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Cindy Wonderful: Cindy Cindy Wonderful. I was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1975. I lived in Nashville for about six months. And then my family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where I lived till I was about eight. And then my family moved to Colorado where I stayed living until I moved to Olympia, Washington in about--I want to say 2001, 2002 timeline. Somewhere right around there.

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Markly Morrison: Okay, was music a pretty big deal in your family?

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Cindy Wonderful: I had a sister who was six years older than me, and I got a lot of musical influences from her. And my aunt was 10 years older than me, and I got a lot of musical influences from her as well. 80s Music mainly, like Culture Club, Berlin, The Cars, Stevie Nicks, Journey. All kinds of music.

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Markly Morrison:  Can you tell me about your first band–when and where that happened?

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02:30

Cindy Wonderful: Sure. I had musical instruments growing up when I was around nine or ten. I'd have a random xylophone or a guitar or, you know, I get stuff from the swap meets or the flea markets. They were around. And when I was about, I want to say 12 or 13 I took bass guitar lessons. I wasn't that great at lessons. I didn't really learn too much music theory. I didn't catch on that well, but I would more or less learn songs from the teacher. My teacher was about 67 years old. So there was kind of a musical…I wasn't into the kind of music he was teaching so much. But when I really got into it was when I was about 11 years old. My parents brought me a drum set. And from there, I recruited a couple of guys that I went to school with and we started a band, and we were called DOD for Delinquents of Disaster. At this time, I was really into hair bands and music like that, you know, but we didn't really sound like that. But, I remember we had the font of the band was written in bones – DOD – I was always really into writing the font. And one day we finally played our school's talent show, and then everybody called us Dorks on Drugs. But really, it stood for Delinquents of Disaster, but everyone called us Dorks on Drugs. I wasn't even cool enough to know where to find drugs at that time. I wished I could have experimented with drugs, but I didn't even know where to even ask for that kind of stuff. 

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I started playing drums, and I played in a few kind of rock to metal, experimental bands. And then I did that all through high school. I had different bands. And I always kind of got disappointed with the asshole lead singers, you know, that that was my experience time after time. And I was like, You know what? I'm tired of dealing with these people like. I couldn't really sing, but I love rap music. So I started rappin.’ And it's kind of funny because I never liked the lead singer. So I started Scream Club eventually. It was just two singers or rappers, you know, so kind of flip flopped in a way. I was on a lot of bands, and it was great. 

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Before I was in Scream Club, I was in a band called Rainbow Sugar. It was the last band that I played drums in. The bassist for that band, I'd actually moved to Baton Rouge---I forgot about this. Well, I didn't forget about it, but I left that out. I did move to Baton Rouge for a year because my family was from Louisiana. My sister lived there. She went to college there. My aunt lived there. My parents had both lived in Louisiana. So I was the only person in my nuclear family that had never actually lived there. But we used to visit there in the summers and stuff. I moved there for a year when I was--I turned 21 when I when I moved to Baton Rouge. So for like a year I lived in Baton Rouge. And during that time I had been playing the drums primarily in bands, but when I moved to Baton Rouge is when I met some students that were that were going to school to learn music production and recording. And I recorded a song where I was rappin’ with them. And it was really fun. It was cool. And I kept the song. I recorded it and I moved back to Colorado. And I didn't have a rap group or a project yet. It was just I had gone to record with my friend and we did these songs. And they had a group called The Wet Daddy Clique. But it was really primarily just recordings. They didn't play shows. But they had these incredible Robitussin inspired rap songs that were just experimental and really kind of far out and like no other rap stuff I'd ever heard. I really love the Beastie Boys Check Your Head album. And it kind of sorta was like that, but way more psychedelic. Just kind of funny and mysterious, and ridiculous at times. And so I did my song with them. 

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And I came back to Colorado. I was in a band with a couple--a guy and a girl--and their relationship was just very, he was just not cool at all. He was kind of abusive, and I left the band and it was kind of a bummer. But me and the girl kind of kept in touch. And when I moved back to town, I started playing with her and I showed her my recordings that I did in Louisiana. She was like, Well, this is cool. We should make a band doing this stuff. And I was like, Wow. That just blew my mind. To ever think that I could be like the lead singer or rapper or, you know, the front person of a band was like, no way. And so we started doing it and it sounded really good. And we got this other girl that I knew from back in the day, from that band. And so we had this all girl band. There was four of us. It was called Rainbow Sugar. And it was just really fun and we got fairly popular pretty fast because we were just really a fun group. It sounded really different and the bass player was a total knockout so that also helped. I was pretty ridiculous. So when you put all of us together, we were kind of a unique group of individuals. And it was just fun. And we were just four wild girls. And it was a lot of fun. And some time when I was living in Colorado around this time, and actually, before that band even formed, but when I was in the old band--with the bassist, when we were playing in the other band together--I had this girlfriend. Her name was Paige Dearman. And she used to do this musical project called Midget and Hairs. And they were on Elephant Six Records--or I don't know if she was on it. But she was friends with all these people. And I don't know if you ever heard of the Apples in Stereo? 

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Markly Morrison: Oh, sure. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Well, at this time in Colorado, they were from Louisiana, but I didn't know them from Louisiana. And they were from a different part of Ruston, Louisiana. Or I don't know if they were from there, but all these people knew each other from there. And it was the Apples, and at that time, Jeff Mangum, who does a project called--

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11:18

Markly Morrison: Neutral Milk Hotel? 

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, yes, Neutral Milk Hotel. That's it. And they were all around in Colorado at the time. And actually, Bonnie Prince Billy–Will Oldham–he was there too. I never met him, he had left like right before I had got there. But I would hear some of the kind of music coming on from this very creative scene that I was exposed to by dating this girl. She had this seven inch and it had The Apples on it and Will Oldham and Jeff [Mangum] and a bunch of people. And it was kind of this experimental album--these recordings they did. And she would play live. But live, it was pretty more sort of outrageous. It didn't exactly sound like the album. But it was a cool project. And through that I got exposed to a lot of independent music, and finding out about Elephant Six, and I think it was her who might have told me about K Records. I was trying to even remember the first time that I heard about it, and I think it might have been through her. And then some of the other musical people I was around, were like, “Oh, yeah, K records.” And then I heard that there was just this little label in Olympia that was putting out pretty interesting music. And I went to--long story longer. I'm sorry. And I hope that there's anything that you can use out of this, right. I'm sorry if I'm all over the place.

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13:17

Markly Morrison: No, this is, this is good. Yeah.

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Cindy Wonderful: So me and that girl broke up. But I did go visit her in Seattle.

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Markly Morrison: This is still Paige we're talking about?

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, Paige Dearman. And I went to see her in Seattle. She was living with this guy. I think his name was Andy? I can't remember. I remember his musical project was called Marshmallow Coast. And it was pretty cool. 

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Markly Morrison: Another Elephant Six related group. Yeah?

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Cindy Wonderful: I think so. He was definitely in the mix. But I'm not sure if he was on Elephant Six. Or if he was on--

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Markly Morrison: At least at one point they were. I actually read the book about that whole thing.

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14:18

Cindy Wonderful: Oh, they have a book? 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, I would love to read that. 

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Markly Morrison: I’ll send you a link to that. It's pretty cool.

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14:26

Cindy Wonderful: Oh, that would be great. They were doing really cool stuff in Denver. There was a very interesting mix of people. And there was another band, Dressy Bessy, that was always around too. And it was kind of a nice little community. 

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When I went to Seattle, that's again, where I kind of started hearing more about Olympia and K Records. I don't remember if it was before then or after then, but at some point I remember Beck had that Loser song out. I didn't really totally like that song, but I thought Beck was interesting. And I think it might have been Paige that told me about, that he had an album on K Records, and she might have made that mix for me. And I just love that album. I thought it was so good. And I listened to that all the time. So that's all that I knew about Olympia. I didn't know too much about it. I knew about K Records. And I started hearing a little bit more about like, you know, when Nirvana got super popular. I loved Nirvana and high school. And I remember hearing some boy that used to hang around us told us about Sub Pop, and how they were on Sub Pop before, and that was this label from the Northwest. And so I started piecing together that the Northwest in general had a lot of musical scenes kind of popping off. Underground networks of alternative bands. I had heard of Bikini Kill, but I hadn't really--they weren't really connected to Olympia at first, you know, hearing about them. I didn't necessarily connect them to Olympia. I was more into--I liked alternative music. I liked Faith No More and stuff like that when I was growing up. I went through loving hair bands and metal bands to loving Faith No More and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Nirvana and The Breeders and stuff like that. And I also loved the band Bread and Carole King and the Mamas and the Papas and stuff like. I didn't really get too into punk rock until later. And I remember the first time--

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18:02

Markly Morrison: Like in your adulthood? 

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Cindy Wonderful: Well, I got more into punk probably into my late teens. But more as a scene. I liked going to the shows, I liked the ethos of punk rock, but I didn't really like the sound of it. 

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Markly Morrison: Sure, sure. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Like the first time I heard Bikini Kill, the sound just didn't do it for me. Now as I grew up later and kind of realized--I made the connection of what Bikini Kill did and how they went about it and I just got immense respect for all of them and what they were saying. And I saw the connection and what they did--even though I didn't know them personally--how it contributed to the life I was experiencing and the scene I was experiencing and the opportunities that I have. But I might be getting ahead of myself because I should preface by saying like, I was doing music. I always loved music. I was also gay, but I never felt like the gay culture I was exposed to didn't really--I felt like an outsider there just as much as anywhere else. So I felt like maybe I was born in the wrong body, because I seem to resonate more with this rock and roll scene, the music scene, more than I do this gay bars and stuff like that. And I felt relatively accepted in the music scene, except for it was always kind of a weird dynamic because I often hooked up with straight girls and that didn't totally--I mean it worked but it didn't really, I don't know. It just wasn't--I don't know. 

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Markly Morrison: Not sustainable, maybe?

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, exactly. When I moved to Olympia, not only did I--There was not a queer per se culture. I didn't know even the difference between queer or gay or anything like that. I'd never seen other rock and roll dykes or lesbians or whatever. I had never seen anyone like me. 

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Markly Morrison: In Denver?

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Cindy Wonderful: No, no. Now as I've grown older, there was there was a generation before me that had these elements of like, lesbian avengers, and like this kind of punky kind of music influenced culture. But since there wasn't internet then it wasn't obvious to me. I didn't know till I was older that this whole generation above me had this scene going on. 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah.

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Cindy Wonderful: But I learned it, but not while it was happening. Since it was still the 90s, if you weren't living it while it was happening, there wasn't a lot of documentation. And it wasn't the easiest to find that stuff. But yeah, guess there was stuff going on, it was just a little older than me. I just missed it, and I was just enough in the suburbs that you're not gonna find it just driving through town. Because I was in the suburbs. All the cool stuff was happening in the city. 

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Markly Morrison: Right. 

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Cindy Wonderful: But anyway, by the time I do make it to Olympia, and I'm in Rainbow Sugar, and I'm having fun, and this band is going well, and we're on tour, which to me is like a dream come true. Just even be able to tour. Totally amazing. But then I get to Olympia, and I'm like, Oh my gosh. My mind was blown. When I got to Olympia, not only was I tolerated for being this rock and roll tomboy, I was celebrated. The ratio of queer girls at the time, there was a lot of them. And for every seven feminine girls, there was one tomboy. And we were pretty sought after at that time. And it blew my mind. So now I'm like, flip flopping from being an outcast, to being happy just to have any kind of scrap of attention I can get to going to Olympia where people are thinking I'm cute. And thinking I'm cool. I couldn't believe it. I was like, Whoa, I gotta move here. This is blowing my mind.

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23:24

Markly Morrison: Do you remember where that first show was that you played in Olympia?

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Cindy Wonderful: I don't remember the first show that we played. But I remember that Mac Dawg must have had something to do with it. Because this band Friends Forever took us on tour. And I remember meeting Mac Dawg in Santa Cruz and Mac Dawg was from Olympia. And he did a lot of musical projects from Human Jukebox to Mac Dawg, Freedom Feather. He had played--he had done a lot of music and he was a very unique character. And his brother was also in bands, hippie bands. Totally different scene than me, but also I feel like Olympia was the type of place that really rewarded originality and really was a great place to experiment and to just try something. Even if there's people who don't like you or whatever, I never felt like Olympia was discouraging. Not everyone likes everything, but I feel like still you want to try something? Sure, go do it. There'll be an opportunity, there'll be some fundraiser or some secret cafe or some house party that you can do whatever it is you do there. And I love that. I absolutely love that.

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Markly Morrison: What was Rainbow Sugar, what was the show like, what was your lineup? What were you bringing that the people in Olympia hadn't seen before?

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25:42

Cindy Wonderful: I think I might remember the first show. I'll tell you my first memories of Olympia, and I don't know exactly which order they can. I do remember we played a place called The Arrowspace. 

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Markly Morrison: Okay. 

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Cindy Wonderful: It was above Ottos, and I don't know if you remember that place or if it was there in 2006.

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Markly Morrison: It was. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, Okay. So The Arrowspace that was one of our first shows. We played there. And I don't know if it was the rapping, or that we were outrageous, or that we were very colorful, or just wild. I'm not sure what it was that Olympia resonated with, but they were very kind to us. And it was incredible. It seemed like the people there just were ready to have fun. Ready to have fun. If it was different, if it was unique, if it had a good beat, Olympia was ready to party. And that was what I remember about The Arrowspace. And I remember, whatever the house party we played, I don't remember anything about the show, except for when we got there. We arrived in our big colorful tour bus that had Rainbow Sugar, a mural all over it. And we get to the house, and I don't remember if it's the person setting up the show or if that's where we're staying, but on the door it had a piece of paper with a little marker rainbow on it and it was like, “Rainbow Sugar Pre-game.” And we’re like, Oh, okay, that's cool. They've been celebrating us. Because we've never been to Olympia before, and we saw that on their door. And we're like, oh, okay. Wow, what a welcome. And then we went there and all  I remember is they were Ultimate Frisbee players. This was before I saw the queer girls and everything like that. This was a bunch of guys, and I remember they played Ultimate Frisbee. I can't tell you anything else about them, except for they were really ready to party. And they really welcomed us with the “Rainbow Sugar Pre-game Show” paper on the door. They didn't even know we were coming. That was for each other. They didn't know we were going to be going to their house before that, but anyway, that's where we ended up. And then I'm walking down the street and Olympia and this guy, Lars, who is friends with Mac Dawg, he starts walking beside this. And he's like, “Rainbow Sugar?” or something like that. And we're like, yeah. Whoa, that's crazy. We'd never even been to this city and this person knows us. We're like, wow. We start to feel like this is really cool. And then he's like, Yeah, I'm friends with Mac Dawg. We met, it was cool. He might have even been playing later. I don't know. 

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Markly Morrison: Do you know, were they playing your singles on KAOS or anything like that back then?

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Cindy Wonderful: I don't know, because all we had at that time was a tape. It was an orange tape, and then later there was a purple version and a blue version, but we just had a cassette tape. So I don't know how people--and then we had like one seven inch that was a split seven inch with Wesley Willis. So I don't know how people had heard of us at that time, except for Friends Forever might have--They used to tour a lot, so they might have given our music to some people there because they were always trading music. They were always in the know, what was going on everywhere. They always seem to be tapped in everywhere, and we found out a lot about a lot of musicians up and down the west coast because of Friends Forever. But in Olympia, one show that I remember before that I lived in Olympia, and I don't remember what year this was, but it was a May Day. It was in the middle of a kind of busy intersection by, what was that? It was on the west side. What was that pizza place? It was like--

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Markly Morrison: Vic's maybe? 

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, Vic's. Vic’s, and, you know that giant intersection there?

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Markly Morrison: Yeah, it's a Harrison and Division, I think,

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, there was a May Day there, and so Rainbow Sugar played there. So these are my impressions of Olympia before I lived there: It's got a cool record label, and they are acting like they know us there, they're ready to party and have a great time. And I'm a tomboy and so girls think I'm cool there. There's so many cute queer femmes that I'm just overjoyed. I’m overjoyed. And, at this time, this was a May Day, and it was in that section, and they had the section closed off and people made that happen. They didn't ask for a permit. They just gather and they had bands playing in it, and I and Rainbow Sugar played there. We played in the middle of that intersection, and there was so much going on, so many people out there. And I just could not believe it. Because in Denver that would have been shut down, like in one second, that just would not have gone down. It couldn't have gone down. There's no way the police would let that slide. And it blew my mind that like bands were playing in the police were directing cars away. I was like, What? Is this real? And then going on campus at Evergreen [State College] and seeing composting bins, I was like, What? What? People are really different here than what I was exposed to and I just thought, this is magical. Because I grew up thinking—I always wanted to live in the 60s or a time where there was real change. Woodstock and civil rights and everything powerful and meaningful and people fighting for a better life. And Olympia kind of made me feel like it was still possible, and that wasn't beaten out of people yet. That the dream was alive somewhere. That’s how I felt. 

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When my band broke up—okay, so fast forward. We had come, we had ended up touring there a few times, and each time kept having these incredible experiences, and getting to know more and more about Olympia. Kill Rock Stars—I think Sleater Kinney might have introduced me to, I mean, not them personally, but because they got popular, I think I might have heard of Kill Rock Stars and then Chainsaw Records and then The Need. The Need was another band that was coming out of there. And I'm like, What is this weird music and they're queer, and they've got such great, solid imagery. And it was just unapologetically queer, and it just made being queer seem so cool. I just felt that Olympia was where I wanted to be. I felt like my whole dream as a child was to grow up and be a rock star, and when I went to Olympia I saw all these great examples of people living off of their music and art. I saw Nikki McClure selling her calendars and stuff and I saw The Need. And I saw—I think Radio might have moved by the time I lived there, but I saw K Records, Kill Rock Stars, Chainsaw. I saw Yo Yo Records. I saw all of these things happening and people making a living off of their creativity, and I didn't really know anyone making a living off of their creativity, like in my peer group before, I didn't know anyone that was doing that. And I saw that happening in Olympian and the rent was cheap, and there was just so much culture. I just thought it was very accepting. Tons of queer stuff going on, and tons and tons of just interesting music. It didn't really seem to be like a clash, and it seemed like a lot of punk rockers that were dancing to pop music, which people in Colorado I knew were like music snobs. They wouldn't be caught dead admitting that they liked a popular song. But in Olympia, I would see like, these kind of cool, totally alternative people like singing to a popular song and I’d be like, “Oh, you don't judge this stuff? That's great. I’ve been listening to this stuff in private.

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37:01

Markly Morrison: I'm trying to stay out of this as much as possible. But that was something that blew my mind as well. When I first got here, I think a New Year's party at the Lucky Seven House. All these punk rockers and metal heads and freaks, and Britney Spears comes on and everybody's just into it. I was like, Whoa. I've never even heard Britney Spears. [laughs]

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Cindy Wonderful: That is so cool. Yeah, I love that. I finally felt like it was a place that I could just be myself, you know? I mean I could have been myself in Colorado, but it just wouldn't have been celebrated, you know? 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: I absolutely fell in love with Olympia.

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Markly Morrison: So, I guess--

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38:00

Cindy Wonderful: Oh! And Lady fest. That's another thing. I played the first Lady Fest.

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Markly Morrison: Oh, wow. Yeah. Can you tell me as much about that as you can?

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Cindy Wonderful: Okay. So um, yeah--

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Markly Morrison: What did you know going into it?

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Cindy Wonderful: What I knew going into Lady Fest was that it was all either girl majority girl bands or girl fronted. Well not just fronted, mostly girl bands. There might be like a guy in it here or there. But just a girl total festival, and it was DIY and that it was happening in Olympia, and that it was going to be really cool, and in that a bunch of really cool bands were going to be there. I didn't know a lot of them, but my drummer of Rainbow Sugar, she seemed to know more about a lot of music, this kind of music in particular, than I did. And I just was like, Okay. Awesome. Great. Can't wait. Sounds good. Any chance to play in front of people at that time still felt like a real blessing and excitement. And then I knew that Cat Power was going to play and we had been listening to like tons of Cat Power. Like a lot of it before, it was the album she had with The Dirty Three so that was in rotation. We knew that and we knew that—what else did we know? I basically knew that it was kind of like riot grrrl-esque. I didn't totally know what that meant at the time, but I knew it was kind of like riot grrrl influenced. And I knew riot grrrl had something to do with Bikini Kill and feminism, even though, to be completely honest I was pretty ignorant back then. I thought women's lib happened in the 70s and we're all equal now. There were chauvinists here and there, but I didn't see how sexism impacted my life at the time. I didn't understand it. I didn't understand it. So when I heard Bikini Kill for the first time, it sounded very screamy and it didn't speak to me because I felt like I didn't understand it [what they were] screaming about. It didn't really make any sense until later. And that is one thing about Olympia that I'm really grateful for is that even though I didn't go to school there, there was enough people enrolled in school there that, in a way, I feel like Olympia gave me my college education because people were open to having these kinds of conversations without being totally mean. Just because you're ignorant about something, or just because you have a different idea about something, they would have conversations about it—critical conversations about it—that I feel so grateful for. And a lot of those conversations happen after parties at things like Lady Fest or during Lady Fest. 

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But as much as I remember about it, I just remember not knowing a ton before going to it, but just being like, this sounds cool. And I was still new to the whole DIY thing in general. I was still so new to that and people—I'm still getting used to that while I'm hearing about this. And so, I remember when we go the streets just seemed full of like, ladies, punky ladies. It was just great. I remember there was a place called The Reef and we went to eat there. And it was just full of so many people from different places, and you knew they're all there for the festival. Well, I didn't really know actually at the time. I just thought Olympia was full of these cool people, which I still thought after I lived there, but it was not as condensed. There wasn't quite as many people walking the streets after Lady Fest, but still there was a lot. I remember I had skateboard there, and it was a skinny little plastic skateboard, and I put these huge wheels on it. And I've never seen anyone else do that before, and I let this girl borrow it, because there were a lot of conversations going on in the streets from where The Reef was to Thekla. There was just a lot of people wandering around and conversations happening, is what I remember. And a lot of white belts. That was probably a good year for Rebecca Pearcy [Queen Bee Creations]. There was a lot of white belts and a lot of stripes. Looked very cool.

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44:25

Markly Morrison: Can you tell me more about that? I'm actually–I don't know what you mean by that.

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, well, the fashion at the time, a lot of striped shirts and a lot of white belts. That was very in at the time. That was very cool. I remember when Scream Club used to tour if there was some striped shirts in the house you knew it was going to be a good show. I don't know that. That's just what a lot of people were wearing back then. But I still feel like that looks cool today. I remember the fashion, a lot of girls look kind of like spies or something. The little bobs. A lot of bobs and a lot of that vintage look was going on. 

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Markly Morrison: Sure.

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah.

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Markly Morrison: Pointy sunglasses.

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45:32

Cindy Wonderful: Cat eyeglasses and stuff. Yeah. But Lady Fest—I remember going to Lady Fest. I remember we saw Cat Power play and I was kind of astonished because she did not finish one single song. Like she would start and then she would stop. And she would start and then, no. And then she'd go from guitar to piano. She didn't finish one single song. It was the weirdest thing. That was the first time I ever saw somebody sound so drastically different than their album. In a way it was eye opening, because I'm like, wow, you can't even play a show live at all, but you have this incredible album and you're kind of famous. But this is what you're like live? It kind of blew my mind. And in a way it was like, well, how does somebody get famous when they— I was just blown. I couldn't put the pieces together. I do think she's incredible. I think that's just where she was in her process at the time. I've heard that she's very—she's evolved a lot since then. And I'm not trying to badmouth her at all, because, you know, whatever. But yeah, I remember that. Being like, whoa. Because at the time I really wanted to be famous, and I couldn't imagine how do you not feel great that you've sold all these records, and all these people love you, and you're here, but you can't even play a song all the way through? It was very mysterious, you know? But anyway…

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I saw the band The Subtonics. I remember them. They blew my mind. Yeah, they were great. They might have been from San Francisco. It was just so cool seeing all these bands from all over the country. I remember Nomy Lamm was there. I remember there was fat activism going on that Nomy was part of and that was also very new to me: to see somebody unapologetically fat and also writing about their experience and that she was a queer fat amputee Jew and really writing poetry. Really putting herself out there as a force. You know? Being like, This is who I am. This is my experience. It was cool. You know? It was really cool to see how many people were responding and resonating with what she was doing, that was cool. That was impactful for me. What else did I see? I saw, gosh, I think I might have actually seen Tobi Vail for the first time. I don't even think we talked, but it was an incredible feeling to know that like these people who have done these  important things are just walking around in your midst. I felt like that magic was just like in the air.

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49:31

Markly Morrison: Yeah. Definitely. Do you remember making any connections with people did you did you meet anyone that really stuck and hadn't lasting impact? No wrong answers.

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Cindy Wonderful: Well, it's kind of a blur for me now. I don't know if I met them there or—no, I don't remember. The whole thing was magical. I think we might have even played a house party with The Gossip afterwards. And I remember Beth Ditto was super nice, but I don't remember if that was the time I met her or if I met her before. It's hard for me to remember which tour I met who on, but I do remember Rachel Carns. I remember my drummer freaking out about Rachel Carns who played for The Need and [The] King Cobra, Kicking Giant and a bunch of other bands. I remember we saw her like getting coffee at the place next Ottos. I don't remember. Some place on 4^th [Avenue]. I didn't know too much about The Need at the time, but I think I went and got their CD later. Because around the corner there was a little record shop there and I got it. And I just remember looking at the art, and just being like, whoa, this looks so cool. That's the girl. And the music sounded so strange that I was like, wow, okay. That's cool. But we didn't really even connect at that time. I just had saw her and it was just exciting that she was there. They were just walking around. I remember being excited that all these people were just around. 

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But I know the people that did impact me. I couldn't tell you exactly about a particular meeting or an exchange or something. But the people that really impacted me from Olympia were Rachel Carns, Nikki McClure, Donna Dresch, Calvin Johnson, Slim Moon. Those are the people that I felt like, wow, they're really really doing something here that's shaping culture. And I wanted to be a part of it in some kind of way. I would have loved to being on any of the record labels in town. None of them wanted us. So that's how Crunks Not Dead was born, which I'm thankful for. We did do a little stuff here and there. K [Records] distributed us, and I think we were on Yeah Fest, compilation. We were on the Old Time Relijun. We did stuff on the labels indirectly, more or less, but the fact that they were doing that. They were just people doing it. They seemed like they figured out how to do it, you know, and it didn't seem like they—I don't know, it was just inspiring me. It just made me want to try. It made me want to try to—that it was possible. That they were doing it in a way that didn't require them to write these formulaic songs or to exploit people. It seemed like they were really doing it with something out of the mainstream, which I really appreciated, because I never really felt like I fit into the mainstream and to see these people thriving outside and on their own way. Like, wow! That's what the city the whole city seemed like, but those are the people really stuck out to me.

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55:03

Markly Morrison: So was there a moment when you realize that you're gonna pack up and leave Denver. Was that the demise of Rainbow Sugar?

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Cindy Wonderful: No Rainbow Sugar—I always wanted to be famous. I wanted to go as far as I could possibly go. As shallow or whatever that may sound like, I wanted to see how far I could go with this music thing. I think the other ladies wanted to, but they were too cool to admit it or something or maybe they just didn't want to. I don't know. But it seemed like we were not on the same page. And also, I felt there was a lot of—it's kind of hard, because at the time, I don't know if what I thought was happening was really happening or if my insecure self just saw it that way or what, but I felt like they could at any time, if they got a boyfriend or something that everything could just disappear. It just didn't feel safe putting a whole bunch of energy into something that wasn't going to be there, that I couldn't count on, and I wanted to go somewhere. And I felt like I saw an opportunity, and I wanted to take it or at least try. I remember I was doing these solo recordings on my computer—and they were sort of electronic—and some were on my four track. But I'd sent a package to Calvin Johnson, and he called me back on the phone. I sent him this really colorful package, and he called me back on the phone and thanked me for the package. And I remember the blow—I forget her name but she was on the phone.

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Markly Morrison: Khaela [Maricich)?

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Cindy Wonderful: Khaela. Yeah, she was on the phone too. At the time, she was in doing something called Get the Hell Out of the Way [of] the Volcano, or something like that. A crazy name that I had a hard time—I was like, Whoa. But anyway, they're talking to me on the phone. I really wanted to be on K Records. Maybe you can tell from this conversation, I have a hard time talking. I'm not always the most concise. I don't always have the best sound bites or get to the point. I can stray a lot, and I'm sure I babbled and know what to say. I was scared. I probably maybe wasted an opportunity there on the phone. But anyway, I was still excited just to have had that conversation. And it just kind of confirmed that like I need to be—that's where people are living on their dreams. That's where I need to go. I need to go there. That's where dreams come true. It wasn't that conversation. It was my band basically dissolving and it just became obvious at some point that it just didn't feel safe to invest more time in it. I felt like I didn't want to have that inner conflict. So anyway, I'm like, Well, I got to do something now and I started doing solo stuff as Cindy Wonderful. So I also played the first Homo A Gogo too, just as Cindy Wonderful. 

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Markly Morrison: Oh, wow. Is that before you moved here? 

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Cindy Wonderful: No, I moved there—that was in the beginning. I don't remember exactly when Homo A Gogo happened. I remember they had already started planning it. I had started going to the planning meetings and I ended up organizing the fashion show for Homo A Gogo, the first Homo A Gogo. I was part of the early organization of that. I got to help organize that, and then I got to play as Cindy Cindy Wonderful and that was cool. That was before Scream Club took shape, but yeah, it was cool. And again, it just blew my mind that people knew how to organize. It just seemed like a town of misfits that were organized and just--

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1:00:21

Markly Morrison: Yeah, misfits fitting together.

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, and I saw people thriving there. Fortunately, I was a little bit warned before I moved to Olympia. I was warned about the social etiquette of Olympia. I had been to Portland, and Portland was definitely a different vibe than Colorado. I felt like people in Portland were rude at the time. And I warned that people in Olympia are different. So when I moved there, I was like, Okay, this is great. I felt like it was fantastic. And I saw people thriving there. I remember one girl—I won't mention her name—but she was a girl that I would see around and I literally tell you she could not finish her sentences. I mean, I may not be a great storyteller. I may be terrible at this kind of stuff. But I really excelled compared to her, right, in a way. I'm just saying, she would have probably been happy to even be where I was at the time. I saw her being so nervous—and we were on friendly terms and I really liked her—but she couldn't finish a sentence. She would giggle and she couldn't do that, and I even saw her thriving. I saw her having a friend network, and I saw her getting along in the world. I even saw her dating, and I'm like, Yes, this is a town where you can thrive even if you're socially awkward. You can thrive. And eventually she could talk in complete sentences and be a little bit more—or I should say a little less divergent. And I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm saying that because I really feel like Olympia was like, you can come here and make something of yourself wherever you're starting from. Wherever it is. Wherever you are in life. You have a dream, if you have an idea, you can go there and plug in. And you will find somebody who will find something about you that is worthy. And I love that. And I love to think of her, and I love to think about her thriving and dating and doing all these things. Just like I like to think how I moved there. It was great to be part of that musical scene and just to be playing shows and meeting so many incredible people. I don't know if you've covered Joey Casio at all, but he was one of the first people that I—I remember seeing a music video of him from Mac Dawg. Have you talked to Mac Dawg?

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1:03:52

Markly Morrison: Not personally. He's on the docket, though.

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Cindy Wonderful: Okay, because he really—I lived with him when I first got to Olympia and he did a cable access TV show called Tangent, and it had a lot of local people on it. When I first moved to Olympia, the first person I saw was Joey—Joey Casio—on his episode. And I'm like, Who is this guy? He just looked so cool to me. And the music was so cool. It was kind of reminiscent of some 80s stuff or some club stuff that I had heard, but it was also at the same time really unique. There were elements familiar enough, but still unique. Familiar and unique and new at the same time. And he just looked so cool because the music video was filmed on the house that actually ended up moving into. I moved in with Mac Dawg and Greta [Greta Jane Flowers]. I don't know if you talked to her at all,

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1:05:07

Markly Morrison: I actually may be the one interviewing her as well. So I was wondering, which house? Was it one of the named punk houses?

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Cindy Wonderful: It wasn't one of the named ones. It was called—they didn't really call it a name before I started doing shows there. I called it Funtabulon, but we weren't like a main house because we were kind of far out. We were off a Boulevard, Boulevard road. So it was a little bit of a trek from downtown.

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Markly Morrison: Was it right on the corner there? 

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Cindy Wonderful: It was—no. It was like—

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Markly Morrison: I'm thinking of Solid Gold I think, the name of a house over there.

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Cindy Wonderful: I don't know Solid Gold.

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Markly Morrison: Yeah, that was that was a ways—maybe few years later.

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Cindy Wonderful: What I remember—the things that stick out to me of Olympia is finally seeing a queer scene and being part of a queer scene and that being a okay. Being celebrated, not tolerated. Seeing clear stars, like Rachel Carns is probably I think the coolest. And then also being a tomboy, being sought after, and not just some weird exploration. And also, there was so many punk houses. So many punk houses: The Red House, the Black Houses, Lucky Seven House, House of Doom, The Hall of the Woods. All of these things, they didn't have that where I was from. And there were so many fake names. I was already Cindy Wonderful before I came to Olympia. And I know that in different punk communities, and throughout history, there's been fake names. But there wasn't really too many where—there was me where I was from—but I don't know of many other people. So to move to Olympia, there was me, Joey Casio, Mac Dawg. Let's see, there was Katie No Bangs. There was just a lot of—

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Markly Morrison: pseudonyms?

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Cindy Wonderful:  Pseudonyms. Cindy Wonderful is actually my legal name. I changed it when I lived in Denver. But I loved all the pseudonyms, and I love that it was such a small town that like anybody that you kind of had reverence for, you'd actually run into him at some point or another. You'd see them and you didn't have to try that hard. It wasn't like a real spread out like Denver was. You’d see these people going to get their bagels or going to get their coffee or at the grocery store or at a show or at a concert. You'd see them, and I really felt like—or even the fact that like Nirvana had done something there. I kind of forget that now, but I remember at the time it was—because later that seemed like such a small part of what I think about Olympia. But at the time, the fact that just knowing that had happened there or part of that story had happened there and there was remnants of it. Even Courtney—Courtney Love—having these little stories around it's aspirational to me. 

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And also I love the diversity in music. I remember there was—I think his name is Blake. I don't remember his last name. But I remember he had a BC rich guitar and it was like metal punk, but very costume oriented. And I remember I'd moved there kinda soon after The Transfused had happened so people were still really kind of high off of that. The people that were involved were talking about it, about the CD, and it just seemed like something that was so meaningful to so many people. And I just thought, wow, that's cool. This production that these people did together. It just wow, it just seems so cool.

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1:10:54

Markly Morrison: Yeah. I was wondering if we could backtrack just a little bit, because I know that there's going to be a number of conversations about Homo A Gogo. And since you're involved in the first one, maybe talk about your involvement in setting up the fashion show and other facets of it as you saw it coming to develop.

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Cindy Wonderful: Well, A: there was like tons of cute and interesting people. I was really kind of, I guess I would say green or something. I knew Ed Varga was the spearhead. There was meetings with everyone involved, and then through that we’d decide who would work on what, and then it kind of broke it down into smaller groups. And I remember I knew Ed was in charge or the spearhead. I didn't really see him a ton. And then I remember at one point I saw him with his girlfriend, and I was like, What? Huh? He has a girlfriend? And I was kind of surprised and I had no idea he was trans, you know? And I was just like, cuz it threw me for a—I just had assumed he was gay, you know? And then I saw him with his girlfriend. I'm like, Well they seem kind of like--I mean, what's his connection to Homo A Gogo? Why does he want to do this? Then my friend was like, He's trans. I was like, Ohhh. I don't know. That was kind of funny moment I remember. 

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It was cool. I remember we did the fashion show in some place downtown, and the lady was very—kind of seemed suspicious the whole time. It was kind of strange. I remember we had a lot of technical difficulties, but the show went on. And it was really cool. The fashion show was cool. I don't remember a ton of the designs or anything, but I remember at one point I was doing these T-shirts that were called Head Stands for Peace. And basically it was kind of an upside down peace sign, but it kind of looks like a person, and it said “Head Stands for Peace,” but you could only read it and see the peace sign the right way when you were doing the headstand. There was three of us so we did headstands on the runway, and that was pretty cute. That's what I remember. Yeah, it was cool. 

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Homo A Go Go, I still feel like had that same magical feeling that Lady Fest had with that excitement in the air and queers from all over coming. 

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I do remember kind of feeling unvalued though in the process, and I don't remember why, but I felt like at some point, I felt like—I don't know. I was also a terrible communicator back then. So instead of addressing it, I just kind of developed, felt some resentment towards Ed I guess. But I don't know why. I just remember I had done the fashion show. I'd also taxied people to and from the fundraiser to raise money for Homo A Gogo. I'd driven my car back and forth for people to go to this event. I had done a number of things. I was volunteering in a number of ways. I felt like, I don't know, unrecognized, or—Yeah. I don't know. So that was kind of a bummer. But still an honor to be part of it. 

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I remember one of the bands that stuck out to me—I felt like, Yes—was Polka Dot Choke A Lot. I don't know if they were from Seattle or Portland. They weren't from Olympia, but they played that Homo A Go Go. They were a rap group. The singer was in a wheelchair and they had the song, poppin’ wheelies, poppin’ cherries. It was just cool to see somebody in a wheelchair being sexual and talking about that and just being, you know, campy, just cuz you don't see it that often. You don't see them in that light, or I hadn't seen that often. I saw Nomy Lamm before. I'm sure she was probably involved in Homo A Go Go too. I was familiar with her work as an amputee and stuff like that. But it was still very cool to see differently abled people, just like, you know, in their power.

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1:17:39

Markly Morrison: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. What—I was wondering if there were any particular spaces that you played at or went to that had kind of a lasting impact or really like—

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, yeah.

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Markly Morrison: Or really stick out. What were some of the spots when you were fresh in town?

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Cindy Wonderful: Hall of the Woods. I remember Sarah Adorable, the other girl and Scream Club. She was living there when I first moved there, and I had gone to a party there and they had all these roller skates and I was like, What? Punks live here? Like, A: punks live in this incredible space? This theater? Wow, number one. Number two: you have like all of these roller skates so people can come and roller skate in here? That's incredible. I've never been to like a punky underground roller party and theater in the woods. Wow. It was incredible. So that made a lasting impact on me. 

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All the Black Houses. I just absolutely love that there was some dystopian dentist that painted all of his rent houses black. And I remember hearing that he made people do essays on their political views before renting them a space or, you know, that he would do all these—or that he would analyze their handwriting or stuff like that.

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1:19:28

Markly Morrison: Yeah, very unorthodox application process. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah. And, you know, I dated somebody who lived in a black house and I love that unorthodox stuff. Now, I heard he did some things that were not cool later, but that hadn't happened yet. So in my era, I was like, wow, this is really cool. And he wasn't really part of any sort of scene hardly, you know? To even get him out of the house was, you know, a rare feat. But just knowing that he existed he was out there doing that in Olympia made was interesting. And I mean, Manium didn't come along until phase two, but Hall of the Woods was there. Capitol Theater backstage, I thought that was an incredible idea. I don't know if they still do it, or—

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Markly Morrison: They do, yeah.

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, okay, like, what a great use of space. 

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Another thing that I loved was the restaurants. I remember The Blue Moon Café, or something like that, and Quality Burrito were in the same location. 

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Markly Morrison: Oh, yeah. New Moon.

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Cindy Wonderful: And then Quality moved.

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Cindy Wonderful: What's that?

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Markly Morrison: It was New Moon Café. 

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Cindy Wonderful: New Moon. And so it was one the morning and a different restaurant at night. I love that. I never seen anything like that. And then, of course, they did that at a few more locations. And then there was another restaurant who did that too, and I don't remember what it was. But that kind of stuff, like, totally made an impression on me. It's like, Oh, duh. Why not? Yeah, why not? You know? Just seeing examples of people pooling their resources together was just very impactful.

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And also—I just lost it. What was I going to say.

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1:21:53

Markly Morrison: You mentioned secret cafes earlier.

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, yeah. Secret cafes. That was so cool. I mean, you know, what an elegant way to say, fundraiser or something, but a secret cafe gives it more pizzazz. I love that that happened, you know that people would just start a—basically those were pop ups before pop ups existed. And I just thought, what a cool, what a cool concept. And I had gone to house parties, and I'd played house parties before, but I don't think Denver had as many—and Denver was way more spread out—but I don't think there was any, like, established houses like, oh, you can come to a show here, consistently. Like the Lucky Seven, House of Doom, all those houses we mentioned earlier. So that made an impression on me. The Voyeur, I loved. And oh, yeah, and that space that was like—what was that clothing shop downtown? 

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Markly Morrison: Dumpster Values. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, Dumpster Values. I loved that Dumpster Values and Phantom City and Olympia Clothing Project. There was like four businesses in that one building next to Ottos when I moved to town and I just thought that was really incredible.

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Markly Morrison: Was Community Print in there when you were here?

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Cindy Wonderful: I don't remember. 

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Markly Morrison: Okay, yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: I feel like Community Print might have had a different space.

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1:23:50

Markly Morrison: Got it? Yeah, they were back in the one of those back rooms when I first moved here. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, okay. 

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Markly Morrison: Kelsey—who's one of the two people heading this project right now—she's also running Community Print as well, today.

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1:24:13

Cindy Wonderful: Oh, cool. 

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Markly Morrison: So they were dormant for a couple years when that 2020 hit. But they're back in action now. So that's a good thing. A lot of these places are still popping, here in Oly [Olympia].

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1:24:31

Cindy Wonderful: Are any of the houses still active? I remember--

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Markly Morrison: The Track House is having shows. 

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Cindy Wonderful: The Track House is? 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah, The Track House is still having shows. Let’s see. Most of the house venues are different now than they were when I moved here. The Track House seems to be the hanger on and the ABC House as well is still happening.

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh cool. Yeah, I definitely did some recordings at the ABC House and had some experiences there. Yeah, that was the first time I ever heard of a House Trust. I was like, what is that?

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Markly Morrison: Yeah, that’s pretty wild. When did you move to The Red House?

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1:25:22

Cindy Wonderful: I moved to The Red House, maybe in 2000 and—maybe 2006?

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Markly Morrison: Okay. Yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Or 2000 and—Yeah, so I lived there till I moved away. I only lived in two places in Olympia:  Funtabulon, and that was with Greta [Jane Flowers] and duck hugger and Mac Dawg. and Mac Dawg was just so incredible about identifying resources in town. I mean, he told me about the Olympia Film Ranch, which I don't know if that's still around, but what a cool resource that is or was.

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Markly Morrison: I don’t know about that. Can you tell me about that?

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1:26:18

Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, basically, it was a something connected to the Capitol Theater, and they had equipment that you could use. And they also did—you could have access to the theater through the Film Ranch. I don't know if it was—I mean, Mac Dawg could tell you a lot more about it—all I remember is that you can train and get to use some of the equipment. And they had like eight millimeter cameras, and they had other equipment that you could check out and use. And it was pretty cool. And, yeah, I did a cable access show, called Wonderground, a TV show. I'm not sure what year that I started it because—I was doing it in Denver so I just kept doing it when I moved to Olympia. So Mac Dawg told me about this station out there [TC Media] because I was doing it here and eventually Wonderground, the TV show, got on five cable access shows across the country in different states. 

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Markly Morrison: Oh, cool.

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, that was really cool. And I had, you know, alternative or weird videos from everywhere. It was just basically a weird music show. TV show. Yeah, but I mean, if there was a band in Olympia that had a video, which videos were still kind of new. Not everybody had one. But if they did they, you know, they were on my show.

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1:28:12

Markly Morrison: That's awesome. Do you still have any of that?

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Cindy Wonderful: Somewhere. Somewhere.

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Markly Morrison: My buddy, Andrew, is well—he's basically the IT at TCTV [TC Media] these days. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, gosh.

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Markly Morrison: He's got access to all the archives. My show is actually—we do a TV version that's on TCTV [TC Media] now too.

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, cool. What is it about?

‍

Markly Morrison: It's kinda like this, except more about, like if we were talking about Scream Club right now. And, we'd be—Ideally I do the TV ones in person. Sometimes we do a video call type thing. But yeah, it's like long form interviews about a music career and then a lot of music samples, clips, videos, whatever thrown into the mix. Kind of like Fresh Air but for more like underground music.

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, that's very cool. 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah.

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Cindy Wonderful: That is super cool. Yeah, TCTV [TC Media]. maybe there's some old episodes there. They might have some. 

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Moorrison: They might.

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, and I remember Dance O Dance. Yeah, Dance O Dance was so fun. I don't know if that's still around or if it's Dance Oly Dance now or--

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Markly Morrison: I think they went back from Dance Oly Dance to Dance O Dance, again. And I'm not sure how regular it is. I haven't heard about it in a little while. But--

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Cindy Wonderful: That was so much fun. I remember so many times going there with, you know, Scream Club or we would just go to do it for fun. And I just remember seeing Benny P and Joey Casio and Nicky Click and just people just going to have a weird, fun, good time. Yeah. And, yeah, I mean what's not fun about—that's so cool, actually, very cool. I’m glad it's still around in some form.

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Markly Morrison: Yeah, definitely. Gotten to go to that a few times. It's pretty fun.

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Cindy Wonderful: Do you do music too? 

‍

Markly Morrison: I'm not doing so much music anymore. I'm kind of rocking the journalism thing these days. 

‍

Cindy Wonderful. Cool.

‍

Markly Morrison: I've got small children that kind of keep me off the road. 

‍

Cindy Wonderful: That makes sense.

‍

Markly Morrison: Yeah, so doing this sort of thing is a little more manageable. Although I, you know, have a ton of instruments and I play music kind of like—I play the banjo to lullaby my kids to bed. Stuff like that. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, that's awesome. 

‍

Markly Morrison: Yeah. Yeah, I try to keep my chops up here and there. But I haven't I haven't written any music in quite a while. And I'm okay with that. I know it'll come in due time. 

‍

Cindy Wonderful: Yeah. 

‍

Markly Morrison: Yeah. It's really—you know, the Olympia music community is still a thing. It's still like very different than whatever's going on everywhere else. It’s like a whole new cast of characters these days. You know, the younger set, really making some moves. There's really heavy hitters, up and comers, that I think are gonna make a big splash.

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1:32:05

Cindy Wonderful: Oh, that's fantastic. That's great. I mean, I feel like, I don't know. I feel like once you live in Olympia, it's kind of like you're always an Olympia alumni. You know? 

‍

Markly Morrison: Yeah. 

‍

Cindy Wonderful: When I meet people—I remember being in Berlin one time, well I was living there and at the time, and there was at one point 17 of us in, and we all went out together, there was 17 people, I counted, from Olympia, in Berlin, that night hanging out. 

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Markly Morrison: Oh, man.

‍

Cindy Wonderful: It was so cool. 

‍

Markly Morrison: [Laughs]

‍

Cindy Wonderful: And I mean, pretty much whenever I did used to tour, I would always meet people who had some Olympia connection. Unfortunately, here in Baton Rouge, there's really not much of an Olympian connection to anything. I'm kind of disconnected from anything I was connected with before here. I mean, it's okay, though, you know? It's a—I mean, sometimes it's good to reinvent yourself and have the space to, you know, start completely new. So it's okay, but everywhere that I've been that I've connected with people that have lived there, it's almost felt like an immediate connection. You know?

‍

Markly Morrison: Yeah, definitely.

‍

Cindy Wonderful: Maybe it is in the water. I don't know.

‍

Markly Morrison: [Laughs]. It's true.

‍

Cindy Wonderful: Yeah. I mean, I feel like it. I mean, what are the odds of 17 people being in Berlin at the same time? You know, I mean, there was about four to maybe six of us live there at the time and then some other people were—it wasn't like a plan. It just happened that we were all around. We're like, oh, yeah, let's get together. And then, yeah, whole bunch of us. I'm like, dang, that is so cool.

‍

Markly Morrison: That really is.

‍

1:34:22

Cindy Wonderful: And I remember one time when I lived in Olympia, we were touring and we were playing a show in San Francisco. And again, it was like 20 people from Olympia in San Francisco. And I'm like, Yeah, I love that. I love that so many people connected to Olympia, like, really make their way out into the world.

‍

Markly Morrison: Yeah, it's true. It’s school, man. I feel like the Olympia music scene in particular is its own type of school. It really prepares you for whatever you got going on next.

‍

Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, I think Olympia is amazing. I remember early, when I just moved there, I went to a party with Sarah Adorable, my bandmate. I went to a party—Joey Casio was playing—and I kid you not, everyone was like rolling around on the ground, like really rolling around, like tumbling, rolling around on the ground. And it just was so fun. I was just in the back of the room, like looking at all of this and listening to it. And I was like, yes, I've arrived. I just felt so much gratitude in that moment to be there experiencing that, you know? It just felt like, yeah, I love that people are like, you know, doing these unusual things, and just really living their life and having fun and it's incredible. 

‍

Markly Morrison: Yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Yeah, I love the people—I never felt like Olympia had this attitude of, well, here I am impress me, you know? I really feel like they were just ready to have an experience. And, I mean, I love that. I feel like the Olympia is really accepting, I didn't really feel like it was very judgmental. I felt like it was very open minded. People may not all share the same taste, but I didn't feel like I ever saw someone got totally poo pooed on for having a sound or a style or something, you know? 

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Markly Morrison: Right. It's true. 

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Cindy Wonderful: And I really liked that. I really value that. You could still be proud, you know? I didn't really feel like Olympia ostracize people for trying or for not being cool or good. You could really make whatever you want it to happen there. And I really appreciate that because I never got to be on one of those cool record labels, but I got to start one. And I got to still make things happen for myself. I just love the DIY attitude and culture. Even things like the Arts Walk, to me was so incredible seeing that. Do they still do that there?

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1:38:15

Markly Morrison: You know, I have not—the downtown one, yes. That's still a thing. For a while they were doing a completely homespun one on the Westside of town, where it was just like no businesses involved, it was just all at houses. It was sort of an extension. Not related, but modeled after the downtown one. Minus the brick and mortar businesses model.

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1:38:54

Cindy Wonderful: I think the last one that I went to, that's what blew my mind. There's no businesses involved in this? This is just people doing this? That blew my mind. 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Because I’m in Louisiana now and there's Mardi Gras, which is still, you know, really impressive and also part of the culture. That's really cool. But, I just couldn't believe like that I didn't see any Pepsi banners or like, you know, sponsored by Miller Lite or Coors. It wasn't like this belligerent thing. It was like really like, Oh, what do you make? And like people spend so much time making these floats or these costumes or whatever it was that they were doing for the Arts Walk. I loved going there. 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah.

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Cindy Wonderful: This is fun. Yeah, Olympia is great, and I spend a lot of time swimming on Ward Lake too That was an incredible place.

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1:40:08

Markly Morrison: Um-hum. Yes, still good. It's ready for you if you want to come visit.

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Cindy Wonderful: I do hopefully won't be too long. I did get to go not that long ago, a couple of years ago, and I was kind of surprised there was I think there was like some metal fest going on at the time. There was a lot of—it was weird, it was like my first time walking down Fourth [Avenue] seeing the police station right on Fourth and seeing the very ornate artesian well, or not the artesian well. 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah, yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Is it artesian? Or is it--

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Markly Morrison: Yeah, it is. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, okay.

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Markly Morrison: They kind of remodeled it is a little kind of a public park type thing.

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1:41:13

Cindy Wonderful: That also blew my mind, being in Olympia, I remember doing that. I remember drinking from it, because someone said If you drink this water, you'll always come back. And I remember it being so strange that there was just literally a pipe sticking up in a parking lot. It seemed so suspect at first. I mean, that was before the little concrete blocks were even by. It was just sticking up. I’m like, This thing? I mean, there was like no sign, there was no nothing on it. And I remember coming, you know, maybe the next time or the next couple times they had those like big concrete blocks they'd put next to it. But there was no sign that it was a well. There was nothing, and I was just like, oh, you I guess you just have to know. I guess you just have to trust that this water is okay or something. That's what I was thinking the first time. 

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Markly Morrison: Yeah. 

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Cindy Wonderful: But it was just wild that it just flows, you know? Pretty cool. Very cool.

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Markly Morrison: Sure is. [Laughs]

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Cindy Wonderful: Well, I hope I've given you anything that will work.

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Markly Morrison: Oh, yeah, so much. Yeah. Is there anything that that you wanted to share that we didn't touch on? Or?

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1:42:34

Cindy Wonderful: I mean, I really love Olympia. Like, I love Olympia. I had some incredible time there. I'm so grateful for it. And I do think it's a very special place, that can't be understated. But I don't know. There’s probably a million things that have happened that have been more impactful than I could ever articulate or remember. I don't know. Probably when we hang up, I'll be like, Oh, I should have mentioned this or this or that. 

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Markly Morrison: Well, hopefully we'll catch up again, when we get into the next phase of the story. 

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Cindy Wonderful: Sounds good. 

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Markly Morrison: I’d love to talk to you again soon. And I'm going to send you a just an interview consent form that I guess we need to move forward with that and then we'll send you a transcript and everything. Someone else is going to edit and transcribe this and we'll see what that looks like.

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Cindy Wonderful: Sounds good to me.

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Markly Morrison: Yeah. Thank you so much for being generous with your time and your stories.

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Cindy Wonderful: Oh, my pleasure. 

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Markly Morrison: Such a pleasure. 

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Cindy Wonderful: All right, you have a great day. Thank you. 

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Markly Morrison: Allright. Thank you, Cindy. Lots of love.

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