Things I don't remember...

Another gay bashing.

Who knew so much crazy shit could happen in one week. Yesterday my friend Cam was gay bashed down in Utah County. This makes the third gay bashing in Utah in just two weeks.

Q Salt Lake

Their is going to be a candle light ceremony / walk tonight. Everyone is meeting at Liberty Park. And next week their will be a huge protest downtown. More and more stories (which were never reported) are coming out of friends being harassed or assaulted throughout the summer, for being gay. The positive thing is its strengthening our community. For instance people are starting to watch out for each other and the Queer Business Alliance is starting a fund that offers reward money for information about any attacks on GLBT people. Princess Kennedy and I were talking last night and she's also looking into getting 2000 whistles donated that people can use to alert others if they're being attacked. I personally believe that this atmosphere of hate and violence is being perpetuated by our politicians, especially the GOP presidential candidates. My friend jeremy was telling me that he believes we are about to have a right wing revolution. Who knows, but our leaders are getting dumber, more hateful, and hungrier for war. I'm sure we look like a bunch of backwoods idiots to the rest of the world by now.

Records

My buddy Gil gave me first dibs on his vinyl collection yesterday. When he opened his garage I could hear angels singing. He had a couple mountains of records just sitting there collecting dust. It took me about an hour to go through them and I scored about 30 records, mostly singles that I'm going to use for scratching and sampling.

Other thoughts

An acquaintance of mine added me on a Queer Punk Facebook group the other day. I decided to share a list of queer bands that I compiled during the time I worked as Music Director on my old radio show "Now Queer This!" I was kind of reluctant but I decided that the information is probably best shared. Now I'm thinking about going ahead and doing a queer music blog since I probably better knowledge, could do it better and more thorough then some young punk kid;) I also own a lot of that music and should probably upload it so people can enjoy it.

My roommates and I had a house meeting the other night. One of the things we discussed is not allowing the house to become a party house. We've had a problem with a couple of my roommates inviting friends over and partying on the front porch all night. And you got to remember we need as little attention on the place as possible. We're a fucking squat for fuck sake and we were raided by the FBI twice last years. Yesterday my roommate Andrew texted me. He said one of our friends (who will remain anonymous) just got kicked out of his place and wants to move in. This is the same friend who is coming over to our house to party all the time. Anyway I answered with a HELL NO.

Headed to Union Street Easts after work. It's a new vegan cart that opened up about a month ago. Oh and I made it through the first couple days of sobriety. cheers.

ps. I wish people still used this. It's a lot more fun when people respond and you actually have other journals to read.

I had a great weekend over all. Princess Kennedy, Mandrew Florin, Trajen Lopez and myself left Sunday afternoon to Snowbasin for what we thought was going to be a nice quiet night swimming and relaxing at the cabin. We arrived at the Cliff Lodge rooftop spa and pool around 3pm and swam, soaked up the sun and the view for a couple hours before getting bored. Before leaving we took full advantage of the spa locker room and showered, shaved, acquired a few towels...




Me, Trajen, PK

We decided we'd go ahead and check out Octoberfest and have a beer while waiting to meet up with our friends Aaron and Lucus. The moment we walked in to the fest, people were giving us dirty looks and making snide comments. We ignored it and made our way to the South entrance where we were meeting Aaron and Lucus. Within no time two rednecks came running up to us with their cameras, getting right in our face trying to take pictures of us to send back to their buddy in Oklahoma. They were etremely aggressive. We told them to fuck off and the fat redneck tried attacking PK. "Faggots! Yew can't expeck ta-go out'n public 'ike dat without expeckn this!" It almost became a full blown gay bash party. After trying to lunge after PK, we jumped in between them and I READ that mother fucker a new one. "You want a fucking hate crime you fucking mother fucker!" He ended up backing down and headed back to his table with a bunch of inbred sister fucking cowards, while we all exchanged words back and forth. The WHOLE TIME this went on NO ONE stepped in, and there was a lot of people there, parents, kids, etc. Finally one guy walks up to us and tells us what happened was fucked up and he'd vouch for us.

Once we found security we walked back to the table full of rednecks hoping these assholes would be kicked out, but instead the security patted them on the back and did the whole "you guys are going to behave yourself right?" We were pissed "these fucking assholes just tried attacking us because were gay and your not going to do anything? We want to talk to the head of security." The security guard marched us over to his overweight boss "Bronco." We told him what happened and he wouldn't do anything because we weren't physically hit. Finally the witness from earlier came up and said he would vouch for us. So we all walk back over and Bronco just starts chatting them up like nothing happened and I fucking lost it:

Me: "These guys were harassing us, calling us faggots and trying to fight us because we're GAY and your just going to pat his back like nothing happened?!?! This is fucking bullshit. These fucking pieces of shit are threatening us!!"
Bronco: "Sir you need to watch your swearing, and everything is over and they said they would be good. *chuckle* Did you guys shake hands?"
Me: "Shake that fat bigots hand?! Fuck you and fuck that piece of shit!!!"

We stormed off. Soooo fucking pissed off. Instead of leaving we decided we deserved to have one beer at this stupid festival but it was too late so we headed back to the car and popped open a much needed pbr and lit a smoke. PK called Snowbirds HR and got a hold of the head of security. She told them that she writes for the SLC Tribune (which she does) and that they would be reading about this in the paper, and if they had anything to say they better meet us by our car asap! To make a long story short we made a report and PK is in contact with HR. She's already written the article which should be printed this week...and it looks like we'll be getting a free room at the Cliff Lodge this weekend;)

Even though it sucks this happened, its better it happened to us then some poor young kid.

After chugging our beer we headed up to the Mandrew's family cabin up by Brighton. It was a gorgeous cute 3 level cabin, modeled after the home in Switzerland where Mandrew's father was born.



The rest of the evening we bbq'd, played games and watched John Water movies. The next morning we got coffee and then walked around Silver Lake before heading back to SLC. It was an amazing weekend over all and it was so nice just to get out of SLC for a night. I really love my group of friends. They are amazing human beings and so much fun.


Lucas, Trajen, Bryton, Me, Casey, Mandrew



Lucas, Aaron, Me, Bryton, PK, Trajen, Casey, and Mandrew's boy (can't remember his name)

After all of the excitement this weekend I for got I was supposed to be at work Tuesday morning. I pulled a "no show." Luckily I work for a job thats nice enough not to fire me for such a dumb mistake. Also starting today I won't be drinking for 30 days. Can't wait to see how that works out;)

My hands hurt so I'm done typing.

I can't wait for work to be done tonight so I can get my weekend on. Tomorrow I'm heading to a friends cabin up in Park City for two days with my friends Princess Kennedy, Mandrew, Bryton and a few others. We're going to do some grilling and have a pj horror movie party. Really gay I know;) We'll also be hot tubbing it Sunday through out the day at Snowbird's Cliff Lodge rooftop pool and hot tub which has a 360-degree view of Snowbird and the mountains. I can't wait! Just getting out of SLC for a few days helps get my head back in check. The whole point of going up is to have a final huge blowout for Mandrew, who has to go on the wagon for three months. He has a toe infection and needs to take meds that will shut down his kidneys if he drinks on them. But if he doesn't take the meds he'll lose his toe. So stop drinking or lose the toe? I'd probably lose the toe. Hopefully I'll have lots of pics.

Some guy came into Knucklehead's, Wednesday. He looked like he smoked a bunch of meth and went to work out at the gym. sweat pants, gloves, dew rag and all:

Athletic Meth Face: "Can I get a pack of Pyramid Blue 100's?"
Me: "No man we only carry Pyramid red and Menthol 100's."
A.M.F: "Really? You guys fucking SUCK! That's fucking stupid. I'll just go to Smith's then."
Me: "Sorry man. Have a good one."

*Guy leaves then comes back like 10 seconds later*

A.M.F: "Can I use your phone real fast? I lost my mine."
Me: "No. Sorry. This is for business use only." *Grinning hard in anticipation of his response. We also have a lead pipe behind the counter;)*
A.M.F: "Are you fucking serious?!?!"
Me: "Yep."
A.M.F: "You guys fucking suck and your store fucking sucks!" *Angrily turns around and starts walking out*
Me: "I'm sure Smith's will have a phone you can use..."
A.M.F: "Fuck you!" *Stops Suddenly before walking out the door* "I've been here since the 80's and I'm a long time customer! Who is your Boss?!"
Me: "Mike."
A.M.F: "Tell Mike he fucking sucks and his shop fucking sucks!!!!"
Me: "Can I have your name and phone number? I'll have him call you."
A.M.F: "Fuck you!"
Me: "Thank you sir. Have a nice day!"

Obviously after he left I called my boss and let him know that some meth head, who smokes shitty cigarettes thinks he and his smoke shop sucks.

Those are the kind of customers I get at the smoke shop. At the Library I deal with a whole different breed of asshole and I have to deal with them in a completely different way. I usually get bitched out by a few self righteous people who think we owe them everything because they get everything for free at the Library. A couple weeks ago on a completely packed Sunday (we're only open 4 hours so I get all of my crazies at once in addition to everyone else who is trying to fit a full day in only those 4 hours) some bitch came in. She was very top heavy. You know? Fat, Skinny Legs, short cut off jean shorts, dirty orange tank top, messy red / brown hair with an American flag bandanna:

Fat Red Haired Demon: "Will you unlock that computer so I can use it?"
Me: "Sorry I can't. If the computer is locked that means someone is actually using it."
F.R.H.D: "Will theres no computers available and I want to use it."
Me: "Sorry. We are obviously extremely busy and if you want to use a computer your either going to have to make a reservation or just use a computer on one of the other four floors."
F.R.H.D: "So your not going to unlock it for me?"
Me: "No I can't." *pointing her towards the reservation station obviously frustrated*

*She leaves and comes back a half hour later to let me know how much I upset her*

F.R.H.D: "I just want to let you know that I don't appreciate that you have to be so stiff. All I wanted to do was use that computer for a few minutes." *she just has this nasty look on her face that I just want to slap off*
Me: "Lady I told you someone was already using it. I don't have a right to kick someone else off just so you can use it."
F.R.H.D: *scoff* "What ever. You are very rude." *starts walking out*
Me: "Just doing my job...(under my breath) bitch."

And the meaner you are the better I'll do my fucking job.

Some poor kid was gay bashed last Friday at Club Sound in SLC. 4 guys beat him up and then curbed him! Thats sounds like Neo Nazi shit to me, a movement thats been picking up lately with NSM and the latest attack on immigration. This is just fucking sick and I hope the attackers get what they deserve in the end. Also this is the second attack outside the club in a couple months. Everyone really needs to stay in groups and since the cops and club won't do anything about it we need to watch out for each other. There is no reason this should have happened especially with no witnesses. I was there that night and so were many of my friends. That could have been any of us.

The Q Salt Lake article

ksl.com - Man attacked outside of nightclub

Got invited to the SLUG sponsored VIP party at the Pleasure Palace Saturday. The Pleasure Palace is a mansion in SLC that was designed by the same guy who designed Caesar's Palace in Vegas and supposedly was once owned by one of the main financiers for all the casinos in Vegas who had mob ties. Now its currently owned by Pete Ashdown owner of X-mission. The mansion is straight out of Scarface. Marble floors, pillars, and Greek marble statues. The master bedroom has a giant circular tub in the floor and middle of the room, marble tile and pillars all the way around it. All It needed was bubbles and a tray of cocaine. There was also a rooftop pool that everyone ended up getting naked in, by the end of the night. Hands down it was the best party I've been to all year.






Tom Bennet and I in front of the giant tub.

These last four years or so I've been living at the Bike House, one of the longest running squats in the U.S. Currently I've been living there longer then everyone else. They call me papa Justin...kidding. Its a completely communal vegan household...or we try to be. Lately everyone has gotten extremely lazy which is what you can't do when living this lifestyle. The whole point is to get away from the oppressive landlord and to live with and along side other people to make things easier for all. Also squatting allows you to focus on more important things in life like actually living and being able to explore your own creativity and do something meaningful instead of focusing on paying off debt and catching up on your bills.

The Bike House has been known as one of the more predominate animal rights activist houses in SLC. This partially led us to getting raided by the FBI and ATF twice last year. We were raided over two different cases, but really they were fishing for information and LOVE harassing activists. The first time, they kicked our door open at 10am. After the huge knock *BOOM BOOM BOOM* (a knock that still gives me Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) "FBI!", we were all pulled into the front room (some us in our underwear) and detained for 8 hours. The whole time trying to ask us questions (don't answer them, don't even look at them) while going through all of our private things like paper work, underwear drawers, and all of your gay porn lol. Before they leave they confiscate all of your computers, cell phones and Ipods then ask you to sign a list of the things they've confiscated (never sign). Basically you feel like you've been robbed and held, which you have but by the Federal government. Link 1. Link 2. Link 3.



The Second time we were raided was five months later. This time the ATF joined in because it was a warrant for information on the Walter Bond arson case and they accused us of harboring him. They once again showed up at around 10am and pulled us out of our beds and rounded us up. At least they let me put some shorts on before rushing me into the front room. One thing was very different about this raid and it was their interrogation tactics. This time they called us away one person at a time to talk. I'm sure they were trying this new tactic because they couldn't get us to talk during the last raid. Anyway one by one they took my roommates out back to question them. Oh course none of us knew what was going on which was most definitely the point and everyone was question for different time periods.

Now I have to bring this up because i think it definitely created a problem at the house after the raid. The way they were questioning us started to create some major tension among us. During a time like this its very important to keep your cool and to show complete unity among roommates. But after the second roommate came back from being questioned (I trust my roommates and everyone knows not to talk to the FBI) my roommate Peter lost it. He started accusing them of not knowing their rights. It was really really stupid and I don't know if he was just doing it to empress the girl he was with, (some obnoxious girl happened to be staying over the night with him and got caught in the raid) but he definitely should have know better. This just opened up other possibilities for the FBI to fuck with us.

When the agent in charge called my name I told him that I wasn't going to be separated from my roommates and I wasn't going with him. This created a really tense moment between the FBI and my roommates. I looked back and forth but there was no use. I really didn't know my rights when It came down to us being detained. What I should have asked was "will I be detained if I don't go with you?" But finding the right wording during these circumstances and seriously I'd rather just not say anything, go along with it and sue them later instead of getting arrested. I told him I won't be saying anything to him without a lawyer present and then followed him out the back.

When I walked out the back door I was surrounded by four large FBI/ATF(?) agents, a few wearing masks and all trying to look very menacing. The main agent walked me across the yard to a table in the sunlight to make me feel more comfortable. We sat and he started talking "Justin I know your not going to talk to me but hear me out..." He talked and talked, made completely false accusations (like saying that Walter lived at out house bah!). The whole time I counted the leaves in our trees and I watched my cat play in the yard.

FBI officer: "are you sure you don't want to tell me anything? It will be a lot easier for you."
me: "are we done here? good."
I was then rushed back in with the others and waited while everyone else took their turns.

Luckily (?) this raid lasted only about 6 hours. Probably because they knew where most everything was already from the previous raid. On their way out one of the agents backed his car into a cement post and did some major damage to his vehicle. When we heard the crash we all ran to the window and LAUGHED and CHEERED. Oh and he could hear us laughing. FUCKING KARMA.

Here is a few links about the raid on our house and some of my amazing roommates. Also this is a collective house and not one persons residence. Peter refers to "his house" being raided. It should read "our house" and also we let him move in because we thought he would be a positive addition to the house.
Link 1 link 2

The Squat Life.

The Bike House has been around now for about 8 years. We still haven't gone to court yep to officially fight to own the house. Mainly because some roommates either doubt we can do it, are afraid it will expose us, or just don't know if they can handle the battle.

Currently there are four of us living at the house. Three of us were here for the raids.

Everyone living at the house has to participate in some way while living there. There's a lot of up keep in an old place like this that under normal circumstances would be condemned. The house is fairly big with a couple rooms on the main floor and three in the basement. We also have a tree house some people choose to live in during the summer and a huge back yard where we have the garden, a compost, 2 car garage and another area that people use to live in but is now unlivable. The summer time is definitely easiest time to live in the house even though we don't have air-conditioning. Winter time is usually when we weed people out because it gets really cold. Theres no heat except for a small would stove and our own personal heaters in our rooms. Because of this we usually don't see each other a whole lot during winter time. Its just too damn cold. We still get together though throughout the winter and build a wood fire and do a little cooking to head it up a bit.

Anyway blah blah. I'm done. This post is long enough.

These last 5 years have been really insane. So lets start with the DJ'n thing. So back in 2007 I created the party Gutter Butter.



It was sexy, dirty sweaty thing and I received a lot of Press for it. It was definitely my baby and I'm still very proud of it. Gutter Butter was an outlet for a lot of these creative ideas I had and in fact I almost never made any money doing. It started at a dirty rock'n roll bar called Todd's aka the Broken Record. After taking the party to a few different places I ended up at an amazing club, the Trapp Door. I had a pretty good stint there until I got fucked over and had my night canceled. I still don't know why it happened but I still see it as a stab in the back because they replaced my night with some stupid Irish thing that no one ever went to. I did end up doing a few other fierce nights there with my buddy Vision from the band Tragic Black before the club met its demise, by the hands of its manager, an ex gay cop who blew all the money we were making on cocaine and young boys he found on manhunt.com.

Some club / party highlights I've had since 2007:

In 2008 (by far the best year!) Bruce LaBruce was in town to promote his film "Otto the Zombie or Up With Dead People." My friend Brian the Mormon Hustler aka DJ Prix told me I should book Bruce to DJ at the Trapp Door, which of course I did. It was really awesome to finally meet someone in the queer world that I've looked up to for so long. He DJ'd with me on Thursday night and then we hung out the rest of the week and partied. I also had the privilege of joining him for his movie premiere and a party for Canadian filmmakers during that years Sundance. Also the last night he was in town Bruce and his producer came down to the Broken Record for my "ScumDance" party. Here's a link from an article he wrote for CBC. I get the pleasure of being name dropped a few times. That never gets old.

( ScumDanceCollapse )

Also during this time I was DJ'n a lot of fashion / party events for fashion designer Jared Gold. They were all amazing, from in store dance party's, clothing line release parties and big fashion show after parties. I have to dig up all of my fliers at some point and do a whole post dedicated to just those.

After the Trapp Door I moved on to Club Edge. When I first saw it I wasn't really that stoked on it. It just reminded me of a giant dark barn and I really couldn't get my creative juices flowing. I tried a couple parties. The best one was with my friend Alisha and it was called "Tease." It was actually geared towards lesbians and queers. It was small but a lot of fun with a make-out booth and parties like "scissor me timbers"...get it? Scissor?



After about 6 months we got fucked over again by a new owner. We opened at 9am, had a band booked, band never showed up but the new owner did and they just ended our night like that. We told them to go fuck themselves and we were out.

A little time later I DJ'd some other party there with Tragic Black and the Fucktards. I got really drunk, had an great time and played Dolly Parton over and over again. At closing I decided to leave all my music at the club and pick it up in the morning. That was a huge mistake. The club got broken into that night. The burglars stole all of my DJ shit, a flat screen TV and a fucking VACUUM... So I was fucked:(

I was really upset at first but now I'm kind of glad it happened. It's pushed me into becoming a better DJ. I went out and bought all of my own equipment (two technics, a rane 56) and a bunch of vinyl. Now I'm working on becoming a scratch turntablist and focusing purely on my techniques instead of my ego. Not to say I won't still do parties but I'm no longer just going to think about that or deal with club owners and friends that will stiff you your pay at the end of the night and take advantage of your craft (I've been a total pushover and do to many favors).

I've turned down a lot of parties this year just so I could focus on my scratching, but there was a couple that I just had to do. "Tranimals" with Peta and Princess Kennedy. The other was for the Native American Filmmakers during Sundance 2011 up in Park City.


DJ Nature Boy and I rockin the party.

I thought my lj had been deleted and here I am competely suprise. Memories!

does anyone know how to upload an mp3 on to the net? i have that bruce labruce interview and i want to post it...