DC dining with Lisa - Inauguration Day post remains on hold

The fact of the matter is, the circumstance of my wife's injuries have prevented me from devoting the time necessary to complete my Inauguration post for so long now that it has lost all sense of immediacy. If Margie is able, we are going to return to Wasilla either Sunday or Monday and so I just may wait until I can sit down in my office and just do the post then.

Or maybe I will find the time to do it tomorrow, which is really today, as it is 1:49 AM Saturday morning that I type these words.

For the time being, it may have lost its freshness, but, 100 years from now, it will be just as fresh as if Margie had not been hurt and I had posted it the night of the inaugural, as I had planned.

So, for today, I will illustrate how Lisa and I have been dining while Margie lies in her bed in the guest house.

On the afternoon following the inauguration, we found this little 24 hour Steak and Egg Restaurant. Even though it was afternoon, we needed breakfast, so we went in. The food was excellent - especially the omelets. We took scrambled eggs back to Margie. We have eaten breakfast there everyday since, although we have not seen this cook again. He was having some kind of dispute with his boss. I wonder if that has anything to do with why?

Maybe he just took a vacation to Alaska. We told him what a great place Alaska is.

One of Lisa's great ambitions for this trip was to eat sushi in New York City. Now that we are not going to New York City, we decided to try D.C. Sushi instead. As it happens, this place sits right next to Steak and Eggs Restaurant. So tonight, we went here.

The sushi was quite good - except for the salmon. The salmon was bland. It was farm salmon. I don't know why they even bother. We brought terriyaki chicken back to Margie, who has never gotten used to the idea of sushi. Traditionally, Apaches shunned fish as food, which is curious as they are so closely related to Alaska's Athabascans, who eat fish by the ton. Margie does like wild Alaska salmon - cooked: roasted, broiled, fried, smoked or dried.

When I travel from Alaska to the Outside, I almost always find the salmon to be extremely disappointing. 

As for the cat shirt, we have fallen into a routine where, after breakfast, I drop Lisa off at the Metro and she goes into DC to do some exploring and I come back to Margie. Always, Lisa returns with a shopping bag full of Obama memories. Today, she found the cat shirt.

She was very pleased.

Outgoing President says Goodbye; Chris Matthews through the window - Inauguration post must wait one more day

President Bush says goodbye. As he does, a low, murmuring "boo" rises from many spread throughout the crowd. Then voices, scattered throughout, begin to sing, "sha-na-na-naah, sha-na-na-naah, hey-heyeeh, good-bye."

As for me and my inaugural post, I was unable to complete it today. When one's wife gets hurt far from home and enters a temporary state of helplessness, her care takes precedence over the blog.

I did get the pictures edited down to a reasonable number, however, and I do expect to post it tomorrow.

Still, I felt that I needed to post something today, so I thought I would throw in the outgoing President and then deal with the new one tomorrow.

I know - the nomination of President Barack Obama will be ancient history by then, but sometimes things go that way.

After the inauguration concluded, the three of us (Margie, Lisa and I) happened to walk by the portable studio MSNBC had set up on the National Mall as Chris Matthews and guest Norah O‘Donnell told viewers what they had actually saw this day. Matthews said the "booing" of President Bush had been in poor form, but was an accurate reflection of how the nation as a whole felt about the man.

 I shot a few pictures through the huge studio windows.

Lisa wanted to get on TV, so she took a seat on the MSNBC bleachers, which are frequently panned by the cameras. She was enthralled, and stayed there for hours and hours and hours, not giving one damn about the cold that had all of DC talking.

I would have been happy to stay, too, but cold and exhaustion had overwhelmed my Margie, so we walked to the Metro, rode the underground train to Friendship Heights, where she fell and broke herself.

I did not tell Lisa until I picked her up at the  Friendship Heights Metro station and then drove her back to the home where we were staying. She was having a great time, and I could see no point in putting a damper on it prematurely.

Besides, she had never before navigated the Washington, DC Metro system on her own and I did not want her to be distracted with worry and then maybe wind up on the wrong train.

Suurimmaanitchuat of Barrow: Another group of Alaskans headed to DC to march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama

I have many pictures of Suurimmaanitchuat dancing, mostly in Barrow at the Kivgiqs that have taken place over the past two decades. Kivgiq, also known as the Messenger Feast, is a great Iñupiat Eskimo celebration of dance, gift-giving and feasting on the real food of the north. Kivgiq was revived in 1988, but its roots are in antiquity.

So I intended to find some of my Kivgiq photos of Suurimmaanitchuat and post them here with this little note about their upcoming trip to Washington, DC where they will march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama. So I typed "Suuri" into my computer's search engine to see what might come up.

None of the Kivgiq pictures appeared - I must have them all stored on disk and out of the computer now - but these five of Suurimmaanitchuat performing at the dedication of the National Museum of the American Indian in September of 2004 did.

This seemed even more appropriate. 

The dancer above is Lia Sakeagak. The temperature at the time was in the 90's - somewhat warmer than it would have been in Barrow.

And this is Alunauq Hepa. 

Darlene Kagak.

This feminine Elvis wearing mukluks is Mae Ahgeak, who spotted the face of the King of Rock 'n' Roll in the mask section of a big store in Anchorage. Now she is the most famous Iñupiat Elvis impersonator in the universe. Dancing to her right is Darlene Kagak and to her left, Molly Pederson and Marie Neakok.

Iñupiat dance always involves invitationals, when all are invited to come and dance with the performers. I am not quite certain how everything will come together in DC, but if they get a chance at any time while they are there, be it immediately after the parade or at some other time, I am certain Suurimmaanitchuat will call up everyone who wants to come up and dance.

So, if any readers happen to be in DC for the Inaugural, keep your eyes and ears open. You will be welcome to join Suurimmaanitchuat in dance. The young man at the forefront is Robert Akpik, Jr.

I'm planning to follow the dancers to shoot some pictures. I will use the images in a Uiñiq magazine that I am working on, but I will also post a few here as well.

Colony Knights Marching Band feeds us spaghetti as part of its quest to march in the Inaugural Parade for Barack Obama

Two of my children, Rex and Lisa, graduated from Colony High, so I was very pleased when I heard that the school's marching band had been invited to march in the inaugural parade for Barack Obama. The fact that Margie, Lisa and I plan to be in DC at that time made me doubly pleased.

Then I learned that this had all happened so fast that the band was still far short of the funds needed to go. They had asked for $15,000 from the Mat-Su school board to help them reach their goal of $50,000, but the board, on a split 3-3 vote, denied the request. Those who opposed it expressed a fear that if they granted the money to the band, then other groups would come along and want special traveling money from them, too.

They made no distinction between an invitation to a Presidential Inauguration and a field trip somewhere.

So, when I learned that the band was holding fundraiser, I decided to go go buy a plate of spaghetti and do at least that little bit to help them get there.

Once I got there, I grabbed a bowl of salad and took a seat at the table right in front of the band. 

As I waited for my spaghetti to arrive, I pointed my camera at the above band members. Not knowing how the evening would turn out, they took a breath and prepared to make music.

They played jazz numbers with with energy and vigor. As they did, more people continued to stream in, to lay down their $10 for a plate of spaghetti to help send the band to DC. It was encouraging, but it would take a lot of spaghetti to make up for the shortfall this band faced.

When they finished the number, they relaxed a bit. Maybe, if there were some really generous people or organizations out there that might go overboard for a plate of spaghetti, they could relax even more.

Among those who had come bearing $10.00 bills was Joy Gifford and her daughter, Dani. Even though her daughter is not a member of the band, Joy wanted to support them because they were her peers and she knew that they would be in for an exceptional, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Dani had participated in another youth program that had taken her into Mediterranean Europe and Joy had saw how it had benefitted her daughter.

Dani came back to Alaska with a broader perspective on life and could better understand world and national affairs. Dani agreed, and noted that she good friends in the band and she wanted to help them get to DC.

Joy also noted that she had not voted for Obama, but that didn't matter. His Inauguration will be a very special moment in American history, she explained, adding that she is happy that the United States has reached a point in its development where a majority of the people could elect an African American.

"These students will witness this first hand. They will remember it for the rest of the their lives," she said.

The fundraiser was held at the Palmer Elk's club, which happens to be located in Wasilla at Barry's Resort on the edge of Finger Lake.

Colony High itself is like that. Some of the students live in Palmer, some in Wasilla.

The room where the fundraiser was held was lined with artwork and various items, part of a "silent auction" to reach beyond the fund-raising limits of spaghetti.

Once their instruments were put away, the Colony Knights Marching Band got an exceptionally pleasant surprise. See the lady holding the check on the left? That is Cheryl Riggs of the Mat-Su Health Foundation. The check is for $10,000 and comes from various pools of discretionary funds within the board's budget.

What could be more healthy for a young person than to march in a Presidential Inauguration parade? Other contributing board members include: Jack Williams, Larry Tallman, Terry Namtvedt, Linda Menard, Paul DuClos, Jr, Stacie Stigar and Deborah Prator.

The second check was presented by the gentleman standing at left, Bill Allen, Palmer City Manager. It is for $1000, from the City of Palmer.

The Rasmuson Foundation donated $2000.

All totaled, adding in spaghetti and silent auction funds, the night brought in about $17,000.

First, I apologize for not naming these girls, members of the band who can also sing. I should have written their names down last night, but I thought that today I would just email the photos to a source who would know and get all the students named.

It didn't work.

But they sang beautifully, and here the song is "Moon River."

To me, one of the most poignant and saddest - perhaps the very saddest - movie moments was in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" when Audrey Hepburn picked up a guitar and sang "Moon River."

But I side-track myself.  

The same scene from a little further back.

The lady in red is the person who headed up the fundraising effort: Lynn Gattis, Secretary of the Knights Music Boosters.

It appears to me that she did a pretty good job.

You can find the Knights Music Boosters website here.

And there is another group of Alaskans who will march in the Inaugural Parade:

Suurimmaanitchuat of Barrow

I will post some pictures of Suurimmaanitchuat tomorrow.

Dear Cousin Prakash: I wish that I could have known you better

The gentleman sitting with the boy on his lap is Prakash and the boy is his son, Karthik. Next to them sits Akila, the wife of Prakash. Sadly, she is now a widow and Karthik without a father, as Prakash lost his life just before the New Year began when he was struck by a bus in India. Prakash was 42.

I call him "cousin" in the title to this entry not because of any relationship of blood between us, because there is none, but to honor him and the family connection that first drew us together on the evening of August 22, 2007. That connection was the pre-wedding reception of my niece, Khena, to his nephew, Vivek, held in Bangalore in the south India state of Karnataka. 

Now Vivek is my nephew, too, and, by my way of thinking, that makes his Uncle Prakash my cousin.

I have a project in my head that I long to carry out, and that is to journey back into the places of origin and current habitation of all of my extended family, from the Apache and Navajo Indian Reservations of Arizona, the Mormon heartland of Utah and Southern Idaho, elsewhere in the Rocky Mountains, the coast of California,  the Midwest, Deep South, the East Coast and now India.

My purpose would be to photograph as wide a swath of my family as I can, and to tell what I can of the stories of this large, diverse, family that could not have been imagined by any member of it a little more than one generation ago.

This is from the next day, August 23, 2007, at the wedding. The very beautiful young lady that Prakash holds is niece Vaishnavi, also known as Sonal.

By itself, my ancient, new, family in India is large and diverse and though I met many of them at the wedding, in most cases, these were fleeting encounters. I have been privileged to get to know a few of them a little better. Vivek, of course; his parents, Murthy and Vashanti, who not only put me up for my final days in India, but visited us here in Alaska this past May, after which we all went down to Alta, Utah, to celebrate the second wedding of Vivek and Khena; Nephew Vijay - Vivek's brother - and his wife, Vidya, a friend to all animals and the mother of beautiful baby girl Vaidehi, born this past spring even as her grandparents were visiting us.

Through Cyberspace, we communicate regularly and send pictures back and forth.

Vivek's cousin Ganesh took me on a tour of Bangalore and is also special to my heart. Ganesh has two sisters, Soundarya (Sandy) and Sujitha (Barbie), both of whom will wed next month - Soundarya on Valentine's Day, which is also Margie and my wedding anniversary, and Sujitha the very next day, February 15.

It had long been the plan of both Soundarya and me that I would return to India to photograph her wedding, as we have shared an exceptionally special relationship since we met. I call her "Muse" and many of my days have been brightened by the mere appearance of a "sandyz" mail in my inbox.

I thought that on this second trip to India, I would begin to track down my new family members of south Asia; I would photograph them, both in portrait and candid form, visit with them, and begin to learn their stories.

But there was a communication mixup, and Sandy's wedding wound up being scheduled during the one event taking place here in Alaska this winter that I absolutely cannot miss.

Prakash, his beautiful wife and energetic son were among those I had hoped to photograph and visit.

Now, I do not know when I will return to India. To be honest, given the kind of year 2008 was for me, I lack the financial resources - although for Soundarya and Anil's wedding - and Sujitha's, too - a lack of resources would not have stopped me.

But I will return, because my family in India is exceptionally important to me. When I do, Prakash will not be there. His ashes were set free at his funeral in Chennai, but I will still learn what I can of him, and of Akila and Karthik, who I do hope to photograph.

For now, all I can do is to send my condolences.