Category Archives: Interesting Things as of Late

isn’t it all?

Bamboo Banga

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Another hot day. Right now in the apartment the thermometer says 94 degrees. On TV it says 91. I am sweating profusely wearing only boxer shorts. A thrill for some, much needed for comfort. It’s drizzling right now, barely. It’s drying rapidly. Bad news for drivers and the cost of gas.

Scooters are in now. And there’s a prediction that by July 4, a barrel of oil will hit $150.00, translating to $5.00 for a gallon of gas. ‘I got some downers and speed, all the drugs that you need, but I can’t get a gallon of gas’ sang Ray Davies in the 1980’s.

Juan was here for a spell last night. He looked great, showing off his new American Apparel shorts. He lost weight but he didn’t seem to agree. I fed him some pasta and chicken and we watched the last episode of Lost on the DVR. Always good to have him around. Lost was good, saw some things I missed the first time around. Juan seemed to enjoy it too.

Around 9:00 he headed back to Trenton. I watched a documentary on Glenn Gould which was only an hour then watched the last half of Hannah and Her Sisters. I was asleep by 11:30 and sleep soundly under two fans blowing at top speed.

Woke up and went out. It wasn’t that hot at 8:30, only in the 80’s. No run ins at the bagel shop and I was soon back in my apartment wearing my third t shirt of the day and it was only 9:30. I watched a 2 hour documentary on Atlantic Records, or more specifically, all about Ahmet Ertegun. Only a mention or two of Arif Mardin so that was disappointing. Kid Rock was talked about more than Arif.

It was a very fast 2 hours though. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant were just a few of the talking heads besides Aretha, Ben E. King and Solomon Burke. After that I watched Almost Famous again. Still a very good picture, surprised it didn’t do as well as I thought it did according to wikipedia. I think Cameron Crowe as well as many many others really identify with music on an intense level. I know I do.

After Almost Famous, my usual Sunday walk to mail the Netflix dvd’s. It was really oppressive, so much so that I was feeling woozy despite drinking a lot of water and having a couple of bottles on me. I wound up sitting by the river, trying to catch some breezes off the water.

I couldn’t focus to read a book and all I could do was just sit there and stare across the river. That’s never happened before. I remember about 10 years ago it was even hotter and I wound up riding my bicycle to Prospect Park, where it was too hot to even wear a light shirt.

Now today, it was difficult to walk down the street without feeling a bit dizzy and I was in the shade. I’m better now, back home and sitting in the dark. Nice. Tomorrow promises to be more of the same until later in the week, temperature-wise.

Cookie Puss

3 Replies

Well last night was basically like other nights, but still I write. I took bhikku’s advice and watched American Hardcore and it was better than I expected. There were so many bands from that scene that I had forgotten about. I also forgot that one of the main causes of the hardcore scene was the administration of the Reagan presidency.

It was bad then, but it’s worse now. Where’s the underground response? Where would hardcore be without Ronnie? He was the poster child for most hardcore fliers and adverts. It was a very good documentary, interviews with Keith Morris from Circle Jerks, HR from Bad Brains, Henry Rollins. I forgot about Die Krauzen, I believe they played McSwells at some point. It was a national thing with our Canadian cousins represented by DOA.

As vital as the hardcore scene was, it did eventually succumb to the LCD mentality. One of the talking head was a former roadie for a Boston band called Slapshot. He’s now a Unitarian minister, Reverend Hank Peirce, nee straight edge Hank. He was totally straight edge, and still is apparently. I was straight edge for a few minutes, in the sense of not drinking or doing drugs. Then I started drinking and doing drugs.

Ian MacKaye from Minor Threat was on also, the leader of the straight edge movement, totally earnest with the DIY attitude. I doubt if there are many bands so dedicated to their craft as he was and still is. Don’t know if Fugazi is still operating, but they had the policy of never charging more than $5.00 to their shows. I also found Phil Anselmo has quite a sexy voice. Man he sounded hot. Too bad he was a junkie in Pantera, which isn’t or wasn’t hardcore.

Not much on the Dead Kennedys or Husker Du. They got a mention but no one from those bands were talking, neither were the Beastie Boys who as many people have forgotten, started out as a hardcore band. Henry Rollins, good guy, had some very good things to say, telling his story about leaving a $3.50 an hour job in DC to move to LA and join Black Flag.

Bill came home towards the end and was tired and perplexed by the sounds coming out of the TV. Bunch of white kids jumping off the stage onto each other in the audience, ‘what the fuck’ he must have thought. Luckily, the songs played barely lasted more than a minute and you couldn’t really understand, hence my having the subtitles on. Almost forgot, Brandon Cruz was on. He was in a hardcore band, in fact he replaced Jello Biafra in the Dead Kennedys.

The group I hung out with back in my wild and wooly days gravitated to hardcore, I moved in a different direction. They were listening to the Germs, I was listening to Talking Heads and Run DMC. Eventually we parted ways.

Oh and Moby sang with Flipper for a show or two at some point though the guys in Flipper don’t remember. Oh that Moby. Grrr! And Mike Watt, great guy, he should run for President. No, wait, he’s too cool for that. He’s great and it was good to see him in the video. Everybody loves Mike Watt. I know I do. I heart Mike Watt. Where is today’s hardcore, railing against the system? What? Do I have to do it?

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about any of the above, like you needed me to tell you that.