Last Pride Note: Personality

[talktooloose]

I am awaiting rational response to my rant. I can clearly hear the voices of snowmit and mentalmakeup pointing out how I could have walked around the barriers and made the meaning of the music my own.

I keep hearing from people who had a great time. I make my own world dark sometimes, I know.

I still believe most of what I wrote.

Comments

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

Well, those points you make on behalf of rational others are very good. You *could* have done those things. And you *could* have been less publicly overwhelmed by the feelings you felt.

Thing is, I find it hard to disagree with the tenor of your feelings; to say that I am sorry things get so intense for you sometimes, and to think that it will keep being good for you to work on not getting hit so hard, is NOT the same thing as saying you were reacting to nothing, or that the direction of your reactions isn't valid.

Your previous post reminded me how important these things can be. I've been reading up on the history of "hardcore" and "punk/indie" (in the US, maybe also Canada, in the 1980s mostly) and how some bands went out of their way to stage shows for all-ages crowds, and to limit or ban alcohol.

I am, personally, totally okay with alcohol consumption, but it's true that it restricts art from people I would value having in an audience.

I am, personally, okay with *some* art being commercial ... but what sucks is that commercial art seems to crowd art-for-free off into tiny little corners.

So while I'm sorry this hit you so hard, your post also hit ME.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your words; they're helpful. My problem is not the consumption of alcohol. Ultimately, I think, I'm objecting to the way that the radical is mainstreamed. This is the punk in me. Now, in an ideal world, queer and gender liberation would be mainstream and life would be one big Pridefest. But there is still work to be done and Pride has made it clear that it is no longer the venue for that work. Imagine my fury: a million people get together for Pride and the festival has been transformed in such a way that it is NO LONGER POSSIBLE to use it for the work.

Is my angry reaction helpful? I dunno. It is if I can use it for analysis later. This isn't fair to those around me and its confusing for me. I somtimes wish I could just be a happier dude all the time and view things with more wry amusement. hmmph. I think you understand a bit about angry outbursts, n'est-ce pas?

I would be interested in knowing some of the sources you've found enjoyable and useful for your look into hardcore/punk. I'm about to have a character in my book discover hardcore. In Boston!

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

I read Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life a couple of weeks ago. It covers Black Flag, The Minutemen, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, and so on, up through the late 80s/early 90s. So far, it's SY that's really caught my ear, but I've got a couple of the Huskers albums and one by Beat Happening, who sound trippily interesting in Azerrad's narrative.

I've also been reading selected books from the 33-1/3 series. But those are not just about hardcore.

[strumquill.livejournal.com]

Personally I have come to hate the main Pride Day in Vancouver. (last year was an exception - it had a vibrant sexual energy to it; I made a vid cast of that for Beyond the Ghetto). Though way smaller than TO's, all the corporate BS is there. We have a MONTH of pride events here luckily before the main one on the August holiday weekend (this year I will be in TO at that time).

It was with GREAT dismay last year that I had to play the pride picnic and compete with a beer garden. As I walked away I got to hear two boyfriends drunkenly abuse each other and see some physical slapping (gay somestic violence yay!)

This year I was back performing at the East Side Pride (today in fact) and I got to say "fuck off VANOC" (Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee) in the middle of my tune My Pretty City..in the grassroots spirit of Stonewall that East Side Pride still is. PNE fun day is just that, frivilous but fun.

I think Pride Committees are caught in a trap. Putting on a big Event as you say, and then making sure they recoup enough money to put on a bigger show next year. So they prostitute themselves to corporate dollars. Apparently there IS a rainbow coloured credit card somewhere - pathetic as Pride beer.

My favourite Pride of recent years was actually Tokyo Japan. To be in it you have to march through three non-gay large cities in central Tokyo (Shibuya, Roppongi, and Omotesando) with everybody gawking at you with expressions of what-the-fuck in the 38C heat with only 10 thousand people. Not to mention that Stonewallian philosophy of being out and gay as lifestyle rather than just something you do in bed (and nobody cares) is something that is totally foreign to most Japanese -gays and str8s alike. Now THAT is dedication to the cause.

For a REAL Pride experience I always go to Victoria. You have to march, with only about 15 thousand people, about 3km past the Parliament buildings of the most neo-fascist govt in Canada -again past thousands of gawking Chinese and Japanese tourists- and then there is a park concert to wind it all up. Then you pile onto a small double decker cruise boat with some tacky drag queens and drink as you go around the harbour....