As the overwhelming majority of the internet knows, Tommy Ramone, the last original Ramone, died over the weekend. While Perverse Osmosis doesn’t really drink at the font of The Ramones [we are more of a Dead Kennedys/Minor Threat/Misfits crowd if asked about influences from the dark past], I think we can all agree that The Ramones play an important role in the history of punk rock.
I mean, they do use 1-2-3-4 at the start of many, many songs; “Hey, ho, let’s go” is one of the most identifiable tags in punk rock; pretty much any group of teenagers with a guitar and a trash can could play their songs; they are in Rock and Roll High School; the majority of their songs are improved by playing them at 45 rpm. Plus, they are a gateway band for a lot of youngsters and if this punk rock thing wants to stick around, we need them.
When I was but a zero-level hamlet dweller, I spend much of my free time reading and re-reading the Dungeons Master’s Guide [I scored high in the literacy roll]. Not only did it give me a chance to memorize the to hit matrix, but it also have me a whole new vocabulary for painted ladies.
We have “slovenly trulls” and “saucy tarts” and an “expensive doxy” or maybe a “wealthy procuress.” There are “cheap trollops” available for those on the low end of the economic scale and “haughty courtesans” ready for those of us with gold pieces to spend and the willingness to deal with a little haughtiness before the naughtiness. And for those who are interested in alliteration, there is the “wanton wench.”
No matter what percentile that came up, there was a harlot for it. And that, my fellow Osmosites, is a world that I can live in.
Two members of the Perverse Osmosis team, along with a long-time ally, ventured out to see Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine recently. Needless to say, the show was fantastic [I may have used the term "life affirming"] and not just because Biafra has now morphed into crazy grandpa mode.
No, one of the reasons this show was so fun is that School of Medicine is a real band. It isn’t a group of other musicians who want to play with Biafra [although those shows are also fun] or people who happened to be available for tour. School of Medicine were super competent musicians [the bassist played with Ween] who have been playing with each other for a while. Plus they run the age range from older [the lead guitar player is in his fifties, I would guess] to youthful [rhythm guitar player is in his twenties and hopefully having the time of his life on tour; he also had a t-shirt with a heavily muscled barbarian playing a guitar with a unicorn and rainbow above him]. As importantly, they are all willing to deal with Biafra’s extended rants without actively looking bored or impatient on stage.
In addition to new material, we also got versions of “Nazi Punks, Fuck Off” [which was introduced with a lengthy discussion about how we should try talking to members of the Tea Party, but until they listen back, they should fuck off], a surprise “Chemical Warfare,” and equally awesome versions of “Holiday in Cambodia” and “Kill the Poor.”
Alas, no “Stealing People’s Mail.” Maybe next time.
I recently recovered my assumed to be lost trove of picture from last year’s visit to Scotlandia. Combine this find with a little more free time, and, bam, more modules, encounters, and campaign ideas.
When I last posted, the party had spent its first night in Inverness, capital of the highlands. After an evening of Mustafa and “lion’s milk,” we prepared for the lake adventure component to our quest. The lake in question: the one, the only, Loch Ness. In addition to being a epic Judas Priest song, Loch Ness is also a pretty bad-ass lake, as these images will show.
Let it be known that The Dude is not afraid to up the highbrow ante. For example, this issue has a quote from Hegel in it. Yes, the same Hegel who wrote The Phenomenology of Spirit and The Difference Between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy. Putting Hegel in with a couple women playing in a swimming pool: brilliant.
