Celebrating the business

I’m still bouncing back from that Super Bowl halftime show.

I know and read enough on this. I caught the reference to a great Gil Scott Heron song — the revolution will not be televised.

And the feud. I realize there’s a tiff between Drake and Kendrick Lamar. But that’s nothing compared to the whole Hank Thompson vs. Kitty Wells. Honky Tonk Angels. Don’t get me started.

INA

I’ve had many travels. The most recent one was to Des Moines for our Iowa Newspaper Association Convention. I was nailing it on my way to the Marriott in Des Moines, scraping my way through a glaze of moisture until I found the driveway to the Marriott.

But somehow I ended up going down a narrow alley next the Marriott. I didn’t panic. I knew where I was. But being in a grid of one-way streets, I knew I’d have to go away from where I was going to get back to where I was.

After my first run, I felt I was in a David Lynch movie. Up is down. Down is up. I was seeing parts of Des Moines I’d never seen. My destination is 33 stories tall. It meant I had to get back to a street that cuts through the town at an angle to get me back.

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It was a feeling of accomplishment to make it into the lobby. After dropping off the travel bags, I set up my office by the lighted sign for the convention. It’s there I can do some web work and visit with legends in Iowa newspapers as they arrived.

Big takeaways from the our convention. I feel better than ever. I see many young people who are believers in journalism in Iowa.

Couple that with our older mainstay journalists who are still in the game some way, and who make sure there is a future for newspapers. Enthusiasm. It’s good to see.

And it’s good to wear my Extinguished Service banner on my badge. Wait. Distinguished.

It was also great to hear that every county in Iowa has a newspaper. Only five states can say that. It’s a tribute to our state and our newspaper colleagues.

If had I had any melancholy, it was remembering our colleagues who weren’t here. This was a place my dad enjoyed being a part of, and hearing how in his term as president kept the thing together.

I remember Jay Wagner and his strong love for this state and the business, which was evident even as he battled cancer.

I was asked by my former boss to get pics of her husband receiving a major award. Glad to.

I had a great talk with a former editor in our group who won major sports awards at his current paper. I think back to Joe, who in his last year at our paper, won the award for best sports coverage. I think of Peter Yarrow who gave a short show in the room where I helped lead a jam session.

I think of a picture of Dad featured in a new book about the newspaper association by friend Brian Cooper. A picture I took of Dad walking or running down 13th Street in Belle Plaine, carrying a strobe light and giving me instructions on how to click the shutter.

That’s where it started. I hope it keeps going.