Endings

Nothing here is meant to glorify any kind of death.  I'm just sharing some thoughts that this news article brought to mind.

From the Alaska Dispatch:

On a day the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Adivsory Center warned snowmachiners to be especially alert to the dangers of avalanche on the Kenai Peninsula, the president of ConocoPhillips Alaska died beneath a wall of snow that came down near Spencer Glacier about 50 miles east of Anchorage.

Jim Bowles, 57, was with a group of a dozen or more people riding near the glacier when the avalanche came down, according to Alaska State Troopers. Conoco employee Al Gage, 40, was reportedly riding with Bowles and caught in the avalanche as well.

Troopers said late Saturday that Gage remained missing in the area. He is presumed dead. Troopers reported Bowles was dug out shortly after the avalanche swept over him, but rescuers could not revive him despite trying for half an hour.

How the avalanche was triggered remains unknown, but the Chugach avalanche center on Saturday morning warned of considerable danger from human-triggered slides.

I remember long ago, on school break as a Peace Corps teacher in Thailand, another volunteer and I flew to Bali.  While we had round trip tickets from Bangkok, a route that had just recently opened up, we broke up the trip with some cross country bus rides to see a bit more of Indonesia.  As we finally made it across to the island of Bali, riding along the southern part of the island, I saw these magnificent beaches with absolutely perfect surf.  Having grown up near the beach in LA, I was an avid body surfer.  My traveling companion was from New York and not that excited.  But I insisted that during our week, we find a way to get back out there to one of these totally deserted beaches and go body surfing.

After a perfect day in the water, we were lying out on the sand and Alan said something like, "Well, it was nice, but I kept worrying about sharks."  I looked at him and said, "You know, it was perfect.  If I'd been eaten by a shark, it would have been ok.  It was the perfect way to go."  

The article also says that Bowles fell in love with Alaska and the adventures it held.  It sounds like it was a glorious day - blue skies, fresh snow.  Perfect, just like that day in Bali.  I'll bet that like me 40 years ago, he was in the zone and, if he had to go, at least he went doing what he loved.

It's still a great shock for his family and friends and I wish them peace and courage as they come to terms with this great change in their lives.

By the way, as Alan and I were talking about sharks on the beach, a coconut fell from high above between us.  It could have taken out either one of us if it was a foot over in either direction.

Church-State Battle in Texas School Board

The New York Times published an interesting 10 page article Sunday by Russell Shorto on the battles at the Texas School Board to include language into American history books.  It looks at why Texas text book decisions are so important, the religious intentions of the founding fathers' for the US, and points to the March 3rd Texas School Board elections as an indicator of whether  "the Christian right’s recent power surge has begun to wane."

Public education has always been a battleground between cultural forces; one reason that Texas’ school-board members find themselves at the very center of the battlefield is, not surprisingly, money. The state’s $22 billion education fund is among the largest educational endowments in the country. Texas uses some of that money to buy or distribute a staggering 48 million textbooks annually — which rather strongly inclines educational publishers to tailor their products to fit the standards dictated by the Lone Star State. California is the largest textbook market, but besides being bankrupt, it tends to be so specific about what kinds of information its students should learn that few other states follow its lead. Texas, on the other hand, was one of the first states to adopt statewide curriculum guidelines, back in 1998, and the guidelines it came up with (which are referred to as TEKS — pronounced “teaks” — for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) were clear, broad and inclusive enough that many other states used them as a model in devising their own. And while technology is changing things, textbooks — printed or online —are still the backbone of education. . . (From page 1)

Ask Christian activists what they really want — what the goal is behind the effort to bring Christianity into American history — and they say they merely want “the truth.” “The main thing I’m looking for as a state board member is to make sure we have good standards,” Don McLeroy said. But the actual ambition is vast. Americans tell pollsters they support separation of church and state, but then again 65 percent of respondents to a 2007 survey by the First Amendment Center agreed with the statement that “the nation’s founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation,” and 55 percent said they believed the Constitution actually established the country as a Christian nation. The Christian activists are aware of such statistics and want to build on them, as Dunbar made clear. She told me she looks to John Jay’s statement that it is the duty of the people “of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers” and has herself called for a preference for selecting Christians for positions of leadership.

Dunbar’s book lays out the goal: using courts and public schools to fuse Christianity into the nation’s founding. It may be unlikely that it will be attained any time soon, in which case the seeding of Texas’ history-textbook guidelines with “Christian nation” concepts may be mostly symbolic. But symbols can accumulate weight over time, and the Christian activists are in it for the long haul. Some observers say that over time their effort could have far-reaching consequences. “The more you can associate Christianity with the founding, the more you can sway the future Supreme Court,” Martin Marty says. “That is what Pat Robertson was about years ago. Establish the founders as Christians, and you have it made.” (From page 8)

The Role of Art Today

Before Eurydice at the Preservation Theater our first week in Juneau, a theater administrator talked about funding declines during economic hard times (though he did say a long time funder AT&T was standing by them) and he mused, "What is the role of art today?"

That got me thinking. And it hit me like a flash. Art today is what connects us to truth. Art, true art, not the ubiquitous commercial art, is a glimpse into the soul of its creator. In today's world where reality is plastered over with literal and figurative makeup to hide truth, it's art which pokes holes in the facades created by Madison Avenue, by Hollywood, and by Washington, etc.


For example, here's Anchorage Channel 2's Juneau announcer, Ted Land.  He's young, he's good looking, and yet when I saw him one evening preparing to go on the air, I noticed his face was covered in make-up.  Would it hurt if, God forbid, a pimple showed?   Apparently.

But art shows up without makeup and shows us what the powers-that-be  don't want us to see.

And so it's no wonder that funding for the arts is drying up.  The truth is inconvenient or even dangerous.

Art can survive in our capitalist society (that's not an epithet, just a description) when it can be mass marketed.  Putting on a play with live actors performing for a relatively small audience is a dicey economic proposition.  So is a live singer in a small venue.  Or an original painting.  But, as Christine Vashon  said (Conversation with Julianne Moore and Christine Vashon)

"Somebody asked him if Hollywood was homophobic and he said, 'It might be, but who cares?  Money isn't.'"

So, if you can digitize the actors and the singer and sell their digital image to millions, you can make some money.  But as investors want to minimize their risks, they also make demands on artists to package their art into proven genres and formats.  And often the flash of truth is edited out. 

Or so I mused in answer to the question.  A week or so later, I came to the end of the book I was reading, Jo Tatchell's The Poet of Bagdad:  A True Story of Love and Defiance (Thanks Catherine) about  artist Nabeel Yasin who defied Saddam Hussein's henchmen to tell his truth through his poetry.


In the Afterward (p. 347,) Tatchell answers the art question a little differently than I did when she writes about Nabeel, who eventually fled Iraq for Europe, and then returned to Bagdad after 27 years in exile,

Behind closed doors, avoiding the curfews, small groups, sometimes no more than three or four people, were staging theater shows, reading and writing literature, painting, sculpting, talking, and sharing their stories.  In these nascent communities, Nabeel found the lifeblood he had always hoped he would find.  Art, it seemed, was still a symbol of defiance of the violence and bloodshed everywhere.

Beyond the obvious effects of destruction gripping Baghdad he found people filled with a yearning to reclaim the true spirit of Iraq.  He found that art, unlike violence, is a way of asking questions about what has happened and what might still be to come for the country (emphasis added).

Bread Dough, Friends, Graves, Poems, Rain, Thai Food (listed in alphabetical order)

Today, we hosted our first visitors who actually came over for a meal. We only have four chairs and while our 3 foot square table has a leaf on top that flips over, there's nothing to support it when it's open.  So we had a couple over for brunch.

I found another bread recipe online - this time whole wheat - and checked to see what would happen if I put the dough in the refrigerator overnight.  In Anchorage, I would use the bread maker and it would be all done in the morning on its own.  The several sites I found said, leaving the bread in the fridge overnight works.  And I learned two new words - proof (meaning rise) and oven spring  (meaning how much the bread actually rises while it is baking in the oven.)  The sites said bread left in the fridge overnight had better flavor and much more oven spring.

It worked.  It didn't rise much in the fridge overnight, but I got up early and took it out to warm up and went back to bed.  I got up two hours later and kneaded and flattened it (it said this would get it all warm faster) and rolled it back up into a lump and put it into the slightly warmed oven to rise.  Then an hour later kneaded it again and put it into that always recommended well oiled pan.  I also put in some chopped ginger, currents, and walnuts, and then on the once more flattened dough put a layer of guava jelly and rolled it up and stuck it in to rise again. It didn't rise as much as I would have liked in 40 minutes, but it was getting late.  Fortunately, the oven spring thing  worked and it really did 'spring up' in the oven. 

Our guests had asked what they could bring and we'd said, "A Poem."  And they did, several.  They read  Antonio Machado's "Last Night"; Sharon Olds' "The Race" and "The Space Heater."  (wonderful chain of words at the end) Another was called "The Dress."    It seemed to me to be a sly observation about the communication minefields couples face, but also how other things get us safely through them.  But I'm not sure. I'd like to read it again. And there was one more that painted a picture of love and hate necessarily merging.  Wonderful gifts to the brain and heart all.

We then walked up Basin Road toward Perseverance Trail.  It was raining and blustery and the trail got muddier and we had places to go so we weren't gone long. (Or maybe it seemed short because we were having such good conversation.) And then a quick change into drier pants and off to tea and three berry pie with other friends a short walk away. 

And here are three more pictures that probably won't fit anywhere else.  As I ran through the Evergreen Cemetery Saturday afternoon, I remembered that I'd read somewhere that Joe Juneau was buried there.  And as I came upon the next grave, there it was.  Richard Harris was buried to the left of the path in an identical grave.   Wikipedia tells us:

It is interesting to note that the town did not take up its current name right away; originally it was known as Harrisburg, Pilzburg, and Rockwell. Apparently, Joseph Juneau was able to bribe (buy votes from) enough of his fellow miners for it to be changed. Even though the city doesn't carry Harris' name anymore, Harris Street remains in Juneau. Richard lived the rest of his life in Juneau, his children and descendants stayed in Juneau for many years. Both Richard Harris and Joseph Juneau are buried in the city's Evergreen Cemetery.

Would you rather live to 60 and have the state capital named after you?  Or live to 74 and just have a street named after you?  Personally, I glad Juneau became the name of the town, because there's already another state capital Harrisburg.


We got picked up by another friend Saturday night and driven out to Chan's Thai Kitchen.  We had a good meal and good conversation.  This is, I'm told, the only Thai restaurant in town and it's way out by the university. [HarpboyAK corrects me in the comments, noting Suwanna Cafe in the Jordan Creek Mall.]  And the portions are pretty big.  But last Saturday night's Thai dinner was much more sublime.  But it was at someone's home.

Year of the Tiger Begins

From Year of the Tiger:

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which commences on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, and it is a sign of bravery. This courageous and fiery fighter is admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household. These are fire, thieves and ghosts. . .

Just as how their counterparts in the jungle are impulsive, so too are individuals born in the Chinese Year of the Tiger. When people think of tigers, it is their vigor and power that comes to mind first. But it has also been noted that tigers are known to share and are unselfish animals. The reason people admire the tiger is due to the fact that they are ferocious and domineering on the outside, but they are just as noble and distinguished on the inside. These are the same personality attributes that persons will have who are born in the Year of the Tiger.

People that are born in the Year of the Tiger are generally well liked because of their charismatic personalities. Often, failing at a given duty or being unproductive in his personal or professional life can cause a Tiger to experience a deep sense of depression.A Tiger is always at their happiest when they endeavor to climb the ladder of success. Attaining the top spot is his foremost purpose; being in a position of power is her ultimate goal. They are quick learners, need to be challenged and often prefer to work alone. Some Tigers tend to change careers more frequently because they get bored quite easily. They are natural born leaders and perform at their best if working towards positions of power and influence. So once there is no further room for progression, they will often move on to something else. [The rest at Year of the Tiger.]

From Chinese Fortune Calendar:

 2010 is Year of Tiger and it will arrive on February 4, 2010. Many people must be eager to know they have better luck in the coming year than 2009. Here, we want to use Chinese Astrology Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth) theory to explain people fortune in 2010 and foresee what will be happening to them in year of Tiger.

According to Chinese Five Element Astrology Calendar, 2010 is the Year of Metal Tiger . Gold is related to Metal and money. People who like to talk about wealth will say that 2010 is a Golden Tiger year. In Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth)  theory, the color representing metal is White. Therefore, we also can say that 2010 is the Year of White Tiger. The White Tiger is connected to the symbol of jinx in China history. Some Chinese might consider that 2010 White Tiger is a bad year.

Chinese Astrology is a Balance Theory of Five Elements. Each animal can be converted into Five Elements. Tiger contains Mainly Wood, Fire and little Earth. Wood and Fire together will make Fire stronger. Metal is afraid of Fire and Metal is also against Wood. That means Metal and Tiger together will fight each other, which implies 2010 won't come quietly and peacefully. We can image that 2010 is a Tiger wearing armor. This Tiger doesn't like armor on the top its body and keeps jumping around. For safety, we should keep our distance from it. That's why many Chinese don't like White Tiger.

Tiger has the potential to become vigorous, ferocious and cruel. So Tiger is a symbol of power and authority. This kind of personality is good for the leadership. With the inflexible and destructive personality, Tiger has very poor people relationship, especially, with family members. In traditional customary, Chinese family don't invite people born in year of Tiger to involve private wedding ceremony. [the rest at Chinese Fortune Calendar]

Alaska Humanities Forum Pitches In Juneau

This is part of my continuing coverage of the people who come to Juneau to talk to their legislators.  Of course, I'm only you showing a fraction of 1%.  But just to give you an idea.

I ran into Jim MacKenzie in the hall outside the Senate Finance Subcommittee meeting Thursday. Jim, a former student, runs the Leadership Anchorage program at the Alaska Humanities Forum.  He and others from the forum, including his boss, AHF president and CEO Greg Kimura, to tell legislators about what the Humanities Forum is doing.  Fortunately for me, they also were serving lunch (this was the first time I've gone in without breakfast).

So here's Jim and Greg on the video. 

I did ask Greg who they could justify bringing so many people down to Juneau and he said they are doing double duty, visiting with people involved in Humanities Forum programs here in Juneau.  Up til now, he said, they haven't had any state funding, but their funding for the summer history teachers workshops has run out, and this is a really important program to help teachers teach Alaska history.

This is their Alaska history curriculum for high school teachers.  The DVD's have historic Alaska films that they converted.









They also published this statehood anniversary collection, Alaska at 50,  which Greg said was the top seller at the University Press.  That's probably not saying a lot.

Senate Finance Subcommitte Looks at Insurance, Energy, Industrial Development, Fish, and Travel

Working in the Capitol building is like being a pin ball.  You go in one direction (Thursday I went to the State Affairs Committee at 8am) and then you find yourself colliding with other balls and going off in a lot of different, unexpected directions.

I met someone who suggested I head to the Senate Finance Commerce subcommittee where I heard people present their budget proposals for the

• Division of Insurance
• Alaska Energy Authority (AEA)
•  Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA)
• Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
• Alaska Tourism Industry Association (ATIA)

Each department had documents, some with more, some with less, data.  They all say they do good things.  And they may well do such things.  Or some might others might not.  The Division of Insurance director Linda Hall sounded sincerely interested in helping Alaskan consumers avoid being caught in insurance fraud.  They were the only group to keep their handout to one piece of two-sided paper.  But I really dislike when agencies use shortened numbers without telling people how many zeroes to add.  I know their budget is more than $6,816.5.  Do I add two zeroes?  Three?  Insiders know this, but how should the public know?  They say the collected $58 million in premium taxes, penalties, and fees.  They got $214,000 in additional payments to Alaskans.  That doesn't sound like much when short hospital event can cost $40,000 or more.
Their public service pledge is "to consistently exceed the expectations of those we serve."  That's cool.  I wonder if they do.  Good goal though.

The others were less consumer protection or regulation sorts of agencies.  At least the Seafood Marketing Institute spells out its budget request total = $18.7 million, of which $3.7 comes from the State of Alaska, $9.1 million from 'voluntary industry assessments' and $5 million from the federal government.  They gave an example of a Brussels Trade Show that cost about $300,000 and netted in $36,000,000 in on site sales and '$394,000,000 more projected for the year.'  And their website has some recipes:

Chef John Besh's Wild Alaska Seafood Recipes You Can Make At Home:

• Blackened Wild Alaska Cod with Fennel and Orange Salad
• Wild Alaska Halibut with Mushrooms and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
• Lacquered Wild Alaska Salmon in Butter Lettuce Cups with Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
• Grilled Wild Alaska Cod Tacos

 But this is like buying a home or a car after looking at the brochures.  On the other hand, I don't know what the committee members know already, and who all else has scrutinized the budget. 

Their website is really a marketing site for Alaskan Seafood, so it really wouldn't make sense for them to post the handouts they gave the committee there, but I couldn't figure out how to get the stuff from the committee site either.  You can get their annual report on line.  Sen. Menard praised the Seafood Marketing Institute for their great ads in the Alaska Airline magazine.

 I just don't know enough about this process.  The Alaska Tourism Industry Association handed out a hard copy of a power point presentation.  It was pretty simplistic.  It did list the 2009-2010 44 Marketing Committee Volunteers, but did NOT list the 24 members of the Board of Directors. 

[Photo is, I believe, Patti Mckay of ATIA reporting to Sens. Menard and Thomas. Double click photos to enlarge.]

The Republican Party is the one that argues most strenuously for the free market and against government intervention.  Except for the Division of Insurance, the agencies at the meeting seem to be government agencies helping out businesses.  As a Democrat, I tend to think that government has a role in helping to stimulate the economy, but I certainly would have asked more rigorous questions than the two Republicans on the panel, Sen. Thomas and Sen. Menard, to be sure that the money was going to give a significant return.  There just wasn't enough information in any of the handouts for me to be able to judge.  And there wasn't much time to ask many probing questions either. 


Chip Thoma from Responsible Cruising in Alaska was there and gave me a copy of a list of questions for the committee to ask ATIA.  Thoma wants to know why the state's share of ATIA is now 75% when it used to be 50%. [These are not my figures.]  He also wants to see backup for the information ATIA offers and questions the lobbying efforts of ATIA in conjunction with the Alaska Cruise Association, which, he says:

• oppose the one-halibut limit on guided sport fishing, a major cruise ship excursion that pays large monetary commissions to the cruise lines.
• oppose the state cruise passenger tax, which pays for cruise-related capital projects in 12 ports throughout the state
• criticize the legislature for 'hoarding' cruise tax moneys
• support cruise lines and the ACA filing a federal lawsuit against the state cruise passenger tax

I don't know enough about any of these agencies to know if they are using the money responsibly and effectively, but I do know that the handouts they gave the committee certainly didn't give enough information either.  

And, to continue the pinball analogy, when I went into the hall, I bumped into a former student and when I went to look for him a little later, he was in a nearby room pitching for the Alaska Humanities Forum.  This constant sudden change in trajectory due to random meetings is probably okay for a blogger, but I wonder how legislators and staffers get anything real thinking done. 

For the Snowbound - Consider a Break in Springlike Juneau

I'm afraid these aren't great photos, I've been trying to get some shots, while rushing to work in the mornings,  that would show off why the snow bound might want to consider a weekend break in Alaska. 

 

 Wednesday

Wednesday - This is Franklin Street.  

Notice the snow is on the mountains, not in the streets.

Thursday. Mountains, not in the streets.

Today.  With Sunshine. From our window.

Today, sun and blue sky.  From another window.

And just so I don't get accused of misleading you, here's a map of Alaska, showing you that Juneau is in what is called Southeast Alaska.  To get your bearings, Southeast is north and west of the US Northwest.  The map will enlarge a lot if you click it.

And for those who want to wish Abraham Lincoln a happy birthday (and Charles Darwin), you can singalong at least year's post on this day with the Anchorage cast of Hair.

Security Cam

The Thomas B. Stewart Building just opened recently after being remodeled. It's still not quite finished. The stairwells, for example, aren't done. The new staff and public lounge is here at the end of the bridge from the second floor of the Capitol.

So, Thursday as I was typing away, the worker came in and installed this new security camera. I asked him where I should sit so the camera wouldn't see me. He said, they're installing it to keep an eye on bloggers. (I realize as I write this now, that some people might not realize that he said this jokingly, having seen me doing video interviews in this room.)

Boyd McFail Lobbying Against Mandatory Car Daytime Headlights

I keep being amazed by the number and variety of people walking the halls of the Capitol to make their case to legislators. Alaskans complain that Juneau is far away and isolated and people can't get to see their legislators. It may be hard to get here, but once people get here, I imagine any other state Capitol buildings being more accessible than Alaska's. And people manage to get here.  It's crawling with people from all over the state. And you can walk into a legislator's office and if you can't see the legislator right then, they'll probably offer you another time or a staffer who will take down your story. I've never been in another state's legislative building during a session so I don't know how accessible they are, but here the building is wide open for any and everyone to walk into the building and into most anyone's office. Among the many people in the halls today were a group from Bristol Bay, the Alaska Humanities Forum (I'll try to get a post up on them) dentists, people advocating for public transit, and who knows what all else.

Here's a video Boyd McFail explaining why he's against mandatory daytime headlights on Alaska highways just before talking to Rep. Max Gruenberg.