So here you go. This here bloggy thing is going to change the world. Don't believe me? Stick around.
Still here?
See. I told you so.
The world is completely different than it would have been had you had clicked on over to Huffington Post.
This all began with me writing an email to Stevil over at AllHailTheBlackMarket. It got me to thinking. Actually, it was the thinking that got me to write the email which got me back to the thinking.
The thinking which I was thinking about was that we're all a bunch of jaded, slack-jawed yokels, and that we need to wake up and pay attention. Some stuff (not all of the stuff, mind you, and definitely not necessarily the hatchets) is happening that we need to pay attention to. Our attention, however is being dissected and misdirected to the point that our sense of what may actually be worth paying attention to is senseless. (The knowledge that this blog right here just might be a part of that misdirection has not escaped me.)
Still with me?
You are?
Then I'm obviously not doing my job correctly.
Anyhoo...
Here is the letter I wrote to Stevil:
********
Still here?
See. I told you so.
The world is completely different than it would have been had you had clicked on over to Huffington Post.
This all began with me writing an email to Stevil over at AllHailTheBlackMarket. It got me to thinking. Actually, it was the thinking that got me to write the email which got me back to the thinking.
The thinking which I was thinking about was that we're all a bunch of jaded, slack-jawed yokels, and that we need to wake up and pay attention. Some stuff (not all of the stuff, mind you, and definitely not necessarily the hatchets) is happening that we need to pay attention to. Our attention, however is being dissected and misdirected to the point that our sense of what may actually be worth paying attention to is senseless. (The knowledge that this blog right here just might be a part of that misdirection has not escaped me.)
Still with me?
You are?
Then I'm obviously not doing my job correctly.
Anyhoo...
Here is the letter I wrote to Stevil:
********
Dear Stevil,
So.
I've been thinking about this:
So.
I've been thinking about this:
and this:
The images have just sort of been percolating around in my unconscious subconscious. My Id has been angry with my Ego, and things are moving.
Señor Hunter's comment about adding a hatchet to your logo stuck with me. Very astute that Señor Hunter...
Is something like punk rock even possible anymore? (Be patient. I'll get there eventually.)
How long has this hatchet, beard, tiny house, build my own canoe using recycled bourbon barrels thing been going on? A year? Two? Think back two years ago (if you can). Was the idea of a hand made, artisanal hatchet even a *thing* for people to obsess over?
If it was, it was a fetish. An obsession shared by a few crafty folk looking for a way to recapture the feeling they had in high school wood shop. One of a million ways to experience something tangible in a digital world. Experiences like record players. Crocheting. Square taper cranks. (Confession... I do not own anything other than square taper cranks.)
Now? In two-ish years it has been identified, monetized, distributed and publicized to the point that it is a cliché. Laughed at on digital photo sharing sites (digital photo sharing sites whose presentation formats are themselves designed to mimic the nostalgia of yet another tactile experience of the past... The symmetry of the Polaroid picture.)
What does this have to with with punk rock? Well... I was listening to the Ramones, and thinking about the lord god Joe Strummer. Then, I was listening to the lord god Joe Strummer and thinking about Bad Brains. Then I was listening to Bad Brains and thinking about The Pogues. Then I was listening to the Pogues and thinking about Fugazi.
And this went on for the better part of a week...
(Have you noticed how much I love to incorrectly use ellipses...)
As my brain wandered from clichéd hatchets and itchy beards to hipster logos and Shane MacGowan's liver, I wondered about whether or not punk rock could happen today.
Would it have been allowed to develop, to evolve, to (gloriously) fail and then to succeed? Would it have spread to Philadelphia and DC? Would the California scene have happened?
Or would it be a $300 hatchet?
Featured in an ad on Tumblr?
For a $27,000 Jeep?
Are we missing out on the next punk rock? The next Expressionist movement?
Of course we are.
We all know it.
I'm typing this out on a cell phone.
The same phone I used to see your Instagram posts that started this train of thought.
Punk rock is as punk rock does,
Gypsy
Señor Hunter's comment about adding a hatchet to your logo stuck with me. Very astute that Señor Hunter...
Is something like punk rock even possible anymore? (Be patient. I'll get there eventually.)
How long has this hatchet, beard, tiny house, build my own canoe using recycled bourbon barrels thing been going on? A year? Two? Think back two years ago (if you can). Was the idea of a hand made, artisanal hatchet even a *thing* for people to obsess over?
If it was, it was a fetish. An obsession shared by a few crafty folk looking for a way to recapture the feeling they had in high school wood shop. One of a million ways to experience something tangible in a digital world. Experiences like record players. Crocheting. Square taper cranks. (Confession... I do not own anything other than square taper cranks.)
Now? In two-ish years it has been identified, monetized, distributed and publicized to the point that it is a cliché. Laughed at on digital photo sharing sites (digital photo sharing sites whose presentation formats are themselves designed to mimic the nostalgia of yet another tactile experience of the past... The symmetry of the Polaroid picture.)
What does this have to with with punk rock? Well... I was listening to the Ramones, and thinking about the lord god Joe Strummer. Then, I was listening to the lord god Joe Strummer and thinking about Bad Brains. Then I was listening to Bad Brains and thinking about The Pogues. Then I was listening to the Pogues and thinking about Fugazi.
And this went on for the better part of a week...
(Have you noticed how much I love to incorrectly use ellipses...)
As my brain wandered from clichéd hatchets and itchy beards to hipster logos and Shane MacGowan's liver, I wondered about whether or not punk rock could happen today.
Would it have been allowed to develop, to evolve, to (gloriously) fail and then to succeed? Would it have spread to Philadelphia and DC? Would the California scene have happened?
Or would it be a $300 hatchet?
Featured in an ad on Tumblr?
For a $27,000 Jeep?
Are we missing out on the next punk rock? The next Expressionist movement?
Of course we are.
We all know it.
I'm typing this out on a cell phone.
The same phone I used to see your Instagram posts that started this train of thought.
Punk rock is as punk rock does,
Gypsy
*********
The communications back and forth after this email basically confirmed that Stevil is a better communicator than I am. What he got from what I wrote was that I think punk rock can't happen anymore. What I meant to say is that something *like* punk rock can't happen anymore. Punk wouldn't have been allowed to develop. It would have been monetized, and that would have killed it. If the Ramones happened today? Within months, Joey Ramone would be selling Toyotas.
This blog? This is my effort to slow that process down.
Important. Things.
...can still happen. Are still happening,
I will sometimes be NSFW. If, that is, you work in a church.
Consider yourself warned.
The communications back and forth after this email basically confirmed that Stevil is a better communicator than I am. What he got from what I wrote was that I think punk rock can't happen anymore. What I meant to say is that something *like* punk rock can't happen anymore. Punk wouldn't have been allowed to develop. It would have been monetized, and that would have killed it. If the Ramones happened today? Within months, Joey Ramone would be selling Toyotas.
This blog? This is my effort to slow that process down.
Important. Things.
...can still happen. Are still happening,
I will sometimes be NSFW. If, that is, you work in a church.
Consider yourself warned.
