THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 107

I used to work at the Oakland Public Library in the Children’s Room & later in the newly formed Teen Zone from 1999 to 2002. I had gone from being an alcoholic street Punk to Goth to art student, then mild-mannered Library employee & city of Oakland arts booster with Nonchalance & Oaklandish. I’m good with kids, I like kids. I’m very patient with kids & find them funny instead of a bother. When we moved to Eugene from Oakland I got a job teaching art classes for kids through their Recreation program. My boss also had me teach art for toddlers as preparation for me & Katie having kids of our own, very good, hard training! Dealing with the moms was almost as intense as dealing with their kids. This led to me teaching almost all the art classes at that center & running kid’s art birthday parties & art camps, teaching at the recycled garbage art spot & more. In this totally wholesome environment the bad side of me was feeling totally repressed & not encouraged. That repression led me to my refound obsession with the world of sarcastic, sick humor, parodic art of Garbage Pail Kids, Mad Magazine, early Punk, Rat Fink & early Rock&Roll. I saw this stuff as “things I was into when I was young”, but they all seemed fresh & life-affirming when I spent so much time keeping it together for the kids. Finally I was able to do a heel turn & really play into my bad side when PORK took off & I was able to quit my job. I thought about Ice Cube going from NWA to solo with his N*gga You Love to Hate routine to where he was at at that moment, doing family friendly comedies. If Ice Cube could do it, so could I. So I leaned harder into being the bad guy for certain people, I would do my best to pigeon hole them (like Freddie Blassie) as “pencil-necked geeks”. As the rise of Trumpism began, it got too divisive & not show-biz enough for me. People weren’t able to distinguish between art/show biz & politics as the lines got increasingly blurred. I started to apply the brakes.