Michael > Recent Status Updates

Fun reading

On page 36

Not understanding a lot. It frustrates me. But I don't read a lot of poetry, so I'm hanging in there. One-page-at-a-time. Reminds me of Kathy Acker, whose work I also didn't connect with that much. Guess that means I've still a lot to learn. Funny, both women were highly influenced by W. Burroughs. Him I get, most of the time.

Withholding judgment now, and interesting.

So loving the book. Edify my mind, boy, with facts. Now I take the last band, Beat Happening, into the home stretch.

Fugazi!! I have "Repeater" on cassette, one of my few purchases of music for a long, long time. In avoided Body/Head's admonition that "consumption is citizenship" for much of my life, and I learned the truth of that, in its good and bad ways. But I bought "Repeater" and liked it. What an inspiring group.

So good. Learning lots here. I and everyone else reading the book that came out years ago. Difference is, I just woke up. Late Bloomer.

It is insane what some of these bands did. No idea. Nothing about fame and comfort. How they even survived is a question. Well, not glamorous to me. If penury is punk rock, I am not punk rock. I have evolved into an entirely different creature. Next item: listen to the music.

Sonic Youth finished. Next up: Butthole Surfers.

Sonic Youth

Replacements now. Oh, the drinking.

On the Replacements now. Fascinating reading about the genesis and maturation of bands I naively assumed always existed or did so without effort. I should have read sooner. Stay in school, kids. Reading rocks!

As I suspected: B was provided affected by G's death. I'm guessing he was in some kind of Purgatory for 40 years. Not an easy sentence.

Finished with Minor Threat. There's an eye-opener, make no mistake.

I don't think I'll make my reading challenge this year, but I am not giving up and will try to finish as strongly as I can. This year is still better than the many years I had not reading for fun at all.

This book is great. I'm learning so much about the indie rock of the 80s, which I knew about, but never really looked deeply into. I guess I was asleep for much of my life. I was never and still am not a natural reader. Reading to learn helps a lot. Yes, a funny thing for an English teacher to say, but I entered the field of teaching writing as a writer, not a reader. I have to work on reading.