Apologizing for not paying adequate attention to a blog is like spitting into a serious headwind. So I'll just skip that mess and pivot to mentioning some of what's been up with my work since I last posted here many months ago.
Earlier this month, I published a cover story in Seattle Weekly. The focus on a number of animal rights activists I've gotten to know over the years served as a news peg upon which to hang a whole range of subjects. There's more coming in that publication and (most likely) others to effectively pull excerpts from the research I'm compiling in my book, Pelting Out. These are volatile times in the fur trade, no matter how beneath the radar that world remains. Stay tuned for much more on that and everything book-related.
Thanks are due to everyone who've repeatedly asked about my Field Agent work with Atlas Obscura in Seattle. I haven't put together another event since my fourth ran in May. Those ideas continue to percolate. However, a refocus upon my writing through the summer and fall was required. I continue to keep an eye on the good work being done by AO here and internationally. A cash infusion in August from A&E Network and their associated VCs means AO's platform will continue to build out into the multimedia landscape. If you haven't checked out what they're up to recently, please do so.
I'll post some of the media exposure I earned from my "Grunge Redux" idea elsewhere on this site. What's become obvious to me is an unmet demand for thoughtful, regularly-scheduled walking/talking/interactive tours of Seattle. Since my first grunge-era tour in March, I've led a number of fascinating groups around the City. The education proved to be a two-way street. Thanks to the help of many experts and new friends, I've added countless stories to that burgeoning quiver. What started for me as a labor of love morphed into a portal to better understand Seattle's broader cultural history. In the near future, I'm planning to launch a more direct website for scheduling regular experiences under the umbrella of my "Grunge Redux" history. Stay tuned for more on that...or lob me a question if you're interested in what's coming down that pike...I've got some fun things planned.
On a personal note, I'm also excited about being back in school, heading to Italy for a family trip in November, and the prospect of reviving my much-shared YearEnder for 2017. With everything we've been collectively living through, social satire seems like a healthy avenue for exploration. "May you live in interesting times" seems like both useful wisdom and "be careful what you wish for" up-to-the-moment advice. We all cope as we must. I tell stories. And I will continue to do so.
It has been months since my last post here. Months. Yet don't let that absence of content fool you. I've been focusing myself on other outlets, including my work with Atlas Obscura. The work I'm doing there...and just did in that capacity last night leading a walking-and-talking event I called "Grunge Redux"...is what I want to expound upon here. All the work I put in should cross-pollenate my prior work, in a perfect world. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm feeling like the world is rather perfect right now. So why not write about it, mmmkay?
I start from the top. I loved grunge music. There. I embrace the idiom. Grunge has been vilified and come back in fashion and seen all sorts of wrong-headed attempts at burial or resurrection. But for me, the music I experienced both here in Seattle and during my college years in Minnesota holds a special place in my memory bank. So I planned an event with our Seattle chapter of Atlas Obscura meant to focus upon what and where Seattle's music was in the mid-'80s to later-'90s. It was a rather bold move. Anything easily mockable can be flipped as being called bold. But if I was going to do it, I was going to jump into the mosh pit with reckless abandon. I'm glad to say that I managed to come out the other side with nary a scratch on me.
If you want another person's view of what I did in preview form, check out the feature that ran in "The Stranger" this week. For the record, I've done the other tour featured. That one's more for tourists. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I had a nice couple from Ecuador in the van with me and the tour guide, Charity, on the day I did it. They were all lovely. But I wasn't going to get into a discussion about "grunge" as a noun and "Seattle" as an adjective there. That was the sort of thing I tried to do during my Seattle Obscura Society event, as we made our way through Belltown on a lovely early Spring Friday evening.
Some bottom line logistics, first of all. With regard to my gig as a "Field Agent" with Atlas Obscura. I am tasked with coming up with original programming that currently amounts to one event per month on average. I like to think of it as "immersive longform journalism" that focuses very much upon places and the history behind those physical locations. Because I work with the Seattle Obscura Society, my events are all about Seattle. I've got a wide berth with AO. I'm very impressed with the NYC-based leadership of the company, along with our local talent and leadership. Please check out the website for upcoming events. Often. Because things will be going up there with expanding variety in the months ahead. I'm pleased to say that my next event sold out just a few days after being announced. It takes some time to build a brand, and AO's built something good since launching in 2009. I'm proud to be a part of what we're building here in Seattle.
Secondly, I want to offer a very quick overview of the actual places we visited during a 2+ hour tour. We started at the historic Moore Theatre. We walked to Sub Pop Records' current World Headquarters...as always with Sub Pop...the grandiosity shtick comes with their very hip and hilarious tongue firmly planted in their cheek. We stopped for a quick drink in the backbar at The Crocodile. We walked past some sights in Belltown, and had to skip a planned stop at The 5 Point Cafe because we were running late. We walked through the Seattle Center, passing by landmarks like the Mural Amphitheatre. And we got a full tour of KEXP's gorgeous new studios and public spaces.
I could have talked for twice as long, given the amount of material I'd prepared in the course of my research. Seattle during the grunge era was a helluva thing to behold, and I fully realize that I only truly experienced the tail end of it. Thankfully, many of the people who were here then and longer are still around, and proved willing in some cases to talk about it. But even more impressive to me in the course of researching this event was the realization that Seattle's ongoing music and cultural contributions are so varied and full of positivity. This really was an event that drew from the past, looked around at the present, and allowed for a healthy consideration of the future.
With that said, I'm moving onto my next obsessions for AO. I have many people to thank for helping me wrap my brain around "Grunge Redux" as a concept that became a formative reality. They know who they are, and they continue to rock. I'll leave it at that. Other than to say that I'm going to offer this event again on down the road. After I do some thinking about how to better tell the stories that I now hold so dear, while still pointing to the experts and professionals who really do the work that allows for the vinyl to get on the turntables and the musicians to crush it in front of the fans, day after glorious day.
Blogs fall by the wayside every day. Energy gets focused elsewhere, you don't think anyone's reading, life invades. I get it. Even as I fight against it. But I just want everyone who somehow found this to know that I'm not letting this one go entirely. I've spent years posting things on this and a hardy handful of blogs prior. I'll (hopefully) always do so. It just may seem fewer and farther between posts. Don't question the sincerity, though. I'm just focused elsewhere, much of the time.
