I may not have followed Punk THEN, but I seem to be reading a lot about it NOW.  This week I will complete Debbie Harry's memoir, Face It.  I enjoyed reading about  Debbie's struggles to make it in the early seventies.  She writes openly and honestly about her bands scuffling about New York City's Lower East Side trying to make something happen.  This was before anybody was accustomed to see a woman fronting a band.  She had to fight to be taken seriously;  at the same time, all of her passion was directed at coming up with a new sound. "Who wanted to be mainstream?" she says in the book.  Her goals were much higher than that.   I didn't realize it until I was midway through the book, but as young as Debbie looks in this book's pictures, she may not have tasted real fame until she was 31 years old. She stuck it out, through thick and thin. She was obsessed with becoming a successful artist. Late in the book she shares an anecdote – she must be in her sixties – when a large man who she doesn't know follows her out of a cigar store, not to ask her for an autograph, but to tell her, "Everyone has talent, but to persevere and to achieve success is what separates the real talent form the wannabes.  I want you to know this!"  This brief exchange in the parking lot affected her.  She didn't know what this guy was going to say, but what he said would stick with her forever.  They had always told her Punk was a passing fad.  It just wouldn't last.  Debbie probably thought she would never get the credit or respect she deserved. Thirty years later, they still recognize Blondie on the streets of New York.            

My favorite part of the book comes when Debbie appears on the Muppet Show.  Some people might call this – Debbie included – Punk in the Face of Punk.  This was 1981.  Debbie had rose to prominence as the lead singer for the the legendary punk/new wave band Blondie.  She became famous for her blonde hair bleached in the style of her idol Marilyn Monroe.  When she walked down the streets of New York City, the truck drivers and construction workers would whistle and yell, "Hey BLONDIE!"  There is the origin for the name of the band right there.  Debbie was right in the middle or things at the beginning of Punk.  She fronted Blondie at the famous NYC dive CBGBs for months without getting paid.  Let me re-phrase that.  The band got paid, but not in money; they were allowed to drink for free. For years Blondie languished in motorcycle clubs and tranvestite bars, devloping their craft for very little in return, but that was OKAY, because they weren't in it for the money.  The were in it to play what they wanted to play and how they wanted to play it.   THEY WERE PUNKS! 

That's why out of 360 pages, when I read about Debbie singing a duet with Kermit the Frog, I knew Debbie was like my kind of people. At this stage of her career,  She was already HUGE. Blondie had a slew of massive hits at the top of the charts: "Heart of Glass,"  "One Way or Another,"  "Dreaming," and "Call Me."  Blondie's image was plastered on magazine covers everywhere.  Not only was she a Punk Pioneer, but she was becoming a Mainstream Hero.  She had grinded it out in for years on the Lower-East Side, and now she was a World-Wide Phenomenon.  Of course, many of her fans said out loud that she had sold out her punk roots.  I mean how can you be Punk, when you are making millions of dollars from a mainstream audience.  By singing with Kermit the Frog.  That's what I say.  Punk in the Face of Punk.  When they want you to do one thing, do the opposite.  What could be better!

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It's not too long ago really, that I used to run 9-12 miles every morning.  Mas o Menitos. Later I rode my bike two to three hours a trip. All along the way, I  Iistened to my Ipod.  I would never think to take my phone on any of my workouts – I FALL DOWN A LOT.  Jaja. I often see my student staring at cracked phone screens.  It happens. Everyone has done it.  But to fix the glass, they tell me, it's easier to by a new phone.  I'm not doing that. I'm CHEAP.  Besides, the Ipod is smaller and fits easier into a pocket.  I'm not writing about electronics today, but my music is still saved on my Ipod.  This week, I ask my students to share an appropriate  PERSONAL TOPIC for their CLASSIFICATION ESSAYS.  They are to choose a topic they can CLASSIFY – Break Up into Sub-Groups – We talked about this in our last class.  I'm not kidding when I say PERSONAL.  I tell them, Choose a topic for which you have a PERSONAL CONNECTION.  In this essay, we will learn to provide a brief annecdote.  They will INSERT themselves  into THEIR  WRITING. Will they have  personal experience to share?  Will they  have a personal  photo to position at the top of my essay? Below I practiced outlining a classification idea for music on my IPOD.  I have never spent a lot of time thinking about each song, but this week I'm reading a memoir  by Debbie Harry, lead singer of the seventies band BLONDIE.  She says they were PUNK.  If that's what she says, I am now a PUNK fan, and I just didn't know it.