the Mosh

one great way to vent young angst and energy was the Mosh pit. when i was in high school there was a surge in popularity for hardcore music and thrash. sunday matinee shows at CBGB were basically a place that you could go to fight wildly like a madman, punching and kicking and completely losing it, WITHOUT fighting. there was nothing personal about getting punched in the face in a mosh pit. it was a zone free of personal politics and was more or less sanctioned ultra violence.

my friends and i could do it just about anywhere. we used to do it in confined spaces, like small bedrooms and elevators. my friend Ami has even made a short based on it. the characters in his animation are real people. the long haired guy was Lorca, a friend of ours who was a real new york heavy metal character. he died in a hit and run in LA about 10 years ago. LORCA R.I.P., the guy playing the guitar is Lips, he's now a musician. the big guy reading a newspaper i think is Blitzer, he's an ad exec now. the skin head in the corner flipping through records is no doubt Lefty, and i think the room is supposed to be his old room. Ami is most likely the guy on the bed drawing. he's an artist whose site is in my list of links.

the animation reminds me of how we used to be so quick to explode and unload punches and kicks on each other. Ami is very tall and one particularly hardcore mosh session where lorca smashed into the corner of a door and left a big lock of his flowing black hair stuck hanging from it, Ami somehow managed to jump from the bed and smash his head through Left's big round light fixture. it was one of those large glowing orb lights and Ami's head disappeared into it like suddenly was wearing it like an astronaut helmet.

It was a great way to use up that young energy in a way that didn't victimize anybody. the only victims were us, and we liked it. punching your friend in the face and not getting angry is a magical thing.