Saturday 17 April 2010

Ladies and Gentlemen, Henry Rollins!


This is Henry Rollins.

He is bad for your bank balance.

Not because he advocates materialism, wants you to invest in his foolproof pyramid scheme or costs much to see but because every time I watch Henry Rollins perform I immediately want to book a ticket to fling myself out into the world with no fixed plans to come back.

I want to read more, listen to more music, talk to more people, take more chances, understand more about politics, shout down ignorance and celebrate the impossible breadth of human culture.

Forget New Year's Resolutions, Henry Rollins is an instant reset button for shelved plans and postponed ambitions.

He's uncomprimising, loud and probably exactly as exhausting to be around as he assures you he is but he has probably crammed more into the last five years of his life than I have into the entirety of mine and if I can approach even a fraction of his passion for life or productivity I'll consider myself lucky.

If you've never read any of his writing or seen any of his spoken word give him a chance.
You may not agree with some or what he says - or even much of what he says, depending on your personal views - but he will get you thinking, he will get you fired up and you will be left wanting to debate and research and experience and that's no small gift.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Henry Rollins!

4 comments:

Rapscallion said...

Damn you and you're sneaky blog entries! Bored at work I stumble upon this. Henry is 100% awesome, saw both his shows this year. Not really much point to doing that seeing as the show is basically the same. Only 2 stories were different but you know, Henry, he's impossible to resist.
I always feel the same after his shows (that I haven't seen/done enough on this planet). Which is frustrating as my bank balance won't allow me to see/do more. Hell I'm still in debt from the last trip I took a year ago :(
We need to win lotto

Ricochet said...

*Posts like a ninja and disappears into the internet*

Sounds like a perfectly rational thing to do. After all I could watch his stand up DVDs forever and never get sick of them, watching him live twice in a row would be doubly exciting!

I know what you mean. For weeks afterward I had a little Henry Rollins angel on my shoulder yelling at me to do stuff so I've been trying to cram more library books into my time to make up for the lack of travel.

We really do, I'm going to write 'win lotto' on my calendar and see if that tricks the universe into making it happen. Fingers crossed!

Rapscallion said...

Man, I just realised I used the wrong 'your'. Another use of lotto money will be going back to school, sheesh!

Ricochet said...

Henry would tell you to use the lotto money to go abroad to study. Then you get travel and uptake of knowledge all at once.
Listen to Henry, he has much wisdom.
Also tattoos.

:-D