2011 will be a difficult year. in 2012 the mayan calendar expires and, theoretically, so does the world. if you're the sort that invests any more than a passing thought in this notion, 2011 could perhaps be rather nerve wracking. you could spend the year taking adventures you never had the chance to. you could spend the year looting. you could spend the year learning a skill. you could spend the year a nervous wreck, locked inside your room with only a full bedpan as company.
or you could spend the year following the cutthroat new MLS rivalry here in Cascadia. in 2011 both vancouver and portland get their football clubs and join seattle's sounders in major league play. with major teams stretching from british columbia to southern california, the west coast will be brimming with talent and passionate competition.
this is my biggest problem with 2011. because i'm not invested in the apocalypse of 2012 i am burdened with having to support the sounders fc while the portland timbers, essentially my home team, go MLS. first and foremost i am a sounders fan but i am also very attached to portland. the most difficult part of this situation, however, is that only now am i picking sides in a rivalry that extends back to the mid-1970s when NASL was the only semi-major league in the US. the timbers and sounders have been swinging at one another for years and now it is all coming to a head.
however i watched the sounders go major, bought a scarf and will never look back. season tickets next summer.
-e
pics n' things!
Showing posts with label portland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portland. Show all posts
7.02.2009
6.15.2009
undergrounds
it seems that a city is only a City® when it has a fully functioning below-surface transportation system. london has the tube. paris and tokyo have their metros. new york has the subway. there are few exceptions that immediately spring to mind save the L in chicago and perhaps the rickshaw/pedicab system in shanghai. here are massive urban centres that function as cultural, political and societal hubs of their surrounding regions. they are the largest metropolitan areas that embody all of the traits of their country or state and they represent this polity to the outside world - these are the figurehead cities, the shining examples of an area.
some of my favourite cities want to be Cities® but don't know how to be. portland has been battling Light Rail implementation for as long as i can remember. the MAX is available downtown and, to some extent, in some major attractions outside of the city centre. seattle will never get a monorail capable of anything practical because, apparently, everybody there has seen that episode of the simpsons. the latter city, however, does have a leg up on the former.
of the two major metropolitan centres of the northwest, seattle appears to be pursuing Cityship® with the growing usage of a widely unknown tube system. the system is not terribly expansive. yet. it is not terribly easy to use. yet. it is not terribly easy to find. yet. however the tracks are growing and the buses that use the tunnels travel at reliable intervals. i am reading an article in the Seattle Times, "A light-rail wonder", and it shows new tracks being laid as another passenger platform for a stop in Beacon Hill is completed.
seattle, with its so-far-successful incarnation of "the world's game" via the Sounders FC, wishes to become a City®. they are getting closer with the installation of a reliable, practical, culturally, politically, and socially friendly transportation network. the seattle underground is a secret weapon. my own experience with it is limited but it was the tool that enabled me to get from north seattle, near fremont, to the airport in just less than 30 minutes (with a change, btw) with a ski bag. there will undoubtedly be teething problems but, i guarantee you they won't be as severe as Springfield's monorail.
-e pics n' things!
some of my favourite cities want to be Cities® but don't know how to be. portland has been battling Light Rail implementation for as long as i can remember. the MAX is available downtown and, to some extent, in some major attractions outside of the city centre. seattle will never get a monorail capable of anything practical because, apparently, everybody there has seen that episode of the simpsons. the latter city, however, does have a leg up on the former.
of the two major metropolitan centres of the northwest, seattle appears to be pursuing Cityship® with the growing usage of a widely unknown tube system. the system is not terribly expansive. yet. it is not terribly easy to use. yet. it is not terribly easy to find. yet. however the tracks are growing and the buses that use the tunnels travel at reliable intervals. i am reading an article in the Seattle Times, "A light-rail wonder", and it shows new tracks being laid as another passenger platform for a stop in Beacon Hill is completed.
seattle, with its so-far-successful incarnation of "the world's game" via the Sounders FC, wishes to become a City®. they are getting closer with the installation of a reliable, practical, culturally, politically, and socially friendly transportation network. the seattle underground is a secret weapon. my own experience with it is limited but it was the tool that enabled me to get from north seattle, near fremont, to the airport in just less than 30 minutes (with a change, btw) with a ski bag. there will undoubtedly be teething problems but, i guarantee you they won't be as severe as Springfield's monorail.
-e pics n' things!
2.17.2009
big sky, (un)employment and cupcakes
tomorrow night i'll head down to seattle. spencer and i will fill ourselves and souls with dank sushi and warm sake before catching a noon flight on the 19th to big sky, montana. here we will meet up with estranged professional long-distance best friend ben. good enough to let us crowd the floor of his apartment, byron will supply the means for not sleeping in the snow. five days. skis, friends, snow. i really need to get my planks waxed, though, as it has been at least two years.
angela and i are kicking around the idea of a move to seattle/portland/hood river. i'm comforted because even if things go completely pear shaped we will still manage to stay in the pacific northwest, not far from the I-5 and I-84 corridors. it remains worrying, however. these are some sort of scary times but it certainly helps to have somebody to go through them with. everyday i think about how glad i am to be home: despite the current climate i have somebody to get through them with. there have been some pretty startling work-related developments over the past five days and ang and i just spent a weekend back home in (surprisingly) snowy trout lake discussing how to handle it all.
the only solution we were able to reasonably conclude on was "meet up with jill and her friend molly for cupcakes at cupcake jones in portland". here are two pictures of the cutest solution in the world:
cupcake, out of control
molly, jill, ang and cupcakes of varying species
the sun was even out! evidenced by my shadow:
-e pics n' things!
angela and i are kicking around the idea of a move to seattle/portland/hood river. i'm comforted because even if things go completely pear shaped we will still manage to stay in the pacific northwest, not far from the I-5 and I-84 corridors. it remains worrying, however. these are some sort of scary times but it certainly helps to have somebody to go through them with. everyday i think about how glad i am to be home: despite the current climate i have somebody to get through them with. there have been some pretty startling work-related developments over the past five days and ang and i just spent a weekend back home in (surprisingly) snowy trout lake discussing how to handle it all.
the only solution we were able to reasonably conclude on was "meet up with jill and her friend molly for cupcakes at cupcake jones in portland". here are two pictures of the cutest solution in the world:
cupcake, out of control
molly, jill, ang and cupcakes of varying species
the sun was even out! evidenced by my shadow:
-e pics n' things!
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