tell me about Olympia

Well, I've only been there a handful of times, but my short crude answer would be "very small, generally quiet, half hippie, and half hick"... my first memory there was at 8pm on a Saturday night right after Evergreen resumed, and the only people on the street were a bunch of gutterpunk kids banging on cans singing "WE SUCK!.. ... WE'RE DORKS!...".

Despite that, I've grown to like it more and more every time I visit. It's the kinda town where every visit, you're bound to run into the same nice folks you ran into the last visit.

If you like biker bars with cheap drinks, you'll like Oly.

There is a movie I really liked which gives a snapshot of the lives of some Olympia artists and musicians, called 9 weeks. Info among other places, I'm sure: http://www.buyolympia.com/q/sid=472941129/Item=NINE_WEEKS

The above observations are pretty spot-on (esp. about the military guys thing). The most important thing to keep in mind is that it's a small, sleepy town, and also the state capital with some large and scary suburbs (which actually have pretensions to separate names), so the Evergreen/music/art/whatever scene is only one very small part (I've heard stories about retailers downtown boarding up their windows when the college first opened in '71). Aside from the really excellent Olympia Film Society the movie theaters suck, the downtown streets are filled with cruising teenagers, and everything's closed by 9 pm-- it's really just your typical small town in so many ways.

But there's small town perks too: rents are super cheap, people are generally very friendly and casual, and there's a lot of interaction between creative types in what I always thought was a very relaxed and noncompetitive way. There's the whole K/KRS/Yo Yo scene, obv, but outside of that there's also a lot of really fruitful stuff being done by people who sort of pass under the radar, or are just into collaborating in interesting ways or throwing parties for a few years before moving on to somewhere else.

Which is another important aspect, too: I know there are a lot of people who've invested in businesses or local projects or scenes, but if you're not one of them, I'm not sure why you'd want to stick around if you're in your mid-20s and not in school. Maybe it's because I grew up there, but outside of that structured environment, Oly doesn't have a lot to offer, and it's shit if you're interested in having any sort of real, grown-up job. Most people I knew tended to think of it as just one stopping point on their long, cosmic journey, man, and that's kind of how I'd recommend it to anybody interested in moving there.

And Oly stubbies are still a great drink, even if the brewery is now owned by Miller. This is all sort of stream-of-consciousness on my part, so if you want to know anything else, just ask.

"Check out" Olympia grunge-rock band THE BROKEN WATER rockin' Olympia's Timberland Regional Public Library. Look at all the young Olympians in all their crunchy Olympianess. Look at the mud on their boots and in their hair. Believe it or not, this "library show" was actually held in the middle of the day on a Tuesday, but none of the facility's regular patrons were disturbed by the racket because the stacks containing literature on wild mushroom hunting (the only stacks ever patronized at Timberland Regional) are located way, way in the back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcgiJVszvOI