The following two movies will be playing this week at OFS:

The Incredible Hulk (August 23-Sept. 4):

From OFS: "Yes, the Incredible Hulk is back yet again in this action packed comic book adventure, which joins our beleaguered hero, Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) in his fight to control his unique ‘anger problem’. This time evil government officials are after him in order to make The Hulk into the ultimate, defensive secret weapon. Let the ubiquitous chases and crazy action scenes ensue!"

Man on a Wire (August 29- Sept. 4):

From OFS: "Philippe Petit is a man beguiled by heights who has a single goal in mind: to walk a tightrope between the two towers of The World Trade Center in 1974. In this intriguing documentary, we follow him on his unique quest, which unfolds like the most suspenseful of heist capers with a good-hearted eccentric at its heart."

Find the OFS Calendar here.

[okay! I just tried to post a comment but was denied again. both accounts, 'Bert' and 'Robert Whitlock' are affected.]

bert

Dear Friends,

Last chance!! Come and detox with us! We have four spots left for our yoga and detox retreat and would love you to join. We will be losing money to put this retreat on, so If you can help us break even, we would be honored. We will accept $150 to as much as you want to give. This is an amazing opportunity and we wont be offering it again. There will be three amazing yoga instructors, a Natropath to teach you all about detoxing and how to detox at home, soaking tubs, and more.

www.yogadetoxretreat.com or call Vanessa
360-259-5266

My bicycle was stolen right out of my shed on the weekend of August 23rd. I live on the west side near Decatur and 9th. It is a Trek 4500, blue and white mountain bike with commuter tires, a left pannier, headlight, taillight, front fender, and rack (see attached picture). I am looking for any information that will help me find my bike and I am offering a reward for the person who helps me get it back! Please call me at 259-3966. I also want to warn people to be safe because these people came through my fence, onto my property, and into my shed, which is very scary and does not make me feel safe.

TJ, via email:

Earlier today the Olympia City Council General Government Committee (Jeff Kingsbury, Rhenda Strub, Craig Ottavelli) voted unanimously to repeal the city’s Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance.  The recommendation to repeal will come before the Olympia City Council at 7pm September 9th.

The vote came after city staff told the committee that out of all of the correspondence the city has received on the issue since January 1, 2004 through today, 216 people favored the ordinance, 38 opposed it, and 28 had no opinion.  In other words despite the fact that 76% of the people who weighed in on the issue favored the ordinance, the committee voted to repeal it.

City staff also reported that they had done research to determine whether the contracting provisions of the ordinance were a burden for city staff, and whether any potential contractors had refused to sign contracts because of the nuclear free provision.  They found that the contract language was NOT a burden on city staff, and that only one potential contractor (a local carpenter) had refused to sign and decided he did not want to work for the city.  In other words, the ordinance has no significant administrative burden, yet the committee voted to repeal it.

12 mini-reviews for the short attention span, taken from dark corners of stevenl's video vault:

Incident on a Dark Street / directed by Buzz Kulik (1972, DVD). James Olson, David Canary, Robert Pine, Richard S. Castellano, William Shatner, Gilbert Roland, David Doyle, Kathleen Lloyd. "Ex-seminarians and ex-liberals, they make the best prosecutors." This film was originally produced as a TV pilot for a series that was supposed to be called The Prosecutors, following the exploits of lawyers from the U.S. Dept. of Justice. But the timing was bad. 1972 was the year of the Watergate break-in, which started a series of actions including the arrest and conviction of former USAG and Nixon henchman John Mitchell. I bought this copy for a buck at an Elma grocery store, basically looking forward to enjoying a bad period piece and Shatner's histronics. I was surprised. Yes, it is dated, but considering what else was on the TV screens in the early 1970s, this really wasn't so bad. You could see the influence of the then-new box office hit, The Godfather. The Mob boss here was played by Golden Age of Hollywood figure Gilbert Roland. Shatner portrays a slimey contractor, and was subtle enough to rob me of the joy of the overacting I was expecting. However, his wardrobe made up for that. This has the slight feeling of those 1950s gritty realistic urban movies.

The Last Vampyre (The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes) / directed by Tim Sullivan (1993, DVD). Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke, Roy Marsden, Freddie Jones. Set in the fear-based social politics of a small English village, this episode has Conan-Doyle poking fun at Bram Stoker. There is a long set-up showing us the dynamics of a dysfunctional family in a nearby manor. The acting is stilted enough to make me relieved when Holmes and Watson finally make their appearance. Holmes, who flatly states "Vampires don't exist," sets out to catch one. Or better yet, debunk one. By the time the story is over it is difficult to tell which one is more unearthly, Holmes or the alleged vampire. Jeremy Brett was in bad shape here, in this later part of the series. He had lost his lean and hungry look, his speech was slurred, many lines were swallowed. The director chose to use a harsher light than usual, which only magnified Brett's condition. It is in this story Holmes makes reference to the Giant Rat of Sumatra, "The story of which the world is not yet prepared." I think there is a law in Britain that Freddie Jones has to appear in almost everything. Although the subject matter was unusual and the director used some elegant visual tricks, this is not one of the better shows in the series. The use of Peruvian pipes in the soundtrack gets annoying.

Zatôichi kenka-tabi = On the Road / directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda (1963, DVD). Shintarô Katsu, Shiho Fujimura. It's the Old West in Japan. Dusty streets, roving gangs of outlaws, the Bad Girl who turns out to have the Heart of Gold. And the Lone Man with the Reputation who makes his solitary way to the horizon line at the conclusion. These Zaotoichi films should appeal to anyone who enjoys American Westerns, as they have many of the same qualities. "There is no one," says the Blind Swordsman, "worse than a samurai." And surrounded by wickedness Zatoichi proceeds to clean house. In addition to being an expert with the sword, Zatoichi is a gambler and likes to drink, and realizes the fair maiden he is saving and falling for can never have a life with him, for he is a rambling guy and a marked man. Wonderful camera shots, tight story and beautiful little details, one of the better entries in this parade of films featuring the amazing Shintarô Katsu. Moral of the story: Don't mess with Zatoichi.

Gardens can bring so much victory. Personal victory in the sense of accomplishment and pride one gets from building, planting and harvesting from a garden, not to mention eating from your garden.  Gardens also give you victory from dependence on external food sources.  A tomato from your back yard is way better than a tomato from the grocery store, I promise you that.  Along with that independence comes a cascade of other victorys, victory from the energy it takes to get food to you, victory from the chemicals it takes to grow most conventional food, victory from the resources growing commercial, conventional food takes.  It's quite liberating!!  

In that vein, here's the first and second harvests from our garden.  They are smaller than normal, since i spent the majority of the spring big as a house with our son in me, and the summer has been spent caring for our new baby.  But somehow, we managed to eek out some pretty darn good organic food. In fact, missing from these pictures is a HUGE carrot harvest that I processed into baby food and froze for the little man when he's finally ready.  

First Harvest:

Second Harvest:

So, people.....share your garden victory!  I think we would all be better people to hear it!! :) 

Hola All,

I'm looking for tips on local (South Sound) resources for the "design & prototyping" of a hand cart I want to manufacture and sell.

...any thoughts?