David Sedaris Live in Anchorage

It's May in Anchorage, so the sun was still high as we went into the Performing Arts Center at 7:45pm tonight.













Mr. Sedaris was in the lobby signing books before (and after) the show.








We went in as the auditorium was filling up. Bede Trantina, the program director of KSKA, the local NPR station that sponsored the evening, whose cheery voice has greeted Anchorage at 9am on Fridays since about 1978 with "Yipee, it's Friday" got loud and sustained applause as she walked out to introduce Mr. Sedaris. And he got a rip roaring greeting when he walked out. And then he started reading. He is funny, and he sounds just like he does on the radio. But... Authors on book tours do readings in book stores. It's usually free. Somehow I thought he'd be actually talking to us.

Alaska is a red state. Our Supreme Court had to rule that the state had to pay health benefits for same sex domestic partners of state employees despite a Constitutional Amendment saying marriage is between one man and one woman only, so gays couldn't get married to get the benefits. And an advisory vote last month to prohibit the benefits through a Constitutional Amendment did pass, though not by an overwhelming majority. And it's only advisory. All the poeple at the PAC tonight must have voted no. The full house was right with Sedaris as he talked about being asked - not just by the girl friend in the trailer park of his pot supplier in North Carolina, but also by so called liberals - which of you 'is the woman?" ["Were both men, that's what homosexual means."] But he then went on a riff to describe the 'male' and 'female' roles his partner Hugh performs.

Eventually he stopped reading and talked about his recent trip to Japan where he 'finished' smoking, studied Japanese, and got a haircut. And he plugged the book The Zombie Survival Guide (Yeah, go ahead and click, it's a fun website) that he explained was written by someone he doesn't know, a Max Brooks. Most Zombie survival strategies, he told us, 'are just common sense." And then he answered questions.

I'm still mulling over the reading thing. After all, he's a writer, so reading his work sort of makes sense. But I'm guessing that he's scratching his head about us paying money to hear him read too. He did say one reason he stopped smoking was so he could stay in the $700 hotel rooms people put him up in. He thought it was kind of crazy but he wasn't going to argue since they were paying. Someone else told me it was also a fundraiser for KSKA, so it's ok. And he did some talking too.

New Running Shoes

Inner Blog Editor: You can't post about your running shoes, no one cares.
Me: But there's something about getting a new pair and retiring the old ones.
IBE: Yeah, 90 bucks to the US consumption machine.
Me: Now wait, I need new shoes. The old ones are about two years old, they're flat, and my toes get calouses.
IBE: 90 bucks? But no one cares man. Wasting everyone's time on such trivia.
Me: You're probably right, but not that many people read this anyway. Hey, there is something about a new pair of running shoes. They keep me running and happy. And I don't know if all the shoe hype is for real or not, but I don't buy new ones that often.
IBE: Are you going to get rid of the old ones or keep them in that huge pile of old shoes, 'just in case' you need them?
Me: Busted. But I can use them when I work in the garden...

Free Hugs Scotland

AARP's current cover story is 6 Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick." Secret #1 is to Smile. This video should help keep you healthy.

Confucius Institute

The University of Alaska Anchorage has had its proposal for a Confucius Institute accepted for the first round. Now they have to submit a revised proposal to get it funded. Germany has the Goethe Institutes and France has the Alliance Francais, and the US sponsors libraries and other programs through their embassies to promote the understanding of their languages and cultures. Japan also has some programs. And now China is getting into the game too, though they seem to be going about it a little differently. The others, as I understand it, are direct arms of their respective governments. The Confucius Institutes are being set up and run through foreign partners - usually Universities. There are already a number in the US and other parts of the world. The Chinese government will sponsor one or two Chinese language teachers from a Chinese University (UAA is partnered here with Changchung Normal University) who will work on various projects. The basic areas we are looking at are University language teaching, community outreach into the public and private sector (such as workshops on Chinese culture and doing business in China), and the Anchorage School District, which has a proposal to create a Chinese immersion school (there already is one for Japanese, Spanish, and Russian.) If the funding comes through, the Chinese government, through the Confucius Institute organization, will be supporting Chinese language and cultural programs in Anchorage. As the US state closest to China, this is could be a good start for us.

Einstein Alive, Ginger, Bear Tooth

We went to see Marc Spiegel Friday night, in his Einstein incarnation. The Alaska Junior Theater brought him up, and since the Yom HaShoah performance, he's been to Dillingham, Barrow, Cordova (I think), and the Anchorage School District as Einstein. This picture was taken after an hour performance in which he explained - with song and sorta dance - the special theory of relativity to an audience at least 50% young kids. This picture is after the show when he invited anyone to stay after and ask him questions. These are just some of the kids who stayed to hear even more.


Afterward we tried out Ginger, a new restaurant on 5th Avenue with our camera shy ZZ buds. It didn't feel like being in Anchorage until we realized it was 11pm and we were the only people still there.


And tonight we saw Pan's Labrinth at the Bear Tooth and I couldn't resist this shot as we came out at midnight. I enjoyed the movie, despite the graphic violence, but have to think about it. The overlapping underground and underworld was a bit heavy handed, but I liked the praying mantis that turns into a fairy. And hidden in the credits was an homage to Cheech and Chong. The credits were in Spanish so I'm just guessing they were the two fairies that got their heads eaten.

Diverse Voices Anchorage

Last spring, Professor Kerry Feldman invited a group of faculty to help him develop a small grant proposal to fund students to take independent study classes in which they would develop a project to help give voice to communities that usually were not heard on campus. While the original intent was to highlight different immigrant populations, that was quickly broadened to allow students to define community. Goals included reaching out to students who might feel that the university was not interested in people from their community, to raise awareness of these different cultures among other students and faculty, and to improve the interaction between the campus and the community at large. At the beginning the faculty were not sure what the students would be able to accomplish. Each student would be assigned a faculty mentor, would get tuition waiver for the class, and $200 to spend to help cover costs. Interested students could also get a faculty to help them develop their proposals.

Yesterday the students presented their final projects, which were far more consistently excellent than the faculty dared to hope for back at the beginning.



Cassandra explored the "Diverse Artistic Voices of Mountain View," a low income neighborhood. Her excitement about being able to do this project with faculty support and class credit bubbled over in her presentation. She's been busy in the community interviewing artists and community leaders and clearly is going to keep working on this. Celeste Hodge, a community member on the steering committee and member of the Mayor's staff, gave Cassandra her business card and asked her to call her because she wants to expand the project to other parts of town.

Robin interviewed students in her Alaska Native Studies class as well as the elders who helped teach the class to determine the roles elders play in an urban setting. The elders' participation in the class went a long way in getting students to explore not only Alaska Native culture, but their own, and made them realize the urgency of beginning similar dialogues with older people in their families and communities.

Lauren looked at the adjustments military familes have to make when moving into Anchorage. Her findings suggested that Anchorage is a pretty good posting, in part because of the strong community support for the military, the great natural environment, and the general convenience of shopping, community activities, and recreation.

Austin was so excited he couldn't hold still. A music education student, he explored Carnatic music of India with two Indian-American residents of Anchorage. He discovered a whole new way to experiencing music and his enthusiam got the audience excited as well. And then he played Swagatam Krishna which he had transcribed for the clarinet.

Shelley explored how her upbringing affected her world view. Born in Columbia on a Christian farming community, she came to the US as an infant when the guerilla activity forced the community to abandon their land. Eventually they made their way to a similar community of 50 people in rural Alaska.

And although today's event began at 11am and went until after 5pm, steering committee member Phyllis Fast and her students prepared plenty of food for all and beautifully decorated the room.

Tafi's presentation focused on male Samoan children who are early identified as Fa 'afafine and raised as girls to have a unique place in their cultural life, crossing between gender roles. The particular focus was on what happens to them when the come to study in the US. He interviewed Fa 'afafine of two different age groups to see if there was a difference.

Isaiah grew up in Unalakleet where he started videotaping in 8th grade. He's now an accomplished film maker and used that talent to document how villagers are adapting to life at UAA. The group of students he followed seemed to be adjusting pretty well, though they find the bus system in Anchorage really inconvenient.


There was also a presentation on "Birthing from Multicultural Perspective" and on "Anchorage's Political Refugees." A number of the students told us how significant this class was in their academic and personal lives. And those who didn't say it explicitly demonstrated it in the enormous amount of work they did and how well they presented their findings.

Anchorage's First Day of Spring

What factors figure in determining the first day of spring? The temperature is one; 65F in the shade on the deck is fine.













Blue sky is important.










Sunshine in which to sit, have lunch, read.





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Unstick the rake from the ice in the last snow patch dumped from the roof in January onto the north side of the house











Then rake up the leaves that have mulched the rock garden.













To expose some green.















Then put all the leaves into the compost pile.

Raven and Magpie Square Off

Wild screeching in the back yard. A magpie hopping around the in the trees scolding a raven who seemed to be gathering twigs.




These are two birds who spend the winter here. The magpie's a pretty good sized bird, but next to the raven it looks puny. A second magpie joined the ruckus and eventually the raven lifted off.

What is it about cigarette smokers?

I walked around the back yard the other day as the snow is mostly gone (except where it piled up when we had the roof cleared in January) looking for signs of life. In addition to the tulip stalks and some stray green stems of grass, I found signs of human life.

I like our neighbor. He's friendly, he watches over our house when we're away, he insists that we tell him if his music is too loud. I don't think he smokes. And that may be part of the problem. His buddies do. And they stand on the deck outside his door all winter to smoke, and then flip the butts into our yard. I know that smokers smoke for different reasons, but I suspect one part of why all smokers start is to rebel against authority. And some never get past that phase. It seems to me that's when people are focused only on themselves and if they even consider that their behavior may cause problems for others, they take some pleasure in that thought. But I doubt they ever think of someone having to clean up their butts for them. Do they think maybe they are biodegradable? When I helped the Covenant House kids clean up the garbage on a few blocks of downtown once, by far the the single most numerous piece of trash was cigarette butts. They were everywhere. I bet we collected 50 or 100 butts for every other piece of trash.

This makes me think of the Japanese couple we met in Laos. They both smoked. But part of their equipment was a portable ashtray that was clipped to his backpack. Never mind the irony that they were not going to pollute the enviornment but that their own lungs were fair game.

So I'm thinking of giving my neighbor some coffee cans full of sand that he can put on his deck so his friends don't have to throw their butts into our yard. I wonder if that would help.

Good Bye David Halberstam

The Best and the Brightest was an incredible book that meticulously told the story of how Kennedy put together his dream cabinet, that blundered into the Vietnam War, and under Johnson continued that blundering. The Powers That Be examined the media in the US. These were huge books that gave both endless detail and an understanding of the big picture. Not an easy task. As this article shows Halberstam was still active, and he was killed in a car accident on the way to an interview on his next book about the Korean War. This isn't a bad time to go back and read The Best and the Brightest. What will be the name of the Bush era version of how we got into Iraq?

Let's remember Halberstam as a great journalist whose reporting contributed to ending a bad war.

And let's remember how quickly everything can change - one bad left turn in this case.