Punk Rock

"I sometimes drink 'til I am empty, grab another from the shelf," begins a verse from the Flogging Molly song "The Cradle of Humankind. " It concludes with the couplet, "Never listened to much reason, 'til I hear it's last call / When I notice that my ghost is still dancing on its own. " "Cradle" is one of the highlights off the seven-piece band's angry, beautiful, politically charged CD "Speed of Darkness," a raucous, punk-folk collection that...

If you want a relationship, the advice goes, do what you like and you'll eventually bump into the love of your life. None of that was on my mind when I opened up the newspaper and read about a film series at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Boulevard. The academy would be screening, every Monday night for 75 weeks, all of the best picture winners from "Wings" (1927) to "Chicago" (2002) for just $75. I sprinted to buy my series pass.

 My Monday night ritual: Get to the theater early.

EYES closed, facing the crowd, Alex Flynn of 1208 rips into a fierce anthem called "Next Big Thing." In front of him, a wiry mix of Redondo Beach surfers, punks and skaters sing about the sinister music industry right along with him, even though 1208's album, "Turn of the Screw," won't be released for four more days.

"I sometimes drink 'til I am empty, grab another from the shelf," begins a verse from the Flogging Molly song "The Cradle of Humankind. " It concludes with the couplet, "Never listened to much reason, 'til I hear it's last call / When I notice that my ghost is still dancing on its own. " "Cradle" is one of the highlights off the seven-piece band's angry, beautiful, politically charged CD "Speed of Darkness," a raucous, punk-folk collection that...

Today, you can't escape punk rock ? the style, iconography and chord changes are as accessible as Hot Topic and top-40 radio. But punk continues to draw its power from the scene of the late 1970s and early '80s, particularly here in Southern California, and to build on its legacy as a savage underground protest music and an art movement that refused to be defined by money. On Friday, art gallery Subliminal Projects opens a new show of photography, art and ephemera called "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die," which throws open the chaotic energy of an early punk scene that included such bands as Black Flag, the Minutemen, Redd Kross, Bad Religion, the Germs and others.

Far removed from the cozy confines where it used to ply its punk-rock trade, Green Day is doing what was once unimaginable for a band from its world: headlining stadiums. Of course, everything has been uncharted territory for the Bay Area band lately, from the resounding critical response to last year's ambitious and pointed "American Idiot" to the best-rock-album Grammy it received.

Hollywood do-it-yourself rock is back in the big time. The Ringling Sisters, which includes former members of the Bangles and the Screaming Sirens--two key female groups of L.A.'s early-'80s grass-roots movement--has released "60 Watt Reality." The album, on Ode Records through A&M, is the first big-label release from a representative of that milieu in ages. But though the faces may be familiar, the attitudes and sounds--a mix of semi-folky-rock and spoken-word pieces--may not.

The debate rages on about where and when punk started: London in '75? Detroit in '68? New York in '64? In any case, punk landed in Southern California in the mid-'70s, when Los Angeles and Orange counties grabbed it and, in true do-it-yourself fashion, twisted it into distinct scenes and sounds. The local music scene hasn't been the same since.

Ryan Immegart was into punk music, skateboarding, snowboarding, his friends and girls, the typical diversions of a carefree, youthful existence in Southern California. But in 1994, after graduating from high school in Big Bear Lake, things got serious in a hurry. Immegart and his girlfriend, Erin--still a senior in high school at the time--soon discovered that she was pregnant.

"It's based on real life, but from the second you make a script, it becomes fictional," says 37-year-old writer-director-comic artist Marjane Satrapi of the animated film "Persepolis," which is based on her graphic novels inspired by growing up in Tehran after the Iranian revolution. "I ended up looking at the main character as the main character, not myself." She also had to "cheat" and make changes so her story would come alive.

The early SoCal punk scene wasn't all guitars, mosh pits and visions of chaos — although there was a good dose of that, thanks to bands such as the Germs and Black Flag. Rather, the music was experimental, arty and all over the map. "Everything from hard-core punk, electro-punk and new wave music all fit together; there weren't those genre distinctions," says Adam Hyman, executive director of the Los Angeles Filmforum, who curated "Strange Notes and Nervous Breakdowns: Punk and Media Art, 1974-1981," a program of rarely shown films from the early scene premiering Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The shorts, part of Filmforum's Alternative Projections exploration of experimental film in Los Angeles and MOCA's ongoing show "Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981," look back at L.A.'s punk roots with a 100-minute collection of rarely and never-screened performances.

They were peppered throughout the 20,000-strong crowd at the exuberant FYF Festival in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday: first-generation punk band T-shirts worn by indie kids, twentysomethings and Gen X-ers alike. A chubby man wearing Minutemen; a pixie in a sleeveless Conflict jacket; the Big Boys on a sound guy; M.D.C/Stains shirt and knee-high black Doc Martens on a glum (and surprisingly young) skinhead. And of course many versions of the Black Flag bars. There was even a Slovenly shirt.

The way Keith Morris holds a microphone is not designed for comfort. He grabs it with one or both hands, elbows locked at rigid angles, and lunges with each syllable as he shouts with epic fury. The eyes bulge, his knees buckle. At 55, the delivery of this punk-rock originator has only intensified with age. In a small rehearsal room on the outskirts of Eagle Rock, Morris is pacing the floor impatiently, much as he did as the founding singer for Black Flag, then for three decades with the Circle Jerks, and now in a new band with an abrupt name — Off!

Gil Clancy Boxing trainer Gil Clancy, 88, a boxing trainer who helped lead Emile Griffith to welterweight and middleweight titles, died Thursday at an assisted-living facility on Long Island, N.Y., his family said. Born in Rockaway Beach, N.Y., in 1922, Clancy boxed in the Army during World War II. After his discharge he studied physical education at New York University, earning a master's degree in teaching and paying tuition by training fighters. Eventually, he rose to prominence as a corner man. Clancy also worked with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Oscar De La Hoya.

Former Chicago indie rock drummer Laura Ann Masura has made ? and gotten into ? an awful lot of jams since moving to Echo Park nearly seven years ago. But those first watery blueberry-Meyer lemon experiments and fussy crystallized Clementines have been relatively easy fixes compared with complications from a serious motorcycle accident in 2009. . "These sorts of things really mellow you out, make you approach life differently," Masura says from her living room sofa. She has been temporarily sidelined again by a second reconstructive surgery after nearly losing a foot in the motorcycle accident.

Today, you can't escape punk rock ? the style, iconography and chord changes are as accessible as Hot Topic and top-40 radio. But punk continues to draw its power from the scene of the late 1970s and early '80s, particularly here in Southern California, and to build on its legacy as a savage underground protest music and an art movement that refused to be defined by money. On Friday, art gallery Subliminal Projects opens a new show of photography, art and ephemera called "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die," which throws open the chaotic energy of an early punk scene that included such bands as Black Flag, the Minutemen, Redd Kross, Bad Religion, the Germs and others.

Punk rock will be the theme of the second Teen Concert on Saturday at the Camarillo Community Center. More than 200 teens are expected at the concert, scheduled from 8 p.m. to midnight. It's a way to provide Camarillo youths with a safe and fun Saturday night, according to event sponsors. Bands featured will be the Missing 23rd, No Motiv, Punk Ameoba, The Switch and Good for Nothing.

The menacing spirit of punk rock has been enveloped by a kinder, gentler pop sensibility these days, but Friday's concert at the Palace featuring San Diego's Unwritten Law, Chicago's Mest and Santa Barbara's Sugarcult showed that the current wave of punk doesn't lack power. Serving up infectious, Cheap Trick-meets-Elvis Costello sounds from its recent album, "Start Static," Sugarcult was an energetic whirlwind of hooks and harmonies.

There was a time when major figures of pop and rock were willing to let people with movie cameras follow them around just to see what they might see, but the contemporary rock-doc is more likely to represent an act of managed self-promotion than of reckless self-exposure. (Reality television, which uses dirty laundry to bolster flagging careers, does not count.) You should not expect to see another "Don't Look Back" (D.A. Pennebaker watches Bob Dylan toy catlike with reporters, fans, friends)