i don't care so much about the block party aspect as much as the djs outside in nice weather aspect being lost. lounging around in nice weather with good music should be a staple here, and it unfortunately isn't. one of my big takeaways from pride weekend is that seattle people would dance in the daytime, and i'd like to see more events held there, the return of sundazed, and all manner of new events with djs in daylight. someone get on that, even if it's renegade-style (and invite me - i'll bring fresca!)

Outdoors, sunshine, DJ's = all good to me. I think this is in need to support! This city doesn't enjoy nearly enough sunshine so any chance for an outdoor event with decks, is something we should crave! No brainer!

Block party should have DJs, whether they're decibel-affiliated or not. Seattle has enough diversity among its DJs to represent rock, hiphop, techno, house, soul, mod, noise, world music, and every other genre.

Thank heavens. That tripe was BOOORING. Speaking of electronic music coverage, as the Music Editor why don't we ever see you write anything other than your column on it? I'm surprised that you aren't more well rounded in that regard.

Lame! Decibel-related or not, they've gotta have DJs.

Jaclyn, a column, event reviews, and album reviews aren't enough for ya?

>attracted “dismal� numbers of onlookers

Please correct me if I'm wrong here but they had this tiny cordoned off space against a wall with barely any space to stand around. What were they expecting?

in response to EM:

Features would be nice. He is the Music Editor. And I rarely see a review with his name on it. Looking back to the days of Jennifer and Kathleen, it seemed that they had their hand in features, their column (which were more prominent than his), up & comings AND album reviews. I wonder if it's Dave's love for everything electronic that has inhibited his ability to write a variety of pieces for the paper.

Gogo is correct; Decibel got handed a dud space to present its talents.

Jaclyn: If you check my archives, you'll see I've covered a large variety of artists in The Stranger.

Believe me, I'd love to write more features. However, I'm still adjusting to the onerous workload that comes with being The Stranger's music editor. The music section is by far the biggest in the paper and editing it is incredibly time-consuming. The addition of Line Out obligations also drains time away from feature-writing.

It is my hope to eventually become more efficient with the editing process to allow me more time to write features. In the meantime, please petition the Almighty to increase the hours of the day to 36. Thank you kindly.

Considering we were in a totally separate area from the main stage and booze that you had to pay to get into, I think the Db Stage did just fine. During Lusine's set I counted over 200 people crammed into a space that shouldn't have housed more than 50. I agree that the daytime numbers were poor, but what do you expect considering the circumstances.

Most people do want to listen to Hip Hop and Rock at the Capitol Hill Block Party because that's what it's known for. Last year was an experiment that thought went well and I appreciate the fact that Dave Meinhert gave us the chance to be involved. That being said; no one got paid, it was a ton of work and we were destined to fail based on the nature of the Block Party and the conditions under which we had to work. Lesson learned.

What excited me about Decibel having a stage at the Block Party was the chance to expose people to electronic music who normally wouldn't venture to a club featuring same. It was an opportunity to preach to the unconverted and possibly turn on unsuspecting folks to some great music. Maybe I'm overly quixotic, but this seems like A Good Thingâ„¢.

Hell, I think there should be a noise stage at the Block Party. If you're gonna expose people to things they wouldn't go to on purpose, may as well go all the way. Especially if you locate a lot of cheap booze nearby.