John Paget's Blog

The Corporate Ogre Suffers Another Blow

Last night, I dropped in to New World Records to see a live show at 6pm by Olympia musician Calvin Johnson. I'm used to seeing him sauntering up the serpentine Jefferson Avenue in downtown Olympia, so it was surreal to see him walk in off Elmwood Avenue here in Buffalo.

Calvin's a central figure in the legendary Olympia music scene. He is the founder of K Records, whose slogan is "exploding the teenage underground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1982."

The K Records website provides a short, inspiring manifesto-history that is worth reading. Here's a quote: "We are not in the entertainment biz. K is a library card for the culturally deadpan... hometaping is a required course. Johnny Appleseed had the right idea: homegrown tastes best, decentralize the means and distribution of your sustenance, cultivate strains outside the petridish of corporate culture. Decentralize your tastebuds." Read the full text at:
www.krecs.com

The other famous Olympia music label shares a similar philosophy. I don't know if they have a manifesto, or even a slogan. But their name is Kill Rock Stars.

My film Go with the Flow explores the Oly music scene with interviews of Calvin and others, plus performance footage. You can check out a short excerpt at www.pagetfilms.com/gowiththeflow.html

Beer for Breakfast

Yesterday, I was hired to do a half-day shoot in Utica, New York. Its for a documentary/reality style TV show which follows the story of one man's creation of new beer, from concept to market. They are launching the new beer in Texas in a few weeks, and the inventor-brewmeister, Larry, came to Utica, New York to oversee the very first bottling run at the F.X. Matt Brewing Co. (creator of the award-winning crafted Saranac Beers). http://www.saranac.com
Utica reminded me a lot of Olympia, my hometown. They are similar in size, and both towns share the common story of a German immigrant in the 1880's founding a brewery that would employ generations of workers and make important philanthropic contributions to their city. In Olympia, it was Leopold Schmidt; in Utica, it was F. X. Matt, who left a promising career at the Duke of Braden Brewery in Germany to come to the United States and pursue his dream.
The stories diverge in 1983. The Schmidt family sold the Olympia brewery to Pabst, who sold it to G Heilman, who sold it to Stroh's, who sold it to Miller, who merged with South African Breweries to become SAB/Miller, who closed the brewery in July 1, 2003. Within 20 years, big corporate breweries managed to kill off a century old family run brewery that had been the pride and paycheck of a small Northwest town. Once among the country's most efficient breweries, and the only one to ever brew with pure artesian springwater, today it sits empty and unused, forlornly perched above the picturesque Tumwater Falls. http://www.brewerygems.com/olympia.htm
But in Utica, New York things are hopping at brewhouse square (apologies for the pun). Today the Matt Brewing Co. is run by F. X. Matt's grandson Nick (President), and his nephew Fred (Vice-President). It brews its own popular line of crafted ales (Saranac), offers tours, and does contract brewing for startup brewers like Larry.
The shoot started at 8:30am, and an hour later, the first bottle of Stampede Beer was rolling down the line, bottled, capped and labeled. It was at this point, upon the insistence of Larry, that I took a quick break from shooting to sample one.
Cheers, and good luck Larry!
http://www.stampedebeer.com/

More links:
Check out a vintage TV commercial for Olympia Beer. Just go to the official page for Go with the Flow, the film I directed about Olympia, and click on the beer ad image to watch.
http://www.pagetfilms.com/gowiththeflow.html

Save the Old Brewhouse!
Visit http://www.oldbrewhouse.org/