Laodicean wrote:
^ An awesome Seattle compilation album.
I've been hesitating to comment because that record hits too close to home. Stinky K, where are ya, do you still read RI??? Chime in here.
Watched my ex play gigs with, and got drunk with too many of those bands to mention.
The death of Mia Zapata had a profound effect on the music scene in Seattle. Her death, along with Kurt's a year later was like a one-two fatal blow to the scene and so soon after it became blazing hot.
Her mysterious murder gave rise to
Home Alive, a non-profit self defense and lefty anti-violence organization. I still have friends I met through Home Alive and it was there, over a decade ago now where, as part of benefit art show, I outed myself as mind control survivor. They were the first to be welcoming of my story.
I don't know when they folded, but it wasn't that long ago. It took 10 years to solve Zapata's murder, which had a few occult overtones.
CZRecords wrote:On July 7, 1993, 27 year-old singer Mia Zapata, a member of Seattle band The Gits, was strangled. Less than two hours before her body was found, she had spent an evening in her local pub - with many friends.
Three years later, the killer has not been found. (This despite national publicity in rock magazines, plus re-stagings on two 1996 "Crimestopper" TV shows). Zapata's community - musicians, artists, writers, actors - even hired their own investigator.
There are songs and paintings and posters about her; but Zapata's real memorial is an organisation. It's called Home Alive, and it came into being with one purpose: to help her community protect itself.
Home Alive was founded by drummer Valerie Agnew, who plays with the band Seven Year Bitch. Says she, "After Mia died, we went on tour, on a tour she would have been part of. I had all the sorrow of her absence. But I also had incredible anger."
Agnew tried to talk this out with other friends, and discovered they, too, felt both fears and conflicts. "We were all like Mia, we were all streetwise. But if it happened to her, it could happen to us."
One thought came back over and over to them: "If she knew how to throw a punch, would she be here?"
So the friends established Home Alive, their initiative towards self-protection. Says one of its founders, Stacey Westcott, "First we tried to check out all the options. Were there self-defense courses already? Were they relevant to our way of life?"
Broadly, the answer was no. Most existing courses were quite expensive. And what they taught opposed the founders' lifestyles. Says Cristien Storm: "We're musicians, artists, actors; we work late at night and don't make much money." Often, like Zapata last said she would, they walked blocks to get a cab or bus.
So, the group created a new agenda, and began to find some different "experts". These recruits were advocates, trainers, lawyers. Once located, some agreed to teach. Now, the Home Alive team has its own instructors.
They hold a range of courses, from anger management and use of pepper spray to the martial arts. Stacey Westcott says that it's mostly basic. "I learned that at my first self-defense class. I hadn't hit anyone since I was six. If someone came at me, what would I really do?"
A bit of music Seattle music trivia: Chris Ballew of the Presidents of The Untied States was formerly in a band called
Go, and it was the vernacular at the time to call musicians by their first names and then their band names second, so we called him ChrisGo.
