linebaugh

Well-known member
This may be a critical litmus test for normie / anti-normie:

Do these sensational, hyper-emotive thumbnail faces attract you or deter you?
the general spirit of this is right but I think in the case of these thumbnails its meant to attract children who are excluded from the greater normie spectrum
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I have a lot of stories - hitchhiking too, and just that whole life - but over the years I've found myself thinking they're not that interesting in the scheme of things. One time maybe 12 or 13 years ago I was passing thru Albany and I wound up talking to this Burmese (Myanmarese? Idk what's the preferred term) guy for an hour at a laundromat - I was stuck in torrential rain on a train the night before and was just drying everything out - and he had this incredible life story about being a student activist turned rebel (in I believe the 8888 Uprising) who fled to the U.S. and then he made a fortune I don't remember drycleaning or something then lost it all gambling and his wife left him and he was trying to rebuild his life and I remember being like this guy, this guy has a fucking story. He told it all completely nonchalantly, chainsmoking while we sat outside drinking coffee. That trip also the last time I rode any trains. I do think I'd like to ride again for kicks sometime, just up to MPLS and back or something. You need to set aside time tho cos you never when your train is going to break up in some random yard and you have to figure something out.

My stories are way better than fucking Jack Kerouac's I will say that lol. You read On the Road when you're 15 then go do it yourself and realize wow that guy really was a boring, self-involved drunk.
 

version

Well-known member
This may be a critical litmus test for normie / anti-normie:

Do these sensational, hyper-emotive thumbnail faces attract you or deter you?
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
@version I guess u deleted the post but no I never read Vollmann's book on riding trains. Maybe I should. I doubt it's very accurate. It's a hard culture to capture if you're not involved in it. Tho idk these days the kidz probably live Tweet everything (not that we didn't do plenty of stupid shit, we just didn't have Twitter)

I've never seen any film, documentary, book or etc about the culture that accurately captured it tbh
 

version

Well-known member
There's that Mike Brodie guy who did a photography book on train hopping and stuff too,


a-period-of-juvenile-prosperity-by-mike-brodie-4.jpg
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I can't think of a worse book I've read - maybe Mr. Nice or Kode9's book on sonic warfare. Unbelievably dull.
Yeah it suxx

Dharma Bums is a bit better cos he's just being himself, i.e. a depressive drunk who writes about his more vital and interesting friends

Not a big Kerouac fan

Speaking of middle class kids choosing to reject normality, the Beats. Kerouac was a scholarship boy tbf, unlike most of his Columbia etc peers. But yeah in the great Western tradition of affluent dropouts beginning I guess with Lord Byron ("mad, bad, and dangerous to know").
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
There's that Mike Brodie guy who did a photography book on train hopping and stuff too,


a-period-of-juvenile-prosperity-by-mike-brodie-4.jpg
Yeah that looks like it might be good

Lmao @ his answer to "who are the people in yr photographs", which rings very true. Stupid punk names do abound.

I'll have to check it out. Seems like a guy if not inside then at least adjacent to the culture.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
there's also lots of bits in it where they're just endlessly waiting, sometimes days
Yeah that's also accurate. A looot of waiting.

Really depends tho. Some trains are daily and you might know when it is each day. Sometimes it's a lot less clear. I spent my 19th birthday in a trainyard in San Antonio waiting. We hopped out of NOLA, train broke up in Lafayette LA, we went to a diner to get out of the rain and randomly met these older (tho prob younger than I am now lol) punks who gave us a ride to I think Houston, hitched to SA, spent like 48 hours trying to figure out and then waiting on a train. Lotta stuff happened that trip. I've also heard stories like ppl being way the fuck up north in Canada and there's one train a week headed south so you better catch it.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Yeah that's also accurate. A looot of waiting.

Really depends tho. Some trains are daily and you might know when it is each day. Sometimes it's a lot less clear. I spent my 19th birthday in a trainyard in San Antonio waiting. We hopped out of NOLA, train broke up in Lafayette LA, we went to a diner to get out of the rain and randomly met these older (tho prob younger than I am now lol) punks who gave us a ride to I think Houston, hitched to SA, spent like 48 hours trying to figure out and then waiting on a train. Lotta stuff happened that trip. I've also heard stories like ppl being way the fuck up north in Canada and there's one train a week headed south so you better catch it.

US rail stations can be hubs of civic wonder, Philly, Union Station in DC, even WV minor stops had hits

I95 is a hellscape. You try and get off the main drag and end up in places like Culpepper and Luray. It’s hard to translate those towns to a European audience. They’re horrendously dull but Luray was a delight. Avoided during summer humidity, gaffs which seemed less bleak in the snow
 
Top