an update on ‘treat me like dirt’

In 2006 I took on a project that would change my life in all kinds of ways.

I was always chasing different histories and the story of punk was one of them. In high school I was obsessed with bands like the Clash and the Damned.

When I learned that my city, Toronto, had a punk movement of its own in the late '70s I became obsessed with learning more. How could punk have happened here, too, and we knew so little about it?

A thing you have to understand about growing up in Canada is that you always feel the shadows of American and British culture overpowering so much of our own stories. As a punk fan I knew so much about the London and New York and L.A. scenes but nothing about Toronto punk.

When I graduated journalism school in 2006 I had a lot of time on my hands and decided to locate the people who were part of punk history here in southern Ontario. Those interviews became my first book, Treat Me Like Dirt, published in 2009. This is an oral history of punk primarily set in Hamilton, Toronto, and London, Ontario.

This spring I heard from a few people who were having trouble finding copies of Treat Me Like Dirt. It had sold out of its last print run and was out of stock.

I am grateful that publisher ECW Press has reprinted this book and it should be back in stock now.

Almost 15 years after its debut, this book is still here. I know how hard it is to keep books in print, especially a Canadian book on such a specific subject.

I am so grateful to everyone who has supported this book over the years and helped to keep this part of punk history alive.

It is not an easy thing to prop up Canadian culture so every little step on this journey feels like a win.

Follow your obsessions and curiosities. Pay tribute to what excites you. Chances are that the thing you really love is someone else's passion, too.