I Love the Smell of Commerce in the Morning!
By admin | January 6, 2009
The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, even The Talking Heads, were great bands, but what did they all have in common? They were all the beginning of the end of punk. Some people think that these bands started punk, by this my friend, is not so. These bands played a major part in punk, but their opening up to the mainstream popular culture caused the confusion of what punk really stood for. Punk began in the early 70’s and consisted of people who were sick of being brainwashed by corporation’s moneymaking schemes, society’s constraints, and complete homogeneity.
The Fugs and the MC5 were two bands that are said to have started punk. The Fugs started in 1965 and were major activists in the antiwar movement in 1966. They are together to this day and still stand firm with their anti-war beliefs. The MC5’s, on the other hand, were seen as a bunch of crazy anarchists who constantly got the press’ attention. The manager of MC5 even got time for possession of marijuana, which only made the MC5’s seem more radical. The first bands to show what punk was all about, however, were the New York Dolls and Television. The New York Dolls came together in the early 70’s and since then influences many bands, including the Sex Pistols. Television’s Marquee Moon record that came out in late 1976, disregarded industries, their expectations, and fashion. Punk Rock’s ideals stand for going against the corporation and consumerism and doing it yourself. Radical punks do whatever they can to scare people into getting their attention. The New York Dolls, for example, fully enjoyed dressing like Nazis, doing the Nazi salutes, and throwing up in front of photographers.
The punk style that almost everyone is familiar with mostly came from the Television’s bassist, Richard Hell, and the Sex Pistol’s Sid Vicious. Richard Hell’s spiky hair and ripped clothing was well liked by his greedy manager, who believed he could make lots of money from the new look, andbrought it to London where it spread all over the world. That same manager started the Sex Pistols and gave Sid Vicious the same look with tattoos and safety pin jewelry. You don’t even need to know how to play an instrument or be able to sing to be a punk, as Sid Vicious taught us. All you need is to have something to say.
Now what about Punk Bands today? Do Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco sings of anarchy or corporations? I doubt it. Do you see Avril Lavigne dressed as a Nazi or doing radical stunts to scare the media? Not recently. I wonder if this has to do with the fact that they’re all pawns of the media and tools of Hot Topic, a mainstream distributor of “punk” fashion. What people know as punk today, isn’t punk at all, but Hot Topic. In case you didn’t know, Hot Topic is a corporation that is all about consumerism! How can this be punk?! Hot Topic is all for their mass produced Good Charlotte shirts and their Blink 182 pins. Oh, and how about they throw in a Ramones sticker and a Sid patch for $2.99 just so it looks like they care about our past punk brethren, and that if you buy this piece of punk, then you are still living on their dream of punk rock and what it is all about. Sid Vicious is probably rolling over in his grave at the fact that his name is being abused by a corporation trying to sell punk to teenage kids who just want to fit in now a days. Hot Topic is an indestructible monster attacking today’s youth, and it is expanding every year. By the end of 2002, there were over 420 Hot Topic stores all over the world. 420 death holes! Hot Topic has definitely ruined the remaining scraps of Punk. The fact that its business is booming, and will most likely go on for a long time, is depressing for lack of a better word. I end this editorial with a dare for you all. Next time you’re in a mall, walk up to a kid you see leaving Hot Topic and ask them one simple question: “Who killed Bambi?!”
Daggi Pulz is a student at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont, and is a frequent contributor to WaffleQuest.com, an online comedy video, article and comic strip collaboration.
Tags: avril lavigne, blink 182, commerce, hot topic, humor, music, punk, sid vicious, societyTop Ten Reasons David Letterman Visits the Hello Deli and Rupert Jee
By admin | January 5, 2009
Those of you who watch David Letterman enjoy Dave’s frequent visits to the Hello Deli. The Deli is owned by Rubert Jee. Rupert is a graduate of City College with a degree in economics. His parents are Chinese but Rupert is all American as he was born in the United States.
Rupert says that he has always dreamed about owning a delicatessen. His dream came true, but he never expected the notoriety that David Letterman has delivered.
Rupert has a web site: http://www.hello-deli.com/ There you can learn how to order a sweatshirt, a baseball cap, or a cup for your morning coffee. You can even e-mail Rupert at rupert@hello-deli.com
Some of you have probably wondered about Dave’s interest in the Hello Deli and Rupert. Looking at the menu, which has many sandwiches named after Letterman’s staffers, I guess that if Dave could hang out there with Bruce Willis, they would have a
Letterman - turkey, ham, am cheese, sweet peppers, lettuce, tomato, mayo, oil and vinegar on a hero- $5.95 or a
Shaffer - cutlet, am cheese, sweet peppers, lettuce, tomato, mayo on a hero- $5.65.
Here are the Top Ten Reasons that David Letterman Visits the Hello Deli:
10. On a hot day, it’s the only place within walking distance that Dave can get an ice-cold Slurpy
Tags: deli, Farmer, Henderson, humor, Late Show, Letterman, New York, Rupert Jee, Shaffer, top ten reasonsIf You Blog It, They Will Come
By admin | January 4, 2009
I need to make some phone calls, the laundry is piling up, and the car is due for an oil change. But those will have to wait–I’m busy reading blogs.
The word “blog” itself gives one the feeling of a murky forest filled with treacherously hidden hollows of mud waiting to pull the unwary wanderer under, never to be seen again.
Indeed, many blogs are a veritable morass of links and reciprocatory links and thanks-for-the-link links and you’re-welcome links. The web traveler is sent from one blog to the next, which refers to yet another; soon he begins to feel panicked and finds himself blindly fighting backwards to get back to the original site, by which time he has forgotten what caught his attention in the first place.
The other day I found myself in a dilemma: should I read Dostoevsky on the possibility of redemption, or the blog of a guy who calls himself the Curmudgeongly Celt on the possibility of repainting his upstairs bathroom? The Celt won, of course; he’s probably going to use beige and orange-red. Sounds like an unpleasant color scheme to me, but that’s a Celt for you.
What is it about blogging that’s so alluring? Hoping that, perhaps, in some small way, you can make a difference in the world? The desire to unleash the latent Creative Potential that heretofore has remained untapped? Creating a forum where anonymous weirdos can leave ads about Web Poker in your guest book using misspelled words and all caps?
I know, I know. There are many well-written and thoughtful blogs out there. The trick is finding them and avoiding getting sidetracked once you’ve discovered one. But even the best of bloggers is eventually going to succumb to the temptation of linking to a “Which Animal in ‘Charlotte’s Web’ Do You Most Resemble?” quiz. You have a limited amount of time; will you resist the web-wandering by ignoring the link? Or will you take the time to: 1) follow the link, 2) take the quiz, and 3) go back to the blog and post in the comment section that you are Wilbur? (Admit it: you initially were the Speech-Impaired Goose before you went back and changed three of your answers).
Well, enough about this. I want to read about how the bathroom remodeling project is coming along. Then I guess I’d better start dinner…I see from my husband’s blog that he’s getting tired of take-out.
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Angie Brennan is a freelance humor writer, cartoonist, and illustrator. She and her family live in Maryland. To visit Angie’s website, humor blog, and Geek humor shop, go to: http://angiebrennan.com
