Book Review: F==k Your Flag: The New Wave Of American Political Violence - Vol. 1 by Randall Fleming

 

One of the most fun zines of the 1990s was The Angry Thoreauan by Rev. Randall Tin-Ear.  I am happy to report that the former reverend is back and now writes books.  He was kind enough to send me his latest for review, and, as I expected, it's a very good read.  He takes as his subject the interesting subculture of right wing flags, primarily found in rural America, but something that can be found across the country if you look for it (the love rural America has for this urbanite is quite astounding).  Since it looks like Trump will be returning to the presidency (it's election night as I write this, so it's not official yet), it will be interesting to see if a left wing subculture of flags will develop as a resistance and that might be the subject of a sequel (I did see some Harris signs in Sandusky, Ohio this election season).  We'll see.  In any case, back to the current book.  It has many photographs of flags taken by Randall along with some excellent journalism.  I probably don't subscribe to the same cultural analysis results that Randall does (I find Trumpism more amusing than threatening), but he deserves an award for his journalism.  Anyone who reads this blog regularly or my novels probably knows that I occasionally grumble about the quality of journalism today (with some notable exceptions such as Glenn Greenwald, Greg Palast, and Matt Taibbi).  For example, the last time I bought a New York Times (earlier this year), one of the articles was one journalist interviewing another journalist in the newsroom.  I don't remember the topic since it was a few months ago, but it struck me as pretty bad journalism.  Instead of going out in the world and investigating something, the journalist was just going to interview his colleague on the topic.  There might be some occasions where that might be appropriate, but the topic of the article was not one of them.  It read instead as if the journalist was just too lazy to do any actual reporting.

Not Randall.  Apparently, the dude got shot at more than once taking his photographs.  And I can believe it.  I ran into those types when I worked for the Census, and I'm sure the folks who fly those flags have gotten more paranoid over the last few years since then.  Randall also digs into things, investigating for example the companies that manufacture the flags, which seem to be mainly made in China.  No one seems to want to answer any of his questions, but kudos to him for asking them and sniffing out when something seems rotten.  Randall's bullshit detector is working.  That is in stark contrast to most of today's "journalists" who seem content to parrot uncritically government authorities and corporate press releases.

I found all of the book compelling reading, but the chapters I found most interesting were the ones on how the comic book character The Punisher's symbol has been adopted by militant second amendment types with Disney's acquiescence, the anti-Joe Biden flags (whatever happens tonight will at least result in us being free of that disaster soon), and the flags manufacturers possibly being linked to a subtle Chinese attack on America.  As Randall concludes, "These flags are cheaply made, easy to buy, and seemingly everywhere. If any Chinese import should have a heavy tariff (a burden that ultimately rests on the buyer), it should be this shit. There’s nothing patriotic about buying desecrated U.S. flags from a hostile nation that uses buyer data to further inflame American politics."

It will be interesting to see if this subculture continues to flourish.  I did see a firefighter version of the thin blue line (police state flag) Randall writes about.  This one had a red stripe instead of a blue one, so it appears the subculture continues to grow for the time being, something that Randall clearly thinks is not a good sign for the health of the country.

The book is available from https://metrohopbooks.com.

If you want to read something else after you read Randall's book, then my latest novel is available at https://www.wredfright.com/p/fast-guy-slows-down.html.  The new one, The Front Yard War, is almost done being proofread, so look for it soon as well.

Music Video: Mary Black Mary Black Mary Black

 

Just in time for the spooky season comes the music video for "Mary Black Mary Black Mary Black".  The chorus part is a bit scary--who is that ugly guy?  Is that a ghost?  A zombie?  Yikes!  If you're unfamiliar with the legend upon which the song is based you can read about it at https://www.wredfright.com/2022/06/new-recording-mary-black-mary-black.html.  In any case, this is a good one for your seasonal playlist.  Happy Halloween!

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7" or give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!  If you did, you might double his listenership--wow!

Dave Bell Memorial

A memorial for Dave Bell is being held Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at 4:30 p.m. at Loutzenhiser-Jordan Funeral Home, 366-368 S. Main Street, Greenville, Pennsylvania USA.  Dave died this week from cancer.  An obituary and more information on the service is at https://www.loutzenhiserfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/david-bell.  A good buddy of mine, Dave is missed.  I first met him in 1990 if I remember correctly.  My mom was set up at a flea market and made Dave's acquaintance.  Dave was helping his grandmother who was also set up there.  He liked cool music and was a cool kid, so we soon struck up a friendship.  We played in many fun bands together including Yeast?, Angry Housewives, Anal Spikemobile, The Lenin Spoonful, Rage Against Dabney Coleman, Ungoat, and probably a few others whose names I forget now.  We also saw many great concerts together including Nirvana, The Boredoms, Slayer, Pavement with Gary, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Guided By Voices, and many, many others.  

In addition to punk/alternative/indie/whatever you want to call it, Dave also played hip-hop, electronica, noise music, and even drummed in a polka band once.  After playing in the Pennsylvania/Ohio scene (Youngstown, Warren, Pittsburgh, and so forth), he was active in the Kent, Ohio USA music scene of the 1990s.  Some of the acts included Black Squirrel And Freaky and The Sacred Hearts Auto Club.  After that, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he caught the tail end of the 1990s garage rock scene that produced The New Bomb Turks and Gaunt.  Upon moving back to Western Pennsylvania, he made a variety of music on his own and played with various acts.  At one point, he was involved with the Cleveland noise music scene.  Even while undergoing cancer treatment, he was still making music.  I remember him showing me some cool beats he was making on a drum machine.  With luck, maybe we'll all get to hear some of the unreleased music down the road (I particularly loved one silly song called "I Like To Ride My Helicopter Around Town"), but, unfortunately, that's still no substitute for Dave.  He was like no one else.

If you want to hear some Dave music, then you can hear The Angry Housewives and Anal Spikemobile.  That's Dave singing on "Duster" by Yeast? as well.

Music Video: Why Honey Sings

 

I filmed most of this in Oberlin, Ohio USA, a cool little small college town nearby.  It's probably the only little town in Ohio one can go to a noise music record store and a local bakery that sued the local college, so you know it's an interesting place.  I filmed way more footage than I needed, so maybe some of it will pop up in another video but maybe not since each one tends to be conceived of individually.  In any case, I always liked this song.  The long flower shot makes me a little dizzy, so maybe it will have the same psychedelic effect on you.  If you go to the flowers and flags spot in Oberlin early on a Saturday morning, you can find some relics from the 1960s still protesting for peace, which is wonderful.  It hasn't worked in 60 years, but they still haven't given up hope that someday our country will stop bombing peasants around the world.  I hope they're right because that's a horrible way to waste money, time, and lives.  Like the hippies, I'm for peace and prosperity.  With luck, one day we'll get it.  In the meantime, here's another cool tune to groove to and gawk at.

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7" or give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!  If you did, you might double his listenership--wow!

Yip!*: Back Issue

If you read comic books in the late 20th Century, then you'll likely also enjoy this magazine, which covers comics from that era.  Similar to what Roy Thomas does for mid-20th century comics in Alter Ego, Back Issue's writers examine comics in a critical and enthusiastic light, so you get interviews with creators, retrospectives of various series, and other features that illuminate the subject.  Founding editor Michael Eury has retired, but with luck the magazine will continue to be fun.  There's some danger that after more than 150 issues that they may have exhausted the subject, but they could always expand into the early 21st-Century at this point seeing how we're a quarter-century in now.  Every once in a while, the publisher will have a crazy sale.  I picked up a number of "back issues" of Back Issue for $5 a pop each.  There are very few ads, so the magazine is dense at 80 pages or so.  They also keep their eversions available, so one can read the entire run electronically if one were so inclined.  I found it better to dip into the issues where the comics covered were of particular interest to me, but the magazine is very good, so I am more likely now to read it regularly even when that issue's theme doesn't strike me as particularly interesting.  If, like me, you deplore much of what passes for contemporary comic books (variant covers, recycled storylines, cramming everything into 6-issue arcs, horrible computer-assisted art, too many unnecessary staffers causing the comics to be too expensive, and I'll stop ranting now, though I could go on and on and on), then Back Issue is a good way to still enjoy comics as it can point the way to overlooked gems from the past and get one to reappraise works one has read before.

*Yips! are good things!  So is my latest novel, Fast Guy Slows Down!

What Wred's Reading: Despite Everything: A Cometbus Anthology By Aaron Cometbus

I used to have a large zine book collection.  I also used to have a large zine collection, but that's another story.  In any case, at some point, I tired of lugging boxes of books I would probably never reread again around and decided just to reread them and dispose of them.  There is not much left of the zine book collection, only a few books.  This is a big one, so my muscles thank me in advance for finally getting it out of my life.  Cometbus is a fun zine, but reading this all in one large chunk gets a bit numbing.  Best taken in shorter doses, Cometbus's stories of punk life are charming.  Some of them even made me laugh out loud.  If even only half of the events are true, Aaron Cometbus, the editor and main writer of the zine, is lucky to have survived some of his crazy exploits.  The book now looks to be out of print, so maybe I can sell it on eBay (say, have you been checking out my eBay listings lately?--if not, then you're just like the rest of the world as eBay appears to be near-comatose, but maybe it's just the economy in general).  I don't know if Aaron is still publishing the zine itself as it's been a few years since I stumbled across a new issue, but it might still pop up again as zines are wont to do.  If so, I'd probably read it.  I just won't hang onto it for 22 years like I did this book.

If you want to read, but you're going to pass on reading about punks dumpster diving, then please read one of my novels.  My new novel, The Front Yard War, isn't out yet, but the previous Wred Fright novel is!  You can read the others also!

Music Video: Hey, Honey!

 

The latest music video is for another track from What's Your Flow Setting, Baby?  It's a fun, happy little song, and the video was fun to make as well.  Some of it was filmed at Dominic's in Wickliffe, Ohio USA, and my buddy Shawn helped out, so thanks to him and Dominic's.  Thanks to Shawn, I actually get to appear in my own music video, which is rare, usually you just see my hand or something if you see any part of me.  I saw some videos by local bands recently and they were boring (of course, they get hyped by the local media, which is how I found out about them).  Mainly, they were performance shots with the bands lip-syncing or something.  I actually don't mind videos like that, but I prefer they be live performances.  It's cool to see how a band rocks out in person albeit by video, but if you're going to make a non-live video, I usually find the lip sync stuff boring.  That's why I try to make weird little films that fit the subject matter but are visually interesting (at least to me; others may not find billiard balls bouncing off pool table walls as appealing as I do).  

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7" or give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Soundcloud, Spotify, or Bandcamp!

Review Copies Of The Front Yard War

 

If anyone wants a review copy of the new novel, then please get in touch (leave a comment with your contact info or email me at wredfright Where it's at yahoo dott com).  I don't care where you review it.  It could be in a large city newspaper, your Facebook page, or even the bulletin board at the bagel shop.  I don't care.  As I have noted before, reviews are hard to come by these days.  I've done four albums in the past four years, and I don't think I've gotten a single actual review of any of them (maybe people think they suck and are just being polite, but it seems as if an awful lot of culture just passes by these days unnoticed).  The last novel had a couple of reviews, but that was it.  The corporate publishers can afford advertising.  For us indie lit types, it's all about word of mouth, so if you want a free book, just please agree to write a review.  You can even hate the book (though I'd be surprised if you were--so far, I'm enjoying the proofing and suspect that most other folks will enjoy the read as well); I don't care, just share your thoughts and spread the word if you would be so kind.

The Front Yard War isn't out yet, but the previous Wred Fright novel is!  You can read the others also!