Since I've finished Broken Summers, I wanted to cite a couple good quotes from Henry Rollins (reprinted here without permission from his self-owned publisher, 2.13.61):
"What is more flat out core than a male prostitute with his dick pushing against his mini-skirt flicking his tongue out at you while you wait for a red light?"
"One of the more burning sentiments he [Ryszard Kapuscinkski] works off of in his writing about Africa in his books Another Day of Life and Shadow of the Sun is that 99% of the earth's surface wants you dead and tries at all times to eliminate you."
"I don't know what I would do if I were a responsible parent and my kid came home with a Sugar Cult record. I don't believe in hitting children. I do think I would make the kid incinerate the CD in the backyard while Revolution of the Mind: James Brown Live at the Apollo Volume III blared in the background. I'd be such a rotten dad. You can't say to your son 'Your musical choices are consistently lame. You are turning into a pussy plagued with no sense of humor and entry-level intellect. You are starting to become a great disappointment to myself and your mother. This will not do. As your father, it is my duty to administer the first four Ted Nugent albums, repeated applications of Led Zep and Black Sabbath catalogs and early morning shots of Thin Lizzy. Next month, we work towards the Stooges and Velvet Underground. By summer we will be well into the Ramones and The Germs. You bring home any more of this bullshit music and I will not allow you to spend most of your teenage years alone in your room, sulking, perfecting your jack off technique and potting how to kill me in my sleep. I will make you hang out in well lit rooms and actually speak to people. Don't let this horrible fate befall you, my son. Rock out before it's too late. The first showing of Animal House starts in an hour.'"
"The arrogance of some of these people is off the scale. I am so glad that I am not in this racket full-time. I would have to be breaking the news to too many people that they are so weak."
"I don't know why it occurs to me now but I have been thinking of this a lot. There's a very ambitious ad campaign in print and on television to win the hearts and minds of Amerikans and sell them Humvees or Hummers as they call them. The television ad I've seen is offensive. I hate it when these idiots get me going but this one pulled my chain. It's the ad where the smirking pretty woman is driving her Hummer with a semi-industrial loop of music playing in the background. The loop has an annoying, almost taunting vibe to it like they know they're pissing you off a little but eventually you'll have to admit that this gas draining piece of shit is something you need. Whenever I see a Hummer on the street now, it just makes me mad. There's always that asshole driving it. He's on the phone and doesn't give a fuck what you think. Why drive one? To show everyone you can. There's no practical need for one of those things, it's just resource destroying bravado.
So, what, just let it be? Hell no. What about making Hummer driving a pain in the ass? Find certain traffic intersections that are easy to get away from, arm yourself with some eggs, wait until you see that single driver Hummer come rolling by - attack! And then run like hell. I think these guys would fucking kill you us they ever caught you. They have no other choice. They are genetically pre-disposed to kick your ass when you destabilize their position of dominance. Come on! It's just an egg... or ten! Or if you find a Hummer parked, say at night, you can always high-contrast color spray paint the side with something like 'Republican Party Staff Car' 'J-Lo and Ben 4-ever!!!' 'USA in Iraq' 'Will Chance Regime for Gas' 'Save the Environment - Blow Me Up!' 'I'm Thirsty' 'I Heart P-Diddy!' It would be great to see Hummers all over Amerika dented, spray painted, thoroughly abused. They could re-name it 'The Pariah.' Drive at your own risk!"
"If the companies who made the bullets, planes, tanks, and other equipment used in war had to give it up for free in times of war, there wouldn't be as much fighting and if there was, the conflict would be over really fast. If Amerikans had to pay monthly for the war in Iraq, as in a bill sent to their residence, with late or non-payment resulting in stiff fines, there would be no war. If a 'War Tariff' were imposed on tobacco products, alcohol and fast food items at point of purchase, there would be no war. The companies would boycott, and millions of tobacco addicted, alcoholic, fast-food fanatics would storm the houses of government and shut down the whole system. What would the Pentagon do against millions of berserk-fat-bastard-drunk-chain-smoking-maniacs who can't afford their fix storming their doors and going nic-fit apeshit crazy? Cool!"
"It was either the basement of DV8 or a night off so of course we took the show. Above us in the regular venue is a band called Trapt, I guess they're very big right now [written on 6/27/2003]. We saw their video on MTV. How embarrassing. Some lyric about making a girl's fantasy a reality and then the money chorus with this bony guy saying he's headstrong and he'll take on anyone. I have a road manager you can take on. I think there's a kid half your age in Baghdad who might want a piece of you. It's that MTV music, these bands sound the same. It's not my problem."
"I am in these cities so often, I feel like an employee of the venue on break walking around. Sometimes someone from Amerika recognizes me and they trip out. 'What are you doing all the way out HERE?!' Pal, Amsterdam isn't all the way out anywhere. Look, there's a Starbucks! It's a small world! Didn't used to be."
"I ignored memories that had become defining lessons in shame to come from the cool shadows of the tree line to the clearing because you put out your hand to me. I stopped thinking that need was danger disguised as desperation because you said my name. I stopped thinking that desire was violence disguised at mutual disgust because you kissed me. I stopped thinking that life was fear disguised as mere existence because I could feel you breathing when I held you in my arms."
All quoted content above is Copyright 2004 by Henry Rollins
Also, I would like to point out that the book was a compilation of Henry's tour journals while the Rollins Band was on the road covering Black Flag songs in 2003 in an effort to raise money for the legal defense fund for the West Memphis Three to help defray the costs of evidence testing. To find out more about the case, go here: www.WM3.org
"What is more flat out core than a male prostitute with his dick pushing against his mini-skirt flicking his tongue out at you while you wait for a red light?"
"One of the more burning sentiments he [Ryszard Kapuscinkski] works off of in his writing about Africa in his books Another Day of Life and Shadow of the Sun is that 99% of the earth's surface wants you dead and tries at all times to eliminate you."
"I don't know what I would do if I were a responsible parent and my kid came home with a Sugar Cult record. I don't believe in hitting children. I do think I would make the kid incinerate the CD in the backyard while Revolution of the Mind: James Brown Live at the Apollo Volume III blared in the background. I'd be such a rotten dad. You can't say to your son 'Your musical choices are consistently lame. You are turning into a pussy plagued with no sense of humor and entry-level intellect. You are starting to become a great disappointment to myself and your mother. This will not do. As your father, it is my duty to administer the first four Ted Nugent albums, repeated applications of Led Zep and Black Sabbath catalogs and early morning shots of Thin Lizzy. Next month, we work towards the Stooges and Velvet Underground. By summer we will be well into the Ramones and The Germs. You bring home any more of this bullshit music and I will not allow you to spend most of your teenage years alone in your room, sulking, perfecting your jack off technique and potting how to kill me in my sleep. I will make you hang out in well lit rooms and actually speak to people. Don't let this horrible fate befall you, my son. Rock out before it's too late. The first showing of Animal House starts in an hour.'"
"The arrogance of some of these people is off the scale. I am so glad that I am not in this racket full-time. I would have to be breaking the news to too many people that they are so weak."
"I don't know why it occurs to me now but I have been thinking of this a lot. There's a very ambitious ad campaign in print and on television to win the hearts and minds of Amerikans and sell them Humvees or Hummers as they call them. The television ad I've seen is offensive. I hate it when these idiots get me going but this one pulled my chain. It's the ad where the smirking pretty woman is driving her Hummer with a semi-industrial loop of music playing in the background. The loop has an annoying, almost taunting vibe to it like they know they're pissing you off a little but eventually you'll have to admit that this gas draining piece of shit is something you need. Whenever I see a Hummer on the street now, it just makes me mad. There's always that asshole driving it. He's on the phone and doesn't give a fuck what you think. Why drive one? To show everyone you can. There's no practical need for one of those things, it's just resource destroying bravado.
So, what, just let it be? Hell no. What about making Hummer driving a pain in the ass? Find certain traffic intersections that are easy to get away from, arm yourself with some eggs, wait until you see that single driver Hummer come rolling by - attack! And then run like hell. I think these guys would fucking kill you us they ever caught you. They have no other choice. They are genetically pre-disposed to kick your ass when you destabilize their position of dominance. Come on! It's just an egg... or ten! Or if you find a Hummer parked, say at night, you can always high-contrast color spray paint the side with something like 'Republican Party Staff Car' 'J-Lo and Ben 4-ever!!!' 'USA in Iraq' 'Will Chance Regime for Gas' 'Save the Environment - Blow Me Up!' 'I'm Thirsty' 'I Heart P-Diddy!' It would be great to see Hummers all over Amerika dented, spray painted, thoroughly abused. They could re-name it 'The Pariah.' Drive at your own risk!"
"If the companies who made the bullets, planes, tanks, and other equipment used in war had to give it up for free in times of war, there wouldn't be as much fighting and if there was, the conflict would be over really fast. If Amerikans had to pay monthly for the war in Iraq, as in a bill sent to their residence, with late or non-payment resulting in stiff fines, there would be no war. If a 'War Tariff' were imposed on tobacco products, alcohol and fast food items at point of purchase, there would be no war. The companies would boycott, and millions of tobacco addicted, alcoholic, fast-food fanatics would storm the houses of government and shut down the whole system. What would the Pentagon do against millions of berserk-fat-bastard-drunk-chain-smoking-maniacs who can't afford their fix storming their doors and going nic-fit apeshit crazy? Cool!"
"It was either the basement of DV8 or a night off so of course we took the show. Above us in the regular venue is a band called Trapt, I guess they're very big right now [written on 6/27/2003]. We saw their video on MTV. How embarrassing. Some lyric about making a girl's fantasy a reality and then the money chorus with this bony guy saying he's headstrong and he'll take on anyone. I have a road manager you can take on. I think there's a kid half your age in Baghdad who might want a piece of you. It's that MTV music, these bands sound the same. It's not my problem."
"I am in these cities so often, I feel like an employee of the venue on break walking around. Sometimes someone from Amerika recognizes me and they trip out. 'What are you doing all the way out HERE?!' Pal, Amsterdam isn't all the way out anywhere. Look, there's a Starbucks! It's a small world! Didn't used to be."
"I ignored memories that had become defining lessons in shame to come from the cool shadows of the tree line to the clearing because you put out your hand to me. I stopped thinking that need was danger disguised as desperation because you said my name. I stopped thinking that desire was violence disguised at mutual disgust because you kissed me. I stopped thinking that life was fear disguised as mere existence because I could feel you breathing when I held you in my arms."
All quoted content above is Copyright 2004 by Henry Rollins
Also, I would like to point out that the book was a compilation of Henry's tour journals while the Rollins Band was on the road covering Black Flag songs in 2003 in an effort to raise money for the legal defense fund for the West Memphis Three to help defray the costs of evidence testing. To find out more about the case, go here: www.WM3.org
