Celebrating the Buddha's First Sermon Today

Along with American Independence Day, today is also Asanha Puja. After a frenzy of people worrying over a speech Alaska's governor gave yesterday, it seems appropriate to spend time on a sermon given about 2500 years ago.

Asalha Puja (known as Asanha Puja or Asarnha Bucha in Thailand) is a Theravada Buddhist festival which typically takes place in July, on the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month. It commemorates the Buddha’s first sermon in the Deer Park in Benares and the founding of the Buddhist sangha. In Thailand, Asalha Puja is a government holiday.
The day is observed by donating offerings to temples and listening to sermons. The following day is known in Thailand as Wan Kao Pansa; it is the first day of vassa, the Theravada rains retreat.
(test and picture of Buddha under tree below from Wikipedia)

J and I went to join in the celebration at Wat Alaska Yanna Vararam. I knew about this because I've been trying to keep up my Thai by studying with one of the monks every Tuesday.


People from three different wats (Thai temples) joined together to celebrate and there were 12 Thai and Lao monks.


Don't worry, it was ok to take pictures. The monk even gave me his camera and asked me to take some for him too.

So what did the Buddha say in that first sermon? Well, I would say this text is worthy of a lot more time than we've given Governor Palin's resignation address which I doubt will be looked at in 20 years, let alone 2500 years.

Here's part of an account of it from one of the Buddha's disciples:

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying at Varanasi in the Game Refuge at Isipatana. There he addressed the group of five monks:

"There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged in by one who has gone forth. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.

"And what is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding? Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.

"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress: Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of stress: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion & delight, relishing now here & now there — i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of stress: the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving.

"And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of stress: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

The Text of the Sermon comes from accesstoinsight.org. where you can get the rest of it. See below for the copyright information on using this text.

My understanding of all this is amateur at best. But my experience living with Thais in Thailand 40 years ago, was that no one is exhorted to live a certain way. People aren't condemned for not following the path, but rather, the path is explained and people may follow it or not. The path, that is to nirvana, to escaping the cycle of life.

And while the letting go of desires for pleasure may seem extreme to Americans, we do understand that people should give up 'vices' such as alcohol and drugs because while these may cause temporary pleasure, they cause long term discontent. Desires for food beyond what we need to stay healthy, for inappropriate sex, for possessions beyond what we really need, are also seen as offering short term pleasure at the cost of greater long term harm.

From my limited understanding of Christianity, I don't think the message is significantly different from that of Jesus five hundred years later. The desires for more than we need, lead to the problems of discontent from unfulfilled desires, jealousy of others, anger, etc. Only when we let go of these desires, can we experience a peace that is a greater solace than all the desires. Obviously, I'm not there and can only cite what I've been told.

But I think this is all good to think of the day after our governor announced her resignation. What sorts of desires led her to where she is today? What sorts of desires have caused many to take joy in her apparent fall from grace? What desires lead Alaskans to covet the Permanent Fund but be stingy about paying taxes? We are all humans and should be looking for ways to bring comfort to our fellow humans, not pain. If we offer help to those around us and refrain from bringing them pain, our community will be better for it. I'm not exempting myself here.


And we can take these messages not just from Buddhism, but from all the world's religions. Let us reject those religious leaders who interpret their holy texts as sources of hate and intolerance and war, and embrace those who see the messages of peace, tolerance, and love.

Let's show love and compassion to our politicians too. That doesn't mean giving them a pass when they do wrong. But our corrections of them, like our corrections of our children, should be with caring. Not with glee at their pain.


Provenance:
©1993 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.
This Access to Insight edition is ©1993–2009 John T. Bullitt.
Terms of use: You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work in any medium whatsoever, provided that: (1) you only make such copies, etc. available free of charge; (2) you clearly indicate that any derivatives of this work (including translations) are derived from this source document; and (3) you include the full text of this license in any copies or derivatives of this work. Otherwise, all rights reserved. For additional information about this license, see the FAQ.
How to cite this document (one suggested style): "Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion" (SN 56.11), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, June 7, 2009, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html.

Palin's Loyalty to Alaska Forces Resignation - Tea Leaf Time

[Cut to the chase: looking at this press release, sentence by sentence, I get one message: " Something bad is going down and I'm quitting so it doesn't hurt Alaska."]

A friend called me to ask what I knew.

S: About what?
KS: About Palin's resignation.
S: You're kidding.
KS: No, I thought you might know something you can't print.
S: I know much less than some people think.

OK, it's tea leaf time. All I have is the press release to sift through. If you want to skip down to the press release which is below the tea reading, click here.

Warning: I'm just looking at the words in the press release here and what they suggest and don't suggest. I'm not second guessing whether it was written in good faith or with a clear understanding of what it implies and doesn't imply.


Quote 1

“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.”

". . . serving [Alaska's] people is the greatest honor I could imagine" implies

• So, I'm not resigning because I want to.
• Being President of the US would not be as great an honor.

Early Palin fan, and someone I never expected to quote, Jonah Goldberg, suggests in a letter to Palin published in the National Review and reprinted in today's ADN that Palin's got great charisma but needs to get up to speed on the issues.

So here’s my advice. Stay home and do your job and your homework. You’ll still be a national figure come the primaries. But if you can’t surprise your detractors with your grasp of policy when you re-emerge on the national stage, you won’t win the nomination. More important, you won’t deserve to.

By resigning, she's not taking his advice to do her job. If she were planning to take his advice about doing her homework so she can be a national figure in 2012, then why would she make serving Alaska the highest honor imaginable? And why not some word that would just hint at doing some homework?

Quote 2

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement.

The right path for Alaska, she seems to be saying, is without her as governor. Why would that be? Has she been watching Sanford do damage control as he tries to hang on as governor of South Carolina? (No I'm not suggesting he's Trig's daddy.)


Quote 3

“Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose.

Ok, deciding not to run for reelection (without the context of the earlier quotes) could be for many reasons. She could then be free of state obligations as she prepared for 2012.

She does play her maverick theme (isn't 'politics as usual' more or less the opposite of maverick?) which could be seen as a hint that she's going to be in the national race again.

Except, what does "in this climate" mean? It doesn't sound like she's talking about a good climate. The press release has an Anchorage byline and here the sun is shining brightly and it's about 70˚ out. So she isn't talking about weather. What exactly is she referring to?

The ragtag pack of local bloggers shouldn't amount to more than a cloud briefly hiding the sun for a serious presidential candidate. Does she mean the Vanity Fair article, and the public debate among Republicans that's going on about whether she's fit to run for President, is raining on her parade? But that storm is in the Lower 48 and shouldn't disturb her being Governor of Alaska.

Not only isn't she going to run for reelection, she's not going to be a lame duck. She uses her disgust with 'politics as usual' to explain her stand on lame ducks. Let's play that logic out. Once you are reelected to your last allowable term, you are a lame duck. So, you should just quit after you are elected if it gets cloudy? Maybe everyone should be limited to one term. But then everyone would be a lame duck... You can see where that logic leads.

Or is this just a cover for why she's going to be the first Alaska governor to quit before her term is up? I think Nixon was the first (and only) US president to quit before his term was up. People generally don't quit when things are going well, even when they are rocky. Just when they are disastrous. [Correction: Wally Hickel quit as governor of Alaska to accept an appointment from President Nixon to be Secretary of the Interior, a position that greatly impacts Alaska.]


Quote 4

It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.

Duty? As governor she has an official duty, but if she resigns, then she won't have that official duty. But I can accept that she feels a personal duty to protect Alaska. But we're still talking about Alaska, not the US.

so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption

What's the interruption? She's pulling out, as I read this, because something is going to happen that would interrupt Alaska's journey to the future if she were Governor. So it isn't something about the state, it's about her. Something that would interfere with her running the state. Maybe there's another way to read this, but that's what it says to me.

I can't make hide nor hair of "best to make a difference this summer and I am willing to change things." It comes out of the blue in this sentence. The only thing preceding that suggests change is needed is hidden between the lines.


Quote 5

I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.”

This sentence leaves some hope for Palin supporters. She'll be around to help, not just at the state level, but national as well. But this, in the context of the whole press release, is what she'll do with her new spare time, it isn't the reason she's leaving Juneau.


Quote 6

The list of her accomplishments is too long to quote. Just go down and look at it.

This list could be interpreted, as writing the first draft of her legacy as Governor. Optimistic Palin supporters could see it as part of her resume in her application for the US Presidency. If the body of the press release had even had a hint of moving to bigger and better things, they might take heart. But it doesn't. I won't even touch the questions about the legitimacy of the list or what is missing.

Using logical analysis to parse what Sarah Palin says is sort of like using a tape measure to see how good a concert was. But by looking at what's written in the press release (as well as what's not), I don't see hint at better offers - I doubt Obama has asked her to be ambassador to Russia. Maybe she's started to realize how much work writing a book is and doesn't want to risk the $11 million. But the press release itself is all about her love of Alaska and not wanting to interrupt the State's progress. The basic message I read from this: "Something bad is going down soon, and I'm going to resign from office so that my problems don't interfere with the State's well being."

But now that we know there's a cat in the bag, can she keep it in there for three more weeks?

.................................................................................


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-167

GOVERNOR PALIN ANNOUNCES NO SECOND TERM

NO LAME DUCK SESSION EITHER

July 3, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin announced today that she will not seek a second term as Governor of the State of Alaska and will relegate the
power of governor to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell in order to serve Alaska’s best interests. Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will move into Parnell’s current role.

“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine.”

Standing outside her home in Wasilla, Alaska, Governor Palin reflected upon some of the administration’s accomplishments for Alaska as she approaches her final year in office.

“I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success. I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.”

The transfer of power will occur following the Governor’s picnic in Fairbanks on July 26. At that point in time, Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell will be sworn in and Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will assume his role as Lieutenant Governor.

Governor Palin will spend July 4th in Juneau.

###

Selected Accomplishments of the Palin Administration

General
· Transferred more control of public issues to the local level Natural Resources
· Created the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to oversee responsible development
· Held the line for Alaskans on Point Thomson that encouraged drilling
· Restructured the state’s oil taxes to create a clear and equitable valuation formula for our oil and gas
· Initiated and implemented the largest energy project in the world through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act
· Removed government from the dairy business and put it back into private-sector hands
Ethics
· Ushered in ethics reform
· Cleaned up previously accepted unethical actions affecting development Fiscal Notes
· Slowed the rate of government growth
· Worked with the Legislature to place billions of dollars in savings
· Vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars in capital budget line items
· Reduced Alaska’s dependence on federal earmarks by nearly 85%
· Eliminated state-funded personal luxuries like the jet, the chef, and junkets
· Refused a pay raise, along with the Lieutenant Governor Education
· Provided unprecedented support for education initiatives Public Safety
· Filled long-vacant public safety positions over the last year Corrections
· Broke ground on the new state prison Fish and Game
· Maintained biologically-sound wildlife management for abundance Environment
· Established first sub-Cabinet on climate change
Legal
· State’s rights protected in two recent victories handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court





For those who must know, the tea is a Chinese jasmine. Labrador tea would have been more appropriate, but I'd have to go pick some first.

Catching Palin's Numbers

From innumeracy.com:

Innumeracy: A term meant to convey a person's inability to make sense of the numbers that run their lives.

........................................................................................


There's nothing wrong with appearing pretty and being bubbly. These are great attributes for a politician. But there has to be substance as well. Andrew Halcro wrote last year:

I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do. . .

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

So, when we get some facts from Palin's office, we should pay attention. Last week, this press release was made available on the state website:


Which closed with this:

The critical part of that State press release, the part where we get Palin's version of facts, is that last sentence about spending "millions of dollars."

At the time, Phil at Progressive Alaska wrote:

I suspect that statement is complete bullshit. Millions of dollars means from $2,000,000.00 on up, if I am correct.

I challenge Alaska's mainstream media to attempt to determine just how much this has cost Alaska taxpayers, and to have it broken down, case by case.

Well, in today's Anchorage Daily News, Sean Cockerham met the challenge:

Ethics complaints against Gov. Sarah Palin and top members of her administration have cost the state personnel board nearly $300,000 over the past year, almost two-thirds of which appear to be from the Troopergate investigation of the governor.

But Sean doesn't quote that "millions of dollars" charge from the June 23rd press release. All he says in the article is this:

The governor's office has said 15 "frivolous" ethics complaints against Palin or her staff, some on issues raised by bloggers, have been dismissed with no findings she violated the executive branch ethics act. "How much will this blogger's asinine political grandstanding cost all of us in time and money?" she asked about a March complaint.

It seems to me that the most significant part of this story is the gap between the Palin allegation last week and the actual cost of the complaints. Deducting the Troopergate costs - which resulted from Palin filing a complaint against herself so that the friendlier Personnel Board would review it instead of a Legislative Committee - the cost of complaints was down almost to $100,000.

Anyone who knows anything about math knows that an error of that magnitude is outrageous. It's like estimating a $100,000 house to cost about $2 million; a $10 scarf to cost $200. Either way it reflects poorly on the Governor's office. Either they were just lying or they are innumerate.

OK, the press release adds in public records searches, but the way they figure those charges is also grossly inflated and seems to be aimed at preventing people from gaining access to public records. At best it would still leave a huge magnitude of error.

There's a reason Palin doesn't use facts. This became clear during the presidential campaign. She's not on top of facts that matter in her job.


The second significant part of this whole fiasco, is the tone of the press release which makes it sound like people who file complaints are 'outrageous' and 'malicious' and 'asinine.' I understand that talk show hosts use divisive and derisive language to boost their ratings.

But the governor of all the people of Alaska should recognize complaints for what they are: a way for people to get accountability from their elected officials. Sure, there are people who maliciously file complaints, though I think in these cases the people filing the complaints believe they have legitimate grievances. But that's why we have courts and review boards to sort things out. I think that active gadflies serve an important purpose. When politicians know their actions and words will be questioned in the newspapers, on television, and on blogs, they will document their positions better before acting. That's how we get better government. Besides, professional review boards have standards that complaints must meet before opening full hearings to get rid specious filings.

My advice to the governor is to put on a happy face and welcome any charges because that will allow a legitimate review board to get all the information and to show the public what really happened. And to embrace the critics for making her do her job better. Remember: honey, not vinegar.

But I'm afraid that the governor's folks, unlike the talk show hosts, take this all very seriously and personally. It's as though they see themselves as force of goodness and light and anyone who opposes them must be allied with the forces of evil.

So, one last thing. Sean, why didn't you point out the discrepancy between the "millions of dollars" statement and the actual amount? Or did an editor cut it out? That itself would be an interesting story.

Sitemeter Crash

Sitemeter, a key site that monitors traffic on websites, crashed sometime yesterday. There was a brief announcement yesterday about having 'issues' and then that disappeared too. My hits for the day were listed as zero. Same today, but now there is a new announcement:

S27 Account Holders – Update

July 2, 2009 · Comments Off

Greetings,

We had an issue with the server that you are using. We had to replace this server and restore an older backup. We recovered all of the log files and have been processing log files since yesterday morning. It will take awhile to reprocess all of the log files. If you have any questions please let us know. We apologize for the delay in displaying your statistics.

Thank you,

Sitemeter Support Team

I've been getting this service for free. I think it's time to upgrade my account and give them support for all the work they're doing to track the hits to my site. It's real clear that having all that information about how many hits and where they are coming from is great feedback for bloggers. And yes there are other ways to get it - such as Google Analytics - but I like the format of what I get from Sitemeter.

I hope things get fixed soon.

Cottonwood - An Untapped Alaskan Resource

Every year as the cottonwood seeds burst open and litter our deck and yard, I wonder whether we couldn't find some ways to use the cotton.

Deirdre at Lifetecture has asked the same question:

I’ve been looking at the drifts on the streets and the white fuzz floating around, getting in peoples’ eyes and generally wasted. I wonder can this be harvested? It seems like it would make the most amazing kind of felt, even batting for insulation. I wonder if this has ever been done?

Sure, cottonwood will not replace oil as an economic stimulus (though maybe it could be used to absorb oil that spills), but little niche markets here and there could provide employment and income, just as people make money from birch syrup and musk ox wool.

Aside from the obvious pillow stuffing possibilities, what else could be done with cottonwood cotton?






This is just the collection on our deck on the morning of the first day of our trees starting to send forth their seeds. There's a nickle at 5 o'clock so you can see the size.













Coincidentally, BS invited me for a bike ride today and at the first stop on the old Seward Highway that is now a bike trail to Girdwood, I found this nature lesson - on cottonwoods.






The website halfbakery already has this suggestion for uses of cottonwood seeds posted. It begins:

Make clothing, fill comforters and pillows with cottonwood fibers.

While he's being tongue-in-cheek (the site is called halfbakery after all) others are more serious.






Someone actually mixed cottonwood (60%) with regular white cotton (40%).

After I had enough to skein I boiled it like one would regular cotton and then let it dry under some tension. It dried to a nice off-white, softer than regular hand spun cotton.
It worked up better than I thought it would!

(This site says you need permission of the author before reprinting the article. But at the bottom it said:

The copyright of the article Spinning Cottonwood in Fiber Arts is owned by . Permission to republish Spinning Cottonwood in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

No author was listed as you can see. I went through all the listed authors and each of their lists of articles (usually only one or two) and nobody claimed credit for this one. Nevertheless I only give you a bit of the post and you can see the whole post here. (She even links to the blanket she made)

Someone at Knittingirls has found uses for the buds.

And, if you could bottle the scent of the cottonwood buds when they open in the springtime, I'd surely wear it every day. It's not that I haven't tried. There seem to be a number of ways to do this (looking around online), but I make a salve by gathering the buds when they start to open, steep them in olive oil for up to a year, strain, and heat the oil while adding enough beeswax to make a salve, hardening some as it cools in the jar. We use it medicinally as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory. Apparently the buds have been used for sore throats and whooping cough, as well, by Native Americans and First Nations.

[Update: Anonymous left a link to a website that has a recipe for using the sticky, but oh so fragrant, leaf buds to make balm of gilead.]

And she used the catkins of a cottonwood tree to dye a shawl. (Yeah, I had to look up catkin too. Wikipedia says it's

a slim, cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect pollinated (as in Salix). They contain many, usually unisexual flowers, arranged closely along a central stem which is often drooping. (look at the top two pictures on this post.)

There's a Cottonwood Baby Products that sells diapers but there's nothing to suggest that Cottonwood is anything more than their name. Same thing with Cottonwood Pallets.



The Utah State University Cooperative Extension site says that only the female trees have cotton and there's a product to prevent them from producing cotton:

Male clones of cottonwoods should not produce cotton- only the female trees produce the seeds ("cotton"). Sometimes you will hear of cottonless cottonwood trees later developing cotton but they were probably mislabeled. Some hybrid cottonwoods sold are listed as "sterile female hybrids." These are not cottonless because they are not male. The "sterile" refers to the fact that the seeds they produce are incapable of germinating. However, they still produce the cotton to distribute the seed. If you have a cottonwood that produces cotton and you don't want to cut it down, you can use Florel to prevent cotton development in female trees. You will need to check the label to see when to apply it.

For all the mess they make, would I really want to do that? I think not.

One site says cottonwood is the state tree of Kansas and Nebraska.


The Alaska fishing industry used to throw away the salmon roe until a visiting Japanese businessman saw what was going on and now someone makes lots of money selling salmon roe. While Alaska won't get rich from cottonwood, some families might be able to make a living. It just takes someone looking at what we see as a nuisance with a different eye, to find something useful. And we certainly have plenty of cottonwoods and cottonwood seeds.

[UPDATE June 1, 2014:  Here's a new post on how to prevent your cottonwood trees from spreading cotton.  It's probably not too practical for most people.]

[UPDATE Nov. 2, 2015:  Here's discussion at Permies in which Deb Berman offers a step by step description of how she spins cottonwood fibers.]

Anchorage Changes - Prov and Greek Corner and Bike Status

Riding a bike means you're going slower and can stop easily to check out the changing landscape. Last night (Monday,) coming home from the Bear Tooth we noticed - how could we not? - that Providence was tearing down its old building at 36th and La Touche. I think at one point it was part of the Neighborhood Health Center, but I'm not sure.(If you double click the pictures the get a little bigger.) This afternoon I passed it again. They got quite a bit more done today.




Also today, I noticed this sign on Northern Lights across from Blockbuster and PowerHouse Gym. Is Greek Corner moving? Or does the 's' on corner mean they will have two?
I called and they are moving. One of the few little restaurants in a building that has some bit of charm, and they are moving. Let's see how well they can Greek up this spot. Oh, and "late summer" means first week of September, but you know how well remodeling stays on schedule.

And I have to mention that the ADN had a front page story Sunday on roads that was mostly from the perspective of bike riders!!!!!!!

Rosemary Austin, author of "Mountain Bike Anchorage," commutes on a road bike from East Anchorage to her sales job at Paramount Cycles off Huffman Road. She said a number of state-owned roads are dangerous with dirt, gravel and glass. She often rides along the new Elmore Road, which has bike lanes, but the DOT told her it's not even on the list to clean.

"I don't want to get flat tires and I don't want to wash out in sand and gravel," Austin said.

Ann Reed, a cyclist who is eight months pregnant, took a spill Monday on a gravelly section of sidewalk on DeBarr Road at Pine Street. She was pulling a Chariot bike trailer with her toddler aboard.

She saw the gravel and slowed down, but it was so deep "there was no way I was not going to wipe out," she wrote in an e-mail. She broke her fall with her hand and was scraped up a bit but not really hurt, she said in an interview. The Chariot stayed upright and she thinks the baby she's expecting is fine.

Amazing. I've been bemoaning dirt and gravel since I've had my bike out. Northern Lights and Benson are HORRIBLE. Walmart, can't you clean up the sidewalk around your parking lot???!!! But they aren't the only ones. And that was followed up by an editorial Monday.

The state department of transportation has made a total hash of this year's contract for sweeping a winter's worth of sand and gravel off state roads and sidewalks in Anchorage. . .

This isn't just an aesthetic issue. Loose sand and gravel is a hazard to bicyclists on trails and streets. Road traffic stirs the winter leftovers into the air, making breathing more difficult for people with sensitive lungs. Heavy rains can wash the sediment into storm sewers, many of which empty into local streams. That's bad for stream life, since the sediment is tainted with oil, grease and heavy metals left behind by months of traffic.

It seems the DOT went for the lowest bidder - someone who doesn't have much experience doing this. (Maybe they know someone from church.) Nevertheless, a new world is dawning when a bike rider's point of view is a front page road story and editorial. Thanks ADN.

And when the State Department of Transportation gets some bike riders in positions of authority, maybe they'll remember bicycles when they contract for road cleaning as well as road design. But that's another post.

Hunger - and three other movies

I've been to four movies in the last ten days or so, but none of them moved me to write about them until tonight. Well that's not completely true. Examined Life was more than I was ready to write about. The other two, before tonight, less.

In a review for the Toronto Film Festival, Monika Bartyzel wrote about Examined Life: (Photo from the same link)

Throughout the course of 90 minutes, Cornel West, Peter Singer, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler with Sunaura Taylor, Avital Ronell, Michael Hardt, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Martha Nussbaum appear on-screen talking about modern philosophies and thought. To bring life and depth to each discussion, she films each in the midst of movement – whether it be a car ride through New York City, a walk through a park, or a conversation at a garbage dump. At times this works well, the environment feeding into the discussion, while other times, the movement and cuts to passerby distracts from the discussion. In these moments, as the camera trails off the speaker, it almost seems as if it’s bored by the words.

I noticed this constant movement - walking, boating, biking, in the back of a cab - too, and also how everything was in such an urban setting. Even the idyllic row boating scene was filled with buildings and other signs of ubanity. The people we'd suggested the movie to thought all the talking (even if they were also walking) heads were a bit slow. What does it mean that all the philosophers are in urban settings most of the time? J and I enjoyed the movie. We knew of a couple of the philosophers and it was good to hear them all in their own words. But our daughter is studying philosophy so we're biased. I couldn't help but feel, I must know more about philosophy than I realized, or these guys have dumbed it down so far that I didn't get any totally new ideas - except for the garbage guy who thinks we should consume more. So I'll let you click on the link to the review above if you want to know more.


Away We Go was a slick Hollywood movie with some funny lines. Of the three generations who went, my son liked it the most and my mom and I (this was while I was in LA) thought it was . . . ok. Thirty somethings trying to figure out what to do with their lives. I know lots of people are crazy about David Eggars, but reading A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius didn't inspire me to read any of his later books. It was easy to believe he wrote this film.

Then Sunday night we saw Micky Bo & Me at the musuem. (This was our first visit since the opening. I took pictures from outside for a later post, trying to figure out how much of the new addition really is just stairwell.) Neither of us got into the movie. The two young kids - one a Catholic and the other a Protestant - growing up in Belfast fancied themselves as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and were not particularly sympathetic - particularly Micky. One could say he played his role well, but he wasn't a kid I'd want to be around.

Then tonight, at the Bear Tooth we saw Hunger. When the credits began rolling and it said Northern Ireland, I was fearful after last night's movie. But then Steve McQueen built up a hugely powerful film through the meticulous study of details, slowly watched through the camera, interspersed with sudden acts of brutality. We see a close up of the prison guard - we don't know that at the time - buttoning his shirt. The camera pans along a crack in the ceiling, slowly, then down the wall. These are long shots, but they are perfect.

I got irritated at the woman next to me who began talking as we watched an orderly mop up the piss and disinfectant the prisoners pour out into the hallway under the doors of their cells. (OK, the orderly added the disinfectant.) He starts way down at the end of the hallway and we watch him work the liquid across the floor all the way down the hall. I was mesmerized until that lady started talking. She might have thought nothing was happening, but everything was happening. We were in prison time where even this was an event that breaks the monotony. The visuals were spectacular in their plainness. They showed nothing and everything. And the music, so low keyed that I really didn't consciously notice it until the credits mentioned it, but I recognized that it had been there all the time. A movie like this reminds me why the other three didn't inspire me to write anything.

This interview with the director Steve McQueen may give a clue why the movie is so powerful:

I honestly don't know about making any more films - I'm not that passionate about it, I'm not in love with the medium, to be honest. Creativity ought to be about ideas, I believe, not the medium that it serves. I think that I am, basically, going to find it extremely hard to find a story which involves me and energises me, and about which I can feel completely passionate. I don't know. We'll see. It's a definite ‘maybe'. I've now got a Hollywood agent - but I don't think that they'll be hearing a lot from me!

"So you won't find me working for a major studio, be very certain of that. It's not about money - it's about being asked to compromise, and that's one thing that I never ever do! Never. I want to have my own say on the final cut and look of any film that has my name on it - what's the point, otherwise?"

The main character in the movie - hunger striker Bobby Sands (played by Michael Fassbender) - is equally uncompromising. In one remarkable scene, we see Bobby and a priest, sitting at a table, backlighted, as they argue the ethics and practicality of a hunger strike. Both men passionately arguing their cause. McQueen says in the interview he wanted it like a tennis match, back and forth. But I think with them sitting there at the table, it was more like a chess game as they moved arguments across the board.

This is a movie! I hope McQueen finds more stories he can get passionate about. And yes, it raises prison issues that are relevant today, but the movie itself, without any of that, is powerful.

I can't embed the trailer, but you can go here to see it. Listen to the sound. And no this is NOT a children's movie. There's a fair bit of nudity and violence.

Sex in the Sun - Shameless Blog Pandering

Midnight Soapscum Year 2 Episode 2 - Live Original Stage Serial in Anchorage

[If you want to avoid my way too long and highly tangential intro, you can go straight to my comments on the performance.]

Where else can you see live stage serials? I'm sure they must be out there, but Google didn't help. I did find videos of Pakistani stage shows - the Urdu language shows didn't work, but the Punjabi ones did. But I'm not sure these are serials or television or live stage.

I found a blog post about writing in serial form, even writing a serial on her blog, but despite the post title "Writing on Stage: Coming to terms with serial writing" I couldn't find any stages in the post.

And then I got this:

STAGE 4: CREATING A SERIALS PREDICTION & ISSUE
Now that Horizon knows how many copies of a serial you take, how often the serial should be claimed and who your vendor is, you can now create a prediction pattern and set an issue to begin the prediction pattern with.
1. Use Item Search/F2 to bring up the item search box and search for the relevant journal.
2. Send to/F10 the title to ‘Serials Control’.
3. Ensure the correct copy for your location has been selected and click the Prediction button located along the bottom of the window

Then there's Todd's Serial Blog and his other blog Todd Gault's Serial Experience. Both seem to be about movie serials.

I found a post by a young Indian actor looking for work on Cinechance that seems to be an electronic classified section for actors to find work in India.

About Myself :

hi guyz ,m vikram frm delhi.m 21 yrs of age nd graduating. i hav worked in serials for dd "do behne" , & "kabhi dhoop kabhi choan" both directed by reputed director "mr shiv kumar".also done one ad film for india tv. i love to act nd travel..........[emphasis added][And before you make fun of his written English, his bio says he also speaks Hindi and Punjabi]

And I learned from StageNews that

The BBC’s drama production department has announced a restructure of its senior staff, with head of series and serials Kate Harwood promoted to the role of controller of series and serials.

But that's television and radio.


I also learned that there is a software called live theater:

Live Theater 1.2 description
Live Theater - with the help of the software Live Theater TM you will be able to arrange the live broadcast from theater, TV etc. to a wider range of the Internet audience.

It is highly recommended to use broadband Internet connection for using Live Theater.

Here are some key features of "Live Theater":

· Broadcasting of live streaming video over Internet from any possible external video signal sources (video camera, web camera, video capture card etc.).
· Re-broadcasting over Internet of any source of TV signal, digital and analog.
· Broadcasting of the prerecorded video files.
· The areas of use are not restricted by the above mentioned. Live Theater can be used for any other purpose of brodcasting [sic] streaming video over Internet.
· The main advantage of Live Theater is ability of broadcasting of high-quality video without purchasing the expensive hardware and password protection from watching by an unauthorized user.

One problem I had with 'live theater' was that it monopolized the google hits for that search term.

So why all this esoteric trivia? Because I was trying to find out how unique Christian Heppinstall's Midnight Soapscum production at Out North is. Just because I can't find anything about live theatrical serials doesn't mean someone isn't doing them. After all, I didn't find Soapscum googling variations of stage/theater/serials/ etc. either. But given the obstacles to producing a play a week, I bet it's not happening too many places.


Christian's first run of Midnight Soapscum was a live, theatrical serial about a centenarian Russian emigre and her porn studio empire in San Francisco and it first ran over a couple of months in Spring 2007.

And now it's back - five new episodes of Midnight Soapscum. This time the subtitle is: Goes To Hell.

Just the idea is pretty amazing. Live, original episodes, performed weekly, with local talent. Christian's cranking out an hour and a half of material a week! And it's good! It moves along, it's funny, and the acting is first rate.

Think of this as Saturday Night Live as a political sitcom performed on stage before a live audience. No broadcasting. No huge budget.

Christian not only writes and directs Soapscum, he also stars as Svetlana Smirnov. That's him as Smirnov in the poster. He uses the episodes to comment on a wide variety of current issues and personalities. [Update: Christian emailed me to say that he's not directing this time. Jon Minton is. Sorry Jon.]

This year's incarnation takes place days before the 2008 election and the focus is on whether Smirnov is going to support Proposition 8. Characters include, besides various porn actors from the studio, Marie and Donny Osmond, Todd and Sarah Palin, a terrorist chained in the basement who turns out to be Osama Bin Laden, Barack Obama, four amazing aliens, and a slew of others.



Here, the Palins are plotting. . . well, I can't quite remember what they were plotting. The script takes so many twists and turns. The guy in the tie is Obama.









The cast is so big they could have a full house even if there was no audience. And I suspect they'd have almost as good a time without an audience. The second person in red with the two story blond wig, sitting above the cast on the right[left - somewhere between third grade and a couple of years ago I knew the difference between left and right], is NOT Svetlana, but the narrator who keeps the audience appraised (and well behaved) of what all is happening between scenes. She also had the list of all the characters and named them before and after the show. But I didn't write them all down and there was no program.


But is it any good? The acting is good and considering they didn't have a lot of time to learn the script - and they have a new one next week - I don't remember any flubs. The jokes would be funny to liberals but it might get tedious for conservatives. The people we were with thought it was a bit too long - partly, I think because it doesn't start until 10:30pm and it ended just past midnight. Considering what they were trying to pull off and their low budget, I thought it was amazing. (I have two standards. One is an absolute standard. The other is based on quality/cost. This one did pretty well on the absolute standard and would have swept the Tony's on quality/cost.)

And we have it here in Anchorage at Out North (you can buy tickets online) for three more episodes. And don't worry if you missed the first two episodes, it doesn't matter, trust me.

Christian has a pretty strong background in theater. I met him when he took some public administration classes with me. But he already had a masters in theater and had performed and/or directed in San Francisco, New York, and Budapest where he lived for several years. He's also the director for the Anchorage Theater of Youth and has been active in HIV/AIDS education. He's bright and aware and it shows in Soapscum.

Bent Alaska has the details of when the other episodes will be presented.

Baby Burke Brouhaha

I've been pondering this week's brouhaha over the picture of Baby Eddie Burke in Sarah Palin's arms. While I enjoy satire, I also feel that political humor generally feeds the faithful and ticks off the targets. Only brilliant satire has the possibility of changing the minds of the committed.

Looking at the picture, I didn't realize it was Eddie Burke's face and it was only after I read the explanations that I got the point. I certainly wasn't going to post the picture and I figured I'd stay out of the discussion altogether. But then the Governor's spokesperson, Meghan Stapleton, released a statement (copied here from Conservatives4Palin) (If the picture is so terrible why did C4P post it on their own website? You can see it at the link.)

Recently we learned of a malicious desecration of a photo of the Governor and baby Trig that has become an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child.

The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling. To learn that two Alaskans did it is absolutely sickening. Linda Kellen Biegel, the official Democrat Party blogger for Alaska, should be ashamed of herself and the Democratic National Committee should be ashamed for promoting this website and encouraging this atrocious behavior.

Babies and children are off limits. It is past time to restore decency in politics and real tolerance for all Americans. The Obama Administration sets the moral compass for its party. We ask that special needs children be loved, respected and accepted and that this type of degeneracy be condemned.

Paragraph 1:

Recently we learned of a malicious desecration of a photo of the Governor and baby Trig that has become an iconic representation of a mother's love for a special needs child.(emphasis added.)

Desecration. Merriam Webster's online dictionary isn't too helpful:

: an act or instance of desecrating : the state of being desecrated

But you can link to desecrate:

1 : to violate the sanctity of : PROFANE
2 : to treat disrespectfully, irreverently, or outrageously

And sanctity?

1: holiness of life and character : godliness
2 a: the quality or state of being holy or sacred : inviolability
b plural : sacred objects, obligations, or rights

So there is a religious etymology to this word, but it has come to be used in other contexts as well. But then Stapleton also uses the term "iconic representation of a mother's love. . ."

Back to the dictionary:

Icon

1: a usually pictorial representation : image
2 [Late Greek eikōn, from Greek] : a conventional religious image typically painted on a small wooden panel and used in the devotions of Eastern Christians
3: an object of uncritical devotion : idol
4: emblem, symbol
5 a: a sign (as a word or graphic symbol) whose form suggests its meaning
b: a graphic symbol on a computer display screen that usually suggests the type of object represented or the purpose of an available function

Using both desecration and iconic image in one sentence strongly suggests to me that there was either intentional manipulation to give this a religious spin, or that Palin's staff are so steeped in religion that they think in those terms and just write this sort of language naturally. Here's my picture (from talaria) of an iconic image of a mother and child.


Paragraph 2:

The mere idea of someone doctoring the photo of a special needs baby is appalling. To learn that two Alaskans did it is absolutely sickening. Linda Kellen Biegel, the official Democrat Party blogger for Alaska, should be ashamed of herself and the Democratic National Committee should be ashamed for promoting this website and encouraging this atrocious behavior.

Why is a special needs baby, in this case, any different from any baby? Why are they continuing to emphasize that this is a special needs baby? It's like saying "this is my black friend' as opposed to just "my friend." What's the point? If Biegel had 'doctored' a picture of a 'normal' baby, would that have been ok? What if they had photoshopped the baby out completely and used a different baby in the picture? Would that have been ok? Or what if she had put Palin's face over Mary's in the icon and Burke's over the baby Jesus'? Would that have been ok?

Because here the outrage all seems to be that someone would make fun of a special needs baby. And as I see this picture, it's aimed at parodying Burke's and Palin's close relationship. Palin doesn't complain about Burke's degrading comments about women and he seems to be infatuated with Palin. The emphasis on 'special needs' seems to be Stapleton's effort to remind people that Palin is indeed an icon of motherhood because she kept her special needs baby. As if such a baby is less than a 'normal' baby and keeping it shows Palin's holiness. (Hey, I could be totally wrong. But at least I pose my comments as possible interpretations, while the tone of Stapleton's release suggests there can be no other interpretation than hers.)

And why is it more sickening that Alaskans did this? Are Alaskans supposed to give Palin more respect than other people? It seems people who are most affected by Palin have the most responsibility to closely monitor her actions as governor.

And I have to note the use of the term "Democrat Party." This is a way you can tell a Republican, sort of like catching a Canadian from her pronunciation of the word "out." As I understand it, using Democrat Party was a conscious Republican effort to denigrate the Democratic Party by replacing the official name with one that sounded harsher. I didn't find a good credible citation, but you can see a discussion of the issue here.

Paragraph 3:

Babies and children are off limits. It is past time to restore decency in politics and real tolerance for all Americans. The Obama Administration sets the moral compass for its party. We ask that special needs children be loved, respected and accepted and that this type of degeneracy be condemned."

First, when was there decency in American politics? If I recall my history, things were pretty wild in Jefferson's day. If a politician uses the kids to pump up his image, but the image the candidate is portraying is misleading, then the kids are fair game. Bristol's unwed motherhood was announced by Palin. If a blogger had announced the pregnancy before Palin did it would have been a disaster, so she really had to do it. But the irony of the pregnancy, given Palin's stand on abstinence-only-education, is certainly newsworthy. Picking on a baby's behavior makes no sense since a baby is not responsible. On the other hand, the baby is totally unaware of the debate. And despite Stapleton's take on this, I don't see the picture as being about the baby.

OK, I do understand Stapleton's plea to Obama to somehow censor Linda. After all, among the Republicans, especially in the Bush2 years, everyone was expected to toe the party line. Obviously, from the Republican perspective, if they assume the Democrats are the same, Linda doesn't say anything without approval from the Oval Office. And if she does, she should be edged out. . Well, that image of Democrats is a joke.


To a certain extent, I find the constant attacks on Palin by fellow bloggers to be borderline reasonable. The pointing out of ethical violations - even those that are rejected by Palin's favorite review board - is certainly reasonable. The bloggers do not have access to all the available information and may not be able to prove the violation, but at least these things should be pursued if there is reasonable evidence. Think of all the trouble that might have been avoided if bloggers had been poking into the relationships between Bill Allen and various legislators early on.

What I find less appealing are the snarky comments about clothing and behavior. But that's part of the American tradition of politics and the media. When Palin was on the Bob and Mark radio show, she laughed when they called cancer survivor and political rival Lyda Green a "cancer" and a "bitch." And I recall Palin being the attack dog in the McCain campaign. So let's cut out the crocodile tears here.


One More Thing

To put the religious tone of the first paragraph into context, we can look at the language of Ahmad Khamani from a Reuters article:

ISLAMIC LAW

Ahmad Khatami, a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge leading "rioters" as "mohareb" or one who wages war against God.

"I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson," Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University on Friday.

"They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely," he said. Under Iran's Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as "mohareb" is execution.

He too is equating the demonstrators' behavior to desecration. At least Khamani is a religious leader and an official of a religious nation. That may be Palin's dream, but so far it isn't the case.