Punk Rock Colleague & Historian and Professional Consultant
Hudley Flipside
Old people speak their minds.
To me Punk Rock is all about experience. It is the effort put forward telling others a piece of your mind. A voice in the wilderness. A rebellion of sorts. That is rock & roll. A song that eternally endures. Yet as writers that is what we do. And as I get older, I have a great need to reflect and write. So be it.
Funny how the ideal of punk rock merged with do it yourself. That is how it was done because no one else was interested, so you learned as you went.
The thrill and intimacy of this is beyond words. Creativity was challenged daily, and frustration was at times like a wave crashing on my head.
The process and thought both forms materialized into a product.
Once a promoter connected with me and said I can promote your work. For $10, 000 only. He said he had all the connections to make it happen.
I looked at other publishers to make it happen for my books too.
Then I found myself in disbelief at the greed and disrespect for my work.
Or I was just ignored. That happens a lot now when you think you are competing with the big labels, promoters, and other corporate monsters. Some but not all are unscrupulous though.
I find working with a couple of big film companies the nicest of the bunch. They talked clearly and had contracts to sign. Yet it was only an image or two I was sharing on my terms.
I still do it myself as I did back in 1979. I went back to that calling in me. My goals are to express myself and popularity is never something I focus on.
Yet speaking up as someone who knows the narrative.
I am proud of all my work presented here. More autobiographical is how I naturally do it now. As one of my TV characters says,
Jessica Fletcher,
“Autobiographies are a good place to start with writing.”
Yes or no Jess, I would like to be in the same situation you are in. Travel and visit with other writers and journalists. That would be interesting. Give talks and critique and help others along the way. Yet I am not the social animal her character is. Yet that is what would be fun.
