A Punk Rock Christmas 2010

or, "How An Inaccurate Label Became a Holiday Tradition"

My family was never huge on tradition. This is not to say we don't have a few scattered over the years, or perhaps informal ones, but never any codified activities and events that mark off the year like many others do. In fact, I'd say that's more our tradition than anything else. That said, I did sort of develop a personal tradition a few years ago that I stick to every year. I create and maintain a playlist of alternative Christmas and Holiday songs to play. It's my non-believer way to celebrate the holiday season and get in the spirit of the month.

The genesis of the Punk Rock Christmas Playlist is hard to pin down. I'd had a few odds and ends from various albums floating around iTunes for a years, but in 2005 I stuck them all together into a playlist to have handy. In searching out other tunes on - LimeWire of all things - I stumbled across a track called "Punk Rock Christmas" inaccurately attributed to The Sex Pistols. (It's actually by The Ravers, though they are performing as the Pistols!) Once I had this song, which serves as the perfect opening to a playlist, I finally had a name for the list of 10 songs I had. In the ensuing 5 years, the list has grown, been trimmed and arranged into is current state. As a rule, I'm not allowed to alter nor listen to the list until Thanksgiving Day and then I am allowed to play the list and add new material to it until January 2.

At one time, Neil Gaiman's spoken word reading of his 100 word story Saint Nick preceded the list, but it didn't quite work as a party list.

Now, there is a bit of a misnomer in the title of the playlist. While it certainly started out as exclusively punk, the list really represents favorite songs from a variety of artists and genres. Most of them fall into either the "indie" (Regina Spektor, Sara Bareilles) or "alternative" genre. Genres so broad they negate the idea of classification. Essentially, the list serves as an overview of tastes in music (Ska, Punk, Emo, some Pop) and ranges in years (from former Beatles to songs no more than a year old!).

The '08 and '09 lists were both shaped into having a very loose narrative. This year's list carries that over, though with the amount of songs it becomes a little diluted, which is a good thing. In general the break down works out to be: Songs About the Season, Songs About/Set On Christmas Eve, Songs About Santa, Songs About Christmas Day, Songs about Winter, Songs about New Years Eve/Day. I liked the idea of the playlist having some structure to it and found it easy to plug the songs into these vague categories. So without further ado, here's the latest Punk Christmas Playlist. It clocks in at 42 tracks and just shy of 2.5 hours.




1. Punk Rock Christmas - The Ravers
2. Come On Christmas - Cheap Trick
3. Oi to the World - No Doubt
4. Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End) - The Darkness
5. Come Christmas, Christmas Come On - Ringo Starr
6. Holiday Fortnight - The Specials
7. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) - The Ramones
8. Blue Christmas - The Toasters
9. Please Daddy (Don't Get Drunk This Christmas) - The Decemberists
10. My First Christmas (As A Woman) - The Vandals
11. Christmas with the Devil - Spinal Tap
12. Alone This Holiday - The Used
13. Rudy Spent Christmas In Jail - The Toasters
14. White Christmas - Stiff Little Fingers
15. Last Christmas - Jimmy Eat World
16. Run Rudolph Run - Keith Richards
17. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Joey Ramone
18. A Great Big Sled - The Killers
19. Yellin' at the X-Mas Tree - Billy Idol
20. All I Want for Christmas Is You - My Chemical Romance
21. Christmas Song - Weezer
22. The Holiday Song - Pixies
23. Father Christmas - The Kinks
24. Don't Shoot Me Santa - The Killers
25. There Ain't No Santa Claus - The Damned
26. There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In - Elivs Costello/Stephen Colbert
27. Fairytale of New York - No Use for A Name
28. The First Noel - Bad Religion
29. Yule Shoot Your Eye Out - Fall Out Boy
30. Christmas - The Who
31. Christmas Day - MxPx
32. Song for Ten (from Doctor Who) - Neil Hannon
33. Happy X-Mas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
34. Winter Winds - Mumford & Sons
35. Holiday - Vampire Weekend
36. Winter Song - Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson
37. A Woman In Winter - The Skids
38. Cold and Camp - Rivers Cuomo
39. Winterlong - Pixies
40. Together We'll Ring in the New Year - Motion City Soundtrack
41. My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year) - Regina Spektor
42. New Year's Day - U2

Regeneration

or, "Yet Another Attempt at a Blog"

Hello again. So I've decided yet again to start up a blog. If I'm not mistaken - and I very rarely am - this marks my fourth attempt at such a thing. Before this blog lasted a glorious 3 posts, I had another blog, now lost to the sands of time, on WordPress. And then I think or Xanga, or some such. There's possibly a LiveJournal in there. But that was more for show or whatever.

But that's all prologue. I hope that this recent spat of motivation to work on this blog lasts longer than previous attempts. I'm excited about talking about my geeky life, my furtive exploration of Popular Culture and some attempts at digital ethnography. Since starting this blog, I've joined a fantastic online community, have become a fairly popular twitter personage and am now employed as a Professor of Anthropology. My perspectives have changed a bit, my drives and motivations as well.

The Regeneration of this blog starts today! I should have a blog post up later today with a late November tradition: The Punk Rock Christmas Playlist. Some be sure to stick around and check it out.

Review - American Nerd: The Story of My People

or, "I didn't know this came with a d20 Monster Manual?"

I purchased American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent last night, after dinner. I randomly couldn't fall asleep and decided it would behoove me to stay up and read the whole damned book. I had become interested in the book shortly after seeing Mr. Nugent on the Carson Daly Show.

Nerds are certainly an interesting subject for a cultural studies/sociological book, but they're also a subject which lacks any real hard research or extended study. So it was with a little trepidation, and a lot of anticipation, that I began the book at 4 a.m. this morning.

The book started out fairly strong with an explanation of the origins of the term (and terms used before) nerd. It's a fairly straight forward origin, but interesting nonetheless. Much of the exploration, though, centers on extrapolating the key characteristics of the archetypal nerd from fictional characters. It's a good idea for illustrating that nerd traits existed early in history, but it is not definitive proof of nerds before 1900.

Throughout the history section, it felt like attention was paid to the historical facts of why the word exists and not so much why nerds exist. And there is only a brief mention of geeks, but no effort is made to explain if they are synonymous or even just related terms. So while it is a great etymological look at the word nerd, without a good deal of context, it doesn't explain why nerds exist at all, other than a pithy (and thrice repeated) Thomas Jefferson probably was a nerd.

The second part of the book focuses on illustrations of nerddom in America. However, most of these miss the mark. Instead of explaining differences among the nerd sub-groups (LARPing, debaters, gammers, etc.) it basically just presents the author's observations of their activities. And they're often not wrapped up in any finite way. It's as if the author is afraid to label the nerds, but the whole point of the book is to explain the story of a labeled people.

What becomes clear through reading the book is that this isn't so much "The story of [Nugent's] people" but "the story of Nugent's evolution beyond nerddom." He admits to a certain amount of alienation from some of the nerd groups. He often talks about growing away from his friends Darren and Kenneth (the two "Case studies" of the book). And, indeed, there are some curious, unnerd-like errors. (The author states that Princess Peach, in the game Super Smash Bros. Melee, is married to "The Prince." A character not in the game.)

And finally we get an awkward epilogue about the author's bad experiences with therapy as a child. It's a bit incongruous to the book, especially since it falls under the heading "My qualifications."


Ultimately, American Nerd is a fun, light read that will help shed some light on nerd-culture. It doesn't attempt to study nerds and it certainly isn't reflective of the author as he is today. Or at least, the author would have you believe he has vastly distanced himself from nerds. It reads more as part memoir, part history book. Perhaps it should be reexamined as being part of "cultural studies." And moved to a more appropriate part of the book store.

I pretty much mirror the sentiments of these two reviewers on Amazon.com.

Here's a link to the book's home page as well. Be warned, apparently they didn't realize that Wired's review calling it a "mock ethnography"is a bit of a backhanded compliment and shouldn't be so prominently placed.


Rating: 3/5

Secret Origins: 1986-1990

or, "My own personal radioactive spider bite."

I was born in the late 80s. February 2, 1986 to be exact. It was an interesting time. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was in reruns, The Transformers were in their prime and G.I. Joe: The Movie was right around the corner. It's important to remember that these are three of the most infamous "Toys first" series. For those that don't know, action figures existed for all three franchises before there was linking material, either comics or a cartoon. It was conceived of as a good way to market toys to children, build a series around a set of interesting looking figures. And from what I know it worked. A trip down my basement today would reveal a big 20 gallon tub full of He-Man toys. Many of my Transformers took a trip to the yard sale, including an original die-cast Optimus Prime. (Extremely valuable if you had all the accessories, but, of course, I had lost all but the largest piece: Optimus himself.) I had a lot of G.I. Joes, but they were often lost "scuba diving" in the sump pump in the basement when I was 4. These were three very important shows for children of my era, we may have been a bit older than much of the first run shows, but all three series were successful. As a matter of fact He-Man was briefly on two channels, though I mostly remember it being on USA.

However, the most important cartoon of my childhood was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it followed me as I grew, premiering two months shy of my second birthday and running till about 1995. TMNT figures, the liar, the Turtle-Van all can be found on shelves in my basement. The Technodrome is, admittedly, a little mildew-y. Turtles sort of defined my generation. My cousin, Harry demanded the He-Man Castle Grey Skull playset to just a year before I was born to be the ring bearer at my aunt's wedding. When it was Christmas and I was three, only one thing ruled my mind: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES -- HEROES ON A HALF SHELL. TURTLE POWER! And ask most kids, even some girls, around my age and you'll find Turtle fans.

It seems that even before I could be exposed to anything else I had these four cartoons vying for my attention. I was a loyal TMNT fan, but there was something about Prince Adam, Cringer (Err... that is, He-Man and Battlecat!), Orko and Man-at-Arms that drew me in. Drew me in enough that at three or four I pretty much figured out that the show switched to another network. A cable network at that. Big doings in '89 and '90.

But then I discovered something waiting in the wings after He-Man finished it's two episode a day rotation on USA (usually after really creepy public service announcements with Orko telling you to tell an adult if someone touches your "private spots.") I can't say for certain, but this is probably something like the first image I saw of this following show:
Yes. That's right, chum. Batman. Adam West and Burt Ward quickly became my new action heroes. The campy 1960s series had found a home on USA. (Unfortunately fans such as myself, the rights to this series are very, very screwed up and it will probably never see DVD.) There's not much I can say about this series. If you've seen it you know all about. The Bat-Computer. The Bat-Microphone (both of which can be seen above; Missing are the Bat-Beaker and Bat-Thermometer. No, for real). And of course the Shark Repellent Bat-Spray.
(And the best joke ever, from the tie-in movie. "It happened at sea. Sea for Catwoman!" Thanks for playing, Boy Wonder, you get this... WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT WAS AN ACTUAL CLUE?)

Perhaps the most "disturbing episode" of Batman was when Robin was turned to the "darkside" by the terrible team-up of The Riddler and Catwoman. They employed the bizzarely sexy Pinky (one of Catwoman's cat-themed henchmen, except with a pink costume) with her extra long, red pinky nail to scratch Robin with an evil poison that made him turn on Batman. Only... Robin was acting the whole time! Huzzah!

But the cliffhanger that gave me nightmares for a week (ensuring I did tune in Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel) was when Robin gets devoured by a giant clam! I still think this might be why I don't eat seafood.
You can see the stunning "reveal" of that cliffhanger in this clip:



But the final nail in the "geek for life" coffin I was falling into was comic books. My mother owned a dancing school when I was little. She would have to bring me to the school after pre-school and such. Normally we'd walk over to the Pharmacy on the corner and I'd pick out a coloring book. But that's about all I did. Then one day, I ran out of coloring books to choose from in the drug store. I was three at the time, so my mother sought out something else to occupy my time. She took me across the street to a newsstand, and upon walking in I saw them. Their dark, pre-90s chrome and pre-13 variant cover, covers amazed me. Here was an issue with the Batman fighting the Joker. Here was one with Robin on his own. Here was one with a colorful cast of misfits called the X-Men, though I wouldn't pick that one up till later. More or less my mother bought me the superheroes she knew: Superman & Batman. I was never the biggest Superman fan, but, any port in a storm.

While I wasn't the best reader, I could imagine dialog to go with the panels. Sometimes I made my own stories, sometimes I struggled through the ones that were there. But I loved every minute of them! I didn't really keep my comics at that age, and it's a shame. Really until 1992, I read mostly Batman comics with he occasional Superman. Or maybe there was a colorful DC book out that week and picked it up. I don't recall much about the content of the stories around this time, just that Batman won.

But that was it. Cartoons and comics got me started on the path. The interesting thing is that I more or less became a better reader because of comics. So much for the "They rot your mind" argument. Rot this!

While there are far more influences that I was aware of at the time, looking back 18 to 20 years later, I don't feel the impact. A show like Thundercats is considered a big cult hit, I can tell you I've probably seen about 1 episode.

Misadventures in Pop Culutre

or, "What this blog is for and about"

So this is my third attempt at a proper blog. I think my biggest issue in the past has been finding stuff to write about. I'm not one to keep a blog about my daily happenings, unless it's something terribly interesting. It won't be a place for me to bitch about school or work, because that's so cliché at this point it hurts.

What this blog will be for is an exploration of my evolution as a geek from humble beginnings as a mild-mannered 3 year old to full-fledged Graduate Student at 22. And hopefully beyond. It's a bit of a task, enumerating my many influences, but I imagine it's probably a fantastic writing exercise and a good way to find other geeks. From time to time you may see a review or commentary on something I've just read, seen, heard or made up on the spot, but mostly this will be a record of my influences.

The germ for this blog came about after I read Benjamin Nugent's American Nerd: The Story of My People. It was an interesting read (and quick). While reading it, I got to thinking about my experiences as a young geek/nerd in the 90s and early aughts. And then Bada-bum-ba! I realized this might be the best way to get my thoughts out there on geekdom and nerd culture. So that's it on the content of the blog from here on, now here's a bit of background.


About the Blogger
For as long as I can remember I've been a geek. Cartoons, music, movies, books & comics. You name it; I love it. Now I wouldn't say I'm the "classical" nerd/geek. Despite my origins in the four-color, pulp world, I was heavily shaped by the sounds of 70s punk idols like the The Damned, The Clash and SeX pIsToLs as well as early 90s grunge and punk. That's me in a nutshell. I hope you stick around to find out more.

I'm 22 years old and a recent graduate of Fordham University with a BA in Anthropology and Communications & Media Studies. In September I'll be attending Teachers College, Columbia University to study Anthropology & Education for an MA.

I'm a member of the Media Ecology Association and the American Anthropologist Association.