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Anyone here from the old anok4u2 list?

Discussion in 'New members introductions' started by kronstatic, Oct 11, 2009.

  1. kronstatic

    kronstatic New Member New Member


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    Oct 11, 2009
     United States
    Dunno when it fizzled out (assuming it did ... maybe I'm the one who fizzled out), but circa '97-'99 or so we were a pretty active bunch. Can't remember the handle I went by there -- possibly tube disaster or some variation thereof.

    Anyway, I was one of the oldsters there, & not surprisingly I'm a decade or so older now -- turned 50 last month, in fact. Positively ancient, I know. Been into punk since the spring of '78, having initially become intrigued by the stuff because of a prior interest in anarchism. Y'see, supposedly there was this band of badly dressed misfits yowling about "Anarchy in the UK" or summat, & that sounded too promising to pass up. Anyway, within a couple of years there were maybe 3 of us at our cow college in backwoods southwest Arkansas (of all damned places!) who were into such things, but one of us ordered "Shaved Women/Reality Asylum" & Chappaquidick Bridge from probably Rough Trade, & that was ... interesting. In a very good way.

    Anyway, more than 3 decades later my politics are still pretty much what they were in high school (which I guess means that either I stumbled across the truth in a pretty precocious manner, or I simply stopped growing intellectually waaaaay too early) & first exploring the concept of anarchism via Tolstoy's The Law of Love & the Law of Violence & various books on Gandhi. (Bizarrely enough, I first encountered the idea in the pages of James Michener's Kent State: What Happened & Why, which invoked the old model of the political spectrum as a circle, with anarchism being the point where the extremes of the left & right met.) Not that I'm committed in any way, shape or form to nonviolence per se -- I regard terrorism as being as valid a political tool as any other approach -- but I do have to admire those who adhere to it.

    Music tastes are all over the map (punk, postpunk, deathrock, goth, rockabilly, old hard country, New Wave, decent pre-punk rock, etc.). Anarcho faves would be Oi Polloi, Rudimentary Peni, Chumbawamba, Lost Cherrees, Hit Parade, Omega Tribe ... as well as lots of others that don't necessarily come to mind these days. Most bands had only maybe one great record in them, I guess (see: Kronstadt Uprising's "Unknown Revolutions" & the Instigators' first 7" & LP), but hell, that's one more great record than well over 99 percent of everybody else. I think Crass (great singles band; the LPs tend to be pretty tedious) & Poison Girls' split 7" just may be the best single ever recorded, taking both sides into consideration (if not, it's a damned close second to Joy Division's Sordide Sentimental single). Flux' "Neu Smell" is extremely high on the list as well.

    Etc. etc. etc.

    Not much else to say. I don't play anything but the stereo. Went to grad school in U.S. history on a fellowship at Arizona State & trained as a book editor, but damn if there isn't a whole lot of call for that in Arkansas, so I wound up spending most of my (nominally) adult life as a daily newspaper editor; these days I'm online editor for a quasi-governmental organization, which entails driving onto an Air Force base every morning in the middle of Alabama (which, honest to god, makes Little Rock look like the Paris Commune of 1871 if it had been allowed to survive & thrive). That's pretty damned ironic, I know, but hell, jobs for people whose only marketable skill consists of screwing with other people's words are few & far between, & bills don't pay themselves. (And yes, at the office I do keep my Red Army Faction logo, clenched fist & "No Gods No Masters"/black flag tattoos covered. However did you guess?)