Last weekend, in an attempt to never leave the house again...ever, I watched a documentary about Joe Strummer. I'm not sure I learned anything new...I was already certain that John Cusack has nothing of interest to say about anything before he popped up in this pogram. I'd never really seen the timeline of his early life straight through like that...public school (boarding school we'd call it), the quasi-hippie days and the sense of having missed the revolution...his recruitment into Punk Rock....
Later in the week, I read an article about Conservatism and Modernism...the importance of Modernism in bringing about the kind of a-political, anti-ideaology, Conservatism that your author subscribes to...coming to tradition and belief through an absolute skepticism that anything can ever be known. Much of it focused on T.S. Eliot....but, the article glanced against Punk Rock describing it as the last Modern expression in Popular Culture.*
It was the last sight of, what one reader called, "manly nihilsm." The last unflinching look at a world without Authority and the consequences of such a situation.
It's here that Strummer comes back into the picture. That's where we'll pick it up...after tomorrow or, not. We can't talk about it today because this post is about to be buried.
Tomorrow, the Southeaster Conference will decide it's Champion as the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide get after it in Atlanta. Y'all know we ain't missin' that.
HUNKER DOWN!
ROOOOLL TIDE!
Be here or be square punks!
*Here we could swerve into a lengthy discussion about the towering genius of Mark E Smith and the Mighty Fall but, we probably shouldn't. We should point to No Wave, strains of Hip Hop, and the Slackers of the author's youth as other examples...and so we have.
Later in the week, I read an article about Conservatism and Modernism...the importance of Modernism in bringing about the kind of a-political, anti-ideaology, Conservatism that your author subscribes to...coming to tradition and belief through an absolute skepticism that anything can ever be known. Much of it focused on T.S. Eliot....but, the article glanced against Punk Rock describing it as the last Modern expression in Popular Culture.*
It was the last sight of, what one reader called, "manly nihilsm." The last unflinching look at a world without Authority and the consequences of such a situation.
It's here that Strummer comes back into the picture. That's where we'll pick it up...after tomorrow or, not. We can't talk about it today because this post is about to be buried.
Tomorrow, the Southeaster Conference will decide it's Champion as the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide get after it in Atlanta. Y'all know we ain't missin' that.
HUNKER DOWN!
ROOOOLL TIDE!
Be here or be square punks!
*Here we could swerve into a lengthy discussion about the towering genius of Mark E Smith and the Mighty Fall but, we probably shouldn't. We should point to No Wave, strains of Hip Hop, and the Slackers of the author's youth as other examples...and so we have.
How can you tantalise us by starting that thread about punk and Modernism and then veering off into football? Honestly, it's like watching a fan-dance.
ReplyDeleteHee heee.
DeleteWe'll get back to it. I promise...besides, I'm still trying to figure out if what I've got to say about Joe Strummer is nice or not.
Hear hear, Kolley! He's such a tease.
DeleteBut perfect choice of track, e.f. RH & the Voidoids were great, like nothing I'd ever heard before - nor since. Very evocative for me.
I gotta keep y'all comin' back...that's all.
DeleteHe wrote that song while he was in Television. I don't suppose Television would have been Television without the the development of Richard Loyd but, it's hard not to wonder what that band would have been like if Hell had stayed.
"Manly" nihilism? Please. If that's what they're getting out of punk they're not punk.
ReplyDeleteThe comment wasn't actually directed at Punk rock...it was, mabey a crude, way to distinguish those that have faced the consequences of modernity...think Camus' Stranger or Eliot's Wasteland as oppossed to those that seek distraction from it.
DeleteI think the generalization of the period is correct though...especially if you look at No Wave music and films and what emerged in the late 80's / early 90's.
I have some thoughts in regards to some of these Punk Rockers that may not be that far from your own...and of course will have me on e'erybody's sh*t list again. :)
Congrats again on Baby Godzilla.