PUNXXN' UP

Oh man, this ones going to be a rant if you ever saw one.....



no sunset like the Lake Erie sunset!

Last night felt like summer. Me and all my roommates plus some others went to see fireworks being shot from Waldameer Park. We hung out at Tim Hortons for a while till it got dark and then went and found ourselves a nice place on the beach and watched colorful explosions for like....6 minutes. Not very many fireworks. weak.

Regardless, there comes a point every year when it finally sinks in that it is summer and i am free from classes and stress. That time was last night. As Amber sat back and watched the fireworks go off and i felt the chilly breeze come off the lake, i knew it was that time.

I recently went back to my hometown in Linesville, PA to see my parents. As soon as i dropped Whitey off at his mom's house and drove down the street to mine, i remember what it was like to be a young kid growing up in a small town and not quite making the cut with my peers.

Everything from claiming Straight Edge when i was 15 ( 7 years and counting now!) to hearing bands like Pig Destoyer, Orchid, Envy, Refused, and Converge are definite turning points in my life. Last summer i used to bike around town with my headphones on after i got out of work at midnight and just unwind. I would go to the places where i spent a lot of my time when i was growing up and just sit and remember all the laughter and experience.

Linesville is a place that reminds me that no matter if its just me and my bestfriend against a world who doesn't understand us and our beliefs or me and a mob of friends roaming the small town streets laughing, it doesn't really matter what you plan to do with your life, its what you are doing right now, in this very moment. Its what you put your passions into, its the memories you make, the people you meet, and the experiences you gain.

For me, my life has been taken over by the punk music scene. Now, i say "punk" in a very flexible manner, and not really flexible, but more than it is normally seen for. No matter if you are a crustie, a hardcore kid, a metal kid, or somewhere in between, you are a punk.

Punk isn't a music genre, it isnt a fashion statement, and it certainly isn't something to be marketed. Punk is a mindset. Punk is accepting that you are a minority. Punk is saying to the world "This whole thing is sick, and i dont want to be part of it damnit!" Dying your hair or painting your finger nails doesnt make you anymore punk than the next mall goth. Striving to do something that will make a difference in our dangerous, sick world is punk. Working against all the unfair standards and pitiful vanity of today is punk. Creating a place for your friends to gather under a simialir interest and enjoy similar arts, now that is punk.

When i was about 15, i heard a band by the name of Orchid. They were fast, emotional, screamy, and most of all...sincere. The things this band stood for and represented to me changed me from there on out. They proved that you dont have to have pink mohawks or some big vegetrian rescue plan to be punk or to change the world, you just need a shitty PA, some second hand equipment, a basement full of friends, and the willingness to scream at the top of your fucking lungs until your throat is raw about what you always wanted to say.

I, for one, am beyond blessed to be part of this scene. To have friends of a similar mindset, and a place to practice my art.

Here is my two favorite Orchid albums, maybe you will find something in them like i did.


CHAOS IS ME


DANCE TONIGHT, REVOLUTION TOMORROW.

"...for 25 centuries Western Knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for beholding, it is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible." - Jaques Attail 1985

"Yesterday it was love. Today the great passions of unity and liberty disrupt the world. Yesterday love led to individual death. Today collective passions make us run the risk of universal destruction. Today, just as yesterday, art wants to save from death a living image of our passions and our suffering." - Albert Camus ... 30 October, 1957

"I hear your words, but i am left without understanding. You seem to be full of words, but you lack meaning. Where is your passion, your anger, your frustration, your indifference? Where are you in the words that you speak? Sing me a song about your life. A song about the people you hate. Sing me a song about the darkest thoughts that lay embedded in the crevices of your mind. Tell me of betrayal. Tell me of love. Tell me of sadness, of deceit, of honesty, of failure, of embarrassment, of success, of terror, of all those feelings and events that make you alive. I want a piece of you. That's where my interests lie. I seek the human experience, the thing itself."

"Music isn't about buying bread, music is about eating bread. It is about holding it in your hand and smelling it, and tasting it. It is about it."

all of these quotes are contained within the Chaos Is Me 12" by Orchid from Ebullition Records. I suggest you buy it. Its cheap.

"All of this means nothing
D.C. made me and the rest of this mess
You don't even try to fake it
All of this means nothing
D.C. made me and the rest of this mess
You don't even try to fake it
Don't even try
I'm here becuase I was ready to leave
This should mean more but it can't
So dance, dance
Dance to the sounds of america's best dressed fake out"

-Orchid : Aesthetic Dialectic