july 2008

just a little note to let ya know that not everyone has their columns in yet, so i'm posting as is and will add them as they come (so keep on scrolling that little wheel to you get to more juice!). this was supposed to be up the first week of july, so apparently we're all running on punk rock time so i guess that makes it alright... and oh yeah- we're gonna try this monthly and see how it goes... xoxo greeze!

CASEY summer summer summer, summer came really quick for me, it seemed like i spent all of may just waiting for june to come, and before i knew it june was totally gone! my first trip to the beach was on june 5th. holy smokes was it cold! then i went a couple days later and it was so warm and refreshing. we brought our new house doggie "Hauwsz" with us. he is so furry and hates the water. we are jerks and we push him in anyways because he is stinky and needs to get washed. I have been trying to be a very productive young lad as of late. My goals this summer are to go on 2 band tours, one of which includes getting my veggie oil bus operating to its full extent, bike to milwaukee again, and go camping in traverse city with bmoney. I just got back from the positive noise tour. that was a freakin blast! we played 11 shows in 11 days, all over the east coast. I made a ton of new friends, including a dude with every rare japanese hardcore punk band 7" known to man!!! if you ever see a band called "lipcream" in a record store pick it up for me and i will do mad favours for you for the rest of my life! 4 of those shows included touring with maine and connecticut bands Dylan Bredaue, and Ripshit! they were such fun people to share our time on the road with. Towards the end we caravaned with the merkit boys. those guys freakin rule. no doubt about it. they are continuing on with their tour in europe now, and i wish them luck! I am starting the mid summer month off bad. I got some sort of spider bite in pittsburg that got really bad by the time I got back to Michigan. I had to go to the ER because it got so bad. the doctor was a jerk. he loaded me with anti - biotics and sent me off with a swollen arm. its been a few days and its not really healing very much, so im getting worried. i've lost like 15 lbs, which i guess is good. im gonna try to stay healthier from now on. I applied for medicaid to help me with these bills im racking up. They are gonna be in the thousands no doubt. But I got denied, the lady just told me nobody over 21 applys and that the other thing for financial support for adults is cut off due to budget cuts or something. Guess im fucked. They aren't gonna see a cent of the money though. I cannot and willnot afford to give some rich billionare some money. This country blows. I know you've heard it before, but shit we can spend trillions on killing other people, but cant spend a cent helping people stay healthy in our own country. "IF YOU DON'T LOVE THE US. THEN GET OUT" think I actually might. have a great summer duders! Don't ever stop doing good stuff! do it do it Casey
SOCK--------> coming soon!!!!
-------------- CORTNEE -------------- With 2008 coming to a close, I feel as though a chapter in my life has ended. Or rather, many chapters in my life. This past year was a whirlwind for me in many respects. I moved twice, went through many roomates, struggled with "mental illness" more than I ever had before, and came away having learned quite a few lessons that smacked me in the face real good. In the beginning of the year, I was going insane working a shit job with my best friend. 3 months later, I was putting in my two weeks to start anew. I began the year in a tiny little apartment with another one of my best friends. We had drug a mattress into the living room and ended up going insane together, watching Lord Of The Rings and trying not to lose our heads. The middle of the year (summer in particular) was spent in a one bedroom apartment in the same house (on the lower-level) with 3 more official roomates and 2 more unofficial "dudes who were always there." Somehow we fit all those people into that apartment with ease. Tensions were high much of the time, music was always loud, and the porch was banging well into every heated night/early morning. Despite that summer being completely uneventful in almost every respect (i.e. I barely ever left the comfort of my own home), I feel it will stay in my heart forever. My whole life I've been chasing this thing called invincibility, and I think I stumbled upon it a few times in those searing months. That summer was about a lot of things. It was about learning to support my friends in any way I possibly could. It was about learning to listen instead of just hear someone talk. It was about being there for people when they are absolutely down and out, at their wit's end, going out of their mind, and wanting to die. It was about not having any idea how to do any of that, but doing it anyway, because you had to. Above all, it was about learning, growing, trying to find that balance. By that fall, we'd lost 2 roomates, money was tight, and extenuating circumstances left some of us moving to other cities and others moving back in with mommies and daddies, promising it was only temporary. The first few months of that autumn were really hard. I felt myself slipping back into old fucked-up thought patterns. And pretty quickly after moving, fell into a deep depression that left me pushing many of my close friends further and further away. Eventually some of those fuckers noticed and pulled me up out of the rut, as far as they could anyway. I guess it'll be up to me to someday scratch my way to the surface on my own. After that depressing, bleak fall, winter came in with a blast. The depression seemed to lift and an intense mania began that left me feeling as though I didn't have enough time in the day to do everything I desperately needed to do. Weeks began speeding by like days and I felt myself growing increasingly wired. That mania brought about some really great changes in my life. It forced me to put myself in situations I don't normally put myself in and forced me to grow and buck up and learn not to waste these days. I made some really great new friends and accomplished a shit-ton in a small time period. Above all, I had a lot of fucking fun, which was something I couldn't say I'd done in awhile. Not since those nights of summer invincibility. December came and went so fast, I didn't even realize it was New Year's when it came upon me. My New Year's are never representative of the year preceding them, so of course it was terrible and random. I wasn't anywhere I wanted to be that night, but it was still interesting. There was a Ramones cover set being played 40 minutes away that I would have loved to be at. I hear they played "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" which makes me missing it even worse, but I survived the night alright without it. The year was all over the place. The constant rollercoaster of intensity that follows me around, whether I want it to or not. That October, I turned 20, feeling 30 in my head and 15 in my heart. I learned a lot, but some main lessons included: -the importance of positivity and how badly negativity can fuck with one's life, especially in concentrated doses daily. -how to support your friends through various crises, and maybe not even really knowing how to do it, but trying your hardest anyway. -hate is a waste (most of the time) and grudges are even worse. get over that shit! it'll just bring you down and its a damn waste of time and energy. -life is too short to be content. i never wanted to be content! i wanted to be happy! And now, here I am, just two days into 2008, and I feel it might be alright. The first day of the year I woke up with an impending sense of doom and worry that wouldn't leave me for hours. Eventually, I ran away from it and into a sanctuary of distraction in a small bedroom with some new friends. And the next morning I woke up feeling pretty fucking fine. So, here's to 2009 and all the ups and downs it will inevitably bring. I wonder what I'll be writing this time next year... That summer was about support. learning how to listen without wanting to talk about myself. learning how to be there for the people i'd come to love so much. learning how to be there for someone when they're hysterical, and do it with an ease i'd never had before. that summer was about being there for my friend when she was between a rock and a hard place emotionally, trying to find out whether or not to pursue something that was hardly there. that summer was about spending nights listening to records, in support of my lover who'd fallen into a rut he couldn't claw his way out of. that summer was about noticing my room-mate feeling depressed and asking her to go on a bike ride to the beach on a gloomy night with me. that summer was about growing, shifting, trying to find a balance. -CORTNEE
--------------------------------------------------------- DEREK FUCKING JONES ----------------------------------------------------------- coming soon!!
--------------- KEVIN --------------- i started wrighting this artical about how jesus crisis and attention span bought there claim to fame in mrr the other month but then i said fuck it like usual when i start something. cock snot was out here the other day, good times, they were here for a week and couldn't get a show so instead we all got got wasted like always and broke shit suposobly the one place they couldof play at wouldn't let them caUS of there name, saying it wasent pc enough, but thats just what this town is about, pc faggots and broke ass hippies EVERYWERE and by pc faggots i realy mean anal cunts and protesters. and by broke ass hippies i mean trendy smelly train hoppers and fat ugly homeless people, we have been to a few shows with some rad bands but nothing worth mentioning, every one iv met here so far seems to know some one that knows some one but no one actualy knows anyone, the conversation usualy goes something like this "hey whats up" how you doin" you know i know the drummer from mdc" then i say "fuck mdc" then they cry. BEP member jj illin may have conections but theyr not doin me no good, i called him so many times aww well fuck em, i guess the point is i don't care who knows who, espectialy some trendy pc band or some drug pc band, i don't give a fuck if your old roomate lived next door to dystopia, although it may seem cool i realy don't care and mdc and leftover crack do not impress me if thats what your going for . i lived with a cross dressing metal head and an emo fag, cocksnot helped to remove this problem from my life, sometimes you just need to take a step back and say why the fuck am i living with an emo fag. witch brings me to my next point, FREE LOVIN HIPPIES MUST DIE no whife swapping no swinging i thought we had a bad problem back home with every fucking every one, and yes i said problem, it's a all a fad, like str8edge kids drinking and smoking pot, LIKE POEPLE THINKING TH.EY can sleep with enough punk rockers that a little punk rock will rub off inside there vagina or butt. i may not be the brightist apple in the barrel but iv been in the barrel for long enough to know almost all the bullshit politics and morals these crazy punk kids rip off and spew onto the underground floor are nothing but rehashed ideas that never worked out in the first place, poeple are liars and just want attention, the record stores out here are amazing iv picked up an old hobbie along with a used record player, i had all these seven inches for years without a record player im glad i brought them out, ccss and born dead icons play out of it alot. so theres my collunm SORRY i know it sux but it's something what did you do, i live in portland w my awsome girlfriend and am never coming back, and if i do ill have nice brand new doc martin steel toe ass kickers TO SM ART: YOUR A FUCKING CHUMP TO JJ IILIN YOUR A FUCKIN DRUNK TO BEE YOUR A HIPPIE FUCKER
------------- PHILL MEEH ------------- coming soon! http://www.myspace.com/phillmeehspits http://www.myspace.com/finale http://www.myspace.com/magestiklegend http://www.myspace.com/onebelo http://www.myspace.com/detroitwisemen
--------- Travis ---------- So I know this is late, but punk rock time right? Summertime... a subject so broad it is hard to nail down one certain aspect of it. Reading Greeze's column was rather inspiring... I too LOVE Summertime Rolls by Jane's Addiction. It has been too long since I have heard that band infact. Right now its 2:10 AM and im watching a terrible edit of Pulp Fiction where they dont show the gimp or when Marvin gets shot in the face. So crazy. Anyway, back to summer. This specific summer has been rather good. Done lots of camping. Went to Illinois for the PAPA Fest, or People Against Poverty and Apathy Fest. Went to the Evart Dulcimer Fun Fest. Bought and am learning to play the banjo. That seems very cool so far. Also bought an upright bass. Its been rough, because all I want to do this summer is book shows, and I have been too broke to do so. Its hard to pay a band even gas money when a round trip to lansing costs 40 bucks. Big ups to all the bands that are touring right now, I know it must be hard to get out, I know its hard to scrounge up 5 bucks for a show these days. And with inflation I find myself often times paying 6. I have missed tons of good bands in Grand Rapids this summer too... totally sucks. The living this summer is nice, lots of late night bike rides and good lake time. Spent lots of time down at that huge lake, swam a few times so far, the lake is always good to me. There is lots of chaos in this world around me, and the lake offers a little bit of stability, shows me that everything is going to be alright. Really though this summer has been pretty good. Cant ask for worse. This weekend is the funeral of Ivan. Going to be sad im sure. I am learning to play some old time tunes... shit about railroads and bums and tramps and stuff on the banjo. Hopefully by next year summer I can be a troubador and busk for my job. That would be the way to go. Hosting open mic nights and big apple bagel on apple and quarterline on monday nights from 7-9. Thats been fun so far. Lately I have been listening to a huge collection of stuff. Recently got "Planet Rock" by Afrikka Bambaata (spelling error im sure). Also listening to a lot of Avett Brothers, Greensky Bluegrass, Maps & Atlases, and The Illogical Spoon. This is the end of my article... but not the end of summer. Make sure to get out and have some fun this summer. Keep the good times rollin' so you have some ammo to help beat the winter blues that are gonna come sooner then everyone thinks. PS. Im going to be pissed when they edit out the "Bad Mutherfucker" wallet scene on TV. Damn censors. Thats all.
--------------------------------- JEFF --------------------------------- coming soon!
------------------- Rob ------------------ coming soon!
----------lindsay-------------- summer in portland is much different than summer back in good ol west michigan. i've spent the first 2 months of summer being miserable and hot and homesick, then i realized, i spent a shit ton of money for us to move out here, and all my friends and i have been talking about since we were 14 is getting the fuck out of there, and unlike them, i actually fucking did it, while they insist on lame excuses of not having money to do it, i had under a grand and did it for myself and my boyfriend, so i'll wipe my ass with that one. the west coast is fucking weird. bums everywhere, dumb ass squater kids everywhere, strippers and hookers everywhere, transvestites, the whole fuckin freakshow can be seen on the streets of portland. and now that i work at the chevron gas station right downtown 11pm-7am grave shift, i get to see it all and let me tell you, its fucking entertaining. finally got bikes, me and puke got our days off of work on the same days, so we got stoned and took a long ass bike ride to the waterfront and to this beautiful park that he discovered. it felt awesome, i've been dying to go on a bike ride all summer and finally scored a bike for 20 bones. rad! what else what else.....cocksnot came out for a week, it was really nice seeing farmilier faces, even that douche bag scuba... ha ha ha. it was a not long enough week of drinking, no sleep and wandering around. good times good times. shed a little tear when they left and got drunk with my friend kelly. really really really good bud out here, and the pigs don't give a fuck about it so thats cool. 2nd avenue records is rad as fuck! me and puke have a nice little collection starting, powells books is also awesome, its overwhelming though!!! there are 4 or 5 floors!! craziness! i was bitching about how much people suck out here but then i relized that i don't like most people at all, so i should just start ignoring them like i usually do and carry on. so i'm done moping and making the best of portland while i'm here, portland is fucking beautiful though!!! its rose city and guess who loves roses..... as much as i'd hate to say it, i miss michigan so bad, ecspecially summers!!! i would love nothing more than to be swimming with bronwen and knitting in the back yard. i miss the farm, i miss the lake, i miss making my friends laugh because im fucking crazy, i miss the energy at the shows, and i miss that methadone! ha ha ha, just kidding....no, not really. PERCY!!!???? i gotta say that we do have one of the best fucking scenes. as much as we might hate each other, argue about shit, and shit talk, we are kind of a family and i know that you'll all still be there when i get back, so for now, i'm going to see some shit, do some shit until i'm ready to come back. have a great summer xoxo
---------- Zach ---------- defiantly late but not the latest.... well summer time what can i say late hockey nights and finding new people to share some musical experiences playing some different kinds of music. hockey Thursdays is turning into a big thing ive meet alot of good people whom i never would have meet without hockey and its just so much godamn fun playing in a nice summer night till you can hardly stand anymore. and music summer will always mean music i dont really have a band going right now regularly but i play with my brother regularly and just lately ive got some people i didnt even know that were interested in music and i am planning in trying to play with them soon. and every one of them say the same old "im trying to learn but im not very good" but im hopeing on teaching some people to just play and how easy playing music is. everyone seems to think youve got to bend to what popular music is and its about getting a band together then you got to get some "merch" and a myspace to put music on and all that shit hopeing the only thing that makes it worth it is being on the radio or have your cd in fucking walmart or something . it makes me sick. but there are so many bands out there just playing exactly what they want regardless of anything else. so i guess thats what ive been doing this summer is just playing music for myself either by myself wich is totally fucking fun ive been enjoying music so nuch more lately like ive hit a new plateau of my music im hearing diferent things and loveing the music ive been listining to forever more and discovering new bands and ways to play music myself. i now love the power of the acoustic guitar as much as the passion of some thick sloppy distortion. music is fucking awesome and summer is at its best for me when im finding new instruments i can play and new people that want music in there lives. punk is a wide encompassing "genre" to me, it means i dont give a fuck and im going to play what sounds good to me, and when you take that attitude away you dont have music anymore its just a popularity contest. LONG LIVE BROWNEYEPIE DON'T BE AN IDIOT STAY PUNK! come mothers and fathers across the land, and don't criticize what you cant understand, your sons and your daughters are beyond your command. -Bob Dylan-
-----------derek--------------- chicago summers, thus far: 1. one night, on a bike ride, i stopped for a guy that asked if i had a light. he needed my lighter, not for a cigarette, but for his crack stem. as he took my lighter he asked me to "look out" for him. i guess that means watch for cops, or people trying to take his crack. he then offered me some crack - what a nice fellow, but i politely declined. he then asked if i had any change for a soda. i told him that he should have figured buying a soda into the evenings festivities when making his crack purchase earlier. he didn't laugh. then he tried to sell me some bullshit bootlegged movies that he shot in the theater. quite the renaissance man. to humor him, and because this doesn't happen often enough to me, i began going through his movies. at this point he pulls out a folded up receipt with coke in it. he holds the receipt, folded down the middle now, up to his nose and just inhales as much as he can. no lines for this stuntman. so now he's got coke all over his face and he's sweating like a fiend because of the crack and it's starting to get chunky. i want to laugh as much as i want to run. with eyes as big as dinner plates he offers me his coke and asks if i like any of the movies. at this point he packs another rock into his stem and asks me to watch his back again. while i'm doing so a cop drives by. i walk away. it's 1:24 a.m. and i'm the only white kid for blocks and blocks, standing in an intersection with a guy that's high on crack with chunky, sweaty coke all over the lower part of his face. upon leaving him behind i realized that he was wearing a barber's smock and the books in his bag were text books on learning to become a barber. for future reference i would try and avoid barbers that happen to be high on crack with coke all over their faces and a bag full of bootlegged films. or hang with them for twenty minutes or so because it'd really freak your parents out if they knew what you were doing. 2. another bike ride. riding down ashland ave. which is a very inhospitable street to ride down. i'm passing a line of parked cars and i have to spit. without even thinking about it i let one fly. there was a little snot in there as well, really cleaned out the system. just a few seconds later i'm being pulled over by the police. they get right on my back wheel and hit the lights. i almost shit my pants, all this action going on two feet behind me for no reason. i pull over to the side of the street and both undercover officers fly out of the car and run up to me just fucking pissed. it seems that when i spit i happened to do so while passing an unmarked cop car with the window down. my spit and snot went right onto officer #1's spiffy shirt and bulletproof vest. shit. that figures. they're both yelling shit at me like, "what the fuck?" and "do you just fucking realize what you just fucking did you little asshole?" there was nothing they could do because it was an accident, but as pissed as #1 was i was all tensed up waiting to get the hell kicked out of me. but it didn't happen. #1 just went off about having to change and got back in his car and peeled the fuck out. weird. 3. one night as i was leaving from work a couple in a bmw almost took my ass out. they weren't paying attention and were driving too fast and came about four inches from smearing me down a line of parked cars. i was a bit upset. it'd been a long day, i was just ready to go home and relax. i gave chace to the bmw though and caught up to them a couple blocks later at a stop sign that had a line of about five cars at it. the bmw was the last in line. i pull up next to the driver and notice his window is down, perfect for a pleasant verbal exchange. but when mr. bmw sees it me he gets furious from recieving my middle finger a couple blocks back. he then tries to open his door while just ripping me a new asshole for giving him the finger, but i'm in the way and he struggles to open it anyway. he's all red and swollen and cursing me, telling me that he's going to kick my ass. so i back up a bit and let him open his door. at this point i'm just winging it. i have no idea what i'm going to do. he puts his foot out and pushes the door open and as soon as he stands and comes toward me i just hit him. i didn't even know that i was going to. and he just dropped. he fell back to the side of the car and slumped down. the girl starts screaming, "oh my god, what did you do?!?" i don't know. he threatened me, told me he was going to kick my ass and he came out of the car at me. so i hit him. that's what i did. and then i rode the fuck home, real fast. and i took a squiggly fucked up route home. 4. a big west michigan crew showed up in town a couple weeks ago for a show down in the bridgeport neighborhood. there as time to kill before the show started so me, kt, claire and ryan went to a grocery store that was nearby and bought a twelve pack of beer. walking back toward the show we decided to get out of the sun and hide out under a nearby overpass and have a couple beers. the underpass was fenced off, but the gate was open enough to walk through, so we did. not even five minutes later the cops roll by and stop. i don't even know how that could have sen us from where they were, but they did. we gathered our things and walked their way. they asked what we were doing over there, what we were doing in the neighborhood, etc. i was just hoping that they didn't smell the weed in my back pocket, as i'm standing there holding an open twelve pack on the street. the cops said that we can't be under there because we might be vandals looking to "tag up" some new turf. then they said that we probably shouldn't be drinking in public. and that if we had run into any less "cooler" cops that we'd be written up or taken away. cooler cops. what the fuck is that? so when they drove away i went back under the over pass and grabbed everyone's open beers and we sat in the trees and overgrowth on a little hillside and watched the world spin by. cool cops. fuck.
--------------------kt----------------- When I was a kid, growing up in Texas, summer time was when kids ruled the neighborhood! We would wake up early, ride bikes to the pool or the bad ass public library. We would build tree forts, fry eggs on the side walk (when it was especially hot) and not have to come in before dark. When you get older summer time becomes just another season, time blends together and that special feeling kind of fades away. My favorite memories of living in Michigan are mostly during the summer. One, in particular, of Luke, Jeff and I all decided to ride the 40miles to Muskegon for a potluck. None of us had bikes at the time so we “borrowed” some from Jeff’s mom. Two ended up getting stolen, whoops... and the other one used for parts, I think. The night before we left we made a huge dinner and went to bed early. We woke up the next morning excited, we were on a mission! Luke said he had a basic understanding of how to get to skee-town taking back roads and such, but as the day wore on, and our food and water ran out…we were lost! We just made our way kind of guessing and I thing we even hit a couple dead end roads and ended up having to turn around. It was starting to get late and we were getting pretty hungry so we stopped at this place we thought was in the middle of no where Sam’s Joint. (Which those of you who know Muskegon, its right fucking outside town) We were broke, had like 8 bucks between the three of us. We ordered French fries spilt three ways. When we were getting ready to leave we asked one the people who worked there how to get to Muskegon..? ”Whoa” she said, “You’re a ways outside of town; maybe 30mins.” Which we translated as 30miles…FUCK! We got back on our bikes, defeated, hungry, and tired. We had ridden for maybe 5mins when we got to the big ass helicopter statue thing on Airline Rd and realized we had hit Seaway Dr.!!! We had made it!!! We rode as fast as we could to the hippie house on 4th and Monroe, everyone was sitting on the porch just hanging out! We were so tired but so excited to be there! It ended up taking us nine hours...damn! We had the adventure though, and were still in by dark.
----------------------wes----------------- 40 oz of mickey's, check, cigarette, check, free internet, check, loud music, check, let's get this started. as unhappy as some of you are to see me here it's about god damn time that BEP had another scumbag in the ranks. hahaha looks like it's me. so i might not be in west michigan at this particular time but i can't wait till i'm am, but mean while i've been checking out the texas, and briefly the san francisco punk scenes, and you are all failing. muskegon was up and running but then, then the petty shit. junkies agaist vegans, scumbag agaist hippy douche bag, and i know that this has and will always go on, but everyone needs to unite and destroy the common enemy. have a meeting, take a vote i don't care who just decided on who the current enemy is and act. whether it be the cops, a corpration, tv tony, i'm sure that you all have some ideas. get out there and have some fun, ruin someones night,FUCK SHIT UP. i only bring up my recent travels because i see so much graffiti, and vandalism, and what not the they can't control it. it makes me envyious, envious that muskegon will one day be back to one of it's previous generations that even if they faught amongst themselves they didn't forget the common enemies. FUCK YOU ALL FUCK SHIT UP FUCK THE ARMY wes
-------------------greeze------------- Ahhh…summertime. It seems the second that you enter school, way back in elementary school even, is the time when summer really takes on meaning. I honestly can’t remember summer being a big deal until I entered school. Summer was the freedom from it for the next 12 years- 13 if you wanna count kindergarten, and more if you go to college (unless yr taking summer classes!). Finally, we didn’t have to go to school for a few months (which I see changing before too long…)!  No more waking up early, being stuck in a room for the majority of the next 8 hours! I played where I wanted, when I wanted. And all was like sweetened lemonade… After school was over- all of it, summer lost some of it’s magic for me. It’s just another day. I’d get up, perform my daily routines, and go to bed. Now repeat that- for years, and years… and now for the rest of my life- until I’m dead. That sounds pretty bleak, and summer still has it’s magic, only in different ways. Let’s try and go that route. Being unemployed- everyday is summer vacation so to speak. Therefore I can still play where I want when I want. But a lot of us are employed, which to me, makes summer just another day. And at the same time- being unemployed makes summer just another day. Hypocritical? Probably. It happens a lot. The lemonade is still sweet, but is starting to sour. I love lakes. Looking at them- I prefer not to be in them, but I usually have a good time once I’m in it- if I ever make it in- I can’t swim! I’ve taken many lessons, but I cannot do it. Nor do I like water in my face. I find the great lakes to be cold (although I did have fun splashing about in the waves in my youth!), and the inner lakes aren’t quite warm enough to suit my tastes. Luckily, living in Michigan we aren’t short on either. It stays light out longer, and that makes me wanna stay out later. Darkness in the city is just plain fun to run around in, and in the country, as long as it’s not windy, you can have as big of fires as you want, be as loud as you want, and basically do whatever the fuck you want because there’s nobody else close by- and if they did call the cops- you would see them coming a half-mile away.  Also, being in the country we have a big garden, which by this time of the year (up north) everything is starting to sprout, which to me is when the actual enjoyment of gardening begins- watching it grow. Bands tour more in the summertime. We’re all much more likely to see a rad out of town band in the summer. Or go on tour ourselves!!! We went to Philly for a show a couple weeks ago, ended up staying in a hotel in New Jersey, went to poet/author Walt Whitman’s final address and took a little tour, and we also visited Pennsylvania’s railroad museum. So tours don’t necessarily have to be for bands!!! We also took a little trip to Chicago. I’m planning on making another trip there before summer’s end. My dog had a little trouble with a porcupine, and the following week with a deer, and then a squirrel last week. Shit- even my dog has had a pretty eventful summer this year! She loves swimming in the lake now, as opposed to last year when the noise of the waves rolling in scared the shit out of her! She just turned 2 this past May (big ups to Elvis Roy for rescuing her!!!). Living in a small tourist town, everything drastically changes. It goes from looking like a ghost town most days to the streets lined with cars and people everywhere. Fuck- I should be out trying to hit their rich asses up! But what has been peace and quiet for eight months is instant hecticness, and can be quite alarming if not prepared. To make matters worse, a lot of the tourists treat you like shit- whether with words or just by looks- like they came here to avoid people like me and BAM! There I am. Rich fucks with bigger summer homes than our only home, with boats and SUVs to match. Their children can be even bigger assholes. But that’s when you have the home-town advantage at all the local stores- all the clerks know you, and I believe both parties find it equally comforting to see a familiar face. Yet at the same time, this is the time for small businesses to make their killing in hopes to make it through financially to the next summer. Vicious. It may not sound like it, but I really do love, and living in Michigan, appreciate the summer months. The warmth of the sun, green foliage everywhere, flowers blooming big and bright like the nighttime stars on a clear evening. Windows can be opened again with cool breezes felt- in the car and the house. Less clothes to be worn. And there is still that “summertime” electricity in the air. It’s undeniable. To conclude my ‘summer’ column, here’s some of my all time favorite summer-themed songs: summertime rolls- jane’s addiction summertime- dj jazzy jeff & the fresh prince summertime- mongo jerry and last but certainly not least: the end of summer- fifteen other than that, a few rad records & cds that I’ve acquired this summer and love: population reduction gatefold lp on tank crimes king generator one sided 12” with etching on reverse side w/ cd- also on tank crimes… everything that I can get my hands on by SKARP!!! The juno soundtrack Kungfu rick- fragments of the past time 2xCD on 625 Aprtment 213- 93-97 cd on 625 also The new shit on tim barry’s (avail’s singer/solo shit) myspace Plainfield on myspace The 2nd disc that comes with the deluxe cd edition of alkaline trio’s latest release- now on epic…ugh.  An assload of early-mid 20th century folk music dealing with railroads and everything that encompasses them from the internet… possibly two assloads depending on the ass. Thanks for reading! See ya next month- greeze. Write: greezus at gmail dotcom. While I prefer usps mail to email, I do realize the convenience of email, but you gotta admit, there’s nothing like getting mail from a friend. So email me if you want/need my address! Til August- greeze.

 

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