The Anchorage Museum

The Anchorage Museum is a multi-faceted, multi-media home of Alaska’s history, natural wonders and artwork telling the story of the nation’s 49th state. The museum’s doors hold an account of a landscape largely untouched, yet forever altered by human occupation. The images and presentations are of the unfamiliar and familiar made foreign by an arctic prism casting an otherworldly light. Bathed in those hues, interpretations take form and messages are relayed from a living land to a transient occupant of Alaskan soil and the museum’s walls.

One of the most striking features of Alaska is the light. Prominent as the days grow short, the aurora borealis are famed the world over as an atmospheric phenomenon casting a watchful eye over a darkened wintery world. In “The Northern Lights” Sidney Laurence captured them on a canvas of dark features exhaling the glow for all to see as if god had just murmured, “let there be light.”



Into that light the mountains and rivers of Alaska awaken as if in a dream state. The colors, unreal to the lower 48 states, but are captured beautifully by native Athabascan artists Kathleen Carlo-Kendall with her landscape portrait sculpture, “Break of Day”.



With physical features awash in an abstract light, artists are obviously easily inspired. Even in the absence of the light, the wilds of Alaska are so striking they alone carry the feel of the abstract as Kesler Woodward displays in the painting “No wind, Fairbanks snow”.



Even the truer to life medium of photography buckles under the immense beauty of Alaska. Pioneering aerial photographer Bradford Washburn continuously exhibited the haunting properties of the state with his collection of Alaskan photographs.



Of course none of these works of art could have been presented without habitation of the land. Human occupation of Alaska is a major focus of the art in the Anchorage Museum. The forces at work affect us and we leave lasting reminders of our presence, as the photographs of the World War II battleground shows. The images of Kiska are particularly poignant considering it is an unspoiled battleground; the Aleutian island was unoccupied prior to the war and has been since the end of WWII.



The human affects on the land is now a constant source of inspiration for Alaskan artists such as Da-ka-xeen Mehner’s “My Right of Way, Summer”, a meditation on bushels of wild blueberries being replaced by bushels of industrial junk.



While there is profound impact humanity is having here and all across the globe, the Alaskan geography is becoming part of the collective soul as well. The painting, “Anchorage, 4th Avenue” by Spence Guerin interprets the unique color palette Alaska imparts on the Alaskan cityscape and its inhabitants.



The human race is becoming absorbed into the landscape. One of Tlingit artist James Robert Shoppert’s paintings blends the mountains and the human form into something of a mountainous Totum, “Punuk”.

Everything is blending; a tribal dance of the past and future attracts and casts out evil. It is all alive and moving to the Alaskan rhythm, swaying like Stron Softi’s video instillation, “Ketchikan”.

Matsu Miners Baseball

Entering the Alaska State Fairgrounds in the minutes prior to the call "Play Ball", you can almost hear the voice of the late John Chancellor booming from the public address speakers as if he were still narrating "Ken Burns: Baseball"...in Alaska, they rooted for the Anchorage Bucs, the Fairbanks Alaska Goldpanners, the Peninsula Oilers, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots, and the Matsu Miners...for the Miners enjoy an almost mythic existence here in the Matanuska-Susitana Valley.

Owned and operated as a non-profit organization by the community, the Miners play ball at Hermon Brothers Field where a game has the feel of a bygone era. The diamond might as well be a field of dreams, carved from a thicket of pine trees with mountains serving as a backdrop. Dotting the land surrounding the white lines are dotted with wooden equipment sheds housing balls and bats while the locker rooms provide very similar accommodations for the players. The concessions are manned by grandmothers and teens alike, both allowing commerce to take a back seat to conversations with the patrons. The whole operation would resemble a high school operation in other parts of the country if not for the high quality baseball being played on the field.

The Alaska Baseball League (ABL) is comprised of some of the best baseball players the collegiate ranks have to offer. The six teams in the ABL compete for the league championship and a place in the National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series. The Miners are the defending ABL champs and winners of the NBC World Series in both 1987 and 1997. Currently the Miners are a half game back in the standings behind the Fairbanks Alaska Goldpanners.

Walking at the Foot of a Glacier

Reaching the base of these magnificent glaciers Alaska has to offer, it is easy to finally understand your ecological footprint. The ice seems limitless. Rivers emerge, rushing from the melting ice, a source of fresh water sustaining humanity since the dawn or time. It is humbling to feel such a life force trembling beneath your feet. Until you turn around. It is blatantly obvious where the glaciers once touched and any native of Alaska can tell you where the base of these glaciers were just a few years ago.

It is nauseating. The drive to Alaska contributed to this, though a plane flight would have been worse. The drive to Alaska, taken while an incompetent oil company grapples with how to plug the major oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. You wonder what would have been worse, the destruction of the Gulf ecosystem or refining that oil so it could be pumped into our cars to help speed the demise of these glaciers, the Alaskan ecosystem.

So maybe it isn't easy to understand your ecological footprint. The drive here was destructive but eye opening better than any newspaper article ever could be. Would it be better for the planet if everyone took the drive and had the eyes opened to the need for drastic changes? How many would realize it or even care? Humans need to travel, to connect. When will we end our dependence on fossil fuels? When will the US Government and its people stop dragging their feet to enact real, drastic sweeping changes? I want to live, I want to travel, I want to connect, I want to experience this world. Will doing so always require a Faustian deal with the devil?

Livin' in a Narcaleptic Paradise

Back in Columbus, the sudden popularity of the Taco Truck is no doubt tied to the influx of the hispanic community all across the country. Except Columbusites don't tend to get their panties in a bunch like their brethren in Arizona. Rather there are sponsored tours all over the city to visit each of these trucks with the dream of sporting some sort of Bourdanian badge of honor.

But this post is not about hunting down Alaska's own collection of Street Meat Vendors, though rumors of a Poutine truck (with real cheese curds!) will no doubt inspire a treasure hunt upon the Gravy Train. Rather this post is about the preponderance of coffee huts that populate this state. Now, warning had been given prior to arrival by a resident in the know that Alaska has more coffee shops per capita than any state in the union, but this is almost absurd!

Whether it be due to the legendary insomnia that results in constant daylight or the perpetual darkness that accompanies winter, these people must be constantly tired and/or in need of something to reduce the chill in the air. There are two huts within walking distance from the efficiency and probably 5 within a five minute drive. This is referring to huts mind you and not full coffee shops, three of which populate the same block in the small town of Palmer, Ak. Huts have been spotted on desolate Alaskan roads, in the middle of nowhere serving fine cups of java, not the crap Ohio rest stops are cursed with, but nice dark roasts from the likes of Kaladi Brothers with lattes and mochas to spare.

It is kind of a paradise for the cold and sleep deprived. It would be a challenge to go anyplace in this great state and not find another coffee stand before the effects of the last cup have worn off. Southern invaders have overrun Alaska too, with the Seattle influence being thoroughly embraced.