“If need be occupy a throne where nobody can call you crone.” Robert Frost
Immigration Blues
The past few months have left us spinning. Sink holes in Guatemala City, Israelis seizing and killing aide workers bent on providing goods to blockaded Palestinians, massive environmental disaster in the gulf, deadly upheavals in Jamaica and Bangkok, earthquakes (including one that devastated Haiti)….We all could go on and on. It’s hard to keep hand to the rudder and remember all the other social justice issues around the globe. And to remember to support and defend and feed those less fortunate in this limping world.
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Around the Great Bend
The Union Tourism Association is publishing a monthly newsletter for communities on Hood Canal. It is called Around the Great Bend. I’ve been asked to write a history column. I’ll post these columns plus columns in progress
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Technological Problems
Today was the reunion/tea at the refurbished Minegishi house. Sue Kikuchi invited and members of the Motomatsu, Abo, and Sato families were present. Notes and photographs will be posted soon.
I was ready with both my Canon Pixma camcorder and Sony HD Cybershot. I trust these cameras. But I made a mistake when I tried to load a new SD card into the camcorder. I ended up shoving a Sony memory stick in the slot. Of course I couldn’t get it out. Well, crum. I thought I had another SD card. I didn’t. But once the mistake was made, I couldn’t have used it anyway. Good reason to have cameras with compatible cards. I’d really like a Canon with more pixals so if I have a windfall, this will be on the list. Another problem. The last two times I have imported Sony movies from the Cybershot into IMovie, the playback is too fast. Solved this today by converting the clips and using the speed slide to change the speed. But this is odd. I still use the Sony movie option as backup even though quality is nothing like the Canon. I changed the speed slider so that I am going to 80% to get the sound right.
Posted in Mountain of Shell: The Senryu Poets of Oyster Bay, Uncategorized
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Katie Gale’s Tombstone: Landscape, Power, and Justice on Late 19th Century Oyster Bay
Today is February 21, 2010. After a marathon writing weekend, I’ve finished the book. I’m almost sick with giddiness. I’ll get it in the mail within the next two weeks. (I’ll have to do another read through.) Then decisions. My goal is to have this out and available this year.
Meanwhile, wonderful happenings on the Mountain of Shell project. I had a good interview with Justin Taylor and Charlie Stephens this week. I taped Justin. Charlie showed me a mounted calligraphy of a poem Mr. Sato had given him. I’m going to see Eleanor Barrick, the widow of “Short” Barrick this week. This is the family that cared for the Abo’s property while they were at Tule Lake. This coming weekend, Sue Kikuchi and her daughter Julie are hosting a tea for the Japanese-Americans on the bay…a first gathering in years! Their remodel/restoration of the beautiful Minegishi home is completed.
Posted in Katie Gale: A Coast Salish Woman's Life on Oyster Bay, Uncategorized
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Speaking of Which
Other work of mine on the web:
Check out Sally Cloninger’s site and specifically
http://academic.evergreen.edu/c/cloninsj/YWPexcerpt.html
This is an excerpt of Your Willing Power, a film I coproduced with her and Peter Randlette. More recent is the piece Sally and I completed called Wild Water Women Reunion on the Evergreen State College visual history website:
http://visualhistory.evergreen.edu/wildwaterwomen.html
Posted in Publications and Where to Find Them
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New Rajasthan Soundscape Blog
Devon Leger at Northwest Folklife has created a blog with my Rajasthani Soundscape produced fall of 2008. He’s included quite a few photographs I made during the trip. Here’s what I wrote about the trip and soundscape for Devon.
In fall of 2008 I travelled to Rajasthan, India with a small group of visual artists. My project was to produce a portfolio of portraits. I used a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H9 for the pictures. I was inspired by Charlie and Angeliki Keil
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From the Rogue River
Solstice. I can’t see the sun for the fog along the river valley. I hang over the kitchen sink in the river house, into the garden window, to get an internet connection. I’ve been here a month now and have had a wonderful, surprising time.
I’ve added a new story. Check out Judo, Zane, Mr. Weewart, and I. I’ve linked videos on Here’s Reggie and Mountain of Shell to YouTube. Should be smoother sailing for most viewers. I’ve tried to reformat and reinsert the Mountain of Shell power point video but so far have failed. Stay tuned.
My goal is to add two or three new video links to Mountain of Shell. Now I will be working with material from the Mac and edited with IMovie so I hope problems with compression and upload will be solved and I can wean myself off the old Dell.
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New Work on Mountain of Shell Project
On Saturday, November 7, 2009, Mary Abo and I met and took a trip to Lacey to visit Mrs. Sato. We were hosted by both her daughter and son. Mrs. Abo had prepared extensively for our visit. She had looked over the topics we hoped to discuss with her. She had found a number of Mr. Sato’s Senryu about working on Oyster Bay and had written out and translated several of her own. We were able to get a much better sense of how the Senryu group on Oyster Bay started, how the monthly publications of Senryu were organized, and how Mrs. Sato became involved in producing those. Mrs. Sato read some of her own work. Harry Sato was especially helpful in identifying leads for the eventual archiving of the project materials.
On the way home, Mary Abo and I stopped to visit with Nancy Motomatsu and Aki Motomatsu. Nancy gave me a copy of The Japanese Inn to read. We all planned to visit with Mrs. Sato again sometime in January.
Meanwhile, I’ve been using the camcorder with more assurance. I’ve done a number of Bay scenes and some shots of entrances to both the Abo and Motomatsu houses. I’ve scanned more photographs and poems.
This work moves at just the right pace. I’m hoping to use my time on the Rogue River in December to do more editing on both the Tule Lake sequences and the Poets of Oyster Bay sequences.
Posted in Mountain of Shell: The Senryu Poets of Oyster Bay
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Mountain of Shell Update
Click on Mountain of Shell in the right hand column and scroll to the bottom. You’ll see a blue screen.
This 18 minute piece is the 2007 presentation that was used to introduce the project. It will give the viewer an overview of the people and places involved in the project.
Some of the buildings, including the workers’ cabins, have since been torn down.
The brick Minegishi house is currently being restored, however. The Brenner Oyster Company buildings still have nearly original “footprint”.
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