Clearly, an anti-establishment and authority-defiant approach is fundamental to both Thoreau and the punk aesthetic, and perhaps the most obvious connection between the two men and movements. In a scholarly book length follow up to his punk manifesto, Greg Graffin expanded on the punk ideal with Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God. In it Graffin explains punk’s challenge to the tyranny of institutional authority warning that “If people unquestionably give in to the massive force exercised by the oppressive institution that is the government, they will enable the people in power.” This criticism mirrors Thoreau’s assertion in Resistance to Civil Government about the relatively few bending the government to their will with the Mexican War.
A Teacher's View
"Creating People On Whom Nothing is Lost" - An educator and writer in Colorado offers insight and perspective on education, parenting, politics, pop culture, and contemporary American life. Disclaimer - The views expressed on this site are my own and do not represent the views of my employer.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Thoreau, Graffin, & the Punk Ethos
Clearly, an anti-establishment and authority-defiant approach is fundamental to both Thoreau and the punk aesthetic, and perhaps the most obvious connection between the two men and movements. In a scholarly book length follow up to his punk manifesto, Greg Graffin expanded on the punk ideal with Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God. In it Graffin explains punk’s challenge to the tyranny of institutional authority warning that “If people unquestionably give in to the massive force exercised by the oppressive institution that is the government, they will enable the people in power.” This criticism mirrors Thoreau’s assertion in Resistance to Civil Government about the relatively few bending the government to their will with the Mexican War.
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Thoreau the Educator
In Laura Dassow Walls' sublime Thoreau biography, she describes 1839 as a time when Thoreau's life truly blossomed. Coming out of the harsh economic market facing young people when Thoreau graduated amidst the Panic of 1837, which led to the country's first and most serious economic depression lasting nearly ten years, Henry and his brother opened their school, and he "rose to a position of standing and honor in his community." The Thoreau school was truly an exemplary model of education, extending far beyond the rote memorization of early America's classical liberal arts foundation.
In a letter to Orestes Brownson, Thoreau had pondered why we should "leave off our education when we begin to be men and women? ... It is time that villages were universities," uncommon schools where citizens could pursue liberal studies for the the rest of their lives, banding together to fund the arts and learning, and make not a village with a few noble men, but "noble villages of men."
Monday, May 19, 2025
Thoreau: the Economist
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
FoCoMX 2025: Standout Performances, Discoveries and Memorable Musical Moments
Every April, the streets of Old Town Fort Collins are filled with the sounds of live music. FoCoMX took center stage once again April 18-19, amidst cold, snowy weather that earned the event the nickname SnoCoMX. Its official nickname is "America's biggest little music festival," and this year's edition featured 400 acts representing every imaginable genre performing at thirty-plus venues across town.
My wife and I joined the annual celebration for the second year in a row, starting on the crowded, slightly snowy patio of Equinox Brewing, where singer-songwriter Michael Kirkpatrick kicked off the festivities with a solo set. The musician whose voice was once described as "an anthropomorphic brontosaurus that has popped out of a children's book to teach kids about the danger of playing with matches" set a warm, welcoming tone with folksy narratives about life, love, community and spirit.
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Thoreauvian Punk Philosophy
Monday, April 14, 2025
Kick off the Summer Music Season at FoCoMX in Fort Collins, Colorado
The festival kicks off at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 18, on the patio of Equinox Brewing with a solo set from the rich baritone voice of renowned Colorado singer-songwriter Michael Kirkpatrick, FoCoMA's 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree. After a brief proclamation from the mayor's office acknowledging April as Music Appreciation Month, Kirkpatrick will croon his soulfully whimsical folk narratives, and the festivities are off and running.
The key to a successful downtown music festival is a collaborative relationship with the community and businesses that support a nearly all-volunteer effort to spotlight Colorado music. "FoCoMX has become the quintessential Fort Collins weekend," says Karla Baise of Odell Brewing, a longtime festival sponsor. "The vibe runs high from the center of the floor at Washington's, our largest venue, to the sidewalks as people stop to hug each other, crossing paths on their way to see bands and friends play across town."
Monday, April 7, 2025
How Fort Collins Music Association Built a Thriving Scene
Fort Collins is a hotbed for live music with a diverse collection of venues that host national touring acts and local bands. And the key to FoCo's thriving music scene is a unique grassroots music nonprofit that feeds and cultivates the area's love of music: the Fort Collins Musicians Association, or FoCoMA.
The organization officially launched in 2007. It was simply a means of “the right people at the right time,” according to co-founding member and board president Greta Cornett, who is considered the driving force, glue and spirit of FoCoMA. Cornett, a CSU graduate, has been heavily embedded in Fort Collins local music scene since the mid-90s, playing trumpet in the band 12 Cents for Marvin and volunteering as a host of KRFC's Live at Lunch show.
In the early 2000s, numerous Fort Collins music venues had closed for a variety of reasons, and local musicians were struggling for places to play. Many bands were displaced, with national acts often bumping them from the few spots at bars and theaters.
So Cornett, Peggy Lyle, Dennis Bigalow and numerous other local musicians began meeting to discuss how to support each other and the music community. Lyle, who is now FoCoMA’s executive director, was working as the event director for the Fort Collins Downtown Business Association. Bigalow, another co-founder and current board secretary, was the music director at Fort Collins indie radio station KRFC, which is where he met Cornett.
The musicians would have Sunday afternoon hangs at Route 34, a local bar and bike shop founded by two CSU grads. What began as simple conversations sharing knowledge about the industry eventually became more formal education panels, professional development programs that the association continues to this day. At Cornett’s suggestion, the spot added live music to its offerings, becoming a new venue for musicians to gather. Those Sunday afternoons discussing goals for FoCoMA "opened our eyes to so many different scenes,” Cornett reflects. “We have great music up here, but no one knew about it."
Monday, March 17, 2025
The Wild: from Thoreau to Punk
In the critical analysis America’s Bachelor Uncle: Thoreau and the American Polity, scholar Bob Pepperman Taylor asserts “... the heart of Thoreau’s revolt was his continual assertion that the only true America is that country where you are able to pursue life without encumbrance” (3) And “Thoreau exhibits a young person’s rebelliousness,” an insight with which Emerson would wholeheartedly agree. And similarly, nowhere and at no time is rebellion more about a youth than it is in punk rock culture. For Thoreau was attacking the complacency of the emerging American middle class, just as second wave punk Bands Bad Religion and Black Flag did in the 1980s Reagan America.
Albert Camus famously asserted "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." And like Thoreau in his experiment living in society but simultaneously outside of it, Dicki Hebdige said of punk in his book on subcultures, “No subculture has sought with more grim determination than the punks to detach itself from the taken-for-granted landscape of normalized forms …”
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Jack Kerouac's Birthday
I came to Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation via Jim Morrison of the Doors.
It was during my middle school years that The Doors Greatest Hits was released, and I picked up the book No One Here Gets Out Alive, Danny Sugarman's rich biography of the Lizard King. That book became my reading list source, as the story of Jim's youth recounted his reading of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and other philosophers, as well as a vast list of other books. One passage in particular I can still recall mentioned how young Jim closed the book that had a profound impact on him, the story of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity.
I'd never heard of the book or its author Jack Kerouac, and I knew nothing of the Beat Generation. But I knew that if that book was a life changing experience for Jim Morrison, I was going to read it, too. Honestly, I'm not sure I really understood what I was reading after buy the classic paperback copy at Barnes & Noble, but I knew it was unlike anything I'd ever read, and I would be intrigued for many years to come by the works and life of Jack Kerouac.
"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars…”
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Thoreau, Punk, & Music as Culture
Monday, March 10, 2025
The Philosophy of Thoreauvian Punk
While the life of Henry David Thoreau is extensively documented with generally broad agreement of his identity and legacy, the task of narrowing down a commonly accepted definition of punk is far more complicated. Punk by its very nature is resistant to codification, and because so much of punk history is scene and time specific, it can be difficult to agree on common elements. It is seemingly more difficultu to imagine and articulate a unifying "philosophy of punk."