Music in Our Schools (VIDEOS)
March has been officially designated as Music In Our Schools Month, and music education has become the focus of schools across the nation. Music in Our Schools Month began in 1973, celebrated only in New York State, but has grown over the decades. In 1985 it became a month long celebration of music in schools. It reminds us of the importance of music education for all children, and that schools are the places where all children have access. It’s the time for music departments in schools to shine, and to share with students, faculty, families, and the community their beautiful…
M*U*S*H on PBS in Alaska This Week
There are a few people I count as “honorary Alaskans.” You know the type. They come for a visit and fall in love with the mountains, the ocean, the seafood, the wildness, and most of all the people. The unpretentious, just-a-little-different breed that decides they’d like to do things their own way. They’re a hardy lot who doesn’t much care for how they do things “Outside.” They’re sort of Libertarian/Conservative/Socialists who think you should teach a man to fish, but for the most part would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. Many have come to…
Open Thread – More Glass
Time to continue our tour of the Seattle Center Garden and Glass Museum featuring the art of Dale Chihuly. It was the visual highlight of my recent jaunt to Seattle, and I can’t recommend it enough if you are in the area. Here is Phase 1 of the journey through the museum – CLICK Next was an exhibit called Mille Fiori (a thousand flowers) inspired by the artist’s mother’s garden. The exhibit was about 35 feet long, I’m guessing, and the tallest pieces were well over my head. Like the previous exhibit, I could have stayed for hours, and I’m…
Open Thread – Color and Light
I spent last weekend in Seattle for reasons not political. It was sort of a shock to the system. Thanks to the awesome Jim Wright, Carl Johnson, and Linda Kellen Biegel for providing top-notch content while I was away. It allowed me to take a little mental hiatus from the usual things that churn around in my grey matter. Since most of my trip ended up being somewhat of a visual feast, I thought I’d share some of my pictures with you as I settle back in and catch up on the political front. So, the next few open threads…
Party Planner Tries to Crash Alaska’s Filmmaking Party?
When I moved to Alaska more than twenty years ago, I was expecting something like the TV show Northern Exposure. I figured Alaskans would be really happy and proud that the show “put them on the map,” as it were. Invariably, when I mentioned it to anyone who had been in Alaska for a while, I got a big fat eye roll. “Yeah, they film it in Washington. They don’t even film it here. And we don’t have crickets, and we don’t have raccoons, and it doesn’t get dark in June…” They would have a list of all the mistakes…
Alaskans – For the Win!
Alaskans are busting their buttons this week. I couldn’t let these wonderful accomplishments pass without a little hat tip to the folks that made their fellow Alaskans proud as peacocks. Brian Schmidt An Australian-based astrophysicist, Brian Schmidt, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics is a product of the Anchorage School District, having graduated from Bartlett High School! He originally had dreams of being a meteorologist and worked for a time at the National Weather Service in Anchorage. When that career path proved to be less challenging than he had hoped, he was on to bigger and better things,…
Oyster Roundup – Theft, Shakedown, Hot Sauce and More…
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! [The Walrus and the Carptenter, Lewis Carroll] A half dozen on the half shell. Slurp ’em up! (Links in the titles) Rick Perry, Evangelical Economist Rick Perry thinks that God crashed the economy on purpose to teach us a lesson and return us to Biblical principles. I think that God inflicted Texas with Rick Perry for not allowing gay marriage. Rembrandt Returns! I have conflicting feelings about art theft. While I understand more the impulse and obsession to own great art, rather than simply a desire for…
Open Thread – Chilkat Blanket
A beautiful gem from the State Museum in Juneau. Anna Brown Ehlers (Tlingit) Wool, cedar bark Gift of the Rasmuson Foundation Art Acquisition Initiative, 2008 The art of Chilkat weaving has been practiced in southeast Alaska for at least two centuries. This very laborious and challenging technique is used to make ceremonial robes and other regalia decorated with clan crests. The Tlingit name for the robes, “naaxein” refers to the long fringe of the robe that flays about wildly when danced. Today there are fewer than a dozen weavers making these robes.
Oyster Roundup! Whales, FROGs, and Alligator Shirts.
~Thick and fast they came at last, and more, and more, and more! Here’s a plate of slurpable stories to start your week. Source links are in the title. Start shucking! Pay Up, Joe An Alaska judge on Friday ordered that failed U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller pay more than $17,300 in legal costs incurred by the state in fighting Miller’s challenge to last year’s election. Don’t even get me started. OK, I’ll start. First the disclaimer – I didn’t vote for Joe, would never vote for him, am ideologically opposed to his political philosophy, and have written extensively…