What Do I know?

After Dinner Stroll

2009-11-27T05:32:00.001-09:00

We really needed to move after dinner, so when all the guests were gone, we talk advantage of the balmy 30˚F and the fresh snow and walked over to the university. The trail is well lit, perhaps too well lit.

Hour and a Half to Go

2009-11-26T13:48:00.001-09:00

Getting ready for the folks to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner. I think we'll make it despite my dawdling.

Whoops, the embroidery is inside out. Better go change that.

Don't trust the internet with your giblets

2009-11-26T11:20:00.003-09:00

I've just pulled the giblets from the turkey. Well, there's a neck, liver, heart, and what I've always understood to be the gizzard. What's a gizzard?

Well, I looked up giblets. Here's why we have to be careful of what we find online. Fortunately, these were all in the same place so obviously most of them had to be wrong.

From Topix:

Fermelda Hyde
United States

Turkey Giblets are those hangey downey things from a turkey's face.
they are best prepared if you suck them off instead of cutting them off. now if u cut them off be sure to boil them in water to have the same moisture affect as sucking them off. you may then eat them any way you please. i like mine on a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. now you can also try them on a torilla wrap with tomatoes and lettus. you can hardley tell the giblets from the tomatoes!

lilliebelle
Dallas, TX

No Ma'am. The Giblets are the edible offal of a fowl, typically including the heart, gizzard, liver, and other visceral organs. The term is culinary usage only; zoologists do not refer to the "giblets" of a bird. Giblets is pronounced with a "soft g" sound (jib-lit) as opposed to a "hard g", as in gizzard.

So enjoy those fine giblets this Thanksgiving

people!

Harold Glackin
UK
Look your all wrong, i worked in a meat abador for years and the giblets are the liver and the feathers of the turkey mushed up. Best served with vodka just before your dinner mmmmmm vodka how i would love some right now.Call me 079XX100198

Lee Elliott

Are you all nuts?

The giblets include all the remains of the butchering process. These often include anything swept from the floor. Since the reign of King James, these must be included, in a paper bag, inside the gutted turkey. Traditionally, fingers of workers and slaves would find their way into the mix and mean good luck for the new year for those who pluck them from their teeth.

The traditional dish of giblets is served the next day as breakfast, the famous poem, "Ode To A Giblet Bag, Oh, Nonny-Noh!" is read out. Prepare with equal measure of porridge oats and drizzle with honey.

here are a couple of definitions from the free dictionary:

gib·lets (jblts)
pl.n.
The edible heart, liver, or gizzard of a fowl.
[From Middle English gibelet, from Old French, game stew, perhaps alteration of *giberet, from gibier, game.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
giblets [ˈdʒɪblɪts]
pl n
(Cookery) (sometimes singular) the gizzard, liver, heart, and neck of a fowl
[from Old French gibelet stew of game birds, probably from gibier game, of Germanic origin]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

And the gizzard? From Merriam-Webster online:

Main Entry: giz·zard
Pronunciation: \ˈgi-zərd\
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of Middle English giser gizzard, liver, from Anglo-French gesir, giser, from Latin gigeria (plural) giblets
Date: 1565
1 a : the muscular enlargement of the alimentary canal of birds that has usually thick muscular walls and a tough horny lining for grinding the food and when the crop is present follows it and the proventriculus b : a thickened part of the alimentary canal in some animals (as an insect or an earthworm) that is similar in function to the crop of a bird
2 : innards

Giving Thanks for What and to Whom?

2009-11-26T05:11:00.000-09:00

I've been ambivalent about Thanksgiving for a long time. Thanksgiving - in my experience - is a time when family and friends come together, consider and give thanks for their blessings, and enjoy each other's company.

But then there's all that stuff about Pilgrims in Plymouth. If any of the basic story is true, the European immigrants essentially came to North America, were helped to survive their first difficult winter, and then went on to decimate their hosts and take over the land. Not a good basis for a holiday of thanksgiving.

And then there's all that poultry that's cooped up, butchered, frozen, and shipped to supermarkets, raising questions about how healthy the meat is and how humanitarian the turkeys are treated. I focused on that two years ago.

About two weeks ago, a friend sent me an article called "How I Stopped Hating Thanksgiving And Learned To Be Afraid" by Robert Jensen. Here are some excerpts.

The whole piece can be found here.

In recent years I have refused to participate in Thanksgiving Day meals, even with friends and family who share this critical analysis and reject the national mythology around manifest destiny. In bowing out of those gatherings, I would often tell folks that I hated Thanksgiving. I realize now that "hate" is the wrong word to describe my emotional reaction to the holiday. I am afraid of Thanksgiving. More accurately, I am afraid of what Thanksgiving tells us about both the dominant culture and much of the alleged counterculture. . .

Although it's well known to anyone who wants to know, let me summarize the argument against Thanksgiving: European invaders exterminated nearly the entire indigenous population to create the United States. Without that holocaust, the United States as we know it would not exist. The United States celebrates a Thanksgiving Day holiday dominated not by atonement for that horrendous crime against humanity but by a falsified account of the "encounter" between Europeans and American Indians. When confronted with this, most people in the United States (outside of indigenous communities) ignore the history or attack those who make the argument. This is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt. . .

He's enjoying his righteous indignation a bit too much I think. After all, can't we make this day of thanksgiving mean whatever we want it to mean? From his perspective, and this is the part I have to think about seriously..

Most leftists who celebrate Thanksgiving claim that they can individually redefine the holiday in a politically progressive fashion in private, which is an illusory dodge: We don't define holidays individually or privately -- the idea of a holiday is rooted in its collective, shared meaning. When the dominant culture defines a holiday in a certain fashion, one can't pretend to redefine it in private. To pretend we can do that also is intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt.

He certainly likes that refrain. . . intellectually dishonest, politically irresponsible, and morally bankrupt. Phil, can you put that to music?

As I said above, I have qualms about Thanksgiving, but his claims to own the truth here and call people who disagree names seems disingenuous too. And he never even mentions the killing of all the turkeys every year.

The way he puts it, it seems we have only a couple of options: Keep on being hypocrites or abandon Thanksgiving. Possibly there's a third option - some official decoupling Thanksgiving from the story of the pilgrims. I'd argue that that can happen gradually as more and more people do that in their personal celebrations - consciously talk about the new meaning of Thanksgiving at their dinners.

I'm planning to partake in Thanksgiving, remembering the good things of this year and of my life and offering thanks. But I'm also going to remember that a sentient creature was sacrificed so that we might eat. We may even find some alternative to a turkey one day. And if this day of giving thanks is based on pilgrims whose descendants took everything from the descendants of their hosts, then we must contemplate that too while we eat. We can't change what happened, but we can live our lives in ways that prevent things like that from happening on our watch.

Letter to Editor Makes Me Think About Facts, Emotions, People

2009-11-25T18:00:00.000-09:00

It seems to me that 'facts' are being tossed about very loosely these days. By one definition, facts are those things that theoretically can be proven true or false, but they aren't necessarily true, no matter how often you repeat them.

Emotion seems to allow (cause?) people, myself included, to create fictions to support our belief systems. And those belief systems tend to immobilize our ability to differentiate between truths and untruths. (OK, some things are hard to know, but some things - say the existence of Idaho or death panels - are easier to prove.) Some people can be more objective about these things than others. I say emotion - which isn't a bad thing - but I probably mean two particular emotion that seems to be wide spread these days: anger and fear.

I'd like to see us move to less reliance on emotions and more on rational thought. I'm not saying emotion shouldn't play a role in our decision making, but the pendulum has swung far to the side of emotion. We need some balance. Here's a letter to the editor that demonstrates what I mean. It's from the November 15 Anchorage Daily News.

Assembly, hands off my cash
Every mature person understands there is a difference between "wants" and "needs" and knows that "needs" must come before "wants," especially when there is a shortage of money. Grown-ups also understand that life is not fair and that we are guaranteed equal opportunities to succeed but never promised equality.
People who work hard and live responsibly will always have more than those who do not. It is the right and responsibility of those who have to help those who have not, but government does not have the authority to take anything from one person to give to another. Redistribution of wealth is robbery, and robbery is wrong whether it be at the barrel of a gun or by taxes.
Anchorage Assembly, stop trying to right all the wrongs in the city and just do your job!
-- DD
Anchorage

Let's look line by line:

Assembly, hands off my cash

Well, that's the work of the person who puts headlines on the letters, not the letter writer, so let's skip that.

Every mature person understands there is a difference between "wants" and "needs" and knows that "needs" must come before "wants," especially when there is a shortage of money.

This sounds like something a kid hears over and over again from a parent to the point where it's an unquestioned truth. While I'm leery of blanket statements like 'every,' in a general sense, I can understand and agree with the sentiment. Though sometimes we can't get big 'needs' but we can get small 'wants.' Is it wrong, when you've been scrimping for years to pay the mortgage and the other bills, to once in a while buy a fancy soap, a chocolate bar, or some flowers?

People who work hard and live responsibly will always have more than those who do not.

This sounds like another parental mantra. But this seems like is a giant leap. "Always" always causes my crap detector to quiver. So the poor legal immigrant woman who works three minimum wage jobs so she can feed and clothe her children and help them do well in school has more than the playboy son of a wealthy family who parties on his allowance and thinks putting his dishes in the dishwasher is work? (In terms of emotional satisfaction probably, but I don't think that's what the letter writer had in mind.)

I'm guessing this 'law of human behavior" is based on this letter writer's belief that in America if you work hard you can get ahead. And it may even be true in her own case. Apparently this belief is what keeps poor people supporting rich politicians and celebrities - the hope that they too can be rich one day (see number 3.) I'm not saying that there isn't a general correspondence to working hard and living responsibly and having more. But it's not a universal truth, even in the US. Really, are raunchy pop stars harder working or more responsible than dedicated high school teachers?

It is the right and responsibility of those who have to help those who have not, but government does not have the authority to take anything from one person to give to another.

Where does this right come from? She does acknowledge responsibility of individual people to help the poor, but tells us that government does not have the right to help some using the wealth of others. I wonder if this writer has read the US Constitution lately? From Article I, Section 8: The Powers of Congress:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

It seems pretty clear that on a national level, Congress has the authority to tax (which would be taking from one person) and to use that money to pay others for various purposes including providing defense and general welfare. General welfare is pretty broad. It probably includes helping the destitute.

Redistribution of wealth is robbery, and robbery is wrong whether it be at the barrel of a gun or by taxes.

What exactly does 'redistribution of wealth' mean? When you and I buy gasoline, wealth is being redistributed from auto owners to oil companies. Is she saying that's robbery? When we pay our phone bills, it's being redistributed from us to ACS or GCI or AT&T.

The government has the explicit Constitutional authority to levy and collect taxes. Explain to me how you can NOT redistribute wealth when you use tax money. If taxes are used to pay people to build roads, the laborers are getting the money that once belonged to the tax payers. If you decide to contract out such work, the money is then going to the companies who win the contracts.

Perhaps the writer means it shouldn't be taken from people who work hard and given to people who don't work. Let private charity take care of those people. People do make that case. But there is an assumption here that the people who are not working are 1) physically and/or mentally capable of working; and
2) can find work; which
3) pays them enough to meet their, dare I say it, needs.

But the letter writer has already assumed that if you work hard, you can take care of yourself. I guess this includes young children of alcoholics, people with physical or mental ailments that make it difficult to get a job (either because they can't perform the work or because employers assume they can't).

Ready now for the last sentence.

Anchorage Assembly, stop trying to right all the wrongs in the city and just do your job!

Here she seems to acknowledge that things can go wrong. Good.

But what exactly is the assembly's job? The Municipal Charter is pretty vague compared to the US Constitution. Or at least it isn't as well organized. Section 3.01 for example:

Section 3.01. Powers of the municipality.

The municipality may exercise all legislative powers not prohibited by law or by this Charter.

I'm not trying to be cute here. The 'duties' of the assembly aren't all neatly in one place - they are scattered around the Charter. But Section 5.06 (note: the link to the Charter and Code just gets to the main page, you can use the index in the sidebar to find specifics) does say:

Section 5.06. Administrative code.
The assembly by ordinance shall adopt an administrative code providing for:

(a) The identity, function, and responsibility of each executive department and agency;

The charter was written to unite the former City of Anchorage and Borough of Anchorage, so much of the attention was focused on how to unite the two, both of which already had ordinances. But we can look at some of the sections of the ordinances to see what sort of functions the assembly is expected to carry out. Each of those bullets opens and lists more detailed functions.

So, the assembly is responsible for quite a bit. Perhaps the letter writer should be more specific about which things the assembly shouldn't be doing and which things they should be doing.

I can understand that people have a lot of frustration. Most people who had worked hard and saved up lost a lot of value when stocks crashed.

This letter mainly tells me the letter writer was angry. Instead of being specific about what set her off, she offers us a rant in which inaccurate statements are pronounced as truths. How much of this does she really believe literally? How much is just venting? But I do hear loud and clear something like, "I work hard for my money and I don't want you Assembly members giving it away to deadbeats." Or am I reading in something that isn't there?

On the other hand, there's enough in there to suggest that she and I could find a lot of common ground. I work hard and I'm responsible, so she'd probably approve of how I've lived my life. Maybe if we found some things we had in common - maybe she likes to garden, or to bike, or birds, or Thai food - and we got together over a good meal, we could talk about our children or our parents and we could soften some of the edges. Maybe we could share our prouder moments and some of our disappointments. We won't change each other's minds on the issues, but we will change our assessments of each other as "fill in with an appropriate derogatory term".

We all need to start seeing each other as human beings, not as liberals or conservatives. We need to respect each other, to talk to each other, to ask questions about their beliefs and about our own.

I generally dislike statements that start with "We need to..." But each of you reading this can be more mindful in your interactions with others. Are you being respectful of the other person as a person, or is she 'just' a cashier? Are you assuming what he's like, what he believes, whether he's a good or bad person, because of the bumper sticker on his car, or the kind of clothes he's wearing? Check yourself. Imagine that inside every human body is a complete human being - just like you - who needs some positive attention. Just try that with one or two people you meet each day. We need to get the emotions to neutral before we can start engaging reason too. So help those around you calm down by treating them like human beings.

AIFF 2009 - Documentaries in Competition

2009-11-25T05:00:00.003-09:00

"Films in Competition," according to the AIFF website, are "the official selections that are chosen by our prescreening committee to be entered into competition." Documentaries are the film version of "non-fiction."

There are eight Documentary films - 8 hours and 21 minutes of viewing - in competition. Note: The shorter ones (under 30 minutes) are grouped into "Programs." As I write this it isn't easy to find which programs they are in on the AIFF website, but they are clearly identified on page 6 of the free newsprint AIFF guide. I've also identified the programs of the three shorter documentary films in competition. All the documentaries are showing either at Alaska Experience Theater or the Anchorage Museum and most have one showing at each. Additionally, Circus Rosaire director Karen Bliley will do a documentary workshop at Out North Theatre. In addition the award winning films in all categories will get extra showings between Dec. 14 and 17. Those showings will be announced on the AIFF website.

Get to similar posts on films in competition for features and shorts by clicking the links.

A Sea Change Norway/U.S. 85 minutes
Director: Barbara Ettinger

Sun. 12/6 5:30 A Sea Change Alaska Experience Theater

Sat. 12/12 6:00 A Sea Change Anchorage Museum
(Photo from A Sea Change website.)

Imagine a world without fish

It’s a frightening premise, and it’s happening right now. A Sea Change follows the journey of retired history teacher Sven Huseby on his quest to discover what is happening to the world’s oceans. After reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Darkening Sea,” Sven becomes obsessed with the rising acidity of the oceans and what this “sea change” bodes for mankind. His quest takes him to Alaska, California, Washington, and Norway as he uncovers a worldwide crisis that most people are unaware of. Speaking with oceanographers, marine biologists, climatologists, and artists, Sven discovers that global warming is only half the story of the environmental catastrophe that awaits us. Excess carbon dioxide is dissolving in our oceans, changing sea water chemistry. [From the film's full service website. So's the video below]

If you want to know more, there's a Washington Post reviewer who details what she liked and didn't like about the film:

A Deep Dive Into Troubled Waters
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The handsome, rigorously researched documentary "A Sea Change," playing Saturday at the Environmental Film Festival, calls for some tough love on the part of even the most sympathetic viewer. [more]

A Time Comes: The Story of the Kingsnorth Six UK 20 minutes (This is part of the Documentary Program Relentless Behavior which includes the films My Toxic Baby and Frequent Flyer. Frequent Flyer is also in competition.)
Director: Nick Broomfield
Sunday, December 6 – 4:00pm – Anchorage Museum
Thursday, December 10 – Alaska Experience Theater

Director Nick Broomfield has made a 20 minute film celebrating the spirit of direct action. This Bright Green Pictures film tells the story of the Kingsnorth Six, a group of Greenpeace volunteers who scaled the 220m chimney at a coal fired power station in Kent in 2007 to protest against government plans to build new coal plants across Britain.

The film features the music of Nick Laird-Clowes performed by David Gilmore of Pink Floyd among others.
Greenpeace wants you to see this, so they have the whole film up at their site and I've embedded it below freeing you up to see something else that night. Or you can wait to see it on the big screen.

A Time Comes - the story of the Kingsnorth Six from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

Circus Rosaire U.S.   90 min
Director: Robyn Bliley
Saturday, December 5, 2009 - 3:15pm   Alaska Experience Theater
Friday, December 11, 2009 - 8:15pm     Anchorage Museum

For nine generations, the Rosaire family has entertained audiences all over the world with their legendary animal acts. The circus industry is changing, however, and the Rosaires have fallen on hard times. Their poignant way of dealing with hilarious relationships and tragedy reflects the circus they call life.

The video, from the Dallas AFI 2008, includes clips from the trailer and an interview of

There's more at the Circus Rosaire website including these comments from co-producer and director Robyn Bliley (Sheila Segerson's daughter.)

I’ve known the Rosaire family since I was six years old and have been intrigued by their way of life in the circus and their devoted and loving relationships they have with their animal partners. Having a long and trusting relationship with the Rosaire family has allowed me incredible access to an otherwise very private family. . .

The domestication of wild animals and the use of animals in circuses is a hot button topic for many of us. And although I don’t support or condone all circus animal trainers, I believe the Rosaire family provides us with an incredible and unique example of how people can use animals in entertainment while treating them with respect, dignity and love.

By the way, Robyn is going to lead a workshop on documentary film making at the festival.

Get Real: A Short Course in Documentary Filmmaking
Sunday, Dec. 13, 3 PM / Out North Theatre
Robyn Bliley, director of the feature-length documentary, Circus Rosaire.
How does a documentary filmmaker choose subject matter, sketch out the story and stay true to real life? Find out the basics of directing, producing and acting in documentary films and fire away with questions of your own. (Robyn Bliley Photo from Circus Rosaire site.)

Frequent Flyer U.S. 20 minutes (This is part of the Documentary Program Relentless Behavior which includes the films My Toxic Baby and A Time comes. A Time Comes is also in competition.)
Director: Gabriel Leigh

Sunday, December 6 – 4:00pm – Anchorage Museum
Thursday, December 10 – Alaska Experience Theater

"Frequent Flyer" is a 20-minute documentary about frequent flyer miles, the people who collect them, and the world of airports and airplanes that they inhabit. Fittingly, I traveled around 35,000 miles in the making of it, from Osaka, Japan to Punta del Este, Uruguay.

The result is a look at the world of miles and some of its most enthusiastic participants, examining how miles and points have become an important world currency and, in turn, an obsession for those who have figured out ways to earn them in the millions. [Photo and text from Gabriel Leigh's Vimeo Page]

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

Playground U.S. 87 minutes
Director: Libby Spears
Sat. 12/5 3:15 Anchorage Museum

Sexual exploitation of children is a problem that we tend to relegate to back-alley brothels in developing countries, the province of a particularly inhuman, and invariably foreign, criminal element. Such is the initial premise of Libby Spears’ sensitive investigation into the topic. But she quickly concludes that very little thrives on this planet without American capital, and the commercial child sex industry is certainly thriving. Spears intelligently traces the epidemic to its disparate, and decidedly domestic, roots—among them the way children are educated about sex, and the problem of raising awareness about a crime that inherently cannot be shown. Her cultural observations are couched in an ongoing mystery story: the search for Michelle, an American girl lost to the underbelly of childhood sexual exploitation who has yet to resurface a decade later.

Executive produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Steven Soderbergh, and punctuated with poignant animation by Japanese pop artist Yoshitomo Nara, Playground illuminates a sinister industry of unrecognized pervasiveness. Spears has crafted a comprehensive revelation of an unknown epidemic, essential viewing for any parent or engaged citizen. [This continues at the Nest Foundation website, where I also got the Yoshitomo Nara drawing.]

See Shadow Billionaire below and Luksus (in shorts in competiton) for other films touching on this topic from different perspectives.

Shadow Billionaire - U.S. 86 minutes
Director: Alexis Spraic
Sunday Dec. 6 7:45pm Alaska Experience Theater
Saturday Dec. 12 3:15pm Alaska Experience Theater

“Shadow Billionaire” – Documentary Review
By Yuan-Kwan Chan

Alexis Manya Spraic’s debut film looks back at the surreal life of Larry Hillblom, the founder and ‘H’ in shipping company DHL who disappeared in a 1995 plane crash. At the time, the eccentric American was living in tax-free haven Saipan. It was here that the law school graduate’s name became entangled in a legal battle involving paternity tests, his sordid lifestyle and his shoddily written will – with his staggeringly lucrative estate at stake. Buoyed by first-person accounts and historical footage, “Shadow Billionaire” admirably tackles Hillblom’s story but doesn’t quite succeed in its execution. (You can read the rest of this review at meniscuszine.)

There's another interesting review at A Regretable Moment of Sincerity, which also alerts us that this film, along two other films in competition - Luksus (features) and Playground - deals with sexual exploitation of children.

[Update Nov. 26: Alexis emailed to suggest a couple of other reviews readers might want to look at:

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940101.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=4282]

The Shadow Billionaire website is visually interesting, but is thin in content in some tabs.

Tapped U.S. 76 minutes
Director: ~~Sarah Olson~~ Stephanie Soechtig (Sarah's the Producer)

Sunday Dec. 6 1:00pm Alaska Experience Theater
Friday Dec. 11 8:00pm Alaska Experience Theater
(Image from Greenzer.)

From Mary Vincent at the Examiner.com:

'Tapped' is a new documentary featuring the virtually unregulated business of bottled water and its lifecycle, including health, environmental, and human rights issues. Documentary interviews include community members, politicians, scientists, and government agency representatives. I'm grateful to have seen the Tapped documentary and interviewed Director, Stephanie Soechtig. I will share the Trailer and our discussion below including actions we as citizens, community members, consumers, business owners, and governments can take today. [You can read the interview here.]

Tapped's website: http://www.tappedthemovie.com is very slick and very user unfriendly. It has its own scrollbar you have to use and content is not copyable.

Trip to Hell and Back U.S. 29 minutes [In Documentary Short Film Program "Road to Redemption" with Girls on the Wall]
Director: Stu Maddux
Tuesday Dec. 8 8pm Alaska Experience Theater
Saturday Dec. 12 3:15pm Anchorage Museum

From Trip to Hell and Back website:

World-renowned horse rider Trip Harting juggles his very public life of horse riding with his secret, crazed life of using and selling huge amounts of methamphetamine. He becomes one of the largest dealers in the Washington DC area.

DEA agents finally bust Harting in an upscale hotel lobby and charge him with crimes that will likely send him to jail for the rest of his life.

Now struggling to keep even more secrets to save his career he begins learning to tell the truth to save his life. The spiritual journey transforms him into a new person.

Two years later a judge asks a changed Harting for any final words before he is sentenced. Those final words will reveal if he has changed enough to deserve a second chance.

Production:

Harting himself was willing to recreate the scenes necessary to put his story on film. “If it can help just one other person, then any backlash is worth it.”

But as “Trip to Hell and Back” had its first screening in August, 2008, Trip suddenly found that everything he had gone through was preparation for an even greater challenge: a terminal illness. He died just three weeks after the film premiered.

Harting remained a profoundly changed person to his last day hoping this documentary would spread his message that ‘”truth is an incredibly powerful thing.”

Trip to Hell and Back - trailer from Stu Maddux on Vimeo.

November Challenge

2009-11-24T17:44:00.001-09:00

November is when my running schedule tends to go down the drain. It's colder. It's darker longer. It snows. The body hasn't quite adjusted to the new weather and ground cover. And I seem to find lots of excuses to say 'mañana.'

This year I came back from California with a sore heal, so I obviously couldn't run for a while. Then I did run, but various things got in the way again. I had morning meetings and I like to run before I eat in the morning.
Once I eat, well, I can't run. It got cold. I did use my bike, even after it snowed. There wasn't enough snow to cross country ski, or so I told myself

But yesterday it was 30˚F. The sun was peeking through the clouds. My body was fine. No meetings. I had no excuse.

The raven chortled as I ran by.

Through the neighborhoods until I got to the bike path.

And I wasn't the only one running. I saw four other runners in my 45 minutes out.

Despite the fact I hadn't run since early in the month, these two were so slow, even I passed them.

And when I was almost home, I saw that those trucks at the bus stop last week seems to have resulted in these new street lights.

It seemed like they weren't fiinished. They've made this new bus cut out so that the sidewalk/bike path is now wide enough for more than one person. Not sure about the need for the new lights. A bus shelter, even just a bench, would probably be more helpful. But maybe that's coming next.

Don't let the winter keep you inside. Get out of the car and enjoy moving.

AIFF 2009 - Rand Thornsley in His Office

2009-11-24T11:17:00.002-09:00

Rand is the President of the Anchorage International Film Festival Board and Festival Program Director. I dropped in on him before watching "Still Walking" tonight at the Bear Tooth to see how he was doing two weeks before the festival begins. He didn't know I was coming or that he was going to be on camera.

AIFF 2009, Anchorage, Fat Bikes, and Blogging

2009-11-24T02:23:00.004-09:00

I try to remind people now and then that biking is a real alternative form of transportation, it's not just recreation. Our infrastructure and city planning make it hard to do without a bigger vehicle sometimes, but biking is possible for a lot of our travel, even in the winter.

So, I do want to recognize that there are a number of Alaska blogs that focus on biking and there's even an Alaskan biking film in the Anchorage International Film Festival.

Here's a short post about the short film Fat Bike from Bicycle Commuters of Alaska: (BCA also supported the film)

Carl Battreall took a fantastic first step into film making with Fat Bike by being accepted to the Boston Bike Film Fest and the Anchorage International Film Fest. But the news gets even better. The Boston Bike Film Fest, which took place last Friday and Saturday has announced that Fat Bike has won First Place!
Congratulations goes out to Carl for making such a great film. This is exciting news for all riders and especially those who brave the elements all winter long. And perhaps it will serve as great inspiration to those considering winter riding.
BCA sends along a hearty congratulations to Carl and all those that helped with the making of Fat Bike.

BCA talks about biking everyday so I'm adding them to my Alaska Blog list. Another one is Bicycles and Icicles. It has a long list of Alaska bike related blogs. These blogs are serious crusaders working to change how decisions are made about transportation and planning by living their ideals and fighting to make bike commuting safer and easier.

Fat Bike Trailer from indieAK films on Vimeo.

Fat Bike U.S. (ALASKA) 26 minutes
Director: Carl Battreall
Fat Bike is part of the Snowdance 2 program showing
Tuesday Dec. 8, 5:45pm at Alaska Experience Theater
Saturday Dec. 12, 5:30 at Out North

It's also part of the Martini Matinee presentation Friday Dec. 11, at 2:30pm Bear Tooth

Pho Lena Anchorage

2009-11-23T11:45:00.002-09:00

Someone had recommended Lena Pho Restaurant on Minnesota almost at the corner of Benson, and we were in the neighborhood the other day, so we stopped in. This used to be Chinese restaurant.

It was bright, clean, and the food was good. J had the pho with tofu. Our vegetarianism is based on a combination of concerns about health, about how food is raised and the impact on the planet, but we aren't absolutists. I tend to assume that vegie soups in Asian restaurants are the normal soup stock but no pieces of meat. Isn't vegetarian pho an oxymoron:

Pho noodle soup is a great comfort food and like most classics it has many recipe variations and history. Some say that "pho' is a Vietnamese corruption of the French feu (fire). The French have a classic boiled beef dinner pot-au-feu, and they did colonize Vietnam in the earlier part of the century .
A perfect candidate for the crock-pot this soup only benefits from slow simmering to infuse the broth with aromatic spices and let the flavors and gelatin from the bones seep into the consomme like broth. (Read more: http://asiancuisine.suite101.com/article.cfm/vietnamese_pho_noodle_soup#ixzz0XiQztRSw)

I'll order something other than the Spicy Lao Eggplant. I love eggplant, but the real flavors don't come out unless it's really cooked, even roasted. But the rest was great. We'll be back.

[Double click on the pictures to enlarge them.]

AIFF 2009 Suzi Yoonessi on Trying To Make An Authentic Alaska Film in Washington State

2009-11-22T12:50:00.002-09:00

I haven't counted all the films entered in the festival, but with the shorts, particularly, there are a lot. I'm sure it will not be possible to see even half the films, even if you were attending an event from the first to last showing every day. So I'm trying to go through what's coming and figure out what looks best, what looks most interesting, and when films are going to be showing in hopes of seeing the best of what's up here in December. I'm also trying to share some of what I'm learning with people who read the blog.

As part of this, I've emailed some of the film makers. I feel a bit awkward since I don't really want to ask generic, boring questions. It's best, for me, to see the film first, and then I may have some burning questions, or I may not.

Since I had seen Dear Lemon Lima as a short when it was in the Festival two years ago, I did have some questions of director Suzi Yoonessi. Here's what I wrote then about the short (good, but not much) and the film maker's plans to film a movie, set in Fairbanks, in Seattle.

Dear Lemon Lima, was another snippet, it seemed, from a future feature length film. Beautifully shot with good acting, it had lots of potential. Though I think the mother was a bit exaggerated. (I'm sure the writer will say 'not at all, I know her well'.) The director - I think that was her role - was there after the film to talk. She also talked about a feature to be filmed next summer that is set in Fairbanks. To her credit, she's been to Fairbanks - after writing several chapters of the screen play - but it will be filmed in Seattle (did she really say Seattle? How can you do Fairbanks in Seattle?) because, you know, it's really expensive to do it in Fairbanks. You know, I think that people in Fairbanks and Anchorage would put the whole crew up in their houses to help you keep the costs down. If those other guys could walk their horses across Alaska, you can surely shoot your film that takes place in Fairbanks, in Alaska. Imagine a movie, "Crossing Alaska with Horses" filmed in the Alps, because, you know, going to Alaska would be so expensive.

A little snide I acknowledge, but we'd also seen a film by French film makers who had had the idea to ride horses across Alaska. When they got here, they began to realize how ridiculous that seemed to Alaskans. They leased the horses, but soon discovered they were going to have to walk with, not on, the horses. But they got up to the Arctic Ocean. And they were in Alaska and saw how great their misperceptions of Alaska were. As Alaskans we learned about ourselves by seeing Alaska through their eyes, but only because they were actually in Alaska.

What I didn't realize at the time was that Dear Lemon Lima was the film she had in mind.

To her credit, she emailed me after my snarky post and asked if I had suggestions for cutting costs and doing some of the filming in Fairbanks. If it had been Anchorage, I figured I could have found housing for everyone. I posted her request and emailed some of the Fairbanks bloggers for help.

So, not long ago, I emailed director Suzi Yoonessi:

"A key question I do have is how much if any of the film did you get to do in
Fairbanks? What little I saw on the website - pictures, trailers - I'm guessing
not much. There was one shot that might have been in a Fairbanks like setting.

In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing the movie - the colors and characters of the short that was here in 2007 still are vivid in my mind. Not an easy thing
after two years of festival films. But I'm a little leery about the Alaska setting
and the treatment of the Native Olympics. We'll see."

Suzi wrote back:

. . . Our lead actress is part Yup'ik and from Eagle River, so if you're interested in speaking with her further, I'd love to put you in touch!

As you know, the budget was incredibly low. I super appreciate your blog posting, but one person responded (which was also an incredibly kind gesture), but it takes a village to raise a child, and Lemon Lima is my first-born. We were very fortunate to find an amazing Alaskan Native presence in Seattle, so the film features an Aleut dance group and all of the events were supervised by a former WEIO athlete. We saved a small part of our budget to shoot B-roll in Fairbanks, but after the rough cut, I had to make the decision of filming in Alaska, or having a reshoot.

One of the film's final scenes is a Yup'ik Eskimo Igloo dance. We shot a dance that wasn't particularly dynamic, so when I learned that we could use our budget to reshoot the dance, it took precedence because the character's evolution and acceptance of her heritage is the most important subplot within the character-driven film. Phillip Blanchett of the Yup'ik pop band Pamyua choreographed the dance for the reshoot and worked with Savanah Wiltfong (our lead) in Anchorage to understand the significance of each movement in the dance. The dance is delightful and we were also able to include two of Pamyua's songs in the film.

It's incredibly important to me that you, the local audience and press know the measures that we took to keep the Alaskan Native elements authentic (including having WEIO ship two seal skin blankets to Seattle.) The story is an underrepresented voice and I think it's incredibly exciting that people in London, Brazil, Tunisia and Sweden have been exposed to Alaskan Native history & culture in a story that entertains and informs. The assumption that we didn't make every effort possible to maintain the integrity of the Alaskan Native elements is incredibly frustrating and untrue. Although I wasn't able to film in Alaska, the magical exterior filming locations inspire a sense of isolation, wonder and delight.

I've met Phillip Blanchett and seen Pamyua perform on various occasions. They are the real thing. I understand that getting funding to make a feature film is very difficult and that bringing a crew to Alaska is very expensive. I accept that Suzi believes that she did everything she could to be authentic.

I urge Alaskans to enjoy the game we usually play of picking out the parts that are wrong about films set, but not filmed, in Alaska, but to try not to let any discrepancies get in the way of seeing the film she made. But, Suzi, remember that you did choose to tell a story set in Alaska and that the way you portray Alaskans has been/will be seen "in London, Brazil, Tunisia and Sweden" as you say. And for most of those people, it will be as close as they ever get to Alaska. Any mistakes you've made about us is how they will perceive Alaska.

So, Alaskans, be polite. Don't ask questions about why she didn't shoot the film in Alaska. She would have if she had had more money. The Alaska Film Office hadn't reopened its doors when she was filming.

Suzi, recognize that not that many people read this blog, and even if everyone did, they wouldn't listen to me anyway.

Carl Nesjar's Anchorage Ice Fountain

2009-11-22T03:35:00.010-09:00

I loved the concept of the ice fountain at Loussac Library when it was first proposed. It's a fountain designed to work all year - in the winter creating interesting ice formations depending on the water flow and weather. But for various reasons, it never quite worked out that way. ArtSceneAK wrote in 2002

FROZEN ASSET ICE-NOTCarl Nesjar's Ice Fountain has been neither fountain nor ice since shortly after its installation at the Anchorage Loussac Library in mid-town. The stainless steel tubing is intended to drip water during the winter to build sheets of ice in a spectacular way. Problems with plumbing and process in the underground connection between fountain and library have kept this world class sculpture from reaching its intended potential. A joint project of MOA % for Art and the Silver Anniverary Commission, this piece has a forlorn look about it. In other parts of the country, folks run hoses up a tall pole in their front yard and leave it on into winter, then shine yard lights at the result. Seems simple enough, and certainly Nesjar's international reputation is not dependent on the use Anchorage makes of his interesting creation. During the summer, flowers are planted. During the winter, shouldn't the sidewalk be shoveled? Nesjar collaborated with Picasso, can't our civic and public entities combine to make Ice Fountain the defiant salute to winter it is meant to be?

A private group, as I recall (google's not being its reliable retriever self on this one) raised about $50,000 and in the last couple of years sometime had the fountain renovated. Finally, it's doing what it should have been doing all these years. These are pictures from tonight when we dropped some books off.

Most people have no idea who the creator of the fountain was. His name is Carl Nesjar.

From Värmland:

Carl Nesjar, who is one of Norway’s most famous artists, was commissioned by Pablo Picasso to build his monumental concrete sculpture in Kristinehamn’s archipelago in 1965. Nesjar is a versatile artist and is perhaps most famous internationally for the 15 year period in which he was responsible for erecting a number of Picasso’s works of art throughout the world, and for his own all-year round fountains made of steel and aluminium.

Here's a list of the fountains by Carl Nesjar (from Galleridobag)

Helårsfontene:

· Landbrukshøgskolen på Ås, 1971

· Lysaker, Oslo 1971

· Larvik 1972

· Flaine, Haute-Savoie, Frankrike 1975

· Prismefontene, Moss Rådhus 1980

· Vinter Olympiske Leker, Lake Placid, USA 1980

· Kragerø 1983

· State University College, Buffalo, USA 1984

· Loussac Library, Anchorage, Alaska 1988

· Sommer Olympiske Leker, Seoul, Korea 1988

· Braathens Safe, Fornebu 1989

· Investa, Fyllingsdalen, Bergen 1990

· Isbjørn, Vinter Olympiske Leker, Albertville, Frankrike 1990

· Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, U.S.A. 1991

· Bodø Kommune, 1994

· Lillehammer Vinter Olympiske Leker, Vikingskipet, Hamar 1994

· Radiumhospitalets svømmebasseng, Oslo 1994

· Statoil Forskningssenter, Rotvoll, Trondheim 1997

· Bjørn Braathens privat hus, Mols, Danmark 1999

· Radiumhospitalets inngang, Oslo 2001

· Kristinehamn, Sverige 2006

· Drammen 2007

The building in the background on the left with the penthouse lights is the JL Tower. There's a closer picture below.

You can get more information on JL Towers from Anchoragejoop. Chugach ~~Electric~~ [whoops, Anon pointed out it was Chugach Alaska, not Electric] Alaska is one of the tenants of that building. ~~Maybe someone can explain to me the energy message involved with all the lights. [~~The energy questions are still relevant, but not as directly.]

Film Festival Scam? AIFF is NOT AIFF

2009-11-21T14:31:00.001-09:00

While working on the ANCHORAGE International Film Festival blog posts I came across another website that had me totally baffled for a bit. (I added the black circle) The picture was great, but just totally different in style and content from the Anchorage International Film Festival. Did they add some new graphics? I clicked around and I couldn't find any of the content that was on the AIFF website.

The awards page had great verbiage like,

"highlight Alaska's important role in the international film community."

What important role do we have in the film world? Most films about Alaska are done somewhere warmer and cheaper. And

"In addition, Best of Category awards will be presented in each main competitive category and Special Jury Awards are presented to filmmakers who make significant contributions to social change, environmental awareness, and humanitarian causes."

but then I got to this:

The Alaska International Film Festival is an awards-based film and screenplay competition. Films will not be screened for the public. Awards will be announced publicly by Internet and international press release.

"Will not be screened for the public." ?!! I thought a key part about entering a festival was to get an audience for your film. Winners announced by internet? Who is on the jury? And how come I couldn't find anybody's name on the website? Is the whole festival computer generated? And then I saw. It wasn't the ANCHORAGE International Film Festival. It was the ALASKA film festival. (No, I'm not offering a link to the site.)

Here's the website for the festival I've been blogging about.

But on the OTHER AIFF site,
the submission page lists the different categories and it costs $25 or $40 to submit a film depending on length and how early you submit your film.

And there's a contact address where you can also submit your films:

For general questions or filmmaker inquiries please contact us at:

Alaska International Film Festival
3705 Arctic Blvd, Suite 2329
Anchorage, AK 99503

So I checked out the address today when I was doing other errands.

Above is 3705 Arctic in Anchorage. The address is in white letters above the door under the red Mail Cache letters. If you double click the picture you can enlarge it to see.

If you wander past lots of mailboxes you get to this alcove (left) and "Suite 2329" is down on the end wall, lower right. It's a very small suite.

Right here in the picture on the right to be precise.

A whosis search of the url for this website got me to Godaddy and yielded a phone number with a 270 area code. That's in Kentucky. A long ways away from Alaska.

This is pretty suspicious. So when I finished all of the above, I googled "film festival scams" and on the third site I checked I found this article on film festival scams that identifies the Alaska International Film Festival as a likely scam:

Sunday, 4 October 2009
Beware of scam 'film festivals'
By Benjamin Craig
It seems that every man and his dog wants to run a film festival these days, which is fantastic in many ways, not least because it provides an even greater number of outlets for filmmakers to get their work in front of an audience. Sadly the multitude of scammers who prowl the Internet also seem to have their dirty fingers in the film festival scene as well.
A timely reminder came this week when the "Alaska International Film Festival" was brought to our attention. Visit the site - www.alaskafilmfestival.com (not hyperlinked so as not to give undue Google link mojo to this site) - and on the surface you see a clean, professional looking site for what sounds like a prestigious event and is fact described as such by the site content. But before you dive into the submissions area, it's worth noting a few red flags...

Firstly, the site content reads like this event has been around for years, and indeed, the About Us page says as much. But on closer examination, there is nothing to indicate any previous years' activities, nor can you find any mention of it in Google. Indeed, when we contacted the 'festival' to ask for a list of last year's winners, the respondent told us that this was in fact their inaugural year, despite the About Us page saying, "Each year, awards are presented to independent filmmakers from around the globe..." Update 10-Oct-2009 - surprise surprise, the copy on the About Us page has been changed slightly after this article was published. . . [Emphasis added]

You can read the rest of this post and learn about more red flags at filmmaking.com.

If you want to submit a film to a festival in Alaska, I recommend the Anchorage International Film Festival. I know it's real because I've been to a number of them and I blogged the last two.

AIFF 2009 - How to Find the Shorts - Dunlap Shohl's Frozen Shorts

2009-11-21T03:15:00.009-09:00

I picked up a hard copy of the Festival Schedule today.

Later I noticed that Anchorage cartoonist and film maker, Peter Dunlap-Shohl, put up a new short animation on his blog Frozen Grin. I thought I'd put it up here because I liked it and because it can serve as an appetizer for his animated short in the Festival - Frozen Shorts.

But I also realized this would be a good opportunity to alert you to the difficulty of finding specific shorts in the printed schedule. Shorts (including short animations) are grouped together into programs. Frozen Shorts is actually in two programs - becaue it's in two different film categories: Snowdance ("films about Alaska and by Alaskans") and Animation.

So, in the Schedule on page 14 you can see the Snowdance listings, and Frozen Shorts is in Snowdance 2 which will show on

Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 5:45pm at the Alaska Experience Theater (in the Ship Creek Mall downtown) AND
Saturday, Dec. 12 at 5:30pm at Out North

But Frozen Shorts is also part of the collection of 18 animated shorts that are grouped into the program Animation 2, also known as "Should I Stay or Should I Go? And Other Confusing Questions.

That program is also playing twice

Sat. Dec 5 at 5:45 at Out North
Tues. Dec 8 at 7:45pm at Out North

Now, there may be an easier way to find out exactly when a particular short film is playing. The online program lets you click and see what's there. But at the moment, at least for Snowdance 2 there there's an extra showing on Sunday Dec. 6 at 3pm at the Bear Tooth.

So maybe there's one more screening that wasn't listed in the Snowdance 2 listing on page-14. But when you click on

Snowdance 2 you get another page that doesn't have this Sunday showing listed. My guess is that the website will be the most reliable because they can still make changes there that they can't make on the printed programs.

It seems to me that last year I had a lot more trouble finding times on the website. I think this year's website will make it much easier to find exactly where and when each film is, even the shorts.

Meanwhile I'm checking if the Sunday showing is correct and I'll update this when I find out.

Here's Peter's new short animation, "Anchorage, First Snow":

One other things about the shorts. If last year's festival is any indication, some of the better shorts will show up before some of the features, like they used to do with cartoons in the old days.

[UPDATE Nov. 21 Noon: The Festival has confirmed Snowdance 1 is at the Bear Tooth at 3pm on Sunday Dec. 6, NOT Snowdance 2. But you still have four chances to see Peter's Frozen Shorts. Now I haven't seen it myself, but if you liked the First Snow, you probably will like his festival entry. And a lot of the other films in Snowdance 2 and Animation 1 should be worth it. Some of the most creative stuff shows up in the animation. And if you don't like a film, it'll be over in a few minutes anyway and you get to see the next one. ]

Surfer Privacy or The World Bank Finally Articulates its Mission

2009-11-20T21:12:00.004-09:00

Should bloggers disclose the people coming to their sites? I've gotten used to all the information Sitemeter gives me for each person visiting the site. I've posted about it and on occasion posted a copy of an individual page. No, it doesn't tell your name or your email address, but it does tell your ISP address, your location, type of computer, browser, how you got to the page (if you linked from somewhere else) and what search terms you used on Google. It doesn't tell me all this for everyone. Some people have found ways to block a lot of the information. Proxy browsers do that for you and probably there are other ways to sanitize your tracks. But I know that when I show people all this information I get, they are surprised.

So, should a blogger share that information with the world?

I think it's important to remind readers of this once in a while so that they realize the tracks they are leaving at websites they visit.

I left my Sitemeter data available to all visitors on the grounds that transparency was a good thing, people should poke around and see how many (few) hits I get and where they come from. When I did that, I didn't think about people trying to track others down, and I think it would be a pretty tedious job. Plus coming to this blog - given the variety of topics covered - probably doesn't reveal much.

So, it's all there. But should I put individual pages up for people to see? I think I've done that a couple of times. If I recall, I did that with the 123,456th visitor to the blog post, just to show that he was really the winner of the 123,456th person to the blog contest. And I did it more recently when I discovered that someone from a State computer had spent a couple of hours on the site one day. But I smudged out the name of the agency and the ISP number.

So, what's all this a prologue to? Well, I do think it is good to remind you that you are leaving tracks. Here's a link to a Google search for "Surfing Privacy". You can get some ideas on how to leave less of you littered around the internet. Of course, telling people about this means that they might try scrubbing some of the data off their tracks which means I can't tell when agencies and companies visit when I post something about them, or when they are searching for something.

Which leads to why I got started on this post. I got a hit from someone using a World Bank internet connection. I had to smile when I saw the term they were searching. It really is what their mission is, even if it isn't how they state it in their annual reports. This person searched for "unfuck the world, the song." Maybe now the World Bank has a clearer focus. Ideally, they'll put it up as background music on their website.

Koun Franz on Compassion at Loussac

2009-11-20T14:11:00.000-09:00

Last night we went to a nearly full Marston Theater to hear Anchorage's Zen Buddhist Priest talk about compassion. The only other time I'd heard Koun Franz talk was at Cyrano's two years ago where he was on a panel of clergy from different denominations discussing Mark Twain's The War Prayer. He made quite an impression on me then both by how he handled himself and what he said. Last night he had the stage to himself - well, and a vase with two yellow flowers.

He was wise, funny, compassionate, human, and having a good time. My sense was that the audience too enjoyed the evening and went home with lots to think about.

On compassion, well, he said it is always there. It isn't something we give, one way, to another. But rather it is there, for us to be come aware of, to see the people around us a human beings who, like us, are trying to be happy. In some cases, the way that they go about it may be unsuccessful (alcohol, drugs, etc.) in the long run. When we have run-ins with others - he used the example of a tailgater - we should understand that they are human beings trying to be happy, and somehow, they see us as preventing their happiness by being in their way. That doesn't mean we condone what they are doing, but we understand it at least.

He had us imagine that we had a bubble around us where we were safe and comfortable. Then asked us to extend that bubble to include the person next to us. Including someone in your bubble - accepting their humanity as I understood it - was another way he described compassion.

Ethics in Buddhism, he said, wasn't so much about right and wrong, but rather about skillfulness - developing skills for living right.

He said that in the monastery in Japan he learned to cherish every moment, including the 'down' time between what we normally consider the events. An example was a note on the mirror where the monks brushed their teeth that conveyed the message

Whatever I'm doing right now
I'm not doing just for me
But for everyone

I only took a bit of video, and the best clip turned out to have a buzz all the way through, so here's just a snippet to give you a sense of the serenity of the talk.

It's not easy to convey what someone else has said, so assume what I've said is a very rough sketch. You can hear Koun Franz directly through podcasts on the Anchorage Zen Community website. You can find information about their other activities available there too.

UC Tuition Hikes - Some Perspective

2009-11-20T02:52:00.001-09:00

From the Daily Nexus, UC Santa Barbara's student newspaper today:

Council Adopts Tuition Increase
By Maane Khatchatourian / Staff Writer
Published Thursday, November 19, 2009
Issue 42 / Volume 90

The UC Board of Regents finance committee approved a proposal that will push student fees to over $10,000 next year.

The committee voted almost unanimously to recommend the 32 percent student fee increase to the full board at its meeting yesterday. If passed by the Regents today, California residents’ education and registration fees will be raised in two stages — from $7,788 to $8,373 by Winter Quarter and to $10,302 from summer 2010 through the following academic year. This fee hike will mark the ninth time in seven years that the UC Regents would have approved an increase in undergraduate tuition fees.

I entered UCLA as a freshman in the spring semester of 1963. As I recall, my tuition and fees that semester came to about $68 and change. Yes, I was a full time student. By being in the top 12% of California high school students based on test scores, I got automatic entry to a first class faculty and very good fellow students on a beautiful campus. As an extra bonus, we were going to have the national basketball dynasty starting the next year and we even had a Rose Bowl trip.

I was lucky. My parents were immigrants. They really had no idea how the US college system worked, and even if they had, the tuition at private universities was out of the question. But my local state university happened to be a half hour bike ride from our house and also a first rate school at a very affordable price.

The first year and a half I lived at home. Then I studied the next year in Germany as part of the UC education abroad program. The last year and a half I lived on campus. I was able to pay for my tuition, books, and room and board by working fifteen hours a week as an elementary school playground director.

It wasn't until later when Reagan started cutting the university budget that I began to realize what luxury California had afforded to its top students. One example was gym. All gym clothes - shorts, t-shirts, socks and jocks - along with towels were provided. After each class, you just tossed your dirties into the laundry bag and got a set of cleans. It was like a country club. I suspect this was so because originally the wealthy - at least the upper middle class and up - were the people mostly served by this public university. They expected the best for their children But once more and more students from other backgrounds became a larger proportion of the student body, and the more privileged began moving to the elite private universities, these perks began to fall by the wayside and the cost started going up faster and faster. Proposition 13 in 1978 made that decline even faster.

As I said, when I was getting into UCLA, all I needed to do was be in the top 12% of high school seniors. Today's admissions are much more complicated. I went through the online calculator and put in 4.00 GPA and 700's on all the SAT test scores. That made me eligible in general, but not for any specific campus. Here's what it said:

Keep in mind that meeting these minimum requirements is not the only way to become eligible for UC (students also may be designated eligible by being in the top 4 percent of their high school's graduating class or by achieving certain exam scores alone). Becoming eligible, however, does not guarantee admission to a particular campus. In selecting students, each UC campus considers a range of factors in a comprehensive review of applicant information. For an explanation of the admissions process, read ... [emphasis added]

From Mixx.com we see UCLA students' reaction to the tuition hike:

A little more perspective. My 1963 tuition was $68. The newly set 2010 tuition will hit $10,300. There were semesters when I went to UCLA (quarters started my last year) and quarters now. I think the $10,304 figure counts fees for the whole year. If that's correct then the 2010 tuition will be 75 times higher than the 1963 price.

My parents bought their house in 1957 for $17,000. Let's assume it went up to $25,000 by 1963. Its current price has fluctuated with the housing market, but a similar house up the street with a second floor added on was on the market for $850,000. That means the my mom's house, which hadn't begun to take off when I started college, went up about 32 times in the same time period.

I understand that the President of the University has to make his budget work. And I'm sure he feels he is being responsible by making this decision. But I suspect there are some people who, in that position, would resign and refuse to be part of this. Given California's budget woes, the President, would say, he has no choice. And if he doesn't make the cuts, he would be replaced by someone who would. But let's step back a bit and put this in context.

From what I can tell, the University of California received about $3 billion from the State of California in 2008. I take this from a statement by the UC President Mark G Yudoff:

"That budget proposal, which Regents approved on Nov. 20, asks the state to provide $694 million more than the roughly $3 billion in funding we received this year."

That's a half billion dollars more than what Californians spend a year on ice cream.*
And less than a fourth of what they spend on alcohol a year.*

I'm not saying Californians should stop eating ice cream or drinking margaritas, but if they look at all the other discretionary expenses they have, they might find ways to pay for their kids' education without really sacrificing too terribly much.

I graduated UCLA owing nothing. I didn't need student loans. And I could afford to pay my bills working 15 hours a week. (My mother reads my blog so I better acknowledge that my parents paid the tuition for the first 2 1/2 years, because it was very affordable and they believed strongly in my education.) It was not only possible for a good student from family without a lot of spare cash to afford UCLA, it was easy.

How many hours a week do you have to work to pay off $10,000? The California minimum wage appears to be $8/hour. Rounding it off to $10/hour to make it easy to figure, that comes to about 19 hours a week for 52 weeks. And that doesn't count any deductions. That is if you can find a job in California.

It seems to me Californians need to rethink their whole way of life. [Remember, it's 0˚F outside in Anchorage as I write; moving to Alaska is not an option, trust me. It's cold and miserable and dark and you'll spend all your tuition money on alcohol.]

The New York Times gives another perspective on the decline of the University of California.

*California has about 36 million people which is about 12% of the total US population of 304 million. (2008 Census estimate). Americans spend about $21 billion ice cream a year, so California's share of that would be about $2.5 billion.
Americans spend about $115.9 billion on alcohol, so California's share would be about $13.8 billion. That's probably a low estimate because these were 2003 statistics.

Mischievous Technology Tricks

2009-11-19T21:07:00.000-09:00

Last night at a talk, I took three video clips. The first one was fine (well, fine for a small digital camera in a room with a thin sound system.) The second clip had a strong buzz, like the camera had a motor, which blocked what I was trying to record. And the third clip was fine again. This has never happened before on this camera and I have no idea why this happened. I certainly didn't hear any difference in the room and I don't think I did anything different.

Then this morning I turned on the AM/FM receiver (yes I know I'm still in the dark ages) and got this:

I'm sure you're saying, "yeah, so what?" Well, the light in there has been off for at least six months or more. We've learned to find channels without seeing any sort of information. We were resigned to the slow deterioration of our sound source. We didn't know it was just on vacation. Again, we didn't move anything, didn't try anything new or different. It just turned on today after months of black.

Should Lincoln Have Let the South Go?

2009-11-19T03:58:00.000-09:00

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. [From showcase.netins.net]

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863

I had to memorize this when I was a kid in school. I do think that memorization is a discipline we ought to practice more often. Not for many things, but for enough so that we remember that we are capable of such feats. It was not quite the 100th anniversary of the Address when I had to memorize it. I tried today, the 146th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, to see what I could remember before looking it up.

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal established this great nation. We are now engaged in a great battle to determine whether that proposition shall stand. Few will remember what we say here, but what they did here will long be remembered. Those who fought here have consecrated this ground with their blood so that this nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from this earth."

I've condensed Lincoln's already minimalist speech, but remembered key passages and the basic idea.

But I'm also wondering whether sanctifying this speech isn't just part of the United States' general sanctification of war. Was the Civil War justified? What if Lincoln had allowed the South to secede?

After the 2000 US Presidential election ended in such a split nation, I mused about the possibilities of the internet. Why not let both win and let the right wing media and blogs follow the world of the Bush presidency and let the left wing media and blogs follow the world of the Gore presidency? We could have two virtual realities. Each side could live its fantasy.

Well, I didn't realize how much that would actually happen. Right wing media covered one world and left wing media outlets covered a totally different world. Some people seem to be living in totally different worlds.

Well recent events, culminating in right wing commentators saying the President of the United States shouldn't be allowed to address school children have pushed me to the limit. I mumbled to a friend that the civil war was a great mistake. The North should have counted its blessings when the South departed. Is it too late now? She sent me a link to a site that stated these ideas much more forcefully in 2004. It begins - well I cut out a couple of expletives - like this:

We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.

And then it goes on to give lots of reasons why we'd be better off without them. Back in the 1860's certainly one key reason not to just let them go involved the 3.9 million slaves they would have kept in slavery. While that was about 11% of the whole US population of 27 million then, the percentages in the Lower South were much greater. Civilwarhome.com offers a series of tables. Here's the one for the Lower South.

While others suggest that slavery would have petered out due to a natural cycle that made it economically unsustainable, it would have taken a while.

Some white supremacist groups already expect a new bloody civil war to lead to a split in the US. At this point I'm wondering whether we might want to spare the bloodshed this time and just do it. I already posted this example from a white supremacist group on a post in early August on how to gauge legitimate protest:

Within our lifetimes, the United States of America as we know it will cease to exist as one united country. Rather, it will Balkanize into several racially-based smaller states after an awkward period of racial civil war. It will be unpleasant. It will be bloody. It will be messy. Millions of people, both innocent and guilty, White and nonWhite, will die. But, it is inevitable. Multiracial democracy founded on the myth of racial equality cannot succeed. What cannot fly, should fall, and what is falling, we should still push, and say, fall faster!

Watching the meanness, the blatant distortions, and other tactics being used to incite people's worst fears into hate and license to do violence, I'm beginning to think these guys might be right. Let them have their own country. Let them take their creationism, their guns, their religion, their ignorance, and show us how they could run their own country. And let us have ours back. (Hmmm, that sounds strangely like their plea.)

OK, this is the 'easy', quick fix way out. I'm not sure I'd like a country like that on our borders. (But it could be better than having those people in our country and voting.) There'd be a giant fight over what states they could have. The original confederacy would be a lot of states, and Virginia is just across the river from Washington, DC.

Map from wtv-zone.com

What about Idaho? Oh sorry, I forgot, Idaho doesn't exist. How would we decide? Would each state get to vote? What if they weren't contiguous? Would we have a Gaza - West Bank situation or a Lower 48 - Alaska situation? What would happen to people who weren't happy with their state's decision? Would the move be like the Muslims and Hindus moving Pakistan and to India at partition?

Would there be preconditions such as "people who want to emigrate can get into the US and vice versa?" Would minorities and gays be allowed to get out if they found themselves stuck there? Could they be allowed to have a white only country? How would they define and test for whiteness?

But there are other options. As I've said before, people's willingness to believe demagogues relates to their fears, their insecurities, their never having actually grown up. We could address those issues - both forcefully with those who refuse to allow rational debate and the others by treating the underlying problems.

So, who do I think these people are who want to oppose Obama at any cost? People who fight with out-and-out-lies; and a Congresswoman, with barely concealed racism calling for the Great White Hope! I'm guessing there are a variety of people in the Beck/Palin/Limbaugh fan club:

The scared and insecure
- those who have lost their jobs and homes and see no future
- those who see a black president as the symbol of the non-white takeover of the USA
- those who generally see their privileged positions slipping away as women gain
those who are biologically unable to grasp reality
those who learned at home that violence and aggression were the only ways to deal with conflict
those under the sway of religious institutions, some mainstream and some clearly renegade groups led by self-proclaimed interpreters of God's word
those who simply have been around right wing fanatics all their lives and haven't been exposed to other views
those who will do anything to hurt the President in hopes of a Republican victory in future elections
Sociopaths
Capitalists who simply want to make money and prevent government regulation of how they do it
Capitalists who don't care about politics, but make money from conflict
Criminals who benefit from weak government

This is just a starter list. I suspect a number of people who called their school superintendents to protest the president's speech in the schools could check off three or four or more of these characteristics.

Can you imagine what would have happened if people protesting George W had brought semiautomatic assault weapons with them? People opposed to Bush were harassed for carrying signs. If someone had flashed a gun at a Bush rally, the Secret Service would have been on top of them in an instant. These are people who would cheer if someone shot Obama. They have to be taken very seriously.

So are there paths toward reconciliation short of splitting the union? Is this merely a demographic waiting game? The teabaggers and the rest are a small minority, but they seem to be seriously inflamed. And a small minority can do a lot of damage. Do we want a fanatic minority that really feels oppressed and is willing to fight within our borders, constantly preventing progress? This is like having severely disturbed kids mainstreamed into regular school classes. The teacher can't do any real teaching because she's always dealing with the kids who can do nothing but disrupt. [There are many situations where mainstreaming is both the morally and practically right way to go. But there are situations where the mainstreamed kid hinders everyone, including itself.]

It seems to me that if we separate out those who are not terminally anti-social, the problems and needs of the others could be resolved. That still seems like the best option. Better than two separate nations. But I think that option needs to be on the table too.

While letting this piece sit a while, I did consider that there must have been people who were opposed to the civil war before it began. I did find one article on that. It would be instructive to know more about their arguments and why they lost. Here's the beginning of an article by Sheldon Richman and was published in the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 1981 that looks at abolitionists who were opposed to the Civil War:

Since the victors of warfare write the histories, one must look long and hard to find recognition of the radical critics of any given war. No matter how
substantial or respectable anti-war sentiment may be as a conflict approaches, once the pro-war spirit gets rolling, like a snowball down a mountain, it sweeps aside everything in its path. The War between the States is no exception. In most accounts, the necessity of the War, as in most other wars, is taken for granted. Those who argued against it in advance are ignored (or forgotten) on the grounds that, since the war occurred, they must have been mistaken.1 This is not to say that all the critics are dispensed with. Some serve useful purposes. The Copperheads, with their softness on the slavery issue and conservative longing for the status quo, cast a flattering light on the pro-war Radical Republicans in
some observers' judgment.

It's time to all start studying non-violent conflict resolution, as well as studying the split of Czechoslovakia, the split of Yugoslavia, the creation and splitting of Pakistan, the split of Korea and Germany and the Soviet Union. We also need to learn a lot more about mental health, about how people learn conflict resolution, about debate. My sense is that a little more tolerance on everyone's part, a little more respect to others, a little less greed and self-centeredness would take care of a lot of the problems. But I also recognize that you have to take action against those who refuse to let others live in peace.

I wonder what Lincoln would counsel us today.

Midtown Fire This Afternoon

2009-11-18T17:40:00.003-09:00

[Tea, skip this one.]

I'd considered biking, but it was cold, sort of far to go, and I needed to pick up a shoe at the shoe repair afterward.

So I was driving down 36th around 3:20 when I saw smoke ahead.

As I got closer, it seemed to move further away.

I'm finally pretty close - at Arctic. Fortunately the traffic
was slow and I could blindly shoot pictures.

The smoke was really thick.

Police were there, but no fire trucks.

Here's that same picture enlarged.

By Spenard, this was the second fire truck that passed.

I don't want to give any false alarms. I know I passed Arctic and I checked the next street which was North Star, so I'm pretty sure this was on Indiana, but I didn't actually see a street name when I was passing the fire (I was on 36th).

I got where I was going a little late. And when that was over, picked up my repaired shoe.

AIFF 2009 - Features in Competition

2009-11-18T13:06:00.005-09:00

[Updated November 24]
The Festival awards will go to those that have been selected to be 'in competition.' (For clarification of the Festival terminology go to this post from last year.)   There are five features in competition - a total of 7 hours and 53 minutes. They are listed below. Times and locations (all these are at the Bear Tooth) are now up.

Features are the movie equivalent to fiction. Over 55 minutes is a 'feature.' Under 55 minutes compete in a different category - Shorts. Click the link to see a similar post on   shorts in competition. Documentaries in competition will be up soon.

ALERTS:
1.   Hipster, first showing is part of the opening night Gala - $25 ticket includes movie and party afterwards. All Films AND All Events Passes include both movie and party free. "All Films Passes" DO NOT get you in.
2.   Bomber is only scheduled once - at the beginning! Sat. Dec. 5 at 7:45pm at the Bear Tooth.
3. There will be additional showings of the winning movies Dec. 14 - 17. Check AIFF Website and this blog.

Against The Current US, 84 minutes
• Directed by Peter Callahan
Wed. 12/9 5:30 Bear Tooth
Sun    12/13 3:15 Bear Tooth (right before Dear Lemon Lima)

With the five-year anniversary of his wife and child’s death rapidly approaching, Paul (Joseph Fiennes) recruits his friends Jeff and Liz to help him realize his all-consuming goal of swimming the length of the Hudson River. Sensing that Paul is hiding something, Jeff discovers that the trip is Paul’s way of saying goodbye to a life that has dealt him too much tragedy. Despite his friends’ efforts to convince him otherwise, Paul is firm in his belief that there is nothing left for him now that his wife and child are gone. Justin Kirk turns in a particularly strong performance as Paul’s sarcastic, unsentimental best friend. Appearances from Michelle Trachtenberg and Mary Tyler Moore round out an excellent ensemble cast. Set against the backdrop of the Hudson River Valley in summertime, the film explores the dark landscape of life after loss and delivers a strong finale sure to stay with you long after the film’s conclusion.

This is clearly a film with established actors. Here's the trailer from the Against the Current's website:

You can also hear a radio interview with the director from Woodstock, NY on WAMC.

Bomber UK 85 minutes
• Directed by Paul Cotter
Sat. 12/5 7:45 Bear Tooth (right after Dear Lemon Lima)
(There's only ONE SHOWING)

In this bittersweet comedy about love, family and dropping bombs, an 83-year-old man returns to Germany for a long planned journey of atonement. When his useless son Ross agrees to drive him there, a nightmare family road trip ensues.

Bomber Trailer

Bomber, The Movie | MySpace Video

Here's a glimpse into Paul Cotter from an interview on Spout:

Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?

Ikiru (aka “Living”) by Akira Kurosawa. This is the greatest film I’ve ever watched, and I never tire of seeing it. It’s so small, yet so big. A tiny film about a clerk in a city municipal office who is dying of cancer. It is small in where the plot goes, but massive in where it takes you as a human being. If I could ever get close to what Kurosawa did in that film, I would die a happy man.

The second film would be harder to say. Kieslowski’s Dekalog maybe, because there’s a lot in there, but that’s kind of a depressing collection isn’t it. So maybe “Zulu” because it’s a mindless war film with lots of bright colours and that might cheer me up - especially if I’m about to get executed.

Have you noticed a pattern here? Road trips with friends/relatives where people explore who they are and their relationships?

But the next one should be quite different. It sounds like the misfits kids show the world type movie.

Dear Lemon Lima US 87 minutes
• Directed by Suzi Yoonessi [Lima is pronounced like the bean, not the city in Peru]

Sun 12/13 5:30 Bear Tooth (right after Against the Current)

Sat. 12/5 5:30 Bear Tooth (right before Bomber)

In this charming coming of age comedy, a 13-year-old half Yup’ik girl in Alaska navigates her way through heartbreak and prep school by rediscovering the spirit of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics.

A couple scenes of this film were entered as a short in the 2007 Anchorage International Film Festival. The colors were brilliant and children were real, developed characters, just in the ten minutes maybe the short lasted. That's a pretty remarkable accomplishment. I can still see the scenes vividly. So I was surprised to learn that the film is set in Fairbanks, Alaska. The light and structures and scenes were distinctly not Alaskan in my memory. I chided the filmmaker in the blog for planning to make the rest of the movie in Washington State, and not doing it in Fairbanks. Amazingly, she responded asking if I had suggestions for overcoming the costs of doing it in Alaska. [The new law that supports filming in Alaska wasn't yet in effect.] I blogged about her needs and also contacted Fairbanks bloggers. I don't know what happened, but based on what I saw on the Dear Lemon Lima website - there's a trailer there I couldn't embed - I suspect that I may like the film as film, but be disturbed by what I'm afraid will be its pseudo Alaska-ness. And regular readers know I have concerns how Outsiders portray Alaska Native culture. We'll see. I'll check and update. [Update Nov. 18: I've got an email from Suzi and I'll post it when she says that's ok. She does sound like she made great efforts to make this as genuine as possible within her budget.] But do go look at the website. It's not your run-of-the-mill website.

The next movie will be shown as part of the Opening Night Gala.*

Hipsters (Stilyagi) RUSSIA, 125 minutes
• Directed by Valery Todorovsky
Fri. 12/4 7:00pm Bear Tooth * $25 or free entry with ALL FILMS & EVENTS PASS. (All Films pass is not good for this)
Sat. 12/12 7:30pm Bear Tooth

An energetic, impressive production already garlanded with four Nikas (the Russian Oscar) for best film, production design, costumes and sound, Valery Todorovsky’s attempt to revive the immediate post-Stalinist era may appeal initially to Russian audiences, but should easily navigate international markets after an enthusiastic reception at Karlovy Vary.

A portrait of a grim period, Hipsters is almost a Russian version of Grease – as fanciful and unrealistic as its American counterpart, but with more of a political subtext to sustain it. It’s set way back in 1955, when, in an attempt to establish their independence against the backdrop of grey uniformity surrounding them, young Russian rebels (“hipsters”) copied American fashions, hairdos and slang. Featuring a cast of young energetic hopefuls and several seasoned veterans in cameo roles (Sergey Garmash, Oleg Yankovsky), critics might carp that Hipsters offers perhaps an overly gentle and forgiving image of that time, hiding behind colorful sets and costumes which border on caricature. But general audiences are likely to be much more forgiving.

Hipsters centres around a shy, nerdy Communist youth (komsomolchik) called Mels, played by Anton Shagin, who falls for luscious blonde hipster Polya (Akinshina) and turns his back on his pretty but strict brigade commander girlfriend (Brik). He takes up the tenor saxophone instead, raises some hell of his own and ends up marrying his blonde bombshell and even having an unlikely child with her before Todorovsky wraps it all up in a rousing finale.

Hipsters’ score, a lively mélange of updated Soviet hits and fresh numbers written specially for the film, pumps away energetically, while clever art direction blends real-life locations with studio sets to create a world apart. Throughout it all, the cast seems to be having the time of its life.

Стиляги - тизер
by centralpartnership

Son of the Sunshine CANADA 92 minutes
• Directed by Ryan Ward
Tues. 12/8 8:00 Bear Tooth
Fri. 12/11 5:30 Bear Tooth

From the dirty streets and cool fields of low-income Ontario, Canada, comes the story of Sonny Johnns, a young man with Tourettes Syndrome.

Fed up with his existence in an angry, co-dependent relationship with his maudlin mother and his tough as nails sister, Sonny spends his savings from years of disability payments to undergo an experimental procedure that promises to eradicate his symptoms.

Upon his recovery, Sonny, entirely cured of spontaneous outbursts, garners the courage to live a normal life - but not without a price. Sonny discovers that the surgery has somehow smothered an amazing supernatural gift he has had all his life: the uncanny ability to heal the sick and the dying.

A story of the truly extra-ordinary, littered with the fiery angst of a young man and his quest for the all-healing power of love. [This synopsis and the photo come from the Son of Sunshine website. ]

This was a Sundance Selection and has won prizes at a number of festivals. The summary raises an interesting paradox I've come to notice, but I don't think is commonly understood by people who are not close to someone with different brain activity. While they have some issue that makes them seem, to most people, "less" than normal or 'disabled', they also have some abilities - usually invisible to most - that also make them 'more' than normal folks. Should be an interesting movie.

Go to the AIFF website for more festival information.

Peter Kott - Oral Arguments on Motion Seeking Release from Convictions

2009-11-17T20:27:00.002-09:00

9:00 AM

3:07-CR-00056-01-JWS

Judge Sedwick

Anchorage Courtroom 2

USA

vs. PETER KOTT

(Peter Koski)

(Margaret Simonian)

(M. Kendall Day)

(Sheryl Gordon McCloud)

(Marc Elliot Levin)

(Kevin R. Gingras)

(James M. Trusty)

(Karen Loeffler)

(Kevin Feldis)

ORAL ARGUMENT

Pete Kott's attorney has requested that because the Prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence during the trial that Kott should be released from his convictions. Today was the oral hearing on that motion, if I understand this right. Below are my notes from 26 minutes in the courtroom. But I'll try to summarize what I think happened. (I would note that this took place in Courtroom 2, not Courtroom 3 that has been the location of the Anderson, Kott, and Kohring trials and sentencing.) [For my accounts of the trial itself you can link here: Kott trial, or go to the Kott trial label below right.]

As I understood this, the defense is arguing that there was evidence in the 4700 or so documents that were released post trial that would have refuted the evidence that was used to convict Kott. The judge asked the two sides to address two things:
1. Address how the withheld evidence affects the outcome of the trial
2. Talk about remedies should we find there be a finding that agrees with the defense motion.

The defense mentioned three statements that specifically questioned Allen's credibility on the stand and Kott's guilt:

1. In trial, it was revealed that VECO had paid for a poll that the Kott camp said they neither wanted nor needed. But the value of the poll was a factor in the trial. Sheryl Gordon McCloud quoted from the new evidence:

Allen: “You don’t owe me, [curse word], here’s the check.”

2. In trial there was a lot of debate over the payment of $7000 above the bill submitted by Kott for doing flooring work at Bill Allen's home. Prosecutors said it was an illegal payment. In court McCloud brought out this new quote from the evidence not turned over to the defense until now, to show it wasn't:

"Allen said he gave him substantially more as a bonus, because they worked hard, worked their butt off, and it was “for the flooring work.”"

There were a few more like that. The Prosecutors responded by saying the quotes were taken out of context and there was considerably more evidence including all the tapes.

The judge appeared concerned about the withheld evidence. He now has to make a ruling. After the hearing, McCloud was asked by the media when there would be a decision. She shrugged and said it was a complicated case and it could be a while.

Here are my notes from the hearing itself. As always, a lot is missing cause I just couldn't keep up. I did go back and use spell check, but otherwise they are pretty rough.

9:02 Judge Sedwick Kott’s motion seeking release from his convictions. Want argument focused to make good use of time. Jury returned general verdicts, based on specific acts. $ with hardwood floor refurnishing, $1000 for campaign contribution, $5000 for down payment on truck, & one more. [was it poll done for campaign? not sure.]    Any one act could have been the overt act but we don’t know which act the jury relied on, Same on count 2.

Nature of relief if the motion granted. We would discuss if charges should be dismissed with prejudice, or recharged? and why.

Defense Attorney Sheryl Gordon McCloud for Kott:
Elements of crimes, for extortion, court had to produce evidence Mr. K induced the payment and there was a quid pro quo.
Sencond count - public official
Third count Conspriacy.

Tapes were lacking quid pro quo on campaign contribution, $7000 check for flooring, ????, and truck. Talked about money, but not quid pro quo, exchange of items, or Defendant being one who induced those items.

Instead, Bill Allen, on the poll, said, “You don’t owe? me, curse word, here’s the check.”

Smith saying job was quid pro quo, Allen saying $7000 to go to Pete jr. not Pete Sr.

$5000 for the down payment of the truck. Government argued this is ridiculous to believe this was just a loan. “If you can’t believe him about interaction with Allen, what can you believe him about?”

What Allen said on the evidence was that he never ???

Chad Kadera [FBI agent]: Roger? told BA that he couldn’t give him the truck, he was too proud.

Undermined Kott’s total lack of credibility, here and elsewhere.

Flooring. Paid $7K over the cost and the money to funnel money to Pete jr. for the campaign. And Pete didn’t do work for the money.

New documents said, Allen said he gave him substantially more as a bonus, because they worked hard, worked their butt off, and it was “for the flooring work.”

No solicitation for the $7K, no quid pro quo, it was to pay him for the flooring work.

Truck and flooring were both relevant to the bribery, extortion convictions.

Nature of relief: depends on nature of the problem. I don’t think the nature of the problem completely clear yet. We got 4000+ documents. Govt. accuses us of taking things out of context. Well we did our best, we only had the documents. No evidentiary hearing. Then we might find out that Allen perjured himself on the stand, because the documents conflict with what he said.

If the Govt. knowingly suborned perjury, then we have a higher standard - ref: Illiniois

Whether government knowingly suborned perjury.
Relevant whether dismissal with prejudice. Only if there was government misconduct. The evidence doesn’t tell me the govt knowingly ….. they suggest, but I don’t know. We don’t know what Agent Kepner knew.

I think court should reverse convictions.
On the relief, we need an evidenciary hearing to know how culpable the govt. was.

Federal Prosecutor Trusty: None of the charges are constitutionally ???? The $5000 “loan” was not affirmatively charged.

Judge Sedwick: Allen should have been subject to different kind of cross examination. There may be some testimony from Smith that defense has less ….   We might have Kott v. Smith. Concerns of Smith do not rise to level of concerns about Allen. Some significance

Trusty: Obviously, your honor sat here and heard it first hand. My understanding is that Mr. Kott opened - hadn’t received any cash except the $5000,

Judge Sedwick:   Yes.

Trusty: really a sham of a loan. Completely fair game to impugn Kott’s credibility on that..

Judge Sedwick   We now have information to question

Trusty: Mr. Kott had the $ in his possession.

Judge Sedwick: Then Kott argued about the hardwood floor.

Trusty: Trying to draw the disconnect ...where Allen was not necessary.

Judge Sedwick: but Allen was needed for $7K

Trusty; Mr. Allen testified PK extorted him. He didn’t say that. He never alleged, in the true sense of the word, that there was some sort of blackmail. A statement that should have been turned over, but doesn’t change things. Three components that were turned over
302 [~~reference to rule or code by that number~~ a"302" is a report by an FBI agent summarizing an interview. (thanks CG)] 3 phrases that were turned over:
reference to it being a bonus
PK worked hard for it
Was part of his payment

that he worked hard - in Brady analysis - is not favorable to Kott. This was a plan to inflate PK’s payment for the floor. The same 302 read in its entirety. The tape shows them discussing a fool proof plan that overrides this characterization of this as a bonus.

About the truck: during the sentencing you discussed whether it was a gratuity or bribe and how to consider it in the guidelines. Your honor characterized it in an accurate way: The parties called it a loan, a good way to save face, but it really wasn’t a loan.

It played out that way with the jury. That loan, was something that didn’t make him a credible witness, a fair credibility knock at PK’s expense. The big picture, fair to say, some materials, should have been turned over, but the Brady analysis, Constitutional analysis, whether things had to be turned over. There really is no charge of bad faith, intimations, but nothing in the pleadings of the defendant. Nothing that argues dismissal. Dismissal where case was weak, facts weak, some bad motivation,. Case where the government bent the rules to make a conviction happen. Not what happened here. The court had 56? tapes. Case had overwhelming evidence. This doesn’t call for dismissal or dismissal with prejudice.

A good number of other areas pleaded here if your honor wants to ask, but mindful of the time.

Judge Sedwick: We need to clear courtroom quickly.

McCloud: Counsel correct that PK had information in his possession - it was in his mind - but he had no proof. What the government had was independent proof thru Allen and Smith. Certainly Kott had the info, but he couldn’t prove it.

Also, the new info is not only relevant to credibility but also trial strategy.

Judge Sedwick: I understand, that’s in the briefings.

PK Defense: When I say they suborned perjury, that’s the point of bad faith and needs to be examined in ….

Judge Sedwick   We’re going to adjourn [9:28]

Flame and Citron - Left Me Speechless

2009-11-17T03:28:00.008-09:00

Really, I have nothing to say. I've linked to two reviews below, but talking about the movie just trivializes it. The reviews don't tell you much more than the reviewers' knowledge of film history and the technical side of the movie.

It was like a strong wind blew through my mind, stirring up old ideas that had long ago settled like dust in my brain. I have no idea how to grasp hold of any of those specs of dust, and really no desire to. I'll just let them naturally find some place to rest and perhaps it will all make some sense later on.

If that makes no sense: I was blown away by the movie. But even to tell you what it's about (Danish underground in WWII) is like describing a shiny red Porsche as a vehicle to get from here to there. At this point, for me the film is just something shiny that has whizzed by and I don't yet know enough to label it a Porsche or even red. But maybe the words will come in the next week or so.

For those who need specifics here's Robert Ebert's take. And here's what Manhola Dargis at the NY Times had to say.

No, we didn't bike to the Bear Tooth. It was 5˚F and falling and getting dark. But there were two bikes there. And they weren't covered with snow or ice. And we did see two other people riding as we came. It seems to me each year Anchorage has significantly more people riding as a regular mode of transportation, not just recreation, and not just in the summer. I did bike Monday to Bede's anniversary. But it was warmer - about 12˚F - and sunny.

Why Isn't Obama Making His Decision on Afghanistan?

2009-11-17T03:09:00.001-09:00

The Asia Times Online reported on Nov. 6 a possible reason why Obama hasn't made his final decision on Afghanistan. It the report is accurate, perhaps he was awaiting the results of various negotiations. Then there was Fort Hood and now he's in China. Just a possibility.

ISLAMABAD - Abdullah Abdullah, who this week withdrew from the presidential election runoff in Afghanistan, thereby handing victory to the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, did so under pressure from the United States, Asia Times Online has learned.
In exchange for the pullout of the non-Pashtun Abdullah, Pakistan's military has agreed to actively mediate between Washington and the Taliban over a reconciliation plan that will allow the US to exit from Afghanistan, as it is doing in Iraq, with a semblance of success.
A senior Pakistani diplomat involved in backchannel negotiations on Pakistan, Afghanistan and US relations told Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity that the deal over Abdullah, whom Islamabad considers to be pro-India, was made during the three-day visit to Pakistan last week of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Apart from other senior officials, Clinton met with the chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, and the director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha. It was agreed that all US-led negotiations with Abdullah, which included offering him the position of chief executive officer of Afghanistan, would stop, and Karzai would get full backing for a second five-year term.
It was also acknowledged that Washington's political leadership, like the Pentagon, now accepts that the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan is best tackled with contact between the Pakistan armed forces and the Taliban, and not by the political governments of the region.
Clinton's visit came at a crucial time as Pakistan is engaged in a battle against the Pakistani Taliban and other militants; if it fails, there will be a cascading effect in the whole region and a sure defeat of American interests in Afghanistan.(the rest can be read here.)

Watching for Meteors

2009-11-16T20:55:00.003-09:00

I posted about the Perseids in August and that is getting people here looking for information on the Leonid meteor shower which is peaking at 13:00 Universal time.

This isn't an astronomy blog but since people are getting here because of the previous post, let me offer directions to a meteor blog:

meteorblog This page tells you about current meteors. A post November 10 on the Leonid Meteor shower says:

This year during their peak, which is November 17th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent with 1% of the Moon’s visible disk illuminated! This means that the sky will be very dark so the Leonids have a chance of being a very strong meteor shower showing. Over a decade ago the parent comet, 55P/Temple-Tuttle passed close to Earth and this comet is responsible for the Leonids meteor shower each year.
The Leonids are ultra famous because of amazing meteor storms in the past. The Leonids generally have been some of the most brilliant meteor showers over the years and take their name from the position of their radiant near the constellation Leo the Lion; this is because the meteors seem to materialize from that point in the sky. I would love to tell you that this year the Leonids will be a meteor storm, but meteor showers are one of the most unpredictable events.

meteor shower viewing in general - where and how and when to look.

For those interested in tonight's excitement 13:00 universal time converts (for North America) into:

UTC (GMT)	PACIFIC STANDARD	MOUNTAIN STANDARD	CENTRAL STANDARD	EASTERN STANDARD
13	5 am	6 am	7 am	8 am

(Chart from http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/zones2.html )

That's 4 am here in Anchorage. And now at almost 9 pm the temperature is 0˚F (-18˚C), so it will probably be below 0 at 4 am. BUT, the sky is clear which is the most important thing for watching meteor showers.

Enjoy.