By Patricia Rocha
News Editor
Legendary punk frontwoman and activist Alice Bag gave a reading and musical performance to fans at Going Underground Records last week to promote her newest book, “Pipe Bomb for the Soul.”
The book is a self-annotated diary from her travels to Nicaragua to teach in 1986 during the height of the Sandinista revolution. In an email interview before the performance, Bag shared her thoughts behind publishing her diary online in blog form as well as physical publication, saying she was glad to have the journal as a reference after all these years.
“My experiences in Nicaragua were unforgettable but some of the small details might have been forgotten if not for the fact that I wrote about them,” she said.
As a self-described bibliophile, Bag says she has a sentimental attachment to books and how they feel when she holds them in her hands, but the blog was an important enhancement for the diary as well.
“I wrote the blog because I wanted to make sure the information I was putting out was accessible to anyone with access to the Internet,” she said. “I like the fact that with a blog you can add links to material that would otherwise have to be licensed.”
In Pipe Bomb for the Soul, Bag discusses the ways her travels helped enhance her understanding of things like feminism, politics, and consumerism.
“There were many times when I was scared because the country was at war and it wasn’t unusual to hear gun fire at any hour of the day or night but I was committed to being there despite the risks,” she said. “At a certain point, I felt like I was serving a purpose as an internationalist, I had a role to play. I wasn’t always sure what my role was but I sensed that I was participating in some important changes both on a personal and global level.”
Instead of editing her entries to reflect her current mindset, Bag posts them in their entirety and makes notes of how her perspective has changed over time afterwards.
“Reading the diary that I had written when I was much, much younger was difficult,” she said. “I really value my age and experience. I thought it was important to acknowledge that there were times when I was misguided and naive.”
One of the passages read to the audience that evening described an instance where Bag wanted to buy groceries for her host family after days of eating nothing but beans and rice. After a conversation with the local grocery owner, Bag realized how rude the gesture would seem and adjusted her mindset. Returning to the United States after her travels opened her eyes to the stark differences in lifestyle.
“I think there are many people who are trapped in an endless cycle of joyless work and consumerism. There’s a beauty involved in enjoying the fruits of your labor, regardless of any monetary compensation. Doing what you love to do, regardless of pay feeds your soul; doing what you hate in pursuit of a paycheck starves it.”
Bag also made a point during the night to talk about the first wave punk scene she helped create in East LA with her band The Bags.
She described it as all-inclusive in its inception, turning away no one based on gender, style, race or orientation, a trait she says has changed as the music became more mainstream. As a feminist, Bag spoke about the pressures society put on women during that time that still continue to this day.
“I am constantly waging war in that arena. As a 56-year-old woman I am bombarded with messages that want to help me stay thin and unwrinkled, but my skin and metabolism have changed and I don’t feel like I need to apologize for aging.”
Bag and her current band, aptly named “The Baguettes,” played songs that reflected the book’s messages, including The Bags original “Babylonian Gorgon” a cover of X-Ray Spex’s “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”
