J Church was one of those bands I never really gave a chance because I knew so many weird pop punk kids that would give their first born to see them play. It’s pretentious to look at music that way, but hey I was only 16. Like I knew the drummer from jawbreaker was once in the band and I thought that was awesome so I gave them a chance.
Anyway, I never got to see them play and regret being so judgemental. J Church is fucking awesome. I remember I went to a show recently and someone I was shooting the shit with told me I looked like Lance Hahn. I found this to be especially flattering, to the point where I really didn’t know what to say. They quickly said it wasn’t because I was asian, but because Lance had a very friendly face. I could tell that they were being sincere which is something I appreciate in people. Honesty is fucking awesome.
So if you haven’t listened to J Church do yourself a favor and find their shit. They have a tooooon of stuff out there.
So this fest has exploded. There’s no way I’m going this year, but I’m sure it will be fun as fuck.
Acephalix Allo Darlin’ (England) Asta Kask (Sweden) Autopsy the Arrivals Balmorhea Bone Sickness Career Suicide Ceremony Cheap Time Chinese Telephones Converge Crazy Spirit Criaturas Cult of Youth D-Clone (japan) Dead End Path Deskonocidos Dillinger Four Doom (England) Double Negative Extortion (Australia) Free Spirit F.Y.P. (reunion) Fucked Up (Canada) Guitar Wolf (Japan) Hatred Surge High Tension Wires Hooded Menace (Finland) Innumerable Forms Iron Lung Isterismo (japan) Katey Red Kieltolaki (Finland) Killing Joke (england) Kriegshog (Japan…last show ever) Larm (Holland) Lower Dens Low Threat Profile (ex Spazz/No Comment) Mammoth Grinder Manipulation the Marked Men Mata Mata the Menzingers Miasmal (sweden) Milk Music the Mind Spiders Mind Eraser Nerveskade Night Birds No Statik Nukkehammer Off with their Heads Omar Souleyman (Syria) Omegas (Canada) Oneohtrix Point Never Origin of M (japan) Perdition Power Trip Rampage Raw Nerve Rival Mob Secret Prostitutes Seein Red (Holland) See You In Hell (Czech) Shitstorm the Shitty Limits (England) the Slowmotions (Japan) Spazm 151 the Spits Teargas (Australia) Tenement Textbook Committee This is My Fist Title Fight Touche Amore Toys that Kill Tragedy TV Ghost Undergang (Denmark) Unbroken Unholy Two Underground Railroad to Candyland Universal Order of Armageddon Urban Blight (Canada) Vaaska Veins (only show ever…) Vile Gash White Fence (members of Darker My Love) Wild//Tribe Xibalba (Mexico) the Young Youth Of Today
H.S., a Silsbee student, reported being raped by Rakheem Bolton with the help of two of his friends, a fellow student and athletic star. In the end, Bolton ended up getting off without serving any jail time by pleading guilty to a lesser assault charge, spending two years on probation, doing community service, paying a fine, and attending anger management courses. Hardly seems like an adequate punishment, but it’s unfortunately not uncommon for attackers to bargain down their charges. What really gets the blood boiling is how the students’ high school treated the victim.
Bolton was set to be on the school’s varsity basketball team, and they couldn’t risk losing by barring him from playing for a silly thing like a rape charge. That could impact their chances at winning. Who cares about the traumatic impact it would have an a cheerleader who needed to vocally support a team including her rapist?
But H.S. fulfilled her role as a cheerleader, participating in all the cheers for the team as a group. She simply refused to shout the first name of the man who assaulted her when he stood up alone to make free throws. It seems like she was being more than accommodating, when an student athlete facing trial on rape charges most likely should have been suspended from the team, even if his presence wasn’t a source of immediate distress to his victim in her position as cheerleader. In a display of extreme disrespect for a rape survivor and disregard for her well-being, school officials insisted that H.S. had to scream “Rakheem” with the rest of the cheerleaders, or she’d be kicked off the squad.
-Dan Savage
Long story short, this poor lady got kicked off the squad, brought a suit against the school where it was rejected by the Supreme Court. Not only that, her family has to pay $45k for the school’s legal fees.
What a bunch of assholes all fucking around. The school officials are obvious assholes and the Supreme Court are a bunch of assholes as well.
Anyway, you can make donations by visiting http://www.helpthecheerleader.com/ . To help pay the cost. Jason Ho, a comic artist is taking commissions to help pay for the costs.
What happens when a blond, blue-eyed cheerleader accuses her school’s black star athlete of rape? Well, first, she’s kicked off the squad for refusing to cheer for him. My report on how this three-year-old case continues to roil Silsbee, Texas.
A fantastic piece by my colleague Jess Bennett, which socks you with this killer line, from the victim’s father: “Soignet says it feels like his daughter was ‘raped, then raped again by the system.’”
