People from Renton usually say that Seattle is our home town because most people haven't heard of Renton, which has traditionally been kind of a backwater Boeing plant town. Well I just paid Renton a visit and I was surprised to see how much it's changed. A lot of places have been redeveloped with fancy-looking new buildings, a new Uwajimaya Japanese import store, a Wal-Mart AND a Sam's Club (c'mon, how much more of a monopoly on the downtown economy does one corporation really need?), the old swimming pool torn out to make way for a skate park, and what I thought was really the jewel of the new downtown: the hip boutiques on 3rd street. There's Happy Delusions, a business undertaking by my high school friend Mary Clymer, which sells original works by local artists and crafters. Lots of really clever stuff on the shelves, definitely a must see if you should happen to find yourself in.... Renton. Happy Delusions is located in the storefront previously inhabited by the Golden Oldies purveyors of all things vinyl, which makes it a very historically special place, indeed. Right next door is the coffeeshop Liberty Cafe, where Mike pours a mean cup of Chai - truly delicious. And up the street there's Tyrannosaurus Records (nice pun on "Rex") which was closed the day I was there, but which I am told is a very nice place to shop for music. After talking to Mary about her business ambitions and goings-on about town, I'm optimistic for the future of Renton - seems to be attracting a young, creative crowd and building lots of community infrastructure. I'm really proud of all my friends who have started semi-thriving businesses and looking forward to visited more often in the near future.
Now I'm back in Santa Cruz and seriously considering running for City Council. Santa Cruz reminds me of Seattle during its repressive "slump" phase - Teen Dance Ordinance crackdown on the club scene, ban on flyering. Only here it's coming in the form a police crackdown on homeless people which is spilling over onto the under-appreciated street musicians who do so much to make downtown colorful and vibrant. I'm happy to say that Seattle has made a noticeable bounce-back in a good direction since they voted out draconian City Attorney Tim Carr. The town seems more open and culturally exciting now. It's intangible, a mood in the air, but unmistakably different from before. Which gives me hope that Santa Cruz could turn around as well, which is a big motivation for running for office. I'll write more about that in the near future.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
More Seattle trip
This has been a great trip to Seattle. I got to see my dad, who has Alzheimer's disease, unfortunately. It was still nice to see him though, it had been awhile. Got to see lots of friends who I haven't visited in years (but been connect via Facebook lately). Really appreciate what I nice town Seattle is, more so then when I used to live here, although the weather's a bit much now the I'm acclimated to California. And I figured out some ways to get temp work while I'm in Seattle, which means I can afford to visit more often.
My high school friend Charles is now a business partner at the newly-opened People's Republic of Coffee on Capitol Hill, which is a very pleasant little restaurant-in-a-house that you should definitely check out if you're in Seattle. They're just getting the ball rolling and don't have all the permits for a full kitchen yet, but pretty soon they're going to introduce an expanded menu and start having concerts and open mic's, which makes it a potential good connection for promotional work. I'm sure the PRC will be popping up in this blog in the future.
Also, it was my distinct pleasure to attend the month meeting of the Rain City Mix Tape Club. They record tapes and CDs of songs, and then trade them with each-other. I met lots of awesome people and had a great time. Now I want to start a mix tape club in Santa Cruz. The Club is a great example of sort of social aggregation which probably couldn't happen without internet technology - the club uses social networking sites to keep everybody updated and the very basis of the music trading that goes on is of course reliant on the kind of file-sharing that the recording industry dinosaur RIAA is waging a costly, futile legal war against. People on the bleeding edge of the music industry (like the RCMTC folks) are well aware the old proprietary business model - wherein all recorded music is directly monetized and copying is discouraged - is broken and obsolete in the new context of technological infrastructures that tend to collaboration and sharing. Instead of developing new business models, the major labels are pouring funds into harassing lawsuits aimed at their very customer base. There is a stubborn refusal on the part of corporate executives to admit that a paradigm has shifted. Pathetic. Luckily for people who see creative potential in the new open-source era, there's simply too much file-sharing going on for all the lawsuits the industry can afford to really put a dent in it, projects like the Mix Tape Club continue to point toward innovative new modes of cultural production, and forward-thinking legal scholars like Lawrence Lessig continue to quietly chip away at the theoretical edifice of the old regime.
Meanwhile, today I will visit Happy Delusions, another business project run by someone I went to high school with, and very soon I will be returning to my cozy little apartment in Santa Cruz, I miss actually seeing that nuclear furnace in sky, and also I miss my sea lion buddies. Arf!
My high school friend Charles is now a business partner at the newly-opened People's Republic of Coffee on Capitol Hill, which is a very pleasant little restaurant-in-a-house that you should definitely check out if you're in Seattle. They're just getting the ball rolling and don't have all the permits for a full kitchen yet, but pretty soon they're going to introduce an expanded menu and start having concerts and open mic's, which makes it a potential good connection for promotional work. I'm sure the PRC will be popping up in this blog in the future.
Also, it was my distinct pleasure to attend the month meeting of the Rain City Mix Tape Club. They record tapes and CDs of songs, and then trade them with each-other. I met lots of awesome people and had a great time. Now I want to start a mix tape club in Santa Cruz. The Club is a great example of sort of social aggregation which probably couldn't happen without internet technology - the club uses social networking sites to keep everybody updated and the very basis of the music trading that goes on is of course reliant on the kind of file-sharing that the recording industry dinosaur RIAA is waging a costly, futile legal war against. People on the bleeding edge of the music industry (like the RCMTC folks) are well aware the old proprietary business model - wherein all recorded music is directly monetized and copying is discouraged - is broken and obsolete in the new context of technological infrastructures that tend to collaboration and sharing. Instead of developing new business models, the major labels are pouring funds into harassing lawsuits aimed at their very customer base. There is a stubborn refusal on the part of corporate executives to admit that a paradigm has shifted. Pathetic. Luckily for people who see creative potential in the new open-source era, there's simply too much file-sharing going on for all the lawsuits the industry can afford to really put a dent in it, projects like the Mix Tape Club continue to point toward innovative new modes of cultural production, and forward-thinking legal scholars like Lawrence Lessig continue to quietly chip away at the theoretical edifice of the old regime.
Meanwhile, today I will visit Happy Delusions, another business project run by someone I went to high school with, and very soon I will be returning to my cozy little apartment in Santa Cruz, I miss actually seeing that nuclear furnace in sky, and also I miss my sea lion buddies. Arf!
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