On Halloween I passed out candy for about an hour (I saw the cutest little boy dressed as a tiger–in one hand he carried a half eaten jolly rancher and in the other he carried a plastic sword–apparently this baby tiger was armed). Then we went to the Moore and saw the legendary Henry Rollins. Many of you know how much I dearly, dearly, admire Henry. Back in the old days, I used to listen to his spoken word religiously on cd. We sat way up in the balcony, (this woman with an enormous head of long frizzy hair sat next to Josh and her hair practically had its arm around him) and there we sat for two hours and forty-five minutes. I had no idea that Henry Rollins was going to speak for as long as he did. He talked for so long, we had to sneak out at 10:45pm before the parking garage closed. I was disappointed, but we had crampy little seats, The Hair was invading Josh’s space, and it was a school night after all. I had a feeling he might go for three hours–he is very passionate about our current political state.

In addition to some very poignant national security musings, memorable moments included Henry’s early interactions with Van Halen, interviewing Christopher Walkin (and finding NO difference between Walkin the character and Walkin the real person), and some really excellent banter regarding the defense of gay marriage. Henry also has his own radio show where he pulls out his old vinyl and plays it, (check it out here, it’s pretty great). The best story was Henry enlightening the audience about The Ruts, the british punk band who created one of the first ska/punk sounds in the late 70’s. They lost their lead singer to heroine before they could produce a second album and the band never reclaimed their initial path to stardom. The band’s guitarist, Paul Fox, was diagnosed with lung cancer over the summer (and sadly died a few weeks ago). The Ruts reuninited to create a benefit concert and Henry was asked to perform as the vocalist. He described the concert as containing one of the best moments of his life: singing onstage with many of his punk rock idols. I was really moved by his story and so, of course, I looked it up on youtube and found it amazing. Here is my favorite: