From Antioch to Anchorage -- June 20 - 25, 2015

It's been several days since there was time to sort through pictures and impressions from the hours and places that we've been. This is a summary of the riches.




Leaving Antioch, June 20, 2015

Even in the drought, dew still forms on the grass in LA -- morning shadows and sunshine on the way up the hill to Antioch.

At the end-of-residency lunch, Steve Heller (chair of the MFA program) speaks to students and faculty. The relaxed atmosphere is typical of Antioch, and one of its many appeals. Other faculty include (left to right) Bernadette Murphy, (unidentified woman in gold shirt), Erin Aubrey Kaplan, Jennifer Factor, and Peter Selgin.

My "buddy," Constanze Frei, a gifted person and fascinating writer who has been a treasure of information and support during these first weeks as a student.

A cardboard cutout of a he-man at the LAX airport bookstore, juxtaposed with rows of women's magazines.

Unexpected at LAX -- a tin bucket filled with sunflowers; and

a guitarist serenading passers-by.

The airplane's windshield gets cleaned just like yours does.

Fathers' Day in Seattle, June 21, 2015

Here's one of the great things about Seattle -- on the street where Anthea lives, a palm tree, and

fireweed, both in front of the same house.

We spent the day, at Jim's request, mostly seeking out ice cream and hanging out at the Ballard Locks. We started however, with a stop at the Pike Street Market, for fruit at Sosio's, and pastries at Le Panier..

The first gelato haven provided a variety of fruit and chocolate flavors (sorry -- I didn't write down the name, but can find it out if needed)..


After that, Jim headed off on his own, and Anthea and I helped Regina choose a hat. In Finland, all people who earn a PhD are given a tophat and a sword. We went to Bernie Utz's on Union Street to try on tophats.

Regina contemplates the foldable, $450 tailors' silk tophat. The very excellent salesman said that it was a high-maintenance item -- can only hold it by the brim (otherwise it accumulates fingerprints), and it doesn't do well in rain -- not a good hat for Seattle, or for a glaciologist.

We ended up with this one - more of a fedora, made of fur felt, with interchangeable hat bands and feather decor, and wearable almost everywhere. The "sword" will be a glaciologist's knife (haven't seen it yet, so don't know what distinguishes it from all other knives).

Did not get the name of the second gelato place either, but did get delicious gelato.

At the Ballard Locks, we got the end of a Fathers' Day Pipe Band concert (they are marching out),

seals swimming in the locks (some were dark; this one was spotted),

a parrot to sit on Anthea's arm (part of the Fathers' Day festivities for some reason),

and plenty of ships and boats to watch as they waited for the water to sink or rise and get them through the locks. Regina and Deke have done this a few times on the UW sailboats that they rent. Regina explained that the boats tie up to each other so that they go through the locks together -- safer for all. The water is nearly out, as you can see by the light area at the top, and the green algae on the lower part of the wall. We finished out the day with an early dinner at Tutta Bella pizza in Wallingford, but no-one was able to eat more than one scoop of gelato by that time so we had to skip the tiramisu. Next time.


Monday, June 22 -- Thursday, June 25 -- Anchorage

Monday we walked along Ship Creek -- saw this week's cruise ship, a barge, and a cargo plane going in to land at the Air Force base.

People have been catching king salmon for the past couple of weeks. This guy said it was his first ever.

Upstream near the dam and fish ladder, a rope across the creek marks the limit for fishing. It has acquired quite a few lures and lines this summer.

It's cottonwood season, when the fluff that gives the trees their name

falls and gathers in clumps among the weeds at edges of sidewalks and streets.

For the first few days, the air was hazy from the wildfires burning all around Anchorage, in the Mat-Su Valley and on the Kenai Peninsula.

Whiffs of smoke alternated with wild roses.

Yesterday (June 24) we walked around Lake Spenard. Our favorite sight -- mother duck with seventeen ducklings (or thereabouts). We think that they couldn't all be hers -- either she's babysitting, or has adopted several other families.

Elodea, a water weed used in home aquariums has gotten into the lake. It's dangerous for the planes, as well as fast-growing and likely to choke out much of the native life. We saw a research boat on the lake, as well as this craft, which appeared to be breaking up mats of other water weeds.

The smoke persisted yesterday -- you can barely make out Mt. Susitna below the plane taking off from Anchorage International.

An odd wetlands area along the bike trail was occupied by a mother mallard and two half-grown ducks.

Many of the small cabins around the lake that hold equipment and supplies for the float/ski planes are neatly kept, with green lawns and flowers.

Today (June 25), we went back along Ship Creek. The military forces have been carrying out exercises for the past few days, with many more jets flying than usual.

and a Navy ship in the port, along with a more ordinary barge.

People are still catching fish -- we watched this guy pull his in, and haul it up to show it off to his friends.

The air is much clearer today, at least to the east (notice, no snow on those peaks),

and the flowers are vivid.

Post script: One of my favorite quotes for the week came from Anthea -- "If you have a chair in your bedroom, put something on it before you go to sleep. Otherwise, you may wake up and find something in it that you didn't expect." It's a 31-word horror story, guaranteed to persuade you to put something on your chair.

Sunday, June 14, 2015, Antioch and Venice

Sculpture in Venice on Abbot-Kinney Blvd.



For first semester students (that's me) today was mostly devoted to a three-hour workshop, and a series of orientation meetings. Not much to pass on in the way of intriguing information, but another fascinating day in understanding how this whole process works.


Jim's back, so he and I walked uphill to the school in the morning -- no photos, because you've pretty much seen everything along Sepulveda and Slauson, our two streets.

At the computer lab, I fumbled through the process of printing out materials that were required for today, but then remembered that I'd forgotten to put one of the documents onto my email so that I could get at it from a different computer. So many little details!

While I'm waiting for the photos to get loaded into Picasa Web so that I can put them into the blog, there's time for a little history about Antioch, the city in Turkey. It was originally Greek, and was located in Syria, then Turkey. Because it was the end of the Silk Road and part of other east-east trade routes, it grew in importance politically (eventually the Romans, and then the Arabs took control) and religiously (the Hellenistic Jews, and the Christians before Constantinople became the key city both considered it one of their most important cities). The city fell on hard times after 525 CE, with a fire, then earthquakes, then capture by the Mamluks who razed it in 1268 CE. Today it's a sizable city set in an agricultural area where wheat, cotton, olives, and grapes flourish.

That's the ancient city (I couldn't find out why Mann named the school after the city, which was my original quest). Horace Mann established Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1852 to fulfill his vision of a school that would admit women, men, and people of color on an equal basis. He also intended that the school be as good as Harvard, but wanted it to follow a model of education in which students weren't graded, they studied what they wanted to, and decided what papers to write. The current model used at Antioch University LA Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program (whew -- a mouthful) has a wee bit more structure than that. There are a number of required classes that I will be taking, and a very structured set of activities. But there's still probably more leeway, in many ways, than in other programs.


The day's weather -- sunny at noon; cool, breezy and clouded over by about 4:00 p.m. (Anchorage -- sunny and  high near 80). For the rest of the week, though, the LA forecast is for weather more like Los Angeles -- and the forecast for Anchorage is for weather more like Los Angeles, hot and sunny.

The evening's adventure was a drive to Venice (in a nicer car than the vehicle above). We parked the car in town and walked a ways to the boardwalk. It's one of those places with so much going on that I wonder why anyone would ever live anywhere else -- surf, beach, food, palm trees, full of unique houses, and an endless parade of people of every description. It's an open-air, impromptu circus.

A large aloe plant, with Jim alongside for perspective. He said that it was prickly.

Skateboarding to the surf.

A water-saving ground cover.

Venice canal, with canoes.

Graffitied palm trees at the beach.

Day's end for these surfers.

Practicing twirls at the roller skate rink. Until I looked at these photos just now, I didn't realize that there's was a person down in the center of the area. A couple of people are paying attention, but the others are uninterested. So maybe he/she was OK?

We walked for a while, and then had a quick (and very acceptable) dinner at Small World Books and Cafe on the boardwalk.

It was a skate-friendly place.

It's billed as the best place for people-watching on the boardwalk, and it was unquestionably excellent. Taking photos worked sometimes, and at others, incorporated the screen on the windows.

Directly across from the cafe, a guitarist and drummer covered popular '50s and '60s songs. They drew a sizable crowd, and it was hard to get a clear shot of them from the cafe.

A couple of hangers-on stood in front of them dancing. Maybe this guy was also getting tips? Not clear. 

He's gyrating in his stocking feet, and behind, another fan of the band appears to be smoking (not saying what) and listening.

This gentleman, on in-line skates, was equally entranced, swaying to the music, and out of place with his relatively sober attire. Those two stayed the  whole time; other people came along and danced briefly before moving on.

Numerous shops along the way feature prescriptions for medical marijuana.

Further down the beach a crowd had gathered to listen to drummers. The police were much in evidence all evening, and several cop cars drove along the beach beside the group, establishing a presence.

A few gulls patrolled the area keeping an eye out for edible trash.

Even at sunset, surfers were out catching waves.

Evening color behind Santa Monica.

Others had turned in for the night -- an encampment at the end of one of the Venice canals. A news article said that LA's homeless population has increased dramatically during the past couple of years.

Flowers along the way, on a tropical scale.

These remind me of the night-blooming cereus, but seem to be growing on a cactus rather than a smooth-leaved plant.