Guerilla Running's 4K Moon Run / Walk, Saturday, July 9th

On what promises to be a completely awesome evening, Guerilla Running is hosting the first ever 4K Moon Run / Walk this Saturday, July 9th, at Capital High School, to benefit CHS's Debate Team. I hear that 200 women have signed up to race, earning custom-designed sterling silver necklaces and post-race pampering.

There will be a raffle with great prizes from Olympia businesses, including The Alpine Experience, 510 Interiors, BeHive Massage Therapy, and Nathan's Performance Gear. Swing Wine Bar Cafe will provide desserts for the runners, served by volunteers including Debate team members.

Saturday night at 8 p.m., come watch, hang out, buy raffle tickets, and enjoy the race. If you'd like to donate prizes, cash, or time, feel free to contact me.

See you at the race!



Need more info? Check it the Facebook page.

Evergreen's Science Carnival: more science than carnival

Yesterday's Science Carnival at The Evergreen State College brought a lot of science, and a little bit of carnival, to the public. The Olympian sent reporter Rolf Boone to cover the story:

Elementary school students descended on the campus Friday as part of school field trips, while more children – this time with their parents – attended Saturday.

Over the two days, more than 150 science presentations were primarily presented throughout three buildings on campus, with an emphasis on hands-on activities.

I sampled some natural soda (dandelion blossoms should not, under any circumstances, be carbonated), saw how bacteria can power a fuel cell, and learned how oyster mushrooms are crucial to mycoremediation. The only disappointment: the cancellation of the 1:00 showing of "That's a Chicken?!" I never did learn what the putative quasi-chicken was, or what it all meant.

The carnival closed with Mentos/Diet Coke fountains set to "Thus Spake Zarathustra," which mostly made a mess of Red Square and the students manning the event.

Oh, and to Jimmy S., the commentator on the Olympian's website who claims that "The words science and Evergreen do not belong in the same sentence," you are obviously right. Clearly, an institution that sponsors cutting-edge phage research, has a "Research Ambassador Program" to connect science to the community, gets high school teachers involved in lab work, and has several top-notch programs in various scientific fields (with unparalleled opportunities for undergraduates to participate in research!) , and, for goodness' sake, HOSTS A SCIENCE CARNIVAL, has nothing to do with science.


Added: Science!

Olympia in springtime

Robert "Berd" Whitlock is one of Olympia's indispensables, a photographer who blends politics, philosophy and imagery from his unique, and uniquely Olympian, perspective. Regardless of your partisan proclivities, you can enjoy his work--and, if you're like me, it'll inspire you to go outside / get a better camera / learn how to actually use the better camera.

Here's his latest set, in which he somehow manages to make the Ugly Building look beautiful.  And here's his Flickr stream.  Enjoy.

Olympia Awesome Film Festival lives up to its name

The Rundown
Last night's Olympia Awesome Film Festival, the first ever, showcased the talents of twenty filmmakers from all over the U.S., with 24 low-budget short films in 5 hours--sci-fi, action-adventure, music videos, slasher parodies, documentaries, mockumentaries.

The festival's producers and attendees clearly loved all things cinema, bringing great energy to the evening. The event's sponsors also played a huge role in the festival's success, giving away hundreds of dollars in gift certificates, from pub fare to oil changes. (I'm not even mad that I didn't win one.)


The Subjectively Chosen Highlights
The audience favorite, Daniel Klockenkemper's Deathwalker, shot on Super 8 stock for an especially Carpenteresque look, had some of the best moments of visual humor. Apparently a foldable walker + a shotgun = comedy gold. (Couldn't find it on YouTube, sorry.)  Accepting his award, Klockenkemper noted that the short was ten years in the making. Here's hoping the sequel comes out a little faster.

For its composition and overall excellence, the judges chose--and chose well--Never Been Used, a simple premise neatly executed, short and sweet. Unsurprisingly, it was 1st runner up at the Seattle 24 Hour Film Race in 2010.

Documentaries deserved their own award, but since there wasn't one, I'd pick Hamilton: Town at the Tipping Point, a thought-provoking look at "FEMA welfare."

The animation Asteraceae and the mockumentary (at least, I think it's a mockumentary) Rats also entertained.

The two biggest "WTF" moments* were the slasher Waffle, perhaps the festival's riskiest entry, and My Brother's Dog Helen, a documentary that, in a few painful and surprisingly poignant minutes, deconstructs notions of family and forgiveness.


The Suggestion Box
The following suggestions are offered in love, as I'd really like to see the festival become an Olympia tradition.

Speed it up a bit. The festival started close to six, and wasn't over until 11:00. A good chunk of the audience left early, missing out on the final raffle and the prize announcements, probably because that's a lot of seat time (in a fairly stuffy venue, which, to be fair, wasn't the organizers' first choice). Cut a few films (see below), shorten up the breaks, and count votes while the raffle's going.

Quality over quantity.
A small festival, starting out, is in a tricky spot. You want to attract a wide variety of talents, and you want to attract and retain an audience. You want your films to be good, but you don't want to be so picky that you entirely shut out amateur auteurs.

Limiting to one film per director might help--did we really need two "instructional" films, Let's Shoplift and Save and Hot Wiring Made Easy, where the joke and the execution were nearly identical?

Also, to keep quality high while simultaneously building buzz, why not include your potential audience in the selection process? Choose, say, five flicks you're not sure will make the cut, put 'em on the website, and let the Internet vote for their faves. The top choice makes it into the festival, while the other four at least get some exposure, without slowing down the action. Everybody wins.

The order matters.
Selection and arrangement are critical. The festival had great variety in tone and style, but ended, I thought, on a bit of an anticlimax, an actioner with great production values (and lots of fight sequences) but a thin storyline--and only Part 2 of a 3-part series.

Concessions
It's small, but important: if this is a film festival, let's have film-quality popcorn. Butter it up.


In Summary
The Olympia Awesome Film Festival has great potential. I hope there's another next year--and I hope to see you there.




*And I should point out that this is meant as a term of endearment.

zombies can vote?

Note: although I attended a political protest this past week, it was not this one. Nor did I give this speech.

Olympia School District faces RIF

This afternoon, the Superintendent of the Olympia School District released a recommended list of budget cuts for the 2011-2012 school year. Thanks to a legislature that's still squabbling over state budget particulars, local school districts have had to draw up worst-case contingency plans. The OSD's proposal assumes a roughly $2.3 million drop in the next fiscal year.

Since the bulk of the District's funds go toward personnel, two of the biggest potential cuts involve increased class sizes, and, concomitantly, lost teaching positions.

• Increase elementary class size by about 2 per class, at grades 1-5. This is consistent with the new state funding schedule which provides 1 teacher for each 25 students in grades K-3. (OSD continues to subsidize kindergarten class size at about 23 students where the state pays for 1 teacher for each 25 students.)
• Increase secondary class size by 1.3 students from 28.7 students per teacher/section to 30 students per teacher/section. This represents an increase in the average; as is the case today, class sizes will vary depending on content and student interest.

According to the more detailed outline, this means a loss of 8.2 and 7.8 positions, respectively. Add (or subtract?) the nearly 14 positions lost to declining enrollment, and more (of an uncertain number) lost to vaporized federal stimulus money, and the District is looking at losing dozens of teachers--or, in the "best" case, simply not replacing those who leave.

Other recommendations include charging students for zero-hour classes, converting all middle school sports into intramurals, delaying social studies textbook purchases, and cutting the reserve from 4.3% down to 3%.

The OSD Board of Directors will take public comments on the budget at several upcoming meetings, beginning with a 6:30 p.m. meeting, May 9th the Knox Building. And if you live in (or teach in) the Olympia School District, you should take this survey, too.


Update:

The RIF communication team has more details:

We are writing to share difficult news. Although the State Legislature has not completed their budget work, the District is moving forward with its proposed budget and reduced education plan for the 2011-12 school year. This reduced education plan prompts a reduction-in-force (RIF) process that includes, but will be limited to, the 48 least senior certificated employees on our seniority list....

There are important considerations to keep in mind in this process. Although the employees who fall within the 1-48 seniority rank will receive RIF notices, the actual number of positions the District will eventually reduce will be fewer. Factors that will be taken into consideration to determine the final number of reduced positions include:

* The eventual number of retirements, resignations and leave of absence requests;
* The final state budget which will determine the actual revenue loss for the District;
* Updated projections of District expenditures for the remainder of the school year;
* Enrollment changes; and,
* Decisions made by the School Board.

No mention yet in The Olympian.

Added 5/5: The RIF in context.

Everyman at Saint Martin's, or A Morbid Campus Tour

Everyman is about to die, and Death wants a reckoning. Not wanting to go it alone, Everyman asks friends, relations, and others to assist in accounting for his life as he takes an allegorical journey to the grave. Who'll come along?

You should.

Saint Martin's University is currently showing a unique version of the classic medieval morality play, making the campus the stage, incorporating walkways, buildings, roads, and more. Everyman starts in a courtyard near the O'Grady Library, and ends, fittingly, in the cemetery at sunset.

The acting is solid, with the title character (played by sophomore Olivia Baumgartner), Death (Zoe Ford), Good Deeds (senior Ninalynn Benitez), and God (Olympia veteran Josh Anderson, no relation) standing out. The marching band accompanying the trek does fine work, adding levity and solemnity and irony to the proceedings. The finale is poignant and unnerving, as Everyman departs with Death amid very real graves.

It runs April 20-23 and April 27-30, it's only $5, and you need to brush up on your 15th-century theater. Go see it.

It'll be the strangest, most morbid campus tour you'll ever take.


Added: Christian Carvajal of The Weekly Volcano also gives the play a thumbs-up.

politics and daffodils

This Monday afternoon found the legislature in special session. Sign things will wrap up quickly: on a warm March day, the Capitol parking lot emptied precisely at five.


And, really, why would you want to be stuck inside the Capitol when daffodils are blooming?

[Photos courtesy of Melissa Anderson, who shares my political philosophy regarding unreasonably springlike weather.]

the ugliest ugly building

No matter how aesthetically atrocious Olympia's Ugly Building is, repeat to yourself: it's no Portland Building. It's no Portland Building.

the long arm of the law

Back in February of 2008, Capital High School went on lockdown because of a nearby bank robbery. At the time, I wrote,

For about 45 minutes, my advisory class sat in darkness near the inside wall, taking naps and chatting quietly about There Will Be Blood and the magic that is Daniel Day-Lewis. I totally called the bank robbery angle.

When they announced the lockdown's conclusion, saying that the search had been called off, I told students it was because the cops had probably caught the bad guy.

Nope.

Roughly a year and six months later, they finally have.

An anonymous letter to the Olympia Police Department in January helped detectives make an arrest Wednesday in a year-and-a-half old armed bank robbery on the west side, court papers state.

Abraham Sebastian Anthony, 22, turned himself in at a local state Department of Corrections office after he was identified as a suspect and located in Lansing, Mich., as part of Olympia Police Det. Jeff Herbig’s investigation, court papers state.

Olympia Police Det. Dan Smith said Anthony admitted to committing the robbery after his arrest and said he did it to get money to feed his OxyContin habit.

The investigation of the Feb. 12, 2008 armed robbery of the Columbia Bank on Harrison Avenue had stalled until an anonymous letter sent to OPD in January said that Anthony was responsible.

There's one tiny transposition error in the article: the robbery occurred on February 21st, not the 12th.

another batch of random Olympia photos

breaking: Trader Joe's responds!

From the too little, too late department:

Hi Jim,

We do not have a confirmed opening date on our neighborhood Olympia, WA Trader Joe's store. Keep checking the Trader Joe's website for the exact date.

Thank you,

[name redacted]
Customer Relations
Trader Joe's

Proof positive that Trader Joe's email system is irreparably broken: the email that took a week to come is factually inaccurate. The Olympia location opens August 21st.

traffic circles expanding their circumference of power

I commute through downtown Olympia every (school) day, driving 'round two roundabouts as I head up 4th/Harrison toward Capital High School. While they used to be somewhat treacherous, as inexperienced drivers struggled to learn right-of-way rules, or keep their SUVs in one lane, over the years, the two traffic circles have become easier and easier to negotiate.

Monday I linked to an article by Tom Vanderbilt explaining why roundabouts are superior to traditional four-way intersections. Consider safety:

Roundabouts are safer than traditional intersections for a simple reason: By dint of geometry and traffic rules, they reduce the number of places where one vehicle can strike another by a factor of four. They also eliminate the left turn against oncoming traffic—itself one of the main reasons for intersection danger—as well as the prospect of vehicles running a red light or speeding up as they approach an intersection to "beat the light." The fact that roundabouts may "feel" more dangerous to the average driver is a good thing: It increases vigilance. It's unlikely the average driver killed or severely injured in a high-speed "T-bone" crash as they drove through a green light felt much risk. In addition, drivers must slow to enter a roundabout: Placing an obstacle in the center makes this not only a physical necessity but visually disrupts the speed-encouraging continuity of the street. Motorists also travel through a roundabout more slowly than they would a traditional intersection: Roundabouts are typically built using what's called "negative superelevation," meaning that water flows away from the center and also that the road slopes against the direction of a driver's turn. As a result, any crashes in a roundabout take place at lower speeds and are thus less likely to be fatal. While roundabouts can be more costly to install than other kinds of traffic controls, such calculations don't take into account the fact that reducing fatal crashes also reduces social and monetary costs.

As Vanderbilt goes on to argue, roundabouts are also more energy- and time-efficient, and are better uses of public space.

So, when I hear that the City of Olympia is installing traffic circles in more locations...

Work began Monday on the first of three planned roundabouts to improve traffic flow and safety on Boulevard Road.

Crews for the general contractor, KLB Construction Inc. of Mukilteo, will clear trees and brush before construction begins in earnest at the T intersection of Boulevard and Log Cabin roads in southeast Olympia, said Sheri Zimny, project manager for the city of Olympia.

Crews will build a two-lane roundabout – the first city-funded roundabout in east Olympia – that features sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping and lighting. Water and sewer lines also will be upgraded, and other utility lines will be buried.

The new roundabout also will feature the most ambitious artwork to grace one of the intersection control devices in the community so far. It consists of a circle of 10 wooden columns, each 8 feet high and carved with Northwest themes. Seattle artist Steve Jensen has characterized the $70,000 work as a “contemporary Northwest Stonehenge.”

...I get excited. And you should, too.

A Table For Olympia

Just got back from A Table For Olympia, a chance to share time, food, and conversation with folks, potluck style. 'Twas nice, and I hope we have more in the future.



The Olympia Free Choir, singing.



The man who set it up: Mathias Eichler, proprietor of ein mal eins, Twitter guru, and all around good guy.

a bruise that will not soon heal

On the way to giving (well-deserved) kudos to Olympia High School for its production of Bye Bye Birdie, Misha Berson of the Seattle Times slaps Capital High School in the face.

Capital High School (Tacoma), Eisenhower High School (Yakima), Edmonds Homeschool Resource Center and Kamiak High School (Mukilteo) received three awards each.

Worse, it's the "corrected version" of the story. The original "error":

Information in this article, published June 9, 2009, was corrected June 9, 2009. Capital High School was listed as being in Olympia, not Tacoma.

Yikes.

why I love Olympia

I recently received an email from far, far away:

So somehow this zany kayaking family found your blog and were wondering if someone such as yourself could shed some (sun)light? on why a crew with two little boys (4th and 6th grade) would love Olympia (or not). We're particularly interested in your opinions on the schools!

Thanks for your help!

Happy to, kayaking out-of-towners. I have many reasons to love Olympia. So I don't seem obsessed, I'll stick with just ten, keeping brand names out of it, and let others chime in as they wish.


The people.
Friendly, laid back, passionate. Hippie-greener-preppy-hipster-wonk-logger-retiree-goth-punks dot the landscape.

Downtown.
Restaurants, galleries, wine shops, too many coffee bars to count, restaurants, antique stores, more restaurants, book stores, the fountain, the Ugly Building, more coffee bars.

Arts Walk.
Combines the best of 1 and 2. Art, local mostly, with food, music, and a cast of thousands. Walk from station to station on the tour, or just amble around aimlessly, people-watching all the while. On a successive Friday and Saturday, the April version is best; it includes the fabled Procession of the Species.

The waterfront.

At sunset the boardwalk, with its view of the Capitol and the Olympics, as picturesque as it gets. Anytime, it's a perfect place for a stroll. It's especially entertaining during Harbor Days. Oh, and there's plenty of kayaking to be done, too.

The Capitol.
Modeled after the one in D.C., our state capitol is beautiful inside and out. Gad about in the rotunda or on the grassy campus, then take a walk down the hillside toward Capitol Lake. (Ride The Dash back to your car, if your feet get tired.)

The Spaghetti Bowl.

The name comes from the spaghetti feed fundraiser that always precedes the contest. The game starts after seven, but people line up for hours to get good seats at one of the most exciting sports events in the South Sound. Crosstown rivals Olympia High and Capital battle it out in Ingersoll stadium in front of thousands of screaming fans. Goodwill always prevails in the form of blended marching bands and drill teams for halftime entertainment.

Batdorf and Bronson coffee.
Broke the rule. But Batdorf and Bronson coffee is the greatest in existence, and is available all over Olympia in its flagship store, associated coffee shops and stands, and whatever restaurants and cafes have good taste in caffeine.

The location.

Crave the city? Seattle's an hour north; Portland's two south. Pine for the cedars? National parks and forests, including Mounts Rainier, Adams, Saint Helens, and the magnificent Olympic range, are within easy driving distance. (Pictured: view from Mount Ellinor.) The coast is close, too.

The schools.
You'll have to pardon my bias, since I teach at Capital High School and am a pretty big fan of the Olympia School District. Our neighboring districts--Tumwater, Griffin, and North Thurston--are nice, but I can only speak for the schools I know and love.

Like every district in the area, we're going through rough financial times, but the quality of an Olympia School District education is still excellent. We have great elementary and middle schools, with lots of options. Our high schools offer a panoply of challenging courses--AP at Olympia, International Baccalaureate at Capital--and choices, from Avanti to New Market to ORLA to Running Start at South Puget Sound.

The Evergreen State College
One of the nation's best, and best-known, progressive institutions. It's where I earned my master's in teaching and where my wife earned her bachelor's in American Studies / Anthropology / Spanish / Smartness. Tucked away in the woods on the west side of town, it's a haven for culture, weirdness, and life lived organically. The pulse of Olympia beats from the heart of Evergreen.

Odds and ends.
The Farmers Market rocks.
You'll never run out of patchouli.
The rain is endearing.
Traffic's never too bad.

Have your own reasons to love Olympia? Add them in the comments.

Olympia nerds talk politics, Twitter

I'm sitting in the Fish Tale with the bloggers from Olympia Time, Oly Ost, and einmaleins (that's Emmett, Mark, and Mathias, if you didn't know). We're talking about the upcoming elections this fall--City Council mostly, with a little School Board--and figuring out how to use all the digital tools at our disposal to not only supplant The Olympian's local coverage, but provide a virtual forum for more and more residents to actually involve themselves in the conversation.

I am learning the actual--no, really--utility of Twitter.

It scares me.

a random Olympia afternoon

it's about time: Trader Joe's coming to Olympia

Trader Joe's is coming to west Olympia, the paper reports. Sometime this year they'll occupy the building Good Guys used to fill.

I can't believe it took this long. Trader Joe's has always seemed to be the quintessential west Olympia outfit--cheap, casual, organicky.

So... what'll replace Circuit City?


Update 7/15/09: This morning, driving by, the wife and I saw that they're putting signs on the former Good Guys building. I'm going to email the company about a timeline for the opening; if you have specific information, feel free to post it in the comments.

Update Update Word is, August 22nd. Still waiting for confirmation from an official representative.

Update Update Update: Or maybe even the week of August 10th. See this post, and the comment.

metonymy reaches its absurd conclusion

Blog neighbor Emmett O'Connell shows how.