Category Archives: Alan’s Blog 2015

2015 Wyoming road trip for the arts – trek 1

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Anyone who has spent any time in Wyoming knows that road trip organization is key. I have been known to travel two hours for a 10 minute meeting. This week, I plotted out a six day trip that started on Monday May 4. Two years ago, my health took a hit when I made a series of road trips to the East Coast at the end of May to a long Wyoming trek in early June.

The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund Board met in Pinedale and approved the digital Art of the Hunt project.

The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund Board met in Pinedale and approved the digital Art of the Hunt project.

I was a little concerned that two years later, I didn’t want to push my luck, but decided to anyway. This trip, acording to my new mileage app called Mileage IQ, I logged 1, 554 miles.

I’m working on a couple projects and now that the weather has finally broken – more on this – it was a good time to take off. I found out at the last minute late last week that the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund would be meeting in Pinedale in western Wyoming on May 6-7. My production company, Boulder Community Media, has a project the WCTR board would be considering a proposal called the “Digital Art of the Hunt”.

Being a veteran grant writer I know that a project’s chances are better, if applicants show up in person. I made a bunch of phone calls and set up an excursion. Sitting through meetings like this is very informative and when I have other proposals considered, I will show up. The board approved the project. It was the 19th ranked application out of 45 and received the second highest grant award.

The weather was mostly bad. This is snow south of Lander.

The weather was mostly bad. This is snow south of Lander overlooking Red Canyon.

Boulder to Laramie 109 miles: I was funded by the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Wyoming Arts Council to produce a documentary about Wyoming Progress Administration cultural projects that include large murals in Riverton, Kemmerer, Greybull and Powell. I learned that one of my former University of Wyoming college professors Herb Dieterich was the last guy who did any research about this topic back in 1980.

My call to him was a blast from the past. He agreed to meet me on Monday afternoon. He turned 90 May 3rd. He spent a summer in the National Archives in DC researching it and gave me a copy of his paper, which is helpful. He was mostly checking out the project funding sources than about the artists.

We had a nice visit. I’ll be back to talk to Joe Russin, the son of Robert Russin who was a UW art professor and WPA muralist in Illinois.

I filled up and headed to Riverton.

Some barracks from the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp were moved to the Cottonwood Court in Riverton.

Some barracks from the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp were moved to the Cottonwood Court in Riverton. This is the former sheep ranch that inspired the WPA mural in the Riverton Post Office.

Laramie to Riverton 236 miles: I support the Northern Arapaho Tribe and stay at the Wind River Casino Hotel. They don’t serve alcohol, but allow smoking. Of course all casinos allow smoking, it must be a habit of gamblers. When the casino originally opened, there was a smoke free room of slots, but that didn’t last long.

Food prices in the Red Willow Restaurant have gone up. In my opinion, If I spend $25 on a steak, I’ll go down the road to Svilar’s in nearby Hudson. On Cinco de Mayo, I ate Indian huevos rancheros, which substitutes fry bread for the tortilla.

I interviewed Karline from the Riverton Museum who was knowledgeable about George Vander Sluice. He painted the mural in the Riverton Post Office. The mural is of sheep shearing that happened at a ranch on the road to Shoshoni which is now the Cottonwood Court, which is now abandoned. Turns out that the bungalows there were formerly housing barracks at the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp near Powell.

I headed out to Pinedale, but wanted to nail down a couple key components of the Art of the Hunt project which includes an Eastern Shoshone deer hunt and Northern Arapaho bison hunt. I stopped by the Shoshone Cultural Center and Glenda Trosper was still open to setting up the hunt in October. I went over to Ethete and talked to JT Trosper about the bison hunt and that will be set up in July.

The Log Cabin Motel in Pinedale is very cozy.

The Log Cabin Motel in Pinedale is very cozy.

Riverton to Pinedale 186 miles: I stayed at the Log Cabin Motel. There are a bunch of small fishing cabins. It was raining the two days I was there. The WCTF meeting started Wednesday at the BOCES building. Wyoming government meetings are long, drawn out, but very folksy. There’s decorum, but very informal. This funding cycle, there were a million dollars in requests and $200,000 in available funds. After two days of project evaluation, Art of the Hunt was ranked 19th out of 45 projects and awarded funding that will guarantee it’s completion. Had I not attended, to answer questions and defend the idea, there’s no telling how much or if the project would be approved.

Meanwhile, I had a plan to drive to Kemmerer to see the murals in the post office there or go to Powell. In February, I provided production assistance for an interview session with Mark and Ardith Junge. The producer, Samantha Cheng. She mentioned that a colleague of hers, Sharon Yamato, may need a videographer in Powell. I contacted Sharon and decided to head north to record her interviews and check out the murals in Powell and Greybull.

Evaline George, 97, is one of the subjects of a documentary by Sharon Yamoto.

Evaline George, 97, is one of the subjects of a documentary by Sharon Yamato.

Pinedale to Powell 318 miles: The WCTF meeting finished at 1:30pm and I headed out to points north. There was snow on South Pass and sputtering rain the rest of the way through Lander, Riverton, Shoshoni, Thermopolis, Meeteetse, Cody then Powell. I stayed at the Super 8 in Powell. Mostly fracking workers staying there. Sharon is working on a documentary about the post World War II veteran homesteaders who came to Powell and repurposed some of the Hearth Mountain Relocation Camp housing barracks – some of those were repositioned to the Cottonwood Court in Riverton.

During a break in the action, I went over to the Powell Post Office and checked out the mural there by Manuel Bromberg. Nobody seemed to know much about it. I was referred to the local museum and will likely make another trip back through there. Bromberg is still alive and lives in Woodstock, New York. I may make a trip out there if he’s able to talk to me – he’s 98.

We interviewed three 97-year olds who still live in their remodeled barracks. These three nonagenarians still had their wits about them and had some good stories to tell. It was a long day. I stayed over and headed back home via Greybull.

Smoking is still allowed in most places in Wyoming. Cough, Cough.

Smoking is still allowed in most places in Wyoming. Cough, Cough. Including at this short order place in Greybull.

Powell to Greybull 48 miles: The last time I was through Greybull two years ago, I was stopped in one of those 45 mph to 30 mph speed traps. The cop let me off. The post office was about the only place open on Saturday. The postal clerks didn’t know much about the painting. The postmaster was to return later. I killed an hour at the Uptown Cafe for some breakfast. Smoking is still allowed here, which was a little strange. I went back to the PO and the postmaster hadn’t returned yet.  The clerk called her boss and he pointed her toward an old typewritten narrative on the wall.  Manuel Bromberg is in the book and I’ll see if he’s up for an interview.

I’ve been hearing about the storm in southern Wyoming and headed out again. I got gas in Thermopolis.

Manuel Bromberg painted the mural in the Greybull Post Office

Manuel Bromberg painted the mural in the Greybull Post Office.

Greybull to Boulder 478 miles: My gut reaction was to avoid I-80 and took the second worst route through Casper. There was sputtering rain and snow from Shoshoni to Casper. Casper to Douglas wasn’t too bad, but from there to Chugwater was slow going. The most snow was between Wheatland and Chugwater. Snow and slush started to build up on the highway. I know why there are crazy crashes – four wheel drive pickups that think they are invincible. I’ve driven in worse conditions by Elk Mountain.

I have to turn around on Monday for a meeting and job in Cheyenne Monday and Tuesday. It’s a labor of love having several projects in various stages of development. I’ll be heading to Kemmerer, Powell and Greybull, later in June enroute to my Devil’s Tower climbing trip over the 4th of July.

Hard copy still the best evidence of the present to inform the future

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I've been sorting through my stuff and it's more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I’ve been sorting through my stuff and it’s more like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I used to think hard copy would clutter up the world and everything would be digitized by now. Turns out, that’s not really the case. There will be plenty of hard copy carrying forth into the future.

Lot’s of history is “preserved” that way. I’m testament to that and sorting through boxes of papers and artifacts from my previous lives. I don’t know why I’ve held on to this stuff for so long.

Don’t be surprised if you get a mysterious envelope filled with some tangible tie between us.

Literal shared memories.

The main reason I like making historic documentaries is the research. I’ve gotten to know my way around the state of Wyoming archives, on three projects, most recently one about modern expressionism in Wyoming.

I like handling old photographs and learning about things past and assembling it all into a story.

I have an iPod with 80GB of memory. It will soon be out of date.

I have an iPod with 80GB of memory. It will soon be out of date.

A few years ago when iPods came out, I early-adopted one of the huge 80 gigabyte models.

Back in the days of cassettes, the rage was compiling a variety of music mixes on tape from LP vinyl records.

We used to borrow each others albums and copy them for our own collections. Not only had I accumulated vinyl, cassette tape music mixes, but also started buying CDs.

The iPod was supposed to revolutionize music storage. That it did, but they also sterilized memory making.

Hard copy.

A friend of mine posted on facebook recently about some problem he was having with his iPod hard drive – we have the same model – about cracking the case to get at it and the battery.

Backing up information continues to be a headache, not to mention batteries going dead. There’s a company that makes an adapter to replace the hard drives with high capacity SD cards, which is a pretty good idea. I’m looking into bumping mine up to 256GB.

My turntable still plays records, but I got rid of all of them in favor of CDs. My neighbor still has some discs to spin.

My turntable still plays records, but I got rid of all of them in favor of CDs. My neighbor still has some discs to spin.

Gone are the days of turntables, memorable scratches on certain songs, beer-stained 8-track labels, the residual aroma of pot on double album jackets. They take up space, but no fear of loss due to battery failure of out-of-date operating systems.

Kids must be learning different things in school. Metaphors must be changing, too, with way fewer industrial references.

I don’t think talkative people sound like broken records, or those with disagreements are now on the same wave length.

Carhartt jeans are still inspected by people, including these three in a factory in Mexico. They add that personal touch.

Carhartt jeans are still inspected by people, including these three in a factory in Mexico. They add that personal touch.

I put on a new pair of jeans the other day and there were these paper inspection labels in the pockets.

We’re led to believe that everything is automated and made by high tech machines.

There are still some items that have the human touch, including my Carhartts made in Mexico.

Not only were my trousers inspected three times, but one of the inspectors saved on paper by changing their ID number using a Magic Marker.

I don’t know what I expected the future to be like by now. When I was a kid there was the Hanna Barbera cartoon sit-com “The Jetsons.”

The Jetsons TV family was the view of a typical 1960s family if portrayed in the distant future.

The Jetsons TV family was the view of a typical 1960s family if portrayed in the distant future.

The Jetsons traveled around in hover craft, their house was cleaned by a robot named Rosie. George worked at the Spacely Sprockets office, Jane puttered around the house, Judy was in high school and Elroy was in elementary school.

Middle class and All-American for the future as envisioned in the early 1960s, which was the same present portrayed in Leave it to Beaver.

For 99 percent of us, we did become mass society – most everyone has a TV, microwave oven, internal combustion engine car.

Carhartt is one of those companies that has purged it’s guilt with a “Made in the USA” line and also stuff made elsewhere. Regardless, it’s good to know there are humans involved in the manufacturing quality control.

There’s plenty of esoteria that goes into making smart refrigerators and smart coffee pots, but the basic purposes remain the same – keep food cold and water hot.

After the Star Ship Enterprise blew up, Picard was able to retrieve his family album as he took over the Star Fleet command.

After the Star Ship Enterprise blew up, Picard was able to retrieve his family album as he took over the Star Fleet command.

Remember “Star Trek Generations”, the movie set in the 25th century when the Star Ship Enterprise is destroyed? Captain Kirk turns the keys over to Jean Luc Picard. Picard manages to save his hard copy family album.

Some of the photos and papers dated back to the 18th century. If it was digitized, the electromagnetic pulse would have wiped the disc clean.

Hard copy isn’t safe from disaster. The library at Alexandria was the book repository for the world at that time and it was supposedly destroyed by a big fire – no copies left of any of that.

Grocery store plastic bags cost a dime in Boulder, Colorado. The hope is to reduce the amount of trash that will be preserved for future generations to find and learn about our culture.

Grocery store plastic bags cost a dime in Boulder, Colorado. The hope is to reduce the amount of trash that will be preserved for future generations to find and learn about our culture.

I tossed out the trash today. It was in a plastic bag. I always dump it out so the organics will deteriorate and not leave any evidence of my diet in the landfill.

My neighbors use those nuclear war-proof bags with the draw strings. Archaeologists and paleontologists of the future will have a pretty good idea about our 21st century culture and determine that we inhabitants revered our detritus as evidenced by the stockpiles of leftover food, old papers and various containers hidden in large altars excavated into hill sides surrounding urban areas.

I hope ‘American Sniper’ has a good story: I like sniper movies

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"American Sniper" has been getting quite a bit of buzz these days. (photo credit - fair use)

“American Sniper” has been getting quite a bit of buzz these days. (photo credit – fair use)

There’s been quite a bit of social media and entertainment news traffic about the movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper, as Chris Kyle in American Sniper.

Last night at the Silver Sage Village pot luck dinner, there was a pretty good discussion about the military experience of five men in the community , which is no experience. None of us saw any duty during the Vietnam War era, mostly because of student deferments.

I’ve always thought that service in the military was a part of my maturation process that I missed, considering that four of my uncles were in the army 1-A. My dad was 4-F.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch American Sniper.

After some thinking, I realized that I like sniper movies. There are sniper characters in lots of movies which date back to when I was a kid. I was a bit of a loner back then – still am – which probably explains my attraction to them.

My earliest recollection of snipers is from a 1960s TV show called "Combat". (photo credit - fair use)

My earliest recollection of snipers is from a 1960s TV show called “Combat”. (photo credit – fair use)

There was a TV show called Combat with Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders and Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley. I remember one episode called “The Sniper”. The squad takes refuge in a French town after it was liberated and gets pinned down by a Nazi sniper. They can’t find him and Sgt. Saunders eventually figures out he’s been hiding in plain clothes in town.

Turns out the bad guy was abetted by Sgt. Saunders’ love interest. He eventually mows the sniper down with his Thompson sub-machine gun, after the girl gets sniped. She has a recognition and reversal and realizes she should have remained loyal to her homeland and dies in Sgt. Saunders’ arms. Combat always had good stories with war as a back drop.

From when I was young, I’ve always liked James Bond, some war movies – many have snipers as characters.

In no particular order, here are some sniper movies that came to mind. I’ve watched these many times. All of the video clips linked are graphic, so open them at your own risk.

I like movies where there are old guys teaching young guys, like in "spy Game" (photo credit - fair use)

I like movies where there are old guys teaching young guys, like in “Spy Game” (photo credit – fair use)

Spy Game – This is one of those two generational movies. Robert Redford plays a veteran CIA agent – Jason Muir – who recruits upstart sniper Brad Pitt – Tom Bishop – during the Vietnam War. He passes on all his spy wisdom to Pitt who is a bit of a renegade and ends up  imprisoned in China after a botched attempt to rescue his girlfriend who was aiding the bad guys in the Middle East in exchange for money to keep her NGO going. Robert Redford is retiring and the double entendre story has Redford giving his exit interview with his bosses while using CIA resources to spring Pitt and the girlfriend from prison. Bishop and Muir were both better loners than team players.

Jean Reno reluctantly teaches young Natalie Portman the assassin trade in "The Professional" (photo credit - fair use)

Jean Reno reluctantly teaches young Natalie Portman the assassin trade in “The Professional” (photo credit – fair use)

The Professional – This is an odd movie with Jean Reno as Leon, the assassin, and a 12 year old orphan named Matilda played by Natalie Portman. In one scene, Leon gives Matilda a sniper lesson teaching her how to follow a target with a high powered rifle. I think this scene is only in the director’s cut. I don’t remember it when it was on TV the other night.

Matilda wants to learn the ways of an assassin to avenge the death of her brother. Gary Oldman plays a rogue cop addicted to meth trying to foil Leon and Matilda.

It’s a different kind of love story and when the two aren’t blowing stuff up, the two get to know each other like father and daughter as well as partners in crime.

Classic 1972 yarn about a plot to kill de Gaulle. (photo credit - fair use)

Classic 1972 yarn about a plot to kill de Gaulle. (photo credit – fair use)

The Day of the Jackal – The original has Edward Fox playing an assassin who is hired to kill French President Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s. The Jackal ends up getting a clean shot at de Gaulle, but misses. He’s noticed by the French police who kill him.

Fox also became a staple in couple of my favorite war movies A Bridge Too Far which was written by my favorite screen screenwriter William Goldman and in Force 10 from Navarone, the sequel to The Guns of Navarone.

There was a remake called The Jackal with Bruce Willis as the bad guy who is being chased by Richard Gere. The new version doesn’t have much similar to the original. Both versions are on cable TV. I catch parts of them when channel surfing.

Andrew Robinson plays a creepy bad guy called Scorpio in "Dirty Harry" (photo credit - fair use)

Andrew Robinson plays a creepy bad guy called Scorpio in “Dirty Harry” (photo credit – fair use)

Dirty Harry – This was the first installment of Clint Eastwood’s portrayal of San Francisco detective of questionable ethics Harry Callahan. It came out the year I graduated from high school in 1971. The psycho bad guy is a sniper called Scorpio played by Andrew Robinson. He was type cast after his Scorpio role. Towards the beginning of the movie, a San Francisco police helicopter catches up to him on a rooftop aiming on some unsuspecting targets. He leaves notes at each crime scene demanding $100,000 from the city government or he’ll keep killing random citizens ($100,000? why bother!?) He and Callahan have a final shoot out in a rock quarry when the infamous line “Do I feel lucky” is uttered. Scorpio was a Vietnam vet who came home and was a victim of PTSD and mistreatment when he came back stateside causing him to go berserk. This veteran stereotype probably wouldn’t go over very well today.

Eastwood also directed American Sniper. I wonder if he had any throwbacks to his original Dirty Harry role and Scorpio.

Back when I was a kid, playing war was a part of goofing around in my suburban neighborhood in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I still don’t think that there was anything odd about my pals and me dressing up like WWII soldiers and digging fox holes in the vacant fields behind the subdivision. It was a big treat to browse around the Sergeant’s Surplus store for old canvas backpacks, dummy grenades and such.

I didn’t turn out to be that demented.

This socialization process was the norm back in those days. I owned lots of toy guns, including a Sgt. Saunders Tommy gun by Mattel and a Marx bazooka that shot these blue plastic rockets.

When we played, nobody wanted to be the sniper because that entailed being alone and we all would rather storm pretend machine gun nests.

This is why I think there has always been a fascination with the lone wolf sniper persona.

There are plenty of other movies from Rambo to the Hurt Locker that include snipers in them. I’ve heard that American Sniper is very graphic. My guess is that any gore is left up to the imagination. I can’t see director Eastwood going over the top with any of that.

American Sniper will be on demand soon, I’ll likely live the life of Chris Kyle vicariously on the small screen.