Got a week long biz trip to El Lay that’s actually quite important and will directly result in how many resources or not I have to do my job for the next year across 3 countries. My flight is delayed by a minimum of 4 hours, which fucks me off to no end as I have some high school buddies picking me up in the old stomping grounds of my punk rock youth of SF. There should still be time to hit the Mission and eat a burrito bigger than my head, find if any of the really awesome used bookstores are still around, have many Anchor Steams, a Peet’s and some fresh sourdough worthy of the name before zapping off to Socal for a quick lunch with my father then onto LA for corporate training Monday, and the resource beg fest for the rest of the week.
Ran to the bank this morning for some USD. I know it’s going down faster than the Hindenburg but I’ve got reimbursed expenses from my last US biz trip just festering there as greenbacks, so I might as well spend it in the US of A to unload that loathsome stuff. I had about $2 grand in the account, got a wad of C notes and headed for the airport.
On the way, I thought about 20 odd years ago when I had less cash in my pocket (and that was my complete net worth), a round trip ticket and got on a 24 hour in-transit flight to leave the US for the first time ever and come to Asia (China) as a 21 year old. Remember flying Northworst SF, LA, anchorage, Seoul, Hong Kong because economy class at $550 bucks saved about $50 off of a direct flight.
that 2 grand fundied almost a year long adventure in China at the time. Now it’s more or less a one week business trip (the hotel we have to stay at is beaucoup bucks)
My current biz class ticket acquired through our corporate mandated travel agent costs close to $5k. The $5k and $2k would have funding the combined 3 years of travel I did in China between 1985-89, that resulted in a published guidebook, memories galore for my middle age, and an adventure in a magical time of China’s first real opening to the world.
Now it’s one single business trip for a week to El Lay. If that ain’t ironic, I don’t know what is.
Dude! I probably know you from back then! As you probably know, the Mab, the On Broadway and everything cool in North Beach is gone except City Lights. This includes “Carol Doda’s Topless Love Act”.
You can still find a burrito bigger than your head; the best (IMHO) being Cancun at 18th & Mission. There is almost nothing at all left that you will recognize except maybe the paintings in that alley off Mission Street. Actually, even some of those were painted over last time I went. Although many people are pierced and/or tattooed, there are practically no actual punks left in San Francisco. Part of the “Great Unwashed”, as they used to say about poor people.
Nooooooooooooo, Carol Doda’s is gone?!? :eek: That was always worth going by and getting a postcard from the barker before hopping over to the On Broadway. I’m gonna look around when hunting for that head sized burrito to see if any vestiges of the Tool & Die are still around.
If you were in the hardcore scene in the early 80’s, then I’m sure we thrashed in the same pit sometime between 1980-85. And I can state categorically that spending about $10 for food, gas and admission to the Wed $2 nite at the On Broadway (were you at the Minor Threat show? or Big Boys or DOA) was as just about as good as it gets. (and I’m still stuck in this business class lounge waiting for a flight with ever creeping later departure times)
If your going to be in LA we can probably scare up a few dopers for an impromptu dope fest if you would like.
We have Anchor Steam down here also, and I guarantee you that we can get you a burrito bigger than your head.
They had a Fab Mab Class Reunion a couple years ago. Warning: New Wave.
And a benefit for Ness last year. Dirk Dirksen passed away a couple years ago. I still see Verbal Abuse sometimes here in the East Bay. And I saw the Mutants (without the girls, sadly) at the Gilman last November.
You’re not middle-aged. None of us are middle-aged. We are sexier than ever.
And hardly anybody dances or thrashes or anything at all at hardcore shows now. That, I can’t get used to.
My highschool aged nephew was sporting a Seven Seconds belt buckle and wearing a Black Flag t shirt when I saw him last summer. He was more that a little impressed with his “skinhead” cough cough bald cough cough Uncle when I shared a few stories from when I knew both bands back in the day. (Henry was a dick although Jello was a bigger jerk. I rather liked both Greg Gin and Chuck Dukowsky. And I knew all the Seconds pretty well via a mutual friend in Tahoe. )
Rick, I’m a corporate slave and owned by the “powers that be” or I would take up on trying to do a Dope Fest on the fly. I’m stuck in Anaheim and pretty much every waking second booked and accounted for until I get on that flight home on Friday morning. But thanks for the offer.
shit, any loser that flies cattle car twice a year to the US can get in the business lounge. On account of this long delay, it’s looking like a refugee camp. Good thing I staked out my internet cable early and they have cold beer.
Hey China Guy, I don’t know if you’re comfortable sharing this or not, but I’d be fascinated to hear what you have been doing in China – you know, how you started out headbanging in North Beach & ended up with a rewarding career in an exotic clime.
You’re right about Henry & Jello. But I had to feel sorry for Jello last year when Al Gore – the husband of Tipper, who caused him so much grief, money, and time over the “Frankenchrist” album cover & the whole PMRC thing – when he made that movie Inconvenient Truths, the unassailably accurate movie about global warming (again, IMHO) and became sort of a leftist hero. Had to hurt. I wrote him a sympathy card. No, really.
Next moth, I’m going to have a 10 hour layover in Istanbul. If that had happened twenty years ago, I’d have headed straight to the kazbar or wherever to do some sight seeing. These days, all I want to do is check into the airport hotel for a few hours extra sleep. I think there’s some irony involved there too.
Ain’t no thing. Ummm, long story short, even though I still have a few more hours here in the lounge sucking down cold beers, I was a Chinese major (for no really good reason except it worked out that way) at UC Davis, became a punk rock, worked at radio station KDVS for 5 years (hence a lot of free tickets and I got to see/interview/hang out with just about every hardcore band that made it through NorCal in the early 80’s). Graduated, worked shitty jobs for about 4 or 5 months, had a round trip plane ticket to HK and less than $2,000 to my name. That was more than 20 years ago and I only returned to the US since then for an international MBA. China and Tibet adventures were after Davis and before grad school.
After grad school, in the 1991 recession and housing bust, I worked as a temporary typist in SF (I was a Kelly Girl, which is now a dinosaur profession) to get airfare to Tokyo. Had a rotten tooth too, that I really *couldn’t * afford to get fixed. It was a choice between camping out with friends/Kelly Girl or rolling the dice and finding a job in Tokyo just after the bubble had burst but no one really realized it.
Got on with a major Swiss Investment Bank that no long exists (and I got whacked when it did a M&A), clawed my way onto the institutional sales desk and got married in the process. Moved to HK, changed a couple of firms, did my part for the capitalist way by helping to blow up the banks and governments of Asia with unnecessary derivative products that destroyed their balance sheets, caused currencies to devalue, and resulted in the Asian Crisis of 1997. Note, I was a very very very small cog in that machine and am pretty clear about the world of shit we are currently in. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Left the biz after the Asia Crisis hit (good thing too because bonuses took until 2005 to recover and are now back in the shit cycle). Moved to Shanghai, managed 20 consultants for a small company, left that company because of a raging maniac, started my own company and had a baby girl, shut down my own company and joined a multinational 5+ years ago. 3 years ago had twin girls, and a few weeks ago celebrated our 14th anniversary.
In a month, I am in charge of a special box at the biggest expatriat weekend sporting/drunk fest in Asia. I particapated ages ago in the cheap seats in the stands and loved it. Now, I’m in the primo executive box with *all * the trappings and honestly I’d rather be at home to take my 3 year old twins swimming. I mean, it won’t suck or anything, in fact it’s going to be a lot of fun. Ironic, no?
Did anyone ever tell you, you write kinda like William Gibson?
I had my son a couple years after your Kelly Girl phase. Coincidentally enough, I too was once a Kelly Girl. They were the only temp agency that would even talk to me – after I got a perfect score on their little exam. This was in the 80’s on the aforementioned Peninsula so no big feat.
Sounds like quite a ride you’ve had. If a considerable source of cognitive dissonance. How did people in Asia react to you as a punk? (or were you toned down by the time you got there?)
And Jet Lag. Jet Lag used to be for pussies. What’s the big deal? You drink all night, get on the plane, nap and drink to your destination, then go out and drink until oh-dark-thirty, and when you wake up your head hurts so bad it doesn’t matter *what * time zone you’re in. Rinse, lather, repeat on the return flight.
Now I just say Ambien is your friend, and my little friend is going down the hatch about 10 seconds after the door shuts on Hag Air 838.
I really like William Gibson, he’s kinda the anti Bukowski and I *really * like Bukowski. I once was faced with a transpacific flight and rushed to some crappy airport bookstore to get anything to read on the flight, and sitting there was All Tomorrow’s Parties just out in paperback. Woohoo, sweeeeeeet. Unlike the time in a similar situation and the only thing in the 30 second choice selection before missing my flight was a Clive Cussler piece of dreck.
I never saw the Ramones although I narrowly missed seeing them in Tokyo.
People in Asia didn’t really get the punk concept. There wasn’t/isn’t a real punk scene, even in Tokyo in the day. Hair cropped to 1-2 mm long doesn’t bat an eye.
Oddly enough, I still listen to some of the hardcore classics, and my favorite is probably the Big Boys, Dicks and DOA in terms of stuff I still listen to. The vast majority of the music I listen to remains the blues (and back in my ramble about the radio station, I was a blues DJ for 5 years). And I’m told my flight will board in about 20 minutes, so hopefully y’all aren’t too bored. I’ll check back but it will either be from a PDA or maybe in a week from an airport on the other side of the Pacific.
Ha, just saw the link, I saw the Mutants along with the Nutrinoz and some other forgettable band and the UC Davis Coffeehouse, which held about 60 people. Devo, Police and George Thorogood all played there in 1979.
Someone sent the news about Dirkson. Gawd he was a piece of work but put on a shitload of good shows.
Who’s Ness and why a benefit? Mike Ness of Social Distortion?
Quick update. I landed about 1:00 pm, breezed through customs, met by my high school buddy, we zipped over to the Mission and got a burrito bigger than my head. Damn, those things rawk. Went to a Peet’s, then hung out for a while drinking Anchor Steam. Met some colleagues for dinner, and of course they wanted to go to China town for some “authentic” Chinese food. So, we had the American Chinese food experience and were waited on by surly Cantonese waiters at the Americanized but not bad Hunan Home. Now, I’m sucking down an Anchor Porter and getting ready for Ambien before an early wake up call and heading to LA.
Sorry I missed your last question. Ness is Ness Aquino, who used to own the Mabuhay Gardens. Here’s a post from an undetermined time about him; it’s awhile back now, so I’m sure he’s home.
