BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware

Subject: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: robomatic
Date: 14 Mar 19 - 08:36 PM

This guy sounds alright. But he had a genuine Alaska experience and kinda left his -something- in Alaska.

No kidding, many many saunters into the environment have serious effects. It pays to be careful and to have a sense of -survivorship-.

I wish this guy the best
If you go to the newspaper article, take a glance at the comments. First commenter has a practical question. Second commenter is a musician and empathizes. Third commenter makes a joke.

That little article says a lot about the Alaska I've come to know.

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Mar 19 - 10:00 PM

404 Error.

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: robomatic
Date: 14 Mar 19 - 11:22 PM

Sorry about that Rapparee. The story is off the homepage and though I had a direct link it does not work. The workaround is to go to the Anchorage Daily News and then put "Yotam Haber" in the search window at the upper right and select the story that comes up. About two days recent.
The comments have to be selected at the bottom of the story. They are local community comments so they are revealing and not too trolly (yet).

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Mar 19 - 11:24 PM

I fixed the first link. Ironically, you'd lopped off the end of the link! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 15 Mar 19 - 01:17 AM

"Notice of Interruption:
Content will be temporarily unavailable to countries affected by GDPR compliance. When we are inline with the guidelines access will be restored. If you think you are seeing this notice in error please contact [e-mail].

© 2018 Anchorage Daily News. All rights reserved."

oh well...

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 15 Mar 19 - 04:45 AM

Any hope of a copy-paste of this article (and the relevant comments)?

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Mar 19 - 04:12 PM

Here's the story annotated a bit for brevity and clarity:

Composer fulfills his dog sledding dream in Alaska — but severs a finger along the way

Yotam Haber is an established composer and pianist, an assistant professor at the University of New Orleans, a former artistic director of New York’s MATA festival and winner of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Koussevitzky Foundation commission, among many other honors and awards. Since childhood, though, he has had another dream: to race sled dogs in Alaska.

Last week, Haber’s dream came true. On March 2, he got to ride through the streets of Anchorage in the ceremonial opening leg of the 2019 Iditarod, the legendary dog sled race, on the sled of Blair Braverman, one of the most visible competitors in this year’s race. Haber had come to Alaska to help with Braverman’s sled dogs, as well as to record the sounds of runners on the snow to incorporate into a piece he was writing for the New York-based Argento Ensemble.

But the dream ended three days later when, dragged behind a tipped dog sled, Haber watched his right index finger snap off “like a twig,” followed by a geyser of blood.

"I told people on Twitter that I'm going to call my piece 'Finger Lake,' " Haber said ruefully on Sunday from his home in New Orleans after surgery to reattach his finger. (Finger Lake is a stop on this year's Iditarod course.)

It was chance that linked Haber to one of this year's best-known Iditarod competitors. In a field with more women than any previous Iditarod, Braverman, a 31-year-old writer, has drawn attention through an active social media presence, tweeting her preparations for the race to more than 60,000 followers on Twitter. (Her fans, who identify themselves with the hashtag #uglydogs, a reference to a derisive tweet aimed at Braverman some months ago, have helped defray her considerable Iditarod expenses through online donations.)


Braverman's husband, the writer Quince Mountain, is an old friend of Haber's wife, the visual artist Anna Schuleit. After Braverman qualified for the race, the pair asked Schuleit whether she'd want to help out in Alaska by looking after the members of their 30-dog pack that weren't among the 14 chosen to pull her Iditarod sled.

“That’s Yotam’s dream,” Haber’s wife told them. Born in Holland to Israeli parents, Haber had grown up in Israel, Nigeria and Milwaukee, where he moved at age 10. As a child, he was so focused on his goal of becoming a veterinarian and racing in the Iditarod that he built his own sled and rounded up neighbor dogs to pull it. But as his musical career took off, he put his mushing dreams aside — until Braverman’s offer came along. “It felt like this was the culmination of my life, in a way,” he said.

On the race’s first day, Braverman pulled Haber onto the back of her sled for the ceremonial ride. The bulk of his visit, however, was to be spent in a remote, family-run lodge 63 miles from the nearest highway, accessible only by snowmachine, where he would take the dogs out for a run three times a day. His own social media account reflected the exhilaration of the experience. “The dogs go crazy until you tell them to go,” he said. “And as soon as you start sledding, it’s total silence - just the sound of their feet, and the runners on the snow.”

On the third day, as he was being pulled down a steep slope by an exuberant team, Haber made a mistake: Rather than riding the brake with two feet, he rode it with only one, creating enough of an imbalance that the sled tipped over. Every musher has drilled into them that Rules 1, 2, 3 and 4 of dog sledding are the same: Never let go. Lying on his side, dragged along by the dogs and feeling his grip slipping, Haber reached up and grabbed the only thing he could see for purchase - a snow hook, a heavy piece of metal used to anchor the sled in the snow. His right index finger got jammed into it, and he watched it snap off, held only by a flap of skin. His first feeling, he said, was disappointment that his Alaska dream was surely over.

Getting out of Alaska proved a much longer journey even than getting there. Haber jammed his finger back into place, the lodge owners swaddled his hand in towels and they began an eight-hour wait for a helicopter that never came. They finally got out by snowcat, a Jeep fitted with tanklike treads that took four hours to creep out to the road, where an ambulance was waiting to drive him to Fairbanks, three more hours away. The doctor in Fairbanks sewed the finger provisionally into place but recommended he have it treated at home, since it was likely to be a long process, so he got on a plane and flew back to Louisiana. He was taken into surgery a matter of hours after he landed, and was scheduled to learn Tuesday whether the surgery had been successful.

The Iditarod will conclude this week; on Monday, Day 9 of the race, Braverman was still competing, with 11 of her original 14 dogs (substitutions are not allowed). Another handler has stepped in to care for the dogs Haber was watching. Following along at home, encased in a cast reaching from his fingers to his armpit, Haber still has a few things to be thankful for. For one thing, he’s left-handed.

And for another thing, musicians are understanding.

“During those eight hours waiting for the helicopter,” Haber said, "I contacted the head of the Argento Ensemble. I said to him, ‘I’ve never missed a deadline on a commission, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish this one.’ "

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Mar 19 - 04:19 PM

And the following comments were made to the online version of this article:

COMMENT 1: Why did the helicopter not show up? What company?

COMMENT 2: I'm a musician and this would be devastating. His attitude is still great, though.

COMMENT 3: Tocatta and fugue for nine fingers

Alaska is not unfriendly and dangerous, but things happen when you do something non-standard. There is an old Alaskan saying for tourists: "Step out of your car, and into the food chain!"

I don't fault this guy for his adventure, and he seems to have a good attitude AND all his original fingers. But I know a LOT of stories of this sort, and have lived a few myself, still with all MY fingers.

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Mar 19 - 06:52 PM

Alaska is unknown territory to me;
New Mexico, however, was my home for many adult years.
And although the two states are wildly different on the surface,
New Mexico attracts tourists in their multitudes,
as well as adventurers,
and it has its own myths and traps.

As well as a lot of uncultivated square miles.

Maybe Alaska and New Mexico are two places
in the same state of mind?

Oh, and as to musicians:

New Mexico in the summertime used to be pretty sensational,
as there is the Santa Fe Opera and all these other
festivals and things.

Then the summer is over, the Opera folds up their tents so to speak,
and, oh, what musicians have got to do
to live through those other nine months.
I know a few stories ...

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Mar 19 - 11:26 PM

In Alaska, when the 'professional' musicians pack up their gear, homegrown musicians continue. If it didn't tend to be a bit chilly out there we'd be 'backporch' pickers. Most of the musicians I know make music year 'round.

Hey, robomatic, if you ever come to Juneau you are welcome to my Friday night group. In my group we tend more to folk than anything else- John Prine, Steve Goodman, Ian Tyson, Neil young, Gordon Bok, Hazel Dickens and much more... and lots of Country: Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Ginny Hawker... lots of others.

Juneau also has a symphony, a couple of jazz bands, bluegrass, Irish, opera. Juneau is rich in music. You'd find your niche here.

I know a bunch of musicians in Anchorage and Fairbanks and neighboring areas too. Let's compare notes sometime.

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Mar 19 - 01:26 AM

Keboroxu:
New Mexico may or may not be kin to Alaska, but it IS kin to me. I drove through the New Mexico side of Four Corners a few years ago and was haunted by the indian country roads where I followed and left long dust streams, the ancient look and feel of the arid country. I was there during the drought when the great dammed lakes were near historic lows and I was late in the season so that even though I was relatively okay in the temperatures of November, I was sometimes camping almost alone at the Park campgrounds. I had a wonderful album by Sanford Ponder: "Etosha- Private Music in the Land of Dry Water." I don't know what country he had in mind when he made the recording, but it fitted perfectly in with my mood and location.

I hiked a trail through a narrow canyone drainage. Calm and beautiful.

Got stopped by a cop for some road infraction, he saw my AK plates and let me off: "Must be get-home-itis" he said.

Also enjoyed Albuquerque and the Mexican style food and the Atomic Bomb Museum.

And a great Mudcatter put me up there, too.

New Mexico's license plate calls it as it is: Land of Enchantment.

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Mar 19 - 01:33 AM

Ebbie:

I've been too long in Los Anchorage, I've only been through the Juneau Airport but I fully believe in your capacity for great entertainment in well rounded corners....the times I've been in Fairbanks I've found nitches of culture that would be tougher to root out in this spread out town off Turnagain. But Starbucks collects a great variety of folk for all that. I lvoe all your artists but I have my own weird twists. I love Warren Zevon singing about Frank and Jesse: "They rode against the railroads and they road against the banks, and they rode against the Governor, never did they ask for a word of thanks!" and his Hindu Love Gods album with the backup three of R.E.M.

I just need to learn to play something a little heavier duty than the solo kazoo.

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: olddude
Date: 17 Mar 19 - 10:45 AM

Love everything about Alaska it’s my second home for sure. And yup some of the places I trek to i would be totally screwed if injured. I did buy the emergency insurance but finding me or even getting there is another issue entirely. Many people just don’t comprehend the size of the state

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: Jos
Date: 17 Mar 19 - 10:52 AM

There was in interview with the composer on BBC Radio 4 'Broadcasting House' this morning. If you can get this programme, the interview is near the end (so you can fast-forward through any brexit stuff).

Subject: RE: BS: Real Alaska - Musicians Beware
From: robomatic
Date: 23 Mar 19 - 06:02 PM

A relatively recent tale of trouble on the trail
(but not the Iditarod) just made the New York Times Magazine. Sorry, it is too long to import into the thread. Hope you have NY Times access.