Still older than me... but what the hey, right? They have more hair...

Ahh. where do I begin, sweet reader, where do I begin? Well, let's start at the beginning like all the true and honest pieces we've shared here in the past. Let this old dino have another couple of years of local journalism... Because let's face the facts, me ankles are being nipped by the incongruent molars of youth and quite frankly, I have not the medical insurance guaranteed by my sheriffs to defray them costs.

Two faces to this coin

This past July 9, I reported within these virtual pages about an assault that occurred in the VIP area of the Webster Hall during the CBGB Festival involving Harley Flanagan and William Berario and Michael "The Gook" Couls. As it turns, not being a witness to the attack left me at the mercy of the reported incident by other publications and I did my best to pass on the info with my limited sources.

Call it the curse of the blogosphere or me personally being taken aback by actions that fundamentally go against the hardcore creeds I grew up with. Regardless of which, it was fairly boneheaded of me to report what I read about without including the possibility that maybe Flanagan was acting in self-defense.

Now, before we move on to more recent reports, there's an overall feeling that this extends beyond the old Cro-Mags "clash of personalities" scenario and does not in any way, shape or form demonize Flanagan for being a Jiu Jitsu practitioner who is a lunatic meathead. Nope. We need his side of the story too, because he is not a lunatic meathead, a little off? Maybe, but not a lunatic.