I’m going down La Cienega, and as we go farther, it gets worse and worse. You start seeing broken windows and then burned stores and then burned cars. And you see what these store owners did to keep their places from getting destroyed. The obvious ones: BLACK-OWNED signs, which don’t work so hot if the looters hate black guys. But these guys are just doing anything they can to keep their stores. Pictures of Martin Luther King in the front window, whatever. I thought the best was a computer store. Computer stores are run by people who are pretty smart. The computer store has a single piece of plywood over the door. It says ALREADY LOOTED AND BURNED, TENANTS UPSTAIRS. The place was not looted. It was not burned. There was a roof with nothing on top of it. There were no tenants on top. I can see these computer guys in the back on a virtual-reality trip or just being the cynical geniuses they are. “Oh, there’s going to be a riot. I got it, I got it! Do we still have that piece of plywood in the back? Okay, just put it on there and tell them the place has already been burned and looted and just put it out there. No, no, no, no, wait a minute, tell them there are tenants upstairs. All right, let’s get the fuck out of here.” And they leave. Looters come up and there are ample supplies inside and they’re thinking they can go in there and get themselves a two-page color monitor, a laser printer, all the goodies, all the software they can stick up their ass and haul home. Man, if you were like a computer guy, that would be the shit, looting a computer store. You would go home with all the gear you need. So, these looters come up with burning bottles of gasoline and sticks. They’re ready to loot and pillage and destroy. “Darn, they already looted and burned the place, and besides fellows, there are people who live up there, it says so on this sign.”
Luckily there’s a McDonald’s on the corner. “Yeah, let’s go loot that.” And they all went down there and incinerated the McDonald’s. You know Ray Krock is squirming in his grave. But as much as it’s fun to talk about it, I think looting is fucked.
Photo Credits
The photo that appears at the bottom of each part title page was taken by Joe Cole. The credits listed below are for the photos above Cole’s photo on those pages, as well as the title page photo.
Title page photo by Albert Watson
Page 1: Photo by Joe Cole
Page 21: Photo by Stephen Stickler
Page 39: Photo by Annika Söderholm
Page 63: Photo by Justin Thomas
Page 81: Photo by Chris Culfano
Page 97: Photo by Anton Corbijn
Page 135: Photo from the author’s collection
Page 153: Photo by Stephanie Chernikowski
Page 181: Photo by Glen Friedman
Page 203: Photo by Stephanie Chernikowski
Page 233: Photo by Stephanie Chernikowski
Page 259: Photo by Stephanie Chernikowski
Page 289: Photo from the author’s collection
HENRY ROLLINS is the author of several books, including Eye Scream and Get in the Van: On the Road with Black Flag. Rollins is also a renowned spoken word performer and has made countless appearances in theaters and colleges worldwide. In addition to being a writer and spoken word performer he is the vocalist for the Rollins Band.
High Adventure in the Great Outdoors
Art to Choke Hearts
Pissing in the Gene Pool
One from Hone
Bang!
Black Coffee Blues
See a Grown Man Cry
How Watch Him Die
Get in the Van
Eye Scream
Do I Come Here Often?
Solipsist
The Portable Henry Rollins Page 27
