Mother, prostitute. zine editor, performer, Suckdog

Drugs are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir
by Lisa Crystal Carver
2005

Lisa Carver's had some fucked up things happen to her and she's done some maybe fucked up things, and she writes about them. But she doesn't romanticize them, and she also doesn't dwell on them. And in with all that sad stuff before she had a kid and before she grew up a bit, she had some good times, and she'll tell you about that, too.

As a performer and song-writer, she probably has no talent, but she and her friends still record stuff and still go on the road and tour. And they get popular in the DIY underground. It's inspiring to see people just go out and do something that's fun, even though they don't even know how to do it. Most of us sit around as kids making up songs, sometimes epic songs that last all day, and then grow out of it when we realize they're no good. It takes something to not only not stop, but record and distribute that.

Oh, and for a little bit she's a prostitute (in a brothel) cause she needs the money and she always wanted to do it anyway. Mostly, that goes well, and she has to stop cause she likes her job too much (not the sex but the taking on of several personas).

Drugs are Nice (Don't be fooled by the title, there aren't many drugs. It's taken from the title of one of her songs performed as part of Suckdog.) could be called an autobiography because Carver became well-known as the creator of the zine Rollerderby and had done something besides a lot of drugs pre-memoir, unlike most thirtysomething memoir-ists.

Reading Carver won't make you feel as cheap as reading someone like Augusten Burroughs.