What were you like as a TEENAGER???

[lyfenlyn]

I know I was a hot, but cute mess. What was high school like for you? Did you think you were punk at the time? What was it like when you first heard of punk? Do you have any evidence (pics) of you back then??

[El Machetero]

^^^You're in the AP movie?????? You never told me you were int he AP movie. What part?

[Rhinos Have More Fun]

Rosenda said:

...Crazy miniskirts and striped jeans from Flip of London...

FLIP on Melrose?? Wow--I haven't seen or thought about them in years!

[Rhinos Have More Fun]

El Machetero said:

^^^You're in the AP movie?????? You never told me you were int he AP movie. What part?

Remember on the boards a LONG time ago when James asked if anyone had any pictures to contribute for the DVD edit? Mine appears very briefly during the discussion about hair straightening. I might still have that clip on Photobucket. I'll see if it is still there.

Yeah, it's extremely ironic that I got the inspiration to say "fuck all y'all" from Malcolm, but I wound up straightening my hair later. I think it was about a year later when I was stoned and had an extremely scary vision of myself in the mirror.

[El Machetero]

Know what makes me roll on the floor when i look back in retrospect? When i used to put all sorts of shit in my hair (hairspray, soap, knox gelatin, the works) to get my hair all huge and stiff and spikey ala GBH/Discharge/Final Conflict to get what we sued to call that "asterisk" look, and it would rain, and i'd end up with a flippin jherri curl. LOL!

[lyfenlyn]

El with a CURL. THAT IS FUNNY!!!!

El Machetero said:

Know what makes me roll on the floor when i look back in retrospect? When i used to put all sorts of shit in my hair (hairspray, soap, knox gelatin, the works) to get my hair all huge and stiff and spikey ala GBH/Discharge/Final Conflict to get what we sued to call that "asterisk" look, and it would rain, and i'd end up with a flippin jherri curl. LOL!

[Boombats]

El Machetero said:

Know what makes me roll on the floor when i look back in retrospect? When i used to put all sorts of shit in my hair (hairspray, soap, knox gelatin, the works) to get my hair all huge and stiff and spikey ala GBH/Discharge/Final Conflict to get what we sued to call that "asterisk" look, and it would rain, and i'd end up with a flippin jherri curl. LOL!

Oh man I fucking hate that shit. I was born with a Jheri. I got the worst combination of white and black genes (except for my enormous genitals)

[Afrotechnica]

I'm probably from a different generation than most of you. My teen years were in the mid 70's. Those were the days of heavy Funk, rockin metal and platform shoes on the dance floor. I was into MUSIC so I didn't have a true preference. In one corner of my bedroom, I had self made Parliament/Funkadelic Mothership with working lights hanging from my ceiling. In the basement, I had a 3 foot stack of vinyl ranging from Ted Nugent to Frank Zappa to Joe Walsh to Manford Mann's Earth Band to Kiss to Bob Seager (I'm from Detroit) then behind the bar, I had 8 track blues tapes and stacks of 12" dance music like Anita Ward to Silver Convention to Chic and Donna Summer ( I was and still am a huge Donna Summers fan) I ain't shame. I just came out of the closet of admitting to worshiping Madonna too.
But when the 80's came, the music dominated me. The 80's was the shit. Though I still peeped R & B like Luther Vandross, Kashif and Anita Baker, I loved the new wave scene: Missing Persons, B-52's Devo, ect. and was crazy about the British invasion stuff: Adam Ant, Billy Idol (Steve Stevens on guitar), General Public, Duran Duran, Bowie, ABC, The The, Art of Noise, Culture Club, The Clash, The Jam (All ska bands), U2, New Order, ect. I bet y'all never heard Vigilantes of Love:
I listen to everything. I love music.

This Steve Stevens. Billy Idol's guitarist from back in the day. He can fuck'n play.
He makes you question whether you think you can really play or not.

[lyfenlyn]

New York Dolls, Iggy & The Stooges, Thin Lizzy, Ziggy...all homorockers. love them all.

[yassin]

well in the uk i was a depressed shy girl didnt fit in always loved music then heard my first punk record th ramones when i was about eight i went off it in teenage years getting expelled from two schools going to special school for emotionally malajusted then assesment centre got more into punk had white afro mohican got into nuwave and the gothic scene, later still started squatting in disusued houses so got into squat punk scene shaved head..got tattooed and pierced then i grew my dreadlocks xray specs were a big influence..she had colour and sang punk, i think the uk scene is a little different to usa? i was a very introverted teenager if creative i had punk boyfriends and friends later on in life im forty..back then i really stood out with all black eyes and white hair ha ha and my nhs glasses!

[Rosenda]

BAH HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH!!!! OMG THAT'S FUNNY!! I'm just picturing that. My crazy hair moment was when I did my ultimate at the hair salon request, a full on asymmetrical hairdo while my hair was straightened. You know the one, shaved on one side, and gradually longer as it goes all the way to the left side of your head. And EACH layer was curled and hairsprayed with that Stiff Stuff or Aquanet or the super hold Paul Sebastian stuff. Man I LOOVED that hair do cause it' looked CUTE.

But you know after about a month when your hair starts to grow out ....... different lengths all over. It dont' look so cute no more.
So when the shaved side of my head got to be about 2 inches long, I cut ALL my hair the same length. Some looks were not meant for forever, sisters and brothers.

El, speaking of Jheri curls..................I kid you not, I TRIED to get a Jheri curl sometime around the mid 1980's once. The hairstylist spend a couple hours putting that stinky gel cream in my hair and rolling it up and guess what.............it did not take.

Love her, she did not charge my mom for it and oh well it was not meant to be. BAHAAHAHHAAH HAH!

El Machetero said:

Know what makes me roll on the floor when i look back in retrospect? When i used to put all sorts of shit in my hair (hairspray, soap, knox gelatin, the works) to get my hair all huge and stiff and spikey ala GBH/Discharge/Final Conflict to get what we sued to call that "asterisk" look, and it would rain, and i'd end up with a flippin jherri curl. LOL!

[Daoud]

I'm 40 so I kind of came out with much of the music many of y'all came up on. Except for the deeper stuff; I didn't hear any Bauhaus or Bad Brains until my boy CX put ne on in the early 90's. Omega Seessions blew me away and I got into Red Hot Chili Peppers from their version of Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground. I knew of Fishbone but CX really put me on to how dope they were.

Pre-teen '70's, I came up on whatever was on the radio from Boston, Cheap Trick, Carole King to The Spinners, Jacksons, Funkadelic, etc. I became a Kiss fan from their scary imagery first then their music. Them & Paliment and Earth-Wind-Fire had all the musical & cover art imagery I needed to keep my wild imagination going. When '79 came and Sugar Hill arrived, they bumped everybody else from my top groups. Then Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five ruled everything along with the successive groups. I listened to the whole 80's canon:
Duran Duran, Jeffrey Osbourne, The Time, Billy Idol, Madonna, Lisa Lisa, UTFO, Ultravox, Pink Floyd (Wall era), Van Halen, Schoolly D & Code Money, Sade, The Police, (all day), Force MD's, Trouble Funk, Queen, Devo, Prince, SOS Band, T La Rock, Prince, Human League, Mantronix, Naked Eyes, Just-Ice (constantly), Spandau Ballet, Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force (first real heros), etc.

Bam's name alone and the group's emceeing blew away on "Planet Rock", "Looking For The Perfect Beat" and "Renegades Of Funk" blew my mind away. I read everything could on Afrika Bambaataa and the Universal Zulu Nation with intent to join but that wouldn't happen until about a decade later. I straight up wanted to cut my hair like Bam's mohawk but I didn't have the heart then. He combined & did records with Johnny Rotten, Trouble Funk, James Brown, Shango, etc. so he was who looked up to. And he dressed like a wild king from Saturn.

Jumping back, I heard about "punk" through the news, pre-MTV. It was like "gangsta rap" in that it scared everybody; group with a name like the Sex Pistols is coming to town? Hide your children. I wasn't really interested at the time either but I didn't judge.

The Knack had become popular around this time and were lumped into the punk movement. I thought the song was cool. But this group The Clash was getting big and were on the news, I remember there was this cute Black girl on the report complaining about not being able to get tickets for the show. Even though she was older, I thought I'd like to meet Black girls like that who listen to rock music too. The Clash had "Radio Clash" and "Magnificent 7" being mixed on the Hip Hop programs by DJ Jazzy Jeff (pre-Fresh Prince) and DJ Cash Money and "Rock the Casbah' on the pop / rock stations, so they were hot everywhere without compromising their message or sound.

By the early 80's Rap & MTV era music ruled so it was all my above mentioned groups plus Micheal Jackson and all the other kings & queens of the time. I identified as Hip Hop / prep but was never fully into the styles because they cost beyond my allowance. And I spent most of my loot on records, movies, magazines and books (in that order; not much has changed).
I followed the moves of Fab Five Freddy (pre-Yo!), Malcolm McClaren, Don Letts, Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam, Russell Simmons & Rick Rubin, Spike Lee, Charlie Ahearn, Henry Chalafant, Martha Cooper, Nelson George, Mare 139 (Carlos Rodriquez), Lee Quiones, Cey Adams, Lady Pink, Noc, Seen, Keith Haring, Dondi, Kase, etc.

I ran track but was not a jock, was not playboy or a full-on nerd, I was cool with many white folks but not fully part of the majorly Jewish JAP (jewish american princess/prince) crew I lived around. I fit in with the Black folks but got clowned heavily because I couldn't / wouldn't show up at dances and do the latest moves. It was bad because I wanted to hear the latest records not on the radio spun and see DJ's get busy cutting (Philly DJ era) but without $100 Filas and no dance moves, you stood alone. And I had no rap for the ladies at all, as Biz said in The Vapors (changed for me); "I was into girls & I was into my music, they thought I was holding back instead of tryin' to use it..."

I graduated a bit confused and frustrated but not fully negative. The social subculture of girls and the Philly flyygirl era were difficult for me, they said some stuff to me and others that scared me from trying to even holla or being paranoid if one did step up. As Morrissey said, I was the "son & heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar". It's just that I didn't know how to handle girls at all and no icons to model myself after; I wasn't Prince, DMC or Blair Underwood. When I left Philly and went to Atlanta in '87, the Native Tongues came out, I saw the crew I wished I was in during high school. And Rakim, Public Enemy and BDP guided the way.