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News & ArtsWednesday, December 2, 2009
City / Books Tomorrow Night: Bailey/Coy Book's Final Blowout
Posted by David Schmader on Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 3:06 PM
From this week's Books Lead:
Last month, after 26 years as a Seattle institution and a decade long battle for a functional share of the ever-shrinking book business, Broadway's Bailey/Coy Books closed its doors for good. This Thursday, December 3, brings the Bailey/Coy Books Wake and Auction, in which the store's former space will play host to a boozy farewell blowout, featuring performances by Dina Martina and Fuchsia FoXXX, food from Poppy and Table 219, music from Trouble Dicso, and a live auction, including original artwork by Matt Groening, Lynda Barry, and Ellen Forney, dates with hot queer politicians Ed Murray and Sally Clark, and a pair of underwear signed by David Sedaris. In advance of Bailey/Coy's final blowout, it is my honor to commemorate what will forever be remembered as a fucking great bookstore.
Read the full commemoration here. See you tomorrow at what used to be the store. Sob.
1
This is sad very sad. I remember seeing Dan Savage there before he was a Daddy, David Sedaris before he was French, and a few others who shall remain nameless because I can't remember. This is wrong and sad.
3
I wouldn't mind possibly bidding up and winning a cool item, but a $40 entry fee means I won't be attending.
4
My heart is wrenched with grief at the ending of this era, but a $40 entry fee to the closing of a bookstore is a prime example of what is emblematically wrong with indie bookstores...rich people (ok, moderately well-off people making at least $50k a year, if single) can afford to spend $40 on a goodbye party to a bookstore...the rest of us poor, hard-working, book-loving schlubs cannot. Moderately well-off or above people can afford to pay full price for books in beloved indie bookstores; the rest of us can afford to occassionally buy their books at full price in indie bookstores (and usually just wait a year to buy used copies at Half-Price Books). I'm miserable that Michael has to close Bailey/Coy but I don't feel any sense of guilt because I can't afford to spend $40 on a party or because I didn't buy all my books at full price.
5
First, Dave's piece is beautiful, Please read it.
Second, while we certainly plan to have a good time, this event is designed as a fundraiser. When a small business like ours goes under there is debt left that cannot be paid. We are trying to help put some of that debt to bed. I'd love to be able to give my staff severance pay. I'd love to avoid personal bankruptcy and having rightwing christian consservative book distributors coming after me for money for the rest of my life. Some of these things I won't be able to avoid. But tomorrow night's monies will go (hopefully) a little way towards paying some good, hardworking publishers and other folks who have worked with us over the years who won't get paid otherwise.
I know that some people see this event as elitist and I truly am sorry about that. But I must say that in our 26 years of providing events for Capitol Hill I don't ever, recall charging a thin dime for any of them. Not David Sedaris, not Armistead Maupin, not Gloria Steinem, not Annie Liebovitz not Quentin Crisp, not Anne Rice, not Sherman Alexie, Dorothy Allison, Alison Bechdel, James Ellroy, ...
I know that not everyone can afford a $40 ticket .I know that means that not everyone will be able to join us tomorrow night. Please understand there is a reason for the admission price.
And whatever the problem w/ independent bookstores may be today our little wake has nothin to do with them. I swear that on my bookstore's grave.
And I wish everyone who ever had an ounce of affection for Bailey/Coy Books - rich poor and middling - a long and happy life.
Second, while we certainly plan to have a good time, this event is designed as a fundraiser. When a small business like ours goes under there is debt left that cannot be paid. We are trying to help put some of that debt to bed. I'd love to be able to give my staff severance pay. I'd love to avoid personal bankruptcy and having rightwing christian consservative book distributors coming after me for money for the rest of my life. Some of these things I won't be able to avoid. But tomorrow night's monies will go (hopefully) a little way towards paying some good, hardworking publishers and other folks who have worked with us over the years who won't get paid otherwise.
I know that some people see this event as elitist and I truly am sorry about that. But I must say that in our 26 years of providing events for Capitol Hill I don't ever, recall charging a thin dime for any of them. Not David Sedaris, not Armistead Maupin, not Gloria Steinem, not Annie Liebovitz not Quentin Crisp, not Anne Rice, not Sherman Alexie, Dorothy Allison, Alison Bechdel, James Ellroy, ...
I know that not everyone can afford a $40 ticket .I know that means that not everyone will be able to join us tomorrow night. Please understand there is a reason for the admission price.
And whatever the problem w/ independent bookstores may be today our little wake has nothin to do with them. I swear that on my bookstore's grave.
And I wish everyone who ever had an ounce of affection for Bailey/Coy Books - rich poor and middling - a long and happy life.
6
Oh, gawd, I can hardly stand it. I think this is the only business whose closing has ever made me CRY.
I hope the fundraiser goes well.
I hope the fundraiser goes well.
7
I have to admit that I haven't been to Bailey/Coy in a decade. Not because I was patronizing another bookstore, but because I wasn't buying books: I have a library card and I have an internet connection, but more to the point, I'm getting slovenly as I'm getting older, and I just don't read like I used to. I'm not proud of that, but there it is.
B/C was a special place for me when I first came to Seattle, for all the reasons David cites: When a dear friend of mine (hey Marianne!) got a job there, I met David and Michael and Barbara, and lots of other people who, through example, helped me find myself and come out as a gay man. (That sounds hopelessly lifetime movie-ish, but it's true, and I have to own it)
Bailey/Coy was one of those places I thought would always be there, and then suddenly it isn't. It's joined the ranks of a lot of the people and places that made Seattle so fun and exciting for me when I first came here, and are now gone.
I salute Michael for fighting the good fight all of these years, and for retiring B/C gracefully. I might just venture out tomorrow night to pay my respects to a friend I benignly neglected the past decade or so, which is something I deeply regret.
B/C was a special place for me when I first came to Seattle, for all the reasons David cites: When a dear friend of mine (hey Marianne!) got a job there, I met David and Michael and Barbara, and lots of other people who, through example, helped me find myself and come out as a gay man. (That sounds hopelessly lifetime movie-ish, but it's true, and I have to own it)
Bailey/Coy was one of those places I thought would always be there, and then suddenly it isn't. It's joined the ranks of a lot of the people and places that made Seattle so fun and exciting for me when I first came here, and are now gone.
I salute Michael for fighting the good fight all of these years, and for retiring B/C gracefully. I might just venture out tomorrow night to pay my respects to a friend I benignly neglected the past decade or so, which is something I deeply regret.
8
Lighten up about the $40 admission price. It's a fund raiser and you're getting food and champagne and entertainment and helping an old friend out of a bind. Most auction/events are in the $100-$200 range so this is a bargain. You're helping out a good neighborhood fixture.
9
sorry, but I'm just frustrated and upset; for booklovers, the loss of your local bookstore is kin to losing a loved one...and, I"m still going through the seven stages of grief and I'm lingering in anger. And, I'd SELL some books (and dvds) to raise $40 or $50 to donate to the store IF it would help keep it OPEN. (If a 1000 people had done this a year ago, that could have raised $40 to $50k to reinvest in the store...) Part of the reason indie bookstores are going out of business can be laid at the feet of the bookstore owners themselves (hear me out before you call for my blood). By and large, many (not all) indie bookstores are owned by genial, kind, intellectual, arty, book-loving liberal nerds. They tend to be nice people, generous, caring and self-sacrificing...and that is (one of the reasons) indie bookstores fail. To succeed in any kind of business you need at least a little bit of bastard/bitch in you...doesn't mean you have to be the nastiest SOB in town but there are times when it pays to be a little tough and a little mercenary. And, there are also times when you can't be afraid to ask for help...I think if Michael had let it be known that he was struggling (and maybe he did and I just wasn't aware of it) then the community could have gathered round to have a fundraiser or find an investor or SOMETHING to help the store stay afloat and even prosper. And, I'm not writing this to blame anyone but to encourage OTHER owners of small, beloved, independent businesses, booksellers or music sellers or hat sellers or toilet paper dispenser sellers or weekly alternative newspapers to NOT be afraid to ask for help/advice to keep their doors open...we might fail you, but we also might surprise you.
I'm venting...sorry. And post-game analysis really doesn't do much good.
But, I'm really sad about the whole damn thing.
And, I wish Michael and the staff much good life in the future.
And, a toast to our big/little brother Michael Wells, the richest man in town.
More...
I'm venting...sorry. And post-game analysis really doesn't do much good.
But, I'm really sad about the whole damn thing.
And, I wish Michael and the staff much good life in the future.
And, a toast to our big/little brother Michael Wells, the richest man in town.
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