Punk Rock Zoologist

By CaptVickHartnel

When the hills of Melbourne are burning...

...gum trees are candles in the murder wind.

Don't worry, we're not actually on fire (for once). That title is based on Bad Religion's song "Los Angeles is Burning", which, for those who don't recognise the symbol, is the subject of today's photo.

Today, Melbourne played host to the Soundwave alternative music festival. It was a fantastic day of metal, punk, hardcore and all manner of sub-genres too numerous to list. The highlight for me was probably Bad Religion, as they are my favourite band and this was my first time seeing them. I say 'probably' because their set was unfortunately cut short when they "rocked so hard we broke the stage" as frontman Greg Graffin put it.
I decided to still use them as the subject for this blip because Bad Religion, and specifically Greg Graffin, is the inspiration for the overall theme, and the title of my journal. For you see, when Graffin isn't touring with Bad Religion, singing some of the most intelligent, insightful and humanist lyrics you're likely to hear around, he lectures in Zoology, Paleontology and Life Sciences at both UCLA and Cornell University in the States. He's quite an inspirational man, who even won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy in 2008. He is the original Punk Rock Zoologist.

Something that I found really nice today, and especially at Bad Religion, was how many young kids there were there. If these kids are growing up listening to the likes of Graffin and Bad Religion, I'm feeling pretty good about the future.

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