4evafilthy

I read your comment in Lorelei's journal that "White City" is your favorite Pogues song. Mine too. Have you ever been to Cincinnati? I'd swear that town is what the song is about, at least to me, anyway.

I wasn't recommending Cincinnati to you as a vacation destination. The reason I call Cincinnati White City is because of the line, "Here a tower shining bright once stood gleaming in the night, where now there's just the rubble in the hole." Cincy used to have a really cool scene, like fifteen years ago, and that's not just an old man talking shit. Crack came to Cincy later than it did to other places, but when it came it hit hard. It has ruined a generation of poor black youth there, and the gangs have squashed every spark of life the punk scene had since about the time I left in '91. I traveled around with my wife, she left (long story), and now I live in a little college town about an hour's drive north of Cincy. When I go down to see shows and visit my friends, I think how vibrant a place it once was. Now the punks have to hide away in little holes scattered around town. The goth scene is doing OK because it is based mainly out of one club in an extremely gentrified area. The goth kids run out of the club, through the crack dealers that surround the place on all sides, and into a guarded parking lot across the street. However, during the frequent riots, the place is shut down.

Fortunately, I'm just an old cyberpunk who hangs out in my apartment in this little college town listening to Shane sing, "Oh, sweet city of my dreams, of speed and skill and schemes, like Atlantis, you just disappeared from view."

If you're into crack, I don't mean to offend, but I hate the shit.