2020 - I had just moved here, was just discovering the brilliance of KEXP. I was also living alone, in a new town, working from home. The first KEXP pledge drive was a weird kind of ecstatic experience, especially the Morning Show for... reasons hard to explain, basically the DJs holding us all together while we were quietly going nuts from quarantine and fear.
KEXP offers a hoodie as a pledge gift every couple of years. This hoodie was 1) green 2) with mountains on it, absolutely not my style but we're living inside so who cares? John Richards (main morning show DJ) and Morgan (DJ manager, his BFF for pledges) offered a special deal one day: the hoodie, a t-shirt, and a morning show mug, for a particular pledge. "You're joining the COZY CLUB" growls Morgan into the mic, and this cracks John up, which cracks Morgan up, and they both compete to out-growl one another until they're losing their voices. I had already pledged but now I NEED this 1) green 2) mountain range hoodie like I need oxygen. So I upped my pledge and JOINED THE COZY CLUB.
That was patch number one, "#cozyclub."
I lived two blocks from the station and its Gathering Space. But everything was closed due to COVID so I could never go there. I ordered patches for me, John, Morgan, and their producer Imaginary Producer Owen (oh god this sounds much bro-ier than it really is, I swear this is about music and not about, like, stripper jokes) and when they came in, I mailed them to the station.
The station. That was closed. Where everyone who could was also working from home, for, like, another year at least.
Eventually F and I went to a special KEXP donors event and I met Morgan (who was super nice) and Owen (who gave me a giant hug because we'd had hilarious text exchanges) and John, who said "um.... I haven't checked my mailbox in like... a year...." so I begged Owen to please make John open his mail only by the time he might possibly have gotten the #cozyclub patch it would be maybe two years later and the drive would be long forgotten.
Except that they offer a hoodie every two years, so now it was time to... GO TO HOODIETOWN. (This is so not funny written out in text.) I got a hoodie for me. Two days later I got another hoodie for F. I ordered #hoodietown patches for John, Morgan, Owen, and me, and again mailed them to the station.
Again I think they got lost in John's neglected inbox, except this time Owen got his and put it on his hoodie, and when I go to the KEXP Gathering Space I wear my (increasingly tattered) KEXP Emotional Support Hoodie with my #cozyclub and #hoodietown patches, and I feel simultaneously like a giant idiot and also kind of so tragic that it turns back into cool again because the other people in the Gathering Space occasionally ask me "hey where did you get that patch? Is that from the drive?" and I'm like NO I HAD IT MADE SPECIAL FOR ME AND JOHN AND MORGAN AND OWEN.
Also I have gotten to see Owen's band play and he gives really good hugs and is a good musician and person and Dad.
So basically I have multiple custom public radio pledge drive patches that would be an in-joke among me and the morning show crew except that they are so exhausted at the end of a drive that they can't remember their own names, nevermind the various stupid jokes they made during the drive, so it's really just an in-joke for me, but it makes me happy and I wear either my green (2020) or black (2022) hoodies pretty much every day for some part of the day so I am in the #cozyclub going to #hoodietown and for the love of god, Montressor, we take our little pleasures where we can or else what is life for anyway?
that is a terrible story and I am so, so sorry, and I swear KEXP is not a bunch of bros, they are seriously the best music people in the world, I swear.
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2020 - I had just moved here, was just discovering the brilliance of KEXP. I was also living alone, in a new town, working from home. The first KEXP pledge drive was a weird kind of ecstatic experience, especially the Morning Show for... reasons hard to explain, basically the DJs holding us all together while we were quietly going nuts from quarantine and fear.
KEXP offers a hoodie as a pledge gift every couple of years. This hoodie was 1) green 2) with mountains on it, absolutely not my style but we're living inside so who cares? John Richards (main morning show DJ) and Morgan (DJ manager, his BFF for pledges) offered a special deal one day: the hoodie, a t-shirt, and a morning show mug, for a particular pledge. "You're joining the COZY CLUB" growls Morgan into the mic, and this cracks John up, which cracks Morgan up, and they both compete to out-growl one another until they're losing their voices. I had already pledged but now I NEED this 1) green 2) mountain range hoodie like I need oxygen. So I upped my pledge and JOINED THE COZY CLUB.
That was patch number one, "#cozyclub."
I lived two blocks from the station and its Gathering Space. But everything was closed due to COVID so I could never go there. I ordered patches for me, John, Morgan, and their producer Imaginary Producer Owen (oh god this sounds much bro-ier than it really is, I swear this is about music and not about, like, stripper jokes) and when they came in, I mailed them to the station.
The station. That was closed. Where everyone who could was also working from home, for, like, another year at least.
Eventually F and I went to a special KEXP donors event and I met Morgan (who was super nice) and Owen (who gave me a giant hug because we'd had hilarious text exchanges) and John, who said "um.... I haven't checked my mailbox in like... a year...." so I begged Owen to please make John open his mail only by the time he might possibly have gotten the #cozyclub patch it would be maybe two years later and the drive would be long forgotten.
Except that they offer a hoodie every two years, so now it was time to... GO TO HOODIETOWN. (This is so not funny written out in text.) I got a hoodie for me. Two days later I got another hoodie for F. I ordered #hoodietown patches for John, Morgan, Owen, and me, and again mailed them to the station.
Again I think they got lost in John's neglected inbox, except this time Owen got his and put it on his hoodie, and when I go to the KEXP Gathering Space I wear my (increasingly tattered) KEXP Emotional Support Hoodie with my #cozyclub and #hoodietown patches, and I feel simultaneously like a giant idiot and also kind of so tragic that it turns back into cool again because the other people in the Gathering Space occasionally ask me "hey where did you get that patch? Is that from the drive?" and I'm like NO I HAD IT MADE SPECIAL FOR ME AND JOHN AND MORGAN AND OWEN.
Also I have gotten to see Owen's band play and he gives really good hugs and is a good musician and person and Dad.
So basically I have multiple custom public radio pledge drive patches that would be an in-joke among me and the morning show crew except that they are so exhausted at the end of a drive that they can't remember their own names, nevermind the various stupid jokes they made during the drive, so it's really just an in-joke for me, but it makes me happy and I wear either my green (2020) or black (2022) hoodies pretty much every day for some part of the day so I am in the #cozyclub going to #hoodietown and for the love of god, Montressor, we take our little pleasures where we can or else what is life for anyway?
that is a terrible story and I am so, so sorry, and I swear KEXP is not a bunch of bros, they are seriously the best music people in the world, I swear.