Losing a story.
I
almost cried last week. At our home in Ethiopia we use something just a little
better than dial-up for internet, it’s called a dongle. You insert it into your
USB port and on a good day you have a slow connection. Recently, inserting and
pulling out the dongle (no sexual puns intended) has caused my computer to shut
down.
Last
week’s Frantix post was premature, it was intended for another time. The
original segment was intended to wrap-up Idiot’s Revenge and transition into
the split and growth of the Denver scene during the mid-80's. I was really
happy with the way it was shaping-up, it was a coherent argument. I put several
long hours into the story and was ready to let it rest before moving on to the
revision. That same afternoon I started working on the Frantix story. At the
end of a day I usually try, if the internet gods allow me to do so, check
e-mail before going to bed. It was a bust. I pulled out the dongle and the
computer restarted. A hassle, but seldom fatal.
I
woke up the following morning to glance at the stories and both were gone, as
in reverted to the earliest saved versions. I screamed. My wife came running
into the living room thinking I found out someone had died overnight. Nope,
just a couple of stories. I did recover a decent rough version of the Frantix
post and the one intended for posting last week was about a paragraph worth of
words. Fuck.
The
task of rewriting the story has been haunting me all week. Honestly, I couldn’t
face up to it. I had perfectly captured what I wanted to say, and now it’s
gone. To someone who writes, it does feel like a death. Perhaps this weekend I
can muster up the energy to give it another shot. For me, the process of
writing is like making a piece of art; it’s done in the moment.
This
week it was all about escaping into the world of ink and brushes. The drawings
of the bands on this post were from around the time right before I started
going to shows. I never saw Shamed Hatred. I might have caught Child Abuse
once. Frantix, a couple of times. Rok Tots, more than the Frantix.
A
personal goal of mine is to make drawings of every punk/HC/thrash band that
existed in Denver form 82-86ish. I have several in the works at the moment. If
you have photos of bands from that time period and would like to see it become
a drawing or a painting, contact me and we can work something out. If I have
turned your photo into a drawing, contact me so I can give you credit and get
you a print.
No comments:
Post a Comment