I think initially I didn?t really notice this arcane phenomenon, being lost in the turbulent times of the mid to late 80?s I think I just must have blotted out the fact that this was a strange ritual.? Now to get it straight, I do remember everyone plastering their cars up with stickers, but I do not remember actually consciously thinking about it.? I think I really started noticing it about 1990 or so?.I was driving down the road and up ahead I saw the tell tale signs of ?one of my own? a small black Celica, chugging along, with a back window full of stickers.? Sure enough, as I approached I could make out the faint signs of Bauhaus, the Cure, Siouxsie, and quite a few other stickers associated with then called ?death rock? genre.?? Ahhhh how refreshing, a simple way to totally identify exactly what this person was all about.?? I bet if I got closer and took a peek they would be wearing black clothes, and perchance had their hair dyed black too?..

It was at this moment that I noticed that this was the only car that I could see that was really plastered with stickers.? I mean other cars had a sticker or two, but nothing to this extent, and really nothing that identified the person inside to such a degree.? I felt that I almost had an actual relationship with the person in the car, I could probably name other bands that they liked, and could most likely pick out a few personality traits and of course places they liked to go.? I wondered if this sticker plastering was more than just a way to display your bandage, but if it was an actual lifestyle projector, a crystal ball into the secret code of the ?punk rockers?.? I felt that we had an other worldly connection, I smiled to myself knowing that I had the key to a knowledge only known to a select few?.

This worked out for a while or so, until the big nirvana/lollapalooza thing hit the streets, then everything got mixed up.?? I now would approach a sticker laden vehicle (smiling with my secret knowledge) but to my horror would find a mangled mess of sticky vinyl backed badges?..Dead Kennedy?s mixed with Alice In Chains, Cure mixed with Youth of Today?.and the most horrific of them all, REM mixed with a republican party sticker.? My world was destroyed.? Not only were these young folk now mixing bands that repulsed me, but they were also intermingling backwards political ideologies.? (and I have to say I was as political as the next punk, I would go out each weekend and drink beer and argue politics).? What had become of this rich tradition of stickering, I decided to myself that it had gone too far.?

Now I tried to look further into my/this sticker infatuation, I tried to think if the metal heads of the mid 80?s did this as well?I couldn?t remember exactly, I do remember that they all had 95ynf stickers, and most of the time they were upside down.?? I tried to think if country music lovers did this?.I don?t know any country people, and I don?t remember seeing any trucks with stickers on them either ( most of the time the trucks were chasing me so I couldn?t see behind them ).? After going through each genre I decided that this truly is/was a ?punk rock? phenomenon.? I will say for the record though that I noticed two other groups who like to sticker, the RV people who plaster stickers of every state and national park they have been to, and the crazy people, the ones with just mindless funny phrases plastered all over their bumped.? (Of course the most pathetic of the single sticker plasterers is the failed political candidate sticker, but that is another story).?

Now even though I stated I had given up, I was lying?.I still had a couple of stickers on my car, although I was very conscious not to overdo it, nor mix genres or I might break my precious sticker mold I had developed in my head.? But the end finally came for me one day when I saw a girl with a Minor Threat sticker on her Volvo at the mall, I went up to her and said ?hey you like minor threat, I haven?t seen that sticker in a while??.My dreams of long lost punk rock-dom were lost when she stated ?Oh that?s a band?? I just like the way it looked!??

That evening I took a razor to all the stickers on my car.

I tend to hang out at the New World Brewery, the Orpheum on Saturday nights, or on the other side of town at the Brass Mug or the CopperTop.? When I go to these places I see a few new faces, but there are always the familiar ones?.the guy at the end of the bar who nobody talks to?the group that is always playing pool or Golden Tee, and of course some of the folks that I know personally and talk with.?? Now does this encompass the scene?? It fits the definition, we are in a sphere of activity, we are all enjoying a drink at the pub and we are all there at the same time.?? But this is not the only scene that is happening here?

Amidst this group of people are smaller scenes, I mean you can?t just show up at a bar and expect to fit in and chit chat with everyone just because the bar is your scene. Take a look at the group playing pool over in the corner.? They all have on muscle shirts and are wearing sandals, something I myself couldn?t even imagine wearing.? As I bend an ear in their direction I also get a glimpse into their conversation?its about football.? Well this is definitely not my scene, I hate sports.?

Up towards the front is a group of tattooed guys with shaved heads and boots.? I can identify with these guys more, they look like people I hang out with all the time.? Hey I have tattoos and you know what, I have some boots too.? I wander up towards them and take a listen.? Their conversation is about the war and how they support bush and a bunch of other right wing claptrap?.Everyone has the right to an opinion but once again, this is not my scene.

Perhaps its more broad than these small groups.

The next night I wander into a concert over at the Orpheum.? Now this is more of the classic punk rock scene that I am accustomed to.? You have your tattooed neck guys over in that corner.? On the other side you have your mod looking square toed shoe people with shag haircuts and 70s track jackets.? And around the bar you have the tight shirted hot topic gals with cherry tattoos.? Oh yeh and everyone has a spiked belt on like me, this must be my scene.? But you know what, I don?t know anyone.? I am alone here drawn in only by the fact that I like the same band as these people.? So is this my scene?

Is the scene drawn from a broad base of people thrown together simply by the love of a musical style, but possibly not even knowing each other?? Or is it drawn up from just a small bunch of like minded people that you hang out with on a regular basis?? Perhaps its just the classic Webster definition, ?A sphere of activity.?? We are all at a place, in time, and for that moment it is our scene. I really don?t know myself, but I do know that I have heard this ?scene? term far too often over the years.?

Maybe I just am too caught up on who is doing what and where and why.? Perhaps my roots have jaded me into trying to categorize everything and figure out where it fits.? I do know that I am over thirty now and for some reason still thinking about a concept that I first heard when I was 14 or so.?? Maybe it does matter, or maybe it only matters too people who want to be cool, or people who want to belong to something. ?I really cant tell you.? What the fuck is a scene anyways?