Life In The Pacific Northwest
If you have a budding engineer in your house, this looks like a great way to spend the weekend.
I’ve long loved the Pacific Science Center, having spent many an hour there as a kid, and as a parent. They do great work and are a key part of what makes the Seattle area really a wonderful place to live.
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A little haiku looking at Seattle’s, and the region’s weather of late. Happy Saturday night!
Friday’s snow melted
Traces of white poking through
Winter’s just begun
A few rambles, plus I’m working on a post about Seattle’s food truck scene.
Here’s some research so far: https://twitter.com/CarlSetzer/lists/food1
The family made their way down to Seattle’s Center for Wooden Boats for the 2016 Festival of Wooden Boats.
I watched a video about the rail link and it’s plan to make it up here. (Check out the site and video here) It’s very promising. I love the idea of a 28 minute trip to downtown Seattle where I don’t have any concerns about parking. I love this future. Especially since I really don’t see leaving South Snohomish county. Ever. Well, vacations and such, but I live living here, my family is here, friends, etc. Hard to conceive of living anywhere else.
That really amuses me. When I joined the Navy all those decades ago, my goal was to get as far away as possible. And returning was not on my mind. The Navy brought me back, to Subbase Bangor, and I’ve remained in western Washington since.
Post Navy, I lived for about 10 years in downtown Seattle. Then in Bothell, then Edmonds and now Lynnwood. I’m a few hundred feet from my parents house. Now. I love it. My son goes to my old middle school, a few staffers are connected to my history. My connection to this place is pretty deep and pretty rich.
Back a decade or two ago, my fellow citizens failed as a progressive, proactive community and we didn’t pass a pretty aggressive transportation package. That one had aggressive rail deployment. We choked on the price tag and we fell behind our issues. I’m pleased to see the way they’re using light rail, getting the trolleys out of the traffic flow. To some degree.
I’m afraid heavy traffic is here to stay. These solutions can really make a dent in that. But only some. I wonder, hope that the next time we have the opportunity to proactively tackle these issues, we have enough foresight to mice forward. Being ahead is immensely preferable to behind.
Earlier today I read this piece from my friends at Geekwire: “Music service Rhapsody posts record $35M net loss even as revenues climb to $202M“. I’m not simply concerned about a long-standing Seattle tech company struggling, but also that entities like Spotify are also bleeding cash to keep their market share. The losses are not sustainable long-term. I’m really not a streaming-music industry analyst, so I can’t really speak to the timeline of the issue, and that’s really not my point or concern.
I’m wondering about the sustainability of the music business. Not simply Spotify, et al; actually, even more my focus is on musicians. I’ve heard from many sources (most notably Taylor Swift) about how Spotify is not providing a livable income. Now, if Apple, Google, etc, can pay more than Spotify or Rhapsody, that’s a particular issue. However, I think this is larger. It’s ultimately about the consumers, about me and you as music lovers. Perhaps $10/mo is not enough to for artists to make music and eat. And if that’s the case, maybe we need to think about more $$$.
There are many tools that individual artists are leveraging well. Kickstarter and Patreon come to mind first. There are several tools, though, that help. Many artists I admire, such as Amanda Palmer and Zoe Keating leverage these tools to good effect. However, they spend a lot of time managing their audience. It seems, for them, that they get a lot of positive energy from us. Which will certainly make it more pleasant. Of course, emails, blog posts, Instagram updates and all that take away from producing their art. Or, maybe, that’s part of their art.
Anyway, there’s much to consider with this. So, as a mediation, I’ll leave you with Zoe Keating’s closing at the 2016 Word Economic Forum meeting in Davos. She’s carved an amazing niche for herself. As a fan myself, and love interacting with her other fans.
Well, it’s the Friday Eve of a rather maniacal week. February has nearly completed its arc, March is queuing up its show. This month felt solidly off balance. Busyness facilitates that sensation.
This past Tuesday my son and I went to see Roman vs Fousey. They’re two YouTube stars popular amongst near sociopathic youths, so I’ve read. My experience with these two was rather limited. Thus, I was prepared for an hour or two of insipid drivel. With such low expectations, it’s pretty easy to be up-sold. Surprise: I actually like the show. It was filled with goofiness, directed towards their core audience, but there was a very positive message interwoven. So, parents being drug to one of the other shows? Fear not! It’s alright. And massively more upbeat than the evening news.
One fun thing about the show: it was held at Seattle’s Neptune Theatre. I have a solid history there. I saw the Phantom Menace there. I’m pretty sure I saw Rocky Horror there once (my first time was at the Varsity, though). I used to work a block form there. My dad and most of my uncles grew up in the neighborhood. We parked right by Seattle Heights Community Center. Back in the day, their elementary school. The University District has changed quite a bit recently. It’s quite cosmopolitan now, but still has that student je nes se quois. The warm evening reminded me of getting to wander around the city of Berkeley (California) back in the 80s.
The prior weekend, the Washington Beer Lovers coordinated a roving open house, featuring gobs of breweries throughout the state, including my friends’ Whiskey Ridge in Arlington. I love the owners and adore getting to spend time with them. Plus, their beer is killer. I’m not the biggest conisseur, ever since I discovered alcohol in anything but the most minute portions gives me migraines. But their “Cinful” is amazing and worth the lingering pain. Fortunately, my wife took care of the rest of the glass, saving me for certain agony. It’s good to be loved so.
In the middle of the month, I won another round of dialing for jurors. Each of the past couple of years, I’ve been summoned for jury duty. Each time it was simply calling in and being told to call again tomorrow. Oddly, I’ve done this for both Snohomish County and the City of Lynnwood. Way back when, I got to do this with Edmonds, too. I’ve never so much as walked into the county or city courthouse. It’s to the point where I just warn my team that this time I might actually need to go in. But don’t really make any plans to be out of the office.
Getting together with a few friends drove home, yet again, that I don’t get together with my dear friends enough. Yet again, I resolve to do something about that. I’ve emailed a few, so we’ll see. It’s challenging to track it all. My contact list is stupid big, with gobs of folks I’ve really lost touch with. As I dig through the thousand plus contacts and see friends and family who died years ago, the benign neglect shows though gloriously. Another of those things that’s easy to do later. Sigh…
As we head into March, I really want to see The Force Awakens a second time. Sadly, it looks like I lost my chance to see it in Imax. Oh, and there’s Deadpool! I’ve seen each Deadpool trailer several times. Must. Go. Soon. And I haven’t made my way down for the Bruce Lee exhibit at Wing Luke yet. So very many objectives; some planning must be started. Should fill the weekend with this. But there’s not much downtime, so it’ll be a challenge. As it always is.
What was your favorite part of the past month? Of this winter? Yep, spring is raising is flower adorned head. Soon we’ll be reminded that early adolescent boys need training to remember deodorant. Oh, the fates aren’t kind. Are there any upcoming things you’re jazzed about. Bike Expo is coming up soon!
May we find blessing in all our lives.
I just got this email from the good folks at Folklife. Their posters are always lovely. Looking forward to seeing these in the wild.
Folklife is always a fantastic time and definitely worth making your way into Seattle for. Pro-tip: parking around the Seattle Center is always, shall we say, challenging around major events like this. Either plan to PAY for parking, or, my personal recommendation, plan on using Metro.
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I’ve spent the last several hours wandering Alderwood Mall. Today, I won the nail in my tire lottery, and the nearest tire shop I could find: Sears (an open one, at least). The past three times this happened were Sundays. I wonder about this, for no really good reason. Perhaps the universe rages against me. Or my memory’s subjective nature took hold. Whatever…
I remember when this thing was built (the Mall, not my van). During construction we drove over, monitoring progress. Decades passed by, changes take hold: stores move, or go extinct, the food-court relocation and redesign (well done, I might add. Well, if you enjoy light). This entity’s changed with the times. Lynnwood, and the north-end of Puget Sound has changed dramatically. I don’t see old Camaros any more. And the number of BMWs grows exponentially.
With that, I noticed many stores that I’ve known for years, awareness-wise, but really know nothing about. Claim Jumper, Urban Outfitters, just to name a few. And there are a few I know well, but have lost focus on. Eddie Bauer comes to mind. After the sale to Spiegel, I stopped paying attention as quality plummeted, and, well, any sense of it as a Seattle company vanished. Lastly, I look at the Anthony’s restaurants here and think of the local chain, and how little I know about it.
Well, with so much to learn, there will be no shortage of opportunity to write in the near-term at least. If there’s anything you’d like me to add, send me a note or add a comment.
Thanks so very much for reading!
I care deeply about journalism. Having quality, full time staff to dive deeply into issues is critical for our culture, for our democracy. Additionally critical: willingness to dive deeply into serious issues that need coverage, regardless of ratings. It’s critical from the national level all the way down to the local/hyperlocal. And, I’d argue, it’s most critical at the local.
So, KUOW is buying KPLU. The region’s two biggest public radio stations are at stake. This whole acquisition disturbs me. I noticed KUOW’s declining coverage of local events years ago and gave up on the station. KPLU has been a mainstay for my radio listening for years, long before and above and beyond their jazz programming. KUOW’s abandonment of local programming and unwillingness to listen to the community on major concerns regarding programming and personnel give me deep concerns about the plans for KPLU, which has taken up the slack as KUOW fell. I stopped listening as KUOW became irrelevant. And KPLU got my ears and dollars.
Reading The Stranger’s interview with Caryn Mathes only deepened my concern. She didn’t give any details or rationale about this merger. We know it’s not about the financial state of KPLU or Pacific Lutheran University, for what that’s worth. Perhaps she summed it up well when she said “If we’re relevant, if we’re resonating with people’s lives, people will give us money.” I haven’t given them money for years. Not out of protest (though their firing of Cliff Mass and their “spit-in-my-face” response to the community push-back might be good enough), but, like Cliff posted on his blog last year, they’ve stopped serving the community ages ago.
So, clearly, I don’t think this is a good idea for anyone, except perhaps the managers at KUOW and, I guess, the regents at PLU (with their tasty bit of cash) . The community is left with the promise of “not screwing this up” by the leader of the organization that has done exactly that, and much stonewalling. It’s a sad time for journalism lovers and those who see deep value in public radio, especially here in Seattle.
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