Georgetown is on the outskirts of industrial Seattle, in the shadow of Boeing. Deco-era brick buildings are still within the grasp of artists and small businesses that have been pushed out of Pioneer Square and Belltown by gentrification and condos. Fantagraphics Comics has their stock adjacent to Georgetown Records' incredibly strange vinyl.
According to Wikipedia, "Georgetown has had a certain degree of a "scene" since the 1990s. It seemed to peak in the winter of 2001, when Industrial Coffee and Stella Pizza were both hosting a lot of live musical performances. The former folded, and the latter stopped hosting shows and changed its name to Stellar Pizza.
Since that time, however, quite a few new bars and coffeehouses have opened in the neighborhood, plus a record store, a barber shop, a bakery, a scooter shop, a "skin sanctuary" (which is to say, a waxing salon), and an art gallery/recording studio."
Laura Cassidy of the Seattle Weekly described the prevailing aesthetic: "Creatively employing the open, airy brick-walled spaces left behind by industry and manufacturing, and augmenting them with local art and 20th-century detritus, Georgetown's merchants consistently fashion warm, imaginative interiors: places you want to visit and never want to leave. Just walking through the streets you witness post-squat, industrial bohemian chic.
Georgetown is bounded on the north by the mainlines of the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad, beyond which is the Industrial District; on the west by the Duwamish River, across which is South Park; on the east by Interstate 5, beyond which is Beacon Hill; and on the south by Boeing Field. Despite being surrounded on all sides by industry and major transportation corridors, Georgetown retains a good number of residences and businesses.
White settlement began on September 16, 1851, when Luther Collins staked his claim. It was named by Julius Horton after his son in 1890. Rainier Brewing Company's original Rainier Brewery, once reportedly the sixth-largest brewery in the world, began operations in 1882. On the National Register of Historic Places and now called the Georgetown Brewhouse, the red brick brewery, home to artists and small businesses, dominates the commercial district along Airport Way S.
Georgetown existed as an independent city from 1904 to 1910, when it was annexed by Seattle. The movement for annexation began in 1906 but did not gain significant support until 1909. Following presentation of a petition for an annexation vote, a special election was held on March 29, 1910. The annexation proposition passed with 389 votes in favor and 238 opposed. The City of Georgetown was officially consolidated with Seattle on April 4, 1910.
Fantagraphics is dedicated to promoting comics as an art form and has published critically acclaimed and award-winning series and graphic novels such as Ghost World, Hate and Love and Rockets, for many years it was financially dependent on its pornographic Eros imprint.
In 2003 Fantagraphics almost went out of business due to the failure of its then-distributor to the book trade. Fantagraphics was saved by a restructuring and a successful appeal to comic book fandom that resulted in a huge number of orders.
My favorite is "Bitchy Bitch," by Roberta Gregory. Fantagraphics hosts gallery openings and has a couple of active half-price rooms, one for regular underground comics, one for erotic ones.
Suppose you loved underground comics like Robert Crumb and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (if you are a baby boomer) or you are into anime (your parent is a baby boomer), they will have it.
Jim Woodring was featured, in a show called "Seeing Things." Miller Draft and water were served and the bar next door had free peanuts. Jim Woodring (born October 11, 1952) is a comic book author and artist. Jim suffered from hallucinations of floating, gibbering faces over his bed as a child. He told The Comics Journal that under the right circumstances he is still capable of "hallucinating like mad." Woodring dropped out of college when he hallucinated a cartoon-like frog in the middle of an art history course. He spent a few years working as a garbageman, developed a serious drinking problem, eventually quit drinking, then worked in animation studios, then turned to comics. He gets serious points (from me) for being self-taught.
Georgetown Records sells the best and cheapest vinyl party records in all genres, strong especially in exotica, western and foreign rarities. The prices are unbelievably good and the wares hard to resist.
You think you have alot of these in your garage or basement ..
Note the expert Photoshopping of the Lee Harvey Oswald assassination by Jack Ruby to create a rockabilly Band on the door of The Shitter.
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