Sound Mail Services, one of the last vestiges of the old time Belltown of flophouses, fisherman and unions, has closed shop.

The last private mail drop in Seattle to have a rack of union newspapers, ash trays, and a patina of "the old days" will be extinguished to make way for a tenant who can afford the newly yuppified rent.

Owner Al Croft (interviewed in January's Belltown Messenger) and his employee Dodi (interviewed in April's Messenger) have moved on. Jerry Everard , up-and-coming Seattle real estate developer and co-owner of the Rendezvous next door, is readying the space for a new tenant-a Mexican fern bar if rumors are to be believed.

I have long followed Jerry's career in the local real estate and music industry, and am indebted to him and his associates at the Rendezvous for their cooperation with the various art projects I have used their space for over the years. Come to think of it, my new documentary film about Paul Allen began shooting at the Rendezvous on election night last year. Still, nobody is happy to have to change several dozen addresses and fork over a hundred bucks for an official U.S. P.O. Box-and Ol' Man Croft was giving me a box for free, in trade for an ad! This is the capitalist system we live in-Jerry's not in business to feed poor people or he wouldn't be a good businessman, you know what I mean?

Folks wishing to contact the Messenger by snail mail will want to send stuff to our new address:
P.O. Box 61370
Seattle, WA 98141
That's the USPS Station #111 on 2512 Fifth Avenue by the way. Oh, and a word of advice-if you are in a hurry, the guy who runs the place, Sebastian, takes his damn sweet time serving customers. He gives no quarter to the impatient and the uniniatiated, so when you go in there-slow down!

Speaking of radical changes, I'd like to welcome Clark Humphrey as editor-for-life of the Belltown Messenger. Scoring Clark (a Messenger columnist since our second issue in December 2003) is going to put us on the fast track to being a really good weekly newspaper. For now, we are a humble eight page monthly, but Clark and I have if nothing else two things in common-a stubborn persistence, and a DIY work ethic based on a well-documented unwillingness to join the corporate war machine, or uh, I mean rat race. Say no to Microsoft-it's good for your health!

Some people feel the need to move to New York or Los Angeles to further their careers after slogging away in the inbred Seattle art scene for awhile, and who can blame them? And some people are happy as clams staying right where they are. Clark has always been in Seattle, and he's covered Belltown since the early 1980s on a monthly basis. For proof, go to his website (and one of the first bona-fide blogs on the internet) at www.miscmedia.com. Slow and steady wins the race, baby.

Our new editor is indulging me by letting me do this monthly column of my musings. I can be reached at alex@belltownmessenger.com as I continue to fulfill my duties and publisher and Belltown Messenger delivery guy.

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