IF YOU WANT A JUNEAU GIG
GavelAlaska, once known as Gavel to Gavel, is looking for a producer starting in January. Sit in on every hearing and legislative session until your eyes glaze over. Hazards of the job: Deep cynicism. Here’s the job description: http://bit.ly/2c1Q9tP
STATE EROSION WORK STABILIZES BANK
Construction crews finished the 1,100-foot rock trench project along the Matanuska River on Sept. 6. The erosion fix seems to be working so far. The idea is to divert the river from the Old Glenn Highway and from drowning the utility lines along the road. The borough has set up a blog to update residents. The Mat-Su and the State DOT get high marks for quick and effective response.
POLITICAL ADS, JINGLES, AND THEN THERE’S ‘THE ROCK’ MIKE GRAVEL
The Tang Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga, N.Y. has an exhibition of political ads, jingles, and what they are calling Mike Gravel‘s “Rock” ad from his 2008 presidential run, and it’s being called the weirdest, most surreal of all — and there are some weird ones, complete with snapping alligators, Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 “Daisy” ad, and one of the greatest political television ads of all time, Ronald Reagan’s “It’s morning in America.”
The exhibit is in the elevator of the museum, and is a collection of audio and video that is played while museum goers ride from floor to floor. It’s called “Political Echo Chamber.”
The collection contains a brief clip of former Alaska US Sen. Mike Gravel staring at the camera without saying a word, walking away, and then tossing a rock into a pond. Not just skipping a rock on the surface — it’s a big rock and it makes a big splash.
The entire 2.51 minute ad is here at YouTube and seems like a commentary on the ridiculousness of political advertising, although Gravel is said to have called it a metaphor on how we can make ripples into infinity. He explains it here. But it still doesn’t make any sense.
The exhibit runs through January 1.