Cool Points

While googling images of my newest favorite cheap Rose to send a friend today, I somehow ended up at nymag.com, who is running a story entitled Punk Like Them as part of their "Summer Issue." In this story, journalist Alex Morris follows a gaggle of rag tag kids who hang out/live on St. Marks on a night of merrymaking and self-destruction to see what the new old-school punks are up to. What did Morris find among these Colt 45 guzzlers and corporate cafe haters? Looks to me like a bunch of typical teenagers.

Choice quotes:

“I heard about St. Marks in a Casualties song,” he says, “so I’m like, ‘Wait a second, I want to hang out there.’ ”

“Hey, what’s up?” he calls out to a girl walking past in plaid pants and a Casualties shirt. She pauses long enough for him to know he might have a chance. “You’re really hot. Come over here.”

“Yuppies are assholes,” Miquel agrees. “This is St. Marks. They should go away.”

"I don’t discriminate,” Suvy reasons, grinning at Mariya. “I hate everybody besides punks.”

“No one has a right to tell anyone else what to do,” Greg says. “Like, it’s your life, you should be in control of it. I don’t pay for anything—just drugs. They don’t tax drug dealers.”

“I want to die young. Once I hit like 30, I want to start being really self-destructive and just see what happens. Like ride around in cars really fast and do crazy stuff—even though I already do that now, so I can’t really say I’m going to do it.”

“Eric, you lose cool points for taking me here,” says Greg.

Of course, Morris could be twisting this to make these kids look immature, but then I find myself pondering the question: How long does that kid have to panhandle to buy enough Aqua-Net to get that mohawk to stand-up high enough? At least he can use his hair product to get high, as well as increase the crown of his coif, I guess. Kill two birds with one stone, right? Hopefully, he doesn't kill himself in the process. Secondly, since when was supporting Colt 45 (whose brand is owned by Pabst, Budweiser's key competitor) NOT supporting "the man" any more than Chipotle or Dunkin' Donuts. Everybody has their vices--and consume too much of either and you're likely to get FAT and/or DEAD! No "cool points" there, dude.

I understand the appeal of the lifestyle. Disagreement and unrest with the government is common; Wanting to live without rules is legitimate; Self-destruction and the desire to get fucked up is a pretty good way to disappear from the world for awhile. Unfortunately, it's a pretty negative, naive, and cowardly lifestyle. Using the music to vent can prove to be positive, but mixed in the pot with live fast, die young and foolish is pretty silly. My stepbrother spent his late teens and early twenties in sweet rebellion, hating his parents, my mom, school, the world, in general. At some point, he abandoned all and hopped trains from North Carolina to New Orleans. He disappeared for a long time, but to my knowledge, was squatting while down there, battling heroin addiction, and gaining some gnarly tattoos (one in which looks like someone just took the needle and scribbled on his arm for an hour or so--He gained some beautiful ones too, though.) Somehow he made it back to North Carolina, ditched the drugs, refuses to watch any movie that references them (i.e. Trainspotting), and married a woman, who later became a stripper and the mother of his child. Phew! Now they are divorced, and I haven't see him in 8 or 9 years. He contacts my stepdad occasionally when he needs dough. Fuck corporations, fuck the man, fuck comfort, fuck eating, fuck living, yuppies suck. Good ideas. I'm sure his daughter feels that way.

**I do love the collection of photos by Mike Brodie, documenting trainhopping kids and squatters. I always think of my stepbro and Woody Guthrie when I see them, and part of me longs for the adventure.