Last year was the Chinese Year of the Boar; this year is the Year of the Rat. It’s not the Year of the Owl, that’s for sure. The rat above was part of one of the most watched sculptures in Alaska this year, which was, not surprisingly Junichi’s multi-block piece. From the first moment I got a look at the design of “I Got Dinner,” it was clear that it was going to be interesting at the end.

    In 2003, Junichi and his team carved “Chains” (sculpture, design) and that fell down when a strut was cut out (unfortunately before many pictures were taken). In 2004, everything pretty much went as planned with “Ancestral Spirit,” and it earned 2nd place. In 2005, Junichi became a YouTube star with “The Birth of the Bluebird” collapsing as he removed the last major strut and then emerged unharmed from the rubble. The last two years, 2006 and 2007, produced “Mysterious Pearl,” “Aqua Queen” and considerably less drama. So in 2008, we have “I Got Dinner,” which has drama written all over it! (see below)

The daring design for “I Got Dinner” leaves little to support the weight of the owl

“I Got Dinner” is almost finished; Just add a tail to the rat and cut away a few struts...

   So the stage was set and more YouTube stardom seemed assured. But the weather didn’t cooperate. It got WARM! Instead of there being a question as to whether it would stand or not, it became a question of when it would crash, because the ice was just too soft to hold that much weight! Worse than that, however, was the temperature-caused competition extension. Instead of ending at a primetime 9pm, because carvers needed freezing overnight temps to freeze on last-minute parts, the competition was extended until 4am! This meant that there were few if any cameras around, because all the park visitors were tucked into bed. Thank goodness there was a professional camera crew around! (Beyond Reality was filming for a possible future reality show on the championships) Or, er, that would have been great, except that the carving came down before it was supposed to, as the removal of an early strut finished it off! So there might not be ANY video of the crash, other than possibly a partial shot from another site by Beyond Reality. Had I not been busy with our sculpture, I would have been happy to run on over and take some shots, but that really wasn’t an option. Maybe someone was standing there with a video camera or a cell phone, I don’t know. Keep an eye out on YouTube and we’ll see.

“I Got Dinner” became “I Lost Dinner” in a matter of moments when the soft ice failed. Junichi changed the title after the crash (it’s hard to see, but it’s engraved below the owl)

    One final note: now maybe the “Rat” is supposed to be a cute little field mouse. I think though, if, like me, you’d walked up to a rodent nearly the size of a Great Dane, you’d probably be unable to think of it as anything as small as a mouse; it had to be at least a rat!