Tucked for speed, Don Pendleton comes down the
mountain looking to snake a draft from a passing mobile unit.
(H.B.) thanked everyone, invited them to the beach for a few
pools and bid farewell to the infamous "Badlands," knowing full
well we'd be back.
With the Albas home in the Badlands, Steve Shelton hurt,
Scott Papa back in Arizona, it was me and Scott (H.B.) at "the
pool again for a while until Eddie Reatigui shows up. I'm taking
pictures inside the bowl and Eddie starts throwing full tipped out
backside airs and extended inverts. We traded stories of back-
yard pools and blended into the shadows of the dilapidated pool
showroom for a while. Later, Scott and I found ourselves at Del
Mar cuz it's lit. We had fun, but something wasn't the same.
Parks are like wailing on a blow up doll-that's what it's built for
and you can do whatever you want, but who cares?
"UUUGh day after Christmas I gotta go to aunt Mae's with the
hairy mole," the 8 year old thought to himself as he stared blankly
out of the car window at the shopping mall. "I bet those skaters
do whatever...probably skate a pool on Christmas day."
"Pools" I thought to myself as I surveyed the two pools the pool
show room has to offer. "Too bad the other one was wet," I
thought as I jumped into "the Pool" again. Me and Scott (H.B.)
had the place to ourselves...Christmas day I guess. Just as we
heard two girl voices, an Alva "Fish" Blew over the wall and the
man himself, T.A. climbed the fence followed by Mondo, some
guy with beers and two girls.
"You should go out with chicks that know how to climb Alva."
"That's my sister, dude."
There's a hole in the fence around front."
They joined us for yet another raging session at "the Pool"
definitely the most ground place in Orange County. Alva and
Mondo, fresh from a Christmas Day feast ripped hard. T.A
decided he needed more speed so he acid dropped the shallow
end, carved over the death box, over the stairs and whatever
he thought of next. Total spontaneous skating. We skated, hung
out, laughed and parted as the sun set.
Click click...Bawhomp.
Hey wake up we're leaving.
(Yawn) Finally!
Oh be quiet, it's barely dark and all the Christmas shopping is
done-time to celebrate!
(Muttering) Yeah, what a reason.
(Loud) What? And why did you roll up the window?
(Sigh) Cuz I didn't want to talk to anybody.
(Stern) Well you'd better clean up your act in time to go to
Arizonal
The eight year old stared at the myriad of lights whizzing past
the car in the darkness, occasionally locking eyes with people
he'd never see again in other cars. Wonder what Arizona is like?
Probably had skaters and plenty to skate: banks, downhills and
pools. Probably all the same except different names...
"Yeah Lloyd"
(Outloud) Yeah, he started way up the hill past the stop sign
and was raging when he passed that car. Piling into the car after
a fast new hill with nightmare traffic, we were on our way to a
banked natural snake run thing, two ramps (a halfpipe and a
banked halfpipe) and the ultimately lit, glass smooth, 3 walled,
cement loading docks with 30 ft of rounded permanent curb at
the top. Whew! And then to all the other spots we used to ride
that are still there, uncrowded and no bust. Sure Phoenix has
places to skate, but I wonder why there's nothin' goin' on for New
Years? Oh well, we found 3 pools in one condemned neighbor-
hood. Jeez, another Year! Where does all the time go?!
Hey watch where you're going! (BRNGGGG)
What? hey Joez mom!
(Swerving at speed) Be Quiet-and don't you ever say that!
He leaned back and blurred his eyesight purposely (so he
could see things like the psychos on Hawaii Five-O) for a
moment, then he relaxed confident that there were cool people
looking for a line through life everywhere and instead of feeling
trapped by his 8 years he felt that when you're old enough to
attain freedom suddenly you never had the time anymore. He
closed his eyes: time was definitely on his side.
THER
notes bom the UNDE
EDITORIAL
OBGB
COMEUG
If any of you who read, are fortu
nate enough to be able to receive
college, or alternative radio stations:
have you noticed there's something
weird going on? It seems that every
one of them has evolved as self-im-
posed representatives of REGGAE,
DUB, etc. This process has been
creeping up on us within the last few
years. What in the hell is the deal
with this major influx of "Jippy Jabby
I and I stuff. Isn't it some sort of Is
land religion? It used to be, you
could flip on the radio, and you'd
catch a cool reggae tune, every
once in a while. Back then it was
mited to a very few unknown Re-
ggae bands, and you could deter-
mine the difference between the art-
ists by their distinguished vocal
characteristics. But now, an indi
vidual is forced with radio stations
that put Reggae on a high priority list
because s tke. The big new
thing You know, schlocky college,
or Jr. college student dj's who wore
probably into the disco-thing back
when that happened, but now they
smoke pot and are "I'm into reggae,
man," minded. Blonde, blue-eyed,
anglo types walking around in cus
tom dread-locks, and early Boy
George attire, cruising, trying to be
hipper than the next guy. It's like,
Reggae is Discovered then, next
thing you know, I's fashionable to
say, "Yeah, 1 and I dude. What in
the hell's 1 and I supposed to
mean. I know not all the people
going around saying it know what it
means, and "Jah, baby Jah" either
It's not only imited to the alternative
music circles, mind you. Couple
years back Stevie Wonder tried a
piss-poor excuse for a generic re-
ggae tune. If he was so hip, he
would've done a reggae tune years
before he did. Thon some guy
named Lionel Richie (ex-janitor who
sweeps awards) did some piss
poorer excuse for a reggae tune.
Then, during one of the perfor
mances by the Animals on their last
tour, Eric Burdon said in the middle
of their set, "And now, here's a little
Henry Rollins
reggae for ya. The Animals now do
reggae tunes? I'm Sure! Reggae for
the sake of doing Reggae. It's an
overkill that can be done without
"Oh, the audience goes for that sort
of thing That's right. Pacify the
people. Give them what they want,
so they can be happy. We aud-
ences don't need to be pacified. We
need to be enlightened through the
simple accessibility of entertain-
ment
There's good reggae, some real
good reggae. But now it's sooo hip,
that most reggae bands are a dime a
dozen. One has to wade through all
this bullshit to find the good stuff.
Hey, the less people who smell from
trying to look vagrantly cool, the bet-
ter. Water is cheap, take a shower
for humanities' sake. Give the radio
listeners a break at switching the
stations for three hours every other
day. Spread out the music amongst
the rest of the programming, so it
can be enjoyed, or tolerated,
throughout the course of the day,
and not in hideous clumps.
NEWS FROM PHILADELPHIA
(And other assorted areas...)
Well, well social consciousness
is spreading in Philadelphia! First
there was the Rock Against Hunger
shows...and now there's Flock
Against Racism. Featuring The Pro-
les, Five Story Fall, The Dead
Milkmen, and poetry reading by
Etheridge Knight, this show took
place at the CE Center (where
many of the Rock Against Hunger
shows have happened). What's
good about this show is that there's
been a conscious attempt to offer
more than just the usual punk rock at
a show-poetry and various other
musical styles are also being foa-
tured; this spirit of "mix and match
was also prevalent at the last Rock
Against Hunger Show, which had a
folk singor and local poet, as well as
three bands: Circle of Shit, Little
Gentleman and Iron Cross, and
there are plans for more shows like
this to happen...Speaking of Little
Gentlemen, they debuted a new
guitar player at this show-Jim
McMonagle from Flag of Democ-
racy joined the band for a set that
shredded! The band tore through a
set that left the audience exhausted
and very happy. Iron Cross (with
two new members) had a hard time
following...Homo Picnic has been
having some bass troubles-for a
while Chuck Treece (ex-McRad)
was handling the job, but he's since
moved on to yet another (in a long
line of many) project. Currently B.B.
from Sudden Impact is with the
band, and hopefully will be with
them for a while... Rumor has it that
Decontrol are planning to release
an album soon....A new band is
forming that will consist of members
from Kremlin Korps, YDI and
Wasted Talent, called Oblivion,
they hope to be playing out real
soon..
The Sadistic Exploits are plan-
ning tours from Massachusetts
through to Virginia. Keep your eyes
peeled for when they're playing near
you. Their last show at Abe's (Rock
Against Hunger) was tight and full of
energy. Henry Rollins, of Black
Flag fame, performed at the Kernel
Club, in center city Philadelphia,
doing poetry, readings, and stream
of consciousness thoughts. The
show was presented by the Spoken
Word Series. Henry read and spoke
for about an hour on a whole grab
bag of topics from his childhood, to
thoughts on allenation and suicide.
The Kennel Club, a pop culture "al-
terative club in the city, is looking
for videos and material to play. The
club has a video "screening room
as well as videos on the dance floor
and frequently has "theme nights
(some that happened in the past are
Heavy Metal Night and Black Flag
Night, so if you're interested in pos-
sibly having a video of yours shown,
contact the Kennel Club, P.O. Box
15021, Philadelphia,
19103...Dickinson University in
Condon page 51