-Hey, thanks a bunch for chatting with me! If I’m being honest, I’ve been meaning to work up the nerve to ask you for an interview for a while now, haha! Now might be perfect timing though considering all the cool stuff there is to talk about. Can you start off by introducing yourself and where you come from? Hey, I’m Travis and I’m from Burlington, Ontario. -Here in the states, your last record was released on A-F Records, right? How did that come about? And what’s your experience been like working with the A-F guys? A couple years back we played a show in Hamilton, Ontario with Anti-Flag and World’s Scariest Police Chases. We had just finished recording Burn Into the Earth, and Chris Stowe of World’s Scariest, who also happens to be the main man at A-F, expressed some interest in the band and one thing led to another. It was nice in the way that working with them came about pretty organically. It’s been a consistent pleasure working with Stowe and all of A-F, I’d have to say. -Burn Into The Earth came out in 2015 and features some of the catchiest lyrics I’ve ever heard. Where did you draw influence from when writing the lyrics for that album? Thank you man! That’s kind of a tough question, it feels like we wrote all those songs so long ago and have been involved creatively on a new batch of songs with new concepts for the past 2ish years. As I can recall most of these songs were written in 2014 when we were all living together at a house in Burlington. The album is largely about the constant juggling between dreams and reality. On one hand you have a world of what is perceived to be meaningful inspiration, I’m talking Saturday nights, inebriated, full of music and hope and existential exploration and laughter and friends. And on the other hand you have the realities of being a functioning human that survives within the frame of our society, so in this case, you know, waking up before the sun on a Monday morning, rubbing the sleep out your eyes, lacing up your work boots and rushing into your designated place, becoming another cog in wheel, because you don’t really have any other choice. Those are both very personal examples, but I hope you get what I’m trying to say haha. Furthermore, the songs explore the positive and, more tellingly, the negative effects of becoming more and more emerged in the aforementioned “dream world.” There are also some songs that drift from that concept slightly, with tunes like Dead Letters and Red Toque more about the inevitable changes in our lives and the effects they have on us. -What’s the response from the crowd been like when you play the songs live? Have you noticed a specific song especially resonating with people? One that makes them go wild?
Touring this album has been a lot of fun and has seen a lot of firsts for our band. I wouldn’t necessarily say that any songs get better responses than others. I guess it really just depends on which city we’re in, what bands we’re playing with, what day of the week it is and a million other little things, yah know? -How did you get the idea to use a harmonica in your sound? It sounds really unique. I don’t know of many other punk bands to play harmonicas, haha! Think it could catch on and become a thing? It actually did come about quite consciously. We used to have second guitar in our old childhood band, The Bad Names, and for a little while when we were re-starting things as Penske File. At some point we decided to carry on with just the three of us. Around this time I was listening to boatloads of Bob Dylan and Chuck Ragan and had picked up the harmonica in my spare time. We figured in losing a lead guitar player that bringing the harmonica in could fill some of those gaps in a unique way.
-Would you care to give me a brief making-of explanation for the Bedroom Angels music video? Haha, it looked like a blast to shoot. Hahaha. That was quite a wild day for sure. Originally, we had this elaborate idea to film a video for things that involved a big hall and aerialist dancers amongst other things, but there was a communication error with the space we wanted to use. Turned out it was way too expensive for us, so we had to back out a few days before we were scheduled to film. We still wanted to take advantage of the time we had scheduled out with the band as well as our buds/the video directors, Ben Rispin and James Maunder. However, it seemed like we were in quite the bind. About two days before our scheduled shoot, Ben called me up and
said he had a buddy who could get a cop car for the day for $200 and maybe we should just hop on that and then form a whole video concept around the fact that we have a cop car, so that’s what we did. As for the filming day itself. It was very funny, but more weird and long than anything. It was definitely a lot of horsing around, but it was so friggin' hot that day and it was a lot of work as well. We shot most of it in this back farm field near a pond and I’ll never forget how bad the bugs were once the sun went down. During the scene where we’re on top of the hill cheering the fireworks on at dusk we were getting absolutely devoured by mosquitos haha. I remember Ben yelling from the bottom of the hill, next to James with his camera, “Get closer to the fireworks! Stop scratching! Look like you're having fun!" -Do you have any ideas for future music videos? Maybe for songs that will be on a new record? Hint hint… I really wanna know when to expect a new Penske File album, haha! We’ve got some ideas brewing for sure, maybe even some stuff already filmed ;) As far as a new album goes, all I can say is we spent about half of December in the studio and are very excited to put a new record out this year. -Are there any fellow Canadian band buds that should be on people’s radars that you’d like to shout out? I tried answering this question, but there are just too many and I couldn’t narrow it down without feeling like I was leaving integral bands out ahhhhhh!! -Being from Ontario, Pouzza Fest is in your backyard. Okay, maybe, maybe not, but it’s close and you’re playing it again this year! What is that weekend like for you guys? Pouzza Fest is always the fucking best for us. We feel very much at home there every May long weekend. Can’t wait for this year! -And who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Pouzza? It's hard to say as there are so many rad bands and still a few more announcements to be made that are sure to bring more excellence. At this point I think I’d have to say Red City Radio. I like that band a lot and they’re one of the few bands at Pouzza this year that I’ve never seen before. So that should be fun! -But before Pouzza, at the end of February, you’re doing a run (Buds Without Borders Tour) with my dear friends Bong Mountain. I’m so excited, are you excited?! How did you and the Bong boys link up? I think you’ve played together a few times already but never a tour, right? Very stoked to do this tour! We’ve known the Bong boys for a while now. Our first shows in the states were with Alex and Matt’s old band, This is the Year in 2014 I think? We met Chris and Adam soon after and have shared a few wine spritzers, bowls, laughs and “stages” with all of them since then.
-Another tour I wanted to ask you about was the one you did with Caskitt on the west coast last year. It looked like a blast. Anything you want to say about it or the Caskitt guys specifically? They were gracious hosts to us on their west coast and a lot of fun to be around as people. Also they’re potentially my favourite band to watch live that we’ve ever toured with. Their new album Old Fires New Frontiers, has to be my second favourite album from last year. -My friend Damon told me you ate at his restaurant, Cantina Laredo, when you and Caskitt stopped in Vegas, so hey Damon! Look you’re in my zine! That guy rules. What would you recommend to eat or drink there? Damon is the man, and was so nice of him to host us all there. It’s very rare to get that kind of hospitality from people you’ve barely met before. He’s truly a very nice guy and we always appreciate a meal, especially when it’s that good! In all honesty, I don’t even remember the menu to be honest. I remember the food was good, but I was also experiencing a very commanding headache. The night before was our second time ever in Las Vegas and our last show of the tour with Caskitt, so one thing lead to the next and I found myself stumbling into a hotel bed, while the desert sun beat through the curtains, only a couple hours before we were to get up and head over to Cantina Laredo, haha.
-I’m genuinely curious about this… who is your favorite Lord Of The Rings character? That's a really good question. I love Gollum/Smeagle. The dynamics of the split personality is very interesting and entertaining and at times entirely hilarious. Also probably the best voice to try and impersonate from any character ever.
-And typical American me has to know who your favorite hockey teams are. Because you’re Canadian. You must love hockey. And poutine. Go Wings! We love hockey! Although admittedly I am more distant from the sport than I was growing up. I try to play shinny when I can, but don’t play in a league anymore and don’t really follow the NHL all too closely anymore either. This would be a better question for our drummer Alex, who still plays and watches regularly. But he’s busy trekking around somewhere in Asia right now haha. But you’d definitely get a resounding "Go Leafs Go!” from all of us at Penske, that I can guarantee. -Sometimes I try to con my little brother, who doesn’t really like a lot of punk music, into listening to certain punk bands. The way I conned him into checking you guys out is because your name is a Seinfeld reference and he loves Seinfeld. He says you’re not bad. One time I caught him humming along to “Old Dogs.” I just wanted you to know that. Haha nice. Thanks for the interview Tyler!
-Hey guys, how’s it going?! I’m honored to be talking to you for this zine. You’re totally killing it right now! Please begin by telling me who each of you are and what your roles are within the band. Hey Ty! It’s just me, Garret. I play drums and do some behind the scenes stuff like printing and shipping our merch. Kyle Luck is our singer/guitarist and Matthew Mancilla-McCue is our bassist. -The first time I saw you live was 2015 with Tigers Jaw, but I had no idea who you were before hand so I was surprised that you were a full band. I was expecting just one guy named Oliver Houston, haha! Have you gotten that before? And where does the name come from anyway? Yeah we have! Having a human name as a band name is confusing for sure. I made it up when I was trying to name my high school band, but we called it Midwest Pen Pals instead. Kyle and I started messing around in 2011 and decided to use the name for a couple demos we put online just for fun. In 2015, we decided to start a new band together and thought we’d just keep using the old name. -My initial reaction to your performance and something I kept telling my friends after that night was “these guys are the next Algernon Cadwallader!” That’s super flattering. A lot of our big influences aren’t together anymore, but it’s always exciting to hear us get compared to bands that first got us into punk and emo music. Casual Discussion by Algernon Cadwallader was the first emo song I ever heard! -Your sound can be tied to quite a few different genres, but you choose to call it “beach punk,” at least sometimes, right? I’ve heard a few other bands use something similar but explain what that means to you. Beach punk is a sing along party with some groovy ass riffs. I think it’s obvious to most people that we take influence from emo bands, but there are some goofy connotations with that word so we try not to use it. Getting compared to My Chemical Romance is weird. -Whatever Works just came out and it’s fantastic! How does it feel to finally have your debut full length album out? It feels incredible and so relieving. We spent so much freaking time on that damn record.
-What was it like working on it with the legend himself, Rick Johnson? How much does that dude rule? I didn’t know Rick before we started recording, and he’s since become one of my favorite people in Grand Rapids. He didn’t impose on our flow or creativity at all while we recorded, but I think there’s a couple things that he said that made the record what it is. I have so much respect for his opinion and for his talent. He actually plays vibraslap on the intro to Concessions! -You got some press with the release of the album as well! Congratulations, guys! That’s pretty huge! How did the article from SPIN come about? That must have been pretty cool, yeah? The SPIN article happened because Kyle is great at believing in us and getting other people to believe in us. I don’t think he had any connection, just sent a really well worded email. We made the decision to self release this record and do the PR ourselves because we think it’s crazy that punk bands are expected to pay to be heard. It’s been a lot of work, and Kyle is mostly responsible for how much it’s being talked and written about. -Ok, I could be wrong, but did you re-use the riff from Dork Ages on Concessions? Haha, I mean that riff is super tight so I don’t blame you for using it twice. Hell yeah we do! We were a little bored with that song so we decided to do a self referential part and it made us fall in love with it. Fun fact, Dork Ages is my least favorite song to play live so I’m REALLY happy we have a new song to replace it (sorry Kyle). -What are some of the ideas and themes you are trying to express on the record? It feels really heartfelt, like it’s going to be a comfort album for a long time to come. Well, I didn’t write the lyrics, so I’ll share what the record means to me: I think Kyle excels at
conveying what it’s like to be growing up and not really having an easy time finding where you belong or what you’re supposed to be doing. For him, that meant deciding to not pursue grad school, and instead staying in Grand Rapids and playing punk music! He’s so smart. Most of his lyrics are totally over my head. One of my favorite lyrics on the record is on the title track. "there’s never been a question: we were made to go together. Now is all I’ve ever wanted, and no, I don’t want nothing to change." -Do you think that translates over well to your live shows? Are there certain feelings you hope to invoke in a live setting? I think it translates better sometimes than others. We put a lot of emphasis on vocals and lyrics on recording, and unfortunately, that doesn’t always get showcased very well in smaller DIY houses/venues. Back to Rick Johnson, I love playing Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids because he sometimes runs sound there and knows exactly how we want to sound. So come see us at Pyramid Scheme sometime! -How important are DIY/DIT spaces and ethics to Oliver Houston? How have they had an impact on the band so far? And what are some of your favorite DIY venues either in Grand Rapids or elsewhere, either past or present? They’re everything to us. We’ve never booked a show through an agent, and although it can be challenging, it’s great knowing everything that’s happening. We’re small enough to where we can handle it ourselves and we see no reason not to for now. I think people see that we’re passionate about our music and that we just want to share that with everyone that we possibly can- we only play all ages shows. I’m a sucker for nostalgia, so I’ll have to say that the original DAAC (Division Avenue Arts Collective) was my favorite. I’ve seen so many of my favorite bands there- Native, Snowing, Algernon Cadwallader. Anybody could book a show there, and the atmosphere was so perfect and surreal. I booked one of my favorite bands, Ex Wife, there one time. White Reaper (Polyvinyl) also played! Upper Room is my current favorite because of how many shows they do. Luke Dean helps so many people out, and gives a lot of people their first stage to play on. That’s so important. -In fact, you have a show coming up soon with Prince Daddy & The Hyena, Peach Faygeaux, and BLUSH at a rad DIY venue called Casserole House! Are you pretty excited to play that one? I hope it goes super great for everyone involved. Yeah we are! I also play drums in Peach Faygeaux. It’s going to be a good time. -There was this really cool show you played at the Pyramid Scheme in December, right before Christmas, as part of the Local Showcase series. It was super mixed bill, which drew a really diverse crowd. Is that something you’re into being part of more or are at least encouraging of? We love diverse bills, and we want to have the most diverse crowd we possibly can at every show. We don’t have any women in our band, but I am Mexican, and am often times the only non white person at our shows. It can be tricky figuring out how to reach an audience that otherwise wouldn’t go to shows. Punk rock in the midwest is definitely very white, and
also very male. We’d love to change that, and we’re always looking for advice or suggestions as to how we can do better and reach more people. -Oh, yeah! I wanted to ask you about your whole experience at SXSW! How did that go? Didn’t you tour your way down there? Where’d you play? See any cool bands there or along the way? Make any cool friends?! Eat any cool foods?! SXSW was interesting. We played a free, unofficial showcase at a co-op, meaning there were a lot of people that attended, but it was a bit financially straining on our tour. It was absolutely worth it, though. It was ridiculously hot, so we took a trip to this little lake and cooled off. We saw and played with a lot of friends, including Cardboard Swords, who is also from Grand Rapids. My favorite part of that tour was probably the next day when we played in Louisiana with Pinegrove (to almost nobody.) -You have these famous shirts with dogs on them. Who the heck did the art for them? They’re probably the sickest shirts I’ve ever seen and whenever I see one around Grand Rapids it makes me smile. Our friend Alex Brown made that design. We really love it, and we actually just printed a new run on yellow shirts. We’re big fans of dogs. -There’s a song on Whatever Works called Pho and even though it’s not really about pho, I imagine you must really love it to name song after it. So where is your all-time favorite place to get pho? We actually named the song Pho because there’s a pho place right next to our practice space that we’d go to after practice sometimes while working on the record. I actually hate it there though! Their vegan option is weirdly like double the price of everything else and way too salty. The best pho I’ve had was also the first time I had it. It was at some restaurant in Riverside, CA and it was this whole new world to me. Instant love connection. - <3 xox Thanks for asking us to be a part of Skitchin’! We’re huge fans of yours <3
Review of Sorry Hunny EP (Sorry Hunny, 2017) By Ty Dykema Sometimes when punks shed their punk skin for a bit to focus on an acoustic or folk side project, it worries me. Have they gone soft? Will they achieve higher success with the more accessible sound of their new gig? Even though Sorry Hunny is that folky side project of Grand Rapids’ own Bek Graham, I discovered her music backwards. Sorry Hunny was my introduction and shortly afterwards found out that she also fronts a garagey punk band called The Quirk. So I never had that fear that she’d gone soft, in fact I realized an entirely different and aggressive side to her talent. Regardless, that stupid worry in me is often uncalled for as punks-gone-folk usually end up being really awesome at what they do. Sorry Hunny is no exception. I don’t mean to ignore the other ladies of Sorry Hunny, however. Originally intended to be a solo acoustic act, the band quickly evolved into a duo, adding Miranda Elliott on violin. Only shortly after that they became a quartet by adopting Ash Ginder on flute and Sidney Beld on cello. Without the four of them working together as seamlessly as they do, there wouldn’t be Sorry Hunny as we’re now lucky to hear them on their debut self-titled EP. The opening track, Sigh, sets the tone for the rest of the EP. The lyrics on this song are from the point of view of someone possibly in a lovers’ argument. There’s no end to this fight and there’s no way to win. It’s hopeless. Leave In The Morning is next and finds the narrator heading out to travel. This seems to be the only option despite it probably further contributing to her downfall. Maiden On The Sea takes place on the open water. It’s rife with whiskey drinking and alludes to the solitude being all-consuming. By the time the title track, Sorry Hunny, comes around, she is fed up with the “salty tears” of her co-arguer. It’s over for them. The album’s closer is I Believe In Nothing. It’s a tongue-in-cheek song about nihilism. While dark, it’s easy to laugh along to as the lyrics mention Scotty from Star Trek and a number of conspiracy theories. The EP concludes with some pretty funny banter between the band members and thus leaves off on simultaneously the brightest and darkest notes. The overarching sound on this project is almost in the style of Celtic or Nordic folk music. Admittedly, I don’t usually get too invested in stuff like that, but the punk-rock background of the band members really shines through. It’s really raw and pessimistic. There’s a level of intentional sloppiness and playfulness to it that makes it feel punk. There’s a personal touch that gives it this in-your-face, live vibe. There’s no ulterior-motives here. The ladies of Sorry Hunny set out to make a one-of-a-kind sound together and I think they succeeded. Check out their debut EP now on Independent Fries Records. Their live show is also not to be missed. You heard it here first.
-Momentai, Momentai, Momentai. How the heck are ya guys? Please introduce your sweet selves for the readers. Christian: Sam is our 24 year-old singer and guitarist. He’ll tell you music is his passion in life, but in actual fact he prefers to spend his Saturday nights kickin’ it old school with a game of Banjo-Kazooie. Sam: Christian is 21 years-old, but 15 at heart. His favorite things to do are sleep, have a really good laugh, sleep some more, eat a bunch of carbs, try and work out because he ate a bunch of carbs, and then take another nap. He also beats the skins and sings in Momentai. -You two are brothers right? That’s pretty rad! What made you decide to play music together or was it always kind of a no-brainer? I wish I was in a band with my brother. Yeah we’re brothers. Trust me, you don’t wish you were in a band with your brother. Nah, it works out pretty well. It was a no-brainer for sure. -So there have been plenty of siblings in bands before, but it’s just you two. That’s it. That’s the whole band. A dynamic duo, if you will. Would you say being a literal band-ofbrothers makes playing together easier? Has there ever been a time where the brothersin-a-band thing resulted in an interesting or goofy story? A dynamic duo indeed. It’s kind of weird to call ourselves a band. It’s just the two of us. When I think ‘band’ I think 5+ people trying to put their act together. It’s easier with just the two of us because we being brothers, we know how to communicate our ideas to one another. As for funny stories, we were sharing tips with another band once after a show in the quad cities. One of the guys recommended sleeping on the roof of the van instead of sleeping in the car seat while on tour. That way you could spread out a little more. It just so happened that we didn't get a place to crash that night and stayed at a truck stop. Christian decided to sleep on the roof of the van that night... It wasn't a very warm night but he stayed up there for most of it. -I was trying to figure out when this thing started, and it seems like you’ve been around a lot longer than I thought. When exactly did Momentai form? Had either of you played in other bands before? Well, to take it way back, Sam was in a high-school band called Mr. Teagarden (lol), and
Christian learned drums on that drum-kit. After Sam moved out, Christian played in crappy high-school bands of his own, and we eventually realised that we both became pretty good musicians. We were on-and-off for a while until a random Fall day of 2015, when we started hitting up open mics, met Joe, and the rest is history. -What are some other artists that have had an influence on your sound? How exactly would you like to describe your sound anyway? We get a lot of influence from Japanese bands. Seriously, check ‘em out. Most notably, we listened to a lot of technical post-punk bands that incorporate pop well, such as Susquatch, The Band Apart, he, toe, and LITE. Obviously there are a ton more bands we draw influence from, but these are our roots. We identify most with emo and post-punk bands, but we like to think of it as math-rock/pop. -Last year seen a lot of action from you including the release of the Big Catch EP. Walk me through your writing process and generally how that EP came together. Our writing has evolved a little since the pre-Big Catch days (B.C., as we say), but it breaks down to Sam writing riffs, the two of us organising a song out of them and spicing it up with little mathy parts, and fitting in lyrics wherever we’re able. -I snagged a physical copy of it at a show a few months back and noticed the album art is hand drawn and stamped and the track list is hand written, haha! What made you decide to do that? Isn’t the name on the bass drum hand written too? Way to take DIY to the next level. Well we’re pretty poor, and have accepted that. But we want to give our music away, getting it heard is what’s most imortant, so we made it as nice looking as possible on as small a budget as we could do. And we plan on upgrading the bass drum soon! Any chance Skitchin’ would offer a design? ;) -Do you remember the time last November at Mulligan’s when they kept making you play the hook on 626 about 500 times in a row? I must have had it stuck in my head for a month straight after that. It’s painfully catchy! Yeah, we do remember that. It was stuck in our heads too believe me. We designed it that way ;) -Do you have any new tunes in the works? Is there a time people can expect to hear it? Oh hell yeah! We're cranking out some high quality jams right now. Most are still in the works but be expecting a saucy single in the next few months. -You also went on your “Tiny Tour” to Iowa in October. Was that your first tour? How did it go? Is touring something you plan to do more of in the future?
Yeah it was our first tour. We worked it around our friends wedding in Iowa. We had a fricken blast and are heading out again in March to do the east coast. -How’s Maggie The Minivan doing? She seems like a sweetheart, haha! Where’d you get the idea to name her Maggie? She's a'rollin! We just recently equipped her with a hula girl, and other less necessary things (brakes, tires, etc.) Her official color is "magnesium green", hence the name Maggie. -I seen this picture where you carved “Momentai” into some cave or something. Where was that at? How sweet would it be if someone seen it in person and that was the way they found out about your band? I think people should take note, carve more band names into caves! We think it was the Wisconsin Dells, some huge sandstone formations on the side of the highway that we passed on tour and were too tempted not to climb. It'd be sweet if someone found out about us on carvings on the side of a cliff, I remember finding out about Mishigami from some graffiti in an abandoned swimming pool. Of course, nothing beats being mentioned in Skitchin'! -You seem to be pretty extensively involved in the Grand Rapids punk house scene. How important to you are house venues and the shows they host? We f**kin' love house venues. There is something magical about it. It's so much more close-knit and friendly than bars or traditional venues. The community that is built around the DIY scene draws the nicest people too, we've made some true friends out of the local music scene. Although, we're not biased toward DIY venues. It's recently become our goal to play shows with bands of varying genres to connect Grand Rapids’ music scene a bit more. -What are some of your favorite recent records you’ve been jamming a lot? We preach Hospital Talk by Cheap Emotion. We f**king love everyone in that band and honestly, the album is frequently in Maggie's CD player. We're also super into this band I'm Glad It's You from CA. Specifically the one track, 'Minor Acts of Cannibalism' but they also dropped a hot new album a few months back. Also, Oliver Houston. And Flight of Niko are some of our good buds and dropped 2 singles a little while back. Check out 'My name is Jake pt. 2'. -One time I told my mom I was going to a show and she asked who I was going to see. You were on the bill so she asked “Momentai, what does that mean?” I said I wasn’t sure and later she told me she googled the meaning and found it translates to “no problem.” She said she liked that a lot. Congratulations, you’re officially mom-approved. Thanks Mrs. Dykema! It's actually a Digimon reference. It also just kind of keeps us looking up when we're down. -Thanks for doing this with me and for real thanks so much for supporting Skitchin’ so hard over the past year. You rule. <3 Dude, of course! We're all about this zine! Much love to you guys!
Review of Little Sister (film, 2016) By: Brice Evans Whoa, what the fuck happened? A month ago I was filling out questions for my band for this zine, but now I’m bandless and writing a review for the Zach Clark movie Little Sister. The movie follows the story of Colleen, a former goth/young nun in training who goes back home to see her family. The film puts her in situations that we are all too familiar with. Whether it is dealing with your family or dodging hometown dillards, she holds up a mirror to the audience throughout the film Early on, she is called upon by her mentally anguished mother, Ally Sheedy, to come back home and see her brother, Jacob, who has just returned from Iraq with a purple heart. Sheedy’s character is concerned about Jacob who has suffered serious burns all over his body and face, leaving him seriously disfigured. Since his return, Jacob has been holed up in their guest house playing SICK FUCKING DRUM FILLS! Seriously though, he is first introduced to the viewers as chaotic drum sounds. The kind that resemble a war zone. The kind that would tell someone to fuck off. He now has breathing problems and looks like the Toxic Avenger. He refuses all visitors. Friends, family, and even his fiance’ are shut out from his world. Jacob proves to be the string that Colleen pulls to put the rest of major parts of the film together. Colleen’s early interactions with her family members and several old film stock flashbacks show the family history. Her father is an open arms kind of dude that gives Colleen the prodigal son type of welcoming that we would all hope for. Her mother, on the other hand, seems offput and annoyed, even though she is the one who called her back home. Colleen makes several attempts to get involved with Jacob and eventually does so by reverting herself back to her goth phase. She begins as a quiet, mousy young girl. She dyes her hair hot pink and adorns her old goth makeup as a way to break down the wall he has put up between Jacob and the world, and to shift the focus to herself. They have a great relationship that is refreshing to see since Colleen seems to have such a hard time fitting in. In one key scene,she shows up to the guest house and defiles a baby doll to the Gwar jam “Have You Seen Me?” This is also where we learn that the brother’s breathing problem has taken away his ability to laugh, it’s heartbreaking. It is a pretty heavy part because his inability to laugh also curbs the viewer’s laughter, so the audience feels his sorrow to some degree. The performances in this flick are spot on! Timlin attacks the role of Colleen with the kind of distant, beleaguered sadness that actresses like Kristen Stewart strive for, but fail to achieve. A dork would say she has a “highly relatable, Caulfield-esque, outcast persona” that will definitely keep people on her side, even when she makes mistakes. Sheedy nails the awful, mental patient mother with ease. She’s a total fucking nutbag, but she has some redeeming qualities that I cannot explain for the life of me. Everyone steps up to the plate and dongers one out of the park with finesse.
I had briefly mentioned the flashbacks earlier. They are pretty cool, and I think they make the movie better, but they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t entirely necessary because the acting and dialog create enough of a mood that you feel as you are looking through the scrapbook of a family that only documents their grievances. The movie uses sound, color, mixed film styles, and more to make it a great flick. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone. It has it all! Comedy, drama, and more. Scream queen Barbara Crampton even gives a sweet cameo appearance as the head nun! If you are looking for a cool genre bender, check it out! -Brice
IN MEMORANDUM BY: CALEB BLACKWELL Written New Year's Eve 2016
All it takes is the proper usage of a distortion pedal on an electric guitar, followed by fast thirty second note riffs on a three piece drum set over a low rumbling bass guitar. Punk rock is an equation that can’t ever be perfected, otherwise what’s the point? But for each person, or fan, it has successful equations that sound so incredibly good to the ear and to the soul. For me, psychobilly and surf punk are the two equations ALWAYS guaranteed to put a smile on my face. Every single time. With 2017 looming tomorrow, I am choosing to see it as a huge opportunity to have more fun than I’ve ever had before. Each day I am going to ask myself ‘has today put a huge eye-crinkling smile on your face?’ and if it hasn’t, I am going to put shoes on in that moment and go make it happen. 2016 introduced me to yoga, the Frights, classic truck ownership, and an amazing home with my love, including a front and back yard we don’t take full advantage of. I am going into 2017 fully armed with an arsenal of self love and self care remedies that I just listed. I will not let 2017 be ‘just another year’ or anything melodramatic and underwhelming like that. Each year, let alone each day, is exactly what you make it. My love got me a five year journal for Christmas, and it asks you a prompt per day. The year after you start, you simply turn back to page one and start over below what you wrote the year before. I believe that this, along with beginning this year with a 31 day yoga challenge designed to exponentially escalate my practice, will force me to stick to my idea of ‘has today put a huge eye-crinkling smile on your face?’ This year has been a struggle for our relationship, due to me being off of a necessary medication, and due to my love struggling with self esteem issues. We let those problems become all encompassing, and take over the roots of our relationship. I think we both forgot that it’s she and I against the world, not she and I against each other. Today we shared a few great conversations about how we are going to strive to not repeat our mistakes, and how we are each taking measures to set ourselves up for grandiose success and personal growth.
I truly believe that being a person who sees things as the silver lining, or in the most positive light possible is a downhill battle. I think adopting that frame of mind fully, and in earnest, is a very difficult thing to do. However, I think that after a month or so of constantly checking yourself to make sure you’re as positive as you can be, and that whenever you do get mad or sad you can acknowledge it and move past it, you’ll find that it truly becomes second nature. After a couple months of this, you’ll realize that you become taken aback when those close to you respond negatively to things, because it honestly just doesn’t occur to you to do so. Positive habits, and forcing yourself to learn how to handle difficult emotions and to grow from them is the most important part of growing up, other than always taking responsibility for your actions. All of these qualities go hand in hand, and all of them are simply a matter of choosing to see things that way. That’s all there is to it, truly. But the first step of self acceptance and being truthful with yourself about how negative you ACTUALLY are is the part that most people struggle with, so the rest of the tasks seem insurmountable. Even with the best of intentions, it took me the better part of a year to feel comfortable saying that I am now a positive, encouraging, glass half full type of person. I was so reluctant to hold myself to that standard, and I believe it stunted me to be surrounded by people who didn’t see things that way too. So naturally, I nourished relationships and friendships that served my new frame of mind, and stopped fighting ones that didn’t. It was one of the things I thought would be difficult, but kind of just happened without me realizing it. For the new year, truly make change for a new you. Posting about it on the internet is one thing, but leaving yourself reminders all over the place or a notification on your phone to check in with yourself is another thing. This mindframe takes practice, it takes daily dedication. And it won’t always work. To err is human, after all. The trick is letting that slip run off of you like it never happened. To realize it, see it for what it is, and laugh it off or grow from it as needed. See you in 2017.
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