You guys should see the Seattle Times online article on Vera today. There's a section that insinuates that you guys think Vera isn't "punk enough" to deserve the money, to paraphrase.

(I'm just reporting this because that insinuation is complete bullshit.)

Wow, that's such a hilarious flipping of any critique that's been aired on Line Out. Not punk enough for their $1.8 million venue, I love it. Only super hardcore punks have places like that, while all the civic-supported organizations have to make due with basements. Crack reporting, guys.

I believe the actual discussion was something more like:
-Vera is great and deserving of support
-Vera isn't punk
-These points are not contradictory

1.8 mil to help white middle class kids hear music and make t-shirts...nice.

little late anon.. go vera!

"smells like teen spirit indeed" lol

The Seattle times article isn't calling The Stranger anti-Vera or anything, however it's pretty strange why they even bring up a couple of lame comments (imho) from that Line Out thread into the whole article to begin with.

Uh, I may have been part of that thread. And point I tried (and failed to) make was not that Vera was not "punk", but that it is disingenuous at best to call it "radical" and kid directed. I later spoke with a friend who runs a non-profit music space in NOLA, and he said "look, it's great they get the money! But it's really just a job training program." Since he was a guy hanging drywall at Clockwork Joe's in PDX before Poison Idea shows in 1980, I took it to heart.

So you go Vera project. I think it's great that you have raised millions of dollars to train Dave Meinert's free interns! And it's also great to see real teen, co-op artist, like Common Market, playing the shows! Cause, you know, real kids making it happen like that never get to play places like Neumos.

rtm!

p.s., I do feel bad if the morons at the Times somehow missed the fact that most Stranger staffers get all wet in the crotch just saying Vera, and somehow conflated the misguided rantings of a kid-hater such as myself with the correct viewpoint that real kid culture should involve a multi-million dollar facility where the Mayor cuts the ribbon.

@ 7 - rtm: You and others may not be aware, but Vera was a response by local radicals/punks/hip hop/activists to the City's draconian and abusive Teen Dance Ordinance.

Part of the goal was to hold the City accountable, for not only being unsupportive, but being repressive of youth culture and music. The venue/home is pretty sweet justice, and people being able to make a living wage off of skills doing something that they love, and isn't feeding the war/death machine? That's even sweeter.

Also, in the big picture of governmental distribution of funds...You think 1.8 million (a fraction of which is your tax dollars) is something, you should see how much you are paying for the Opera House, etc...

Fucking hell, are you really still this cranky RTM?

Yes, Common Market are playing the opening weekend-- Ra Scion and Sabzi have played many, many shows at Vera before they got some (much deserved) notoriety. Also on that bill are young artists from Youth Movement Records, a Bay Area non-profit record label run by youth in much the same way that Vera is. (The latter point, of course, up to you to snark and kvetch about.)

All the artists playing the opening weekend have a lot of history with Vera but I'll just stop trying to convince you or any of the other cranks online about that or how radical Vera is and just say that it's rad and it's too bad you don't appreciate it. I'll concede that your knowledge of history past, who built what, who played where, and all the places punks and activists have been in the NW is obviously more valid than anything that I see teenagers doing in the present at Vera and otherwise.

And it's totally just a trade program, I mean there are all those lucrative jobs that so many ex-Vera folks have found in social work, non-profit organizations, and let's not forget the not-so sacred cash cow that is the local music industry. We are all Ben Gibbards and James Mercers, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and plucking pennies from the air.

But man, seriously give us some credit-- Vera kids are way too smart to work for Meinert for free.