Saturday, November 29, 2008

December 10th - Day Without A Gay

I saw a sign for this on Broadway, and I couldn't resist looking it up and seeing what it was about. This is what DayWithoutAGay.org says about itself:
This page was started by a couple of concerned homos but is really just a liaison to organizations that know what they're doing. Your volunteer work will help mobilize existing non-profits so that we're ready to fight even harder moving forward for a better Gay America.
I like this idea: GLBTQs and friends call in "gay" and spend the day volunteering for GLBTQ-supporting nonprofits. This gives gay the connotation of socially conscious and socially indispensable, it channels frustration and anger toward constructive work, and it reminds everyone that denying the right to marry to homosexual couples is pissing a lot of good people off. Eat that, homophobes.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Your Park Needs YOU

On the heels of Michelle Eggers well-timed Seattle City Stimulus article on the CHS blog, I decided to write on of my own: Capitol Hill (Park) Stimulus. Sadly, there was a major economic downtown right after we the community learned that without $158K, all we'd get at John and Summit would be a lawn. So we're (well, Parks is) still short $158K. And like I said in my article, we need everyone's help to raise it.

What does that mean? Well, if you have money, donate some - you can find a paypal link at the "Friends of" site for John and Summit, Unpaving Paradise. If you have friends and acquaintances, tell them about the John and Summit dilemma and see if they can pitch in. If you (or your friends) have time, volunteer. We can always use help planning fundraising events, putting up posters, getting the word out, etc. Just bug me and the other UP volunteers at unpaving.paradise@gmail.com and we'll get you in the loop.

If you have none of these things, I feel bad for you and hope that you can at least get some friends very soon.

Happy Thanksgiving from Rick Astley

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade performed the world's largest and most amazing rickroll in the history of humankind today. Just wanted to share this little bit of zeitgeist with you all.


P.S. I picked this particular video because 1) the sound is decent and 2) it's hilarious to listen to the guys in the background have massive nerdgasms. Thank you to Speedskater 114 and his super nerdy friends.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sucks to your asthmar

I was just looking at the front page of the local section in the Times, minding my own business, and then Danny Westneat has to go and remind me that some people are still high on the viaduct.

Damnit, Frank Chopp! I left Southern California because all we had were malls and freeways. Now you want to make a mile-long-elevated-mall-freeway sandwich right on the waterfront. Even Southern California has enough sense not to put those two together!

{Just putting two things together does not make it better! This is not like a pancake wrapped around a sausage link - it is not delicious!}

The other viaduct options are not bitter pills! I long for the sweet relief of a waterfront boulevard. Beautiful views, a rejuvenated waterfront...and heck, for me, less car traffic just means a break for my belabored asthmatic lungs.

Apparently, though, it doesn't matter what I (or the the City Council) thinks - Frank Chopp wants a FreeMallWay, whether we like it or not.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Almost forgot

I got another early Christmas present this past week: One Union Square (the building I work in) is going for LEED platinum certification. Woohoo! I knew that One Union Square had a green reputation; now I know why.

So excited!

What a crazy week

It's been tons of community fun all week...hell, it's been that way for the past two weeks. Between planning for everything, I haven't had time to do anything, including write for this blargh. Here's this (last) week's highlights:

  • I was lucky enough to attend this year's Opus Prize Awards Ceremony, which was hosted by Seattle University. The professor who was kind enough to get me a ticket said that this event would be "mind-blowing" - she was absolutely right. These are the best of the best of faith-based humanitarian entrepreneurs, each of them incredibly loving people doing amazing things despite horrifying circumstances. I hope I'll have some time around Thanksgiving to write more about this year's finalists.

  • Thursday brought more news on Sound Transit's plans to remove trees from the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station site. From what I've been hearing through the Capitol Hill Community Council, the tree removal count just keeps getting higher and higher - starting with "only one or two" trees this September, the numbers have gone up over time to reach a final count of about seventy trees that will be destroyed when demolition starts on the station site at the end of November/ beginning of December.

    A number of community groups have been pursuing this issue over the past several months, asking ST if the removals are necessary, and if so, if the trees could be transplanted to other locations. No real answers have been given so far, except that the removals are necessary and that tree transplanting is costly and survival is not guaranteed. The CHCC Open Space Committee is sending out a letter requesting that Sound Transit look more carefully at transplantation as an option, especially in light of the Mayor's initiative to save Seattle's canopy cover. Stay tuned...

  • This was actually last week, but it was super nifty - drinks with WorldChanging Seattle! I got to meet my fellow Seattle bloggers and the amazing Julia Levitt, editor of WC. The short story is that WC wants us all to write at least twice a month. Oh boy. Now to find the time to do it...

  • Speaking of bloggers - Seattlest hosted a little shindig at Grey this last Monday so that central Seattle bloggers could actually meet each other. I only caught the very end of it, but I still had a great time. I couldn't help thinking of Terry Pratchett's theory of L space - if enough people who are nexuses of local knowledge and information gather at the same location, will we too begin to bend space and time? B space?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Haiku at 2am

I love the long and
lonely sound of trains at night:
coming closer, gone.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Fair Warning

It's winter, which means that the sun goes away and I get all thoughtful and contemplative. That means I think (and write) about the metaphysical, philosophical, spiritual and (gasp!) religious. Just thought I'd give everyone fair warning - like anything else in the blog, you can skip over it if you think it's boring.

{I was thinking about these topics, and wondered to myself. "Will they fit within the rubric of 'green/geek/Seattle'?" The answer is, unsurprisingly, "Hells yes." I'm a theology/philosophy/metaphysics fangirl, so that can all fall into geek. Also, most anything I do or think about is going to be connected back to green and/or Seattle anyway. Heh heh heh.}

Sunday, November 16, 2008

"We Catholics use every part of the Jesus"

Friday's Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger on The Colbert Report made me so happy. I love The Colbert Report anyway, but when he makes super-nerdy Catholic theology jokes at the same time... "We Catholics use every part of the Jesus" ...yeah, that just makes my day. Also day-making: environmental pollution is a now cardinal sin. For reals. Not kidding. I'm so excited! Yeah, I know it happened months ago. I'm still so excited!

More nerdy goodness: Jane Austen baseball. English high society in the 1800s explained through the analogy of the American pastime? Hells yes.

And finally: collectible Spiderman comics = Barack Obama bait.

It's a good time to be a nerd.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Now that I've gotten everything else I wanted for Christmas

After all the Obamarama, I want to reflect a moment on all the other liberal-pinko-commie wins that happened on election night. We have levies for everything, Washingtonians now have the right to physician-assisted suicide, Dino Rossi didn't become governor, and Dems now have the majority in Congress. I still feel like I got my Christmas presents early.

Now I think I'd like to ask for one more thing this holiday season: a new mayor. I haven't been fond of Mayor Nickels ever since he backed the tunnel option to replace the Alaska Way Viaduct. And then there's been all this "I haven't met a developer I didn't like" business. But Greg Nickels' recent comments on Nickelsville brought things to a whole new level.

Nickelsville may have started as a statement, but it quickly became a statement inhabited by a self-organized tent community peopled by the houseless. The city's made Nickelsville move several times, but those bright pink tents are here to stay. At least until they bring in the cops adain ... or we solve our lack-of-housing-for-the-poor problem.

Nickels reply to all this: Nickelsville is clearly peopled by homelessness advocates, not actual people who have no homes. Damn. I mean, City Council's figured it out. Why can't you?

The interview where Mayor Nickels makes his out of touch statements on Nickelsville can be found here.

Ed Jackson

A friend of mine found an article on Ed Jackson in the PI: a little more insight into a tragic end.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Election: A Moment in History

You have got to see this: Obama Grabs Headlines

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

That reminds me....



This adorable lolcat reminds me: I had a nifty Capitol Hill Halloween which I have completely neglected to write about.

First off, I was a Lolcat this year, big surprise. My outfit was completed by a present I got from The Stranger - their cover with the Obama style kitten graphic complete with the caption "Cute". Some cutting and pasting, adding "you can has beleefs in", and voila, lolcat caption. Sadly, a surprising amount of people (especially those over 35) have no idea what lolcats are. Presumably because they don't spend far, far too much time on the internet.

Secondly, a mob of us went Reverse Trick-or-Treating down Broadway again this year. What is that, you ask? Twenty-somethings getting all dressed up, walking around on Broadway, and giving people candy while we yell "Reverse Trick-or-Treat!!" Some people are delighted by our altruism, others are suspicious, and there are plenty who have no idea what the fuck we're doing. Good times.

I got rid of all my thrift store prizes fast and we all had to stop to reload at QFC half-way through. I think we did a lot better this year because there were more of us - better coverage, and it gave passersby the idea we were doing some kind of flash mob/ art student thing.

Favorite moments:

+ Giving a stuffed Dem-donkey to a tiny cute baby in a stroller. His/her parents seemed really happy that somebody had a baby friendly treat on hand.

+ Treat-bombing the Starbucks at the end of Broadway. The baristas thought we were really nice.

+ Giving another Dem-donkey to a nice lady wearing an Obama pin at the aforementioned Starbucks. It seemed so appropriate. She seemed to think so too :)

+ Having twenty-somethings get really happy that they had just received a shotglass as a Halloween treat.

We hauled our footsore costumed selves over to Oasis because our primary destination of Bimbo's Cantina was packed tighter than the Showbox was when Obama won (this is only true because Bimbo's is very tiny). Worked out ok because there was actually room for the nine of us at one table, and we got to sit next to an enormous window and watch the Hill parade by in their Halloween attire.

Costumed awesomeness:

+ Our very own Lock, Shock and Barrel from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The masks were hand-made by Lock, because he's just that cool.

+ We also had our very own RickRoll. It was amazing - he dressed up like Rick Astley and had an iPhone in his shirt pocket that played "Never Gonna Give You Up" on a loop. It was even funnier when he walked up to people, started dancing around, and the rest of us waited for them to realize they'd been RickRolled LIVE.

By the way, that makes two internet memes out of nine costumes. We're just that cool.

+ Also in our party - Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. It was great. Sadly, far too many people have not seen that amazingly cheesy movie with a great soundtrack by Queen.

+ Tom Servo, the bubblegum machine headed robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000. That one gave me a nerdgasm.

+ Someone was dressed up in a robot costume from The Flight of the Conchords music video "The Humans are Dead". Talk about meta. Also, nerdgasm.

+ A group of Waldos from the Where's Waldo series. They looked so cute in their little red and white stocking caps with a bobble on top!

Election: More Capitol Hill Victory Videos

Last ones, I swear. I borrowed these from jseattle, the founder and administrator of the Capitol Hill Seattle blog. There's lots more where these came from at the Victory Video and the Victory Video Part II posts on CHS. However, I felt the need to post up my two favorites.

First, jseattle coins the term "happy riot":



Next, a miracle occurs - a drunken Capitol Hill hipster crowd sings the National Anthem, and means it:

Because our economy is still in the shitter

Here is an adorable lolcat to interpret our present economic crisis:



Cats are awesome


The above picture is courtesy of the PI and the fact I spend too much time on the internet. The super-intense cat's name is Patch, a service cat whose comforting fuzzy presence soothes his owner's post-traumatic stress disorder-related paranoia.

Cats - more than just hilarious on the internet.

Election: Yes We Did


Shepard Fairey's amazing commemorative poster. I need me one of those.

Election: Side Note

I just want to mention that I noticed something very important amidst Capitol Hill's impromptu street party last night - hipsters waving American flags in un-ironic glee.

November 5th Haiku

A lovely post-election post from hillku.

Election: Seattle Update

From the Seattle PI:

In Seattle, crowds of thousands of people spilled into the streets near the Pike Place Market and on Capitol Hill Wednesday night to celebrate the election of Barack Obama.

A police spokeswoman, Renee Witt, says the celebrations were peaceful and there were no arrests.


Courtesy of the PI, a video that makes me wish I could've made it down to Pike Place Market last night:



Again from the PI, amazing video of downtown Seattle around midnight on the Day it All Changed:



Also, better video of what happened on Capitol Hill last night (thank you, The Slog). And yes, that is Neighbors blasting "Don't Stop Believing" from speakers on their roof.

Election: Capitol Hill

I got a text from a friend of mine (thanks Tris!) that showed ecstatic Obama supporters taking over Broadway and Pike. So I braved the cold (with a cold) and decided to see for myself.

Below is a short (and accidental) video I took when I was walking down Broadway toward the jubilant crowd.





In the middle





and up above.




The 44th President of the United States



Thanks to Shepard Fairey for this iconic, and now historic, image.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election 2

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Election

First off, yet more parties for the crowd-oriented to go to and obsessively watch election results.

Secondly, this is a really bad day to have a head-foggingly miserable cold. I can feel all four sets of my sinuses, including the ones in the back of my head. History is happening, and all I want to do is take a nap.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Fire: A Requiem

The man who died in the fire at 1605 Bellevue was Ed Jackson. He was a building manager who belonged to the building he had lived in for 40 years. Then he got notice that his building was going to be turned into condos. When everyone else moved out, he stayed. And on the day he was to be evicted, he killed himself.

1605 Bellevue wasn't just a fire; it was a funeral pyre for a man who left on his own terms.

Ed Jackson remembered

Threshold

Tomorrow's Election Day. Jesus H. Christ I hope Obama wins. A year or two ago, I wouldn't have minded McCain being president, but ever since he put his hat in the ring he's been on a sad downhill slide from creditable party maverick to Bush administration puppet.

Aside from that, I understand what Zaid Hassan means when he writes that he wants to linger here, in the moment before everything changes. On Tuesday the country will tip, one way or the other. I want to wait a little while and watch my world hang in the balance.

Needless to say, it's going to be an intense night. In case my faithful readers feel the need for the company of a liberal mob and/or liquor, I found a decent list of Election Night Parties on both Culture Mob and Capitol Hill Seattle. Sadly, these lists are only good for Seattlites - sorry Mom.

Did I mention that I just wrote an article for WorldChanging?

So awesome. So very awesome.

It was worth someone's time

Something useful came out of the Seattle Neighborhood Summit after all. Courtesy of Chris Leman of the City Neighborhood Council:
One outcome of the Oct. 28 Seattle Neighborhood Summit was a proposal for a City commission on disabilities issues. The present system is not working well, in which there is typically one disabled individual on the Human Rights Commission and one on the Pedestrian Advisory Board. The disabled community is extremely diverse, and would benefit from having the voice of a City commission. As reflected in the letters below [Chris summarizes them well, so I haven't included them], some individuals are advancing such a proposal to member of the City Council. Whatever your views, please consider writing to the Councilmembers about this issue. The issue is urgent right now because of the ongoing budget process.

Seattle City Council: P.O. Box 34025, Seattle, WA 98124-4025

sally.clark@seattle.gov 684-8802
tim.burgess@seattle.gov 684-8806
tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov 684-8808
jean.godden@seattle.gov 684-8807
richard.conlin@seattle.gov 684-8805
jan.drago@seattle.gov 684-8801
bruce.harrell@seattle.gov 684-8804
nick.licata@seattle.gov 684-8803
richard.mciver@seattle.gov 684-8800

Speaking of WorldChanging...

Sigh...I am so proud... my very own article on WorldChanging!