waiting for rollins

my 2nd punk gig, when i was a screaming 15 year old punk rocker [now i'm a middle age & more subdued punk rocker], was seeing Black Flag at the soon to be defunct disco club Galacta 2000.  it was 1982 & Black Flag just released upon the unsuspecting rock&roll loving public a great & ferocious album, Damaged.  it would take years for the rock&roll cognescenti to understand & appreciate the greatness of that album & of the importance of Black Flag.

henry rollins was the screamer for Black Flag & man was he intense as he barrelled thru the set.  shaved head, bare-chested, tattooed, the mic wrapped in his left hand rollins was something to witness.  that was the gig when a punk's boot knocked me sideways as landed upon my skull from a stage dive.  as you can see i've not been the same ever since.

there has been more punk adventures since then but that show was a foundation upon which i built my punk rockedness.  not yet an ethos but punk rock, & its question authority, fuck the man, attitude split my mind.  things, circumstances & attitudes adjust & change over the years but the presence of henry rollins has been a constant.

so it was again tonight my good friend b. & i availed ourselves to the henry rollins spoken word gig tonight at the Crest Theater.  rollins is on tour showing slides of pictures of his world travels.  this must be the 3rd or 4th time b. & i went to a rollins spoken word tour.  i know we've seen him twice in san francisco.  but rollins, & black flag, have made the journey to my beloved berg many, many times.  indeed, even during rollins' set he made mention about the 1000s of times he's visited our fair city.

henry rollins has become an excellent storyteller.  his pics & his oral essays & poems about his travels are marvels of connection.  we all live on one planet.  we share this one planet.  we are not so different than we think we are.  but, according to rollins, how we know that we are not so different from each other, whatever your sex, skin color, language, religion, culture &/or ethnicity, is to get out of our shells & travel.

at the least we can open our minds.  for our lives our so very short.  the distance between 30 to 50 might seem like a million miles but according to rollins [& me] that space is shorter than the steps it takes from getting from your driveway to your front door.  better make our limited days count.  of course what makes it count is different for me as it is to you..  but to live your life as a kind, sentient being with the full knowledge that our time is so very finite might make you more amenable to other people.

but what surprised me about tonight's show was rollins' optimism.  climate change is a serious threat to us & many species of animals, insects & plants.  still, perhaps the generation that is growing up in the 21st C make the decisions & make the changes that will create a better world for humans & for the earth's ecosystems.

i admire rollins hope.  for a middle age punk it is an admirable stance on humanity.  he spoke for over 2 hours.  i lost track of time.  i didn't realize how much time has passed.  yes, rollins is that good a storyteller.

i don't take very many selfies.  what the fuck.  i have a camera on my phone & we were waiting for rollins to take the stage.  i snapped the picture above because i am also a middle age punk poet who practices, as best he can, gratitude for my life, loves & the privileges of living in early 21st C America.  i don't take any of that for granted.  do i share rollins' belief that the world will get better?  in the words of the great polish poet wislawa szymborska, i don't know.  all i can tell you is this very simple thing, i am grateful for this life. 

afterward, b. & walked up & down & to & fro downtown.  the city looks prettier at night.  k st., where the Crest Theater is located, was filled with 1000s of revelers, many in halloween costumes.  the night was perfect.  clear & warm.  & on such a night i could not find a reason to not be hopeful.  for as rollins demonstrated in his performance tonight, parts of the world may seem alien to us but they are mere extensions of the space we all share.  the world is stranger, & more common, than we realize.  the world, all of it, is all of us.