Round-Up 30 minute Maniac

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

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!!

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

A safety pin from the Punk Rock God !!

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Dix Denney

The Weirdos at Cobalt Café (rip) Canoga Park, CA pic by Hudley

“Such knowledge is too wonderful

For me,

To wonderful for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your

Presence?

I go up to the heavens, you are

There;

If I make my bed in the depths,

You are there;

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

If I settle on the far side of the sea,

Even there your hand will guide me

Fast”

~Psalm 138:2 New International Version

My heart aches and I feel guilty. I think upon what Ross Lomas from the punk band GBH said to me once,

“That is no excuse… I have seen punks on their deathbed at shows. If you are sick, we can put you in a wheelchair and roll you backstage!!”

Ironically, this quote from Psalms is how I feel about Punk Rock. Exactly! How can this be? Is Punk Rock God to me? Yes, it is, in a sense it is to me. Where can I go from the punk rock spirit? It is true it will not let me forget it! If I make my bed in the depths, punk rock is there.

As many others who were taken up by it, punk rock gave me a voice and said.

“do it.”

If Punk Rock is dying to popular culture, this has no bearing on me. Punk Rock is an accountable community.

Punk Rock is a cultural underground musical phenomenon of holy sound. A spirit that rock & rolls around this planet. It is a rogue wave that generates change. However, you plug into it, Punk Rock is a continuity that identifies a generation and so moves on in different ways.

I may not always be true to it; I often hide from it…but when I try to… it finds me again. I rise on the wings of dawn. Inspired and filled with that spirit of Punk Rock again.

I was enlightened in an alley, where beer, anarchy and music became my God.

To those that are vastly superior …those in bands, fans and, that strange brew called record collectors, I salute you.

AMEN!!

So, what is all this Mumbo Jumbo about? One of the original Los Angeles Punk Rock bands is playing around. I have been avoiding them.

“That club is too far to drive to”

“I have to get up early the next day and take my kids to school!”

My heart aches and I feel guilty. I think upon what Ross Lomas from the punk band GBH said to me once,

“That is no excuse… I have seen punks on their deathbed at shows. If you are sick, we can put you in a wheelchair and roll you backstage!!”

This is the punk rock accountability I was talking about. I have been but no can no longer avoid The Weirdos because they are going to play a few blocks from my house.

“If I settle on the far side of the sea,


Even there your hand will guide me.”



This is a punk rock confessional!!

Now for some oysters before the big meal…. enthusiasm!!!

Weirdos Enjoy the BIG PUNK ROCK 1984 the real deal * Flipside Fanzine radio *tape number eight.

This tape was released around 38 years ago. Where a process of recording, organizing, mailing, and airing tapes live turned out to be an extraordinarily successful project indeed !!… Wow!! Projects took some time back in the 1980s. All sent through our post office box. The Flipside post office was a busy place in Whittier California.

One little, tiny post office box handled vast number of gifts. Which consisted of records, mail, ads, and money. It was like Christmas every day. Then there was the Post Office Master. A lady that I hated at first but who turned out to leave little gifts for us in our P.O. Box each Christmas season. She thought we were weird at first with our wild ways… but later she became a part of our unofficial crew in her own dependable way. Enjoy a cameo appearance by Henry Rollins.

To Mr. Cliff Roman….

rebellious hit

we-are-the-best-04-06-2014-6-g — Bobo before she spits at herself in the mirror !

At Starbucks the young woman behind the counter said,

“I like your shirt!”

“You like G.B.H.?”

She gave me an intense look of inwardness.

“Yes…like Minor Threat and…China White!”

“Yup!”

“No one listens to Punk anymore.”

“Only the old punk folk!”

I was referring to myself. She gave me a sheepish smile while giving me a receipt for two Grande Café Lattes.

It was the first time we were in this Starbucks. Walking the streets here in the evening is pleasant. Noticing the many closed storefront businesses along Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena made us wonder. Our conclusion was that the businesses that offered a service survived. This is where the people mingled. As colorful clusters around most coffee shops here. Foundations of parking lots, businesses and apartments went up above this! This gave me a dreamy concern. I imagined living this way.

“John, After the kids grow up and are on their way, maybe we can get an apartment and live this way?”

“It might not be so bad.”

“I wonder if they allow cats?”

It was because of a longtime friend that we were out here, a few miles from out hometown. The Laemmle Theater a couple blocks from our home closed down about three years earlier. Once down the street from us now Pasadena was the nearest one.

My punk rock heart asked me,

“Do you really want to see another film about punk rock, I mean didn’t you experience the real deal already!?”

“I don’t know? A friend told me that the film has “girl energy,” it seems like I could use some of that!”

Researching the film I was pulled to it more and more. I decided to get a ticket online and drive out to see it alone. Husband jumped aboard and said,

“We can visit the Yard House or Lucky Baldwins after the show!”

This we did later.

We Are The Best does have “girl energy,” it has something more that touched me deeply too. Something, that I must say, defines the punk rock experience for me! It always has and it always will.

Since its creation and migration around the world. punk rock , has been raped-skated-and-donated!! What this film brings forth in a true way is the experience of punk rock. The film puts you in the world of three 7^th graders. Three thirteen year old girls that don’t fit in! So they reach out to music, each other and to other punks.

Having guys call you ugly and being ignored by popular culture are two real initiations into the punk rock girl experience.

It is all about rebellion, ideologies, music and fun! The film is sweet, innocent and honest! Defining that having a band and friendship is more important then the guys you’re sleeping with.

I enjoy the freedom the girls have to get around on subways. The film is based in Stockholm Sweden during the 1980s.

After the film and a nice long walk I found myself perching at the Yard House with a dark beer before my gaze. The monitors were all about Hockey. I am naturally repelled by organized sports as well as the commercials. The ones before the film were awful too…Porsche to Lexus commercials. Madmen designed to get that needed uplift. Why did we pay money to watch commercials as well?

Anyway, I thought upon Bobo, Klara and Hedvig and how the punk culture was portrayed in the film compared to my real experiences. As I sipped my beer I made my usual under the breath insult about the Kings game. With wide eyes and mouth grinning,,

“Hate the Sport!!”

Adding another rebellious beat to this old folk punk heart of mine.

@@@

http://www.laemmle.com/theaters/6

http://www.yardhouse.com/CA/pasadena-restaurant/

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.