Like a Jack Kerouac road novel crossed with a Dead Kennedys tour diary
- david1170
- 2 hours ago
- 8 min read
Djordje Miladinović at Thoughts Words Action punk rock blog spoke with Ruby Dee Phillipa, the author of Bag Of Tricks just recently.
They dove into a fascinating conversation about the book’s inspiration, the vivid characters that drive the story, and the energy that comes from its roots in the San Francisco punk scene. Ruby shared insights into the creative process behind the book, offering a glimpse into how the city’s spirit shaped the atmosphere and the narrative.
You can enjoy their conversation here:
1. In Bag of Tricks, the line between fact and fiction feels intentionally blurred, what does that ambiguity allow you to say that memoir or straight reportage wouldn’t?
In a way, the stories are much like my memories of the time. I remember some details and conversations quite clearly, but so much from those years is pretty hazy and distorted. I suppose this lack of clear memory allows me much more creative leeway in writing about these tales, ha.
2. Your portraits of 1980s San Francisco are both gritty and strangely tender. What did the punk scene teach you about community, especially at the margins?
There were a number of strong, tightly interlaced groups within the punk scene back then. There were the angry skins, the gentle skins, artistic punks, political punks, punks brought together for their love of music, druggie punks, and so many who had fallen into that punk world- those disconnected from families and old lives, flung into a sometimes scary, sometimes exhilarating, intense family of sorts through the connections we formed with one another. Some were in the scene to further their own needs- for drugs or sex or validation- yet there were many who would stand up and help one another. Many times, I witnessed selfless acts to help someone in distress. That taught me that no matter how punk you are- with all the anger and angst that can entail- there is always room for compassion in this world.
3. Characters like The Shits and The Clits jump off the page, did you ever worry about how the real-life inspirations might react to seeing themselves in your stories?
Funny enough, while the characters themselves are based upon real people I knew, none of them were who they are in the books. In other words, I created The Shits and The Clits wholly, making up all their bits and pieces from punks who occupied other lives. I think some might see bits of themselves in many characters throughout the books.
4. How did the wildness of your early punk years inform your later activism with Earth First! and your work as a restaurateur and musician?
I think that so many of us were trying to figure who we were and how to become that person. This took a lot of creativity and learning how to put pieces together as a whole, all of which translates directly into activities like forming and shaping large scale protest movements, building a business, or running a band.
5. Your past reads like a Jack Kerouac road novel crossed with a Dead Kennedys tour diary, when did you first realise it needed to be written down?
For years, friends had been asking me to write down some of my stories from back in the day. I always blew that off- nah, really? Then I had a pretty bad accident that left me with a moderately severe TBI in early 2009. After the accident, I struggled for years to access the language side of my brain. I could see a picture of a thing in my head, but couldn’t come up with the word. I began writing stories as practice to try to come back from that. It was tough the first few years, but eventually, it was like exercising any muscle, and the words returned. These stories began forming after reconnecting with a lot of my old punk cohorts. The tales just ran like movies over and over in my head. I had to get them out of my skull and onto the page.
6. What role did music, both punk and the roots rock you now perform, play in shaping your storytelling voice?
Ah, a song is a story with a hell of a lot fewer words. I’ve always loved ‘seeing’ the story a song tells you. And then conversely, I always feel a sort of tempo and rhythm in life that I tried to include in my stories- you know, the intro, the chorus that you keep coming back to, the bridge, maybe a crescendo, and the finale. Ain’t that life? And isn’t that a story we love to read? So… I think I’ve always felt that musicality in everything I do- whether that’s cooking a meal, walking down the street, talking to a friend, or writing a story.
7. Dumpster diving, squats, shows, and addiction, you paint a raw picture of a scene in flux. How do you view those years now, from a distance?
I wouldn’t change a thing. How many entrepreneurs do you meet who can say they lived in a squat, put needles in their arm, and lived on such an edge; and not only came back from that but thrived? Some of the people I went through all of that with are closest to my heart, even if they are no longer here. I think it’s a bit like being in the trenches. We went through it all and came out the other side. And when we find each other, it’s like finding a kindred survivor. My punk years shaped who I am today and I like myself. So I wouldn’t change a thing. Well I wouldn’t have slept with that one guy…
8. You’ve lived so many lives, engineer, activist, fisherwoman, chef, touring musician. How did you hold on to your creative identity through it all?
I read your question and can only think- isn’t all of that creative? We become who we are in the world by fashioning bits and pieces into a whole. Who says you can’t take pieces off and add new ones, thereby creating a new you? I think part of the punk generation really was all about inventing our reality, which applies to everything we do in life. If I had the time, I’d want to become an astronaut too! There’s singing astronauts, right?
9. Was there a single moment in San Francisco that, when writing Bag of Tricks, you kept returning to in your mind like a turning point?
There were a few. The first time I plunged a needle into my arm. The first SF punk show I went to, surrounded by a huge, shifting multi-layered community of punks that made me feel like I was part of something bigger than what was just in my head. The Shits/Clits household was a place I lived that became a sort of launch for most of my adventures, so that place too.
10. Your writing carries a fierce honesty, even when it’s cloaked in fiction. Was it cathartic to revisit those times, or did it reopen old wounds?
There were days when I felt high as a kite while I wrote, or when I was done, like I was jonesing or coming down. I definitely put myself right back into those situations, or into situations that I never lived, but still, knowing I could have gone through that experience was intense. I started calling it method writing. It was exhausting but also exhilarating. I only regret a few things from back in the day, so there only a few instances where I felt like a bandaid was being ripped off.
11.Punk is often seen as aggressive or nihilistic, but your book reveals so much humor and absurdity. Was that something you aimed to preserve deliberately?
Most of us were kids, so we had a naïveté that allowed us to trip through intense situations somewhat flippantly. You know, when you’re that young, you don’t consider your own mortality. What happens happens and you move on from it to the next thing. Someone ODs? Cool, what’s next? Someone gets rolled and hurt badly? Ok, let’s go do this other thing now. And you know, I read a lot of comics as a kid, so a lot of the stories I wrote like Archie and the gang, but punk and with drugs.
12. Many stories center on slipping through the cracks of society. What do you think those cracks looked like in the ’80s punk scene, and what do they look like now?
It was so easy to find a crack to fall into, I think now as much as then. We were creating a new counter culture- a knee jerk reaction to the hippie counter culture and disco and what was happening politically around the world. Many of us just stepped out of our old lives into this street-based other life that included runaways, artists, musicians, drug addicts, mentally unstable folks, and other odd ducks. Everyone found something in common in our un-commonality, but we had to get there by falling through the looking glass first.
13. In telling the story of a subculture, you're also telling the story of a city. What did you lose when San Francisco changed, and what did you carry with you?
Ah, I left San Francisco before I could witness any changes. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back, and I’m not sure I want to see the difference. San Francisco is definitely a character in my stories. They’re as much of an homage to the City of the early 80s as to the punk scene that inhabited it. I carry images of my old haunts plus the smells and sounds of those times in my heart. The last time I was in San Francisco, I went to North Beach to take a peek at my old apartment there. The lock on a chain that I’d hung from my apt balcony was still there. That’s the image I often see when I think of those years.
14. You wrote Bag of Tricks after reconnecting with old friends. How did those conversations shape the stories that ended up on the page?
One of my closest friends from back in the day and I stayed in contact over the years even though we moved far away from one another. Whenever we talked, inevitably we would start asking one another “do you remember X?” Or “whatever happens to so and so?” Or “did you hear that X died/is in jail/is a soccer mom?” At one point, we came in contact with a lot of other folks from back then, and those “whatever happened to?” And “did you hear about?” Conversations expanded exponentially. I became inspired by all the new voices chiming in, and began to write it all down. Of course, I took liberties and made up a bit along the way.
15. If someone picks up your book knowing nothing about punk, what’s the one thing you hope they take away from it?
That while punk rockers may look and seem scary, they/we are people with hopes and dreams and feelings. And that while we may not look alike or like the same things in life- clothing, music, food, colors even- we all have a right to be here, doing what we’re doing. In the end, they might be surprised by how much we may actually have in common.
Grab yourself a copy of 'Bag of Tricks' soon and immerse yourself in these great San Francisco punk-rock stories, as the next instalment, 'Tricky Business: Bag of Tricks book 2' will be out this summer!