I was mere moments from catching these two "red handed", so to speak. One of these days I'll find these vandals, and when I do...

Almost every week this is the "What's on the city council's plate this week" review. I don't cover everything, so if you want the full rundown, read the packet and agenda yourself.

Usually, its the staff reports that hold the really fun stuff, but this week its the minutes that are really exciting. This week, we read about (from General Government committee meeting back in August) about a survey to see if folks want a new library, possibly one on the west side:

Present from the Timberland Regional Library were:

Dick Nichols and Judy Weaver, Board members; Jody Reng, Executive Director; Michael Crose, Administrative Services Manager; Sally Nash, Public Services Manager; and Michael Wessells, Community Relations Manager.

Ms. Reng noted that Timberland hired an independent consultant to conduct the survey.

Alison Peters of Alison Peters Consulting reviewed results from the community survey conducted by the Library Board in July. She distributed a handout with methodology and survey results. She noted that the survey was a telephone poll conducted in mid-July for about a 5 day period. The sample size was 600 completed polls from all residents with a telephone. Cell phone numbers were included.

Results included:

The Tree

I'm Sick
Sick, Like I never have been sick before.
Wheezing and coughing
And I cant make it go away
It gets boring
I take a walk
All through the town
On this spring Morn
Downtown the streets full of volunteers
To clean the streets
Full of spring cheer
On this glorious spring morning
walk some more
Through empty residential streets
On a corner
Is a Tree
Beautiful Tree
The ground below
Carpeted in Cherry Blossom Splendor
The tree still filled with delicate cherry blossoms
I think of my wife
She showed me how to meet the spirits in trees
Especially blossoms
I enter into its Beauty
Like walking into a waterfall
And receive its soft succulent, gentle, blessing
and breathe with grateful celebration
To receive such a gift
I heal there as I stand awhile
Leave some tobacco
and prayers from my heart
I see a Bronze plaque there on the ground
Johnathan Licene lived here
For thirty five years
He provided for his family
As he provided for this tree
Strong roots and lots of freedom for growth
And I looked there at the old tree
And I received the blessing of that man
And gave thanks
Walking on I see a sign
Association of Washington State School Principals
The back yard is huge and sunken
Amidst the broken concrete
A Deer made out of logs and boards
Those lucky students I thought
And walked on

Chris Mulick on his Olympia Dispatch has the story: Gregoires to dress up as penguins. Brilliant!

Plus this is a great opportunity for Halloween treats:

The Executive Mansion will be open to trick-or-treaters from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Halloween. Patrons will receive chocolate bars.

The 12th Annual Olympia Spiral Dance

Saturday Nov 3rd, 2007

THE GATHERING

Community, Ancestors, Beloved Dead, Mighty Dead

Samhain is known as the time of year when the veil is thin between the worlds of the living and the dead. We gather to remember and honor our ancestors; to mourn what is lost in our lives and on the earth and to celebrate our communities and the spark of new life.

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
The Eagles Ballroom at 805 4th Ave E.

Doors open at 6:00 pm
Doors close at 7:00 pm

Please plan to arrive on time and stay until the ritual ends (around 9:00).

$10-$20 Donation requested, but no one turned away for lack of funds. Donations help make the spiral happen next year, but you help us make the spiral happen this year!

You are welcome to bring finger foods to share after the ritual, please bring your own place setting and cup.

Children who are not disruptive are welcome to attend. If your child might prevent you or others from fully participating, please make child care arrangements.

Please bring a food bank donation.

For more information, go to: olypagans.org. Or, send an e-mail.

Come take part in the potluck and help plan future activities and meetings!

Orange House
1325 Tullis St NE
Sat., October 27th
5:30 PM

Contact olympiaar@gmail.com for more information.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: On Saturday, 20 October 2007, from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm at 4001 9th Ave NE in Seattle, WA (98105), Michael Gaiuranos will be conducting ARTICIPATORY MUSIC: a FREE two-and-a-half hour seminar first developed at the School for Designing a Society (http://www.designingasociety.org/), and recently presented at the A World Beyond Capitalism Conference Olympia (http://www.aworldbeyondcapitalism.org/awbc.html). Beginning with a staged reading of “How Do We Live?” this 10-minute play becomes the prompt and response point first for the participants’ discussion and own creative response, and then for creating a mode of consensus with other participants to create a collaborative, collectively composed piece. Idea include the deprivileging of art, performance in everyday life, strategies for making oneself be heard, even under situations of limited time or resources, and guerilla activism. Besides being fun and low-stress, ARTICIPATORY MUSIC represents a genuinely revolutionary moment in art, and theater in particular—by bringing to life an artistic vision, socially and collaboratively created, that a mere hour before didn’t even exist as a notion in society. In effect, this provides a chance to evoke utopia here and now, to make it visible and real, and not merely some dream for tomorrow. Michael Gaiuranos is an award-winning writer with a Masters in Writing and Literature from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, OH. An author of 7 novels and over 30 works for the stage, his play “Blanks” was recently selected as part of the UPS / NPA Joint Festival of New Pacific Northwest Works scheduled for February/March 2008 (http://www.bryanwillis.info/). Since 2004, he has collaborated variously with members of the School for Designing a Society based in Urbana, Illinois, and has twice traveled to Patch Adams’ Gesundheit!