Barrelhouse Magazine

But a riot. The idea of focused violence, of a dirty, spit-globbed scream of the truth, or at least one person’s version of it. That moment when our tiny mammalian brains and higher reasoning collide and charge us with lightning.

When we believe in the happy assumption that we have a meaning in this life that is not intrinsic, but one that can be formed by choosing our battles. Sure, those battles can be big or small. On the petty side we could understand how a lazy eighteen year-old line cook could throw his apron in a kitchen manager’s face and tell him/her, 1.) this job is bullshit, and 2.) I quit, and 3.) now I’m going to the Reverend Horton Heat show because this was actually my day off?, and also, 4.) go fuck yourself, GARY. On the dreadfully serious side, we have the righteous indignation, disappointment, and fury good people feel each time authority is abused when a paranoid, over-militarized policeman guns down an unarmed teenager in the rain-slicked, lonely night because he’s a racist bully with a badge.

So then we say, “Fuck you, Gary.”

So then we say, “Fuck the police.”

Dana Cann
Kazumi Chin
Victoria Clayton
Erin Costello
Kristi Murray Costello
Heather Cox
Tracy Dimond
Bryan Erwin
Roberto Carlos Garcia
Tolonda Henderson
jacklyn janeksela
Jason M. Jones
Jenn Koiter
Amanda Konishi
Matthew Lippman
erica lewis
Tony Mancus
Rebekah Matthews
Charlotte Seley
Jenny Shank
Justin St. Germain
Maribeth Theroux
Nicole Walker
Holly M. Wendt