Dr. Frank's What's-it

Sasha's Sam Hellerman

That post about Robin's Sam Hellerman triggered the following message from Sasha:

I've come back and read this last entry several times already. It makes me terribly sad, but I keep re-reading it anyway. Alisha Cooke (a.k.a. Ralphie, later Twitch) was my Sam Hellerman. We met in sophomore year of high school and were best friends until freshman year of college. She was loud, always had a plan, and popped anti-anxiety pills with a frequency only rivaled by Hellerman's painkillers. Our band was called:

1.) The Conniptions. (Me a.k.a. Frankie on guitar and vocals, Ralphie on drums, Mikey on bass and narcolepsy. First album "...Have a Fit!")

2.) Tuesday Effort. (Frankie on guitar and vocals, Twitch on drums, Brooke on bass and apocalypse, Arsenal on rhythm guitar. First album "perfectly happy.")

3.) Bottlerocket. (Frankie on guitar and vocals, Twitch on drums and four-track, Miko on bass and unpleasantries. First album never named.)

We had a Hellerman-worthy zine that we cowrote called "Not Since," and we also had a comic book, penned mostly by me with a little of Twitch's help. I guess girl pop-punk little bands are big on comic books. I only got about five pages in, but it portrayed the true story of us trying to get people to buy tickets for a Battle of the Bands we signed up for. (We were kicked off the roster though for not selling enough. What shame as we gave them all their money back.)

At a rate of two shows in total over the course of three years, I guess we at least had one up on The Chi-Mos. (So far.) I also guess we were pretty decent for an all-girl pop punk band. We wrote probably about 15 playable songs in total, and I wish to god I still had our lyric book but it got left at her house the last time I was there, right before she decided to hate my guts and break up the band. That was about five years ago. I do still have our EP-type-thing though, at least. Only three songs, but it's something. I also still have the zine and the part-of-a-comic book. Score!

Last night I put all our band names into that tape generator. It made me happy to see it, even if it's fake. It felt like what could have been.

She drew this logo in AP Spanish class in her junior year ('It's just the sort of thing AP Spanish is conducive to, when you're not watching El Norte or singing "Feliz Navidad"'):

Posted by Dr. Frank at September 8, 2006 05:04 PM | TrackBack