The Small Talk Cafe

The Small Talk Cafe is a loose gathering of friends that started in 1979 and served as an outlet for music and other community based projects. Over time the people, location and types of projects have varied considerably; but at the heart of the cafe remains the need to provide for voices in the community that are not usually heard.

The church above was rented out for most of the musical performances during the first year of the cafe's existence. Early events include the performance of "Twelve Boats" by the group Strange that was captured on cassette, transferred to vinyl as part of the "Strange Souvenir Album" and has now been re-released in Germany decades later.

As an aside to the kind folks who have made a place in their hearts for this album I invite you to listen to the studio version of "Twelve Boats" recorded years later by the same people and released on the "Studio of Doom" cassette or listen to a recent recording of "Four Eyes" or "A Faced Dream" from d.c.'s Three Re-Treads project.

Small Talk has been responsible for many community events, including performances at the Java Flow and the now defunct Dreamz Galleria. The bands featured included Treehouse, The Void (an Olympia band, not the more famous band of the same name), Naked, Cheshire, Creep, DreamKitchen, Moodboy and the Diva, Foodpusher and finally Haroldo and the Grufs.

More recently Laureen Brian, a founding member of Small Talk has been working with students from our daughter's elementary school on writing and performing plays. I've linked to two plays written by the students along with her document explaining it's importance as examples of the work she's been doing. - carl


Wallflowers in a Windtunnel
Dragon's Very Dry Cleaning Cleaning
Esemes's Wedding