On Saturday I figured I’d break in my bus pass* and head to Kent Cornucopia Days, which is a local street fair/carnival/etc with a decent-size parade AND dragon boat races on Lake Meridian. Before I left, I decided to check the bus schedule to see how late I could be out if I decided I wanted to get schnockered in the beer garden. As it turns out, the last bus runs at 7pm. 7. I couldn’t believe it. On weekdays, it’s the same. There are some awful days at work where I could conceivably miss the last bus home, the only bus that runs to my area. It makes it really hard to embrace public transit with a 7pm curfew–what am I, eight years old?
It’s only a four mile walk to Kent station, but considerably longer to Lake Meridian, so I decided to pass on the boat races. The street fair was pretty typical, nothing all that special. The food vendors were the exact same ones from Bellevue’s 4th of July, and I was hot, hungry, and a little crabby, but still could not bring myself to support the inappropriately named ‘Margarita Village’ and its deceitful non-alcoholic beverages. I actually lucked out, as I wandered past a brand-spanking new martini bar called ‘Shindig’ and immediately fell in love. Downtown Kent is tying very hard to revitalize and with the addition of Kent Station, more upscale independent businesses like Shindig, and potentially even the new Thunderbirds arena, it looks like things are falling into place. At the very least, I’ll proclaim their revitalizing efforts more successful than Kenosha’s, which added a trolley to nowhere and that’s about it.
A little buzzed, I decided to walk and check out the midway. It was more than a little disconcerting to have a battallion of police officers checking bags, patting people down, and demanding that youths pull up their pants–this last one in particular is a movement I could get behind (pardon the pun) if not for my steadfast belief that people should be able to wear their clothes in whatever manner they’d like, regardless of how stupid I might think it looks. Also, I’m not quite certain when our police force became preoccupied with the waistlines of pants, but I’m pretty sure their time could be better spent.
My life is one of contradictions–I love carnivals, but I hate clowns. I love sideshow art, but I hate degrading people**. I love fly-by-night thrill rides, but I hate dying in fiery explosions*** and betting my life on the scientific weight-calculations of the drunk.
Speaking of carnival art:
I love that they painted in ‘KAZAM’. I expect Batman to show up shortly with a ‘POW’ and a ‘WHAM’ and a ‘BAM’ and a ‘THANK YOU MA’AM’.
I feel like they went above and beyond with the art on this one. Look at the drinky chicken!
This was painted on the side of the ‘Ghost Pirate’ ride–I, for one, appreciate the extra effort it took for them to paint in the blood from the hearty face-kicking that the pirate delivered.
Then, as it was getting darker and I’d neglected to bring a flashlight, I started the long walk home. Talk about anticlimactic! Goddamned bus system. (There, it’s full circle!)
*I have since realized that showing my card to bus drivers on buses without swiper mechanisms makes me feel stupid. Like, really stupid. Like the world’s lamest FBI agent, trying to commandeer a bus. **Well, based off of physical conditions that are beyond their control. Other people, I have no problem degrading, and maybe even enjoy it. A lot. ***Ok, to be fair, I only think I would hate this. As an atheist, it’s in my best interests to live as long as possible, because if there’s no god, I lose. And if there is a god, I *so* lose. So fiery explosions = bad.
Pornucopia Days? I’d go to that.
I don’t recall the name of the Zen master who originally said this, but there are two kinds of people–those who hate clowns, and clowns.
Pornucopia Days sounds *way* more interesting.
Man, I love cheesy carnival art… I just don’t like cheesy carnivals. *shudder*
Are you afraid that a carny is going to steal your soul?
Well, they’re generally pretty soulless, so that’s always a possibility. But I’m referring more to the inherently unwholesome ambiance of the whole affair…
I didn’t realize you were so wholesome. 😉
Oh, I’m an absolute ANGEL.
…I just don’t like competition.
I commandeer more buses before 9am than most people do all week.
How many transfers do you make?!
Luckily I really don’t. I just loved the image: “Maam, I’m going to need to commandeer this bus.”
I’ve got fifteen minutes of bus time a day.
I sort of want to get on the bus, make a heroic pose, and dramatically shout “TO ___(bus final destination)___!!”
Yeah, I can’t wait to get on a bus Saturday morning and shout, “Tooooo Ta-co-ma!”
Or not.
A. Shindig sounds FAB! I’ll meet ya for drinkies any ol’ time!
B. It’s really, really complicated to get a full, working, efficient food vendor setup going and keep it going, ergo, there aren’t that many doing it. So they travel around to various events, and there just isn’t a lot of variety, alas. The goodest ones have self-contained trailers. I’m leery of most of them.
C. A vendor buddy from the Puyallup Sat. market had a booth at Corn Days (as my buddy Lesli from the Kent Parks Dept. calls it) and after a full day Friday of Thugsville, he packed up and bailed on the rest of the weekend. Can’t blame him.
D. You couldn’t pay me enough money to get on a Funtastic carnival ride. As the daughter of former carnies who worked for a GOOD carnival company (Davis Amusement Cascadia), I know curl-your-toes-in-terror shit about Funtastic and its employees. They are SCARY.
E. But their carnie art is AWESOME!
A. Hell yes.
B. I still want to try Skillet, but that’s about as far as I trust meals on wheels.
C. The whole thing seemed more thug-tacular than I thought Kent was–I’ve never really felt unsafe walking through Kent but I was a little nervous this weekend.
D. OH GOD PLEASE TELL ME I WANT TO KNOW ALL OF YOUR STORIES.
E. YES!
C. I’m a tough cookie, but even I get uneasy somtimes at the Kent Station transit center. I try to get into one of the shelters so I have my back to a wall, but that’s not always possible. Like when some asshole is smoking inside it. Fucker.
Jack said there were clumps of thuggish (mostly black, although their ethnicity doesn’t matter, it’s their behavior that was objectionable) just standing around, cussing and blocking the way of real festival-goers. He has a partically kid-oriented product, and he said NOBODY was letting their kids stay in the area, they were hustling right along, and that it was obvious the thugs were making everyone uneasy. Now, given the number of cops I saw down there on Friday afternoon, I have no idea why that was allowed to continue, but nobody asked for my opinion.
D. You’ll have to ask my parentals for stories; I don’t know many firsthand, as I’ve only been a substitute carnie for a weekend, over in Toppenish. Spent the whole weekend selling tickets and speaking Spanish. It was pretty boring, actually. I have been actively pursued in a romantic fashion by one carnie (of the alcoholic, mostly-toothless and already-married variety, natch), and been the target of a thwarted matchmaking attempt on the part of the company owners to fix me up with one of the part-timers (who actually has a really good job w/ the state, but I ain’t interested anyhow).
My Mum was the office manager, and Dad was the maintenance supervisor, so as management, they were a cut above the regular ride jocks and jointees (a game is called a “joint” and the person who runs is the “jointee”). My Mum started cussing a lot more than she ever had before during that time. She got to yell at people and tell them to bathe. That was a super fun part of the job. 😀
C. I’m mostly out and about there during bright sunshine which may account for why I haven’t felt threatened.
As far as thugs just loitering, there isn’t really a whole lot the police can do if they’re not breaking the law. It’s a public gathering, and they’re the public so I have no idea on what legal grounds they could be dispersed. It’s a shame that they were seemingly there for business other than the festival, but with the whole ‘it’s a free country’ thing comes both good and bad.
On my walk home, I saw something like 20 police arresting ONE guy. I wonder what he did to warrant that much attention!
D. Come on now! You said you knew things that would ‘curl my toes’ and now you won’t tell me? 😛
C. Talked w/ Jack today. He said there were multiple arrests right behind his booth even. And fights, and all sorts of other shit. I sure wouldn’t have stuck around with little kids.
D. Weeellll, this *is* an open LJ. I’m not going to libel anyone. 😉 I’ll share sometime in person.
Mere mention of Kent makes me angry, but this post in general makes me cranky on many levels. Kent cops haven’t changed a bit…still believing the hype about dropped pants. LAME. I was invited by family to hit up the deal but kent + public gatherings usually = gayer than andy dick in a pink spandex bodysuit and a feather boa singing show tunes. Bus curfews are nothing new either. This is partly why i moved out of that hellhole of a city. The offset is now I reside in an area where buses frequently run by and run early into the morning..yet it takes eons to get anywhere because of the density of traffic. DAMNIT. Lastly, fiery explosions are cool only when I’m lighting the fuse, not in the middle of them.
Seriously, what is up….with dropped pants? I just thought they were a way to show off your boxers/ass. But I am notoriously ignorant when it comes to many things.
The bus curfews are definitely making me reconsider where I’ll go when my lease is up–it’d be nice to not HAVE to drive but that’s not looking to be an option currently, and the one bus I could catch on pac highway that runs much later (a couple of miles away) is scary as hell at night.
You should’ve come to Boom City and blown shit up with us!
You evil tease…the title of your post drew me in. I, NFL-starved Steeler fan that I am in the Lenten days of July, was hoping for a Jerome Bettis retrospective, and all I get is ….clowns?!
Does *anyone* like clowns? In my world, my trust of clowns can best be expressed by a Venn diagram that looks like a donut: outer circle = serial killers; inner circle = clowns.
Speaking of NFL starvation…where’s your take on the Favre comeback craziness, el Packero aficionado? (I’ll get my NFL fix even if I have to cajole it from you!)
You did NOT just get clowns. You also got explosions and science and booze! It was ACTION-PACKED, I say!
Soooo…Brett Favre. I love the guy. Talented, but humble. The thought of him going out on an interception was pretty heartbreaking, so I was initially elated that he wanted to come back–as there was time on his contract left, it wasn’t unthinkable. I felt badly for Aaron Rodgers as he already has big shoes to fill and with the waffling on whether or not Brett would/will come back, it’s got to be making things extra tough for him. But asking for a release from his contract so he wouldn’t be traded, so he could potentially go play for another team? OH HELL NO. The idea of retiring #4 at Lambeau and then having the team suit up and play against Brett in a Viking or Bears jersey made me feel ill.
I think Thompson played it just right by NOT releasing Favre and telling him he could come back to play as Rodgers’ backup. It’s the best conceivable solution–we’ve got a good strong kid as a starter with a beloved vet in the wings helping him to rally the team. By the time Brett’s contract is up, there’s no way he could go to another team, which I selfishly think is the best end.
I can’t wait for the season to start, less than 4 weeks until the first preseason game!
ILY!
Just last night, Jim got in a preemptive strike, warning me against any of my boooring football talk. (I was talking about the Heinz ketchup bottle at the restaurant…not even Heinz field! — yet.)
Just wait until Jim’s next soliloquy on reverse-engineering fixes to software UIs. It’ll be smackdown time!
I love YOU!
I didn’t know Jim was back yet; I didn’t see any Twitter updates. “Plane got in” or “Landed on time” or even a more esoteric “here.”
I don’t think football talk is boring when friends are talking about it. I don’t give a crap about pre or post-game shows–“This game, it was all about who could move the football downfield faster.” “Oh, I agree, and I’d like to add that whoever scored the most points, won.” (NO SHIT) Also, I’d love to stuff about 8 sweatsocks into John Madden’s gaping maw. “I’m pretty sure, that everybody here in this stadium is ready to watch some FOOTBALL! Now where is my yellow pen?”
But I digress–I’d rather hear ALL of that than have someone talk me through how they fixed a software bug. Snoooooooooooore.
I suggest you learn how to sleep with your eyes open.
John Madden hates the Steelers. You start, and I’ll add a few sweatsocks.
Also, the sweatsocks should be DIRTY.
Let’s ask Jim for some! But don’t get him started on technology, or he won’t stop talkng long enough to look for any. (rilly, Jim, just teasing)
Around Jim, I’ve learned to do everything with my eyes open.
Well, if we’re going to get supplies from Jim, maybe we ought to stuff Madden’s mouth full of useless remote controls instead. 😉
…oh and, I totally agree with you on the Brett issue. Brett in anything other than green and gold? Whyyyyyy?!
With the inevitable sale of majority share of the Steelers to some schmuck outside the Rooney family, I too am feeling bummed by an absence of loyalty.
Loyalty to the home town and tradition, that’s what the Packers and Steelers are all about. I can’t bear to lose that.
I think a lot of hardcore Packer fans would be devastated to see Brett playing for another team. Especially because they are so, so loyal to their team, and have watched him grow from when he was just a little nervous guy on the field to the greatest quarterback in the history of the sport.
I know I’m totally biased, but I think Packer fans are the best fans in the world. They don’t flip other fans any shit when they’ve got home field advantage, they don’t riot, and they really do stick with their team through thick and thin. Given that, it would seem not in the spirit of the city to cut and play for someone else.
If I knew, I’d already have six. 🙁
I’d be interested in tasting THAT rainbow.
Melts in your mouth not in your hand…OOPS! Wrong candy!