"Americans are apathetic and would rather sit at home watching TV." Ron O

It depends on where they are, no doubt. In Juneau Alaska the townspeople would attend, as they say, the opening of an envelope. We are a small city (30,000) and especially after the tourist season one has to choose from among 5 or 7 things to do every weekend. And it's not just weekends- last night (a Tuesday) over a hundred poured into a local church venue to hear Collette Costa and friends perform.

Collette is locally famous for her changes of clothes, often worn over each other and for her fantastic voice and wide repertoire. She's originally from New Jersey and settled in Juneau a few years back; we know how fortunate we are to have her here.

Last night she sang songs from Tin Pan Alley, songs from the old west, old standards, a couple of Townes Van Zandt songs, and several songs written by local people. She was backed variously by Robert Cohen on grand piano, a guy on a drum set, a guy on a guitar, a young woman singing harmony and two saxophones. It was a great three hours.

As for the music threads being populated mostly by non-USers, I know that this is not what is being said or meant but it reminds me of what a man said here on Election Day.

Juneau is a long narrow town and for some reason the downtown area (the governmental seat) is quite different from the Valley area less than 10 miles away. Downtown is more politically liberal and with fewer families; there is less room so there are fewer yards and less parking. The local twit is that Valley people are living as close to Seattle as they can get.

On Election Day an old guy from the VAlley groused, 'That measure will probably pass just because of downtown. It's not fair that we in the Valley don't have a chance - downtown turnout is 100%.'