Crude Conversations

EP 115 Tlingit knowledge and art with James Johnson

In this one, Cody talks to Tlingit artist James Johnson. Before he got to the level he’s at now, James taught himself the fundamentals of the Tlingit artform — he taught himself how to draw, how to carve, how to sharpen his knives. He taught himself the fundamentals of formline. His dad taught him the importance of traditional knowledge — that when you create a piece, you create it for your clan. Be it a paddle, a bowl, a bentwood box, a mask, a rattle, a totem pole. He says that in the old days, once the carvers were finished with a totem pole — once it was raised — they could no longer touch it because now it belonged to the people. James’ dad told him that when he finishes a piece, to let it go and, like a balloon in the sky, that piece will go where it needs to go. The main thing is to focus on skill and that your skill is going to improve with every piece you do.
Everything that he’s doing right now — whether it’s talking to an auditorium of 500 people or hosting a workshop for youth or working on a commission for Google — it’s bigger than him. It’s for his ancestors, for his culture and his traditions. It’s a reminder of the destruction and human toll of colonialism. It’s more than creating a beautiful piece. It’s about understanding history and sharing Tlingit knowledge. He does it for his clan, for his family and for his contemporaries — all of the other northwest coast artists striving to reach the golden age of their artform that occurred in the 1700s and early 1800s, after steel was introduced to their culture during the fur trade.

EP 114 Life after dog mushing with Aliy Zirkle

In this one, Cody talks to dog musher Aliy Zirkle. She’s always felt a strong connection to animals, dogs in particular. She tells this story about how when she was a kid and lived in Puerto Rico, there were a couple of stray dogs that pulled her around on a skateboard. Mushing was in her blood, even then.
 
For 30 years, mushing has been everything to Aliy. It’s been her passion and her career. And understanding her dog’s abilities and their limits has been key because if you break that — if you break their trust or you ask them to do too much — then they lose confidence in you as their leader. So, Aliy made sure she knew every one of her dogs — their individual personalities, their eccentricities and their limits. Skunk, Commando, Mismo, Mac, Pedro, Rubia, Beemer, Viper, Quito, just to name a few. She knew and knows all of them. They’ve taught her indispensable truths, like how to live in the moment and how to appreciate the present because that’s all we really have.
 
In 2021, she raced her last Iditarod. It didn’t turn out the way she anticipated. Her plan was to win — to be the first racer to pass under the Burled Arch — but about 200 miles into the race, she crashed, hit the back of her head on the ice and was dragged by her arm for an indeterminate amount of time. She had to be airlifted to the hospital, where she found out that she had suffered a concussion, something that she’s still recovering from.
 
As a musher, she has relied on her toughness — her ability to get through difficulties out on the trail on her own. That it’s her and the dogs — Team Zirkle, the fan favorite — out there in the Alaska wilderness. The team that always finishes the race. That’s been her biggest struggle throughout all of this — that she didn’t finish her last race. It weighs so heavily on her sometimes that it’s best just not to think about it. She says that the whole situation still seems a little surreal and that she’s still trying to make sense of it.

EP 113 Filming and soul searching with Gary Milton

In this one, Cody talks to videographer Gary Milton. He describes himself as a snowboarder, through and through — one who, every year, has a best day ever. A day spent with old friends and new friends and riding powder. It’s reminiscent of his upbringing in Palmer, Alaska, where he and his buddies would explore the surrounding woods and mountains. They’d snowboard 16 mile and, for their age and their ability, it was filled with huge and intimidating jumps that had names like “The Beast,” and “Endless.” One was a big boulder and the other was basically a 20-ft step-down jump. The walls in his bedroom became proof of his love for snowboarding. It was plastered with posters and covers ripped from snowboard magazines. Years later, when he started filming for the TransWorld SNOWboarding video, he walked into their office in California and saw so many of the same photos he had on his walls as a kid. It was a surreal moment that felt like he had somehow manifested a childhood dream.
 
For 10 years, Gary helped film snowboard videos for Think Thank, TransWorld SNOWboarding and Videograss. It was all-consuming. Every year there’d be six months of filming — with chances to go home for maybe four days a month, if he was lucky. Then there’d be one or two months dedicated to editing. And then it was premier season. It was exhausting and rewarding, but he ultimately got burned out and moved on to film a hunting show called Team Elk for five years.
 
He eventually decided to get into therapy because he didn’t like where his personal life was heading. There was just too much drinking and bad decision-making going on. He wanted to understand and overcome his childhood trauma and end those patterns of abuse. To re-establish himself as reliable, thoughtful and caring. Someone his wife and daughter could rely on at any time of the day. And that’s exactly what he did.

Chatter Marks EP 45 Revolutionizing how people see and understand Alaskan cuisine with Rob Kinneen

Rob Kinneen has been an ambassador for Alaskan cuisine through his guest chef appearances, speaking engagements, cooking demonstrations and private caterings. His work has revolutionized how people see and understand the state’s traditional foods. His understanding of traditional foods goes back to growing up in Petersburg, Alaska, where he remembers clamming with his uncles, fishing with his dad and picking berries. There was also venison and the first time he had fresh asparagus — it was so much better than the stuff that came out of the can. 
He works for the food non-profit NATIFS now, where he promotes food relief, education, awareness and accessibility of traditional foods. He says that this position is a one-of-one, there’s nothing else out there like it. It’s not so much a job as it is what he does, and who he is as a chef and as a person of Tlingit heritage. 
In his late-40s now, Rob says that he started to really notice the negative effects that alcohol was having on his body and his lifestyle. So, over two years ago, he became alcohol-free. He says that, right now, he’s proud of being exactly who he wants to be — he has more hours in the day, and his mind is clear and he’s confident.
Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."

EP 112 The Boarderline Days with Matt Eastman

In this one, Cody talks to Matt Eastman, an entrepreneur and a businessman. Over the years, he’s founded a number of companies — an inflatable party rental business called Tons of Fun Entertainment, a hockey blade protector business called Hockey Wraparound, and a sunglasses business called Teamclix. But before all that, he was the most business-minded manager at the Dimond Center Boarderline, an Alaskan snow and skate shop that supported the scene from 1989 to 2006. From 1997 to 2004, Matt embodied so much of what makes a great leader — he was supportive, empathetic, passionate and creative. And he was a great salesman — he helped turn Boarderline from a strictly core shop that intimidated a lot of customers to a more inviting one. He was there throughout so many of the growing pains and the shenanigans, and he was truly able to find a balance between the pranks and playfulness and running a business.
 
Matt says he remembers those old Boarderline days and thinks about them all the time. He remembers how employees were given $50 for catching thieves, and how that resulted in chasing people through the mall and fistfights. He remembers chain stores moving into the mall and how they would try to poach Boarderline employees without understanding that their work life and their social life was tied to the culture created by the shop. He remembers the video premieres and how Boarderline staff and team riders were the rockstars of their day. He says that, at its core, Boarderline was a work family. And in some cases, this work family would go beyond what was expected to support each other.

EP 111 Johnny’s Girl, a neon Anchorage and a life of her own with Kim Rich

In this one, Cody talks to journalist and author Kim Rich. She wrote the classic memoir “Johnny’s Girl,” it’s about her tumultuous upbringing in Anchorage’s underworld. Back in the 1960s, her dad, Johnny, worked Anchorage’s nightlife — gambling houses, prostitution and get-rich-quick schemes. Her mom, Ginger, was an exotic dancer. She had mental health issues and spent years of her life in a number of institutions. Both of their lives — Johnny and Ginger — were cut short, leaving Kim to fend for herself at a young age.
Through research, interviews and recollection, Kim would write about her parents to try to work out her feelings and understanding of them. She found that her dad was a complicated man, and that her mom was a tragic figure — loving and caring, but in the throes of mental anguish.
She’s always put a lot of thought into describing and understanding Anchorage as a city and the people who live there. In her book, she describes it as neon — both physically neon and existentially neon. The bright, flashy lights of downtown Anchorage and the pioneer spirit of the 60s influenced her perception. It was a place of endless possibilities, where anyone could do anything; a place you could run away to and remake yourself in whatever image you wished.
Today, Kim says that she’s enjoying getting older and that she feels like she’s finally mellowing. She lives in Louisiana — teaching journalism and trying to get used to the fact that her kids have moved out of the house — but she still considers Alaska home.

Chatter Marks EP 043 Digging for Alaskana with Jimmy Riordan

Jimmy Riordan is a multidisciplinary artist and educator who’s currently in-residence at the Anchorage Museum, digitizing and archiving the work of Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta musicians, as well as all the other Alaska music he’s collected over the years. He spends a lot of time in thrift stores and going through junk bins and scouring the internet — anywhere old records might exist.
When he first started listening to old Alaskan albums and radio programs, he thought he was going to hear a lot of tourist music and songs about things like reindeer and caribou. But he soon realized that there was a lot of diversity in what he was hearing. There was hip hop, psychedelic rock, metal, punk. He even found a record of soundbites from people talking about their experience during the 1964 earthquake. 
His motivation is that of a fan, driven by interest and excitement. If he can provide a service that is useful, in exchange for all the information and all the stuff that he’s getting, then that’s what he’s looking to do. His fascination with the music of Joe Paul is a good example. Joe Paul is a country and gospel singer originally from Kipnuk, Alaska, a community along the Kuskokwim River. And one day, while out digging for Alaskana, Jimmy came across one of his albums, “Eskimo Songs, Stories and Country Music.” He was floored by it and says that it rejuvenated his interest in collecting.

EP 110 Breaking out the Theraflu with Andre Spinelli

In this one, Cody talks to Andre Spinelli, better known as Dre. In snowboarding, Dre is known for going big — off jumps, off cornices, even a lot of the handrails he used to hit were big. It’s probably because he started riding with old school Alaskan heavies like Dan Coffey and Kovi Linden. They might not have been as technical as other riders, but they were always charging down the mountain and going huge. Then, after Dre had been riding for awhile and filming parts for JB Deuce, Turnagain Hardcore and Think Thank, pro snowboarder Mark Landvik suggested that he and Dre move to Bellingham, Washington to pursue snowboarding as a career. Dre declined the offer because he wanted to stay in Alaska to see how far he could take snowboarding there. He was also in line to take over his dad’s construction business, Spinell Homes.
Even when he was snowboarding all the time and filming video parts, Dre worked for Spinell Homes. He’d work his shift and then he would meet up with a film crew to get a shot. He did this often enough to get enough shots for multiple video parts a year. So, to say that his work ethic was unmatched, is probably a huge understatement. Today, he’s the president of Spinell Homes. He’s responsible for everything from home design to meeting with buyers to hiring employees to land development. That need to excel and go higher has always been there, he says. As a kid, he would jump off everything — playground equipment and even roofs into snow. Nowadays, he’s a weekend warrior, riding whenever he can and introducing his kids to it. In fact, his son, just like Dre, is starting to go big too.

Chatter Marks EP 042 Navigating two different cultures with Nyabony Gat

Nyabony Gat says that her immigrant story started 22 years ago. In 1992, when her parents and older siblings fled from South Sudan and found refuge in Ethiopia — the Second Sudanese civil war was going on between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was a long and bloody war and it caused four million people to be displaced. 
Nyabony doesn’t remember much from her childhood. She knows that she was born in Ethiopia and she knows that she and her family came to the United States when she was 3 or 4 years old. Other than that, she’s had to rely on stories from her parents and her aunts and her uncles. Those stories are helpful in understanding her identity, but they’re not a perfect substitute. She says that only personal experience can fill that void.
Today, she works with Alaska’s immigrant and refugee community. She helps them overcome challenges and achieve their goals. And in that process, she says, they’re helping her better understand her background and herself.
Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."

Chatter Marks EP 041 The things beyond our sensorial understanding with LaMont Hamilton

When interdisciplinary artist LaMont Hamilton was young, he drew portraits of figures that he admired — Jimmy Hendrix, Che Guevara, Malcom X. He called it “scribble art,” a term he invented to describe abstract art that, the longer you look at it, the more it reveals. Then, as he got older, he became interested in photography. But he says that his first love, the one that he considers to be the foundation of his work, is poetry. 
He says that a lot of what he does cannot easily be translated to words. It needs to be experienced and understood through our senses. To sit with it and to meditate on it opens us up to its energy and allows ideas to gravitate toward us. When this happens, we create a situation that nurtures a deeper conversation with the world around us. 
Right now, he’s in-residence, at the Anchorage Museum, working with poets, artists and musicians, and developing a light and sound installation called "To Hear the Earth Before the End of the World." It features sounds of elements — air, earth, fire, water, and aether. And field recordings from Europe and North and South America — sounds of our changing earth. He says that, unlike a painting, this exhibition is an experience that encounters you, you don’t encounter it because it’s going to be playing whether you’re there or not.
Chatter Marks is a podcast of the Anchorage Museum, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts. Just search "Chatter Marks."