I won.... a very honorable scholarship

Last Saturday the Peninsula Press Club held an awards banquet... they announced to those in attendance that I had been awarded this year's Herb Caen Student Scholarship... named for the late San Francisco Chronicle columnist... whose style I am mimicking here... (poorly)... I was not able to attend but I heard it was quite a show... I would have loved to attend... to shake hands with the other honorees... to smile and thank personally the board that selected me...

This was a big one for me... I've long been a fan of Caen... having (poorly) mimicked his 3 dot journalism in the past in columns for my college paper... I figured I was a long shot... not being a writer... I hoped my passion would show through... this is one I truly wanted... money aside... I consider having my name and Caen's name uttered in the same sentence a phenomenal honor... ludicrous even...

They tell me it's the first time a photographer has been bestowed the honor... wow... humbling to say the least... very...

Unfortunately I was unable to attend... I had a prior engagement in Portland... the NPPA Multimedia Summit... tickets were booked... plans were made... others were depending on me... it just wasn't possible... sadly...

I deeply wanted to say something... on Wednesday I left a voice mail for my contact at the Peninsula Press Club... tried to convey what I wanted to say and asked him to pass along my appreciation... feeling terrible the whole time because I wanted them to know that I truly was grateful...

It occurred to me this morning... (Wednesday actually, as that was when I wrote most of this post on a napkin)... as I drove to Santa Cruz... the internship at the Sentinel is going well... awesome even some would say... I would say... it occurred to me as I drove in that there was a way that I could have dispatched my message of appreciation... podcast... I should have created a MP3... e-mailed it to my contact... had it played at the ceremony...

Why didn't I think of it sooner... I wonder what Caen would think of podcasts if he were still around... would he hide from it... or embrace it... would his Baghdad by the Bay include the linguistic tongue twisters that he so often wrote about... would a slow week result in the sounds of the streets of San Fransisco as he made his way from the bar to the newsroom trying to avoid the rain... would he invent 3 pause journalism as he sifted though the notes he'd jotted down during his travels about town...

But I digress... I guess what I'm saying is... thank you.