NOVEMBER 1985 NUMBER 11 1111111mm. What �th.8iV- AreDolng To Your Kids -·

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MARIJUANA HARVEST COMPLETELY WIPED OUT; "But what I'm ·really hoping for," MASSIVE CULTURE SHOCK IN MENDOCINO she confided, with her soft, blue eyes beginning to mist over a bit, "is to find a good man to Representatives of the Campaign marry and make a good Christian home for my Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) and the Drug kids, I"ve joined a church, and my pastor tells Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced in late Oc­ me there's a lot of men who come to services tober that they had eliminated half of this there who have jobs at the mill. He says a year's marijuana crop with their commando-style pretty girl like me," --Ms. Grimsby blushed raids that so·.greatly enlivened life in rural shyly-- "shouldn't have any trouble at all Mendocino County beginning last JUly, finding a husband." But the real story is even bigger The Rev. Spacy Sturgeon, a Layton­ than that being told by the bureaucrats, the ville religious leader, confirmed that many for­ LOOKOUT has learned, Exclusive interviews with mer hippies and marijuana grovers were returning the LOOKOtn''s many sources in the rural under­ to the church. "Why, we've got so many people ground reveal that the CAMP raiders in fact have turning up for Sunday services that we can bare­ succeeded in wiping out virtually every mari­ ly cram them all inside the building," Rev. juana plant in Mendocino County. Sturgeon excitedly told the LOOKOUT. "In fact, Since marijuana has for some years we're negotiating with Sheila Larson to take be�n.the backbone of the County's economy, its over Boomer's Bar to use for our new church, elimination can be expected to cause far-reaching because apparently her·.. busines• has fallen off repercussions, both financial and cUltural, A to.practically nothing now that all the dope recently completed LOOKOUT investigation found grovers don't have so much money to waste on major changes already taking place in the day drinking and carrying on." to day life of Mendocino.,! "I believe in my heart," said Rev. One surprise is that the county's Sturgeon, "that the brave men from CAMP have welfare rolls have not been overwhelmed by des­ been doing the work of the Lord. Why, some of titute marijuana grovers as had been predicted the young people who've been living the hippie by some observers. In fact, the welfare case life up in the hills and who've now returned to load has been substantially reduced. Gladys the church have told me tales that you coUldn't Frumpet, a claims supervisor at the Ukiah office, even print in a family newspaper like the attributes the change to the many "hippie-types" LOOKOUT." who, deprived of the marijuana that had been "Between the marijuana and the rendering them incapable,:of prodactive labor, other drugs they'd been using every day and are returning �o the work force in massive the rock music they were constantly listening numbers. "Some of these people have been sit­ to, it's no wonder that they got involved in ting up in the hills for the past 10 years just all sorts of satanic cults and devil worship. smoking their pot and collecting their welfare And the orgies and sexual perversion..... Rev. checks," Ms, Frumpet told the LOOKOUT. "Nov Sturgeon's voice trailed off. "But Praise God," that they haven't got their dope anymore, they're he perked up again, "the Lord gave us the means starting to realize how much more satisfying it to save our young people before it was too late. can be to have a good, honest job," Left unresolved, however, was the Ms, Frumpet•s observation was con­ question of where all the former marijuana firmed by Helen Grimsby, a neatly dressed young growers will be able to find employment given woman who was one of 300 people waiting to line the long-depressed state of Mendocino's trad­ to apply for two minimum-wage jobs at the Willi ts itional economy. Rev. Sturgeon had some ideas McDonald•s. Ms. Grimsby, who formerly vent by on that subject, too. "With the church ex­ the name of Harvest M:>onbeam while living on a panding so rapidly, there'll be a number of rural commune and having six children by a jobs opening up, both in the ministry and in variety of fathers, none of whose identities the more mundane fields such as construction were known to her, has been on welfare since of new facilities. And for the young people, 1974, "It's really a neat feeling to be part I'm recommending that they seriously consider of society again," she told a LOOKOUT reporter. joining the armed services, where there are all "You never realize while you•re on it just how sorts of opportunities not only for career ad­ much marijuana is messing up your brain. I vancement, but to help in the work of the Lord feel like I've just awakened from a long night- mare." here on earth--for example, to bring the kind of blessings to other countries that CAMP has "When it dawned on me that I'd been brought to us here in Mendocino," more or less a parasite living off the work of Another positive development in the decent people who'd been paying taxes all economic field came last weekend as U.S. Con­ these years, I was so ashamed," Ms. Grimsby gressman N,G, Bosco· tcilld a cheering erowd of continued. I·decided that I should get right coast residents that he was virtually certain out and get a job �nd start pulling my own of obtaining federal funds to construct a nerve weight again." gas factory and condominium complex on the as Asked how she expected to support yet undevel.oped Mendocino headlands. "Here we her six children on her salary from the notor­ have a prime piece of real estate that has been iously low-paying McDonald's, Ms, Grimsby ac­ sitting idle all these years, not contributing knowledged that her family would have to make a dime to county coffers, and now we're going some sacrifices. "I know we won't be able to to be creating hundreds of new jobs and new tax­ have the same cushy life that we had on welfare," payers," Bosco told his audience. "And this is she said, "I'm hoping that the McDonald's people no fly-by-night development, either. People are will let me take home leftovers to feed my bab­ always going to need places to live, and they're ies, and the older kids (Ms. Grimsby's children always going to need nerve gas," Frank Creasy, range from 2 to 12 years old) will be getting recently elected mayor of the newly-created jobs, too," village of Mendocino, concurred. EBP-DA | www.eastbaypunkda.com November 1985 LOOKOUT! Page 3

"Now that the local folks have got And so, all ac-ross Mendocino County, their heads out of the clouds of marijuana the LOOKOUT has found a new mood, a change in smoke," Creasy told the LOOKOUT, "they've come the political and cultural climate so drastic to their senses about the need for development that it dwarfs that said to have taken place and how important it is to allow the free enter­ when Ronald Reagan ascended to the Presidency, prise system to do its jeb •.Some exciting things In fact, Mendocino might even be said to be are going to be happening here in Mendocino. leading the way, shoving us a promising picture We'll be modernizing the whole town, and I've of what a wholly drug-free America could be just signed a contract with a Southern California like. While the LOOKOUT has in the past had its corporation to construct a three-block long reservations about the goals and tactics of the shopping mall on Main Street, Just imagine how CAMP program, it•s impossible to argue with the much that's going to mean for local business, positive results that have been achieved, One for people to be able to do all their shopping might even borrow from the President's own cam­ indoors during our long, rainy winters," paign slogan to declare, "It•s morning in Mendocino," i,n: ,111(HOOL NOW, CLASS, WHO CA� 'TEL.L. ME. THE PURPOSE. OF I.IMAT WE MAVE L.E.ARNED TODA-:,? C2

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from LOVE IS HELL by Matt Groening, P.O. Box 36E64, Los Angeles, CA 90036, S6.95 + 52 postage & handling.

EBP-DA | www.eastbaypunkda.com November 1985 LOOKOUTl Page 4 LETTERS TO THE LOOKOUT A Valentine's Day QUESTIONNAIRE from The Church of Heresies Answer these questions in your mind. Feel free to use another mind if you run out of room. 1. Think for a minute about your first love. 2. Did it seem joyous to you? Hopeless? . 3. A certain amount of time has passed since then; have the years gone fast or slow? 4. How often have you made the choice to give rather than take between then and now? 5. Did your first experience with love influ­ ence you in this regard? 6. Have you learned to be content with the fact that things turned out as they did? 7. How long will it take you to learn? 8. A human being has an "emotional half-life" between the time it learns to feel and.the time it becomes jaded; how long, on the average, would you say this is? 9. How long did it take you to learn that As I see it, there are so many dif­ each love affair is unique? ferent people on this planet that there is room 10. How long did it take you to learn that for all kinds of expression, and to some, a each love affair is the same? splash of paint or two can be as exciting as the 11. Do you believe that universal love and Mona Lisa. particUlar love cannot coexist? I think a better answer to the prob­ 12. Think for a minute about your parents. lem would be to outlaw those who freely capital­ 13. Did they love you? ize on the proximity of creative peoples, like 14. Did they love each other? flies· to shit. Face it, even you support art in 15. What is the relationship between the an­ a modern form .(what else would you call hardcore swers to Questions 13 and 14 (for instance, punk?), and yes, you even admit it 1 ".·•• NO PUNK 13 = No because 14 = Yes)? ROCK, OF COURSE; CORPORATE AMERICA, EVEN THE 16. Have you ever felt yourself to be in a SMALL TOWN VARIETY, IS IN NO HURRY TO PROMUWATE situation over which you had no control? AN ART FORM••• ", etc. 17. Do you ever wander aimlessly through the On the whole, I found your mag amus­ streets of your city? ing, thought provoking, and articulate, although 18. Do you ever pass the house of a former I think if you would loosen up a bit on your lover and loiter to see if you can catch narrow perception of the world as a whole, you a glimpse of him or her? might be pleasantly surprised. 19. An old song says, "All You Need is Love." But then again, who knows••• Why I;& Does this mean• they print menus, anyway? a) Everything would be okay if only you had love? K. Windo b} It doesn't matter that you•re poor and San Francisco miserable because you have love? Dear K. 1 I think you may be right. Thanks. LL c) You will be protected from the punish­ ment you deserve if you have love? HATS OFF TO IARRY 20. Are masks worn to facilitate expression or to protect the soul? I must tell you I am very proud of 21. Have there been gaps in your life when you you. I realize the guts and turmoil that went were not in love with anyone? into beginning the LOOKOUT. I can say "Thank 22. Did you find them pleasant or unpleasant? you" from many people for sticking it out. 23. Do you find it more difficult to tell With every newspaper I receive, I'm people that you love them or that you don't? reminded of the importance of free speech. 24. If you had your life to live over, would you Here in Rio de Janeiro, where I've lived the give more or take more? · past five months, the illiteracy rate is sixty percent. Most of this same sixty percent are submitted by K. Windo being repressed, tortured, and in many cases murdered by the social structure. They have no OKAY OKAY OKAY, BUT WAIT A MINUTE place to publicize their outcries. There is I just finished reading LOOKOUT #10 nothing like the LOOKOUT and there is no way and for once I feel I have something to say. out either, I hope that the LOOKOUT and all FIRSTLY, I enjoyed your review of religions, the newspapers like it are appreciated to the but why did you neglect some of the finer and fullest: Say your� now because later they more entertaining on a positive level such as will kill you - PAGANISM or, even better, DISCORDIANISM???? Thank you so much for keeping me Then I got to your article on fflE in touch with Mendocino County, a p lace very SOLUTION TO GENTRIFICATION. HMHHMM. While I dear to my heart. I would also love �o read agree with your rant against •• ART-TREPENEURS", an ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER if pos�ible. I I couldn't help but feel that you take an the Mendocino G eens. am ecstatic to hear about , 7 amazingly closed minded view of artists and Go get •em! Something must break the vicious modern art. To limit the creative force to chain of events the CAMP terroris�s have put. what has already been done is like limiting all into action because the outcome is too horrible. music to classical, and I do not mean to imply I hope the Greens are getting lots of local that music doesn't fit into the creative force support. concept. EBP-DA | www.eastbaypunkda.com November 1985 LOOKOUT! Page 5 To all of you people with better But apparently you think this is ac­ things to do with your free time than save the cept�ble because Mendocino is " ••• a town that very place you livea when the air is too nasty receives a major portion of its revenue from to breathe, the food is all chemicals, the water tourism." Does this mean that the tourist poisonous, and all the rest of the suffering con­ dollars are divided up among all residents of nected with a dying planet is set in motion, I Mendoc�no?_ Fat chance. As you should 'know, will thank you! If you think I am trying to make Mendocino is not even a town in the legal sense you feel so guilty you get off your asses, you•re So just who is raking in all these revenues? right. Picketing is great exercise, you know. For the most part it•s monied carpetbaggers I must admit that the absurd ways in which the like Hill House proprietors Barbara and Monte U.S. government continues to manifest its evil, Re� ("I was born and raised on a turkey farm in greedy, and murderous Nazi wishes don't sur­ Chico," Monte Reed candidly admitted to the san prise me anymore. How long does the U, s. gov­ Francisco Chronicle), Jack-in-the-Box and Men­ ernment think Ms. Planet will take before she d4;K=�no Hotel tycoon R:O· Peterson, and condo­ has her scathing and infectious cysts cut out? minium constructers like the Southern California The best for your band and county. based Wrather Corporation.who have been willing LOOKOUT, live on, stay free, and be. to despoil the Mendocino townscape and profit therefrom. A few local quislings like realtor Bash Vermil¥9 Bud Kamb and attorney Jared Carter have also Rio de Janeiro cashed in big. As for everybody else. • • well, Brazil they can always get minimum wage jobs waiting P.S. A big hello for all my friends in Layton­ on and cleaning up after the tourist hordes. Of vill� and Willits. Hello, David, out there in course they'll probably have to live somewhere New Mexico, it was nice to hear from you. else. . . . I have s�en this same process of gen­ Dear Lawrence, trification along with the inevitable displace­ ment of the less prosperous in San Francisco, Your response to my letter (LOOKOUT Nev York, I.ondon, Amsterdam, and countless oth­ #10) indicates that you totally missed my point. er places that I have travelled, and I reserve You ask me if I want terrorists in my front the right to rail against it because I consider yard or junkies in my house. The answer is No! the whole world to be my home. The issue here Junkies, terrorists, and Winnebago■ are not wel­ is not the right to travel, it is greed and the come on my property. But private property bas never been the topic of discussion. We are talk­ putting of profLt before people. ing about the public places of a town that re­ One last thinga I have never spray ceives a major portion of its revenue from tour­ painted graffiti on anyone's car except my ism. The point of my letter was that, to any im­ own. My suggestions along those lines were in7 partial observer, you, with your admittedly low­ tended as satire. life behavior, were clearly the most bbnoxious LL of the tourists on that day in Mendocino. Retired people in Winnebagos just ANOTHER RELIG:IOUS CRACKPOT ON may be enjoying their lives. You may find THE LOOSE IN IAYTONVILLE their lifestyle unfamiliar, even repugnant, but they have a right to their own pursuit of hap­ Proving once again that stupidity piness. You are not a resident of Mendocino, practiced in the name of the I.ord knows no and your attitudes toward tourists does not bounds, some moron calling himself the "Rev." give you the right to engage in illegal or ob­ Norman Morgan has befoUled the pages of the noxious behavior (e.g. spray painting graffiti Oct, 30 LA.Y'l'ONVILLE LEDGER with a witless and on their cars, etc.). taateLess diatribe claiming that people with John R. Stahl AII>S are being punished by God for their Laytonville heinous crimes •�ainst nature. 'Dus is the same line being apo�ted Dear Johna by America•• would-be ayatollah Jerry Falwell, I have it on good authority that you and carries on a long tradition of witch-· live at least twelve miles outside Laytonville. burning, medieval ■u,er■tttion, and malignant Assuming this is so, what business do you have ignorance, all of which are the·stock in signing your letters as if you were a resident trade of the religion business, The spiritual of Laytonville? And does this mean that when pillars of the community who crucified Jesus you come to town to do your shopping or visit Christ for blasphemy would probably feel right your friends that you are a tourist? How at home in Pastor Morgan's "Community Christian about when you go to Willits or Garberville? Church." How far does one have to roam before one offic­ What will the Rev. Moron tell us ially becomes a "tourist"? next? That only blacks suffer from sickle-cell anemia because God hates niggers? That Viet­ Having given you a taste of your own . pettifoggery, let me reiterat.e the point that namese and Central American peasants are bombed you totally missed• I .. don•t care if people want and napalmed because God can't stand the sight to visit our county, even if they come in Winn­ of gooks and spies? And all those heterosexuals ebagos, as long as they comport themselves in who died of syphilis before penicillin was dis­ a way that doesn't ·disrupt the lives of those covered? I guess they must have got on God's of us who live here. If you won't accept my apparently very fragile nerves, too. right to be concerned about the quality of life Laytonville, and the world at large, in Mendocino proper, maybe you can spare some needs bigoted hatemongers of Norman Morgan's pity for those-folks who were born and raised ilk about as much as it needs another Spanish there, but who no longer can afford to live Inquisition or a rebirth o� the Third Reich, there, or for that matter, even eat in a res­ I mean, freedom of religion is one thing, but taurant there because accomodations and prices how about some freedom� religion? have become totally geared to the well-heeled tourist trade,

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SAN FRANCISCO BEAT This is not to say that the same On1y a Pawn in Their Gamea pressures don't exist in public schools or The Life and Death of Dan White for that matter, in most of the institutions 7reated by society for the indoctrination of I don't suppose I'll ever forget the its young people, such as the Boy Scouts or the sickening feeling that overtook me as I first Little League. But when the power of church heard the news of the assasination of George and state becomes one monolithic whole, when l'tlscone and Harvey Milk. Though I've never been God wears a gun and the priests wear badges, fond of politicians as a breed, I couldn't help the effect on the weak-minded can be over­ but like those two men, and I could see with my whelming. own eyes that the city of San Francisco was a Dan White's corpse was barely cold better place at least in part because of their when the Bay Area's hydra-headed media appar­ efforts. atu� launched a campaign to portray him as a The political implications of the b�sicallf good boy who.�de one teeny-weeny assasination didn't sink in at first; when they little mistake. A religious man, a soldier who did, my depression deepened, and if I'd known volunteered to go to Vietnam, a policeman, an what was going to happen to the city I loved �thlete, an aggressive, hard-driving, competit­ under the direction of the new mayor, Dianne ive, macho man••• And we are supposed to ac­ Feinstein, it would have verged on despair. cept_a;1 of these attributes as being positive So now, seven years later, the man �alities• . w�11, I'm sorry, but I don't buy whose violent hatred set in motion a tragic it. As a timid, underweight young Catholic chain of events that has probably not yet seen boy, I spent too much of my childhood being its c:onclusion has seen fit to remove himself bullied and intimidated by fu•ure Dan Whites from the world of the living. My first reaction and.the black-garbed priests who pulled their to Dan White's suicide was pretty much the same s7rings to, see much good in these hateful little as that of San Francisco Examiner columnist bigots. Warren Hinckle• "Good riddance to bad rubbish." Whether Dan White went to Vietnam But it was a hollow kind of satis­ and killed gooks or became a cop and beat up faction. The bulk of my rage had never been blacks and gays, or even if he had instead directed at Dan White, who I viewed as a path­ become� priest .and devoted his life to warping etically twisted little man, but rather at the youn� minds rath�r.than fulfilling his ultimate irreparable harm he had done to my city. Dan destiny as a political assasin for the business White's death will do nothing to undo that d�m­ establishment, his whole existence would still age. stand as mute and awful testimony to the horrors Regular readers of the LOOKOUT will that w� as a society visit on our fellow humans. know that I am of the opinion that Dan White �an ':'bite may be dead, but already in our inst­ probably was acting as a paid hit man for the ituti?ns, in our str�ets and homes, we're busily corporate interests who wanted Dianne Feinstein breeding those who will take his place. in power and who have profited enormously from her tenure in City Hall. But even if there is I LOVE A MAN IN UNIFORM••• not a shred of truth to my suspicions, if Dan White was merely another in the long line of Mayor Dianne Feinstein is just nuts assasins who, supposedly all acting on their own for the Navy. If she wasn't head of a major bizarre impulses, have continuously been re­ American city, she might well be following the writing history during my lifetime, I still feel fleet around and standing under streetlamps in that there are numerous other villains in the the less savory parts of town and beckoning, piece. Whether he knew it or not, Dan White did "Psst! Hey, sailor, new in town••• ?" not act alone. But thanks to her position of in­ During the infamous trial that result­ fluence and power, Feinstein doesn't have to ed in Dan White's serving less than five years in engage in such demeaning behavior. Instead she prison for a double homicide and for robbing can simply invite in a whole flotilla of Navy the city of San Francisco of the political dir­ ships under the guise of a civic orgy of mil­ ection its people had chosen, the preponderance itaristic chest-thumping known as Fleet Week. of evidence offered in White's defense centered Massage parlors, w.horehouses, and around the assertion that he was a good, Catholic, peep shows do a land office business as thous­ heterosexual, all-American boy whose sense of ands of Uncle sam•s sex-crazed hired killers decency had been so affronted by the sight of spill into the streets of San Francisco while homosexuals and radicals taking over his beloved overhead the Blue Angels proudly roar through San Francisco that he had simply snapped. We demonstrations of the tactics used to machine were supposed to accept that his crimes, while gun and napalm peasants in faraway lands. And unfortunate, were nonetheless understandable. through it all darling Dianne smiles like a Weii, yes, they were understandaole, little Evita in her own private Argentina. though not in the precise sense that White's Isn't it wonderful, she tells us, attorney would have us believe. The simple that San Francisco is going to become a major fact is that Dan White was a product of a sys­ Navy town? Think of all the jobs, think of tem founded on the kind of hatred and violence all those wonderful young sailors calling our that was responsible for the deaths of George town their home port. Why, maybe we can even l'tlscone and Harvey Milk. The only wonder is be like San Diego,,. There will be all those that so many other young people manage to sur­ opportunities for tattoo artists and exotic vive the kind of background Dan White grew up dancers, not to mention prostitutes and bar­ in without also becoming psychopathic killers. tenders••• Plus San Francisco will be doing Anyone familiar with Catholic its share to contribute to the national def­ schools, where Dan White received most of his ense. education, knows that beneath the veneer of Well, gee, thanks, Dianne, but some­ sexual and intellectual repression lies a how I liked San Francisco a little better the seething maelstrom of barely contained violence. way it was before, when military personnel were Non-conformists are not welcome. objects of derision, and any off-duty soldier

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or sailor who had hopes of getting the locals MUSIC CAN MAKE YOU STUPID to even talk to him knew enough to leave his uniform back at the barracks, Anybody who thinks a few thousand military geeks add any­ . There's not much in the way of news thing to the cultural ambience of a city ought this month, other than the music scene's con­ to try spending a Saturday night in downtown tinued slide into abysmal mediocrity, and I•m San Diego, If that's what's supposed to be so sick of_ it I don't even feel like complain­ protecting us, we might as well invite the ing, so I'm going to go right to the reviews. Russians in right now, Face it, the military is and always DEAD KENNEDYS; DESCENDENTS, SOCIAL UNREST, SEA has been made up of the dregs of society, and HAGS• VICTIM'S FAMILY at the Novato Theater, this is even more true in the era of the all- Octobers. "This is a typical Paul Rat fiasco," volunteer armed forces, Maybe it•s just my pronounced DKs singer Jello Biafra as he sur­ own little prejudices at work here, but it veyed the crOWd of nearly a thousand mostly seems to me that any young man who can't think suburban youths who had crammed themselves into of anything better to do with himself than what is normally a movie theater (Paul Rat, for dress up in a funny-looking suit of clothes those of you who don't keep up with these and go around shooting people is lacking a things, is the Bill Graham of the SF underground little something in the intelligence depart­ punk scene). ment, and is probably not the sort of person What Biafra was referring to was the I'd want moving into my town and chasing my fact that the Novato Theater, iike.,most .movie daughters around. theaters, was completely filled with seats, Well, once again, Mayor Feinstein and leaving no room, except in the aisles, to even I don't agree, BUt at least I'm consistent. walk around, let alone dance or thrash. Now if Dianne, on the other hand, when she thought she this had been the first punk show the promoter had a chance for the vice-presidential nominat­ had ever put on, one might be inclined to be ion, couldn't say enough about how much she sup­ tolerant of his ignorance. But Paul Rat has ported the nuclear freeze and how peace was the been producing punk shows for almost as long most important issue of our time. She doesn't as there have been punk shows, and he knows damn think it's a contradiction at all for her to well people don't come to a OKs show to sit in invite the nuclear warship u.s.s. Missouri to seats and gaWk at the band as if it were a ballet base itself in San Francisco Bay, thus turning or opera or something. the City of Saint Francis into another staging Since no one had thought to bring area for nuclear war. Her moral rationales it wrenches to dismantle the seats (I saw this will create jobs. Well, Hitler created a lot in some cheap 1950s rock n' roll film epic), of jobs for concentration camp guards. I won­ people had to make the best of it, and rabid der why everyone seems to think he was such a thrashing soon broke in the approximately three bad guy, foot-wide aisles, often spilling over the tops Joining in the Fleet Week festivities of the seats. To protect the bands and their were such unlikely participants as rock music equipment, Paul Rat had installed a platoon of mogul.,.&IJGraham, who once produced concerts to bouncers at the head of each aisle, Some of benefit the radical San Francisco Mime Troupe them weren't very nice. For instance, one of (until he discovered how much more fun it was them, for no apparent reason, hauled off and to produce concerts to benefit himaelfU'is now punched my friend Richard in the nose, and then putting on USO-style spectacles for our brave quickly took refuge beru.,nd five or so of his boys in uniform. Another example of life im­ friends, which was probably a good idea since itating art, I supposer in the mo,rie Apocalypse Richard has· arms about thei,size of my chest, tf2X Graham played a sleazy promoter with a trav­ But Richard, who has been getting elling Playboy bunny show that was supposed to beat up at punk shows since the days when he be reinforcing the morale of American soldiers used to aggravate the hardcores by wearing his fighting in Vietnam. hair down to the middle of his back, was even­ May� my age is showing, but I can tually able to shrug it off. But it wasn't so remember a time when no self-respecting rock easy to shrug off when some other bouncers took musician would have anyting to do with a show a friend of his, a young woman who must have for the military, unless maybe it was one of weighed all of 100 pounds, and threw her head- Jane Fonda's FTA rallies urging soldiers to subvert and/or desert. Times change, and often long into the seats�. An hour after the show she not for the better. The headliner at Graham's still couldn't walk without assistance, and she show, by the way, was ersatz bluesman Stevie may have suffered bruised or cracked ribs. As Ray Vaughn, in case you want to know who to the promoter who hired these so-called security avoid next time he's in town. guards and who chose to put on a show in a Anyway, I suspect that the military's venue clearly not suited for punk rock, Paul big moves into the San Francisco Bay Area have Rat is the one who is Ultimately responsible less to do with the national defense than they for these fairly disgusting happenings. do with, "reclaiming ter:dtory for the United But what about the music? Well, there was quite a bit of it, and some of it not States,"'- as leaders of the CAMP program claimed half bad. The stars of the evening were clearly to be doing in Humboldt and Mendocino. the DESCENDENTS, after which the OKs set seemed more than a bit anticlimactic (of course I spent at least half of the OKs set in the bathroom trying to clean up a very bloody split lip which for once was not the fault of the boun­ cers). Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. Bertrand Russell

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But to go back to the beginning ••• VICTIM•S FAMILY, a Sonoma County band, played basically metallic noise with some thrash ele-­ ments and indistinguishable vocals. I d idn't like them very much. SEA HAGS are a neo-60s outfit, but like the DICKS, you can thrash to them if you put your mind to it, even though their tempos are barely half the speed of a normal (normal? what's he talking about?) punk band. They had long hair, and the singer's bangs covered even more of his face than Joey Ramone's. They weren't that bad. I sort of liked them, SOCIAL UNREST took a long time set­ y.,.h,, � ting up, and as Richard and I watched, we ex­ _.he,...pl�i"" fooJ changed gloomy predictions about how bad they would probably be, They looked too slick, too -DAM D11fl'IU- Hollywood••• They would probably play a bunch of heavy metal-style guitar soloes like so many former punk bands are doing these days, When we saw that they had two guitar players, we were sure it would be a disaster. What does LOOKOUT! IT'S THE LOOKOUTS 46-minute cassette, a punk band need with two guitar players? You available for $4 or $2 plus blank tape from want more guitar, you turn your amp up louder POB 1000, Laytonville CA 95454 and play twice as fast••• This is some kind of joke, right? Well, as you•ve probably already I mean, these guys can't even play in tune guessed, SOCIAL UNREST proved us wrong. Not half the time, their melodies are almost non­ even one note of a guitar solo intruded on a existent, and their lyrics amount to not much basically seamless set, and what else can I more than complaints about the government, re­ say ••• they shredded, •• ligion, society, and just about everything else, But that was nothing compared to all shouted and/or barked at such breakneck the DESCENDENTS. They weren•t big on flash, speed that you're lucky if you can unders�and and resembled an East Bay bar band more than a half of it. On second thought, even if you hardcore punk outfit as far as appearances went, don't understand any of it, you probably but their music did their talking for them, haven't missed much. and its power couldn't be denied. Thinking It's pretty easy to sum up the back over 1985 (which I must admit has been LOOKOUTS' point of views pick a subject, any the worst year for rocknroll since about 1975), subject, and they're probably against it. The I can only think of one band that put on a only remotely positive thing the:r have to say better show, and that was 7 SECONDS, which as is some sprouthead-type tune (using the word everybody knows is the world's totally greatest loosely) called "One Planet, One People." band. Still, there's some good things to So after the DESCENDENTS, I could be said about this cassette. For one, it's have happily gone home feeling I 0 d got my cheap, For $4 you get twice as much music as money's worth, but the "stars" of the show you would on a typical corporate release costing still had to put in their appearance. So I've $8 or more. So even if you hate half the songs, been going to see the DEAD KENNEDYS for quite a you can just erase them and use the empty tape few years now, and I've always liked them, but I to record your favorite Bruce Springsteen and have to admit that some of the magic seems to Lionel Richie numbers and still feel like you. have gone out of their act. Oh they're very got a bargain, tight and polished, and Klaus, Ray, and Darren Let's see, what else can I say good seem to just get better and better on their about this tape? Some songs are funny, like respective instruments, and Biafra is as zany "My Mom Smokes Pot" and "California/Mendocino" as ever, and is even learning how to sing, which (sample lyrics "They say the pot, it grows so may or may not be a good idea. But the crazy high, 0000 Mendocino, and the girls, they don't spontaneity, the sense that anything can and wear bras, in Mendocino"). Another relative probably will happen, is no longer there. highlight is "I Wanna Love You (But You Make Me The OKs nowadays are no longer the Sick)", the introduction to which features the punk pioneers they w ere for so many years. angelic soprano of drummer Tre Cool, the only They'll probably be around foreverr I can easily member of this aggregation who shows any signs see them in 1995 playing "Holiday in Cambodia" of having any particular musical ability. to a bunch of time-warped Mohawks in much the Well, no, that's not completely same way the GRATEFUL DEAD have made a career true; bassist Kain Kong will rattle your speakers out of permanent hippie nostalgia. with his full-throated renditions of "John Wayne I don't mean this to sound too crit­ Was a Nazi" and "Friends of Mine", and guitarist ical; the OKs have done as much or more for the Lawrence Livermore... well, his songs aren't any punk scene than any band I c an think of, and its worse than his newspaper, and they don't go on miraculous that they were able to stay fresh and as long. new for as long as they did. But I have a sense Mothers concerned about the quality that Jello and the boys are about to hit the big of rocknroll music that their little darlings time, I wouldn't even be surprised to see them listen to should know that although the LOOKOUTS turn up on MTV soon, no doubt playing their new don't have any songs about satanic cults, they smash hit, "MTV Get Off The Air." do use bad words in many of their lyrics, and So in closing (and I hope Paul Rat some of the ideas presented therein might stim­ sees this), if this show had taken place in a ulate impressionable children into engaging in decent hall, it could have been one of the such dangerous activities as thinking. better shows of the yearJ even with its draw­ backs, it was still pretty good. EBP-DA | www.eastbaypunkda.com November 1985 LOOKOUT! Page 9 ON THE REFORM OF THE (Ed. Noter The following letter ap­ peared in the ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER, and CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM what I'd like to know is, why don't I get great letters like this?) America, the land of the free ••• ? Is that what they've bee.n telling you? Well, ROCK AND ROLL KEY COMMIE TACTIC consider thist of all the countries in the To The Edi tor 1 world, only two, those stalwart bastions of liberty known as South Africa and the soviet Of all the unsavory influences oper­ Union, keep a larger percentage of their cit­ ating in the United States today, the music izens in prison than does the United States. business has perhaps the widest ranging effect And still our political leaders (who in many on the minds, morals and overall direction of cases are themselves kept out of prison by dint the young people of this nation. of their quick tongues and batteries of govern­ Anyone with even the briefest ex­ ment lawyers) tell us we need to embark on a posure to today's commercial music can't escape massive prison construction program to house an the realization that this is an era which has inmate population that is expected to double been completely subVerted by Satan. And if in the not too distant future. anyone should wonder why he would exert so much One wag has suggested that the ul­ energy on a seemingly minor part of our society, timate solution to the twin problems of crime the results would indicate that his efforts have and unemployment will come when we put half of produced some very awesome results. our population in prison and hire the other In 1935, Joseph Stalin saids "If we half as guards, What was once meant as satire can enslave just one generation in any country, is becoming uncomfortably close to reality. that country will fall to Soviet Connunism." He Prodded by the Reaganoids who seem determined went on to say, "the way to enslave that gener­ to irrevocably transform this country from one ation is by means of immorality, music, and at least nominally devoted to freedom and in­ druas• " Joseph Stalin - the insane and demon- dividual liberty into an autocratic corporate possessed world leader of atheistic Soviet fiefdom (cf, national socialism), the courts Communism, murderer of untold millions of human have been steadily chipping away at the protec­ beings - probably never realized what a prophet tions accorded the citizenry by the Bill of he was. And his formula for the moral dissol­ Rights, again with the aim of more easily de­ ution of any nation - illlllOrality, music, and priving people of their freedom, their property, drugs - can be wrapped up in one short phrases or even their lives. "Rock'n Roll." One would think, given this ostens­ Thousands of radio stations in the ible trend toward rigid enforcement of the law, United States and elsewhere incestly {sic) beat that crime would be a rapidly disappearing phe­ out the pounding rhythm of top 40 rock. This nomenon in our society, But it is no secret beat has become so persuasive and the lyrics so that the streets of most of our major cities filthy that they defy description. It is actual­ are as dangerous a place as one is likely to ly a form of pornography being distributed over find outside of a war zone. And less visible, the airwaves. The same ca111 be said of cable but even more lethal crimes like the corporate television rock channels, except they make it pollution of our air, water, and soil, not to even more compelling because of the visual re­ mention the legalized extortion practiced by It def­ "public" utilities (the so-called breakup of the inforcement of the musical beat. is a phone company alone effected the criminal trans­ inite possibility that broadcast statio�s in fer of billions of dollars from the pockets of this country have become the greatest single helpless consumers into the bank accounts of a destroyer of our youth today. Every type of perversion and filth handful of shareholders),·are quickly reducing is advocated by these rock groups, satanic wor­ America to little more than a high-tech jungle peopled only by predators and victims. ship, witchcraft, and necrophilia (the per�or­ mance of sex with a dead body) until the minds -I have been mulling over the ideas of millions of young people are literally being contained in this article for several years now, destroyed. All this is laced with a heavy dos- and its title, •on the Reform of the Crimin�l age of drugs. Justice System", is a relic of my vaguely liber- Illicit sex, the drug culture, witch- al, and, I fear, essentially naive views of a craft, and rock music go hand in hand. One can't more idealistic past, What passes for a sys­ help but wonder how much furtJ:ier it c�n go, b';1t tem of justice these days is itself criminal, one does know where it's leading. This road is and I'm afraid it has long passed the point characterized by a wasted life - culminating in where reform is a plausible concept. When so an early (and tragic) death. Any Christian who transparent a thug as F.ciwin Meese, whose ham­ would allow any typ� of rock or country record­ handed villainy would have been considered ex­ ing in his home is inviting in the powers �f cessive even in the Grade B film epics in which darkness. Anyone listening to t1:1is fi�th i� . his boss once starred, is elevateti to the posit­ openly entering into communion with evil spirits. ion of chief law enforcement officer of the All of the rock music (and probably all, or at United States of America, one can either laugh least most of the country music) being aired to­ or cry, but I challenge anyone to find therein day is demonically inspired. a logical starting point for reforming such a Millions of young people are hooked system. with no apparent way out. They don't know Someone, Shakespeare, I believe, once which way to turn. We see this in the fright­ said on the same subject, "First we'll kill all ening rise of the suicide rate among young the lawyers••• " I suppose that would be a begin­ people. They f�el they hav� no hope and nothing ning, but its effects, salubrious and invigorat­ to live for, while through 1t all, the Lord ing as they might be, would be negligible with­ Jesus calls, blah blah blah, etc••• out a total restructuring of the way the human Ernest Amers�oort, Sr. race lives, works, and interrelates. With the Ukiah likelihood of that happening being about as Sick of the GRAPEWHINE? Subscribe to the ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER, the best weekly paper in Mendocino County, and possibly anywhere. Only $12/yr in the county, $15/yr elsewhere. FOB 459, Boonville CA 95415 EBP-DA | www.eastbaypunkda.com November 1985 LOOKOUTl Page 10 great as that of your landlord coming to you 2) and saying, "You know, I've made enough money GUARANTEE EVERYONE A DECENT STANDARD OF LIVING This is almost too obvious off you to last me a while; why don't you for­ to even bother mentioning, get about the rent for the next year or two?", but apparently there are those among us who have not yet realized I can only offer some suggestions aimed at amel­ that people tend to get iorating some of the worst (and stupidest) ex­ o·rnery and cantankerous when they don't eat regularly, Do you blame cesses of the emerging Amerikan police state. them? To wits CRIME 1) DECRIMINALIZE ALL DRUGS Anyone at 3) MAKE THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE our prisons are jammed to overflowing with all familiar with crime in America will tell you between that roughly half of all robberies, burglaries, people who don't belong there. It costs and similar crimes aimed at financial gain are $30,000 and $40,000 a year to keep each prisoner. Disregarding the obvious fact that these indiv­ the direct result of drug addiction. The addle­ out­ brained response to this situation has been to iduals could live a comfortable life in the divert massive amounts of police resources into side world for less than half that amount, it is arresting drug users and dealers. The only still not hard to see that spending such large thing that this has ever accomplished, or ever sums of money and going to such great lengths will accomplish, is to drive the price of illeg­ to separate a person from society is only just­ al drugs to ever higher levels, achieving the ified in the most extreme of cases. dual effects of attracting the most vicious and With most penologists now having greedy types to the drug trade and forcing ad­ given up on the idea of trying to rehabilitate dicts to commit ever greater crimes to pay for prison inmates, it can be argued that the only their habits. people who should be locked up are those who Anyone who believes that police act­ present a direct threat to others. This means ion, no matter how draconian, will ever succeed murderers, rapists, armed robbers, in other in eliminating drug use, is ignorant of both words, those who commit crimes of violence. history and human nature. And far too seldom Embezzlers, drug users or sellers, sneak thieves, does anyone bother to question the assumption -and the many others whose crimes are directed that the state should concern itself with what only at property or the authority of the state substances its citizens voluntarily choose to have no business in a jail cell in most cases. ingest. The only semi-reasonable argument in This is not to say that they should favor of the proscription of certain drugs is go unpunished (with the exception of drug users the crime and violence associated with the and consenting adults engaging in various sexual trafficking thereof, but if the state were to behavior1 none of these people belong within the cease interfering with the production and use criminal justice system at all). But the goal of of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, etc., and allow any criminal sanctions should be first and fore­ these substances to find their true price levels most to undo the harm that has been done. If on the free market (a tiny fraction of what they someone breaks into my house and steals my life are now), the potential profits would be so savings, what good is it going to me (or anyone) him cooped up in a cell for the next drastically reduced h few self-respecting to keep t at few years? Is it going to get me my money back? criminals wo�ldfind drugs worth their while. No, in fact I'll be paying (through my taxes) to And the addicts, nearly all of whom would rath­ support him. er be drifting away in a stupor than running Why not, instead, have a p rogram where around burglarizing houses, could afford to he can work and earn enough money to support him­ stay home and out of society's hair. self as well as make restitution to me, his vic­ All right, all right, I can see tim? When he's paid back �he money that was the crocodile tears welling up in the eyes of stolen plus enough extra to compensate me for my the bleeding hearts who say, "But what about trouble and to pay for the administration of the all those pathetic and weak individuals who system, he gets to go on his way. Under such a will die from drug overdoses? Don't we have a program most thieves wouldn't even need to be duty to protect them from themselves?" locked up, and those that simply refused to co­ Well, I've got news for you, folks. operate would have a powerful incentive to They're already dying, they"ve been dying for change their ways, because they wouldn't get centuries, and they will continue to do so re­ out until they did. gardless of what any lawbook says. If someone As it stands now, a criminal can is so stupid as to poison him or herself to simply tough out his sentence and be back on death, why are we willing to go to such great the streets to continue victimizing others, lengths to prevent it? It's not as if there Under the program I have in mind, the incarcer­ were any danger of an imminent shortage of ated criminal would have control over his own stupid people. destiny. Violent criminals, too, should be Inhumane, you say? Barbaric? Tell allowed a chance to rejoin society, but under me about it. In a society that on an average much more stringent conditions. In addition of every 20 years marches the bulk of its young to making restitution (and not just for medical men off to some war or another to be killed and bills, but for the emotional harm done), ·uhe maimed, which routinely poisons whole populat­ violent offender would have to convince a board ions in the name of profit, which devotes a maj­ of examiners that included his or her victim or part of its resources to building weapons that he or she had learned the necessary les­ whose sole function is the obliteration of all sons and was not going to repeat past violent life, you're going to tell me about inhumane? behavior. So some schmuck wants to hole up in a dirty Sure there are a certain number of basement and stick needles in his arms until people who would just refuse to learn, but their he croaks? Leave the poor sucker alone, let numbers would be minuscule compared to the vast him die in peace. At least he's not hurting hordes w� are now expensively and ineffectually anyone else (yeah, yeah, I know, his poor moth­ warehousing. Call me an idealist if you will, er, blah blah blah••• Well, then why didn't but almost anything has got to be an improve­ she raise him to have a little more sense?). ment over the institutionalized idiocy now mas­ querading as a criminal justice system.

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