For me, it was exciting music to begin with (punk music!) and then it was increasingly about how I laugh and have fun in a way that others don’t like or respect or think is dumb… I was kind of weird. Not like, anti-social, brooding, misfit type weird, but just really talkative, bombastic, “weird,” maybe even a little effeminate for a teenage boy – not like I was gay or signaling I was gay, beause I am not, but because I was lanky and acting silly & having fun…

I was chatty & energetic…

And I saw how that clashed with the more conservative culture and norms, and so then it was also all about how this music isn’t just super fun… It’s about how I can distinguish & express myself in a real fun way.

(Isn’t me - just a fun reference pick of what the style & lifestyle was all about)

I also found my teenage girlfriend through my punk lifestyle and it was just so fabulous having this pretty girl who was also a punk, going to shows with her, hanging out, dressing punk on a budget with DIY shit, pirating music… We had our group of friends and just on a school night, you know, going out to the Wal Mart and buying cheap snacks and playing hacky sack and talking way too long, going to a payphone and saying “dad dad don’t worry I am sorry I don’t got much time I will be home by 11, just go to bed first, I’ll try to not wake you up” (comes home at 2)…

So many fun shows & bands, new sounds, everything was exciting, and the whole crew was just into… experiencing life from their own perspective that was resepctful, non-judgmental, and you really FIT IN, and it filled youw ith pride to be out with the punks & skins & hardcore kids and people LOOKING over…

And you’d occasionally see that 12-13 year old kid who didn’t have any of the gear except maybe a band shirt (poseur band!) and they’d give you that look of like… “oh man I am going to be like those guys - I am on that path…”

Just the other day in the supermarket picking up milk I was walking with my heavily tattood arms out and that… LOOK of the face of a man who was a punk rocker, you know, the expression of the joker, the trickster, the life-loving rebel… and I saw a boy in his late teens with long hair and a band shirt give me that look of admiration - of mutual souls.

You know it when you see it.

Keep the fire alive, guys! Whether it’s punk, goth, rockabilly, even if you are a raver… Live the life. It’s beautiful and changes you forever and never goes away. It’s an indelible mark.