Here's the third in the ongoing series of "updates in their own words" from past interview subjects:

Grace Ambrose: "I just wrapped up a week of volunteering with Girls Rock Philly. Our showcase coincided with the weekend of This is Hardcore. I'll let you guess which I thought was the punker event. Along with the rest of DIYPHL I am working on an evening of all brand-new bands playing their very first shows called First Time's The Charm. Its goal is to encourage female-identified, trans* and queer folks and people of color to make noise and take up space in our community. I bought a drum kit and will make my debut behind it at that show in a band called Heavy Bangs." 

Cordy Swope: “We have been preparing for the Ruin reformation show August 31, 2013. We are really looking forward to pouring ourselves into the moment when we play again. We were thrilled to have received such great support from our friends and fans via Kickstarter so that our show can happen. As for me, I have been working remotely on the Ruin project from Munich, where I have lived for the past 10 years, raising two girls and doing consulting and design that helps companies be more creative.”

Tony "Pointless" Croasdale: "I direct several environmental education programs, mostly focused on kids at Cobbs Creek Environmental Center in West Philadelphia. I'm getting a masters in biology. I also have started leading bird tours, my first was in Brazil in 2012."

Two new presentations of the live part of the L!F!P! project have been booked and confirmed. When tickets are available to be ordered, I'll post links and all the relevant information here. For now I can at least let you know the dates and locations. I'd advise scoring advance tickets when they become available, as both shows stand to sell out. It's also worth noting that I have no plans of re-screening the video presentation/talk in Philly again (at least not in its current form) and for those who saw it before, I'm adding (with the help of Eric Bresler of Cinedelphia.com and PhilaMOCA) some additional footage. I'll also have different guests at both shows. 

Here's the scoop:

Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 7:30 PM at The Emerald Tablet in North Beach, San Francisco, CA - I'll be teamed up with Jesse Townley, former editor of Philly Zine and former member of the SF Bay Area bands Blatz and The Gr'ups (and more). He'll be doing a DJ set of raging Philly HC punk at the show. My brother Bull will be joining me on the trip and he'll be speaking at the show. I'm looking to meet up with Philly ex-pats so they can answer a few questions at the show, come to a group ex-pat lunch that's being planned for that Saturday afternoon, and possibly get interviewed for the audio part of the project.

Friday, November 22, 2013 at 7:30 PM at PhilaMOCA in Philadelphia - The plan as it stands is to have bonus footage of the forthcoming (August 31, 2013) Ruin re-union show with a couple members of Ruin and Dennis McHugh to speak about it as an addition to the regular and new footage.

Advance tickets for both shows should be $10 and will be sold through Brown Paper Tickets in order to keep the purchase fee as low as possible.

Watch this space for the forthcoming details!

Recent interview subject Stacey Finney nee Gold sent me the below message on Facebook earlier today and I thought I'd share it with you, Dear Reader and Listener, since it acts as a sort of addendum to her interview. Please note that this is a direct lift from what she wrote and I did not copyedit her writing.

Stacey Finney nee Gold:

"As I sift through all of the L!F!P! interviews, I’ve been thinking about the common theme that weaves through these conversations and the relationship to the duration of hardcore/punk, the whole DIY thing and why HC/Punk continues to be so influential amongst youth, especially. While it has certainly been touched on, the idea of critical thinking hasn’t been pointed out specifically. In hindsight of our interview and hearing most of the others, I realized (though already knew on a subconscious level) that the common denominator that keeps this thing alive is that it opens youth up to critical thinking during a time where they are most open and vulnerable to such an experience. It’s a hungry time for the mind! The HC/Punk music itself challenges one to look at things through a different lens. The fury of it all! The sound, the speed, the rawness, begs to be heard and questioned...Lyrically it isn’t the typical Rock and Roll experience of sex, lost love and drugs. The themes are so varied and unlike anything being shoved down throats through sub par radio and media. Not only does the music influence one’s view, but the culture of the scene as a whole seems to impact one’s overall mental experience. Through music, a whole other world is exposed via movies, literature and politics, and people! (As there is certainly diversity) At a time of development when youth are sponges and beginning to question the self and the world around, it seems a perfect melding for those who have a thirst for out of the ordinary, meaningful engagement. Clearly critical thinking is lost on at least half the population (which might explain the douche bags who come to shows to fight and inflict injury in the pit). For those who “get it”, it’s a place to be actively involved, explore and expand thinking. Unlike any other genre of music in the last 40 years, HC/Punk seems (in my estimation anyway) to truly offer a unique opportunity to youth that isn’t found anywhere else. When I taught middle school and then at the college level, the one thing I understood about learning is that people of all ages crave to be actively involved in their learning and thrive on what they gain from the interaction with others (social learning, Vygotsky...look him up). My feeling is that for those who are capable and desiring to experience life with a deeper meaning will naturally gravitate to an alternative life style. The one thing I noticed from the interviews is the majority of participants are intelligent, thinking people who truly have something to offer in terms of perspective and commonalities of experience. Maybe there is something to it and not just an idealistic view held by sentiment."

On Wednesday, July 24, less than a day after I got back from Portand, I attended my brother Bull's screening of the documentary Nothing Like Chocolate. Also at the International House for the screening were two previous L!F!P! interview subjects. Here are photos of Tim Dunn (who came with two massive containers of homemade horchata for the afterparty) and Jeff Ziga (who wore the night's best t-shirt). It was nice to see these two fine fellows at the show.

The documentary comes recommended. It was a bittersweet viewing experience watching Philly ex-pat Mott Green, a founder of the Grenada Chocolate Company, being profiled in the film and knowing that he died shortly after its completion. I never met him, though my brother and L!F!P! photographer Karen Kirchhoff spent some time with him in Grenada earlier this year. Mott comes over as a truly inspiring, driven, and warm-hearted man. 

In interview news, now that I'm back and nearly caught up on my Diabolik DVD work, I can once again begin to schedule interviews. Look for some news ones in the weeks to come.