The Internet website of our city government in Federal Way, WA exhorts citizen's to remember "It's All Within Reach" a slogan which is the result of hiring a consulting firm. A handful of so of city residents expressed the opinion that given the same fee, they could do better, but now that is - as they say, water under the bridge.
I have the distinct pleasure to announce that wherever you may have fallen on the slogan debate, pick yourself up! As it's possible that someone at that consulting firm really had a special connection - because in just several days we'll all be within reach of the stars!
No, kiddies, this time it's not about our almost American Idol entrant Sanjaya Malakar or the always stellar Olympic speed skater & "Dancing With the Stars" winner Apolo Anton Ohno. We're talking about another league! I saw the full-color flyer with Captain James T. Kirk and crew in the library just the other day. We're going all the way to the final frontier!
Yes! Shades of the sixties! The universe of Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" and all her subsequent incarnations beginning with the silvery lady Enterprise, the United Federation of Planets vessel under the command of the aforementioned Captain Kirk, who warped across our television screens in the Fall of 1966 is really coming to our own Southwest King County burb.
Fans of all ages are invited to attend an appearance by author Jeff Ayers invited to speak on "Star Trek: Voyages of Imagination" on Monday, October 22, at 7:00 p.m. at the Federal Way 320th Library as part of special programming connected with the National Endowment for the Humanities "The Big Read" project in partnership with among others -the King County Library System Foundation.
Ayers, whose bearded and mustached mug appears with Kirk and company on the publicity flyer, discusses not only the original series that refused to die, but its multiple incarnations which filled the television airwaves with five series spanning over four decades, ten feature films and one animated series. This show count does not even begin to cover the hundreds of books, magazines - official and fan inspired, blooper reels, comics, metal spaceships, plastic action figures, games and much more that all started with a modest little program that Roddenberry originally pitched as a "Wagon Train" to the stars, which made its debut during the month of September 1966 and hoped for five year voyage went belly-up after a mere three.
i would reckon in about the brief interval of just over a year, Federal Way's not only become intimately familiar to most folks in the United States as the place all those folks up north have taken a shine to all those cute little dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden - but now it's quite apparent that the high vaulted ceilings of the heavens are no less within our grasp.
Back then, as a child of eleven I remember discovering my Dad, an electrical engineer at Boeing lying back on the living room couch and occasionally smiling while watching a brand new show that featuring a rather novel cast including an Asian-American male actor who unlike the one on "Bachelor Father" wasn't playing somebody's houseboy!
So I watched a few episodes with Dad, but I didn't realize what I'd witnessed until I started watching reruns with other people in my dorm during the first two years of collage.Even then, I had not fully appreciated it's full significance which I wasn't to understand until after graduation and well into the first years of my post-scholastic employment in downtown Seattle.
In those years, I needed an outlet from what I found a socially restrictive enviroment at work. Something different, fun, off the beaten track which I could enjoy despite having no extra time and the very limited budget. I found it all one day during my lunch hour, in a used bookstore...a book written by people just like me who didn't have a life, who hadn't had enough of Captain Kirk and his crew when the series tanked. They created a demand for books. They practiced Klingon. They invented - Star Trek conventions.
You don't have to go off the deep end to enjoy Jeff Ayers and his presentation. For his appearance provides our city with yet another stepping stone on our quest since incorporation to put our community on the map. So, Monday, October 22, is truly a date to celebrate.
I would reckon in about the brief interval of just over a year, Federal Way's not only become intimately familiar to most folks in the United States as the place where all those folks up north have taken a shine to all those cute little dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden - but now it's quite apparent that the high vaulted ceilings of the heavens are no less within our grasp.
Someone at the consulting firm hired by the Federal Way City Council really knew what they were talking about and they should be commended. It's very clear, and oh by the way, hear that voice? Turn up the volume over there. It's the lever on the right and you'll be able to make out just exacly what is being said. Shhhh...
"Kirk to Enterprise. Mr. Scott. It's time. One Earth city to ready to beam up. Energize. "
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