Every single punk in the history of
ever has said the following “yeah man, we're gonna get our own
house, and we'll throw shows and have a garden in the back and be
totally self-sufficient and it'll all be co-operatively owned.”
I've said it. You've said it. Some of us have even done it for a
little while until one of the house members gets all weird, or starts
doing heroin, or has kids, or the house burns down. Most of the best
ones tend to run for about a year before splitting up. Against all
odds, the Trumbullplex in Detroit has been going for 20 years. It is
the real deal. We showed up at a beautiful Victorian house and pulled
in behind a beat-up minivan with a 99% bumper sticker. The door to
the Theatre was covered in stickers and radical art. This is where I
belong. This is Pen Pen occupying some solidarity or whatever.
The show wasn't anything amazing, but
the bands, and the few people who were there were all great. What
else can you expect for a Wednesday show in Detroit? This band from
New Jersey, Melissa and Paul, especially are incredible. We hung out
after the show talking politics and drinking cheap beer with a few of
the anarchists who live there and some Germans who were visiting. We
exchanged stories of protests and political art. And we each got to
tell our favorite “that time I was beat up by the cops” story.
You know. Wednesday in Detroit. I passed out in the loft above the
Zine Library. Oh did I mention they had a Zine Library? Because they
did. And it made me very happy. This is Pen Pen reading a love story
about cuttlefish.
On our way out of town, we explored
Detroit a little. The city is pretty heartbreaking. So many decaying
unoccupied beautiful houses, and so many people without homes. But I
think about places like the Trumbullplex that are able to thrive in
this kind of environment and have some hope. The lone stubborn flower
poking up through the cracked concrete. We found this amazing used
book store on the way out. Three floors of pretty much any book you
could imagine. Including the last 3 books in the Foundation Series
which just came in today apparently. This is Pen Pen, victorious
above his pulpy sci-fi.
This is a song I wrote one time. You
should download it and share it with your friends.
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