Image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/quazie/

At 9pm every Tuesday and Friday, members of the Capitol Hill community meet at the Cal Anderson tennis courts to play a couple hours of dodgeball. The balls are supplied by a bunch of dodgeball enthusiasts, who have been hosting the game for years.

When I first moved from Tacoma to Seattle, I was very concerned about losing a sense of community. Tacoma had so many opportunities to contribute an be a part of the city. That’s where the Frost Park Chalk Off’s (a community maintained, weekly chalk competition) came from. That’s even what sparked this website. So when I moved to Seattle, I was uncertain if that same spirit would be alive. Walking around Pine St. one late summer evening, I happened upon this group of dodgeballers wailing rubber at each other. The fence outside the tennis courts were crawling with onlookers who “oohed” and “aahed” at some of the great hits and beefy throws. The people playing were not some organized league of elitist ball-bombers, but instead…everybody. Hipsters, gays, jocks, nerds, old and young, black and white, nearly every demographic you could think of and some you never would expect to subject themselves to having plastic balls hurled at them were taking to the courts with smiles on their faces.

I will admit, I was too shy to enter the arena the first time, but not a week or so later, I found myself skipping on the green, squeezing yellow rubber, readying a grip for launch at my opponent.  There are some basic rules: After the first point of contact the ball is technically dead. If you haven’t been in yet during a round and there are still more than five people remaining you can go in. These rules are governed by the masses and happily shared with all newcomers.

That sense of sharing is sort of what Capitol Hill dodgeball is about. It’s not about who gets out, or who got nailed in the face, it’s not about how you move or throw a ball, it’s all about having a good time. If you’re playing, you’ve earned the respect of your community, because you’re helping to create a good time for all. That is what community is about. That is what this is. What I feared I wouldn’t find in Seattle, turned out to be right in my own neighborhood.

But now this longstanding staple of community has come to the fire as complaints have reached city offices and discussions are being had by Seattle Parks and Recreation whether or not to force dodgeball elsewhere or grant “official” permission to use the Cal Anderson tennis courts. This King 5 video describes the situation pretty well. Meet me below the embed to hear my say on the matter.

Clearly dodgeball is important. It was huge for me in developing a sense of place and community, as it is for many others. Further, the Cal Anderson location is an ideal location for the diverse crowd, for promotion this event, displaying community in action and because it has been there for years. The conflict comes from apparently a handful of tennis players who believe the courts are being damaged by dodgeballers.  Such a claim is intensely unfounded.  To suggest that a rubber ball thrown by even the mightiest of persons is creating any damage to concrete is absurd.  Even if Randy Johnson was throwing every Tuesday night, he wouldn’t make a dent.  Tennis balls on the other hand, when hit with a racket are more likely to chip away at the ground, though still practically impossible.  So if no real damage is being done, perhaps I should humor old man winter’s Pandora’s Box suggestion.

Image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/alex-s/

This tennis advocate suggests that dodgeball opens up the courts to alternative sports that may cause real damage like bicycle polo. To suggest that dodgeball leads to bicycle polo is almost as crazy as saying gay marriage leads to the marrying of animals. What he’s suggesting is that if people see that dodgeball is allowed on the courts they’ll assume they can do anything there. Why this is nuts is that there are still rules. You can’t go shooting pellet guns at the tennis courts because that’ll do real damage.  This is pretty apparent. It’s not as if dodgeballers are the gatekeepers to all morals.   If bicycle polo creates real damage than they are responsible, it’s not dodgeballs fault.  Okay, I’ve already given way to much attention to this pin-headed argument.

So what then? Perhaps the tennis advocates suggest that the tennis courts should be used for tennis because that’s what they’re made for.  Perhaps, but community facilities are for communities to decide how to use.  In this case the community is hundreds of people who have played dodgeball compared to a handful of tennis players that, chances are, won’t even use the courts at 9pm.  Even if they would, what’s to stop other tennis players from getting their before these particular advocates do and forcing them to wait or play at another time?

As one dodgeball regular suggested in a comment somewhere (how do you like that citation English degree?), if dodgeball is kicked off Cal Anderson, they’re going to just play somewhere else and displace some other group of tennis players, so why not do the least harm and give the majority what it wants – exactly what it already has: community.

As Chris Van Vechten’s article so candidly presented, it’s time for a change in Washington State and we need to start with our name. Washington State is the most uncreative State name in the country and by changing it to something far more interesting and representative we’d be the first State in history to do so.

Vote for the name which you believe suits Washington best and we will then draft a proposal to the state legislature asking our elected leadership to adopt legislation to formally change the name of our state.  In 2010, The Melon will endorse only those candidates who agree to change the name from Washington to our newly endorsed alternative.

It may be political suicide for me to say this, but when I forget to take my adderall I lose all fear of such things.  I’ve been saying it for years, as a name “Washington” is the least creative nom de guerre awarded to any state in our union.

Aside from the obvious fact that our state shares its name with the nation’s capitol (consequently leading to unnecessary confusion across the heartland) our state lacks any of the indigenous flavor that peppers our neighbors.  States christened in native tongues include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North/South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Other states were named by explorers who found something unique about the land, it’s climate, or people.  These include: Colorado (from the spanish, “ruddy” or “red”), Florida (from the spanish Pascua Florida, meaning “feast of flowers” (Easter)), Maine (used to distinguish the mainland from the offshore islands), Montana (from the spanish word meaning “mountain.”), Nevada (spanish for “Snow-Capped”), Vermont (after the french “vert mont,” meaning “green mountain”)

A few were named after similar places.  These include: New Hampshire (From the English county of Hampshire) New Jersey (from the English island of Jersey), New Mexico (you guessed it) and New York (after the English city of York), Rhode Island (after the Greek island of Rhodes)

Finally, there are states whose names were derived from the imaginations of Europe’s most popular writers, like California and Indiana; and states with names whose origins remain a complete mystery to linguists and historians alike.  These include: Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and Oregon.

True, a few states were named to honor certain individuals – but that was usually accomplished by adding an “a” at the end of the name:  Georiga (after England’s king Georgia II), Louisiana (in honor of Louis XIV of France), Maryland (in honor of Henrietta Maria (queen of Charles I of England), North/South Carolina (in honor of Charles I of England), Pennsylvania (in honor of Adm. Sir William Penn), Virginia/West Virginia (after Queen Elizabeth).

Washington remains the only state named after a president and that president is usually ranked second to Lincoln in the public’s esteem.

So I vote we change our name to something more appropriate and fitting of this great land we call home.  I have a list of suggestions and will be accepting more as the days and weeks go by before asking you – The Melon’s loyal readership – to vote on which name you like best.  We will then draft a proposal to the state legislature asking our elected leadership to adopt legislation to formally change the name of our state (a first in United States history).  In 2010, The Melon will endorse only those candidates who agree to change the name from Washington to our newly endorsed alternative. (We would have settled for a pledge to introduce a flat income tax but that seems unrealistic.)  The following is my brief list of alternatives.

1)  North Oregon

2)  West Idaho

3)  New Canada

4)  American Columbia

5)  Cascadia

6)  Salmonia

7)  Seatacolycane (Seattle -Tacoma -Olympia-Spokane)

8)  Clevelend’s Folly

9)  Middle Earth

10)  Altruria

11)  Ecotopia

12)  Camelot

13)  Wankalupa

14)  Aquaterra (water land)

15)  Verdeterra (green land)

16)  Washingtonia

17)  Skoocoom (lummi for “supernatural”)

18)  Sasquatch

19)  Holistic

You may vote for any of these or suggest your own. The top 10 will be funneled into a poll until we reach the final name.

Pecha Kucha Night, devised and shared by Klein Dytham architecture, was conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.

Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show.

Adam the Alien treats the world with a glimpse of the secret Cartoonists League of Absurd Washingtonians End of Year Ceremony.

We just received a nice little press release from Melonite Emily Knudson. It’s about an exciting new TV show that’s supposed to be doing big things for sustainability and community. If they can make TV a positive force, maybe this is worth a read. Here’s the release:

Seattle’s little TV show that could – Mission: Sustainable – is gaining momentum on its climb to the top by taking an unconventional and simple path to success.

Seattle, WA – January 4, 2010 – There’s a unique story developing in Seattle for television producer Rose Thornton, and it revolves around the simple concept of “ask and ye shall receive.” Against all odds – as well as Hollywood’s blueprint for how-to-make-a-television-show – Thornton and her company, ReGeneration Productions, are nearly finished producing the pilot episode for the green-themed makeover show Mission: Sustainable.

This man-bites-dog story is compelling because Thornton bypassed the traditional approach of selling a TV show to the networks. She wasn’t interested in optioning the concept or parading through the networks with a treatment to pitch the show. Instead, she opted to produce the pilot episode on her own – with little production experience and no money – simply by telling people she needed their help.

Silly idea? Not to Thornton, who has applied this mantra since May of 2009 and has a long list of successes already under her belt, including finding a director, holding auditions, casting a team of eight local sustainability experts, locating a crew and necessary equipment, shooting and editing the pilot episode, and creating the “Green Carpet Event of the Season” in the form of the show’s premiere at Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion on February 11, 2010. In addition to the Seattle premier, the Mission: Sustainable team was also invited January 22-24 to broadcast the pilot during Eugene, Oregon’s 5^th annual Good Earth Home, Garden & Living Show – the nation’s first sustainable home show, attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually.

“From the very beginning, all I had going for me was an idea I was extremely passionate about,” says Thornton, a 23-year-old graduate from the University of Washington’s Community, Environment and Planning program. “All I’ve done is share my idea with people who care about the environment and sustainable living, and it wasn’t long before people were contacting me out of the blue offering their support. It has been a phenomenal seven months.”

Mission: Sustainable has been fueled by the energy of more than 50 volunteers – not a single person involved in the production is being compensated – and the donation of products and services from more than a dozen organizations, including the Seattle Center, In Harmony Sustainable Landscapes, Mode Organic Salon, PCC Natural Markets, Full Circle Farms, Mutual Fish Co., Vesta Home Performance, Absolute Digital Media and Pure Audio. More than $20,000 has been donated since the project began in earnest last September.

“I’m proud to say that I live in a community that gets the importance of sustainable living,” says Thornton, who estimates the total out-of-pocket expense for the show to be less than $900. “Whenever we’ve asked for help, Seattleites have stepped up and delivered with pride and enthusiasm. They want this show to make it and are doing whatever they can to help us. I’m humbled and forever grateful.”

Thornton and company are facing their greatest financial obstacle since the project began with a $5,000 funding gap to secure payment for required union workers for the premier event at Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion.

“We think it’s extremely important to have the premier at a green location, and Fisher Pavilion fits the bill,” says Thornton, who is working closely with her marketing team to invite local politicians, dignitaries and celebrities to attend the big event, which is expected to draw more than 1,000. “We reviewed several less expensive venues, but all along we’ve felt this was the venue for us. Now, we simply need to ask all the green-friendly businesses to help us make this dream a reality.”

Thornton and company are reaching out to more than 100 Seattle-based companies to support their efforts in the form of donations. In return, the sponsoring companies will have reserved seating at the event, logos included in all advertising efforts and the opportunity to have a booth at the event. In addition, anyone in the community can donate to help the cause by visiting the Mission: Sustainable website at www.mission-sustainable.com and selecting the “Donate” tab.

Anyone interested in supporting the Mission: Sustainable production process is invited to contact Thornton at rose@mission-sustainable.com. “This is a show about Seattle initially, yet it’s for the benefit of the entire planet,” says Thornton. “We’ll talk to anyone and everyone who wants to help us get the show on TV as soon as possible.”

Media Contact: Rose Thornton, 206-335-5370, rose @mission-sustainable.com

About Mission: Sustainable: Think Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and What Not to Wear for green lifestyles. Each show will feature a new individual nominated by friends and family for a sustainability makeover. Depending on the nominee’s lifestyle, three green consultants will be chosen to perform a makeover customized to the individual’s needs, desires, and walk of life.

About ReGeneration Productions: Founded by Rose Thornton, ReGeneration Productions creates community-based green media in the Seattle area with a mission to communicate the ideals and practice of urban sustainability. Visit www.regenerationproductionsllc.com for more information.

Word from the News Tribune is that two officers have been shot somewhere in Pierce County around 9pm. A suspect is reported shot and potentially decease and the officers are in critical condition. Officers are still reporting to the scene which started as a domestic violence call.

More info as it becomes available.

The Melon has just received word that the 2010 World Tulip Summit will be taking place in our very own Washington State. We’d heard rumors of the splendor that is the Skagit Valley Tulips but now they’re officially world renown.

The 2010 World Tulip Summit will take place April13-15 up in Skagit Valley, which is about 2 hours North of Tacoma and 1 hour North of Seattle.

What is the World Tulip Summit exactly? Apparently is an event where tulip experts, festival organizers, enthusiasts, aficionados and tulip-crazy individuals convene to talk shop, celebrate the beauty of the flower and promote the symbols of tulips – friendship and spring.

Find out more about this gorgeous festival at http://www.2010worldtulipsummit.com/.

Having starved my body enough of its vital nutrients, I cracked the other day when handed a free sample of a basic staple of life: Starbucks new instant VIA coffee, named after the man who invented their own brand: Don Valencia.  This new VIA coffee has been in development for 20 years, and was finally released this year, two years after Don Valencia’s death.

Consumer ethics is hard to follow these days with so many super mega store options.  The aisles are full of canned crap, where consumers are becoming more distant from their food sources, many of which are made under slave-like conditions or are practically stolen from the host country, never paying a fair wage for a top product.  After attending Seattle’s Green Festival last weekend, I decided to never again buy chocolate that is not Fair Trade certified after watching a film of Guyana boys being beaten and forced to work without wage to support us.  The ending line that blazed in my brain was of an African boy stating, “You eat my flesh.”

Starbucks is Fair Trade certified.  Has been for years.  They are kind of a pioneer in that field.  Currently, they are one of the largest buyers of Fair Trade coffee, doubling their purchases to 40 million pounds this year alone, making them the largest purchaser of Fair Trade certified coffee in the world.  Social responsibility earns lots of points in my book.

So does buying local and from local businesses.  Which leaves me in another quandary.  Go Local Tacoma says that for every buck spent in Tacoma, approximately .68 cents stay in the community.  Is Starbucks considered local to Washington?  Just because they are a huge corporate organization dedicated to bring in the honey money for their stock holders by selling sub-par coffee (for the most part) doesn’t just fully write them out of the “local” scene.  The fight exits within our ranks of what, exactly, “local” means.  Washington?  The Pacific Northwest?  West coast?  United States?  North America?  For myself, I stick with Northwest products as much as possible.  Since Starbucks is based in Washington, my conscience can buy their coffee and feel good about supporting “my” local area.

The next question arises, is Starbucks fighting back against McDonald’s witty coffee campaign?  I think I laughed myself silly on the way to work last fall while listening to a McDonald’s radio ad, where a emotional hippy upstart was changed into a conservative business Republican after having McDonald’s latte.  The political fight of Republicans accusing liberals of being elitist is carried out in McDonald’s campaign strategy.  Huffington Post reports that Starbucks is repositioning away from their elitist $4 coffee drinks and in its place offer things like: value meal “breakfast pairings” at a cost of $3.95 to “appeal to cost-conscious customers.”  Starbucks, after all, made it cool to pay a high price for a cuppa Joe, bringing in scarf-wearing women and the metrosexual men to “hang out” in the posh Starbucky setting.

Another cost-cutting four-buck buster is the new Starbucks VIA, released this past February.  When I opened the tiny packet and watched the finely grounded beans dissolve in a cup of hot water, I was positioned over the sink, expecting to spew it out and decry the decay of coffee in America.  When young bucks and hussies are reduced to dissolving coffee beans in their water, it is just not a good sign for America’s values–what are we coming to?  Instant breakfasts, dissolved in a glass of Oprah’s Acai juice?  Instant friendships that can be consumed with a beer?  Instead of spewing, I drank.  To the dregs.  This coffee was impresive, despite being instant (my inner elitist comes out in regards to “instant” coffee).  Starbucks VIA contains the original essential oils from the finely-ground coffee beans, which seems to be the secret ingredient–traditional instant coffee lacks those essential oils which gives good coffee its rich and full-bodied flavor and aroma.

Despite the impressive taste, Starbucks VIA instant coffee is better at what, I ask?  Beating back home invaders?  Overcoming entropy?  Providing a clean, renewable source of energy?  Perhaps solving the meaning of life?  VIA gains ground on the fact that it allows me to fuel up any time, any where, and will allow yet more minerals to be leeched from my system as I become more dependent on coffee; and for a cheaper price, too.

Cheap and instant.  The way Americans like their women and now, their coffee.

image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/cafemama/

The Seattle Pi published a priceless piece about our own local flare, Deborah Laurence: artist, feminist, populist, and daredevil for accepting the invitation from Rep. McDermott’s office (7th District) to decorate a Christmas ornament for hanging on the White House’s politically correct “Holiday” Tree.

When the Washington Post asked Deborah why she would do this, she responded, “”I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity,” said Lawrence, 55, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work and saw this as the perfect way “to highlight Jim McDermott because he’s a hero of mine.”

“Apparently, they didn’t read it — or Laura Bush is more progressive than I believed,” Lawrence told the Post.

Lawrence wrote, “Laura Bush’s summons [to decorate an ornament] might be a dubious aesthetic distinction, but when you’re a cultural worker with a populist ax to grind, you must hold your nose and do your job. So you say yes.”

The ornament embedded the red, white, and blue flag stripes with left-wing words and ideas, including the 1919 Seattle General Strike, McDermott’s face, a peace dove, and an anti-World Trade Organization emblem among other things.  As Laurence said, “The tiny type is applied in a circuitous pattern to challenge any ardent official of the White House Christmas Ornament-Scrutinizing Task Force.”