Chrissy Amphlett – Nooooooooooooooo!!!!

Dammit, people. Dammit. As K- once sang to us: “Fuck cancer!” She was dealing with MS at the same time. Dammit. GODDAMMIT. She was too young.

Roger Ebert – NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I just spent a half an hour looking for the essay I convinced Jason to write about why Ebert’s review of Three O’Clock High was bullshit. I couldn’t find it, but it makes me feel good knowing that, at one point in time, it existed.

Steve, is everything OK where you are?

Scary. Since I have no perspective or sense of geography/distance – is Lae close enough that you had any effects of the quake or the waves? You used to live in Honiara, right?

Take care.

How is everyone, anyway? And if Daisy answers that question, I will probably pass out from shock.

My country is just so fucked

This.

Did I vote? I don’t know.

My state passed a voter ID law last year (according to one of our Republican politicians, this would “win the state for Romney,” as those least likely to have, afford, or be able to procure the relevant identification are elderly and low-income voters, who tend to vote Democrat). So all the even-vaguely-lefty types rallied to publicize this, to raise funds to help people who could not afford fees for state id, to drive people to state offices to apply for id, etc. Cool. Then a state judge effectively embargoed the law, stating that people had not had enough time to get ids – the law would go into effect in the future, *and* the poll workers could ask you for id, but you didn’t need to show it this time. So all the even-vaguely-lefty types went rushing around to make sure that people knew that you did NOT need id to vote, and that you should turn out to vote anyway, and that you could not be forced to show id. Again, cool. We need more people of all political backgrounds getting out into neighborhoods, talking to people about their rights and making sure they are able to vote.

So. . . I show up at the polls this morning. I have the phone number of the ACLU in my pocket, just in case. I also, completely randomly, have a digital recorder that I am supposed to give back to my friend at work. I walk up to the table to sign the register. “Do you have id?” asks the poll worker seated at the table. Baffled, I say, “Why do you ask?” “Because,” he tells me, “it says next to your name in the register that you must present id. Have you ever voted in this precinct before?” “Errr, no, I just moved here.” More bafflement. I happen to have my passport (which is good, because I don’t have a driving license), and my county registration card (Question: since they send us a card as proof that we are registered, why did the state pass a fucking law that we need another form of id THAT SHOWS AN EXPIRATION DATE in order to vote?). I’m now so baffled that I don’t know what to say, and head into the voting booth. It is technically correct that you need id if you have not voted in a precinct before; I knew this but had forgotten. It is also written on the registration card. By the way, for Steve and anyone else outside the US: the registration card is just a flimsy piece of cardboard, just a confirmation that you are on the electoral register at a particular address. You could make one on your home computer. Most people immediately lose them, and no one reads the fine print. And yeah: many people who first thought they needed id, and then were told they did NOT need id, now actually MAY need id, but they won’t have it. Got it?

Anyway, it’s an electronic voting both, and you just press the button next to the candidate’s name and a light lights up. When you’re ready, you press a big red button to cast your vote. There have already been umpteen serious problems with these things; there is no receipt or no proof that it has actually recorded your vote. It’s a machine, and it makes a little beeping sound after you press the big red button, but that’s it.  I press the red button. There is no beeping sound. The lights go out to indicate that the machine is “done” and can be reset for the next person. Baffled, I step out. The poll worker says, “Oh, I didn’t hear it beep. But the light went out and the machine reset. So I guess you’re ok.”

Seriously, fucking seriously. Oh, and my friend’s wife went to vote in the precinct where she has voted for eight years. They asked her for id. Why? Because the polling place had been moved to a new building. And yes, I called the ACLU in Philadelphia, and they seemed nice, but I don’t think this was the worst crap they had to deal with today. But I managed, completely accidentally, to turn on my digital recorder with my hip-bone. So it’s all there, in a faintly purse-muffled way, although I’ll never be able to prove that anything actually went wrong. Seriously, fucking seriously.

Latest Swans Album (Seer)

Has anyone listened to it? I haven’t yet.

It’s supposed to be like their masterwork or something, or so I’ve heard.

They played at the Black Cat in D.C. a few weeks ago, but I missed it.

It’s great that Gira is pushing 60 and still making relevant music. I really liked the direction he was headed with Angels of Light even though at the time (as I recall) he claimed that Swans were permanently defunct  and he wasn’t interested in regrouping.

Why won’t people say they are punks?

I never got this on the old board.

There were people who listened to lots of punk music, went to punk shows, and had lots of punk political views and talked about punk all the time. But they’d deny they were punks, or, even say that the whole idea of ‘real punk’ was somehow stupid and say there were no actual punks posting on the board.

I think there were two definitions of punk involved:

1 – some kind of ultimate working class young super-tramp anarchist fully DIY crazy character who lives totally outside the system (yet is kinda famous somehow)

2 – a normal person within society, but who likes punk stuff and goes to shows, has fun, has generally progressive political views, participates in the culture, etc.

Even though people denied that they even believed in ideal 1, they still weren’t prepared to say they were punks, because somehow they thought they might look like poseurs. Better to say “I never was one.”

But honestly, if you listen to punk music and you think punk / DIY / alternative culture is generally interesting and it empowers you to try and live your life the way you want it, and try to fight through the bullshit of mainstream culture, then: you are a punk.

I’ve been a punk, on and off, since I was thirteen.

Maybe everyone would like to be a little more like ideal #1 sometimes, but that doesn’t mean we have to totally dis-identify with something really important to us, because we don’t get close to the ideal.

I think mainstream culture has probably facilitated this development of real punk as an unattainable ideal but I am not sure how it has done it.

This post was partly prompted by the fact that I met some people in Malaysia recently who were happy to say they were punks, and they were pretty middle class and had normal jobs, and were very much constrained by that society in what they could do. One guy hadn’t even been allowed to move out of home til he was thirty, and was now in his late forties, and he was happy to identify as a punk and to spread the word about punk bands and punk culture to other Malaysians.

And, he was awesome, a positive person, and not jaded and embarrassed by the fact that he obviously was not living up to some ideal. Malaysian society is really oppressive and he said it took him years to fight off the expectations of others. Punk was empowering for him, even in his thirties and forties.

Seems like for a lot of people in the west in their twenties, it has actually become dis-empowering, almost embarrassing.

Is Anyone on the East Coast / Mid-Atlantic Area Still Alive After the Frankenstorm? Hello?

Kevin? Steveo? Janet? Anyone?

Oh, no. You’re all dead. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I should’ve posted so much more. I should’ve been here for you people. But it’s too late now. Too late. Too, too late. Much too late.

Why, god, WHY?!?!