Olympia Lake Fair 2006 July 24, 2006
Olympia, Washington’s Lake Fair 2006. Biggest fireworks display in 10 years. Leica point and shoot used. 4th of a second. 2.8. 400 ISO. Handheld with arm steadied between girlfriend’s knee and arm.
The Pharmacy June 17, 2006
The Pharmacy copyright justin vela
The Pharmacy played Olympia last night. They’re headed to the East Coast to tour in a couple of weeks. Check them out. www.myspace.com/pharmacy
Port of Olympia Protests Olympia Washington USA May 31 2006 June 1, 2006
Port of Olympia Protests Olympia Washington USA May 31 2006
Originally uploaded by justinvelaolympia.
Yesterday protesters staged a “die in” as the military ship docked at the Port of Olympia left for Iraq. The ship is transporting Stryker vehicles and other military equipment. Photos can be seen at ZUMAPRESS.COM
Port of Olympia Protests Olympia Washington USA 5/30/06 May 31, 2006
Port of Olympia Protests Olympia Washington USA 5/30/06
Originally uploaded by justinvelaolympia.
ZUMA press picked up more of my photos from the Port of Olympia protests yesterday. You can check them out ZUMAPRESS.COM
Port of Olympia Protests, Olympia Washington USA 5/30/06
Port of Olympia Protests, Olympia Washington USA 5/30/06
Originally uploaded by justinvelaolympia.
The protests at the Port of Olympia continued today. Police arrested a number of people layed down and refused to move from just inside port property. Pepper spray was used to disperse the crowd from the fence, but not as much as yesterday when the police sprayed it like a hose on everybody.
Zuma photos has picked up the story and my photos can be seen at http://www.zumapress.com
Sea-tac May 5, 2006
Sea-tac, that place you fly out of in western Washington, is, interestingly enough, its own city. Of course its mostly just the airport, hotels, and a high school, which, for reasons I’d love explained, is called Tyee High. It’s police force operates out of the airport. Last winter I spent a night tagging along with officers as they patrolled the airport and streets. One cop was a former recording industry employee who, in case things got weird, showed me how to operate his radio and call for help. He pulled over quite a few people, but didn’t give out many tickets. He seemed to prefer standing in the rain and lecturing the driver. One of the people he pulled over was a security contractor for a local corporation. The guy had a baseball bat on the front seat. Things like that made him nervous, the cop said.A few years ago a Sea-tac cop was killed by gang members not far from the airport. Later police killed a gang member in what was considered retaliation. Now gang members say they’re looking to kill another cop.
The other cop I followed around that night was named Jim Jones. Thick set and a talker Jones told me that US forces in Afghanistan had found a videotape of Sea-tac in the Tora Bora caves. Two men are heard speaking Arabic as they drive around outside the airport, Jones said. “It makes you think,” Jones said.
Jones seemed to think a lot. The cops at Sea-tac, he said, wanted to carry their rifles, AR-15’s, around at all time. Right now they are hidden in caches throughout the airport. It would be an intimidation thing, Jones told me. Rifles were carried by police in European airports. He wanted the message to be “you mess with us, you better stop and think about it, because we’ll mess with you.”
All current political and extremist melodrama aside, I love airports.
Hotel rooms and airports are where I feel most at ease. It has something to do with the impermanence of them I think. The constant passing of faces. Perhaps it is because you are so safe and taken care of. All the amenities are in an airport. Food, doctors, security, TV, people you can ask to guide you around. Entering an airport you can almost stop thinking entirely and beyond the fact that they are hyped as being targets in this bizarre new war, upon disappearing into an airport you are immediately enveloped in a warm (usually) and safe cocoon, not at all unlike being wrapped in a blanket and held by a loved one. I am almost always unaccompanied in airports and I get a tremendous joy out of sitting in a “restaurant” (do eateries in airports count as restaurants?) and messily slurping some unhealthy and unappetizing meal while watching people pass by serious faced and hurried, intent on not missing their flights, everybody out of place and coming from all destinations.
Illuminated Parade April 29, 2006
Illuminated ParadeOriginally uploaded by justinvelaolympia.
Tonight was the Illuminated Parade in downtown Olympia.
Participants gathered at around 9 o’clock in front of Capital Theatre and marched down 4th street to Capital Lake.
Once they were there they wrote wishes and good intentions and put them into a basket which was set afloat in the lake.
The basket was then lit on fire and burned. Fireworks went off.
Tomorrow is the Procession of the Species at 5PM downtown.
Procession of the Species April 26, 2006
Originally uploaded by justinvelaolympia.
The Procession of the Species is this Saturday.
Friday night there is the Luminary Procession downtown. Marchers will gather at Capitol Theatre at 9PM.
I’ve really enjoyed making my penguin head. Its all done and painted.
Some members of the procession may have misinterpreted something I said on this blog about The Procession people being quirky. It was not my intention to be rude I assure you. I consider quirky people to be by far the best kind of folks out there. Normal people I think are, in fact, quite uninteresting.
But somehow I suspect all of those quirky procession people were just giving me a hard time. 
More photos here.
Looks Like Spring or Something April 24, 2006
Today its so nice out, such a perfectly sunny with a slight breeze kind of day, that, while waiting for the bus, I didn’t even kill the tiny green bug that climbed onto my hand and trotted up and down my fingers.
Spring apparently has sprung in this rather un-humble city called Olympia. I moved here just this past August though and long time residents have told me not to take the sun and lack of represive skies too seriously.
“You’ll have nice days, but you’ll have rain off and on again until August,” everyone is telling me. “Then you’ll have a month of sun and it will be wet again.
But enough about the weather. The weather is something that should always be mentioned, but never espoused upon lest you want to risk boring your audience.
My penguin head that I’m making for the Procession of the Species is all paper mached and now I just have to paint it.
The Procession will be this Saturday.
Its intrigued me since I first heard about it a few months ago. When I photographed the Illuminated Ball last February the Olympian I met the somewhat quirky group of Olympia artists that organize and participate in the event I became even more curious.
Walking in the Procession this Saturday will be an interesting and very “Olympia” experience. Hopefully the weather will stay good for it.
Garfield Nature Trail…Olympia Residents…No Respect for the law April 20, 2006
In the past couple of days I’ve become curious about the Garfield Nature trail, the Westside’s .35 mile long, 7.41 acre neighborhood maintained park.
The record rainfall this year did enough damage to the park for the good folks at Olympia Parks, Arts, and Recreation to close the park in January.
And it has remained closed.
A quick Google search brings you to an Olympian article that states the park won’t be reopened until Spring, or when the rain stops, a somewhat stupid way of describing a future time in Olympia.
The article goes onto state that “water is leaching out hillsides in several places…making the ravine and trail a safety risk for the public.” That quote was from Rhonda Teitzel the city parks maintenance supervisor.
A walk down the “closed” (the West Bay Drive entrance can still be walked into) reveals that the branches and debris that covered the floor of the park after the storm has been cleared. In fact the only thing visibly damaged about the park is that fact that the bridge closest to the West Bay Drive entrance is, well, we’ll say a little smashed and lying by the side of the trail. Somebody, however, has kindly laid a small plank across the trickle of stream the bridge once forded.
And the park is definitely still in use.
In my short foray into the closed off park I came across three Olympia residents walking along the trail, happily enjoying what could only be described as a neighborhood gem and not really feeling to concerned about the park mudsliding on them or anything such as that.
Earlier today I called and left messages at the Parks, Arts, and Recreation department. My calls were returned a little before 5 o’clock so I’ll call back tomorrow and see what they have to say.
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