History, politics, people of Oly WA
Newsflash! from Ken of Lacey:
Lacey Community Church voted recently to house the homeless tent encampment called Camp Coyote sometime in July or August.
That’s Camp Quixote, not Coyote. Of Cervantes.
Seriously though, information from that particular congregation and hosting Camp Quixote will be posted here.
From GoalSeattle boards:
Yesterday, why did the ECS leave the march to the match before everyone else (i.e. the rest of the fans and the band)? Aren’t we all in this together? I’ve been hearing that the ECS has an elitist attitude but didn’t really buy it until I saw them ditch the rest of the march to the match yesterday. Why don’t you guys want to march with everyone else?
And a response:
I’ve talked with some of the leaders of the ECS, and apparently the guy who is in charge of the band is very resistant to working with ECS, and very into trying to bend them to his will. It’s a source of contention between the FO and ECS, and a source of contention within ECS (as in how do they respond to it?).
There seem to be a lot of stories of stress between ECS and the band, so read the entire thread.
If it is true that the band is deliberately leaving late, well that’s the bands fault. I did notice that the band didn’t leave at 6p, so if ECS members are worried about their general admission seats, the band should oblige.
From my point of view, the march needs to be one thing and both sides need to accommodate the other. If the organization wants to encourage fan support, they have to support the fan groups.
I took in my first game of the (MLS) Soudners (FC) this weekend, and thought before hand I should shoot some video from the phone to illustrate my thoughts on the whole gameday experience.
I left Olympia at just around 2p for the 730p game, so that gave me absolutely plenty of time. I found an insanely close free spot on Occidental just south of Safeco.
My buddy (Dan), who is a Tyee member and a Seahawk season ticket holder (game day experience expert), caught up with me a few minutes later. The first item on the agenda was getting him some Sounders gear. He had a bit of heartburn about wearing something with essentially an ad on it, but realized that in the long run, it is something he’d have to get over. He settled on a scarf, but every store around Qwest was sold out.
At the Seattle Team Store they said they were sold out until the middle of May. Dan reflected that someone at Adidas should be fired for not being able to keep up with demand.
Our first stop was McCoys, one of two Emerald City Supporter Bars (Fuel, the other). We got there pretty early (about 430p) and place wasn’t yet crowded. Some singing would break out every once in awhile.
After a couple of beers and burgers, we walked to get one of Dan’s pre-game ritual foods, a cookie from that cookie place (forget the name) in Pioneer Square. On the way we caught a glimpse of the Soundwave Band.
Coming back to hear the band before the March to the Match, we saw a guy in a Luche Libre mask, Drew Carey (who seemed like an honestly nice guy from ten feet away) and the ECS apparently organizing separately from the people who would eventually march with the band.
I tried to film ECS leaving early. You can also hear Dan comparing this to the experience before Husky Games (I close my eyes, it could almost be October).
I still can’t figure out why the ECS left the area towards the stadium before everyone else and the band did. Seems like a dick thing to do. If I was being really critical, I could imply they were doing it because we (with the band) were the newer folks and they as the real soccer fans wanted to show us up. I doubt that, but still would have been way better if we all marched together.
Speaking of the march:
Dan again: “Its like the Rose Parade!” His comparisons to college football were really on point.
For me, walking down the ramp into the stadium for the first time is an important moment.
Before the game:
After the game:
Yeah, it got a lot louder. To the point, that if I had the same seats (section 118, a few over from the ECS) I wouldn’t bring my three and one year old. Just too loud. Which, on my own was awesome, but someplace a little less loud for the kids, you know?
Just some random thoughts:
1. $20 for Section 118 is a freaking steal. Best value in sports in my experience. Better than minor league baseball or anything.
2. College football is the only comparison. The fever in the stands, the before game events, the feeling between fans (there were some Earthquake fans who were joshed with along the way), the only thing to compare it too is college football. Especially the interaction between Sounder and Earthquake fans. I have never spoken to a fan of an opposing team at a Mariners game, but you had to almost say something to the people in Quakes gear walking around. Nothing mean, just to let them know where they are.
3. Media fog. Driving home, I automatically turned to AM radio, on instict listening for a post game show. I listened to the Mariners post game, and waited on other stations for the Sounders post game, which never came. That is the weirdest part of the day, having gone to a major league event, and not being able to digest it on the way home with a real deal post game discussion on AM radio.
Well, I’m just guessing that the three fellas of Fitchburg Punx have never been to Olympia. But their straight-through but not so bad rendition of Olympia, WA lacks that sort of loneliness and homesickness that really makes this song worth it.
Like I said, not bad, but with the flourish at the end especially, they miss the emotional point of the song.
Now this band is funny for me too, because the one punk rocker that I actually know personally spent a few years in Olympia is just from down the road of these guys. Joe Riot of Chanticlear is from Haverill, Mass. and I met him about 10 years back in Olympia.
Now Joe would be able to play a totally ironic version of Olympia, WA. Not that I didn’t enjoy having him around, but I think he’d rather be somewhere not Olympia.
What, expecting only one blog post tonight about my crazy pet peave? Sorry, I have time on my hands and links to link to.
I thought I’d point out the use of Olympia in regards to state government that is not metonymy. Basically, the rule is you’re safe if you are saying “in Olympia” and not “Olympia did this.” So, if you’re making a geographic distinction, you’re fine.
For example, Sen. Steve Hobbs (of some place up north I guess):
“I fought hard to carry out the wishes of my district,” Hobbs said. “When we come to a consensus as a community, I am able to carry our message to Olympia and work for the necessary results.”
Sen. Hobbs’ example is great because he even cites “my district” and “to Olympia,” making the obvious point that although he works “in Olympia” for a few months a year, he is actually from somewhere else in Washington. This is often something missed or fuzzed over when Olympia is metonymized.
And, an update from Rep.Reuven Carlyle in MyBallard. The headline states “from Olympia.” The report itself says things like “in Olympia” and “visitors to Olympia.”
Of course the trains leaves the tracks in the comment thread below when a commenter says “people in Ballard are compassionate and will enjoy giving their money to Olympia.” God, don’t I wish.
And, of course, I can’t leave without one more bad example from homefront media. From the Sammamish Reporter: “Help for carers under threat from Olympia.” I hate helping you and I hate your career, so this is a convenient one for me.
Rich Roesler was top of the table, many points clear as they say in the soccer world in the race for worst metonymizer of Olympia. Even Rich’s blog name and url were metonymy. But, in the last few days, Steven Gardener of the Bremerton Sun’s Kitsap Caucus blog has grabbed the title.
1. Champion Gardener: “Last Minute Olympia Gamesmanship.” We got game, we are Olympia. And, you should see our manship too, its pretty good.
2. Again, champ Gardener: “Olympia’s Deadline Looms and We’re Here to Watch”. Damn right I have a deadline. You have until Monday morning, you all better be out of town or I’m calling your own towns and they’re going to have to drive down here to take you back.
3. And, last week weird progressive metonymy: Chad Shue with “Hello Olympia, it’s time for the tax talk.” Hi Chad, personally, I’m uncomfortable with that sort of conversation with you. Please, take it up with your King County state representative please.
Depending on how you want to view it, Eric at Sightline’s piece about the “Northwest Personality” will either reaffirm your belief in the Seattle Chill or convince you still it doesn’t exist.
From Eric:
Northwest states are among the most open and least neurotic places you can find, but we are also among the least extraverted. Not surprisingly, Oregon and Washington perform almost identically on every measure. More interesting, perhaps, is that Alaska, Idaho, and Montana are also very similar in some respects (though quite different in some others).
…
The good news is that the Northwest is not a neurotic place. Washington is the 46th least neurotic state in the union, followed by Alaska at 47th, and Oregon at 48th. (Idaho and Montana rank 32rd and 39th, respectively.) To get any less neurotic, you’d have to move to South Dakota (49th), Colorado (50th), or Utah (51st).
The other nice thing about the Northwest is our openness. Oregon is the 3rd most open state in the nation while Washington is 5th. (Only New York, Massachusetts, and DC are comparably open.) But move away from the urban Northwest and the openness appears to fall off: Montana is 16th; Idaho is 30th; and Alaska is 49th.
What do you call a region that is neither neurotic nor extroverted? Totally sane. Yeah, say you take a state that ranks both high in neuroticism and extroversion (like Pennsylvania) I guess you could say they weren’t as chill(y) as us. I’d also say they were also totally unhinged.
What outsiders say is our tendency to be on the surface nice but total dicks in action, I say we’re just not as freaking crazy as you are, so can you please get a grip of our sanity?
Also, another note that Eric makes is that as a region, the Northwest flows pretty well as a group through the personality traits, except for openness. As Oregon and Washington rank pretty high the more conservative northwest states are lower down (Montana 16th, Idaho 30th and Alaska 50th). Northwest conservative, in that regard, means you are less open.
When the legislature folds up the tents on Sunday, I have hope my terror will end. But, as the engine of democracy begins its high pitch squeal towards sine die, the metonymy is getting way out of hand.
1. #olympia misuse on twitter continues.
2. From Seattle Courant: Olympia Says Seattle Property Owners Should Pay for Cost Overruns to Replace Viaduct. Boy, don’t you wish we could tell Seattle what to do.
3. Seattle PI gets it both wrong and right. You have to read the rss feed to find it but, it reads: “Legislative Democrats let Washingtonians down” and “Olympia’s disappointing Democrats: Minorities get rights, but state programs get the shaft.”
4. Washington Policy Blog (finally a conservative misuse): “For a while there Seattle Times’ top Olympia reporter Andrew Garber…” Boy, don’t I wish the Seattle Times actually had a “top” Olympia reporter. Or, if anyone else other than the Olympian covered Olympia. In my sense, not everyone elses.
5. Sightline Instutue (via Seattle dirt): “With Olympia locked in a power struggle over plans to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 floating bridge…” If only. Man, what I would do with a floating bridge in Olympia.
Walter Neary, Lakewood’s blogging city councilman, conducted an experiment via twitter and facebook and got no comments from the locals:
The news was that the city of Lakewood’s collection of traffic fines is up 40 percent for the first three months of 2009 compared with the first three months of 2008, for total of about $200,000 more. I have to say, I didn’t get a lot of feedback, but what I got was very high quality.
…
I have to tell you … I was very impressed with the points of view.
BUT
and there’s a BUT
Not a single one of these folks lives in Lakewood.
So … great views. Great Internet exchanges. Zip interaction with Lakewood.
A simple solution could be to create a facebook account for “city councilman” Walter Neary and only accept relationships with your constituents. It could be made semi-public so anyone could see your information and what is going on on your wall, but only friends could comment. It would also be separate from a personal account, which would make it easy to divide from personal stuff.
Or, in the long term, I wonder if something like this would work:
I’ve been toying around with an idea in my mind, a sort of super public comment tool for state government on down. Each level of government in Washington at some point has a need for public comment. It would be interesting to create a system online where a citizen could create a user profile using their voter registration (or some stand in for folks who aren’t registered) and then see open public comment processes in the jurisdictions they reside in.
So, in my case, I’d see public comment for the city of Olympia, Thurston County, the local PUD and port and the state of Washington.
I’d be able to post comment to any of the open processes and either have it archived for whatever public official will review the comment or immediately accessible to other users so they could comment back on my comment.
Of course, normal rules like not being able to overuse the system (three comments a week, for example), not being rude and not using particular language, would apply.
For this system, the important thing would be to segregate people into public comment processes that they actually are involved in. So, keeping Kitsap residents from commeting on an interesting issue in Renton would be a priority.
I was in 8th grade and was becoming interested in sailing. This book told a story of six teenagers from two families on a voyage around the San Juan Islands in a thirty two foot ketch. Even though the plot is a bit corny, the description of the islands, harbors and passages were very accurate. When the author “invented” a couple of islands, he let the reader know that he did that. While reading the book the first time, I would pull out my father’s charts to see where these places were. Reading that book probably was the one event that sparked my interest in cruising in the San Juan Islands and sailing to distant places. I started planning my own voyages to the San Juan Islands.
…
Even though “The Enchanted Islands” is considered a juvenile book, I reread it last week, but now, I can visually the descriptions of the places in the San Juans that the characters in the book visit and sail around. And his descriptions still seem accurate.
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