So, now that we’ve moved closer to downtown, we end up walking to the Drafthouse almost every week. I apologize for constantly raving about it, but there seems to be no end in sight, especially since they’re opening a new location on Lamar. 
Last night we went to Quincy Punk night ($1 Monday!), to see another homemade documentary entitled I was a Teenage Quincy Punk, comprised of the punk rock Quincy episode ("Next Stop, Nowhere") in its entirety, the punk rock episode of "CHiPs" (starring activitystory favorite William Forsythe as Trasher, the lead singer of Pain), a clip from the episode of Square Pegs where DEVO played Muffy’s bat-mitzvah (in which M. Mothersbaugh plays my current obsession, the Suzuki Omnichord), and an episode of some awesome-looking 1978 Don Rickles sitcom called CPO Sharkey co-starring the Dictators.
It was all very funny, and the crowd was lively, yelling at the screen and making jokes. Everyone was hysterically astonished by how much the man misunderstood punk rock.
The weird thing was, and this might be blasphemy, but I thought the depictions were pretty accurate. I mean, they were clearly characatures, but no more so than Quincy is a characature of a medical examiner or Ponch a cop. It was more a vibe of, "oh, like a punk would really have their hair that long in the back," or "Look at that ridiculous eye-makeup. A real punk would never have eye-makeup like that." But otherwise: nihilism? check. clothes? check. boredom, absurdism, and vandalism? check check check. The music even sounded pretty accurate and there were suggestions of political activism and veganism which I thought were very generous (of course, I might have just misinterpreted the brief glimpses at diet and squalor we got). On top of that, the fattish bit-part CHiPs cop even offered a thoughtful, fair description of punk culture and demonstrated slam dancing in a positive light.
But, of course, I was a young punk in the late 80s/early 90s and most of my early visual conception of punk came from Valley Girl, Suburbia, Urrgh! A Music War (lots of mixed messages there), the FEAR performance on Saturday Night Live, and (I think) one of the Police Academy movies. Do any of you remember seeing any of that stuff? Did you think that the TV depictions of punk went against what you thought it was all about, or did you just feel like a badass because the vile subculture you chose to identify yourself was being legitimized?
I think it was the latter for me for sure. I wish I could watch a Doogie Howser or a Full House with concurrent punk me thinking I’m shaking up the squares. Even just some plain old footage of me and my friends going to shows at Common Ground and the Easy St Theatre in Dallas. I’d love to put a laugh-track on that.
I think that I’d have the same reaction to that as I did to the Quincy Punk Episode, but who knows. I just wonder if I’m capable of taking myself that seriously anymore (though, posts like this where I ruminate on my identity my be evidence that I am). Sorry.
