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  • Western Carolina University
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  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2008-09-26[10-27]_Vol74_No03[04]_11

Page 11 WESTERN CAROLINIAN ARES &, ENTERTAINMENT. September 26, 2008 Henry Rollins is not only a musician, most known for being the front man of Black Flag in the 80s, but he also owns a record label and publishing company, 2.13.61. Rollins has his own _talk show featuring his spo- ken word concerning politics and social commentary, and he has hosted quite a few a radio shows such as his cur- rent show The Harmony in my Head where he plays his favorite hand-picked songs. Rollins is also an activist, ac- tor and stand-up comedian. Rollins intense personality captured crowds in the 80s and hasnt dimmed a bit, but remains equally as enraptur- ing. Rollins has evolved into a confident, well-rounded, well-informed individual to say the least, delivering an energetic and healthy mix- ture of fact and opinion to his listeners daily. I had the chance to speak with Rol- lins yesterday, preceding his upcoming show here at WCU. Rollins will bring his Recountdown tour here on Wednesday October | at 7:30 pm, hosted in The Fine and Performing Arts building. Tickets are available at The Fine and Performing Arts Center box office, or (828) 227-2479. Tickets are $20 for the general public, $10 for WCU faculty and staff, $10 for senior citizens and $5 for students. Jennifer Toledo: Can you tell me about a normal day in the life of Henry Rollins? Henry Rollins: When ' vr m off tour, during the weekjI try to get up between 4 and 4:40 in the morning and be at my desk between 5 and 6 and start the days work, which is editing, grabbing stuff off the internet, news items and whatever, before my staff comes in at nine and starts telling me what to do. So, I work in the office most of the day and thats press stuff and book related work, writ- ing and editing its a little book company and doing boring office stuff, and then I go home, work out in my garage, eat some food. And then I do basically the sec- N ( Oct. 1, 2008 ond shift, writing, reading, more editing, or whatever else, then try and get my head down as early as possible. I have a radio show, so at night I usually work on a broad- cast or an upcoming broad- cast because they usually take a while to put together, On the road, since theres a gig every night pretty much, and it sits over my head like a democlidian obligation, I try and get all the press and workout stuff done before sound check, I try to go to the gym for or five days a week. I try to get some book editing done because theres always proof reading to do. Then I start concentrating on the show because thats the most important part of the thing. For about an hour I try to start zeroing in on what Im going to talk about if theres something new I want to put on stage I try to get my, head around it. If its statistics I start trying to memorize them and understand why I need to know them so its a natu- ral fact, not something I need to ransack my random access memory for. Then I go on stage and do the show. JT: Sounds intense. HR: Well, its just kind of a drill, you know, you just do your thing, and then you meet all the people by the bus, get on the bus, and try and un- wind, which is very difficult, and thats it. The weekends off the road are just catch- ing up on sleep and reading. 1 like to :do:a lotiof reading as: muclr as'Tean,! and Pike t6- have more than one book that you have your nose in. Im reading a book by Paul Rob- erts called The End of Food. Its about how food systems work, its about starvation and famine in the world, its about NAFTA, and theres a lot to know. Basically Malthusian theory. Malthus said basical- ly that humans are going to starve to death at some point, and he keeps almost proving himself to be right. Im read- ing that, its a downer, but its good stuff to know. Im read- ing A Small Corner of Hell by Anna Politkovskaya, who was the Russian journal- ist who was recently assas- sinated. She was one of the journalists in Russia bringing truth to power, a very heroic journalist, and she did a lot of writing about Chechnya so Im reading her reportage of Chechnya. Also, The Age of Anxiety which is about Mc- Carthyism and how it relates to modern day propaganda i in _ this age of terror, by Haynes Johnson. Interesting book, I never knew much about Mc- Carthyism, so Im, learning. Theres not a lot to like about Joe McCarthy. So, thats what Ive got out with me. Also The Blue Covenant about water, and water systems, and lack of water and the upcoming water crisis that were starting to see signs of now. Thats what Ive got for reading, and Im sure Ill be A do a lot of listening to music, new music that Im not too familiar with so I can learn a thing or two. I basically work about seven days a week one way or the other, and dont re- ally do vacations. I travel, but I dont just sit on the beach. I have, but it was an interesting beach. JT: What music have you been listening to lately and what books have you been reading lately? HR: Right now, reading-wise, as we normally do Im sure youre the same way you RY Nt @ 7:30 Om Arts Center Contact the Box Office for Ticket Information 828-221- 2419 done with those books pretty quick and Ill be searching for something else. Music wise, Ive been listening to a lot of noise music. Wolf Eyes, : Yellow" Swans, Halt Potice, Vicky, a lot of j jazz Atchie Stepp, a lot of Sun Ra; noth- ing new about those artists, but theyre still real good. The noise stuff is kind of new to me, even though these bands have been around for a while. Oh, Ive been listening to this Japanese guitar player; Keiji Haino. Hes been with Fushitusha. Its all new mu- sic to me. The engineer on my radio show said buy this record and listen to it, so I bought the record, I liked it, bought the rest, and Im lis- tening to that..So, Im trying to keep the listening varied and trying to teach myself something. I dont read a good deal of fiction oh, I do have East of Eden out with me as well. Last weekend, | hung out for about an hour with John Steinbecks son, Tom Steinbeck, it was a fas- cinating conversation. He re- members his father very well. We had a lot to talk about hes a very interesting guy, an activist. JT: Imagine its November 2008. You hear an announce- ment that John McCain has been elected the new presi- dent of the United States. How do you feel? HR: I would say I told you so, because thats what Ive been saying since 2006, even it was Juliani, and Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, and Mitt Romney and everyone else. I said he will emerge as the front runner and he will be the next president of the United States, and Ill say to the rest of America, Those of you who voted for him, when you become dissatis- fied with what you voted for, have enough back-bone to admit it, and for the rest of you good luck, sucker. JT; Why do you think the American people are so re- ceptive to Sarah Palin? HR: Well, I disagree with the premise of your question: so many people. I think some are, but I dont think its many, I dont think its over half. 1 think she had momentary ap- peal because! a ns very wellvat the well, all her jokes, she had a lot of confidence. Shes got a lot of balls, basically, and she spoke very well. I was in Scotland when she did it and I listened to it on the internet, and I went yea, okay, you pulled it off, and shes good- looking. She has a great jaw line, so she looks great for camera and she looks like she has been there and done that, you know as far as getting on stage and walking around and basically bringing it, so I think that has momentary ap-. peal, and then inevitably the rubber has to meet the road. You find out that she has no game whatsoever, and the fact that a vice presidential candidate goes into the UN and the press is not allowed to hear any of it, are you kid- ding me? If Barack Obama had brought in some junior as his V.P. fox news would be hounding him about that, it would be brutal. If Barack Obamas daughters were of age, or near of age, and one of them got pregnant, do you think the party line by Fox and everyone else would be Its a private family matter? The fact that we didnt get to hear anything that Sarah Palin said to maybe Hamed Karzai or someone like that is off limits? Its because shes no game. I mean, when she doesnt even know What the Bush Doctrine is, that just shows you, she doesnt have it, and its why the presiden- tial debates were postponed for tomorrow. Theres no reason why John McCain couldnt be at the Clinton Global initiative yesterday, and doing the debates today. He could have been in the senate today and done the de- bates tonight. So, basically, I think its a bunch of bull, and so I think her appeal was not a bump, it was a bounce, and when you bounce up you also go back down again. Shes actually losing traction in the polls, and once Joe Biden gets a hold of her in the de- bates all you'll see is, oh, he was mean, when he just comes back real hard with his replies. So, maybe the gloves will come off, I don t know, but 1 think Sarah Palin yh: is momentary. ri ee JT: With the upcoming elec- tion in mind, what, in your opinion, is the most danger- ous threat to the freedom of American citizens? HR: Well, I think its the slow amelioration of our civil lib- erties. In the last 7 /% years youve seen quite a decrease in what youre allowed to do and quite an increase in the governments hold on you, and, for the party of small government, it sure seems like the government is looming larger than ever, in this kind of Orwellian, Stalinesque fashion, and so I think the greatest threat to our civil liberties is big business and unchecked power and a congress that doesnt seem to want to stand up and an American people who seem to be okay with that. Basical- ly, the most dangerous thing to American liberty is Ameri- cans, not standing up and saying you bastards, how dare you. Im not advocating the storming of the Bastille, but I do think Americans on either side of the aisle have to say enough already. So, here we are. Heres what you get when you dont stand up and theres so many people in America who think de- mocracy is this thing writ- ten in stone, this immovable object, and I disagree. I think its quite fragile, and it needs to be protected and guarded vigilantly. So, here we are. And, like I said before, if:you voted for Bush twice, I hope you're happy with what you got with your broke ass, and now that youre being fore- closed upon, all you have is some guy on MSNBC saying sorry, sucker, you shouldnt have taken the loan, and so here we are. And things will get better. I think perhaps if youve heard the legend of the cocaine addict who has to go through two million dol- lars of cocaine to find out that cocaine is a dead end, I think that a lot of Americans have to hit the ground very on for the es ee OwY { i} clive | Ov need because maybe its a ieee button. I think well have more foreclosures before: the thing gets better, the housing market is going to slump un- til at least 2011: Youre going to have more boys and girls coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan either dead or in less-than-good shape be- _ fore theres real troop with- drawal, before theres any kind of progress, and youll have more wasting of natural (continued on page 16)

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

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  • Western Carolina University
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  • Publications (documents)
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  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 2008-10-27
• Extent
  • Dimension: 14" x 11.5"
  • Pages: 16
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
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  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
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  • HL_WesternCarolinian_2008-09-26[10-27]_Vol74_No03[04]
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library