Happy Valentine Punkers Memorial Day

The Vandals. In Memory of “Stevo” and “Human”

Two punkers who were some of the best, a time to reflect on my youthful relationships and rebellion.

They are part of my, and maybe yours, DNA.

Happy happy Valentine’s Day !

Lynn’s lycanthropy biting at our heels

I love this time of the year… moving into it like a wild cloak of wonder; Crones, screams and laughter; cinnamon, chills and the first full moon of Autumn in the wilds of October. I also honor Lynn now… this is her time.

Me and Lynn in that order 1980

You’ve done terrible things… be strong.

The dark, Halloween and the shadow… here we go again. My best friend, who years ago, before she turned fifty, was my champion of scary and forbidden places. She was a true wild and free soul and lived life by the seat of her pants. Lynn could never break the mold of her youthful lust for life. Even love could not bind her beyond her desire for a type of youthful fulfillment. This time of the year was our time. We ran with the blaspheme of the night with lycanthropy biting at our heels.

My mind now circles with Ouija boards, horror stories and of the film Suspiria.

She led me to depths… depths I dare not always follow! It is hard to understand that Lynn is gone from me now!

She sometimes stands beyond the darkness. At such altered times I catch her memory…the few breaths between twilight and darkness. I feel a longing pain, a need to run with her by way of the hills of our youth. Ah… but she is free now from this aging of these memories….

Many years I have celebrated the first full moon of Autumn in October with this song…until I die…!!

my sweaty two bits

010 — Photo taken By Hudley share it is free..

Friends having a hell of a time…loads of fun!!

There is a reason this picture is saved on my computer. At the time it was just another punk adventure with the bands. This picture is the last one that I can remember with all the original Black Flag together. I was sitting back in an open closet and took it. It was hot and I swear the walls were melting. We were wild and out of control. No one cared about us then! Man has that changed! We grew up and as adults we do what we have to. I see so much hate and taking sides over “Black Flag and Flag” that I have grown sick. Everyone of these members contributed overwhelming to the punk rock scene…I have to let it go. I have chosen to remember them all as friends who helped to create and nurture the continuity of our punk rock scene. I promise this is my last sweaty two bits on the matter. Case closed !!!

A Lark down Hollywood Blvd with Marilyn Monroe

I wanted to be treated as a human being who had earned a few rights since her orphanage days.

~ Marilyn Monroe

Ruth took this picture. Holly with Flowers at 14.

The Crusstos moved into the neighborhood when I was twelve. This meant saying goodbye to my best friend Wayno who left the house they moved into.

I was sad. The neighborhood parents talked about the new neighbors John and Ruth. Later they all became good friends!

Ruth had beautiful red henna hair and a slim figure which she always showed off. I heard she once was a dancer in Las Vegas. I did not always listen to her stories.

I wish I could go back now and listen more intently. I do remember what she told me about Marilyn Monroe.

Ruth also came from a troubled past. She met Marilyn when they were living at a boarding house for young girls without families.

Ruth declared bravely,

“Norma was her name then.”

“You knew an actress like her?” I spoke.

“Norma always was a little dramatic with her gestures, she was not an actress then. We were just a couple of teenagers who liked going out on a lark.”

“What do you mean?”

“Norma and I would often break out at night and walk Hollywood Blvd and have so much fun together.”

fin

Minor Threat,The Beatles & Straight Edge~Twinkies or potato chips.

Punk Rock Colleague & Historian

Hudley Flipside

This is an embellished non-fiction memory. I am always open to comments that differ from my memories. The eighties went by fast and so much happened; besides there were countless bands we dealt with on a constant basis… my mind does play tricks on me.

(Based on my memory…some of it may be embellished by events that are merged together… Fugazi guys…. like Twinkies or potato chips).

“Black, white, green, red, Can I take my friend to bed? Pink, brown, yellow, orange, and blue, I love you.”

Humongous as it was on the wall and in my life.

All this is my way of indirectly sharing currently in this strange Beatles narrative. At the time in the 1980s the Beatles seemed so far away from my lived experience.

Now both Ian and the Beatles seem so far away from my lived experience. I can patronize them both now and so be it. I am older, wiser, and forward moving now… yet I still enjoy their eternally youthful songs, every now and then, and all together now!

When I think about the few times the Minor Threat/ Dischord boys came to visit the Flipside house, I think about how they were, such as the color of Ian’s eyes while waiting in their traveling Van. The waves crashed as we sat there not speaking. Everyone else was surfing and yes, they are a beautiful blue.

The boys wanted to go surfing with Al. I smile at the debates we had over being Straight Edge. Yes, they were Straight Edge, but the van was filled with wrappers from terrible sweets like Twinkies and cans from drinking soda. Salty potato chips too. I was not Straight Edge because I like to drink beer.

I stressed that this did not stop me from my goals or my path but eating sweets and drinking soda would kill me. We debated about crazy stuff like that.

So much time has passed, and memories come and go but what I am sharing today is a funny piece of punk rock history.

I knew that Ian MacKaye liked the Beatles. I sent him some stationery that I made up just for him. I forgot about it. A year or so later he sent me this letter with this check. I kept it all these years in a journal.

I wonder if Dischord Records or Al would mind if I cashed it now?