Alaska Photoarcheology

 There I am making up words again. But seriously, I had some fun over the weekend unearthing some ancient history. Back before the dawn of the computer, people used devices called "cameras" to record and share images. Sometime later, as we all know, cell phones put a camera in everyone's pocket. 

Well.

I am heading up to Massachusetts a week from tomorrow to attend opening night of my dear brother-from-another-mother's one man play, running two weeks at the Bard College Leibowitz Black Box Theatre in Great Barrington. I'll actually fly up to Albany, NY, where I'll pick up a rental car and drive down to Great Barrington, stay a night, explore what I've been told is a great (sorry) little town, see the play, take another motel sleep, then get up and drive back to Albany. I'll fly back and prepare for a sojourn with my life's love, who is coincidentally my much loved wife, to Missoula for a visit with our son, Colin and his lovely Kat (and their lovely two cats). 

Anyway, where was I. Oh. Right here.

I am SO excited to reconnect with James Morrison, known in my personal brain as Jimmy, and to see 

.

The play centers around my godson Seamus's cancer and recovery in his 10th year on the planet. It's around 11,000 words in its final state, and I am incredibly pumped to witness its delivery to the world on the 30th of June. just nine nights away. I understand that Riad and Seamus will also be there and I'm excited to see the both of them, too! I gather the playwright will be there, too, because he will be acting the role of himself, onstage. Win-win. Win.

I've been doing some reminiscing lately about our time in Alaska, and that led to some googling. I managed to move through several dead ends to the little treasure trove of the University of Alaska Archives online repository, where I discovered some things I hadn't ever seen. Here's one: 

Fantasy Factory improv group nominally entertains a group of little kids, somewhere in Anchorage, circa 1977-8

I don't see Jimmy in there, but look closely and you will see a tree that looks a lot like the 27 year old me. Let's see another:

Scene from Diamond Studs, 1978, Fairbanks, Alaska. Luan Schooler and I had the spotlight, but there are plenty more talents in the pic, including a 22ish year old James Paige Morrison (kneeling, red bandana). 

That denim vest was handmade for me by a dear friend as a parting gift upon leaving Knoxville for Anchorage in 1975. It's Don Ruddy behind the bar, and I see Susan Mendel behind the mic stand, Ernie Norris catching a bit of spotlight behind me, Warren Elkins playing bass, and I can almost recall the name of the fellow in the bottom right, but not quite. Another one?

Alaska Repertory Theater apprentices/stagehands for Four Poster, UofA Fairbanks, 1978. 

Top to bottom it's Chris Fairbanks, me, Jimmy, Susan, ?, and Luan Schooler. What the hell am I wearing on my head? Doesn't matter. I do recall that for the run of that play I ran the light board, and important and fun job. I also helped hang them, straddling 50 foot a-frame ladder to get that work done. If I were to try that today I would so end up a bag of broken bones at the ladder's foot.

I'll end this post with a pic I have in my own archives; from a visit to LA long ago, it's two young men with an abiding love for one another and everything out in front of them. So long Memory Lane, and I will see you next week, old friend, brother, hero.

Living Proof, 1983

Hey all,

Yes we're sneaking up on the school year and teachers report in my district just two weeks from today. Hard to believe, but while I do wish for more summer there is a nagging excitement about getting back into the computer lab with a new batch of 5th graders and many children I will recognize and who will recognize me. We're in July 30 for meetings and prep and such and the kids show up Monday, August 5th.

Meanwhile, I'm finishing up some music and fishing and fun goals I set for myself before returning to school. One is sharing the one tiny tv work that I did back in 1982 or so, released as an NBC TV Movie in 1983, and though I only worked three days or so and only appear in this last 3 1/2 minutes of the movie, I some pretty good camera time and I hope that you can tell that I was having fun. At the time I was bartending at TGIFridays on Elliston Place. I recall that I answered a casting call and auditioned for the roll of the doctor who patches up Hank Williams, Jr. after his drunken fall from a mountaintop. That would have paid more, I suppose, but I'm glad I was invited to audition for the band members for the two bands at the end of the movie. I recall Richard Thomas and the casting directors out in front in a warehouse-like space with 20 or 30 aspiring musicians and that when it was my turn to step up to the mic I sang "Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms." They actually allowed me to finish and called the next day to make me an offer. We filmed in what is now the Children's Theater, I'm pretty sure, then in TPAC's Jackson Theater.

Here's the thing: With the ongoing national dialog about the South and its perpetuation of myths about the racism that was essential to the notion of "Dixie," this song actually makes me a bit uncomfortable. As a supporter of both the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center, I believe there's a New Dixie out there that can embrace all of us, no matter what race or creed. And I don't believe that New York City is anything close to a synonym for Hell. All that said, at the oblivious time of the filming, it was fun. I'll struggle to rectify these dichotomous things, in my daily work and in my personal heart, but meanwhile I hope you can enjoy...

Undercurrent of Blessings

It's Sunday morning as I prepare to re-enter the workaday world after a fine ISTE conference, a relaxing weekend fishing with my brother Ed, then a week at home catching up with writing, hanging out with family, and prepping a cubic yard of cables and archaic tech gear for next weekend's yard sale. I'm ready for it.

Kind of surprisingly, I miss my team at MNPS Virtual School and I am very much looking forward to the hard work ahead as we address the closure of Summer Success 2013 and the beginning of the 2013-14 academic school year.

As I prep for re-entry, I've been listening to some of my dear brother (from another mother) James Morrison's music on YouTube, as well as his "Son to the Boy" CD, and in doing so I stumbled across a lovely little interview he did a couple years ago for  a YouTube series called "The New Media Artist." It's worth a watch, both because it's Jimmy, and because his musings remind us of some important things. Watch