Crows

Yesterday and Today

yesterday

The slide's really fast when it's wet.

Today

But we could stay outside much longer today.  

". . . 'stimulating traffic' is airline-speak for dropping fares."

I'm always interested in language, in euphemisms, in code, in people disguising what they say either to hide their meaning or to make it sound more polite.  And translation, in making transparent what was once opaque.

So I took notice when I saw this translation of 'stimulating traffic', while reading Scott Mcmurren's article about Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines' deteriorating business relationship today in the ADN.  It seems that they've gone from bosom buddies and partners to 'in competition.'

I've got mixed feelings on this.  As a frequent Alaska flier who lives in Anchorage, I've felt reasonably well served, though I do get worked up as I see the air fare lottery when I go on line and look for prices.  I've been reasonably well served because my mom lives in LA and Alaska's prices to LA tend to be decent.  But I also realize that Alaska's near monopoly on many Alaska destinations means they can charge much more for much shorter Alaska flights (than, say the LA fares, which are often cheaper than Seattle fares.)

Just an observation here.  Mcmurren's article is interesting because it also helps us look behind the saccharine language of airline ads and magazines.

Checking Out Boats With My Sweetie

Grandchild beats out blogging.   All you're getting are a few pics.   She's putting words together and walks without thinking about it anymore.  Among our tasks today was a walk around Eagle Harbor.  We also visited our friend who was born 100 years before my grand baby.


















It was a grey day, some light drizzle, but nothing to stop us from walking.

click to enlarge

The water was calm and you can see the skyscrapers of downtown Seattle on the horizon.

Leaving LA

We had to wait as this Southwest plane landed before we could taxi and take off.

The airport in LA is just south of the Marina del Rey which you can see in this picture looking north.

And here's the LA area from the north end of the Santa Monica Bay on a very clear day.

And here's looking down at the water with, what I assume are big kelp beds below the water.  We're cutting in over Malibu just after this.   And after going inland a ways, getting north of the LA suburbs.

The drought meets agriculture.

Back On Bike, Feels Good

After wearing the boot for a month, I can finally get back on my bike and get some exercise.  I'm starting gently.  The tendon feels ok, but there have been lingering new problems with other parts of the heel.  I'm guessing from the boot.  Had to work a little harder and breathe harder, but better than I expected after a month.  Fortunately, it's easier here in LA where we're visiting my mom, who's doing well.











Sun was just starting to set when I got to the end of Rose Ave where it hits Venice beach.  Sorry I couldn't stay longer.  Catalina was clear across the water.   Turned around and went home.  Didn't want to push things.

AIFF 2014: Talk toFestival Director and Director of Film Programs Now (10am-11am) On Talk of Alaska

From Alaska Public Media's Talk of Alaska:

In the dead of winter, film makers from far distant lands come to Alaska because we have a festival. It’s been around for 13 years, and it shows more motion pictures in a week than it is possible for any one human being to see.  A look ahead at the program for this year’s Anchorage International Film Festival is just ahead on the next Talk of Alaska.
HOST: Steve Heimel, Alaska Public Radio Network
GUESTS:

• Jim Parker, Director of Film Programs, Anchorage International Film Festival

• Laura Moscatello, Festival Director

• Callers Statewide

PARTICIPATE:

• Post your comment before, during or after the live broadcast (comments may be read on air).

• Send e-mail to talk [at] alaskapublic [dot] org (comments may be read on air)

• Call 550-8422 in Anchorage or 1-800-478-8255 if you’re outside Anchorage during the live broadcast

LIVE Broadcast: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. on APRN stations statewide.

AIFF 2014: Questions (and Answers) People Should Be Asking About The Festival

A lot of people don't even know what questions they should be asking.  So I'm listing them out here (with the answers) to help you find out what's happening at the Anchorage International Film Festival and how to take advantage of all the great films that will be in town Dec. 5-14, 2014.

Below are links to posts with general information about the Anchorage International Film Festival.  This is a revision and update of a post I first put up about five years ago and updated again last year.  I've been checking the links to be sure they too are current for 2014.  But it's still a work in progress.


Q: Where's the official Anchorage International Film Festival website?  Click the AIFF2014  link here.


Q: What do all the categories mean? ("official selection;" "films in competition," etc.) This post defines key festival jargon you'll see in the program or on here..  It also covers the process for how films get selected for the Festival and how the winners get chosen.

Q: What  films are the best films this year (2014)?
Films in Competition are the ones chosen  to compete for the Golden Oosiker awards.  I'm working on lists of the films in competition for each category - something about each film and when and where they will play.  [For the film categories I have up for 2014, you can find the films in competition posts listed at my  AIFF 2014 tab.  Films in competition are marked with a check (√) on the Official AIFF website.]

Films in Competition  - Features 2014
Films in Competition -  Documentaries 2014
Films in Competition -  Shorts 2014
Films in Competition -  Animation 2013  (2014 never made it to a list)
Films in Competition -  Super Shorts 2013  (2014 never made it to a list)

But often there are other films that I thought were as good or better than the films in competition.  And there are some films, which for various reasons, are not eligible for prizes, so they aren't 'in competition, but they're good.

Q: Who won in each category?  None yet this year, but here are the previous winners.
2014 Winners - Official Winner list compared to my list (with my comments on the Features)
2013 Winners -  Official Winner list
2012 Winners - My 2012 winners Official compared to AIFF 2012 Winners Page
2011 Winners -  My 2011 winners (none) - Official AIFF 2011 Winners Page
2010 Winners -  My 2010 winners post -  Official AIFF 2010 Winners Page
2009 Winners -  My 2009 winners post -  Official AIFF 2009 Winners Page
2008 Winners - My 2008 winners post  -  Official AIFF 2008 Winners Page
[Note:  'My winners' are films I liked best.  Sometimes I've only discussed one category, sometimes more than one.  Sometimes my comments on a particular film  are buried in posts even I can't find.]


Q:  Short films are grouped together into 'programs.'  How do I find which short films are playing together in the same of program?
Animation Programs  2014 [There's only one program for 2014. There's also an animation in the Mexican Consulate's films- Eskimal.]
Made In Alaska  2014 (I guess this replaces what used to be called Snow Dance.  There are eight programs)
Short Docs 2014
Super Short Narrative 2014  (There are four programs, including one of Mexican films)
Family Program 2014


Q:  What is FG?  
The short answer:  Festival Genius.
The longer answer:  It's a film festival software program that AIFF has acquired that makes it much easier to find out when and where the films will be shown.  It takes a little bit of time to figure out how it works.


Step 1:   You click on the blue FG icon  on the AIFF website, or  you can click here.
Step 2:  Then you can choose films.  That opens up four more choices.  For starters look under category, then click the blue box (see green arrow) and a drop down window will give you a long list of choices.  Or you can pick countries.  If you leave three of the boxes at their starting setting ("all ...) then you'll see all the choices.  You can combine settings in boxes - say animation category and Mexico for country and that should pull up just one film.  If you know the name of the film you want, you can put it into the Film Search window on the right.

Step 3:  If, instead of films, you pick schedule, you can see what will show for that day or that week.

click to enlarge 

If you click on schedule, you'll get screening choices (red box) by week, by day, or grid.   Week and Day give you a list of films for the time period.  Grid will give you a table.

You don't have to sign in (I don't because they want too much personal information for me), but if you do, you can make your own schedule and review films, etc.



Q:  I'm not interested in the festival, but if there are any films on my favorite place, food, sport, etc.,  I'd go.  Are there any?

Festival Genius - see above -  allows you to look at a list of countries  and then see what films are being shown from that country.  Click on the blue spot for the country window and it will open a list of countries.  Then pick a country, and wait until it loads the films from that country.  Make sure you have "all events" and "all films" in the event and film windows.

Also note the red box in the lower left.  The film festival (2014) spans two calendar weeks and so you have to check for each week.  Just click on the week and it changes.

To find out about films of special topics, you need to look through the films themselves. I'll try to make some lists of topics if I see any patterns and I'll link here.  There are family films,  Alaska films, Mexican films sponsored by the Mexican Consul, Chinese films sponsored by the Confucius Institute at UAA, and the Gayla films.

How do I find your blog posts on specific films or film makers?  In the AIFF 2014 Page - It's a tab under the orange heading at the top of my blog - I'll have an index of posts by category and an index of posts in reverse chronological order.  Here's a link to that tab.   You can see them in the archive on the right side.  They'll mostly be in December, with some in November and I try to start them with AIFF2014.


Do you have videos of the Festival? - I'll add the video posts as I get a chance to make and edit them.   I'll list the posts with video in the AIFF2014 Page.  I already have some video of Attila Szasz, the director of The Ambassador to Bern,  which I got in a Skype interview with him in Budapest.   It's not edited yet.



Where will the films be shown?
Locations:

 Bear Tooth, is the main venue.

1230 West 27th Avenue (West of Spenard Road) - 907.276.4200

Alaska Experience Theater
333 W 4th Ave #207, Anchorage, AK 99501 (907) 272-9076
There is a large and a small theater there

Anchorage Community Works** This was a new venue last year

 349 E Ship Creek Ave

Anchorage Museum
625 C Street

Marston Theater (Loussac Library) Family Programming on Saturday Dec. 14
3600 Denali St.

There are special events at other venues.  You can check all the venues next to window where you check the countries (see screenshot above).

Q:  What workshops are there?
There are five workshops with film makers.  These are chances to interact with film makers and learn some aspect of the movie craft and industry.

Q:  What are your criteria for a good movie? When I made my picks for the 2008 best films, at the end of the post I outlined my criteria. The link takes you to that post, scroll down to second part.  I also did a post in 2012 on what I thought makes a good documentary.


Q:  Should I buy a pass or just buy tickets as I go?  

Tickets are still only $8 per film.  "All films passes" are only $100.  So, if you go to twelve films, the pass is cheaper. But there are other benefits to the pass.   You also get priority seating with your pass.    That means you go into the theater first at the Bear Tooth.  You do have to get a ticket (free when you show your pass) for each film at the door and only a certain number of seats are held for pass holders.

And if you have a pass, you'll go see more films because you'll think "I've paid for them. I should go and get my money's worth."
All Films passes get you into Workshops, and discounts for a few extra events, like the opening night film (which is actually $30 a ticket) and the awards. These extra events also have food.

Another option is to volunteer and get a pass to a movie.

You can buy tickets at the venues.  You can also get advanced tickets at the venues.
You can also buy them online.  Tickets are already available.

Q:  What about family films? 
Saturday, December 6, at 11am at Loussac Library - in the Marston Auditorium..  This is a free event.  You can see the family program here.  (As I'm posting this, there is no list of films yet at this link, just the time and place.)

Q:  Any free events?
Yes, there are.  Besides the family films (right above), Made in Alaska, and two of the workshops.  You can see them all here.

Q:  Who Are You Anyways? - who's paying you to do this? does your brother have a film in competition? What is your connection to the festival? From an earlier post here's my  Disclosure:

 I sort of accidentally blogged about the  2007 festival  and the AIFF people liked what I did and asked if I would be the official blogger in 2008. They promised me I could say what I wanted, but I decided it was better to blog on my own and then if I write something that upsets one of the film makers, the Festival isn't responsible.  The Festival has a link to my site.  They also threw in a free pass for me in each year since 2008.

I probably won't say anything terrible about a film, but I did rant about one film in the past that I thought was exploiting its subject as well as boorishly demeaning a whole country. I mentioned in an earlier post that if I sound a little promotional at times, it's only because I like films and I like the kinds of quirky films that show up at festivals, so I want as many people to know about the festival as  possible so the festival will continue. Will I fudge on what I write to get people out? No way. There are plenty of people in Anchorage who like films. They're my main target - to get them out of the house in the dark December chill when inertia tugs heavily if they even think about leaving the house. But if others who normally don't go out to films hear about a movie on a topic they're into, that's good too.

I did a post a couple of years ago for Film Festival Skeptics who might be sitting on the fence and need to be given reasons to go and strategies to make it work.

Q:  How Does One Keep Track of What's Happening at the Festival?
I'll be blogging the film festival every day.  The link below will be my festival posts only, starting with the most recent.  There should also be printed programs in the Anchorage Press you can pick up around town as well and go to the Festival Webpage.

My blog will update every day.  My Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF 2014)  tab on top will have an overview of what's happening each day.


Q:  Are there other Alaskan Film Festivals?  
There are some events called 'festival' that I know of in Anchorage, but they aren't major film events like this one.  There is another organization,  that puts Alaska in its name and used to rent a postal box in Alaska, but has no other connection that we can find to Alaska.  You can read about that at  Comparing the ANCHORAGE and ALASKA International Film Festivals - Real Festival? Scam?

Anyone who knows of other legitimate film festivals in Alaska, let me know.  I've heard stuff about Sitka Film Festival  in February. And there's also an Indigenous Film Festival in February and  there's been an Alaska Native Film Festival.  And there's the Farthest North Jewish Film Festival in Fairbanks.

AIFF 2014: Deciphering Film Festival Jargon: Feature, In Competition, Official Selection, And More

This is an updated version of a 2008 post, modified for 2014 Anchorage International Film Festival

[UPDATED November 25:  I've got some clarifications from Jim Parker, AIFF  2014 Director of Film Programming about the film classifications and film selection process.  The changes are marked with strikethrough and [brackets]]

If you look at the program guide for the Anchorage International Film Festival coming out soon in the Anchorage Press, the films are divided into different categories.  I figure out:

• Features - 'fiction' films over about 55 [to 140] minutes [Except Animation Features are 55-120 minutes]

• Documentaries" "non-fiction" films over about 55 [to 120] minutes

• Shorts - 'fiction' films under [10 to] 55 minutes

• Short Documentaries - 'nonfiction' films under  [10 to] 55 minutes

• Animation - Animated films - these can be feature length or short, and while most are 'fiction' I guess you could have an animated documentary - a biography of Mickey Mouse maybe? No, this would be a interesting challenge.

• [Super Shorts (Animated or Fiction) 1 minute to 10 minutes.]

But there are other distinctions I didn't quite understand, so back in 2008 I emailed and talked to several of the people running the Festival (Rand and Tony and a one of the documentary coordinators from last year) to find out what these terms mean exactly and how it all works. All the highlighted terms will be explained, though some show up before the explanation. Patience.

Pre-screening Committees [Programmers]- Committees [Programmers] are selected early on to view all the movies submitted to the Festival in the specific film categories. So, there is a committee for documentaries, for features, for shorts, and for animations. These committees select the films that will become official selections. There are five to ten people on a pre-screening committee. They've completed their work some time ago.

[Clarification from Jim Parker, Director of Film Programming: These are people who volunteer to screen the films that are submitted, and at times they solicit films that they think would be a good fit for our festival.  They will make the ultimate decision about which submitted films are films  selected. This year there are five different sets of programmers:  

• A. Documentaries, includes short and super short documentaries  

• B. Features- They screen and make decisions about which feature narrative (55 to 140 minutes in length) will be included. 

• C. Animation- They screen and make decisions about super-short, short, and feature animated films.  However, this year we have a film (Rocks In My Pockets) that is animated but was entered as a feature and was considered by the feature programmers. 

• D. Shorts and Super-Shorts programmers. 

• E.  Made In Alaska.  This used to be called Snowdance, it encompasses a film of any genre or length that is made in Alaska.] 

• Official Selections - An official selection is any film that was submitted to the festival, was accepted by the appropriate pre-screening committee, and paid the entry fee.

• Special Selections - Special selections are films that the festival invites or solicits after the submission process has ended to round out the program, usually they have to pay a screening fee for these films and often times these films are already in theatrical release and this category applies to classic films as well, such as Wildlike that will be shown opening night this year. 

[Clarification from Jim Parker:  Official Selection- We've made it easier this year.  An official selection is any film that the programmers screened and chose as part of their program.  This year a special selection is a film that I or the AIFF board chose early in the process before the Programming teams started receiving and screening films.  This year the special selections are the Opening night film Wildlike, The Lookalike, and No More Road Trips?   This year we abolished the requirement that a film that received a fee waiver be considered a "special selection" and thus ineligible for jury prizes.  So almost all films are official selections and eligible for jury recognition.]

• Films in Competition - The pre-screening committees are given a rough guide about how many films they can accept as official selections. Of those, they pick what they consider the best. These are then the films in competition and get sent to the jury panels. These films are the contenders for the Golden Oosik Awards. Now, there is some negotiation between the coordinators of the pre-screening committees and director of the film festival to insure that ultimately there is a good balance of genres (they'd rather not have every feature be a comedy for example) and national representation, etc. They have to narrow it down so that the jury panels have time to watch the films and make their choices.

• Jury Panels - Once the Films in Competition are selected the pre-screening committees are done and the films are given to jury panels. The jury panels get together as a group in a theater and watch them all together. I think these also tend to be five to ten people who haven't been involved the selection process before this. They choose the best films for each category. I think they're supposed to have this done by the middle of the next week. These best films win the Golden Oosik awards at the Saturday night awards ceremony. 

[Clarification from Jim Parker: Jury selections.   When each of the Programming teams select their programs they also select their top 5 to 7 films.  These films are "in competition" and will be shown to a jury of volunteers who will determine the top three award winning films. There are juries for shorts, super-shorts, documentaries, features narrative films, Animation, and Made in Alaska. The juries watch all the films, but not usually together.  DVDs are passed around between them.  They almost always have one meeting together where they "deliberate" and choose the best films. ]

• Audience Awards - [None this year - see below]  All feature length films (over 55 minutes) are eligible for the audience award which is voted on by . . . well, you know who. This was new in 2008. The best audience award feature film and documentary will be screened on the last day of the festival, they will be announced at the awards party on Sun, Dec 14, 6:00 PM at the Organic Oasis.  For all feature length films, audience members are little forms with which to rate film.  

[Clarification from Jim Parker:  This year the AIFF dispensed with the Audience Choice Award to lessen the demands placed on volunteers, but it may be brought back in future years. 

Best of the Fest - The jury award winners will not be screened on the last day of the festival, but rather at the Alaska Experience Theater on the Tuesday and Wednesday folllowing the festival.]

When I first blogged the festival  I didn't understand any of this. When I was picking my own favorites, I didn't take into consideration the category of films in competition. I'm pointing this all out here so others can understand it. Now, before the Festival begins I first focus on making it easier for people to know what the Films in Competition are for each category and what the schedules are so you have a chance to see as many as possible. [For 2014 I've already posted about the Feature Films in Competition and the Documentaries in Competition.]

But other people will be more interested in films of specific genres - comedy, drama, etc. Other people will just want to see shorts or animation. And some will be interested in films from certain countries or about specific topics. They won't care if the films are in competition or not. And there are the special presentations which have been invited and may prove to be better than the films in competition. But I tend to start with the films in competition, then, if I have time left over, I'll go onto some other focus. Once the festival starts, I'll report on what I go to.

Check the tab on top - Alaska International Film Festival 2014 - for an overview of how make the most out of the festival and for an index of posts I do on the festival this year.  The 2013 tab is also still up if you want to check on last year's festival.

Nome Airport Daily Hour Closure Until June 1 So Adjacent Gold Mine Corp Can Blast Away

I get press releases from the Alaska Department of Transportation  (DOT) frequently, but usually read them and delete them.  But this one raised an eyebrow:

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) will be closing the Nome Airport daily, Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m.-7 a.m., from Nov. 15, 2014, until June 1, 2015.The weekday, hour-long closure will enable Nome Gold Alaska Corporation, which is located adjacent to the airport, to conduct daily blasting operations. ADOT&PF will be monitoring the blasting activity and has coordinated extensively with Nome Gold Alaska Corporation to keep the airport safe and to minimize impacts to the traveling public.

And who keeps saying that government doesn't accommodate private business?  Sounds like the government has gone out of it's way to work things out.  I don't really know if this will cause any problems with pilots and passengers. There aren't that many large commercial passenger flights into Nome each day.   I can think of a number of questions I'd ask if I had time to pursue this more than briefly:

• How many private and small carriers will be effected?
• How many emergency medivac flights could be affected? [See update below]
• Will they really be blasting every day for an hour?  
• Or do they just want to be able to? 
• What will happen if someone discovers gold next to the Anchorage international airport?

DOT's press release also said they were delaying their recent change in policy about unaccompanied minors.  The old policy let kids travel if they had a note with their parents' permission.  The new policy was going to not allow unaccompanied minors, period.  It seemed pretty Draconian.    I can certainly understand that they've had some rowdy kids onboard, but banning them all because a few were a problem is not an enlightened solution.  They would never do this if they had some trouble with individuals belonging to other categories - like hunters or skiers, or white folks or men.  If airlines can deal with unaccompanied minors, surely the ferry should be able to figure that out as well.

Apparently a lot of people complained. 

"In reaction to the policy announcement, numerous Alaskans contacted ADOT&PF expressing their concerns of the difficulties that the policy would create for families that have already scheduled travel, particularly for the Thanksgiving and winter break school holidays."

One wonders at the mentality of people who make this kind of decision.  They couldn't anticipate that people had already bought tickets for unaccompanied minors?  Why should an adult have to pay a fare for an unnecessary trip just so their totally competent kid can go from Juneau to Haines to visit family or friends?  If they have kids that cause problems, deal with them the same way they deal with adults who cause problems or develop a system to deal with minors, but don't punish all kids and their families. If they had trouble with kids faking notes, then require a cell phone confirmation from the parent.

It would be interesting to see that statistics for unaccompanied minors on the ferries for the last five years, how many problem incidents they had, and what percent of the kids were a problem.  I must say, if all the problems in the world were this minor and this easy to solve, we'd have nothing to do but enjoy life.  (I really didn't even see the pun until I reread the sentence.  Sorry.)

[UPDATE Nov. 22, 2014:  A new press release from DOT says closure will be lifted for medevac flights.  Here's the new release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 21, 2014Contact: Meadow Bailey, (907) 451-2240, meadow.bailey@alaska.govUpdate: Nome Airport will be closed daily, seven days a week, from 6 a.m.-7 a.m. Nome Gold Alaska Corporation will begin blasting operations on Tuesday, Nov. 26.The closure will be lifted for medevac flights. For questions about the blasting operation contact Nome Gold Alaska Corporation:Randy Powelson, (907) 347-9091Cecil Connor, (541) 251-0465 ]