But there are good discoveries, and one that pleased me greatly tonight was finally going through a huge envelope of photos, newspaper clippings, ads, and posters that I'd left at someone's house since 1982. I found all the posters I did for a band called The Visible Targets. The Targets were three sisters and a male friend, all from Yakima, who wrote their own original music and were very popular in Seattle while they were together. Just looking through the stuff reminded me of lots of youthful hoopla. The late 70's and early 80's were so much fun! New Wave, skinny ties, ankle boots, shaggy bangs teased and sprayed into spikes, and peppy, energetic music. I thought it was so wonderful when college radio finally switched over from dirgy, anthemic stadium rock to the short, sassy, dance-pop at the end of the 70's. I still like lots of it, too, especially the Fixx, Elvis Costello, Devo, and Split Enz.

Basically, once 1979 came along, I dropped out of my classical music career in favor of smoking a lot of pot and following the local rock'n'roll scene. Of course, I couldn't actually play guitar or sing loud enough to be in a band myself but I haunted the Seattle nightclubs every weekend and worked as a waitress in enough bars to make meeting the bands easy. I offered to do band posters. I had lots of work after the first few came out. I ran around with dj's and musicians, ran lights at shows, ate at Denny's way too often, and worked in record stores to pay the rent. It was pretty much non-stop fun. I gave it up for a day job and stability, but while I was willing to live on Fritos and cocaine I enjoyed myself to the hilt.

Even 15 years later, the posters don't look too bad, considering I didn't know much about design; it was all instinctive, and anyway they were meant to be seen on telephone poles from the street so they had to be extremely simple and graphic. It's very cool to see how my style is still so similar yet so much more assured. I had a good stroll down memory lane with those posters tonight. They're not a bad legacy from my not-so-far-removed youth. I still wish I hadn't written quite so many absurd letters to friends, though. Sheesh. I just cringe when I look at the way I wrote then. It's a good thing I've given up writing personal letters to everyone.