When: 5:30pm, Friday May 9th
Where: The Ink People, 411 12th St, next to the Eureka Muni
Cost: Donations are appreciated

About the speaker: Andrew Flood is an active anarchist organizer and writer, with twenty years experience in Ireland, most of that time as a member of the Workers Solidarity Movement. More recently, he has been become a member of NEFAC and is a founder member of Common Cause, Ontario. His publishing record includes well over one hundred articles, translated into over nine languages, chapters published in three books, and articles in seven English language anti-authoritarian magazines and newspapers. As well as numerous events in Ireland he has been the speaker at meetings in Britain, Italy, Canada, the Czech Republic and the USA and attended conferences in the Netherlands, France, Spain and Mexico.

He has been editor of the anarchist publications Workers Solidarity, Red & Black Revolution, Against War and Terror and Linchpin. He was on the editorial group of the first anarchist site to use the internet, Spunk Press, which predated the invention of the web (it used gopher). He has or is also on the editorial groups of A-Infos, Anarkismo.net, WSM.ie and Struggle.ws. He is currently involved in the launch of the new anarchist discussion site AnarchistBlackCat.org.

A partial archive of Andrew’s writings, radio interviews and translations can be found at http://www.struggle.ws/andrew.html
You can email him at AndrewNFlood [at] gmail [dot] com
You can follow the progress of the speaking tour at http://anarchism.pageabode.com

• The Martyr Index (calgary) - Politically-aware Canadian Rock They have a violin! But you could tell that from the album cover, right?
• Social Concern (chico) - Distillers meets Bad religion, meets the Ramones, meets your daddy! they were snowed-in last time, but come May the passes will be clear
• The Fortyhands - all polished up from playing Punk Prom

When: Wednesday, May 7. Doors at 6:30 / amps off at 10pm
Where: The Ink People 411 12th St, Eureka
Cost: $5, annual membership is required! Get one at the door for 2 bucks if you don’t have yours.

When: 5:30 pm, Sunday May 4th
Where: The Ink People, 411 12th St (ring the bell if the door is locked)

If you got your prom photo taken, you can see it at the
Invasion of the PromBots gallery.

Courtney and Gary of the Monster Women

And don’t forget to support those awesome Prom bands:

* Blancatron * The Fortyhands * The Monster Women * La Plebe * The Psycho Nubs * The Social Ills

• Blancatron/FemiNasti Productions - DJ Extraordinaire
• The Fortyhands Brand Spanking New, local punk
• The Monster Women Hip shakin’ electro girl group pop
• La Plebe (sf) Bilingual punk with horns n’ vomit - note: I’ve seen the horns but if there was vomit, they were awfully discreet about it
• The Psycho Nubs (indiana/nevada) - garage punk with a silly sense of humor
• The Social Ills - Straight-up Hardcore Punk

Costume Contest! Door Prizes! General Silliness!

When: Friday, April 25th, 7pm-midnight
Where: Bayside Grange, just outside of Arcata [map]
Cost: $5 if in costume (robot and/or prom drag) / $7 if you are boring. Two-buck annual membership always required

Leave yer Drugs/Alcohol at home

When we say ALL AGES we mean it: Everybody Welcome!

Thank you to all the local businesses and organizations who have generously provided prizes, including:

• Booklegger
• The Coffee Break
• DUHC
• Fabric Temptations
• Figueiredos Video Movies
• The Ink People
• NorthCoast RolePlaying
• Northtown Books
• Smug’s Pizza
• Sushi A Go Go
• Wildwood Music
• The Works

Everybody Welcome

• April 20th: Volunteers Meeting, Arcata, 5:30 @ the Jacoby Storehouse
• April 25: PUNK PROM, 7pm @ the Bayside Grange
• May 4th: Volunteers Meeting, Eureka, 5:30 @ The Ink People
• May 7th: Martyr Index, Social Concern, The Fortyhands, and TBA
• May 9th: Discussion with Irish anarchist Andrew Flood, 5:30 @ The Ink People
• May 13th: Fleas & Lice, Mouth Sewn Shut, Inhaste, 6:30 @ The Ink People
• POSTPONED May 24th: CopWatch benefit w. Kill the Switch and more, 6:30 at The Ink People
• May 30th: Benefit for Stuart Christopher w. Antarctia, Emilia’s Rose, Tidal Decay and Unmask

MORE TO COME

This meeting will focus on Punk Prom and our shows in May and June, including Punk BBQ.

Finding the Open Road by Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nathan Gebhard [ISBN: 1580087213]

As I can personally testify to, coming of age these days can sometimes feel like a struggle between your dreams and the shared dreams that your parents have for you. For the first 18 years of life (and on into college for many people) we’re stuck in a rigid system designed to send us on the “road to success,” but it can often feel like we’re not the one driving. In what can often feel like mere moments we’re off to college studying for a career picked for us by parents, teachers, or others, but not ourselves. This is where Finding the Open Road begins: three friends who felt like they were moving too fast to a life they weren’t sure if they really wanted.

Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister, and Nathan Gebhard were seniors in college who felt like they had been taken out of the driver’s seat. To rediscover where they might be headed they decided to ask people of different professions how they got where they were. The friends planned a road-trip across the country to ask questions like “How do you find a career that you love?”, “How did successful people get where they are today?”, and “How can you shut out the noise of what other people want you to be?”. They took a summer off and set up interviews with people of all sorts of careers from CEOs to lobster fishermen. What they found would change their lives, and give birth to Roadtrip Nation, which would in turn begin to change the lives of many other young people.

Finding the Open Road is a book split into four basic parts. It contains the stories of people who made the journey on the road, the interviews they conducted with the people they met, an instructional section to help the reader conduct their own road-trip, and a section of inspirational wisdom to help people who might not have time to spend out on the road.

I found the stories of people’s experiences the most motivational. The book paints an awesome picture of the inspiration that different people found on the road. One picture of a young man standing waste deep in a river has a caption discussing a ritual that he and his fellow road-trippers created, a decision to jump into every major body of water that he and his fellow road-trippers passed on their journey. There are also stories of mini-road-trips that people have conducted, interviewing people in their local area.

After reading the inspirational beginning and the stories of the travelers of Roadtrip Nation the instructional part of the book is rather dry. It gives tips on how to cold-call people, how to plan your trip, and what you should be prepared for. Although it’s helpful information it’s in stark contrast with the openness of the rest of the book. After re-reading the story of the original roadtrippers and how they sought to break free of controlling influences, the instructional section feels like a step away from the DIY attitude of the rest of the book. Earlier in the book the authors explain that part of the book’s purpose is to provide the experiences of the roadtrip without the reader having to leave the home which also conflicts with this section.

After the instructional section, however, the interviews with people were very interesting. They range from the story of Kim Weaver, an astrophysicist at NASA to the story of Larry King. Some of the stories are rather incredible, really giving the sense that if you work hard enough, you can get anything done.

Finding the Open Road is a book that makes you want to get up and do something. After finishing it I had to fight urges not to hop on the next bus across the country and explore the possibilities that life presented me. The book is less about pursuing your dreams than it is breaking free of the dreams of others, which is often a crucial first step. It’s a great read for anyone who feels like they’re stuck on a road going somewhere they don’t want to be.

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Finding the Open Road can be found in The Placebo’s library
See also: Roadtrip Nation, official site