The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly all in one week.

This has been a fast paced week.  Whomever complains that there is nothing to do in Alaska between the seasons is lacking in imagination.  I was privileged to be chosen to be on the feature film jury for the Anchorage International Film Festival, which requires critical screening of the features that are being considered for the top prize.

It isn't easy.  I've watched all but one of the very diverse films and several are are extremely compelling.  My favorite thus far is very irritating to me.  It is a good film, reminiscent of some of my all time favorite films.  But the director chose to flip back and forth between two languages without consideration for the setting.

I totally understand a scene where a bunch of people who all speak the same language converse in that language, thats normal.  Here you find scenes where several people are in a room speaking to each other in different languages, that just doesn't make sense.  Brains don't process that way.

And they also had a inappropriate score, which can throw a movie completely off balance.  I want to go back in, reshoot two or three scenes and find someone new to rework the score.  Then, instead of a good movie, it will be a great movie.  Unfortunately, that isn't an option.

Shooter/Editor Daniel Hernandez joined us on this short

The Living Wild ~ Alaska ladies filmed our own short, a submission to the Alaska Distillery Smoked Salmon Vodka-themed short, at the Camel Rock Lounge in the Dimond Center Hotel early in the week.

It is a wonderful place to shoot, the warm reds of the walls are rich and inviting, and the sound quality in the room is nice.  If you haven't been into the Dimond Center Hotel yet, get over there.  Perfect place for a romantic getaway if you like contemporary style with an Alaskan flavor.

Discovered a new restaurant (for me) Crush, right across from Nordstroms.  Great staff, great atmosphere, and the man2woman ratio was definitely tipped in Bella and I's favor.   The portions are perfect for someone like me who wants a new flavor every ten minutes, and the prices made ordering several dishes very reasonable.  I tried the Pear & Stilton salad, Truffled White Bean Pate, a plate of cheeses, fruit, and nuts, and a buffalo steak that was cooked to perfection.  Would order all of them again in a heartbeat.  Not a fan of the decaf mocha which was bitter, heavy, and not even close to the cream with chocolate-coffee flavoring that I had asked for.

Attended the first Alaska Miners Association Legislative Oversight Committee meeting of the season, and I have to tell - I LOVE ALASKA'S MINERS.  Let me tell you why.  Their biggest focus is having the process of mining in Alaska be fair to all concerned, predictable, and reasonable.  They actively push the State of Alaska to pay their folks enough salary so that they can attract and retain the best quality staff possible for oversight.  They are professionals who have the best interests of the State close to heart, and I look around the table and there isn't one soul who seems to be in the game to grab all the dough and run not worrying about what they are leaving behind for the next generation.  I love these guys.

Got hit with some mud thrown by hopeful Lynda Zaugg at Representative Charisse Millett, that chipped me.  As if we even look like we are the "partying" kind of girls in the photo she ripped from our site.  Not that kind of party, anyway.

Had one of those golden moments God hands you getting my snow tires put on at Johnson's Tire Center and being able to visit with old friends I hadn't seen from in a million years, Brad Snowden and Sterling Grover.

Braved the business end of Kelly Whitworth's chair to get micro derma abrasion and Photo facial just before shooting Pamyua's new music video.

Bella and I represented the White Tribe, and we did our best to make all the other tribes look significantly better coordinated and cool than we were.  Wasn't difficult.

Where is the Love?

Dorene Lorenz, Charisse Millett, Bella Coley

I am disappointed by how negative this political season has become, and hope we don’t reward that type of ugly behavior.  As a Seward resident, never in a million years did I think I would get caught in the middle of of mudslinging in an Anchorage race, but I have.

Recently, I produced a webisode about public servants who “Get It” entitled It's All about the Love.  It was billed as a gentle reminder that we are blessed to live in a State with a small population, we all need to be kind to one another, and use more sugar than vinegar.  Featuring snapshots of smiling happy faces of politicians from all parties working together, and holding our children close, I thought I had made my point.

The irony that my political statement to keep it fair, clean, and about the positive was ignored by candidate Lynda Zaugg who chose to lift a clearly copyrighted photograph off my official Living Wild ~ Alaska Facebook fan site and use it in a personal, mean spirited negative attack against her opponent is pretty painful.

I’ve never sat down for a meal with Representative Charisse Millett.  I’ve never donated any money to her campaign.  She has never instituted any action that I am aware of on behalf of the non-profits that I volunteer for.  We didn’t go to high school together, we’ve never even traded a pair of shoes.

I like Representative Millett.  I have watched from a distance how she has handled herself in her personal and professional life, and, if I lived in her district, which I don’t, I would be proud to have her as my representative.  She seems to be hard working, dedicated, sound in judgment, and has Alaska’s best interests at heart.

I would not be so forward as to qualify myself as her friend.  I am not a lobbyist.  I certainly am not her “political insider” - I didn’t even have her personal contact information until I became aware of this Zaugg deal - and it was only given to me because it is inappropriate to discuss election information over her legislative e-mail address. 

Lynda Zaugg, however, placed my photo of Representative Millett, myself, and my cast mate Bella Coley on both sides of a mailer boldly suggesting that Millet was “Partying with Lobbyists and Political Insiders Downtown while claiming that she had pneumonia."

It is beside-the-point that the party was the Mayor’s Charity Ball, that Representative Millett volunteers her time as a board member for the Red Cross, one of this year’s beneficiaries of the event, and Millett made a brief show of support then went home early.

What is very disturbing is that hopeful lawmaker Zaugg felt that it was okay to break federal law, make sophomoric disparaging comments about her opponent, and tell bald face lies about people and situations she has no knowledge of. 

This demonstrated lack-of-character is a painful example of what has become commonplace during this election season... because Alaskans have allowed it to happen.  It is time to stop rewarding bad behavior and get our public servants back to a space where they actually serve the public.

Things about Dorene you Never Knew, and Never Wanted To

I don't wash my face.  I know that sounds odd, but it is true.  Not to say that I walk around with a dirty face.  I stick it under the nozzle in the shower and give it a good blast, and rub make up remover around on a cotton ball until the color stops coming off before I go to bed...but in the American sense, I don't wash my face.

I don't take a hot washcloth and fill it up with soap and scrub my face like the kitchen floor.  I don't draw the sink full of water and stick my head in like I am dunking for apples.  I just don't do these things.  Having the skin on my face feel crispy clean is not a pleasant sensation for me.  

So when my now personal skin whisperer Kelly Whitworth tells me that I have to wash my face TWICE a day, I am just a bit skeptical that I am going to be able to pull this off.  Dorene Translation:  Face Washing = drying cracking skin and water all over the floor.  Now that's something to look forward to.

PCA skin Creamy Cleanser comes in a slick skinny plastic bottle with a smart black cap and smells like the Nikiski soap they sell at Flypaper that comes wrapped in wool.  Just slash some warm water on your face, rub a tiny bit of cleanser between your hands, and rub-a-dub-dub.  Then splash more water around rinsing off the cleanser.

Not a fan of the mess, but afterwards my skin feels...clean.  Not squeaky clean, just clean.  Clean is important, because all the rest of the lotions and potions that Kelly has crammed into my bag get absorbed into the skin, and if there is something between them in and skin we start to have issues.

"The epidermis layer of the skin contains an acid mantle layer which limits the amount of substances entering though the skin that affect the body to a minor degree," says the PCA website.  Yes, it is true, I actually looked this up before I applied something specifically designed to remove my protective acid mantle layer shield.

I don't know much about the science of skin, don't really want to know much about the science of skin.  I bet Kelly can spell epidermis without looking it up on dictionary.com so I am taking her word for it on the stripping off the acids theory.

The bottle tells me that it is filled with a nourishing blend of rose hip seed oil, aloe and amino acids  and that it infuses skin with antioxidant and cell-regenerating benefits for radiant, younger-looking skin.  Key Ingredients: Rose Hip Seed Oil, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Sunflower Seed Oil  and Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice.  Those all sound fairly familiar and not quite so scary.

Lets move down to the fine print.  Ingredients: Water - actually surprised it is the first ingredient because this stuff is thick.  Glycerin - that makes it a soap, cough, cleanser.  Caprylic - no idea, Behenyl Alcohol - a cocktail I don't drink.

Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate - I'm going out on a limb and suggest this might have something to do with coconuts and the ability to suds up but it has been two decades since I was the spokesmodel for Alaska Shampoo and I don't remember much from that lifetime.

Hydroxpropyl Methylcellulose - Sure, right on that one.  Phenoxethanol - clueless.  Hamamelis Vinginiana (Witch Hazel) Water - Witch Hazel, good for dying up zits!  Score one for Dorene for figuring that one out!

Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate - hmm, salt coconut molecules?  Rose Canina Fruit Oil - Rose hips.  Sucrose Sterate- Sugar that can't reproduce?  Yucca Shidigera Leaf/Root/Stem Extract - One of those pointy desert plants.  Hellanthus Annuus (sunflower) Seed Oil - Big yellow flowers with crunchy centers, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder - Why would you powder juice instead of adding less water?  Not getting that.

Xanthan Gum - Not quite like Trident, just guessing.  Lacandula Hybrida Oil - sounds like something used for happy ending massages in a bad porn movie, and Potassium Sorbate - which sounds like a Japanese ice cream flavor to me.

End of the blog, it works and is no more messy than liquid soap and significantly less messy than the hard bar of Dial I used to have to clean up after when I was married, so I'm down with it.

Susie Chapstick

I am not a lotions and potions kind of girl, but I have this uneasy feeling that today marks the day that I officially moved into that category.

It started out simple enough - shower, which means shampoo and condition my hair and shave.  Floss and brush my teeth.  Pull hair into ponytail.  Apply mascara and lipgloss.  Meet Bella and Kelly at Cafe del Mundo.

Not a lot of steps to my daily routine.  Seward has an ideal humidity for my skin type, so my beauty regime mostly consisted of what I didn't do.  Didn't smoke.  Didn't drink.  Didn't stay out all hours of the night.  Didn't get up at the butt crack of dawn.

My cousin Kim, who has flawless skin, would always gently insist that I do something.  She would kindly offer me a bottle of nectar to stave away the wrinkles, and later complain about the quality of my complexion.

That was then, this is now.  Anchorage is a desert, and the dry air makes my skin hurt.  In the world of HD, every fine line is magnified and captured for posterity.  Bella complains about the amount of time she spends Photoshopping my pictures so I don't look like a grannie.

Both she and Kelly looked flat mortified when I shared that I often use Vaseline and Chapstick to moisturize my skin in the winter, and Bag Balm in the summer.   Oil of Olay got way to complicated for me when they rolled out the different tiers of product, but I'm telling you right now it did right by my Grandma Mom.

When I accepted Kelly's kind offer to set up a program to take better care of my skin, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Now Kelly Whitworth is a trained professional, a medical esthetician, she does this skin stuff for a living so I will quickly grant she knows what more about skin than I ever care to.   She rolls out all these latin words like I roll out sugar cookies.  I think she even knows how to spell them.

I was honestly thinking Kelly would suggest some miracle creamy thing you slapped on when it got cold so your cheeks and nose wouldn't get more frostbit, and something else around the eyes to smooth out the wrinkles that was featured in a Popular Science issue that I missed.

No such luck.  The large bag was filled with boxes and bottles.  Filled.  It came with written instructions that laid out how a counter full of products would be applied in which order twice a day.  Twice a day.

Against my better judgment, confident this was going to be a waste of time, I spent a ridiculous amount of time removing all the packaging.  Literally filled up my bathroom garbage can with cardboard and plastic.

And then I went through the list.  One pump here, apply to face, floss your teeth.  Another pump there of a different product, apply to face, brush your teeth.  Yet another pump of yet another product, smear it around, brush out your hair while it is soaking in.  You get the idea.  Ridiculous.

Except.  Well, okay.   I hate to admit this, but after following the 500 steps of skin care Kelly lined out, my skin feels softer that I can ever remember it feeling.  It doesn't feel itchy, flaky and tight at all, and I only did it one time.  I know, so much for my give-it-the-old-college-try-then-blow-it-off theory - the stuff actually works!

There is no way I am going to be able to go through all the products and understand what they are in one sitting, or several.  Kelly spent the better part of two and a half hours walking me through them this afternoon.  I replaced all that data with the movie Karma Calling, which I watched tonight with the rest of the Anchorage International Film Festival Features Jury.  Hey, I'm a natural blonde, and the short term memory is full, when new data comes in something has to go out.

I'll try knocking the products off as I figure them out and distinguish the serums from the creams and the toners for you.  Thus far, all I can say is that everything seems to smell good, and a little bit goes a long way.

The Price of Beauty

Alyeska Center for Facial Plastic Surgery and ENT.  Dr. Jack Sedwick seems like a cool guy and all, but it sounds scary as hell.  Not ready to set foot in that door, but Exquisite Skin Esthetics, their in-house healthy skin specialists, is completely my speed.

Bella Coley, Kelly Whitworth & Dorene Lorenz

Mostly because I have met Kelly Whitworth.  Kelly can hang.  She is beautiful, smart, clever, and a straight-up girl friend who graduated from East a year or two after I graduated from Chugiak.

So when Kelly looks at me across the oak library table at Cafe del Mundo and says, "Now Dorene, don't get offended.  These broken capillaries on your face - I can make them go away," she has my complete and undivided attention.

I spent time laying on a beach towel smelling like coconut butter and even more time wondering if my eyelashes were going to freeze shut.  And, frankly, the last five years have been exceptionally stressful and have noticeably aged me.

I wake up in the morning and the person I see in the mirror looks significantly more tired, and old, than the person on the inside.  Skin has a lot to do with that.  The only tan in my face are the age spots, and Miss Never Wears Make up is now slapping foundation on like I'm Marcel Marceau to even out all the redness.

Dorene Lorenz all dolled up.

Dave Harbor waking up one morning and deciding that he wanted to take my picture really was the tipping point for my becoming self conscious about my skin.

Dave is a great guy.  Dave is a great photographer.  Dave doesn't use Photoshop.

Dave took this shot of me completely dipped in make up.  Guess what the make up doesn't cover.  Wrinkles.  Thank Anchorage and it's desert dry climate.  Ridiculous.

The red on my nose and lower cheeks make me look like I've just come in from winter.  Those ever present brown patches on my cheeks aren't doing me any favors either.

Kelly does what she calls Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Photo Skin Rejuvenation.  She promises that it is gentle.  Gentle is a good word for me, 'cause I am a total weenie.  Won't ever see me getting a tattoo, why?  In a word, pain.

IPL is not a laser.  It uses flashlight technology to minimize redness from capillary damage or rosacea by shooting it with broad spectrum light.  I'm leaning forward in my chair.  Then she tells me that it takes several one hour sessions to make it all go away.  I'm leaning back in my chair.  Bella pipes up that she has used it before to remove a raccoon mask from her face, and it is the bomb.  Deep breath, exhale.

With IPL the darkly pigmented/red blood cells of the skin absorb the energy of the light, and the heat is transferred to the wall of the cell or blood vessel wall which causes its destruction.  So brown spots, spider veins, and broken capillaries go away.

Little energy is dissipated to the surrounding tissue, so it is uninjured, and the skin surface remains unharmed.  The heat that is deposited into the dermal layers of the skin stimulates collagen production, which give skin improved elasticity and a luminous, more youthful appearance.  Bye, bye fine lines and wrinkles.

Dorene Lorenz completely naked.

Since I am a pasty white person, although technically translucent is more appropriate description, Kelly tells me I am a good candidate for Photofacials.  Medium complexions do fine, darker complexions not so much.  Finally, an advantage to being a Snow Queen!

IPL is like a photo facial?  You don't have to hide out for a week afterwards because your skin looks like hamburger?  Just a minor sunburn and swelling for a couple hours immediately afterwards?  And then, just like after a sunburn, skin gets dry, sloughs off, and you have to stay out of the sun for a week?  Okay, I'm in.  Not like I am going to see much sun anytime soon.

Did you take a close look at this photo of me without any make up on whatsoever?  Dave Harbor will spring snap you in the parking lot - be forewarned.  Clearly the fine lines are not quite so fine, and the redness is also well defined.  Nothing pretty about that, and it is only going to get worse.

Although Kelly assures me that I can expect to see immediate results, treatment gets broken up over six months to optimize the healing process.  It isn't cheap, the $1750 cost will eat up a dividend check.  I pause to reconsider.

The most expensive medical procedure I have had to-date was getting laser surgery to correct my vision, and that has easily been the biggest miracle of a gift I ever gave myself.  Every single day I am blessed with being able to see clearly.  Now that I can actually see myself in the mirror, it only makes sense to invest in making what is staring back at me look healthy.

So this woosey little 'fraidy cat is going to go for it.  Pray for me.

Sarah Palin: Tease VIP Preview

Who is Sarah Palin?  She once was Valley Trash from Wasilla, now she is a national icon.  Somewhere beyond the stereotypes is the real person.  In this exhibition I stripped those stereotypes down to the naked truth.  Most all are titillating, one, distinctively, is not.

Sarah Palin: Slick.
 Her back to Alaska as she looks out to a seemingly
endless horizon to a future greased by spilled oil wealth.
 Is this what you see when you look at Sarah?

Sarah Palin: Tea Party Queen.
The life of the party, this red queen stirs things up while the Tea
Party twirls around a 2012 presidential bid.
Is this what you see when you look at Sarah?

Sarah Palin: Caribou Barbie.
A plastic icon that has a hollow head and a nice rack,
a role model for women that offers an unhealthy ideal
that is self destructive to maintain.
Is this what you see when you look at Sarah?

Sarah Palin: Peep Show.
Looking past the iron curtain, she exploits
her window of opportunity.
Is this what you see when you look at Sarah?

Sarah Palin: Wink.
She's got moxie, a game player, intimate yet distant.
A tease who flirts with the idea of going all the way.
Is this what you see when you look at Sarah?

Sarah Palin: ACES.
The ultimate Hockey MotherILF, a pitbull with lipstick,
proudly displaying her ACES dog tag bling.
Is this what you see when you look at Sarah?

Sarah Palin: North Star Feud Flag.
She is the star centered in a strong blue field,
but she earned her stripes taking on a long list of contenders.
Is this what you see when you look at Sarah?

Seriously? Sarah Palin: BRAzen is too...brazen?

Sarah Palin: BRAzen.  No longer a hibernating sow, this "Wide Awake Grizzly" has got her bling on and is ready to take on the world.  Inspired by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.  Features "Awake" tea bags supporting faux grizzly fur cups trimmed in rhinestones, velvet, and satin.

There was a considerable amount of time between when I wrote my description of the BRAzen bra and the time it was shown in the Wild Bras on Parade, a benefit for Casting for Recovery, a non-profit that supports survivors of breast cancer.

It seemed odd to me that in the marketing of the piece by CFR my description had been seriously altered...the "Sarah Palin" words had been removed - which kinda changes the whole point of the piece.  Out of context the art makes no sense, and as an artist, I look randomly foolish.  It is unseemly.

Never in a million years would I consider my bra, and its description "offensive" - just don't see how it could go there.  Empowering, yes.  Compelling, yes.  Provocative, yes.  Funny, yes - especially since it is faux fur.  Offensive?  Seriously, offensive?

Yet, apparently, that is how it is viewed by the decision makers at Casting for Recovery.  It was suggested that it be shown at my Sarah Palin: Tease art show this week, Bella Coley was going to wear it and walk around with the silent auction bidding sheet working up the donations for this cause.

That idea came to a screeching halt fast.  Now if they had said that it wasn't their policy, that once the art bras were handed over they were theirs, and they liked to keep them together as a show I would be very respectful of that, and the matter would have been done with - no complaints from me.  Well, they did say that actually, and I respect that.

Problem is, that isn't all that they said.  Read it for yourself if you don't believe me - I have attached an excerpt of the offending letter below.  Frankly, I am in the odd space of being offended because someone suggested that my artwork, which was intended to be uplifting, was, in fact, offensive.

My tender feelings are hurt.  As an artist I feel suppressed, censored, my voice squelched.  I feel like I have been treated poorly, for even though Martha's letter was very well crafted and polite - the point of her matter was...offensive.

Now I am sure that there are those who will say that I am over reacting, and maybe I am.  But I get to own my feelings, and if this is how I feel, this is how I feel, and no one can take that away from me.  Same way that I can't take away how Martha feels offended by BRAzen.

So where does that leave us?  I haven't decided yet, other than I am no longer interested in participating in any of their retreats of fundraisers in the future.  What do you think?

Dorene


...It is very important to our organization we not take a political position or any position which might exclude anyone from considering participating in our retreats.

It is important Casting for Recovery is viewed as a program for everyone, without any affiliation to other politics or causes – the purpose for our art event is to establish an image in the community more than to make money to operate our retreats.

We are aware 1) by choosing our particular theme we are using a bit of a racy event to gain attention and 2) we respect the expression of art in the community is best uncensored.  However, we feel we need to stay true to our purposes and plans too – of being inclusive of everyone and trying hard not to offend. ...
I hope these comments will help you understand why we will not permit the use of Bra-Zen as you proposed.  The artwork has been donated to Casting for Recovery to be used at our discretion.  I’m sure your best intentions are that our organization realize its goals and purposes. ...

I look forward to continuing to include you and your friends in supporting Casting for Recovery events.  As we plan for next year’s event, we invite you to propose a new direction for our consideration.

Most sincerely,  Martha

Who is Sarah Palin?

Is she a plastic figure with vacant eyes, and a great rack like Caribou Barbie?  Is she the hottest MILF in the grandstands, as big a booster to the Anchorage Aces hockey team as she is to the ACES gas tax?  

Is she an opportunist, taking advantage of her window of opportunity in an international Peep Show?  Is she the wild party girl, spinning the Republicans around as their Teaz Party Queen?  Or is she something altogether different, or indifferent, a Slick siren who turns her back on her audience to look out to broader horizons greased by spilled oil?

New cultural myths are stripped naked in Alaskan artist Dorene M. Lorenz’s new exhibition, Sarah Palin: Tease which opens this Friday, October 15th at the Club Soraya in the Sunshine Mall at 333 West Fourth Avenue, Anchorage from 5:00-8:00 pm.

Provocative.  Titillating, Compelling.  A must see for anyone who has an interest in drawing back the curtain to explore who the real Sarah Palin is, and what she is about.

www.DoreneLorenz.com

Sterling Challenge

Reading my latest issue of Backyard Poultry I noticed an ad from Greenfire Farms that rather struck my fancy with its snazzy layout.  What I discovered was nothing short of inspirational.

They carry an exceptionally rare breed of chicken native to Sweden called the Hedemora that lays eggs to 5 degrees and forages to -5 degrees. Same latitude and weather conditions as...Anchorage, Alaska.

That got my attention.  I searched the net over and found out more about this very compelling breed, and found a lot to like.  And a lot to think about.

What if we can one up the Swedes by developing a bird in Alaska that not only lays in cold climates, but lays exceptionally rich chocolate shelled eggs, and is a larger-better eating bird?

Of course, I immediately rang my favorite breeder, Tori Yancy at Sterling Meadows Hatchery, and suggested we develop a breed we call the Sterling.

When I visited Tori last week she showed me a splash Orphington hen that was nothing short of wonderful.  She was gentle, soft, fluffy, and beautiful.  Orphingtons have a unique body shape, and small combs that are less likely to get frostbitten.  Ring any "foundation stock" bells?  Sterling roses are a blue lavender color and smell exceptionally sweet, why shouldn't Sterling chickens be the same way?

I put some money down on an order for the Alaska Hamptons.  I want Sterlings to be our signature bird, and carry a flock of 50 or so breeding stock to launch the breed.  Tori has agreed in concept to take up the challenge, warning that it will take several years to perfect the Sterling Special.  Currently, Buckeyes are the only bird breed credited to being developed by a woman - today we are starting out on changing that. You heard it here first!

Sarah Palin: Star of the North

Like most of my ideas for paintings, inspiration came organically through a rather predictable route.

Two great statemen were lost, legendary icons in Alaska - Wally Hickel and Ted Stevens.  There was much discussion around their passing, and I woke one morning with a clear focus on my "take aways" from these two.

Both had something more than my Stars of Gold series in common, an uneasy relationship with Sarah Palin.  Wally had championed her early on, then walked away.  Ted had been kicked in the ribs by her several times when he was down, but didn't punish the State for the blows he got from her Governor.  They were steady men.  Hardworking.  Dependable Pioneers of the Greatland.  Both had war raged against them by Sarah Palin.

Sarah Feuds.  Seemed to me that she had a few, so many, in fact, she could wave a flag full of them on her battlefield.  A Feud Flag.  I had no idea what I had gotten myself in to.

I first heard of Sara when my step-father, Tom Walker, was Chief-of-Police in Seward.  Apparently, she had unceremoniously dumped the Wasilla chief shortly after being elected mayor.  Didn't sit to well with Tom.  She kicked the Wasilla librarian as well. Then there was that bit with Randy Reudrich, and Andree McLeod, Zane Henning, and lets not forget Frank and Lisa Murkowski.  She could run stripes with their names.

Mike Wooten, Lyda Green, John Bitney, John McCain...then I hit the motherload with a Google search. Newt Gringrich, Kate Gosselin, Steve Schmidt, Emily's List, John Kerry, Scott Brown, Frank Bailey, John Kerry, Rahm Emanuel, the National Organization for Women, The Family Guy, Oprah, Asley Judd, Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Letterman, Dan Fagan, Joe McGinniss, the US Export Import Bank, President Obama, Levia Johnston and lets not forget Katie Couric - who started it first, after all, with that stupid "what do you read" question.

Val Henning was right, who hasn't Sarah Palin had a feud with?  I've got the study finished, but I think I am going to need a much bigger canvas for the final.

Stars of Gold: Governor Wally Hickel

He wasn't a close, personal friend.  He didn't know my name.  I was not someone special to his life, nor he to mine.

But Wally Hickel was a steadfast figure, always looming larger than life in the background - no different that Mt. McKinley in the Anchorage skyline.  Ever present, striking, magnificent, and at times, the light would bend and the largest mountain on the continent suddenly appeared even grander, larger, closer.

Wally was the same way.  Humble, approachable, hardworking.  His ideas were larger than life, his work product grand and idealistic.  When he fell, it was a giant hitting the ground, a large depression remained when he picked himself up, and went back on his journey.

In what seems like another lifetime I put together an event known as the Top of the World Cargo Summit, where the Municipality of Anchorage wooed deep pocket developers and international business concerns.  The keynote speaker bailed last minute, I called Wally out-of-the-blue, he graciously stepped in.

With no notice, he delivered a speech that kept these slick businessmen spellbound.  His calming presence, the wise Pioneer offering trail tales of hard work, adventure, and the joy of loving a country as captivating as Alaska were a compelling call to action to would-be economic explorers.

He was a star to set your course by, for by following in his path youwere sure to make your way home.  North, to Alaska.