Chongqing Punk

Episode transcript: It was so late it was early, a time Linda hadn’t been out for a long time. She and Song An were wandering somewhere in a wooded area off a highway in Bei Bei, and Linda was starting to reassess the night’s choices. But, there it was. A clearing up ahead with a derelict old factory. Industrial, but not industrial , noises wafted out from inside. “Ugh, come on,” said Song An. “We...

Episode transcript: “It’s not an art project,” said Song An, referencing the scene she had been making at Echo Bay. “It’s just what I felt like doing.” She and Linda had both been forcibly escorted from the club. Now they were at an outdoor barbecue joint, with the rest of the rambunctious drunks. “That can be art,” said Linda. “Art can be whatever you feel.” Song An was shoveling morsels of beef...

TRANSCRIPT Linda hadn’t always been a respectable business owner. In her misspent youth she’d been a dissatisfied hellion, railing against the squares. Nuts Club, 12 years ago, Punk Fest. Subs was playing. SUBS, from Beijing. Beijing sucked too, but Subs was awesome. They were Linda’s favorite band. She wanted to be Kang Mao when she grew up. And she didn’t want to grow up. As two broke kids, Lind...

Transcript: “Why don’t you go out with the boys,” Brian suggested. “You’re always happier after a little Squatty time.” “Eww. Don’t call it that,” said Linda. “Take a Squat. Work the glutes. Get that ass to grass!” said Brian, demonstrating perfect deep squat form. Linda smiled. “There we go,” said Brian. “I know you’re mad, but ‘mad all the time is a distraction perpetuated by the attention sucke...

Transcript: “You went to Dan-druff?” asked Brian. “That guy! You know he interviewed with us three times.” After sitting on it for a few days, Linda told Brian about her brush with potential cybercrime. He was of the impression that setting her money on fire would have been as effective as paying Stinky Dan for retribution against the “Moldovan hackers.” “Whoever is running these accounts is proba...

Episode transcript: Stinky Dan was a “hacker” that Squatty knew. He was massive, like a figure drawn by someone who recently learned that the human shape is just a series of different circles, and he hulked behind his mutil-screened desktop. And, he did have a kind of chemical odor that Linda couldn’t quite place. “Is that why he doesn’t live at the squat?” Linda asked Squatty. Squatty smiled tigh...

Episode transcript: After hanging out long enough, the kids started inviting Linda along for what they liked to call their “small acts of pointless rebellion.” “Purposlessness is a great joy of life,” said a young woman with short, purple hair called Wendy, who seemed to be the ringleader for this faction of the crew. “Is that a Western Toilet?” asked Linda. Wendy rolled her eyes, “No. It’s a me ....

Episode transcript: There was a man. There was a myth. There was a series of videos. Western Toilet, by all accounts, was just some guy living in a place he wasn’t from, making videos about … current events? Politics? Technology? Kind of all of that and none of that, as far as Linda could see. To Squatty, they were sacred texts to live by. They revealed things about the world that he had never see...

Episode transcript: “If it’s a cult, it’s certainly a soft sell,” said Linda. She had dragged her old laptop out to Miriam’s coffee shop, intending to work on her personal essay. But writing is a task which makes every other task seem more attractive. She was currently explaining the Squatty Squat to Miriam. Since that day, Linda had messaged a few times with Squatty about ideas for the essay — “D...

Episode transcript: Western Toilet was a guy with a YouTube channel. Linda watched the video over Squatty Potty’s shoulder. “I take my name from his example, and I take my life from his teachings,” he said. He said it with a smile, but it didn’t seem like he was joking. Linda watched with interest — if anything could make this house full of boyish chaos come to a stand-still, it must be something....

Episode transcript: The Resistance was a squalid shared apartment packed with 6 to 8 post-college guys living there at any one time. It wasn’t technically a squat, because Richard’s parents were paying rent, but not everyone who lived there knew it. It was messy, but not dirty, Linda noted appreciatively. There were stacks of paper and projects in progress on every flat surface. “The Zine!” said S...

Keep up with us on YouTube and Patreon . Episode transcript: After Linda’s outburst, Button did stop coming. He didn’t say much on his way out that last time, but he did tap the Viva Coco sticker that Linda still hadn’t gotten around to removing, and whined “Why do you have this?” Linda asked Brian about it later. He didn’t know. He thought it maybe had something to do with an old American talk sh...

Keep up with us on YouTube and Patreon . Episode transcript: Sometimes you didn’t get what you want or what you need, so the Rolling Stones could eat it, as far as Linda was concerned. She had looked up Viva Coco, and it was a series of Trance Dance Parties that stopped 12 years ago at a club that had moved 3 times since than, and recently closed down. Linda wasn’t big into clubbing anyway. After...

Keep up with us on YouTube and Patreon . Episode transcript: Linda hated chatters at the coffee shop. Not people who talked to each other; that’s fine. She’s not some kind of monster who insists on silence in public places.  But strangers who took your silence as an invitation. This guy’s name was Button. Linda would have asked him why, but she didn’t want to do anything to encourage the conversat...

Keep up with us on YouTube and Patreon . Episode transcript: That boy was back, on the skateboard, and Linda heard him clamber up the steps. There was a silent pause … not again. Linda was up and over the counter, but it was too late. She watched the boy slap the sticker on the glass of her front door and then skid down the steps on his board. Some places were sticker places, but not Linda’s pizza...

Keep up with us on YouTube and Patreon . Episode transcript: Linda had a pizza shop and a boyfriend who was an idiot. Neither one was helping her get out of bed. She could hear Brian getting ready, and the metabolism reader mounted on her ceiling said she was 45 minutes past opitmal morning nutrion intake time. Linda didn’t know how it knew that — some device Brian had installed in their mattress...