My Old-School Skateboards & Brief Chat About Punk Rock (gone and WAY forgotten)

"Punks not dead, it just deserves to die when it becomes another stale cartoon". PUNK IS DEFINITELY DEAD!

Posted are the pics of two of my old skateboards that I came across in my garage from back when I was a kid (I'm in my mid 40's now... how the F@^# did that go by so quickly???) . The first is obviously a Tony Hawk - Powell Peralta 1983 and the other is a Jinx if I recall correctly. Man, the things that I put my body through back then (doubly so because I wasn't very good). Of all the skateboards and bikes that I had back then I always kept these two for some reason. I think the hawk had Independent trucks and maybe Gullwings on the Jinx? Honestly who can remember at this point?!??!

Notice the "SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME" sticker on the deck of the Jinx. They really used to give us a hard time back then. There were no city-built skateparks... nothing like that. The public downright HATED our punk rock, skateboarding ways and they made no effort to hide that fact.

It's funny... the punk rock movement; or at least for me as a teenager in NYC, was one meant to rebel against the status quo... against all the other blind, brainwashed kids and not just authority and adults, although we did plenty of rebelling against them as well.

And when I say punk rock I don't mean bands like Blink 182 or whatever garbage directly followed my generation... I'm talking about REAL punk rock and hardcore music... the Dead Kennedys, Crass, NYHC (all compilations of course), The Fugs, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bad Brains, Bad Religion, SUB HUM ANS, Minor Threat, the Fugazi, Youth of Today, Yuppicide The Exploited, The Condemned (my band :-), The Clash, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Frank Black and the Catholics, Sex Pistols (kinda), The Dead Milkmen, the Bastards, DRI, Agnostic Front, The Germs, Reagan Youth, T.S.O.L. (kinda), the NY Dolls, the Damned (again, kinda), Sonic Youth, G.B.H., the Velvet Underground, 7 Seconds, Circle Jerks, Misfits, early Black Flag, Operation Ivy... I could go on and on.

We used to live in these scabby clubs, (some you couldn't really even cal clubs) like ABC No Rio, Coney Island High on Saint Marks Place, The Continental for All Age shows, CBGBs (usually very early shows cuz the bigger names would play at night.

Those were the days of TRUE punk rock and not this fashion statement that EVERYONE on earth seems to be involved in these days, regardless of age, political view, moral/ethical view, financial status, etc. I never would have believed you if you told me back then that nearly everyone between the ages of 15-50 would be wearing what we wore then. We didn't dress that way as a fashion statement but rather as a political one... To show our disdain for the materialistic norm of the day.

It really is a sin what's happened to the scene, the music, the concept. Personally, find it utterly offensive when I see some hipster bozo all decked out in their punk rock best but without a single original thought in their heads. Punk became the new norm and now, to mentally and physically tear yourself away from the masses, I suppose one has to wear a proper suit and tie (as I do. and certainly not because I have to). So long as the true punks of old (and new) don't lose sight of what it is and was that we were making a statement against!!