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Date Posted: 09:48:04 07/15/03 Tue
Author: Honest Dave
Subject: LAVA JAVA EMPORIUM & FORUM

Soap Lake still hot for lava lamp - Lack of actual bottle hasn't dampened spirits, Doug Clark says.

Doug Clark
The Spokesman-Review

SOAP LAKE, Wash. _ Visitors to this Grant County hamlet no longer need ask where to find that giant lava lamp they read about in the tabloids and newspapers.

There's no missing it now. Soap Lake's lava lunker loomsover traffic from the corner of Main and Daisy.

True, this is only a poster depicting the Godzilla-sized glob-burbling bottle Brent Blake claims he wants to build to revitalize his adopted town.

But it's a pretty impressive poster nonetheless: 25 by 15 feet of rich glossy color.

"A mysterious wonder of unearthly proportions," states the script at the top of the graphics.

Blake is a trim, ponytailed 62-year-old. He moved to Soap Lake from Seattle five years ago and bought the former police station/city hall.

He spent a great deal of dough turning the space into an office and apartment that is chic by Seattle, not Soap Lake, standards. Now it is the backdrop for Blake's mammoth poster.

Call me a professional cynic. But I'm betting this artwork is the closest Soap Lake ever gets to a 65-foot lava lamp.

Although Blake now refuses to discuss that niggling little detail (M-O-N-E-Y), his earlier estimate put lava lamp construction at somewhere in the ol' $3 million to $10 million ballpark.

That may as well be $10 billion to the 1,000-plus residents who inhabit this whistle-stop, 120 miles west of Spokane.

Once upon a time, Soap Lake was a trendy destination resort for bathers wanting to soak in its supposedly curative waters.

Today Soap Lake struggles to stay afloat.

But even if Blake's lava never glows, the interior designer must be thanked for giving Soap Lake a gift most tourist-starved burgs would kill for.

A drawing card. A talking point.

A giant lava legend.

"It's energized the community," agrees Blake. "And I'm grateful for that,".

There's nothing wrong with a little municipal myth-making. That New Mexican town, Roswell, for example, has built an entire tourist trade around imaginary space aliens.

Is it so wrong for Soap Lake to do the same with a giant lava lamp?

Blake, of course, insists he's dead serious, that this is no marketing gimmick. The notion, he says, popped into his head one night while he and a friend were discussing civic improvement.

Lava lunacy or not, this is doing wonders for Soap Lake.

"I've had so many calls," says Sandra Garnett of the Inn at Soap Lake. "South Dakota. North Dakota. Minnesota. . . One man from New York wanted to book a room with a view of the lava lamp."

The tale of Blake's 65-foot lava lamp is one of those preposterous yarns news agencies find irresistible. Since word of it broke last fall in this here column, the story has morphed across the globe.

Radio talk show hosts have trolled Soap Lake for comment. Newspapers like The Seattle Times, The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times have all dipped their toes in.

Although sensibly aloof at first, most residents have now become infected with Blake's goofy vision.

The mayor, City Council and Chamber of Commerce are all on board, says Blake, who is talking feasibility studies and possible grants. He has formed the Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project, a nonprofit corporation.

I dunno. Somebody must have put something hallucinagenic in the Soap Lake water supply.

Along Main Street, merchants show support by putting (normal-sized) lava lamps in their shop windows.

William Sorensen is going a step beyond. The shaggy-haired man, who looks like a Grateful Dead follower but claims to be a capitalist, plans to open his Lava Java Emporium Forum (something like that) within
days. The coffeehouse/cyber cafe sits on a corner directly across from where Blake's poster hangs.

"I'm not stealing his idea," says Sorensen. "I'm just riding the wave."

This weekend, Soap Lake is bracing for a small army of motorcycle riders who plan to rumble in for some kind of organized ride.

Blake is already rehearsing what to say to any surly bikers who might not be satisfied with his poster and want to know where the real giant lava lamp is hiding.

"It was here last night," Blake quips with a shrug of his narrow shoulders. "I don't know what the hell happened."

• Doug Clark can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or at dougc@spokesman.com.


http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=071503&ID=s1381765

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