Catch up catsup

GOD! I must put down all those crazy stories and coincidences that I had in NYC down before my brain melts!!
But this was just beyond funny, I had to post it. Sometimes those spontaneous memories are the best!!

This was from a post on flickr in a group that I was part of. I think it's called apocalyptic or Hell. Either one is appropriate...

Rot's Jello Biafra Story...(Missy, he was a loud mouthed politically astute punk rocker and lead singer of the Dead Kennedy's ,(Who I first thought were a Vancouver band, they played a show in Vancouver on Nov 22, 1979, which I didn't see as I was unhip in a punk sense then...) who later made politically incendiary spoken word recordings and appearances as well as music collaborations. He was charged with obscenity for including an HR Geiger poster in a Dead Kennedy's album and had to go through a fairly draining and expensive struggle to defend his free speech and creative freedom and keep his ass out of jail. He's a very articulate fellow with anti-aurthoritarian instincts, a long memory and a finely honed bullshit detector. I personally would rather hear him talk than sing....)

Around 88-89 he was making trips up to Vancouver (he's from the Bay Area I believe) to do spoken word shows and work with some of the punk bands here like DOA or NoMeansNo. My roomate at the time had his first spoken word album (the one that had "Why I'm Glad the Space Shuttle Blew Up" on it) and Jello did a talk at a small cinema on East Hastings which I attended. It was right at the time of the buildup to the first Iraq War and he was doing the "No Blood For Oil" spoken word pieces. It was preaching to the converted pretty much though, but it made a few participants wanna join the revolution right away...

Shortly after this I was at the Commodore Ballroom watching an old Vancouver punk band 'the Enigmas' do a rare reunion show and I turned around and there was Jello Biafra standing a few feet away.So I tapped him on the shoulder and said hi and that I admired his activist work and thanks etc. Well he was polite and all but it scared the shit out of him, to be recognized by a total stranger etc, after his 'persecution' for obscenity...

A friend of ours was doing volunteer work for Co-op Radio in those days and she had interviewed him for broadcast. When I told her of bumping into him she concurred and said that when she had met him; he'd always sit back to the wall facing the door. He was a little paranoid after his experiences with the authorities......

but remember it's only paranoia when they're not all out to carve your ass...

And my 'dear Diary' reply to that:

Dear Diary,
scrolled back to Rotcoddam post about the Dead Kennedys and remembers when I saw them in concert back in 1984 at a converted roller skating rink. I also remember my skinhead friend named Dave who was as big as a house but sweeter than a candy apple, and his friend Glenn, who let me touch his "DOA" mowhawk and when asked how he keeps it so stiff, he replied; "well, molasses works okay, eggwhites are the best, mix that with some Gel and it'll stay up for days."

These images also spawn another memory of me- 16 1/2 with my mother in Cape Cod, in some teeny tiny beachside town, walking into a music store and buying a DK Greatest Plastic Surgery Disasters/in God We Trust cd. The the look on some poor woman's face when she saw me chewing through the plastic to get to the goodies and asked: It seems like you really want to look at that cd! Who is it?And my reply, not realizing that we were not too far from the family motherhouse: "Oh! it's the Dead Kennedys! They are so great!"I thought she was going to have a heart attack. It was only after I got into the car and 20 minutes later I gasped with dread and laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.

Over and out
(the terminal Preppie - HPK)