Doug Fitzsimmons @punk_diversity is dedicated to sharing music and art with a focus on the early LA punk scene.
It feels good to have inclusion in the punk rock and or underground narrative. Artists, writers, bands, and fanzine writers… all of us smiling into the internet. The electrical fire …. It is fun and surprising to me.
This is Doug Fitzsimmons journey and one can see it all on Instagram.
“You know Iris Berry is the one that encouraged me to start this journey.”
He seems very driven.
“I know it is crazy. I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to meet so many. It has helped that the community has vouched for me & my project which is also to document those who might fall out of the narrative if it is not done soon.”
As we have lost a couple of good buddies recently from the punk scene, I feel his determination.
This picture has a story. I was at the Hong Kong Café in China Town. It was early 1979 and I did not know Al Flipside from Flipside Fanzine very well. Yet he took my picture that night.
He said when he went to bed later that night, he saw me in a dream. The picture he took. My image was made up of hundreds of little dots like an X-8 drawing. X-8 is the original master mind behind Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine. Well, the rest is history.
Are Shawn Kerri and Mad Marc Rude the same person?
Punk Rock Historian & Colleague and Professional Consultant.
~ Hudley Flipside
I may be whacked and out of this world but existing through the punk scene some things bugged the hell out of me. This is one story that needs some clarity.
Shawn Kerri is an American cartoonist who was dynamic through the 1970s & 1980s. She is known for her art as one of the rare female contributors to Cartoons Magazine and as part of the early Southern California punk rock scene, creating iconic images used by the Germs and the Circle Jerks.
Kerri moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and was involved during the punk rock scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1978, she published a fanzine called Rude Situation, with Mad Marc Rude, who was then her boyfriend.
‘During this period, she drew numerous promotional flyers and tour posters for her friends, which included members of the Germs and the Circle Jerks. One of her best-known images, “Skank Kid””
A little punk history, a cross over. I still believe that Mad Marc Rude and Shawn Kerrie are the same person. I thought this and no one has made me think otherwise.
When Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine came out with our Comic Relief Issue # 33 both Mad Marc Rude and Shawn Kerri premiered in this issue.
I have been studying both of their signatures. Both are different yet there is a similarity, though I must admit a very subtle one. As is their art.
The “A” looks like a Mad Marc Rude “A.” It has the format of his signatures. Yet it looks like her signature in how the rest is formed except for two things.
A “C” is added to the beginning and an “E” is added at the end.
The cartoon is humorous filled with punk savvy and has the Mad Marc Rude / Shawn Kerri style. During the early punk scene most all of our communications / correspondence was done through the mail. So many artists, friends, bands and beyond I never met in person. This is the case with Mad Marc Rude and Shawn Kerri. As a punk historian I may not find a conclusion to this narrative. Someone please help me debunk this with solid evidence.
Expose the falseness or futility of this. DEBUNK THE PUNK!
“But, suddenly, I viddied that thinking was for the gloopy ones and that the oomny ones use like inspiration and what Bog sends; for now it was lovely music that came to my aid. There was a window open with a stereo on, and I viddied right at once what to do…”
~ Alex: A Clockwork Orange, Book Anthony Burgess; Film Stanley Kubrick
You know how picky kitties are. So, I have been unlucky. Maybe a small box here and there. Cleaning up kitty barf is often a strong biological rebellion that lets me know something is wrong with the food. Bravely I am stepping out of my cave to places I have avoided … Smart & Final off Milton is one such place.
And though I noticed they no longer play songs over their PA… Today I had a strange experience! Yes, a strange note or two of weird synchronicities. Usually happening at times when one is drifting, like me! It is throwing an anchor down time, similar to editing, anchoring a graphic image on Adobe Premiere Pro. Animation, motion, and a focus in.
And then it came like the big bright bird of pure crystal roundabout meaning. Moments of a song burst loudly over Smart & Final’s PA. A moment that brings my ears, heart, and lips a humming.
“Let the stormy clouds chase.
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I’ve a smile on my face!”
Yes, that song from the film A Clockwork Orange anchored me from drifting. Aligning me with my opus again.
Then silence, only the clatters of the supermarket’s mundane sounds of customers shopping.
Singing In the Rain was the one song that changed my life years ago … how is this possible to hear it for only a moment today as I randomly searched for Friskies Seafood Sensations Adult Cat Dry Food, with Vitamins?
Then at 19 and now at 64… “for now it was lovely music that came to my aid.”
“A gentleman with the mad soul of an Irish convict poet’: remembering Chris Bailey, and the blazing comet that was The Saints.”
~John Willsteed
“the world beyond, where men are whole and complete, unlike here. The saint’s halo also characterizes his transcendent shining light, his psychic being.”
Rendering of the band The Saints. Hudley Flipside, 2010.
Happy I bought tickets to see the reformed Saitns this November in Southern California. Autumn 2025.
The author reflects on their deep connection to the band The Saints, particularly after the death of Chris Bailey.
Hudley expresses grief for both Bailey and the passage of time over the decades.
The band has been a part of her life journey, leading to discovering a sense of belonging among misfits and a punk community.
Hudley connects her experiences with Bailey’s life timeline, moving from youth to adulthood.
In her grief, she turns to the works of Carl Jung for solace, recalling insights from The Black Books.
I call it random reading. I read from the last paragraph, allowing my mind to wander freely within the words. The intuitive response is amazing to me, as each reading seems to unearth memories and thoughts I had long buried.
Encouraging action also flows from this process, inspiring me to take bold steps forward. So, with this so much is shared, whether it’s with friends or in solitude, and I am content to move on past my grief, cherishing the lessons learned along the way.
Into a new season of life, knowing that, life endures and blossoms in unexpected ways… this gives me hope like finding the Sun, illuminating the path ahead and igniting a renewed sense of purpose within me!
“In this moment the enormous tension was released and like rain it swept away [57/58] everything that was tensed, too highly strung. And soon sleep returned and brought with it a curiously beautiful image.” {138}
(p.162) The Black Books, Volume Two, Carl Jung
“Forms walked clad in white silk in a colored atmosphere. Each surrounded by a strangely fragrant, glowing tinted aura, some reddish, the others blueish and greenish.” {139}
{138} “This paragraph was replaced in LN by “Then I had a second vision.”
Picture.. reversed. Picture by Judi Dransfield Kuepper.
Chris Bailey “a curiously beautiful image”
The Saints (Barry Francis, Ivor Hay, Janine Hall, Bruce Callaway, Chris Bailey) at The Hero of Waterloo, Sydney. 1980. Picture by Judi Dransfield Kuepper. Image taken from an article by John Willsteed. Link Below.
“Jung recounted this dream to Aniela Jaffé and commented upon it as follow: This is some kind of in-between realm (the term definitely occurs in the original version of the dream) The idea was that if one is confronted with the shadow- as was the case through the experience of Siegfried’s dream then the idea comes:
I enter into a twilight: I am this and yet also something else. And this doubleness an abdication of the unconscious, which reached strangely far beyond me.
Like a saint’s halo- This has a strange effect on the attitude toward the human being.
If one is in the company of several persons, and one knows them and knows about their shadows, one then sees these people as they are, but are also something entirely different. They are surrounded by a strange sphere.
They live in a strange, light-colored sphere, which circumscribes their ‘other’ state. This seemed to me to be like a vision of the world beyond, where men are whole and complete, unlike here. The saint’s halo also characterizes his transcendent shining light, his psychic being.”
{139} (MP, p. 170)
The reminder of this entry was replaced in LN by “I know, I have stridden across the depths. Through guilt I have become newborn.” (p.162) Carl Jung’s Black Books. Volume two page 175-6.
“What do I call you HUD, Hudley Flipside or Holly?”
I told him, “… just call me what you want…. ‘Hey you’ will do.”
From Hudley Flipside to Literary Legend: 45 Years of Making Words Dance!
Being a behind the scenes punk was fun. It was a lot of hard work and was often boring. Such as picking up the mail every day, typing endless words written by punkers whose writing was hard to read. When no one else would do the work, I did it.
For all the good punks celebrations going on around here. I want to join in and say a little something about the Hudley Flipside name. My last name was Hudson. Someone called me HUD… maybe X-8… and it caught on. Or maybe it was someone from a band before Flipside Fanzine… who knows?
The point being it became my name as a publisher and co-owner of an underground punk Fanzine. I am kind of put upon to say that I did not think the “punk rock community” would be so uplifting and supportive of itself. There were times in the 90s when I ran away from it and hated it. Not the case now.
I’ve learned to appreciate it and try to flow with the best of it. I am part of the punk community whether I like it or not. Anyway, as I am an old dame now, I want to join in with one of the best pictures taken of me as a youngster by Al Flipside. He took a lot of them too. We had thousands of pictures and negatives all around the place. Pictures of cats, bands and beyond.
Today I was watching as the wind blew a whirlwind on top of a pool of water. It moved around as a tornado or Golden Ratio. A soft movement as it was. I authored this poem at the end of a Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine CATALOG that I put together. I was most likely 20 or 21, maybe younger or older. A 1980s me. I wonder where I was back then? So goes my journey of Intellectual Property and gathering Flipside merchandise together. It was nice to see it all again. So, here is a place if anyone wants to know some original source of Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine. I will continue to look for more of it from the 1980s.
Anti Scrunti Faction were a queercore punk trio from Boulder, Colorado.
It is amazing to think back and realize how regular mail correspondence through the US Postal service was the spine of the Punk Rock movement. I can say I was a punk rock correspondent entrepreneur.
This is how I met Leslie Mah and Tracie Thomas of A.S.F. During the punk scene of the 1980s, tapes and correspondence were part of our lives, and I was taken by the gals of A.S.F., mostly because women were not a big staple of the scene we had grown to know.
I made it happen and we put out their record. Women, punk rock, politics, sexuality, racism, and abounding creativity is the loud heartfelt sarcasm that emanates from this band. I remember making vegetarian spaghetti in our kitchen with Leslie.
Taking Leslie and Tracie to the beach was a real treat. I got my first tattoos with the A.S.F. girls. A contrary experience for me because at the same time we were working with the bands Doggy Style and Detox.
Some of my best memories of co-running a fanzine. Leslie Mah and Tracie Thomas went on to have an interesting life creatively and I am happy for them. Look them up and you may be surprised.
Art by Leslie Mah
(From the original Flipside CATALOG)
This is the debut LP by Boulder Colorado A.S.F.~Anti Scrunti Faction, a joint release by Flipside and Unclean Records.
“Damsels in Distress” features the very colorful artwork of Leslie Mah, the band’s bass player and singer.
Inside you will find 18 thought-provoking tunes, a lot of which deal with a woman’s view of the punk rock scene as well as the world. – and it is no wonder -two women in this band.
This critically acclaimed punk classic features these songs:
“Boys will be Boys.” “Sugar and Spice,” Writhe like Worms,” “Big Dick,” Resist The lies,” “Marshall Law,” “War, War, War,” “One Crashed over The Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Brain Transplant,” “Ohpmyn,” “3005 E. Euclid,” “Suicide Note,” “Another Love Song,” “Silent Death,” “In My Heart,” “Innocent Victim,” “Johnny,” and ” Slave to My Estrogen ,” A.S.F. and their song, “Slave to My Estrogen,” is featured in Flipside Video 11.
A.S.F. Interview Taken from Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine # 54 Ten Year Anniversary issue. (Replica) Paperback
“According to Jung, humanity holds a special role in creation: to contribute to the act of consciousness, and the point of view of morality, in its highest sense.”
~ Johnson, Robert A. Ecstasy (p. 64) Harper One. Kindle Edition.
The Avengers, The Dils and The Alley Cats + many special guests (A Celebration of the Life of Jimmy Wilsey) at Echoplex
Before the show I went to an Italian Restaurant nearby. I sat at the bar and had a Guinness and a plate of pasta.
Part of my DNA
It will be the time to join with punk comrades and celebrate our originators and characters of the early California punk scene. The Avengers, the Dils and the Alley Cats.
Before The Avengers went on a DJ at the event played The Saints – (I’m) Stranded. The sound went on and I swear the earth moved as the song grabbed my spine… an earthquake…. it was a Saints’ Hallelujah “amber” moment.
Just got this from a friend… a nice treat that makes life bearable. (signed copy and 2024 November The Saints Tour)
Once someone dies, their life becomes a story, infinite, Like a song forever more.
Back then it was a tight underground, alternative punk rock scene. Bands were unclassified and their songs unique. I found myself melting into a wild alchemy of youths that had something new to say.
We were finding our voice. All the unknown characters were there. Nobody creates a scene alone. Seeing punk bands during the early Los Angeles punk scene, I was not always aware of all the members in the band.
Instead, the feel of drums, bass and guitar grabbed me into a wild joyful submission. After a few times seeing a band, the lyrics and the vocals brought depth and understanding to any band’s song.
I was shaking to the sounds, wanting to go to all the shows. After getting involved with Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine all the players, in the bands, became focused and clear. I listened to their voices.
I got to know them on a personal level. I went from being a face in the crowd to writing about punk bands and getting to know band members as friends.
The sound of the Avengers was my grounding or anchoring into that early punk scene. Those first days I awoke……
It was fantastic! The Dils I learned about indirectly through other Flipside staff writers.
The Alley Cats was the band, they were the heart of the early punk scene which I got to know the best at that time.
Jimmy was a part of that scene.
I did not know him personally but indirectly. Yet his sound moved me into states of wild frenzy. I am grateful for all the vinyl records that contain that story, song, or sound of our youthful rebellion. Of Jimmy’s youthful rebellion.
Yet a “live” band is always best. It is great to still be here, currently, part of our punk rock history. Thanks to Randy and Penelope for letting me speak today. To show my love and respect.
We were wild and knew all the songs by heart by The Dils, The Alley Cats and the Avengers.
I will be there handing out some badges joining in the event in memory of our youthful rebellion that is still the heartbeat of this crazy continuity of punk rock that still drives our DNA onward.
“In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.”
~ Robert Green Ingersoll
Today while walking into Ralph’s supermarket, I saw the familiar old lady under yellow plastic. She was holding a white tissue to her red nose. She sat in her wheelchair at a prime target getting her ‘a little sympathy’. She got mine. I went into the store and purchased a $1.95 Starbucks house coffee medium. I am still amazed that a ‘cup of joe’ costs so much now. I remember when it was 25 cents.
“I like watching Noir films,”
I said to the barista.
“It is a wonder in those films that a ‘cup of joe’ only cost five pennies. Twenty-five cents got you a cup of coffee, a ham sandwich, and a piece of pie.”
The barista smiled at me as I got the coffee. I put in some cream and sugar and then headed towards the old lady in a wheelchair.
“Here is a cup of coffee, you look cold.?!”
“I don’t drink coffee it is bad for you.”
“Really, I thought it would warm you up. Coffee is not as bad for you as you may think.”
“I have never had any.”
She looked down to her right at a dirty bag of oranges.
“It is all right I had an orange…I am fine.”
I was a bit upset. I never thought that she would reject a cup of coffee on such a cold and rainy day.
“Lady sometimes beggars can’t be choosers?!”
I realized that I could not reason with the lady. She had her right to say no. So, I walked on remembering what an old myth taught me. All about a woman’s psyche.
As Persephone went on her journey, she was advised not to give anything to those needy people who asked for something along the way. It was important for her to hold on to her strength and parts of herself that were precious.
I failed the test today. Then that sorrow thread pulled in me. I call it the thread of sorrow.
I think that our current society does not embrace their share of sorrow. That is why we have so many drug addicts and alcoholics. A social epidemic.
We all need to hold on to or embrace our threads of sorrow.
It can pull hard.
It can be an echo that mocks.
It can sting like a jelly-fish.
When we run from our share of sorrow,
ignore it,
or get lost in our addictions hating it,
it only manifests in our world as a monster shadow.
Creating hate, chaos, and terrible politicians.
That is why I love Jazz because it speaks to the human heart and soul.
I know what I write here. It is the pun-rock curse. A fan, promoter band thing. As a fan it was my dream to meet the bands and the promoters. The intimacy and friendships that formed are endearing for me. There was a time and place about eight years ago that I brought two bands together. Rikk Agnew Band (cult of ‘58) and The Black Widows (carry a big stick). It was a time when the San Fernando Valley was beaming with a few hot spots or punk and alternative music hubs. My one promotion time right after a 10-year Flipside Fanzine flopped. My mom had just died and I had two boys that needed me at 8 and 16 and I was acting like the teenager… for a while. Eight years ago is fast growing time for two boys. Life is new and exciting. Eight years for a 52-year-old is slow and precious. I introduced A Pretty Mess and Rikk Agnew and Panic Movement to a good night of old-time buddies and new ones. I was trying to bring together many aspects of the scene at that time and place that I loved. I like small shady clubs and intimate encounters. It was a happy night of loud live music. I was delighted and still think about that night often. I see that the Rikk Agnew Band and The Black Widows will be playing at Cafe NELA coming up this month. Sweet. I guess seeing this event brought back a few fantastic memories. So much has changed but this is so surreal & feels good to my old punk rock bones.
Rockin’ in my rockin’ chair
Rockin’ in my rockin’ dreams
We all are elder punks now
The first of the punk rockers
A youthful explosion…
March 28, 2018
The Dream Last Night
The dream was long but what I remember is we had a big back yard. In the back yard were big beautiful old trees. So big that artists would come to visit so they could sit under the trees. They’d sit under the shade of the old trees and make art. They enjoyed the big trees.
Two people I knew came to visit us. Two old friends I knew in my rebellious youth when I had a punk fanzine. Band members I championed as we grew from youth to adulthood. First was Mike Palm.
He was sleeping under one of the trees. I saw him there. Next son said that another one came to the door. He went back to the big trees. He told son he knew me. Son let him in and he went to the trees. He had his painting art supplies and a sleeping bad rolled up behind him. I went back and saw that it was Mike Ness .
He smiled warmly at me. I felt all those friendship, close, intimate feelings come back to my heart. The feelings of loyalty and belonging to something bigger than ourselves. He was fine. So, I left him alone under one of the old trees. In the house I made him a sandwich. We always made sandwiches for our art guests.
Dreams like this hurt me. I still somehow feel connected to these punk charmers of my youth. They made a big impression on me. I still love them both so much. Though our lives are not intermingled as they once were. They are still beholding to me. They hold value in myself, my psyche. It is nice when they come to visit, even if only in my dreams.
I wonder if they ever find my face smiling up at them in their elder punk dreams. I hope so… somehow there is still a heartfelt remembrance and shared values from our youthful rebellious days. Long gone by days…which we will always share together.
I got the riding on a swing feeling in my belly! March is here, we are waiting for a rain storm.
Reflecting over the last six years and after 1,000 posts I have come to realize what The Seminary of Praying Mantis is all about. I can break my blog into four parts; Humor, spirituality, punk rock, and free fall.
I do embrace the creative shadow archetype. I like to make humor of culture and politics. For me it is the third path of satire. I do not shy off from it being considered stupid.
I am naturally a spiritual person. I have become more comfortable with sharing this about myself. My favorite books are biographies. So why not share my story.
Humor and honest nastiness is part of my Flopside Comics. Also, in The Daily “FUCK” Gazette and Flopside Bubble Gum comics one can find the absurd. I do admit defeat now and then when it comes to current events.
Punk Rock has cursed me. When I try to escape it, it always finds me. So, I now embrace it as part of my rebellious character. I love to share my history and stay current as shown in my ‘do it yourself ‘ projects.
I like intimacy. friendships and the integrity that comes with the core punk rock experience. I don’t do the festival punk thing.
That is way more profitable for the bands. I can dig that. If one of the many bands, I’ve known. wants to take one of my Punk@lullaby journals and help promote my work that is cool by me. Kind of like we use to do for them with Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine.
My free fall is a merger of all the three parts including my art and poetry. I must create. It is a calling that I cannot ignore. I promote my own work and have true friends help me along the way.
One of my happiest days …
S.W. Lauden, Hudley and Danny Gardner at
“Poems, Songs & Stories-A Literary Lounge by the LA River”,
on September 10th 2017.
A great day !
The Frog Spot photo by Michelene Cherie.
Now to move on to a current event. I like reading Steve Forests’ writings on astrology. His latest post is on Mars, Mars out of bounds !!
You may not believe in the stars but even if you don’t he takes an honest look at what it is to be a male or female this month. A very good read.
Androgyny or the hermaphrodite archetype is part of my perspective on what it is to be a human being. Honesty and integrity are how I frame my world. It sometimes leads me down a confronting and angry dark path. Yet at age 60 I think I can be of service to others by doing my good work. I am walking a new path back to university.
I am interested on where this will take me. Will I be accepted for who I am? I want to help others. I may become distant here blogging? I may change my posts favoring one over the other? I will be more discerningly present !
Therefore, I am sharing the insides of my Flopside comic here. It makes me laugh. Hopefully bringing some adult toilet paper humor upon a heartless subject in current politics. The original Flopside Bubble Gum comic was published as Mr. Trump grappled a hostile takeover of our poor whimpering white house. How it has changed!!
Mr. Fuck the wild card the androgyny person. He is the “satellite of love”. He can help all men and women….with pink hat and hard on. I love the androgynous!
I have enrolled a new image for The Seminary of Praying Mantis. She is Vesta.
“In her role as sister. Vesta represents the principle of focus and commitment. She functions as autonomous self-identity transforming creative energies into purifying and integrating personal circuitry.”
Gasatanka / Flipside Fanzine Vol 2.. with Revolutionary Fetus …
Doing a little reflective researching for my little talk. Always gets my heart beating a little faster. This band insert was one of my favorite ones. My work. But I always wanted to do a newspaper Fanzine. The individuals that made this vinyl fanzine happen are amazing ! What a wild project… a wonder how it ever happened?
My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine. ~
The older I get the more I know it is true to expect less from others. Less from others is how it goes.
I also feel I give less to others. The need to support shows , bands and artists is less. I don’t expect others to support me either. When they do I am thrilled.
When I am thrilled and get that feeling in my belly to go and do something it must sustain for a while.
My libido is not what it use to be. I can expect it to become lukewarm quickly.
New Flopside comic… dedicated to J.C. … not Jesus Christ but mighty close … ahahahha. We live in a world of domestic bliss… a little house on Lena Ave in the all but too big world… but there is a MAMA and a PAPA, two babes, and four cats, 6 or more fish , crickets and lots of praying mantis around to make things amusing…bees, bumble bees, flying saucers and strange drones that fly around at night with the Moon, Venus, Saturn and Neptune… all the jazzy sky planets and solar systems….very very!
