Q & A with Jello Biafra
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_17777950?source=most_viewed#axzz1Ioeu1FOH
By Sarah Kuta, Camera Staff Writer
Boulder Daily Camera
04/05/2011 06:48:17 PM MDT
Jello Biafra, lead singer of the late-'70s, early-'80s punk band Dead
Kennedys and founder of Alternative Tentacles Records, is back in his
hometown of Boulder this week for the University of Colorado's
Conference on World Affairs.
The Camera spoke with Biafra -- aka Eric Boucher -- about one of the CWA
panels he'll will serve on -- "What's Wrong with American Sports?," set
for 3:30 p.m. Wednesdayin the University Memorial Center.
Q: What message do you hope to get across in "What's Wrong With American
Sports?"
A: I never expected to be on that one. But that's the beauty of the
Conference on World Affairs -- they throw you on panels that are not
necessarily the area people know you for or whatever.
I would say the ugly memories of what I went through in the Boulder
school system. The social pecking order was determined by who was good
at sports, and, to some degree, who was willing to go the extra mile and
even be nasty or a bully in order to succeed at these things.
It is how bullying is encouraged among kids. It all goes back to
"winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Community doesn't
matter -- competitiveness does. We don't look out for each other, we try
to step on each other to succeed in a so-called marketplace. That traces
back to an overemphasis in sports.
Q: Are there any positives to American sports?
A: Well, when you boil it back down to games that are fun to play, the
joy of competition, team camaraderie, that's all fine. It's not as
though I didn't enjoy the occasional game of football or baseball in the
park among friends -- even if I was one of the worst athletes in the
school. I played because it was fun.
Q: What do you look forward to most about coming home to Boulder?
A: It's always good to see my family and get out in the mountains and
all that. Maybe it's a form of territorial pissing to make sure I go to
certain places before I leave each time.
Mentally, what's kept me interesting to some people, is, deep down
inside, I've always been a Coloradan. There aren't that many of us
around where I live. It makes me more unique. I have a different outlook
on things. It's harder to get back in the woods in San Francisco. In
Boulder, it's a 10-minute walk out of the city.
That's really cool. I miss that.
Q: What matters in America?
A: I was thinking about that the past couple of days. I think top of the
list now is corruption. Both governing parties are so rotten to the core
and controlled by corporate money and profit motive that we're not going
to get any real action on climate collapse, the dumb wars we get
involved in to enrich the military industrial complex, weaning ourselves
from fossil fuels and addressing the growing Third World-level
inequality in this country.
None of that's going to happen unless corruption is tackled.
Q: What matters to you?
A: How do I separate one from the other? I guess it would be survival as
a working artist in a collapsing economy run by corrupt robber barons
who aren't giving an inch, let alone a penny.
Both my own music and my underground music label have a harder and
harder time surviving. A major reason for that is (Internet)
filesharing. The people who used to go out and buy vinyl or CDs don't
have the money anymore.
What are they supposed to do?
Contact Camera Staff Writer Sarah Kuta at 303-473-1361 or
ku...@dailycamera.com.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"