To L.A.

Sitting at the Anchorage Airport on my way to visit my mom before we head off to Thailand. After waiting longer than we expected, I've been matched with an NGO in Northern Thailand- we spoke on the phone Sunday evening (AK Time). So, to catch my other mom's 80something birthday tomorrow, I'm headed down in an hour or so. Security was empty, the TSA folks were friendly and there's not too many people here at 11:30 pm on a Monday night. Will stop in Seattle on the way back for several hours to have dinner with my daughter at the end of the week.

Spent much of the day getting my tickets, getting J's ticket to Thailand, and digitizing old slides so I can leave a DVD of late 60's pictures with my old school in Thailand. Got a little exercise biking over to the University library.

So Brock, if you read this, email me and maybe we can get together.

Can't believe I'm posting such a lame post. Oh well, better add a picture.

Savoy Family Cajun Band - Anchorage Folk Festival

We got to catch the end of the Anchorage Folk Festival and hear the Savoy Family Cajun Band. This free, two weekend festival of music, held at the Wendy Williamson - the same venue as Revelation Now a couple weeks ago, and the Sierra Leone Allstar Refugee Band last year - has been happening close to 20 years now. Lots of great music.

Here's a peek.

"Resisting ~ it's the thing I'm absolutely worst at."

One of the blogs I visit is run by a heroin addict whose subtitle reads:

HAMSTERS & HEROIN: Not all junkies are purse-snatching grandmother-killing psychos. I'm keeping this blog to bear witness to that fact.

I think it's good to get as many view points as possible. Gledwood takes me into a world I otherwise never see. He shares favorite videos, there's lots on his hamsters, food, the book he's writing that he hopes will pay for rehab, and now and then we hear about his habit. Today's post had a mini lecture on heroin:

RESISTING. Resisting ~ it's the thing I'm absolutely worst at. Every decision, pledge and scheme; every about-turn I've made or promised to make: nothing has worked.
And it's all been down to "brown" ~ that Afghan brown crap (illustrated) that's swilling about the streets of Britain like pigs' diarrhoea.

Heroin... what is this stuff that's captured me, impaled my heart?

There are three types of street heroin in the world, from four places: Columbia, Mexico, Afghanistan and the Union of Myanmar (Burma)...

The rest, it gets more informative, is at Gledwood Vol. 2.

Polar Bear Rehap and Training

[Photo from fogonazos.blogspot.com.]

The Anchorage Daily News had a feature story today by Tom Kizzia on the Palin administration's opposition to having polar bears put on the endangered species list. Maybe we need some creative thinking here.

It appears that in Ontario, Canada they are already relocating polar bears and training them how to live off the polar ice. You can check it out here.

Let Erin and Hig Stir Your Adventure Juices

There are still people who do more than just talk about wild adventures they want to take. Phil has been reporting on the progress of Erin and Hig who also have their own blog.

They've been using non-motorized transportation (rafts, feet, skis, etc.) to get from Seattle to Anchorage. They're on their way to Umimak Island via the proposed Pebble Mine site.

Tuesday they will be at UAA to talk about their trip so far.



UAA Fine Arts Building Recital Hall

7:30 p.m. Tuesday January 29, 2008

FREE EVENT --- FREE PARKING

Join Erin and Hig as they share their experiences pack rafting, hiking and skiing from Seattle to Anchorage.

They started at Seattle?s University District in June, negotiated the BC and Alaska Inside Passages, walked and rafted the Wild Coast from Gustavus to Cordova, traversed Prince William Sound to Valdez, and hiked
and skiied from there to Palmer, packrafted down the lower Mat, Knik and Knik Arm - all without using any motorized transport!

Hear how they intend to finish their trek past Pebble Mine?s proposed site, on their way to Unimak Island.

It's always good to see people who do what everyone says is impossible.

Border Cafe

We don't know much about Iran. TV gives us the images that quickly convey "Iran" in our minds - women covered head to toe in black, people demonstrating, etc.

Movies made by local nationals is one of the best ways to get past those kinds of images. Even if they are making propaganda movies, they unconsciously show us bits and pieces of everyday life that tell us more than a year's worth of tv stories.

So getting to see Border Cafe - it also shows up as Transit Cafe - at the museum tonight was a double treat. We saw a good movie and got a bit of a vaccine against American media Iran stereotyping.

Yes, there were women with just their faces showing, there was family pressure for the widow to move into her brother-in-law's place to protect the family's reputation. But here the brother-in-law explained, cajoled, begged his foreign sister-in-law to move into the new apartment he built for her in his family compound. Meanwhile she reopens her husband's cafe near the Turkish border and creates a community of her own.

OK, eventually the restaurant gets shut down, but partly because it is so successful that it is badly hurting the other restuarants in town. The traditional male hierarchy that reinforces the brother-in-law's power isn't a good thing. Yet it wasn't that long ago that husbands had the legal right to make the decisions in the US, and women here still face a lot of discrimination. Seeing the movie puts a whole different face on life in Iran. It's not THAT different from ours - different in degree, yes, but the movie protrays an Iran that is a lot more decent and humane than are shown usually.

I also never thought about all the foreign truck drivers who carry goods into Iran everyday - Russians, Turks, Greeks, and who knows where else. Watching people who had no common language communicate was also a pleasure.

So how many of you even knew that Iran had a border with Turkey?



Louise Kennedy of the Boston Globe has a thoughtful review.


The winter twilight sky is staggeringly beautiful as it flows from a deep velvet indigo to pastel blue. This evening we had one of those great skies. You can just see a touch of it in the picture above as we were going into the museum for the movie.

To Thailand Soon ไป เมือง ไทย ใน ไม่ นาน

Working this out has taken a while. The American Jewish World Service (AJWS) had a spot for me at one NGO, but political issues ruled that out. So they worked out another one. I'm not sure how much I can blog about specifics, but I will keep blogging in general. If all works out I'll be in Chieng Mai for about 2 1/2 months. Will be helping with management activities. English level is low to non-existent I'm told, so I have to get my Thai back up to speed. Actually it was pretty serviceable last spring when we were there and I have been listening to the audio for "Thai for Advanced Readers." I need to start practicing writing again. My spelling's terrible.

Here's a page from the reader. This story is about Thais in the US.



Here's the title with a little help.



Two of the words in the title are in the title of this post. (The 'h' after the K and the T means you blow air out of your mouth when you say them. So Th is like a T sound, but T alone is the same sound but without the air coming out. A little like a D, but Thais have two different sounds. KH is like a K, K without the h is a K without the puff of air, or like the G in 'go'. So, that's why Thai, has an h, but isn't pronounced thigh.)

I was trying to find a website with the Thai alphabet. But then I found this one which looks like a great source for studying Thai.

As I keep looking for a simple Thai alphabet page with the English sounds I'm finding a lot of neat resources for learning Thai. Here's a page that shows how to write the first few consonants in the Thai alphabet.

OK, after much time exploring Thai sites, many with interesting stuff, I finally found a reasonably simple Thai alphabet with English phonetics. It has more than you need, but it's good.

Wow!!! Bridgman and Packer! Best Show I've Seen in a Loooooong Time

We went opening night. That means if you read this right away, you can still get tickets for this incredible show on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Yeah, I know I don't like to see something that's been hyped as great because then I'll compare it to my high expectations. I had no idea what to expect. I didn't really read the details of the article in the paper the other day, but I just got a feeling that we should go to this. Besides, it was our anniversary. Sorry Ropi, they were in Budapest last April, so I guess you missed them.

My reactions:

Wow!!!
How'd they do that?
Damn, I feel like a hick. I didn't even know people did stuff like this.
Wow!!

You should go if you like at least three of the following:

Watching water ripples in a stream.
Magicians doing really amazing tricks.
Shadow leaves dancing on your sunlit white walls.
MC Escher.
A cello dancing with a human voice.
Surprises.
Precision.
Optical Illusions.
Hand drumming.

Wait. There is no rippling stream in the show. I'm just trying to give you a sense of this show without giving anything away.

If you took this list literally, maybe you shouldn't go see it. Or, if you can't stand stuff that is NOT:

Linear.
Predictable.
Melodic.
Clear and straightforward.


There aren't a lot of seats at the Alaska Dance Theater, which by the way was another neat surprise. I'd seen the building once and thought, hmmmm, that looks interesting, but this was the first time we've been inside. (Our daughter hasn't gone to dance lessons in many years.) Anchorage has a wonderful new venue that was just perfect for this performance. But,as I was saying. There aren't a lot of seats and they weren't all full!!!! Just because it was a snowy Thursday night is no excuse.

But if everyone there tonight tells five people (and everyone else seemed just as amazed as I was) you'll be lucky to get a seat for the next performances. Get tickets on-line at Outnorth.org
.

I don't really want to tell you more. Being surprised by what they do is part of the fun. The first piece was amazing. The next ones got progressively amazinger. Yes, despite the flesh in the ADN promo article, it's fine for kids. They'll love it.

If you must, go to the Bridgman/Packer Dance website. But it isn't nearly as good as the show.

Oh, and a tidbit about the cellist/voice guy, Robert Een (that's two syllables). He sang in one of the temples at Ellora in India. These are a set of magical temples carved out of the rock hillside over an 800 year period. Based on what Robert told me, I think it might be the temple in this picture I took in November 2006. The acoustics were incredible. It would be - I'm running out of breathless adjectives so pick your own favorite - to hear him in there.

I'm not really a hick, and I don't get this excited easily. These guys are first class.

Creative Thinking - Rejection Letter

Here's a good example of someone NOT thinking routinely that I found at The Zohar Class.

Herbert A. Millington
Chair - Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall
Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,

Chris L. Jensen

[Originally from here]

Propaganda Techniques

To get a little perspective on political propaganda, check out this video. I'm guessing it is 1950's vintage. Things have gotten a lot more sophisticated.





But, it still doesn't hurt to use their checklist:
1. Recognize the technique
2. Get the facts
3. Know the purpose
4. Weigh the facts against the purpose and techniques

I found this YouTube video on a Barcelona blog that had linked to my blog.