9/24/98 Misc. column; as seen in The Stranger 7-Year Niche iMPRESSIONS: The Stranger office just got a couple of them new iMac computers. They're gorgeous; they're screamingly fast; they're just plain fun. The iMac's the first "home" computer designed as a piece of home decor, like old "cathedral" radios used to be (one old radio name, Motorola, makes the CPU chip in the iMac). Just as importantly, it expresses the MacOS's superior visual aesthetic into tangible, physical form. This has the practical effect of reducing the dissonance, the trance effect a computer user may have while really concentrating on the "mindspace" of working or running software. On plain beige-box computers, an advanced user can become almost unaware of his/her physical presence (unless, of course, something goes wrong with the hardware). The iMac's more noticable, yet pleasant, presence might help hardcore gamers and Net-skimmers keep at least partly aware of the tangible world surrounding them. That, in turn, might help relieve or prevent the loneliness and depression cited among hardcore computer jockeys by some Carnegie Mellon U. sociologists. JUNK FOOD OF THE WEEK: Usually for weird potato-chip flavors you've gotta go to Canada. But Benson's T-Bone Steak Crisps are imported directly from England to local spots like the Old Pequliar tav in Ballard. They don't taste like steak, but have an oddly smoky flavor without being overly spicy. The slow frieght, tho', can leave 'em a little less fresh-tasting than domestic chips. LOCAL PUBLICATION OF THE WEEK: Swaank (no relation to the porn mag Swank) is a rip-rollickin', stylish-as-all-get-out chronicle of local swing-revival happennings. Besides musician and dancer interviews, it's got a valuable jazz-history lesson and retro-fashion tips that thankfully go beyond the semiannual "Return to Elegance" nonsense in larger publications. There's even a cartoon demonstrating how a neo-bopper can revise an outdated death-rock tattoo! (Free at clubs with swing nights, or $12 for four issues from 12437 110th Lane NE, #P101, Kirkland 98034.) ANOTHER YEAR OLDER: Who'da thunk The Stranger (originally a li'l 12-page sheet of coupon ads, movie listings, sex advice, and cartoons) would become such a robust force in alterna-media, reaching some 150,000 readers and revered nationwide? The growth of the paper has parallelled the growth of its "virtual community" of readers and advertisers. While a lot of beloved stores, bands, clubs, eateries, performance troupes, galleries, etc. have left us since late Sept. '91, a lot of others have joined us. And while the corporate-rock biz has largely left Seattle alone lately (local bands no longer even feel they have to insist on how "not grunge" they are), there are more pro musicians doing more different kinds of things here now than maybe ever. (How many of them are really good at it is another question.) But what's in store? Wasn't too long ago when the stock market was supposedly on a never-to-end rise, when Wired magazine predicted a "long boom," when the only question anybody asked about the economy was how to keep up with (or survive) the megagrowth. Nowadays, things seem a bit more uncertain, particularly among anyone with direct or indirect dependencies upon Canada, Mexico, Russia, east Asia, or the U.S. stock market (as you might guess, that's a lot of dependents). Can't say what'll happen next, but it might not be all on the upswing. If there really is a recession later this year or early next, how will it affect our community? Seattle ain't the same place it was when we lived on the trickle-down from Boeing and its subcontractors. But now the $$ coming into Seattle isn't merely trickling down from overall national business conditions. It's coming from whole consumer-economy sectors (software, chain coffeeshops) centered here, shipping cash into head offices that directly employ many art-worlders and art-biz customers. Of course, an overall slowdown will slow down these companies as well; just perhaps more moderately and slowly than Boeing slumps used to be. For whatever it's worth, the nothing-ever-happens pre-Stranger Seattle ain't coming back.

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