St. Paul’s Chapel, New York
St. Paul’s Chapel is one building near the site of the twin towers which was unharmed by the attack but, somehow, utterly transformed. When, as a kid, I made my annual trip to Manhattan, we would always stop at St. Paul’s. It is an 18th century Georgian chapel and is the oldest public building in continuous use in New York City. When my grandfather took me there it was all about George Washington, who worshiped there right after he was inaugurated President. My immigrant grandfather held this place sacred and it was one of the tools, along with the Statue … Continue reading St. Paul’s Chapel, New York
Irish Hunger Memorial, Battery Place, New York
Whenever I visit the city I find something new and striking. This trip I thought it would be the 9/11 memorial, but it wasn’t– it was Brian Tolle’s Irish Hunger Memorial near The Battery. It transports a stone cottage from Co. Mayo and integrates it with a modern building that has illuminated strips with quotes about hunger, drawing our attention not only to the Irish famine, but hunger and famine today. From some angles it looks like an Irish hillside, with the plants that grew when fields in Ireland went fallow. Since it looks over water from some angles you … Continue reading Irish Hunger Memorial, Battery Place, New York
Michio Hoshino Memorial Totem Pole, Sitka, Alaska
Anila Mitri in Albania and I had a Facebook conversation about totem poles. I tried to explain that poles are not items of worship but are memorials to people, tell a story or a history. I have been waiting for a fairly good day to get to Halibut Point State Recreation Area where a memorial pole to Japanese Wildlife photographer Michio Hoshino has been raised. Michio Hoshino’s memorial totem pole sits across from Magic Island. It honors Michio Hoshino, a Japanese photographer who was killed by a bear in Kamchatka, Russia. Master carver Tommy Joseph carved the pole. It was … Continue reading Michio Hoshino Memorial Totem Pole, Sitka, Alaska
A 1993 Albanian Bus Adventure, Tirana to Vlora and back
It’s Throwback Thursday. This is a letter from November, 1993. I edited out the middle of the letter, where I talk about our time in Vlora, for reasons of length. But I remember we went swimming in the Adriatic Sea … Continue reading A 1993 Albanian Bus Adventure, Tirana to Vlora and back
Sitka’s Totem Walk
Earlier this summer I posted several pictures of totem poles from Sitka National Historic Park (Totem Park.) This prompted several comments from friends abroad. Questions of where the poles came from, how old they where, and questions about their role in religion. The original poles were gathered in the park after the 1906 St. Louis World’s Fair. (The meet me in St. Louis, Louis fair). As they aged they decayed, and would have fallen back to the earth (as they are meant to) but in this park they were preserved, some older poles are on display in the visitor’s center. … Continue reading Sitka’s Totem Walk
Rain Forest Walks, Sitka, Alaska
This has been a strange summer. Perhaps stranger than last summer, which was dry with record heat. This summer has been warmer than usual, and with both more sunny days and more rainfall than normal. A lot more rain, record … Continue reading Rain Forest Walks, Sitka, Alaska
A Trip to Northern Albania, 1993
This is a letter from 1993. I pulled it out of my digital files because an Albanian friend posted pictures from this area on Facebook. I got into a Facebook conversation with several Albanian friends about the pictures and this … Continue reading A Trip to Northern Albania, 1993
Salmon Run, 2014
Each year salmon return in the millions to rivers and streams in Alaska. In a way it is, like the wildebeest migration in Africa, a great biological machine that moves nutrients around the ocean and returns to enrich the streams … Continue reading Salmon Run, 2014
Bear Cub Fishing
I posted the following on Facebook last week. Suzi and I went out to take some pictures of The Michio Memorial Totem Pole. It is a pole dedicated to a Japanese wildlife photographer killed by a bear. On our way, … Continue reading Bear Cub Fishing
August 19th An Evening on Sitka Sound
The Sitka Conservation Society along with Allen Marine sponsored an evening cruise on Sitka Sound. We had a discussion of Salmon and got to watch the dramatic change in weather as fine weather moved in from the sea, piling up … Continue reading August 19th An Evening on Sitka Sound
August 16, 2014, A Pretty Good Day.
Yesterday morning I woke to sunny skies despite predictions from the night before. I could see whales spouting in Eastern Channel. This looked like a good day for an Allen Marine wildlife cruise. Although the weather was fine I checked my weather app and found a weather advisory predicting unusually heavy rain and two storm fronts bearing down on Northern Southeast Alaska. I looked at the radar and decided that, although it was sunny and warm I would take my Gor Tex. It was a good decision. We started out in shirt sleeves enjoying the sun and watched as the front … Continue reading August 16, 2014, A Pretty Good Day.
Albanian Municipal Election Day, 1996
This coming Tuesday is primary election day in Alaska. I’m beginning my “Throwback Thursday” posts with my family letter about being a municipal election monitor in Albania. Albania was a new democracy and people took their newly won privileges … Continue reading Albanian Municipal Election Day, 1996
Sitka Highland/Island Games
As part of the Sitka Seafood Festival we enjoyed athletes demonstrating feats of strength, including throwing telephone poles (cabers), weights (both for height and distance) and bales of hay. I missed the Crab Pot Toss. Continue reading Sitka Highland/Island Games
Sitka Seafood Featival
The Sitka Seafood Festival is probably the last thing you would expect me to attend given the strong allergic reaction I get from eating almost anything that comes from the sea. True, I give the seafood banquet, prepared by visiting celebrity chefs, a pass; but I certainly enjoy the other activities. The Seafood Festival happens largely on the Sitka Fine Arts Campus. Chuck Bovee, who worked for Sheldon Jackson College for years, said it’s been a long time since he’s seen so many people on the campus, it felt good. It does feel good. For several years the abandoned … Continue reading Sitka Seafood Featival
Winnipeg Folk Fest 2014 in Pictures
Here are some more pictures from the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Continue reading Winnipeg Folk Fest 2014 in Pictures
Winnipeg Folk Festival 2014
When we first started going to the Winnipeg Folk Festival it was a way to get away from everything and spend several days in Birds’ Hill Provincial Park 40 KM north of the city. There were no phones. Even when I started carrying laptops and mobile phones the Winnipeg Folk Festival remained a black hole for communications, for a while. I liked it that way. There was no internet and no cell service. After a few years cell service came to the site and a year or so ago there was wi-fi in the media area. This year the festival … Continue reading Winnipeg Folk Festival 2014
St. Croix River Soo Line High Bridge
I love the iron and steel constructs built between the American Civil War and the First World War. Many were built by the railroads, the wonder train sheds of Europe. But the US has its share of railway architecture. The St. Croix River Soo Line High Bridge is a magical construct of steel latticework. I never tire of taking a boat down to the bridge just to marvel at how, more than a century ago (in 1909) folks made such a wonderful and beautiful structure. I love how delicate the lacework pattern of iron and steel can look. Make sure … Continue reading St. Croix River Soo Line High Bridge
St. Olaf College
The family recently visited St. Olaf College. (See two earlier posts, “Remembering WCAL” and “A Professor, an Art Barn and a Lifetime of Enjoyment.”) I had not been on campus for a while. We went, specifically, to see what St. Olaf did to Boe Memorial Chapel to improve its acoustics and to look at the new Regent’s Hall Science building and find out what happened to the Flaten Art Barn and the old science center. We liked what we saw. The center of the campus is automobile free and the open lawn now has lots of shade trees and a … Continue reading St. Olaf College
A Professor, An Art Barn and A Lifetime of Enjoyment
Liberal Arts educations are often derided in the popular press today. Today the reason for a college education seems to be to find a job not to find a life or a vocation. I’ve never regretted the broad liberal arts education I got at St. Olaf College. Sure, it gave me skills to function in the workplace but more than that it gave me insight in how to live an enjoyable life, in finding a vocation. When I look back at my college time from the perspective of 50 years the one course that stands out, providing me more lifetime … Continue reading A Professor, An Art Barn and A Lifetime of Enjoyment
A Prairie Home Companion 40th Anniversary Celebration
On Saturday Suzi and I were fortunate enough to to sit on the Macalaster College lawn surrounded by family — kids, grandkid, in-laws, nieces and nephews celebrating A Prairie Home Companion’s 40th anniversary. The whole weekend was kind of a PHC festival with outdoor stages and indoor concerts in the Macalaster Fine Arts Center and the chapel. There were food booths, including great corn on the cob, and radio booths. At one the PHC sound effects man recreated the sounds we all hear on the show and had kids help him create the effect of a creaking ship, a crackling … Continue reading A Prairie Home Companion 40th Anniversary Celebration
Target Field, July 4th weekend and Tanaka Pitches, what could be better?
A great way to spend part of the July 4th weekend is at a ball game. For the second year we enjoyed watching the Twins loose to the Yankees at Target Field. Our tickets were tagged “Skyline View” because we could see the Minneapolis Skyline probably better than the action on the field. But it was a great day, nice crowd, a lot of fun and fireworks at the end. The one disturbing thing was the cost. –our people, upper deck “Slyline View” Seats, 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, 4 Cracker Jack and parking came to close to $275. When … Continue reading Target Field, July 4th weekend and Tanaka Pitches, what could be better?
After 238 Years, Jefferson Still Lives
238 years ago in Philadelphia John Adams moved a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson. It read, in part: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The 4th of July is a civic holiday, where people of all sorts gather to celebrate a common belief. I tell the same story every Fourth of … Continue reading After 238 Years, Jefferson Still Lives
Remembering WCAL
The St. Olaf College radio station WCAL was a pioneer in broadcasting. It went on the air as an experimental licensee 9YAJ in November 1918, as soon as the ban on radio transmission was lifted after World War I. In … Continue reading Remembering WCAL
The Sitka Summer Music Festival Ends Today.
The last regular season concert of the Sitka Summer Music Festival is this evening. It has been a glorious month of music. The Festival has concerts or events 6 days a week, evening concerts, brown bag lunches, cafe concerts, music based movie nights, a kid’s concert, a garden party concert and a concert on a boat floating in Krestof Sound. About half the events are free. The concerts are a delight, with four centuries of chamber music performed on instruments that span five centuries. June is a month where I know I am exactly where I should be. Thanks to … Continue reading The Sitka Summer Music Festival Ends Today.