In late November, several of Speakeasy’s web servers were compromised by a hacker based in Russia. After he’d found an exploit, he hijacked the root account on these servers, and then sent a message out to anyone on the server, letting them know what he’d done.
I was working at an arcade in Seattle when a regular (bnelson) called to me from a mezzanine above and dropped his Speakeasy business card to me.
Mike actually had a printed out PowerPoint deck with our executive summary and overview. He was tearing out the slides/pages he didn’t like, physically — I don’t even think we had laptops yet.
One rainy evening in the largely industrial neighborhood of Georgetown, Speakeasy crew member Jason Jensen found himself being carefully stalked by a rather brazen kitten. After she followed him for several blocks, he took her in, with the intention of finding a home for her.
I adored that we had a record exchange going with Wall of Sound records across the street.
“It ruined us,” said co-owner Gretchen Apgar. “You spend two-and-a-half years building an identity, and then you’re told you can’t do what you are doing. We went down hill and floundered.”
My favorite memories of working at Speakeasy all have to do with how ridiculous all of it seemed. We had a shower in the office. If you had an idea, you just did it — if it worked, awesome!
Founded by former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, JAMPAC was focused on fighting several anti-music and anti-performance laws being introduced or enforced in Washington State. One of its primary causes was to repeal the Teen Dance Ordinance, which it ultimately had a hand in achieving in 2002.
“The Speakeasy has been really glorious,” says Gretchen Apgar. “From the beginning, we wanted to mix people,” she adds, referring to their mission.
Partnering with Competitive Local Exchange Carrier Covad, Speakeasy launches its broadband services in the Pacific Northwest.