Fire and Rock I'm Coming Home To You

(AKA, The Sad Romance of Punk)

I've been listening to a lot of punk lately-- the driving rhythm keeps me moving, and the ragged sound reminds me of Philadelphia and the life I used to lead. While I'm so very busy, buried under dozens of digital shapes and looming deadlines and a skillset that I've absolutely no experience in, it's good to have music that's simple and anarchic and idealistic.

I think I mentioned that I like Mischief Brew before-- they're a ratty, DIY band that goes on about anarchy and the punk scene and like that. I take a certain pleasure in riding in to school early in the morning singing,

There's MUD ON MY BOOTS!
And BLOOD ON MY JEANS!
I'll take those pretty dresses
TEAR 'EM AT THE SEAMS!
Open up the gates of hell... Ah please
And I'll be back-
IN YOUR DAUGHTER'S DREAMS! 

Even if I remembered to put my face on, and my messenger bag is clean and my bike is upright and my hair is parted straight, songs like these keep a part of me in the world I loved so much-- the gentle souls with their community gardens and giant bike piles, kitchens full of drying herbs and cats and trashpicked art. Maybe I'm romanticizing. Here's a song about it:

Wish you were here. 

Not that there's anything wrong with Brooklyn, but I have no time for adventuring and riding out, and I don't recognize any faces on the road. I suppose it will take time, and until I'm not at school twelve+ hours a day I won't be able to make a community for myself (aside from my colleagues, who are generally wonderful). 

One of these colleagues drives along my rout, and informed me that I'm always riding behind the same guy. So now I expect some dude to wheel around and say WHY ARE YOU STALKING ME? I am really unobservant in the morning.

I think the one thing I object to about Brooklyn is a poorly calibrated sense of irony. People make such an effort to be coolest of the cool, so over everything, and then you get things like this: 

What happens when a mushroom gets stuck in the tubing?

And this, a bike powered steampunk carousel that combines everything young, wealthy, ironic Brooklyners like:

I'm actually ambivalent about this. Part of me thinks it's pretty neat.

I really need to go to a punk show. And a bike co-op. Wish I had time. I haven't even got time for laundry or groceries. Christmas break is gonna be very sociable... 

'...And its not long

Before I start to roam.
Seek out the patches on the punks,
Maybe a band I know.
I bet you in five minutes time,
We find that we know all the same
People, places, and roads.'

But damned if this city isn't beautiful. 

Off Governor's Island

Next post will be about industrial design! Today I made some scanners...

-Isis