Photo taken on the steps of St Charles Station, Marseilles.
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Anyway
- trixie
- My birth certificate attests to my debut on a Saturday in the middle of May, 1977. You can thus deduce that I am a bullish Taurean, that I was born in the Chinese year of the Snake, that my Burmese animal is the Dragon. This means that I am wont to bellow, hiss, and breathe fire, to stampede, slither and fly. Because my birth certificate was stamped by a bureaucrat in service to Her Majesty’s Government, I am a citizen of the United Kingdom. Because both of my parents were practicing Australians, I am also a citizen of Australia. I have thus two passports both of which inexplicably contain photographs of some random grumpy refugee from an eighties hair band. This means that I am constitutionally duplicitous: I can change my mode from imperial to colonial at will; I can embody, at turns, Old World Charm and New World Pizzazz; I can personify the staid and stagnant as readily as the arriviste and anxious. I do not hold, nor have I ever held, a driver’s licence, a boat licence, a gun licence, a forklift ticket or a motorcycle licence. This means that I have never, ever had to moderate my alcohol consumption for fear that I might have to operate heavy or dangerous machinery.
4 comments:
I suspect that there are all kinds of levels of irony to be plumbed here.
I'd never been interested in the etymology before, but there are some interesting roots to the word (below) although I've not looked at the OED.
I somehow like the association with ashes and incense. However, in terms of worthlessness, apprenticeship (in any kind of trade it would seem) it would seem that punk is not dead.
The defiance of social norms? Perhaps the very use of the apostrophe is itself now in defiance of social norms.
It also brings to mind Mr Eastwood: “You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?”
Was Eastwood suggesting that the punk was worthless, that he was unconventional, or that perhaps he was a catamite, in which case the question takes on whole new tone really, forgetting the context of the .44 magnum of course.
punk: "worthless person" (especially a young hoodlum), 1917, probably from punk kid "criminal's apprentice," underworld slang first attested 1904 (with overtones of "catamite"). Ultimately from punk "prostitute, harlot, strumpet," first recorded 1596, of unknown origin. For sense shift from "harlot" to "homosexual," cf. gay. By 1923 used generally for "young boy, inexperienced person" (originally in show business, e.g. punk day, circus slang from 1930, "day when children are admitted free"). The verb meaning "to back out of" is from 1920. The "young criminal" sense is no doubt the inspiration in punk rock first attested 1971 (in a Dave Marsh article in "Creem"), popularized 1976.
1896, "inferior, bad," also "something worthless," earlier "rotten wood used as tinder" (1687), probably from Algonquian (Delaware) ponk, lit. "dust, powder, ashes;" but Gaelic spong "tinder" also has been suggested (cf. spunk "touchwood, tinder," 1582). Meaning "Chinese incense" is from 1870.
–noun 1. Slang. a. something or someone worthless or unimportant.
b. a young ruffian; hoodlum.
c. an inexperienced youth.
d. a young male partner of a homosexual.
e. an apprentice, esp. in the building trades.
f. Prison Slang. a boy.
2. punk rock.
3. a style or movement characterized by the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc., and the defiance of social norms of behavior, usually associated with punk rock musicians and fans.
4. a punker.
5. Archaic. a prostitute.
–adjective 6. Informal. poor in quality or condition.
7. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of punk rock: a punk band.
8. pertaining to, characteristic of, or adopting punk styles: punk youths; punk hairstyles in various colors.
[Origin: 1590–1600; of obscure orig.; the sense development is appar. “prostitute” > “catamite” > “hoodlum”; the adj. “poor in quality” (1896) is unclearly derived and perh. a distinct word]
Punk is not dead, it's frozen.
Don't get panicky,
Get anarchy.
So Eastwood asks, 'Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?' and the Well-Tempered Kid of Marseille responds neatly and discreetly, 'Punk's not Dead.' cf Gaynor, Gloria, 'I Will Survive.'
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