10 posts tagged “music”
I've had time to listen to music again and the songs that make my spirit move when I put headphones on and listen in stereo are pop punk tunes from the '90s. Screw 32, the Rudiments, and Link 80.
I remember when lead singer, Nick Traina knocked down the movie screen at Berkeley Square while crowd surfing during a Screw 32 show.
I remember when Link 80 surprised the volunteer-run Gilman crew as a camera crew took over the venue to shoot a music video with mama Danielle Steele's money.
And I remember learning about Nick's death.
I think this time in my life is when I was most connected to music. It was in my blood. It's what got me through the day. It's what I looked forward to doing after work.
It just might be time to tap into this inspiration again.
The video was directed Eric Byler and there's a cameo of Kal Penn!
But Favianna places these kinds of comments into a larger context about the invisibility of people of color on the web.
I'm not a Chumbawamba fan, but I've heard that they've had roots in the anarchist community. Thankfully, they've used their success to refocus their celebrity spotlight. Here's a video of them on Letterman where they add a chant "Free Mumia Abu Jamal" into the chorus of their fraternity pop song.
Photo by Dave Deluxe
After the Joe Strummer movie, I strolled a couple blocks down to the Hemlock to join people in saying goodbye to Lance Hahn.
People posted old band fliers and photos, made a zine, and converted old show footage to screen. Slowly people took stage to tell Lance stories. The stories were mostly about Lance walking through the Mission, holding philosophical talks with folks, and the commitment he gave to build the punk scene. Lance welcomed young bands to a J-Church bill, was the first employee of Revolver, and used his wide network of friends to help touring groupies find a place to crash.
Lance embodied punk rock: not the leather-clad punk with mohawk and piercings (though he did have a mohawk once), but the punk rock made out of the do it yourself spirit, the punk rock that build a community of creative people, the punk rock that connected people through a music of rebellion.
I saw folks who I first connected with in the '90s when I went to shows all the time: one of the guys in my favorite band, a zinester whose copies I ran for free, and a zine buyer from Epicenter turned cheese buyer at a local co-op. It was a good reminder of why I loved punk rock, the community I bordered, and the generous spirits that are everywhere.
The Future is Unwritten brought perfect closure to the Bill Sorro project I'd been working on for the past seven months. RJ's video on Bill screened two nights before. One of the challenges he faced included a large quantity of talking heads on tape with little b-roll.
Julien Temple, the director of the Strummer documentary, spiced up the interviews by shooting them in front of camp fires. Bono in front of a campfire in Ireland, Strummers old bandmates in front of a campfire in England. RJ had an idea to do this with the theme of the dinner table. Bill and Huli's dinner table has a distinct green table cloth. RJ wanted to film each interview at a dinner table with the same table cloth, but we didn't think of this in time.
While this film goes in deeper to Strummer's psychology, I liked Westway to the World, the documentary on the band, much better.
As for me, I'll remember the "End rockstar idolatry. Worship your girlfriend" sticker on his guitar, how he seemed to cover the streets of the Mission District, and how he wore long shorts no matter what the weather.Oct 21 2007 6:01 PM
the following was posted by a friend of lance's on his personal page. this is very sad:
i'm so sorry to say, Lance Hahn passed away earlier this afternoon. he had been in a coma since collapsing at dialysis on friday, october 12th.
as far as the doctors can tell, this collapse was due to a sudden, drastic drop in blood pressure, which in turn was probably caused by a recurrence of the infection he had had in september combined with the stress of dialysis. he received immediate cpr from medical professionals at the dialysis center, but as it took fifteen or twenty minutes to resuscitate him, he suffered neurological damage from lack of oxygen to the brain, leaving him in a coma from which he never returned.
When I was new to San Francisco and the music community, he always made me feel welcomed. In fact, I think one of my first interviews EVER was with him for an article I did for Rice Paper when J Church was on tour in Pomona with Unwound.
Once again, I wonder how things might have been different with health insurance...
Tina Gordon is setting out to SXSW with the Rambler, a mobile rock venue she built! I did a radio piece on the Rambler when she was still raising funds and the Chronicle just wrote a fun story on it.
