'drop kick the punks'

now as some of you out there in internet may or may not know there is a little website/message board for all the bored punk kids with too much time on their hands (www.indecline.net) and i embarrassed myself a little on there today...well, i didn't feel embarrassed but the dude who clued me in on my little punk rawk faux-pas sure thought i should be...

here's a little back story... this dude was talking about the 'true meaning' of punk (ugh) and got onto this huge rant about anarchy and that the anarchist spirit is what 'true' punks embody... so basically every single kid on this site slammed this dude's opinion and called him an asshole etc... whatever- some of the shit he said i agreed with so i responded with the following:

i think you guys are all being a bit shit about [ ]'s opinion. i agree that by choosing to live on the street the problem of poverty is being romantised but choosing to live without the confines of the capitalist machine is one of the principles of anarchy but i think it fails on a fundamental level because (true) anarchy is utopian and within a capitalist society (however disgusting) where real poverty is a real problem it may not be the best choice...that being said and all the slams against him for being bourgeois or whatever...fuck you guys...we have no control over the families we were born into...[ ] could not, at birth, control that his father was an attorney the same way someone cannot, at birth, prevent their mother from being a crackwhore...it's what you do with your situation and how you deal with it in a larger social context that matters. the fact that people like [ ] step away from the world they were born into is wicked...it's a step away, maybe not the best step but at least he's making one instead of dicking around and complaining about shit...that's fuckin' punk rock...

(named removed to protect the strangers who post here...)

so then this dude who posts like 5,000,000 things a day responds with the following:

You do realize [ ] is a joke user right? It is a fake account created to start up hilarious shit. The person who wrote it knew what they were saying was totally retarded and that is why they said it. In conclusion [ ] isn't real. Just a user created to start shit. -{ }

first off...am i suppose to embarrassed by this...so some fucking kids who think they're pretty hardcore because they play bingo at new city on tuesdays think it's funny that i am not so in on the indecline nonsense that i didn't know this...whatever, fuck!

but then it got me thinking, actually thinking, about this whole 'scene' thing...and how much it erks me...

ok. another brief history...just to make sure we're all on the same page...

i have been a music fan-a hardcore music fan-since around 1993-ish. i have been into punk since around 1994-ish...that's what 10-11 years? my punk experience was a little different then the gangs of kids with mohawks and bondage pants playing in bands and really living the subculture...i didn't know any punks. people like that, people like me, did not exist where i went to school. that, and my parents were incredibly strict, so basements shows and all those experiences were not part of my reality...the scene was never a scene for me. i thought punk existed in london, la and new york and so i listened alone in my basement having what i felt to be my own authentic punk rock experience-i was the loner...after junior high i wanted to have friends and i didn't want people to think i was the 'freak' so i changed...i did a total 180 and became the preppiest kid ever. obviously i wasn't happy, i hid the whole 'punk' thing away in headphone late at night and smoked way too much pot so i just didn't have to be an active part of my own deception...deep, i know but you think i knew that at the time? fuck no, i thought it was cool that i was stoned all the time and listening to rancid alone in my room...so i finished high school, and was finally able to accept myself and do what i love...so we cool... i like that i had that time, that experience and it's made me different then a lot of the punks my age who i see at shows...the number one difference: i hardly know a soul...

which brings me to my point...i don't know anyone at shows, except the person that i am there with...and so all these strangers are there, claiming to be part of a welcoming refuge for freaks and artists and miscreants (parts of which i am composed of...) and i find it to be the most exclusionary place...and here's why: being punk in edmonton in 2005 has fuck all to do with punk...or even music for that matter! the scene is about being seen in the coolest band t-shirt; it's about knowing the people in the band but not really giving a shit about their music. i really believe that most people don't like 'punk rock', they like indie rock, but love the punk seen...punk is nasty music and i can't believe cindy 'i-am-so-fucking-punk-in-my-diesel-bondage-pants' really likes listening to it...

now this of course doesn't refer to EVERYONE at the show except me. i don't claim to be anything i'm not and not everyone at the show is there for sly fashionista purposes (...but jesus i have never seen so many 'vintage' $400 blazers in my life) ... i just find it really fucking amusing when i go to a show and no one is there to hear the bands (which i am because i don't know anyone) and no one will talk to me at an event, defined through history, that is meant to be completely inclusive of all people otherwise excluded...

all of it-indecline, blazers, snobby bitches, punk, etc...-all of it makes me want to jump up onstage at new city one night, rip the microphone out of the singers hands and scream...'fuck you posers!!'

now that would be punk...i am just worried they'd all be mean to me, burn my blazer and kick me off indecline...

xo alice