My History In Education, Part 3

8th-12th Grade
I started going to The La Jolla Learning Institute, which was not actually located in La Jolla, and eventually the name of the school changed to Balboa Secondary. The Learning Institute was for kids who were too fucked up to make it in public schools, or occasionally kids like me who just didn't want to make it in public school. The first year I went there was really chaotic. There were only about 40 kids, and barely enough space even for that, so all different grade levels were always cramped together in the classes. The students were druggies, criminals, punks, and Touretters, all suffering from severe ADD and sometimes violent behavior. The un-credentialed teachers were hardly any better. But we were allowed to be ourselves, and as far as actually learning shit, this made a world of difference. I was instantly much happier with life. Throughout my years there, we steadily got more students, as well as far more stable ones, more space, and some saner, more competent teachers. There was a whole lot of high drama and important, influential things happening throughout high school, so I don't even know where to start with the highlights. I'll try not to worry about how much I'm leaving out.

I wrote a 400 page novel when I was 15 or 16, which remains to this day the biggest thing I've ever completed, although of course it's mostly terrible and I don't allow people to read it anymore. My favorite movie theater was a one-screen rep house called the Ken, which was owned by Landmark. Some notable stuff I saw there was the 25th Anniversary re-release of Pink Flamingos, Caligula, SICK: the life & death of Bob Flanagan Supermasochist, like 10 Hitchcock movies, The Beyond (years before I would discover who Lucio Fulci was, and how amazing his other films are), Dead Alive with Meet the Feebles, Lost Highway with Eraserhead, and a bunch more I can't remember right now. I also went to Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas pretty often, and so I always had a Landmark Discount Card, and I feel totally old now because I remember when they were just $26, and these days they're like twice that. I got my first girlfriend when I was 15, I think. Her name was Erin (of the four girls I've dated, three have been named Erin) and she was 14 and did a lot of drugs and loved to fuck, which didn't really work out so well because I had too much anxiety to ever get an erection when there was actually a pussy in front of me. She was kinda dumb, but had some cuteness and charm. I mostly liked her because she really liked me and made me feel attractive, which I, like any 15 year old virgin, was fucking desperate for.

I had a few friends who were important to me over the years, and for the most part, I'm no longer in contact with any of them, due occasionally to fallings-out, but mostly to my inability to stay in contact with anyone I don't see in person on a daily basis because I hate emailing and talking on the phone. The only people I still consistently see/interact with is Jennifer, who I consider family, and less often, I still see Scott, and I was recently emailed by Jason, who I'll probably see next time I'm in San Diego. Oh, I was also in a band called The Abortionists, and we were kinda popular even though we only had one song and didn't have a practice space and our guitarist had moved away and our keyboardist was always either trapped in mental institutions or simply missing. Even now, I still think our song Rusty Coat Hanger is a really great punk song (download here). We all had t-shirts with a coat hanger painted on the front, and they were banned from school because some girl there had been raped and forced to have an abortion. Speaking of shirts, I also had my own embarrassing sense of style from like 14-16 (it continued for longer than this, but was drastically toned down from year to year). My clothes were always really loud and flamboyant, which was often awkward when I would first meet people, because I was quiet and shy.

My favorite movie was Pink Flamingos, and following closely behind that were Eraserhead and Gummo. I can't remember who my favorite band(s) is/was, I think it changed a lot.

Here are some pictures.