friday, October 10, 1980
pago 12
daily nebraskan
Purple-haired punks give Old Market New Warn
By Bob Cruder
The scene at 13th and Howard Streets is
a typical one for a warm Saturday after
noon in Omaha's Old Market.
Two win os sit, inhaling Muscatel, on the
street comer. A man in an apartment
overlooking the sidewalk eazes contented
ly. Out of the doorway of AAA Antiques
pops a bright-purple head of hair. "Come
on in and look around," she says.
I think of all the times I've been to the
Old Market, all the weirdos I've seen there,
and all of the times le gotten out alive. I
go in.
The girl introduces herself as Alice
Malice as she leads me into a small pink
walled corner room known as Lomax where
some people are admiring the countless
buttons-"Nixon Now" and "Tiemann for
governor,' in addition to the hundreds of
punk and new wave bands. From under
the counter glass, Barbie stares out at me
from the gleaming surface of a wet-look
vinyl billfold.
Early Gidget
The room is full of the kind of clothes
that might have been worn in an early
1960's Gidget movie-gold lame spike
heeled shoes, narrow lapelled jackets (in
all the latest colors), army badges, porkpie
hats, and "Space Specs" sunglasses.
"I didn't dye my hair. I was in a nuclear
accident," Alice explains. "I got into punk
rock about five years ago, 1 thought I was
the only punk in Omaha. Then I heard
what was going on out on the West Coast,
and headed for Portland."
Eventually, after a brief stopover in San
Francisco, Alice Malice landed in Holly
wood and moved into a building known as
HollyWest, where thirty other punks
lived.
"Pretty soon, 1 joined a band. We called
ourselves the Anemics and we were really
fast -even faster than the Germs (another
HollyWest band).
HollyWest eventually spawned an under
ground magazine called Addicted that cov
ered the California punk scene. Alice
Malice hopes to put out a Nebraska version
in a month or two.
Describing punk rock as hard, fast, high
energy music -"some thing to do when
you're sick of being plastic," Alice is cur
rently trying to bring punk culture to Ne
braska. The Lomax store has hosted two
free concerts in the .Old Market featuring
Omaha bands the Rebates, the Polka Dots,
and Richard Nixon-the latter notorious
for performing a contemtuous version of
"Free Bird "
Nixon plays on
Besides the punk shop, Alice and boy
friend Timmy Turmoil (they're planning to
marry this Saturday) operate Anarchy
Studio at 802 Pierce St. where Richard
Nixon reigns as house band.
The soon-to-be-TuimoUs have no alco
hol license, but they charge a cover to
"pay the rent," Alice says.
"What we want is just for people to
come over, hang out, and have a good
time."
To encourage the growth of the Nebras
ka punk culture, Anarchy is open "to any
one who wants to come over and play"
for the regular Tuesday and Wednesday
evening jam sessions.
The Lomax shop is supported financial
ly by Oran Belgrave, the owner of AAA
Antiques.
Belgrave, who prefers to be known as
Oran Moran when talking punk, explains
the origin of his New Wave sensibilities.
"I had another antique shop at 16th
and Harney and a guy from Cheap Trick
came in the day of a concert they played
here. He was dressed real funny, and I
dug it. He told me that he was the bus
driver for the group, but a few days later,
I saw his picture in the entertainment
section of the World Herald. He was the
lead guitarist (Rick Neilsen). I liked his at
titude." Belgrave, obviously has become steeped
in New Wave outlooks despite his dapper
businessman's appearance, reflecting the
old Sex Pistols pessimism theme in his
philosophy of life.
"No one goes anywhere in life. When
you come out of the womb, you're bald
headed with no teeth, and when you die,
you're bald-headed with no teeth," said
Belgrave. "There is no future-we're all
going in reverse."
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Photo by R.K. Hahn
Old Market punk, Alice Malice, sits in the pink-walled seclusion of the punk shop
Lamox.
Rebel Establishment tweaker releases his story
By Pat Higgins
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, Abbie
Hoffman Perigee Books, 304 pages.
Abbie Hoffman has released his autobiography in con
junction with his return from the Underground. Abbie
may be a bit of an obscure, historial figure for many peo
ple, but his story is worthy of note.
His style of writing is quite readable with a healthy
dose of sharp wit and some interesting gossip concerning
various 60s figures. Abbie has led an interesting life,
changing style about as often as he changed his shirt.
Abbie rose to prominence as the leader of the Yippies.
He had a knack for tweaking the Establishment's nose.
He's always been an ideal Marxist -Leninist, Grouch o Marx
and John Lennon, that is. He was witty, smart, and a true
media star until his 1973 cocaine arrest in New York. The
Rockefeller law in New York is mandatory life for
cocaine. Abbie Hoffman is definitely not Mahatma
Maslow is given credit as the founder of the human
potentials movement, aka pop psychology, which is a
rather dubious distinction. Abbie would have been better
off emulating Elvis than these guys.
Abbie emphasizes that he was an All-American boy. He
was even captain of the tennis team at Brandeis. The
coach of the team was Bud Collier now the Walter
Cronkite of pro tennis. But Abbie grafted a left wing
philosophy to his style. Abbie was an idealistic liberal in
1960. He voted for JFK (twice, he claims) and was work
ing as a psychologist.
OXO o
Ghandi, so he disappeared underground until a few weeks
ago when he was suddenly being interveiwed by Barbara
Walters on prime-time.
Abbie was born in 1936 to a middle class Jewish family
in Boston, Mass. Rebelling against authority from the start
he was a classic example of a 60s greaserhood much like
the Fonz. Aboie was into hot cars, rock and roll, and pool
hustling. His parents were horrified of course, and they
pressured him until he decided to further his education at
Brandeis University.
Brandeis was a new avant-garde university. The faculty
contained many escapees from McCarthyism who were
allowed more freedom there. Included among the faculty
were Herbert Marcuso and Abraham Maslow, who Abbie
cites as his key intellectual influences. Marcuse was a
radical philosopher who is known for his Marxist
criticisms of U.S. society something he does almost to
ridiculous lengths.
Abbie Hoffman
However, he became radicalized as the fabled decade,
the 60s progressed. He was involved in the Civil Rights
Movement and went down South to help register black
people to vote. Some of his tales of the South are terrify
ing. These activities had to have a great deal of physical
courage to deal with the violence they encountered. These
folks had a heroic dimension.
The Vietnam War was heating up as the radicalization
of Abbie continued. The next ingredient was LSD which
he first encountered in CIA experiments (he claims). This
led to his quitting his psychologist job and taking on the
appearance of the then new hippie. Underneath mat long
hair beat the heart of a political animal.
He was in the forefront of all the big youth culture
events of that era: the 1967 March on Washington, the
1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, Woodstock ad in
finitum. Abbie 's master plan was to unite drop out
apathetic hippies with left wing committed collegiates
under the banner of the Youth International Party,
The Yippies never were a large group, but they were
the media stars of the counterculture. They were the
eomedians of the Revolution which led to saturation
coverage of their crazed radicalism. However it can be
argued that their appearance at the 1968 convention led
to Richard Nixon's election but Abbie has no apologies
for this. However, he believed that the government in
power had to be challenged over the Vietnam War.
Next on the agenda was the Chicago Conspiracy Trial
which was an effort by the government to prove that
there was a huge, subversive youth conspiracy, encompass
ing SDS, Yippies, Black Panthers and pacificists, to which
Abbie retorted, "We couldn't agree on lunch," Youth
culture as an ideal collapsed somewhere between the
violence of the Weather People and the defeat of George
McGovern.
Abbie was continuing his career as a writer at this time
and claims that his cocaine arrest was part of research for
a new book, which is debatable. He couldn't stomach life
in prison so he became a fugitive underground until his
sudden emergence last month. He still has to face criminal
charges but is hoping that the climate of the country is
lenient towards him.
In his book, Abbie Hoffman comes off as an idealistric,
committed individual. He was quite serious about reform
ing society, a worthwhile goal now almost totally ignored.
