The Lake City Way

It's another tiny little movie.

Dear readers: hello. It’s Stephen and I’m sitting here alone sans my dear friend and business partner as he is in Philadelphia on a shoot for the next few days. Instead of using his absence as an excuse as to why we missed our weekly screed, I want to share a little film I made over the last few weeks with my buddy Joe McConaughy.

Joe is completely obsessed with Lake City — a neighborhood (Hamlet? Borough?) in North Seattle where grew up and now lives with his wife and tiny baby. I recently moved nearly to Lake City and Joe has tried to have me claim it as my neighborhood and I continue to refuse his advances. My constant refusal is born out of his overly enthusiastic and, at times, maniacal, love of Lake City.

Lake City is extremely hilly, but not in a romantic, mountainous way. It’s hilly in a paved, circuitous sort of way. Joe has made a complete meal of the topography and has coined “Lake City Vert.” This credo has become disturbingly well known amongst Seattleites. To his credit, he can really rack up the vert running around the neighborhood but it is in a way that can be quite shocking to look at. A weave, a bob, an out and back. The European mind couldn’t comprehend the way Joe is callousing his legs for ultrarunning.

I needed to know what his deal was with Lake City. He has such a clear attachment to this place and has even accepted it as an identity to a certain extent. My guy is grounded and he’s also rooted. He and his wife, Katie, just welcomed their first child, Jack, to the fray.

So, please take three-and-a-half minutes to check out a little movie about place, family, and running.