Launch Day for www.DebraAustinBooks.com! … featuring watercolor illustrations by Tacoma artist Chandler O’Leary.
Mary and I just launched a site for Debra Austin, an author whose first book will be published in the fall by Simon and Schuster. The book is set 500,000 years ago, with a tribe of homo erectus, our early ancestors. How best to make readers connect with its central character Snap, when she is so distant from us? Working with the author, we thought the best way to go was to illustrate the site with scenes from Snap's life, working to show her humanity. We looked around for a Tacoma artist who could help us with this, and decided Read more…
T-town throwdown amazing bike jump. Holy cow, @elizastan, that’s awesome!
[flickr video=3742770823 show_info=true secret=0eacb0b9dc w=500 h=375] Awesome series of photos, Liz!
Callaghan on last week’s Port Commission forum
The lack of substance could be blamed on incumbents who don’t want to talk about specifics and challengers who don’t have the ability or willingness to rock the boat. But it also could be due to a tedious and rule-bound format by the Tacoma City Club and its partners in the League of Women Voters. The format favors generalized responses as long as they don’t exceed the time limit. The City Club is one of the few organizations considered neutral ground that can command attendance by candidates. But if the club doesn’t loosen up, it will abdicate that role. Let Read more…
“I’m on a boat! Everybody look at me cause I’m sailing on a boat!” (pic of view from boat)
Great day for a short sail on Commencement Bay! Wish I had a boat …
Bottle Rocket: Early Wes Anderson
I enjoyed watching Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson's first film. It has much of the elements of his work: deadpan tone, and a focus on family–even though Luke and Owen Wilson don't play brothers, it's pretty hard to forget that they are. Bottle Rocket is also a good reminder of why Owen Wilson is so much fun to watch on screen. I think that one of the reasons the movie succeeds is that Anderson allows his characters to break the deadpan-ness that characterizes his later films. Both The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited suffered from too much distance, I felt. Read more…
Woodward’s Plan of Attack
I just finished Bob Woodward's in-depth chronology of the lead-up to the Iraq War, Plan of Attack. The book starts in 2001, shortly after a meeting on Afghanistan when Bush asks Rumsfeld to start looking at the current Iraq war plan, and ends on the first day of the war in March of 2003. It's based on documents, confidential sources, and interviews Woodward with Bush and Rumsfeld. Chronology really is the right word for it, too, as it's pretty matter-of-fact, with little embellishment. According to Wikipedia, in 2004 when the book came out, the Kerry campaign recommended the book as Read more…
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