I wrote Mark Andersen of Positive Force DC about doing it, places I could stay, that whole traveling from hostel-to-hostel crust punk thing I thought was cool at the time. He actually wrote me a very long letter back and I can't even remember what he said. In may naivete I even wrote Ian MacKaye, and to my surprise he sent back a postcard; he may have been the one to tell me to write the Positive Force DC folks on that card, actually. This was when Swiz, Nation of Ulysses, and of course Fugazi were some big bands there, Jawbox becoming more popular, and a lot of the riot grrl bands from the northwest seemed to also be relocating there. DC and the Bay Area seemed like the two coolest punk music spots in the US to me at the time. Then I remember it seemed like Arlington, VA, absorbed a lot it - ex-Born Against folks, Avail (I think?) - or maybe I'm thinking Richmond on that latter part. Cynthia Connolly et. al.'s _Banned in DC_ book, which I still have a 1st printing copy of from 1991 or '92 or so, also made it look really awesome and vibrant to my young eyes.
This was all pre-Internet. I was constantly surprised by how many folks I would write in bands, etc., that would write me back. I sort of miss that.
-B.
Wendy Lyon wrote:
"I have to agree with this. As someone who's gone back to visit sporadically since moving out of the area in 1993, I'm consistently impressed by how much better it's getting. Downtown areas that used to be ghost towns after 5pm are now choc-a-bloc at night with people going to movies, restaurants, nightclubs, bars or just out for a wander."