200,000 Trees for Tacoma?

When I was in New York City I was impressed by the effort they were putting out to plant more trees--1 million trees to be precise. Their goal is 1,000,000 trees in the next 10 years.

I mentioned the program in a comment thread over at Exit133 about a big tree that fell down over the weekend in the Stadium District and suggested that Tacoma should consider something similar. We've lost a lot of trees to age and development and storms and I think that we should have a systematic effort to replant.

Turns out, it's being looked in to. Fellow blogger Tacoma Chickadee let me know that Tacoma's Green Ribbon Committee has as a draft recommendation that the City plant 200,000 trees, among some other ideas.

According to the time line on the website, the final recommendations should be put in front of the City Council in June.

I'm on board. Go trees!

Yeah for the LID!

Very good news from Exit133 -- the Broadway LID just passed. That's good stuff for fans of the Theater District and Broadway. My window used to be on Broadway ... I sat in it and watched the tree lighting parade (I believe it was the last, actually).

I wonder how the view will change from there ...

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!

The Coens and Chabon

This one is for ZestyEnterprise, a big Coen Brothers Fan (you can tell by the name of her blog) who was also not super wild about No Country.

But seeing that she and her SB were at the Michael Chabon lecture last month, I think she'll be excited to hear that the Coen Brothers will shoot an adaptation of The Yiddish Policeman's Union (which I reviewed here for Exit133) after they finish their current project.

I know I'm excited.

Erik Update

So I haven't blogged since Tuesday (which is totally my bad, I'm sorry; I view every day without a blog post as a day I didn't do my job).

Since then I've been working on a few different projects. I have added another 5,000 words or so to my novel, and bumped that up to about 43,000, which is very exciting.

I've started and finished The Kite Runner, which was a good book that I would recommend. Looking forward to the movie.

I enjoyed a really great party at Suite133. The open house started at 5:00 and I left at 11:00 or so. It was a blast.

I also had the inspiration to write a sonnet about the Heidelberg Brewery for Exit133 on Friday. That was a great time, but took up most of Thursday night. I'm not sure I've actually written a sonnet before, so that felt good because it turned out none-too-shabby.

I might come off as a bit of a historic preservationist nut in it, which isn't true. It's just hard to get a complex development argument into 14 lines of rhymed iambic pentameter. I do like the Heidelberg and I would hate to see it go, especially because it has been a bad year for historic buildings (although the good news about the Luzon is pretty heartening). I don't really mind the Courtyard by Marriott although I know a lot do. But the impact it has on Tacoma is very high (thanks to my tourism days for better understanding how that works). What I don't like is another one that takes a cool old building with it.

If the new building created a cool new design concept, possibly with historic tax credits that might be available, I'd be all for it. (See why it didn't all fit in the poem?)

And this weekend I headed out to Ephrata, WA, in the middle of the state for a night with the extended family. I do find Eastern Washington to be very beautiful, but judging by how good it felt to be back ... well, this is a pretty good side of the mountains too. After the trip Mary and I had lunch in Seattle with our friend, Deborah, who was visiting the area from Utrecht in the Netherlands where she lives. So a good weekend!

I'll try to be better about blogging this week ...

Open House at Suite133!

Next Friday I'll be at Suite133 for a cool open house in our new space. Come check it out and see what we've got going there! More info at Exit133. But it will be a swingin' party.

South Sound Technology Conference

I thought I would put a short plug out there: tomorrow I'm going to be leading a discussion after the South Sound Technology Conference. I'll be talking about crafting a voice on-line and blogging "as yourself" rather than an anonymous person.

The conference is at UWT. Adam Smith will kick it off and Derek from Exit133 will be leading a panel on Civic Blogging. Here's a schedule of the day.

Looking forward to it! And maybe I'll see you there.

I'm going glassblowing at M Space!

After reading on Exit133 about being able to blow your own Christmas ornament at M Space, I was initially wary. I mean, did I really need to spend $36 on an ornament? That's more than what I spent decorating my tree last year (I did a theme tree, which a lot of people make fun of, but it's surprisingly frugal).

But then I thought, how cool. I get to a) blow glass and b) go back to M Space. I hung out there during the Twisty Cup last year to make a podcast and it was a blast to film.

So a group of 4 of us are going to go blow our own ornaments on the 8th. I think it's going to be damn cool. And also crazy hot, considering it's a hot shop. But it will be a good Tacoma activity. And if it's really cool, maybe even a holiday tradition?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a good one.

The Bellarmine mass and pumpkin pie social were both successes, and that's the only way to start out the long Thanksgiving weekend.

I just passed 30,000 words in my novel, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. And speaking of writing, I also got a chance to see "No Country For Old Men" before it opened at the Grand yesterday. My review is on the B Side at Exit133. It's a doosie of the movie.

Music store open at Starbucks (+ the Luncheon update)

Before the Luncheon today for the GTCF (more on that in a second) I was getting some coffee at the Starbucks at 15th & Commerce and tried out my iPhone to see if it allowed for wireless downloading of songs to my iPhone.

Amazingly, it did. I was looking for a Starbucks button to show up on the home screen, but it actually shows up inside the wireless iTunes store. It's kinda creepy. You look at the screen and it shows you what's playing, what just played, etc. I felt like my phone shouldn't know that. To test it out, I bought the Immigrant Song by Zeppelin, and learned that buying music wirelessly off the iPhone is just as addictive at Starbucks as it is with any other wireless connection. They make it fun. The song jumps into your shopping cart and it's just way too easy.

As to the Luncheon, it was pretty great. Daniel Blue performed OK Tacoma with pictures from the 365 Days project on the screens behind him. Daniel received a well-deserved standing ovation. Someone told me afterward "he had the room," and he was right on. I also enjoyed John Graham, who told interesting stories about the Foreign Service and a harrowing story of being stranded on a lifeboat in the Northern Pacific (all true stories by the way).

I would also like to link to his organization, The Giraffe Project, which encourages people to stick their neck out.

Good day, I'd say.

Behind the Scenes at the Opera

If you haven't seen me blogging here recently, it's because I've been busy creating a podcast about the Tacoma Opera for Exit133.

It's the first time we've tried to tackle a "production" like that--so far we've focused on events and individuals, but this one required a lot of film time, mainly because I didn't quite know what I wanted so I just kept filming everything. Which was great because by the end, little moments I'd captured on film early on were on film to compare to the end result on stage. Even though all I have to show of those first few rehearsals amounts to 10 seconds of film in the final product, it was still worth it.

Pretty quickly, though, I discovered the music. The classic Can Can, and the intro to it, which I mostly recognized from Moulin Rouge (Spectacular, Spectacular, in the words of the vernacular ... ).

Once I heard it, and got it stuck in my head, I knew that was the way to go.

I had a great time at the rehearsals. It's good theater (in English no less!) and done well by Tacoma Opera. If you're around you should see it this weekend. And if you're not, here's the video on Exit133. And if you're here, but not sure you want to see it, watch the video, then decide.

Here's the link to Tacoma Opera if you want more info.

Tour of Urban Living this weekend!

I am very much looking forward to this year's Tour of Urban Living. I've been on every tour save for last year's. This year I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the renovated Walker, as it is a close neighbor. Last night I saw they had planted trees and lit them from the ground, which looks very cool. And this evening they were hauling in furniture and art for their model unit (I presume that's what its for at least.).

This year, you can find an interactive Google map on Exit133 with information on all the tour sites, photos, etc which will make planning your weekend tour of condos and apartments easier. Yeah for the Tour of Urban Living!

Writing About Tacoma

As I mention fairly often, I've been living in downtown Tacoma for five years (as of last month, actually). Which has been pretty great, I must say.

I've seen a lot of changes in downtown in that time and I've touched on it here every so often, but not in a lot of detail. That's why I'm happy to tell you all that I'll be writing about living downtown and my Tacoma activities on a new page of Exit133, Exit133 B (AKA: The B Side).

The front page of Exit133 will keep its focus on development, urban issues, arts news, etc. But I'm going to be on a second page with more of a lighter look at Tacoma. One of the other writers is Kimberley Tibbert, who moved to town this summer and will have some first impressions of Tacoma posted.

There will also be reviews posted as well. Andrew Fry, who I've mentioned here a few times, has a review up of The Steward of Christendom. I posted a review of the art-house thriller "Sunshine" when I saw it at the Grand last month and threw it up on The B Side as a test post, but it's still there for your reading pleasure.

I'm excited to have a new sandbox to play in, so I hope you'll check out the B Side (if you like Tacoma you should already be reading Exit133 anyway).

I'll post links to any reviews I write plus the random post or two, as well.