“Even kids cannot stand life unless they have a drink.”

… brought to you by Kidsbeer, a nonalcoholic drink for kids in Japan.

(I bet it goes great with strawberry milk-flavored fish-meat sausages!)

Mmmmm, strawberry milk sausages. Because their fish-meat sausages aren’t selling as well lately, a company called Nissui decided to add a strawberry milk flavor to them for a hot new product. In the Mainichi article, an executive from the company said what I’ve been telling friends for years: “Strawberries go well with minced fish.”

Sixty years ago today the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, becoming the only country to ever attack another with nuclear weapons.

Editor and Publisher has a powerful piece detailing, for the first time, the cover-up involved with all film footage of the aftermath of the U.S. attack. Film shot by Japanese and U.S. military personnel was locked away for decades, to prevent people from seeing the true extent of the bomb’s devastation. The official line was that people were killed and hurt by the immediate blast, but nothing else. Any reports of lingering effects from radiation was “Jap propaganda.”

From the article:
“I always had the sense,” [Lt. Col. (Ret.) Daniel A.] McGovern told me, “that people in the Atomic Energy Commission were sorry we had dropped the bomb. The Air Force — it was also sorry. I was told by people in the Pentagon that they didn’t want those [film] images out because they showed effects on man, woman and child. … They didn’t want the general public to know what their weapons had done — at a time they were planning on more bomb tests. We didn’t want the material out because … we were sorry for our sins.”
…
“The main reason it was classified was…because of the horror, the devastation,” he said. “The medical effects were pretty gory. … The attitude was: do not show any medical effects. Don’t make people sick.”

Earlier this year, people for the first time were able to read articles written by the first Western journalist to see Nagasaki after it was bombed. The articles had been censored (and thought destroyed) by the U.S. military.

The stories and films were locked away because the government was worried about a world outcry over what we did to Japan and, more importantly, losing Americans’ support for the nuclear arms race.

Sixty years after the incidents we’re still learning details the government suppressed. Are we better off not seeing all the effects of what we do in war? Do you really think we know half of what goes on in Iraq or Afghanistan?

The effort to help save CBGB’s has entered a last-month benefit concert spree, with all sorts of killer acts taking the stage.

I’m surprised more big-name CBGB alumni aren’t performing, but maybe that’s the plan. Part of the spirit of CBGB’s is the “little guys” getting a chance to play, which is one of the hundreds of reasons the club rules so much. There’s a Web site with all the information on the drive (and a petition) to save the club, and a blog with updates on how everything’s going with pictures of events.

I want to fly to New York to finally see bands such as Flipper (where the fuck have they been?), Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Adrenalin O.D., Youth Brigade and Sham 69. (September’s lineup also looks fun, with D.I. and Dayglo Abortions coming back from nowhere if CBGB’s gets a new lease.)

I want to see shows to help the club, which is a bedrock of the music scene I’ve loved for 21 years, but on a selfish note I’m tempted to fly to New York because I never got a chance to see a gig at CBGB’s. As much as I dreamed of going there as a teenager and as much as I love visiting New York as an adult, the opportunity just never came up. Now one of the most legendary clubs in rock n’ roll is about to disappear because of shitty-ass politics, and I can’t stand the thought of never having gone.

I’m facing one of those “what will I regret more …” moments, where I weigh spending all the money and time to fly from Tokyo to New York just to catch a couple shows vs. how I’ll feel if they get shut down and I never went. Because I need more stress-inducing decisions in my life.

I won’t go into a “what punk rock means to me” ramble because shit like that always come off as forced, pretentious crap. Besides, CBGB’s goes way beyond any genre. But I will say that America too easily discards the cool things that bring quirkiness and character to our country, and this is one of those things we shouldn’t lose. CBGB’s is a huge part of American pop culture, and it continues to serve an important function today. Everybody loves the edge when they look back on history and see how it produced progress; more people should love the edge when it’s still the uncomfortable edge.

So if you’re anywhere near or can get to NYC this month, go check out a show and give your support. Maybe things will work out and I’ll bump into you at the Raw Power show or something. If you can’t make it, please think about making a donation here.

Ice lake on Mars. That’s cool.