Ruby Dee Philippa: PUNK STORYTELLER
Dive into Ruby’s tales of life as a punk on the streets of San Francisco back in the day. Most of the stories are more or less true…
bag of tricks trilogy
Bag of Tricks is a compilation of short stories about San Francisco punks in the early 80’s
latest posts
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How fucking pissed off are you?
All it takes to bring out the I suppose not too buried punk in me is to read the fucking news. How much like the 80’s is this when Reagan was tearing into the fabric of American society? Crazy enough, I miss those days. How pissed off do you have to be to start a…
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Old Captain Ahab
On my way home from an old friend’s memorial in MI this past weekend, I got a call from my mom that my papa was in the hospital with severe oxygen restriction and they didn’t know why. I was stuck in the teensy Traverse City airport with my flight already delayed by 2+ hours to…
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Sadly, Publicity Counts
Hi all- here’s my rant regarding how even in a punk rock world, publicity still counts in the end. I had hired our old publicist from my band, RUBY DEE AND THE SNAKEHANDLERS, to handle publicity for all three books, launch by launch, but she fell off the face of the earth, and never did…
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Ox Bot Review
In Deutsh no less 🙂
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TAKE EFFECT REVIEW
RUBY DEE PHILIPPA February 10, 2026 Bag Of Tricks Earth Island, 2025 9/10 Read About Bag Of Tricks Most of my knowledge about punk rock life in San Francisco in the ‘80s comes from reading Maximum RocknRoll and the words of Larry Livermore and Ace Backwords. The stories they told made it seem like the…
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Just Checking In
I know I’ve been pretty much radio silent since I came back from running around the West Coast and ATX and such last year. I just started working on a new movie, so I’ve been concentrating on that. But in a few weeks, I’ll be heading to Pittsburgh to read to all my pals there,…
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OX Fanzine Review
I just got what I hope is a great review in OX Fanzine, though I can’t read German so…
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Viva La Real Girl
I have been continuing to write, picking up from where some of the characters branched off of the BAG OF TRICKS Trilogy. New (and beloved) characters find their way down to Los Angeles in the mid-80’s to carry on the unfinished business of their punk lives- falling in love, attending shows, finding new ways to…
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End of 2025 Check In
Hiya 🙂 Just checking in to say what a fantastic year this has been for BAG OF TRICKS, even though the rest of the world has returned to the dark ages, it seems… I would like to thank everyone who bought any of the three books and audio book, and those who have taken the…
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karen wasylowski interview
https://karenwasylowski.com/2025/11/23/old-tricks-new-treats-interview-part-10