Before we get to that, it's time for something completely different than trucks, cars, newspapers or magazines - I'm here to talk about an 'ageing alternative icon' in the form of the one and only Henry Rollins. Rollins is one of my personal heroes.
This former front man of the legendary 80's hardcore band Black Flag and 90's rock outfit Rollins Band (the picture you see above this post is taken from the legendary video for 'Liar', which was directed by rock photographer and 'Control' and 'The American' director Anton Corbijn) now travels the world, either as a spoken-word artist or just as a world citizen, thirsty for knowledge and experience in countries his American countrymen would never follow him.
Yes: this is the American nutcase who flew off to Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and the likes, right after his country's administration branded those states as the 'Axis of Evil' - and lived to tell the tale.
He tours the world with those tales, and I've been lucky enough to catch a couple of his shows on more than one occasion: from Antwerp over Ghent to Brussels. Last time I went to see Rollins was at the Pukkelpop festival, last summer.
Rollins is a no-nonsense, down-to-earth and fear-no-one fellow, who prides himself on an unquenchable lust for life which doesn't leave him off the hook for one second. He is very opinionated and has the ability to elaborate eloquently on various political, philosophical and just plain daily-life subjects.
Most of the time the diary entrances on his website (the so-called 'Dispatches') start off with 'Man, I've slept like two hours the past eight days but it was totally worth it', having jeopardized his life by walking onto the streets of Karachi, Baghdad, Pyongyang or some other god-forgotten hellhole.
"Yup, people warned me not to go out there, being American and especially carrying tattoos like mine, but once you get there and don't act too conspicuously, it turns out the people are really friendly and there's no imminent danger involved."
This is the guy who once described himself as follows: "If you could think of a stove where the pivot light is always on, always ready to light all four burners? That is me, all the time. I'm always ready to go there."
Though aforementioned quote - which I identify with a great deal - might not paint a pretty picture of the man; I love his hardcore disposition in life which causes his non-stop sleep deprivation but which also leads him to live a fascinating life, experiencing things and getting to know other people, discovering stuff and living his short time on earth to the fullest.
This was something I mentioned to him in a mail I sent after having downloaded and listened to one of his 'broadcasts' he normally does on the KRCW radio. He made one on Christmas Eve while his technicians were at their respective families and put them into a Yousendit file, free for download.
He then asked to mail him if you had enjoyed the broadcast, to see how far it got. So I did, and whaddya know: Uncle Henry (as me and fellow Rollins fan Benjamin like to call him) answered right back:
"Dieter, hey. Thanks for checking and for checking those shows. I will make another one of those lo-tech shows soon. Thanks for listening. Henry"
It freaked the hell out of me to see the name 'Henry Rollins' pop up in my inbox - I'll never delete that mail.
I wish I had the man's writing talent as there are so much more dimensions to Henry Rollins than the ones I mentioned this post, but I hope all this whets your appetite a lil' bit - at least enough to YouTube the man and check out what he has to say. You won't regret it.
THIS JUST IN
Rollins posted a second low-tech broadcast.
MOMENT OF THE DAY
This morning, accelerating up the highway to Brussels, listening to Jamiroquai's 'Travelling Without Moving'. A title which, incidentally, pretty much sums up the entire Belgian traffic situation.
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