Deer Hunting in Paris
Congratulations to Mudflats contributor Paula Lee who has won a big, fancy, and prestigious award for her wonderful book Deer Hunting in Paris! She’s given us an excerpt to enjoy. Winner of the 2014 Travel Book award of the Society of American Travel Writers, Deer Hunting in Paris is an unexpectedly funny exploration of a vanishing way of life in a complex cosmopolitan world. The liberal author, Paula Lee, recovers her roots in rural Maine by running after a headless chicken, learning how to sight-in a rifle, shooting skeet, and butchering game animals. Along the way, she figures out how…
Forest Service Gutting 1st Amendment? Relax.
There’s a lot of outrage on the Internets these days about proposed plans by the U.S. Forest Service to gut the First Amendment by requiring permits for news media or nature photographers in Federally-designated wilderness areas on Forest Service lands. After reading a lot of the outrage, there are two things that come abundantly clear: None of the outraged have actually read the applicable Federal Register notice, and none of them are aware that this has been the status quo on Federal public lands for decades. Nothing on the face of the notice actually applies to the media. So, you have to look at the applicable proposed…
“Never Alone” – Gorgeous New Game From Alaska Native Owned Game Company
I’m not much of a gamer but this game looks awesome and for $15… It’s a no-brainer purchase. Never Alone, or Kisima Ingitchuna is a “puzzle-adventure game depicting a young Iñupiaq protagonist and her arctic fox companion.” You can check out more images from the game at neveralonegame.com. While a game featuring stunning art and a Native Alaskan might be newsworthy enough – it’s the story behind the game grabbed my attention. In 2012 Alaska’s Cook Inlet Tribal Council was looking for new ways to invest. So it decided to create a video game company with an educational edge. That’s Upper One Games…
GOP Elephant Art & the Bigger Picture
The recent public exhibition of portraits painted by George W Bush, retired President of the United States, has managed to throw a lot of people into a tizzy. Critiques of his work ranged from relatively benign (it’s “simple-minded”), to strangely overwrought (“dangerous”), but every commentator seemed to assume that his paintings were art. As if it was perfectly self-evident that Bush was making art and not, well, merely painting stuff. Which got me thinking: can elephants be artists? By this, I mean not only Republican elephants, but actual elephants. Asian elephants, to be exact. For several years now, a group…
God Hates Alaska Native Culture Says WBC
Fred Phelps, the founder of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas is dead and gone, but the institution of intolerance and hatred is still on the march, and headed to Alaska. WBC has a long history of organizing anti-gay protests, and picketing military and other funerals with crude and offensive signs. Now, Westboro Baptist Church has announced plans to picket the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage on the morning of June 1. Why, you ask? A news release posted on GodHatesFags.com, replete with Bible quotations, states two reasons for protesting the Alaska Heritage Center. “…you make a religion out of…
John Oliver Mocks Ubertarians
Whenever the smug and privileged gather to congratulate themselves, as they did in San Francisco this week, it’s always fun to see the hired court jester’s barbs land a bit close to home. A few White House Correspondents’ Dinners ago, Stephen Colbert’s tour de force in causing audience discomfort became legendary along these lines. And so it was Monday night in the epicenter of tech industry wealth and one-percentiness. Pointing out the unlikely feat of gentrifying what had already been a ridiculously expensive city to begin with, Oliver reminded the well-heeled digerati at Tech Crunch’s “Crunchies” awards that they’re no…
Rest in Peace Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
I remember coming home from school in tears one day when I was very young – second grade, I think. My mom asked me what was wrong and I said we had just listened to a song in school that was the saddest song in the world, and it made me cry. And I was never going to pick a flower again. It was a record of Pete Seeger singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” I still can’t listen to it without tearing up. He died today at 94 – a troubadour of sweetness and truth in a troubled…
Duck Dynasty Duplicity?
Seems like the boys of Duck Dynasty done forgot where they come from. Usually, that means a feller’s gone and got uppity. In this case, it’s the reverse. Before the inexplicably popular show hit the airwaves, the beard-wearing, camo-doffing, red white & blue waving hillbillies lead a life of shame that they choose to forget, but because of photography, and the internets, past sins live on in perpetuity. Let’s take Jep. Here’s the prince of redneck reality TV in what you thought was his natural swampy habitat. Turns out, just one eight inch beard ago things were different. Remove the…
Top 13 Albums of 2013
Originally for Sisipillé A multitude of LPs (long plays) and EPs (extended plays) have been released this year in a variety of genres. Popular trends in music have been electronic modern day beats with retro undertones and influences. In no specific order I have amassed the top thirteen albums of 2013. 1) Kurt Vile – “Walkin’ On A Pretty Daze” “Walkin’ On A Pretty Daze” is a testament Kurt Vile’s songwriting abilities and overall genius music skills. Though lengthy for a single LP, Vile captures the listener’s ear from beginning to end. The backing musicians give what is…
The Art of Kelly Hebert at Villa Nova
If you are a fan of beautiful things, and delicious things, then there is a place beckoning to you during the month of December. I had the pleasure of attending the First Friday art show at Villa Nova Restaurant on Arctic Boulevard in Anchorage last week. Featured this month is Kelly Hebert. an Anchorage artist and art instructor at Polaris K-12 School, and adjunct professor at U.A.A. His strongest artistic influences include American Magic Realists, such as Alex Colville and Andrew Wyeth for their portrayal of commonplace imagery that reveals the beauty and mystery of everyday life. This raven was the first image to…