IN YOUR HEAD

I have not read The Walking Dead graphic novels, but I'm enjoying the series on AMC well enough.

This year's season premiere had one quick scene that hinted at the subversive potential of the show.

The protagonists were searching for a missing member of their party, and they came across a church. When the group entered the church, they found three or four zombies sitting in pews staring up at a crucifix.

The zombies were dispatched quickly, and the church setting then became a tableau for the various crises of faith among the living.

But I really hope the show gets back to exploring that whole resurrection/zombie angle at some point...

I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

October 19.

I WANT A NEW LIFE FOR EVERYWHERE

Earlier today I was listening to an iTunes playlist named “old school punk.”

It's pretty rudimentary stuff: Ramones, Clash, Sex Pistols, Damned, Buzzcocks. I had thrown in some Wire, X, and Blondie toward the end, in the interest of heterodoxy.

I made a CD of these songs last year for Ma-chan...

When I was in Japan with the family last summer, I had the chance to spend a day with my 23-year old nephew, Ma-chan. His dad took us all to a large park, with the express purpose of playing “catch ball.” This was a reprise of what we had done when I was visiting a few years prior.

As we drove to the park, Ma-chan commandeered the radio, inching the volume up on an Asian Kung-Fu Generation CD. His father, a school Vice Principal, was remarkably tolerant, and simply raised his voice a little to converse above the noise.

The talk turned eventually to punk rock, and Ma-chan was clearly delighted to hear that I had a long acquaintance with the genre. We went back and forth on the topic in broken English/Japanese, relying occasionally on Taeko's translation.

He was not too familiar with the history of punk, so I promised that I would burn a CD for him, which I was able to do right before we left for America.

I could tell that Ma-chan was traveling on a slightly irregular path, and I wanted this mix to convey to him some of what I had always valued most about punk. I wanted it to communicate tenacity, hope, and courage. I wanted it to let him know that he would surely make it through all right...

Last night at about 1:00 am, Taeko's phone rang next to the bed. We both bolted up with a start, and I went to the bathroom. When I returned to bed, she was still on the phone, speaking in Japanese. I could register in her voice equal measures of shock and sympathy. She hung up, and I reached over to touch her on the elbow.

“Ma-chan is dead. A car accident.”

And that's what punk rock means to me...

WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT SOCIETY

Look, I know that Rush Limbaugh is many moons past his cultural/political sell-by date, but what can I say-- I'm a fan of batshit insanity...

Rush had the following to say about a Michelle Obama shopping trip to Target:

"What a phony-baloney plastic banana good-time rock-and-roller optic photo-op."

Take sec to parse that. It's like a goddam Donovan lyric.

Then consider that he's describing, um, a trip to Target.

Damn, I wanna party with you, Rusholme...