AIFF2022: Busy Saturday Starts With Kids Program, Ends With Recommended French Film - All at Museum

I started thinking about the Anchorage International Film Festival late this year, so I'm not as organized as I have been in past years.  

My sense, from reading the online program, was that there are a lot fewer films, turned out to be correct.  Just 75.  But the positive spin is that none are shown in conflict, so you can see them all.  

Friday night's Turkish film The Last Birds of Passage, was a poignant narrative feature on a Turkish minority group that travels 400 kilometers with its goats and camels to the summer grazing grounds and 400 back.  The migration in the film is faced with lots of obstacles - from within the family and from changes in the landscape they have to cross.  The filmmaker was there for a charming Q&A by Zoom after the film and is scheduled to be in Anchorage Wednesday.

I haven't figured out how to find a page on the website that shows all the films for one day AND when they are playing.  So I've tried to  put that altogether here.  

But here's the Saturday lineup - all at the Anchorage Museum Auditorium

Saturday

10am  Shorts - Kids A Bonanza

Birthday Wish • 

Footprints in the Forest • 

Rain • 

Santa Doesn''t Need Your Help • 

Snowflakes • 

SPIRIT: A Martian Story • 

The Social Chameleon

12pm  Big Crow  -  

"Born in 1974 on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SuAnne had become one of the state’s best basketball players by age 14. By the time of her tragic death in a car accident at age 17, her wisdom, leadership, and determination had made her a household name across the Great Plains. 27 years later, SuAnne’s legacy has proven legendary - everyone you meet on “the Rez” has a story about how SuAnne’s spirit continues to galvanize the Lakota in their fight to reclaim their language and save their culture, embracing what Su called “a better way”. From AIFF website

2pm  Shorts - Made in Alaska

Kakiñiit •  I talked to the director Patrick Hoffman at the opening.  His film is about traditional Alaska Native tattooing.

Sabor Ártico: Latinos En Alaska (Arctic Flavor: Latinos in Alaska) • 

Safe Enough

4pm  Crows are White - Museum

"For over a thousand years, a secretive Buddhist sect has lived in an isolated monastery in Japan performing acts of extreme physical endurance in their pursuit of enlightenment. In CROWS ARE WHITE, filmmaker Ahsen Nadeem is struggling to reconcile his desires with his faith and sets off to the strict monastery in search of answers. Ahsen is not immediately welcomed and the only monk who will speak with him is an outcast who prefers ice cream and Slayer to meditation. Together they forge an unlikely friendship that leads them to higher truths and occasionally, a little trouble. Shot over five years on three continents, CROWS ARE WHITE is an exploration of truth, faith and love, from the top of a mountain to the bottom of a sundae." From AIFF2022 site.

6pm - SHORTS: Different Kind of Love Stories

Burros • 

Honeymoon at Cold Hollow • 

Jelly Bean • 

Lead/Follow • 

Peanut Factory • 

Star-Crossed • 

The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms • T

oo Rough

8pm  You Resemble Me - Museum - This one got strong reviews from people I spoke to.

"Cultural and intergenerational trauma erupt in this story about two sisters on the outskirts of Paris. After the siblings are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity, leading to a choice that shocks the world. Director Dina Amer takes on one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructs it in an intimate story about family, love, sisterhood, and belonging."  From AIFF website.

Alaska COVID-19 Count Tuesday April 28, 2020 - 6 New Cases

We're moving back up, though I don't think this yet reflects the change in the Governor's or the Mayor's policies.  Instead I suspect it reflects that while we've had restrictive rules, lots of people have been out without masks.  I biked yesterday and I was the only person I saw who had his face covered.  Too many people aren't taking this seriously.  While most folks probably won't have to deal with much more than a week of illness, or less, if they get the virus, there are still many others who will have a much nastier illness and some will even die.  The more people out there spreading the virus (without a mask, asymptomatic folks will be giving it to others), the more people will get infected, the more that will get seriously sick, and the more who will die.

So we had six more cases with a total of 351 people who have tested positive.  37 have been sick enough to be hospitalized.  228 have recovered and 9 will never recover because they died.


My Calendar Chart

CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ALASKA MARCH/APRIL 2020
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
new/total	hos=hospital		12th  = 0/0	13th = 1/1	14th = 0/1	15th = 0/1
16th = 0/1	17th = 2/3	18th = 3/6	19th = 3/9	20th = 3/12	21st= 2/14	22nd= 8/22
23rd=14/36	24th =6/42 1 hos 1 dead	25th = 17/59 3 hos 1 dead	26th = 10/69 3 hos 1 dead	27th =16/89 5 hos 2 dead	28th = 13/102 6 hos 2 dead	29th= 12/114 7 hos  3 dead
30th=5/119 7 hos 3 dead	31st= 14/133 9 hos 3 dead
April 2020		1st=  10/143 9 hos 3 dead	2nd=8(6)/149 13 hos 3 dead	3rd=8(11)157 15 hos 3 dead	4th=15/171 16 hos 5 dead	5th= 14/185 20 hos 6 dead
6th=6/191 23 hosp 6 dead	7th= 22/213 23 hosp 6 Dead29 recovered	8th= 13/226 27 hosp 7 dead 32 recovered	9th= 9/235 27 hosp 7 dead 49 recovered	10th=11/246 28 hosp 7 dead 55 recovered	11th=11/257 31 hosp 8 dead 63 recovered	12th= 15/272 31 hosp 8 dead 66 recovered
13th= 5/277 32 Hosp 8 dead 85 Recovered	14th = 8/285 32 Hosp 9 dead 98 Recovered	15th= 8/293 34 Hosp 9 dead 106 Recovered	16th= 7/300 35 hosp 9 dead 110 recovered	17th=  9/309 36 hosp 9 dead 128 recovered	18th =  5/315 36 hos 9 dead 147 Recovered	19th= 4/319 36 hos 9 dead 153Recovered
20th 2/321 36 hos 9 dead 161 recovered	21st 8/329 36 hos 9 dead 168 recovered	22nd  6/335 36 hos  9 dead 196recovered	23nd  2/337 36 hos  9 dead 209recovered	24th  2/339 36 hos  9 dead 208recovered (-1 from 4/23)	25th  0/339 36 hos  9 dead 217recovered	26th  2/341 36 hos  9 dead 217recovered
27th  4/345 37 hos  9 dead 218recovered	28th  6/351 37 hos  9 dead 228 recovered

State Charts

I've been making these screen shots high resolution so you can click on them to enlarge and focus.  But if you want to use the chart interactively, go to the State site to play with the original and other charts they have. 


My Day-To-Day Chart

Alaska Covid-19 Data NewFor... by Steve on Scribd

This got posted late today because while it was almost finished, I had a zoom request from my granddaughter and that lasted on and off for several hours.  We did some of her homework, we took out the compost here and I showed her the daffodils coming up.  She showed me the dead daffodil flowers at her house and walked me around the place three times.  We played "Take Me Chess" which was a new game for me.  The winner is the one who loses their king first.  If you can take the other person's piece, you have to.  And then she told me she wanted to learn to knit.  She had two needles and some yarn.  So I found a learn to knit video and we used screen share and watched it as she learned how to make a slip knot and attach it to her needle.  Then she learned to do the first row of stitches.  Her battery was low so she couldn't move the computer to the keyboard where she had to practice piano.  So I called my friend in Chicago and while we were talking, Z got back on Zoom, so we got my friend to join us there.  One thing tends to lead to another.  I also got a request from someone to remove a link from an old post called "Who Owns Your Tattoo?"  The link wasn't working any more.  The emailer said he'd set up a 'playpen site' for a friend to experiment with but the account is no longer active and

"Would you mind removing that link? I'm looking at some server issues because the Google Bots, for one reason or another have taken a mad interest in it..."

So I was looking for an alternative to the link I'd had there when my granddaughter zoomed me.  So I've changed the link now.  Stuff just adds up.  We've had wonderful sunny days the last few days.

And talking about tattoos, it occurred to me yesterday, with the news that tattoo shops could open now, that possibly people might want Coronavirus tattoos.  So I called four local shops.  I had to leave messages at two.  But Trish, at The Hole Look, said they weren't open yet.  They needed a few days to be ready for the new guidelines.  When I asked about Coronavirus tattoos, she laughed and said, "You know, one artist joked about that, but said it would be bad juju to sign your name on it."
Christina, at Unique Ink, also said they won't open until May 1 and that you'll need an appointment, and they're making forms for people to fill out.  She hadn't thought about Coronavirus tattoos, but said, "Sure, we could do that.  Probably people will want that."

I'd like to mention my previous post.  It's one I think is important, so if you haven't seen it I'd recommend it.  Even if you just go to see the cartoon at the top which serendipitously showed up as I was starting to write the post.  It's about the book The Overstory, in which trees are the heroes and people the villains.  But the post pulls in a lot more related ideas as well.  It seems my title didn't get the message across.

Rob's Tattoo Honors His Mom

I was heading back to my bike and he was pushing a stroller at the Anchorage 4th of July festival.

There was some small talk and I asked about the tattoos.  I've done some tattoo posts, but not many.*

As someone who won't write in a book with anything more permanent than a pencil, I'm not the sort of person who would likely get a tattoo.  But obviously it appeals to many.  For some folks there's lots of meaning.   So I asked Rob and he was more than ready to share.  Here's his answer:




Rob, I hope you get to see this.  Sorry, it took me much longer than I expected to get it up here.  If you know Rob, let him know it's here.






*It turns out I mentioned tattoos in a lot more posts than I realized (21 including this one.)  And that I left the third 't' out of tattoo many times.  I've gone through and fixed the typos - though it got me a lot of hits from people who misspelled tattoo in google - and added the label (tag) tattoo to all the posts with the word in it.  Of all of them there are three I'd recommend:

Burma Border Run 6c:  Tattoo, Birds, Thai Yai Village  - this was the first post (2008) with a tattoo - of a dragon on the back of a man in Burma.  At the time I didn't know about the book The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I didn't understand why the post was getting so many hits.

Sold Out, Anthony's Arm, Moving Conversation - only a few weeks later, while visiting my son, I met his friend Anthony, who had one incredibly tattooed arm which I highlighted in this post.

Who Owns Your Tattoo?  - an interesting legal question about whether the tattoo artist retains rights to the design on your body should you choose to cash in on it.  The question isn't as absurd as it first sounds.





Going through all the posts about with tattoos got me to this post on interesting google searches.  I used to do such posts every few months, but at some point google stopped showing everybody's search terms.  Some still slip through, but not many.  I think it probably helps people's privacy a little bit, but it was interesting to see how folks got to the site.

[Feedburner's been getting things up generally within 24 hours, those sometimes not at all.  I've let it slide lately, but I'll try to repost this one and see if this one goes up to the blogrolls.  Sorry to subscribers who get duplicate emails.][11:45pm - this reposted version made it through.  I'll take down the original post.]

Phlox and Flax and Sweeney Todd

Great day today and the flowers are summer show.  I very accidentally planted things out front that start early and end late with different things blooming throughout the summer.  One of the early ones is the phlox.  These dime sized flowers put on a great show.

And if you look in the upper right corner, you can see several tiny blue flowers.  Those are flax.  They've been coming back and, I think, reseeding themselves every summer since about 2011.  They start early and stay most of the summer.  Opening up in the day and closing at night.  Also, tiny flowers.

There were flowers mentioned at last night's performance of Sweeney Todd.  Mrs. Lovett sings (from  MetroLyrics):

I've been thinking flowers, maybe daisies
To brighten up the room
Don't you think some flowers, pretty daisies
Might relieve the gloom?
Ah, wait, love, wait

Sweeney Todd has to be one of the most perfect Broadway musicals, more a blend of musical and opera by Stephen Sondheim.  The plot, the music, the lyrics, everything weaves together.  Here's a post I did before seeing the movie with Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in 2007.

Back in those early blogging days, I was still testing to see if my camera could take video at the movies.  It was before Youtube was anything and even getting previews online was hard.  Besides I thought that if book reviewers could pick what they wanted to quote in their reviews, movie reviewers should be able to do the same and not be restrained by what the studio wants you to use. (I still think that.)  But there's lots more video available these days so I don't do that any more.  But there is some video in this post after we saw the movie and it will give you a sense of the story and the great music.

Another aspect of this musical is that while Sweeney is the main focus, a number of different characters get the lead on different songs.   There was a younger crowd than I normally see in the Discovery Theater and a lot more tattoos.

And since I don't take pictures without prior permission at live performances, I only have this picture of the first few orchestra members warming up in the pit well before the show began.

Sweeney is a treat and it's playing tonight and through the weekend.  I'd highly recommend it.  There were some great performances.  I particularly liked Enrique Bravo as Sweeney, Victoria Bundonis as Mrs. Lovett, and Zebadiah Bodine as Tobias Ragg.  But everyone was good.

This is a Perseverance Theater (Juneau) production and ticket information is here.  There are significant discounts for military, seniors, and students.

[Reposting once again because of Feedburner problems]

Panel Discussion: How Do You Keep Things Going At Work?

Notes on what was said.  This was delayed until I got the names right (I hope.)

l-r  Nicholas, Neisha, Evon, Liz, George, Daxkilatch

Daxkilatch James - 5th or 6th generation to hold my name - thank 1491s for raising that issue about walking in two worlds - hard to turn my Native off.  How we bring this into work we do.

Work for University of Alaska, one of the coordinators for Native and Rural students center.  UAS - Juneau, Kethikan campus.  Part of orientation, assume safely that most people coming to campus are somehow related to me.  Our aunties and uncles do the teaching, so that's how I see myself.  But not everyone comes from Tlingit culture, and I have to work with them too.

Neisha Jones -  I bring my authentic self to work.  I feel like you have to do that without concessions, unapologetically.  High racial tensions these days.  Being a black women, in service, and a business owner.  I feel it's important to bring access to younger women.  How beautiful their skin and hair are. We don't get that enough.  We filter out who we are often because we don't want to be offensive.

George Martinez - lots of opportunity to travel, originally out of the melting pot, from the second most diverse community - Queens.  Seen diversity real time and how institutions didn't reflect that.  I group up speaking multiple languages living myself by default.  Recognize our selves, as a work in process, gives me a sense of my value.  When use language of equity, could me fair and impartial, but most people here use it in other ways - you're homeowners, or corporate shareholders.  Think of US as a business and we all have shares.  Who determines those shares?  If we don't have our own . . . people ready to make claims, challenge existing institutions to respond.  Original claim - give us something and get out of the way - but now thinking about collaborative systems.  My total self - I grew up up speaking English and Eubonics.  I never saw two worlds, I saw multiple worlds.  Everyone here has a different view of what the world is and should be.

Nicholas Gatinin - Sitka - I've always. . . coopting our knowledge and things that shape our identities as artists, community members.  Irony of needing access to success through institutions, then having to hang up your culture to do well.  These are what our artists, poets, musicians, activists, scholars working at creating space for our voices and for our youth.  Historically, the same institutions that created forced assimilation.  We need to focus on those spaces.

Daxkilatch James -   Thanks for inviting me to be part of this conversation.  Shout out to 1491s . . .  Indian country is so small.  ???'s father is national leader talking for mother Earth, and he was one of my mentors, so I saw these young men before.  Understanding why they are doing this, is so powerful.  Purpose in how we presented ourselves and how we showed up.  Had privilege of growing up with Gwitchin single mother, had facial tattoos, as part of her healing process.  A decolonization process.  Thank her for teaching me.
Grew up in Mt. View for a little while - saw urban impoverishment and also in Fairbanks.  And sent away to live with grandfather in village.  Got to see a real different way of living and being.  When I became conscious of the inequity in the world around me and why Alaska Natives were facing so many challenges, but those from other cultural backgrounds had so much more wealth - at that time I was a high school drop out with a mohawk.  Reembrace of our identity.  Analysis of western institutions and systems - social, education, economic - are unsustainable.  Need to indigenize the world so we can be happy and whole as people.

Liz Medicine Crow:  Hit on a couple of themes.  Being able to bring your whole self into work.  Through our work, we're trying to build relationships and then create a pathway to bring others in.  Find ways for more people to be at those tables.  Becomes really hard sometimes. There's a lot of consequences when you put yourself out there all the time, if you are always the one bringing up 'those' issues.  How do not be always the angry brown/black person, the need to educate everyone else.  How do you focus on the job?

George:  I became a mechanic long ago.  I'm in a mechanic uniform now.  My sphere is public service.  In my personal walk, the power to go in and challenge the institution comes from the power to not do that.  I know the value of myself as a whole person and my relationship to the planet.  Whether folks knew that or it's new and they're learning.  I refuse to make the false choice and let institutions shape the process of what I'm doing.  If you are working for a paycheck, you have a restraint.  From a hip hop perspective, a cardboard box on the sidewalk, changes everything into a music studio and we can remix things.  I can either go into your institution and just do your work, or we can go in and be entrepreneurial and make things actually work.  I'll take the tools and build the alternative.  If you build it, they will come.  When we did hip hop, it wasn't to change the world, but we did it for ourselves.  I take that into institutions.  I didn't expect them to see me as normal.  Structures are changing enough to ask the questions to invite us to bring what we have into the existing institutions.  I'm not here for the 20 years.  I'm here for the generations.  Not here to see fruits of our labor, but to do the work.

Daxkilatch -  I appreciated Gyasi reminding us that we come from 10,000 years of survivors.  It's not a mistake that we're here today.  Important to know who you are and where you are from is important.  My auntie who was a weaver, berry picker . . . .  if I don't see eye to eye with someone at work, I remember the ladies before me had these conversations.  If you know who you are you start to heal.  Where we are today, people sharing their stories, thank all our ancestors and elder for sharing their dark stories.  I know now when I'm going for change, I remember my grandparents experiences, advocating for them as well as the future.  Tlingit word ??? you are in three places at once - your past, present, and future.


Even Peter - We are challenging injustice and inequity - an everyday thing for Alaska Native people.  Also working to build foundations - curriculum, ways of decision making - represents where we are heading.  When I got to that point, clarified, keep old from getting worse, and build the future.  It's hard work.  Difficult.  Times I'm shaking before talking older white male officials and have to challenge their world system.  There's a way to do it gracefully, honorably, without compromising what you're doing.  When I was young, I was angry all the time.  That has transformed and is more powerful in getting to where we are going.  No matter what you do, most important is that you never give up.

Nicholas - Lots of the conversations and challenges, coming from community where our voices have been removed like our language, you are empowered by your ?? heritage - Important outlet for our artist and musicians.

George:  Add one more thing.  Making ourselves available to help allies.  How can white folks confront this themselves.  We have to make tools available for them.  Our city is really prime.  we have the demographics, head of our city, the Mayor, is open to challenging us to be more than just the language of diversity.  Challenging us to take advantage.  We shouldn't lose ground and keep building.

Liz:  Last question to give people time to ponder.  Can you share what you do to rejuvenate, regenerate, recommit.  Legit role for righteous anger, but have to find way to rejuvenate.

Nicholas - yes it is work to constantly engage, my work as an artist, no contract that says I have to teach people.  Traveling is big part of my work.  Going home helps rejuvenate.  Getting out on the water is where I get my breath back.

Neisha - yes, tiresome work.  Most times thankless  A lot of the work we do will come to fruition after we're gone.  You give a voice to people who don't have a voice, under represented.  Give them an outlet.  That is a tangible reward.  Seeing I have support of people who believe in what I'm doing.  Need to form partnerships with people in the community.

Daxkilatch - I married a hot man.  He's sitting back there.  To rejuvenate I turn to my family and friends.  I have phenomenal students at UAS.  Wonderful energy from the students.  Be ok with receiving, we aren't good at that.

George:  Speaking as a man with a hot wife . . .  How do I get burned out and how recharge.  I'm pretty good at finding ways to do collaborative things where we add value to each other so it's mutual benefit and struggle.  Try to find system.s  Aware of my bandwidth.  Know how to say no, to delegate.  I have two ways to generate.  I make music.  Got to do some organizing on east side and they sent me a beat Thursday night.  I still record.  My wife and I rap together.  My son - totally connected to him.  The abuse video from 1491s  I see my son and that rejuvenates me.  I cheat.  Doing stuff, being with people, the new opportunities validates the long hours.

Gwitchin:  Reality we have a spiritual experience - we go out and live off the land for a week or two - hunt, fish - that's when I'm at the peak of my spiritual connection to the cosmos.  When I got here last night and into the energy of the people around me was powerful.  Sweat ceremony is a way of connecting and purifying.  Billiards too.  I'm a pool player.  I love it.  Takes my mind away completely.  I'll be playing, most likely, in national championship in July.  We need to find those things that provide that break.  This work we do is not just for people of color, it's for everybody in this world.

Liz:  Thank you all for being part of this conversation today.  Metaphor for our work - like water - as strong, as flexible, as fluid, as refreshing.

How to Shake Hands and Other Pictures and Notes From The Republican Senate Debate

The Wendy Williamson auditorium stage was converted to a television studio.  The media panel is seated waiting for the candidates to take their spots.  I sat at this angle because there were tv cameras on stage blocking  closer views of the candidates.

It was a pretty empty auditorium. People were scattered all around.   This photo was just before the debate began.












Joe Miller supporters were the most visible and vocal part of the audience.

I'd brought my notebook, but I took a smaller backpack that didn't have any pens or pencils.  So my notes are all in my head, and unaided memory is tricky.  So double check what I write.  I did look to see if KTVA or ADN has the whole debate up [If either does, I couldn't find it] and I checked on what others wrote to confirm my memory. And make corrections.
[Wrong again - I found it linked at the #akdebate Twitter feed - you can see it all here.  I don't have 90 minutes right now.  But I may do updates or a follow up post later if I have time.  Updates done after I post - unless they're minor typos or style cleaning without changing the meaning - are identified with "UPDATE" and the date.]

NOTE:  I strive to be as objective as I can.  Usually that means describing what I see.    This post will also describe how I felt, which gets a little squishier, but I'm still trying to give description rather than judgment.  Others (Mudflats and ADN for example)  have written about what was said last night.  I'm going to try to add to that my sense of the non-verbal communication.  And my collective gut reactions that seemed to come together at the debate.


Sullivan's Handshakes - Not Much Eye Contact

Looking at the photos afterward, I was struck by the initial handshaking among the candidates.  These are just photos, not video, so it may be a fluke of the moments I shot the pictures, but look at Dan Sullivan's eyes as he's shaking hands with his opponents. [I did check the video on this before posting.  It cuts to the audience when Miller and Sullivan shake, and in the brief part they got of Sullivan and Treadwell shaking hands Sullivan does look at him.]

Miller and Sullivan shaking hands

Sullivan and Treadwell shaking hands

What I learned about shaking hands long ago is consistent with this advice from About.com:

Make eye contact and offer a sincere smile to show that you are happy to be where you are.
Be still and face the other person to prevent giving the impression that you are in a hurry to get away. If you are walking, try to stop, turn, and face the other person, unless it creates an awkward situation.

As I proof this post, it's clear that it was body language like this and how he talked  that shaped my impressions of Sullivan.  He didn't show he was 'happy to be where [he was].'  He didn't prevent 'giving the impression that [he was] in a hurry to get away.'   These photos are the only tangible evidence I have of this, but I kept getting the message throughout the debate.

Treadwell and Miller seem to have learned the proper handshake protocol.  

Miller and Treadwell shaking hands

Miller - Had the Most Fun


Miller seemed to be having the most fun.  He got easy questions from his opponents, he had his crowd in the audience, and when you have a black and white view of the world, it's easy to give firm, definitive answers.  He wanted,  for example,  a total freeze on all new regulation and absolutely no amnesty.  But life isn't black and white.  He said something like, "I believe in family and the children on the border should be sent back home to their families."  What if their  parents are living legally in the US?  Or one is?   [KTVA's coverage has this:

“The most humanitarian thing, in my view, is to reunite them with their families in their countries,” Sullivan said.

So I probably have Miller and Sullivan mixed up on this one.  Or maybe both said something similar.] 

Photo from Histor-C

Watching Miller, I couldn't help thinking of Richard Nixon.  I think it was the hair, the bags under his eyes, the five o'clock shadow and the finger pointing.  He also conveys the same belief in his possession of the truth. 




Miller:  Some of My Best Relatives are . . .

Those weren't his exact words, when challenged by panelist Dermot Cole about the tattooed hoodlums on his mailer that said "Begich wants them to vote . . . and if 20 million illegals vote you can kiss the Second Amendment goodbye."  At least he's being honest about his opposition to amnesty - he doesn't want these folks to become US voters.
He followed this up by telling the audience he has a Mexican son-in-law and an Indonesian brother-in-law.  There was another brother-in-law but I forgot where he was from. [Joeforliberty says the other one is from India.]  Is that supposed to make his racist* mailer ok? The other two took somewhat more nuanced positions, though all three were against federal regulations and Obama's handling of immigration.



Sullivan:  The Perfect Resume in the Wrong State?

Sullivan seemed the most out of place.   There's something about the way he talks.  While he spoke articulately and without hesitation (most of the time) I felt he was a bit defensive and he sounded like he was trying to figure out what the best answer would be for this audience.  When asked in the lightening round if he had written in Lisa Murkowski in the last election, there was a long pause.  His team hadn't prepared him for this one.  Finally he said 'no.'

So, did he vote for his current opponent Joe Miller?  Jeanne Devon, at the Mudflats, raises the possibility that he was still technically a resident of Maryland and so didn't vote here at all.  But he was the Alaska Attorney General.

He also hesitated when asked if he'd ever been arrested. He said no.  Was he weighing whether it had been expunged from the record or not?    I think his comments on tribal governance and the lawsuits he worked on for the state bear some scrutiny.

His body language was like the handshake - it all said he didn't want to be here, he'd rather be somewhere else.

When I first encountered Sullivan at his confirmation hearing for Attorney General in 2010, I felt he had the perfect resume and wrote at that time:

"And I wouldnʻt be surprised to see Mr. Sullivan running for Governor or Senator sometime.  How about a Republican primary with Mayor Dan Sullivan running against AG Dan Sullivan?"

Now both Dan Sullivans are running for statewide office, just not the same one.

In the military, there is almost a checklist for the things you have to do if you want to keep getting promoted.  Sullivan's resume looks like he was following a checklist for higher office.  It's really impressive.  And then he lucked out by marrying a woman from a state with a very low population where the odds were better than in his home state of Ohio.  This is the United States and people can travel from state to state and become residents of other states.  Ted Stevens grew up in California and became "Mr. Alaska."  But Sullivan's opponents have been hitting hard on this point - he's not really an Alaskan yet.  Usually people run for lower level offices before tackling US Senator, so that rubs people the wrong way too.


Watching Sullivan last night I got the feeling that he isn't quite comfortable here - he has crashed the party so to speak.  Were my gut reactions after sleeping on this just based on what I brought to the debate last night or does what I already knew merely help explain what I saw?  I can't tell.

Treadwell - The Real Alaskan Who's Peeved These Others Are Blocking His Rightful Place?

That's the sense I got from Treadwell last night.  He suggested several times that he'd been

working on projects others raised - sustainable energy in rural Alaska, Alaska's role as an arctic state - and with people they mentioned - Wally Hickle mainly - before they were even in Alaska.  I got the sense from what he said, that he was thinking, "Look, I'm the sensible one in the room, the real Alaskan.  I don't simplify complex issues like immigration or global warming. You guys shouldn't even be on this stage with me."

If I had had a pen and taken notes, I could flesh this out better.  When Sullivan talked about natural gas as the salvation for rural Alaska energy costs, Treadwell said he'd been doing alternative, sustainable energy projects in rural Alaska since the 1990s.  In response to a question from one of the panelists - I think Cole again - on whether they would keep coverage for pre-existing conditions now in Obamacare, he rebuffed Miller's "I don't think the government should tell people what they have to do.  They should choose what they want." (Huh?  Did he mean the insurance companies?  Or did he mean people with pre-existing conditions should be able to choose coverage that no one is offering?)  Treadwell referenced his wife's cancer and how pre-existing conditions shouldn't prevent one from getting health care.  [Is this just one more example of how people only 'get it' when they have personal experience with an issue?]  He also was more nuanced about regulation - though he said he's changed his mind about approving the Law of the Sea treaty.  I believe he conditioned it on the US not being controlled by outside interests. 




This Was A TV News/Entertainment Show

We had a bit of dramatic music leading in to each segment with the appropriately serious deep voice telling us what was about to happen.

Candidates and panelists got make-up touch-ups during breaks.  Now, that's a manly Alaskan image.  But since Nixon's poor performance in his debate with Kennedy, everyone gets makeup now.

ADN's Nathaniel Herz - Dermot Cole fuzzy on right

The media panelists stood their ground in attempts to get the candidates to answer the questions and not change the subject.  ADN's Nathaniel Herz jumped in several times to interrupt a candidate who'd veered off track.  And you could hear both voices playing chicken before one or the other gave up.  Nat won most of those rounds.  Sometimes with the help of the moderator.

Moderator Joe Vigil - KTVA 11 News - was ruthless when it came to time limits.  I realize that one has to do that to be fair to all the candidates, and that television news is often more about advertising, and thus entertainment, than news.  So time is of the essence. But letting the candidates talk longer when things get heated either leads to them explaining better or saying what they really think instead of their prepared scripts.

KTVA's Rhonda McBride during break

Rhonda McBride asked hard questions about conflicts between what candidates said (say about not bringing home earmarks) and Alaska needs (like the severe infrastructure problems in rural Alaska.)  Miller seemed to dismiss the lack of running water and toilets as a choice, citing his use of an outhouse when he was a magistrate in Tok.  

This gets to my problem with not giving the candidates more time.  With Vigil cutting them off, they could say something glib and not having to really address the issue.

When it was all over, I didn't think anything had really been resolved.   Should you take my gut reactions as worth anything?  Probably not.  But, my gut did tell me the first time I saw Sullivan live, that he would be running for higher office.  And I saw a lot of other folks being confirmed that legislative session and didn't make that prediction of anyone else. 


Joe Miller's website quotes a twitter comment he made at #akdebate:  

Joe Miller wins the KTVA/Alaska Dispatch Debate http://t.co/siDUFvpFKJ #akdebate
— Joe Miller (@JoeWMiller) August 11, 2014

I'm not sure anyone won or lost, but Joe definitely had the audience - small as it was in the auditorium - on his side.

Debates are trickier for candidates these days.  It used to be that you could say one thing to one interest group and another to a different interest group.  But with everyone carrying at video camera in their phones and with Youtube available to post the video, candidates have to be more careful.  While the live audience at this debate appeared to be mostly Republicans - and Miller Republicans at that - this was also being carried live on television and on the web.  So candidates had to have answers that worked for all audiences.  Only Joe Miller didn't seem to care about sanitizing his message for the tv viewers.  Maybe that's why it seemed he was having the most fun.

*racist - applying characteristics of a few to a whole group of racial group.  In this case Miller is using the same sort of fear mongering the Republicans used to get Southern Democrats to move to the Republican party.  Another similarity to Nixon.