kara's vegan story

[karabear]

hallo! i always lived with lots of animals, mostly cats. from the time i was little, my mother raised cats for show so we would have about 20 cats and kittens running around all the time. i watched them being born and growing up and dying. i never had any doubt in my mind that each of them had unique personalities and that they were just as much people as human people are. but it took me a while before i made the connection that the meat on my plate was the flesh of an animal who was also a person.
through being an environmental activist for years, i was introduced to the idea of vegetarianism and it seemed like the right idea to me so i became vegetarian when i was thirteen, much to the consternation of my mother. she didn't know what to feed me and i didn't know what to eat, but luckily when i joined the local punk scene that year and then started high school, there was a lot of information that was readily available to me so i started to learn how to take care of myself. we had a very big vegan movement in the d.c. punk scene, so through that influence i turned to veganism when i was fifteen. luckily i love to cook, otherwise i would have starved to death because my mother stopped even trying to feed me at that point! :)
now i'm 22 years old and i've stuck to veganism the whole time. i can't imagine going back. people still act as if i'm missing out on something, but i think they are the ones that are missing out. i know that any modern lifestyle causes pain to others--less fortunate people as well as our all the non-human friends that live on this planet. but every day i feel like i'm making a little bit of a difference in helping make things better for others and that gives me a happiness that so many people these days have seemed to forgotten how to feel. :happy:

[Dandelion]

yay punk!
I'm glad you stuck to veganism. Lotta kids might grow outta that "phase" (punk, veganism, etc) when it's introduced through a 'scene' ;) My parents still wonder when i'll grow outta my phases. Heh. I still skate, sport goofy hairdos and you'll find a safety pin homage on each of my garments. All that at the ripe old age of *ahem* anyway yeah....
I wonder why more environmentalists aren't veg*n. You'd think the connection is obvious. Well props to you for realizing it. I wish i was so inspired at 13.

[Spaceman]

I am jealous that you got to experience the dc punk scene! Who are your favorite bands from that area?

[karabear]

Originally posted by Spaceman
I am jealous that you got to experience the dc punk scene! Who are your favorite bands from that area?
hehe, i used to get that a lot! i moved to pa for my junior year of high school (and then moved back to dc) and all the punk kids we're like "ooh, you're from dc. that's so cool! do you know ian mackaye?" :) (oh, and just for the record, since i've heard so many people talk shit about ian, he's not an asshole, he's not a crack addict, and he IS vegan.)

as for favorite bands, i went to a lot of really local shows since i was in the suburbs and we had more shows in the suburbs than they did in the city. the people i probably listened to the most were battery and damnation (i think all the mcternan brothers had bands back then), avail (though they're technically from richmond), frodus (they were from my high school), the suspects (the first show i went to was frodus and the suspects, actually), and a slew of little bands that were always forming and reforming. almost every hardcore boy i knew was in a band, or two, or three. but after 5 years i got tired of being the only girl in the mosh pit, where i was kicked in the face (accidentally) and tackled by boys twice my size that would fight me for the microphone (though that was kind of fun). so i moved on to the indie rock scene (which came from the punk scene) which is much bigger here now than hardcore and ska. these are the bands i still listen to: fugazi (of course), the make-up (and nation of ulysses), dismemberment plan (a band that *must* be seen in dc in order to fully appreciate them), smart went crazy, el guapo, faraquet, aerialist, impossible five, etc. i'm lucky to be in a place with such a great music scene, even though us dc kids aren't always the friendliest people (there's a lot of attitude here). i just wish we had more of an experimental electronic community. then my life would be complete. if anyone wants to experience the dc music scene, come in the summer so you can go to a fort reno show. they're free and they're fun and you can bring dogs and kids! :D

[Spaceman]

Excellent! Thanks for the band tips. I have just about all of the Fugazi albums, as well as some various avail and dismemberment plan songs floating around on my hard drive.

Into experimental electronic music as well?? Drop some band names so I can see if we are on the same wavelength onto which artists actually fit into that category.

[karabear]

let's see...autechre, aphex twin, funkstorung, arovane, datach'i, squarepusher, plaid, wevie stonder, markant, future sound of london, jimi tenor, b12, metamatics, mogwai...ok i think that's enough examples :p

it's such a broad category really; anyone making music that isn't widely accepted is just dumped into the genre of "experimental" or "idm" (silly name) whereas a genre like house has so many subgenres it's hard to keep track of (hard house, uk hard house, progressive house, tech house, hardcore, happy hardcore, etc.) my friends usually call what i listen to "video game music". :( i say it's the music of the future! :D