alflet

Since my last posts about photography, I've upgraded to a Canon 6D, my first foray into full frame camera territory. Some folks insist that it's not necessary, rather one should spend their gear money on lenses. I am glad I ignored because it's made a big difference for me and my portraiture and I'm glad I made the leap. I've done quite a bit of portrait work, some as jobs doing senior portraits and weddings. Just last week I had my first-ever gallery showing. Last year I had a bunch of portraits printed on canvas and have been looking for a place to show them, pounding the pavement asking at coffee shops mostly, and I asked a guy who is a co-owner of a new coffee shop downtown on the wharf, with a great view and a chill atmosphere. He said he's had lots of artist friends who've expressed interest in showing work there but so far no one had brought anything in. So the next day, I showed up with some portraits! They made it into an event! Here in Juneau lots of downtown shops host "First Friday" events (first friday of every month) with lots of art, music and workshops n things. So last Friday, I was there for several hours greeting people and talking about my work and lots and lots of friends came out to support me. It was amazing.

For the past 2 years, or so, I've been concentrating on learning my indigenous languages. Actually, not just mine, either. I'm Ts'msyen (sometimes spelled Tsimshian) and Tlingit and I grew up hearing some Sm'algya̱x (the name of the Tsimshian language), and have learned a little from time to time but hadn't really used it much. But we had an opportunity to learn some a couple of years ago, from a teacher who came to town for a few days, and so a few of us Ts'msyen learned what we could and then after the teacher left, we started meeting regularly to practice what we know and to learn more together. It really became kind of a unique and positive thing for us. We have an Instagram where we share what we know. There are fewer than 60 fluent speakers in the world and so Sm'algya̱x is in imminent danger. There are no fluent speakers here in Juneau, so we rely on printed and multimedia materials and help from teachers who live elsewhere.

I've also been, to a lesser extent, learning Tlingit. It's a harder language to learn, but I am glad to try. There are more fluent speakers, but it's also endangered. There are more opportunities to learn here, since there are more speakers, willing to teach, and Juneau is in Tlingit country.

I've also been learning the Haida language. I'm not Haida, but they are our neighbors, their language is in danger of disappearing, too. I have a few Haida friends who are on the same mission us Ts'msyen are on. As an employee of Tlingit & Haida Central Council, I can open up our facilities to language and dance groups as long as I take responsibility for the building and equipment. So our Sm'algya̱x group has been meeting in a nice big conference room with a big computer screen for video conferencing and access to a kitchen, coffee pot and a printer. So I reached out to my Haida friends and offered to open up the space for them as well. So, since I'm there for their classes, I may as well learn. Right? So, I am learning Haida.

It's really been great to be a part of the language movement community here. We're supportive of each other and it's been healing for me and for others.

The link below is me telling the story of our Sm'algya̱x learners group.
https://www.sharingourknowledge.org/4-c-%E2%80%A2-130-200-%E2%80%A2-yaw-arts-105-%E2%80%A2-alfie-price/

I'm relieved. Glad the socially sanctioned flame-war is over. Glad that my job and health care aren't being threatened.

But I'm no fanboy. I expect better things from those who are chosen by The People on both sides of the "aisle". Last night I felt compelled to jot down some of my specific thoughts on what bothers me most.

http://alfiedude.tumblr.com/post/35189739243/open-letter-to-democrats

Well, I had my first kinda gig as a photographer last week. My regular job is an IT grunt, but the Graphic Artist/Media person knows of my hobby and tapped me to be a photographer at our Convention. I also did a little video and my regular tech support stuff. Busy as hell, but I racked up some good OT.

I have been in a near state of panic over doing photos because I'm used to doing them just for myself, family/friends for fun. I find myself comparing my skills and equipment to actual photographers and feeling a bit under-qualified. But, I guess I wouldn't have been asked if our publications lady didn't think I could do it. And now my pics are being used in press releases and newsletters around the state and at least one national news website and it's all kinda startling and a little scary. But in a cool way. It's been a good experience. I hope I can work out how to improve my skills and equipment and maybe do more in the future.

Lots of my pics are up on the tribe's website now. You can see three links here to web galleries. They're not all my pictures, though. A co-worker from the President's office called Allison took a fair number of them as well. You can't really tell who took which unless you d/l the pic and look at metadata, I suppose. She used the Nikon, I used my Canon T1i.

http://www.ccthita.org/government/assembly/events/index.html

The gallery called "Honor Dinner Web Gallery" features my Great-Aunt Mary Jones and her two children and also my kids are in the dance group that performs. I'm especially proud of that one.

Meanwhile, you can also check me out on Instagram: @darklordofall
and on EyeEm: @Alfie
and even on tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/alfiedude

Well, it seems LoudTwitter is broken again. Oh, well. If anyone's left reading this, you're probably tired of my endless photo links. Heh. Actually, it gets worse! I've been tweeting soundtracking posts now, too. Which is another app on my iphone that is basically like instagram for music. A fun concept but kind of poorly executed thus far. It's new, though, and they'll hopefully improve the user experience soon.

Anyway, if you have any desire to see my more current photos, you can check my flickr sets at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfie_price/sets/

or my flickr photos (random posts mixed in with the sets): http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfie_price/

I've been having a good deal of fun with photos, as I'd mentioned before. Sharing the joy with my daughter now, too. We went out yesterday to the Auke Bay Harbor and took a bunch of pics together. I taught her the basics of my 28 yr-old Minolta SRT200 Manual SLR camera and she happily took a roll of film's worth of pictures, most of which were really quite nice. You can see most of them on the aformentioned flickr set called "2011-03-20 Katy Minolta" The prints came out very nice and I also ordered up a CD with digitized versions which really sucked. The scans came out grainy compared to the prints. I think next time I will just get prints and scan in what I want myself. Will save 3 bux that way, anyways.

Right. Good talking with you, LJ. Don't be a stranger :)

Last night, my 3-yr old boy told me "I like you, Daddy!" and I smiled and said "oh, yeah?" and he said "yeah, you're awesome!"

Then he went on to say he also likes Mommy and Katy and Joel.

Well last night wrapped up Celebration 2010. My Mom LOVED Celebration and singing, drumming and dancing and learning/teaching our language and traditions. Some of the best times of her life were doing those things. So this year was a bit emotional for me. Katy is in a dance group so she got to perform. Kristin made a beautiful button blanket robe for Katy and she wore that as well as a couple items of Mom's regalia -- her dress and a clasp-patch thing, both bearing our Killerwhale clan icons. Katy doesn't have her own clan since her Mother is European-American (clan is determined matrilineally) so the crest on her robe was a butterfly (Tsimshian clan for those with no clan), designed by Mom. She had made one for Katy when she was very young and so it was way too small now so we got some materials from the dance group leader and I used my digital camera to take a pic of the old robe and displayed the image on a wall using a projector with my laptop. We tacked the felt material on the wall and Kristin used a sharpie to trace the pattern and she cut it out and sewed it all on, as well as the buttons. And she did it in short order. Amazing.

Katy had a wonderful time. She's been singing the songs all day and night, she wishes she had more performances and she is demanding that we learn more Shm'algyack (Tsimshian language). She played Mom's drum in the Grand Exit last night and she really did not want to quit. Come to think of it, she was reminding me an awful lot of Mom. Heh. Awesome.

And today was another busy day! I helped some friends & family with their dancing gear. My Mom's friend Theo and her daughter Marcella, grand-daughter Lydia and son-in-law Charlie came for Celebration from Anchorage and they needed me and my truck to help haul their stuff to the airport. Charlie was adopted by my Mom into the Killerwhale clan and so he's pretty much family. He has taken his duties so very seriously and it's amazing to see cause usually people don't take it to heart the way he does.

Anyway, Charlie and Marcella were really there for me when Mom was sick and when she passed away and I absolutely would do anything for them.

I posted a bunch of pictures on my facebook page but for you non-facebookers, I also put up the same photos on my website. The website pics don't have any descriptions cause I did them in kind of a hurry and there are a LOT of them but if you feel like checking them out, have a look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alfie_price/sets/72157630708111680/

We had to run the Scooby Doo DVDs back to Blockbuster tonight and when Katy got out the door she immediately pointed at the sky and exclaimed "Look at the Moon! It's so pritt-tee! I LOVE it!" She noted though it was a small crescent, she could see the outline of the rest of it. Again when we got the video store, she looked for it and again said how it was so pretty and she loved it. I told her that I was the same way when I was very little and even when I only knew a few words, moon was one of them. She's such a precious joy to me. My grrl. Then she made me hold her hand and help her jump across the gaps between the parking blocks. My grrl.

All while I had U2's "I Threw A Brick Through A Window" on in the Blazer.

I am in Metlakatla. Yesterday Mom asked me to come down here to be the one to tell Mohamed she's got cancer on her lung and has to do chemo and has to go through more procedures to treat the vile invader. She was worried about him and about my grandma. She was to stay in Anch through Monday to talk to the Dr. about the plan of attack.

She asked me just a bit before noon. The flight was to be at 2:20. I bought the tix online and went to Katy's school to tell her I had to go away for the weekend. She didn't want me to go and hung onto me and her little tribe of mothers came and helped out. It's one of the great things about her being the baby of the group in a class of 1-3 graders. Went home and threw a few things in a bag and wrote a quick note to K to tell her the sitch.

Got to the airport and found that the flight was to be way delayed. The ticket agent suggested I do the same as another passenger and fly to Seattle and then back up to Ketchikan. I called mom and asked her what to do. It was already too late to catch a flight or ferry to Metlakatla from Ketchikan. She called my Uncle and asked him to go to Ktn to pick me up on his fishing boat. I was supposed to arrive just after 5 pm. I waited around for mom to try to contact Uncle again and let him know of the added delays. The ticket agent made me rebook to the seattle flight anyways, even though I wasn't sure just so I could get checked in and clear security. So I followed further orders from older, wiser women and went through security.

I got on that flight and went to Seattle. I read. I was inspired by the magically delicious hyperaesthetika to reread one of my favorite books -- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. It's a wonderful read and the added insights at this particular point was soothing in a way. "People aren't overcome by situations or outside influences; defeat invades from within, I thought." I wish some lovely would travel miles and climb a roof in the middle of the night to bring me Katsudon.

I read. And I got to make use of the video function of my new iPod during the two hour-and-forty-minute flights. I watched some Daria and Animatrix:Beyond and several music videos by U2, Pixies, The Cure and New Order. I love the Temptation video where Victoria is in a black and white world until she gives into the temptation and suddenly there is color.

I had two hours in Seattle and picked up a couple little Seattle souvineers for Katy. I watched people. Everyone had a cell phone attached to his/her/its ear. People lined up at the coffee stands and looked frantic until they got their mix of java and sugar/cream/flavorings just right and then they looked like they just got a lungful of air after nearly drowning. I listened to flight announcements to places far and wee. When I turned my cell phone back on I saw I had a voicemail. It was from Mom, informing me that they were cutting her loose and she is to return in a couple of weeks so she was headed to Juneau. To my house. So I got on my flight to Ketchikan. It was late of course.

When I got to Ktn, I took the water taxi to downtown where Uncle was waiting. We got on his boat and headed to Met. So I arrived here after a long trip of listening to a couple of drunk people tell me about this and that and talk out their frustrations and feelings about Mom's situation and I wished I could just sit in silence.

Mohamed seemed to handle the news. Grandma seems to be okay. Everyone needs to talk it out except Me and Mohamed, it seems. We will try to be strong and help Mom get through it.

My Mom has cancer on her lung, but they caught it fairly early. Hasn't spread. Usually when they detect this type, it's too late but thanks to her yearly checkups, she's got a fighting chance to beat cancer again.

Last night I watched the lights of Seattle from the air.

Today I had deer meat curry over rice and visited with my Grandma and I loved listening to her tell me stories about my grampa and my oo-oolsh(great-grandma).

Today my cousin Keristyn, whose dad (my Uncle Bill) passed away a little over a year ago, got married on a boat out at Smuggler's Cove and didn't tell anyone. Her husband is a teacher and apparently a good guy -- everyone likes and respects him.

Today Mom is at my house with K and my Grrl.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Back at work today. Feels good, though a little strange. I took Monday off for Annual leave and then was sick Wed and Thur. I am taking almost two weeks off next month too, for Spring break and for teacher conference/in-service days. Yesterday I slept til noon and for the past couple of days I have been drinking lots and lots of aksh and taking vitamins and Kyolic. Seems to have helped a lot.

Juneau has "the Anime Store" now which is kinda neat. I went there today to see if they could help me track down reasonably priced videos of Kum Kum, The Prehistoric Cave-Boy but I really didn't hold out much hope. I mean if my kaorri couldn't find it for me, I figure it's pretty much impossible to get. I just can't see paying as much as 140 bux for the set. I did get a Sailor Moon VHS tape and some Pocky and other candy goodness for Katy for Valentine's.

Still pretty worried about Mom. She's doing a little better this week. Ready to go face it. She's so strong.

I skipped my meeting today in favor of chillin' with the guys at noon and playing Raven Shield. I don't want to make a habit of blowing off the meetings, but after the long week of solitude I decided what I wanted for today. Next week will be back to the meetings.

I've been really getting a kick out of The IT Crowd. The episodes have been available as bittorrents, which is cool. Hilarious show if you like geeky and/or british humor. K's even been watching it with me and busting a gut even more than me.

Katy had a really good bday party. She had a slumber party the night before with three of her buds from school and they were all good kids and I had fun with them. I told them a ghost story and they climbed on me like I was a jungle gym. The party was no different. They slid down me like I was a slide and I picked them up on my shoulder like a sack of potatos and spun them around and around the room. They loved it and I had fun and wore myself out. One of them watched an episode of Doctor Who with Katy and I and she in particular was fun to have around. All good kids, though. Some were just more hyper than others.