Eugene S. Robinson was drawn to California like a moth who knows the flame might hurt him but wants to see what happens anyway. From the halls of 1980s Stanford University to the mosh pits of the Bay Area’s hardcore punk scene, this former New Yorker found the culture and challenges (and the fights?) he’d been craving. Decades later, the author, journalist, television personality, martial artist, and father has lowered his fists. In “A Punk’s Progress,” Robinson’s essay in Alta Journal’s Issue 23, he offers an eye-opening glimpse into his past and present—but we want more! Robinson joins Alta Live to dish on, well, anything he wants. His life is one he continues to live fully and fully learn from. Join us as we welcome this fascinating Californian for a lively conversation you absolutely do not want to miss.
About the guest:
Eugene S. Robinson is a polymath in the best of all possible ways, jacking all trades and mastering a ton. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, GQ, VMan, Revolver, PC Gamer, Fight, the Wire, EQ, Grappling, LA Weekly, the Quietus, Vice, SF Weekly, Raygun, Code, Decibel, Art Forum, Corporate Computing, Harp, Highways, Huh, Throwdown, Hustler, Hustler’s Busty Beauties, and a handful of European music magazines.
Robinson is also a many-times-over published author. His Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking But Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking (Harper Collins) was followed quickly by his novel A Long Slow Screw (Robotic Boot/Hydrahead), which was translated and published in France as Paternostra (Editions Inculte) and Italy, as well as a fellowship in Marseille at the CIPM (Spectres Familiers), whose past participants boast among others, John Cage. Subsequent to this, he published Les Sons Inimitables De L’amour, which was released in English as The Inimitable Sounds of Love: A Threesome in Four Acts (Southern). August 2023 will see the release of his memoir, A Walk Across Dirty Water + Into Murderer’s Row: A Memoir (Feral House).
Robinson is also a habitué of stage and screen. Scoring appearances with the likes of Bill Cosby and director Gus Van Sant, and on TV series (an MTV-style TV show on Germany’s Viva TV, aptly titled Eugene Robinson Show), commercials, and a nationally released indie film, Mother Mortar, Father Pestle, Robinson is, excuse our French, busy as shit. Throw in there interviews with Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, and Samuel Jackson, and work with Lydia Lunch, Richard Kern, Marianne Faithfull, Henry Rollins, and Steve Albini. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Robinson—a former bouncer, former CAAT Heavyweight Men’s Sanshou champ, second place overall and first place divisional California Submission Fighting champ, ranked number 31 in the world by the IBJJF, and with a black belt in Brazilian jiujitsu—is no stranger to confrontation. His chapter in James O’Reilly’s Traveler Tales series on death (about Southeast Asian knife fighters) as well as his brief appearances in Feral Press’s Apocalypse Culture and Susie Bright’s The Best American Erotica mark him as a dangerous and compelling read. Always.•
