“Hi Matthew,” writes Greg S. “Maybe you remember me. … Toby Thunderbird/ Lifehater/ Gibson told me about your site.
“I’m visiting the US and thought I’d dig up some old photos to contribute, which have been sitting in a box in my mom’s garage. … Wasn’t sure how/where to post them, so here they are.”
Greg continues: “Great site — glad to see how many people are doing well, and have stayed creative.
And here’s his key to the photographs … Let’s fill in the blanks!
- Greg S.
- Pat, Jeff Lucas, Eric Bacher, Jerry Cornelius
- Maria Dudley
- Pat Works
- Jeff, Tamara Brown
- Larry Nadler
- Wendell Kling
- Jeff Lucas, Greg S., Marianne something (it was her bathroom as UCSD we were decorating!)
- Grant Dickson, Mary something, Jeff
- Jerry Cornelius
- Tamara Brown
- Justin Andrezi
- Elaine Winnard & ??
- ??
Hey Greg. I’ve been meaning to call you. I switched phones and have a new number. I LOVE The Thunderbird name. That was the first one- I was born with a bottle in my mouth. Joel mistakenly referred to me as Toby Maddog the other day and I realized for the first time that Maddog would have been such a great punk name. Like Mad dog Carla of the Controllers. I want a do-over! Tim Eggehead used to get bummed when I introduced him to people as Tim Egghead. I thought it was an outstanding name. And of course Greg Imbecile was phonetically appealing and super dooper punk to the max to boot.
Where’s the photo of me being super smooth and getting all the girls? Oh yeah- that’s right- there aren’t any.
I forgot about Wendell’s side-hawk thingy. Excellent hair disaster. Glad to hear you’re still well and good and all that. Thanks for the pics!
Hey Greg…Shine my Shoes!
Nice to hear from you after so long. I always wondered if you would end up in academia…guess so.
I have a crazy zen/unitarian stepdad with a freakin’ fantastic blog…you can check him at
monkeymindonline.blogspot.com
Worth the time to click. He’s really good. Fantastic links as well. My fave is the forbidden gospels blog.
I remember you well my friend, and I’m not sure why but I remember you often. Thanks for many memories and more laughs than I could count.
Patrick Works
Heretic Goat Farmer
greg… good god, last time i saw your face was when we were at scp freakin’ a. unreal. whatever became of holly? and where have you been for the last 25 years?
Hell yeah! Larry Nadler at the wheel of his brown Capri. He was the Dean Moriarty (aka Cody Pomeray aka Neal Cassady) of San Diego. Always driving somewhere and under all conditions he maintained a cool hand on the wheel!
Great to see these! Thanks Greg!
The photo of Jeff,
RayEric and Jerry bursting through the doorway … The film reel in my head is making them moving, the body language is so expressive and characteristic.I have vague recollections of that bathroom in one of the pictures. Was there a party there at UCSD and people got markers and free reign to make their mark on the walls?
Hey Matthew, that’s me with Jeff, Pat and Jerry in that photo. It may be the only one with the four of us. There was a time that we spent ALOT of time together, like brothers.
Greg, so glad to see you on here and find that your well. I always had fun hanging out with you at various parks around town, these pictures were from a party when your mom was out of town right? It was on a campus of some sort? If so, this is the night I met Justin and we had a nice long conversation that made the evening memorable (even 25 years later).
Sorry, Eric!! I knew it was you — totally foolish slip of the keyboard, not of memory.
I dig how the photo of Jerry is sponsored by Old Milwaukee. Hell, those folks (and the good people at MeisterBrau and Mickey’s) should probably sponsor the Ché shows, given that this community provided them with so much income back in the day.
Hey Greg I remember standing in line with you at the front office in high school to get admit cards for being “late”. I tried to spit to show you how punk rock I was and it just dribbled down my chin. You looked at me and said “gross”.
hell yes I was the queen of dorkdom. how did I ever get a boyfriend?
I remember going to a party at UCSD after a Noise 292 show. Was that Marianne’s? We watched the Great Rock n Roll Swindle and Liquid Sky -- it was the party that ate my brain.
That was all so long ago- and blurry. I’m trying to recall good times with Greg, Johnny Smith and Jeffo.
The trip to Hollywood when we crashed in that empty apartment in West Hollywood and Holly and (Lee?) tried to run a bath and found out the reason the apartment was empty is because the tub was leaking into the apartment below. The two butch gay guys who managed the apartment told us we could stay at their house but their front door was covered with a decoupage of hitler clippings and nazi paraphenalia, so we ended up staying up all night in front of the seven seas. I think we sat through some bullshit at the Christian Scientists place and got five bucks each for breakfast. Otherwise I think all we had to eat was booze and mother love’s magical cardboard squares.
Drinking Vodka and cheap beer on the beach at Johnny Smith’s mom’s condo in I.B.
Hanging out in front of Rocky Horror trying to bum drinks from the guys at the bar next to the guild and seeing Apple and the original San Diego Droogs (not punks- just torked out motorcycle freaks high on Burgess and Kubrick) take on some jocks that were out “fag-bashing.”
Playing in our short lived band “Flight 182” and having the local Golden Hills dirtheads come by and ask us if we wanted to “jump bad”, whatever that was supposed to mean.
Many nights at the Fruit Loop, Kings Road Cafe, and many hangovers waking up on the floor at Greg’s house (or in Joel’s car out front, or on Cliff Cunningham’s front porch a block over.
Hi Greg, the last time I saw you was at the Downtown Library years ago. The photos bring back hazy memories. The last time I saw Tamara was in S.F. with Jeff, again years ago.
Kristin, I remember those admit cards at Roosevelt JH. I’m remembering they had numbers 1-4 on them, depending on how good your excuse was. I had a friend who had stolen an admit card stamping machine right out of the office who came in late w/all the “1” cards he wanted. Dave Cornet, he was a genius.
Hey everyone -- glad the photo relics caused some enjoyment and amusement.
Pat the Mad Monk -- when I saw you were on here I KNEW that even after all these years, you would tell me to shine your shoes! I remember you fondly, too -- glad to see you’re doing well. Your stepdad reminds me of some of the oddball universalist religious types I’ve met in the UK. I seem to remember that you and I had some similar family history, involving ex-hippy intellectuals (like my mom). Funny what you said about wondering if I’d go into academia since I was such a serial dropout. In fact, it was all spurred on by a trip to Egypt and the Middle East… where I just randomly happened to run into David Rinck -- I think it was at the port in Nuweiba. We didn’t know each other well, which made it even weirder. Remember that, Dave, if you’re here?
Toby, I still always think of you as Thunderbird. Weird because those times at Cliff’s and on 31st St. seem like a whole life before the era I knew a lot of the people on this blog. Nowadays a year or two goes by like a few weeks did back then…. I remember that Hollywood trip in lysergic crystalline detail. Was that the same trip we wandered around the condemned Garden Court hotel with some Hollywood punk named Ranger? I remember him kicking down doors and wielding this huge cop flashlight, acting like we were some kind of SWAT team. The other stuff, too -- Rocky Horror, the dirt-heads of Golden Hill, etc. And even earlier, before I even started high school, hanging around with you, John Smith, Rochelle, Big Rene, Danny & Coconut . By the way, I sent you some old pictures, too, with John & Jeff -- did you get them? Say Hi to Joel for me -my mom actually let him live with us for awhile. She was really tolerant!
Hi Sarah -- Everything’s fine with me, thanks. I’m in fairly regular contact with Tamara, as Cosmo’s non-biological father. He’s really great -- so clever, funny and talented. Really unique. I sent these pictures to Tamara, and a few weeks earlier sent her the link to this blog -- she said “you didn’t put those pictures on that website, did you?!”. So I, er, haven’t replied….
Mara, no idea what became of Holly….. Last I heard (like in 1985?) she was in DC. Curious, but not quite enough to hire a private detective or anything…. Sometimes reminiscing can go down some pretty dark paths! I did see Tracey last time I was in SD, though, and she’s fine, well-adjusted, teaching English.
Dean, yeah that was the party all right! I think she was moving out and didn’t care. Guess she didn’t get her deposit back. Don’t know if it shows in the scan, but I love how someone wrote on the wall “Intangibility breeds paranoia”. Is that a Philip K. Dick quote?
Hey Kristen, the Liquid Sky house you’re thinking of was my mom’s at UCSD, after we moved from Golden Hill. I guess she was away…. I don’t remember the failed gobbing incident -- wish I did! I do remember eating Kim Sproul’s spit on a dare, though. Ah, those zany high school antics. Our parents swallowed goldfish, we ate each other’s spit. It was weird being the only male freak in that whole school for the two years I was there…. I was actually arrested on by the security guard on my first day there, and had to prove I was a student.
Eric, good to see you here, too, and that you’re doing well. Think I remember seeing you last at Wendy/Tamara’s in the early 90s. Are you still making guitars? I’m pretty sure these pictures are from a party at Jeff Marino’s house (his dad’s, anyway) in IB; and from Marianne’s.
Matt, I don’t remember how/where we actually met, but I remember hanging out a bit at various functions with you and Wendell. I think you arranged for my barely-existent band, Vile Submission (Shakespearean reference, no less!), to play at the Che, but we couldn’t get our shit together (surprise!). Shortly after that Dave Fleminger & I almost started a band and wrote a song together called ‘Rolling in the Sand’, which I later played with my band in Santa Cruz, Veil of Tears. If Dave is here -- where the hell is my caveman vest? Aw go on, keep it. And do you happen to have a recoding of that song?
Hi Paul, I vaguely remember seeing you that time in SF. I didn’t remember that you were at Roosevelt. Jeff is fine, by the way -- heard from him earlier in the year for the first time since the mid-90s -- just had twins, living in Reno.
G.
I’m not sure if I got those photos. I searched my various mails and couldn’t find them.
The Garden Court- that was Ranger and D.C. (A black guy called “devil child”) who I believe were some of the Sick Boys, a seminal Hollywood gang of punks and skins. Odd the bits and bytes we remember.
Renea and Rochelle Warren, riding around in her Barracuda she had named “Sid” that was festooned with babydoll parts. Their dad was “Whoops” Warren, a DJ at KSON.
g, will you be in sd in may? i’d love to see you. too long since we talked music and lit. did you know that you were one of the only people at scpa i actually truly liked? yeah. between you, shawna and jody, tamara and holly i feel like i was taken care of. it’s funny, but i only got to know kristen here, b/c i was so wrapped up in our world. damn, it’s good to know tracey is doing well.
i want to hear more about your trip to africa.
matthew, will you send g my email? thanks.
Great hearing from you, Greg. Last I saw you? Gotta be on Geary St., I think -- you were working at a shop near Van Ness, around ’88.
I guess I’ll tell you about the first time I saw yer. Gotta be a couple years before we met -- but you were a memorable looking character, when I was prolly nearly anonymous! You’d ditched a day at Roosevelt, with two Rocky-Horror lookin’ girls -- in Balboa off of Park, and kissing with both of ’em. “Nice shot, mate.”
These photos are stark. They were taken when I was coming out of the sketchiest time, of an already sketchy existence. Glad that’s through -- but I wouldn’t ask for do-overs, neither.
Jeff’s got twins? Tell him congrats. I’m in the club -- mine are 8, now -- having been married just shy of 14 years!
Ex-hippie intellectuals? Add my parenting, as well. Avoided Academia like the plague, after seeing it closely in late childhood -- Probably to my detriment.
Tell me when you get interested in the Indo-Iranian religion of Gandahara and Kashgaria. The whole eastern-Irani thing, which brought Maitrean/Bodhisattva missionary schools out of the emergence of Buddhism among the Zoroastrians… The Sakas and Indo-Scythians… Transmission of the doctrines of compassion from Arya to East Asia… Fascinates the hell out of me. It seems to be either under-studied, or subject to so much wishful, pseudo-scholastic theory. Having had 8-12 intervening centuries of Altaic and Islamic -- then Sino-centric -- cultural domination, the real trail is pretty cold.
Well, rambling best wishes, I know! Thanks for turning up with this.
jerry, can you just be my prof? i could just sit with you and listen and learn more in a day than i did in all 6 years of grad and undergrad. and it’d be a lot less expensive than that was, i’ll tell you.
ok, carry on…
Greg, it was in S.D. If you went to SCPA, I probably wouldn’t have run into you as they seemed to schedule classes of the two schools so their students would never meet.
You all realize that I read “SCPA” as “SPCA” every time you use it. I keep picturing the lot of you spending your high-school years petting … Puppies and kittens.
lots of heavy petting going on at SCPA.
Need I remind you of my high-school exploration of okapi mating rituals?
Hey Jerry, great to hear from you, and congrats on the twins (8 years late…). That bookshop in SF was Fantasy Etc. -- science fiction, horror, mysteries. No longer there, like most bookshops in SF. I remember seeing you on the Haight once around that time, too.
Thanks for the story about the first time you saw me -- wish I remembered! Girls were the only people at Roosevelt who did not want to kick my ass (except for the cholos I used smoke with during PE).
One of my great abiding memories of the ‘Che’ days is when you and I ended up on our own at a comicon, wandering around whatever hotel it was in altered states, going up on the roof etc. We even made our way (miraculously unhindered) into the Marvel Comics party, but got freaked and left. Ended up at Jeff’s in Claremont listening to ‘Man Who Sold the World’ and the Department Store Santas. Weird, vivid day.
I know exactly what you mean about having some ambivalence about those times, and seeing photos that remind you about the internal shit you were going through. Me too -- glad it’s over but wouldn’t trade it in. Weird how the pictures look ‘old’ now, too, with faded colors like 60s postcards. Gives me the creeps sometimes.
I was also really put off academia as a kid, and probably would not have gone back to school if I had stayed in the US. In the UK you study only your subject and don’t have to do all those math and science requirements (which contributed to my dropping out of community college three times!). I did my BA in Egyptian Archaeology, just out of interest, then just kept going. I know very little about the Zoroastrian-early Buddhist relations, but when I have time I want to read about them now! I’m really interested in ancient religious syncretism, and it sounds like that’s what was going on here. Also interesting how Buddhism was re-imported back to India from China, and contributed to Hinduism…. I think the Buddha was thought to be a Saka.
Anyway, I should get back to work or I will be here all day….
Paul, no wonder the memory is vague -- wrong city!
Ha, yeah that’s right about SCPA/Roosevelt -- I went to Roosevelt until they moved, and always felt that those SCPA kids were so privileged. It’s like they were protecting them against us.
Do you, or anyone here, remember Tabitha from Roosevelt? And Monica Sullivan?
Greg!!!
I was very, very young when hanging out in Santa Cruz…Circa 1985/86? I’ve seen this photo of them before though.
In SC…Greg was in a band called the Funghi from Yuggoth…songs like “Spinninin Electric Sunshine” and “Color My Suicide”…another band A Cake Bizarre.
Would love to hear Spininin Electric Sunshine again someday.
Such a great music scene in SC at the time….I still have a flyer…maybe some other pieces.
I still have my “gutter heart” jacket which I totally stole from Greg.
Drop me a line… [EDITOR’S NOTE: E-MAIL ADDRESS REDACTED … YOLANDA, I PASSED YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS TO GREG]
Love YO
Gregory,
Some how we are all reconnecting. Its wonderful. The Che was always a hotspot to see all the undeerground bands. And we all use to dance and party all night. I have such good memories. So many shows so many good friends.
I am so happy. I would love to hear from any and everyone.
Maria
Hi Maria!
It has been many, many years, hasn’t it? Your name has come up several times on this blog--do a search for your name. Welcome aboard!
Ray
Hi Maria, it’s good to hear from you again. Are you still in San Diego? I’m still up in the Bay Area. Come to the reunion shows and picnic if you can. http://www.casbahmusic.com/schedule.php?page=1&month=5&year=2009
Greg, so you went to Roosevelt proper? I don’t remember you from there. I know there are several people on the blog or part of the scene back then that went to Roosevelt or SCPA.
Hi Maria,
Just replied to you on facebook, but see you found your way here anyway….
Paul -- yeah I went to Roosevelt for 7th & 8th grade (can’t remember what years that would have been!) -- didn’t get into SCPA until they moved to Skyline (I think that’s what it was called). They had some kind of waiting list. I looked pretty different -- really long hair at first, and everyone thought I was girl. Maybe that’s why you don’t remember me! I don’t really remember anyone I knew later in ‘the scene’ from there, either, actually, though know a lot went (like Pat Works). I was pretty much a loner -- sitting in the library reading Ray Bradbury at recess etc.
Hmm, I went there in 7th & 8th grades too, although I wasn’t present much towards the end of the 8th. I went to a small private school Downtown for part of the 9th grade, where I managed to pass the 8th grade by taking a placement test. After I got kicked out of the private school for smoking herbal remedies I went back to Roosevelt, where I got kicked out for smoking herbal remedies. So I guess it’s not that surprising if we didn’t meet.
Your Ray Bradbury interest makes me wonder if you didn’t know some of the “mound dwellers”. A group of long-haired fantasy fiction (and herbal remedy) fans who sat on “The Mound” during lunch. Steve Kayona was the most charismatic among them.
I’m trying to remember people on the blog who went to Roosevelt. Jason Petteway, I didn’t know him, but he was friends with my sister Bethany. I think Natalie Moore went there. Sammi Chammas went there, as did Pat Works and Kristin Martin.
There was a guy who went there, this really belongs on the Traumatic ’70s Madness thread, and his friend Skip. These guys held up an old woman at her apartment and got something like $15,000 she had been hiding under the mattress. They went back to get more and the guy stabbed her 91 times and lit the apartment on fire. I remember him as a confrontational sort, part of some white gang (he probably started).
>>They went back to get more and the guy stabbed her 91 times and lit the apartment on fire. I remember him as a confrontational sort
Paul: This is horrifying, but I’m afraid I laughed at the non seqitur at the end — yes, he does sound like a confrontational sort! 🙂
Well of course I didn’t peg him as a psycho killer at the time, but he wasn’t a very pleasant fellow. This just brings to mind another troubled Roosevelt student. I’ll have to add this one to the Traumatic 70’s Madness thread if he hasn’t already been discussed. Fairly quiet kid. His father was a cop. He stole his father’s cruiser, uniform and gun and went for a joy ride. Another cop pulled up to talk to him and he shot the cop and killed him. After a massive manhunt they caught my former classmate and obviously gave him serious time. Maybe he’s out now. And ah…peace on earth, good will to all living beings.
Paul,
I vaguely remember this guy. Do you remember his name? I think he was a minor at the time so I think he was not in custody too long after he turned 18. Pretty troubled kid with some unusual family dynamics, as I recall.
Charles Tyberg was a neighbor but not a friend by any means (he stole my bike more then once). I always felt a bit sorry for the guy since his home life was rather terrible. He was forced to pay rent to his parents which required him to have a job and two paper routes. I took the bus with him to Gompers and he was always exhausted.
A quick search online shows he is still in prison and was denied parole in January ’07. He will be eligible again in 2010. He has been locked up for more then 25 years.
Charles Tybergs father was a sheriff and for some reason he was allowed to drive his squad car home,don’t see that too often these days! His son and a friend took the car out one nite when his parents were on a Vegas vacation. Charles though took it a little too far and wore the whole uniform along with pops .357mag. .They decided to crack off a few rounds in San Clemente canyon near University City. Another cop responding to the shots fired call pulls in to the parking lot and I would assume relaxed when he saw a fellow colleague but instead fearing that he’d eventually be caught young Charles blew him away. It took a couple weeks until the friend just could’nt take it any more and told. You know Jason I initially felt sorry for this kid, I mean you’d have to be pretty scared of your parents or dad to kill someone behind a relatively minor momentary loss of judgement. About a year into his stay at juvenile hall he raped another kid,at which point I changed my stance to one of, he got exactly what he deserved! It just dawned on me that I know or remember alot more about these types of things than is probably healthy!
jesus, what a terrible situation all around. i can’t imagine that life. and to turn around and rape someone? compound interest on bad karma.
souls like that need serious reparation.
Oh and regarding the Charles Tyberg story there is a book called “Sideways Susan” that fictionalized that story. Weird stuff.
My wife was the wife of Kirk Johnson when Tyberg took his life, I would like to know more about that book.
Thanks
http://www.amazon.com/Sideways-Susan-Tom-Asad/dp/0964798425
Greg, I believe the Mary something in the photo titled “Grant Dickson, Mary something, Jeff” is Mary Weiss from Encinitas or vicinity.
I’m almost sure that I was there during that expedition into the squat with Ranger that you mention. I also remember him from a lot of shows at T-Birds Roller Rink in Pico Rivera. There are quite a few references to him here and there on the Internet if you search hard enough.
Toby, So how do I get in touch with you these days?