my hopes for Punky Brewster's offspring...
[ posted by mcdeviltoast ]
(an expanded rant from a phone call with Claire...)
Soleil Moon Frye this week has given birth, and this bit of news takes me back to the heyday of her TV show "Punky Brewster" and conseqeuntly all the disillusionment that followed. We as 80's kids were excited about a primetime show featuring a character named "Punky," for we expected it to be the beginning stages of anarchy. She dressed the way she wanted, spoke in nutty phrases that confounded her non-relative guardian Henry (the nature of their relationship eerily glossed over) and we expected it was only a matter of time before she started spraypainting the walls, getting politically active, smashing the state and such.
We watched religiously, waiting in anticipation for the uprising cues a la "Network." Would tonight be the night we threw open our venetian blinds and screamed into the night air "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna fuckin' take it anymore!" in our worst Cockney accent, twin middle fingers aimed at the setting sun of Reagan-erika? No. "The moment" never happened. It would never happen. We were hoodwinked. The mainstream tricked us into viewing their family-saccharine pap, dripped viral commercials into our eyes and thus subverted punk culture then and cast shockwaves that exist today.
Fast forward to present. One has only to look at the bands and attendants of the Warped Festival to see the damage Punky Brewster's subversion has wrought. Bubble-gummer kool-aid punks in lime green Ramones T-shirts, reeking of Hot Topic sales receipt ink, more concerned with hair dye than politics, saving their babysitting dollars so they can someday afford an Eddie Bauer SUV with airbrushed safety pin mural on spare tire cover. (Plastic shopping bags and military recruiting at a punk festival?) This falls in line neatly with the Brewster agenda.
Thus......Punk IS dead. The watered-down current state of "punk" music and culture begs for an alternate term, a sub-genre, a bullet in the head or perhaps a new revolution. Maybe Frye's child will grow up and finally sound the bugle call. My blinds are open and I'm ready to scream.
Soleil Moon Frye this week has given birth, and this bit of news takes me back to the heyday of her TV show "Punky Brewster" and conseqeuntly all the disillusionment that followed. We as 80's kids were excited about a primetime show featuring a character named "Punky," for we expected it to be the beginning stages of anarchy. She dressed the way she wanted, spoke in nutty phrases that confounded her non-relative guardian Henry (the nature of their relationship eerily glossed over) and we expected it was only a matter of time before she started spraypainting the walls, getting politically active, smashing the state and such.
We watched religiously, waiting in anticipation for the uprising cues a la "Network." Would tonight be the night we threw open our venetian blinds and screamed into the night air "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna fuckin' take it anymore!" in our worst Cockney accent, twin middle fingers aimed at the setting sun of Reagan-erika? No. "The moment" never happened. It would never happen. We were hoodwinked. The mainstream tricked us into viewing their family-saccharine pap, dripped viral commercials into our eyes and thus subverted punk culture then and cast shockwaves that exist today.
Fast forward to present. One has only to look at the bands and attendants of the Warped Festival to see the damage Punky Brewster's subversion has wrought. Bubble-gummer kool-aid punks in lime green Ramones T-shirts, reeking of Hot Topic sales receipt ink, more concerned with hair dye than politics, saving their babysitting dollars so they can someday afford an Eddie Bauer SUV with airbrushed safety pin mural on spare tire cover. (Plastic shopping bags and military recruiting at a punk festival?) This falls in line neatly with the Brewster agenda.
Thus......Punk IS dead. The watered-down current state of "punk" music and culture begs for an alternate term, a sub-genre, a bullet in the head or perhaps a new revolution. Maybe Frye's child will grow up and finally sound the bugle call. My blinds are open and I'm ready to scream.
---
[ posted by mcdeviltoast @ 8/26/2005 03:15:00 PM ]
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The dumbtronica act Montana & McDeviltoast, along with their friends, keep each other updated on their activities. Much fun having by all, and Pockys fear for their lives!