Solstice

Ah, that holy day: the longest day of the year. In the summer, it's the midsummer marker, the feastday for greeness, a bittersweet day because the night begins its return.

We'll be celebrating with some Scandinavians tonight, and we're bringing snitters and sour cream for the sild. They'll be providing the akvavit and the fire. And the herring, of course.

Hoo, hoo!

More on the food co-op

The Fairbanks Food Co-op has scheduled a visioning session at the Noel Wien Library on Monday, June 19, at 6 pm. They figure it should take about two hours to come up with a Vision Statement and a Mission Statement. As Dave Lacey says:

the Vision Statement and Mission Statement will give the outside world an idea of where we are coming from.
This will be important to present to lenders, granters, and potential members in the future to get them on board and to guide us in the process. The Vision Statement states where we are now and the Mission Statement states where we want to be in the future.

Terri Barbers will facilitate, and the session is open to all who wish to see a food co-op here in the Tanana Valley.

Zarqawi: the incredible dying man

When I heard the news about Zarqawi's death on Friday, my first thought was, "What--not again?"

Al-Zarqawi has been killed more times than any man alive--uh, dead--um--well, never mind. Then I heard that they had identified him not just by the clothes on the body, and the appearence of the remains, and the fingerprints, but by DNA testing! Per the Washington Post, among others:

Zarqawi's lifeless body was immediately recognizable to those at the house, Caldwell said, and the discovery of tattoos and scars that he was known to have confirmed the identification. Fingerprint tests returned a 100 percent match, and results from DNA testing are expected within the next day or two, Caldwell said.

Tough guy, but hey, that's small potatoes when you consider how many times he's been killed before. Matt McCollow of Online Journal has unearthed all those other apparently greatly exaggerated reports of Zarqawi's death.

Amazing that there was anything left to check out after not just one, but two 500-pound bombs. Now they're saying that he lived for almost an hour after the bombing. And according to one witness, the US soldiers there behaved like base idiots:

Ahmed Mohammed, a local resident who said he rushed to the scene shortly after the bombs struck at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, said on Friday that he and others helped pull a bearded man he now believes was Zarqawi from the rubble.

When U.S. forces arrived, they took the man aside, Mohammed said, and kept asking him his name. When he did not respond, the soldiers kicked him and hit him, Mohammed said, until his nose began to bleed.

McCollow asks an insightful question:

Even the most credulous person would have to wonder: how many times can you kill someone before they're finally dead?

The more informed person however, might ask: How many times can you kill a dead man?

The answer to both questions could be: As long as people will believe it.

So, chumps, how many times are we going to believe? The next Zarqawi awaits!

Belling the cat

The corporate cat has just encountered some organized resistance to its supposed personhood. Measure T passed; now Humboldt County just has to get past the court battle. But an encouraging sign is that even national pubications like the Nation are paying attention.

The website Reclaim Democracy has an interesting collection of information on the concept of "corporate personhood". Thom Hartmann has written about this threat to individual freedom extensively; check out his site.

Fairbanks Food Co-op creation

A group of locals are getting together to discuss the formation of a local, whole & natural foods store. Dave Lacey came by the new Republic office and told me about it. Dave went to a co-op development workshop in May in Portland, Oregon, and the first official meeting of the organizing group was on the 7th. The next step is a visioning session (date to be determined, but it's either the 17th or the 19th) to come up with a mission and direction for the co-op to go. They're going to do a feasibility study (it'll probably cost around $6,000, so they'll be doing some fundraising).

The group clarifies what they mean by "food co-op":

what we mean by a food coop is a natural foods store similar to the old Whole Earth Store that we used to have here. It is not a buying club whereby some folks get together and place an order from some out side food warehouse. It will have to break even like any business but it will be owned by the members who contribute. The members will elect a board of directors who will direct the business operations. This gives us local control and thus we do not have to depend upon the corporate dinosaurs for our food here as much.

I really miss the old Whole Earth (when it was on College Road, where the Farmers Market is now). It was great. Things like food co-ops, the Farmers Market, CSAs like Calypso and Rosie Creek, local bakeries and farms and so forth--these all are really important to creating a good life locally, free of the stale impersonality of food shipped three thousand miles or more. It's nice to have exotic foods from the rest of the world, but to have ONLY that makes life poor.

Fairbanks Open Radio

The KUAC Listeners Alliance has spun off a community radio station organizing group, FOR. Right now they are beta testing a newsite.

KUAC finally has the recommendations of the Foraker Group up on their website. Took 'em a while. They developed a "KUAC and AlaskaOne Community Advisory Council Operating Principles" document, and posted it as a PDF on the site, with a link from the main page.

Would have been courteous to send us former task force members an e-mail or something letting us know the outcome...

O, the snow in June falls mainly on the sprouts

Well, after a couple of days watching big fat snowflakes falling all over my zucchinis, we've had a lovely summer day, nice and warm and not too buggy. My squash and sunflowers survived (they were the only plants in the ground), thanks to rubber tubs and refrigerator bins kept over their little fronds for most of two days. For extra insurance, I covered them with a plastic bag, and then covered 'em up in the dark under the plastic tubs.

Last night I left them exposed to the elements, and everybody seems to be fine.

Ah, Alaska. Thought I'd never see a good old-fashioned spring again. (Getting snow down in the valley is unusual this time of year, but I remember several Junes and a ton of Mays where we had a brief snow.)

Ester Art Walk

Ester is having its first ever art walk, this First Friday, June 5, starting around 5 pm and ending around 9. Stops are, from one end of Ester to the other:

The Firehouse Aurorarium, featuring LeRoy Zimmerman's Photosymphony show, featuring panoramic photography and music, cleverly arranged and with breathtaking shots of aurora and the Alaska landscape.

Ester Hatworks, where Judy Stauffer makes hats, scarves, mittens, jackets, blankets, socks, headbands, vests, and other warm things from Polar Fleece, a lightweight, colorful, warm, fabric with high breathability. Its sort of fuzzy, but doesn't pill up. Her designs are pretty nifty: I've got a few things made out of it myself, and Hans loves the socks.

In the HeART of Ester, operated by Amy Cameron Luick and Hope L. Colitz, which sells locally made art: cards, paintings, prints, sculpture, knit items, t-shirts, photographs, collages, books, papers, jewelry, glasswork, and a bunch of other cool things.

PhotoSynthesis, Monique Musick's photography studio, including (this month) her photographs of Denali, and of course the Women of Ester Calender.

The Old Post Office Espresso Publishing House, also known as The Ester Republic (now finally in the new digs!), selling newspapers, books, and artwork by the publisher.

The Golden Eagle Saloon, just for the heck of it, featuring the odd painting, a ton of odd snapshots, and the local characters (canine and human).

Judie Gumm Designs, Judie's silversmith studio and shop, with all her wonderful pins and necklaces and broaches and whatnot inspired by the forms of plants and animals of Alaska, ranging from very realistic to extremely stylized and abstract.

This is all on Main Street. Before you get to Ester (or after you are heading back to town), make sure you stop in to see the Doll Show at the Annex Art Space, Nancy Burnham's excellent art gallery in front of Water Wagon on the Parks Highway.