6/07/06 - Been a long time since I've scribbled anything here. Just got back from two weeks in DC, NY, and points between, much needed after a relatively dull Wilmington winter. Saw the Epoxies in Virginia Beach, which made my summer complete already.  I drove there from DC after being in NY the week before that, trying to intersect their tour on the way back to Wilmington. I was expecting hordes of devoted Epoxies fans and found a crowd of 10-20 people, only a few of which approached the stage at all. Granted, VA Beach is hell on earth - Daytona meets I don't know what - so it was an odd out of the way choice for their tour. It was like seeing the Happy Hate Me Nots, the Dickies, GI, all those bands who I knew and loved all their songs who did some of the best shows I ever saw.  Roxy was dressed down a bit from what I expected, but still every bit as commanding and entertaining a stage presence as you'd hope for. So much energy. I was wearing a Wipers shirt to fly some colors of home for them and the keyboardist cracked at one point "we do a Wipers cover...and we're recording it live tonight". I thought he was sassing me but the guitarist I talked to after the show said that he dug the shirt. The Phenomenauts were awfully good too. Kind of encouraging how much color has come back with the revival of the new wave/futurama punk thing.  A tragedy that the Soviettes broke up, they were just hitting their form as one of the best female punk acts on the planet.  I've gotten lots of interview attention the last few months, with big interviews with me appearing in Razorcake and Maximum RocknRoll. I've had to live ever since with the Razorcake interview title, "George Hurchalla is Fucking Punk", a weighty burden to hang on any soul. My female friends have taken to whispering huskily "you're so fucking punk, George" at every opportunity. On the other hand, my old bassist from the Gutless Meanies shared my happiness that after 20 years, our pictures finally appeared in Maximum RocknRoll. 

1/28/06 - Okay, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and all that holiday stuff is done with, and we're well into the New Year without mishap or misfortune as of yet. The new edition of the book arrives in my grubby hands next week. I'm having a book release party in Wilmington on Feb.16 at my favorite venue in town, the Soapbox Laundrolounge, which should be a good time.  I'm getting distribution in Australia, and maybe something a little more steady in England. Everything is steadily building in the right direction.  I've been delving through a mess of great new punk I've been turned on to, like the the Epoxies, the Soviettes, Vanilla Muffins, BellRays, and a bunch more. We seem to be in one of the better cycles of the punk rock world lately, with a whole bunch of different talent on the scene, recapturing the original spirit of punk but putting their own brand new stamp on it.  

10/13/05 - The beautiful people of Austin remembered Randy "Biscuit" Turner in fine style on Oct. 8-9 with a couple of days that will long last in the memories of all those that attended. Saturday, Oct. 8, was declared Biscuit Day by the city of Austin, and the weekend benefited the beloved Nellie Mae Turner, Randy's 84 year old mother, to offset funeral expenses. The silent auction raised seven thousand dollars with people contributing some of their most precious Big Boys memorabilia, and  Zuo Press donated nearly $700 through sales of Going Underground. I was completely blown away by how many among Biscuit's family and friends expressed heartfelt gratitude that he had been able to enjoy being on the cover of a book before he died. It seemed like such a small contribution to his legacy, but apparently it meant a lot to him. He wrote in a letter this summer to me: "Of all American punk and underground people, you chose a ridiculous snapshot of me! I thank you so much!" The friends of Biscuit in Austin truly do have hearts as big as Texas, and last weekend they made a stranger to their town feel the most loved he had ever felt in his life. On Sunday, the original Dicks delivering a blistering set that was capped by a version of "Dicks Hate Police" that was worth waiting 20 years for, with the entire crowd roaring along "mommy, I've had a bad day". Dixon Coulbourn's younger brother Dan and his lovely wife Jessica were my hosts for the weekend, and they treated me grandly. I got to talk to all kinds of great folks like Gary Floyd, Tim and Beth Kerr, Scott Stevens (original bassist of the Butthole Surfers), some of the old Houston crew, John "Checkered Demon" Axberg, and a lot more. And best of all, I got to check out Biscuit's house, which is truly the greatest collection of artistic genius you can ever expect to find in a single house in this country. As Tim Kerr observed to me, "You know, karma isn't a thing of you do this and get this back or any hippie notion. Karma is you do good and live a great life and you get an outpouring of love like this. Or you don't and no one remembers you." Biscuit built up a lot of good karma in his life and it was great to see the love poured back.

me and Tim Kerr and friends

8/30/05 - My birthday today brought me to 39 safely, which is something to be happy about considering the recent rash of tragedies. In the past month Dixon and Biscuit both died in Austin, and Stevo from the Vandals died. There was a great article on Biscuit in the Austin Chronicle that came out the day after he died, which made the tragedy that much worse because it showed how much he had going on and what amazing art he kept offering the world. There's a memorial website for Stevo at www.stevojensen.com, where many of the punk luminaries that were his peers remember him, along with countless fans and people who knew him. Dixon's website Idle Time remains a great testament to the wonderful photography and zine work he did. In even more cheerful news, one of my best friends is a refugee from New Orleans now, and it's almost impossible to comprehend the devastation there and in Mississippi. I was around in Florida for one of two of direct hits on my parent's house by Cat 2 hurricanes last year, but they were a walk in the park compared to Katrina. It seems one of those evolutionary tools that force us to relinquish security and adapt, learn how to start all over again with nothing. "Reality" shows seem more pathetic than ever compared to events like this, though I half expect to see Joe Rogan in one of the Coast Guard helicopters telling rescue victims plucked off the roofs of houses "congratulations, you've made it to the next round of Fear Factor". And still at the helm of USS Disaster is that grinning jackass someone appointed to play president. Ah well, the rest of the world keeps encouraging me as I hear from cool zine publishers and keep getting orders from Sweden, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, and other places not afflicted with quite the degree of dumbassery as good ol 'Merica. Maximum RocknRoll wrote a nice full page review of the book in the September issue. The second edition of the book should be out in October or November, with improvements.  

7/24/05 - The three city tour - ambitious motherfucker that I am what with gas prices being what they are thanks to Mr. Supreme Oil Baron for Life who some folks call our President - that I undertook in late May and early June went very well, with North Carolina stops at Rebel Books in Wilmington and Regulator Bookshop in Durham, followed by Plan 9 in Richmond, VA.  My hosts in Wilmington were punk superwoman Shawna Kenney and her husband Rich Dolinger, and in Durham the infamous "I made Fugazi cry" punk cartoonist Brian Walsby.  70's Punk legends from Akron, Ohio, the Rubber City Rebels, came out for the reading in Durham, which was cool.  Photo contributor and all around great guy Dave Brown made the Richmond gig happen, and he dosed me with Richmond history for a Dirty South chapter in the second edition. Then I lost the plot and spent the next month wandering and visiting long neglected friends. If I do any more promotional tours like that, I'm going to lose even more than the bands I wrote about did on their tours in the 80's. Along with DIY, I'm embracing an ethic called LIY as well - Lose It Yourself.
        On the bright side, I'm halfway through selling out the first edition in the two months the book has been out, and the international interest has been amazing. The book has gone to Italy, Sweden, the UK, France, Finland, Poland, Canada, Germany, Japan, and Australia. Bob Suren at Sound Idea Distribution in Tampa has sold four times as many of the books as any other punk title he carries, most of which have been out for years. The feedback and support has been crazily positive, reinforcing the power of independent trucking, so to speak. The joy of running your own press is that you're in contact every day with the people reading the book, along with people doing their own DIY pursuits all across the world. I'm happy to say that the indie world seems to be thriving, and I'm proud to be a part of it.