Looking for some kind of feeling

Ambling around OC and LA

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It feels like things are moving too quickly. The end of good things. The beginning of bad things. The continuation of even worse things. It can be overwhelming.

More and more I feel like the refusal to be overwhelmed by it all has become part of the daily struggle of everyday life. Even minor inconveniences like car repairs, routine medical procedures, getting early to take Nuvia to the airport—all the ordinary ups and downs—can feel like major disruptions.

I don’t know what to do about this other than immerse myself in art. Reading with intention. Carving out space for creative tasks. Going to the movies. Writing. Anything that quiets the desire to check the news, whatever that means, and find out what new horrors await.

That sounds good, right? I feel like I am pretty good at this, but then late at night or early in the morning I pick up my phone to check my email and am sucked into competing algorithms, looking for some kind of feeling I can’t even name. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m looking for; I don’t even realize I’m looking.

I don’t want to make too big a deal about it but I’m going to lead each new edition of Message from the Underworld with a link to The Sameer Project. I’m making a recurring monthly donation. If you want to talk about it, or anything really, you can reply to this email.

ICYMI, I made a pretty big announcement last week.

I want to talk about Weapons, Zach Creeger’s new movie, but I don’t want to spoil it for you or say anything that might influence your thoughts about it. (At least not yet anyway.) It’s the kind of movie that’s best if you go into it not knowing anything about it, but check this out: I saw a note on Letterboxd that when Jordan Peele’s production company lost the bidding war for this movie he fired all of his managers. So consider this a warning to see Weapons soon because I have so much to say about it.

I also saw the movie Together, which I liked quite a bit. It’s a fun, well-made horror movie. No jump scares and one unforgettable scene. Not to sound like an old robot with limited memory on the hard drive, but every movie should have one unforgettable scene so that five, ten, twenty years into the future when the audience has forgotten who was in it or what it’s about they still remember that scene.

I went to a Quinceañera on Saturday and drank virgin pina coladas and danced with Nuvia all night. What a rush. Highly recommended.

Did you know there’s a new oral history of Die Kreuzen from Feral House? I’ve been listening to the band’s demos from ’81 and ’82 and HFS. This band unlocked something special.

I went to Leo Fender Day at the Fullerton Museum on Sunday to see the OC Punk exhibit and Channel Three, Manic Hispanic and Agent Orange. The place was packed, too packed to properly experience the exhibit. Apparently, the museum was caught off guard by the number of people who came to see it and it’s their biggest exhibit ever. Maybe more museums will take note…

I missed most of Ch3’s set but caught all of Manic Hispanic. I was surprised to see singer Louie Perez roll out onto the stage in a wheelchair after being stabbed in Missouri a few weeks ago. The last I heard he was still in the hospital. “I almost bit the big churro!” he said from the stage. Get well soon, Louie!

I mostly hung out with Daniel Kohn and Nate Jackson, authors of Tearing Down the Orange Curtain. They handled some of the emcee duties for Leo Fender Day and were signing and selling copies of their book. It was the perfect venue for their book and it was nice to see them get a share of the limelight.

After the show I made my way up to LA and crashed at Razorcake HQ for a couple days. It was great to catch up with Todd and Jennifer but I was so tired I went right to the office and passed out on the futon. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve slept at RZC HQ, but since I wrote Black Van, which opens with the main character living in the podcast station, it hits a little different, like the boundary between fiction and reality is getting blurry.

The following day I doubled down on this feeling by taking a meeting in the podcast station and then walking around Highland Park where the opening chapter of the novel is set. I paid a visit to the crew at Rare Bird, who published Make It Stop, ate a couple Ensenada-style fish tacos at Tacos Ensenada, and hung out on Edward Colver’s back patio overlooking his lush, overgrown backyard, listening to stories about high art and low punk, just the way we like it.

The next day I was back in the podcast station and did an interview for a project I’m working on. Then I drove to the outskirts of Hollywood to a studio on Cahuenga to record some stories about my cousin Mark. There’s a new release of Neon Maniacs, my cousin’s 1986 slasher, in the works, and the studio is putting together a mini documentary about the movie. It was nice to have the opportunity to talk about Mark, who has been gone for almost 30 years. Hard to believe.

Thanks for reading! Today is a good day to upgrade to a paid subscription. If you liked this newsletter you might also like my latest novel about healthcare vigilantes Make It Stop, or the paperback edition of Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records, or my book with Bad Religion, or my book with Keith Morris. I have more books and zines for sale here. Plus, the anthology Eight Very Bad Nights is getting a paperback release.

Message from the Underworld comes out every Wednesday and is always available for free, but paid subscribers also get Orca Alert! on most Sundays. It’s a weekly round-up of links about art, culture, crime, and killer whales.