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DARK_COMET
May 26, 2009
Cometbus #51 --
"The Lonliness of the Electric Menorah"
A history of the book and record stores
of Telegraph Avenue, written by a boy He's not shy of editorializing,
from the hood, long since fled to New and injecting his opinions,
York: Aaron Cometbus. (though thankfully he doesn't
expend too much verbiage on
The book quite rightly focuses them).
on Moe of "Moe's Books" (widely
acknowledged as one of the
world's great used book stores), This is an interesting trend in
which is what the title refers to. the Zine world: local histories
written from a punk/anarchist
One of the oddities of perspective. Myself, I'm
this history is that particularly fond of Erick Lyle's
"Aaron Cometbus" has a documentation of the supremely
few axes to grind. sleazy "25 hour donut shop" that
once graced San Francisco's
He complains about But that Mission Street. See Kyle's book:
how the bookstores may not be "On the Lower Frequencies":
he's talking about unusual for
all held off for him: [ref]
well over ten years
before being THE_BRIGHT_GRAY_LANDS
willing to carry
his now (somewhat) But in all honesty,
famous zine. I didn't go to Hunt's
Donuts all *that* often-- And there
And he bitches it took quite a bit of are 24 hour
about how Julia fortitude to make the donut places
Vinograd wrote a I'm not up on scene there at 3am with in town that
stupid poem that one, though the Latino geezers have always
attacking punks. I have seen a flirting with the black had much
Vinograd poem street walkers-- better
For Aaron, that's a clueless donuts.
this is put down of goth
evidence that girls. So how many punk points
hippies are do I deserve for being
scared of Still, I'm wiling to do this kind
embracing inclined to of scumzoid emersion
their dark cut her once-in-a-great-while?
side... some slack: Do you stop being a
yuppie just because you
If she gets do some rather
things wrong on condescending slumming
He wonders at how it occasion, and now and then?
took his generation so may not in fact
long to come into it's know about all My love of such
own. that much, well things is somewhat
she's not the soured these days by
Was it some flaw in only case. our roomate's current
themselves, or could hobby of bringing the
it be that those damn Still, Julia local alcoholics home
aging hippies were Vinograd with her, and giving
*holding them back*? genuinely them free booze.
does great
But what did he work with the When the drunks were
expect? deceptively out on the sidewalk,
easy-looking they could qualify as
Does he think the form of formless local color, when you
60s freaks were met modern poetry. may be woken up by
with open arms by them ranting in the
The Establishment? She certainly next room at 5am, it
doesn't all seems much less
Does he figure deserve the funny.
Julia Vinograd witless sneer
should've "Julia
committed hari Stalingrad".
kiri to free up
her rent If you think
controlled there's nothing to
apartment for it, you might want
him? to compare some of
hers to almost any
one else's efforts
When everything's
allowed, it gets
harder to know what
to do, not easier...
UNINTENDED
Aaron Cometbus quotes the Vinograd poem:
AGAINST PUNK:
It is better to light
one candle
than to praise the darkness
His take on this is:
I thought, that's the problem with hippies. They can't
live with themselves when the lights are out. No wonder
that they're so angry at us, able to accept the darkness
and even celebrate it.
SUN_BLAST
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