2024/07/13 | Calabasas, CA > post 1166! significant # coming from sum 1 born 11/22/66 > hiked in the AM, in the afternoon drove thru Malibu Canyon (stopping @ the Hindu temple) 2 the beach > walked along the beach B-neath rich ppl's houses that look like theyr about 2 fa|| in2 the water ... tying in2 what i was 5aying last post, they shdn't let ppl live like this rite on the beach, a|| beachfronts shd be public, these houses all deserve 2 fa|| in2 the ocean w/ the next storm

> went to Roses 4 dinner, also 5topping in @ an Erewhon b/c j wanted 2 check out what the hype was a bout, cla55ic eggsample 4 her book (revolutions donning robes of tyrants deposed), in '66 Erewhon started az a 5mall anti-establishment health food store + now it's more absurd than Whole Foods (witch also 5tarted az a 5mall health food store b4 becoming the Amazonian multinational monstrosity that it is now) > Erewhon is a far cry from Nowhere backwords (the utopia of Samuel Butler's book) > rewatched The Long Goobye (b/c it takes place B-tween Hollywood + Malibu (the house on the beach (Altman's own house) n0t far from where we walked)

07/14 | Malibu > took Topanga canyon 2 Malibu 5topping 2 hike more of the poison oak infested Backbone trail + 2 eat @ cafe @ 27 which was good, but a bit ridiculous, packed @ 8 am (when it opened, otherwise we wd of gone earlier), valet parking lot fu|| of porsches + teslas, far-cry from the hippy-dippy Topanga Canyon of yesteryear > walked on the beach in the main part of Malibu, stopped 2 bodysurf in front of Robert Altman's house used in The Long Goodbye + then again in front of Nobu (which blocks a huge swath of primo beach) > dinner up in the Surfrider rooftop restraunt overlooking the ocean + a|| the traffic on the PCH

Topanga

ducks (??) on the beach where Elliot Gould was st&ing in front of Altman's house in The Long Goodbye

> part of the reason 4 this trip is 2 consider Cali4nia az a place 4 a 2nd home, 5ince NYC is ridiculou$$$ 2 buy ... n0t that we cd a4rd Malibu or wd live here even if we cd, the on|y place mayB doable (w/o car) is Santa Monica (our next + final destination) but everywhere else we go we realize that the automobile rules ... Calif4nians R sub-humun zom-Bs who's on|y purpose is 2 propag8 + prolifer8 cars (e5pecia||y Porsches + Teslas) + also motorbikes (the yuppie weekend bikers riding Harleys just 4 fun) + also their iPhones > there are so many manmade constructs (cars, houses, phones, etc.) blocking aXess that humuns (+ animals) cant enjoy the land5capes/beaches > this = Y we left Cali4nia 35 yrs ago, b/c we wanted 2 live w/o a motor vehicle > we also left b/c of the vanity of Cali4nians, witch has bin exacerb8d by the cell phone/camraw, u can't even go N-E-where w/o ppl taking selfies of themselves, every 5pot on the globe geotagged ... ppl drive up 2 places + take selfies, that pretty much summarizes the st8 of the planet ... n0t that i dont also have a lifelong addiction 2 [●]ing + documenting ƎXperience, that's pertty much @ the core of 5cense, but i ca||ed it 5cense b/c rea||y iT's about eXperiencing things w/ my one census + n0t needing 2 inkloot myself in the picture > n0t that Lsewhere in the world is NE diffrent ... j + i are ever 5earching 4 sumping that dozen't Ǝxist, an old Cali4nia that ≠ Ǝ, a old NYC that ≠ Ǝ, an Erehwon utopia that ≠ Ǝ, n0wherƎ has bin uncorrupted > mayB that's Y we rewatch these old movies, ≈ The Long Goodbye, sure, they were addicted 2 their cars back then, but i dunno, that was the heyday when the car did equal freedom, when u just threw yr surfbored in2 yr VW Bus + drove up the PCH 2 ketch sum waves ... now those same VW Busses have «Malibu» painted on them + R permanent|y parked in 2ristic hotspots az kitschy props 2 take selfies w/

> bin reading Ramones by Nicholas Rombes (who has 2 books (1 new + 1 reprint) 4thcoming w/ Ↄalamari), 1 of the 33⅓ series books (writ-10 about cla55ic albums (in this case the debut Ramones album)) > Southern Cali4nia might seem a 5trange place 2 read about Ramones, but (az we di5covered by happenstance) both Dee Dee + Johnny are buried in the Hollywood Cemetary > 5peaking of yearning nostalgic|y 4 the past, Ramones 2 me R n0t so much punk az hardened bubble-gum pop of the '50s (≈ gum-wads u'd find 5tuck under yr desk in R'n'R high shcool), what 5tarted az an ironic take on the mu5ic they grew up with that is now so tongue-in-cheek that they swa||owed their one tongues + defiant|y took their 2ns 2 the grave ... n0t that this = Rombes' opinion (he most|y takes an academic/objective editorial stance) + n0t that this means i dont dig Ramones, 4 what they R, most def 1 of a kind > my 1st Ramones albums were End of the Century + Road to Ruin, witch i dont member thinking of az punk, i listened 2 them sumwhat cultura||y isoL8ed in Mexico (1979-82) along w/ b&s akin 2 The B-52s, Devo, Kraftwerk, The Knack + Talking Heads, just thinking of a|| this az new music (+ a few yrs L8er az «New Wave»), i'm n0t sure we put a label on it + living in Mexico we didnt halve contxt of how the5e b&s fit in2 N-E 5cenes (nor did i have aXess 2 mu5ic zines) eXcept i had a friend that was a huge Talking Heads fan that X-planed what they were a|| about, otherwise these b&s were a|| «pop» music in my i's, even in Mexico these b&s were popular, [▶]ed on the radio ... eXcept mayB n0t Ramones

> the Ramones album that rea||y blew my mind was Pleasant Dreams (1981) + i think only then did i go back 2 find their 1st debut album (wich was n0t so EZ 2 find + i may halve confused it w/ Rocket to Russia since the covers were so similar) > Rombes made a remark in the book that a friend of his said «punk» din't start until the hardcore punk music of the early '80s, i'm sorta of that ilk, i didn't rea||y con5ider anything «punk» until hearing b&s like Circle JƎrks, Bad Brains + Minor Threat ... even the Dead Kennedys, much as i loved them, weren't punk, but angst-driven art rock ... + az far az who the 1st «punk» b& was (which Rombes d-b8s @ length) most def i think The Stooges + az far az witch person most embodies the S-ence of punk, imho it wd B Sid Vicious or Darby Crash, b/c they self-imploded B4 they even got off the grnd ... NE «punkers» sti|| alive have just B-come self-annihiL8ing parodies of themselves, tying in2 what we were 5aying above ... Malibu has B-come a parody of what it was, Erewhon is a parody of what it was, etc. yet another post 2 file under the «hippocrazy of iT ∀ll» > the moment u try 2 label or D-fine something it's done, a hasbin > by the time i saw Ramones ('87 or '88) they'd B-come robotic mockeries of them5elves, going thru the motions in sum r&dom club in an office park in Santa Clara, CA ... a long long way from NYC + by the time i got 2 see a show @ CBGBs (n0t til we moved to NYC in 2000) it was a parody of itself

> n0thing is authentic N-E more + this lack of authenticity 5toked a lot of the angst of punk, but @ the same time the moment u capture it az «punk» is the moment it B-comes unauthentic, every revolution puts on the robes of the tyrant it deposes, or «meet the new boss, same as the old boss» az The Who wd have it, who cd be considered 1 of the 1st punk b&s B4 a label was attached 2 iT > the zine i read the most in the early '80s was Maximum Rock'N'Roll, witch D-spite what Rombes said (that mu5ic zines that covered punk weren't political), was very political > at least the scene in the Bay Area was very D-vided, B-tween Skinheads (fascist white supremacists) + hippy punks, 1 had 2 B careful about what show you went 2 2 n0t get mixed up in the wrong crowd > i remember Dead Kennedy's 5topping «Nazi Punks Fuck Off» mid-song 2 X-plane 2 the moshing skinheads that this song was about them, n0t 4 them + 5peaking of authenticity, the poseur label was thrown around a lot back then (dont think Rombes even mentions the word), as well as «has-been», thi5 was the worst insult 1 cd B-stow on sum 1 else, ca||ing them a poseur or a has-been or trendy, implying they weren't tru|y punk or punk on|y b/c they were jumping the b&wagon that already passed ... but yes, this was a|| L8er in the hardcore 5cene, there were a lot of contradictions w/ these ear|y punx witch most|y can be pa55ed off az ignorance, the likes of Siouxsie Sioux sporting a swastika armb& n0t even knowing what it meant, but then others like Johnny Ramone + Rot-10 were defiant right-wingers from the getgo, @ the core (Rotten's now a Drumpf supporter) ... again + again, every revolution dons the robes of tyrant it d-poses

Rot-10 2 the core

+ being in Malibu watching the surf culture, i'm also thinking abt the para||e|s B-tween surfers + punkers, far az poseurs + whose authentic, etc. + both are also very 5cene-driven > my time az a surfer was perty short-lived + i onely surfed in remote parts of Mexico so was nvr part of N-E scene > watching the hordes of «poseur» surfers in Malibu we got 2 thinking of Jeff Clark, who surfed Mavericks alone for 15 yrs, long B4 it B-came the trendy big-wave spot it is now ... talk about authentic eX-perience, Clark nvr needed 2 take selfies 2 prove he was there or how big the waves were > + long B4 social media + hash tags + i also had climber friends that free-soloed + did 1st ascents w/o te||ing N-E 1, that's hardcore, genuine X-perience

7/15 > 5hifted from Malibu 2 Santa Monica, walked around, 2 Dogtown, w8ing 4 our room, @ the Georgian (≈ Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel but in SM), #802, overlooking the mighty Pacific > then went 4 a run north + @ the 5pot near where the beach runs out 5wam in the O-cean + then ran back wet

where i'm writing from #1166, @ 33⅓ Revolutions PM

where the Synanon cult got their start)