The Hub

Last night we were fortunate enough to be able to drop by over at new brewpub/pizzeria The Hub. Exit133 has some pictures and such.

It was a great atmosphere with good smells of garlic and pizza, plus good brews (I'm always partial to the Harmon Blonde Ale). The night before we had a family dinner at Stadium Bistro, which was fun, since it meant we spent Friday night on one floor of the building and Saturday night on the other.

I love the St. Helens neighborhood. When I moved here almost 5 years ago I had zero dining options between the Harvester in Stadium and Over the Moon on 7th. Now there's PSP, Cafe by the Bay, Stadium Bistro, Doyle's, Infinite Soups, and now--The Hub. It shouldn't be much longer before Maxwell's is open, either, and that's even closer. It's shaping up to be an excellent summer ...

I took a quick snapshot of this now-very busy hot spot.

Wii are family

Last night we got our first taste of the "Wii craze." Yeah ... I'm going to need me one of those. We stuck with tennis, boxing, and a little bowling and I have to say it's quite a system. Great times last night practicing the ol' backhand with the family. Kudos to Nintendo.

More snow out this window ...

March 28, 2008. Students here are making snowmen.

Winter Weather

We've got some accumulation. This picture fails to catch the snow in the air--but trust me, there's a lot of it.

Obama weathers the worst

Judging by the most recent NBC poll, Obama fared the tough week last week very well and Clinton dropped to the worst positive ratings she'd had since 2001. That's gotta hurt. It's going to play well in the media these next few days, I'm guessing.

In Tacoma Today

I'd like to second Paul Schrag's props to the Broadway Center for hosting a dialog about hip hop. I think it's a good step after the flap they were just in.

RR Anderson has some pictures of people at yesterday's City Council meeting with his own dialog and commentary. Much fun ensues.

It rained, hailed, and snowed today.

We have 98 days until Tall Ships. More at Exit133 about volunteering and such.

And David Dicks, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Partnership, sends a good message: keeping the Sound healthy and clean will rely primarily on good growth management. You go, David. That was at the South Sound Science Symposium, something that was in Tacoma today that--hearing about it 6 hours too late--sounds kind of interesting.

Spam update

2091 spam message in my spam box right now, up from 2013 this time yesterday. And remember that's the last 30 days, which means that in the last 24 hours, I've received a net of 80 more spam messages than I received in the same 24 hour period a month ago. ... but again, I still haven't see a one in my inbox.

George would be proud

Dan Voelpel's column today posts reader submissions of ideas for the next Washington State tourism slogan.

Considering I had a lot of fun at SayWa's expense, I thought I'd link to the column, because there are some really good ones.

"George would be proud" stands out, I feel. I'm also pretty fond of "Ooo La WA" although it's a little too close to SayWA, but for some reason I like it a whole lot better. I'm even kind of partial to "From Ski to Shining Sea."

Although I'm pretty tempted to eventually side with the Ken Miller in the article--"The Evergreen State" is nice in its simplicity.

My Spam Inbox

I never bother to clean out my Gmail spam box. I'll check it every so often but there is seldom anything in there that shouldn't be. Which is good, because my spam folder holds spam sent to me in the last 30 days, and it currently has 2,011 e-mails in it.

Gmail is so good at preventing spam that I see spam in my Inbox maybe 2 - 4 times a week (at most).

But consider this: according to Wikipedia right now, there are "90 billion messages a day, although about 80% is sent by fewer than 200 spammers." Wrap your head around that. 15 times more spam is sent every day than people on the planet.

So maybe I don't feel so bad about the 2,011 messages in my spam box ... Oops, scratch that. 2,013 messages.

More on the Internet

I should make things clearer, having gotten that last post out of my system.

Free speech means a lot of things, but a lot of people automatically cry "Free Speech" when it is absolutely irrelevant. I can delete your obnoxious comments from my blog if I so choose. So can the Tribune. I can choose not to run your offensive ad in my paper. I can choose not to give a loony a platform in my paper by not publishing his letter to the editor.

Especially in the age of blogs, there is no reason why I can't be a dictator about the content that goes on my own site. This is true for a couple reasons--I'm libel for content on ErikEmery.com, for example. And because it's my voice here and I don't have to give you the right to voice yours here too. But you can just as easy go get your own Blogger account and set up a blog with an opposing view.

Google is not liable for anything we say when we use its blogging platform. And they shouldn't be. Network Solutions, Comcast (or some other provider who allows you to view my site) and any other company is not liable either. It would be like holding Gutenberg accountable because I say malicious things using a printing press (or at least, close enough).

But if they're not liable, they shouldn't be censoring either. I'm looking at you right now, Network Solutions, but Comcast is also on my list after trying to inhibit downloads from users using .torrent files (frequently used to exchange illegal copies of movies, which also happens to compete with Comcast's OnDemand offerings. Funny that).

And Google does have the right to clean up spam-filled blogs. With blogs as easy to create as they are, Blogger and other free and easy blogging platforms should be monitoring spam blogs built to give you a virus, steal your credit card information, or just get you to buy Viagra.

But these companies should not get a say in the content posted to their sites or using the fiber-optic cables that connect the Internet (AKA, a series of tubes).

Internet Censorship Commencing?

This weekend, Network Solutions pre-emptively shut down a website because they were worried that the content may violate their acceptable use policy.

Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician, wants to put up a short video criticizing Islam and the Koran. He believes the Koran is a "fascist book," that it goes against Dutch law and he wants it banned (irony watch: he wants the Koran banned, but his website to promote the view is getting censored). He's quoted on Wikipedia thusly:

Later, Wilders suggested that Muslims should "tear out half of the Koran if they wished to stay in the Netherlands" because it contained 'terrible things' and that Muhammad would "in these days be hunted down as a terrorist."

I'm not as worried about a jingoist and isolationist politician in the Netherlands. I'm far more worried about Network Solutions. In February of 2006 I railed--railed--in multiple posts against Viacom, for not letting South Park show Muhammad, and against those who tried to censor the cartoons. Free speech means pissing people off. It means ignorance, bigotry, intolerance, and even blasphemy can not be silenced.

Network Solutions should not be able to cut off a website because it doesn't like the content. Even if they are afraid of a violent reaction, they should not be able to cut it off. In fact, the telecommunication and domain registrars should be pushing the US the hardest in favor of the Net Neutrality Act that would prevent them from doing crap like this. Why? Because then they are legally obligated not to interfere with a website. If they really are concerned about employee's safety, then passing the buck to the American voters (through Congress) is the best way to go.

Registrars should not have this kind of power. It rewards violence, because it cowers in fear of it. They claim that they want to quell violence, but it only makes it worse. It emboldens other groups to start trying to get websites they don't like shut down.

Stop it now, Network Solutions. You're making everything a lot worse.

"Did Moonvertising Work?"

To all those people who are searching Google with the question, "Did moonvertising work?" and finding my blog ...

No.

Not that Rolling Rock actually tried. It was a stunt. If anyone's ever serious about trying it, they'll do it on a new moon, not a full moon, as some have already pointed out.

The Paparazzi

The cover of the Atlantic this month had Britney Spears on the cover, something that surprised me. But the article is finally online and it's a really interesting look at the paparazzi and how they actually operate--how they make their money, how they work on a day-to-day basis, and how 30+ photographers follow Britney Spears ... every day. Here's something that is crazy:

History’s best-publicized celebrity meltdown has helped fuel dozens of television shows, magazines, and Internet sites, the combined value of whose Britney-related product easily exceeds $100 million a year, and helped make Britney Spears the most popular search term on Yahoo once again in 2007, as it has been for six of the past seven years.

After seeing this week's South Park episode with Britney Spears and the paparazzi, it makes me wonder if they'd read the same article. (I'd also like to say that the episode was incredibly depressing--sometimes satire is just too dead-on to be funny.)

But definitely check out the article.

The Dusty 45s at Jazzbones

It's a rare night that I want to stay out past midnight. Have I gotten so old at 27? Ah well. But the Dusty 45s were enough to get me out to Jazzbones last night. I first saw them at the Obama fundraiser at Seattle's Showbox SoDo in December. They really grabbed the audience.

So I was particularly excited to read in the Volcano that they would be in Tacoma (Natasha from the Volcano was in attendance as well). Supposedly they are "rockabilly" a term I'm not particularly familiar with. If it means 50s-era/Buddy Holly/The Ventures-style music with more energy and depth, then that's what they are. They can really get things pumping, especially with their classic finale when Billy Joe Huels stands on the bass and plays a flaming trumpet. It's a show stopper.

We didn't get home until past midnight, but it was definitely the kind of thing worth staying out for. I had a really good Malbec too, as it happens.

A New Season, A Full Moon

Of course, tonight is the night when supposed the Rolling Rock moonvertising is supposed to happen. I blogged about this earlier this month. I've gotten a lot of comments in the thread, but I think the most helpful was this one:

It seems like there would be better contrast if the laser was projected at a new moon instead of a full moon.

For me, this was a slap your forehead comment. If you were really going to aim an ad at the moon it would make much more sense to do it with a new moon than a full moon. A lot of people don't realize that the moon is fairly close to the color of coal but it is only the bright sunlight and the contrast with the inky blackness of space that makes it as bright and white as it is. Rolling Rock's lasers would never be able to compete with the sun's reflection.

Aiming it at a new moon would likely be tons more successful.

Anyway, I suppose Rolling Rock could surprise tonight and actually attempt it. But most likely the moon is going to look pretty much at the same as it always does.

In other news, it's the first day of spring. A perfect day to open a cool refreshing beer. May I recommend a Fat Tire?

At Fulcrum tonight

Well worth checking out. A very cool show. This is from Galen McCarty Turner, who I went to school with from about 7th - 12th grade. He was a crack-up then and he's a crack up now. That, and a very good neon/inert gas artist.

He also drives the car that has a rocket ship on top. Go see the show!

No lone Ranger

Apparently, the Ranger can still get some headlines. The Kitsap Sun had a short blog post saying "the dream is over but the fight isn't" with links to ErikEmery and 5views. And Scott Fontaine at the News Tribune says that we're in a "minor cyberspat" over an issue that has been dead for years.

Ah yes, the blogosphere ... where dead horses are beaten daily. I've been arguing with 5views over on his site in the comments. Now we're debating the likely attendance the carrier would have had in Tacoma, so you know we're definitely still on topic.

On the USS Ranger

The blogger over at 5views.com can irk me sometimes. Especially on a day like today when he faults "several liberal groups, some of whom the city council looks to for direction" for scuttling the proposal to bring the USS Ranger to Tacoma.

Dude. I was there. We worked damn hard to try to make it work here. Here's the story as I remember it.

In 2002, I received a call from a board member of the USS Ranger Foundation, expressing the interest of moving the Ranger here. At the time, I was the Marketing Coordinator at the Convention & Visitor Bureau; not a position that would normally attract the attention of the Ranger Foundation but I knew the board member personally.

I felt that the Ranger had strong potential to be located in Tacoma. With permission from my boss, I organized all appointments for the Ranger in that first year in Tacoma and fought hard for the project.

We met with John Ladenburg, Juli Wilkerson at the City (then head of economic development), Don Meyer (at the Foss), Park officials, Port officials, and numerous other groups. We arranged for tours of the incredible ship at Bremerton for Mayor Baarsma and a bunch of other elected officials at the local, state, and national level (I was fortunate enough to go as well and I will attest it was an awesome ship).

After a huge summit meeting with 20+ people around the table in 2003 (I think), it was clear even then that there was only one acceptable location in Tacoma for the ship: the end of the Thea Foss Waterway.

All other locations were deemed too difficult for a myriad of reasons. Parking, being a huge limiting factor. Views, being another. The Navy will not donate a ship like this if a group of citizens is opposed to a ship blocking their view, mostly because they don’t want to have it handed back to them.

But even if all the people whose views would have been impacted were in favor of it, it was still very unlikely to go in Commencement Bay. The only practical place to put it in on the Bay was the end of Ruston Way. And that site had three other major hurdles before you even get to the views: parking, traffic, and a very strong current, which was going to increase the cost of the museum substantially.

So it left the end of the Foss as the only location in Tacoma suitable–no view impediment, no strong current, and close enough to the Dome to allow for a short shuttle from the parking lots there.

From there the Ranger Foundation and the Foss Waterway Development Authority started kicking the idea around, and by that time I was out of the picture and at the Grand.

The FWDA didn't come to a quick decision against the ship. I know from personal accounts that they really liked the idea. But the scope of the project was just too big.

The ship, in practical terms, would mean putting a wall more than 1,000 feet long and at, at its shortest, 60 ft. tall at the end of the waterway. The 37 foot draft of the ship presented huge logistical problems there as well. The only practical way to set it up was to jut it into the middle of the navigable waterway, otherwise the ship was going impede ship traffic at the grain silo.

Of course, everything can be worked out eventually, but the cost of that particular site was hard to get around (the estimate then was the entire project would cost $30 million or more there). And the commissioners (rightly, I think) decided that it was just too big to fit. It was the wrong choice for that location and, as such, was not going to work in Tacoma.

It was not ushered out of town by liberal groups. In the end, it was not even the work of NIMBYs. It just wasn’t going to work. I was in many meetings when a chart of our coastline was laid out and a scale model of the ship was pushed around every conceivable nook and cranny we have. We tried hard. I worked hard to get it here and if it had happened I would be proud to be one of the hundreds that made it possible.

I do recall one of the volunteers for the Ranger Foundation telling me back in 2003 that the reception they got in Tacoma was far greater than anywhere else they’d been looking that time. It was why they spent so long working with us, because people here really wanted to make it work. In no other cities did so many people say, “That sounds like a great idea, tell us more.”

All this is to say that it was not short-sightedness, narrow-mindedness, or crazy liberals that made Tacoma not viable. It was a function of largely geography and sheer scale that made it so difficult that ultimately we couldn't find a suitable spot.

Anthony Minghella

These many years later, The English Patient is getting a bad rap from people. "Faintly silly" in the Atlantic I notice. Dudes, it's still a good movie, don't go trashing it because it won Best Picture and because it's ... you know, sappy.

Anyway, Minghella is a very good director, and as the Atlantic piece goes on to say, his best film is The Talented Mr. Ripley. I would absolutely agree. There is a scene part way through this film that has got to be one of the most violent acts I've seen on film, and it's not because it's that bad visually, it's because of the emotional coil that unwinds with it. It's disturbing, scary, and it draws you in to root for Ripley a bit. Matt Damon is awesome, Jude Law is awesome, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (in a small role) is awesome. And Gweneth Paltrow is pretty awesome too. Here's Ebert's 4 star review of the film.

Minghella is also the director of the upcoming "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," which I believe he finished before he died. It will be interesting to see how it turned out. The author, McCall Smith, will be in Tacoma next month. I'll be interested to hear what he says about it as well.

"What do you think you're doing, Dave?"

Arthur C. Clarke died today at the age of 90. I have not actually read anything other than the 4 books of the 2001 series, and I would recommend 2001, 2010, and 3001 to anyone who might like a little sci-fi in their literary diet. 2061 had some good parts and some not-so-good parts.

He wrote some good things. Here's the obit at the New York Times.

The Ham Store

I've decided that a valuable use of my time is making fun of advertisements. Why? Because advertisements are generally funny if you start getting right down to it. Dave Barry's classic sentiment holds true: whatever the ad is trying to tell you, the reverse is probably true (ie, it is your father's Oldsmobile).

And since I don't watch many TV advertisements, most of my jabs will be at the expense of radio ads.

So to last night's Shane Company's "in your grill" line, I'd like to add Fred Meyer, who suggested I go to Freddy's for my Easter ham ... so that I don't have to drive across town to "the ham store."

Where, pray tell, can I find this ham store? And what might this wonderful store carry?

UPDATE: Thanks, Andrew, for pointing out that there is HoneyBaked Ham Store near the mall. Apparently they have 400 retail locations in the US. All selling ham. And apparently, Fred Meyer thinks you might get your Easter ham from them, so they're trying to keep you away from them. I guess when you don't want to call out out competitor by name, just referring to them as "The Ham Store" is about as close as you want to get.

I still reserve the right to make fun of Fred Meyer. But I also want the right to make fun of HoneyBaked Ham, for their web address http://www.honeybakedoccasion.com/ which I find kind of silly.

Walking on Air

On an excursion to South Center today, Mary and I swung by our favorite store ... The Apple Store!

Our mission: to check out the new MacBook Airs. Not because I actually am thinking about buying one. But because I wanted to hold the laptop that can fit in a manila envelope.

Let me just say, the Air is freaking crazy. You won't believe how light it is until you pick it up. You won't believe how fast it recovers from sleep mode or boots up. It's perfect if you travel frequently and need something when you're on the go.

The downside? It's not that powerful. It's got a 1.6 Gigahertz processor, which just isn't that fast. I don't think I'd miss the CD/DVD port, either. Still. It's freaking awesome. If you want to read an interesting article, here's Steven Levy with a hilarious review of the MacBook Air ... which he lost.

Tom Shane

I just heard Tom Shane of the Shane company promise me that if I buy from him there won't be any commission salespeople "up in my grill." Really, Tom? Really?

I used to exempt the Shane Company from my rants against jewelry store radio ads. No more. Now they are just as annoying as the others (though the guy who puts the ring in the microwave is indubitably higher on the list, as is the couple who thanks their jeweler by carving his initials in the sand on Maui).

Vantage Point

We spent a few hours Saturday night at the movies seeing the thriller, Vantage Point, which came out last month sometime. We'd really wanted to see Be Kind, Rewind, but the closest theater was Auburn. Dang.

Vantage Point was a suitable stand-in. It was fun, but kinda empty. The NYT reviewer calls it "competent if not completely impersonal filmmaking" and that feels about right to me. There was a fun diversion in the middle, but the climactic scene was pretty hokey and got some laughs from our group.

As for me, I'm waiting for Indiana Jones in May and the next Batman in July. Maybe IronMan, depending on review ... and probably Wall*E. Although this month the mockumentary"The Grand" is opening, which is sure to confuse plenty of people in Tacoma, since it doesn't look like it's actually playing at ... you know, The Grand.

The Future

Placing voiceless phone calls ... asking Google a question by thought ... allowing patients of ALS to communicate.

The future is most definitely arriving sooner than we expected. At least sooner than Arthur C. Clarke expected. Some of these things were in his book 3001. We're getting close to them, just 993 years early ...

Spew at SXSW

Can I just say it's really cool that Spew's got some people down at SXSW? The Slog (the Stranger's blog) has some folks there, too. Of course, they also had two people at the Adult Video Network Awards (like the Oscars, but for porn) and they've blogged some other random national events too.

But kudos to the Volcano. Guys, if you're looking for someone to go to Sundance next year (or perhaps Toronto this fall?) on your behalf ... well, I wouldn't turn down that free ticket.

"Op Ed" over at Living & Working Virtually

Earlier this week I floated the idea of an "op-ed" style guest post to Andrew Fry, the blogger at "Living and Working in a Virtual World." The topic: When Bloggers Are Neighbors. Check it out.

I had a lot of fun writing it, and it was a cool opportunity to do something different with a post. I'm going to play around with some longer pieces of writing as opposed to the shorter bursts I usually post here.

A good day in Washington

Thanks, Guv:

“This bill is about protecting and helping Washington families,” Gregoire said before signing the bill. “It simply gives these families the same rights as everybody else. It’s the right thing to do.”

Yes it was.

Here's the Tribune's story on the domestic partnership bill Gregoire just signed.

Growing Public Transportation

According to some recent research, we have more people using public transit than anytime in the last 50 years. Keep it up! From the study:

Public transportation use is up 32% since 1995, a figure that is more than double the growth rate of the population (15%) and up substantially over the growth rate for the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on US highways (24%) for that same period.

Interestingly, Sound Transit's ridership growth increased 12% from 2006 to 2007 in comparison to the national average growth of 2%. Here's their press release. That's a good frame for consideration of a November ballot initiative for Sound Transit.

Obama in Mississippi

So Obam won Mississippi today. That's all good, and it gives him another boost in delegates, just like the Texas caucus, which released another round of results today that puts Obama up in delegates over Clinton for the state.

Here's what's interesting. Look at the map and you realize how far we've come since Iowa. The Democrats have only 11 contests left, and that counts Guam and Puerto Rico. 9 states, 2 territories ... after Ohio and Texas, Clinton had to take more than 63% of all the remaining delegates to tie. It's just looking very unlikely that that's going to happen.

On the other hand, Pennsylvania is six weeks away ... we've got a lifetime of stuff that could happen before then. Good luck, Obama! Keep it up!

Blogging via e-mail

In theory this post composed via email should go directly to Blogger
and post. It's posting from my phone, so perhaps I'll be the new Scott
Fontaine, mobile blogger extraordinaire and post fleeting thoughts
from the road (not literally of course. That would be dangerous and
illegal).

Moonvertising

Perhaps you've seen the moonvertising billboard at 21st and Pacific. It's an image of the Rolling Rock logo projected onto the moon. It says, "look at the next full moon!" and gives the web address www.moonvertising.com.


I'm not going to make that a hyperlink, because frankly I don't want to reward Rolling Rock. Writing about it is enough. The blogs and tech sites I've read seem to indicate that the idea of sending a huge laser beam to the moon to write out a corporate image is technically feasible. The problem being the FAA isn't too wacky about it (they get all upset with laser pointers, think about what they'd feel about this).

So the consensus has been that Rolling Rock has put together a stunt-advertising campaign to get people to go to Moonvertising.com and play around with their features there (hence, me not linking to it).

But I'd just like to throw out that Rolling Rock may actually attempt this thing. Shining the beam at the moon from either restricted airspace or from even say, the open ocean in international waters and they might get away with it. Assuming again that Rolling Rock has actually built one of these laser beams in the first place.

Coke thought about it back in 1999 and thought they could make it work and get their logo on the surface of the moon for everyone to see ... maybe Rolling Rock will go through with it.

And we'll see their green logo on the surface of the moon. I guess we'll have to wait until the 21st to find out whether this is a stunt or a new way to pollute and corrupt nature's wonders with advertising. As Neil Armstrong would say, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap in my Air Jordans."

UPDATE: The Boston Globe assures us this is a hoax. From the short article:

To repeat: This is viral advertising; the company isn't actually going to project a laser beam 237,000 miles into space.

They sound pretty sure of themselves.

(image courtesy Lokiv7 on Flickr using a Creative Commons license. Photo not of the Tacoma billboard)

The "3 am" Girl

The Clinton "3 am Girl" in her ads has been all over the news recently because it turns out she is a Barack Obama supporter. Not only that, but she's a precinct captain for him.

The Tribune's Political Buzz has a good summary of all the media attention she's getting. Maybe she'll get to meet Obama sometime soon. And maybe Obama will call me sometime to thank me for LeftiesforObama.com. I can hope.

This is also a good time to give you Obama's response to Clinton's talk of a "dream ticket" with her and Obama ... how many times has the 2nd place person offered the VP slot to the person in the lead? Cracks me up.

All Around T-Town

What a day! Taking Mary's mom around took a long time.

We started at Puget Sound Pizza, which I will now state is my favorite breakfast spot in Tacoma although I am still fond of Old Milwaukee. From there it was a fun walk to the Murano. The finishing touches were being installed for tonight's big opening and gala.

We went up the elevator as high as we could and then traversed the floors all the way down. Each floor is given over to an artist--it is an incredible tour of glass. I helped film for the Exit133 podcast about the Murano and coming back on my own was still fun.

The hotel truly is incredible. I encourage everyone to venture over and check it out. From there we went to the museum district and said "Hello, Cupcake" (translation=enjoyed a very fine cupcake while watching the high street traffic). We caught the Link back home.

From there it was a long drive out to Chambers Bay, which we walked on this beautiful day (felt really good down there by the water) before driving all the way north again to Ruston and taking Ruston Way back home.

Dinner at Stadium Bistro. Last night we went to Europa Bistro, followed by "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" at the Grand. Having company is danged fun--it's a good reason to really hang out in the city like a tourist!

What is this woman holding?

Holy cow. Check out the woman on the right. I think that's 6 recorders she's holding in her hands. That's got to create some killer feedback.

Vieques: The Full Trip

Mary has assembled a Picasa album of our trip to the Puerto Rican island complete with handy explanations of each photo. Looking at it I already want to go back ... sigh ...

Tacoma Room Nights

Dan Voelpel's Sunday story about the lack of hotel room within walking distance of the Convention Center is right on the money. But I think it's important to revisit briefly.

First off, the number of rooms has not changed since the Center was built. Working at the Convention & Visitor Bureau during its construction, I remember many people in the tourism industry saying the same thing: the center is too big for the number of hotel rooms nearby. 4 years later, nothing's changed.

And it's not going to get any easier. First, Dan's article contains this line:

Then the City Council will decide whether to dangle as bait the land it owns next to the convention center to attract a four-star hotel developer willing to build the city’s largest hotel – at least 400 rooms.

This is bad. We don't want another 4 star hotel; conferences and conventions need a Holiday Inn or a Best Western sometimes. Murano is an incredible hotel, but it's features are going to price some conventions out of the market. Having a lower-cost alternative to it and the Courtyard by Marriot (itself not a cheap hotel) would be better for attracting conventions. And, yes, I know I wrote a sonnet decrying the lost of the Heidelberg Brewery to a Holiday Inn. But a huge parcel attached to the Convention Center seems like a much better place for the hotel.

Adding insult to injury, though, is this part of Dan's article:

... Spokane has roughly 4,000 hotel rooms downtown. Tacoma? Some 470 between the Marriott and the Murano.

We are the same size as Spokane and they have more than 8 times as many hotel rooms in their downtown? In a city just a few thousand people smaller (depending on who's count)? Ouch.

In other tourism news, you can read a skeptical take on local tourism promotion over at 5Views, plus my response in the comments.

Way to go WA!

Congrats to the Washington Senate for passing the 2008 Domestic Partnership Bill. Makes me proud. It will help us avoid horrific, awful, anti-family situations like this one in Florida.

Thanks, Washington legislators! My hat is off to you and the House, and to the Governor who will sign the bill.

Obama's 2 Minute Argument

Clinton's been doing better recently. She's had a habit of making game-changing moves at the last minute that worries me going into Tuesday's election. Of course, if you visit the poll pages at Pollster you'll see how quickly Obama has closed the gap.

I find the idea that the press has been hard on her a little difficult to swallow. If Obama had lost 11 primaries or caucuses in a row, do you think the press would you treating tomorrow's primaries the same way? Of course not. The truth is, Huckabee has done better since Super Tuesday than Clinton has. But the "media" hasn't really touched that one.

Marc Ambinder over at the Atlantic has a very good look at Hillary's numbers. His conclusion is that the only way she could become the nominee to close the delegate gap with Obama is to seat Michigan and Florida delegates. Which would, of course, tear the Democratic party apart.

Anyway, here's Obama's closing video. God speed, sir.

Juried Art Show at the Helm

Last night's opening of the Juried Art Show at the Helm was one of their finer shows. I was very impressed with the work of local artists included RR Anderson, Daniel Blue, Teresa Cuff, and many others.

Previously, I'd thought that one of the best parts of the Helm was bringing in artists from elsewhere to Tacoma. Turns out they can showcase Tacoma's best artists pretty well too.

The Tacoma Urbanist has pictures of the event, including some stuff about the drop-by of Costas Varotsos, the artist who has created the sculpture outside of the new Hotel Murano.

My 4th Quarter Pipe Dreams

Every so often I throw on the Juno soundtrack and give it a whirl. Kimya Dawson has some interesting lyrics in her songs, but I keep coming back to her odd and eclectic anti-war song.

This might be part of my favorite bit:

shysters live from scheme to scheme and my 4th quarter pipe dreams /
are seeming more and more worth fighting for

Although this part gets points for sheer oddness:

my war paint is sharpie ink and i'll show you how much my shit stinks /
and ask you what you think because your thoughts and words are powerful /
they think we're disposable, well both my thumbs opposable /
spelled down on a double word and triple letter score /

Full lyrics here. It's such a damned odd song, but I think I really like it.