These Streets: Thank You Donors

We want to THANK the following people for their DONATIONS to the THESE STREETS USA Projects Fundraising campaign! First day and a half are looking good THANK YOU to:

Terri Weagant
Kate Wisniewski
Jen Taylor
Rudy Yuly
Barbara Pritchard
Blair Payson
Patience Cryst
Leah Michaels
Jeanne Bulla
Amy Allsopp
Tracy Thompson
Niki Avataria Flanly
Cynthia Payne
Stefanie Brendler
Jordan Kowalke
Stacey Wescott
Robert Scheu
Karen Jaroneski
David Coffey
Alyssa Byer
Frances Dunaway
Jennifer Forland
Peter Alba
Julia Collins
George Marsh
Erin Sullivan
Margaret Savas
Eve Boranian
Josh and Holly Rudinoff
Peggy Gannon
Robert Peaslee
Imogen Love
Jackie and Glenn Kramer
David Pascal
Rosamond Helms
James Osmer
Andy and Nancy Jensen
Jenny Hill Pollick
Susan Pritzker
Marlow Harris
Anonymous

YOU ARE PART OF OUR FAMILY NOW!

These Streets: Check out the Easy Street Blog!

EASY STREET Records has given the project major daps by posting this on their front page of the new blog:

http://easystreetonline.com/blog/

¡Muchas gracias amigos!

These Streets: Capping Day

Friday jams. Here’s Capping Day playing “Windshield RD.” live at the Rocky Candy in ’95. We have Laura Weller (vocal, guitar), Bonnie Hammond (vocal, keyboard), Joe Ross (bass), and Scott McCullum (drums). Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2UXhwj-KsM&feature=relmfu

These Streets: Third Workshop!

From left to right: Evan Crockett, Eden Schwartz, Mitch Ebert, Hollis Wongwear, Gretta Harley, Fiia McGann, Rachel Glass, Gina Malvestutuo, Sami Detzer, John Q. Smith

Here’s a photo of all of our lovely actors working hard on making Act 1 a reality. This was our second workshop with the actors and our very first workshop with the band. Everything is looking AND sounding great. We’re really excited for the next round of workshops coming up on Monday!

These Streets: The Gits

Hey you! You’re looking a little tired. You know what I think you need? Some midday ROCK via THE GITS! Enjoy!

While You’re Twisting, I’m Still Breathing – Mia Zapata on vocals, Joe Spleen on guitar, Matt Dresdner on bass and Steve Moriarty on drums

These Streets: The OK Hotel

Alright, ladies and gents! It’s time to voyage into a late great location of ‘90s past. None other than the OK Hotel! The OK Hotel was originally a bar and music venue located under the viaduct in Pioneer square. The Hotel was originally built in 1917 to house workers in the downtown and waterfront areas. It closed down in 1971 and reopened as a cafe in 1990, just in time to host the likes of Nirvana, Maxi Badd, The Gits, 7 Year Bitch, Kristen Barry, Bell and other touring acts from around the country.

Fun fact! Tia Matthews, one of the lovely godmothers of These Streets owned the club with her husband Steve Freeborn, who now owns Royal Room and Rendezvous. Sally Johnson of Faster Tiger,one of our oral history interviewees was a waitress there in early ’90′s. She later went on to book the club.

The OK Hotel, and several other historic buildings, was damaged by the Nisqually earthquake in 2001, causing the OK Hotel to close down after 15 years of service. The OK Hotel now serves as residential housing and artist lofts. It is open to the public every First Thursday for the Art Walk.

These Streets: Tess Lotta!

A shout out to Tess Lotta for an excellent addition to our oral history project! Tess Lotta and Gretta were in a band called Maxi Badd, which was later called Danger Gens. Several of their rocking songs will be featured in the upcoming production of “These Streets!”

And here is a song by the notorious “Danger Gens” themselves! Enjoy “Muscle” written by Tess Lotta (bass and vocals), Gretta Harley is on guitar (and backup vocals) and David Parnes on drums!

Muscle by Danger Gens

Image: Gretta Harley (left) and Tess Lotta at The Project Room on August 13, 2012

These Streets: Free Pussy Riot!

Today the three members of the band “Pussy Riot” faced their sentencing in Russia.

“A Moscow judge sentenced three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison each on hooliganism charges on Friday following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance of dissent.”

Judge Marina Syrova convicted the women of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, saying they had “crudely undermined social order”.

This is a video of the sentencing from the BBC: BBC Sentencing Coverage

Here is a clip of the so called “offensive” performance that landed them two years in jail:

Pussy Riot’s Performance

and here are some pictures of the women on trial:

These Streets: Thanks Charles R. Cross

We want to send out a big thank you to our Godmutha Charles R. Cross for the support, for the paper, the books, the party, the continued recording of Seattle rock history. And you know, just general awesomeness. Enjoy this link to a great interview of Charles in honor of last weekend’s Rocket anniversary party at the Feedback Lounge.

http://www.cityartsonline.com/issues/seattle/2012/08/blast-past

These Streets: Kim Virant and Peg Wood

Scarlet Letter

Just this week we had the awesome opportunity to interview Kim Virant for the These Streets oral history project! In honor of a great interview let’s enjoy some music from her band Lazy Susan.

Here is “Scarlet Letter” by Lazy Susan!  Kim Virant is rocking on vocals, Brian Kenney is on guitar, Tim Dijulio also on guitar, Scott Summers on bass and Rich Stuverud on drums

Poppy

This is a song that includes another one of our lovely interviewees, Peg Wood from Girl With 100 Heads. Bask in the sun and enjoy this clip of,  ”Poppy” by Girl With 100 Heads!

Mike Goodman is on drums, Peg Wood on guitars, Mike Kuhn on bass guitar and vocals, Scott Wagar on vocals and guitar.

These Streets: Squid Row

Photo courtesy Fred Roth

“Everything in this town used to be something else” -These Streets

Squid Row was a classic hangout for the underground youth of Seattle. Residing on the now demolished 500 block of Pine, it was a small and steady staple of the early grunge scene, it hosted several well known and not so well known bands. Like most great venues in Seattle, Squid Row has since become a condo. But, all the blurry memories after too many beers still remain.

 Tell us your favorite memory of Squid Row and for even more great stories about the 500 block of Pine check out this great article from The Stranger!

Bob Murray’s Dog House

Bob Murray’s Dog House was a popular Seattle hang-out from the 1930s until it closed in 1994. Located at the corner of 7th and Bell Streets, The Doghouse offered “non-stop open-24-hours food, booze, music, and fellowship,” according to writer John Hahn.

The Dog House was just a few blocks away from Skoochies (which later became The Oz and Club Amp) and City Beat, it was a spot people would hit before or after a night of clubbing.

The establishment was run by Bob Murray and Laurie Gulbransen. Their motto was, “All roads lead to the Dog House.”

A closing show was played at The Dog House with Gretta Harley, Joey Kline, Kurt Bloch and several others!

These Streets: 66 Saints

We had the privilege of interviewing 66 Saints band members Molly Lannon Kenny and Lisa Orth last week as part of our oral history project. Listen to their song “Driver“, which will be performed by a live band in “These Streets.”

Image by Ellen Forney

These Streets Oral History Project Gets Under Way

The oral history portion of These Streets has begun! To add their unique stories to the history of Seattle music, women from rock bands in the late ’80s/early ’90s are being interviewed on camera by TPR Founder Jess Van Nostrand. The interviews, filmed by Wes Hurley at TPR, feature musicians from bands such as Faster Tiger, Capping Day, Maxi Badd, Miracle Baby, 66 Saints, The Walkabouts and others. The interviews will be housed at the University of Washington Women Who Rock Digital Oral History Archive. And, starting this fall, the interviews will be released online on a weekly basis, leading up to the preview of These Streets at Seattle’s ACT.

Images (top to bottom): These Streets creators Gretta Harley (left) and Sarah Rudinoff; Carla Torgerson of The Walkabouts; Bonnie Hammond (left) and Laura Vanderpool of Capping Day

More about These Streets:

These Streets is an original work of theatre inspired by women rock musicians in Seattle during the infamous “grunge” years. The story centers on five musicians who share a house from 1989-1994 in the Greenlake neighborhood as was inspired by over 25 interviews conducted with the women musicians who were an integral part of the Seattle music scene and whose stories and songs have been overshadowed by the familiar bands and retrospectives. We meet these characters when they are young. We hear their music and witness the challenges they face as their tight-knit community unexpectedly explodes and their city becomes an international rock Mecca. We also meet the characters in the present, their stories evolving just as much as the city around them. These Streets will include music from that era as well as new songs, all played and sung by the characters and a live band. These Streets will have its premiere at ACT Theatre in Feb/March, 2013.

These Streets is a theatrical show about Seattle women rockers who blazed a trail during the early 90’s and who are now older and finding ways to stay vital, making music and art in a city that has changed as much as they have.

Above stills by Wes Hurley

These Streets: Great Callbacks!

We had some awesome people come out for callbacks! I heard some awesome songs and got to hear the some of the writing for the first time. The scenes are really great and it’s very exciting to see real live people play these characters. Thank you to everyone that came out for your brave work!

These Streets: Oral History

These Streets has begun the oral history portion of our project by filming Carla Torgerson of the Walkabouts at The Project Room. More interviews are scheduled for next week and they will be available for viewing late summer/ early Fall. I’m really excited to hear some fascinating stories from awesome ladies!

These Streets: Auction Update

Hey you Golden lovers. We decided to cancel our June 1st fundraising show at ACT because we are using this time to cast, write and create this rock music/play,These Streets. We will be shifting our fundraising efforts to an on- line auction and an upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Stay tuned for amazing items to be auctioned off for the benefit of These Streets and more insider info about the show.

Also, we will be holding call backs this for some of the roles for the reading workshops in July. A big thank you to everyone that auditioned. Your hard work is completely appreciated and we wish everyone at the callbacks the best of luck. Can’t wait to hear these wonderful actors make our words come to life. It’s sure to be a crazy ride and it’s great to have so many awesome people on board!

These Street: Writing in Downtown Seattle Condo!

This view is pretty unchanged, if you take away the Macy's sign. It still says, "The Bon Marche" on the side of the building.

We are having a writing retreat this weekend in downtown Seattle for “These Streets”.  Thank you swanky friend who lent us her place to write for the weekend.

We have our lap tops and Zorro the dog with us and it is an amazing sunny day in Seattle.  Happy to be writing about this city while we look at the skyline.

We are very excited about how the project is shaping up and looking forward  to the next set of workshops!

We will try to think of other rock symbols before we wear out the devil horns… but they do bring a certain nostalgia.

These Streets: Dream Design Team!

It’s official!

Richard E.T. White will be directing “These Streets” at ACT Theatre in 2013!

Our dream design team is taking shape!

Solo Bar

This is an incarnation  of We Are Golden at John’s going away party at Solo Bar. He headed to San Francisco for another chapter. We will miss him dearly as we begin rehearsals on our new record.

From L to R top: Aaron Taylor, Steve Newton, John Hollis Bottom L to R: Sarah, Gretta