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Shit I'm...

Seeing

As mentioned in the last issue, I'm an old 90s hardcore kid. I was also a skater who skated as much as I possibly could between the ages of 11 to 17 or so. As a result, I watched many a skate video over those years, and aside from the obvious influence they had on my skating, they had an even bigger impact on me with the music they introduced me to.

A prime example of this is New Deal's 1281 video. It had a ton of songs by The Odd Numbers, an obscure bay area band that still remains relatively mysterious to me. But the last two segments of the video were Ed Templeton and Mike Vallely's parts. They were undoubtedly the big dogs of the video, and they both had songs from a band we'd never heard called 411. At the time, I hadn't heard anything like them. It was hardcore, maybe even kinda straight edge, but melodic, with really unique vocals, political lyrics, and pro skater Mario Rubalcaba playing drums. They were instantly a Big Deal to me and my friends.

We got ahold of the album and listened to it constantly. At one point we learned they were going to be playing at Spanky's in Riverside. Fuck yeah. We all packed into Forrest's minivan and made the trek to the IE.

It was glorious. Tiny club, packed, a few opening bands, and the main event of 411 playing most of their album. We were young enough to jon everyone else in crowd surfing and jumping on stage to yell along with the singer. It felt like we were seeing the biggest band around.

That was back in 1992. I was 15. Fast forward 30 years and 411 announces a few 30th anniversary shows. Well, shit, of course I want to go.

We've been in socal this past week visiting family for the first time in like 3 years. By complete coincidence (honestly!), it happened to be the same week that the shows were happening. Fate.

I bought a ticket and, after some ridiculous amounts of driving and logistics, showed up at Alex's Bar in Long Beach on Friday night. First off, the fact that this show is at a bar is pretty poetic. I don't think 411 was necessarily a straight edge band, but a big part of their fanbase was at the very least heavily intermingled with the straight edge scene at the time. The singer was in some early and influential bands like No For An Answer. But, 30 years later, everyone at the show was at least 30 pounds heavier, 30% balder, and many were drinking something from the bar. So it goes.

When I arrived it was clear this was pretty much a class reunion for the social outcasts of our day. There were a bunch of people milling about in the outdoor patio, and people doing the same inside. The average age was probably around 47, some folks were wearing shirts from our youth, and there were various levels of arrested development on display. I stood at the bar looking for people I recognized from way back when. There were plenty. It's interesting how back in the day, the big dogs of the scene were kinda intimidating and revered. When we were 15 and they were 19 and in the Big Important Bands, the age difference felt gigantic. But now we're all just olds looking for a bit of nostalgia.

Right off the bat, I saw Dan Sena, a dude who had been in bands at the same time as us down in Orange County, and who i played with for a couple years in a band called Bullet Train to Vegas. At one point while I was playing drums for our southern hard rock band called The Accident, Bullet Train needed a bass player. I played bass for Enewetak for a long time, and told them I'd be down to try it out. I'd never been on tour before and they were planning on doing that whole thing, so I figured why not. the band was kind of an At The Drive In clone named after a Drive Like Jehu song, but it was pretty fun to do for a couple years. It was cool seeing him.

Forrest, my friend for the last 34 years that I learned how to skateboard with and was in many bands with, showed up right as the first band was playing. We chatted for a bit, got approached by a dude we didn't recognize at first but who turned out to be Chris Smith of Redwood Records who played guitar in Enewetak with us for a short stint. It was rad catching up with him. Turns out he also live in Oregon, getting his PhD at Oregon State.

There were a couple opening bands that played to a relatively sparse crowd. The first was Overexposure, which did a decent rendition of old school hardcore type stuff. Not really my bag. Next up was Ursula, who were a lot more interesting. Some wacky chords and progressions, grindy parts, and good vocals.

Then 411 took the stage. The third band dropped off the shows for some reason, so, as fate would have it, the show for the Olds was actually going to end before midnight, thank god. They sounded great, and the crowd was doing their duty singing along and even attempting a bit of crowd surfing.

aka:

The best shirt of the night went to the guitar player wearing a SWEET JESUS I HATE TED CRUZ shirt. All in all a good time.

Watching

I mentioned a few issues ago that we were watching Severance on AppleTV+ on the recommendation of some friends. It looked pretty interesting from the marketing but I didn't really know much about it. Folks said it got better as it went on and the ending was pretty wild.

The first episode hooked us, and it did indeed escalate as it went on. The cinematography is pretty intriguing. On one hand it's super sparse and bleak, with one of those aesthetics that blends modern things with elements from older decades. Things like modernish phones alongside old 80s computer workstations and cars, while most folks are dressed in pretty normal, modern clothes. Kinda increases the sense of unease.

In general it kinda had a Charlie Kaufman type of feel. Just generally weird and unsettling, but not hitting you over the head with it. The actors put in some great performances, and in general it's just really well done. It definitely hooked me after the first episode, I looked forward to every episode's exposition, and the season finale was fuckin' wild. Can't wait to see season two.

When I mentioned we were watching it Issue 7, I got a reply from Liz (you should definitely subscribe to "Mondays, amirite?") telling me I needed to read an article titled "'Severance,' 'Severance,' and the Dissociative Demands of Office Labor". This is the type of shit I love about having a newsletter. Even though only a few people read it, those who do are badass like Liz. Coincidence?

Anyways, I put off reading the article until we finished watching the season, as I didn't want any spoilers etc. I could tell from the title, though, that it was going to be banger, and after reading it I was not disappointed. There was a lot more to it than a basic TV show review.

The article is, on the surface, a review of both the Severance TV show and the book of the same name that came out a few years before the show. I wasn't even aware of the (unrelated) show, but it's on my list to read now. The article's main thread is, unsurprisingly, about the dehumanizing aspects of modern, capitalist work. As an old man who's been working non-stop for the last 25 or so years, I get it.

But like I said, this article goes way beyond it. As we're all still processing the continued march of the supreme court et al, the following passage really hit

The sheer panic of realizing you don’t have bodily autonomy resonates well beyond office walls in 2022. As state governments and the Supreme Court continue to make clear that women and trans people, in particular, are property of the state, their bodies to be legislated and controlled against the will of the individuals who inhabit them, it has become harder and harder for workers to ignore the terrifying world and do our little Zooms to make enough money to pay for the rising cost of rent, healthcare, and other essentials to human life. Yet it is more and more urgent to corporations that we close our eyes in the service of productivity, hitting quotas and yielding profits before the economy tips into recession.

The last band I was in that actually played shows and released stuff was Tafkata. We had an album called Worker and Parasite that was pretty much a concept album about how much work sucked. Nothing as sophisticated as any of this, but the same general mood. While I love to build things and have mostly liked my jobs over the years, I know deep down it's all kinda bullshit. I feel lucky to have found some things that I like that are generally helpful. But, at the end of the day, we don't have a whole lot of choice. As the Severance book described the pandemic they presciently wrote about:

Shen Fever turns the infected into the walking dead of capitalism: wordless creatures doomed to perform the same routines over and over.

This is the system humans have created for themselves. It's possible to break out. But damn is it hard.

Drawing

My friends Alex and Nicole had a baby recently and Nicole asked me if I could draw a picture of little Io. I was of course super honored for the opportunity to help make Alex's first fathers day special. I found a beautiful photo in their extensive photo collection and got to work. After 12 hours and 4000 strokes in Procreate, I felt pretty good about it.

That beanie was a killer though!

Nicole had it printed out, which was the first time any of my Procreate drawings had been printed out. I was a little bit worried, mostly due to my past in the print industry and botched print jobs. Luckily getting things printed out is way better now. One emailed tiff file later and it looked pretty good:

With this newfound confidence in getting stuff printed out I wanted to draw something for my dad for father's day. One of his favorite dogs passed away a while back, so I asked my mom for some photos. It was pretty slim pickings since they were all just random phone snaps with bad lightning, but I found one that was pretty cute. I decided to give color and painting a first try, which made me pretty nervous. Gotta start some time though.

It turned out pretty cool. I have long forgotten all my art school color theory, so there's no fancy, unexpected color contrasts or anything, mostly just colors straight from the photo. But for a first attempt I'm pretty happy. I went a bit of loose with the strokes and texture to make it seem a bit more like a "real" painting, and had it printed out on canvas. Here's the raw image file:

And here's a framed print of it in my parents’ house:

Pretty neat seeing it in physical form! Hopefully this will prompt me to experiment with more color and painting styles. We'll see.