V.11 : October 2nd to 15th

Location: Tok to Anchorage via Fairbanks, Alaska

audio tracks:
The Ship The Diamond : Traditional
Live at Into The Woods bookstore/coffeehouse


Gypsy Dance : Traditional : adapt&arrang- Folksinger


The Final Circuit


I'm moving fast now. Sleeping in the back of a pick-up at 15 degrees below zero tends to make you feel like summer is over and winter is really here, and what am I doing still in Alaska?

But there is a round of shows still to do, and though winter is rolling over Alaska with the suddeness and inevitability of an incoming tide, I can dance through the storms and have a few more weeks down off the platue and nearer the coast and sea-level. And this is the time to play the schools as well, of course. I stop in Tok, the first town on the highway after leaving Eagle road, to arrange the deatils of what will be my final show in Alaska, a concert and classes here at the Tok Highschool. I also play at the boatd meeting of the local Duct Tape radio, trying to get a local broadcast and PBS repeater started here in Tok. Helga, a boardmember, lets me park outside her B&B that night.


Ann, the principal, is really focused on getting digital recording equipment for the school. Though they are 160 miles of summer-only dirt road from the highway, thanks to the Arctic Rural Communication program they have a satellite internet link. She sees the potential for the net to provide real interaction between the rural schools, the entire Alaskan community , and the world; to break the feeling of isolation that the students can often feel. The adults choose to live here, but the young are often caught between their love for their home and the (media promoted) idea that its all "happening" someplace else. While the bush draws the people that belong here from the population at large, the rural students may or may not be heading into rural lives. They don't know yet where they will end up, few of us do.

She sees that digital audio and video technology and the ability to communicate it on the net opens up a great range of opportunities for work out here. Students with these skills will have serious value in the workplace anywhere. We are in the midst of serious scenery, but producing anything out here has always been hampered by the difficulty getting those goods to town, as well as communicating with clients or customers. The net can change this, as far as digital information, including audio and video, goes. In fact, we proved it. Ann was invited to air a commentary on Alaska Public Radio. Flying to Fairbanks would have been a lot of trouble, but instead she was able to write scripts and submit them to the editors via e-mail for comment, then record the final script on my equipment, convert it to an mp3 file and e-mail it to the radio station. It was on the air the next day.

So here I am, looking out the window of Eagle Community school at the overcast and rain. I suppose I should mention the rain. It hasn't been my imagination. The weather service reported that August was the rainiest ever, with only 4 days that the sun came out over even a part of Alaska.

Folksinger Homesite