Judy and I have met a lot of wonderful reporters and authors from around the USA and UK these past two weeks. We missed a lot of them too. And, like many informed Alaskans, we've dealt with e-mails and phone calls. Enough to eat up months of rolled over cell phone minutes.Last Friday, we met with the man who started Salon.com, David Talbot, after Mr. Whitekeys' benefit for the Friends of Mat-Su. We invited him out to our house on Neklason Lake for dinner on Sunday. Then I met Michelle Goldberg, whose work for Salon and for the Nation has attracted my past interest, at the pro-woman demonstration at the Loussac Library. She's a former colleague of Talbot's, so she got an invite too. And Steve Braun from the LA Times hoped to make it too.
David and Steve got way busy, Sunday, finishing interviews, meeting deadlines. They couldn't make it. Michelle did though, and a UK Channel Four production crew came out. A whole bunch of progressive Alaska bloggers came over.
Judy and I fed them Copper River King and Sockeye salmon, home-grown potatoes, beets, carrots, basil, mint, tomatoes, garlic, broccoli and so on. Over food, drink and polite conversation, for over five hours, we shared information with Michelle and the British reporters. I wish more Alaska progressive bloggers could have been there. This was, however, perhaps the first meeting of a new working group. Judy and I were so happy to kick it off in such a striking way.
What Do I Know? Steve, Celtic Diva, Writing Raven, Gryphen, AK Muckraker and Shannyn Moore all spent time with the film crew. Dennis Zaki escaped from editing video, for a few minutes. They also interviewed Howard and Darlene Bess, who once again graced our home.
I'm hoping we can all get together again soon, along with Maia, E. Ross, Clark, Ishmael Melville, and the wonderful Fairbanks bloggers. And Jeremy Lansman! We've got a lot of work to do.
image by Steve