MY JUNK

ive been rallying against broadway since it was introduced to me as a kid forced into a sport jacket and stuck in the back of an oldsmobile with my overachieving older sister for a trip down the belt, through the battery tunnel to a hurried big-city dinner followed by a hustle up to broadway. but through the years certain moments have shaken my resolve and emboldened my perspective on the great white way (simply writing "the great white way" above made me feel queezy).

it was at 10 years old that starlight express alerted me to the light, choreographed and technical wonders of live theater. soon after, (clair huxtable aka) phylicia rashad's presence in into the woods made me understand the power of one individual performer.

but it was the original cast of the producers, sitting 10th row center thanks to my friend ryan, that really initiated me. and come to think of it, it was ryan who took me to see tommy on broadway...and it was ryan who called me last week, heading back home from l.a. for his annual christmas visit, asking me if i'd go see spring awakening with him ("it's the hottest ticket in town," he reasoned). he was right and any description i attempt will not do it justice (nor can i write much longer). it's one of th best shows ive ever seen...

there was overacting at times, and maybe a yawn and a half, but it was straight punk: the music. the voices. the movements. the expressions. the last time i endulged in any individual performer it was bob dylan at the city center, wrapping up his fall 2006 tour. other than bob being pretty punk, there is no comparison.

broadway, why have i ignored you so?

rob

generations

jacob and evelyn

FA SHO. FA SHO.

“No matter where I go, or how successful or unsuccessful I am, I never in my life shall ever feel that ‘they’ are coming. There is no ‘they’ to me, because I know about being ‘they’; I have been ‘they.’ ” -Sam Levenson

In my sophomore year at South Shore High School, a student was stabbed to death and I would forever have something to qualify for others just how wild and sometimes dangerous a place it was. The metal detectors the Board of Ed. promptly installed did nothing to provide a sense of security, and in a strange way probably only made the school a more sinister place to walk into every morning. It came as no surprise to me when the city announced earlier this week they would close my alma mater along with 4 other schools.

Still, South Shore was a colorful, dynamic and often wonderful place, where I learned so much about who I am today. And, I'd be doing myself a disservice if I implied it wasn't an environment of ambition...after all, I was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" by my pals on the 1995 Yearbook Committee.

Ironically, when Googleing "South Shore High School, Brooklyn" the website Greatschools.net came up second on it's list of search results. One parent review on the site contained a revealing quote from February of this year, "This school has good things to offer, but hte children there are sooo bad. Police is always there. [sic]"

As a child of NYC public school teachers (and then administrators) and a product of the NYC Board of Ed. I have a hard time accepting that closing the schools will solve the problems that the staffs there managed every day. The majority of the safety and performance issues that serve as rationale for the closings stem from a place outside these schools walls. Doing away with the structures is not the answer. Im left wondering, where will all the problems go?

It was an article from the NYTimes City Section today that sparked this post and it's where the opening quote was pulled from. The subject of the article, Tilden High School, is another Brooklyn school being closed and incidentally, the one which my father graduated from. Fa Sho. For Sure. For Shore.

PUNK AS FUCK ALL OVER THE PLACE

"This One goes Out to John Glenn...punching muthafuckas in the face."

Ryan Adams is truly on some other shit. After reading a story on Pitchfork I was compelled to visit Cadinal radio. Adams has created three new personas (DJ Reggie, the Shit, and Werewolph) , and across 11 albums and more than 120 songs of new material available online, he blew my mind.

Emo, electro, folk, punk, trip hop, and everything else under the sun, with songs names like:

Oops Yor Dead
SexFuck
Blackhole Fuck Samwich
When Pants Become Toilets
David Fuckin Letterman
Buddah vs. Jesus
Drunk As A Pile of Fuck
Space Is Big (Whatever)...

My favorite, a dusted breakbeat cover of Bob Dylan's haunting "Isis."

Go forth.

LA call,
city of rampart schemes or just broken dreams?
hills and valleys, and human tally...taken,
coast highway tolls in the sun bakin'
while the sweat from the bacon drips on the dark man,
the powder piles for an olive man with a suntan,
the difference between mansion sized crimes and those of the street?
thats just the presence of the heat,
as shit hits a fan in la la land...control slips from your hands like beach sand.