MISCmedia for 4/10/01
Every Home I've Lived In Is Still Standing, Part 2

YESTERDAY, we began a countdown to the gigantic MISCmedia 15th Anniversary celebratory fete (June 2, all ages, mark your calendars now), with a glimpse of the art show that'll be part of the festivity--digital pix (presented out of order) of every home yr. web-corresp'n'd't had lived in. Today, another installment.

#18: The Consulate Apartments, 1619 Belmont Ave. A small but well-preserved studio apartment, with a former Murphy Bed closet.

I lived there from '84 to '87, during which I dumped a horrible job, was dreadfully unemployed, reluctantly went back to the horrible job, and finally found a better job. I also got my first Macintosh, ran a short-lived mondo-film screening series, and began the original Misc. print column.

Entering and leaving the building often involved charging through the phalanxes of bums and panhandlers who hung out at Glynn's Cove tavern down the street (which later became Squid Row, then Tugs Belmont, and is now Kincora).

A Dymo Labelmaker note was stuck inside the Consulate's back door: "Don't let strange people in. We have plenty."

The live-in building manager was a flamboyantly out gay man who loved to go to Chinese restaurants very late at night, a task which involved the ten-minute revving of a motorcycle parked directly beneath my unit. By the time I moved out, he had become very thin, pale and weak, and it wasn't because of Chinese food.

NEXT: Some more of this.

ELSEWHERE:

• An Atlantic writer likes prestigious graphic novels enough, but still hopes "there is still room for comic books about mutant vigilantes.....
• Remembering a band that never cut a record....

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Parts one and two of a guest columnist's reminiscences of beer, basements, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.
• Mulling still more potential changes to the site.
• Memories of the radio station formerly known as KCMU.
• Thanks to the Net, some folks are writing more. That's supposed to be a bad thing?
• Remember rain?
• In defense of DIY publishing.
• A special offer on slightly-hurt Losers.
• Parts one and two of Boeing becoming just another global corporation.
• Could you be turning into a hippie without even knowing it?
• Is it time to privatize welfare customer-service?
• Tell me a story.
• A TV critic faces cancer.
• Music to accompany the mattress mambo.
• Goodbyes to film critic John Hartl, the outre-music zine The Tentacle, and some cool stores.
• A last lingering look inside the OK Hotel.
• Seattle as a city that works (and works and works).
• The terrible beauty of the freeways.
• The end of our little makeover parable.
• PBS discovers marketing to kids.
• Courtney Love reinvents herself as an anti-major-label crusader.
• Handicapping the Seattle mayoral race.

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, nonfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• Some slightly weird little fiction pieces
• X-Word crossword puzzles, now with on-screen solving
• Cyber Stuff, links to cool and/or useful sites
• A listing of many Things I Like (and a few things I hate)
• The origin and future of MISCmedia