Latest Update: August 17, 2001 by Ben Marcus

11:56 ALASKA TIME THURSDAY AUGUST 17, 2001 THE PIPELINE CLUB

MONEY
French onion soup, water, drinks, etc.

The joint is jumping. The band is yowling and drunk people are dancing and I've taken a bunch of digital photos of Valdez revelers. There were some Vietnam movies on TV and then I looked up and there was Spanky and them on the TV. Our Gang? R Gang? I took that as a sign. Gus is always talking about signs and coincidence, and that may have been one.

Filson isn't interested in the "That Was Then, This is Now" campaign, but maybe Rusty will do the R Gang thing.

Now the band is playing Midnight Special. I may have to turn around and see what is going on around me.

Time to get out of here and go find the cat. Hope a bear didn't get him.

He's a good cat.

Anchorage tomorrow.

12:26 ALASKA TIME FRIDAY AUGUST 17, 2001 THE PIPELINE CLUB

Weird again. I changed the channel and found Shark Week and found some odd place in where guys do some weird shark dance and they have a temple made for sharks. I need to find out where that is. I wonder if you can get copies of this show.

Discovery Channel. Shark Week. Find that show and figure it out. Maybe online.

Gus was strumming the guitar and starting to sing when people stopped him. There are people with less patience than me.

owcsharks@aol.com, They just flashed that on the screen with images of guys "finning" some poor, defenseless sharks.

Noah Idechong. Palau Conservation society.

Who is the biologist? The blonde guy? They had a thing about finning in Palau. And there were shots of guys boarding a finner and throwing fins overboard. Need to find this guy.

What's also weird is earlier in the day I came in to the Pipeline club and CNN was doing a big show on sharks, showing a school of 100 sharks off the coast of Florida.

All of this is telling me to proceed.

12:23 ALASKA TIME FRIDAY AUGUST 18, 2001 NEAR THE AIR MUSEUM, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

ODOMETER

TRIP METER

MONEY Fireworks and flies from Sourdough Joe in Glenallen: $30 Gas at ????? Pin in Gleanallen Kinkos time in Anchorage 10 copies of Fin.

Oooh baby baby it's a wild world. And its hard to get by with just a false smile.

Sorry. Cat Stevens is singing on the FM radio and I'm getting all whimsical.

It's raining a little. Ike is running around. Gus is in the passenger's seat talking now and again.

We're parked near some very nice little bush planes near the Air Museum near the Anchorage airport which is near Magadan Airlines which is near Kasilof Boulevard, so when I wake up tomorrow I'll be near everywhere I have to go.

And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did he get there?"

I drove, that's how. Drove from Valdez, Alaska to Anchorage, Alaska by way of Mount Sanford and Glenallen and a couple of phenomenal glaciers and the Matanuska Valley. En route we didn't really see much wildlife but we did see some terrain and glaciers and lots of giant RVs. I bought some fireworks and some flies from Sourdough Joe and talked guns with his buddy (He has a .50 cal for moose, Good Lord.). Mostly we drove and looked for a place to bathe. Found a lake that smelled of swamp gas but got clean and shaved and felt much better. Gus chatted about this and that and this and that and this and that and this and that and this and that and we just wore down the miles to Anchorage.

(Thus spake Gusher Gus: "You know what I don't like about that Fin thing? The font. You should try aerial black and see what it looks like. Especially when you italicize it. You're going to write my life story, my friend. God gave you that talent for a reason.")

This morning the guy who runs the camp woke us up for the $10 fee. Eventually we got up and went into town and we dealt with some Internet frustration. I'm too nice sometimes, most of the time, and maybe I shouldn't be.

Called Randy at SURFER to have him send some issues to Anchorage: The Atop 16 issue, the High School issue, the Norway issue. If I put together a resume for the pipeline project, they'll want to see some clips.

I also called Evan and asked him to send some of the issue with the Jay story in it,

Also called mom but she complained about this and that and this and that and this and that and this and that and this and that so I said goodbye.

I'm going to ask Gus what we did today, and type him word for word. "What we saw. Saw that glacier that special glacier. Some nice mountains that stood up at a 45 degree angle the peak was lie karight angle like 90 degrees. Stopped and bathed in nice clear water. People waiting and wthcing us in our state of nudity but they were far enough away so they couldn't see us. We came to Kinkos and saw this enormous machine and it immediately came out of you that we should print the motto that big. People are crying out for a motto. They don't know right or wrong in this world. Basically it's restating the Founding Fathers. If Washington and Jefferson saw the motto they'd say, "Exactly!" My motto underpins the whole work ethic. We're not to hate or take ourselves too seriously . We want to love and build a strong family. Believe and take heart. This cuntry was founded on good. We found out the cannery in Valdez got rid of a bunch of illegal workers and there are a bunch of jobs. But I ain't cutting fish lately-not for $6 an hour. I met a guy where we got the hamburgers. He and his brother came up form Florida. Worked in Idaho at this spud place and there was a Japanese man married to a German woman. And this guy stole the woman."

So that's what we did today. The drive from Valdez to Anchorage passes hour after hour of spectacular Alaska scenery and reminds you once again why people want to live up here.

Now it's 12:42 and it's time to hit the sack. We got into Anchorage and went straight to Kinkos. I dealt with some e-mails with William Sharp the photographer, and then ordered 10 copies of Fin: copied and bound.

I sent an e-mail to the producers of the "Sharks of Palau" show on the Discovery Channel asking for the e-mail of that Marine Biologist who did an intervention aboard the finner somewhere in Palau.

That shark show will be on at 1:00 PM on Sunday. If someone could tape that for me, I'll thank you from the Oscar podium.

Here's the cover letter I wrote to go with all the screenplays.

Kinkos

Anchorage, Alaska

August 17, 2001

To whom it may disturb,

What you have before you is Fin, a screenplay that is only half-written but well on its way to being two-times too long, at least.

The typical screenplay has Three Acts and is usually 110 to 130 pages. What is before you is a screenplay that ends at the start of the Second Act, and then synopsizes the rest of the story. But it is already 130 pages. Sorry. I'm wordy.

I like Fin as far as I have it. I think there is a movie here that is challenging, entertaining, commercial. I like how it is set up. I just need to finish it.

Fin is a redemption story. It is about a man who feels he has betrayed himself, betrayed his art and betrayed the ocean. He disappears into the ocean, hoping the power of the ocean will allow him to, as Shakespeare nailed it: "suffer a sea change. Into something rich and strange."

Fin is about many things: sharks, art, the ocean, the media, integrity, corruption, money, Hawaii, California. The Seven Deadly sins all come into play in Fin, in this order of priority: greed, pride, jealousy, gluttony, anger, lust and sloth.

I am sending 15 copies of this screenplay to friends and acquaintances who know more than I do about sharks and art and the media and integrity and the Seven Deadly Sins.

Please read Fin in its half-finished, perilously long form and tell me what you think: Do you see what I am trying to accomplish here? And can you give me some ideas on how to accomplish it?

I'll be in Russia from August 26 to September 9. If you could read this and mark it up and edit it I'd be very grateful. If something is funny, say so. If something is stupid or awkward (besides me) say so. If the pidgin is wrong, let me know. If you know some Hawaiian expressions that would work, let me know. If I'm wrong about CNN or the art world or the sailing world or the shark world, set me straight.

Thank you for any time you can devote to this.

If you want to read it and mail it back to me, or send me e-mail suggestions, I'll be sure to thank you from the Oscar podium.

My e-mail is TheBenM@AOL.com.

If you want to mail it to Alaska so it gets there before September 9, please use this address.

Ben Marcus
C/O Scott Liska
10921 Kasilof Boulevard
Anchorage, Alaska
99516

Thanks in advance, and again.

Ben Marcus

So there's that. I'm going to send out the issues on Monday, and spend more money I shouldn't be spending. Oh well.

It looks like brother Dan is going to cover the Patagonia order, which is now in the four figures. Hopefully they can get it to Alaska by next Saturday.

I'm also pushing Amazon to get me that Russian/English translation software. It's back-ordered, but last night in the Pipeline Club bar I imagined the scene in Russia. We'll be at the bar in PetroPavlovask and there will be people around and we'll be communicating through this thing and that software. Instead of talking, I'll be typing. Could be fun. I imagine putting on a little show with the digital camera and this computer. Don't know how high-tech the Russians are, but I can't imagine they have a lot of laptops.

So I sent an e-mail to Amazon asking them to cancel the order if they can't get it to me by Saturday, August 25, 2001.

I want to order a backup power pack, battery and cigarette lighter charger from Gateway, but I've already spent too much money. I'd hate to lose power on this trip. A little worried about that, but we'll just have to see what happens.

What else? Bought some small fireworks for Russian swag and tomorrow I'm going to Scott Liska's to pick up whatever packages have come through. The Garmin GPS units should be there, and maybe other stuff.

It's 12:55

6:16 AM ALASKA TIME FRIDAY AUGUST 18, 2001 KINKOS IN ANCHORAGE

ODOMETER

TRIP METER

MONEY Candy for Russia kids and water at Tesoro Station.

Kinkos, I'm back at Kinkos. I had the bad luck of parking the van next to an airport warehouse that got robbed. The cops checked out two very sketchy characters and figured if we had robbed the place we wouldn't be sleeping next to it, and they let us go.

I heard the alarm going off but I was asleep. There is the very slight chance that Ike the Mixer set it off, but probably not. We got out of there and drove around. I considered driving down to Turnagain Arm to check out the tide, but changed my mind. Back at Kinkos now. Just had an e-mail conver with SS and sent all my latest nasty e-mails to Randy at SURFER. He's a fan.

I'm here basically to send this, because I haven't sent it for awhile.

Today I'm going to get my swag from Scott Liska, contact Derek Agnew at ABC Alaska, check out Turnagain Arm and then find a place to settle for a week and get some work done. It will probably be closer to Turnagain Arm than Anchorage. I'll try to find a place to camp down there. I want to finish the Prudhoe Bay Pipeline proposal before I leave.

During my last session at Kinkos I received and sent e-mails with a guy named Duffy who owns the Pioneer Inn in Ketchum I had called him about the Shakespeares Pies idea, and he responded.

In a message dated 8/17/2001 1:46:22 PM Pacific Daylight Time, duffy@svidaho.net writes:

Hi Ben,

Just got back to town and got your message. I'm very interested in the Shakespeare's pies and would appreciate any info you have. Thanks for your interest. Sorry I missed you - hope to see you the next time you're in town. Sincerely, Duffy

DUFFY

I WAS THROUGH THERE AROUND FOURTH OF JULY. KETCHUM/SUN VALLEY IS AN ODD AND WONDERFUL PLACE, NO MISTAKE.

I FISHED WARM SPRINGS WITH MY FRIEND JEFF AND WE BUMMED AROUND. WENT TO BARS, ETC, ETC, SAW ARNOLD WALKING DOWN THE STREET.

ANYWAY, I WAS IN WHISTLER A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO AND SAW THAT SHAKESPEARES HOT PIES. I ATE THERE EVERY MEAL AND NEVER GOT TIRED OF IT. THEY'RE REALLY REALLY GOOD AND I KNOW THAT IF YOU OPENED ONE ON MAIN STREET IN KETCHUM, YOUD KILL IT AFTER HOURS.

YOU'D PUT THE HOT DOG GUY OUT OF BUSINESS, WHICH IS WHERE HE NEEDS TO BE.

I'M TRYING TO CONVINCE STEVE HAWK TO DO THIS. HE WANTS A SUMMER PLACE AND I'M SAYING HE SHOULD SPLIT THE OWNERSHIP OF A SHAKESPEARE'S HOT PIES IN SUN VALLEY WITH SOMEONE.

I'VE ONLY SEEN THE PLACE IN SUMMER AND I KNOW YOU'D KILL IT. WINTER I CAN ONLY IMAGINE. MEAT PIES ARE THE PERFECT THING FOR SKIIERS, HOT AND FILLING AND EASY TO HANDLE. YOU COULD MAYBE SUPPLY THE FOOD PLACES ON THE HILL AND DOUBLE YOUR VOLUME. DONT KNOW HOW IT WORKS THERE.

SHAKESPEARE'S MAKES 5-STAR MEAT PIES, MEAT AND VEGETARIAN, SAUSAGE ROLLS, PERFECT FOR KETCHUM: A COMMON/SIMPLE THING DONE ELEGANTLY.

THEY HAVENT OPENED IN AMERICA YET. THE FIRST ONE WILL BE IN SANTA MONICA.

IT'S PERFECT FOR KETCHUM, TRUST ME. THINK OF ALL THE HANGOVER AND DUI'S AND DRUNK DRIVING DEATHS YOU'LL BE PREVENTING. PUBLIC SERVICE.

I'M IN ANCHORAGE NOW GETTING READY FOR A SURF TRIP TO RUSSIA WITH A BUNCH OF CLUELESS PUNKS. I'M THROUGH WITH ALL THIS SURF TRIP STUFF. TOO OLD.

NEED SOMETHING ELSE TO DO. THINKING ABOUT STARTING A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER FOR THE OIL INDUSTRY IN ALASKA.

BUT YOU SHOULD LOOK INTO SHAKESPEARES. GO TO WHISTLER IF YOU HAVE TO.

IVE TRIED TO CONTACT THEIR MAIN HEADQUARTERS IN AUSTRALIA BY E-MAIL, BUT CAN'T GET THROUGH.

I SENT E-MAILS TO THE PEOPLE WHO RUN SHAKESPEARES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALSO TOLD THIS KIWI GUY WHO WORKS THERE ABOUT KETCHUM.

SOMEONE OUGHTA DO IT.

I ALSO TOOK PHOTOS OF THAT HUGE KISPIOX STEELHEAD. I WENT BY THE KISPIOX RE ON MY DOWN FROM ALASKA LAST YEAR AND ON MY WAY UP TO ALASKA AND I'M GOING TO FLOG IT ON THE WAY BACK DOWN.

I REALLY LIKE THE BULKLEY VALLEY. MONTANA AND THE BULKLEY VALLEY ARE THE PLACES I'M GOING TO BUILD MY RANCH HOUSE.

ANYWAY, STAY IN TOUCH ON THIS IF YOU'RE INTERESTED. IT LOOKS LIKE THE PIONEER INN IS KILLING IT. I HAD A NICE BUFFALO BURGER THERE AND WATCHED ONE OF YOUR WAITERS VERY PATIENTLY HANDLE THREE MEAT-HEAD AMERICAN COMPLAINERS.

BUT LIKE I SAID TO THE PEOPLE IN WHISTLER, IF YOU OPENED ONE SHAKESPEARES IN KETCHUM, YOUD HAVE TO OPEN TWO.

So now I'm here basically to send this and kill time. I shoulda slept some more, but we got locationed. Good thing we were both clean or the cops would have been all over us.

Gus is reading the paper. He's going to try to find a job today. I've half-offered to let him use the van while I'm in Russia.

I'm such a noice guy.

As for Ike. He's cruising. He was running around last night until the cops gave us the boot. ON the way in to Anchorage some people in a passing truck took a photo of him.

Gus said an 18-wheeler got washed off the Haul Road yesterday north of Livengood. I have no trouble believing that.

Now it's 7:25 and It's time to send this. Gus is in the van sleeping, I guess. I give him a lot of lip but he's not a bad guy, just talked to much and is a little lost.

He did come up with one good suggestion in all of that. He thinks Fin should always be in all caps, like FIN. I agree.

Okay, that's it for now. If you've read this far: Geez, get a life. This isn't that interesting.

Time to go find Scott Liska.