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gordonzolaHello LJ friends. I’m back in town and have so much to write about I don’t know where to start. First off, thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
motel666, queenbeanna, and goodbadgirl for helping to entertain me in Seattle, Sara and Steve (too cool for LJ, those two) for hosting me for a night in Portland, and all the other people without an online presence who took me in or otherwise amused me.
Much will be coming in the future, including, but not limited to:
-Why I’m over punk houses
-Ideological problems with "Thomas the Tank Engine"
-Musings on "The Left" and the anti-war movement (If you haven’t readjactitation’s piece here you should right now
-Grand generalizations about Portland and Seattle
-Why Goths amuse me
-The cheese schmoozefests and related events I’m currently attending
But the first thing I’ll write about is the drive. Nothing really makes me feel more American than driving a huge white Pontiac Bonneville (free upgrade from the compact I reserved) 800 miles in a day. I’m not saying that in an ironic way either. I really do love it. And since I brought about 30 CDs (I try to over pack in every aspect of my vacations) it was a loud and fast drive too, my favorite kind.
So loud, in fact, that I blew out one of the speakers with my "Too Popular for their Own Good" mix CD. In the same way that I like to listen to Hank Williams and Wanda Jackson when I visit Germany, I figured that since I’d be traveling through some of the whitest parts of the country I needed the equivalent of KMEL (outside SF read as "Clear Channel urban format station") to help keep things in perspective. I think it was "How Many Licks?" by Li’l Kim that did it. All of a sudden, no more bass.
Luckily, I’m punk so I was well prepared. If there ever was a musical style that disdained bass it’s that of my chosen subculture. And while it’s satisfying to pull into rest stops with the bass thumping so loud that the bathroom trolls come outside to see what’s going on, I think the constant short-fast-loud cut an hour off my trip by raising my adrenaline level. Driving down I-5 at 85 MPH screaming along to Blatz* just made me so happy. . . I felt like I had finally relaxed after a week off of work.
Unfortunately, there’s that hard-to-rationalize, nagging thought that my (and most Americans’) ability to find such joy in driving alone is, on more than an individual, consumerist level, one of the reasons a whole bunch of people are going to die in Iraq very soon.
Sigh.
* Confidential to The Punx: I bought the new/old Blatz/Filth CD in Portland that packages all their records onto 2 CDs. I came to the conclusion that if you think of yourself as punk, and you don’t love Blatz, well, you must have no heart. "Homemade Speed", "Lullaby", "Fuck Shit Up", and "Berkeley is my Baby and I want to Kill It": pure classics.
motel666, queenbeanna, and goodbadgirl for helping to entertain me in Seattle, Sara and Steve (too cool for LJ, those two) for hosting me for a night in Portland, and all the other people without an online presence who took me in or otherwise amused me.Much will be coming in the future, including, but not limited to:
-Why I’m over punk houses
-Ideological problems with "Thomas the Tank Engine"
-Musings on "The Left" and the anti-war movement (If you haven’t read
jactitation’s piece here you should right now-Grand generalizations about Portland and Seattle
-Why Goths amuse me
-The cheese schmoozefests and related events I’m currently attending
But the first thing I’ll write about is the drive. Nothing really makes me feel more American than driving a huge white Pontiac Bonneville (free upgrade from the compact I reserved) 800 miles in a day. I’m not saying that in an ironic way either. I really do love it. And since I brought about 30 CDs (I try to over pack in every aspect of my vacations) it was a loud and fast drive too, my favorite kind.
So loud, in fact, that I blew out one of the speakers with my "Too Popular for their Own Good" mix CD. In the same way that I like to listen to Hank Williams and Wanda Jackson when I visit Germany, I figured that since I’d be traveling through some of the whitest parts of the country I needed the equivalent of KMEL (outside SF read as "Clear Channel urban format station") to help keep things in perspective. I think it was "How Many Licks?" by Li’l Kim that did it. All of a sudden, no more bass.
Luckily, I’m punk so I was well prepared. If there ever was a musical style that disdained bass it’s that of my chosen subculture. And while it’s satisfying to pull into rest stops with the bass thumping so loud that the bathroom trolls come outside to see what’s going on, I think the constant short-fast-loud cut an hour off my trip by raising my adrenaline level. Driving down I-5 at 85 MPH screaming along to Blatz* just made me so happy. . . I felt like I had finally relaxed after a week off of work.
Unfortunately, there’s that hard-to-rationalize, nagging thought that my (and most Americans’) ability to find such joy in driving alone is, on more than an individual, consumerist level, one of the reasons a whole bunch of people are going to die in Iraq very soon.
Sigh.
* Confidential to The Punx: I bought the new/old Blatz/Filth CD in Portland that packages all their records onto 2 CDs. I came to the conclusion that if you think of yourself as punk, and you don’t love Blatz, well, you must have no heart. "Homemade Speed", "Lullaby", "Fuck Shit Up", and "Berkeley is my Baby and I want to Kill It": pure classics.
sigh
Date: 2003-01-21 06:23 pm (UTC)Re: sigh
Date: 2003-01-21 08:06 pm (UTC)If you or P want an LJ I can hook you up with a code. I still can't believe you're not in Petaluma.
Re: sigh
Date: 2003-01-22 09:49 am (UTC)Miss you much, my dears...
xxooJacco
Re: sigh
Date: 2003-01-22 02:40 pm (UTC)I thought that hat was long gone!
I had called the Lucky 13 the day after, but didn't think to call
you, and I was so busy with the move, I didn't have the opportunity to get it anyways. I loves me that hat. And it is cold here (-8* last night) so I could use it. I have Scott's xwife's old Brooklyn ski hat she left at our old place in Novato a long, long time ago, and I actually sleep in it sometimes, BRRRR.
I will email Gordonzola our snail mail add, since I don't have yours. I have pix from his bday party as well that I will send,
and I have plenty of pix of the house, the town, us, etc.
I've been digging thru boxes & finding all sorts of interesting pix from the days when developing was free. Maybe I'll just scan them & burn a disc when I get the chance. Many pix of the girls when they were babies....they are teens now.(I'm much too immature to have kids this old - what happened?) Pix of our bar in Novato, Mendocino, drunken MIA friends, it's a walk down memory lane...
Thanks for holding onto my furry hat.
Glad we could see you before leaving the state.
Hope you'll be visiting!
Love,
P
Re: sigh
Date: 2003-01-22 10:45 am (UTC)