"As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me" & "Lovers Quarrel"

//Just got finished reading "As Far As My Feet..."  by Josef M. Bauer.  WOW!  What a fantastic book this is!  I was stuck to every page and didn't want to put it down --not even to get to sleep!  that's really the test of a book's quality, can you fight off sleep in order to push forward with reading?  Anyhow, this is the story of a German guy who gets sentenced to 25 years of hard labor in a Siberian prison work-camp.  He spends a couple years there before finally escaping for good (he has a half-hearted escape attempt, but is quickly recaptured).  The book chronicles his three year and two month journey walking back to Germany!  Holy crap, walking?  Yes, most of his travels are made walking.  But this book has loads of train hopping tales, as well as hitch hiking, being a stowaway, sledding, etc. The escapee, Forell apparently told his story to the author, who turned it into this book.  Pretty sweet how Forell learns how to hunt, cook, impersonate people, bullshit, and more!  It's like a great adventure novel crossed with a punk-rock travel 'zine!  For real!  So find this book 'cuz I guarantee you'll be enthralled with it!
//I also read issue #2 of "Lover's Quarrel" written by a kid named Ravi from Princeton, NJ in 1994.  This kid is in love with hardcore, veganism, and straightedge.  Lots of cute emo-ness in the form of sketches and pictures, as well as some sappy writings.  I guess this dude was involved in running that organization, Earthwell out of NJ in the 90's.  They put on fundraiser shows, benefits for causes like "Food Not Bombs", sexual assault awareness literature, animal rights, fanzines, and I believe they put out a few records.  A worthy cause in the hardcore scene of the time.  This issues got at least three ads for 'zines done from folks in Princeton, NJ, Ravi's town.  Which just goes to show how many people actually did fanzines as well as playing in bands, booking shows, etc.

M.I.A.

 //Listening to this M.I.A. album, "After The Fact," pretty damn good and something I've overlooked considering it came out in the mid 1980's!!!  Posting this now to remind myself to write more about them later.  Am I the only one who uses the internerd to write notes?  Online stickys!

Thre's No "I" In Team But There Is a "me"

Also, there is no "u" in Colombia.  Even when you change it to Colombian.   I've seen it in magazines, on advertisements, on labels in grocery stores, everywhere you could use the word Colombia, I've seen it as Columbian.  And no, I don't mean like Columbus or pre-Columbian.  I mean like the kind of coffee, which is also a country i hear.

CAR VS DRIVER // GUILT // LET THE DAY BEGIN

CAR vs. DRIVER...This band is fucking phenomenal!!!  I always knew they existed but never really paid much attention to them!  They fit in perfectly with so many of the other emotional hardcore bands of the early to mid 90's.  On some songs the singer sounds EXACTLY like the dude from MONSULA!   Anyhow last night I listened to "Under A Silent Sky" and was just completely mesmerized.
Lately my favorite state of being is just laying in bed reading (anything --old fanzines, catalogs, books, the new issue of MRR, and old issues of "Profane Existence"etc) and listening to old albums on my new mp3 player.  Just blown (or re-blown. Is that a word?) away by a few things, like that CAR VS DRIVER album.  I also listened to the GUILT "Synesthesia" record.   Remember, the10" from 1993 or so?  Put out on the late, great Initial Records from Louisville, just like the band.  GUILT was a side project from Duncan, one of the guitar players from ENDPOINT.  Before they were GUILT they were STEPDOWN.  The only recorded STEPDOWN music I have is the song "Giving Tree" from the "Voice Of The Voiceless" animal rights compilation.  Remember that record?  I think Doghouse Records put it out with the help of one or two other labels.  Awesome comp!  Anyhow that STEPDOWN song is great.  Doesn't really sound much like GUILT at all.
OK, so I kinda' found part two of the CAR vs DRIVER discography CD on a mediafire link, but I've yet to find part one.  My hard drive is sooooooo full, I'm having a hard time NOT downloading everything I find lately.  That's why I'm accepting donations for the new 2TB external hard drive on sale over at www.tigerdirect.com.  Help!!!
"Let The Day Begin" by SAMHAIN is such a great song!!!  From the awesome "November Coming Fire" album! It just popped up on my winamp player set to random.  I qued up this bootleg SAMHAIN record that I downloaded a few weeks ago with that song, and I'm disappointed to find out that it's just the regular studio version.  Oh well, I'll delete it since I don't have the hd space anyhow.  Oh, that reminds me --I opened an account with an online storage service, www.adrive.com.  Is this trustworthy?  They give you 50GB's of free storage but I'm a little hesitant to start loading it up if my files could disappear at any time or be held hostage by them trying to get me to upgrade to a premium membership.  I've put a few gig's of stuff on there so far.  I could open a few more accounts, all you need is a different email addy to do that.  I guess theoretically I could open several accounts and store all my stuff on there.  Also, I would be able to access my files from anywhere.  One major drawback, besides not knowing if they're trustworthy, is that it takes sooooooo long to upload stuff to my account!!!  About 1/2 an hour for 1GB!!!!   I don't have the patience to babysit files being uploaded no the trust to do it when I'm not actively using the computer.
So far tonight's been a good on musically: MONSULA (awesome rough pop-punk ala CRIMPSHRINE on Lookout Records), THE ALLIGATORS (Roger Miret with straightedge band INSTED), CALIBAN, (German vegan-edge-metal), THE CARRIER (sounds a LOT like MODERN LIFE IS WAR --and that's a GOOD thing!), COLEMAN (excellent emo), ELEMENTS OF NEED (great 90's emo), SAMIAM (man, these songs from the album "Astray" are rocking my world! This album, and "You Are Freaking Me Out" are two of the most unlistened to albums from SAMIAM in my collection. big mistake!), ROT IN HELL (sounds like RINGWORM but they're from the UK), THE ERGS! (so mad that I've slept on these guys for so long! Not anymore, I'm all up in these bitches!) and so much more!  I'm outta here!   See ya'll tomorrow!  Yeah, tomorrow....a good day!  See my girlfriend, hit up the book shelves at the Salvation Army thrift shop, maybe hit an AA mtg...just not in that order.

Recovering Zinesters, Hardcore Kids, Punks, Skins, Mods, Skaters, etc...

Cindy, who does the great "Doris" fanzine, just put out a 'zine, all about and constructed by, recovering alcoholics / addicts.  I scanned the review in the new issue of MRR.  I'm gonna head over to microcosm.com and check if they've got it.  It looks interesting and I've always enjoyed Cindy's writing.  I'm always down to hear what other hardcore kids & punk rockers have to say about addiction, AA / NA, God, higher power, recovery, rehab centers, detox's, etc.  I'll mos def review it here when I get my hands on a copy.
  Oh yeah, she also sings in ASTRID OTO:

CURRENT (Detroit Hardcore Emo Band)

This band was so so so awesome.  I didn't get into them until the tail end of their life-span.  I'd always seen their flyers, since they opened so many damn hardcore shows in southeast Michigan.  Headlined plenty of smaller shows also.  I may have even accidentally bought a 7" of theirs.  Wait, I think I had the "Coliseum" album they did, without listening to it for about two years.  I probably bought it because they were local and I tried to aggressively support the local hardcore scene as much as possible.  I think everyone did that, unlike nowadays when folks only come out to see a bigger touring band.  Hey, I'm one of them too!!!  Oh snap!!!
OK, the singer of CURRENT, Matt Weeks, also owned and ran Council Records --one of the best record labels of the '90's!  A bit later he played in OTTAWA, NEMA, DEARBORN SS, and the highly underrated and slept on, CALVARY.  Not too sure what he's up to currently but I'm sure I'll find out soon.  Maybe e-stalk him for a minute, then flip the script and report back here.  Keep your eyes open....   All jokes aside he's someone I would seriously love to interview for this blog and the 'zine I've been trying to poop out since time immemorial!

EMO...A Four Letter Word, Or A Great Hardcore Sub - Genre???

MOSS ICON

EMBRACE

FRAIL

Pope John Paul II & The Hare Krsna's...

....May 1st.  I wish I had $2300 for the trip to Rome some peeps are going on.  Sigh.....  The beatification of Blessed Pope John Paul II.  I can watch it on the internerd or the TV.  It's just neat to have something like this happen in my lifetime.  I vividly remember when he died and pretending to be so indifferent, with a twisted touch of stoicism!!!  I had fallen away from Catholicism at that time, although I would proudly tell you I was "spiritual!"  Whatever that means / meant!!!  I love this st00pid AA line, "religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell and spirituality is for people who've already been there and DON'T want to go back.  Dumb alcoholics think they've got the market cornered on spirituality.  Yes, thank God for AA's spirituality, opening the door, and my mind, to a higher power, a higher being, a higher purpose, and a higher calling.  But that's just a start.  I needed to nurture and grow my spirituality.   Which... is... just.....religion......gasp!!!  Besides, AA was founded by two Christian men, contains and co-op's several Christian (Catholic) prayers such as "The Lord's Prayer," "The Serenity Prayer," and "Instrument of Peace"  (the St. Francis prayer) on page 99 of the "Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions," an AA approved (official) book.   Most of the AA old-timers I know also belong to a church or claim some religious affiliation.  My friend Matt (a Jew I'm told) got very involved in Islam shortly after getting sober in 1999 or so, changed his name to Idris, wore traditional (as traditional as an Ann Arbor Jewish punk rock kid can get) Islamic garb to meetings, and moved to Saudi Arabia to teach English.  And secure a wife.  My friend Tarun Krsna-das, whom I met at the Fischer Mansion (a.k.a. the Hare Krsna temple) in Gross Point one soul searching Sunday, got clean, joined Narcotics Anonymous and then joined the Hare Krsna's.  He helped me a ton --came out to Ann Arbor to check out some AA meetings with me, kick the soccer ball around, chant Hare Krsna, and discuss Prabhupada's writings.  Tarun helped me to be a little less materialistic, as well as showing me how to eat vegetarian food without any traces of garlic, onions, and mushrooms.  Three foods in the mode of passion or ignorance, I can't remember which.  I miss Tarun.  After he went on a pilgrimage to Vrindavan I never saw him again.  St00pid hotmail deleted a couple hundred messages of mine, including one with his email addy in it.  And since Tarun Krsna-das is not the real name of a white trash, I.C.P. listening, workin' on car in the front lawn of your house, guy from Taylor, I've not been able to locate him since late 1999.

SEAN ÄABERG's photostream

I don't know too much about this guy (Sean Aaberg), but I Googled his name after unpacking one of the fanzines he did in the late 90's / early '00's. He is a kick ass artist and here are some pictures from his website. I'm writing this edit/update on Jan. 7, 2013, after making this post originally in early 2011. I believe this is all still online and still relevant. Enjoy!!! ♥♥♥

SEAN ÄABERG's photostream on Flickr.

Ahhhh, the dude who did "Binocular Rebellious" fanzine! Cool pics, cool artwork!