Debbie Harry 1977 & The Great Heist Of 2009

   Debbie Harry - Blondie, Coney Island, NY, 1977 | Bob Gruen

  This is a fantastic picture!!!   I wish I was a bit older and a bit more active (to say the least) during this era of punk-rock (or just rock -n- roll, depending on who you ask).   BLONDIE, THE RAMONES, TELEVISION, TALKING HEADS, RICHARD HELL, DEAD BOYS......in other words, that whole original CBGB's scene.   Honestly, I'm not know nor have I ever been, a huge RAMONES fan.  I don't even own any of their albums  (though I did have that one with the song "Somebody Put Something In My Drink."  My momma gave it to me for Christmas in like, 1985 or '86.  Decent enough record and great song!), but I did download their discography last year --it accidentally got deleted from my computer.

   Which reminds me.....this is something I constantly worry & fret about:  having all of my music get deleted from my computer or my external hard drive.  I know no one who is in contact with this stuff would purposely do it, but hell, accidents happen and 30 GB'd of stuff WAS accidentally erased a little while ago.   And ever since my CD & DVD collection got ripped off it's been something that I have more and more anxiety over.  Thank God that my hard drive wasn't in that apartment when I left and everything got picked through, stolen, sold, and thrown out.  This here external h.d. is all I've got left.  The few dozen pictures stored on it and the 175 GB's of music are what's left of my life.   Nine hundred CDs, CD - R's, DVD's, boxes and boxes of photos (including the negatives), clothes (a dozen beautiful Fred Perry & Ben Sherman shirts included!), my NEARLY BRAND NEW Doc Martens, poster, flyers, expensive down blankets, books, magazines, and fanzines -----GONE!!!    The feelings of hatred, anger, and betrayal are things I've had to deal with over the last two years.   I've learned to let go of all the negative thoughts associated with that incident and more or less move on.  Of course I filed a police report and of curse those bitches didn't do anything.  I don't know what I was thinking when I marched in to see the 5-O and try to ally myself with those dirty crooks.  I guess I was following advice from friends and I guess this is how normal people solve similar problems.   It did me no good.  Even when I gave them names & contact info of the person (s) who did it.   Lesson learned  --never trust the cops to solve your problems.