MISCmedia for 4/11/01
Every Home I've Lived In Is Still Standing, Part 3

MONDAY AND 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--randomly-ordered pix of every home yr. web-pal had lived in. Today, some more.

#13: NW 57th Street and 28th Ave. NW. A small, cruddy, windowless room built into the basement of a small, cruddy house in Ballard. Occupied November 1981-March 1982.

Following my Wallingford misadventure with hardcore punk-rock housemates (a story I'll have to get into later), I needed a cheap and immediately available place.

It belonged to a single mom of a character type very familiar to me at the time, the square baby boomer. She wore large glasses and a dour disposition, liked Coors, and hated any music that was too "weird" (i.e., not boomer-blues or the Eagles). Her six-year-old son was smart and spunky, but was instructed by mom not to talk to me more than necessary.

The winter of '81-'82 was one of my life's nadir moments. I was too depressed to look even for temp jobs. I wrote nothing, created nothing. I had no amenities in that damp room but my TV, a percolator (which I used to make hot water for tea), and a tiny space heater. I'd stay up with KING-TV's overnight movies, then half-sleep until noonish. I had only limited privileges in the house's main floor--the bathroom, the kitchen (when mom wasn't cooking), and the phone (brief calls only).

Finally, I found another cheap room in another basement to move into. That's another story I'll try to get to eventually.

NEXT: Still more of this.

ELSEWHERE:

• Stories by folks who just loathed working for Wal-Mart (found by Memepool)....
• Niche site-building at its finest: A clip-art site devoted exclusively to telephones!...

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Parts one and two of a tour through every home I've lived in.
• 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.

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