Contents of A:
Anyone who refuses to admit that schooling (i.e. academics) is overrated
lacks in my mind the proper perspective on education. However, there are
definite advantages to being enrolled in an academic institution. For many
people, taking classes provides the focus, structure and motivation necessary
for educational growth. Being enrolled also yields varied perspectives, as
interaction with professors/teachers and fellow students provides diversity of
thought which isolated self-directed study cannot. Finally, participating in an
educational institution hones the all-important communication skills, your
lifeâs blood and mainstay for existing on this earth.
Obviously, school is not the only arena for developing these skills,
talents and perspectives... in fact, in many settings and for certain people, it
may be an impediment to personal growth. We all have experienced certain
academic situations which stifle us, and the degree to which these kinds of
repressive settings have been the norm probably defines our attitude towards
institutional schooling. You donât have to go to school to be a learner.
Learning is free and available if you have the self-discipline to pursue it!
Self-teachers have to replace the positive aspects of institutional schooling
with novel forms. Discipline comes with interest and pursuing your interests is
probably the best way of assuring that you will maintain steady educational
growth; however, even when the things we study are the things we love, the
self-teacher must have a greater focus than the traditional student, because the
institutional safeguards (regularly scheduled classes, assignments, due dates,
grading) are not there to ãkeep you on taskä. In our current world, so rife
with petty duties and hedonistic distractions, staying focused on your
self-education is not easy. Self-educators must also seek out intellectual
interaction with other interested, focused individuals. This sounds a lot more
formal than it is... a simple conversation on a topic of personal interest is
sufficient, and finding these conversations is more possible as communication
forms proliferate. However, getting people to have substantive conversations is
not always easy, as most people do not want to be bothered to think within the
narrow confines of their work-sleep-eat-consume regimen. If you cannot find the
right community, your self-directed educational growth will suffer. As is
obvious from this package, our goal is to help provide this community within the
loose social grouping formerly known as ãpunkä.
For those who choose to self-educate, being active is key. Being a
traditional student, one can afford a certain degree of passivity. But the
self-teacher has to dive in head-first-day-one (a strategy which also benefits
those in traditional educational settings), because self-education means
learning from and within oneâs environment. Let me make an attempt at
demystifying self-education for you, using the guitar as my example. I was
involved in hardcorepunk for about six years without having any understanding of
what actually comprised ãa bandä. I was listening to this music, but I
barely had an even vague idea of what instruments were being played much less
how they were being played. Singing gave me my first opportunity to understand:
in my first band I realized how songs were structured, what each instrument was
doing, and how bands pulled off ãa showä. I did not sit back and study other
bands, I did not go to school for music, I just was in a band and all of the
sudden I had to learn these things. I knew what I wanted (to be in a band) and
what I had to learn (basics of music) in order to attain my goal. I poured an
exceptional amount of energy into this self-educational process and had the help
of some great friend-mentors (thanks Egg, Eric and Drew!). I learned because I
wanted to and had to.
When I had to leave my first band, necessity once again directed my
self-education. I realized that asking other musicians to always support me as
the singer was a little bit arrogant and unrealistic, so I endeavored to learn
to play guitar. At the age of twenty-one (over the hill by some hardcorepunk
standards) I purchased my first guitar (okay actually my parents bought it for
me) and started my educational journey. Again, it was instant involvement in a
band which propelled my learning curve, along with the advice and help of
friend-mentors (thanks Amanda, Shawn, Drew, Cliff, Bill and Adam!). The Putsch
continues this journey, as my passion for the new space we are exploring drives
me to learn to play new instruments and expand my understanding of what it means
to make music.
All three members of this band have been offered extraordinary
opportunities within traditional academic settings (not that we did not work
hard for them, but we still recognize how privileged we are for being rewarded
with these educational options). However, we are also active self-learners who
frame this auto-directed process squarely within the hardcorepunk community. Our
involvement within traditional educational institutions is part passion, part
practical, for we are not beyond needing the ãperksä afforded by Colleges
and Universities (like credentials and diplomas, which open doors, as dumb as
that is...), but we stay self-learners by being punk geeks.
You have to decide which avenue of learning is right for you: traditional
academics or self-directed learning. I think that most people find a healthy
mixture of the two, although there are some exceptional individuals who may
focus exclusively on one form or the other. I am really wary of those who
advocate either form of education as ãthe right one for every oneä, and you
hear this claim from both sides of the continuum. Many parental-types would have
you believe that only institutional, academic learning is worthwhile; some go
even further, specifying certain ãlegitimateä academic pursuits and
excluding others. There are also those who glorify dropping out of academics
altogether, irrespective of individual needs or situations. Listening to this
kind of rhetoric is not likely to make the decision of how to learn any easier.
In the end you have to sample different modes of learning to see which is most
beneficial to you.
For those considering traditional academic pursuits, I must point out one
of the greatest advantages of academic enrollment, a phenomenon I call the
ãprocrastination dividendä. This benefit is only bestowed on those who have
term papers hanging over their heads, for it is at these moments that the most
brilliant ideas present themselves (usually completely unrelated to the academic
task at hand). Diversionary inspiration under the pressure of academic
production has led to much of the text you now peruse.
When they substitute obscure terminology for concise vernacular to no
discernable advantage, they have indeed rendered their work nugatory to the
majority.
Granted, many people speak in
terms and styles which seem aloof and difficult to decipher. Some of the best
ideas can be stated in simple terms. However, complex vocabulary often aids in
discussing complex ideas. Q: When can a given work be considered
inaccessible? A: When you cease to strive for new understanding.
Affirmative
Action, The Deceptive Nature of:
Affirmative action is a progressive measure aimed at righting historical
and present day racial and gender discrimination. This is not how the program is
perceived by much of the public, particularly the white public. Unfortunately,
affirmative action creates the illusion that unqualified applicants are getting
jobs while qualified applicants are being passed by. This simply is not the
case; if anything, qualified women and people of color are more likely to be
refused promotion in favor of whites who are not as qualified. This is how the
world of business and government has existed for years; this is why we need
affirmative action. Nonetheless, affirmative action serves as wedge issue,
leading privileged Americans to believe that our ãlevel playing fieldä is
being tilted.
Of course, as any woman or person of color is well aware, the playing
field has never been level. And the sick reality is that affirmative
action represents an entirely inadequate reparation of the sexist and racist
conditions under which we still live. Because, really, what does so called
ãpreferenceä for a job or college admissions mean if you have been handed
substandard education, health care and living conditions for your entire life?
Am I in favor of ending affirmative action? You bet - as soon as schooling,
healthcare, housing and opportunity structures are equalized for all Americans;
any other solution is a bandage and nothing more. Until we see greater equity in
our most fundamental of American institutions, all calls to end affirmative
action should be seen for what they are: attempts on the part of privileged
Americans to maintain the advantages they enjoy under institutionalized racism
and sexism.
Aggression:
(see also Anger)
I am aggressive, no doubt about it. I cannot deny that given most
situations I tend to be an active participant, with this activity at times
bordering on domination. All I know is that I have been this way since I was
very young, at least within verbal settings. As I have aged and grown
emotionally I have had to come to terms with my aggression and its effects: the
doors it has opened and the doors it has closed. I now temper my aggression with
an understanding of its context; under certain conditions my aggression is
positive, under other conditions it is negative. When I work together with my
bandmates or as a member of The Mountain Cooperative, I strive to confine my
aggression to a few necessary moments, because inclusion and cooperation only
really thrive in an aggression-free environment. But when kids at a show start
calling each other ãfagsä and yelling out ãitâs time for a gang bangä
(this really happened once) you had better believe that I am proud to be the
most verbally aggressive fuck you ever encountered. The point: aggression, on
its face, cannot be judged simplistically as a ãnegativeä; rather, it must
be viewed contextually and recognized as both a potential asset and potential
impediment.
Albert is the Selmer (France) Super Action 80 alto saxophone who, due to
the fact that replacing Albert is a fiscal impossibility, does and most likely
will only ever collaborate with Benjamin. Previously Albert was employed in
attempting to reproduce sounds others had made years before as exactly as
possible. After a hiatus, Albert began his newest occupation much to the delight
of all members of Putsch and much to the chagrin of nearly everyone else. This
makes Albert very happy. We thank Mrs. Nancy Kates and Mr. Marcel Kates for
their generous donation of this outstanding specimen to The Countdown to Putsch
Collection.
Anger: (see also Aggression)
The first thing that my mother said when she heard one of my bands was
ãbut this is so angry...ä. I can understand why hardcorepunk sounds almost
too angry to most people; the constant screaming leads one to believe that anger
is the sole emotion expressed within the music. ãWeä know that this is not
true, but I do wonder whether constant screaming effectively translates the
great diversity of emotions and ideas which can be encompassed within the songs
of a great hardcorepunk band. I too begin to question whether we have fetishized
anger to such a great degree that we have sapped the power of anger from our
collective expression(s).
ãIâve got a right to be hostile, my people [are] bein[g]
persecutedä.
1
The
truth is that we have a great deal to be angry about. The autonomy, justice and
love that we strive for through hardcorepunk is actively suppressed by forces,
ideas and institutions which fester both inside and outside our community. Women
are constantly targeted for verbal
and physical assault, even as they walk down their own streets. Millions of
people worldwide suffer and eventually die from hunger. War still claims
hundreds of thousands of lives each year. An unconscionable disparity exists
between the vast opportunities afforded to rich earthlings and the withered dead
ends afforded poor earthlings. People are widely persecuted for what they
believe, who they sleep with, and how they look. In our supposedly ãfreeä
country there are still a myriad of repressive laws and policies. In general,
people treat each other like shit. The truth is that there is plenty to be angry
about. How many of the angry hardcorepunk songs address these pressing issues?
Studies of serial killers have shown very few commonalities, with a
shared history of acts of cruelty against animals a notable exception. If our
greatest killers tend towards inhumanity to animals, what then does this say
about our society at large, which subsists on animal cruelty? It seems
inevitable and logical that animal consumption will end once we convince our
brothers and sisters to live a globally non-violent lifestyle. However, I
wonder: ãCould the elimination of animal products from our diet be the first
step in achieving a non-violent world?ä.
The
ones who suffer from sickness
Are
not always the experts on sickness.
And
the ones who council the married
Can
often not find their own lovers.
Camusâ
simple point of objectivity,
Points
out that the greatest authority
Is
not always born(e) from indulgence.
So,
I can speak about something
Without
being that something myself.
So,
I need not consult a killer
To
teach me the morals of murder.
The
ones who refuse to participate
Are
the ones who forever can·
Committed
restraint on the basis of thought
Is
not always a deprivation·
If
the items rejected are oppressive in theory,
My
refusal is my liberation.
I
can never swallow the satelliteâs signals,
Or
savor the smell of paparazzo bowels.
I
shall never buckle and help you buy those billboards
For
the harlequinsâ blemishless faces.
And
those harmless, healthy fuhrers who are the arbiters of flesh
Point
the barrels of their glossy, filthy pages.
The
only alternative to be found
Is
found ãFree With Every Boxä·
Like
the icing on an inedible cake.
Then
the so-called Îopen-mindsâ
Pretend
to beg to know
How
I reject what I refuse to try.
So
I shall point them to the principles
From
which their shit is built·
To
the seams between their patchwork pieces.
If
I donât smoke it on the premise that I know it in the Îgeneralâ
Then
the difference in Îparticularâ holds no sway.
For
how different they all taste, they must all seek to be my brew.
(Alcoholic
Beverages).
How
different they all read, they must all seek to mandate fashions.
(Fashion
Magazines).
How
different they all sound, they must all sound for cash and fame.
(Commercial
Music).
...I
donât need to chew your fowl to decide itâs not for me.
Art:
You made it, you love it, you share it.
A
Train of Gears or Pulleys in Which One or More of the Axes Revolve About a
Central Axis:
I heard him first of course, a repeating sound like an epicyclical
machine turning over slowly suggesting his approach; looking out from the
waiting subway car I saw him coming down the stairs, cart first, from my
partially obstructed angle with the oversized, weathered cardboard box strapped
to it and I saw the backs of his (slightly faded) blue-panted legs (the ends of
which were starting to fray) as he lowered his cart down each step slowly, in no
hurry it seemed, clunking down the stairs (with a brief pause at each step) to
the platform; having reached the bottom, in due time, he seemed to rest though
this is merely speculation as my view was blocked by a support beam; finally he
turned and made a movement toward the train but at that moment the doors finally
closed and I saw him raise his (stubby and withering) hands and open his
(trembling and crooked) mouth but whether he said anything I donât know, the
doors slid shut and the train jerked forward, grumbling away.