This sign mysteriously appeared in the window of the CCW (as well as other spots around town).

Who or what’s coming? When? Where? Why? How? As serious journalists, we should know the answer to those questions. We will post updates as they surface.

Is Gustavus the most literary place on Earth? In this week’s issue, we did a piece on the upcoming “Evening with Gustavus Authors,” where we discovered more than five percent of the population has published a book. We also included the following question:

Can you identify which Gustavus author’s book this excerpt is from?

(Question courtesy of the Gustavus Public Library.)

“I mentioned something about regretting my own birth. Too many people in the world. Extinctions everywhere. More dogs in Juneau than wolves in Alaska. Our chocolate running low. No more whiskey. The Beatles breaking up.”

A. “Happy Alaskans, We” by Ruth O. Matson

B. “The Only Kayak” by Kim Heacox

C. “Humpback Island” by F. Bruce Steadman

The answer, of course, is B, “The Only Kayak: A Journey in the Heart of Alaska,” the memoir by writer and photographer Kim Heacox.

Thanks to Gustavus for keeping Southeast on the literary map!

A book binding created by local author Artemis BonaDea. (Photo courtesy of the Gustavus Public Library)

From 49 Writers in Anchorage:

O Humpy! An eagle dropped you in the park,
a cyclist ran over you in the dark.

Not exactly great poetry, but for their annual “Ode to a Dead Salmon” contest, that’s exactly what the folks at Alaska’s 49 Writers want:  your best bad writing.
Last year’s contest drew entries from all over the world, including places like Malta where even any salmon, dead or alive, is hard to come by.  This year, famed (and fishy) Alaskan artist Ray Troll is once again offering an autographed T-shirt of choice to the winner.
To enter this tongue-in-cheek contest, writers should email their bad poetry or prose by August 15 to 49writers@gmail.com. Rules and details can be found at http://49writers.blogspot.com/2010/07/its-back-49-writers-ode-to-dead-salmon.html.
Through the 49 Alaska Writing Center, Alaska’s 49 Writers, a non-profit group, offers writing instruction, retreats, book promotion, and author events.  They also maintain an active blog for Alaska’s writers and readers at http://www.49writers.blogspot.com/.

It’s hard to work for a news organization without having a lot of conversations about the future of journalism. These conversations usually happen after hours, but sometimes, even on deadline, you’re blindsided.

I was laying out pages under the wire last Friday when I got a text message from my friend Grace: “Shedding a tear for Daniel Schorr. What a loss.”

I stopped what I was doing and read the news: Veteran journalist and news analyst Daniel Schorr had indeed just passed away at age 93.

Half an hour later, I got a phone message from Grace: “Hey, I know you’re ungodly busy but I really think we should have a wake for Daniel Schorr.”

I was fully distracted by this point, so I decided I might as well just call her back.

“I like the idea of a wake,” she told me. “It’s a place to commune, to acknowledge a loss, but it’s also a place to tell stories.”

After all, telling stories is what journalism is all about.

Grace told me that whenever she would hear Schorr on the radio, his commentary made her catch her breath with surprise that there were still people like him.

“We all know he’s very rare and we don’t have enough people like him right now,” she said. “He was a really important voice.”

The plan Grace hatched in the hours after Schorr’s death: “Waking Daniel Schorr: A Community Conversation,” to be held Friday, July 29 at 5 p.m. in the KTOO conference room. Amy Fletcher wrote a nice article about the event in today’s Juneau Empire.

I first encountered “The Winnebago Guy” in the late 90s. This was in the age before YouTube, when memes were still virally transmitted, of course, but in a much more informal manner. Random unlabeled VHS tapes, degraded from being copied too many times, were passed around with little or no sourcing. Whoever showed me that tape, outtakes from an industrial video starring an irascible, foul-mouthed Winnebago salesman, had no idea where it came from or who the guy was. No one did. No one cared. If it had been put into context, wouldn’t it be demystified? Wouldn’t it be less hilarious? Wouldn’t it produce empathy?

In the new documentary “Winnebago Man,” director Ben Steinbauer searches for the man behind the meme. After admitting to an obsession with the old recording, and seeing that it had gained huge popularity online, Steinbauer actually tries to find Jack Rebney, also known by the monikers “The Winnebago Guy” and “The Angriest Man in the World.” When he finally does locate Rebney, decades after the outtakes were filmed, the results are unexpectedly funny and poignant.

While the film narrows a beam on the particular case of Rebney, the broader implications are also explored. As user-based Internet media proliferates, average people frozen in embarrassing or horrific moments are simultaneously and indiscriminately disseminated to every place on the planet. Our lives are more public now than any other time in history. The Angriest Man in the World isn’t some rarified lunatic. He’s us.

I would definitely recommend checking this out at the Gold Town if you have time.

The only caveat: it’s packed with profanity. It isn’t offensive, and the language used orbits around the common core of benign expletives. If swearing burns your ears, however, it’s probably best to avoid watching this film.

“Winnebago Man” will be playing at the Gold Town Nickelodeon July 29 through August 1. More information can be found here: www.goldtownnick.com.

It’s both fun and frustrating to be on the University of Alaska Fairbanks event distribution list. If only I could easily jet up north on a given evening to attend one of the many interesting lectures and events I hear about. But there’s no reason we can’t bring some of the discussion a little closer to home. This week the fourth annual Alaska Book Festival got underway, with a lecture series celebrating literature from and about Alaska. One big question this year: what are the must-read pieces of Alaskan literature for newcomers to the state?

I can guess at least one book that might not make the list: “Into the Wild,” Jon Krakauer’s book about Chris McCandless, the 24-year-old Virginian who starved to death outside of Fairbanks in 1992. (And was brought to mind by this recent AP story.) But judging from the bookshelves I’ve seen around Juneau, it’s one of the most popular books about our state, especially for those who came “into the wild” from elsewhere. For a while there, it seemed like you couldn’t move to Alaska from the Lower 48 without some well-meaning friend or relative handing you Krakauer’s book.

I’m not sure what happened to the copy of “Into the Wild” I was given five years ago. Instead, my “Alaskan shelf” has been filling up by books by Alaskan authors, many of whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting or at least hearing read —  Richard and Nora Dauenhauer, Ernestine Hayes, Heather Lende, Sherry Simpson, Peggy Shumaker, John Straley, Emily Wall, to name just a few. But which authors and which books are “must-reads” for newcomers? I’d have a hard time to come up with a definitive list, but it’s an important question. The authors we read, and the people they introduce us to, when we are new in a place often become some of our most influential guides.

Who are your guides? What are your must-read Alaskan books? I’ll be thinking about this as I look at my bookshelves this evening. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

The Canvas is hosting an informal classical concert featuring Steve Tada on violin and Susanna Loewy on flute this Monday, July 19 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. It’s a free or pay-as-you-can to benefit Annie and Effie of the Canvas staff to help with ongoing family medical costs. Works to be performed include LeClair Duo Sonata No. 5, Debussy’s Syrinx, Astor Piazolla’s Tango Etudes No. 4 and 5, Eugene Bozza’s Image, Bach’s Partita in E major for solo violin, and duets from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Steve Tada, Juneau violinist

Susanna Loewy, teaching artist with the Philadelphia Orchestra

For more info, call the Canvas at 586-1750.

It’s not every day that great jazz happens several days in a row…

…except this week.

I was in such a bad mood when I got here, but now I feel awesome.

“Why did the punk rocker cross the road?

Because he had a chicken stapled to his face.”

-Brian Sullivan