Edit: So long story short, blah blah blah song, blah blah blah song…blah blah blah video (in my mind not so random).
My morbid Easter picture for yall. Taken LITERALLY the whole Passion and Resurrection events are gruesome and morbid. In case you didn’t know, I have a friend who uses the nickname “The Only True Punk”. Well, I am “The Only True Christian”. Ha, ha! Actually of all the things I’ve studied in college the only thing I’ve continued to consistently study is Christianity in general. More specifically, early history, Gnosticism and extra-orthodox exegesis. Still an amateur though, but I do have more than enough understanding to confront the wide range of those people espousing Christian belief, especially the far right, evangelical, fundamental, speaking in tongues, laying on of hands, infallibility of the bible, variety I find myself surrounded by here. First two things that come to mind, ignorance and hypocrisy, starting with Paul all the way to the present. If you take a look at the metaphors you find in the gospels and try to understand themes (or even “secret” meanings) you see that there was no need for the 2000 years of misery, the so called leader and followers of the faith have cast upon this world. True blasphemy of what could have been a good thing. Today we have Islam and it’s fundamentalists taking up the sword intolerance and extremism. This picture reminds me that, I don’t care what your religious beliefs are, Mel Gibson’s “Passion” is well worth watching, despite all the drama surrounding the film. This doctor back in 30’s France, Dr. Pierre Barbet, in doing crucifixion research, used cadavers, thus the photograph. Wish I knew what it was about me that draws me to stuff like that. When all is said and done, I should be a fan of Marilyn Manson. Not sure why but I feel compelled to wrap this up with a Bone Awl tune,
Bone Awl – When I Die (monotonously simple, raw and perfect)
Well I don’t know if anyone noticed but this post is late. Kinda told myself (we talk all the time ya know) that I would try to come out with a post at least on every Thursday. Funny because I just interviewed for a job, within the same company I work for (a non-profit serving persons with disabilities) and during the interview they asked how I did with deadlines. I of course stated that I was excellent, if not the best person in the world at meeting deadlines. Oops. Needless to say, I got the job, a little more money and a lot more work and responsibility. Now despite my meager advancement, which I’m selling short (it is actually a big deal, it’s just more punk rock to pretend it isn’t) I am depressed because I found out that according to this article I am not part of the middle class. Still far from it. Instead I will have to be proud of my upper lower class status. Along those lines I think it’s very interesting to find out that Mike Myers makes $108,000 a minute for doing the voice of Shrek. Of course it doesn’t matter, as I said in my last post as I have decided to join the materialistic masses. No matter how much I try to glorify it, record collecting, even in my modest way, is somewhat materialistic. After all, I said it before, “property is theft”, just go ask TSOL, or go to the source with P.J. Proudhon. Besides I’m sure Mr. Myers worked VERY HARD for that money (at least as hard as a teacher in Kansas, who can expect to start out at $34k a year). Entertaining kids is more important than educating them right? (Tired old argument)
If you’re a “Big Lebowski” fan you must go to the Lewbowski Fest site.
Did that WAR trip on the last post, so Mike sent me this one,
Dream Team – You’re Slippin’
Not too bad and actually very obscure as I couldn’t find shit on the band. There was a whole rap album sometime in the 90’s of just WAR covers, but I haven’t tracked that down to give it a listen. Got me in the mood for rap (just for a second) and made me think of this tune,
Gangsta Of Love (the original, no Bushwick though)
Gangster of Love (similar to the above, but this one’s got Bushwick)
Gangster of Love (the original featured a Steve Miller sample, but after being sued they changed it to a Lynyrd Skynyrd sample)
Play that one for your old lady and see what she says.
“I treat a bitch
like a queen,
but she better realize
that I’m the god damn king.”
(I too am a hypocrite [in many ways] for posting this tune and being into things like Crass’ “Penis Envy” at the same time. May as well post Nazi shit, but I can do whatever I want on my site, right?)
I mentioned TSOL and for some reason they really reminds me of Junior High School. I suppose some of that was probably the little bit of shock I had, moving from LA proper to the Valley. There were no punks at my previous school and as far as I knew there were none in the Rampart district of LA, just immigrants, gangsters and me. I had already been exposed to punk (thank you Rodney) and along with metal, was a fan, but I had never seen them as a group of people. I hung out with the stoners, but I was always interested in what was going on with the punks. This was in 1981, so “punk”, even as hardcore was growing, was pretty well defined at that point. A lot of those punks went on to be in BPO. So somewhere in the mix I was introduced to True Sounds Of Liberty. Mike, also recently sent me their first demo, that’s worth hunting down if you’re so inclined. Check out a tune.
TSOL – Superficial Love
Another thing worth mentioning, from Junior High, was this guy Eddie. My buddy Match, if he graces me with his presence, will have a lot more to say about the guy. I’m sure that every Junior High had a guy like Eddie just like they had girls who were having abortions. Eddie was extreme, crazy, drugged out, and wanted attention terribly. Not sure what his home life was, but I got the feeling it wasn’t good and that he was maybe on ADHD doper. He was always up to something evil and may eventually have been kicked out of school for that (or ended up in Juvenile Hall, psyche ward, something…). So one thing I remember about him is that he went into his neighbors yard, took their pet bunny, hung it in his closet, cut it’s head off and brought the head to school. I’ve always been a softy for animals especially in their innocence and subservience at the hands of people. Needless to say, his actions upset and confused me. Whatever pity I had for the guy got sucked down a drain of anger. Fast forward about ten years to college. There was this friend named Gail who lived with Dawn and Kathy, some older friends and all part of a bigger group of friends that all hung out and partied together. They lived on California St. in Arcata, which is one of the best downhill skating spots in the county. They lived in this big ass house with a huge deck, several bands played there including Garden Weasel as you can hear, here. So Gail has this gigantic snake, python, anaconda, boa or something. It’s so huge, like you might see in the wild or at zoo, that it’s moved well beyond the mouse eating stage. Rabbits. So someone gets the bright idea that at it’s next feeding we should make it an event and have a little party. So Gail gets a big rabbit, which turns out to be some kids pet that his parents decide to get rid of. Tame, happy, bunny. There is excitement in the room, but I can feel the rabbits fear, like an unwilling gladiator. Maybe like the bull at a bullfight. The snake gets a hold of the rabbit quick, but there is no other sound in this world that is similar to the squeal of a rabbit when it knows it’s going to die. I remember it too from when I was a kid and my aunt raised rabbits for pelts and meat. So the snake and the rabbit is a natural thing but to me that was an unnatural event. Gail had also been a roadie and was good friends with the guys in NOFX. They came up several times over the years and partied with everyone and maybe even played a time or two. Was thinking about them the other day when I was talking about musicians who had committed suicide through addiction. They have this great song off the “Wolves in Wolves Clothing” that just fits all too well into that theme,
NoFX-Doornails
Pretty much have kept my head shaved, buzzed or just cut short since my senior year of high school. When in college my semi-WASPafarian friend Rob made me a tape there was a song that, without meaning to, rang true for me.
The Twinkle Brothers – Throw the Comb Away (Reggae Sunsplash 1982)
Even though they’re talking about dreadlocks, I too threw the comb away a long time ago. Shaving your head has become quite common over the years, but no one looks as good as me with buzzed hair. With a perfectly shaped head, round and not too big or small, and ears that don’t stick out in a goofy fly me away way, my head is shear perfection. 🙂
So this post is late, as I said, and it’s not that I procrastinated, it’s that I just couldn’t pick out a record to be the main topic of the post. In the picture you can see the stuff I have in my “cue”, as some of my fellow music site-sters call it, but nothing was grabbing me as it usually does. On top of that I probably have another 30 CDs, albums and 7″s ripped, converted and labeled. I’m not much of a writer, more of a journal writer, but you might call it writers block. Something old, something new, something mellow, something harsh, something green, something yellow. What to post? Really have been listening to all kinds of different shit lately, mostly new to me stuff from other sites. So many songs stuck in my head I can’t even think. Instead we’ll just leave you with an interesting rap video with a pretty serious story. Not bad even if you don’t dig that particular genre.
“it’s messed up I had to lose an eye to see shit clearly”