Man Goes *

I've got several draft posts, but nothing done.  Well, I did post "Who Invented Inflatable Tube Guys?" but Feedburner didn't get it to other blogrolls.  This is just a filler post, but did you ever consider that the name of the fruit mango is essentially, Man Go?  So technically the picture below should be Men Go.

Who Invented Inflatable Tube Guys?

You've seen the dancing in car lots and lots of other kinds of businesses.  But who thought this up?

It turns out to be something of an evolutionary process - starting with Israeli Doron Gazitt who started out making balloon figures on the street for kids, a design school project helped by his father's work in agriculture - with plastic green house tubes. Trinidadian Carnival artist Peter Minshall, and eventually the the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and the 1998 Superbowl halftime show.

"But these first tube guys didn’t look much like the simple wiggling noodle man that’s since come to dominate America’s used car lots. They were sixty feet tall, with two legs that each had a dedicated fan and a separate articulated torso, arms, and head. These weren’t tube guys. These were full-on tube gods."

All this comes from a fascinating history of inflatable tube guys at reForm, called

Biography of an Inflatable Tube GuyThe checkered past and lonely future of air puppets

Well worth the time with pictures showing the evolution from art to advertising distraction.  Or as, according to the post, both Gazitt and Minshall agree,

"the single-tubed descendants of their wacky inflatable Olympic babies are an abomination. Gazit calls them “very ugly and very unattractive,” and Gulick, 'an impoverished version of the device.”

The writer  does it all.  There's nothing for me to add, except I saw this red one Monday in front of High Frequency, a locally owned shop, where I bought a used phone for my wife before hers is no longer served.  I think I sidestepped the high prices at ATT for a reasonably good phone.  We'll see.  And it seems all the prices there are negotiable.

From Love To War - New Books At UAA

I checked the new books shelves at UAA library the other day and I'm finally getting around to putting up a short sampling.  I'm trying to spend more time off the computer, so this will be brief.  There were also some more technical books, but social sciences and humanities seemed to dominate.

These two books with practically the same title:

From an interview with Nancy Sherman the author of Afterwar:

"The concept of ‘moral injuries’ associated with combat experience, an affliction of growing interest to both military and healthcare communities, features prominently throughout the book."

And from a review of Zoë Wool's After War:

"In After War: The Weight of Life At Walter Reed, Zoë Wool shares her experience working with some of the most grievously wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During a year of research from 2007-2008, Wool conducted fieldwork with amputees recovering at Walter Reed Medical Center, the military hospital complex that has become emblematic of the post-war experience of American combat wounded service members."

There were two books about Yiddish - one on short stories and one on theater.
















These covers seemed a bit out of place at a university library - but they're Alaska stories.

And now that I've looked it up, it seems that sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.  From Lifeway, where you can watch a video of the author and/or read the transcript :

"Christian Romance Fiction author Dani Pettrey talks about her books Shattered and Submerged. We also find out more about her writing process, the role of fiction in ministry, and her favorite authors."

Here's a more academic look at romance.  You can read a review of Brossard's On Romantic Love.

This one deals with a subject dear to my heart - how we know things.  In particular it looks at how the stories sent from the New World back to Europe reflected what Europeans thought about the New World as much, if not more, than it reflected the New World.  From the back cover:

"Comparing the official 1784 edition of [Captain James] Cook's journal for that voyage with Cook's actual journal accounts, Curie demonstrates the representation of North America's northwest coast in the late eighteenth century was shaped as much by the publication process as by British notions of landscape, natural history, cannibalism, and history in the new world.  Most recent scholarship on imperialist representation of the non-European world takes these published accounts at face value.  Constructing Colonial Discourse combines close textual analysis with the insights of postcolonial theory to critique the discursive and rhetorical strategies by which the official account of the third voyage transformed Cook into an imperial hero."

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is one of the UAA/APU Books of  the Year along with The Color of Water.

These books should show up in a lot of different classes and discussed from the perspective of the course subject.  The "Topics of Relevance" for 2015-2017 is "Negotiating Identity in America."

From Project Muse:

"Networks of Modernism offers a new understanding of American modernist aesthetics and introduces the idea that networks were central to how American moderns thought about their culture in their dramatically changing milieu. While conventional wisdom holds that the network rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s in the context of information technologies, digitization is only the most recent manifestation of networks in intellectual history. Crucial developments in modern America provide another archive of network discourses well before the advent of the digital age. The rise of the railroad recast the American landscape as an assortment of interconnected hubs. The advent of broadcast radio created a decentralized audience that was at once the medium’s strength and its weakness. The steady and intertwined advances of urbanization and immigration demanded the reconceptualization of community and ethnic identity to replace the failing “melting pot” metaphor for the nation. Indeed, the signal developments of the modern era eroded social stratification and reorganized American society in a nodal, decentralized, and interpenetrating form—what today we would label a “distributed” network that is fully flattened and holds no clustered centers of power."

You can look at the table of contents here.

From a Journal of Europe Studies review of the book:

“Inner emigrants were nonconformist writers ‘dealing in ambiguity’, whose works had - and retain - ‘the potential to be read and understood simultaneously as both a form of tacit opposition to and acquiescence in the regime.’

From an interview with the author on why she chose to write about social media in the war zone:

"A: My brother was on his first deployment in Iraq while I was in graduate school studying communication. At the time, he and I mostly wrote letters back and forth. But I began paying closer attention to advancements in digital communication technologies, especially when the infamous Abu Ghraib photos emerged. At the time, it seemed like new communication technologies (MySpace, YouTube, Facebook) were becoming available at the same time we were becoming increasingly entrenched in Iraq and Afghanistan. So I was personally and academically invested in keeping a close eye on both of these “fronts.” I wondered how all this connection would change what it’s like to be at war."

Cleverly Designed Political Cartoons Then And Now

From Zazzle

You've probably seen this Joe Heller cartoon already and thought, wow, that's clever.  It reads very differently from top down to bottom up.






















But while I was looking through the new books at the UAA Library I found this political cartoon that had a similar up and down (though visual not verbal) aspect from the 1860s.





This comes from the book The Comic Art Of War:  A Critical Study of Military Cartoons, 1805 - 2015 with a Guide to Artists by Christina M. Knopf.

Obscurascope - Danielle Morgan Paints

Stopped at the UAA library to pick up a book from interlibrary loan (A Short History of Privacy) and stuck my head in the little art gallery just north of the library entrance.  Bright, bold, colorful watercolors by Danielle Morgan.   Here's a closeup from Tryptomania.

Click to enlarge and focus any of these images

From the artist statement:

"Obscurascope is a word that I assembled which means to 'investigate the unseen.'  I think a lot about the transience of life, the permanence of death, and enjoy the mysteriousness of it all.  The eye is a symbol that I use to represent my fascination with this mystery."

Investigating the unseen is definitely a topic that fits right in here at this blog.  I suspect that death fits in this category well, but being unseen means we don't really know if it is permanent.  We know about the death of the body and things like no pulse, no breath, and other medical ways to determining the death, but what does permanent mean?  One could argue that death is very fleeting - it's the moment that life ends.  Or as Buddhists might, that death is a temporary state before you are reborn.  This is not meant to challenge artist Morgan's words, but to take her thoughts and play with them a bit.

The one above is called "The Beast."  There were maybe 20 pieces in this exhibit reflecting a number of different styles.

The artist statement continues:

"My drive to create has been with me from a young age, and I spent countless hours drawing and writing as a child and as a teenager.  As an adult, I was in an abusive relationship for over three years.  I spent the majority of that time in seclusion and without access to my family or friends.  Drawing in my sketchbook and exploring my imagination helped me get through those dark times, and made me feel free.   . ."

This one is called "Don't Forget To Breath."   More from the artist statement:

"I started drawing with ballpoint pen many years ago, but didn't start using watercolor paint until I took Beginning Watercolor at UAA with Professor Garry Mealor back in early 2013.  At first the medium frustrated me and I was sure that I would never get the hang of it.  With each assignment I felt like I was improving and have since worked primarily with watercolor paint.  It wasn't until the past year that I thought to combine my love of both ballpoint pen and watercolor.  Since the ink in the ballpoint pen I use is oil-based, the water based paint does not smear it."

Most, if not all, of the paintings were for sale from around $200 to $1400.  You can see this exhibit until (see poster below) right next to the entrance to the UAA Consortium Library through the end of August.  You can see more works and even enquire about purchasing something at:

https://daniellemorganart.carbonmade.com  or
https://www.etsy.com/shop/obscurascope    

Four Years Later, Becky's Back From Mexico

Anchorage Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV) had a BBQ Thursday evening.  I vaguely knew that the Anchorage Assembly now has TWO RPCVs on it, but I hadn't really thought about it, but there they both were.  (I'll let Anchorage readers guess who they are.)

Had a good time sharing thoughts with volunteers from places like Nepal and the Philippines.

And then there was Becky, who is technically still a volunteer, into her fourth year in Mexico.  Yes, that is a long time.  The normal assignment is two years.  Well, she's finishing up, maybe this month.

What makes Becky particularly relevant to this blog is that I met her four years ago here in Anchorage just as she was about to first leave for her assignment.  It was send off dinner for new volunteers.   Here's the link to that post.   And a picture of her in May 2012 before she left for Mexico.

And this was Thursday evening.  I should have checked the picture after I took it.  It's the only one I have.  We were talking quickly at the end of the BBQ and someone suggested she get in front of the Peace Corps emblem for the picture.

Four years ago she only knew the general area she was going into - Environmental Education.

Her town was just outside El Chico National Park and some of her recent projects were connected with the park.  Like developing an activity book for primary school kids that helps to introduce them to the National Park.  She helped set up an environmental book section in the local library.  She's also been doing community based workshops on a variety of topics including organic pesticides and bio-fertilizers.  There was also the book published by the kids in the community using their drawings and photos showing a kids' eye view of the community and the environment.   You can see the whole book here.

This was just a quickie overview of things she was working on recently.  But it seemed like a good idea to do a follow up of the four year old post.

The Emperor's New Clothes: The Power Of Fairy Tales And Of Expectations

From The Classic Reader's version of Hans Christian Anderson's The Emperor's New Clothes:

"Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of new clothes, that he spent all his money in dress. He did not trouble himself in the least about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to the theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then afforded him for displaying his new clothes. He had a different suit for each hour of the day; and as of any other king or emperor, one is accustomed to say, 'he is sitting in council,' it was always said of him, 'The Emperor is sitting in his wardrobe.'"

Then two scam artists arrive in the capital and declare that they weave clothes out of an exquisitely beautiful material.  But more importantly, only the good and honest can see its beauty.  Those unfit for the offices they hold are unable to see it.

"'These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!' thought the Emperor. 'Had I such a suit, I might at once find out what men in my realms are unfit for their office, and also be able to distinguish the wise from the foolish! This stuff must be woven for me immediately.' And he caused large sums of money to be given to both the weavers in order that they might begin their work directly."

The weavers set up their looms and work late into the night.  The emperor gets curious about how things are going.  While he doesn't doubt himself at all, it seems more appropriate to send one of his ministers to check on the weavers.  The minister goes into the room and is startled to see no cloth on the looms at all.  He begins to question himself.  Am I not really wise?

"The impostors requested him very courteously to be so good as to come nearer their looms; and then asked him whether the design pleased him, and whether the colors were not very beautiful; at the same time pointing to the empty frames. The poor old minister looked and looked, he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very good reason, viz: there was nothing there. "What!" thought he again. 'Is it possible that I am a simpleton? I have never thought so myself; and no one must know it now if I am so. Can it be, that I am unfit for my office? No, that must not be said either. I will never confess that I could not see the stuff.'"

The weavers describe to the minister the intricate and beautiful patterns and colors and he listens closely so he can describe it accurately to the emperor.  They also ask for more gold and silk so they can finish the project, which they get.

The minister returns to the king and describes the magnificent new clothes.  Not much later a second minister is sent to check on the progress.  He too sees nothing and questions his own fitness for the office that pays him so well when he sees nothing and goes back to describe the amazing new clothes.

Word gets out in the city about the emperor's new clothes and everyone is excited, particularly about the fact that only the competent and honest can actually see the material.

When the emperor himself finally is presented the new clothes he is shocked.  What is this?  Am I unfit to be emperor?  When asked by the weavers what he thought, he smiled and said it was charming.  The rest of the courtiers smiled and competed in their praise of the new suit.

A city wide procession was held.  The streets were crowded.  Everyone buzzed and murmured when they saw the emperor.  Then there were shouts of how magnificent the new suit was.  But then the procession passes a child.

"But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" said a little child. "Listen to the voice of innocence!" exclaimed his father; and what the child had said was whispered from one to another. "But he has nothing at all on!" at last cried out all the people. The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the people were right; but he thought the procession must go on now! And the lords of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in reality, there was no train to hold. [emphasis added]

The Role of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales serve a significant function in the development of children and the passing on of cultural norms.  A number of articles, such as this one, talk about how they help children resolve inherent emotional conflicts.  One article I found, that gathers together many of the benefits, was a chapter subheading called,  "The Value of Fairy Tales In Education."  It listed:

• Fairy tales bring joy into child life.
• Fairy tales satisfy the play spirit of childhood.
• Fairy tales are play forms.
• Fairy tales give the child a power of accurate observation.
• Fairy tales strengthen the power of emotion, develop the power of imagination, train the memory, and exercise the reason.
• Fairy tales extend and intensify the child's social relations.

Fairy tales pose moral dilemmas for us along with an array of human qualities to overcome these dilemmas.  Fairy tales pass on cultural wisdom that we can apply to our daily lives as adults.

I'm assuming that some of you have thought about the Republican nominee and his supporters as you reread the Emperor's New Clothes.   And the various stories that are coming out that suggest that he is all hype and fiction.  Such as this Newsweek story that details the fictions of his fortune.  I would caution those looking for proof of Trump's duplicity to remember their own expectations when accepting the facts in the Newsweek story.  But also take note of the auther Kurt Eichenwald who has done groundbreaking financial reporting including the book Conspiracy of Fools on Enron.  

As more and more 'children' are saying out loud that the Donald has no clothes, more and more people are starting to question their beliefs.

The Role Of Expectations

But I want to share an incident that occurred the other day that demonstrates the power of mental expectations. (Or maybe just the declining quality of my mind.)

I drove to the market. I was taking an air mattress bed, something too big to carry on my bike, over to a friend, and getting some food on the way.  When I came out of the market, I walked over to where I had parked my car.  I was looking for my wife's car and couldn't find it.  Instead, there was a car exactly like my own car.  I was so committed to the idea that I came in my wife's Subaru that I thought, "Wow, there's a car like mine."  Then I looked at the license plate.  It was my car.  Yet my mind was tightly bound to the idea that I'd driven over in the Subaru.  (It uses less gas and so, if I need to drive, and my wife isn't using her car, that's the one I take.) And if I had the Subaru, then my wife must have had to use my car.  But why wouldn't she just call me, since she knew I was going to the market.  And as I was listening to the rings on the phone to ask my wife why she'd driven to the market, I suddenly realized - I had driven my car and not hers.  

As I say, this might just be an indicator that my mind is rapidly deteriorating, but even if that is the case, it still shows how powerfully an expectation can prevent us from seeing the obvious.  Whether it's racial stereotypes, political ideology, ego, desires, one's personal interests, or simple habit, we usually see what we want or expect to see.  

[I'd note one of the more literate discussions of fairy tales, by Meg Moseley, who, importantly, notes that often such tales carry forward cultural biases, like the idea that young maidens must wait to be rescued by handsome princes.]

Loussac Update And Vote

Went by Loussac library while doing errands. It keeps changing.  Here's are some shots at other stages.

If it isn't obvious, I photoshopped the sign into the main picture (which was through the chainlink fence.)  The sign says it's scheduled to be finished by October 24 this year.

I also voted on this ride.  We're headed out of town the day before the primary, so I decided to do my duty today since it was on my roundabout path to get things done.

You can vote early various places.  Voting on Gamble meant I didn't have to fill out all the forms I've had to fill out when I voted at the library.  It was pretty empty and there was no wait at all.  And I joked as I showed my ID about how often I was going to vote.  The lady said a number of folks had mentioned it.  But, she said, in Alaska, if you don't use a picture id or your voter registration card, then your ballot goes into a special envelope and doesn't get counted until after the election when they can check if you voted more than once.  So, there is an easy way to deal with that sort of voter fraud.   Even remote provinces like Alaska can figure it out.

Then I rode the bike trail around Goose Lake to drop off some books at the UAA library and check out the new books shelf.  I'll post some of the new books in the next post or two.

The Trump Shooter Network

[Note:  In a USA Today interview, Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, when asked if Trump was easy to satirize, responded:

"Quite the opposite. As has been widely observed, Trump is beyond traditional parody. His demeanor, speech and behavior are so over the top, there's no point in trying to exaggerate it"

This post is a response to that challenge.]

The Trump Shooter Network 

Confidential sources high in the Trump business empire have leaked to us news about a new cable channel that will begin airing in early October called "The Trump Shooter Network."

The network will feature the latest shootings from around the world, but with a focus on the USA.  Aside from "Breaking Shooting News,"  the network will have daily programs on mass shootings, terrorist shootings, robbery shootings, gang shootings, accidental shootings (particularly those involving children),  suicide shootings, and shooting games.
There will also be a program of  best home video of shootings.
Mass shooting anniversaries will be celebrated.
There will also be features on the lives of shooters and their victims.  And detailed reports on the specific types of guns used in shootings.

The network will have a mass shooting calendar so that mass shooters can plan their activities on days that don't have other mass shootings.

Subscribers to the Shooter Network will automatically be enrolled in the NRA and will be eligible for  steep discounts at gun shops and gun shows.

They can also sign up for gun buyers' pre-check so they can always use the fast line when purchasing weapons.

When asked about whether the timing of the debut of this network was aimed at affecting the election, our source said, "Actually, Trump's presidential run was timed to support the rollout of the network."

A spokesperson for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said they were hopeful the channel would make it easier to track gun violence data.  An NRA rep told us the channel would help Americans understand the danger all around them and the need to arm themselves.  And a staffer at Negative Population Growth, lamented that this was the natural outgrowth of too many people fighting for finite resources.  

Media reporter Brooke Gladstone didn't think the channel would be a big deal, "After all, the mainstream media are close to doing this already."

Muxe - Are Matriarchal Societies More Tolerant of More Fluid Gender Roles?

A friend posted this picture of a poster he saw in Oakland.


The picture required a second look.  Zapotec Muxe?  There's a bit of description on the poster (which you can focus better by clicking on it).

Perhaps the concept of muxe will help us 21st century Americans in our  reexamination of how we think about gender and sexuality.

The military has decided that gay and now transgender troops are ok.  But some legislators in some states have made bathroom use by transgender folk an issue.  And same sex marriage is still a problem for many people.

Getting past the strict dichotomy of male or female or straight or gay is tricky.  We all know there are women who have more than average typically male characteristics and males who have more than average typical female characteristics.  I think most people can get that far conceptually, because you can still put people into one of those two categories:  male or female.

Since genitals in our culture are usually covered up in public, we haven't had much opportunity to examine and get to know the variety they come in.  While we might recognize a picture of a friend's mouth or nose or eyes, most of us wouldn't recognize a picture of a friend's penis or vagina.  And when people are born with ambiguous genitalia, the parents, traditionally, haven't talked about it or the decisions they had to make about what to put on the either/or male/female space on the birth certificate.  But there have been clues in our language - terms like hermaphrodite - that have acknowledged gender ambiguity.

Nowadays these topics are well discussed, at least in many circles.  Enough, at least, that laws have been passed to allow same sex marriage and to protect transgender folks from discrimination.

But this is still an uncomfortable issue for many.  An issue often informed by ignorance.

So when I saw this poster it made me think of the Samoan tradition of Fa 'afafine,  male Samoan children who are early identified as Fa 'afafine and raised as girls to have a unique place in their cultural life, crossing between gender roles.  I learned about at a presentation of Diverse Voices at UAA back in 2007.

Muxes, in their communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, are accepted as somewhere between straight and gay.  A New York Times article tells us a little about muxes:

“Muxe” is a Zapotec word derived from the Spanish “mujer,” or woman; it is reserved for males who, from boyhood, have felt themselves drawn to living as a woman, anticipating roles set out for them by the community.
Anthropologists trace the acceptance of people of mixed gender to pre-Colombian Mexico, pointing to accounts of cross-dressing Aztec priests and Mayan gods who were male and female at the same time. Spanish colonizers wiped out most of those attitudes in the 1500s by forcing conversion to Catholicism. But mixed-gender identities managed to survive in the area around Juchitán, a place so traditional that many people speak ancient Zapotec instead of Spanish.
Not all muxes express their identities the same way. Some dress as women and take hormones to change their bodies. Others favor male clothes. What they share is that the community accepts them; many in it believe that muxes have special intellectual and artistic gifts.

As I read the Wikipedia article on Muxe, I noticed that the district and town of Tehuantapec showed up.  Long ago, my wife and I drove through Mexico, including Tejuantapec.  And that mysterious brain nestled in my skull retrieved a long-ago absorbed and forgotten tidbit: the Zapotecan culture in Tehuantapec is matriarchal.

So I looked up Tehuantapec.  And there it was:

"The city is still the center of Zapotec culture in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and is the second largest in the region. The city is known for its women and their traditional dress, which was adopted by Frida Kahlo. Tehuantepec has a reputation for being a “matriarchal society.” Women do dominate the local markets and are known to taunt* men. However, political power is still the domain of men."

So this got me to thinking.  From somewhere else deep in my brain, I remembered something about power and gender and sexuality.  The idea of some that going from the stronger gender (as male is often described) to the weaker makes no sense, or is even a betrayal of one's gender.  I wasn't able to figure out the right search terms to find something online voicing that specifically.  (Though this is an interesting look at three men who were involved in gay-bashing and their reasoning which gets near this idea.)   The concept was related to power and a disdain for someone who would go from the gender with power to the one with less power.

But the idea that this community that is tolerant of a third gender/sexuality option is a matriarchal community is intriguing and ought to be explored further.  Now, I did leave in the quote about men being dominant in political power in Tejuantapec because it would be disingenuous to hide it.  Even the power divide in Tehuantapec is not clean and unambiguous. Nor is it anywhere.   It would be interesting to explore other cultures that are matriarchal and see whether the gender divide is les either/or in those cultures as well.


*In my ideal world, no one would taunt anyone, except in a playful way for the taunted.