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\lline{\hl Night Club Rant}
\lline{by Richard Loranger}

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{\it This is the complete text of the rant I was doing just
before FUGAZI at the most recent HOMOCORE show in SF, which was
cut short by some ignorant assholes blowing off a fire
extinguisher at the stage. It was originally written for BIG
BLACK's last show at the I-BEAM in August '87. They had said I
could open for them for 2 minutes, so long as I didn't do poetry.
So I wrote 4 minutes questioning every motivation anyone might
have for being there. Obviously, those poor little boys at the
FUGAZI show couldn't stand up to the interrogation. They're the
kind of questions I often ask myself at big shows. Perhaps some
of you do too.}

WHAT are you doing here. I mean, what the fuck are you doing
here? What did you come here for? Who or what told you you wanted
to come? Who told you you like this in the first place? DO you
like this? Then why? Or why not? If you like this so much, what
do you like about it? The music? The fashion? What fashion? The
seeing and being seen? There is a way of seeing where all your
eyesight turns upon itself in double boomerang and slices through
your skull at eye level\dots Is {\it that} what you like abut
this? Whatever it is -- WHEN did you first start liking it? What
{\it suggested} to you that this is what you like to do, to see,
to listen to? Something in your turbulent American childhood
perhaps, or were you {\it born} liking it? Did you really choose
to like this, this music, this {\it scene}, do you really think
you decided of your {\it own free will} to come here tonight? Or
are you just another victim of media manipulation, of fashion
conformity, of all the subtle \& not so subtle suggestions made
to you every day from every direction that THIS IS THE THING TO
DO -- Rock \& Roll \& Hope to Die!

Or are you truly a non-conformist, each and every one of you? Is
this a non-conformist event? Is this non-conformist because
Fugazi isn't on MTV -- yet -- or because you wear black or
leather of because you have shaved or spiked or polka-dotted
heads? Does THAT make this {\it anti-system}? Is this bucking the
system? How much did you pay to get in here anyway -- \$5, \$10,
\$15? How many of you are there? How often do you drop that much
for something you like? How much did you pay for the clothes that
you're wearing? How many more do you have like them? And where
did {\it that} \$ come from? Do you work? Is it good work? Is it
satisfying? Does it DO something for you? And what did the place
that pays you do to get {\it their} money. Where did {\it} come
from? Surely not from the System. And where do you think it's all
going to? Surely none of it BACK into the System? Is it really
that separate?

Have you considered this -- that maybe, just maybe this event \&
every event like it is {\it allowed} -- no, {\it set up} -- by the
System just to keep us all pacified, to keep this UNDER CONTROL,
to keep us all in a little arena {\it under surveillance} to do
our killing like good Christians, and NOT OUTSIDE, no certainly
NOT OUTSIDE in the System where it might DO SOMETHING, do
something harmful. Is this changing anything? Is it getting past
these walls? Is it changing anything in your head? Am I giving
you a headache yet? Are you RESPONDING, or just acting? Or just
posing? Or just standing there? Or not even here? Are you really
IN CONTROL of why you're here, of what you think you like? Are
you SURE some outside {\it thing}, some {\it media thing} didn't
tell you to be here, that you'd like this, it's be good for you,
you could get some shit out \& you'll feel better in the morning,
content and more willingly productive? Are you SURE you're not
being manipulated? Am I sure I'm not being manipulated?

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I'm a puppet he's a puppet
she's a puppet we're a puppet
wouldn't you like to be a puppet too?
}
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Is that it? Or {\it is} it the music? Does it DO anything for
you? Can you dig it? Can you dig your heart \& your brains out \&
hold them in your hands \& look at them \& say, ``Yes, yes, this
is IT, something's happening here.'' Or could you still NOT CARE
LESS? And if that's the case, what are you doing here anyway?

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\line{\hfil Richard Loranger}
\line{\hfil 1327 Pine \#1}
\line{\hfil Boulder CO 80302}

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