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Like many recently, I have been turning to ways to distract myself from “breaking news” and to get off the Internet.
I stumbled upon a slim volume entitled A Mind Blown is a Mind Shown by Plastic Crimewave (AKA Steve Krakow) during one of my many trips to Atomic Books.
In it, the author gives a guided tour of his life as a member of the underground community of another city, Chicago, over the course of the time I have also been involved in the underground here in Baltimore.
EDITOR’S NOTE: be like Tim! Buy your copy from Atomic Books
The account is warts and all, the author’s style being informal with a few quirks that you soon get used to, as one would when reading a ’zine. It has allowed me to be transported to another place and time and to see the connections in terms of what we were digging on here and what they were digging on there. We build these outposts and then travel and tour between them, seeking other like-minded folks, either in-person or online.
If I am looking for distraction, I am also doing the work that is involved with being in an underground music and arts community here and now. As I travel around, folks express relief on being in a room with other people who care about the things that they care about, that are on the same wavelength as them. Even if our opinions on the merits of The Who Sell Out at a recent meeting of the For the Record 33 1/3 Music Club diverged, we were all there together.
I am very used to being in the minority when it comes to my tastes and enthusiasms in art and music. I remember leaving the room at a college workplace with an Unwound cassette blaring on the communal tape deck. When I returned, the sour looks on my co-workers’ faces reminded me that what I thought of as a “poppier” album by the band was still far from what those 1990s college kids enjoyed in terms of music. I quickly shut it off, put on The Beatles, and we all moved on.
One way to take these sorts of moments is to be in opposition to those who don’t dig on your scene, to put on the armor of sarcasm and elitism, to further divide. I admit to doing this for many years, but it is a way of being that I eventually saw through and grew past. What I look for is the places where things meet, the connections between folks, and enjoy and celebrate those moments and methods of connection. To build bridges between people is harder and harder to do, even if we seem more connected (digitally) than ever before.
I am very happy to continue on in the underground, to advocate for what I believe and to do what I enjoy. Thank you Plastic Crimewave for giving me a window into your underground in another town. Let me know if you need anything if you come through Baltimore.
