Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 175 of 177)

Bob Blume (or at least hs company), the man who brought us the South Sound Center and the City of Lacey, is now the one agenting the sale of the ol’Tumwater Brewhouse. How fitting.

The Man Who Ruined Olympia, by sucking us dry in the 60s and 70s, and cutting off the city’s eastward expansion with the planning monstrocity that is Lacey, is now selling the second most important building here. Second to the Capitol.

I convinced Keri to watch a spooky half hour of Riverman last night. Of all the Green River Killer stuff that is coming out right now, it was a weird choice of a movie to make. I mean, Ted Bundy never really helps them, so the movie turns out to be a ineffective Silence of the Lambs wanna-be. I know its based on what really happened, but is it exciting enough to make a movie out of it?

The guy who played Dave Reichert was spooky close looking to the real sheriff.

Again, going to Bundy didn’t crack the case, why make such a big deal about it? Why make a movie?

Riverman hit the air about the same time the real Reichert and Ann Rule both came out with books. I actually am looking forward to reading Rule’s more than Reichert. I feel that Rule has been waiting her entire career to get a crack at this book.

Two more things anyone should read on the Green River Killer/Gary Ridgeway:

The Seattle Times’ 1987 investigation. Why did they spend so much time talking to Bundy and not enough time arresting Johns? This page also includes some of the legal documents.



King Co. Sheriff’s Office Green River Page. Sheriff Reicherts crew put a lot of what they have on the internet, including video of Ridgeway.

Speaking of yet another reason why I don’t like the South, is that I’m jealous in way. The South has such a developed literary tradition and I want one. Sense of place and all that.

Anway, that makes things like this peice in WW all the more important. If its purpose was to promote some new PDX writers, it worked. Even though Timberland and Evergreen don’t have his book, I’m going to track down Richard Melo’s Jokerman 8.

Having fun with Powells.com

For our first anniversary, Keri got me a shopping spree at Powells. We’re heading down there sometime in October, hopefully Sean will join in the fun.

Here’s my list so far. Its mostly stuff under “books I’ve checked out from the library or given away that I want.” The Kitteredge and Berry essays I’ve read mostly, but would like to read in my own good time. I used to own “Disturbing the Peace,” I read it my junior year in high school, and is the most significant book I’ve ever read. I gave it away to an important politician, and I’d like it back to keep. I threw the other Vaclav Havel books in there for good measure. I checked “Art of the Impossible” out yesterday and it seems great.

I’m considering putting some fiction on the list, possibly the two books from Douglas Coupland that I haven’t read yet, and the new David Guterson.

Come on! Whatchoo Got!?!?

I watched the entire Bush speech a couple nights ago. The best part about it was watching Kerry at midnight in Columbus, Ohio get right back into the Republicans face. I expected a lot more coverage of Kerry’s response speech yesterday, but it was understandably overshadowed by Russia and Clinton.

I don’t think we can underestimate the effects of this speech though. It shows what kind of man Kerry is and what kind of campaign he’s going to bring. Never before has something like this happened, that a presidential candidate given a speech immediately after his opponent accepts his party’s nomination. No Retreat. No Surrender.

Tonight, President Bush got up and told us that he’s got a plan for the economy. That’s exactly what he said four years ago. But with the largest deficit in American history, I don’t think we can afford four more years of this president’s plans. That’s because for four years, this president has taken us in the wrong direction.

I consider myself to be a good Dem, and most people I know, for ill or good, would think the same. But, I have to agree with Mr. McGladrey on this one.

I usually have WashPirg folks come to my door every so often in the summer. Hey I can’t blame them, its $8 an hour and sometimes you actually get a response. I don’t feel bad saying no to WashPirg types either, especially when the last one accused me of “leading her on.”

I was sorry to see when the DNC started using the same tactics this summer. Twice on weekday evenings I’ve had folks come to my door and start the quick talking scapula that is almost guaranteed to turn people off.

Come to the door and ask people to help out. Come to the door and hand out some literature, get them to vote. Ask for their support. But, lord don’t ask me to write no check.

“It’s hot and they don’t have enough power. And they kill fish in northwest so that people in California can go enjoy themselves at a baseball game.”

This should hit home. In two years, when some Republican faces off against Cantwell, lets see them explain this away.

Tim Belden, Enron trader: What’s going on? It’s hot. It’s hot and they don’t have enough power. And they kill fish in northwest so that people in California can go enjoy themselves at a baseball game.

Rick Shapiro, Enron exec: And then what are we doing, are we exporting some of the ‘fish kill power’ out of California?

Tim Belden, Enron trader: We are exporting some power from California to the southwest.

In another tape, a trader remarks that “You know what they’re doing? They’re selling the fish in Oregon to the State of California for $250.because they’re shutting off the spill.they’re killing thousands of fish.”

When Bushies attack… when I read a LTE this morning, it really didn’t strike me as that strange. Marker on a bumper sticker. Cute trick, but not symbolic of anything larger, just a pissed off Republican in Thurston County.

Its all in perspective now, though, as a few minutes later I saw this pic from the Portland Tribune (thanks Orcinus).

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There is a part of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that I always think back to when I run into people that over-zealously defend a moral/political/religious point:



You will always defend most what you know to to be undefendable.

Its like being stuck in the Alamo, surrounding by all those Mexicans and Santa Anna. Any idiot can see your totally screwed, but instead of giving up, your fight harder than you would have normally. Other times you in Portland and you shove your hand into someone else’s face.

One of the best things our government ever did was create the position of U.S. poet laureate, consultant to the Library of Congress in poetry.

The naming of Nebraska’s Ted Kooser, I think, is an interesting choice. A red state poet in a presidential election year. No, I’m not that cynical, but I agree with Billy Collins that “The middle section of the country needed greater poetic representation.”

Its easy to go to New England, the west coast and even parts of the South and find poets, but naming a Cornhusker the poet laureate takes guts. Only one of Kooser’s books is available at Timberland, one of the two published by Copper Canyon press of Port Townsend.

After Years

Today, from a distance, I saw you

walking away, and without a sound

the glittering face of a glacier

slid into the sea. An ancient oak

fell in the Cumberlands, holding only

a handful of leaves, and an old woman

scattering corn to her chickens looked up

for an instant. At the other side

of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times

the size of our own sun exploded

and vanished, leaving a small green spot

on the astronomer’s retina

as he stood on the great open dome

of my heart with no one to tell.

Come on guys, give it up. Even Las Vegas has a better chance than you right now.

there is now an overwhelming probability that they will wind up in either Washington or Northern Virginia — although there is still a small chance that baseball could opt to move the franchise to Las Vegas.

…Relocation candidates such as Portland, Ore., and Norfolk, Va., were pictured as being extremely unlikely.