Inktrails from Alaska

Midnight Sun Festival 2013

As I finished my second cup of coffee Monday afternoon, and geared up to unload the van, thoughts of the previous 36 hours rumbled around my brain.

Every year we have a massive festival here in Fairbanks to celebrate our almost 24 hours of sunlight that peaks on the summer solstice. You can go to a high place and watch the sun go around in circles, if you like. It doesn't really set. We have a sort of twilight/early evening type of "night" for a few hours and then we are back to daylight.

The celebration starts with a midnight baseball game on Friday night, then a Midnight Sun Run on Saturday night, and on Sunday the huge, crazy, noisy, chaotic spectacle that is the Midnight Sun Festival.

The entire downtown area is blocked off, stages are erected, banks of port-a-potties trucked in, tourists, villagers, vendors, musicians, artists, descend to do their thing. And about every third person has a dog! I always take Ole dog with me and he usually has a great time getting petted.

On Saturday I picked up the UHaul cargo van, and with the help of a young man got most of it loaded. Of course I forgot the sand boxes, which are very heavy. Later on I lugged them into the van one at a time and carefully slid them in. These are kitty litter buckets filled with sand, and often topped off with a few inches of water, too, from all the snow melt. I pour out the water and end up with buckets that weigh anywhere from 30 to 40 lbs. These get tied to the canopy so that a big wind won't blow the whole thing away. This is a definite possibility, especially when you have big flags tied to all over the tent! Wings, anyone?

I got everything done by 11pm on Saturday night, a real record. This included sandwiches, so that I wouldn't be living on elephant ears and ice cream all day. Plus a huge jug of ice water. When it is 90 degrees and there are thousands of people, the port-a-potties get rather, shall we say, unpleasant? Add in the drunk people and, well, blarg. So the last thing I needed was to drink a lot of caffeine.

I wish I could have run around gawking at all the dancing, gymnastics, fools and dogs running around but I was stuck in my booth for the duration. I got out to use the potty twice, and they were surprisingly clean, or I lucked out. I walked Ole to "his" tree four or five times, and we visited the Yukon Quest log cabin once, where Ole did tricks and got treats.

The weather was gorgeous! Blue skies and some lovely, puffy cumulous clouds in the distance. The wind came up and cooled us, but don't get me wrong, it was bloody hot! Still, when you live with -40 during the winter, as I do, you may revel in the extreme heat of 90–100 degrees! Enjoy it while you have it!

We were busy, the wonderful teenagers who were helping me were sad that I couldn't use and pay them more. Ah well. One of my other students, a GI, came and stayed all day just to be helpful. Thanks, Steve! It was so nice to have so much help.

When I wasn't busy selling things or running Ole through tricks, I got to watch the moving circus as it flowed by my tent. Oddly shaped people with oversized rears, little kids "killing" each other with inflatable medieval weapons, or one lady who I will never forget who was wearing a T-shirt from a local gym: she was really, truly built like the mythical brick shithouse. She had no neck! She was a GIANT SQUARE! She was followed by her husband, who looked like a giant bubble. I was looking to see if she had kid, because if she had, he would have been Sponge Bob for sure.

There was the usual stream of young, white males who asked for "rebel" flags. No, I don't carry those, I'd say. They'll have them at the fair, I'd say. No, I don't sell flags of hate, I didn't say. But they knew. Oh they knew. Because one of those young men came back later and said, "I'm sorry for asking for a rebel flag. Sorry." Now that has never happened before!

It was the doggiest Midnight Sun Festival EVER. Ole dog got so many treats for "No Bark" that I thought I wouldn't have to feed him dinner. At one point we were so totally surrounded, five or six dogs on each of the four sides of the tent, that I saw him sigh and then he laid down under one of the tables. Poor guy, between the heat and the hundreds of dogs, it plumb wore him out. Next year I will leave him at home. The last few years it's been fine, but this year it was exhausting.

There were some lovely dogs, some lovely, smart, together dog owners, and there were some really awful people who shouldn't have kids OR dogs. YOu know, the guys all covered in tattoos and who were being led by grotesquely-bred pit bulls that they put on chains heavy enough to tow a coal car with. Spiked collars, and little control. This is not the same as the nice family pitty that was across the way, to whom a brought a cup so the owner could give her a drink. She was trained, polite, sweet and "her" kid obviously loved her. Good parents, good kid, good dog.

It's not the dog, folks. It's the owners. WHY why why why WHY do people bring unsocialized, unfriendly dogs who BITE dogs or people or both---WHY do people bring these animals to a festival that has thousands of people and other dogs? (You know I can't go to an event like this with all these dogs without going into a dog rant, don't you?) I'm actually going to recommend to the organizers that they ban dogs other than service or therapy dogs. I heard and saw two dog fights, and I'm sure there were many more. It's so stressful for all concerned, especially the dogs. Why do you need to bring your dog to a festival like this, anyway? Well, it's what we do. Fairbanks is a dog town all the way, and that's one of the things I love about it. Were you there? What do you think?

I wish I'd had a chance to see and hear some of the musicians. I've been one of those performers in the past, but not this year. I'm sure there were some great ones. Unfortunately the nearest stage was just far away enough that most of what I could hear was drums and bass and background noise. We were playing the "What Song Is This?" game for a while, just guessing from that.

It was all okay until late evening when a punk bad a la the 70s started up with hoarse screaming (that I hoped was just the fellow"s voice through an effects box) and pounding pounding everything else. Even the Ramones actually sang. I love the Ramones. This was more hard core. I could see the mosh pit in my mind's eye. I wanted to plug my ears. Been there, done that, seriously. But there was no getting away from it, and added to that, the sun was low on the horizon PIERCINGLY BRIGHT into my eyes and there was no way to get away from it. It was agony. The punk band went on for at least an hour. And the sun did NOT set, because, after all, this is Midnight Sun Festival! Between those two things I ended up with a wicked migraine.

Finally it was time to start packing up. My friends started showing up to help me pack up, load up and get outta there.

The cops had all the drunks lined up against a wall and were breathalyzing them in sequence. Volunteers with the festival armed with push brooms spread out in a line and started cheerfully cleaning the plaza. The recycling people picked up all the bottles and cans that folks had put in the correct bins. I washed my face and hands with a wipe and OMG--the dirt!

We weren't allowed to bring the vehicle back in until after midnight. Everything went pretty smoothly, I didn't barf, which was good, and I managed to drive home and feed and walk the dogs, and talk to Bucky Bird, who said, "Rrrrrk," very quietly.

Joys of Teaching (Everything)

As a teacher, I ostensibly teach music. In reality I am a role model, and I take that very seriously. Students don't stick to music with their questions, especially the younger ones, and as my son knows, I know everything. When he was small and even as a bigger kid, he'd ask me a question and if I said "I don't know," he would then say, "Come ON, Mom! TELL me!" Because clearly, I was holding out on him. "I don't know," wasn't something he'd believe. I knew, he was sure of it. I just didn't want to tell him. That's not true, of course, but he thought it was.

Yesterday I was teaching a little, starry-eyed 5-yr-old whose attention was all over the place. She's still getting used to being in this big world. So music lessons and the sky and trees and whatever is on the wall and the dogs all have equal fascination.

She looked at my NASA calendar, which has a lovely shot of deep space on it. "What's THAT?" she breathed.

"That's space," I told her.

"What is SPACE?" she asked.

"Well," I replied, pointing at the blue sky that was slowly changing colors as the sun set, "See the blue sky?"

"Yes."

"Above the blue sky there is space! Do you see the stars at night?"

"Yes."

"The stars are in space!"

"OH!" she said. Not getting it yet, I think, but it was clearly new information for her!

We talked a little bit more about space and what is in it (the Earth, the Sun).

And then of course I had to try to redirect to the music. But it was a nice little cosmic detour!

 

Time for the Liberry Music Festival!

I'll be playing some music at the Liberry Music Festival, which includes my favorite food in the world, which is PIE. It starts at 2 at the Golden Eagle Saloon (all ages welcome) and continues on until midnight or so. There's a square dance in the evening, too! I'll be playing before and probably after the pie auction. It's a ball, come on down!

Come play music with us! Music Mondays at my studio!

I don't usually cross-post my music stuff too much, but this is a free community jam just for fun. All ages are welcome (kids must have parents with them). If we overflow my little studio there are bigger rooms available, and the skeeters aren't so bad, maybe we can play outside. All the information is HERE, at the Tartan Tundra Music site.

We alternate between song circle and acoustic jam. And both at once, if people get confused. :D It's all good.

Alaskan Summer 2011

Last year, if you recall, we kind of skipped most of summer. Instead we had rain, rain, rain and more rain. There was fungus growing on mushrooms. It was bad.  I was worried that all that precipitation would mean we'd have another winter that was skanty on snow, but luckily I was wrong and we had a very nice three or four or five feet of snow altogether. The skinny trees either side of my driveway were bent down so far with snow that the water truck couldn't make it in to fill my water tank. So they got whacked down and stacked to the side of the driveway. There they remained, covered in snow and pushed back by the snow plows. We will return to this, anon.

Right now it's summer. Spring doesn't really exist in Alaska. Have you heard Johnny Horton's song, Springtime in Alaska? The songwriter, who was clearly clueless, claimes that "In Springtime in Alaska it's forty below." It is if you consider February Spring. Otherwise, when Breakup comes, and the snow melts, that's when it's Springtime in Alaska and it's certainly not forty below!

So Springtime in Alaska looks like Last Fall Revisited. There are no leaves, all the brown grass and fireweed is still sitting there, crumpled and mushed. Some of the Fall colors are still around in the tundra, reds and yellows. That's Spring. Not much of anything, really.

After the snow melts we all wait extremely impatiently for the trees to leaf out. This generally happens about the second week on May. This year it was late and some of us were thinking, "Uh oh. Maybe they aren't going to leaf out! Aaaack!" I kept scanning the hills, looking for the tell-tale reddish color that is the harbinger of new buds that produce leaves. Day after day they were brown. Dull, ugly brown.

Then finally, on May 18th it happened. Leaves were visible at my house, albeit teeny-weeny! It took them a long time, more than a week, to fill out and grow to full size. Once the leaves are in, it's SUMMER!

 

Instead of a bunch of nasty rain, we had gorgeous blue skies and puffy lamb clouds. Gentle breezes wafted my flags and chimes.

There were no mosquitoes at my house for almost two weeks! It was wonderful!

Before the mosquitoes were out, the fires started. That's the price we pay for dry weather here in the boreal forest. At one point a forest fire was two miles from my house and my truck was loaded and I was ready for evacuation. But the wind was with us and blew the fire away from my neighborhood. That fire, the Moose Mountain fire, is now contained. It was a close and scary call. Since then we have had days of smoke, but haven't been in danger. This is all a part of summer.

The sounds of summer are birds, oodles and oodles of birds. Ravens, whiskey jacks, chickadees, so many warblers that I just call them the Teeny Green Birds. Magpies, who have moved up from South Alaska what with global warming. Moose start appearing with calves in tow. The sounds of Spring include screeching brakes as people attempt to avoid hitting a 2000 lb. moose, or god forbid, her calf.

Sometimes it sounds like the world is taken over by dinosaurs, as heavy equipment roars to life again. I hear big thumps and booms as the lumber mill goes into action, the rumble of diesel engines, and the thunder of big tires on dirt roads. Large trucks towing giant yellow iron, some with buckets, some with blades, block roads and make kids go, "Wow!"  All this activity happens when the ground unfreezes enough to build something!

Summertime you can't get there from here. In a place where the temperature can swing 70 degrees in one day, the roads go through hell. As the sun gains ascension, the warmth thaws the ground and roads sink. Work that has needed to be done on city streets is once more do-able. Orange cones rule the day and Fairbanks can become a Disneyland of Detours.

I've memorized all the lumps, bumps and sunken spots on my road home. Alaska can eat up a vehicle pretty quickly if you aren't proactive about things like that. It's not just the cold that's hard on your transport!

One the thaw is over, I've got a lot of work to do, even around my small place. For one thing, there is an entire winter's worth of dog poop to scrape out of the dog yard. There is no way to clean it until it thaws. If you've ever tried to pick up dog poop that's frozen to the ground or to the snow, well, it's impossible. I'm not going to stand outside in -40° to chip poop out! Luckily I always have a music student who is young, strong and who wants to make some money by cleaning out the whole yard for me and the dogs. This is a good thing!

When the trees got whacked down because of the heavy snow, (I bet you were wondering if I'd ever get back to that, right?), there were some birch trees that I had my eye on. Bucky needs new perches, and birch is ideal for that purpose. So once the branches were free of snow, I dragged them back to the front yard. I plan to borrow my neighbor's loppers and cut Bucky some nice, clean perches.

I went out to do this the other day, and what do I see?

 

They just couldn't be left out of the greening up! No matter they were just sticks lying on the driveway!

Let me remind you, those trees were cut mid-winter and frozen at sub-zero temperatures!

There is one thing for sure: Alaska always surprises me!

Tacoma DR14 Acoustic Guitar For Sale

Tacoma DR14 acoustic guitar, in NEW condition!

Fender bought out Tacoma, much to the loss of the music community. This guitar is no longer made, and if the Tacoma brand still exists, Fender most likely will have them manufactured in Asia. This is one of the last American-made guitars around for a reasonable price.

It has an abalone shell inlay around the sound hole, a beautiful spruce top, rosewood back, and is in pristine condition. Rich sound. Made in the USA. It retailed for $1410 and I am selling it for $700. The headstock picture shows original price tag. It's absolutely in gorgeous condition.

Price does not include a case. You can use my PayPal link to pay for it, if you like, but email me first and come down to my studio to see and play it! If you want to buy it but are far away, shipping, packing and handling will have to be added to the price.

Watch For The New Poster--And Put some Up!

Feel free to snag this, print it, and post it up around town. Thanks!

Very Nice Instruments for Sale: Guitar & Violin

Tacoma 6-string guitar, in NEW condition! I bought this guitar about a year ago, and never really used it much.  The Tacoma has an abalone shell inlay around the sound hole, a beautiful spruce top and is in NEW condition. It retailed for $1410 and I am selling it for $700 or the best offer over $550.

Meisel Full-Size Violin, with Case, Bow, and Viva Shoulder Rest and One Free Lesson! Meisel built some of the best-quality violins out on the common market, and this violin is a good example of that. It belongs to a student who would like it to find a good home. I will throw in one free lesson to help the new owner get started. The shoulder rest alone is worth $35! Entire package: $360.

They can be viewed by appointment by emailing me at jeanofiddler at gmail dot com. Or call 456-FIDL.

Alaskan Tribute to Michael Jackson

Arctic Thriller

You HAVE to see this!

Who needs scary monsters with mosquitoes like those?

Fiddling Tonight!

Just a reminder: I'm playing at the Gazebo in Alaskaland (Pioneer Park) from 7-8 this evening. It's free, so stop by! Ole dog may be there and need a handler, for all you dog lovers. We may have to take a Dog Tricks break in the middle, you never know.