Dharma Punk (Levine, Noah)

1. Dharma Punk (Levine, Noah) • Reading Themes

2. Suicide Solution • I am my own worst enemy • I must annihilate this evil body mind and worthless body to ever find peace • I have lost all touch with reality, with love, even the hatred that had once fuelled my punk rock rebellion • I traded my Doc Martens, and leather jacket for a %ucking crack pipe. I have traded in my belief in anarchy and the revolution for a ride on the Night Train Express... Just let me die • Getting to the point of “pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization”

3. Kids of the Black Hole • Shining a light into the darkness (do we ever lose that light)? • Get out of this life if I needed t0 (deep suffering or...?) searching for an answer for it (what if there isn’t one) • I began to cry and decided that next time I was really going to use my knife, that would show them. They would miss me when I was gone forever. Then maybe they would understand how I felt. • By ten smoking pot, committing subtle crimes, fighting, drinking, snorting, huffing, and ingesting • *** Meeting best friend for life Toby - and Punk Rock soon to come “an identity” (Skater to Punk) • Sex pistols (music of the gods); the high energy (feels alive) and fast style of music made we want to break something (merging)

4. It’s in My Blood... • Punks understood how I felt - tribal affiliation - committed myself to live fast and die young • I was no longer the weirdest one in the room. I was finally somewhere that I could just be myself and not worry about getting beat up by jocks or hicks • Punk scene - release aggression... It was the most fun I’d had in my life. I loved it, the energy, the anger, and the freedom to be ourselves. • Finding employment in the culture (can you say reinforcer)!

5. *uck Authority • Arrested - mom’s boyfriend’s week (a hustle; deals with sister) • I had completely lost interest in school, family, and following anyone’s rules. ALl that mattered to me was skateboarding, drugs, and sex (becoming culturalized) • Learning to evade the law • Extending boundaries beyond “punk culture tribe” (hip hop), but keeping in quiet (message was the same *uck authority, disproval of societies racist politics) • More arrests more fighting • Failed everyclass...I knew school was all bullshit. Nothing that they taught us was useful in the real world. I learned more about what was really happening in the world from reading the lyrics of punk bands that I ever had in school. • Hates all mom’s boyfriend (part of teenage thing - part because they were assholes • Club culture slowing closing... I had seen dozens of shows and had been ordained into a lifestyle that would influence me for the rest of my life.

6. Teenage Wasteland • There was a lot of love in the house (Dad and Ondrea) but I was too stoned most of the time to notice • Really loved her and Dad, but instead of showing it I stole from them all the time... I couldn’t stop myself from stealing, trying to fill the void and the negative attention I had become accustomed to. • Emancipation from parents (take responsibility) • Back in Santa Cruz - scene changes, more tribes different vibes and symbols • We hung out with the Gutters and the Hell bitches - but when it came to drugs and booze - we were a separate entity. My crew were the guys who took care of me when I was broke and I took care of them when they were broke • Toby was shooting, I swore to never put needles in myself, smoked crack though • Desolation (the institution), lagoon near a water-treatment plant - next to train-tracks and abandoned warehouses “I felt at home there”

7. Teenage Wasteland (cont.) • Leather jacket (symbol) only possession that I really cared about - gives to mona • Felt superior over kids lived over the hill (San Jose / Campbell) • Safety in numbers - skateboard incident >>> JUvie • Tim looked disappointed - couldn’t understand why I was so screwed up -(had read my Dad’s books) • Real change “anarchy - overthrow government - “I got mad thinking about all of this and how I was there for standing up against a bully, fighting the oppressor, caught up in the system.

8. Noah Levine Today • Let’s listen a bit... • Then Swansea Love Story