Dharma Punk (Levine, Noah)

Reading Themes

Suicide SolutionI am my own worst enemy

I must annihilate this evil body mind and worthless body to ever find peace

I have lost all touch with reality, with love, even the hatred that had once fuelled my punk rock rebellion

I traded my Doc Martens, and leather jacket for a %ucking crack pipe. I have traded in my belief in anarchy and the revolution for a ride on the Night Train Express... Just let me die

Getting to the point of “pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization”

Kids of the Black HoleShining a light into the darkness (do we ever lose that light)?

Get out of this life if I needed t0 (deep suffering or...?) searching for an answer for it (what if there isn’t one)

I began to cry and decided that next time I was really going to use my knife, that would show them. They would miss me when I was gone forever. Then maybe they would understand how I felt.

By ten smoking pot, committing subtle crimes, fighting, drinking, snorting, huffing, and ingesting

*** Meeting best friend for life Toby - and Punk Rock soon to come “an identity” (Skater to Punk)

Sex pistols (music of the gods); the high energy (feels alive) and fast style of music made we want to break something (merging)

It’s in My Blood...Punks understood how I felt - tribal affiliation - committed myself to live fast and die young

I was no longer the weirdest one in the room. I was finally somewhere that I could just be myself and not worry about getting beat up by jocks or hicks

Punk scene - release aggression... It was the most fun I’d had in my life. I loved it, the energy, the anger, and the freedom to be ourselves.

Finding employment in the culture (can you say reinforcer)!

*uck AuthorityArrested - mom’s boyfriend’s week (a hustle; deals with sister)

I had completely lost interest in school, family, and following anyone’s rules. ALl that mattered to me was skateboarding, drugs, and sex (becoming culturalized)

Learning to evade the law

Extending boundaries beyond “punk culture tribe” (hip hop), but keeping in quiet (message was the same *uck authority, disproval of societies racist politics)

More arrests more fighting

Failed everyclass...I knew school was all bullshit. Nothing that they taught us was useful in the real world. I learned more about what was really happening in the world from reading the lyrics of punk bands that I ever had in school. Hates all mom’s boyfriend (part of teenage thing - part because they were assholes

Club culture slowing closing... I had seen dozens of shows and had been ordained into a lifestyle that would influence me for the rest of my life.

Teenage WastelandThere was a lot of love in the house (Dad and Ondrea) but I was too stoned most of the time to notice

Really loved her and Dad, but instead of showing it I stole from them all the time... I couldn’t stop myself from stealing, trying to fill the void and the negative attention I had become accustomed to.

Emancipation from parents (take responsibility)

Back in Santa Cruz - scene changes, more tribes different vibes and symbols

We hung out with the Gutters and the Hell bitches - but when it came to drugs and booze - we were a separate entity. My crew were the guys who took care of me when I was broke and I took care of them when they were broke

Toby was shooting, I swore to never put needles in myself, smoked crack though

Desolation (the institution), lagoon near a water-treatment plant - next to train-tracks and abandoned warehouses “I felt at home there”

Teenage Wasteland (cont.)Leather jacket (symbol) only possession that I really cared about - gives to mona

Felt superior over kids lived over the hill (San Jose / Campbell)

Safety in numbers - skateboard incident >>> JUvie

Tim looked disappointed - couldn’t understand why I was so screwed up -(had read my Dad’s books)

Real change “anarchy - overthrow government - “I got mad thinking about all of this and how I was there for standing up against a bully, fighting the oppressor, caught up in the system.

Noah Levine Today

Let’s listen a bit...

Then Swansea Love Story