Irregular caravan

Yes, it's spring. And tax day. And with that time of year comes another mad event: the annual Alaska Press Club J-Week! In keeping with the media's propensity to sensationalize, J-Week is not actually a week-long event, it is three days, Thursday through Saturday. Starting with a kick-off party (loud music, snacks, booze, cigs and tomfoolery in the back parking lot, LOTS of gabbing) at some suitably media savvy place (I'm not talking about the opening reception, mind you), the annual conference is just chock full of journalists at their most gossipy. The workshops and the guest speakers aren't bad, either. Usually they mention the party on the website, though. Perhaps the Anchorage Press, which usually hosts it, decided not to this year.

But we'll be missing most of it, in any case. Last year, due to a pyrophilic automobile, we were not able to attend. This year, we will be going down for the awards banquet, and, we hope, bringing along a caravan of irregulars for the Republic to make up for our absence last year. Kate Billington will be traveling with us, but we've got another seat for one more person, and any Republic contributor or supporter is welcome to convoy with us. I'd really love to have a whole mess of people down there to cheer us on during the awards banquet, but I suspect there won't be many.

We plan to leave at 8 am (meet at the Ester Post Office at that time if you want to join us) on Saturday morning (that's the 19th) and drive down to Anchorage. The conference and awards banquet are at the Anchorage Senior Center, 1300 East 19th Avenue. I'm not sure where we're going to stay, though. We better figure that out quick, huh?