O.C. Life

So I wanna be a member and I wanna be a name And I Wanna be a local face and play the social game Dancing through a time warp in your dinosaur trends The limit of your mind is what they're counting on all ends Listen to the media present it as a fact Fall in your orders cuz you don't know how to act Travel on estranged cuz you don't know your own way They'll get you in the end then you'll pay Cuz O.C. life is not the life for me Stupid little chicks and, egotistic boys O.C. life is not the life so free Pressures on my back and artificial joys . . . for you girls and boys Wanna be a member, wanna have some fame Fighting to stay ahead a part of the game Combat authority but don't get out of line Or they'll put you in the slammer you'll be doing some time 714 tattooed on my head I find myself labeled that I'm a victim instead I fight all the rules I don't see the way I'd rather be dead then pay the price that they say Cuz O.C. life is not the life for me Stupid little girls And egotistic boys O.C. life is not the life for free Pressures on my back and artificial joys . . . for you girls and boys Put the plastic back in the machine

(c) Rikk Agnew Back in the early 1980's I was running the operations for a small manufacturing company in Santa Ana and this rather interesting person starting working for me. His name was Rikk Agnew and he had lots of tatoo's, and although common place today, it was still unusual back then. I didn't know much about his personal life until one day I was watching a show on the Trinity Broadcast Network about Devil worshiping teenagers. I still occasionally watch Christian Broadcasting or listen on the radio to see what it is they are currently saying about society. During this show, Paul Krautch's (sp) son was going on about bands like Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and he started then talking about this band called 'Christian Death' that had a song titled 'God is dog spelled backwards,' and he also said that on another song they recited the Lords Prayer backwards. Then he said that on the back of the Album Cover was a picture of one of the band members holding a dead cat, when the camera zoomed in on the picture I was surprised to recognize the guy in the picture as Rikk Agnew. When I got to work on Monday I told Rikk I had seen him on television over the weekend and relayed the above story to him. He told me that they did it to get a rise out of people and shake them up a bit. After that, I loved talking to him about music, philosophy, and life in general and he would tell me about his life with a Punk band called 'The Adolescents' as well as a brief stint with the band 'Christian Death.' The song on the video was recorded by Rikk over a long weekend and is on his CD 'All By Myself' and always has a sweet spot in my heart. Orange County is a bit of a strange and yet wonderful place to live, and I think this song captures some of it quite well. With some of the recent television shows like 'The OC' and 'Real Housewives of Orange County' perhaps we all can relate to some of the angst that Rikk grew up with. Rikk is still rocking out with a band called 'Poop' and he is a practicing Nichiren Buddhist as well. Don't judge a book by its cover. This is from the soundtrack to the movie 'Orange County' and it is a bit weird that Zebrahead is singing Rikk's song, not because they are Zebrahead but because their bass guitarist Ben Osmundson was working as a Web Desingner for a Manufacturing company in La Habra where I was the Director of Materials and Distribution in the late 1990's. Small world.

A spry picture of me from the early 80's