How do you keep a Moron busy?

"About the future I only can reminisce/For what I've had is what I'll never get/And Although this may sound strange/My future and my past are presently disarranged/And I'm surfing on a wave of nostalgia for an age yet to come"

From The Buzzcocks-Nostalgia

 

OK I haven't done one of these in well over 2 years and I'm not about to try to tell you ever thing that has happened in those two years. That would be insane and without all the facts and details a bit boring(see below) Why the break? Well, a lot of things from the re-writing of the whole web site to a lack of free time but I think the biggest thing is that I didn't feel the need to write. I have always felt that the main difference between good writing and OK or fuck, bad writing has been needing to write and wanting to or having to write. Lately there has been a lot of old demons floating out of my head and thus the need to write is back.

 

Plus I finished the web site and I'm only going to update from now on. For a while there it was like every time I thought I was done I'd think of something else to add. Right now the site is sitting at close to 45 megs. It's about 10 times larger then the old site and is a great deal more graphic driven. I hope to learn more about flash and improve the intro but I'm leaving the lay out the same for now. I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from a kid in NC that said it took him about 5 4 hour sessions to make it through everything he wanted to see on the site. So I guess there is something of worth here.

 

I just started another web site a month or so ago called Iowa Underground which is a kind of music history page that will be in the works for years to come. I've been thinking a lot about the old days in part because of the site but running into old friends. It's a little strange to think about what we all were 10 or 15 years ago and what we are now. Hell some of us even have kids old enough to be getting into music now. I think at one point we all thought we were going to change the world through our little movement. We did but not the way we envisioned it to be.

 

It's funny when you see metal and even rap bands taking the stands that the Punk Hardcore scene of the 80s did. All Ages, lower ticket prices, more contact with fans and music with a message. It's been a long road and there have been a lot of twists. I mean who would have thought that punk rock would come back let alone become the force that it was in the 90s. Many would say that the impact was not nearly as much as it was in the late 70s but hey one of our goals in the 80s was to be accept as we were and nothing does that like becoming part of the mainstream. Sure maybe the trolls were on vacation but if a new generation was turned on to punk rock it was well worth putting up with all the people sluming. You see that's the thing about punk rock it will never completely die out. Just as soon as you think your the last gang in town, up crops a whole new crew of kids with the funny hair dos and the bad manners. A lot of old punks hate that. They want to feel that the owned it or something but if I've stayed active in the scene for any reason it has been the kids reminding me of what this is all about.

 

There's just something about being 17 and sitting under a bridge or in a parking lot at four in the morning drinking and dancing with your friends to the Circle Jerks that will always be classic. I'm sure the bands and the music will change it always does but the heart will always be the same. My friend Jett used to say that being punk was like speeding ahead on the road of life and making all these pot wholes to fall into in the future. It's like we knew that it would never be like this again and we would be drawn to it all our lives. You would never again be able to trash a police car with the same feeling of freedom or spray paint a slogan that meant as much as it did then. It's like sex no matter how much more you want or have the drive for it, the more you have the less it matters.

 

Everything seems larger when you're younger and if there is ever a reason to try to stay young it is that. There were giants in my youth heroes and anti-heroes in and out of punk that may never be replaced. They can't be replaced because I've seen them naked in the light of the truth of what we all became. I'm not angry about it hell everyone got to eat and they were always mortal to me. They just no longer need my support. The only support I can give them is taking to heart the good things they said and did and tuning the rest out completely.

 

Enough of the past for now let's duty now for the future. Like the Buzzcocks I've always been "surfing on a wave of nostalgia of an age yet to come". So let's stand on that edge again and point toward the horizon and run not walk into the future. One of the coolest things about been a father is seeing the excitement and pure joy of discovery in Quinn. I wonder when I lost that and if I can get it back. I can only try.

 

Brief Run Down from March 99 to March 2001

 

My boys in Slipknot hit the road on Ozzfest in the summer of 99 and go from a small unknown band to small known band to a large unknown band to a known band and then to a large known band. Selling I believe over 2,000,000 copies of their self titled record, Voted best band in the World by the readers of Krang Magazine, nominated for a grammy, touring the world for two years and basically going from being a bunch of people that day jobs they hated and hanging at the bar on the weekends to people making a good living doing what they truly love.

 

After a rough period getting to see my son Quinn on a regular bases starting on his first birthday in September of 1999. Now after a year and a half I can't imagine for one moment what my life would be without him in it. His is the greatest gift life has ever given me.

 

Promoted a crap load of bands including: Fear, Murder City Devils, At the Drive-In, Slipknot, Vice Squad, Amen, UK Subs, Zeke, and etc... before finally calling it quits after 4 years in October of 2000. Also I started a management/booking agency with another person that fell apart after about 6 months.

 

Moved the Axiom to the Skin Kitchen in Oct of 99. The move was a good one but at the same time it was sad to leave the E 5th location I had spent 4 years at. A lot of good and bad times took place there.

 

Went through 4 more girl friends and I further away from find someone willing to put up with me then I was at the start.

 

Took the first vacation in years to LA. Hung out with Lanny, got drunk a lot, pissed in the sink at the Viper Room, Saw a couple shows at the Whisky and the Teenage Frames and Sloppy Seconds at Al's Bar. Also I have to say that Fat Burger kicks IN/Out.

 

A bunch of other shit I can't remember hell I'm old.

 

DaVo

 

March 8th, 2001 a Midwest odd-e-see(get it)