Wednesday, April 2, 2008

HUMPDAY UMPTACULAR UPDATERRIFIC UPDATE

ARTIST OF THE WEEK: ME!!!!!!!!!!
This week it is all about this really cool artist I know, personally actually, who lives and teaches out on an Eskimo Island in the Bering Sea all alone. His name is Kale Iverson and his album is called "Radiate Warmth." He's been locked up in his apartment all winter writing music about the changes he's seen in the Native Eskimo people who live there and also the changes he's seen in himself. With the help of his trusty MacBook computer, a borrowed guitar from school, and his improvisational singing and poetry skills this one of a kind album will blow you away with its heartfelt look into the mental processes of social isolation and the impact of western culture on native people. To listen to this album please visit the Album Website at Independent Artist Incorporated: http://iacmusic.com/artist.aspx?id=100852
I know it is cheesy, but check it out if you like.

WEATHER ON NUNIVAK ISLAND:
It has been a roller coaster week of weather here. After a strong low pressure front that brought in 40 degree temps and lots of snow, a rain storm hit, melting much of our massive snow drifts and reserves. The tips of the tundra are showing through and its exciting to see grass shoots, moss, lichen and other tundra friends. Its about 21 degrees today, with a 12 MPH wind and low clouds. I expect the blizzard watch in effect won't be actualized by any real precipitation.

OLD PERSON PHRASE OF THE WEEK
This old person phrase always cracks me up. It usually pops up when an old person stumbles upon or witnesses an act of violence, carnage, shock, terror or bafflement. "GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST" hehehehe. So funny. If you come home to a dog that has chewed up the house, you might say "Great Caesar's Ghost" upon opening the door. Hopefully you won't have to use this anytime soon.

WEBLINK OF THE WEEK: SPEARHEAD VIBRATIONS
Well I've heard through the grapevine that there will be a new Michael Franti and Spearhead album coming out soon. If this is the case then many of you need to become acquainted with him so that you can be ready! I first heard him Australia from my friend Heath. He introduced me to many artists like Xavier Rudd, Jon Butler Trio and Franti. All of them sing and perform content that is about the type of politics I care about, the type of difference you can make with your heart and hands, not your money and power. Franti is from San Francisco (go figure, mecca of social revolution in my opinion) and tours the world. He will be in Anchorage on the 17, 18 of April, I won't be going ($1000 dollars roundtrip budgeted out). I can't wait to see him this summer hopefully. You should check out his DVD "I know I'm Not Alone" where he travels to Baghdad Red Zones and sings to the poeple. I saw him at Bumpershoot in Seattle right after Katrina hit and he kept passing boxes around the crowd to raise money, it was more important than the show to him at the time. I don't think it is a gimmick with him, he's true. And he cares. I look up to the work he's doing, and the Music he's making.

ART UPDATE:
I have been working on my own real artist music site for a week or so now. Its not completely done but its getting there. People can listen to free streaming of the songs, or if you want to download them you can for only $.25 a song. Its the lowest price they'd let me set. I hope everyone enjoys the songs, I picked them because of song quality, content and musicianship. Let me know what you think!

CLUSTRMAP UPDATE:
Plodding along at our natural pace of 20 to 40 readers a day, Radiate Warmth has expanded its reach to include more coverage of South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. We have had about 1400 site hits since Feb. 9 2008. I have been receiving more and more personal email from people who randomly found and read the blog, which amazes me and makes me content. If you're not comfy commenting here, you can always email me kaleiverson@hotmail.com okey dokey?!

BIG UPS!!!: Alisha
I would like to give a freakin' massively huge BIG UPS to Alisha for the following reasons:
1.) Her blog is incredible, she is the master of documenting Bethel experiences. To check out Alisha's Bethel Blog click here
2.) She also got me Cadbury Cream Eggs.
3.) She made me dinner and breakfast and took me to and from Cama'i
4.) She made my taxes a breeze and way less stressful.
5.) She has been standing up for new teacher rights in an effective teaching practice for the New Teacher Cultural Class.
6.) She let me kick her little brothers butt at Madden on the Playstation. Avery, you sucker.
7.) She is a great person and deserves all the best

A NEW BLOG FEATURE: IAC PLAYER
You may have noticed the soothing sound of my nasally voice and mediocre guitar playing as you opened the blog site today. That is because I have added a music player of my Independent Artist Inc. Page. You can hear the songs here on my blog. But if you want song lyrics and background information head to the link above or to the side bar. After this week I'll shut off the automatic start and go back to the Project Playlist Player for my regular music picks of the week.

RADIATE CONNECTIONS:
***if you are a random (Starts with and M) reader that is a friend of MaryAnne Leary's my neighbor here on Nunivak, she said you read my blog and has asked me to tell you that she has lost your email and if you could email her since she's moving this summer she would appreciate it.


Funny Bethel Story

While sitting at Grant Aviation yesterday, a totally kassak white dude with a shiny new unused jacket, shiny bald head, and shiny white teeth was talking to me. I was sitting with my elder ladies trying not to seem to like this guy (which wasn't hard). Irene's brother Fred was there too. The white guy started complaining about how someone has stolen his shoes out of Bentley's Inn the night before. Since he saw an identical pair but one size smaller he deduced that the person accidentally switched them in the mud room, and since he was heading out to the bush he needed something. So he just took the shoes and left. Well Fred sits down wearing the dorkyest pair of black Payless Dress shoes I've ever seen in my life. He then proceeds to tell me how someone stole his boots at Bentley's last night and he had to borrow these crappy rentals from the hotel manager.
Then he looks at the feet of the guy next to him and says,
"HEY THOSE ARE MY BOOTS GIVE THEM TO ME NOW!"
The guy was like, "Where are my boots?"
Fred made him give him the boots, it was hilarious. He gave him the crappy shoes, which made the white guy look even more ridiculous and annoyed. I just sat there laughing like a jerk, but it was funny. That type of story only could happen in Bethel. That story IS Bethel in a nutshell.

Last Thoughts


Since today is the Writing portion of the SBA/HSGQE I wanted to impart this funny incident. A student called me over to ask a question: "What are the problems in our village, because I don't think we have any." Because of the strict security around these tests and the fact that I don't look at the test booklets for fear of losing my job I will leave out why he would ask a question like that on a Writing Test. Needless to say, after a whole weekend of hearing what is wrong with various villages, this is an extremely ironic question to be asked. I was kind of baffled really. It just goes to show you how much of a disconnect there is between my perspective and theirs. I simply replied the rote response that I am allowed to say, "Read the question carefully and answer it to the best of your ability." How horrible does that sound.

3 comments:

alisha said...

THANKS FOR THE BIG UPS, KALE. It was good to see you this weekend, although I kind of felt like I hardly got to see you. You can kick Avery's butt anytime...he could use a positive male butt kicking influence in his life anytime.

ok, i feel like i'm hogging the big ups, so you are not allowed to big up me for at least a month of weekly updates. thanks for Radiating some Warmth my way! Maybe now i can get some more readers.

Only 7 weeks til summer! go us!

Anonymous said...

awww, kale, i loved your comment! mason and i can't wait to hang out with you, too! i read your blog everyday, too, and i've even got my sister reading it. we both love it!

today i sat and listened to your album while i worked and i really like it! my absolute favorite is #3. so catchy!

as for reading blogs, seriously, sometimes i'll start reading one and then click to another from there and another from there and suddenly realize that an hour has gone by and all i've done is learn random things about other people's lives when i'm supposed to be working. haha. oops. i'm a blog dork FOR SURE!

oh, and btw, if you do happen to become a famous rockstar and mason is your manager and the two of you take off to conquer the world, I'm coming along for the ride. Just so you know. ;)

Anonymous said...

This was part of an email that was sent to me today and I thought I would share it with you. Leave it to Dr. Seuss to make the world less complicated!

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss


This is a great motto for any age!!!

Loves-
Jen


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