Entertainment

"It - it belongs in our family," said Button-Bright, beginning to eat and speaking between bites. "This umbrella has been in our family years, an' years, an' years. But it was tucked away up in our attic an' no one ever used it 'cause it wasn't pretty."

"Don't blame 'em much," remarked Cap'n Bill, gazing at it curiously. "It's a pretty old-lookin' bumbershoot." - L. Frank Baum, Sky Island (1912)

Bumbershoot. n. An umbrella. [Alteration of (UMB)RELLA and (PARA)CHUTE.] first known use c. 1896.

Seattle's international arts and music festival isn't as old as Sky Island (written by Baum 12 years after his most famous work, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), but it has been a Starbucks tradition since we opened our first store. In fact, Starbucks and Bumbershoot both got started in 1971. Bumbershoot has come a long way since country musician Sheb Wooley's appearance and (thankfully) that first "Miss Hot Pants Contest," when it was known as Festival '71. (It didn't adapt the Bumbershoot moniker until 2 years later.)

Back in 1978, Bob Dylan sat for a Rolling Stone interview with a writer named Jonathan Cott. Cott was perhaps the most erudite rock writer of the time and his scholarly tone seemed to prompt the Bard of Hibbing to make big, bold pronouncements.

At one point the two men drifted away from weightier issues to discuss the state of rock ‘n’ roll, which Dylan insisted didn’t really exist anymore. He’d never played rock ‘n’ roll, the singer asserted. Nor did the Beatles or the Stones. What he referred to as “pure rock ‘n’ roll” faded away with late ‘50s/early ‘60s figures Little Anthony and the Imperials and Phil Spector. In other words, it was all over before many even knew it had begun.

Now you don’t have to buy Dylan’s argument entirely – or really much at all – to see what’s he’s broadly asserting. There’s a freshness to the various genres of music in their formative years, when artists are operating without a whole lot of rules or order. Think of jazz in the ‘20s or hip-hop in the late ‘70s.

Some of my very first memories involve music. I remember learning the words to “Octopus’s Garden” in my first grade music class. The scratchy sounds of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” as it played on my parents’ record player in our den. REO Speedwagon on the radio as I played under the kitchen table while Mom cooked dinner. My dad bursting into our bedrooms on our birthdays, belting out “Birthday” off the Beatles’ White Album.

My love of music has stuck with me my entire life. When I came to work at Starbucks a few months ago, I was so excited to work on Pick of the Week, our program that lets you download a free hand-selected song on iTunes®. Even before I came to Starbucks, I looked forward to walking into my favorite coffeehouse (Northgate, hollaaa!) and picking up the newest Pick of the Week card. I love discovering new music and Pick of the Week does an amazing job of introducing me to music I’ve never heard before. Now that I’ve seen the whole Pick of the Week process, I have even more respect for the masterminds behind the project and the artists who participate.