Spinning Tires with Mike Conley

Michael Conley 1959 to 2008, Band M.I.A.

Photo by Kurt Porter

2/28/2023

I just got back from walking around the block in the rain. I love night walks, especially when they allow me to reflect on moments that have shaped my life, and tonight, I found my thoughts drifting to Mike. He was one punk singer who made an indelible impression on my experiences and memories.

I remember a particular moment back in 2008, a time when I was deeply immersed in writing My Punkalullaby memoir. I was in the midst of recalling stories about Mike when I received an unexpected call from Nick, another member of the band MIA. His voice carried the weight of news that felt unfathomable—Mike had died.

The timing was staggering. Just as I was cherishing the memories of Mike and his music, Nick’s call brought forth a wave of overwhelming sadness. In that instant, it struck me how intertwined our lives were with the rhythms of music, friendship, and the passage of life. Looking back, I realize what a powerful and bittersweet moment that was, one that I feel compelled to share now.

The magic of music, friends, and life—and the inexplicable nature of what lies beyond—makes me ponder the connections we share with those who have passed. There’s something profoundly comforting in the belief that some of these punk friends who have died are watching over us, still somehow part of our lives and experiences. Perhaps they resonate in the chords of the songs we listen to and through the shared memories that linger in our hearts. It’s a beautiful thought that brings solace amidst the grief, a reminder that though they may be gone, their spirit and influence live on within us and in the music we cherish.

I remember Mike’s eldest daughter Alex Conley, explaining at his funeral, how her dad always had to play his music loud, be it in the house or in the car. She did not seem to get it, since they had headphones.

Today youngest son is acting like a know-it-all teenager. He knows all about art and rock & roll. A stick up his ass. Like an old fart art curator or rusty rock band member.

Me, I am just Mama Kin… I don’t know a thing.

I stopped to drop him off at his college art class. Before he got out, he turned down the music, changed the channel to Jazz, and closed the door. I then changed the channel back to rock & roll, turned up the music loud while spinning tires, and raced away.

Mike Conley came to mind. I was then really sitting with his ghost as this song came on.

It is cool man. Time for a cocktail. I enjoyed a ride with Mike Conley today.

Youngest son is my friend regardless… we both like rock & roll, art, and fast cars. He is a son, and I am a mom.

Mike was a good punk friend or maybe Punk Colleague on the wild side of my exuberant youthful life.

He is welcome to visit any time!

Dennis Danell, Pat Fear and Mike Conley, The PUNK HUB MASTERS Talk 2017.

A happy spit in the wind

December 1979 is around 37 years ago. A very tight and small club of mutual fans, promoters and band members were a rebellious team.

Before Henry Rollins galore, when the underground punk scene was unique, new, and growing as wildfire. I swear our agenda was as sincere and planned as peeing on the walls. I used to take a few photographs back in the day as the shift from Hollywood to Orange County became the thing like a large earthquake. Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine was there hanging with the scene. Drunk and wild as a windblown day.

I just signed an agreement to releases an image I took a long time ago about the punk scene for a film called “20th Century Women.” The image is my intellectual property. Some day when, hopefully, my grand-kids or great grand kids are viewing this film they may take to heart what their “grand ma ma” did for an underground punk scene. It feels good to share history with a company that respects my rights. They pursued me with respect and integrity. It feels particularly good in the scheme of my life. There are many stories from THE BIG PUNK ROCK, this is mine.

The photograph is of Black Flag at the Church with Keith Morris singing after they had officially broken up, a unique photograph is the photograph that I have licensed today. It is not about the money, it is about how I am still amazed that anyone would care about a hot, sleazy, little underground church basement in some place called nowheresville some 37 years ago… because we knew at that time, at that time & place, that no one cared! I am amused that this lost sentiment has changed. I am happy to sign this agreement today.

New 2026: Just Click on the image for a print on demand Tee-Shirt.

Pic is in this film, 20th Century Women
Nice to be acknowledged in closing credits.
Very honored to be a part of the film.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/20th_century_women/

Still trying to figure it out; Punk Wise…or pardon me your love hate is showing dear

By the time the punk scene hit the ‘eighties there was a continuous explosion of riptide underground movements happening at the same time. Bands like X and the Go-Go’s went with the big labels. They left the underground punk scene and faded. A mirage in the desert of big media. We did not focus on them anymore.

This post shows up after many years. I have done what I inspired to do. I am amazed that in my frustration I came forth with a re-print of our Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Ten Year Anniversary issue. Also, My Punkalullaby memoir, both in paperback. Also, my three Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine creation narratives documentary films.

I did what I set out to do. A new Flipside Video loop is out too and that is it… Flipside Fanzine, my story and all for ones reviewing. D.I.Y…. the Flipside way. Learn as you go.

a bard of the earth and sky, in the alley,

Hudley Flipside / 2024.

2016

A Ballad to the Good ‘ole Song by Hudley

‘to the ‘young punk dead.’

Life is a song, having a beginning, middle and end. A song has a soul each time you hear it. A song shares feelings and memories which awaken the life lived. A song holds on to experiences of good and inconvenient times! A song has a spirit which is eternally youthful, middle-aged, and old. A song ends like all living things. A song has all the qualities of life. A song amplifies us, the human being, who create the songs and those that resurrect listening to the songs … repeatedly.

Da Capo Press is under a big black sky. Yes, it is good that we all have the freedom to share our stories. In the supermarket I seem to get some deep emotions pulled up. We are all visually abused at the checkout stand. As usual I had to turn the ugly Trump man image around. Was it Time, Time/Life, Rolling Stone, People are another big media cutaneous pig where I viewed his image, and by chance the inside front page had a book review? My brain sucked it in so fast and I did not want to read it… but it came at me like a kamikaze knife. “The real punk rock …,” “X and the Go-Go’s, “the beloved untouchable Minutemen.” Then there was the one image of Henry Rollins …. His bald head.

“It is a curse…”

I put my blueberries and tortillas on the checkout stand. I know how big media gets reviews in such magazines. Is it an honest interview or is it a promotional piece, or a big advertisement? It all reeks and my heart break a bit to think about how the ‘young punk dead’ would rebel against this… as they did 30 years ago.

At Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine we had an endless supply of photos of all the punk bands. It was common underground weed photographs. Not for sale, or for a museum or for any uptown media DICKS. That was not our agenda.

Henry Rollins’s shaved head,

“Twenty something years ago; what issue was my review of Black Flag live in? A show where I called him a penis head?”

I think it was because he was one big muscle of sweat. It was meant to be a humorous blow from an underground nobody punker chick reviewing just another show. Henry took it like an evangelical’s literal agenda when reading the bible.

He was not hip to Los Angeles yet. A sense of humor he lacked big time.

Was it 12 years ago when the “Old-School” nostalgia punk thing started to happen? It has passed its peak baby. I was a silly doe when I approached Santa Monica Press and Feral House Publishing 12 years ago with my memoirs about the punk scene.

No one was interested. I even shared my ideas with punk Icon Keith Morris. No dice…that is how vinyl melts… old school wise.

I am not bitter, just sad. I find that some people are too eager to tell their story in a big way. Big promotional campaigns and all the media hype is a downer man. I wanted to write my memoir because I was concerned that the punk scene, as Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine, might be forgotten? Why am I so loyal …? I am still trying to figure it out!

What I have learned is this, I am more determined to do it myself now. DO It Myself BABY… locally and with my own media machine; a computer, scanner, and little art closet. I have my heavenly share of nasty sharpie pens, erasers, and pencils too.

I’ll hang with a community of peasants that don’t really want to break the membrane into the realm of fame and stars in Hollywood. I’ll stay a bard of the earth and sky, in the alley.

Irrelativity

“…Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
I find comment ’bout my looks irrelativity,
Think I’ll go and have some fun,
‘Cos it’s all for free.
I’m not searching for a reason to enjoy myself…,”

– Yardbirds

009 — How I looked in the dream last night !

Had one of those dreams of being back at the scene of the 1980s. A club morphed into a Golden Voice show! The tight feelings were there of knowing all the bands and the characters and players! Jim Kaa of the Crowd was talking in my ear when brother Gus showed up. We are not talking these days, but in this dream, we approached each other for a forgiving hug when I turned into myself. How I look now.

I asked myself if I had the password to get into the show? I said it does not matter because I am in and not going anywhere!

Lots of guys from bands were roaming around! I was consciously aware enough to dig being back in the middle of things. Running around and being part of what was happening…like everyone else there! My scene, my friends, something to offer and cover! Al approached me; we then were at an adjoining Chinese restaurant. We were shooting the breeze! I was wondering where the bar was ’cause a cold beer sounded good to ease my social tension!

Al Flipside had a new computerized contraption that took pictures, recorded bands, and interviewed bands; ready for documenting the whole scene. All from a large black computer book!

He was on the cutting edge and creative as usual. As we were eating our noodles a band came on! Al said he had to go see about a band. I told him go ahead I will watch over your noodles until you get back!!

I awoke from the dream with a missing feeling of belonging once to a music scene that was overwhelming wild and unpredictable. I was spoiled then! My heart will always mourn those days of youthful rebellion!

Sociology of Punk Rock Presentation for Whittier College

Punk rock Memorial Day… this is one of my first presentations and it just happened to be at Whittier college.

I presented this at Whittier College, a place that holds special significance, as it is in celebration of the very roots where Flipside was created and published. Nestled within the little sleepy town of Whittier, California, known as the home of Richard Nixon and once a thriving Quaker farming community, the essence of this town is steeped in history. Underneath the nice façade of this quaint little community were some rebels with a musical cause, fiercely enthusiastic about the sounds that resonated from the underground.

A handful of guys and gals, driven by their love for music, came together to challenge the status quo and creatively made things happen in a unique way, pushing boundaries and inspiring others. Anyhow, this is not just a recollection but the ongoing story of my time served, a lazy yet impactful little folktale about Flipside Fanzine that captures the spirit of a unique era in music and community, where art and rebellion intertwined seamlessly, leaving a lasting legacy that still echoes today.

This is my celebration at Whittier College.

Thanks goes to Jeffrey Gunn and Students who inspired me to present this… and to my children’s children who may want to know what the old woman did when she was a kid. Ha Ha!!

Before using professional software, I relied on PowerPoint for presentations.

Sociology of Punk Rock Presentation

Mount Delphi, a song and a bud.

Punk Rock Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside

Like a newborn baby it just happens ev’ry day

~ Rolling Stones

One song to the next is still a motivation in my life. Synchronizing past, present, and future dreams.

Joan asked me today,

“If I were at the Mount of Delphi what question would I ask of her, the Pythia?”

My mind went blank or black.

I heard Paint It Black by the Avengers years ago live in a club to the frequency of bouncing youths. A tight crowd of underground nobodies who were wild and unassuming.

The Avengers were fun, intense and no lines drawn between bands and fans.

The first time I saw this band play this song Spaz Attack was vibrating on the ground as I was drooling beer while watching him. My belly was about to pop.

It was all new. Kind of like black…unknown and exciting.

That is this song to me…

A WAILING OF A TOWN !!!!

Received this today!

An Oral History of Early San Pedro Punk and more! 1977 – 1985

Yes he did it and here it is in my sweaty hands! Thanks CRAIG IBARRA … Full time at SST Records for nine years!!! Wow!!

Remarkable how the intensity of a scene can survive and come back with an endearing bite! Feels like it should too!!

“IN YOUR FACE!!!”

http://www.waterunderthebridgerecords.com

NOW FOR SOME REAL DEAL PUNK FOR YOUR VIEWING ENJOYMENT!!

All About A Song: Very Very, Wild Wild…

Punk Rock Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside

8/30/2022

I resurrected this old post because it is a good story about the history of a song. As I am beholding to many. KROQ, Rodney Bingenheimer and the early Flipside Fanzine Crew and all of those nobody punks on the streets who welcomed me in… us in, no questions asked.

2015:

Jumping in the truck and taking the kid to school. Turning on the radio while a song is starting to play. So, we turn it up as loud as can be. The car radio vibrating as truck bounces its way down the road…breaking the mediocrity of routine by invoking my once “young woman” once more. Looking over at son, he is clearly into the drums because he is mocking the drumbeats.

“The Ballroom Blitz” is a song written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and originally recorded by the British rock band The Sweet. Billboard ranked it as the No. 16 song for 1975.”

1976:

At the age of 18 the song Ballroom Blitz played on the Telefunken Radio. The radio vibrated on the wood shelve next to the fireplace. It was free FM KROQ.

“Poo Poo Pee DOO…KROQ”

Rodney, Posh Boy, Mike (ZED) and Steve (ZED). GOLD Records for the success of Beach Blvd. From Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Number 20, The Circle Jerks Cover By Edward Colver

“The punk scene was like Halloween, Christmas, horror films, and freedom all at the same time. Overwhelmed, I felt as though I was in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, mimicking Puck— taking on the images that were around me without question. I was becoming one with my punkalullaby. I coined the word punkalullaby. It means that the whole time I was in the punk rock scene, from beginning to end, it was all about a song. One song to the next pulled me though the scene. Once that loud music got into my blood there was nothing like it.”

~ HUDLEY FLIPSIDE, THE SEMINARY OF PRAYING MANTIS, MY PUNK@LULLABY

Whenever Ballroom Blitz came on the radio, I bounced like a rubber ball around any room. A song that is responsible for pulling me into the world of KROQ, Rodney Bingenheimer (Rodney on The Rocks) and the Los Angeles punk rock scene. (Ya there was a time before Henry… amen hallelujah!!)

“KROQ’s 1976 rebirth was perfectly timed with the emergence of punk rock and New Wave and KROQ quickly became the voice of the burgeoning Los Angeles scene, with disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer joining the station and introducing many new and local bands, including The Ramones, The Runaways, The Stray Cats and The Go-Go’s, on his massively influential shows.”

If a song can encapsulate youthful dreams and rebellion this is the one for me. Like many songs that we take for granted, this tune always seems as new as the day I first heard the song Ballroom Blitz. Fresh, stimulating, and as wild as the Los Angeles streets I soon joined.

It is a very wild song. The word very and wild are my favorite words and I use the words while describing this song…ya ya ya!!

“As punk expanded its hold on the music scene of the mid to late 1970s, KROQ steadily adding more of it to their freeform format, cementing their place in the Los Angeles market. The station’s proximity to Hollywood and the Los Angeles punk rock scene gave it a unique place in the development of this newer music and much later with the alternative rock genre. In the late 70s and early 80s KROQ was quickly becoming one of the most influential radio stations in broadcast history.”

~KROQ Wikipedia

Helen Wrote…about Dead Clubs!!

Punk Rock Historian and Professional Consultant

~ Hudley Flipside

Recently, a few of our Los Angeles Clubs have closed or are in the process of transforming. All generations or music scenes go through these changes. Owners and promoters come and go. Yet what is happening now seems as revolutionary as when the underground scene claimed these clubs as their own. I speak from the late 70s to now because it is nothing new. I just hope that the youngsters will continue finding and creating a scene that comes from their rebellion. Technologies have changed everything!

We no longer go to shows to make friends and find support like we once did. We don’t need fanzines anymore or a band’s creative flyers. These are for the old-time collectors. Gamers and hand-held devices are changing the world.

It is something we all have to work out, because it can’t be what it used to be. Festivals are a nightmare from my perspective. No one can ever bring this particular youthful music scene back… no matter how anyone tries to ‘Viagra’ it. I find joy in reflecting back on this time.

I am presenting an extremely wonderful article by Flipside Fanzine’s Roving Reporter Helen Jewel. It is a good read. Ya might have to squint your eyes or zoom in a great deal to read it; I invite you to be amazed. Enjoy the patina of the original Flipside Fanzine. It has aged a lot. Again, Thank you Helen. I appreciate you much more now than I ever did then!!

From Issue Number 37 the mid-1980s. Dead Clubs by Helen Jewel

(With a little help from her friends!)

Public Dumb[p]ing…

Mr Fuck and I are having a deep kind of day. Reflecting, farting and all. He asked me about a particular comic that we did a while back. We started to giggle and so today Tuesday the 17th of November… all care aside we thought it might be better then stepping on dog shirt…

Scene Photo Punk DC

Punk The Capital documentary sent photo ! A little on the rough side but the sentimentality goes along with it! Got it in the mail today!

Alex Mac Kaye, Untouchables 1979 Madams Organ – Paul Bishow

Flipside Fanzine # 39: 1983. No Trend end of interview, Kraut Image, Faith /Alec MACKAY (the way he told us to spell it), Kraut and part of Government Issue) (Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine #54 Ten Year Anniversary Issue )

Editorial after the fact…

I am still working through this…. I was tagged to this, and I still need to address this… until I feel content. Suffice it to say. I was edited out of this documentary and replaced by Black Market Baby’s Boyd Farrell. He read an obscure letter from Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine. Which we printed up. Making a good point but really replaced my interview edited out. The format for the documentary was glued together by what I presented at my interview.

The format for this documentary is ripped off totally from my ideas and seeing my edited-out interview would make this self-evident. The only part of my “KFJC Radio tapes” used, I gave them for interviewing Ian and Alex MacKaye, was of Al Flipside. As a woman of the early punk scene, this documentary is great. Yet it has the smell of “The Big Boys Club” …. I now see the punk world through the lens ‘as a colleague,” instead of “as a friend,” and license (written contract) everything I do with most anyone in the punk scene.

Unless my hard work is just taken without any consideration. Then I am forced to negotiate. Assholes do show their ugliness here too. Last documentary I will ever do with anyone. The whole thing popped my good memories of those people… because they let it happen. Cowards and ruthless acquaintances. Their so-called straight edge integrity is a bit of a joke to me now. My signed CD copies of the documentary do not wipe away the real disloyalty or pain I feel.

As one who supported these people and included them in Los Angeles Flipside fanzine, our records, and live videos. It is important to me to show that even the holy holy DC boys have a shadowy side. They contributed to marginalizing, patronizing and ignoring me. This shows you a part of themselves that others do not see. I experienced it. It makes me feel whole to address the truth. I feel better. I still am waiting for an honest loud apology.

Round-Up 30-minute Maniac

Punk Rock Colleague & Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside

2014 Post

“…and those of you in the balcony can just rattle your jewelry.” ~John Lennon

Cause no one needs a fanzine anymore…

Originally a 2014 post I was 56 and youngest son was 14. Now I am 64 and he is going to college at 22. The bands are still playing around the massive kaleidoscope exposition of festivals. I watch them explode and march on from town to town, city to city and country to country.

The punk festivals are grandiose to see happening. Fun for the bands yet this little fanzine gal can’t go back to being a face in the crowd during a time of a terrible pandemic with an ‘ebb and flow’ which is rather unpredictable.

I am glad I got to see them before festivals became a phenomenon of big and bigger shows with long and longer lists of bands. Or even the weird funky boat cruises. It leaves me a bit perplexed yet I can listen to the music anytime and my “amber moments” are still in my brain as fresh and palpable moments of a once punk scene.

Mockingly and nasty, as we stood in line in front of the Fonda Theater marquee, an older man on a bike wheeled by yelling,

“Ha ha maybe forty years ago!”

Saturday Night 2014 Hollywood,California

My son and I were standing in line. In front of us was a twenty-year-old and in back a couple about my age. These punk shows bring out the underground punk community. The good and disgusting levels. I love it so much my head almost burst.

01 – race against time 0:00
02 – knife edge 2:45
03 – lycanthropy 5:00
04 – necrophilia 7:34
05 – sick boy 9:33
06 – state executioner 12:06
07 – dead on arrival 14:39
08 – generals 12:18
09 – freak 19:37
10 – wardogs 22:06
11 – city baby attacked by rats 23:37
12 – City babys revenge 26:13

Smiling Punk woman and son Shyane at 14

Last night I could hardly make it through Lycanthropy while fighting off some guy who wanted to continually throw my son up on stage. Even though son seemed to like it. He said,

“I saw Colin’s face flash by me.“

Up front the stage was hot. All were intimated by the solar flares of sun burning in the Fonda Theater. A halo hot sauna of extreme is how it was there. A full house.

The 5th Wave at the Fonda Theater pic by Hudley

The 5th Wave slashed the theater with some questionable lyrics, mixed with saxophone and trombone ska. Excellent! Their fans shining. I was very impressed by the courtesy of the young punk women this evening.

A smile was easily shared and that communal feelings of a punk rock community ran in my heart. Strangely different from my generation. I was very impressed indeed. A lot of women in groups and alone gave me hugs for having a son with me.

I hope son takes advantage of this when he gets beyond my reach, because now he has a silence about him that I respect.

The ADS were so satisfying I cried. I love them and again always superimposed images from over the years blended with the reality of now. Fast songs have matured nicely into longer ones. Remarkable! As Steve Soto was there still playing his original sound.

GBH were wild as they always are. Yet, they were a little rushed. I hear it is an intense tour. Colin’s voice was hoarse, yet it was hard to tell over the audience singing their songs. Colin made a stab at the fans in the balcony who were not moving.

Who were just sitting there as being lazy and with other critiques? I don’t know why so many young punks came up to me trying to exchange my receipt with theirs so they could sit in the balcony. It all was a bit confusing from my perspective.

Fun and eye-opening show with the usual subtle instilled words for those listening!!

We enjoy our punk rock community…so go screw Mr. Bike man over 50! This 50 something year old loves it still!!

Leather Jacket bye bye !!

It never was mine, really. This mature Leather Jacket is ready for something different. I moved it around over the last thirty years.

I embellished it throughout the early 1980s with the bands that inspired me. Something new is in the air. Time to be an organizer and let go of this Jacket.

The kids played in it. I grieved over it, those youthful days of punk rock glory. Now my big kids play new games. I am no longer pulled by a nostalgia of what was but live in the present.

I am trying really hard too!!

All the things I need to create a letting go party,

Flipside stickers found in a pocket. Must have been there some thirty years??

My farewell picture with a bottle of beer.

All rolled up with green bubble bag. Put in a box for mailing.

Acrylic paint and recycled cardboard for the Leather Jacket Biography Book.

Book complete for mailing in the box with the Leather Jacket.

Green praying mantis stencil hides in the dark acrylic paint.

Big Boots and Dancing, and reading the book Generation X while trying to find Prince Buster’s 45s. RIP Terry Hall

Punk Rock Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside

X-8, HUD and AL 1979 San Fransisco
In this picture X-8 represents the original punks of Los Angeles. Who were creative, loud and in your face! 1977-79.

Pete woke up on the Chinese New Year looking out of the hotel room window while a chicken’s head was chopped off. Right across the street at a restaurant café.

Big boots and dancing…it be a trilling time for me.

This is one of my favorite images. I have posted it a few times before. It contains a lineage of Flipside Fanzine characters who worked on issues. It has an interesting foresight; from left to right are X-8, Hud and Al. Peter Landswick takes the picture. All four of us worked on Flipside together at an interesting time in the world of Punk Rock. It was before the Orange County scene exploded as well as the new generation of punk English bands. The early Los Angeles punks were much more silent now. X was going for a major label.

The Go Go’s, The Bags and Fear were changing their places and goals. The original punk scene of LA was dying, and a new one was forming.

I like the texture and graphic perspective of this image. Pete is a creative photographer. This picture taken at an alley in San Francisco when we rebelliously tagged and followed the touring underground mod scene. At the time, The Specials and Madness were unfamiliar upcoming bands. As wild as any youthful band. It is the best time of crazy characters and wild free adventures.

1 – 16 Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Covers. Post

Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Staph 1977 to 1989 Those Who Caused Considerable Trouble

Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Covers from 1979 to 1989.

Out Of School

A vinyl fanzine…

At this time in punk rock history of the 1980s… life was moving fast. Projects at every corner. This kept us running before the wild-fire of punk rock, which was a passion that could not be controlled.

So many individuals’ hands were in the multitude of projects that it was hard to know who to thank and whose’ hand you should slap.

It felt like being under a wave. We were overwhelmed! SO many wants, needs and desires geometrically multiplied with each day.

Flipside vinyl fanzine Vol. 2 is a motif of that era.

A GASATANKA / Flipside production.

Ya…. kinda cool

Punk DC Documentary…. Brilliance !! NOPE!

Original post here and below the editorial essay.

What a brilliant time for this documentary. The waxing moon is growing strong with the full moon arriving this Friday June 13th, 2014. Check it out and support friends Paul Bishow & James Schneider!! And check out their Kickstarter site… Punk the Capital, straight from Washington D.C. Documentary by Paul Bishow & James Schneider

A documentary exploring how Punk took hold in Washington D.C., from 1976 through the hardcore explosion of the early 1980s. Look below and click on it…!!!!! Being a backer makes a pledge. It is like the good old days when supporting the wildfire of a scene …no questions asked…it was just done. FIVE DAYS LEFT!!!!!

http://kck.st/1fMg9V0

Essay editorial of what happened.

Erased from Punk History: My Experience with Punk the Capital

Flipside T-Shirt for sale. Support the Flipside memory.

Just click on image.

In 2019, I was interviewed for Punk the Capital: The DC Punk Scene. The filmmakers presented it as a definitive story of a cultural moment that shaped us all. I was excited to be included—because I lived it, contributed to it, and carried it forward.

Flipside Fanzine, where I worked and wrote, didn’t just cover the Los Angeles punk scene—we reached across the country. We connected DC bands with readers who cared. We helped document their scene, gave them space, and built the bridge between coasts.

The early punk scene was loaded with women.

But on the day of the Los Angeles premiere, I was told I was excluded. My interview was cut. Instead of my own words, a band member was given the stage to read a letter from Flipside—my home, my work, my history.

As if my voice, my presence, my lived experience didn’t matter.

A Panel Without Me

That night, I watched as the panel unfolded: Henry Rollins ignored me. Ian from Minor Threat patronized me. The filmmaker himself patronized me. And yet, some of my ideas appeared in the film anyway—stripped of context, stripped of credit.

I was erased, not once but twice.

Alec Mackay the only DC punk that matters.

The Gendered Silence of Punk

Punk claimed to be about smashing old hierarchies, giving voice to the voiceless. But too often, the same patriarchal patterns replayed themselves under a new name. Women who built the scene—who published, promoted, archived, and lived punk—were dismissed or cut out.

Flipside supported DC punk when few others did. And yet, when the “official” history was packaged, my presence was replaced by a man reading a letter. That choice says everything about how women’s contributions are handled in punk history.

What It Cost

It broke my heart. Punk was my family. My contribution was real. To have it dismissed in front of my peers was devastating.

But I also know this: I was there. I worked for Flipside. I carried Los Angeles punk alongside others who gave everything to it. My work supported theirs. My words documented theirs.

Hudley doing a record review on Media Blitz 1980s

Why I’m Speaking Now

I’m writing this because silence equals erasure. Henry Rollins ignored me. Ian patronized me. The filmmaker patronized me. They used my insights, but not my name. That’s not just coincidence—it’s systemic.

When the “official” story of punk is told, it matters who gets included and who gets left out. Every time a woman’s contribution is erased, the story becomes less true, less radical, less punk.

Click on image to order Los Angeles Ten Year Anniversary Issue. Focus on Alec Mackay

KFJC Hosted by Hudley Flipside on Flipside Radio 1984.

Tape Two 05/28/84

Interview Minor Threat.

This is the first 60-minute recording from 1984. Right out of punk rock. Enjoy, because you just never knew who would come a knocking on our door? An interesting article in the Los Angeles times today 11/17/2012…in the Business section. “Hostess to go out of business” and how it synchronizes with the above tape, which contains an interview with Ian MacKaye about straight edge virus eating of sweets… and Al mentions the “Twinkle defense” in so many words…. impressive.

Dan White killed San Francisco city supervisor Milk and Mayor Moscone due to the eating of Twinkies, and that he was depressed (hypoglycemia). Also, one of the reasons Hostess is going out of business is because consumers are getting smart about their diets and just don’t eat Twinkies anymore. Some 30 years ago and I win the argument today… how good is that…ahead of me time …. ahhahah life is strange…nasty sweet.

Excerpt from My Punkalullaby~I thank her now !!

A sketch from Chapter Five

Old stucco house with wood floors and Mexican Marilyn Monroe next door: Issue 48-57.

The above image is one created for me by punk artist Scott Aicher. I considered his art for the cover of my memoir back in 2007. My ideas went through so many changes as time went on that I progressed to four individual journals and then to a Kindle edition. Moving towards my final rendering is a paperback book. I decided to use my own work and images. I got out of touch with him, yet I can see he is doing alright with other writers and publishers. It is a cool image and I love it.

In Whittier California and at the time we lived in and old stucco house between two apartment buildings. The one on the left I knew no one and the one on the right is where she lived. It was the late 1980s.

She was a couple of pounds over an hourglass figure and about six kids followed her around town. Just like a mother duck and her ducklings; one right after the other.

The story goes that each child had a different father and the truck engines in front of our house revving their engines at 2 AM, night after night, told us her story. She was sexy. She oozed it.

I was jealous of her because she had those kids of hers. At twenty something I was craving a kid. I was not as lucky as she. The wild days of my punk youth were not a good place for kids, but I still was craving a babe in my arms. I often spied on her from my living room widow as she spent time with her kids.

It seemed to me then that she was not very nice or smart. She yelled at her kids, but they were always dressed nicely and well fed. Once I heard her say to one of her kids,

“This time I will break your arm and not take you to the hospital.”

We listened to her as I am sure she listened to us during those times of frustration and loneliness.

For a few years one of her youngest boys would bring me a little cake with a candle to blow out on my birthdays. I never knew how he knew. Hearing a soft knock at the door there he stood. Standing alone and holding up the cake just for me.

We sat on the porch and ate the cake together. I imagined how proud I was of him. How he was my son. He was so smart, sweet, and intelligent. How did such a loud sexy mama as Mexican Marilyn Monroe have such an amazing son?

I realize now she must have had a lot to do with her son coming over and with him bringing me the cake. What she did indirectly was one of the most comforting moments during my overwhelming wild years. She shared her son with me. I thank her now and wish her well!

Click on me baby and find out how love bites..

1981 punk shot

I am cleaning up and organizing all my stuff from 5 different places into a few plastic containers. Pictures, art, writing and miscellaneous important stuff.

The Punk Rock stuff goes somewhere special too.

Here is a miscellaneous punk shot from 1981… we had a multitude of images like this in the Flipside office. Along with a multitude of T-shirts, I should have saved them all.

Well here is one image.

The swale and the swirl of now.

“Do not lose heart: We were born for these times. One of the most important steps you can take to help calm the storm is to not allow yourself to be taken in a flurry of overwrought emotion or despair there by accidentally contributing to the swale and the swirl. Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.”

~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes taken from the current Hare In The Moon Astrology Newsletter. http://www.hareinthemoonastrology.co.uk/

I was born to a generational friend, A community of rebellious characters that I use to hang with more, but now mostly just observe. Once in a while I pop the fine wine and join them.

Yet, have I put in my time? I observe how they age and what they are doing. Our dark side of the performer archetype projects outward and still shakes and rock & rolls the global community.

I think we bleed to find out who we are and if what we have done changed anything.

Did our words, music and actions make a difference? Our experiences, feelings and knowing has been marginalized through the media and the superficial looks of fashion.

I believe it is “not [our] task [to fix] the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.”

“Chiron teaches us the philosophical perspective, and perspective that our wildness , which may put us outside the status quo, may be our wisdom.

~Time Lyons

What is the dark archetype in psychology?

Jung suggested that the shadow can appear in dreams or visions and may take a variety of forms. It might appear as a snake, a monster, a demon, a dragon, or some other dark, wild, or exotic figure. This archetype is often described as the darker side of the psyche, representing wildness, chaos, and the unknown.

2009 Flipside Reunion at the Scotland Yard Canoga Park

Picture by Bob Cantu.

RIP Human.. Steve, Hud and Tony

I woke up this morning with this image bringing a smile to my face. Friendship, integrity, and surprise always adds up to the best of feelings. I am standing with Human and Tony Malone, a Hollywood Street punk galore.

Together they were part of the band Detox. A Flipside Fanzine band only because we recorded their music.

I just cannot put to words the good feelings that I have for the characters I knew in the 1980s punk scene. I am just beaming inside as I stand between two of the best!!

I love these songs, me and all the “wee beasties” dance to them baby.