Rants


Sometimes I just get so pissed off that I write these little things on paper.  Then my friend Ashley finds them and kicks her thoughts in when she feels like it.  We turned that creative process into a 'zine called Politics as (Un) Usual that we published for a series of months in DC.  Homeless guys like our rants, plus the fact that two girls were talking to them and giving them stuff.   So here's what is on some of those scraps of paper.

Plus there's a bunch of shit from Dirty Rats & Scally Caps, my 'zine about anything and everything I can think of.  The writing from that 'zine follows the strict format of "write it once, don't proofread it, don't rewrite it, just put thoughts onto paper."  It's the first 'zine I've ever done completely on a typewriter.

I'll keep adding as I keep writing and finding the things I forgot we wrote.

We're Desperate
The guy who delivers my pizza, he drives a rusty, light blue chevette, wears a fedora, and smokes a pipe (actually, he doesn't smoke it, he keeps it in his mouth and chews on the end).  He's around my age, I think.  I appreciate his personal style.  He's not afraid of the other pizza boys, cookie cutter mall outfits and bleached tips and short hair cuts who wouldn't be seen in a chevette if their life depended on it.

I'm reading (though it's a picture book) We're Desperate by Jim Jacoy.  People who are considered punk (from the 70's and early 80's) but dress and look extremely different.  Wearing clothes that are lived in, not pressed into clean lines.  Clothes strewn about onto people, each in their own way...like me.  I think that's why I like the book so damn much.  I see me in every picture, in the facial expression, loud or natural haircolor, torn clothes, or old coat.

Everyone should allow themselves the freedom to express themselves by how they look.  No more dress codes, no nudity laws, no shame;  if you feel like going nude, do it.  If you feel like wrapping yourself in a bedsheet and wear a plastic tiara, fine.  Feel like wearing a suit?  That's fine, too, as long as that's how you want to dress today.  The only time it's not fine is when some outside force is limiting your freedom of expression, like laws, dress codes, and the like.

Which brings me to making clothes.  I love to make my own clothing, even though I'm what would be considered a shitty sew-er.  My lines are never straight, I use the "wrong" stitches, things don't ever turn out the way I plan.  That's why I love it.  It's an unpredictable art form, and I always welcome the fucked up results.  I wear my home made, chopped up from goodwill concotions everywhere.

As my grandmother asked me once, "Do you just buy the clothes no one else will wear?"
Me, "No, I have to make my own 'cause no one is willing to mass produce this stuff."
grandma, "Oh, I see"

Bicycles = Resistance from the 'zine Dirty Rats and Scally Caps
I love my bicycles.  Some old guy stopped me on the street the other day asking me questions about my bike.  He said he thought it's a 1963 Cruiser.  Hell if I know.  My uncle found it in a barn or something like that.  My mom used it (or rather didn't) until I took it over.  I spraypainted it black and tan, my brother made me 2 baskets for the back.

I love the sticker on my bike, it says "THIS IS MY CAR"

Cycling kicks ass.  You should really try.  You don't give money to greedy oil corporations, you don't have to pay insurance on it, and they're cheap or free or almost free.  Just go to Goodwill or go out on garbage day and you can find a bike.  If you want to paint it just use a can of spraypaint.  Spray some wd-40 type lubricant on the chain and other moving parts and you're good to go. 

The only real cons of cycling are the way the roads are set up in Medina and the motorists.  Some people don't realize that bicycles are treated just like cars when it comes to Ohio law.  You have the same right to the road as people driving cars.  For some reason, a lot of people don't like cyclists on the road.  Even if you have a ton of reflectors/lights and use hand signals they flick you off and try to run you over.

My dad's friend's brother was killed 2-3 weeks ago while cycling during a bicycle race on a road where some stupid driver was too impatient for the cyclists to stop at a stop sign (as the law and rules of the race said they had to) so he tried to overtake them at the intersection and ended up killing the guy.

Cycling is efficient.  It's cheap.  And it's relatively safe as long as you keep an eye out for the assholes who want to run you down.

Plus you get to break unjust laws, like the "NO cycling withing 2 blocks of Medina's square".  I cycle on the square.  It's one less car polluting the world, plus it makes me more physically fit in return.  Cycling is good for all people on the road, even if some of them don't realize it.

Flogging Molly, Thick Records, and loving Lakewood from the 'zine Dirty Rats and Scally Caps
Listening to Flogging Molly's Alive Behind the Green Door.  I hadn't listened to this CD in a while.  I almost forgot how good it is.  The intensity of Flogging Molly live is something to be experienced.  The first time I saw them was a hot and humid August day a few years back.  I went to see them 'cause my friend from Boston told me she heard some kick ass Irish punk band from LA and I just had to see them.

I was in the middle of the crowd, waiting for the music to start when I heard the musical equivalent of an atom bomb.  It reminded me of when I was 7 or 8 years old an I first heard real punk rock.  Only back then it was a bunch of music from thick records that my friend made me a tape of.  Kicked ass.  That's what it was like.  Someone punching you in the stomach, but in a good way.  Dave King is so charasmatic, so bright and alive, he gives me some thought of a future for this music called punk.  No cookie cutter crap, just your past and present along with your culture meshing together to form great music.

Thick records.  Good good times.  Thick was the record label that made me realize that though the midwest offered me little else, it still had some good music left in it.  The Tossers, holy shit, it was forever ago.  I swear I was the only person in Medina who knew who they were (I think I still am).  My friend in Chicago gave it to me.  I put in The Pint of No Return to hear Tony Duggins and co. singing of boozing, pain, and ethnic struggle along with the rest of life's shit.  In a time when everyone else was looking to techno and other BS music it was so raw and pure I connected with it right away.  I used to go down to Chris' Warped Records with my friend.  Lakewood is one of my favorite places, especially Madison Avenue.  We would go in and look for $1.00 CDs and records, scouring for some good music.  Half the time it wasn't worth the dollar, but sometimes we struck gold.  I think that's how I got my first LES Stitches cd.  I don't exactly remember all that well.  All I know is we'd lie on the floor listening to it over and over.  I eventually traded it, along with The Pint of No Return, to this guy in my high school when my dad was sick and I needed money for food.  I wish I still had those CDs.  All the ramen noodles weren't worth the lousy few bucks I got for them, but poor is poor, and I needed money for food and booze.

Rambling incoherently about music and life.  I think I'm gonna go get a drink.

What I've Heard from the 'zine Dirty Rats and Scally Caps
-Fabulous Disaster (girl punk, not the pansy ass kind, either.  good stuff.)
-the Caualties
-the A10's (I've seen them at the grog shop and a couple other places.  If you know where I can get more info. on them, contact me!)
-Anti-Flag
-the Tossers (Communication and Conviction.  Purgatory.  Great show they put on at the grog shop.  Tony Duggins kicks ass.)
-LES Stitches
-Flogging Molly
-Dropkick Murphys (Old stuff.  Before All Barr, though I love Al, too.)
-the Queers
-Thick Records OIL
-Roger Miret and the Disasters (I missed their last show at the Agora!  Damnitt!)
-GC Records YOU CALL THIS MUSIC vol. 1 :) :) :)
-the Business
-30 Foot Fall
-Operation Cliff Clavin (I heard that they broke up, though.  :( )
-Haymarket Riot
-AMP presents STREETCORE vol. 2
-Real MacKenzies

This rant/article first appeared in print in the limited first release of our DC 'zine Politics as (Un) Usual
Marrige is a Right for Everyone, Including Us Fags

Marrige is a right.  Two people who want to get married should be able to.  It could be Boy-Girl, Girl-Girl, Boy-Boy, Girl-Trans, Boy-Trans, Trans-Trans, whatever!  As long as it’s two people who seem to love each other I’m fine with it.  I don’t give a rats ass how they fuck!  

This rant/article first appeared in print in the second release of our DC 'zine Politics as (Un) Usual
Faith based initiatives...what bullshit.  Bush pushed this through a while ago and now we can finally see what good comes of it:  all of the money distributed to “faith-based” organizations has been distributed to christian organizations*.  No money has gone to jewish, muslim, or any other religious organizations.  That’s fair, huh?  I would call that discrimination, but then I’m just an America hating liberal**.

Why do we never see the names of American soldiers killed on TV, radio, or in newspapers?  Why are the bodies of the soldiers brought into this country under cover of darkness?  Why are people not allowed to take pictures of the soldier’s caskets coming back to their country?  Why doesn’t the President attend any of the funerals?  Damnitt, I want some answers.  I know what I think the Bush administration is trying to hide, but I would like to hear it from the bastards themselves.  Our soldiers deserve better then this.

My friend Ashley is one of the smartest people I know.  Seriously, we’re talking Einstein smart (‘cept she can do math).  Oh yeah, she’s black.  She wrote that great article on page 3 about being a fat girl in a mosh pit.  She thought this should go here:

“Condoleeza Rice has set black women back to the days when  they were slaves to rich white men.  Because that’s what she is, she’s their (the Bush administration’ s) bitch.  She is a disgrace to black people everywhere.”

*I got that from listening to The O’Franken Factor on Air America Radio (http://www.airamericradio.com)

**FYI--I actually love my country,  I want to make it a better place for everyone, but Ann Coulter and a bunch of other right-wing fascists say I don’t just because I disagree with them.
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