm

When the Ocean Met the Sky 

3:00pm

No Greater Love 

3:30pm

Stink! 

4:00pm

STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast 

5:00pm

Children of the Arctic 

5:30pm

Short Docs 

6:00pm

Under Construction 

7:30pm

High Treason (1929) 

8:00pm

Death on a Rock 

 

AIFF 2015: Figuring Out The New Schedule Software SCHED

The Anchorage International Film Festival seems to have abandoned Festival Genius - a film festival specific software program - for a  more generic event scheduling program called SCHED.  I'm just starting to figure it out.   You can skip this post and check it out yourself here.  (I'd note that SCHED does list film festivals as one of the kinds of events it is 'perfect for.')

Some first impressions:

• It looks simpler
• It doesn't seem to have the many ways Festival Genius allowed people to search and sort for specific types of films, specific times, venues, or to create a variety of schedule formats.
• It's color coded films by genre.
• There are drop down windows that tell you more about each film including when and where it plays.
• There's information about who is attending.
• It's social media connected and interactive.
• It seems to have good mobile applications

On the actual website, you could click on any of the colored bars and get a drop down window with info about the film and when and where you can see it.  But there's a lot of different colors and when you scroll down, you lose the legend that tells you what the colors mean. 

Click to enlarge and focus

OK, I'd gotten to know my way around Festival Genius, and it took a bit of time, so I don't want to judge this yet.  I want to see how easy this will be for finding out when, say, all the docs play, or all the features in competition play.  I want to see how easy I can see how much time I have from the end of one film to the beginning of another and how easy it is to see all the films at one venue for the afternoon.  Once I got the hang of Festival Genius, it could do all this kind of fancy sorting.

The print version looks like it allows you to see all the important information (but not the details about the film itself) all on one page.   Actually, now that I look carefully at the print version - you can do lots of different sorting there.  GET TO THE PRINT VERSION from the regular schedule - upper right.  See pink circle in image below.  Once you're in the print version, the sort boxes are in the upper right side.

Click to enlarge and focus

And there is a page with guides to personalizing the schedule.

From what I could figure out so far, I can pick films I want to see and it will set up a schedule, but I can't see some of the timing and location overlaps and conflicts before I pick a film.  But maybe that's in there.  I know I had to create some of these things myself - like all the features in competition over the week - but FG made it fairly easy to get the information. 

I would note that I never registered for Festival Genius because it required more personal info about me than I wanted to give it.  That wasn't a factor with SCHED. 

The Privacy Policy doesn't have anything that raised any red flags for me - though these days it's hard to know the implications of the language.  But I did notice that because they don't collect information about people under 13 years of age, such people can't sign up.  (Well, of course they can, but SCHED seems to be giving itself an out if they do.):

"8. No Collection of Children's Personal Information.

Our Services are intended for general audiences and commercial use and are not intended for and may not be used by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 13 and delete any information We believe to be in violation of this provision."

There was nothing to tell me that people under 13 cannot register I registered.

This clause from Your Data and Responsibilities gave me some pause.

"We need to be able to use your data to provide you with our Services and you are granting us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and distribute Your Data in any existing or future media as we deem appropriate. You also grant to us the right to sub-license these rights."

I'm not sure what this all might mean for me.  I don't expect to be putting much information up there, but I'm guessing all the information that AIFF puts up now belongs to SCHED.  This was the kind of legal language the Anchorage Daily News (now the Alaska Dispatch) used that scared me off as a blogger when they were reaching out to local bloggers.  Why would I want to give them rights to use my materials like this?  It seemed like a one way benefit.

And I'm hoping that posting the screen shot above from SCHED won't get me in trouble - I couldn't tell from the legal language.  I'm assuming this is fair use since I'm sort of reviewing this software.

So, I like the colors, but I'm leery that getting the kinds of information that Festival Genius offered will be much harder.  I haven't talked to anyone at the Festival about the change yet.  I'm guessing this is a lot cheaper for them. 


Given the ability to sort in the print version, I think this is going to be just fine.