I told X-8

Note 2/20/24.

Below are two posts about a leather jacket.

I sold it to a collector. I got a postcard a few years later asking if I wanted it back for a trade. The address was not clear.

I would like it back. I was foolish to sell it. But I was going through a rebellions time against things but now older and wiser I realize I was being foolish.

So, wherever my punk rock jacket is I sure would like to see it again or have it back.

Until we meet again…

The black leather jacket was left behind after one of X-8’s female conquests, left behind in his car. He gave it to me and it fit. As a vegetarian and beertarian my frame was petite. Now the jacket is dry and shrunk and I’m round and plump. I had my son model it.

It was a simple complete-black leather jacket. The Charged GBH logo went on top first thing in the early 1980s. I love this jacket. We were inseparable.

My friendship with X-8 faded and he never knew what became of the jacket. A few years ago X-8 and I rekindled our friendship for a brief time on MySpace.

I told him about the leather jacket and what became of it. He was surprised and seemed interested.

This leather jacket is special to me because X-8 thought of giving it to me, and the girl who left it behind…not a clue?

Leather Jacket bye bye !!

Nazi Punks, It is just as clear today as it was from the beginning… and I have one thing to say….

Today the extremes in human nature seem to be battling it out on the human stage. The weather is extreme and nature is bitchy. The feeling I have of deep oppression is swallowing my hopefulness for humanity.

Satwant Singh Kaleka and Lt. Brian Murphy are examples of the best of what it means to be a good human being. They were willing to give their life for others.

This amazes me. This brings hope back into my heart. August is an extreme time of the year and some of us pop like popcorn. Insane, vicious and diabolical… it is very interesting to observe this even though my foresight told me this would be.

The best we can do is go back to doing simple things that make life seem normal again. A hot fudge Sunday, a swim in the pool or a beer at the local pub… but sometimes it is hard to get over the shock and feel normal at all.

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?

I wish all of us old punks stood by each other.. sadly this is not always the case..

A note on Helen Jewel and The Misfits

Hudley An Original Fiend Club Member

I wrote this post a few years ago about my youthful rebellion. With much insight and pain, I wrestle with my past now as a senior citizen crone who is also a punk rocker, a curse, I’m sure.

If the Misfits put me on their guest list today, like they once did in the past, I would go no matter where they play. It would be grand. Yet I know this will not happen and I hope the best for all bands that are doing well. So be it.

We went out of control!

Helen Jewel roving reporter for Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine.

Helen Jewel was a consistent staph worker on Flipside Fanzine during the 1980s. We met her through another friend through Pete Landswick. She lived near uptown Whittier in a second story funky apartment. She drove around in an old primer grey Porsche. She had a distinct style about her that was a bit on the Femme fatale side.

At the time she worked at a local ceramic business and painted ceramic pieces. She was well-educated in the arts and literature and had a wild side. This is why, I guess, she hung out with us.

I remember when I turned her on to The Misfits. We just saw them live and interviewed them for an issue of Flipside to be published. She did not seem impressed at first, even when I told her all about the band. She was not easily impressed by others at all and told me once,

“If someone has the guts to insult me, I know they are my friend!”

The Misfits were going to play the Whisky A Go Go. I almost begged her to go. I told her,

“You just have to see them to believe them.”

She went. I will never forget the Misfits when they hit the stage.

Glen Danzig was between two out-of-sight monsters of testosterone Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein and Jerry Only.

Both with their Devilocks hanging down as far as Helen’s mouth.

There just are no words to describe how much fun these guys are to see live, so I won’t, but we went out of control!

~Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine # 31 Included in the paperback reprint of Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine # 54 Ten Year Anniversary Issue…

Rock and Roll Punkalullaby

During the 1980’s the column entitled Rock & Roll Punkalullaby was published in Flipside Fanzine. This is where I learned to love writing. It is not perfect but it is where I learned to express myself in a creative way.

A feeling

For me Punk Rock is and was and will always be about how it makes me feel. For me it is not about how you look, not what you collect or who you know. It is about friends that are committed to a way of seeing and feeling life… it will endure as long as it is felt… that wild, focused, rebellious, somethings confrontational and unclassified and as different as the individual.

I just had to say this today…