today the brewery shut down in Olympia, the big one that used to be called Olympia and that Miller bought out a couple of years ago.

every day at 8am and 5pm i could hear the whistle from my apartment. today at 5pm was the last blow. i rode my bike and stood on the bridge with all the brewery workers, to watch the steam and hear the last loud call for the work to stop.

the whistle-blower made it go for a very long time. it sounded mournful and reminded me of a dying whale. i can imagine that it was pretty sad for some of those leathery old guys in jeans and baseball hats who worked there for years. i was standing next to one of them and he had a sideways stoop, like he couldn't straighten up all the way.

then i thought about all of the musculoskeletal disorders (ergonomic term learned at work), that they probably got from working there, doing all the repetitive motion and back breaking lifting... and the beer still tastes like shit. Maybe the brewery shutting down is bad for the economy, but maybe, good riddance too.

the brewery is now a new space to be contested. already public meetings are being held to discuss its future. will it become a factory, a mall, a market, offices? how will this closing change the city space?