Charles R. Cross

Nice piece on KUOW today about the project of digitizing The Rocket. I particularly appreciated that Libby Denkmann allowed me to address the importance of narrative voice in writing about arts outside mainstream culture. If you want to hear 20 minutes of me (and Gillian Gaar) prattling on about life in analog Seattle 25 years ago, here’s the link:

20 years of Seattle music history is now online For over 20 years, The Rocket documented Seattle's music scene. Now, every issue is available to view online.

I've been hinting at this news for a while, but the entire 21-year span of The Rocket is now online through a massive effort by former staff, the University of Washington, and the Washington Digital Newspapers project. Here's an article in the Seattle Times that talks about the process. The site still needs some small work, but you can search every issue, and the metadata will even allow you to search the classifieds ads (for all those famous musicians' wanted ads). It took several years to even gather usable copies of every issue, and the OCR needs some adjusting, but can be corrected by crowdsourcing. And like The Rocket always was, this site is free to read (thanks the UW and the State of Washington, especially John Vallier, Jessica Albano, Shawn Schollmeyer, Ashland Cross, John Keister, Robert Newman, Art Chantry, Jesse Jesse Marinoff Reyes Design, Kurt Ahrensfeld, and many more). The Rocket was always the contribution of thousands of writers, photographers, illustrators, designers, advertisers, and bands, but especially thanks to all who helped with this preservation effort, to all who read the paper over the years, and to all the bands who made music worth writing about. .

Archives of The Rocket, influential Seattle music magazine, go digital The Rocket magazine, which was published from 1979 to 2000, was a cultural hub for Seattle's exploding music scene. Its archives are being published online.

Just a reminder that tomorrow night (Thurs. March 3rd 7:00 p.m. PST), I’ll be interviewing author Jennifer Haupt about her wonderful new book “Come As You Are,” and her career as a journalist/author, but she'll also be interviewing me about The Rocket, Seattle music, Kurt, Mark, and beyond. This Hugo House sponsored conversation will be online and free, with a Q&A with the audience. Hope to see you. https://hugohouse.org/events/come-as-you-are-book-launch/?fbclid=IwAR0M9QIWhtT_-XMRh1bHbqKDCjTM1NwOzWJ3l9CrFdFyoeH9O2wf9iz7kwo

Book Launch: Come As You Are, Jennifer Haupt in Conversation with Charles R. Cross - Hugo House Join Jennifer Haupt for a lively conversation with music journalist Charles R. Cross, to discuss the explosion of grunge music, all things Nirvana, the