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A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

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Wasilla

Wasilla is the place where I have lived for the past 29 years - sort of. The house in which my wife and I raised our family sits here, but I have made my rather odd career as a different sort of photojournalist by continually wandering off to other places to photograph people and gather information, which I have then put together in various publications that have served the Alaska Native Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities.

Although I did not have a great of free time to devote to this rather strange community, named after a Tanaina Athabascan Indian chief who knew Wasilla in the way that I so impossibly long to, I have still documented it regularly over the past quarter-century plus. In the early days, my Wasilla photographs focused mostly upon my children and the events they participated in - baseball, football, figure skating, hockey, frog catching, fire cracker detonation, Fourth of July parade - that sort of thing. 

In 2002, I purchased my first digital camera and then, whenever I was home, I began to photograph Wasilla upon a daily basis, but not in a conventional way. These were grab shots - whatever caught my eye as I took my many long walks or drove through the town, shooting through the car window at people and scenes that appeared and disappeared before I could even focus and compose in the traditional photographic way.

Thus, the Wasilla portion of this blog will be devoted both to the images that I take as I wander about and those that I have taken in the past. Despite the odd, random, nature of the images, I believe they communicate something powerful about this town that I have never seen expressed anywhere else. 

Wasilla is a sprawling community that has been slapped down hodge-podge upon what was so recently wilderness of the most exquisite beauty. In its design, it is deliberately anti-zoned, anti-planned. In the building of Wasilla, the desire to make a buck has trumped aesthetics and all other considerations. This town, built in the midst of exquisite beauty, has largely become an unsightly, unattractive, mess of urban sprawl. Largely because of this, it often seems to me that Wasilla is a community with no sense of community, a town devoid of town soul.

Yet - Wasilla is my home and if I am lucky it will be until I grow old and die. Despite its horrific failings, it is still made of the stuff of any small city: people; moms and dads, grammas and grampas, teens, children, churches, bars, professionals, laborers, soldiers, missionaries, artists, athletes, geniuses, do-gooders, hoodlums, the wealthy, the homeless, the rational and logical, the slightly insane and the wholly insane - and, yes, as is now obvious to the whole world, politicians, too.

So perhaps, if one were to search hard enough, it might just be possible to find a sense of community here, and a town soul. So, using my skills as a photojournalist and a writer, I hope to do just that. If this place has a sense of community, I will find it. If there is a town soul to Wasilla, I will document it. I won't compete with the newspapers. Hell no! But as time and income allow, it will be fun to wander into the places where the folks described above gather, and then put what I find on this blog.

 

by 300...

Anywhere within a 300 mile radius of Wasilla. This encompasses perhaps the most wild, dramatic, gorgeous, beautiful section of land and sea to be found in any comparable space anywhere on Earth. I can never explore it all, but I will do the best that I can, and will here share what I find and experience with you.  

and then some...

Anywhere else in the world that I happen to get to, such as Point Lay, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Serenki, Chukotka, Russia; or Bangalore, India. Perhaps even Lagos, Nigeria. I have both a desire and scheme to get me there. It is a long shot. We shall see if I succeed.

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Entries in Jay Leno (1)

Wednesday
Mar032010

The mean dog, revisited; nice dog; two good cats; I step into the house to find Palin, Leno, Romney and Letterman drawing laughs on TV

DateWednesday, March 3, 2010 at 4:01AM

This is the dog that I mentioned back in January; the one named Angel, the one whose woman says she is a real sweatheart who would bite no one, yet she has bitten me. I don't begrudge Angel; she thought she was doing a good thing and maybe she was.

As I stated in January, she is seldom out but when she is, it is always a memorable experience.

This is one of those nights when I simply do not have it in me to make a real post. So, since I had mentioned this dog recently, I went back into my archives and pulled her out. Perhaps some readers have seen Angel before, but it was a year-and-a-half ago when I originally put her in here and I didn't have very many readers then (as if I have  huge amounts now), so for those who have never met Angel before, I thought I would give you a treat.

Angel. The sweetheart.

Today, in the very same spot, I came upon this dog, who may possibly live in the same house with Angel. I am not certain. This dog is very friendly. It is the same dog that was carrying the stuffed turtle and almost got run over in front of me.

And here is Chicago and Royce, good cats both. When Chicago climbs on my lap or cuddles up alongside me and I put my hand on her, I feel healthy, warm, flesh beneath her fur. When I put my hands upon Royce or pick him up, I can feel the details of his bones.

He takes his medicine every day. His appetite remains good. He does not lack for energy.

I, however, do. 

So goodnight.

 

Wait! Wait! Not yet!

Immediately after I finished the above, I got up from my computer, left this office, stepped into the house and found Margie watching TV... The Tonight Show, with Jay Leno.

See? It's Margie watching Leno on TV - but who is that there with him...?

Why, It's my fellow Wasillan, Sarah Palin! 

I won't try to analyze this performance of Leno and Palin - there will be plenty of pundits and bloggers doing that. I will note that it was kind of a painful thing to watch and although I know Jay Leno is a gentle interviewer, his questions and comments seemed to have been written for him by Meg Stapleton - but no, she's not there anymore. So it must have been someone else.

And Palin did succeed in packing the audience with her people.

Going head to head with Leno and Palin was Letterman and Romney, who we watched during the commercial and then after Leno finished chatting with Palin.

The topic of health care came up and Romney said the way to go was not national, but that all 50 states should do as Massachusetts did when he was governor and create their own programs.

Letterman noted that among the world's nations, the US ranks somewhere way down in the low 30's in the quality of health care received by its citizens. Romney countered this by asking where the kings and queens of the world go when they are in bad need of health care? The US, he answered, as proof that this statement was false. He argued that we have the best health care in the world system.

Yes, if one is a king or a queen of a foreign country, then it is probably true the best health care they can get is in the US. The same is true for billionaires like Romney.

But how about some of us US citizens?

That care is not available to us, Mitt.

Kings and Queens, sure - but not us.

I may have more to say on this down the road a bit.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment16 Comments |
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