6/6/96 Stranger Misc. Misc. @ 10! Misc. began on June 6, 1986 as a column in ArtsFocus, the Lincoln Arts Center's monthly tabloid. When that paper faded in 1989, Misc. became a newsletter with as many as 1,000 free copies and 100 paid subscribers. It joined The Stranger at the paper's ninth issue in November 1991. Last year I stopped the newsletter and started the Misc. World HQ website, <http://www.miscmedia.com>. Over these 10 years I've discussed many things, loosely tied to the concept of "popular culture in Seattle and beyond." I've shared a few laffs and a few tears. But I've had one overriding subject--the city with which I have an ongoing lover's quarrel. Seattle's always had more than its share of vibrant, creative people. But they've long struggled against a social order opposed to anything too unclean, unrich, or unquiet. The Commons people never understood why so many have grown tired of a city government exclusively By The Upscale, Of The Upscale, and For The Upscale. The "Parks Are For Everybody" slogan was clearly a desperation move by campaigners uncomfortable with the existence of non-yuppies and the need to appeal to such proles. In much of the US, politics is controlled by money-stooges pretending to be "conservatives." In Seattle, it's controlled by money-stooges pretending to be "liberals." Other politicians pay lip service to abortion foes and censors; ours pay lip service to gay-rights advocates and environmentalists. Both sets of politicians do these to buy votes while holding to their real cause, the worship of Sacred Business. But I also believe politics is a subset of culture. Seattle's politics tie directly into a culture that merely pretends to value "diversity." A culture so thoroughly whitebread, it remembers the Sixties only as a playtime for college boys. A culture descended from Anglo Protestant "progressives" in Wisconsin and Minnesota, who'd championed an elitism of educated, understated "taste" to help keep working-class German Catholics out of power. When Misc. started, Seattle's arts had been for seemingly ever (at least since 1973) under the thumb of an extremely conservative "liberalism" I've since called Mandatory Mellowness. You know, the standard of "good taste" that wouldn't merely discourage but forbid any art more challenging than Chihuly, any music more contemporary than Kenny G, any theater more immediate than doo-wop versions of Shakespeare, any literature more urbane than whale poems, any apparel more daring than "Casual Friday" suits, or any lifestyle more "decadent" than drinking whole milk instead of 2-percent. While this aggressively bland anti-aesthetic still rules the city's official culture, something else arose from the underground. Punk rock remained a relevant stance in Seattle throughout the '80s precisely because it was the best available means of rebellion against the hypocrisy of mellowness. What the media called "grunge" was and is an aesthetic of darkness, but also one of honest discourse, passionate expression, and real pleasures. It values thrift and ingenuity, not the dictates of fashion. It sees Seattle as a city for Tugboat Annie, not for Niles Crane. It loves the south Lake Union neighborhood as it is. It would rather be "unhappy" yet truly alive than succumb to the Stepford-Wifedom of "The Northwest Lifestyle." What the media call "cocktail nation" is the expression of these values through other means, to relive the best of pre-hippie pop culture and even to make jazz a populist genre again. Indeed, the staccato, disjointed Misc. format has always been a (perhaps feeble) effort to preserve the jazz-age three-dot column of Walter Winchell, Irv Kupcinet, and the P-I era Emmett Watson--perhaps America's greatest literary invention. If I've played any tiny part in popularizing these values, the values that made Seattle and real progressivism great, then I've succeeded at my goal--the Highlights for Children slogan, "Fun With a Purpose." (Thanx and a hat tip to those who attended the Misc. 10th anniversary party and to those who helped make it plausible; including Glen Allen, the band Big Sister, BSK(T) Screenprinting, Cellophane Square, Staci Dinehart, Rebecca Frey, Joseph Givens, Laughingas Productions, Verlayne McClure, Metropolis Contemporary Art Gallery, Moe, Mountain Sound, the New Store, Occupied Seattle, Charlotte Quinn, Frank Randall, Jeannine Uhrich, Joseph Weaver, and a host of others.)

2001 COLUMNS 2000 COLUMNS 1999 COLUMNS 1999 COLUMNS 1998 COLUMNS 1997 COLUMNS 1996 COLUMNS 1995 COLUMNS 1986-94 COLUMNS ESSAYS FICTION X-WORDS 'THE BIG BOOK OF MISC.' THE BOOK 'LOSER' MISCmedia, THE MAGAZINE FUTURE PROJECTS CYBER STUFF THINGS I LIKE 'MISC. TALK' DISCUSSION FORUM CLARK'S CULTURE CORRAL: BOOKS, MUSIC, MOVIES REVIEWED AND SOLD Books Popular Music Classical Music Video (Support MISC. Media; make your Amazon.com purchases thru this link.)