#About #Hastags

Hashtag (#)as idea,was born on August 23, 2007 by Chris Messina... Its in my opinion that '#'ing  is a way to stress a word or words... Like when you use bold, underline or itallic to give a purpose to a word, belief and a idea... A tool to stress a concept, action, slogan or even sentence. When you '#' something, it makes whoever or whatever is attatched with a '#' instantly searchable and accesable by most (but not all) search engines and social media websites like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram-- just to name a few.

The possibility arises that '#'ing could loosely serve as a form of over-saturation-- a platform of like-minded protest as seen in the Arab Spring Revolutions, giving power and referance to objects, people and their ideas or even catch-phrases and whimsical slogans*. The '#' is a form of literary weapon, a symbol that could build and/or infectthe most purist of ideas that internet search engines theoretically stand for-- legitimentcy, anonymity and accessibility.

 '#'ing is something that not only unlocks a world of endless insta-referencing but also to question the surface-truth of everything you may learn and reference, in one way or another, under the banner of the '#'.

Since the original home of the  '#' is Twitter, I've began to look at Twitter as a instrumental writing tool that's helped me learn how to be more consecus in my writing-- like an editing tool. Inevitably, '#'s are not only intertwined and were admittedly seen as something that would change my personal perceptions of words, but it also helped redeveloped my writing process as a whole... Looking at every sentence with precision. Go turn on your favorite TV program. Probably, you will see a watermark in the corner, for fans of the program to connect with. Television programs, like NBCs Tonight Show or Comedy Centrals @Midnight, use the '#' for joke ideas or in the case of @Midnight, relays mainly on the '#' for the entire show! The power of the '#' is growing and growing and it's looking like it's gonna stick around.

I'm not only enjoying, but suggesting that if you are reading this, consider the reach and potential  of the '#' and give it a try. Give Twitter and Instagram a try...There's strength in words and the '#' gives those (raw)words more connection, purpose and power. Thanks for reading.

FOOTNOTES

* also 'sloganeering' as if Situationism 

Overstimulation: IMMINENT

KILL THE HIPPIES  "Will Not Overstimulate" 7" EP

Somewhere-- and I swear it really exist... There is a cassette that was recorded with a rather classic 'recording unit' or 'cassette player'(I don't know what to call those infernal machines anymore)... The type that had manual buttons-- when you hit 'eject' a little tray would pop up holding the cassette; you remember buttons of this type don't you? I had that cassette player with a loaded with a blank tape that evening at The Mantis Gallery... When I seen Kill The Hippies (KTH) for the first time ever. In the recording can even hear me over the usual Mantis pre/post song stage-noise-- or what passed as a stage, proclaiming "I LOVE YOU!" Morte responded "We love you too!" just before ripping into another number. I have wrote about this incident before and you have probably read about it before but it's just bod of those defining moments to me that I never tire of.

Yeah, I remembered that fucking cassette player even though I forgot directions to the venue that were left still sitting on the kitchen table back in Cincinnati, 3+ hard driving hours south. Talk about humiliating... I somehow remembered the number of the place we were supposed to meet our Kent contacts at the time, Kenny "Hussie", who lived in what would become a spot nearly as legendary as The Mantis Gallery itself... The second floor apartment dwelling of Kill the Hippies. Their 'headquarters' in those years packed full of cats, wooden creaky floors and a 'leaning' porch out back adorned with a karate sign. It was a wonder that porch never collapsed. I dialled 677-WAR1... I still remember the number... Dawn from THE CHEATIN' HUSSIES answered. I spoke with so nervous stammer, "Uh, hello... My name is Shawn Abnoxious from the Cincinnati band The Socials... I forgot directions to the venue, but I remembered this number. "Can you help me out?"

Its a wonder I ever got anywhere without a cell phone or mapquest.

It was 1998 or maybe 1997. There wasn't any snow on the ground, but I remember the temperature being cold... This time period was in the earliest days of publishing THE NEUS SUBJEX. I was still using a typewriter, xerox machines and cut-n-pasting layouts... I had adopted a system of rating bands releases in attempts to distinguish the BEST punk-rock bands that was based on awarding 1-10 'safety pins' in the categories of music, lyrics and artwork. If I remember correctly, KTH was the first band to score a perfect 10. My search had basically just started, but it was over. KILL THE HIPPIES were the BEST band to ever breath air and The Neus Subjex safety-pin rating system eventually faded away in future issues. 

At The Mantis Gallery that night THE CHEATIN' HUSSIES played as well as other bands including my own, but as I would years later acknowledge, this time was as an 'era', The Mantis Gallery would be the unofficial epicenter of all things punk-rock to me. It was my MASQUE, my ROXY... My CBGB's... KTH would be my Ramones... My Sex Pistols... My version of The Clash or Black  Flag... In a place heated by body heat from shoulder to shoulder binge drinkers. the heat was as-if a Native American sweat-lodge. The Mantis changed me then as it did others before me and after me. In a spot where the dirtiest bathroom in the free world was legendary (but still got the job done)... The same spot where there was always a weird fucked-up system when it got time to divide up the nights earnings with Sam... The spot that was notorious for providing the essential punk ingredients for greatness: violence action, filth, fury, explosions, knives, sex (hey, that guy is getting head WHILE the band is playing over there), drugs, good music, alcohol, spikes, leather... ideas... Did I forget filth? Lots of filth... The Mantis Gallery had it all including KILL THE HIPPIES.

Now. Here in 2014 that time was more special than words could ever define... Truly an era indeed. There has been some really great bands and Mantis Alumni that would release some great music that played there or were converted there thru the years of debauchery like THE COCKSPANIELS, SWARM OF ANGELS, CRIMSON SWEET, even BATT LION and DAVID BAY LEAF (more recently) but I will still argue that one band, KTH, and their record that I took home with me that night not only stands as a document and representative of such fond memories... The same record that I found in a friends collection of 7"s in a holder that he proclaimed he 'didnt care that much for', is none other than the infamous, legendary, Will Not Overstimulate EP released originally by Rock Action Records.

What do you do when one band personifies every quality of punk-rock all in one place, in one time, in one package? Simple, you talk about it, write about it and play it for everybody you can trying to 'convert' them to your way of thinking... It becomes imperative... Finally you realize how the passion of the early American explorers and conquistadors felt about their passion of trying to bring GOD to the 'savages'. Those dudes had passion for their beliefs. Enthusiasm for their task... They really wanted to do good OR ELSE. I love Stimulate so much I stole that friends copy from him, liberating and relocated it to a place in my collection because I didn't feel it was being loved enough.

Packed with full-on KILLED BY DEATH style punk chargers from start to finis-- from back to front, in all directions! KTH on this record, was an expanded KTH roster the likes of which has never been seen again. Two male vocalist with PP Envy providing a much needed female vocal twist to the fray. The songs are fast, break fast punk-rock (with the dash) running you through the gambit of emotional wrenching. Fast, furious, destructive blast of dissonance, alienation, violence and uncertainty... Its all here, in this one place, this one total package! You read on other records PLAY LOUD, like its a gimmick almost... A reminder... Not on Will Not Overstimulate... You don't need to be reminded on this record. You naturally will turn it up loud. If you 'get it' you don't need instructions. It comes naturally or not at all.

KTH changed my perception of what punk-rock was on Will Not Overstimulate and redefined the genre to me ever since. If you listen to this record and don't agree with me instantly, I will secretly get sort of mad at you and whereas I may respect you and your word, I will never forget that you just didn't 'get it' with me. You'll become, in hopes of something lesser, an enemy. A savage refusing GOD and you know what happened to the savages don't you?

You can find the KTH "Will Not Overstimulate"EP with tons more hard to find stuff of theirs on the Erectrospective CD 

http://www.discogs.com/Kill-The-Hippies-Erectospective/release/1583554

Get the NEW full-length from KTH "You Will Live With Us Forever" (pictured below) it's a rager.

http://killthehippies.bandcamp.com/album/you-will-live-with-us-forever

HAIRWAY TO STEVEN is a Sleeper Hit!

How'd you sleep last night? Good I hope and even though it may sound terribly self-centered and/or selfish on my behalf, I didn't sleep one fucking minute! I 'closed shop' about midnight, or should I say I TRIED to shut it down? Tried is probably a better way of saying it. You can try but unless The Idea Machine™ feels like letting you go into shut-down mode, it's NOT going to happen. So I laid there and tossed and turned. I guess you can say Ipretended to sleep if you must call it something-- then call it that. I thought about getting up and go turn on the movie Apocalypse Now! reminiscent of the Summer of 2012, the last summer of the old world...My old world... We, as a human species, expected the world to end in December 21st. Who knows? Maybe it did... My personal apocalypse just came early. Anyway, so I just laid there in the bed like a great pretender. I thought about jerking-off, but I didn't. I just laid there. Starring at the faint shadows illuminated by sparse, weak lights from small electronic devices plugged-in. I thought about hooking up my circa 2002 iPod and listen to that new Wild Wings release... I didn't. I was afraid of stepping on something with my neuropic feet and re-wounding myself and the seven months I have endured all the wound scraping, casting, limping and no showering... I could go on but I won't. I just laid there.

At 5am I arose. Clothed myself and awoke and applied Speedstick in ample proportions to hide my stench. I awoke Julie to let her know I couldn't sleep so I was going to go have breakfast at Pearls Diner aka "Paradise". At the last minute Julie reminded me to try and choose something healthy. "At Pearls?" I thought. Paradise wasn't deemed a 'greasy spoon' restaurant because it was known for its healthy food choices! I mean, yeah, they have a salad bar but really? Whose eating THAT, there? Those faint shadows from earlier given me the vision of Pearls Breakfast Special--Two eggs, homefries and a half-order of biscuits and gravy with a side of Goetta laid overtop the whole deal! Fuck yeah! A Goetta-topper! So I assured Julie I would try. I thought about making that a lie and fulfilling my vision that I maybe mistook as prophecy, but I didn't. I settled for French-fries with shredded cheese on top smothered in ketchup with a glass of water and cup of coffee. That's about as healthy as Pearls gets. Those fries were crispy and delicious. Their coffee remained true to their previously established standard. In case you are interested, Perkins has the best 'restaurant coffee' if you were wondering. That's my opinion though...

As I leave Pearls, the sun is rising. I could blame my lack of sleep, but I chose The Butthole Surfers classic Hairway to Steven (on CD) and cranked the volume as loud as it would go. I travelled and made my way to The Ronald Reagan Highway, which WAS called Cross-County Highway until some piece of shit decided they were going to name a highway that covers about 2/3rds of the Ohio county that Cincinnati is located inside of (Hamilton), after an Aircraft Carrier that's named after a near God-like jellybean loving Actor/President Ronald Fucking Reagan himself! I have a strange fascination with Ronnie that I'm not going into too much, but me and my relationship, I would say, mirrors The Sex Pistols fascination with The Queen of England, Margaret Thatcher*.

I traverse the entire length of the highway from its start to finish and I feel... Accomplished-- that's the best word I can describe it. I can't say the same about most personal acts. Heading eastbound, with the hammer down and the volume up the sun does it's thing and slowly, seemingly by marvel alone, it rises over the horizon and Butthole Surfers play on verily loudly. I have had Hairway in cassette*** for a long time. Back when I had a cassette holder of mostly Dead Milkmen tapes, Prince tapes and after telling a bruddy in Shreveport La.*** another Ohio transplant named Shawn Maglecic, about how I liked The Dead Milkmen, Shawn then suggested The Butthole Surfers as the next logical step for my musical evolution.

So I went to the mall and I got the tape!

In hindsight, after this morning and the sun rise with Hairway playing, I know now that I was not ready for The Butthole Surfers THEN, but that's hindsight for you! It's not that I didn't like the music, I just turned 16 around the time I bought the tape. I was wedged in-between unending lay of The Dead Milkmen and other other Ohio transplants who loved their thrash-metal and wouldn't stop this Brazillian **** version of The Ramones from playing, except they didn't play good music. They played fast music. This band turned out to be Sepultura and they were awful THEN and still are NOW. So I 'liked' Hairway more and more as the years went by but it wasn't until this morning, after a sleepless night, that I *think* that I finally "get it" although finding the words to describe THAT feeling may take another 25 years too.

 The Big Bastard itself CVN-76

fOOTNOTES

*Just kidding. I mean Ol' Beth Windsor!

**Aka "Freedom-Tape" or just "Tape" (to you newer fans) sounds more 'un-French' and ultimately, friendlier.

*** I dislike just about everything about Louisianna including New Orleans or Norleenz or whatever the fucking spray-tans are calling that hell-hole.

**** or 'Brazillion' to you older fans

Mount Carmel "Get Pure" Review

As it appears in High Times a Magazine.