Bookshop closures cast pall over Canberra's alternative culture

Electric Shadows Bookshop co-owner Anne Hutton made a disconcerting remark in The Canberra Times last Saturday in a story about the imminent closure of an iconic local retailer that had embraced alternative culture from day one.

Her comment addressed a noted lack of support for a committed business that had been responsible for a large part of my book collection and foreign/indie DVD viewing. This stretched back to the days when you could check out a David Lynch movie in the Electric Shadows cinema and then go next door to the bookshop to buy the latest collection of poems from Charles Bukowski, after 8pm.

It seems there are not enough local fans of non-mainstream art to sustain an outlet such as Electric Shadows, just as there are not enough fans of underground culture to sustain Smith's Alternative, a bookshop and live-music venue that has now closed because of lack of patronage – another sad state of affairs.

Smith's Alternative owner Dominic Mico attributed it to public-service cuts, which have hit the ACT economy hard. Another explanation is that punters simply aren't willing to step outside their suburban dwellings to check out an avant-jazz performance at Smith's, although they might consider checking out Steve Kilbey or Stephen Cummings, both Australian music luminaries who have performed there and appeal to audience members who might remember seeing bands like The Church at the ANU Bar in the early 1980s.

So what does this mean for the health and wellbeing of alternative art in our home town? For as long as I can remember, there has always been a problem with participation in these things outside small, committed groups of devotees. I recall an observation by United States writer Jim Carroll about how everyone has always thought that New York is the coolest city on the planet, but in the early 1970s, when the punk thing was about to break post Velvet Underground, only a handful of people in that huge metropolis really knew what was going on.

I guess the same thing on a much smaller scale could be said for Canberra. A small number in the know will always get involved and those who never look beyond hard-rock cover bands at the local pub or, worse still, continuously order books online, make it difficult for ventures such as Smith's Alternative and Electric Shadows to succeed.

However, Landspeed Records rolls on still provides easy access to alternative music, The Transit Bar had a queue out the door for the C.J. Ramone, Hard-Ons gig the other week, The Art, Not Apart and You are Here arts festivals continue to stimulate the senses, and Paperchain Books stocks William S. Burroughs. Nevertheless, it's disappointing that my easy access to Jim Jarmusch movies on DVD will soon be coming to an end.