Lazy Blogger; Low Budget Candidates; Who We Be

I've been having trouble getting posts finished.  It's not for lack of subjects, it's just they weren't coming out right.  So this is going to be a quicky just to get something up.

Low Budget Mayoral Candidates

First there was this sign:

I think I heard Dustin has spent less than $100 on his campaign. 

And then yesterday I saw this sign:

This is a fence that's seen a number of signs posted and then get removed.  This was the only one up.

There's an advantage to not having much money - it forces you to think differently about how you're going to do things.  These signs have a refreshing simplicity and homemade quality that clearly distinguishes them from all the very similar professional signs. 

Then I went to the Bartlett Lecture at UAA tonight.  The audience size was a bit disappointing.  Jeff Chang talked about his new book Who We Be and the evolution of race as an issue in the US from the 60's to today.  From a time when the majority was be
hind fairness and equality, through the backlash period, to today when things are particularly polarized.  Jeff has a passion for hip-hop and he talked about how it was the non-establishment multi-cultural movement.  (Sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth.)  There was also a good audience Q&A that got into questions about young activism in Anchorage - whether it was happening or not. 


  Here are a couple of the people I talked to afterward.  



Troy Buckner is the Executive Director of New Life Development in Anchorage, a non-profit that works with prisoners as they come out of prison and transition back into life without bars.  He also worked with Jeff years ago on documenting hip-hop.    He's with one of his board members, Carey Brown. 






Jeff Chen works at the Student Conservation Association (SCA) which involves students in various conservation projects.  No, that's not his conscience sitting on his shoulder, it's one of the book sellers in the background. 

Here's Jeff Chang after the talk listening to one of the audience members talk about Soviet multi-culturalism in the 1920s. 

Jeff, if you see this, here's a link to the movie Shield and Spear I mentioned to you. 


There's just so much going on in Anchorage and the weather's so good.  It's nice having easy walking and biking so early in the year.