February 2012
2 posts
the Menzingers and the Lion King
6 out of 7 nights a week, I have vivid dreams where I’m still in America. When I wake up from those dreams, I have no idea where I am for about 10 seconds. I’m happy with my life now, but up until about a month ago I was still crying multiple times a day. I wasn’t sad, scared, or in any danger, yet I couldn’t stop myself from breaking out into tears over the smallest of...
What the Red Wings Mean to Me
People always ask me why the Detroit Red Wings mean so much to me. I’ve never lived in Detroit, and I’ve only actually been to the city once. Having lived in both New York City and northeast Pennsylvania, one would assume that I would either support the Rangers, Flyers, or Penguins. While I had watched a few Rangers games on TV before I officially started calling myself a hockey fan,...
January 2012
5 posts
9 tags
An open letter to Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins
Dear Mr. Thomas. I have been a very big fan of yours for a few years now. I always saw you an an underdog compared to other NHL players and I always wanted you to do well. You can imagine how happy I was when you finally won the Cup this past June, and when the rest of the hockey world finally gave you the respect I’d felt you’d deserved for years. You inspired me to keep working at my...
Buzzword, Dimock
The Dimock water debate has brought out the best and worst of the people in northeast Pennsylvania. Many people have come forward to offer their water and support for the families affected with toxic water. Unfortunately, an even larger amount of people have come forward with nothing but pure, unfathomable hate and distrust toward their own neighbours, and as a former Pennsylvanian, I have to...
Drive-Thru Records and the "Legacy" It's Left...
This is a pretty sensitive topic for me. Drive-Thru Records changed my life, like life many other people now in their early-to-mid 20s. The bands, the songs, and the oppurtunities working for the street team gave me all worked together to shape both my views in the music industry and my career. I don’t think I know a single person that’s either in a band or connected to the industry in...
Women: We Want Equality..But Not for Sluts!
Over the past year and a half, I’ve been an adult model. It. fucking. rules. I set my own hours. I don’t have a boss. I make about the same amount of money as someone working full-time in retail with doing about 1/3 of the work and dealing with 99% less of the bullshit. What i do has allowed me to achieve more than I ever could have if I just kept living my life as a blind person on...
An open Letter to Bob Marshall
Hiya, Bob Marshall! My name is Felicia Prehn. I’m 21, married, and one of two disabled children that my practicing Catholic mother birthed. Funny thing about my parents, they planned both of us, and my parents were married at the time of each of our births. My mother never had an abortion, and she never would. I also have cousins with autism and down’s syndrome, and their mothers, too,...
November 2011
7 posts
Life As A Child of the Marcellus Shale
I’m not new to insomnia. I developed a pretty severe depression at age 12. Since then, my sleep pattern has changed every three weeks or so. Sometimes I sleep “normal” hours, sometimes I’m a vampire. Whenever I have a lot on my mind, the odds of the latter happening are quite high. Every day, I sit online and I read. I read every article I see someone post. I read every...
Illegally Killing Deer 2 Days Before Hunting...
I was in the process of writing a review on the new Punk Goes… release, when I was sent an article from the Times Leader. Saturday night, 7 morons from Arkansas and Louisiana illegally killed a bunch of deer on the border of Wyoming and Susquahanna County, about a half hour from where I used to live. The 7 men work for - get ready for the big surprise - a natural gas company installing a...
Whatever Happened to Acceptance?
I was killing time before the Red Wings game came on, and I stumbled upon a channel called TV7. TV7 is an over-the-air Christian channel that usually has Finnish programming on when I flip past it, but today had an American show. I have absolutely no problem with religious channels, no matter what religion. I believe everyone has a right to share their views, even if they’re crazy. What I...
Dear Fox News,
Hello. My name is Felicia Prehn-Korhonen. I’m a fourth generation American who is very familiar with your programming, for some reason. I’d like to start this letter off by saying that I am not a Democrat. I’m also, however, not a Republican. I support logical candidates and ideas, regardless of the party they come from. I’m a firm believer in “liberty and justice...
Four Year Strong - In Some Way, Shape, or Form
“Approachable” has been made to be such a naughty word by..well, people like me. Usually, it’s used to describe a mediocre release that was enginered at every level to be sold to a mass-market and has very little substance in comparrison to a band’s older material. In the case of Four Year Strong’s latest album, In Some Way, Shape, or Form, it describes a release by a...
Bye, Childhood.
It feels like all I do on Punks and Pucks is complain about how unfair things are. Usually, it’s completely justified and serves some kind of purpose beyond my own self-serving interesting. The following blog is the exact opposite. When my parents got divorced, my entire life turned upside-down. The latter half of 1999 and the entire year 2000 still holds the title of worst period of my...
For Ignorance, Press 3
I’m a woman with very little patience. When anything in my apartment stops working correctly, I become annoyed. If the item still isn’t working after I’ve turned it off and on again, I usually end up calling a customer support number. Before I am given the privaledge of spending close to an hour on the phone with someone in India with little comprehension of the English language,...
October 2011
1 post
Nothing Has Ever Hurt So Much
A few weeks after my 15th birthday, I went to see Tokyo Rose at Cafe Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre. The band had stayed at my house after their last Metro show a little over a month prior, and because it went so well I decided to extend the offer to them again. They said no, but directed me to the other touring band on the bill, Valencia. They evantually declined, but not before I was able to watch...
September 2011
3 posts
Fans First....Just kidding, We Don't Care
In November of last year, I wrote a post about how my birthday was ruined by unattractive, obnoxious puck bunnies at a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins game against the Norfolk Admirals (still waiting on that beer, Mr. Pouliot). Since that game, I’ve had many unpleasant encounters with various fans at the arena. Some fat kid in a Crosby jersey tried to pick a fight with me the night the...
Soulja Boy Dislikes Soldiers, and That,...
I’ve been living in Finland for about a week now, so I’ve been slightly disconnected from smaller American news stories. One “story” that, unfortunately, crossed my proverbial desk this week was about Soulja Boy releasing a song where he says “fuck the troops”. Because of this one sentence, not only do I now unwillingly know a Soulja Boy lyric and that he has a...
Ugly Chicks Should Just Have Their Own Scene,...
I’ve written multiple blogs having to do with sexism and double standards in our scene, and over the past couple of months I’ve seen many other people write similar things. It’s empowered me to see so many people, many of them male, write about how unrepresented, disrespected, and mistreated females are in punk and hardcore. Unfortunately for the optimist within me who thinks...
August 2011
2 posts
My open Letter to President Obama
Dear Mr. President,
In 2008, almost everyone I knew was on your side. As young people, almost every political memory we had up to that point involved an entitled spoiled brat who knew nothing of the struggles and daily life of the average American; and knew everything about war, greed, and pleasing the richest of the rich. We sat and watched our parents struggle more and more as the years went...
Turn Off Fox News and Wake the Hell Up
I’m going to write this blog entry while saying what I’m about to say is still technically legal. Our government does not work for the people. I could sit here and write a thousand sentences trying to say what i just wrote in a more articulate fashion, but it would serve no point. I feel as though not enough Americans understand the times that we’re living in and what’s...
July 2011
1 post
6 tags
Let the Hate Mail Begin: TLC's Tattoo School
I love my right to non-violent protest. I especially love when I see my fellow Earthlings getting passionate and pissed off enough to actually do something, especially if they’re American Earthlings. Unfortunately, the causes Americans tend to get the angriest about are usually….well, silly. For example, the internet-wide protest of TLC’s yet-to-be-released “reality”...
June 2011
4 posts
My "Interview" With Someone in the Natural Gas...
Sometimes, certain articles just seem to write themselves. Some stories are so absurd, or so clear-cut, that they need little or none of the authors voice to get the point across. This, my friends, is one of those stories.
I’m a member of a dating website. I’m not proud of it, but I spend most of my days locked in my room, and have no real way of meeting people without the site....
My Record is More Important Than Helping Others,...
When I think of a fundraiser, I think of an event to raise money for a cause. Cancer research, paying the medical bills of an uninsured person, buying food and clothes for victims of fires and natural disasters, and other unfortunate circumstances are all reasons to have a fundraiser, or benefit concert. Generally, these events are supposed to be relatively inexpensive, and are supposed to offer...
5 tags
Banquets/Mayflower split cassette
The element of surprise is something I’ve grown quite annoyed with over the years, mostly because the ones in my life never seen to be the fun kind. It’s always, ‘Surprise! Your spine will never function the same again!”, or “Surprise! While you were in Canada, we built a natural gas well right next to your house!”. However, I was recently surprised by two bands...
5 tags
the Swellers - Good for Me
(First review! whee!)
In early 2009, I obtained three leaked demo songs that were apparently going to be on the next Swellers record. I played the living Hell out of those demos, and was excited for what was to come. A few months later, the record, Ups and Downsizing, finally came out. Within two weeks, it was the most played album on my Last.Fm charts, more played than the Jealous Sound, the Get...
May 2011
2 posts
11 tags
Suburban White Girl Writes Blog About Rap; More at...
I’m a humanist. I believe in equal rights and respect for everyone, no matter who they are or what they believe in. I become enraged when I hear about groups like the Westboro Baptist Church, or that Senator in Oaklahoma who said that women don’t deserve to be paid the same as men because they don’t work as hard. However, I will defend the right of these individuals and groups to...
15 tags
House of Straw, House of Sticks, Can't Shake This...
Terrible people exist in every corner of the world, but I can’t help feeling like eastern Pennsylvania has the worst of the worst. I’ve told my out-of-state friends about the ridiculous situations I’ve found myself in thanks to the locals, but no one ever believes me….until they get here and see it for themselves, or until they have the pleasant experience of dealing with a...
April 2011
1 post
12 tags
The Most Important Thing I've Ever Written
When my family moved to northeast Pennsylvania from New York City, they were expecting a quiet, serene life with beautiful scenery and a peaceful enviroment overall, and although we never exactly blended in with the locals and have all been quite miserable here, we’ve all always been able to find Comfort in the clean air and water, and the miles and miles of untouched forests. On any given...
March 2011
2 posts
A letter I wrote to the local school board.
The the board, faculty, staff, and anyone else attending this evening meeting. I am a tax-paying, voting resident of the district, as well as an alumni. I spent eight years as a student of Mountain View, and maintained averages in the high 80s and low 90s for all of my subjects. My graduating class was one of the biggest and brightest to ever graduate, but most of us have absolutely nothing to...
7 tags
February 2011
1 post
4 tags
Murder Tastes Really Good With Vodka Sauce
I spent a lot of time by myself locked in my bed room, or so it would seem. On all actuality, I’m very rarely alone. The older of my two cats, Mellow, spends the majority of her little kitty days asleep on my bed, asleep on my feet when I’m in my bed, or staring at me as she’s comfortably curled up in the box my latest order of records came in. I may sound a little unstable by...
January 2011
1 post
10 tags
Al Quida's Favorite Band is the Methadones.
When I first read about the shootings in Arizona last weekend, I was instantly shaken. Usually, I’m not very sympathetic in situations like these because I don’t know anyone involved, and I know that if someone in my family had gotten killed, I’d want privacy and peace, not a bombardment of media speculation and reminders every which way i looked that my family member was shot....
November 2010
1 post
12 tags
Marc Pouliot, You Owe Me a Beer...And A Better...
It’s no secret that the faith I have in the people of northeastern Pennsylvania to be anything but ignorant and just plain rude is minimal. but, for some reason, I always seem to want to give people a chance and not make generalizations. However, after what I went through at a recent Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins game on my birthday, I feel as though my feelings are completely warranted. ...
October 2010
1 post
7 tags
Painting Over a Hole Doesn't Make a Hole Go Away
I was the target of aggression and disrespect by almost everyone I attended elementary and high school with at one point or another. Some days is was because they thought I was ugly, some because they thought I was weird, and some because I was blind, and for some reason, they found that to be hilarious. No matter what the reason, the kids, and in a lot of cases adults, were relentless. I...
September 2010
3 posts
Pornography, Voting, Lottery Tickets, Drinking in...
It was less than twelve hours before I would officially be an 18-year old adult. I was sitting in the car of an old friend as we aimlessly explored the Wyoming Valley. We talked about economics, the past, the present, and my ever-approaching future. As the sun set, I asked to be dropped off at Cafe Metropolis, one of the only places where I’ve ever felt at home. I couldn’t think of a...
Jesus Rocks! Now, Take Your Shirt Off.
I’ve discussed my own personal religious upbringing a few times over the past few months in my writing, so if anyone reading this is a frequent Licia’s blog flyer, they know that I was raised Catholic and appreciate the idea of a person like Jesus Christ, but want absolutely nothing to do with organized religion, or the idea that any particular group of people is better and...
I Hate You, Cinderella.
Until this coming November 19th, I’m still a teenager. That being said, I figured I’d get my token “I don’t understand love, and the opposite sex is really confusing” blog out of the way now before I sound old and and desperate. I’ve always been a very idealistic person when it came to my love life, despite how cynical I am about everything else. Having been...
August 2010
2 posts
'Cause I Know We're ll Part Of the Problem. The...
When I decided that I was going to come out and make a few points in regards to the closing of Cafe Metropolis, I found myself staring blankly at my computer screen without any idea of how to phrase how I feel, or if it’s even worth saying. I don’t feel as if anyone listened to me when I warned them about the possible reprocussions of their actions in the first place, and if i say...
This is a Blog About Equality.
I am a heterosexual female. In lamens term, this means that I love dudes and dudes only. I can appreciate when another woman is beautiful, and I’ve even kissed my fair share of girls, but when it comes to settling down, I can only see myself with a man. When I was three years old, I had a “crush” on Mario Lopez, the actor. He hosted a game show that would always be on TV, and I...
July 2010
4 posts
7 tags
Quiet, Lois. Men Are Talking.
What I am about to write, to some, will be the equivalent of writing an essay about how water is wet, cats are furry, and the summer is hot. Sexism isn’t news, and we’ve all been a little guilty of it at some point in our lives, even if it was something as simple as accusing someone of the opposite sex in our Kindergarten class of having cooties. Unfortunately, at some point between...
But Someone's Gotta Do What the Others, They Will...
Thursday afternoon, I received a phone call from Louis Posen, owner of Hopeless Records. I had tried for a few months to get a hold of him, but nobody was ever able to make it happen. Finally at this year’s Warped Tour, the wonderfully talented and extremely gracious fellows in Anarbor(www.myspace.com/anarbor give them love, please. Regardless of what kind of music you like, any band...
I'm Sure He Means Fraggle Iraq
I attended Mountain View Junior Sernior High, a chool of roughly 800 students from grades 7-12. The administration didn’t separate us very much, so it wasn’t uncommon was a 12-year old seventh grader to have lunch or a study period with a 19-year old senior. Since we were so integrated with each other, everyone’s personal business was known, and every time the older students had something going...
No..We're Actually Still Quite Sad
Today I was channel surfing and came across VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the ’90s. I’d seen this countdown before, and though I disagreed with the order and was severely saddened by the lack of Gin Blossoms, I decided to put it on. I’ve always been a nostalgic person, and I don’t think I’ve ever quite gotten over the fact that it isn’t 1997 anymore, but as...
May 2010
4 posts
Part Three: Why Kids Need Babysitters.
I have blocked out most of the year 2000, as it was a horrible period in time. Because of this, and because I really don’t want to relive it, I won’t be mentioning much more from then. Lucky for me and the reader, nothing of musical important happened to me then. The songs on the radio were bleak and forgettable, and I spent a lot of time writing and playing with Barbie dolls. I...
Part Two: I'm a Survivor
The year 1999 was the greatest year of my life. I can say this with confidence, because I know n my heart that I will never be happier, more at ease, or freer than I was then. Everything in my world could not have made any more sense than it did then. Granted, my life fell apart around Christmas time of that year, but in my head I lump those events in with 2000. My obsession with...
Part one of..however many I figure out: Yeeee-naw.
I’ve decided to break this next blog up into a few seperate parts. It’s a very extensive story about my musical childhood, and I want people to read it. i thought it would be easier for everyone if I treated it like a comic book.
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The last time I “tumbled”, I wrote about discovering punk rock, what it did fo my life, and what it was becoming. However, while most of my...
This Is Not OK.
My dad has always told me that when I was an infant, he would sit me on his lap and ask, “What are you here to do?”. I would sit there looking up at him for a minute, and then he would say “You are here to amaze and astound.” When you’re a blind baby born to a family of blind people, everyone’s expectations for you and your life are through the roof, despite the...
January 2010
0 posts
This Positivity is Negativity
Recently, I’ve started to notice the concept of “staying positive” becoming quite popular among the scenester crowd, despite being a fundamental principle of hardcore since the genre’s begining nearly 30 years ago. Bands like Bane, Youth of Today, and 7 Seconds delivered optimistic and uplifting messages, while dealing with social and political issues that effected both...
December 2009
2 posts
the Nigerian E-mail scam of Rock & Roll
When I was in the sixth grade, my future high school had a “Battle of the Bands” competition. I’d never heard of anything like that before, but it sounded violent. I later found out that it was just a competition where bands featuring students from our school would play a few songs, and the audience would pick their favorite. The winner got money, or something music-related. I...
October 2009
1 post
What do you want to be? GOOD! What do you want to...
In February 2008, Chris “Sprout” Anderson, guitarist for the band A Hero From A Thousand Paces and former member of the Pennyroyals, was arrested having a sexual relationship with a girl who was 15 when he was nearly 35. When this story hit music sites like Absolutepunk.net, many more girls, underage or otherwise, came forward about experiances they previously had with Anderson. The...