Showing posts with label punk rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label punk rock. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Let's get unpopular
Music for the moment: "White People For Peace" by Against Me!
"The people sang protest songs to try and stop the soldier's gun"
Let's say some things to make me unpopular today.
Let's get political.
This won't sit well for those of you with children, or those of you who are a few years younger than me...
but I really think we need to reinstate the draft.
Because the youth of today doesn't feel threatened enough to make a difference.
We were at the Warped Tour a little bit ago. Against Me! played this song there, and the kids sang along. "The people sang protest songs to try and stop the soldier's gun." After the show, they went home and played video games or whatever the kids are doing these days.
They played video games while other kids the same age or just a little older than them are fighting in a war that they don't want to be in. A lot of them have been "stop-lossed" and are fighting over there for their second or third time.
A lot of these kids signed up for the army because it was a ticket out of poverty, to get an education. A lot of them were simply duped by recruiters. Some of them are there out of duty, too, feeling like they are doing the right thing. I'm in no position to tell them otherwise, sitting at a computer thousands of miles away, blogging out of self-righteous indignation.
But I can chastise the lily white suburban kids, playing video games and talking about how the war is bad.
This war is vastly unpopular, but where are the gatherings in the streets? Where are the peaceful marches on the mall in Washington?
In the '60s, not that I was there, bands played protest songs and the people responded. Where is the response today? Where are our John Sinclairs and Pun Plamundons?
(Side note - I met Sinclair and Plamundon at a reading last year. Both are still charismatic powerful speakers, and they're still speaking out.)
Bands like Anti-Flag, Against Me! and Valientt Thorr are playing songs that should have the kids united and charging into the streets, demanding an end to what's going on in Iraq, an unjust war being perpetrated by a bunch of old suits who are making a lot of money.
They won't. They're too complacent.
If we had a draft, maybe they'd get off their asses (speaking of which, at the Warped Tour, the child obesity problem was also very evident; there were large numbers of teens who are in really rough shape) and get into the streets and protest. Maybe they'd be burning their draft cards and heading to Canada rather than being shipped off to fight and possibly be killed in war they didn't agree with.
Right now, there's no risk of that, so it's easier to do nothing.
I think the government knows this, and finds it easier to repeatedly risk the lives of the troops they already have, rather than face the wrath of hoards of angry teens, backed up by their angry soccer moms, holding signs that declaring that "war is for the poor," that their kids shouldn't be called from West Bloomfield to go fight, because they're needed to take over the family banking business.
Then again, what do I know? I'm as guilty as they are. I'm not out there either. I'm just blogging about it. How's that for complacency?
Moving on... but staying political... let's talk about Critical Mass.
Critical Mass is another group I strongly believe in, and I get some flack from other cyclists who disagree with them. Granted, their methods may not be always sound, but their motives are pure.
Critical Mass is a cycling group, built around two ideas:
1. Cyclists don't impede traffic - they ARE traffic.
2. For a cyclist, there is safety in numbers.
With this in mind, they meet monthly in cities all over the world, in groups as large as 1,000, to ride.
In some places, this has lead to clashes with the authorities, like in this case that happened in NYC last Friday:
The cop singled the guy out, and bam!
That's assault.
The cyclist is a 29-year-old activist and an army veteran. The cop is a 22-year-old who's been on the force for all of three weeks, and made an official statement that the cyclist rode his bike straight into him, knocking them both down and causing a “laceration” on his arm.
I'm guessing he didn't know there was video.
Originally, the cyclist was charged with a few things and held for 24 hours. The video was posted anonymously on Youtube. There is now an internal investigation going.
This is part of the reason police kind of scare me. Granted, I've known a lot of cool cops, but it only takes one cop who wants to be a prick, and your life could be over. This cop could have made this guy's life hell by lying and filing assault charges, if we didn't live in the Internet age, anyway.
"The people sang protest songs to try and stop the soldier's gun"
Let's say some things to make me unpopular today.
Let's get political.
This won't sit well for those of you with children, or those of you who are a few years younger than me...
but I really think we need to reinstate the draft.
Because the youth of today doesn't feel threatened enough to make a difference.
We were at the Warped Tour a little bit ago. Against Me! played this song there, and the kids sang along. "The people sang protest songs to try and stop the soldier's gun." After the show, they went home and played video games or whatever the kids are doing these days.
They played video games while other kids the same age or just a little older than them are fighting in a war that they don't want to be in. A lot of them have been "stop-lossed" and are fighting over there for their second or third time.
A lot of these kids signed up for the army because it was a ticket out of poverty, to get an education. A lot of them were simply duped by recruiters. Some of them are there out of duty, too, feeling like they are doing the right thing. I'm in no position to tell them otherwise, sitting at a computer thousands of miles away, blogging out of self-righteous indignation.
But I can chastise the lily white suburban kids, playing video games and talking about how the war is bad.
This war is vastly unpopular, but where are the gatherings in the streets? Where are the peaceful marches on the mall in Washington?
In the '60s, not that I was there, bands played protest songs and the people responded. Where is the response today? Where are our John Sinclairs and Pun Plamundons?
(Side note - I met Sinclair and Plamundon at a reading last year. Both are still charismatic powerful speakers, and they're still speaking out.)
Bands like Anti-Flag, Against Me! and Valientt Thorr are playing songs that should have the kids united and charging into the streets, demanding an end to what's going on in Iraq, an unjust war being perpetrated by a bunch of old suits who are making a lot of money.
They won't. They're too complacent.
If we had a draft, maybe they'd get off their asses (speaking of which, at the Warped Tour, the child obesity problem was also very evident; there were large numbers of teens who are in really rough shape) and get into the streets and protest. Maybe they'd be burning their draft cards and heading to Canada rather than being shipped off to fight and possibly be killed in war they didn't agree with.
Right now, there's no risk of that, so it's easier to do nothing.
I think the government knows this, and finds it easier to repeatedly risk the lives of the troops they already have, rather than face the wrath of hoards of angry teens, backed up by their angry soccer moms, holding signs that declaring that "war is for the poor," that their kids shouldn't be called from West Bloomfield to go fight, because they're needed to take over the family banking business.
Then again, what do I know? I'm as guilty as they are. I'm not out there either. I'm just blogging about it. How's that for complacency?
Moving on... but staying political... let's talk about Critical Mass.
Critical Mass is another group I strongly believe in, and I get some flack from other cyclists who disagree with them. Granted, their methods may not be always sound, but their motives are pure.
Critical Mass is a cycling group, built around two ideas:
1. Cyclists don't impede traffic - they ARE traffic.
2. For a cyclist, there is safety in numbers.
With this in mind, they meet monthly in cities all over the world, in groups as large as 1,000, to ride.
In some places, this has lead to clashes with the authorities, like in this case that happened in NYC last Friday:
The cop singled the guy out, and bam!
That's assault.
The cyclist is a 29-year-old activist and an army veteran. The cop is a 22-year-old who's been on the force for all of three weeks, and made an official statement that the cyclist rode his bike straight into him, knocking them both down and causing a “laceration” on his arm.
I'm guessing he didn't know there was video.
Originally, the cyclist was charged with a few things and held for 24 hours. The video was posted anonymously on Youtube. There is now an internal investigation going.
This is part of the reason police kind of scare me. Granted, I've known a lot of cool cops, but it only takes one cop who wants to be a prick, and your life could be over. This cop could have made this guy's life hell by lying and filing assault charges, if we didn't live in the Internet age, anyway.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Safe Haircare
I’m picturing the Mother/Son conversation that precipitated this.
“I know you’re growing up, and you’re starting to make big decisions. While I wish you would just abstain, I know that may not be realistic.
So I want you to be careful, and if you decide that you’re ready to rock a ‘hawk, use protection.”
That’s a sign of good parenting.
“I know you’re growing up, and you’re starting to make big decisions. While I wish you would just abstain, I know that may not be realistic.
So I want you to be careful, and if you decide that you’re ready to rock a ‘hawk, use protection.”
That’s a sign of good parenting.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Living in Fear
Music for the moment: "Heatseeker" by Valient Thorr
I have to say I absolutely love this band. Their music rocks in a hardcore meets Lynyrd Skynyrd sort of way, and they have one of the most energetic and entertaining live shows ever. The frontman, Valient Himself, is so charismatic that his only choices in life would have been to either front a rock band or to become a cult leader. I think he made the right choice.
On top of it all, he's a really cool guy. He always takes time to talk with his fans (we are called "Thorriers" by the way, and TFN and I are members of the Great Lakes Thorriers chapter). He's a genuinely good guy.
Oh, and the band is from Venus, by way of NC. They are here to spread a message of positive thinking and brotherhood through the power of rock. I hope they succeed.
The reason I bring them up is that I've seen them four times, including a show in Austin with Wayne Kramer of the MC5. Tonight will be the fifth time I see them, and I'm stoked.
If you weren't too grossed out by the injury photos I posted yesterday, then I have an even more gruesome tale to relate... and it's about living in fear in one's own house.
The day TFN returned from Oregon, I got home from work and we left to go out with a bunch of friends at the aforementioned nice place that had the poor judgment of allowing us free access to the jukebox. After we had our fun, we went home.
Upon arrival at the house, things seemed normal. We went through the various rituals of getting ready for bed, not noting anything out of the ordinary. Shane was lying on his dog bed, happily chewing on one of his toys... no he wasn't.
What was the dog chewing on so happily? I got closer to him, but couldn't tell, so I took it away to investigate.
It was a crusty chunk of material.
After we left, Shane had opened up TFN's luggage, gotten into her dirty laundry, and found one of her socks. It happened to be the sock that she had been wearing when she fell through the cattle grate and sliced her leg to the bone. It was the sock that became soaked with blood in the ensuing ride down the mountain in search of medical attention.
It was a sock that had been soaked in blood.
Human blood.
Now I don't know what to do. I don't feel like I can trust this dog anymore. He's tasted human blood. Can I safely turn my back on him now? Can I sleep safely knowing he's lying on the floor next to the bed, possibly dreaming about that taste that he'll never forget?
Could you trust this beast?
I have to say I absolutely love this band. Their music rocks in a hardcore meets Lynyrd Skynyrd sort of way, and they have one of the most energetic and entertaining live shows ever. The frontman, Valient Himself, is so charismatic that his only choices in life would have been to either front a rock band or to become a cult leader. I think he made the right choice.
On top of it all, he's a really cool guy. He always takes time to talk with his fans (we are called "Thorriers" by the way, and TFN and I are members of the Great Lakes Thorriers chapter). He's a genuinely good guy.Oh, and the band is from Venus, by way of NC. They are here to spread a message of positive thinking and brotherhood through the power of rock. I hope they succeed.
The reason I bring them up is that I've seen them four times, including a show in Austin with Wayne Kramer of the MC5. Tonight will be the fifth time I see them, and I'm stoked.
If you weren't too grossed out by the injury photos I posted yesterday, then I have an even more gruesome tale to relate... and it's about living in fear in one's own house.
The day TFN returned from Oregon, I got home from work and we left to go out with a bunch of friends at the aforementioned nice place that had the poor judgment of allowing us free access to the jukebox. After we had our fun, we went home.
Upon arrival at the house, things seemed normal. We went through the various rituals of getting ready for bed, not noting anything out of the ordinary. Shane was lying on his dog bed, happily chewing on one of his toys... no he wasn't.
What was the dog chewing on so happily? I got closer to him, but couldn't tell, so I took it away to investigate.
It was a crusty chunk of material.
After we left, Shane had opened up TFN's luggage, gotten into her dirty laundry, and found one of her socks. It happened to be the sock that she had been wearing when she fell through the cattle grate and sliced her leg to the bone. It was the sock that became soaked with blood in the ensuing ride down the mountain in search of medical attention.
It was a sock that had been soaked in blood.
Human blood.
Now I don't know what to do. I don't feel like I can trust this dog anymore. He's tasted human blood. Can I safely turn my back on him now? Can I sleep safely knowing he's lying on the floor next to the bed, possibly dreaming about that taste that he'll never forget?Could you trust this beast?
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