The Hot Club of Nunaka's Gypsy Jazz

The Hot Club of Nunaka played gypsy jazz Thursday night at Out North's Black Box Theater.   This is part of the Anchorage Music Co-op, one of the many arts groups incubating over at Out North.

Derek Christianson, Karl Pasch,             Eric Rogers,              Nathan Levine,   Carter Bancroft

We enjoyed chronological tour starting in the 1920's and I thought about how much of what happens in a community is invisible to the people just passing through the neighborhood. (Though a door was open a bit so maybe some of the music drifted out.)

I also thought about the Klez-X, the klezmer group we heard in San Francisco in January.  One can't help but hear the connection between the gypsy and klez music.  The key thing missing last night was the accordion.  And Klez-X were all incredible musicians.  The kind that make performing music look easy.  Nunaka reminded me how hard it really is.  Although they were really good nearly all the time, there were points where, to my untrained ear, it didn't quite make it.  This is just a local group that I assume plays after work.  But they are so good, I want them to have some impresario take them under his wings and polish them up the few places they need it.

It's much easier to give a sense of the night by just playing the music, than talking about it, so here's a brief video sampler from the concert. Because of where I was sitting, Carter Bancroft was cut off for most of the video.  But at the end the person blocking my view left and you can see him on the right in the last clip.  And think about this like listening to a concert over the phone.  The sound on my tiny Canon Powershot is pretty good, but it can't do justice to music.





You can hear more, better quality samples at Hot Club of Nunaka's website.

By the way, Nunaka Valley is an Anchorage neighborhood with, generally, moderately priced houses, and not a place one would associate with hot gypsy music.  A band joke, I would assume.

Is America The Greatest Nation? The Newsroom's Response

HBO has posted the complete first episode of its new show The Newsroom.

It starts at a dreary Crossfire type debate at Northwestern College [University].  Newsman Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) is avoiding giving straight answers. 

A student named Jenny asks:

Can you say in one sentence or less, you know what I mean, why America is the greatest country in the world?

Will avoids a serious answer, but the moderator pushes.  A woman in the audience has a sign that says:  “It’s not.  But it can be better.”

Pushed by the professor who is moderating - “I want a human moment from you” - Will’s dam bursts:

It’s not the greatest country in the world, professor, that’s my answer. . .

. . . You know why people don’t like liberals, cause they lose.  If liberals are so fucking smart, how come they lose so god damned always? 
And with a straight face, you’re going to tell students that America is so star spangled awesome that we’re the only ones that have freedom?

Then he gives a list of statistics where the US is lower than many other countries. 

7th in literacy. . .  27th in math . . 22nd in science . . .   We lead the world in only three categories:  number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and  defense spending where we spend more than the next 25 countries combined. . .

. . . So when you ask what makes America the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.  Yosemite?

But then he gets positive.

We sure used to be. . . and gives a long list of things we used to do.

OK. this is a scripted speech, and the rankings on these scales depend on how the factor is defined and measured.  Information Clearing House, for example,  also attacked the question of America’s greatness ranking back in 2005, but it says we’re 49th in literacy and 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy.

But the basic premise, that we aren’t the greatest, is important for Americans to hear.   Too many Americans believe the myth of our being the greatest country like alcoholics believe they can stop drinking any time.  The first step in recovery is getting past denial.  Until we recognize there are many ways to be great and we don’t monopolize them all, we’ll continue to slide, just as Rome did, as Spain did, as Great Britain did, to name a few former greatest countries in the world.   


And his nostalgia for the past leaves out slavery and segregation and killing off of our indigenous population, the denial of rights for women, American imperialism around the world, and a lot of other nasty stuff. 

But the episode is a promising start for a new series brought to us by the people who gave us the Sopranos, Six Feet Under,  and The Wire.

You can see the whole episode here. 

Thanks to Gryphen at Immoral Minority for posting this video.

I'd also note that while 'America' is a common abbreviation for the United States of America, its use slights the rest of the people who live in the Western Hemisphere in North, Central, and South America.

"Women I almost slept with"

I left Fischer's Under the Frog in LA, not intentionally, but I'd already prepared this post because  I love how he writes, the wit, the words, the sly understatement, the original imagery. (Maybe it's not original for Hungarians, but it is for me.) 

His themes are universal stories of humans and their individual and collective foibles and problems.  In this case with the background of Hungary under the Nazis and then the Communists.

 Gyuri is having trouble with women.

He had met Zsuzsa a fortnight before the camp.  She represented a change of tactic for Gyuri.  He had been pursuing a number of attractive women, who far from considering docking had recoiled from his greetings as if his hello were a wielded knife.  'Communism and celibacy, that's too much,' Gyuri had moaned.  Rather like an injured player seeking a fixture in the division below to repair his pride, Gyuri had met Zsuzsa at a dance.  Gangs of hormones, supported by a sense of desperation, had unearthed beauty from an unpromising surface.  Even though they had only met three times, Gyuri had been unpacking the equipment, setting up the furnishings of affection and a good part of his time in Trabánya was spent contemplating the ransacking of her fleshy treasure.  (p. 121)

But when he visits her apartment unannounced, there's a young AVO (Hungary's hated secret police) officer visiting her.  After the AVO man has left, Gyuri tries to explain to her how terrible it was to entertain an AVO man.

The other great disappointment he suffered that evening was the realization that Zsuzsa was heavily involved with stupidity.  Her occupation (florist) should have warned him but Zsuzsa, although she inhabited Hungary, didn't seem to live there.  She didn't understand what was going on, she hadn't noticed what was going on and couldn't grasp what Gyuri was saying.  Gyuri also noticed that her nose was looking too large that evening but on the other hand he couldn't help being envious of her total lack of contact with 1950.  She had an airtight insulation of dimness.  (p. 122)

(Seems I know some of her relatives today.)  But his story telling gets better.

This was going to be, he sensed, another fine addition to his collection of failures.  He could see the title of his autobiography:  Women I almost slept with.  Not Kissing and telling.  '1950 was a good year, I almost slept with four women:  a heroic production increase, under strict Marxist-Leninist principles, from 1949, when I almost slept with two women.'

. . .Gyuri took his leave and reflected deeply on the absurdity of living in a country more than half full of women (demography being on his side since the erasure of the Hungarian Second Army in 1944) and being unable to transact some romantic commerce.  Standing in the tram, with the passengers packed as tightly as cigarettes in a carton, centuplets in the oblong womb of the tram, even with the back of three other citizens coupling with him, Gyuri felt sappingly alone.  Crushed, but lonely.  How do you find people you can talk to?  There should be  a shop.  And once you've found people you can talk to, how do you hang on to them? (p. 122)

Universal questions.  So all this keeps Gyuri from sleeping.

Mental eructations* growled up clearly from the cerebral digestion  It was three o'clock in the morning, the hour favoured by the back-seat drivers in his  cranium for interrupting his sleep.  Whatever was bothering him would be thrust up, and although he couldn't name the issue, a strong discontent was emanating from his cerebral colon. (p. 124)

*I had to look up eructations.  It's apter when you know it means 'the act of belching' .

 Switching on the light, Gyuri referred to his watch.  Three minutes after three.  Why was it when he wanted to wake up with punctuality he couldn't but the seething rage inside always popped out at its self-appointed seething hour and why was it that when he wanted to feel awakened in the mornings he could never feel as fresh as he did now? 

I think we've all been there, but not as eloquently.  He still hasn't fallen asleep when there's a knocking at the door.  It's four plainclothes AVO who take him to headquarters.  He's still being cheeky when they can't find his name on the list.  He's looking at the young AVO officer.

Gyuri studied him and thought:  if only I hadn't been born with moral vertebrae, with intelligence, with dignity, I could be sitting there comfortably. (p. 126)

Of course, this is a burning question today - why are some able to do humanity's dirty work while others' moral vertebrae prevent them from doing evil's bidding? 

Here's the previous post on Under the Frog.

Redistricting Board Gets Preclearance From DOJ

The Alaska Redistricting Board announced today that it received preclearance from the the Department of Justice for the Amended Proclamation Plan: 

Anchorage, Alaska - The Alaska Redistricting Board announced today that its Amended Proclamation Plan has received "preclearance" from the U.S. Department of Justice.

A copy of the preclearance letter is available for download here. 

Alaska Redistricting Board Chairman John Torgerson issued the following statement this afternoon:  

"Now that the Amended Proclamation Plan has been approved by both the Alaska Supreme Court and the U.S. Department of Justice, the 2012 elections can move forward without interruption. This is an important milestone for the Board and for the state of Alaska. We have worked hard to balance the multiple competing legal standards in building a plan that will fairly represent all Alaskans. Today's decision validates those efforts."

Under Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, a number of states - including Alaska - are required to submit new redistricting plans to the U.S. Department of Justice for review in order to ensure that the proposed change is free from discriminatory purpose or effect and will not result in retrogression. An Alaska redistricting plan is retrogressive if it is drawn in a manner that worsens Alaska Native voting strength as compared to the previous district configurations.   

 Detailed information about the Section 5 review process can be accessed at http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_5/about.php. 

This means that the Department of Justice did not find the plan to be retrogressive - or to give Alaska Natives less of a chance of electing candidates of their choice than the last plan established ten years ago.  Alaska needs the preclearance before its plan can be implemented.  Since the Amended Plan is relatively close to the original plan that was rejected by the Alaska Supreme Court for other reasons, the preclearance was expected, but not certain. 

However, the letter from Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez does say lack of objections by the Attorney General "does not bar subsequent litigation."

This Amended Plan was approved by the Alaska Supreme Court for the August 2012 primary and the November election.  But it was accepted by the Supreme Court because the Board said there wasn't enough time to create a new plan the way the Court required in time for the election.  So it would appear that the Board either has to come up with another plan that gets Supreme Court and DOJ approval - for the rest of the decade.  Or, they have to convince the Supreme Court to let them permanently adopt the Amended Plan. 

Alaska's DMV Director, Whitney Brewster, To Head Texas DMV

Brewster in Juneau March 2010

From a Texas Department of Motor Vehicles News Item:

TxDMV Board Selects Whitney Brewster as New Executive Director
On June 27, 2012, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) Board announced the selection of Whitney Brewster as the agency’s new executive director.

Brewster currently serves as the director of Alaska’s Division of Motor Vehicles and has led the agency for the past five years. Previously she directed Alaska’s Division of Elections, was deputy chief of staff for the lieutenant governor and worked for the Alaska State Legislature.

“Following a very thorough search process and careful consideration, we believe that Whitney Brewster is the best person to lead this agency into the future,” said TxDMV Board Chairman Victor Vandergriff. “Whitney is a visionary who can effectively guide us toward our strategic goals of being performance driven, customer focused and dedicated to delivering optimized and innovative services to Texans.”

The complete item is here.

Whitney was a student of mine at UAA, is very capable, and this is a big loss for Alaska. Whitney, I wish you well.

I'd been getting a lot of hits today from Texas to this old post that mentioned Whitney which led me to poking around on google. 

Night to Day - LAX to ANC

Leaving from the Lower 48 in the summer at night flying north to Anchorage always gives that bizarre experience of flying from dark to light as it gets later at night.

We left LAX at 8:55pm.

Leaving LAX 8:55pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Still light to NW - 9:01 PDT

12:25 am PDT (11:25 Alaska DT)

Looking North 12:26 am PDT (11:26 ADT)

Over clouds 1:01 am PDT (12:01 am ADT)

Over the Chugach Range 12:34 am ADT

Approaching ANC at 12:47am ADT

Waxing or Waning?

The crescent moon in the western sky looked like a backward C.  So, was it moving toward fullness or newness?



Taking the picture with my little camera is tricky.  I played around, but mostly I kept getting too much light and so you couldn't see the crescent.

I finally got it by setting it on automatic, night.

So, is it waxing or waning?

There are lots of websites that answer that question, but most of them are pretty complicated.  Or maybe this one (below) made sense because I'd seen so many already.  This is from eudesign:

"When Coming (or rriving), it is really departing.
When Departing (  ), it is really coming."

Another way of telling is this:

L-E-FT hand curve = D-E-CREASING.
R-I-GHT hand curve = -I-NCREASING.

Would You Convict A Man Who Beat Up His Abuser?

The LA Times  has a story by Maria L. LaGanga in Thursday's (June 21, 2012) edition about a man on trial for tracking down and beating the priest who raped him (when he was seven) and his four year old brother then made him perform incest on his brother.  The article reports that the Deputy District Attorney Vickie Gemetti showed a larger than life picture of the beaten priest and told the jury that William Lynch (now 45) beat him. 

"The defendant planned and executed the violent attack against the man who molested him 30 years ago,"  she continued, saying Lynch acted as a vigilante.  And revenge, Gemetti said, "is not a defense, ever, to a criminal act."

Knowing that the other side had powerful evidence of its own, she showed

. . .a nine-minute video of Lynch describing for the San Jose Mercury News how Lindner had raped and strangled him and forced him to commit incest as the priest watched.

Then she told the jury that the evidence in the trial "will show that he molested the defendant all those years ago."

In addition, Gemetti said, Lindner [the priest] "will probably lie to you" and say the abuse never happened.  But Lynch is the one on trial, she said, and "the evidence in this case will establish the defendant beat this man. It will be undeniable."

 I'm a firm believer in rule of law.  Having the community at large bring someone to justice has lots working in its favor.  It substitutes the emotionally distraught victims with people who can more objectively determine the guilt of suspects.  It also moves the punishment to the more neutral government which is upholding the rule of law and away from family, shutting off never ending feuds and chains of revenge.  But there are many situations where the justice system has fallen down, even in the United States, from unpunished lynchings to DNA proven wrong convictions. That said, what happens when the rule of law doesn't work?

That appears to be the case here.  The two Lynch boys kept quiet (the priest had threatened to do terrible things if they told anyone) until they were in their 20s when the younger brother told his parents and the boys brought a civil suit against Lindner to get him out of the classroom.

The case was settled for $625,000, and Lindner was removed from Loyola High School in Los Angeles, where he had been teaching.  The church never informed law enforcement about the allegations. 

The statute of limitations is up for the 67 year old Lindner.

What exactly did Lynch do?

Witnesses testified during the preliminary hearing that Lynch had punched and kicked the elderly priest, yelling:  "You ruined my life.  Turn yourself in.  You molested me."

(67 Elderly?    Elderly is a state of mind and health, not an age thing, but that's a different post.)

I found myself writing ex-priest, but I looked through the article to see if he is an 'ex.'  He's called Father Lindner in the story and it says he was assaulted in his Jesuit retirement home. 

No one (except the the priest) seems to be disputing the molestation or the later beating.  The only dispute seems to be whether this was revenge or whether Lynch, who, the article says, has "suffered from depression and alcohol abuse and twice attempted suicide," simply "needed to confront Father Lindner about what he'd done."

OK, so if you were on the jury, given this much information - and at trial there is always more - how would you vote?  Guilty or Not Guilty?  You can read the whole article here before making your decision.

From AA to Yoga at Venice Beach

Ran down to Venice Beach this morning.  Blue,  blue sky.  Not too warm.  Took off my running shoes and socks and went down to the water.  Modest surf, nice kelp.

















On the beach there was a large crowd for the Sunday morning AA Meeting.  (I know AA is anonymous, so I took the picture from far away and I don't think anyone could be identified.  The resolution is low enough that blowing it up won't help.)

And a little further down the beach was Brad's Yoga.





And then I got off the sand.  Put my shoes back on and ran back. 

Alaska Airlines Sneaking Milk Runs Into Their Seattle-LA Options

Inside Q400

We took my mom home from Seattle yesterday.  I have to say, it didn't quite register when I made the reservation and it said it stopped in Santa Rosa.  I was looking at departure time and price.

We've been flying between Anchorage and LA for over 30 years now and the Seattle - LA flight has almost always been non-stop.  A few times there was a stop in Portland.  But now it seems Alaska Airlines is listing a bunch of their local flights (via Horizon Air) as Seattle-LA flights among the options.  We flew in a little Q-400.  But it took 4 hours from Seattle to LA (including 30 minutes in Santa Rosa.)  It will only take 5 1/2 hours to fly to Anchorage non-stop from LA Tuesday. 

I've been on small planes like this for short trips - like Chicago to Cleveland - but this was a long time to be on a small plane.  And when we landed in Santa Rosa we were tipping and bouncing a lot as we got close to the ground, but we landed ok, with just one bounce.

[UPDATE 5:30pm Alaska Time:  On Alaska's behalf, they would say, I'm sure, they are giving people more options.  After all, you could get a flight from Anchorage to Juneau that stops in Cordova and Yakutat.  But those are on 737s and they don't increase the flying time so much.  Yes, I could have thought this through a little more before booking the flight, but it was such a change from what I'm used to that I didn't think about it.  This post is simply a warning to others to pay more attention than I did.]