I eat Kleenex for breakfast...

Today was the first day in a long while that the weather stopped me from
trekking from the train station to the office rather than taking a subway,
and a brisk walk with only 30 minutes to spare means, of course, X-Ray Spex
and "Germ-Free Adolescents" in my headphones.

The thing is, if I grit my teeth and brace myself, I do have a chance to see
The New York Dolls, minus two, very soon and people like Patti, Richard Hell,
and whatever Ramones have remained from time to time have been accessible.
For better or worse, I've even seen the lead singer of Hilly's favorite CBGB
band, Annie Golden of the Shirts, in a broadway show, an off-broadway show,
and a cabaret act. But X-Ray Spex represents to me most vividly that during
the years that punk was alive in the east village, I was twelve and really into
the Muppets and Billy Joel. They were just here and gone and left one of my
favorite albums. Meanwhile, Poly Styrene preceded Molly Ringwald's sense
of style by about six years.

And I'd also heard that Poly had become a minister's wife and had given up
even the few solo projects she started, so I was surprised when I actually
got to work that the first official X-Ray Spex web site - Poly's Punky Party -
was launched just this month. While most of the text on the website is
by Celeste Belle, there is a seventies diary by Poly.

"When you look in the mirror do you see yourself? Do you see yourself on the TV screen?
When you see yourself, does it make your scream?"

"My mind is like a switchboard with crossed and tangled lines. Contented with confusion that is plugged into my head. I don't know what's going on. It's the operator's job."

"It ain't hip if you are retro. You're a psuedo-quasi-intellectual..."

I know it's lame to quote lyrics but that stuff is so brilliant. The other thing I did today was order a used copy of Essential Logic after sampling some of it on iTunes. Okay, if Laura Logic is still out there, maybe I can hold onto the times I didn't have.

Comments

[ellen]

i may be wrong but i was fairly certain that x-ray spex were brits and i always though kleenex/liliput were swiss (???) so if you saw any germ-free adolescents they were like some weird time warp thing. and i was considering the subtitle of this thing should be hospital is sydney in now--but can i just say that this huge chunk of asphalt just came from somewhere in either my nose or sinus....and underneath my nose feels like i have daper rash...that was easily the dumbest accident yet and i keep forgetting my nose is broken and rub it or blow it and sceam in pain and everything that was like stuck beoind the swelling is pouring down my throat and i have to hostess that repro rights seminar tomorrow...ugh.....i am in misery. sleepp....

[anthony]

agggh! where did the asphalt come from? i hope when you read this you're okay. and if you're not, you need to see a doctor.

and no you are correct, they were british, but they managed to get to the u.s. and play cbgb during their brief lifespan. they're shown playing at cbgb in "the punk rock film" supposedly. some fab pictures at cb's at cb's website, but for some reason, rupert won't let me post the URL because it thinks I'm spamming it. I'm supposed to contact the blog author. Who do I contact when I am the blog author?

and the kleenex line is from the x-ray spex song plastic bag.