Way Too Busy With AQR, Press Club, Confucius Institute, and More Redistricting Stuff

Wednesday night I went to the 30th Anniversary Celebration of the Alaska Quarterly Review.  The new volume includes a remembrance of the two stellar photojournalists who died in Libya Tim Hetherington, and Chris Hondros almost exactly one year ago.  Anchorage raised photographer Benjamin Spatz coordinated the collection of photos representing With Liberty and Justice for All from 68 outstanding photographers who knew the two men.  At the event at the Anchorage Museum were two of the photographers who submitted photos, original Good Morning America host Dave Hartman and two time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Barbara Davidson.  This event deserves a longer post of its own, but it's late and so I'm just putting up these two photos of Hartman and Davidson with the photos they submitted.  You can get a copy of the 30th Anniversary issue of the AQR - truly a nationally and internationally recognized literary journal published right here in Anchorage - here.  Or try some local bookstores. Or a good out of state bookstore.  They sold all the copies they brought Wednesday night. 

Then Thursday I went to the radio day of the Alaska Press Club.  I finally decided I should join this organization and go to their conference so I could learn something about what I'm doing here and how to do it better.

Not sure how much I'll improve, but it won't be from lack of great discussion from masters of radio.  OK, I don't do radio, but much of the wisdom imparted can easily be adapted to video.  It was good timing for me because I've been thinking about my rather raw style and why I think it's appropriate here.  While I'm not backing off, I did get some good ideas to at least modify my ideas and maybe improve my technique.

Neal Conan

First there was Jason LeRose from NPR West.






And then came Neal Conan.  It was quite eerie when he opened his mouth and this voice floated out - a voice I know so well from Talk of the Nation and other shows he's done on NPR.  And now it was attached, so to speak, to an actual physical human being.   I'll post more about this later, but just want to explain why I've been so busy.


I'll get back to this.  But I was a bit confused and went to hear Howard Weaver in the bookstore.  It turns out he'll be there at 4pm on Friday.  But Thursday there was a talk by Chinese Fulbright Scholar Wei Jaijiang on A Contrastive Study of Chinese and English Emotional Metaphors.  I have to go to bed now, it's after 2am and there is more Press Club starting about 9am.  So I won't get into details of the talk.  But I got to meet the director of the Confucius Institute and the instructors and I may have committed myself to try to pick up on where I left off in Chinese.  There's quite a bit in my brain, but it has a great deal of difficulty getting out of my brain via my tongue these days.  Possibly I can dislodge some of that vocabulary and syntax, not to mention the characters.

I just want you to know I'm not goofing off here.   Oh yes, the Redistricting Board put up the responses to their latest submission.  I only barely opened one and haven't had time to read it yet.  Here are the documents:

OBJECTIONS 
Fairbanks North Star Borough
Aleutians East Borough
City of Petersburg
Calista Corporation
Bristol Bay Native Corporation
RIGHTS Coalition
Riley Plaintiffs

RESPONSE
Alaska Redistricting Board

Here's what's scheduled tomorrow at the press club:

9 – 10:15 a.m.
Telling stories through photography
 Barbara Davidson will discuss long-form photo storytelling and ways to use narrative and storytelling in shorter-form daily journalism. Rasmuson Hall 101

Carolyn Ryan critique
Carolyn Ryan, metro editor at the New York Times, critiques stories written on deadline. Three works will be reviewed. Stories with multi-media components will be given priority. Rasmuson Hall 111

One-on-one coaching (radio)
With NPR’s Jason DeRose, APRN’s Lori Townsend and Annie Feidt, CoastAlaska’s Ed Schoenfeld, UAA’s Elizabeth Arnold and others. Rasmuson Hall 316

10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Covering religion
The nuts and bolts of covering religious issues and institutions, from sex-abuse scandals to denominational conflicts to involvement in local politics. With Jason DeRose, NPR Western Bureau chief and former religion reporting instructor at DePaul University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He also holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Rasmuson Hall 101
Personal photojournalism u u Richard Murphy, long-time photo editor at the Anchorage Daily News and Atwood Chair at UAA, will show recent work made with an iPhone and talk about what he’s discovered about the tool in a reprise of his popular lecture

“Professional photojournalism to personal photojournalism or how my cell phone set me free.” Rasmuson Hall 111
Polling the pollsters: It’s all in the numbers
We’ve all seen pre-election numbers, approval surveys and other statistics offering public opinion information. But where do they come from and how do they work? How can two polls sometimes offer such different results? Get the lowdown on polling and information research— and find out how to best use these numbers in your reporting — at this panel featuring some of Alaska’s top specialists: Jean Craciun is CEO of Craciun Research, where she helps businesses and organizations deal with changing environments and reforming industry sectors. David L. Dittman (Dittman Research and Communications Corporation) is widely recognized as Alaska’s senior public opinion analyst. Ivan Moore, Ivan Moore Research, is a public opinion pollster based in Anchorage who works with both Democratic and Republican candidates. Moderated by UAF Journalism Professor Lynne Lott. Rasmuson Hall 316

1:15 – 2:30 p.m.
Covering the military from the home front
Kimberly Dozier shares the lessons she learned the hard way when covering the military – how to learn how troops see the world, and the media, how to win their trust – and most importantly, represent both them and the U.S. public in reporting that pulls no punches. Rasmuson Hall 101

Simple videos for websites

Shooting and editing simple videos that can be easily used on media websites. This session is for reporters with limited background in video production. With Ted S. Warren, Associated Press. Rasmuson Hall 111

Notebook to page u KTUU’s Jason Lamb, ADN’s Kyle Hopkins and APRN’s Annie Feidt share tips and tricks for writing accurate, compelling stories quickly. Moderated by Julia O’Malley. Rasmuson 316

Sorry the formatting got messed up, but I really have to go to bed or I'll sleep through all this.