Anchorage Daily News

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez wrote about visiting Wasilla last week and described the place as "one eyesore development after another."

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"They paved paradise," he wrote, having no recollection, apparently, of what the place was like before pavement reached there sometime in the early 1970s and chickens could safely peck on what is now the Parks Highway.

But what Alaska settlement would match the quaint alpine hamlet that Lopez expected to find? I have lived in Quinhagak, Mountain Village, Togiak, Afognak, Homer, Haines, Anchorage, Kodiak, Kenai, Seward and Cordova, and have spent too much time in Juneau. I suspect that none of these towns would live up to the visitor's dream of a Mayberryish Lower 48 burg against a backdrop borrowed from Yosemite, encouraged by viewing too many episodes of "Northern Exposure" and too many Thomas Kinkade prints.

Whether within sight of ragged peaks, along the rocky and muddy shores or out in the vast and daunting tundra, most Alaskans live amid spectacular (and dangerous) natural beauty. But we have to agree that our habitations seem mostly thrown together, trashy, impermanent. The quintessential Alaska architectural aesthetic is often -- with good reason -- inspired by brute survival.

I haven't been everywhere, however, and a few places might work as the great northern poster city. So I turn to you readers to advise Lopez and me about what Alaska towns you consider the prettiest -- not for their setting but for their infrastructure.

E-mail me, and include photos if you have 'em.

Call for plays

Whatever we Alaskans lack in urban planning, we more than make up for in theatrical creativity. The call for new plays has gone out from the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, where freshly penned works by aspiring playwrights from around the world receive first readings each summer. The guidelines for authors hoping to follow in the footsteps of previous Last Frontier participants like Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, Terrence McNally, Paula Vogel, Tony Kushner and August Wilson can be found at www.pwscc.edu.

The conference will take place from June 13 to 20 next year in Valdez, the 17th year the city has hosted the event. A number of people who got first exposure of their work in the Last Frontier play labs have gone on to see full-scale productions of their plays both here and elsewhere. This season, Cyrano's will present several original plays by Last Frontier alumni.

Grand jete grant

Alaska Dance Theatre's annual fund drive is under way. Like most performing arts groups, ADT depends on donations to cover operating costs. Longtime arts boosters John Rubini and Suzanne La Pierre are upping the ante with a challenge grant, according to a press release.

"If we can raise $20,000 this very generous family will contribute $10,000," it reads.

Contact Alaska Dance Theatre at 277-9591.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

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