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Rollie Rathburn Apr 2019
While capable of achieving abstract thought of the highest order, the human brain tends to function best when compartmentalizing data into manageable pieces. For example, the state in which one resides is useful in a macro view of geolocation, but largely useless when it comes to ordering a pizza. As such, our species developed streets, postal codes, cardinal directions, and a whole host of determining factors to describe your home with enough clarity to ensure your disc of cheesy goodness arrives safe and sound.

By this same token, we break down and discuss music. For the most part, all humans can say that they enjoy music to some degree or another.  But for those whose passion extends beyond using the radio for background noise, there’s a point where the specificities of what we absorb aurally merges with part of our socio-cultural identity. Whether this is reflected in your sudden urge to wear strapped sandals and listen to Grateful Dead live bootlegs while slack-lining or constantly refreshing a subreddit so you know which warehouse space is hosting a tech-house set until dawn, the most passionate amongst us eventually become that which we absorb. These things become fractalized versions of ourselves. After all, someone who has never had their heart broken probably won’t appreciate Elliot Smith as much as the rest of us.

It is on the fringes of these musical personalities that we find *******. Combining the most aggressive tendencies of metal with the politics and personality of street punk, ******* is an amalgam of all things angry. Exhibiting a neb-tribalism not often seen in other subsets of music, ******* “kids” (Kids can be used to define ages ranging from 13 to 45 depending on context) understand that a sweaty basement filled with people pummeling one another will never become a societal norm. And they revel in the misanthropy.

However, this is not to say that ******* kids are fueled only by rage. From it’s inception in punk scene during the late 1970’s, the entire point of ******* has been to create a community dedicated to supporting one another during our darkest times. Sure that occasionally means punching your friend in the head, but that’s only because we haven’t figured out how to punch the geo-political turmoil of Earth in the head just yet.

Whether extolling the virtues of veganism, Straight Edge, ecocriticism, economic inequality, anti-racist and anti-racist movements, or simply just talking about how alone we can feel inside of our own heads, ******* at it’s best seeks to improve the space husk we’re all floating around on. By virtue of these lofty goals, ******* swiftly takes on a communal nature due to the common belief that we are all united against an existence which does not reflect us. Rob Lind said it best: “*******’s not much. But for some of us, it’s all we’ve got.”

Then one clear morning in December, my father died. And suddenly ******* was all I had left.

Obviously, I still had my siblings and friends. But after all, the ethos of ******* always managed to echo everything my father taught me to believe. Whether that be standing up for someone getting picked on because they’re different, refusing to place trust in authority, or rallying all the other lost souls and building your own society two steps to the left of the mainstream.

So, as an autopsy was being performed to ensure the skin, organs, and long bones of Robert Rathburn’s arms were harvested for donors, I stood in the alleyway of the Nile Theater listening to the bass reverberate through the asphalt as Iniquity, Beg For Life, Troubled, No Altars, and Iron Curtain played to a packed basement below.

Admittedly, this was a show I was supposed to be reviewing, and this piece was also due months ago. However, my time was instead spent shaking hands and hugging people I’ve spent the better part of 20 years building a small, fractured, but loving community with. At the end of the day, I suppose that’s all ******* has ever and should ever be about. Communally channeling the hurt and anger into fists and screams until it stings a little less and the emptiness of the world wanes ever so slightly.
Scott Sinnock Feb 2015
I am the wind of thought
that flows through time.

I am Homer and Achilles
Sophocles, Shakespeare
Verdi, Ibsen, and Williams.

I flow through the generations,
following imagination,
leaving dark Chaos to rule the past.

I am Zeus and Hera,
And deeper, Mnemosyne
Ananke
and
Chronos.

I flitter it seems as I pass
from moment to moment,
memory to memory,
soul to soul.

I am
Cleopatra, Jenny Lind, and Jolie
teasing, singing and dancing
to the delight of the Muses

I am Jesus and Buddha
Epicurus, Epictetus
Even Chinese too.

I am Descartes and Newton
Einstein and Plank
Math and logic
Love and hate.

I am God.

I am the wind of thought that flows through our minds.
I am the wind of thought that flows through our time.
Nathaniel Munson Jan 2013
A dous e juc

Pro farel lind des

Met primi garand

Qimu loufe reile

-

Wein yus volein assere

Prestre postre payu

-

I read this with no curiosities or ambition;

Just a simple imagination.
Los peces de colores juegan
donde cantaba Jenny Lind.
Jenny era casi una niña
por 1840,
pero tenía
un glu-glu de agua embelesada
en la piscina etérea de su canto.

New York era pequeño entonces.

Las casitas de cuatro pisos
debían de secar la ropa
recién lavada
sobre los tendederos azules de la madrugada.

Iremos a Battery Place
-aquí, tan cerca-
a recibir saludos de pañuelo
que nos dirigen los barcos de vela.

Y las sonrisas luminosas
de las cinco de la tarde,
oh, si darían
un brillo de luciérnaga a las calles.

Luego, cuando el iris del faro
ponga a tiro de piedra el horizonte,
tendremos pesca
de luces blancas, amarillas, rojas,
para olvidarnos de Broadway.

Porque Jenny Lind era
como el agua reída de burbujas
donde los peces de colores juegan.
Hexaedros de madera y de vidrio
apenas más grandes que una caja de zapatos.
En ellos caben la noche y sus lámparas.

Monumentos a cada momento
hechos con los desechos de cada momento:
jaulas de infinito.

Canicas, botones, dedales, dados,
alfileres, timbres, cuentas de vidrio:
cuentos del tiempo.

Memoria teje y destejo los ecos:
en las cuatro esquinas de la caja
juegan al aleleví damas sin sombra.

El fuego enterrado en el espejo,
el agua dormida en el ágata:
solos de Jenny Lind y Jenny Colon.

"Hay que hacer un cuadro", dijo Degas,
"como se comete un crimen". Pero tú construiste
cajas donde las cosas se aligeran de sus nombres.

Slot machine de visiones,
vaso de encuentro de las reminiscencias,
hotel de grillos y de constelaciones.

Fragmentos mínimos, incoherentes:
al revés de la Historia, creadora de ruinas,
tú hiciste con tus ruinas creaciones.

Teatro de los espíritus:
los objetos juegan al aro
con las leyes de la identidad.

Grand Hotel Couronne: en una redoma
el tres de tréboles y, toda ojos,
Almendrita en los jardines de un reflejo.

Un peine es un harpa
pulsada por la mirada de una niña
muda de nacimiento.

El reflector del ojo mental
disipa et espectáculo:
dios solitario sobre un mundo extinto.

Las apariciones son patentes.
Sus cuerpos pesan menos que la luz.
Duran lo que dura esta frase.

Joseph Cornell: en et interior de tus cajas
mis palabras se volvieron visibles un instante.
HarshaVA Mar 2020
Flowing through the rails
      topping all the trails
Running behind the sails
        leading to my tales
Blowing with the wind
         treating all the sinned
Rising above the lind
         pausing all the grind
I'm shapeless to fit in the piece
I use the abstract for the seize
An alley to the natives
But the baddy to the curatives
I'm challenging for them to figure
Also made them to gibber
Wondering the significance of my presence
Here you go with my essence
Rocking over the years
    ranking above the beards
Resuming the golden ages
   reducing the false wages
Singing with the chirps
      jumping with the fins
Talking with the souls
      giving time to console
Evolving to the best
   shaping with the crest
Investing your gold in the right
        believing on your might
Every 'once' ends with 'ever after' and
my ring will also break when its role is paid
Worrying leads to pain
Analyzing makes a new reign
I'm explaining to say my name and that's...
Inculcating CO-ordination in a RObust way to restore
the lost NAmes and that says...
'CORONA'.....

— The End —