I planted five varieties of garlic to over-winter in the garden and practiced trombone this morning and early afternoon. Then I headed into Anchorage for parts of or all of four events.
The first was Sen. Mark Begich's health care forum at Bartlett High School. I had attended Sen. Lisa Murkowski's similar forum at Dimond High School, back in August.
Like Sen. Murkowski's forum event, the security was professional, and the senator's staff was very professional. Unlike Sen. Murkowski's forum, Mark seemed to relish the challenges thrown at him by some of the contentious questioners, selected from the audience. And, unlike Sen. Murkowski's forum, I didn't get the gut feeling that some of the people called upon had been huge Begich contributors.
I had to leave early.
Then I drove by the Anchorage Hilton, to check out the picket line, getting ready for Anchorage mayor Dan Sullivan's farcical anti-union "Unity" dinner.
Then, it was off to UAA, to warm up, and perform in Mickey Belden's memorial concert. The concert was very moving, beyond touching. I wish I had played better. We raised over $2,000.00 for the Mickey Belden Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Then I stopped by the Snow Goose Theater, and caught up on the endings of the post-True Unity Dinner dance. I told Sen. Begich that I thought he had dealt with random audience questions at the health care forum rather well. He admitted that he has more to learn, more to read, more to question on this set of issues, every day. I told him the Alaska bloggers have his back when it comes to the anti-union stuff emerging locally.
After catching up with Diane Benson and some other friends, it was back home to the Valley.
Here's Shannyn Moore, dressed up to deliver the keynote address at the True Diversity Dinner, on MSNBC's Countdown, discussing what ex-Gov. Sarah Palin may or may not have learned about foreign policy over the past twelve months:
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Update - Saturday morning: Steve at WhatDoIKnow? has a nice video recap he made at Mickey Belden's memorial concert yesterday evening at UAA. I'm the guy in the middle in the first clip, playing with the UAA Trombone Trio.