All Ages Review

A while back I started reading All Ages by Beth Lahickey. I enjoyed the book for the most part but felt that it became a bore to read after a while and I had to take a break from it. I thought when I read this book that I find something inteligent and enlightening about the people that were at the forefront of the Straight Edge movement, but that was nowhere to be found. And I was quite saddened to know that some of these people that sang so much about how SxE was a life choice that made themselves better they broke edge to fit in.

I felt that Beth should have had some more in depth questions and attempt to get more than the same answer from everyone she interviewed. It became trite after awhile to hear the same things regurgitated interview after interview.

Here are a few quotes (with some comments by me in italics):

Mike Hartsfield [Outspoken] - "Yeah, it's really weird I remember all of that stuff pretty vividly"
Beth Lahickey - "That's because you were straight edge"

Susan Martinez - "I bet the straight edge kids remember so much more" ... Of course we do

Drew Thomas [Bold] - "It's easy to be straight edge if you have a really clean lifestyle and your parents are rich." What a fucking cop out, being an alcholic or a drug addict can happen to anyone. You can never say someone had an easier life only by looking from the outside inward.

So I honestly feel that the idea behind the book was great, and it was nice to read some of the interviews, but don't read it cover to cover. Read the interviews that you think would be important to you and skip the rest.

Threatening

Threat is a super low budget film about the streets of New York and centered around the life of Jim a homeless 20's something and his Straight Edge friends. I personally would've appreciated a more positive view of SxE than the "One Less Drunk" crew, but at the same time, there truly is that aspect of SxE in reality. Many of us do feel there needs to be one less drunk around.

I enjoyed the dialog in first half that brought out the characters and even had a slightly Clerks like vibe. But I felt it was too drastically different from the violence infused second half. The violence of the second half was graphic, jarring and felt realistic. The fight that stemmed the violence seemed to start completely out of nowhere and lead to extreme acts of violence upon innocents that didn't make sense to me.

I liked the hand drawn comic transitions through out and thought it helped bring a very indie feel to the film. Now the thing that got me most was the final scene with Jim and Kat on the street. I thought it was very thought provoking and really should have been the point of the film. The fight and struggle of the working class should be brought to the level of the upper class, so that they will take notice.

As a side note there are also 2 soundtracks for the movie. The one I appreciate the most is Threat: Music that Inspired the Movie which is a unbelievable mash up of great straight edge hardcore with industrial and hip-hop flare. It's truly a masterpiece and worth owning whether you liked the film or not.