punk

Still Punk

“Just go with it, just feel it out,” Joey insisted. I tried, I really did, but I couldn’t keep up with the furied chords. The sound of my snare grew faint, the thud of my kick drum dulled. I looked up desperately for a saving gaze, but it was too late – my stiff arms and gnarled fingers said no more. I stopped playing. Now all eyes were on me. Flush-faced I whispered, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” My drum sticks clacked on the concrete garage floor. Nowhere to hide, I cried silently in my friend Kaitlin’s musty Taurus. She was the keyboard player for this band, as well as the instigator of this whole ordeal. On the car ride home she looked over and gave me a pity pat, “It’s okay, you’ll get it next time.” But she was wrong, I didn’t get it next time or even the time after that. I actually didn’t get it for a really long time....

Tribalism in the U.S.A.

My young adulthood consisted of punk shows and community college. I never had a friend that was in a fraternity or sorority. Greek life was a life I only saw played out in Hollywood. Now I see it in real time, a few blocks away from me on USC’s Frat Row. Not really knowing what I was getting myself into, one day I took a stroll down The Row with my audio recorder and decided to talk to some of my fellow Trojans....

Little Xeroxed Books: A Life in Zines

A zine is a tiny book that you make on your own. It can be about anything. People capture the story of their lives in zines, little diaries and time capsules folded down the center. An abridged version of “magazine" or "fanzine", zines have been reproducing the voices of people on the fringes since their punk-rock inception....
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Working Girl: Alice Bag

Alice Bag in Highland Park. Photo by Greg Velásquez, hair and makeup by Erika Sarmiento Violence has woven its way in and out of Alice Bag’s life. It’s not ...