The public radio program The World on Boston’s WGBH (Charged!) had this very interesting report the other day about Ri Seong-Woong, “North Korea’s most famous punk rock star.” While Ri Seong-Woong, and any form of punk rock in North Korea, does not actually exist, the extent to which the purveyors of this “hoax” went is impressive, as is the music itself.

But could there be some inkling of truth, or potential truth, to the idea of punk in North Korea? Luk Haas, our intrepid explorer of the world’s most hidden corners of punk and rock ‘n’ roll writes, “It is true that in North Korea, in the springtime, on days off young people gather in parks with alcohol and acoustic guitars for picnics. They love singing together, all the North Korean patriotic propaganda hits, and some are quite tuneful, like ‘We Will Meet Again’(about reunification of Korea). But nobody would dare singing anything remotely punk or even rock.”

Still, we have Ri Seong-Woong, as interpreted here by South Korea’s 악어들 (The Alligators)…

Find out more about this “project” here and here.

Please help a dear friend, Sarah Kirsch, an important figure and driving force in the ’90s Bay Area punk scene and beyond. She continues to be an important part of our community, our culture, our music scene, and many of our lives.

Even if you don’t recognize this name, you probably know Sarah. She has been a huge part of the punk/radical community for decades as Mike Kirsch (Fuel, Sawhorse, Pinhead Gunpowder, John Henry West, Torches To Rome, Bread And Circuits, Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack, Baader Brains, Mothercountry Motherfuckers, etc.). She not too long ago came out as a proud trans-woman, and almost immediately was confronted with these terrible health problems.  Money is badly needed.

Details:

Our good friend Sarah Kirsch was diagnosed over summer with Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disorder that causes leukemia and other cancers. Despite being put through the f’n ringer by chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and very long hospital stays, Sarah is staying strong and fighting hard, finally out of the hospital and at home with her amazing partner Jess and loving full-time caregivers and friends, Paul and Ilya.



Aside from the unconditional emotional and physical support Sarah has received from her devoted extended family and friends, donations to date have been enormously helpful in lightening the financial burden of this kind of illness. The demand for supplies not covered by insurance is, however, unending and deepening — from food to cleaning supplies to lotion to kleenex to parking at the hospital… and this is to say nothing of larger caregiving expenses.

It is all adding up and multiple life savings have already been depleted. 

If you’re able and would like to contribute in this way, please check out our WePay account below. There is no donation too small, every $ helps.



https://www.wepay.com/donations/sarah

****UPDATE 5/1/12****

From Sarah’s Support Team:

Wow! It’s almost unbelievable how many people have come out of the woodwork to support Sarah. Our heartfelt thanks to MRR for putting the word out more broadly, as well as to each and every one of you who has given to Sarah’s cause. From the largest donations to the smallest, to even those of you who have just been able to send along much needed and appreciated words of support, you truly don’t know how much this means to Sarah, her family and our caregiving team of friends.

We’d also like to extend a huge thank you to Sarah’s parents, who have been supporting us and her in a tremendous way. Parental help is often taken for granted, so we want to make sure everyone knows how invaluable their assistance has been.

Sarah’s situation is gradually improving, but it’s going to remain a difficult road to recovery, and we’re not out of the woods by a long shot (just over half way through the dreaded 100-day home lockdown for starters). She has just started to do things like take a nightly walk outside, and is even spending some time working on record artwork and starting to play a few notes on her synthesizers and guitar.

The best news has been that preliminary blood tests have shown that the transplant has taken 100%, although a more invasive bone marrow biopsy is required to know for certain.

Unfortunately, though, Sarah still has precious little energy (even on good days), and though she wishes she could write or call many of you to express her thanks and talk to you individually at length, the enormity of fully resuming any kind of contact with anyone beyond the people who are here caring for her is still very daunting.

But to everyone who has been showing support in ways large and small, Sarah says (transcribed by us): “Thanks to everyone — old friends and people I don’t even know… It’s inspiring to see how the community can come together to help someone in need. I wish I could contact everyone individually, people that gave financially or not, but being on so many medications makes it really hard to do anything – like even typing an email is so hard. I apologize to people who I haven’t been able to thank and I want them to know that I’m thinking about them and that all their support gives me strength.”

It’s very hard for us to write an update like this and not be able to enthusiastically report that “We’ve reached our goal!” or anywhere near close, but rather TO RENEW OUR APPEAL at the same time as we give thanks. The reality of the situation is that we are still burning through money like it grows on trees.

Despite all the very VERY generous help of friends, family and others, life savings have been depleted or are still dwindling and budgets are being stretched beyond anything we could have imagined.

If you’ve already given what you can (again, THANK YOU!), maybe pass the word to other friends or help organize a fund raiser. Here is the URL to this post, which is an easy link to send around for context: http://maximumrocknroll.com/help-sarah-kirsch/

Benefit shows are already in the works, from the Bay Area to the East Coast to even Amsterdam (last LÄRM gig, May 26th!) and Japan, and multiple people have offered to organize or contribute to auctions of many sorts. So thanks again so much to all of you for taking some initiative or just sending good vibes.

LET’S KEEP ON HELPING SARAH MAKE IT THROUGH THIS!!

This just in from the folks at Food Not Bombs…

Dear people of good will, we need your support!

More efforts to ban the sharing of meals with the hungry. Many tens of thousands of Americans are struggling to survive yet we are witnessing a disturbing trend, local governments passing laws restricting the sharing of food. Philadelphia and Houston are the two largest cities to recently propose laws restricting private efforts to help the hungry. Philadelphia announced today that it will attempt to stop people from sharing food with the hungry outside in parks. The city of Houston is considering passing their own law against providing meals to the hungry. While local governments are claiming they are seeking to protect the poor from unsafe food they are not able to point to one case where someone was made ill. Many of those depending on these meals will be forced to eat out of the garbage if the city is able to close these meals. Food Not Bombs provides some of the healthiest meals shared with the hungry. The food is often organic and is always low in salt, sugar and fats.

People are also reporting that local police have stopped them from handing out food to the homeless often claiming that it is illegal suggesting that they could be jailed and fined. I was among 24 people arrested in Orlando, Florida in June 2011 for sharing meals to more than 24 people in violation of that cities large group feeding laws. I was held 17 days on my second arrest. I paid a $1,000 fine for my efforts. Many more people may be arrested and fined for helping the hungry and seeking to find long term solutions to America’s poverty.

We have called for an end to all laws restricting acts of compassion. Our campaign starts on Sunday, April 1, 2012 when volunteers are asked to organize celebrations in support of our right to share food. You are encouraged to organize a celebration and share free food to the hungry in your community on April 1st. Please contact your local media about your event. Endorse the global day of action and email the details of your celebration to menu {at} foodnotbombs(.)net

Thank you so much,
Keith McHenry

FOOD IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE – End all efforts to stop people from feeding the hungry.

We thought we’d pass along this letter from Garth Clifton in Fresno, CA, in hopes that you’ll lend some support and spread the world. Up the punx!

Hello, I am writing this letter to bring to the attention of the worldwide DIY community something that has affected everyone in my hometown’s scene immensely. On Friday February 3rd, 2012, the local venue I volunteer at, The Bel-Tower, in Fresno, California, had one of our largest shows on record: a one-dollar show featuring the best up and coming local bands from all over Central California, called Doll Hair Fest. It was part of a series of shows that was started by two brothers who wanted to bring more people into the local scene and was a huge success that everybody in town was talking about. We produced a video interviewing staff, band members, promoters and show goers as part of a fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo to bring attention to our venue and what we have done for the community. This very same night the Fresno PD showed up with three officers. One was specifically assigned by the Fresno PD to monitor, watch, and make it his life to get the Bel-Tower shut down. After finding no alcohol or illegal activity they resorted to shutting down the show because we do not have any permits or a business license.

The week before, we had been contacted by the Fresno Fire Department about getting inspected to bring our building up to code. The same day we received this news a local musician, promoter and friend was killed in a tragic automobile accident in her hometown of Hanford, just south of Fresno. Her name was Ariel Gieseman and she was only 21 years old. We had scheduled a benefit show for her and now that is in jeopardy as well. She was a huge member of our community and loved the Bel-Tower and like all of us it was a second home to her. This tragedy served to bring everyone in the local scene much closer together.

It seems like it has been one thing after another these past couple of weeks and we have no idea what the future holds. But we have been doing everything we can do to save our home. The venue is on the corner of Belmont Ave and Weber Ave in the southern part of Fresno. This area has been neglected for decades. Around the corner from us is a hotel where child prostitution, drugs, murder and all sorts of illegal and horrific activities have taken place for years and the police have instead turned their attention to a place that has done a positive thing for the community and been a safe place for at-risk youth in our community to go and have a place to express themselves and enjoy the best in local live music. We have hosted touring bands from all corners of the earth and these bands have had nothing but amazing things to say about us and what we do. We are entirely run by members of the local scene and have been in business since October of 2010 without a problem. What started out as a glorified party house that was filled with drugs, alcohol and destruction has grown and changed to become a safe place for everybody to go and watch their favorite bands, touring and local. Since it opened its doors, the Bel Tower has been a catalyst for revitalization of the Belmont area, which politicians have attempted to do with the entire southern part of town for years through attempting to bring in corporate investment and big box stores and other projects which have always been funded by big money and have always failed. Our small hole-in-the-wall punk rock club has done more for this city than millions of dollars that have been wasted on shitty projects that never get off the ground and only serve to line the pockets of the developers who run the city council. The Bel-Tower, along with the two other DIY venues in Fresno, Chinatown Youth Center and CAFE Info Shop have been offering great things for the youth of the southern half of Fresno which has been neglected, mistreated, and in general tormented by the police, city government and big business. We are helping to bring back a forgotten part of our city and you can see it in the streets, you can hear it in the voices of the owners of the surrounding local business owners. The entire town was against us, ask somebody on the street about the Bel-Tower and the response is usually “oh you cant drink there why would anybody want to play there?” or “yeah I’ve heard of that place, its a hole in the wall in a seedy part of town.” Yet nobody who actually goes there ever has a complaint. When they actually see what we are doing here they can see it in the spirits of everybody involved that this is truly a special place. There is a distinct “Bel Tower culture” that permeates every aspect of everybody who spends their time there. There is truly a distinct “Bel Tower sound” that comes through in all of the bands that call this place their home. We love our venue with all our hearts and it is the only place that keeps most of us sober, off the streets or just plain keeps us sane. For me personally it is literally one of the only things keeping me alive and has turned my life around in ways I cannot explain.

We are in danger of losing this place forever and lack the funds and support to become compliant with the city on our own. We have cancelled or moved all of our upcoming shows until further notice and are holding benefit shows at the other DIY venues in Fresno which have shown us considerable support. We have been circulating an online petition for everybody to sign and within one day we got over 350 signatures. Pretty impressive for a venue that holds maximum of 150 people. The petition can be found at: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/savebeltowerfresno I am urging all MRR readers to go sign it for us, and if anybody has anything they can do to help us, be it sending us new zines for our zine library, cash donations, legal advice, connections to anybody who could help us, or just in general kind words of moral support and encouragement it would be greatly appreciated. The video we have produced can be seen above. We urge everyone who has access to the internet to please share this with everybody you know. We feel like it is truly us against the world. We are in a forgotten part of town in a forgotten region of California that has suffered greater from the economic downturn than any other region in the United States. The Bel Tower is truly all some of us have to call our own. We are reaching out to anybody who can hear our voice.

We at the Bel-Tower say “Bury me on Belmont & Weber,” and we mean that. If this place dies, we die with it. We are fighting this until the last man. Even if they take us out in handcuffs we will return. We just need as much help as we can get and personally, I would like to show to the people of Fresno, who culturally are predisposed to defeatism and being easily discouraged, that we are loved and respected by the DIY punk community worldwide.

MRR.com is currently working on getting a report from closer to the scene. In the meantime, please sign this petition to have the punx released, and read the story from Australia’s ABC News here:

Indonesian sharia police are “morally rehabilitating” more than 60 young punk rock fans in Aceh province on Sumatra island, saying the youths are tarnishing the province’s image.

Punks arrested, shaven, "washed" and given a lecture by the pigs. They are still being detained. (Photograph: Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP/Getty Images)

Since being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans have been forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.

“We feared that the Islamic sharia law implemented in this province will be tainted by their activities,” Banda Aceh deputy mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal, who ordered the arrests, said.

“We hope that by sending them to rehabilitation they will eventually repent.”

Hundreds of Indonesian punk fans came from around the country to attend the concert, organised to raise money for orphans.

Police stormed the venue and arrested fans sporting mohawks, tattoos, tight jeans and chains, who were on Tuesday taken to a nearby town to undergo a 10-day moral rehabilitation camp run by police.

A girl cried as women in headscarves cut her long unruly hair into a short bob, and some of the men groaned as their heads were shaved.

“Why did they arrest us? They haven’t given us any reason,” said Fauzal, 20.

“We didn’t steal anything, we weren’t bothering anyone. It’s our right to go to a concert.”

A 22-year-old man from Medan city who did not want to be named said he feared he would lose his job for staying at the camp for 10 days.

“I’ve just started with a bank in Medan. I don’t even know what to tell them because I don’t know why I’ve been arrested.”

Police said the objective was to deter the youths from “deviant” behaviour.

“They never showered, they lived on the street, never performed religious prayers,” said Aceh police chief Iskandar Hasan.

“We need to fix them so they will behave properly and morally. They need harsh treatment to change their mental behaviour.”

A local rights activist, Evi Narti Zain, said the arrests breached human rights.

“What the police have done is totally bizarre. Being a punk is just a lifestyle. They exist all over the world and they don’t break any rules or harm other people,” she said.

Mr Hasan denied the accusation, claiming the rehabilitation program was merely an “orientation into normal Indonesian society”.

Aceh, on the northern-most tip of Sumatra island, adopted partial sharia law in 2001 as part of a special autonomy package aimed at quelling separatist sentiment.

Only Muslims can be charged under sharia law, although the non-Muslim community is expected to follow some laws out of respect.

Nearly 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 240 million people are Muslims, but the vast majority practise a moderate form of Islam.