"Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice."
- H.L. Mencken (Prejudices, Third Series, 1922)
One of the decisions about "The Quitters" was how “historical” it should be. To a certain extent, it has to be, as most of the scene described in the early chapters was centered on late 70s era Broadway Street in San Francisco (part of the North Beach section), no longer exists. The strip clubs, particularly the (in)famous Condor Club, are still on the corner of Columbus and Broadway, but muted and now are rather ritzy “Gentleman’s Clubs” which are a far cry from the sleazy dives (complete with Barkers) that extended in a line further down the street.
Two landmarks are gone, victims of the times, gentrification and high rents. The first was Enrico’s, a famous coffee house and restaurant, and Finnochio’s, the bar that featured cross-dressing performers, both of which are mentioned in chapters for color and as part of the story. Gone also is the pinball parlor that was next to the Mabuhay Gardens, smoke and magazine shop, and bookstore (not City Lights, which was further down and across the street) that I frequented when up there for gigs or shows.
Some of the other locations in the book, such as the Caffe Trieste, which is one block up Columbus, on Grant Street and the Saloon, which was a blues club across the street from it, appear to still be there, though in what form, I don’t know. Which isn’t important, I remember both well enough to describe how the two looked back in 1978.
I'll have the same problem when the scene shifts to Southern California later on.
…period piece…
So, the story will be a period piece, and the attitudes, speech, and behavior of the characters will be typical for that era, without 2021 attitudes and biases. I’ve noticed in articles about Broadway Street that the perceptions range from approval that the low rent aspect is gone, to nostalgia about the seedy bohemian atmosphere of North Beach. I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Since Broadway Street is central to the story, I should give a basic description of it, and you can trace the route on Google Earth or maps to get a clearer picture, though what I’m going to describe is what existed in 1977, not 2021.
Broadway begins at the east boundary of the Presidio, which is up North, right by the Golden Gate Bridge. It runs eastward, starting in the Pacific Heights district, all the way past Chinatown into North Beach. Starting at the Columbus Street intersection; on one side there was the Condor Club and assorted strip joints, a bookstore, smoke shop, Enrico’s, and other assorted businesses that led up to the pinball parlor and Mabuhay Gardens across the street. Once past those businesses, the street continued east towards the Embarcadero near the Waterfront and Pier 9.
…north beach…
That last section, mainly North Beach, was considered lowdown (aka bohemian) at the time (though a lot less so than parts of the city now), but a major draw for tourists. The Barkers outside the strip clubs, whose job was to lure customers in, are perceived as an obnoxious element now, but were considered part of the local color back then. Some were even minor celebrities, though all worked under the shadow of the most famous wayward star, Carol Doda. In spite of the notoriety, it wasn’t a red light district in the classic sense of the word. Most of the prostitution (at least the visible presence) was actually down south, centered around Mission Street in the Tenderloin, which was a different place than it is now. It’s good to keep in mind that Mission street is another long boulevard that cuts through other districts.
As far as the amount of historical detail, there’ll be just enough to give the stories the proper amount of context. Since it’s going to be a novel, I do intend to take some liberties, such as creating composites, etc. These days, the concept of a historical novel has become diffuse, and often subject to approval or disapproval by fans with a wide variety of viewpoints. The more detail there is, the more the discussion about the book can be sidetracked into disputes over accuracy.
…historical points…
For example, one article I read stated that the Mabuhay Club used strip club style Barkers, which I never saw, but perhaps that was true earlier on. It doesn’t serve the purposes of my book to get into a debate on that point (though it goes without saying that the writer in me saw some epic possibilities in creating fictional hucksters to populate the sidewalk in front). I decided that such characters didn’t serve the greater truth, which was that the venue housed a vibrant music scene that grew on it’s own, not because people had to be hustled in from the street.
The punk scene was wild enough, anyway, and my main concern is capturing it all and to avoid just conjuring up a freak show to merely shock (though as an artist, I do reserve the right to sensationalize and pander as necessary) or exaggerate my importance in the scene (though again, as a literary option, I reserve the right to make the main character embody the best qualities of stardom and legendary musical ability). There’s already enough material accumulated that I’m going to have to create composites and fictional characters to fit it all in (though finally, true to my uncompromising devotion to the fictional form, I reserve the right to make shit up and create outrageous situations to titillate as needed to transition readers to the paid chapters).
…going down memory lane…
I had two priorities, and a decision to make. The priorities were to reconstruct the history of the band (to make sure my fictional version was different, so I can discuss that period in the blog without creating spoilers) and to gather enough information to describe roughly what the area looked like in 1977. The most important decision was whether to use actual names of people and bands. I’ll probably follow a middle course, where much of the geographic detail is accurate, and use some artist and band names on the periphery of the story to give some context but not use them as characters. Certainly in the last part of the book, the account of the Sex Pistols concert at Winterland needs to be historically correct.
Reconstructing my band’s history was a lot easier, since I remember most of what happened. One thing that did fade in my aging memory bank was exactly how many times we played at the Mabuhay and when. That’s not a critical detail in the novel, but since this is also being done for fun, it was interesting to track that information down. As said in the previous blog entry, information on who played at the club is sketchy, and what little there is focuses on the various headliners. The shows generally featured at least three bands, and sometimes a fourth, which is a lot of history that isn’t documented.
I was able to get the dates from a site called the Punk Music Catalogue (https://punkmusiccatalogue.wordpress.com) in England, which has a surprising amount of detail on the bands that played at the Mabuhay, and a nice collection of flyers grouped by month and year.
…pass the ointment…
I found the six dates we played as “Ointment,” from 1977 to 1978, though the seventh as “Black Legion” wasn’t listed. Our first gig was going to be with Nuclear Valdez, UXA, Animal Things (who changed their name to Negative Trend), and us. The headliner, Nuclear Valdez, had to cancel after getting into a car accident on the way up to San Francisco (they were a South Bay band also), so the Avengers filled in on short notice.
…the bands that play together, stay together…
Dirk Dirksen, the promoter, had a system (described in detail in the book) that often resulted in groups of bands playing together as they moved up the ladder. Off the top of my head, our band played on two shows with the Avengers (already headliners), UXA, and Negative Trend. When UXA and Negative Trend moved up, we played a couple of shows with them, and finally when the latter began to headline, they kept us on their bill for a couple of shows. At that point, we got a headlining gig as Black Legion, and unfortunately, that was the last show for us.
I don’t have detailed information on the last shows with Negative Trend (who changed to Negative Trends) and as Black Legion, but the other bands on those nights included SST, Sleepers, The Liars, and Statics.
…a brief survey…
A brief survey of the headliners and other popular bands included; Crime (one of the earliest to play there), Nuns, Avengers, UXA, Negative Trend, Tuxedo Moon, Mary Monday, Mutants, Liars, Statics, Magister Ludi (a personal favorite after Negative Trend), Sleepers, Psychotic Pineapple, Readymades, The Dils (from Southern California), Nuclear Valdez, Novac, Seizure, Dead Kennedys, and the Offs. That’s just a bunch off the top of my head to give you a sampler.
My personal favorites were Negative Trend, Magister Ludi, Mutants, The Dils, and Psychotic Pinapple. The first two had the most spectacular live shows that made my jaw drop at how close to the edge they got. I liked the Mutants and The Dils for their songs, which were well crafted, and the Pineapple were cool because they emulated the 60s Psychelic Garage Bands like The 13th Floor Elevators and the Seeds.
I also liked the Nuns and Avengers, who were on the bill with the Sex Pistols at Winterland. The book will have a detailed account of that concert, which I’ll write from memory, without research (other than making sure of the date, etc), so that no second or third hand accounts slip into the narrative. There are descriptions of the event based on the bootleg (mostly from the KSAN-FM simulcast) which aren’t entirely accurate, as the mix isn’t what was actually heard live.
…put it on my account…
My account will also describe the mixed reaction of the audience. The show was a sellout, but a large number of tickets were scooped up by scalpers due to the wide publicity, but the price had dropped to a dollar by showtime. Many in the Mabuhay crowd didn’t go, and in fact, gathered at the club to listen to the FM simulcast. Descriptions of Johnny Rotten’s seemingly detached attitude was ascribed to the impending breakup of the band, but was also probably due to knowing that most of the crowd, besides the punks crowding up in front, were mainly tourists and Winterland regulars curious to see what the fuss was about.
However, it was a historic concert, and ranks in the top five of favorite shows (for me). In person, Rotten’s punkass attitude and charisma was a wonder to see, and yes, he was being flippant, with a hilarious disregard of the 70s rock star ethos. The SF punks were very good, but once the Pistols walked on to the stage, even the tourists in back stopped talking and starting watching. The English punks were the real thing and you could feel the change in presence when they came on.
…coming in December…
The December blog entry will feature a preview of the book, a look at the first three chapters, and a concise history and survey of the Punk music scene as it existed in late 1977. As an added attraction, there’ll be a piece about those artists who were called, or gave themselves the title of “Godfather Of Punk,” and how myths about rock music often end up being regarded as real history. It goes without saying, that all the subjects will be treated with strict adherence to Internet standards of truth and respect for others.
“New facts are seldom plucked from the sky; they have to be approached and smelled out by a process of trial and error, in which bold and shrewd guessing is an integral part.”
“If we assume that man actually does resemble God, then we are forced into the impossible theory that God is a coward, an idiot, and a bounder.”
- H.L. Mencken
If there's one thing more certain than death or trolling, it's that the world is full of stupid people with the exception of one person, depending on who's doing the talking. American democracy, as expressed through the internet, has produced the greatest number of stupid people in history, or more precisely, those labeled as stupid, though there is a small number who want to be called stupid by someone dressed in leather, plus those who admit to it, which, of course, repulses everyone who thinks they aren't stupid, the number of which being equal to the number who are assumed to be stupid by others. The logic is straightforward and obvious. [Citation needed by someone who is stupid to confirm this]
Nature is more just when punishing dummkopfs, as it only smites life forms which are actually stupid and unfit to have a social media account. If mankind took on the task of weeding out the stupid, it would result in an extinction event, as pretty much everyone has been classified as estupido by someone at some point.
…a true pioneer…
The greatest practitioner of the American science of sniffing out cretinism was the great journalist, essayist, satirist, and cultural critic, H. L. Mencken. He was arguably an elitist influenced by Nietzsche, a German philosopher who ended up as a patron saint of snobs, free market chest thumpers, elitists, fascists, wealthy people, political parties, and the happy few who know what real rock and roll is.
At his best, Mencken was a writer who was utterly fearless, and often very funny. At his worst, he could be irascible, opinionated, and elitist, which a good many people might think after reading his works. However, any writer who honestly speaks his or her mind will have both supporters and detractors.
Mencken had a simple outlook; he simply assumed that most of mankind was stupid, though generally ranking women and animals (such as amoebas and mackerels) higher than men in terms of intelligence. He did admit that men knew a lot, but called their skills “merely a congeries of petty tricks and antics, and their acquirement puts little more strain on the mental powers than a chimpanzee suffers in learning how to catch a penny or scratch a match.” An assessment that would be heartily cheered as “right on” by 50% of the population, and trigger butt hurt assertions about who built the skyscrapers and won every hot dog eating contest in the other 50%.
It goes without saying that if you think everyone is stupid, you’re going to be right at least some of the time, which is a principle that has ancient orgins, such as in Chapter 10, paragraph 8, of the Forbidden Gospel of Murgatroyd, the relevant fragment being discovered in a pile of cheap packing material in the dock area of a Chicago Salvation Army store in 1936, before the invention of bubble wrap. The passage, which was in Homeric era Ionian Greek reads, “Echt einst haha lol wee wee gomenasai ull-bay it-shay fignya,” which roughly translates in English to “Everyone is stupid except Zeus.” [citation needed, some experts assert that the fragment is actually a page from an Alabama cook book circa 1925]
…yet one guy wasn’t stupid…
One of the thinkers he admired was actually a male, the controversial and influential philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, and he wrote a book about his life and ideas, knowing that few would buy it, which in this country is a sign of true conviction (and of course, stupidity). The book, “The Philosophy Of Fredrich Nietzsche,” discusses, among other things, the analogy that Greek civilization had an artistic, introspective side in the God Apollo, and a wild-ass side in Dionysius, and at it's peak, attained a balance between the two.
Modern analogies to this delicate balance would include the concept of yin and yang, good and evil, sweet and sour pork, dogs and cats, bacon and plant based sausages, cola and uncola, and Democrats and Republicans [citation desperately needed on the last one].
Good examples of Apollonian inspired life would be ketchup in hot dogs, playing the nickel slot machines in Vegas, and gluten free food products. The Dionysian side would be represented by such things as hot dog eating contests, jeans that let the lower half of your buns show, and eating grapes in grocery stores before reaching the checkout area. Hopefully, these real world examples will make the sublime philosophical concepts clear to the average layman.
...here comes superman...
The most controversial aspect of his philosophy was the concept of a "superman," which was basically (and I'm simplifying here) an ideal person, one who attains the fullest potential and creativity. That term, which in German reads, “Ubermensch,” translates to terms such as “superman,” “overman,” or “superhuman” was said to be about a future state for men to aspire to, but has been subject to a wide variety of interpretations from creative types like the Beat Poets to Nazi’s paraphrasing it to justify the concept of a master race.
The idea of supermen is, unsurprisingly, attractive to alphas. One famous example of an artist who was influenced by one of Nietzsche's works, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," was Jack Kerouac, whose beat philosophy was overtly masculine and generally viewed women as part of the scenery of a life lived for art and pleasure, finding oneself in the company of fellow Dionysians who reject the strictures that others passively accept. In other words, intellectual guys being guys.
Whether Nietzsche’s relevant or not, is really up to you, but any study of his work is worthwhile if it’s from the actual source material and not what other people say it is. That goes for the Bible, Darwin, or any other text. One of his observations that's still of value, is that religions and systems of morality that are said to come from higher powers, are often just men putting words in their God’s mouths. Keeping tabs on, and if necessary, putting a check on the power of those doing the talking is still an exercise worth mankind's time.
...other books...
Checking out other H.L. Mencken books would be a worthwhile exercise for a writer or artist. Book writing courses tend to stress style, and what it takes to be a successful (that is to say, bestselling) author, but not always what it takes to find out who they really are or want to say as an artist. Reading books by people who were uncompromising, and seemingly impervious to criticism can give an insight into what moral courage is on the artistic plane. It’s not what such writers say, which one can find disagreeable or controversial, but how a personality or sensibility expresses itself in a work.
In other words, when reading Mencken, you know who’s talking; there’s no veil, filters or attempts to generate or avoid controversy. All of the truly great writers have that quality, to seem as if they’re talking directly to you. That’s not an easy talent to quantify or teach, even if the principle is simple and obvious, because, to paraphrase Mencken, it’s about finding the courage to be yourself.
Some of his books are free on sites like Amazon and Gutenberg Project, though the latter is recommended as it has a larger selection that haven't been repackaged as commercial products. I'd recommend checking out the free versions because, duh, it's free, but it’s also an opportunity to read whole works by the author before venturing into any commercial reissues or compilations.
- Al Handa
The Al & Ivy Homeless Literary Journal Archive:
There are earlier blog entries on the Delta Snake Review section of this site that aren't on the On The Road page:
http://deltasnake.blogspot.com
http://deltasnake.blogspot.com
Cover Reveal For Hide In Plain Sight
This is the cover for the upcoming book, Hide In Plain Sight, hopefully out sometime in 2021.
-Al Handa
The American Primitive Acoustic Collection by Handa-McGraw International can be streamed on all of the major services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and dozens of others.
The Music Of Handa-McGraw International can also be heard on the Electric Fog Factory on YouTube. You can hear the album, and dozens of unreleased cuts and demos, plus exclusive video of Ivy.
