After this's all over, I hope the U.S. gov't bills Trump for the damage he's done to our reputation

[psychic vampire.]

It's so funny seeing this video again, because i remember my friend sending me this video over a decade ago when another friend and i were super into Atom And His Package. We were all also into ska. It was a bad/weird/bleak time. I must have seen Dan Deacon a million times in the three year period between like 2004 and 2007. Oh well.

Rusty: I trust that you are a fine person who wants to do right. My contention is not with persons most of the time. And i think you understand that women or gay people or black people or whoever have a lot of shit experiences. Other people have chimed in, but the reality is, even if you understand it in an academic, or even more experiential way, it's different when it's every day, getting denied employment or fired because of who you are, people throwing shit out of moving cars at you when you're just walking to the grocery store, getting beat up, all the way down to the small things that are basically invisible to our peers. And the thing is that i don't want to turn it into a pity party. Not interested in that. Just interested in providing remembering that the world is different for different people, and plenty of factors play into that, but for many people race or gender are much bigger parts of those experiences than others might realize. I don't really know where else to go with this anymore.

When that person doominchains was hanging around, i received some wonderful PMs from him to the tune of "kill yourself you spoiled tranny freak lolzlolz..." (i cut off some of the "lolz" at the end). And, i didn't really mention it here for a bunch of reasons; in isolation plenty of people are spoken to like this every day, and we're supposed to be strong and ignore this shit, because that's what people (mostly white men, please, lets be real here) do. But that's like, an every day thing in my life. And the lives of basically every visibly trans woman i know. And the suicide rates amount trans women are astronomical, so this insult is not just a generalized "I dislike you and think you suck" but a very specific attack that takes place within a context that i live, but how do i explain that to anyone?

I'm losing track of myself. It's late. And i'm fortunate enough to have busted my ass to afford a really nice sampler. And i love it, and i'm going to go play with it. But life is still often shit. I hope no one gets elected and we all get the hell out of this mess.

[hbombgraphics]

PV, it completely sucks that you had to go through that, and those PMs cross a huge line....I won't pretend to know what that experience is like, doing my best to empathize, I believe it is very unfair to throw out the "everyone has struggles" line about issues like these.

It can be historically proven (voting for one huge example) that being a white man in america held specific advantages for way more of our countries history than anyone should be proud of. So to say that everyone has hard times is to minimize very specific struggles of many groups of people.

Best way I can describe this: once in a while my Son says he is "Starving" and I have to remind him that he is hungry, not starving. Not once in his entire life has he ever been close to starving, it's impossible for him to completely understand what it is really like to be in that position. So if he ever comes across a starving person and says to them "hey I know what it's like to starve because I had to wait an extra 5 minutes for a pizza once" I am going to have to kindly remind him that he is being an asshole.

[D.o.S.]

We were all also into ska. It was a bad/weird/bleak time.

Ok I think we need to focus on the real tragedy in PV's post for at least a page or two.

[D.o.S.]

[D.o.S.]

[D.o.S.]

Just, you know, casually resized for that perfect avatar in waiting for someone you care about.

Oh what's that? New Page? MORE SKA?

[bloatedsack]

No joke I've never felt more unwelcome/scared/creeped out than I have in Ohio. The state feels like the intro of Blue Velvet.

So, you're suggesting that Gummo was a documentary?

(btw, worst movie ever but did introduce me to Sleep so there's that)

[psychic vampire.]

I will remind you my high school ska band broke up because my guitarist wanted to sound more like Reel Big Fish and i wanted to sound more like Aus Rotten. High school was weird.

[D.o.S.]

I've actually never seen Gummo, but Harmony Korine's movies are usually things I like more in theory than in practice.


BUT! At least Korine never put any fucking ska music in his soundtracks. Lets stay focused on the issues here (and by the issues I mean the atrocity that is ska music [with notable exception of that Op Ivy cd because have a heart], rather than the super fucked up shit that I know I can't honestly empathize with which makes me sad).

[bloatedsack]

I'd like to point out that real ska is actually pretty excellent. Try some Laurel Aitken, Tommy McCook, Skatalites or Maytals (arguably rocksteady, which is more-or-less a downtempo ska). Actual Jamaican ska is good stuff, it only becomes crap after white English guys decided they could do it better.

I have no room in my life for the Ska-punk shit happened in America, either.

Edit: Or Desmond Dekker! My introduction to ska was through Desmond, and it's fucking brilliant. Even his collaborations with some English twats in the '80s didn't ruin his star power.

[snipelfritz]

being a white man in america held specific advantages

Haha, yeah, dat white privilege. Tis something I know.

The reason so many people don't want to acknowledge it is that it's really how everyone should be treated.

[psychic vampire.]

Y'all. Mighty Mighty Bosstones when i was like 10 or 11 changed my life, but American Musical Atrocities aside, first and second wave ska had more than a few good parts, but the real real is that no ska means no dub, which means no Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, no I-Roy and U-Roy, no Upsetters, no King Tubby, and none of that shit means huge swaths of the best post-punk and techno never would have happened, and in that case i'd be le sad.

[bloatedsack]

The evolution of Jamaican music is really fascinating when you dig into it and follow along and see how things developed over the years.

[Iommic Pope]

The Specials are fucking great.

90s Ska-punk can huff anthrax.

[psychic vampire.]

American Third Wave Ska/Ska-Punk did give us the best album title of all time.