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 Recently, Flagpole magazine in Athens, GA celebrated their 20th year publishing. As the "color bearer of Athens' arts and music scene," this little weekly alternative newspaper has had as much an impact on those that worked for it as it has had on the city it covers. I felt honored that I was asked to write my recollections, which I include here as well.
The other recollections are enlightening as well and shows just how much Flagpole affected all our lives.
There's Something About A Newspaper: The Who, What, Where, When of Flagpole After 20 Years
Flagpole Opened The Door To The World Of Athens And Beyond
Dear Flagpole, Happy Anniversary! I remember the early
years when you were just a wisp of a thing running out of an
un-air-conditioned bike shop (when I came upon you). Try putting a
magazine together when it’s 90+ degrees outside, the building you’re in
has no windows and the little brown mice are vying for their own space.
So here it is, all these years later and I’m late again on a deadline,
writing past midnight just like the old days!
I was the music editor, and I used to joke that Flagpole
was the chronicler of the life and times of a small, college town where
you couldn’t throw a CD without hitting a musician or artist. The staff
was small - Steve Crawford, Editor; Dennis Greenia, Publisher; founder/
owner Jared Bailey. My roommate, Lisa, was Circulation Manager: she
even dressed up as a Flagpole box for Halloween one year. Pete came a few years later and shaped us up into a more formidable entity.
Early on I spent hours calling record companies proselytizing the
music scene in Athens, asking to get on their mailing lists for records
and CDs or to set up interviews with touring bands. For once we now had
a chance to be counted among the other alternative magazines around the
country who were all hastening an alternative press revolution.
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| At the 20th anniversary party in Athens: L to R: former publisher Denns Greenia, Flagpole editor Pete McCommons, former Athens mayor Gwen O'Looney, Pete's wife Gaye. |
At least, it felt like that - as if we were part of an uprising,
battling against the established mainstays in press, music, culture,
art, politics: our fearless leaders at the front lines of local
battles, whether early bar closings or mayoral races. The battles were
never-ending, and sometimes won. Athens was experiencing another golden
era.
We were privy to secret shows either with R.E.M. or otherwise,
special tapings, recordings or opportunities to get tickets to concerts
and touring shows, which as a financially struggling college student, I
might never have experienced: seeing Jeff Buckley perform or meeting
Thom Yorke of Radiohead. There were opportunities to work on political
campaigns or volunteer for community events such as the Twilight bike
races. We even produced our own Flagpole Christmas
records featuring local bands doing holiday songs as well as a spoken
word cassette. Highlights for me include interviewing Robyn Hitchcock,
Peter Buck, John Perry Barlow and Eliot Wigginton (before he was
discovered as a child molester) plus dancing with Billy Bragg at the 40
Watt, seeing Love Tractor and Pylon, managing Trinket and seeing so
many performances - all priceless memories.
Those were the days of fanzines and chap books, grassroots political
organizing, a new environmental awakening, Flicker and the beginning of
the Mental Health Benefits. Flagpole sponsored “Jesus
Christ Superstar: A Resurrection” at South By Southwest in Austin, TX;
Michael Stipe introduced Al Gore at a rally for then-candidate Bill
Clinton at UGA, and twice-Mayor Gwen O’Looney greeted constituents at
the 40 Watt Club on occasion. Flagpole opened a door for
me to this world, and I must say I owe my liberal awakening to Greenia,
who had an uncanny knack of being able to pick people apart to reveal
their potential.
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| Former Flagpole editor Stephen Crawford (left) with writer Richard Fausset. |
So, I am honored to have been part of Flagpole’s
history. It introduced me to friends I still know and, wondrously, most
are still bound to this tiny town. Mazel tov! Here’s to the next 20
years!
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