Shotgun Prose: Ephemera 2020

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Ephemera 2020

The annual Ephemera posting of stuff for me to remember what I have done. I actually have referred to these lists for a variety of reasons and it's my blog so I do this.

2020 was a year. There would have been a number other things on this list, but so much got cancelled and rescheduled that this list is very different than it should have been. That means playing in the GP in Seattle or displaying my game at a show in PDX or working various cons didn't happen. A lot of movies in the theatre didn't screen. Soccer media covering the Reign and WoSo and regional things more or less vanished in the Spring. Tickets for shows were refunded or the shows rescheduled for whenever later. Trips just didn't get booked. The decisions to work TX and CHI shows early in the year meant I did do at least some things, but the C2E2 vibe included a lot of worry over the pandemic beginning. I oddly spent 4 hours in LA on layover that I am fondly remembering for finding a friend in the terminal we hung out with.

We did do some fun virtual things like "Zombie Cheerleaders From Hell" through The Can Can Culinary Cabaret's Theatre at Home.

I had pre-noted a number of items and slowly was changing them to different dates and / or deleting them. Plus, I really was not gonna be a first wave of go and do stuff pawn. Pawns go first for a reason.

Actually happened:

Conventions

PAX South 1/17-19 ([E]) {3}
C2E2 2/28-3/1 (Starlight Division) {3}

Soccer Media (ProstAmerika/GoalieGuys)

* Remote coverage of events and matches (mostly, until October)

Press work done remote, conference calls, and Zoom. From quarantine to May NWSL Challenge Cup announcement, through the tourney, there was a time of ongoing virtual media work with coaches, players, owners, and the commissioner. I covered a few matches as though they were local. Got a chance to write a few other pieces like covering the Rave Green boys a few matches. This year would have included the second Reign season in Tacoma, some CLink rave green matches, and a few local scene matches for clubs like the Everett Jets. All Prost articles were also posted on the Goalie Guys site, as I worked to make that more of a habit. I did short Reign pieces during the tourney even when not assigned to be thorough and so the GG site would have a complete picture of the season. The GG site got all of the Prost pieces without the NWSL provided pics. Was attempting to do even more and UEFA is as elitist and as much of a dinosaur as one would imagine and doesn't work with modern online media in the way US teams and leagues and the federation does. Also, got an advance copy of Pinoe's book to review, which was cool. Guested on the ROTV podcast about Pinoe's book.

Sounders playoff coverage was in person. There were really strict rules, and that was comforting enough for me to take the assignment. But, having to decline the credential IRL for Columbus was really a harsh reminder of the year.

Live

OLR 1 v PTFC 2 / 10-10 Tacoma, WA - Cheney Stadium - NWSL Fall Series

OLR 2 v UTAH 0 / 10-17 Tacoma, WA - Cheney Stadium - NWSL Fall Series

SSFC 3 v LAFC 1 / 11-24 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field - MLS Cup Playoffs R1

SSFC 1 v FCD 0 / 12-01 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field - MLS Cup Playoffs WCS

SSFC 3 v MNU 2 / 12-07 Seattle, WA - Lumen Field - MLS Cup Playoffs WCF