what a surprise

From a 1985 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine:


The text on the shirt reads "Whatever happened to the America that used to KICK ASS! instead of kiss ass" which is a typical enough bit of PBR-and-pickup-truck jingoism in an era rife with similar sentiments.

It's interesting that the ad ran at a time when Reagan's confrontational foreign policy was at its high water mark, but not particularly surprising. A longstanding cornerstone of reactionary populist ideology has been the notion of persecution manifested as a "majority outsider" status -- even when like-minded folks happen to have their hands on the levers of power. It's easier to keep order in the ranks when one flies the banner of the persecuted underdog, after all. Nothing breeds inertia and dissent like a sense of victory.

Musings on group psychology aside, the real reason I chose to spotlight this particular ad was because of what was written in the italicized copy -- that 75 cents per shirt purchased would be donated to one of the two groups of "freedom fighters" du jour in the Reagan Era: the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan rebels.

I'm not going to get into the whole sad, sordid mess of Nicaragua's ongoing political struggles, which proves only that corruption and cynical opportunistic behavior is not limited to either the left or right wing, with the masses getting the shit end of the stick regardless.

The donation of funds to the Afghan rebels (if it was ever carried out), though, had me wondering about something. Given who some of those rebels fighting the Soviets were, there's a very real possibility that the funds donated were used to purchase Kalishnakovs and RPG launchers which would eventually be used against American military personnel decades later.

So the folks who ponied up the $9.25 bought more than a t-shirt, they also picked up a copy of Blowback: The Home Game.

The Flys - Love and a Molotov Cocktail (from a 1978 single; collected on 1-2-3-4 Punk & New Wave: 1976-1979, 1999) - Slightly art-damaged punk occupying a space somewhere between The Jam and Pink Flag-era Wire on the sound spectrum.

Halloween Countdown: October 13 – a scream in the trees

Pop Quiz Time: There is a criminal on the lam who has been taken in by a gnarled old crone who lives by herself in a decrepit shack by the swamp. How do you think the criminal's course of action in the following panel will turn out?


The correct answer is, of course: "Horribly." I would also accept "He will accidentally set the shack on fire, not realizing that the crone has made a voodoo doll in his likeness and will thus become a human candle when the fetish goes up in flames."


Those of you who failed to answer correctly, please report to my introductory seminar in horror comicbook clichés. The rest of you may take a short break and enjoy today's musical selection.

Public Image Limited - Under the House (from The Flowers of Romance, 1981) - I remember The Flowers of Romance having a terrible reptuation among my peers back in the early 90's, who universally agreed it was to be avoided at all costs. (The opinion must have been fairly widespread, too, as a good two-thirds of the PIL section in any of the used vinyl stores I frequented consisted of 99-cent copies of the LP.)

Truth be told, I think it got a bum rap; it's not something I could listen to every day, but John Lydon's foray into the "tribal" sound (a brief craze that left a mark on a wide variety of acts, from anarchopunk to postpunk to new wave to gothic rock) is pretty interesting nonetheless. While I wouldn't go far as to label it with the "gothic" tag, the macabre lyrics and sonic atmosphere of "Under the House" capture the essence of the genre better than the work of many bands who actively claimed the label.