Article: "Punk"

"Why/How I began to like Punk music"

Back in the days of pretty pink shirts and conformist ideas, a little
girl named Tara with blond hair and blue eyes began to slowly descend
into the kingdom of geeks. Yes, my children, she started listening to
"Punk" music.

And for the sake of truth, I can't say that this young girl was forced
into it, put on a platter, naked, in front of all of the roving eyes of
her 5th grade class and made to listen to "punk" music until she loved
it. No, it did not happen that way. She just simply..fell into it. Like
Alice in Wonderland simply fell down the rabbithole.

She had never liked money, nor anything really expensive, which made
her somewhat different than her friends who were in love with lush
expensive pressed powder compacts so that they could cover the places
where future pimples and break-outs would sprout. So, when she stepped
into the shabby bookstore that attracted her interest by its complete
lack of beauty and care, she wasn't expecting to enter into this
"kingdom of geeks", but she entered nonetheless. She picked up the
first tape she came across, The Clash-Combat Rock. She paid for it and
had a nice little chat with the store owner for a little bit(who
happened to be the Duke under the king of the Kingdom of Geeks), and
then left.

Her pink room accepted her as it always had before. The pink covers
and make-up in front of her vanity were quiet and gentle in their
innocence as always, but as soon as Tara's new tape was put on, they
lost every soap bubble of love she had ever had for them.

She tore away her association with any things that reminded her of the
time in "pink conformist land". She didn't have any friends anymore,
her room had not a trace of pink left in it, and, for some strange
reason, she acquired a fierce hatred for any kind of government. She
had successfully entered into the Kingdom of the Geeks, and she didn't
seem to be coming out of it anytime soon.

~Now, wasn't that such a nice story? All perfect and wrapped up in a
nice little red bow? Lies always seem to come together like that.

For the sake of truth, it never happened like that. The truth was
eeked out in a small quantity per sentence, and lies were smilingly
sprinkled everywhere, like pixie dust.

The real story..well..there isn't much to say. I started out listening
to punk because some acquaintance of mine was in a punk band and
invited me to one of their shows. I went, and enjoyed it, a lot. And
then I dated the lead singer of the band for a while(not the
acquaintance, the acquaintance was the drummer), and he got me more
into it. And then the lead singer and I broke up, and I kept listening
to punk, as well as lots of other genres of music.

I liked punk in the beginning because I thought it was awesome music
to make out to(and..it was). But after the lead singer and I broke
up(Mutual breakup, didn't hurt, nice and clean), I liked it for its
complete lack of anything great. Usually, punk bands are compiled of
people who don't know how to play their particular instrument, or sing
very well, can't write very good songs, and they usually like safety
pins, converse sneakers, and spiked hair. So, the usual punk bands have
bad singers, bad players, and bad songs. For me, that was
rebellion.

And what teenager do you know doesn't like rebellion in any
form?

I fell in love, and I was stuck, because there wasn't anything I could
learn later that would make me hate it. It's kinda like emptying out
all of your imperfections, idiosyncracies, and craziness onto the table
for someone you've never really talked to before on a first date. It's
all there, all the things they may learn later and hate you for, for
them to see and choose if they want to walk out and leave you right
there, or stay because they love you even for all of those things
you've left rotting on the table. Punk is like that. You see all of its
imperfections and problems on the table, and you love it, even
so.

Punk is terrible. Absolutely terrible. And any normal person would
drop whatever punk cd they were holding and run to the safety of the
nearest Christina Aguilera cd. But, if you like punk, then you didn't,
you held onto that punk cd, bought it, listened to it until it was too
scratched up to listen to again, and then ran out and bought another
one to repeat the same exact process.

It's love in its simplest form. As clear and perfect, as shaving
soap.