henry rollins vs. hipsters

there's also that phil was basically otm re: a socially awkward nerd , it's just that sometimes we handle these things better than others, and frame of mind affects our ability to respond

I liked "Think Tank" a lot, it did sort of end in a "Here's some hilarious stuff I wrote to someone.." but the rest was all good.

TBH I *like* Rollins because at heart he's the nerd-made-good, revenge fantasies and all that, but you know he's still human and unsure. I've seen him do standup a couple times in past years and he did this one where he went ON AND ON about turning 40 and how horrible it was and blah blah but then he segued into this awesome story about going to a KISS concert and how adorable and awesome KISS fans are which kind of redeemed his "wah I am an old fake" rant.

I DNGI why he is so obsessed with this "people dismiss me cos Im an old has been" thing. Why does he think this? He's the arbiter of true hardcore! He was the singer of Black Flag FFS. What is the matter with him?!

PS I read "get in the van" back in the day and it made me all aggresive and angry for some reason. Not at what I read, but in some weird sympathy?

seems plausible enough

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Wow, that 1984 clip brings back all my mixed feelings about Black Flag at the time.

I will say this: Not all social behavior on the other side of decent is equally bad, and that kind of confrontational narcissism is both very '84 punk and very sociable in its stunted way--the idea of putting it all out there (including prejudices), making people defend themselves, snapping them out of politeness, challenging received thinking, etc. If there are less healthy impulses mixed in (aggressiveness, asking questions so loaded you couldn't possibly want an answer), that only shows the risks of living too long on the other side.

The reason the kid isn't too shocked is he's used it. (Even Henry touching his hair is very slam-pit, somewhere between tenderness and a prelude to a fight.) He runs the interview in that same play-acting way until the tables get turned, and obviously doesn't know what to make of Kira, who's unacculturated enough to think she's being interviewed. And as if to confirm Henry's paranoia, he invokes the common, automated critique of Black Flag at the time--that they were playing "heavy metal," "selling out," not playing "TV Party" etc.

So I don't see a bully and a kid, I see a bunch of kids trying to figure out who they are in a radical situation. And there's a bit of punk culture-clash in the New York footage too, where, what, these women are surprised Henry Rollins is baiting them with whatever demons lurk in his head rather than asking them questions and getting to know them after they yell, "Get in the van!"?

I should say, punk was the first time I became aware of people using quotation marks around everything--speech, clothes, the tiniest behaviors. It was a pointed irony expressed at the expense of all kinds of conventions that truly needed tearing down--and I still see kids deconstructing things as they say them in the same way in alternative schools. But now obviously the attitude toward sexism is like night and day.

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High vote for Rollins here...

Right,I have actually got round to seeing the vid.

He comes over as not a douchebag at all. Someone shouts him, he goes up to them and engages. not in a threatening way.

He may come over as less than modest about his book, but at least she now knows what it was about.

Oh, and the people in the shop are also not douchebags. No-one was insulted or insulting.

So, there you go.

Oh, and the people in the shop are also not douchebags. No-one was insulted or insulting.

I think they were mocking him, but backed down when he came over, trying to make it appear that they were just fans.

so are we assuming that the average nyc hipster recognizes henry rollins on sight... but only in order to mock him?

Mocking is not exactly 'insulting', really.

He's maybe not a 'douchebag', but he is very intense and overbearing in a way that doesn't look at all fun to be around. Everyone else in the video is just a person doing normal stuff.

At the start of the video Rollins was just a person doing normal stuff, he was looking at records and talking about them... Its not like he burst through the doors and called them all fuckfaces.

is it normal to film yrself doing normal stuff

+ not that they could have possibly known it at the time unless they had super-keen hearing, but he was ALREADY being kind of a dick just talking about the records

those poor records!

uhhh i mean i don't know what the larger context of this trip to the record store is, but talking about how "elitist" a store is while you rifle through their shelves pulling out cool albums to show your friend is p.douchey

"here we are at my favorite sushi place — as you can see there is a lot of good sushi on the menu, and that is because only elitist sushi-obsessed snobs who hate me come here to eat"

some of the stuff he says is complete aids

Have Pomplamoose covered any Black Flag songs yet? I behind on ILX reading and want to collapse as many threads as possible.

(xp) there must be a post you can think of that just doesn't reference aids at all. i don't find it anything more than something to roll my eyes at, but there's more than one aids survivor - that i'm even aware of - on ilx

pretty prominent video, but the guy is a complete ass in this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_3g4QPojMc

I mean here's this dude vehemently against hipsters and he accuses some 14 year old kid of not knowing enough about "good music".

^^^^^

Wow, that 1984 clip brings back all my mixed feelings about Black Flag at the time.

I will say this: Not all social behavior on the other side of decent is equally bad, and that kind of confrontational narcissism is both very '84 punk and very sociable in its stunted way--the idea of putting it all out there (including prejudices), making people defend themselves, snapping them out of politeness, challenging received thinking, etc. If there are less healthy impulses mixed in (aggressiveness, asking questions so loaded you couldn't possibly want an answer), that only shows the risks of living too long on the other side.

The reason the kid isn't too shocked is he's used it. (Even Henry touching his hair is very slam-pit, somewhere between tenderness and a prelude to a fight.) He runs the interview in that same play-acting way until the tables get turned, and obviously doesn't know what to make of Kira, who's unacculturated enough to think she's being interviewed. And as if to confirm Henry's paranoia, he invokes the common, automated critique of Black Flag at the time--that they were playing "heavy metal," "selling out," not playing "TV Party" etc.

So I don't see a bully and a kid, I see a bunch of kids trying to figure out who they are in a radical situation. And there's a bit of punk culture-clash in the New York footage too, where, what, these women are surprised Henry Rollins is baiting them with whatever demons lurk in his head rather than asking them questions and getting to know them after they yell, "Get in the van!"?

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, December 20, 2010 7:35 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

Punk attitude confuses the hell out of me. It's a rebellion against everything, including itself, so it's hard for me to tell when somebody is acting punk... or being punk in the face of perceived notions of punk? I don't know.

being in black flag, for many people in the group (not least rollins, treated like a human ashtray by some in the audience), seemed to be about positioning yourself in opposition to everything, including your fans.

and a lot of their behaviour, imho, is down to being pretty damaged people in their own right, participating in a project that wasn't designed as a healing process, if that makes sense.

but talking about how "elitist" a store is

tbh, I thought he was being reasonably non-sarcastic here.

yeah sorry jeff that was my bad! stupid schoolyard slang

Punk attitude confuses the hell out of me. It's a rebellion against everything, including itself, so it's hard for me to tell when somebody is acting punk... or being punk in the face of perceived notions of punk? I don't know.

― heh (kelpolaris), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 04:56 (12 hours ago)

don't get rollins at all, just seems awful, his obscure logic and weird emo roidhead persona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-xMkHgan0Y

thing abt fucking w rollins is if youre into his music u kno hes like a rattlesnake

those ladies and the kid above kno who theyre dealing w and probably anticipated some confrontation with their comments (ladies: ha u wrote that book man; boy: going heavy metal eh fellas?) which is probably how they got their kicks, the boy handled himself rly well and trolled him back good tho

so yes rollins is/was a douche but i mean why taunt the guy unless you want to put up w his dickish antics

taunting him even slightly knowing how easily u can wind him up also makes u a bit of a douche tho not as much as rollins sure

but people liked to push rollins' buttons

heres a fun one by my man nardwuar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt8i4lStIxg