Submachine At Basement Transmissions On October 30, 2021

      Here are pictures that I took at Basement Transmissions, in Erie, PA, on October 30, 2021.  The lineup was Submachine, Tradesmen, Mala Sangre and Massive Denial.

Submachine:

Tradesmen:

Mala Sangre:

Massive Denial:

Submachine At Now That's Class In Cleveland, OH On October 29, 2021

      Here are pictures that I took at Now That's Class, in Cleveland, OH, on October 29th, 2021.  The lineup was T.V. Drugs, Muamin Collective, Kill The Hippies and Submachine.

Submachine:

Kill The Hippies:

Muamin Collective:

T.V. Drugs:

Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes

     Poison Idea was right, record collectors are pretentious assholes.  I should know because I am one of them to a certain extent but to a lesser degree than some.  So I have learned.

     I don't have many highly sought after or rare records.  All of my Misfits singles are bootleg represses and I'm okay with that.  I have a decent amount of newer test pressings and a few early Dischord releases. A good chunk of my record collection was obtained the hard way by going to shows and picking them up at the merch table or at Brave New World back before there was a “resurgence” of vinyl and the term “audiophile” became a thing.

     These days, I try to avoid getting into dogfights on eBay and keep my Discogs want list to a few local releases that will probably never pop up for sale.  There's also a lot of mail order going on for the limited fancy colored vinyl that comes directly from labels or artists.  Mostly, my record collection is for listening and not hoarding on Smaug like levels.

     Every now and then I'll venture onto the Discogs to create listings for the few records that I have that are not in their database.  It is a time consuming process that I really don't have the patience for but I'll go through the motions so I know what's on my shelves and not have to remember each of the three thousand records that I have.

     Last Summer, I came into possession of a handful of test pressings and hard to come by color variants from the band Snapcase.  None of the records had listings so I took pictures of all of them and put the information into the website.  All in all it was a few hours of work because Discogs is not the most user friendly website.

     The following day I received an email saying that a listing I created was changed.  Another user had gone in and changed it to the way he thought it should be.  Which was less than accurate so I went back in and corrected it.

     Apparently, that pissed this guy off to no end.  And I say “guy” because really who else would be going back and forth over the inane details of a thirty year old plastic disc that is seven inches in diameter other than grown ass little boys?  And, again, I say this as a grown ass little boy.

     After I changed the listing back, I immediately received an email from this troll that said I was classifying the test pressing for Snapcase's Comatose EP incorrectly.  He then went through the other 20 or so listings I had created over the years and nitpicked through the details and complained about each them. Now all of a sudden my inbox was flooded with messages from this guy complaining about the “integrity” of the information I was adding to the database.

     Let me get this straight, he went in and fucked up a listing so I changed it back since I'm the one with the record on my shelf and then he throws a fit that I corrected him.  That was seemingly the gist of it.  I made the mistake of responding to this sweaty palmed record nerd and explained that I had the test pressing, the documentation from the label and the envelope that Victory Records used to send the record to the band for their approval so maybe I was better suited to know what the deal was with this record than he was.  This stuff had personal addresses and phone numbers on it so I did not want to post pictures of these papers on the internet.  He said I should have included that long story in the posting as if it was anyone's business.  It was at this point that my middle fingers started twitching.

     Was he upset that I was in possession of a record that he didn't have and that I had no intentions of parting ways with?  More than likely but I didn't bother to stick around to find out.  I came to the sudden realization that I had better things to do so I got on with my life and the middle finger twitch subsided.

     It's moments like this that make me keep my fandom and collector nerd tendencies to myself.  And it's also one of the many reasons why I don't frequent record conventions and similar events.  I am completely unable to deal with people that might get a little too wrapped up in whatever it is they choose to nerd out about.  I'm glad they have a hobby that makes them less miserable but I need to have an arms length policy from other collector nerds.

     I use music as a medication and sometimes when other people get too close to it they will more than likely fuck up the dosage.  That's why I usually go to the record store by myself and prefer to go to shows alone.  The chemicals in my brain need the music not the human interaction.

Politicians In My Eyes

     It's that magical time of year again when we should all fill out our mail-in ballots or head to our assigned polling place to cast our votes.  Given the emphasis that is always placed on the primaries in the Pittsburgh area, it always feels like people might not show up for the general election.

     With the amount of yard signs that I'm seeing around town for everyone's racist uncle that decided to run for mayor, I am feeling rather paranoid about the outcome of that race.  I keep thinking of that episode of The Simpsons where Bart ran for class president and lost because all of his classmates thought he was going to win so no one bothered to vote.  If that happens we could end up with a racist cop that doesn't seem to know much about anything as our mayor and that is chilling.  So, please, don't be complacent and throw a vote toward Ed Gainey.

     If you live in Pittsburgh's Council District 4, which is in the South Hills, you might see Connor Mulvaney on your ballot for city council.  He's running as the Green party candidate against feckless turd Anthony Coghill.  Coghill only seems to show up for ribbon cuttings and photo ops.  Aside from not really doing anything for his district, he has publicly shown himself to be quite the bootlicker when it comes to reigning in Pittsburgh's violent police force.

     With the immense amount of judges on the ballot, it's important that we start building a firewall against a potential Republican governor that might be elected next year.  Building up the state's judiciary will be one of the last possible protections that we'll have.  And I did notice the judge that presided over the Michael Rosfeld trial (the cop that murdered Antwon Rose) was up for retention so he was an easy “No” vote along with every other judge on the back of my ballot.

     As much as the Democratic party has been a much expected disappointment, they are the only buffer between lunacy and the people.  With the Republican party embracing authoritarianism and white supremacy while attempting to rewrite history in real time, I see no other option than to vote against them at every opportunity.  They are flagrantly coming after abortion rights, voting rights and attempting to destroy education with their ginned up fear of history.  I really don't want Pennsylvania becoming the Texas of the north but it feels like we are heading that way.

     If you've seen any political ads on television this cycle, you may have caught the new buzzphrase that goes something like “My name is so and so and I'll protect the Constitution.”  That seems to be the new dogwhistle for people that think preventing the spread of a deadly airborne virus is less important than the ability to go to Applebees or going to a sportsball game.  They were somehow appalled that the Governor would use his powers as the Governor to try to protect people from dying and that covering their dirty mouths while out in public was violation of their rights.

     Either that or “I'll protect the Constitution” is code for “Friends, Romans and fellow white people, I will protect your made up bubble of bullshit and keep you safe from the coloreds and the gays.”  If I were a betting man, I'd say it's a little from column A and a little from column B.

     In years past, you may have thought that it doesn't matter who you vote for and that all of the candidates were the same.  That bit of nihilism has been proven false because this shit hits everybody.  The local and state levels have been rotten for years because of low voter turnout and that's where the bulk of our day to day interactions are.  If you want cops to be held accountable and have a few of their dollars spread around to services that will actually help and serve people, then you have to vote in those ever so boring off year elections.  I know it sucks to have to pay attention to this stuff all of the time and I would love to direct my brain power elsewhere but it's when we look away that these pigfuckers start getting aggressive and cross lines that they have no business crossing.

     “We keep us safe” has to extend beyond punching Nazis in the street and into the voting booth.  These scumbags are running for every possible office at every level, from local school boards to governorships, and they must be stopped.

These Vans Were Made For Walking

     Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?--Hunter S. Thompson

     After twenty one years and eleven months, I have walked away from my day job.  I could no longer access that thing in my head that said it was okay to continue working for a multinational corporation.

     Five days a week, I would clock in and be a good little cog in the machine for eight hours.  There were always times that I felt like life was passing me by but eventually those feelings would pass.  Especially when it came time to pay the mortgage.  In recent months, I was unable to shake that feeling and would either end up having a panic attack or balled up on the couch.  It was time to go.

     Yes, I would be walking away from half way decent benefits and a union wage but at what cost to my sanity.  A false sense of security was no longer worth being in an abusive relationship with my employer.  I became completely incapable of plastering a fake smile on my face in order to plow through my daily tasks so I could be paid almost enough to live a life.

     After losing one parent and watching the other go through what will eventually become long term health issues, I could no longer bear the thought of having an office job.  People who did the “right thing” and worked their whole lives did this for what?  It looks like they were doing nothing but working to die and I could not accept that for myself.

     I know they would rebut that argument by saying “Well, that's what you're supposed to do.”  But why? No one has ever explained to me why we should all suffer through endless bullshit from the ages of eighteen to seventy.  There might just be a different way to go about things and I think I'll give that a try for a while.  There will always be shitty office jobs.

     This will either end up being the best decision I've ever made or the worst but there's no going back now.  The “American Dream” never sat right with me and always seemed like a trap that people fell into. It felt more like being in service to Capitalism than some sort of ideal to strive for.  Racking up an insurmountable pile of debt by going to college, getting married, buying a house and having 2.5 kids may be fine for some people but I no longer have the capacity to find that acceptable.

     The people that I know that have gone that route all seem to have ended up miserable and freaked out after a few years because they figured out that they fucked up their lives and were stuck.  Or they became oblivious to their situation and drone through their day to day.  I only brushed up against that kind of life on a few occasions and, luckily for me, it blew up in my face every time that I did.  I have learned my lesson and won't touch that stove again unless my hand is forced.

     I sometimes envy people that are able to go through life without noticing how awful their surroundings are and are able to work an office job and live a low impact existence.  To have a brain that's not filled with so much noise that I can't function in the “normal” world.  Then I remember that maybe I'm not the one with the problem.  It's not my fault that I saw through a capitalist society's conditioning and rejected it.

     I don't know what I'll do with myself between now and when I fall over dead.  It will either be very quiet or very loud.  Maybe I'll try to do this writing thing for real and see if anyone will give me money in exchange for my pithy thoughts.  Hopefully there's still a market for the opinions of a rapidly aging punk with a low tolerance for ignorance and bullshit.  The media landscape has been fucked beyond recognition by tech bros and venture capitalists but let's see if they'll let loose a few dollars for me to buy ramen and keep the lights on.

     All I know for sure is that this is the first time in my life that I have stepped off shore and subjected myself to the storm of an uncertain life.  Merely existing and having a mind numbing day job to fall back on was making me sick to my stomach and I could no longer carry on.  I have learned that stability cuts both ways.  Yes, I was able to solve some problems by throwing money at them but that comfort and security made me soft and complacent.

     That being said, if you happen to know anyone looking to hire someone to write something or take some pictures, my schedule is wide open.