Gweep On!

Once upon a time in Detroit, there was a man. This man, and his brother were inseparable. The men I speak of are most well known as Jon Hill and PT. These days, PT prefers Patrick. I think it may be his way of distancing himself from his past. Jon, on the other hand, has moved on and out of Detroit. I could write a book on these two. There's so much, unfortunately I was just as drunk as them half the time, and can't remember everthing. To protect the innocent (and not so innocent), I'll be brief. Both are union carpenters by trade. Two of the best. They have a long history in Detroit's punk scene of the 1990s. In their early days, Patrick was the drummer for local hardcore band Cold As Life. Both Jon and Patrick played in the local oi/ska band Pist N Broke, bass and drums, respectively. With Pist N Broke, they toured the country playing with many modern oi and punk legends. Flash forward to 1997, this is when I first knowingly encountered the pair. I had seen Pist N Broke play at the legendary Falcon Club in Hamtramck in 1994, but I didn't know them then. I still didn't live in Detroit at that time. In 1997, I started working at a local (Detroit) bar where the two of them hung out all the time. Eventually, I started working Saturday afternoons bartending. I'd get in at 10am, and one of them would be behind the bar, pulling Budweisers out of the cooler for the two of them, but they always insisted that I make their mixed drinks. Yes, for a few years, every Saturday morning, they would start their day with a Budweiser, a rum drink or a shot of Jim Beam with three ice cubes, and a slice of foccacia from the Avalon Bakery. On the surface, both just seemed like a couple of drunks, but there was much more. Jon always liked to make it clear that he was book-smart, and read the paper. He always read the New York Times. Patrick's intelligence always extendend (and still does) more into moral issues. Patrick prefers to keep his soberly intelligent personality at a low profile, it's just the way he is. Here's an example of Jon Hill's antics: A few years ago, there was a conference across the Detroit River in Windsor. I think it was called the Meeting of the Americas, basically a big meeting to discuss globalization. Of course, there were protests in Windsor, but there were a couple downtown in Detroit, too. So, the first morning of the conference, Jon happens to know that a group of protesters were planning on walking downtown en masse (he was dating a lawyer at the time, who was one of the organizers of the protest). It was summer, so there was a picnic table out in front of the bar. It's about 11:30am, and Jon's just sitting out in front waiting to watch the activists walk by. The group passes, and then another man follows about two blocks behind them, he's wearing sunglasses and a hat, and doesn't look all that suspicious. But...Jon knew better. He knew it was an undercover cop following the group. He yelled out at the cop, "Snake bitch!" Less than a minute later, a burgundy unmarked police car pulls up, and two plainclothes cops get out and start yelling. They had Jon up against the wall, and were demanding his identification. Of course, Jon told them he didn't have any, and didn't know he was required to have it. I vouched for him, and said he worked there at the bar (even though, technically, at that point in time, he wasn't an employee. The cops left eventually, but it was funny. Another time, they got this idea in their heads that they were going to borrow an inflatable raft from Honest John's, fill it up with cans of beer, and just drift down the Detroit River - in the middle of the night with no goals beyond just seeing how far they could get. The Coast Guard picked them up somewhere just south of the Ambassador Bridge, and brought them back to the marina by the Roostertail. They also liked to dive off the Belle Isle bridge, which I wouldn't advise to anyone, that current could drag anyone to their death. Like I said above, there's so much, and I wish I could remember all of it right now. The reason I bring up all of this is because I want you to check out Jon Hill's website, Snakehead. Jon is now living in New York City. He was living in Harlem until recently, but now he's moved to downtown Manhattan. Go look at the site, most of it is articles written by others, but it's still fantastically paranoid, nonetheless.

Gweep on, snake bitch!