Been up to, well, eyeballs would work here, been up to my eyeballs with Germans for a while now, so my mind focuses those eyeballs by checking out maps. Not maps of Europe or Asia or Africa, but of the US, and those capital cities, and capital buildings, that have somehow managed to escape me.
Let's see, there's some nearby, like Lansing and Frankfurt, then those a bit further on, like Nashville and Little Rock. Then we start pushing distance and serious road tripping, with Springfield (that's the one in Illinois), Des Moines, Madison, Bismarck, Pierre, Lincoln, Topeka, Oklahoma City (though that itch should be scratched in December), Helena, Boise, and perhaps the toughest of the lot, Carson City.
15 Capitols remaining. 14 by year's end. Wonder how long this adventure is going to take. Working on a goal. Open to suggestions. And music for the road.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Frontier Days
Alaskans pride themselves as living on the last frontier. They boast of being the westernmost state, being twice as big as Texas, as wide as the continental United States, and having almost half the land of the lower 48, combined.
Certainly the facts (square mileage, latitude and longitude) cannot be argued. But just about everything else can.
Alaska, and Alaskans, certainly are different. But so are New York and New Yorkers, Colorado and Coloradans, and California and Californians.
Each place, and the people who inhabit them, have certain intangible qualities that help to provide definition and framing. And our media and common lore often play off these qualities, accentuating those characteristics that are different (think about the brash New Yorker, or the new age Californian) , while not really helping to explain why those traits exist in the first place.
Alaskans seem to pride themselves on their individuality, and their distance from civilization. Their connection to the outdoors, to the basic aspects of human survival, and human instincts. How that translates to truck sales, I don’t know, but it seems as though advertisers and marketers have certainly tried.
Over the course of a week in Anchorage, and a day in the capital city of Juneau, I began to develop a sense of the place. It’s pretty country, and rough no doubt. But in many more ways than not, it’s awfully familiar to the places we live in the lower 48, just more so.
To start, in the urban core of Anchorage, there’s plenty of visible poverty, in the form of a sizable homeless population. Restricted from panhandling by law, these men (I saw mostly young men) congregate in small public spaces, and bide their time with games and idle banter. Homelessness in America is no surprise in 2010. It was to me, however, in Anchorage, a place where it must be tough to be on the street in winter. And the volume of food shelters and pantries, some running up against each other in a well worn part of town, testify to the need.
Overheard conversations provide a cheap thrill, at times. But they can also provide an unvarnished perspective. Hearing some of the older men at a downtown athletic club gripe about the state of affairs in America, and what’s wrong with people today, provided some context on the recent success of Alaska’s former governor, Sarah Palin, and the tea party movement in general. Alaska may certainly be ground zero, or at least one of the ground zeroes, in the debate raging across the country. So in that way things are no different than in the other states. But up in Alaska the physical distance from Washington, DC, if not the rest of the country, does provide context for the criticism that regular folks have for the way government is run, and the way dollars are spent.
It’s ironic, however, given the size of the federal presence in Alaska, whether that’s in the form of the Interior Department, or the Defense Department, or the literal payback that Alaskans receive each fall from the oil revenue generated from drilling. But that seems to be an irony only to outsiders, and those few who acknowledge being progressive in a state where even liberal carry handguns.
Holing up at an area college on a project, conversations with the student population covered a range a bit wider than with a prototypical student,, but only with regard to there being more issues with fewer people. While one student missed classes over a week due to time out in the bush moose hunting, another was away due to the birth of his child. In neither instance did the student feel he should have contacted a professor to let them know of their absence, nor seek permission to be away. But in suspecting that their actions were perfectly understandable, and that it should not have bearing on their grades, these students were similar to their colleagues at campuses across the nation. Self righteous, and perhaps indignant had their professors gotten in their face about the need to communicate. But moose hunting? When was the last time you heard that one as an excuse for an absence. And acknowledging an out of wed birth? Same goes. Not your everyday occurance, though of course it happens.
Still, people up in Alaska, seem friendlier, at least initially. Whether it’s stopping in Wasilla, or strolling in Barrow, they are polite, civil, and seemingly meaningful in their actions. When someone says they will do something, they do it, and they mean it. Words seem to have meaning here, and words seem to be ways in which Alaskans bond with one another.
While no cross words were sent my way up north, some folks were free with their criticism of former governor Sarah Palin. One couple, in fact, asked if I would take her back to DC when I returned. Not to provide her with a political forum, but to get her out of their hair in Alaska.
So that surprised me. The bare criticism of this neo-celebrity, someone exalted across America as a demi-god of a movement, yet apparently lacking widespread support across the very place she calls home.
But perhaps in the end that is the quality that defines Alaska. People are much more than the two-dimensional cardboard cutouts that we have of them in our mind, and are more richly layered and textured following some time among them. And much like those New Yorkers and Coloradans and yes, even those damn Californians, there’s more to them than what you get at first, and there’s more to them than they let on, and even share.
Even if there’s no way in hell a place as uglified by strip malls and K-marts can in any way with pride call itself the frontier!
Certainly the facts (square mileage, latitude and longitude) cannot be argued. But just about everything else can.
Alaska, and Alaskans, certainly are different. But so are New York and New Yorkers, Colorado and Coloradans, and California and Californians.
Each place, and the people who inhabit them, have certain intangible qualities that help to provide definition and framing. And our media and common lore often play off these qualities, accentuating those characteristics that are different (think about the brash New Yorker, or the new age Californian) , while not really helping to explain why those traits exist in the first place.
Alaskans seem to pride themselves on their individuality, and their distance from civilization. Their connection to the outdoors, to the basic aspects of human survival, and human instincts. How that translates to truck sales, I don’t know, but it seems as though advertisers and marketers have certainly tried.
Over the course of a week in Anchorage, and a day in the capital city of Juneau, I began to develop a sense of the place. It’s pretty country, and rough no doubt. But in many more ways than not, it’s awfully familiar to the places we live in the lower 48, just more so.
To start, in the urban core of Anchorage, there’s plenty of visible poverty, in the form of a sizable homeless population. Restricted from panhandling by law, these men (I saw mostly young men) congregate in small public spaces, and bide their time with games and idle banter. Homelessness in America is no surprise in 2010. It was to me, however, in Anchorage, a place where it must be tough to be on the street in winter. And the volume of food shelters and pantries, some running up against each other in a well worn part of town, testify to the need.
Overheard conversations provide a cheap thrill, at times. But they can also provide an unvarnished perspective. Hearing some of the older men at a downtown athletic club gripe about the state of affairs in America, and what’s wrong with people today, provided some context on the recent success of Alaska’s former governor, Sarah Palin, and the tea party movement in general. Alaska may certainly be ground zero, or at least one of the ground zeroes, in the debate raging across the country. So in that way things are no different than in the other states. But up in Alaska the physical distance from Washington, DC, if not the rest of the country, does provide context for the criticism that regular folks have for the way government is run, and the way dollars are spent.
It’s ironic, however, given the size of the federal presence in Alaska, whether that’s in the form of the Interior Department, or the Defense Department, or the literal payback that Alaskans receive each fall from the oil revenue generated from drilling. But that seems to be an irony only to outsiders, and those few who acknowledge being progressive in a state where even liberal carry handguns.
Holing up at an area college on a project, conversations with the student population covered a range a bit wider than with a prototypical student,, but only with regard to there being more issues with fewer people. While one student missed classes over a week due to time out in the bush moose hunting, another was away due to the birth of his child. In neither instance did the student feel he should have contacted a professor to let them know of their absence, nor seek permission to be away. But in suspecting that their actions were perfectly understandable, and that it should not have bearing on their grades, these students were similar to their colleagues at campuses across the nation. Self righteous, and perhaps indignant had their professors gotten in their face about the need to communicate. But moose hunting? When was the last time you heard that one as an excuse for an absence. And acknowledging an out of wed birth? Same goes. Not your everyday occurance, though of course it happens.
Still, people up in Alaska, seem friendlier, at least initially. Whether it’s stopping in Wasilla, or strolling in Barrow, they are polite, civil, and seemingly meaningful in their actions. When someone says they will do something, they do it, and they mean it. Words seem to have meaning here, and words seem to be ways in which Alaskans bond with one another.
While no cross words were sent my way up north, some folks were free with their criticism of former governor Sarah Palin. One couple, in fact, asked if I would take her back to DC when I returned. Not to provide her with a political forum, but to get her out of their hair in Alaska.
So that surprised me. The bare criticism of this neo-celebrity, someone exalted across America as a demi-god of a movement, yet apparently lacking widespread support across the very place she calls home.
But perhaps in the end that is the quality that defines Alaska. People are much more than the two-dimensional cardboard cutouts that we have of them in our mind, and are more richly layered and textured following some time among them. And much like those New Yorkers and Coloradans and yes, even those damn Californians, there’s more to them than what you get at first, and there’s more to them than they let on, and even share.
Even if there’s no way in hell a place as uglified by strip malls and K-marts can in any way with pride call itself the frontier!
Friday, August 20, 2010
a week in the life
Now I know why John Lennon didn't write a song longer than 'A Day in the Life.'
I could start with 'woke up, got out of bed' but from there it just deviates significantly.
Though it's still early on a Friday, over the course of this week there's been a car purchase, a curriculum update, a welcome invitation to speak, confirmation on upcoming workshops and programs, and lessons from eastern Europeans on the benefits that come with smoking.
But even the smoking nonsense about smoking pales with the latest development. One that is just so amusing, so comic, and perhaps so expected, that it trumps the sight this morning of a man storing his cell phone in his crotch. Is that a conference call you're on, or are you just glad to be riding the Red Line?
The comedy ensues from a brand new used car, one with an apparent car alarm. An alarm with it's own mind, or it's own schedule. Or perhaps concerns for my neighborhood. As this alarm goes off at will, for no known reason. No vibration, no noise, no contact, nothing.
So I do the first thing anyone would do in this circumstance. I called the dealership. Well, the cell for the salesperson. He was polite, but reiterated that electrical issues are not covered under the limited 30 day warranty, and that perhaps it could all be fixed with a new battery, or something with the fancy key fob, basically something that is beyond his or the dealership's control.
Then, as an aside, he added that he's no longer with the dealership, no longer working where he was a scant few days ago. Poof, no longer a used car salesman for Jim Coleman Toyota. Wonderful. And when asked for the name of someone at the dealership who could possibly answer my questions, and still works there, he offered the name of the used car sales manager. But just his first name. Didn't have both names. Thought it might be Silverman, but knew it wasn't. Since found out it's Stilman, but that's besides the point.
What a great country we live in, where our major issues have to do with a quirky alarm on a car that won't be repaired by a car dealership that either can't hold or tosses away salesman at the drop of a hat.
At least we're not waiting for a tram, in the rain, smoking a cigarette, in Belgrade. Well at least we're not today.
I could start with 'woke up, got out of bed' but from there it just deviates significantly.
Though it's still early on a Friday, over the course of this week there's been a car purchase, a curriculum update, a welcome invitation to speak, confirmation on upcoming workshops and programs, and lessons from eastern Europeans on the benefits that come with smoking.
But even the smoking nonsense about smoking pales with the latest development. One that is just so amusing, so comic, and perhaps so expected, that it trumps the sight this morning of a man storing his cell phone in his crotch. Is that a conference call you're on, or are you just glad to be riding the Red Line?
The comedy ensues from a brand new used car, one with an apparent car alarm. An alarm with it's own mind, or it's own schedule. Or perhaps concerns for my neighborhood. As this alarm goes off at will, for no known reason. No vibration, no noise, no contact, nothing.
So I do the first thing anyone would do in this circumstance. I called the dealership. Well, the cell for the salesperson. He was polite, but reiterated that electrical issues are not covered under the limited 30 day warranty, and that perhaps it could all be fixed with a new battery, or something with the fancy key fob, basically something that is beyond his or the dealership's control.
Then, as an aside, he added that he's no longer with the dealership, no longer working where he was a scant few days ago. Poof, no longer a used car salesman for Jim Coleman Toyota. Wonderful. And when asked for the name of someone at the dealership who could possibly answer my questions, and still works there, he offered the name of the used car sales manager. But just his first name. Didn't have both names. Thought it might be Silverman, but knew it wasn't. Since found out it's Stilman, but that's besides the point.
What a great country we live in, where our major issues have to do with a quirky alarm on a car that won't be repaired by a car dealership that either can't hold or tosses away salesman at the drop of a hat.
At least we're not waiting for a tram, in the rain, smoking a cigarette, in Belgrade. Well at least we're not today.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
music lyrics
it's funny how lyrics from songs, regardless of whether they're popular, or just personal faves, pop up in the mind.
today's list has ranged from the Stone's 'Waiting on a Friend' to the Velvet's 'Vicious' over to various ditties by the Ramones.
70's hard rock and basic punk, including inspiration. must be inspired by an upcoming Cleveland trip which will have to include a pilgrimage to the RnR HoF.
funny thing, haven't heard many of these lately, so the tracks running through the mind become a subconscious I-pod. Cool.
rock on, as Wayne and Garth earned fame saying, and David Essex profited from singing.
today's list has ranged from the Stone's 'Waiting on a Friend' to the Velvet's 'Vicious' over to various ditties by the Ramones.
70's hard rock and basic punk, including inspiration. must be inspired by an upcoming Cleveland trip which will have to include a pilgrimage to the RnR HoF.
funny thing, haven't heard many of these lately, so the tracks running through the mind become a subconscious I-pod. Cool.
rock on, as Wayne and Garth earned fame saying, and David Essex profited from singing.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Ten reasons newspapers still matter
1)They are democratic. Just about everyone has access to one. Ever see a homeless person reading the daily paper on a Kindle?
2)They make nice paper hats.
3)They can also serve as umbrellas in a brief downpour.
4)They can be used as toys for some.
5)They can be used as weapons against others (and pretty goods ones, too).
6)They can provide protection against a strong wind.
7)They serve as an alternative to lathering up with sun block, if held above the face.
8)In an emergency, they can be used as a mop or sponge.
9)They make for a nice flat blanket against a cold or damp seat.
10)The perennial fly swatter.
11)They make for a very nice, if a bit cumbersome, fan.
12)When jotting around the margins, they make for a nice notepad.
13)They still contain more information in one easy to transport case than just about any other device or implement currently known to humankind. And they're quite easily replacable, require no monthly service fee, and provide us with space and privacy in the event we wish to place one in front our nose while on the subway.
2)They make nice paper hats.
3)They can also serve as umbrellas in a brief downpour.
4)They can be used as toys for some.
5)They can be used as weapons against others (and pretty goods ones, too).
6)They can provide protection against a strong wind.
7)They serve as an alternative to lathering up with sun block, if held above the face.
8)In an emergency, they can be used as a mop or sponge.
9)They make for a nice flat blanket against a cold or damp seat.
10)The perennial fly swatter.
11)They make for a very nice, if a bit cumbersome, fan.
12)When jotting around the margins, they make for a nice notepad.
13)They still contain more information in one easy to transport case than just about any other device or implement currently known to humankind. And they're quite easily replacable, require no monthly service fee, and provide us with space and privacy in the event we wish to place one in front our nose while on the subway.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Top Ten Cities for recent College Grads
The Bloomberg publication Business Week has released its list of the top ten cities for recent college graduates. Using a metric based on the employment rate, the cost of living, and other factors, BW found four Texas cities in the top ten, and several other mid-tier cities that might not be on your target list of places to live.
Some on the list, DC and Denver, for example, offer quite a bit, and are distinctly livable. But Columbus? And Pittsburgh! C'mon, who are they kidding. Been there, but wouldn't want to live there.
Took on Cleveland in another forum. Anyone want to come to the defense of the Lone Star State, or the rust belt? Doubtful.
Businessweek’s 2010 list of Best Cities for New College Grads:
Houston
Washington, D.C.
Dallas
Atlanta
Austin
Minneapolis
Pittsburgh
Denver
Columbus
Fort Worth
Some on the list, DC and Denver, for example, offer quite a bit, and are distinctly livable. But Columbus? And Pittsburgh! C'mon, who are they kidding. Been there, but wouldn't want to live there.
Took on Cleveland in another forum. Anyone want to come to the defense of the Lone Star State, or the rust belt? Doubtful.
Businessweek’s 2010 list of Best Cities for New College Grads:
Houston
Washington, D.C.
Dallas
Atlanta
Austin
Minneapolis
Pittsburgh
Denver
Columbus
Fort Worth
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Ranting and Raving
There's often plenty to rant about.
The price of gasoline. The heat. The presence of oil in precious Gulf waters. The humidity. Your kids. Your neighbors kids. Kids. Finding out that Al Gore may have had a sex life. And, of course, anything having to do with close relatives.
But here's a new one.
New to me, at least.
It seems that the British government has finally gotten around to announcing that former BP CEO Lord Browne is now being named the country's efficiency czar.
Of course not everyone who has in any way ever been affiliated with BP bears any responsibility for the disaster that's still ongoing down there.
But there are certainly some who do, in particular those who teeter atop corporations such as BP. And it is those folks who bear direct responsibility.
And if the reporting is correct, that like Lord Browne (don't you just love someone who can get away with an old world title in lieu of a first name), you can cut safety and maintenance at your company, all in the name of economy and profit, then you are among the privileged few who bear direct responsibility.
So it goes without saying, though it is still being said, that the new British government is beyond tone deaf for appointing Browne to a spot wherein all of Britain, and now, thanks to the speed of light, all of the world, will be reminded of his decisions while atop BP.
And if anyone thinks he will survive in this position, and that the British government won't have to apologize in short order for the ham-handed nature in which this appointment was both vetted and then named, then I have some sub-prime mortgages in Detroit I would like to sell you.
I tell you, you can't make this stuff up. Even if you wanted to.
The price of gasoline. The heat. The presence of oil in precious Gulf waters. The humidity. Your kids. Your neighbors kids. Kids. Finding out that Al Gore may have had a sex life. And, of course, anything having to do with close relatives.
But here's a new one.
New to me, at least.
It seems that the British government has finally gotten around to announcing that former BP CEO Lord Browne is now being named the country's efficiency czar.
Of course not everyone who has in any way ever been affiliated with BP bears any responsibility for the disaster that's still ongoing down there.
But there are certainly some who do, in particular those who teeter atop corporations such as BP. And it is those folks who bear direct responsibility.
And if the reporting is correct, that like Lord Browne (don't you just love someone who can get away with an old world title in lieu of a first name), you can cut safety and maintenance at your company, all in the name of economy and profit, then you are among the privileged few who bear direct responsibility.
So it goes without saying, though it is still being said, that the new British government is beyond tone deaf for appointing Browne to a spot wherein all of Britain, and now, thanks to the speed of light, all of the world, will be reminded of his decisions while atop BP.
And if anyone thinks he will survive in this position, and that the British government won't have to apologize in short order for the ham-handed nature in which this appointment was both vetted and then named, then I have some sub-prime mortgages in Detroit I would like to sell you.
I tell you, you can't make this stuff up. Even if you wanted to.
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