Howl

Chicago, IL: 11:37 pm. Home. Exhausted. About 13 hours ago I stood outside of a record store on the historic Telegraph Ave in Berkeley, CA. In the window hung a bit of area-related musical history, including some old show flyers, photos, newspaper articles, etc. There was a Black Flag flyer from their July 14, 1984 show at Ruthie’s Inn, a local club that was very instrumental in the punk and thrash/metal scenes. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have been there when all that was happening. It must have been something else. As soon as I got home, I grabbed Get in the Van and looked for Rollins’ journal entry about this show. I found it. He talks about how a guy got onstage and punched him in the face. The punch knocked him out cold until he eventually came to at guitarist Greg Ginn’s feet. The crowd was yelling at him to get up and finish the show. Of course, he did. I wish I was there. On a side note, 10 days later is Rollins’ journal entry from Chicago. It was written while at the Metro, and he talks about traveling with 12 people in a van and how he slept on the hump of the wheel the previous night. He also talks about how he’d like to put out his own book one day. 25 years later, I read many of them repeatedly.

About 12 hours ago I stood at the top of Sather Tower - also known as The Campanile - looking out over the entire Bay Area. This final look at so many of the areas I had spent the past few days exploring was a sobering one. Less than an hour later, I was back at the airport.

There’s so much I saw that I want to write about. I didn’t really have the opportunity to do it while I was out there, but I will write more as soon as I feel less beaten down.

One Response to “Howl”

1. TJ Says:
   June 29th, 2009 at 8:23 am

   Wow that sounds like fun…

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