Bushwick Asks: What do you miss about the 1980s?

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Ready Player One is filled with 1980s pop culture references. The book is almost a love letter to 1980s video game culture and it’s hard to read without hitting up YouTube to listen to the songs author Ernest Cline mentions in the text and maybe to watch clips of people playing the video games he references. All the 80s nostalgia got me thinking about what I miss the most from the decade I grew up in like New Edition and playing Below the Root on my family’s Commodore 64. Since I was reminiscing, I asked the artists performing at our Bumbershoot Ready Player One show, what do you miss most about the 1980s? What are you nostalgic for?

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This Giving Tuesday, Support Your Local Arts Programs

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Giving Tuesday is here, and who better to support than your favorite musical and literature-based arts organization?

Every dollar you give today helps us further Bushwick Northwest programming through The Bushwick Book Club Seattle and STYLE: Songwriting Through Youth Literature Education.

Ticket sales and school and library programs are only a small part of our net support. Donations from people like you are what allow us to reach students and audiences with music inspired by literature, and keep the music and words flowing. You’ll be supporting projects like these:

  • STYLE grant & scholarship programs for low income schools
  • Identifying schools that are in need
  • Production of live Bushwick Book Club Seattle events
  • Commissioning new works
  • Free recording time for Bushwick Artists

Bushwick Northwest can really use your support!

Tax deductible donations can be safely accepted through our fiscal sponsor, Shunpike. Donate Here<<<<.

Or become a Bushwick Member!

If you would like to become a member of The Bushwick Book Club Seattle, where you can take advantage of benefits built specifically for our book-loving, music-loving audience, please visit our Membership Page.

Discounts to all our events will only be the start this year. We will soon be rolling out new benefits and treats for our members.

 

Thank you for supporting your local arts scene! 

 

New Literary Inspired Music From Anna Coogan

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I was an early member of The Bushwick Book Club Seattle, before I moved to Ithaca, NY in 2011. Before Bushwick, I hadn’t done much writing about books at all, and my first few shows were quite a challenge. Now, more than a decade into my career, I lean heavily on literature to bring new ideas and fresh­­­ness into my writing. (I used up my quota of whiskey-swilling country songs in about 2005.)

Ithaca, much like Seattle, is a literary town. The two major employers in the area are Cornell and Ithaca College, and during school sessions there are as many students as locals. There is also a lot of turn over – people constantly moving in-and-out and every spring free piles of books pop up like crocuses. There is also a huge book sale that takes place twice a year over the course of three weekends. By the last weekend, they are giving away books by the bagful — a quarter a bag. Between those two sources, I have several books that have become trusty inspiration when I sit down to write: an old volume of Scottish songs, some contemporary Irish poems, an ancient hymnal, and a book of Sylvia Plath poetry. I also found and toted home three volumes of Tolstoy, Niezche, and James Joyce, but those are currently serving as coasters. One can dream.

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Music Inspired by Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life – Free Download

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Last April at the Royal Room we performed original music inspired by Molly Wizenberg’s A Homemade Life. It was a pretty spectacular night. Not only was it our first attempt at representing a cookbook in our book club, but Molly Wizenberg herself was in attendance.

Since then, two of Molly’s favorite songs from that evening (she said so herself over on her blog) have recently been recorded in the studio.

Slow Roast My Tomatoes by Debbie Miller
Bread And Wine by Nick Foster and Jazmarae Beebe

You are going to want to spend some time with these tunes – they are pretty great. You can download them for free.

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