Well here in Seattle we have had quite a winter so far. For a city that doesn’t know how to do anything but stay home in fear when it snows we’ve really had our lunch handed to us this year. The biggest snowfall in 40+ years meant that those of us who had our workplaces closed for 2 weeks had plenty of time to while away hours on Facebook. It really should be called NostalgiaBook for all the old school rocker reminiscing that goes on, but at least the photos are cool to look at. Who knew there were all those photos of Hippie Big Buckle, YBGB, or Spluii Numa? Those are names I never thought I’d hear again. Thankfully some people are talking about digitizing their cassettes and making the music available finally. Hardly any bands in Seattle in the early 80’s were able to finance vinyl pressings, those that did sold out or were given out quickly and are now highly collectible. Most of the music released back then was on cassette, as a demo. This was because every single band believed that someone, never any idea who, would come along and say “hey, I’ve got a few thousand dollars I don’t know what to do with! Can I release your record?” Obviously this strategy for fame and fortune never paid off and people quickly learned that there was plenty of satisfaction to be had just playing music and not thinking of the future. This methodology eventually became the foundation of the attitude that became associated with Grunge. It was flawed however in that without SubPop (and K) and their visions there would be no record of the time when band members outnumbered casual fans and all it would take was saying you were from Seattle for party goers in New York and Berlin to say “wow, what’s that like?” Of course that fed the ego and the denizens of this burg began to think we were somthing, um different, historically at least. That was a long time ago. Maybe we need to just make a toast to those who can’t be with us. Peace