It's a Bad World
Do What You Want goes global
Last week I revealed my presidential platform and asked you not to vote for me. What I’m saying this morning is, maybe you should have?
It’s a weird sending out an email into a world of great uncertainty. So I’m going to keep this brief and share a few news items so you can get back to your doom scrolling. Or, you could do what I’ve been doing, which is watch Terminator movies (Terminator: Dark Fate is free with Amazon Prime right now), buy old punk records on Discogs (which celebrated its 20th anniversary on Monday with this charming timeline), and dominate my family at Settlers of Catan. (Two months into the pandemic, we were so obsessed with Settlers of Catan that we started keeping track of who won, inscribing our names and the date of our victory on the inside of the cardboard box as if for future generations. The disposition is as follows: Annie has won 13 times, Nuvia has won 14 times, and I have won 18 times. We realized some time ago that keeping track of our scores was a good idea because otherwise each individual would be convinced that they were the winner. Belief tells one story; the numbers reveal another. There’s a lesson to be learned in that.)
Now on with the news…
Bad Religion Day
The good people at The Bad Religion Page, your one stop shop for everything Bad Religion, is hosting Bad Religion Day on Saturday November 7 on Facebook. There’s going to be a full day of events, including an interview with yours truly at 4pm PT/7pm ET. You can also watch it live on YouTube.
Speaking of Facebook, as of last month I’m back on the platform, which I don’t feel great about. I quit two years ago because Facebook is evil. I didn’t get on my high horse about it because I’m still on Instagram, which Facebook owns. But you know who is on Facebook? Old punks. Like all of them. I’m in a research-intensive phase of my secret punk rock book project (see below) and all the hard-to-find people who don’t answer their email are on Facebook every day. So please don’t friend me on Facebook and if you do please don’t be offended if I ignore the request. I’m not there to post or promote or interact with people. While ignoring requests from people I already know feels rude, it’s not why I’m there. Plus, if you have a question or want to talk to me about something, you can always respond to this newsletter.
Bad Religion Around the World
I’m super stoked that three new editions are making their way to book shops around the world.
United Kingdom: Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion will be available from Hachette UK next week on November 12, 2020. You can order from Waterstones, Amazon, and other fine book shops.
Italy: Do What You Want: La Storia Dei Bad Religion is being published by Sabir Editore on November 27, 2020. In fact, it’s already received a review. I can’t read Italian, but I believe the book received a ranking of 86 out of 100, which is a solid B, and I didn’t get very many of those in high school.
Brazil: Do What You Want: A História do Bad Religion is now available for pre-order from HS Merch in Portuguese. And it comes with a 40th anniversary sticker and a double-sided poster. Does this mean some punk rock kid in Brazil will have poster on his wall with my name on it? One can dream.
Secret Punk Rock Book Project
After the news dropped last week about my collaboration with Evan Dando, many of you wrote to ask if my secret punk rock book project was still on. I’m happy to report that it still is. The contract has been signed and I’ve been toiling away. Unlike my previous punk rock books, this one isn’t a collaboration and is under my own name. I can’t wait to share more details about the project. Until then, here’s a clue:
Like My Damage and Do What You Want, this book is set in the world of SoCal punk. Here’s a page from a book I’m using as research.
Look familiar? If you’re the first person to correctly guess the book where this image appeared, I’ll send you some items from my Etsy store. When it comes time to announce my secret punk rock book, I’ll do so in Message from the Underworld first, so if you’re not already a subscriber, now would be a good time to join.