"Henry Rollins Live from NYC", on IFC. My first exposure to him.

[maveric]

Pretty funny and insightful.

[ghostsofgiants]

1. Anyone who can do good stand-up AND good hardcore punk is my kinda guy.

[maveric]

2. He's really reaming the bu$hco crowd and Walmart.

Is he always political?

[ghostsofgiants]

3. He usually has some political stuff.

This is from the Amazon review of his "Think Tank" cd (which is really good):

"Channeling his rage into prosaic humor, Rollins details the really big problems of life (homophobia, lyrics to Journey songs, racism, vegetarians) and small everyday bummers (the cast of Friends, idiots everywhere, fax machines) alongside detailed postcards from the rock-star life."

[Bryan]

4. Increasingly so, especially of late

Here's a great interview in which he describes the process of being turned in to the Australian DHS for reading a book titled Jihad on an airplane:

http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=interviews&id=6256

"Q: Now you’re a target of Australian homeland security. You’re a potential terrorist. Isn’t that the epitome of everything that’s wrong today – that you’re reading a book and that reading a book is indicating you as dangerous?

Rollins: It’s symptomatic of people who are full of fear. When the going gets rough, the average get conservative. We live in a fear-charged culture, so stuff like that is going to happen.

This happened in Australia, but it didn’t make me hate Australia. I love Australia. I’ve been there 28 times. The guy was a drag. The event was unfortunate. But people from Australia have been writing me, ‘I’m so sorry! Please don’t not come back here!’ I’m fine. The guy sucks, but I love the country. Australia’s been good to me.

Five years ago that probably wouldn’t have happened. That guy’s not the worst guy in the world – he was obviously upset.

Q: You sat next to him?

Rollins: I was by the window on the right side of the plane, reading Jihad by Ahmed Rashid, the Yale University Press.

Q: A very radical group.

Rollins: Yeah, and he’s a Wall Street Journal writer, a very radical publication. And the book was a New York Times bestseller. His previous book, Taliban, is now apparently required reading for US forces going into Afghanistan because it’s seen as basically a primer.

I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with reading a history book about Central Asia, and maybe at this stage of the game we should know more about that part of the world, because that's where a lot of things are going to be going down in our lifetime. Anyone with shoreline property on the Caspian Sea is going to be a big player in our world. That's all the book is about - Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. How Stalin arbitrarily came up with these fake borders. It’s a fascinating read – you learn about Genghis Khan, it's fascinating. Over my head for the most part, but really cool. I've already read Taliban, and Rashid is a great writer, very clear. I like him a lot.

But it was fun for me to have the story for stage. To go, 'Folks, I'm an interesting person and as of this day, I'm a person of interest.' Ariana Huffington ran it on her blog, Olbermann wanted to have me on his countdown thing. Every Australian newspaper ran my quote from my website, where I said, 'Your prime minister is a sissy. My hometown is safer than Baghdad.'

I told the homeland security lady who wrote me, 'Tell your boss to go fuck himself. Tell everyone in the office around you to fuck themselves. Your prime minister is a sissy because he sucks up to Bush every minute, and my hometown is safer than Baghdad. So kiss my ass.' Of course every paper loves shit like this. So probably when I go to Australia next time there'll be some guy who loves John Howard for some reason to "kick my ass."

[CanuckAmok]

5. It all began here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHk7zahvDFI&search=black%20flag

His spoken word and solo musical stuff bores me to tears, but there's no better American punk band than Black Flag.

Any band that plays on a stage is NOT PUNK.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. That was awesome.

[CanuckAmok]

8. I was lucky enought o catch them live...

...at the Painters' Union Hall in Buffalo, NY in, I think, 1986. It was "built" Henry by then, but they still had that energy.

Fucking great band, and one of the best show's I've seen to date.

[TheBaldyMan]

7. I was never really that fond of Black Flag I preferred the HRB

but judging by that video they were a great live band. Doesn't he look young & dorky in that vid.

[jonnyblitz]

13. great video!

:thumbsup:

[HuskerDU]

14. Good stuff! I was lucky enough to see 'em in '86 too. Just a

few weeks before they broke up. They played the Boat House on Island Park in Cedar Falls Iowa. In other words they basically played a park shelter in the middle of nowhere!

That is why they are legendary today while million dollar bands of the time have been ridiculed and forgotten.

[realisticphish]

9. I saw him speak at Ohio State

phenomenal show. His ability to go from a heart-wrenching story about his friends dying to a rant about slow people in airports is astounding.

[LaurenG]

10. I love Henry Rollins

Many of his songs are insightful. "Cause I'm a liar" is still running around my head after all these years.:bounce:

[AllegroRondo]

11. He won a grammy a couple years ago

for best "spoken word album", for a recording similar to this.

[Gatchaman]

12. Loved him on Howard Stern a few years back

Usually Howard's guests are bumbling idiots or third rate "celebrities" kissing his ass, but Henry totally dominated the conversation, actually making Stern have a real discussion instead of the old "what hand to you wipe your ass with" line of questioning he usually does.

[helderheid]

15. Oh I LOV E HIM!

:loveya: HANK!! :loveya: