Midnight Soapscum Climaxes with Year 2 Episode 5

Everything worked tonight as all the loose plot ends were tied up and lots of people and even an alien got married in the final scene. (There were so many loose plot ends, I could have missed a few. It was only tonight, my third of this year's five episodes, that I noticed a major historical juxtaposition - Obama is already the president in the runup to the 2008 election. Poetic license I guess. Too good a character to leave out just because he hadn't yet been elected.) The cast had as good a time as the audience which whooped it up every now and then. I'll just post some pictures and let you make up your own story. It can't be as bizarre as the one at Out North. (Can you spot Caribou Barbie and Todd, and Obama?) I suspect this five week production will be remembered in Anchorage theater history. A lot of outstanding - much of it young - local talent got to do some way out stuff. Five different episodes - same characters mostly - in five weeks. But you could tell that the cast and crew had bonded early on and I think a lot of future theater greats in Anchorage (and beyond) will be connected forever because they 'worked' together in this production. There were no duds in the cast and most played their roles so well, I can't imagine them as anyone else. Mama Rose Mary is only 18 years old and was the narrator whose huge presence pulled everything - including the audience - together. Tonight she even sang as part of the play. I didn't get a program again tonight and I'm not sure I can find the one from Episode 3. But this is an actor we're going to hear more about. And you can catch a bit of her persona in the bit of video at the bottom.











(It's only 30 seconds.)

Click for posts on previous episodes and other soapscummy things.

What Do I Know? 3rd Anniversary and I Missed It

I knew the anniversary was this month, but I didn't look until just now. The first post was July 9, 2006 - on Spittle Bugs. The second post was two days later - on using Turn Indicators. That was it - two posts for July.

August 6 was on going digital as I got my first digital camera and posted my first picture - a bull moose at Kincaid. There were only seven posts in August, but I think that regulars can already see in those original posts hints of what has come since.

It was a while before I discovered counters and installed sitemeter. I noted with a post when I had visitor 1500. I was reminded of that when I recently had a couple people get here googling "The number 1500." (Does anyone know why they were googling that?) I looked to see what they got. It was May 6, 2007. Ten months.

So I decided to have a contest to reward visitor number 10,000. That took until December 20, 2007 - seven more months. Things were speeding up. And now, probably around the time of the 3rd Anniversary ten days ago, we got to 100,000.

That's pretty modest compared to other blogs, but it's plenty for me. I was going to have another contest, but kept putting it off. I also decided that in the spirit of doing things a little differently, I would not pick a number that ends in lots of zeroes this time. But 99,999 passed before I noticed. Then I thought of 111,111, but that passed by too.

So let's go for 123,456. I'll come up with a prize for the identified visitor closest to that number. I'll post warnings to pay attention when we get closer. While sitemeter gives us lots of data on each visitor, it doesn't give names, or email addresses. (Though I did get a file name last week as the "Entry Page" and it included the person's name. I found three people with that name and emailed one to warn him he was sending his name out. But I suppose I would have assumed such an email was spam. Maybe I'll try again.) So visitors will have to claim their prize. I'll check their claim against the sitemeter profile for the closest claim to 123,456.

Skeletons on the Zahara

It's been taking me a long time to finish books lately, and I've got three or four started. But I got invited to a book club and I had three days to find and read Skeletons of the Zahara, by Dean King. It's one of those unexpected adventure tales - a US commercial ship wrecks off the coast of Africa and everyone gets captured and enslaved. The author had found the original account - a best seller in the early 1800s, mentioned as a favorite by Abraham Lincoln - while researching something else. He's taken that account and the account of a second survivor and tried to mesh the two tales together.

The ship The Commerce set sail May 2, 1815 with 11 men and after stops in New Orleans and Gibralter (where a 12th hitched a ride) wrecked on the coast of North Africa on August 28. After a brief time on shore, they escaped capture by swimming back out to the grounded ship and continued in one of the ships longboats in hopes of being rescued by a passing ship. Instead they beached 200 miles south sometime between September 5 and 7. The men who survived with Captain Riley made it to safety of the Amerian Consul in Swearah on November 7, 1815. They'd been captives for two months. Four of the men left for Gibralter on January 4, 1816. Captain Riley followed sometime later and made it to New York City on March 19, 1816.

I thought maybe it was just me, but others in the group although thought the writing was pretty uninspired and it took everyone a while to get into the story. We know from the start that the captain, who wrote this, survives, since we have the book. But eventually you want to know how.

I don't think I ever considered that American sailors were taken as slaves by Arabic speakers in Africa. Their lives were pretty basic on the camel treks through the desert, but so were the lives of their new masters. I learned that you CAN survive on salt water if you mix it with fresh water; human urine is better than dying of thirst, and you can drink liquid stored inside a camel.

They placed the small intestines, with their contents still inside, in the kettle, along with the liver and lungs. One man slit open the camel's rumen - its first and largest stomach, where it partly digests its food before regurgitating it as cud - reached inside with a bowl, and scooped out some of the chunky green liquid. . .

Riley saw a teenage boy plunge his head into the camel's gaping rumen and drink. Hamet [the captor], seeing Riley's [the captured captain] interest, told him to remove the boy and take his place.

Riley scooped the nauseating cavity with a bowl and poured the ropy green fluid down his throat. What he swallowed could not have been more refreshing . . . [pp. 152-3]

That they survived was a combination of sheer luck, wit, and determination. The captain strove hard to have as many of his men saved as possible and talked his master into taking all four of the crew still with him, rather than save his own life without them. It appears that this loyalty to his men, in fact, impressed the master who eventually arranged to get him to an American consul in exchange for a sizeable ransom.

And while this characterization is based on what the Captain himself wrote, there was confirmation in the other account, written by a survivor who was separated from the captain's group and stayed captive an extra year. Furthermore, the captain also gave accounts where his behavior was not laudable - as when he escaped the first encounter with Africans by leaving the older, Gibraltar hitchhiker on the beach in his place. He rationalized that the man was not as critical to the survival of the rest as he himself.

The captain also had an ability to see the world through the eyes of others which I think also helped in their survival. You can see it in this passage where they were taunted by a black African slave. The slave, Boireck, had worked all day and came back to find the emaciated Americans, who had rested the day, in a tent. He tried to chase them out, but the master said no.

That evening [Boirek] amused the family and some visitors by taunting the Christians. He pointed at their slack genitals and laughingly compared them with his own. His sneering references to the gaunt Riley as "el rais" [the captain] brought howls of laughter. He poked their wounds with a sharp stick and made fun of their skin, which died and turned foul beneath the very image of Allah, the sun. What further proof was needed that these miserable white heathens were worthy only of slavery and scorn?

Clark fumed. "It's bad enough to be stripped, skinned alive, and mangled," he whispered to Riley, "without being obliged to bear the scoffs of a damned negro slave."

"It's good to know you're still alive, Jim, " Riley responded with a nod. The [camel] milk and water they had consumed that day, the rest, the shade had boosted his spirits. He would not let Boireck's buffoonery beat him down just now. "You feel the need to revenge an insult, but let the poor negro laugh if he can take pleasure in it," he told Clark. "God knows there's little enough here to provide that. He's only trying to gain favor with his masters and mistresses. I'm willing he should have it, even at our expense."[p. 136]

While author King only has Riley's word for what happened, the fact that he could even think like this - even if he didn't really say it - says a lot for him.

Of the seven who made it back from Africa, two died within seven years of their return at ages 29 and 44. Another died in 1831 at age 36. Captain Riley made it to age 62 dying at sea in 1840. Another died in 1847 at age 63. The other sailor to write an account of the trip upon which the book is based, Robbins, died in 1860 at 69. The youngest crew member who was only 15 when The Commerce set sail, died in 1882 at age 82. So, while the near starvation and severe physical strain affected them all, a couple still managed to live to a reasonable old age.

Bikes versus Buses

Cut outs for buses at bus stops are good. It means the bus can stop and pick up/drop off passengers without blocking traffic. But at some points, like the southwest corner of Lake Otis and 36th, the cutout meant that the sidewalk/bikepath was cut down to about 3 feet wide. That may sound like a lot, but if someone was waiting for the bus there, a bike rider pretty much had to go out into the street, unless the bus waiters moved down to the wider part of the path. And there have been times when the bush - which is visually much nicer than just the chain link fence - wasn't trimmed back, that you had to push against the bush or go into the street.



They are working on the sidewalk here. Although I live nearby, I don't recall any notices. It would be nice if they gave local folks a chance to give some input in case there are a good ideas about the improvement that could be incorporated for little or no extra cost.

But the good news is that, according to one of the workers I talked to, when they finish the path, the narrowest part will be 60 inches. That would be a significant improvement. I'm not sure how they will do that. We'll see it when it's finished. They've been at it for almost two weeks already.

Wednesday Night's Readings - Rogow Gets Racy

Zack Rogow's book, The Number Before Infinity, recounts a love affair, through poetry. Along with the erotic poems to his lover (I used racy in the title because of the alliteration, but erotic seems more apt) the narrator also tells of the impact on his marriage. In the video, Rogow reads one very sexy poem to the lover and one about the daughter's displeasure with the father breaking up the family.

This is not a big book, but one that I think most couples would benefit from reading aloud to each other. It raises issues - passionate love, passionate love of someone outside the marriage, the impacts on the family - that couples shoud talk about, but I suspect don't, until it's too late. And since he's such a good poet, he captures in a few, well chosen words, what academics can't say in long volumes.



The UAA Readings go on tonight (Thursday) in the UAA Pub. David Grimes is doing a concert. There've been around 60 folks each night. A good chunk are people taking the workshops, but also strays like us. Dark Friday night, then back in Rasmuson Hall 101 at 8pm Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. The detailed schedule with bios is here. For all the other posts on the Summer Reading Series.

For an interesting Saturday night double header - go to the UAA Readings at 8pm and then to Out North for the final episode of Midnight Soapscum.

Dog Cabins For Sale

Passed this place on my run yesterday.
(for those of you outside of Anchorage, add area code 907.)

Linda McCarriston Amazes with Word Tricks

You have to work hard to hear the words - the sound on the video is not good. But such magnificent words describing the boys becoming men, growing, spreading, from green to ripe like tropical fruit on the trip to Iraq.

It was the third night of the Reading Series. Linda and I were once faculty members together at UAA and I know how brilliantly she illustrates ideas with words. But I was still surprised.

And I thought, perhaps poetry's time is once again here. Sure, I know there are poetry slams and there's been a revival of sorts. But that's still only the fringe. Given people's short attention spans, poetry is the perfect medium. Poets can now sell their poems one at a time on iTunes. Download a new poem each week onto your iPod. Each time it flows through the earbuds it tickles new brain cells.

Though good poetry doesn't come artificially sweetened in familiar flavors. It lays traps for your stereotypes and startles you with previously unseen glimpses of the heart. The common sparkles. Linda's "Green" does all that. Watch her on the video. Less than two minutes. But look her in the eye as she reads to you. It's magic.





Josip Novakovich read from one of his books, April Fool's Day I think. I really don't have the energy at this point to do him justice, so I just want to note that he was there and his reading was dark and funny. Finally he looked up to check on the time and saw he was just past 9:30pm and said, "It goes on, but it doesn't any get better."

Wednesday night Zack Rogow will read his work. I was impressed enough last year to buy one of his books and bought another one the other night. His poems tell difficult stories so easily. You can come hear him and others read.



8pm - Rasmuson Hall at UAA - Room 101. Free.

Click here for a complete schedule with bios.

Alaska Political Bloggers Credited

Phil at Progressive Alaska just alerted me about this post at Media Matters by Erik Boehlert Saradise Lost: How Alaska bloggers dethroned Sarah Palin (another case where the title goes well beyond what the article actually says.)

I'm not suggesting that homegrown bloggers alone were responsible for Palin's "no más" moment, but there's no question that the online activists played a key role. That with their shit-kicking brand of frontier citizen journalism, they drove Palin to distraction and changed the way voters nationwide thought about the governor. So if conservative bloggers get credit for driving Dan Rather out of the anchor chair in 2004 following their Memogate campaign-season tale, then the band of scrappy liberal bloggers in Alaska ought to be allowed to bask in a bit of glory, because they made their own history when Palin announced her exit.

Now, Palin has already credited bloggers in her resignation speech. But I guess we saw that as being made scapegoats. Boehlert's comments feel different.

Even What Do I Know? is listed in the story (thanks to Phil's den mother-like devotion to his digital-campers.) While it's true I have written way more Palin posts than I think is good for my mental health, the real bulldogs in this story are (stand up and take a bow as your name is called):

Alaska Progressive
Mudflats
Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis
Just a Girl From Homer
Immoral Minority

along with

AndrewHalcro.com

who's written some critical posts - such as the stuff on Troopergate which began before the VP nomination. (There are lots of other Alaska bloggers who regularly touch on matters political, but the listed blogs were almost all-Palin, all-the-time.)


I take some pride in being, I'm sure, the first website to link to Progressive Alaska, even before it actually went public, having met Phil at the Kohring (or maybe it was the Kott) trial. From the beginning he had ideas of finding a way organize bloggers into a force to post the important stories that the local newspapers were missing. But, as others have mentioned, the pivotal event for Alaska political bloggers was McCain's announcement of his VP running mate.

While some of this pack of self-taught journalists have been more shrill and less polite than is my preference, I have no doubt that those qualities were critical to their success. We get the vacuous news the MSM gives us because that's what most people want. I used to dispute that, but I can see how many hits I get for different posts, and Palin sells, big!

And this isn't good. Other difficult stories aren't being adequately covered - like what's happening in the fishing wars of the North Pacific. We should be unraveling of the complex legal and financial web, including Uncle Ted's role, of what some say is the North Pacific's version of the destruction of the North Atlantic fisheries.

Alaskan bloggers, though, have had a special duty to cover Palin, not simply as a local politician, but because of her national aspirations.

But I would like to debunk some of the conspiracy theories that had Alaskan bloggers as agents with direct links to the White House. While there is a loose email connection among the larger group, and individual bloggers see each other more or less frequently, this is a pretty rag-tag group, united in their dedication to be Alaska's crap detectors.

To give you a sense of how 'loose' this group is, I remember first meeting Linda of Celtic Diva at the Alaska Democratic Convention last May. Then again at a hastily arranged dinner last September out at Phil's place to meet with journalists from Outside who were here to find out about Palin. . That's when I also briefly met Mudflats and Gryphen (from Immoral Minority). And there was a barbecue at Phil's place too. And that's the last time I think I've seen most of them. I'd met Shannyn Moore already at one of the political trials. I've bumped into some of them at events we were all covering - like the Alaska women against Palin demonstration - but other than that, I've had no contact. When I was taking the computer art class last fall, I sometimes ran into Phil while I was locking my bike and he'd come out from his office (music is in the same building as art) for a cigarette break. (He's quit since then.) And the odd email now and then. I realize some of the others have gotten together more often, but this is not a highly polished get-Sarah machine. It is individuals with computers at home who get too little sleep and drink too much coffee, so they can share what they find out about what is behind the facade.

And there were others who offered us encouragement and inspiration along the way, like Matt Browner Hamlin who was in Alaska working on the Begich campaign and had done political blogging in the East (Massachusetts if I recall right[It's Connecticut.]) He raised our sights about what bloggers could do.

Eric Boehlert has already tipped his hat to this group of bloggers in a chapter in his recent book The Bloggers on the Bus.


So what has this group done?

Followed up on every rumor they heard. They didn't always post what they heard, but they looked through the evidence and

• after getting it from several sources, but without confirmation, reported it as a rumor
• got more information and confirmed or rejected it
• analyzed the data available and offered possible explanations and their reasoning
• sometimes taken too much glee in Palin missteps
• kept a constant vigil on everything Palin said, giving her no lattitude when she stretched the truth, and she kept them very busy
  

They've (I'm not sure what it means that I'm using 'they' instead of 'we' but I'll not worry about it and go on that way) posted lots of videos and pictures, of varying levels of good taste, that related to Palin, and had links to local and national stories on Palin.

They've also been sources of information for Outside journalists. Overall, while some of the group have been louder than necessary and sometimes a little fast with declarative sentences, most of the bloggers have qualified their claims based on how much they actually knew or how solid the evidence was.

One critical contribution was the group's early awareness of what Don Mitchell said last week, that Palin is a celebrity, not a serious politician. But unlike Paris Hilton, Sarah Palin held an elected political office, so she was accountable in a way that celebrities aren't. Now that she's almost out of office, she can take advantage of that celebrity without getting flak for not doing a competent job as governor. However, if she plans to continue trying to influence public policy and democratic elections, there will continue to be an open season on Sarah Palin.

[Update July 20, 2009: As I've had time to think more about this, I believe the biggest contribution the so-called progressive blogs was to give Alaska liberals a media presence, a sense of identity and of political efficacy. I've posted an addition to this post today explaining why.]

Bangkok Closing Schools in Fight Against H1N1

ThaiVisa has this quote from the Bangkok Post up:

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has ordered closed all of its 435 schools, 200 nurseries and 13 occupational training centres for five days from July 15 to 19 to prevent the spread of the A/H1N1 flu.

M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the BMA governor, said after a meeting of the city administrators on Tuesday that the BMA will concentrate on campaigning for the people to wear a protective mask, especially at a crowded place.

The BMA will distribute 2 million masks to the people at various crowded locations such as at the BTS electric train stations and Hua Lampong railway station. Bangkok MPs and city councillors will be asked to distribute 10,000 masks each to the people in their constituencies, he said.

Billboards to campaign for the peple to wear a mask and wash their hands will be put up at various corners of the city starting Tuesday. All community radios will also be asked to join the campaign.

The BMA also plans to close all of its school on Aug 10-11 to allow officials concerned to conduct a major clean up of the schools five days from August 8 to 12. However, this can be changed if the cabinet makes a resolution for schools to close for a clean up before this period.

Eva Salutis Reads a Beautiful Piece

It was the second night of the Reading Series at UAA. There are writing workshops/classes going on this week, which is why all these writers are here. In the evenings the students share their teachers with the rest of us.




The evening began with Derick Burleson who teaches at UAF. (I posted all the bios in the previous post.) I'm afraid I didn't connect with him tonight - we were in different places.





But Eva Saulitis' piece worked for me in various ways. (And they even brought in a lamp tonight which really improved the lighting.)





First and foremost was how she wrote this. She took 13 stabs at starting her story about her trip to her ancestral home in Latvia. While she used a professional conference as the impetus for the trip, it was really to visit long lost family. Each time she started over, she covered a bit of the ground she'd hit in the previous takes, but from a slightly different angle. Blogging has highlighted the futility of telling any story and I appreciated her multi-story approach. There's so much to tell sometimes, so many layers of the same topic, each requiring its own telling. There isn't just one story. And through Saulutis' 13 little stories, she painted 13 layers, each revealing nuances that the others hadn't. And the stories, particularly the disparity between when her father signed up to fight for the Germans in WW II (1941) and when his brother was drafted (1944) was rich and poignant. And like much of her visit, many things were left unsaid.

The video has parts 12 and 13. (I was a little unsure of posting any of the video, but since they announced tonight that they are recording the whole series for podcasting later I figured it would be ok.)