AIFF 2011: Animated Films in Competition - Ducks, Nuts, Mutant Chickens, Zombies, and More

The 2011Anchorage International Film Festival starts in less than a week - Friday, Dec. 2.

These are the animated films that have been chosen by the screening committees as the best and they are in competition for the festival prizes.

All the Animated Films in Competition will be in the same program this year, so seeing them all will be much easier.  See the schedule at the bottom. 

8 Second Dance

Trey Moya

USA

8 minutes

HTML Tables

8 Second Dance was created by 12 students at the University of Colorado Denver's Digital Animation Center.


8 Second Dance from Bart Tyler on Vimeo.

Attack of the Killer Mutant Chickens [Murgi Keno Mutant]

Nayeem Mahbub

Bangladesh

15 minutes

Nayeem Mahbub

Mutant Chickens just started on the film festival circuit in September. It's already won Best Animated Film at the Rockport Film Festival and the Offshoot Film Festival. Nayeem Mahbub seems to have many overlapping roles - columnist for the Independent (Bangladesh), BBC producer/director, and graduate of Oberlin in cinema studies.



Probably, when most Americans hear the word Bangladesh, if they have any image of the country at all, think about poverty and flooding.  They probably don't think about

Bangla poet and philosopher Rabindrananth Tagore (1861 - 1941) was the first Asian novelist to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. The award was for an English translation of his mystical poem "Gitanjali" (Song offerings).[From Betelco.com]

Or that's it's the 9th most populous country in the world with over 142 million inhabitants.  So it's good that we have a film from Bangladesh.

Not quite Tagore, in this film killer mutant chickens terrorize Bangladesh, but it's much better than that description sounds.

Landscape With Duck

Patrick Neary

USA

4 minutes

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This is a hand drawn animation about a duck who's late for migration and has to find his own way south.  Kinografx's facebook page says Duck's flying north to Anchorage for the festival. Does that mean Patrick Neary is coming along? [UPDATE 11/27/11 - 1:13pm: Comment below says 'yes.'  Also, I see I missed that Northwest Animation Festival selected  "Landscape with Duck" for their Best of the Fest.]

Nuts For Pizza

David Andrade

USA

2 minutes

HTML Tables

This 2:21minute animation has 32 people listed in the credits.  Back in July last year, the Director posted a request on CGSociety requesting internet collaboration on this film.   The n4p.theoryanimation.com sums up what happened next:

Nuts for Pizza represents a new wave of film-making techniques and is the first truly online collaborative animated short film. Simply by logging into a website, artists from the United States and Canada were given the means to produce Nuts for Pizza without ever meeting in person. In total, 32 skilled artisans worked together to produce the short, which was inspired by actual events.
Theory Animation began in early 2008, born from the desire to allow artists hundreds of miles apart to collaborate in a studio-like setting over the Internet. Because nothing like this had existed before, the goal was to create an easily-accessible portal that would allow anyone to use their skills to contribute to creative projects in production. With talented artists scattered throughout the globe, Theory Animation crosses borders and marries technology with art.

It's been at a few festivals so far won a Grand Festival Award at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival November, 2011.   Here's a medley of three different animations by director David Andrade.  The Nuts for Pizza clip begins at 45 seconds.


2011 Reel from David Andrade on Vimeo.

Something Left, Something Taken

Ru Kuwahata Max Porter

USA

10 minutes

HTML Tables

Their vimeo site has a picture of Max and Ru which I've paired up with a screen shot of the main characters from Something Left, Something Taken.

This one fits neatly in a theme I've mentioned on this blog at various times:  We see what we're conditioned to see.  This video below is the whole movie.  You can see it with French or Japanese subtitles at their Vimeo page.


Something Left, Something Taken- Full Version from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo.

Check their bi-lingual blog (Japanese and English) and this interview at Wacky Shorts Creations where they each answer the question: 

HW: What does being able to draw mean to you?

RK: Being able to create a world from nothing.

MP: Drawing can mean a lot of different things A drawing can be pure communication or a plan for something else. Sometimes the drawing is a finished product and sometimes it a way to study the world around us. I guess it’s all about the context.

This Is Not Real

Gergely Wootsch

UK

7 minutes

HTML Tables

Gergely, according to his website, is a Hungarian who's living in London recently got his MA at the Royal College of Art in Animation.  By the way, he's planning to be in Anchorage for the festival. 


This is Not Real - Trailer from Gergely Wootsch on Vimeo.

Year Zero

Richard Cunningham

USA

24 minutes

Richard Cunningham

HTML Tables

This is an animated zombie movie. Last year Elias Matar explained that Ashes was an "infected" movie rather than a zombie movie and this too seems to fit in the infected category, but I'm not an expert on these things.

The photo is a screen shot from Zombies 

Take Manhattan in Tribeca Animated Short 

DNAInfo  says,

"He spent 14 to 16 hour days at work in his Astoria basement apartment while "slowly draining away my savings." Without training as an illustrator or animator, the one-time Bard College student depended on online tutorials and forums and, for much of the process, a 10-year-old computer.
"I learned so much from 15-year-olds, just how to solve problems in Final Cut [video editing software]," Cunningham said. "It's kind of embarrassing listening to this pubescent kid tell you what to do, and yet they're totally right.'"Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110422/downtown/zombies-take-manhattan-tribeca-film-festival-short#ixzz1etrtr3Uq

Video from DNAInfo

WHEN AND WHERE TO SEE THESE FILMS?
 .
They will all be part of the porgram called "Animation World-Wide"  which will show twice at the Alaska Experience Theater and twice at Out North.

Day	Time	Venue
Sunday Dec 4	12 pm	Alaska Experience
Tuesday Dec. 6	7pm	Out North
Friday Dec. 9	7:20 pm	Alaska Experience
Saturday Dec 10	6pm	Out North

HTML Tables

Seven addition animated films will be part of the Animation World-Wide package.

One thing to pay attention to when you watch these films is the difference between hand drawn and computer drawn animation.  I'm not taking sides, but viewers should pay attention and learn to distinguish between the two.  Here's part of a blog post in which Tom Benthin addresses this:

I’ll start by saying that I believe that drawings that are hand-made and loosely or roughly drawn engage us more, drawing us into the process of animating what we’re viewing. By “animating” I mean the way we bring a drawing to life in our mind. Here’s a cartoon from the New Yorker that I’ve shown to graphic facilitation classes I’ve taught over the years:

You can read the whole post and see his illustrations here. 

If you want even more, in 2002, David Mitchell wrote a Masters Report on The Future of the Cartoon Feature Film.  But that's like a historical document given how fast technology is changing.

Two Links - French Blog Post on Planned Obsolesence and Anchorage Post with Title 21 Housing Design Horrors

I ran across the French blog  OWNI.eu with a good post on Planned Obselecence  because it has a link to my post on Victor's Lebow's quote in the Story of Stuff.  It documents more on how corporations design products to encourage hyperconsumption. 

Planned Obsolescence: How Companies Encourage Hyperconsumption

Like many of their professors, students at the Sorbonne had become used to going to buy their ink cartridges from a small shop on a nearby street. With no manufacturer affiliations, it carried shelves full of ‘generic’ cartridges that worked with printers from big name brands like Epson, Canon, HP and Brother. But that small shop soon faced a very big problem: some new printers only recognise ‘proprietary’ consumables that they can detect by matching their hardware signature against a signature in a chip on the cartridge. Anybody hoping to get round that by using a syringe to top up their existing cartridge with new ink was soon caught out because the chips can also track ink levels. But try seeing things from the manufacturers’ point of view: print cartridge sales can represent up to 90% of their turnover, so it’s not hard to see why they want to prevent consumers from going elsewhere. This process of trapping consumers in an endless cycle of buying more by supplying products that soon become unusable or beyond repair has taken on the almost cult name of ‘planned obsolescence.’

This is just the beginning.  It also talks about light bulbs, iPads, and the 'lift cartel' (elevators in American). This is part of the underlying problem that Occupy is about - the way large corporations gain control over our lives and income. 

During the depression people's consumption dropped and corporations had the problem of how to sell more to people who already had enough. The OWNI post says there were three lines of solutions:  Technical, Design, and Legal. 

The Technical line:

"technical: built weaker, less durable products that are impossible to repair;"

brings to mind our recently worn out bread machine.  The motor still worked, but stopped turning the dough after the first rotation.  The repair shop owner apologized when he told us he can't get the part we need any more. All that metal, the motor, the power cord, everything, has to be tossed because one small part isn't working.  (We left it with the repair man, hoping he might find ways to use some of it, but at least that he knew a way to recycle it if he couldn't. 


Large Scale Designed Mess

In Anchorage, the Assembly passed a revision of Title 21 last year that changes all sorts of standards for design and construction of housing which would address a similar problem - builders who cut corners to build ugly, treeless projects with erosion problems, minimal and unusable outdoor space.

But the mayor hired a former Assembly member at $60,000 to come up with changes that would make the development community happier.  The mayor has dropped most of the consultant's recommendation, but still  has offered a series of about 38 amendments to implement the development industry's wish list which would overturn many of the most critical improvements already approved.

Photo from Mt. View Forum used with permission (link to see more)

These amendments go to the Planning and Zoning Commission in December and then to the Assembly.  Mt. View Forum posted about Title 21 back in 2009 with a series of photos that show what shoddy Anchorage construction looks like.

The photo caption at Mt. View Forum read:

"Does it get any worse? Yes! Four-plex apartments, street sides windowless, entire area between buildings and street 100% paved, no landscaping."

Do you really think it's too hard for apartments and office to hide their dumpsters from street traffic?  How about 25 foot setbacks for buildings from creeks and only 10 feet for other parts of the property?  I'm hoping to write more on this soon, but let me jump the gun a bit to get Anchorage folks not only aware of this, but alarmed enough to start calling their assembly members.  Here's what the Planning staff at the Muni wrote about the 25 foot setback:

After considerable research, discussion, review and compromise with the T21 subcommittee, the provisionally adopted 50-foot setback is much lower than what is recommended in scientific literature and used in other cities. For comparison, based on scientific data the standard recommendation is 300-feet3. In most communities, stream setbacks average 100-feet nationwide. In Alaska: Soldotna has a 100-foot setback, the Mat-Su Borough has a 75- foot setback, and both Juneau and Homer have 50-foot setbacks. Stream setbacks are necessary to control floodwaters, provide water quality treatment by capturing and filtering pollutants, protect base stream flows to reduce threats of flash floods, maintain stream stability preventing channel migration and maintain stream health for fish and wildlife habitat. Anchorage’s existing 25’ setback came about because of politics, compromise and what was acceptable in the mid 1980’s—it was not based on scientific or practical findings. The consultant’s amendments reduce the role of setbacks from even current code, as illustrated following page 56 below. As proposed, allowing additional uses within 10-ft of streams threatens the very effective vegetative buffer for water quality and flood control. Vegetation along stream banks serves many purposes. Trees slow water velocity and hold the soil in place with their root system stabilizing stream banks. Overhanging vegetation regulates water temperature, provides shading for salmon, and contributes insects and other nutrients in the stream. Ground-cover vegetation filters stormwater runoff removing sediments and pollutants before entering streams.

This is from a list of the changes with staff comments put together by former Planning and Zoning Commissioner John Weddleton.  I've posted the whole document (21 pages) at Scribd., but they group opposing the changes, FreeTitle21, passed out a more concise version (4 pages) Tuesday night at the Assembly meeting.  Free Title 21's concise version, more a list of recommendations and reasons to reject most of the amendments,  is also at Scribd.

Mrs. Nash Gets a Baby In Seattle Because Folks In Anchorage Wouldn't Give Her a White Baby

The title summarizes one of the stories Mrs. Nash tells on a tape my daughter made before Mrs. Nash died. There are a number of interesting bits of Anchorage history on the short audio tape below.

Mrs. Mildred Nash was our neighbor for over 25 years. It would be more accurate to say that we were her neighbor, since she'd lived in this neighborhood 20 years before we moved in. When our house, our side of the street, was still woods. I don't even know if our street was even here. I wrote about Mrs. Nash recently because the ally across the street was made into a street and called Mildred Place.

Today, November 25, is her birthday.  This seems like a good time to post the audio my daughter made with Mrs. Nash.

[Note, it might take a while - it took me a few minutes - for this to upload, but read something else and come back to it.]

If I close my eyes and listen to the tape, it's like Mrs. Nash is here in the room with me. And you can catch the infectious love of life in her voice. She was about 86 and dying with cancer when this recorded. But you wouldn't know it.   If you want to get a little boost today, listen to a truly at-peace woman thinking back on her life.  And hear the story about how she had to go to Seattle to adopt her son, because they didn't have black babies and they weren't going to give her a white one.



I should note it would also be my mother-in-law's birthday today. In one of those strange coincidences in life, her name was also Mildred.  Happy Birthday to both my Mildreds.

Should You Wash The Turkey? How Long To Cook It? And Mary's Little Lamb

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  Is there anyone in your life who made a difference when you needed it?  This is a good day to call her up and say thank you.  Go ahead.  Even if you have people coming over in two hours.  Just say, Hi, I wanted to say thank you.  I don't have a lot of time now, but I'll call you back.  But I didn't want to wait any longer.  Thanks!


Meanwhile, if you're trying to figure out how to prepare that turkey, you'll find a bit of variation in the  advice online.

Wash the turkey or not?  I get contradictory advice:



Better Homes and Gardens:

Don't wash the bird. Washing raw poultry is not necessary, and the splashing water may contaminate surrounding objects. In general, the less you handle poultry, the safer it remains.

 Epicurious:

Washing

Finally, rinse the outside of the turkey and inside the cavity with cool water and pat dry. As a precaution against the spread of harmful bacteria, be sure to wash the sink, countertop, and any utensils that have come in contact with the uncooked meat, as well as your own hands, with soap and water.

 Cooking times are closer but still vary greatly


Here are three recommendations.  We have a 21 pound turkey the advice from these three different sites are, for cooking at 325˚F: 4.5-5 hours,  5.5 - 6 hours, and 3.5-4.5.  What seems to be common among them all is that it's done when the inside temperature should be 165˚F.

From the United States Department of Agriculture  Food Safety Inspection Service :

Timetables for Turkey Roasting
(325 °F oven temperature)

Use the timetables below to determine how long to cook your turkey. These times are approximate. Always use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of your turkey and stuffing.

Unstuffed
4 to 8 pounds (breast)	1½ to 3¼ hours
8 to 12 pounds	2¾ to 3 hours
12 to 14 pounds	3 to 3¾ hours
14 to 18 pounds	3¾ to 4¼ hours
18 to 20 pounds	4¼ to 4½ hours
20 to 24 pounds	4½ to 5 hours

 From Homecooking at aboutdotcom:

Approximate Roasting Times for Unstuffed Turkey
Turkey Weight	Hours
6 to 8 pounds	2-1/2 to 3 hours
8 to 12 pounds	3 to 4 hours
12 to 16 pounds	4 to 5 hours
16 to 20 pounds	5 to 5-1/2 hours
20 to 24 pounds	5-1/2 to 6 hours

 This one, I just realized, is from AskAndyAbout Clothes.
Do I want to take turkey cooking advice from a clothes blog?  And he doesn't say where his information comes from.  But I like his times.

Turkey weight with giblets	Oven temp	Internal temp when done	Cooking time
10-13 lb.	350° F	165°	1 ½ to 2 ¼ hr.
14-23 lb.	325°	165°	2 to 3 hr.
24-27 lb.	325°	165°	3 to 3 ¾ hr.
28-30 lb.	325°	165°	3 ½ to 4 ½ hr.

Last year we took advice to cook the turkey faster and it was great. 

And what does Mary's Little Lamb have to do with Thanksgiving?  Find out below.

From History.com:

In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.

In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale—author, among countless other things, of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians.

Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939, when

Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known derisively as Franksgiving, was met with passionate opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Dr. Doug Brinkley Stands Up To Don Young's Bullying

From the LA Times:

Famed biographer Doug Brinkley has written exhaustively on the history of Alaskan wilderness, but Alaskan Rep. Don Young was having none of it recently when it came to the issue of drilling for oil at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The two men clashed bitterly last Friday as Brinkley, a professor at Rice University and the author most recently of “The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom 1979-1960,” [sic] testified at a House Natural Resources Committee meeting regarding the effects of drilling in the refuge. Young interrupted Brinkley’s testimony, calling him “Dr. Rice” and saying his testimony was “garbage.”

“Dr. Brinkley. Rice is a university,” Brinkley shot back. “I know you went to Yuba College and you couldn't graduate.”

Young, getting visibly upset, retorted: “I'll call you anything I want to call you when you sit in that chair. You just be quiet.”

"You don't own me," Brinkley said. "I pay your salary.”

"Brinkley got the last word when he expressed his surprise to 'hear a congressman today say there’s nothing in his district. It’s boring. It’s flat. It’s not exciting. I don’t know a representative who doesn’t love their district. Every state in America’s landscape is beautiful if you love it. But some people love money more than their homeland or where they live, and I’m afraid that that’s why this fight has to keep coming up 50 years later, we’re still trying to tell people the Arctic refuge is real. It belongs to the American people.'”

The Washington Post has more detailed comment on the exchange and longer video from C-Span with more context.

Don Shelby, who says he's a friend of Brinkley's, talked to him about the incident.

Dr. Brinkley gets a little heated himself, but I think just sitting there while the Congressman calls you garbage, isn't the answer.  Bullies, especially those with power, get away with their tantrums because people don't stand up to them.  The Committee Chair tells Brinkley to act civilly, but he doesn't tell his colleague Don Young that.

I just learned about this today (thanks J), but Gryphen at Immoral Minority posted about it on Monday and the Fairbanks News Miner had it  Saturday.  And Mudflats discussed it Sunday with comments on the ANWR debate itself that got Young so aroused.

The Anchorage Daily News finally got something posted online today:

Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley says he has no regrets about his dust-up with Alaska Rep. Don Young Friday during a Capitol Hill hearing on oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In a follow-up interview with KHOU in Houston, Texas, Brinkley accused Young of "bullying." Young, meanwhile, claimed Brinkley was just trying to boost sales of his recent book on the history of Alaska conservationism.

That's all they had to say.  So the newspaper in the biggest city in the state by far, put up just a little bit and focused on Brinkley's behavior rather than Young's. 

Though they included a video news report  from Houston, where he teaches at Rice University which includes comments from Dr. Brinkley:

It was only two weeks ago that Brent Scarpo was in Anchorage discussing bullying at many different venues. A key point he made is that bullying continues when bystanders allow bullies to bully.

People have criticized Joe Paterno and others who did not follow through when they knew about Coach Sandusky's abuse of the kids under his care. But how many of Don Young's colleagues interrupt his bullying of witnesses who have been invited to testify.

It's easy to criticize others' inaction, but it's much harder to act when the bully is someone with power in our own spheres of influence. The Alaska voters who reelect Don Young every two years are, to an extent, his enablers.

And let me just note, there is a difference between being passionate in your arguments and being abusive. Young is, and has frequently over the years, been abusive to people who disagree with him. This is not the kind of role model I want for the people and youth of Alaska. Don Young owes Dr. Brinkley an apology. And when he gives it, then Dr. Brinkley can accept it and apologize as well - not for standing up to him, but for getting personal (ie. bringing up Young's college record) rather than staying on topic.

Congressman Young, here's a link to the Good Samaritan Counseling Center in Anchorage. They have an anger management program that might be helpful.

And here's a link for an 8 hour Anger Management class in Washington DC.  It's only $65.  I'd be more than happy to pay what isn't covered by your Congressional health insurance.

Road to Child's Glacier and Million Dollar Bridge Closed Until after 2015

[UPDATE May 1, 2015:  Here's an update on the road. 
Q: When's The Cordova Road To Child's Glacier/ Million Dollar Bridge Going To Be Ready? A: It's Not]

We spent two days at Child's Glacier in July when we went to Cordova for Joe and Martha's wedding.  The campground host told me that there were problems with one of the bridges

Alaska Dept of Transportation photo

and it could be closed down any time.  So I took pictures of the bridge as we crossed over it on the way back.  At least I'm pretty sure this is the right bridge, but clearly the water level when we passed it was much different from in the DOT aerial photo below.

In any case, you can't go to Child's Glacier or the Million Dollar bridge any more by car.  The bridge was closed August 20 and today I got a press release from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities saying if everything goes well, the might begin construction in 2015.  That means no campers will be using that great new campground at Child's Glacier for at least another five years.

River very near to Copper River Highway

Or maybe the intrepid entrepreneurs of Cordova will find ways to boat and fly people out there and just permanently park campers in the campground for several years until the bridge is finished.  But I have to say, the road itself seemed threatened by high waters for a good part of the way too.  I was standing on the edge of the highway when I took the picture on the left. 

DOT&PF Extends Copper River Highway Closure
Bridge at mile 36.5 must be replaced before road can reopen.


(FAIRBANKS, Alaska) — The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) has indefinitely closed the Copper River Highway at mile 36 due to safety concerns at Bridge No. 339. The closure will last until the bridge is replaced.

I'm pretty sure this is Bridge 339

The 56-mile Copper River Highway is located near Cordova and ends at the Million Dollar Bridge. The road, frequented by hunters and recreationists, leads to vast areas of proposed resource development.


Bridge No. 339 is one of 11 bridges crossing the Copper River Delta. Naturally occurring changes to the flow of water between channels across the delta led to a dramatic increase in the amount of water running under the bridge. Due to the increased amount of water, 50 ft of “scour”, or erosion, was observed at the bridge in 2011. The scour resulted in a lowering of the channel bottom that compromised the structure of the bridge and necessitated the closure. 
Bridge No. 339 was constructed in 1977. Based upon the channel configurations at that time, bridge designers estimated that water under the bridge would flow at 18,500 cubic feet per second (cfs). During the summer of 2011, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologists measured the water flow to exceed 85,000 cfs.  Channel and flow distribution changes are a natural part of deltaic river systems. The adverse effects of these changes on Bridge No. 339 was first noted in 2009, when the bridge began receiving a greater portion of the total Copper River flow than its neighboring bridges. In 2010, ADOT&PF and the USGS began a comprehensive monitoring program at the bridge that included frequent on-site inspections and the use of bridge sensors that enabled remote observation of the bridge.
ADOT&PF received funding this fall to start the design phase of a replacement bridge; the design phase will progress through 2013 with agency permitting in 2014. Pending the availability of construction funds, the construction project could begin as early as 2015.
ADOT&PF oversees 254 airports, 11 ferries serving 33 communities, 5,700 miles of highway and 660 public facilities throughout the state of Alaska. The mission of ADOT&PF is to “Get Alaska Moving through service and infrastructure.”
Attached photo [aerial photo top of post]: Bridge No. 339, located at mile 36.5 of the Copper River Highway, is closed until a replacement bridge is built. A dramatic shift in the Copper River increased the amount of water flowing under the bridge, resulting in severe erosion. (Photo by Jeff Conaway, USGS).

From Bridge Looking East

[UPDATE Feb. 8, 2012 - There's a long discussion at Trip Advisor - Child's Glacier - which includes this comment (#51- Feb. 7, 2012):

I am the person building Childs Glacier Lodge (childsglacierlodge.com). I am hoping to provide transportation to and from the Glacier. Problem is, the Forest Service wants their piece of the pie. I was informed a USFS permit is necessary to have people walk from the road to my boat and back to the road across the river on the other side of the closed (washed out) bridge 339. I have a 15 passenger van on the other side of the washout. I have applied for the permit and have been informed I may have an answer sometime in March. The USFS has however stated to me that the USFS Campground will be closed but that they are reviewing that decision. Issues that need to be addressed by the USFS for their campground are sewer and garbage disposal. Even if the campground is closed, my facility in front of the glacier will be where I will take people if they (the USFS) gives me the permit. I am allowed to go there as long as I don't charge so I will be working on my lodge as soon as the snow and ice situation allows. If the permit is granted the permit conditions will determine terms, schedule and price. If everything works out, there is nothing more grand than Childs Glacier calving. There was a reason two world champion surfers chose it as the only glacier calving waves ever surfed.]

Anchorage Passes John Martin Sidewalk Law

John Martin and Police Chief Mark Mew Chat at Break

It's rare that a government passes a law to deal with just one person.  One person.  Where's the imagination to come up with Solomon-like solutions?  It's also the easy way out - like a parent telling his kid, "Because I'm your father and I said so."  Except Dan Sullivan is not John Martin's father.

[An aside - I talked to Dan Sullivan for the first time ever today.  He was at the meeting, there was a break and I thought I'd get a picture of the Mayor.  He saw and waved.  It was out of focus so you won't see it.  But went over and introduced myself and I told him I had talked to Sam Abrams - the expert on Finnish education he'd invited up to his Education Conference last week - and that I was delighted to hear from Sam that the Mayor backed free school lunches for all students.  It was a very cordial and pleasant short conversation.  He told me Sam went out to Bethel today.  I do think that people have a lot more in common than they think and if we could break down our images of each other we could get past a lot of unnecessary bickering.  But that's another post.]

Here's a video of Martin I made during a break.  He explains why he was there.




I had to leave the Assembly meeting about 6:30 for another meeting, but I got an email at 10:30 saying the sidewalk ordinance had passed.  Bummer.  It had failed in July after the
 Anchorage Daily News  carried a story about a homeless man who'd taken up residence on the sidewalk in front of city hall. 

The idea of a new law came up, said city attorney Dennis Wheeler, because the administration wanted to remove John Martin. Martin hung out with his blanket on the City Hall sidewalk for days and nights in late June. He is now set up on the sidewalk kitty-corner from City Hall at Sixth Avenue and G Street

Martin said Tuesday that he is protesting the mayor's treatment of homeless people -- particularly, the city's decision to take and destroy some homeless people's possessions during the course of clearing out illegal camps on public property around town.

The law didn't pass in July, but it did, apparently, Tuesday.

From a Nov. 7 ADN:

The law, if passed, would make it illegal to sit or recline on a sidewalk downtown from 6 a.m. until late evening, with exceptions for things like medical emergencies or parades and demonstrations that have permits.

It would also prohibit panhandling downtown.

The revised ordinance extends the no-sitting provision later into the night on Fridays and Saturdays than the initial version -- until 2:30 a.m.-- to keep sidewalks clear for people downtown late on weekends, Sullivan said. On other nights, it would be OK to sit or recline on the sidewalks at midnight.

The idea for the law arose out of a homeless man's sit-down protest on sidewalks near City Hall. The protestor, John Martin, has been sitting or standing on a blanket either right in front of City Hall or across the street, off and on for months. He has said he's protesting the city's treatment of homeless people.

The administration wanted to remove him, but found there is no city law that forbids lying or sitting on a sidewalk, city officials have said.

It's unclear how or if new sidewalk rules would affect the more recent protest, Occupy Anchorage, in which people are demonstrating in Town Square Park across from City Hall. They've had a tent set up, a chair or two and a portable heater, along with signs.

I've sat down on the sidewalk before.  This seems like an overly broad bill.  Can't I bring a folding chair and sit discretely and watch the world go by?  I guess not any more in Anchorage.  

I really wanted a friendly but serious conversation with the Mayor about why he couldn't have come up with a more compassionate and imaginative way to resolve this.  Instead of thinking like a mediator or negotiator, he seems to have needed to show that he was boss.  He made it into a win-lose confrontation.  But who actually won.  John Martin has gotten a lot of attention and he got the mayor to spend a lot of time on an ordinance to prevent him from sitting on the sidewalk.  It didn't seem the right time, and I had to go anyway.  But it would have been nice. 

In my world, a true leader knows he's the mayor for all the people of Anchorage, not just the people who agree with him.  Putting the city hall lobby television on Fox News is like a poke in the eye to more than half the population of Anchorage.  It says to me, Hey, I'm mayor and I can do what I want.  Just as bad would be if he didn't have a clue how offensive having the city play Fox News in OUR city hall lobby.   This isn't high school where our clique tries to beat out your clique.  This is the adult world where we realize that we all are humans with human problems.  Some of us got better starts in life than others.   Some of us believe strongly in obeying all the rules, some of us believe everyone else has to obey all the rules, and others challenge those rules we don't think are fair.

But both sides have to recognize that they need each other so that neither side goes too far out toward one extreme or the other.  We need to find that kernel of humanity that we can respect in everyone, so that we can work things out instead of carrying on never-ending feuds between 'us' and 'them.'

OK, it's late and I'm starting to ramble and get preachy.  Dan, I challenge you to find a more imaginative solution to your next confrontation.   John Martin, I wish you well, and in my mind, this will always be the John Martin Sidewalk Law.

[UPDATE - I've got some follow up posts with video on this:
March 27, 2012:    John Martin Back Camped Out In Front of City Hall
March 27, 2012:    Mayor Sullivan Brings Coffee and Chats With Sidewalk Sitter John Martin  (with video)
March  30, 2012:   Police Bust Sidewalk Campers - $1000 Fine (with video)]

Occupy Anchorage and Title 21 People Lure Me To Assembly Meeting

Occupy group at Assembly Meeting

I'm still trying to finish a post from the last Assembly meeting I attended last June (on the mayor's veto, coming soon, I promise) but both the Title 21 citizens' group and Occupy Anchorage folks were both set to testify at the Assembly meeting at 4:30 today.  And though I knew I was going to be late, I came anyway.  Didn't matter.  It's 5:20 now and the Assembly just got started and they're doing housekeeping stuff.  So I had a chance to talk to some people before the meeting.  I'm waiting for one of the videos to get uploaded now.  The Loussac Library where the Assembly chambers are has wifi, but it's slow.

Jo-Ann Chung,Pamela Scott,   Assembly Member Elvi Gray-Jackson

5:27  They are honoring former Assistant Muni Prosecutor Pamela Scott and now Jo-Ann Chung who have gotten judicial appointments.  Both approved.


5:36  Now they are recognizing and celebrating Alaska native Heritage Day November 25, 2011.

I have a 6:30 meeting nearby.  Am I going to get to see anything I came to see at 4:30?

Now it's a liquor license issue on Muldoon. Now a whole slew of them.  The image has a few of the many they are approving. There's one for a Tesoro Station on Government Hill that had problems with selling to inebriates that seems like it's going to be held til later.

The video's ready now, so I'll post it. 

You can watch this live on cable or online.
Though who knows when the Occupy folks and the Title 21 folks.

Assembly member Trombley is now questioning someone about the Sullivan Arena and asking why they had a monthly loss of $750,000. The respondent says it's for the year and there is money coming in through visitor taxes and other items. Now Trombley is asking about the new figure of $39,000.

I could go on and on. Now Assembly member Starr is questioning about how someone had asked his girlfriend to marry him using the scoreboard at a hockey game, but so many lights were burned out she couldn't read her name.

I'll post this now.

UPDATE: 6:10pm - someone is now talking his 3 minutes to tell the Assembly about the dangers of power toothbrushes. His time was up but Assembly Member Gray-Jackson asked him to continue up to 3 more minutes. Dental profession has recognized harm called toothbrush abrasion. Spinning, rotating, osculating power toothbrushes.

I've been here since 5:45pm and I'm really starting to wonder how the Assembly plans its time. I understand the importance of honorary motions etc. But it seems there are some really serious meaty issues before the Assembly and they ought to address them.

This guy wants the Assembly to take action to prohibit sales of power toothbrushes so that kids don't live their lives with the pain of toothbrush abrasion.

6:15 pm Assembly is now going to take its dinner break. And I'm going to leave and miss all this for my other meeting. But I do have another video I'll put up later.

Business Week Calls Anchorage America's Tenth Best City - But Don't You Believe It!

How could they do that?  I bet it's a hoax.

I've been working hard all these years to keep people out of Anchorage.  Whenever I travel and people ask me about living in Alaska, I tell them what they want to hear:  It's very dark.  It's very cold.  The snow and ice are brutal.  The constant drip of the melting ice from our igloo's ceiling is awful.  Keeping the sled dogs fed is a never ending and nasty task, and no matter how much you feed them, they still  bark all night (which is six months.)  And the prices!  Three times what you pay for lettuce or milk, but ours is wilted and sour.

I acknowledge that there is something that we call summer, but remind people that our house and yard is under a huge chain link fence cage to keep out the killer mosquitoes for those couple of days when the temperature gets above freezing.

And now Business Week goes and lists Anchorage as America's Tenth Best City.  Don't believe it.  We all have cabin fever and you never know who's going to start shooting people instead of road signs.  And there are bears and wolves in those areas not ruined by oil spills.  If you're looking for a great place to live, try Seattle, try Portland.  Las Vegas has really low housing prices right now.  So does Florida.  Consider Baghdad.  Fresno.  Even Sarah fled to Arizona when she had the chance. 

I don't know which Chamber of Commerce type paid Business Week to rank Anchorage so high (or at all) but, trust me, strings were pulled, hard. 

But I have an option if your friends tease you about not ever having cruised to Alaska and those state paid ads encouraging you to visit are making you feel unhip.  I've started a project to allow you to 'visit' Alaska without leaving home.

My program lets you send us the cost of your cruise and land tours plus $300 a day for shopping without having to really come here. An added benefit is knowing that the money stays in Alaska instead of all going to Outside businesses that exploit us like a colony.  And you don't have to suffer a trip to Alaska.  You can spend the time incognito at a spa in Palm Springs while your friends think you're cruising Alaska.

We'll send post cards from Alaska to all your friends, and for a slight extra charge, we can even superimpose your parka'd image onto videos of glaciers, on dog sleds, fighting off giant mosquitoes, snagged in fishing line, swimming with breaching whales, panning for gold.  

So, remember the adage not to read everything you believe.  And don't even think about moving to Alaska, America's Best City to Avoid.

Co-Housing Comes to Anchorage

Our daughter had emailed us a couple of links to co-housing sites near Portland. She's working near Portland and looking for a permanent place and wants to have a close community.

Co-housing is a word coined by Chuck Durrett*, an architect who studied co-housing in Denmark in the mid-80's. Co-housing was his version of the Danish “bofællesskaber.” which his website says "directly translates to “living communities."

Chuck Durrett at podium in Anchorage, slide of Co-housing project

So last week when a friend let us know there was a group in Anchorage looking to create a co-housing development here, we went to their meeting at the museum.   Chuck Durrett spoke at the meeting and showed slides of different co-housing projects he's helped to develop.

Essentially, co-housing enables folks to work together to plan a project for housing that is  more conducive to neighbors getting to know each other doing things together.  The homes are closer together usually, but with greater open spaces on the the property.  There are community buildings for recreation and community dinners.  He said some places eat together once a week, others three or four or five times a week.  But that people don't have to go to the community meals. The legal work is much like a condo association.  Individuals or couples or families generally own their individual homes but the surrounding land and common buildings are owned jointly.  Usually the front of the homes face walkways and common space and many of the places he's helped develop have homes with front porches.

Anchorage Co-Housing Organizers

There seemed to be a move toward recovering the community connections that existed before modern suburbs came to be.  This is also the kind of setting I knew as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Thailand, and which, to a lesser extent, we've had in my neighborhood in Anchorage, especially when Mrs. Nash was still alive.

The museum auditorium was probably 80 or 90% full - maybe 150 people.  And a followup potluck was scheduled for Sunday evening at St. Mary's Episcopal church.  Since that's pretty close, we walked over there to meet folks and see how this was going.

After eating, people were divided into groups which identified factors they'd like to see.  Here's the poster from the group I was in.  But after everyone marked their top three factors and each group shared what they'd come up with, it seemed all the groups had the same notion.

The group is actively looking for 2.5 - 5 acres of land in Anchorage and there's a two day workshop scheduled for February that was just about full by the end of the evening Sunday.





They had a map which had circles with 1/2 mile radius near various commercial areas where they had looked for potential sites with Chuck Durrett while he was still in town.  He'll be back in February for the workshop.  

I was struck by the lack of ethnic diversity in the crowd.  They have generational diversity, but it's a pretty homogenous group so far.  Essentially this is a type of condo group, but where the people get to design the project and the intent is to have more community interaction than most neighborhoods provide.  There is flexibility - like having some rental units and there is turnover when a family has to move out.  So far, the units have held their value well, Durrett said. 

You can learn more about co-housing on line.  The Cohousing website says

"Cohousing communities are old-fashioned neighborhoods created with a little ingenuity. They bring together the value of private homes with the benefits of more sustainable living. That means common facilities and good connections with neighbors. All in all, they stand as innovative answers to today's environmental and social problems. Learn more >"

 Chuck Durrett's company's website says,"

Shared lives are healthy lives - McCamant & Durrett Architects designs intergenerational cohousing communities that create and promote environmentally and socially vibrant sustainable neighborhoods.

Intergenerational cohousing communities respond to the needs of today's households by combining the autonomy of private dwellings with the advantages of community living and shared resources."

 And for those interested in the Anchorage here's the local co-housing group's Facebook link.   There were a lot of people.  I'm sure once a site is selected some people will drop out because it's not in their preferred part of town.  And when people have to put money on the table others will leave.  But they had a lot more people than they expected and it's possible that there could be more than one project in Anchorage if there's enough interest. 

*Not only does it say this on his company's website, but they even have the Oxford English dictionary entry that credits him and his partner with the term.