WEBVTT - CZM Book Club: Locust House, by Adam Gnade (Part Two of Four) 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:12.280 Cal Zone Media book Club book Club book Club. Hello 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.760 and welcome to the Cool Zone Media book Club, the 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:17.959 only book club where you don't have to do the 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.239 reading because I do it for you. I'm your host, 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.760 Margaret Kiljoy, and we are in our summer read. Our 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.600 four parter are long. It's not actually very long. It's 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.120 barely a novella. It is right on the edge between 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:38.519 novelette and novella, which is an almost meaningless distinction that 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:43.919 I only know the difference between because of or categories. 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.120 That's the main reason that any of these numbers matter, 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:54.200 and the distinctions between flash fiction, short stories, novelettes, novellas, 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:58.720 and novels. But this one, we're going to call it 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.520 a novella because it's also, you know, a social category 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.920 rather than just a strict word count thing. That's the 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.119 aside you all were really excited about hearing. We are 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:17.120 reading A Locust House by Adam Ganatti. And if you 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.240 don't remember part one incredibly well, well you can listen 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.800 to it again if you want. But also, this is 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.120 a slightly less linear book than most of what we 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:31.240 read here, so don't worry about it too much. Like 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.000 obviously the stuff that's in part one is going to 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.520 come up. Especially. I feel like the payoff is really 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:41.040 for that part is in part four, the end, because 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:42.800 we're going to switch characters. We're going to switch to 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.039 new characters. Why am I procrastinating by telling you all 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.520 of this because there's a lot of Spanish in this one, 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:55.240 and I'm not incredibly good at Spanish. But here we 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:02.880 go anyway. Chapter two Locust House by Adam Ganatti, Golden Hill. 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:07.120 As you move eastward from Agnes mccanty's studio apartment, which 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.359 sits on the crest of the hill on the far 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.320 west edge of the neighborhood, the streets are wide and 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.959 well paved and lined with cars. It's an older part 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.520 of town, or rather it feels older in contrast to 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.079 Downtown with his expensive wine bars and dance clubs, or 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.800 the coastal areas beach resorts sprawl. The houses in Golden 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.240 Hill are by and large ratty, but as lovingly well 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.840 maintained as a low to modest income will allow. Driving 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:40.840 up Broadway. As the numbered streets rise, you will see craftsmen, cottages, victorians, 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.280 turn of the sentry, bungalows, white stucco apartments in the 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:51.400 California Motels style crumbling alpine and facades, railroad apartments with 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:56.679 French ironwork gates. Inside the Victorians and craftsmens are hardwood 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:00.160 floors in varying states of repair and old glass gas 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.720 cabinets and big windows and window seats with a view 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.240 facing west of downtown and the airport in the shipyard 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.200 or to the northeast and south rolling hills of tar 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:16.480 shingle and orange tile rooftops. The skies are blue and cloudless, 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.800 and the rain comes in frequently. As with most deserts, 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.400 that is what San Diego is. A desert, but a 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:27.360 desert in disguise made green with the water of other 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:32.320 poorer cities. In the years since, the drought has come 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:35.400 and the beautiful lawns are gone. But a well located 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:39.520 coastal town will change in other ways. Development rolls in 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:43.960 with tourist money or the promise of it. The San 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.840 Diego of now is not the San Diego of then, 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:49.920 just like the San Diego of then is not the 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:54.160 San Diego of decades past, when the sleepy beach neighborhoods 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:58.560 were closer to a post war America. Before that, it 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:02.360 was ranchland and marsh flats and endless dirt fields of 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.280 low scrub brush. Before that, the Spanish priests and the 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:14.880 mission above Old Town and further back Native people Lucienno, Caiuhia, Kupienno, Diegenno, 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:20.039 small tribes in the arid, sun baked Manzanita hills and 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:24.039 bramble land, or to the west, coastal villages with fish 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.080 and pelts drying on wood racks, small fires, men and 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.080 women pulling abalone from the tide pools. It was a 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.920 quiet time when the loudest sound was the wind, which 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.400 came and comes mostly from the west over the sea 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.760 and onshore wind colder than the warm offshores from the 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.960 east that blow over the deserts and spark brush fires 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.080 and the drier rural parts of the county. On March 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.560 twenty ninth, two thousand two, Golden Hill is a quiet 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.479 part of town in a different way than in the 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.440 time of the Luciennos, and the development that's now spread 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.280 across the country has yet to change the face of 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:09.080 the neighborhood here now March two thousand and two, the 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.640 predominant language is Spanish, and muscle cars or hot rods 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.960 sit in dusty driveways, next to rabbit hutches or stacks 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.880 of tires in the weeds or small gardens. In the evenings, 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.520 mariachi bands play backyard parties or birthdays or kinsignettas with 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.040 laughing families and candles lit on garden walls and strings 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:32.039 of light over picnic tables, window signs in Spanish and 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.680 out sails on pork shoulders tripe canalope. The neighborhood is 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:41.320 full of taco shops, mercados, and carnserias. Stately churches in 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.440 the mission style are semi Gothic. In the middle of 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.320 town is a laundromat with a sleeping cat in the window, 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.159 and there are well kept liquor stores and bars, shops 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:55.039 selling US to Mexico, phone cards and pinatas, and sturdy 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.920 cowboy boots. The trees are mostly palm trees and they 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.960 line the hilly streets like telephone poles. As you reach 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.800 the eastern edge of town, there are empty lots with 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.960 dog shit, dried white and old car batteries, and the 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.920 bones of cats and birds. In the ice plant and grass. 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.800 There are abandoned apartments, punk squats with kids outside drinking 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:21.080 forties watching you drive past. There are condemned houses covered 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:25.760 in graffiti, mostly names in elaborate jagged shapes and colorful swirls, 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:30.480 or smiling cartoon animals or exaggerated taggers with huge heads 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.919 and big sneakers and a can of Krylon spray paint 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.400 and hand. There are also political murals Caesar Chaves and 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.080 a sea of upturned faces Martin Luther King with a 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:46.560 finger raised defiantly next to his face, che Guvara Stormy 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:50.520 with his beard and beret, or stencils of Mexican revolutionaries 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.080 with rifles held above their heads and bandoliers of cartridges 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:58.800 draped across their chests. Now these are gone, along with 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.560 the muscle cars and rabbit touches and empty lots. Now, 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.039 in twenty sixteen, the young professionals who work in the 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.800 Mission Valley and downtown offices, and the white college students 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.480 have moved in, and many of the Mexican families and 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.000 most of the punks have moved south to Logan or 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.400 Sherman Heights, or further still to Chula Vista or Senya Sidru. 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.360 But for now it's a quieter time. At night, you 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.160 can hear the sound of the freeway as you walk 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.920 down Broadway and there are neons humming from storefronts, and 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:33.080 you can imagine yourself in nineteen fifties America walking down 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.200 c Street or twenty six at dusk, you will smell 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:43.200 dinner cooking albondigas, manuato bozzole, pots of beans, well peppered cherizo, 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:50.240 sopez frying in oil. James Jackson Bozick twenty six and 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.480 Frances Alisio twenty one walk past the shop fronts and 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:58.320 awnings lining twenty fifth Street. It's night, but most of 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.720 the stores are still open. They wait for traffic to clear, 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.480 then cross the street, passing the fruit stand closed and 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.400 the laundromat open. The smell of pineapples and dryer sheets 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.440 in the air. Frances hums to herself the tune indistinct. 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.520 They walk arm in arm, and James thinks of his 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.720 grandfather's twenty two pistol on the sock drawer and the 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.040 dusty light through the window as he slides the drawer 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.840 open to look at it on his tiptoes. Six years old, Leveda, Colorado. 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.040 Frances thinks of dark trees in Georgia and sky behind them. 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.319 She thinks of the footbridge over the stream in Hinesville, 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.640 and ring snakes bending through the grass, and a crack 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:44.280 of lightning running in jagged crags across the sky. Eugenio Armandares, 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.959 forty three, sells grilled corn from a stand on twenty fifth. 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.640 He wears a white T shirt with a front pocket, 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.400 light blue work pants, and black boots. As James and 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.000 Frances approach, he's thumbing through a copy of The Reader. 0:08:57.720 --> 0:08:59.839 He folds it under his arm and smiles and not 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.959 so loon. He sees Frances and thinks of his daughter 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:07.080 back in Mexico. Standing at the water spigot, thin armed, pale, 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.079 struggling to fill a bucket for the goats. The sky 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.720 overhead blue and cloudless, the musky smell of the creek 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:19.280 in the air. Cheonda, says James. Eugenio nods. Piero lote 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:24.720 see gustiarra mostos poufoor. Eugenio asked James if he wants cheese, 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:30.960 conquees orsen Tenemoscotia. Frankie, you want cheese, right, yeah? Please, 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.040 she says. Eugenia nods and smiles at her, and takes 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.679 the first ear of corn off the grill and rolls 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.760 it in an aluminum serving dish of melted butter, then 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.360 drizzles it in dry white cheese, next a squeeze of 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.400 fresh lime and a shake of cayenne pepper. He thinks 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.240 of TV static as the channel's change in a dark 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.400 living room with people sitting on a couch. His daughter 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.520 standing in the hallway door, head leaned on her arm 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.520 against the jam, the light of the TV on her face. 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.920 John Wayne is on screen in military attire, standing in 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.400 front of a tank, squinting. Say, well, you're gone and 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.040 done it this time, didn't you. His daughter says that 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.760 Americans aren't really like that, and her brother says sh. 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:20.280 The traffic clears and the street darkens, much like dear listener, 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.679 how the hubbub of content must clear out so that 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:38.240 we can throw to ads. Here's products and services, and 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:46.760 we're back. The neons of the turf club glow green 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.319 against the gray and black, and the windows of the 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:53.560 laundromat are bright lit and cheery. A pregnant woman moves inside, 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:56.280 pulling wet clothes from a washer and setting them aside 0:10:56.280 --> 0:11:01.160 in a wire basket. Now traffic again, moving past, slow, 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:06.880 yellow white head lights, dull red break lights, flashing. Frances 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.840 wraps her arm in James's, her head on his shoulder. 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.360 All is good, for now, for now, all is good. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.679 Joey Carr twenty four turns the corner, walking past Pancheta's 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.520 Bakery and Jac's Market, smoking a cigarette, drinking tequila from 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.800 a doctor pepper Can, staggering but comfortable, singing to himself. 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:34.360 Frances nods up the street. James, is that Joey Carr? Huh, yeah, 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.680 he looks like shit. Eugenio asks James if he and 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.080 Frances want something to drink. James shakes his head. No, 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:46.439 gracias hues tres dorades. James opens his wallet, takes out 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:51.280 a ten chilo dos poor al porpino hey cambio see 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:55.960 grassius miho. Joey catches sight of them and half jogs 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:57.959 up to the stand and then he's out of breath, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:03.839 leaned forward, hands on his knees. James Jackson Bosic and 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:08.280 Frances Alicia, What are you two vampires up to? Laughing, 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.319 standing up straight again, bringing his cigarette to his mouth, 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.680 sucking in. His nails are painted black and chipped, and 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.320 his hands are sunburnt. His hair is dirty, and he's 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.679 wearing an eyeliner, and he smells like weed and sweat. 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.640 His stained white T shirt reads the Shock, The Shock, 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:29.199 The Shock in hot pink letters. James smiles. We're going 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.880 to the East Street House show. It's their moving out party. 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:37.199 They got evicted. You should come with, says Frances. Eugenio 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.960 hands Francs a paper bag with the aluminum foil wrapped 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.640 corn cobs inside. It's heavy. She can feel the heat 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:45.480 through the bag, and she can smell the butter and 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:50.680 cayenne pepper. Thanks, she says, thank you, Miihita. He stares 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:52.960 at her sadly and decides to call his daughter in 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.280 the morning. In his mind, he says he's sorry. Ociento 0:12:56.360 --> 0:13:01.440 letta lociento. Mihita makes a dragon, turns his head and 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.600 blows the smoke to the side. Dude, no way, the 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:10.839 Avocado Club's closing up shop bummers. James nods. Avocado Club. 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:16.120 Who calls it that? Some people do? I always just 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.160 called it the Locust House. As Francis Joey's distracted. He 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.480 looks across the street at the seven eleven. Yeah, but 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.320 like but like nobody else does. He looks back at 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.080 James and Francis and smiles. His teeth are gapped in yellow. 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:33.839 I've always called it the East Street House, but it's 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.240 funny to say the Avocado Club, because I'm all, No way, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.720 that shit's a sandwich, you ow, not a house. You 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.040 can't live in a sandwich. He laughs and coughs. That 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:48.720 shit's a it's a sandwich, right, James shrugs. I guess 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.360 I don't know. Anyway, it should be pretty fun. Who's 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:58.400 playing locust Blood Brothers. Joey flicks his cigarette into the street. Sick. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.840 James looks at the cigarette lying in the street. Smoke's 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.120 still trailing up from it, moving with the breeze. A 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:08.880 car passes over it and he sees it again. The 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.719 smoke is still rising. I think I think the new 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:14.920 band with Omar and Cedric from at the drive in. 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:17.840 They stepped to the side so a woman with a 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.760 toddler girl next to her can order nessosito nueve. The 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:26.240 woman tells Eugenio he trus pepsis. Eugenio begins to work. 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:31.400 Joey pulls another cigarette from his pack at the drive in. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.560 No way, really is it Mars volta No? I think 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.280 it's called the Facto. Frankie, who else is playing. James 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:43.880 looks at Francis shrugging, moving units. Francis shakes her head. 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.520 Maybe I don't know, but we should head out, James, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.200 you want to do this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, says James. 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.480 Let's do it. Joey lights the cigarette and sticks his 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.480 lighter into his back pocket. I'll see you around. Maybe 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.880 I'm supposed to meet Kurt at Ray's. We're going to 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.520 ib to buy talking quieter. Now. We're buying some shit 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.920 to take down to Ensnata to sell if you all 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:12.720 want some. James shakes his head. No, that's cool, No thanks, 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.640 says Francis. All right, late, see you two around. Don't 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.920 go chasing waterfalls. Joey laughs, then coughs again, holding his 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.960 fist to his mouth. Don't go chasing waterfalls, he says again, 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.120 hoping James or Francis will continue the line. They don't 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.880 see us, says James. By Joey, says Francis. James and 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.960 Francis walk down twenty fifth, Francis holding the bag of 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.920 corn cops under her right arm. Yeah that was awful, 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.240 James says, What the fuck? Poor Joey, he's such a 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.880 nice kid. I wish we didn't see that. What's he 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:55.400 getting from Kurt? I don't know, Heroinugh, geez, no good, no, no, 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.760 no good. I fucking hate that guy. Kurt. His sister 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:03.720 also is cool. It's not about that, huh, James, he 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:08.040 looked like he was eighty. Yeah. Yeah, But we're going 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.880 to the party and it'll be great. It will, right, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:16.000 it will, Frankie, it will, it'll be great. And who cares? Right? 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:20.560 Who cares? Ah, James. But still still, I feel like 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.960 we just saw a ghost. They stand at the stoplight 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.880 across the street on Broadway. Joey Carr drops his doctor 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.600 Pepperkhn in the trash and walks into the seven eleven. 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.520 Francis sees Tyler Monahan's dark blue Miata pull up to 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:38.240 the curb and park on Broadway. Tyler gets out, shuts 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.320 his door, and waves at them emphatically. Hey guys, he 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.360 shouts him across the street. They don't hear it. They 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:51.440 see him, James look Tyler nice, Hey, Tyler hey. Francis 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.160 looks up as the light turns to green above them. 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:56.960 The black sky is streaked gray, like lines of old 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:01.000 scars on skin. She thinks of relief maps, train tracks, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:08.639 dirty canals, neosporin, hydrogen peroxide. They crossed the street. But 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.720 dear listener, do you know what would never cross us? No, 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.040 it would never get past us. Is a chance to 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:31.240 interrupt stories, to tell you about products and services. And 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:42.080 we're back. Chapter three, Battles and Aftermath. James, Frankie, Tyler 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.240 and I sat on a curb down by the overpass 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.520 bridge and ate our corn and sipped Tyler's flask of rum. 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.359 The rum felt warm in my belly and made my 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.520 head swim nicely, and the corn was damn good. But 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.320 Frankie and I could barely sit still. We wanted to 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:58.840 go to the party. We wanted to see the bands. 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.199 We finished the corn, we stopped at seven to eleven 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.199 for provisions and walked to the party. The place was 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:07.520 packed by the time we got there. It was a 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.280 very dark night foggy too, which is something that stands 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.720 out in all my memories of Golden Hill. Foggy nights, 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:18.000 slow fog when it's dark and there's no moon in 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.760 that thick beautiful mist creeps up from the canyons and freeways, 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.480 and the air is wet and smells a honeysuckle and 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.680 night blooming Jasmine. At the house, A million kids were 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.640 out smoking and drinking on the porch, a whole sea 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.879 of them, and more than that on the lawn, sitting 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:38.440 along the white picket fence that lined the sidewalk, lying 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.560 in the grass with bottles and cigarettes in hand, or 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.520 up on the rooftops of cars coming in and out 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.600 of the house. Every square foot of the place was 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.000 moving like it was covered in ants, and you could 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:54.480 hear music from inside, muffled but heavy rumbling. The street 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.719 was lined with vans, and the bands had come in, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.359 and some of them had their side doors open, and 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.160 you could see all all your heroes drinking or smoking 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.639 or talking or just chilling before they're set. We walked 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.879 past one of the bands standing outside their van on 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:12.240 the sidewalk, and I stopped the singer and I was like, Hey, 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.320 my name's James, my friend of your cousin Meggie. You 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:17.840 guys new record is so fucking good. I've listened to 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:20.679 it two hundred times this week. And he kind of 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.760 just shrugged and smiled and walked off. I was young, 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.320 younger than I am now, and very starstruck and nervous, 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:30.840 and so much more innocent than the person I've become 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.919 who I worry is a hard time feeling his blood 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.879 some days, as nerdy and uncool and on the outside 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:40.120 of things as I was at the time. My move 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.359 towards the opposite of that has come with a price. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.600 I won't say I'm jaded, but I've never felt as 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:50.000 thrilled by music by white, hot, cranked, wild eyed music 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.359 as I did back then. My love for good music 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:58.040 was almost religious or maybe sexual. It was pious, desperate. 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.159 Good music made me feel hot headed and frantic, and 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.720 I don't know if I've ever felt so free since 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.679 I wasn't cool, but I was free, and that was 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.560 something good. Frankie and Tyler and I walked up the 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.800 sidewalk and we were so happy and so innocent, and 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.080 I was taking SIPs off this bottle of Mad Dog 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:19.680 twenty twenty orange flavor I got at seven to eleven 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:23.000 and was getting solidly drunk, and it felt as though 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:26.120 everything was new and alive and more colorful and vibrant 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.560 than everyday life. The time, I had a job as 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.399 a reporter for a small wire service in Hillcrest, and 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:35.520 Frankie worked as an endoscopy clinic receptionist up in La Joya. 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:38.639 Our lives weren't bad, but the nine to five sucked 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.320 it out of us. It made us feel slow inside, muted, 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.160 dead on our feet. It felt like we were wasting 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:47.760 our time. But when we listened to these bands, we loved. 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.879 Life seemed vital and strange and triumphant and real. What 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.680 I'm trying to say is I had no arrogance, no stuffiness, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.200 no true or defined ego. I was terrified of living 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.240 half the time and scared as hell of die eying 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.080 the rest. A lot of us were that way, and 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:06.240 we wanted nothing more than to sign off on real, hard, 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:09.480 stupid life and listen to records that were like trains 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.280 crashing into each other and dance clubs exploding into rainbows 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:17.600 and carnivorous flowers devouring crickets at ten times the normal speed. 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.680 We wanted punk rock, but our version of punk didn't 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:26.119 sound like a band. It wasn't two guitars, bass, singer, drums. 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.080 We wanted a sound that tore itself to pieces, but 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:33.159 did it smart. We wanted grindcore turned inside out and 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.720 sped up and then chopped to pieces by a machete. 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.320 The size of the universe. We wanted power, violence with 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.960 a big loving heart and good ethics to match. We 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.800 wanted punk you could dance to and never feel awkward 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.760 or uncool or out of place. If anything, I wanted 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:52.960 to dance. I wanted to lose my mind and throw 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.080 myself into walls and get sweaty and stupid and feel 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.399 the raw animalness in me. I had many nights alone 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.320 in our cottage, which in Golden Hill, sad, drunk after 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:04.840 a bad day at work or a fight with Frankie 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.480 in the dark, dancing by myself in front of the 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:11.399 record player, one hand on the bookcase. I needed bands 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:16.440 like Angel Hair, Antioc Arrow, Get Hustle, Die Princess, Die Melt, 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:22.120 Banana Orchid, Black Dice vss Man as the bastard, universal 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.879 Order of Armageddon, celebration, the best, in the darkest, the 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.960 wildest hearts. I still remember the first time music really 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:33.360 did it for me. I was at the Chay Cafe 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:35.879 a couple years before the East Street Party, and the 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:40.520 Locust came out of nowhere and imploded my world. Those short, abrupt, 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:46.400 sinewy forty five second songs wiped my brain clean, changed everything, 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.639 scrambled my senses, showed me that music wasn't necessarily what 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.680 everyone had told me. It was unlike a lot of 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:57.280 people I've talked to. I didn't have to work to 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:02.919 get their music. It made immediately. Of course, of course 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:05.520 songs should be like this. Of course, this is how 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.520 music should be. That first song at the Chay was 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:10.720 enough for me to change for the better, and the 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:14.800 change was natural and easy and comfortable. I didn't consider 0:23:14.840 --> 0:23:17.280 their music scream o or metal or anything else the 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.159 critics called it. I began to see Locust songs as 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:24.399 pop songs, danceable, rhythmic blasts of thrash and grime and 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:28.880 humor and new experimental ideas. A few months later, Francis 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:30.920 Ben Frank and I went to see the band open 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:34.120 the premiere of the John Waters film Cecil B Demented 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:37.520 at Hillcrest Landmark, and they played the show in adult 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:40.119 sized diapers, more or less naked, in front of the 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:43.280 big screen in a sold out crowd. Their set was 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:49.160 about nine minutes long, and they played twice that many songs, short, colorful, glittery, 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:54.040 stutteringly abrasive, robotic, seizure songs just as human as birth 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:57.560 and life and sex and death. After that, we watched 0:23:57.560 --> 0:24:00.639 the movie, smiling like fools, slurping our soa and picking 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:03.720 out her popcorn and junior mints. In the scene that 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:07.600 used their song Nice Tranquil thumb in Mouth, the characters 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:10.800 show up at a Baltimore Film Commission luncheon and have 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:14.600 a big shootout with the cops. Thumb my favorite song 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:17.119 at the time, was looped to extend it and it 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:20.640 was the catchiest thing in the world. Toe tapping, head nodding, 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.480 but oh man, so fucking savage and strange and brutal. 0:24:25.440 --> 0:24:27.679 When the credits rolled and the band's name came up 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:31.760 in the soundtrack list, everyone cheered. I was proud, proud 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:33.919 of my city and the people in it, and of 0:24:33.960 --> 0:24:38.119 this small moment of time. People were excited, excited and 0:24:38.160 --> 0:24:41.200 together about this thing. It was easy to get caught 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:44.040 up in. Their music became a part of our culture. 0:24:44.560 --> 0:24:46.840 Not everyone's culture, but for some of us it was 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:50.320 as San Diego as the Tom's deep plate at Poca's 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:53.719 and gothy wine, drunk dance parties in North Park and 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:56.800 talking shit about the gas lamp. There's this line from 0:24:56.880 --> 0:25:01.439 Casavetti's great film Opening Night, or Genie Rawlin's character says 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:05.320 when I was seventeen, I could do anything. It was 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:08.640 so easy. My emotions were so close to the surface. 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.200 I'm finding it harder and harder to stay in touch. 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:17.840 That's how it was, and that is where we're going 0:25:17.880 --> 0:25:20.360 to leave it for today. But soon, don't worry, we're 0:25:20.359 --> 0:25:22.520 going to touch base with Agnes from the first part. 0:25:22.760 --> 0:25:27.240 She's around here somewhere. Hazel, who helps behind the scenes, says, quote, 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:29.960 I really really like how much the city of San 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:32.880 Diego is almost a character in this book. You can 0:25:32.920 --> 0:25:35.520 tell just how much time Ganati has spent rooted in 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:39.919 the neighborhood. His prose feels so lived in. That's for 0:25:40.000 --> 0:25:41.560