Anchorage Garden Club Annual Tour Glimpse

Today was the Anchorage Garden Club's tour of gardens.  This is always a chance to get new ideas, but most importantly a not so gentle reminder to get working in the garden.  There's always at least one garden that makes it all worthwhile.  This time there were a number of gardens that I enjoyed. 

I think this first one was my favorite because of an overall combination of things:  probably the widest variety of plants; a number of spectacular individual flowers; while only about three years old, it looked fairly established;  names of many of the plants.



Look at how amazing the flowers are.  The first two are both red bee balm.

I think the bright red splashes in this second picture come out of those little buds in the previous picture.  This second plant is a further along. 

Artichoke

Dinner Plate Dahlia

Dinner Plate Dahlia Bud Opening

This is Jean Simmons, the gardener responsible for all the flowers above.






Jean's house was the lone South Anchorage location on the tour.  Then we went to see the cluster of four gardens in and around Bootlegger's Cove.

We were told this one is a bristlecone pine. That got our attention. From blueplanetbiomes:

If you could imagine a living tree as old as the pyramids of Egypt, what do you think it would look like? It would look like a bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva,the oldest known tree species in the world.

The bristlecone pine only lives in scattered, arid mountain regions of six western states of America, but the oldest are found in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California. There the pines exist in an exposed, windswept, harsh environment, free of competition from other plants and the ravages of insects and disease. The oldest bristlecones usually grow at elevations of 10,000 to 11,000 feet.

The oldest known tree is "Methuselah", which is 4,789 years old. . .

 As you can see, it is thriving in Anchorage, and it could have another 4,000 years to live.




I'm a sucker for birch bark and this tree was special.  I should have asked, because I couldn't get a definitive answer online.  Wikipedia lists some 15 North American birch species and 18 European and Asian species.




The bristlecone is the tree in the middle of the photo below, its top reaching the bottom of the big window.  The birch is on the right, and the tall skinny tree on the left is a poplar, I believe she said it was Scandanavian.

The newspaper clearly said to leave dogs and strollers at home.  That makes sense.  But the friend we went with was dog sitting and had the dog in the car.  But there were four houses nearby and we decided to walk around the neighborhood;  we'd just keep the dog out on the sidewalk.  When we got to the house on the left, the owner insisted we could take the Daisy around.   (She had her own dog with her in the driveway.)

As luck would have it, the President of the Garden Club happened to be visiting this garden and saw the dog in the back and let us know dogs and children were not supposed to be there.  (The paper only said strollers, not children.)  We assured her that was our intention, but that the owner insisted we take her rather than have one of us wait with her in front.  The owner didn't even know the President was there.  It was all worked out amiably.  Life is full of little surprises.

Trailer Park Foreclosure Sale Update

[Update July 26:  Mark Romick at Alaska Housing called this morning and says there has been discussion of doing this sort of thing.  He checked it out with google street view as we talked and promised to call Northrim Bank.  Obviously, there are lots of obstacles, but it's not impossible.]


About ten days ago I posted that Northrim Bank was selling a whole trailer park it had foreclosed on.  I mused about finding a way to work out funding for the residents to be able to buy it and make it into a trailer condo park.  One commenter said this had been done on Bainbridge Island, Washington where there is very little affordable housing.

So I called Northrim Bank after the sale to find out who bought it, for how much, and what they planned to do with it.  Turns out it wasn't sold and they will have another sale July 29.  And if my calculations in the original post were correct, the current tenants would probably pay less in mortgage payments than they pay now in rent. 

I've called the Alaska Housing Authority and Cook Inlet Housing Authority but neither has returned my call.  Anyone got $850,000 they want to invest in what ought to be a reasonable return and a good cause?

Film Workshop Fun

I went to a film workshop Saturday.  I thought it might be useful to sit in with a real filmmaker and possibly learn something or be reminded of something I'd forgotten that would help with my photos and video for the blog. 

Local filmmaker Bob Curtis-Johnson led the eight hour workshop and there were two things that were particularly helpful.  First was the section on lighting where we got to do some experimenting with different lighting - natural and artificial. 

That's Bob in the middle.  Because I'm basically lazy and cheap, I have embraced a philosophy of natural lighting, not flash, except in extreme circumstances.  And a lot of flash simply lights up the subject, but destroys the natural sense of the scene.

But more sophisticated lighting like these lamps and reflecting boards can dramatically improve the lighting. 

So we spent time trying out different things to see how it affected the images.

The other thing I particularly liked was the mix of people in the group.  We went from high school students to a local sound engineer to a retired guy.  Each was doing different things with film and brought up issues that were of interest. 

We also spent a fair amount of time looking at short videos and then taking them apart to see how different effects were achieved - through lighting, sound, cuts, etc. 

I originally met Bob when my daughter got involved in his Throwdowns, known as Bobs Shorts- challenges to make a film in specific time period, like three weeks.  One is being planned in the near future, but the date hasn't been established. 

Happy Birthday Monica, Alex, and Ropi

I know three others who have birthdays today and I want to wish them a great day.

Does this last birthday card translate across cultures?  In the US we can make a wish on a dandelion and then if you blow all the seeds off, the wish is supposed to come true.

Vegies and Good Neighbors

Yesterday I picked up our box of vegies and fruits from full circle farm.  It's a combination of a little bit of many different things, including things we don't usually get.  So yesterday I was online looking up turnip recipes.  We ended up with one called Red Kidney Beans with Turnips.


 We're going to have to talk to them about recycling the boxes though. 

Also that day, our neighbor came by with a jar of pickled green beans he made.  He uses them for martinis, but I've been eating them straight out of the jar.

The Human Toll From Our National Obsession and Ignorance about Sexuality

What is it about our inability as a nation to deal with sex in an adult way?  Despite the excessive use of sex in marketing of nearly every product, many US citizens aren't able to talk frankly, with knowledge, and without embarrassment about sexuality.

One side effect is politicians (we'll leave other professions for another day)  disgraced by the public disclosure of their sexual conduct.  Because of our cultural obsession with publicly denying real human sexuality in favor of  happily ever after fairy tales, these politicians  resort to twisted lies (from Clinton's "I didn't have sex with that woman" to South Carolina's Gov. Sanford's Appalachian trail story) rather than tell the truth.   In most cases, the deception becomes more problematic than the behavior.  

Here's an example from,  until recently, closeted gay California Republican state senator Roy Ashburn, who, apparently to cover his own sexuality, has voted his whole career against the rights of GLBT citizens. 

The following is a guest commentary by Sen. Roy Ashburn

Startled by the blurry reality of a red light glaring in my rear-view mirror at 2 am on the morning of March, 4, 2010, I knew my life was about to change.  The California Highway Patrol stopped me as I was driving drunk after leaving a gay club in Sacramento, California’s capital.   With my arrest and the media inquiry that followed, my deeply-held secret was no longer my own business.  My private life as a closeted gay man was now the public’s business, and I had a lot of explaining to do. [You can read the rest of the commentary by this 26 year Republican politician at GayPolitics which I found through BentAlaska.]

While his apology (you have to click on the link to get the whole thing) is welcomed by all who believe in equal rights, it only came after he was outed.  

The internet has made knowledge about sexuality and all its myriad variations (sort of like all the different flowers and birds and bugs in nature) much more accessible, and possibly more of our population has a more realistic picture of human sexuality than my generation grew up with.  But on the one hand,  the many misogynist lyrics and movies suggest  a lot of people may know more mechanics of sex than about the art of relationships.  On the other hand the denial of the many faces of human sexuality, most often by religious zealots,  suggests ignorance is thriving too.  Somewhere in the middle there must be a healthy mental and physical balance.

Fortunately, people like Dan Savage offer accessible and frank (and sometimes over the top) discussions of sexuality and relationships that were completely  unimaginable 26 years ago when Sen. Ashburn was first elected.  If he could have read columns like Savage's as a young man how different and more honest his life might have been.

UFO's In My Garden - More Flowers and Bugs

Here's an Unidentified Flying Object and I've got somewhat Unidentified Flowering Objects below.



The macro on my little Canon Powerpoint  gets me pretty good closeups that can be enlarged to see things normally invisible with the naked eye.

Pictures of flowers were going to be an easy post I thought.  Until I started trying to figure out what I was looking at.  I've spent way too long trying to figure out these flower parts.  These are things I normally can't even see.  

I'm hoping I can get hold of a biologist friend who can help me with the identification of these flower parts.

The illustration at the right, from  saburchill.com, might suggest that the green nub is the stigma and the little star shaped flower at the top could be (help!) also part of the stigma or polllen grain, or ???  See also the picture of the pollen grains on the lily stigma below flower functions at science-fair-projects-encyclopedia.  [Based on the diagram below from countrysideinfo I'm going to say that the green is probably the ovary, the star the stigma, but since the same parts of different flowers come in such different guises, unless you have someone who really knows, it's hard to tell from the diagrams.  So don't assume anything here is definitive.]

You can see an impatiens pod on this website, which I'm pretty sure is a later stage of the green part of the pink impatience flower in my picture above.  At the top this link has a discussion of getting seeds from impatiens and the pictures are at the bottom. 

To the right above you can see that impatiens flower from a little further back.  It also has a thrips on it. 

I had an image of that word in my head yesterday, but couldn't get the letters in the right order, but Jeff Lowenfels discussed them in his garden column today and then I looked them up online.  I'm pretty certain that's what it is.  Here it is a little closer, but they are really tiny. 

OK, now that you know your flower parts (that was a joke), let's look at this campanula.

The diagram at right/below and the text below come from countrysideinfo, a UK site, which I think clears things up much more.  

The female parts of a flower consist of an ovary, which contains one or more ovules, a style and the stigma. The ovary is at the base of the flower.
From the ovary, extends a tubular structure called the style and on the top of the style is a surface receptive to pollen called the stigma.
The stigma can take many different forms, most of them designed to help trap pollen. There are many variations on this basic structural theme.

The curly things have to be the stigma and suggests the star shaped thing on the impatiens is also the stigma.  And yes, more thrips on the campanula.  And the parts that look like they've collapsed are probably the stamens, or male parts.

OK, one more to check out.  A pansy up close.  So, what is the white hairy stuff?  Another form of stigma?  Surely the green seed pod is growing right inside there.

What's a Film Festival?

This is Part 2 of a three part post.
Part 1 was What is a scam?
Part 3 will evaluate the authenticity of the Anchorage International Film Festival and the Alaska International Film Festival.


What's a Film Festival?

I've gone through about 15 on-line definitions after googling variations of "What is a Film Festival?" I've posted eight below representing an array of perspectives:  the non-film related Wikipedia, several film festivals, a screenwriters' website, a state film commission, a major British newspaper's film blog, and a book on European Cinema. 

I'll pull out the basic characteristics that are represented in these definitions.  The actual definitions I used are
 below. You can skip down to see them.   But here I'm going to try to summarize the key points that seem to make up a film festival. 

WHAT?

1.  A film festival is a festival.  This seems pretty obvious, but nearly all the definitions stress it is a  gathering of people coming together - film makers, the public, industry professionals, producers, distributors, actors, various other film talents such as makeup, camera, lighting, etc., critics.

WHY? 

2.  To show films.  Again, they all emphasize the key focus is "an organized, extended presentation of films" (1 below); "films are screened" (2); "short or feature length films are shown" (3);  "Film festivals show films" (4);  "chance to see the latest movies" (5);  "a cinematic festival that features films"(7);  "filmmakers get their movies in front of a real live audience"(8)) 

2a.  Exposure for films ("to gain exposure and critical buzz and, in many cases, distribution."(3); "allowing their films to get some exposure"(5))

2b.  Market films ("To market completed film projects and scripts to distributors"(7);"get valuable press attention and exposure to prospective agents and buyers" (8))

2c.  Feedback/Networking ("audience making contact with filmmakers"(4);  "opportunity to schmooze producers, distributors and critics" (5); "an opportunity to network with filmmakers, directors, producers, writers, actors, investors, comedians, musicians, entertainers, politicians, and others who share an interest in the arts"(7); "have their films reviewed by professional critics."(8))

2d.  Education/Training ("sometimes panels or workshops related to film and the industry"(2); "Before or after each film there will be someone who will talk about the making of the movie."(4);"To learn new industry technology and to educate professionals and non-professionals"(7))

2e.  Prizes.  Awards were only mentioned in one of the definitions:  "sometimes sizeable cash award if they win" (8)  I found Christopher Holland's book Film Festival Secrets just as I was finishing this.  He covers pretty much these same why's (filmmaker goals) of film festivals but adds parties and travel.  He has a succinct overview of prizes:

It’s common for festivals to offer cash prizes for the best work of the season. . . Other festivals get sponsors to kick in prize packages worth more than the cash prizes . . . Even if there’s no cash involved, festival awards are a nice way to draw attention to your film.  More media coverage is given to award winners and you can draw future festival audiences to your film with some laurel wreaths on your poster. (pp. 8-9) 

2f.  To market the filmmaking possibilities of the festival location (" To provide funding for The Southwest Georgia Film Commission Office whose primary function is economic development by using the film and television industry as the vehicle. "(7))  This issue also comes up in a doctoral dissertation on a Korean film festival mentioned under "Some other longer discussions" below.)

WHO?

3.  Film people, money people, and the public. ("audience making contact with the filmmakers behind the movies . . . producers, distributors, and actors as well as film directors"(4); "producers, distributors and critics" (5); "the physical presence of large numbers of people"(6); "gathering of show business industry professionals and non-professionals. . . an opportunity to network with filmmakers, directors, producers, writers, actors, investors, comedians, musicians, entertainers, politicians, and others who share an interest in the arts." (7))

WHEN?

4a.  Duration from a day to two weeks. ("in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality."(1); 
4b.  Frequency usually annually. ("Film festivals are typically annual events."(1))

WHERE?

5.  Usually in several venues in one city.

WHICH?

6.  A wide variety of types of films.  Different festivals have different focuses.  ("The films may be of recent date and, depending upon the focus of the individual festival, can include international releases as well as films produced by the organisers' domestic film industry. Sometimes there is a focus on a specific film-maker or genre (e.g., film noir) or subject matter (e.g., gay and lesbian film festivals). A number of film festivals specialise in short films, each with its defined maximum length."(1))

Summary:  A film festival is a gathering of people to show and watch films in a single location (city) using one or more venues.  The main purposes are to get an audience for filmmakers and to let the public and critics see a wide variety of new films (and some older), particularly genres that normally aren't theatrically released.  There are opportunities for the participants to meet, discuss the films, filmmaking, and distribution of the films.  It also is a networking opportunity that can lead to connections for future work.  Festivals have awards for the best films in different categories.

I also noticed that there is some concern that some festivals have become too commercial or too elite.  For short films and experimental films, festivals seem to be a key way to get people to see their films.


Online Festivals

But another venue mentioned by one of the animated filmmakers at last year's Anchorage International Film Festival was online.  He mentioned he had over a million hits for his films at YouTube which he would never get at festivals.

So what about online film festivals where people don't come together in a single place and mingle with others to watch films?   This is a relatively new phenomenon.  Babelgum Online Film Festival states its purpose:

The Babelgum Online Film Festival was created to celebrate and reward the very best in international independent short filmmaking by providing exposure and cash awards for emerging talent. With its non-restrictive submission guidelines and international visibility, the festival supports and encourages talent and continues to provide a unique venue for filmmakers to showcase their craft.

CologneOff started as an online festival, but became a physical festival with an online component.

Shortsnonstop is a Canadian online festival.

These and others clearly state their online nature and post films for anyone to watch online.

What these online festival provide is exposure for film makers - perhaps a little more focused than simply putting one's film up on YouTube or on one's own website - and a chance to win a prize, though depending on how many submissions there are, this might be pretty remote.  They do not provide the face time one could get at a film festival and live audience reaction or the chance to meet producers and publishers and other film makers.  Though presumably they could see the films on line and contact the filmmaker via email.


So that's my relative novice overview of film festivals.  Below are the definitions I found online and are the references for the quotes above.


1.  Wikipedia:

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. The films may be of recent date and, depending upon the focus of the individual festival, can include international releases as well as films produced by the organisers' domestic film industry. Sometimes there is a focus on a specific film-maker or genre (e.g., film noir) or subject matter (e.g., gay and lesbian film festivals). A number of film festivals specialise in short films, each with its defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events.

2.  From the Revolve Film Festival in North Carolina:

Q: What is a Film Festival exactly?
A: It’s an event where films are screened over the space of a few days. Usually there are visiting celebrities, parties, and sometimes panels or workshops related to film and the industry. Each festival cultivates its own personality, reflected by its size and programming.

3.   From Screenwriting's glossary

Film Festival

A festival of short and/or feature-length films shown over the course of between a few days to a few weeks. Festivals are places for films and filmmakers – particularly in the case of independent films – to gain exposure and critical buzz and, in many cases, distribution. Perhaps the two best-known festivals in the world are Sundance and Cannes.

4.  From New Jersey State Film Festival's Film Festival 101

1. What is a film festival and what makes it different from going to see the latest blockbuster?
   Surprise: a film festival is not just about seeing films (although there are over 50 films showing between Thursday and Sunday). It is about the audience making contact with the filmmakers behind the movies.We have two “sidebars”—which are special film programs brought to the festival from other festivals. This year there are a host of famous producers, distributors, and actors as well as film directors. Before or after each film there will be someone who will talk about the making of the movie. You will come away with the kind of insider information you can’t get in the lobby of a megaplex.
2. Film festivals show films that you may never get a chance to see anywhere else.
   For example, on Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM at the Beach Four you can watch dozens of short films—animation, documentaries, experimental, and short fiction—all for just $10. That’s 7 hours of wild, beautiful, funny, moving, crazy, and sometimes just plain weird independent films made by over 100 New Jersey film artists. You won’t like all of them, but you will remember many of them because they will make you think, see different images, and open up parts of your imagination you didn’t know existed.

5.  From The Guardian's Film Blog:

As a regular film festival-goer, I often find myself asking: "What is a film festival for?" The replies vary depending on whether one is a film-maker, critic or member of the public. Film-makers may answer that it gives them an opportunity to schmooze producers, distributors and critics, while allowing their films to get some exposure. Critics and film-goers may say it gives them the chance to see the latest movies before anyone else in their country. Alas, the biggest draws at a festival are usually films that will most likely be shown sooner or later at the local multiplex.

6.   From Thomas Elsaesser's book European Cinema  (p. 94)

What is a (film) festival?  As annual gatherings, for the purpose of reflection and renewal, film festivals partake in the general function of festivals.  Festivals are the moments of self-celebration of a community:  they may inaugurate the New year, honor a successful harvest, mark the end of fasting, or observe the return of a special date.  Festivals require an occasion, a place and the physical presence of large numbers of people.  the same is true of film festivals.  Yet in their iterative aspect, their many covert and overt hierarchies and special codes, film festivals are also comparable to rituals and ceremonies. . .

7.   From the South West Georgia Film Commission:

What is a Film Festival? 

A film festival is a cinematic festival that features films.  It is a gathering of show business industry professionals and non-professionals.  The JOKARA Family Film/Video Festival will provide its attendees with an opportunity to network with filmmakers, directors, producers, writers, actors, investors, comedians, musicians, entertainers, politicians, and others who share an interest in the arts.

 The Purpose of a Film Festival

Each town in Southwest Georgia is uniquely different and has much to offer to the film and television industry in terms of locations.  In addition to the beautiful topography and possible location sites, the state of Georgia has great tax incentives and offers extra incentives to those who will shoot their projects in the Southwest Georgia region.    

 According to the Southwest Georgia Film Commission Director, Ralph Wilcox, who is also the festival’s director and a 30 year veteran actor in Hollywood and on the New York Broadway stage,  this festival is multi-purposed:http://www.kylegilman.net/2007/01/11/why-make-short-films/

 §          To market completed film projects and scripts to distributors, whether major studios (i.e. Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Sony, Paramount) or independent distributors (i.e. Wal-Mart, Blockbusters)

§          To learn new industry technology and to educate professionals and non-professionals in the areas of acting, cameras, lights, sound, scriptwriting, hair and makeup, and wardrobe 

§          To provide marketing and exposure opportunities, whether one is a writer, director, actor, editor, etc… 

§          To provide funding for The Southwest Georgia Film Commission Office whose primary function is economic development by using the film and television industry as the vehicle. 

8.   Entertainment.howthingswork explains film festivals this way:

What are Film Festivals?
Film festivals are events staged by universities, private organizations, local governments, arts associations and/or film societies. They provide an opportunity for unknown filmmakers to get their movies in front of a real live audience and to have their films reviewed by professional critics. Filmmakers whose movies get accepted into a festival also get valuable press attention and exposure to prospective agents and buyers, not to mention a sometimes sizeable cash award if they win.

Some other, longer discussions:

1.  Shorts filmmaker Kyle Gilman discussing festivals and short films and the potential online market for short films.

2.  A Korean film industry veteran, SooJeong AHN's, doctoral dissertation (pdf) for the University of Nottingham on the Pusan International Film Festival and the role of non-Western film festivals in national identity, marketing of regional films to the West, and other somewhat different perspectives of film festivals.

Protesters Invite BP to Join Oil Addicts Anonymous

As I was riding home - fortunately, just before it started to rain hard - I came to this scene at New Seward Highway and Benson in front of BP Alaska's  headquarters in Anchorage. 

Since I was on my bike, it was easy to stop and ask what was going on.  They pointed to Josh as their spokesperson.



[Viddler was having trouble so I uploaded to YouTube today.]

HA! Brave New World: It Looks Like Being Too Clean Can Hurt You

Despite my flip title, this piece from Nature [this comes from the Nature News section and is not from the actual scientific report in Nature by Alejandro Reyes, Matthew Haynes Nicole Hanson, Florent E. Angly, Andrew C. Heath, Forest Rohwer, & Jeffrey I. Gordon] says there's a world of bacteria and viruses living inside us that do work for us we couldn't live without. 

These findings, preliminary as they might be, demonstrate that despite all we do know about how the human body functions, there is still so very much more to know. 

More than 10 trillion bacteria normally inhabit the gastrointestinal tract, where they synthesize essential amino acids and vitamins, produce anti-inflammatory factors and help break down starches, sugars and proteins that people could not otherwise digest. Within and among these bacteria live bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, which affect bacterial numbers and behaviour as they either prey on bacteria or co-exist with them, shuttling genes from one bacterium to another.

This microscopic dynamic ecosystem affects our lives in ways we still do not fully understand. Indeed, the rise in the incidence of food allergies in Western societies has led to hypotheses that extreme hygiene disrupts the ability of microbes to colonize human guts, resulting in a lack of tolerance to usually harmless foods. 

. . ."This human ecosystem is quite important because it determines what we can do and what we can eat," says [Edward] DeLong [at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.] "That's why we should care about this." 

A brief NY Times editorial alerted me to this article.   Though the original Nature News article isn't that long or technical itself.  The actual scientific article requires payment if you aren't a subscriber to get more than the abstract.