Sunday funnies old Flopside cOmics…

Ezekiel Wheel Mr. Fuck “God is Every fucking man.”

“And the word of the lord came to me:
Mortal, prophesy and say: thus says the Lord; Say:
A sword, a sword is sharpened,
it is also polished;
It is sharpened for slaughter,
honed to flash like lightning!
How can we make merry?
You have despised the rod.”
~ EZEKIEL 21 8-10.

I never will forget when my oldest son and I read from the bible a certain part about Ezekiel’s Wheel. I often overlooked elements of war but in the bible our patriarchs are ruthless bastards. And so is Ezekiel’s Wheel.

A prelude to war. Fucking race gods fighting each other through their human pawns, a big cosmic game of chess.

This may seem esoteric because it is.
Recently Mr. Fuck and I were going through some of the Flopside cOmics and images, and we came upon a couple that he loved so much. We’ laughed aloud’ like we used to in time of grieving and wild exuberance.
There is more to this image, it was inspired by Human (Steve Pfauter) during one of our online conversations. We were talking about women singers of the 60s and 70s. And we moved into talking about the Goddess. I mentioned the quote “The Goddess is Every Woman” by a well-known Jungian therapist Jean Shinoda Bolen. He said that it was not fair and replied,

“The God is every man.” We enjoyed this back and forth and often later I would get a message stated,

“Hud, you know I’m just messing with you, having a little fun, nothing serious!”

Next watercolor is inspired by some of the guys from the Scotland Yard Pub in Canoga Park California. I was going through some grieving times of parents getting old and dying.

The punk rock nostalgia wave was just beginning to hit around 2007, and they still had DJs at the pub who played from their record collections, often prime 1980s punk. Some of the fellas influenced me in a pleasant way. But I did drink too much and began smoking for a brief time.

It was a relieving an offbeat microcosm of how the punk scene once was for me during my youthful rebellion.
To the songs and the great individuals and toxicologists at the pub. Thanks for helping me through some rough times. Mr. Fuck was often in the dark corner grinning asking for a lite after hours. Who knows maybe he is an offbeat shadow of my psyche.

I don’t do that…

I blow away the festivals

Flying whimsical

hairy-seeds of a dandelion…

My wish?

idealize… idol… legend

I wish to blow away.

I don’t do that

punk bands

Not the punk scene.

It once was my life

I lived intimately in it

like a noodle

in a bowl of Top Ramen.

Juicy and mixed in

Yet without an ego.

I still

Love songs

bands are a part of my youthful rebellion.

It was real, existing

my heart beat

with a movement beyond me.

I love but do not idolize.

My only experience

of expectation

Is my ignorance

That I was once a friend

Who is still loved in return.

I chip away at this need

Of being there…

With them

Their friendship or love…

All contained in a song

A moment ….

Mine only mine.

No Icons

No legends

Just punks

Just people or a person.

Maybe a lingering friend

A stray

Lightning strikes

only once

For me.

The whimsical seeds

Float away away

Slowly away.

In the Pit: Experience found guilty via an individual’s fingerprints

26757457_1340892842683774_706547628002770944_n — https://www.facebook.com/AlisonBraunPhotography/

I see how the term Punk Rock is always trying to be defined by many. Yet the real-life definition is not an out their term to read about in academic journals because it is based on the foundation of experience. It is viewed by the action of individuals. As shown by Pudd’nhead Wilson, (1894) the novel by American writer Mark Twain; Punk Rock is as unique as a person’s fingerprints. Mark Twain is the grand Punk Rocker. Think about that.

Punk Rock is based on the foundation of experience and is unique as a person’s fingerprints. That is clear enough. It is not who you know, or what shows you go to, or if you wear the right clothes or sport the wildest haircut. You are a punk rocker who likes to camp out in the wilderness. It is when your deep-down dreams affirm to you that you are a punk rocker, then you know. It does not matter what others think of you either. It is a happy curse of creativity and inward ambition.

W.P. Witcutt authored a book on William Blake entitled Blake, A Psychological Study. He produced a term that explains the artist and visionary William Blake but also what a punk rocker is. A punk rocker has “introverted intuition.” Blake had introverted intuition. Blake took his deep-down creativity and brought it out upon the world in often wild, unique, and creative ways. Yes, he was a punk rocker.

Beatniks identified themselves as: Jane Doe, Beatnik, artist, writer, wife, mother. I too can say I am. Hudley Flipside, Punk Rocker, writer, artist, wife, mother. Alison Braun can be identified as Alison Braun, Punk Rocker, photographer, wife, mother (She may wish to add to the list).

When she took these pictures, being a female was not always the way of the land. Lots of guys in bands, as promoters and running record labels to communicate with and finding another female was not so easy. At least one who was a punk rocker living the life.

Creatively Alison Braun’s photos show unique skills of capturing a time and place in our punk rock history (1981 to 1990). This is especially important for surviving punk rockers to preserve, document and tell our stories. It is a healthy natural flow of our collective unconscious experiences. To take that deep-down creativity and bring it out upon the world again is grand! I am incredibly happy to see punk rock on an individual scale like this.

One song to the next pulls me

Punk Rock Colleague & Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside

One song to the next pulls me…

I coined the word punk@lullaby. 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.

~My Punk@lullaby, Journal One by Hudley Flipside.

Everyone is talking about our loss of Tom Petty. A guy whose songs play on the radio. I mean one cannot go by a day without hearing one of his songs.

It wasn’t always that way. A guy from Gainesville, Florida that made it big. You can read his story. I will be focusing on one song that has magnified my life.

I am sure also too, all the good girl and bad boys of the San Fernando Valley.

“Free Fallin'” is the opening track from Tom Petty’s solo debut album, Full Moon Fever (1989). Ya one can hear it all the time.

It is a strange song because it always makes me embarrassed because he is singing about my life. That is what good song writing does. It is inclusive. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley! I grew up walking Ventura Blvd every day.

I played in the Hills of Mulholland too! Loving Elvis and riding my horse were real! It all happened for me in the 1970s. Somehow this song and the lyrics especially speak of a punk edge, a drug edge… and that wildness.

The conflict between the good girls and the bad boys is real. In my life I did not stay home with a broken heart because I eventually joined the vampires on Ventura Blvd.

I instead, ironically, headed east with the bad boys. Yet I know what he is talking about.

I wonder how he knew so much about the valley for not actually growing up there. I guess some help from other artists he knew. Or found this insight hanging with friends and listening to their stories. He does dig deep into the experience of being a valley girl or guy.

Anyone that grew up here as a kid all the way through to their teens has done some “free fallin’…over Mulholland.”

“I wanna glide down over Mulholland

I wanna write her name in the sky

I’m gonna free fall out into nothin’

Gonna leave this world for awhile”

Ya been there done that!! It is an amazing song for me and I always feel like he is singing about my generation! Us Valley Kids. Kind of like Social Distortion’s song Hwy 101,

“Listen to the boulevard, listen to the falling rain

I believe in love now, with all of its joys and pains

Sick boy, sick girl, looking nice dressed up on a Saturday night

Take a walk downtown for a while and chase the pale moonlight

I can still hear the mission bells and the train rolling’ through your town

Goanna leave this world behind, we’re Southern California bound.”

Chatsworth Tunnel, Chatsworth, California

Chatsworth_Tunnel_27.jpg (936×960) waterandpower.org

I never went to a Tom Petty show or bought one of his records! Social Distortion I knew like the back of my hand once. Both reached a place of musical fame.

We should honor them for their generational symbol of something unique and different in this world.

In music, however, they manifest in our life or culture as something special about a way of life. Both songs hold value in my life and tell a damn good story.

One that we all can relate to personally or collectively. Especially if you have been there and experienced it personally.

What Noisy Cats We Are…

Lewis McAdams: In those days cool was a survival mechanism.

I made a mistake. I thought the cover was of Bob Mould of Husker Du but instead is Ed Crawford, aka ed fROMOHIO from Firehose. Thanks goes to We Got Power: David Markey. Makes sense to me…

Big Frank asked Al if I was on the cover of issue number 50. He seemed a bit bugged. Al said no that is ed fROMOHIO of Firehose, they have an interview in the issue by Jon Mastumoto. It was our July 1986 issue. Purple cover ta boot. I saw no resemblance besides being a Noisy Cat. We were pleased with the cover.

Comrades of fanzine Ink Disease put up their interview with, “the Du” and so I felt a need to join in today. So many bands, fans, and contributors galore. Like I said before, there were many hands in the cookie jar. When we lose a friend from that tight matrix of friends of the punk scene, we naturally mourn our loss, but we also share in their brilliance! When they lived with us on this short earth adventure. Wild music and rebellious dear friends, Grant Hart you are one of the cool guys.

Last Sunday I met up with an author, S. W. Lauden, who told me he became a writer because of his first published item in Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine in the mid ’80s. It is good to hear inspirational stories. I was happy to know that. A nice continuity even though I did not guess that punk rock would find me at an event dedicated to Lewis McAdams in celebration with Friends of the Los Angeles River.

SW LAUDEN: We exchanged our work…

Page One

Page Two

Page Three

People talk about anarchy
And taking up a fight
Well I’m afraid of things like that
I lock my doors at night
I don’t rape, and I don’t pillage
Other peoples’ lives
I don’t practice what you preach
And I won’t see through your eyes

You want to change the world
By breaking rules and laws
People don’t do things like that
In the real world at all
You’re not a cop, or a politician
You’re a person too
You can sing any song you want
But you’re still the same

I can’t think of anything
That makes me more upset
People talk all this rhetoric
Forgive but not forget
I don’t rape, and I don’t pillage
Other peoples’ lives
I don’t practice what you preach
And I won’t see through your eyes

Publications for reading pleasure…

Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 Celebration

I hope you enjoy the coming eclipse. If you are already there or travel the journey to get there…If you need some reading material while waiting or after it is over and back to normal life… here is my stuff for your reading pleasure….

here is some eclipse music….

My Stuff….

http://www.eclipse2017.org/

My Punkalullaby Journal Four

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

~Hermann Hesse

My Punkalullaby Journals, one through four, are now included in one paperback book for sale at Amazon.

Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine is not forgotten.

This was my concern in 2004 when I began my memoir about the punk scene I was passionately involved with. That Flipside Fanzine would be forgotten. How many punk rock books are now being sold today that mention Flipside? Enough to satisfy me. My Punk@lullaby Journals, one through four, are part of this memory. As I repeatedly say,

“There are many stories from the big punk rock. Mine is just one of them. Mine is a complimentary edition to read alongside the big punk rock books out there!”

My Punk@lullaby Journals share in the tapestry of the whole worth of what the original Los Angeles punk scene was and has now become! Yes, I have heard the echoes of

“Another old punk rock story.”

This is ok for me to hear now! I can,

“Transform it into something of value!”

It is good for an elder to share stories about life. This is an ancient archetype that I have taken on.

I did approach others to have my book published. I answered my need to publish it by doing it myself. All that I learned from the original punk scene was available to me. My mind and soul, a computer and printer and a bedroom converted into an office. The integrity of Flipside Fanzine shines through these little numbers I call journals.

All four journals I published myself. I am happy! As I move into turning sixty, I have done something of value by completing my project. I now share my journals with the public. I was close to thirty when I left the original punk scene! That terrifying year was 1989. Yes, all that first Saturn return, and second Saturn return jazz is happening as I write this post now. A continuity that I also share for those that study the oldest of synchronicity wise sciences.

My stories are not perfect stories. If you desire to buy one, or all four, I hope while reading and reflecting on my stories you will find some fair value for yourself. It was an extraordinary time, and we were wild free journalists documenting a scene. No one told us what to do.

We were punks publishing a punk ‘zine. We were running with a tight but growing punk scene. Nobodies from an underground culture. All individuals were unique yet part of a community of rebellious friends. I still endure the punk scene and it is my curse to embrace.

Click on Image to buy all four Journals in a Paperback.

1 – 16 Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Covers. Post

Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine Covers from 1979 to 1989.

Leaves In The Wind

I pause outside as bee and lady bug fly around.

Sweet is the nectar from

lemon tree and lavender.

Letting go of worries and

desires that do not serve me now.

An old friend, a song, comes to mind

as my “leaves in the wind.”

Perfect are old recorded songs

and the insect, flower and tree!

Somehow as I pause in breathing,

I am lost in this perfection.

The recurring of pause of being,

the repetition of listening to old songs

the heartfelt listening and watching nature,

Is my catalyst for artistic expression.

Never to let us down.

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!

Bubble Gum Flopside Comics

Experience the first bubblegum comic that will blow your socks off… and they’re coming to your local area before we soar into a brighter future with the Mothman!!

Bubble Gum Flopside Comics… so go screw!

Sunday Is Random pick and random read day….“gigs and flyers!”

Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion.

~Arthur Koestler

Humid and a belly filled with coffee on a Sunday while kids are playing their games; I find that I am OK! I look to see that the cats are OK too. Youngest is silent as oldest is screaming at his friends as he games online.

An easy Sunday in my cave, then all of a sudden like a flash of lightning from yesterdays storm, my imagined sharp arm reaches through the air pulling me, with eyes-closed, to the books on the brown shelf.

I know, I just saw the cult classic Equinox* last night.

All about a book and a Demon… Yes a book can change ones perspective about life. Here this reading of some random video promotion… moves us to something musical…

“To the Minutemen, the world was divided between two things-gigs and flyers. Everything was playing shows or getting people to the shows. The rest was not reality.”

~ A History Lesson Part One Synopsis by Dave Travis

This small paragraph can’t be the motif of Punk Rock… but it is…, riding the wave with many guys who were at that place from “one note to the next,” I am glad that this random pick helped me to let go of my grieving process. What I feel for my punk-rock-youthful days, and when life really was only “gigs and flyers!”

Until next Sunday….

Random Book Day By Hudley

http://sugarbuzzmagazine.com/bands/davetravis/davetravis.html

*Equinox 1970 Film

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067055/

The Most Interesting Woman Alive…

Random Pick day is Sunday !

Here at the office of The Seminary Of Praying Mantis are many many books. Mantis does more than, with silence and insightful grace, sit on a flower or leaf. Often Mantis is found engaged in a book. As this is a seminary of sorts, and today is under the wonderful magic of a waxing gibbous moon; this day comes forth the ritual of random pick from a book day. Ordained by mantis and so forth etc… with a front leg, that is sharp with spines, grasps open a book… randomly of course !

Faust (Part One)

Mephistopheles says to Faust:

That’s very nice.

There’s only one thing I find wrong;

Time is short, art is long.

You could do with a little artistic advice.

Confederate with one of the poets

And let him flog his imagination

To heap all virtues on your head,

A head with such a reputation:

Lion’s bravery,

Stags’ velocity,

Fire of Italy,

Northern tenacity,

Let him find out the secret art

Of combining craft with a noble heart

And of being in love like a young man,

Hotly, but working to a plan.

Such a person-I’d like to meet him;

“Mr. Microcosm” is how I’d greet him.

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!)

Tell Us the Truth

Sham 69 are playing around. Shows with good and bad reviews. As though my heart does not sense the beating heart of another comrade, from my youthful rebellion, who touches the soil of the land.

Dancing around and around in my room like Rumpelstiltskin around a fire singing these simple words;

“They don’t understand no they don’t understand
They don’t wanna understand…”

These are my first dancing memories of punk rock. As I spiraled into the heart of it… I also spiraled out. Seeing with peripheral vision the shadows of days gone by, I am often pulled again into this guilty, responsibility of a musical addition.

As a succubus that pulls at my firmer soul, I pull it off. I hold by conscience, my individual power and resist this. Jumping into the anger of youthful rebellion. I am not her anymore. Reflective and mature and proud… I can take it. Nothing to prove or take with me…but friendship.

No affirmation of great things to hold on to. As the rogue wave of darkness envelops those we love in death. So too the scene that once was is slowly taken away by this same darkness. Happy for the boys in the band that linger on…for now!!

“Everyone keeps telling me I’m gonna be free. We all know we’ll never be free.”

Belong Misdirected

We are twisted in soul because soul is by nature and of necessity in a tortuous condition…We might also be less threatened by the grotesque, horrible, and obscene , since, from the imaginal perspective, the bizarre would simple belong.

~ The Myth of Analysis, James Hillman

I am watching an old film Noir way to much. It is Crime of Passion featuring Bararab Starbuck, Sterling Hayden and Raymond Burr. Each time I watch it I study a different part of the film from a different perspective or character. A well written essay Noir. It is basically about passion put in the wrong place or misdirected passion. Maybe it is about ambition misdirected by love. I think this film has a message about the American dream. I like this film because it does keep the sexual passion in the glance of an eye, or the move towards the bedroom. Subtle words that leave the imagination to glow.

The soundtrack does tell you, very well, what the film is all about. A few twisted souls in this film, YES…. I will most likely watch it again…there is something beautiful waiting to be discovered that I just have not found yet.

Happy autumnal equinox.!!

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!!