Eclecticism

I’m really enjoying this summer so far.

Prairie and I have wheels! Foot-wheels, that is — traditional rollerskates for her, and inline rollerblades for me. She’d brought up the idea a couple times in the past, and we decided to give it a shot a couple weeks ago. Our initial plan was to strap ’em on and go scooting around Greenlake, but then we figured that perhaps we should start smaller, since neither of us had been on wheels in ages (or at all, in my case). We found a cute little park a short ways north of us (Paramount School Park, in Shoreline) that has a short path looping around the park, strapped on our skates…and decided that it was a really good idea not to start with Greenlake! We’re both a bit wobbly at this point, and it’s such a different workout that neither of us would have been likely to make it all the way around the Greenlake loop without wearing out. We’ve been back up to this little park a few times, though, and we’re going to keep doing laps there whenever we get a chance until we feel up to graduating to something else.

Also good: living in an apartment complex with a pool. There’s not much better on a hot summer day than coming home from work, skating, or whatever, and slipping into the pool to cool off. Some days we just go to splash around a bit, and some days we take our snorkel gear with us to get more pre-Hawaii snorkeling practice. Much fun! I am going to have to start experimenting with my face fuzz, however…I’m just not getting a good seal on the snorkel’s face mask because of my mustache. Looks like that’s going to have to go in order to get up to speed on snorkeling. It’ll be worth it — how many times am I going to get a chance to go snorkeling with sea turtles, after all? — I’m just hoping I can come up with something that doesn’t look too terribly goofy.

So far, this has been a very pleasant Fourth. Slept until we felt like getting up instead of worrying about an alarm, walked down to the grocery store and got some donuts, came back here and sat in the shade by the pool and ate the donuts, then camped out to relax in the apartment for a bit. I made coleslaw (using a rather loose definition of ‘made’ — I dumped a bag of coleslaw salad into a bowl, added a bottle of coleslaw dressing, and stirred) and Prairie made potato salad for later in the day, and now we’re both puttering away with our blogs.

If you’re reading this on the site rather than through the RSS feed or the LiveJournal feed, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve changed the design a bit. It’s nothing major — thanks to WordPress’s theme support, I didn’t have to do any real work other than finding a theme that I liked enough to use — but it’s at least something of a change from what I’ve had for a while.

Along with the change, I’ve taken the ‘eclinkticism’ section out of the sidebar, and have instead set up a daily automated post that will add anything I toss into my del.icio.us account each day and post it around midnight or so. This way the links show up both on my main site and on my LiveJournal mirror, and mom doesn’t have to squint at the tiny text in the sidebar. ;)

I’m still trying to get through photos…as often happens, I’m running weeks behind. I’m getting closer to the end of my Solstice Parade photos, after which there will be some blurry shots of a Rat City Rollergirls bout I got to go to on Pride weekend, and then a chunk of shots from the final weekend for the Blacklight. It’s slow going, but I’m making progress….

And, I think that’s about all that’s falling out of my brain at the moment. Have a good fourth, don’t blow any fingers off, and so on!

This note is starting to pop up all over the seagoth journals, blogs, and communities after it dropped into our mailboxes last night:

Hi Everyone – This Friday and Saturday nights will be our final nights at CHAC. Monny & I have decided that we just can’t buck City Hall (we have been getting noise/nuisance complaints since the day we opened the door), and neither CHAC nor Blacklight can afford to pay the exorbitant fines the City Council is contemplating for any infractions by the nightlife in this town. Our contract is up, so we are going out with a bang – June 29th is FabulousFetish Friday hosted by General Bek and DJ Paul Aleinikoff, and of course June 30th is our New Wave Dance Party with DJ Evan Blackstone. Friday we will be upstairs in the showroom, Saturday we will be downstairs in the lower level/lounge. Come on out and dance!

Love, Monny & Shawna

This is really sad to see. While I’ve only been around to see about six years of it, Monny and Shawna have been providing a home for the seagoth scene for the past twenty-some years through the Blacklight, The Vogue (in at least two locations), and it’s quite likely that there were more projects before that that I’m not privy to. Admittedly, while the Blacklight never felt as much like ‘home’ as the Vogue did, it’s sad to see it fold…especially for those reasons. This can’t have been an easy decision for Monny and Shawna.

I can’t really say that I’m overly fond of the forces pressuring them to get out of the business, though. People that move into a hip, happening, club-heavy area of town because they are drawn to the atmosphere, then call in noise complaints against the very clubs that give the area its fun, funky feel. A city entirely too focused on gentrification at the expense of the people and businesses that helped make the city what it is. And, of course, a City Council that seems determined to over-legislate every bar or nightclub in the city into nonexistence.

As long as I’m not too tired after work, I’m going to see if I can make it out both nights this weekend. I may not have been one of the die-hard regulars, and I’m not one of the ‘core’ members of the seagoth community, but through their clubs, Monny and Shawna helped me find some places where I felt at home when I first moved to Seattle, and I met quite a few friends through the Vogue. I’d like my chance to say ‘thanks’ as well.