While ”punk” is a lifestyle stemming from the wild ass music and mohawks from the early 1970s, in the last fifty odd years it has come to mean a lot more than describing a style of dress and music. Punk is an umbrella term for all of the growths sprouting out of ”do it yourself” outsider culture. House shows, stick and poke tattoos, riding freight trains, making zines, building boats to sail down the Mississippi, welding bike frames together, getting scabies from sleeping on a couch on tour.
Our culture is kept alive by the myriad of hustles we’ve cobbled together to avoid commitment to careers allowing for giant swaths of time to travel, make art, fuck around, find out. Punk jobs exist in the yellowy amber goop Venn diagram of craigslist, word of mouth and sheer luck. Sometimes well paid, sometimes not. Disgusting, terrifying, monotonous, or mind boggling but above all, good for stories. So grab your lighter, re-associate with your cat you haven’t seen in 6 months since working on a weed farm and buckle up. It’s time for your punk chores.