Celebrating Thanksgiving old school style

It 6pm and I am still trying to get rid of my holiday hangover from last night... fucking Thanksgiving. I am not a big fan of the holidays, but it is this time of year that brings my friends home. My friends are truely a bunch of freaks, all of us that survived have managed to live our lives doing what we want, and have kept that punk rock ethic that we are so proud of. You see, we were a group of pissed off , fucked up middle class kids that found acceptance and a voice in Southern California hardcore in the early 80's. We spent our weekends in dirt fields with names like the shack, the dredge, the couch...We all wonder who named this shit. Our favorite, the shack is now a bunch of houses in Silver Creek. This is where we heard our life in the songs of Black Flag, X, The Descendants, Flipper, and The screamers. We are still amazed that we could go out with $5, chip in for beer and generic whiskey, and still have enough left over to get nachos at 7-11 on the way home. During the weekdays we made our own clothes, we were not allowed in the mall and there was no fucking Hot Topic, experimented with hairdye colored with koolaid, and rit dye, and wrote songs, and made art that expressed distaste of the conservative politics going on during the Reagan era. We grew up angry, and most importantly politically aware knowing that our voice, and our music could bring about change. My friends and I are old and I always laugh when I read about people who are considered experts of the "scene" most of them were a couple of years old when all of this was going on... I guess a sense of local musical time has to start somewhere. Bakersfield had local punk bands that had to play parties, because there were no venues, until much later when the Masque opened up downtown on 19th Street. Today's DIY movement was born out of small scenes just like ours.
These rantings are a tribute to my friends of almost 20 years...Kyle Goen, who is now a New York based artist with work in galleries around the world. He is best known for his work "Elect a Madman You Get Madness" and is also a DJ, a clothing designer and has designed Cd packages for some of music's biggest artists. Marcus Hicks, an actor in the Harlem Renaissance Theatre in New York, who is currently doing a one man show based on the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal.And last but not least, Sherry AKA Miss KoKo, guitarist of LA based Sluts For Hire. She has played with some of the greatest bands ever in my humble opinion. What impresses me the most is that none of them have changed, they still are the same kids from Bakersfield with the same ethic. One thing we ALWAYS do is raise our glasses in remembrance of the majority of friends that didn't make it because of addiction, violence, suicide and AIDS...So Kathy, Rex, Kevin, Ripper....Happy holidays you are still with us.