Whole Wheat

me + my roommates spend a lot of time talking about our vags.  I mean, we have the giant household menstrual calendar hanging on the living room wall; several painting of vulvas around the house; a giant felt vagina that I think someone adopted from the Women's Center.  yeast infections, diva cups, lunar cycles- we've got it covered.  however, there are some things that don't come across our radar much.  douches, for example.  or bejewelling our down-there.  thankfully, AlterNet is filling the, uh, hole with this: The 6 Weirdest Things Women Do to Their (why "their"?  why not "our"?) Vaginas, "a list of the strangest ways to make your genitals meet the demands of the beauty industry."  this will provide my household with hours of kitchen conversation.

Problem: Your Vagina is Too Loose 
Solution: Vaginal Rejuvenation 
Let's face it. Nature really screwed up when it made the vagina. Never mind that that it accommodates the birth of a child or that it's fundamentally better designed than male genitalia. (Who wants to carry their most sensitive reproductive organs on the outside?) While nature was busy dishing out things like multiple orgasms, it forgot to make vaginas vice-tight. Luckily, plastic surgeons have stepped in to put an end to womankind's collective suffering. 

this is another thing I am working on.  Cristina has summed it up real nicely, "what the eff it is to 'grow up' 'punk rock.'

HOW TO BE A GROWN-UP: a research endeavor

"The dominant notion of adulthood is all tied up with the concept of settling: fixing your position in life and then making do with it. Most people naturally resist that compromise; that's why growing up is generally viewed as a necessary evil. Our culture fetishizes youth ... partly because WE HAVE NEVER COME UP WITH A PROCESS OF MATURING THAT ISN'T STEEPED IN SOUL-CONSTRICTING CONCESSION AND DENIAL." - Ann Powers [emphasis mine]

possible interested parties:

A] you seem to be living in a way that is NOT "soul-constricting concession and denial" - aka you are still making music, or art, or going on tour, or doing activism, or in general turning what your grandma thought was a "phase" into your lifestyle/happiness/livelihood.

help support all-ages music.  it is easy!

AMP (all-ages movement project) is in the running to receive $50,000*.  THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY.  especially when you are a young struggling not-for-profit.  all you have to do is vote for them- and you can vote every single day in February HERE.  as of today, AMP is in 4th place- and I guess they were higher up than that a few days ago- so this is totally do-able, and not just another meaningless "Facebook Causes" application.

please vote.  please tell everyone you know to vote.  if you have ever loved places like the Old Redmond Firehouse, the VERA Project, the DoS (RIP), Ground Zero, WhAAM- AMP exists to advocate for them.  they want to bring all-ages music to ever town.  it is so easy, just do it, and do it again tomorrow, and do it again every day after that until Feb. 28th, which is when the contest ends.

*from Pepsi, which is weird, but, as AMP says: "We hope you don't take this as us endorsing their products, or saying that corporate sponsorship is a-ok. We know that different communities have widely varying perspectives on this issue. We just want your help taking their money and using it for something good."

Katie and I are putting on an event on the 13th at WhAAM.  PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD.

What is Girls' Music Workshop?

Girls' Music Workshop is a FREE day-long event to encourage girls to make music. It's an effort to get girls involved with music who might not, under normal circumstances and through typical avenues, play music. You don't have to play music or be in a band at all to come! We want all girls who are interested in music and maybe making music to come- whether you've been playing drums since age five or dream about someday being in a band. It will be happening at WhAAM on Saturday, February 13th at 3pm; and at 8pm that evening, there will be a showcase of girl-centered bands for $5.

Why do you feel this is important?

So many girls think that making music and being in bands is much harder than it actually is. We hope that this event will show girls what's actually involved in making music- that they can do it and it's worth the effort. Also, at ANY age, there are far less girls who play music than boys, and it can be really hard to meet other girls who play music. We want this to be an opportunity for girls who are interested in playing music and being in bands to meet other like-minded folks, share ideas, maybe form bands, and ask questions of women who have been doing this for awhile.

Do girls need extra encouragement to play music? Why?

Yes! We both feel like it's impossible to talk about this subject without invoking personal experience. We spent years fumbling with guitars in our bedrooms, but didn't ever think we were good enough to be in bands, much less play in front of people- even friends. Showing the things you create to other people can be intimidating for anyone, regardless of gender or background; but there are especial barriers that get in the way of girls doing this.

When we walk into music stories, we encounter dudes who try to sell us pink guitars- if we go up to those same guys and ask them, "so, what does this knob do?," that would just confirm stereotypes about girl musicians. We want to make a space where girls can ask those questions without being self-conscious. We want to help them get to the business of making music sooner than we were able to- because it took both of us years and years to get over our hang-ups.

It takes a lot of encouragement and positive peer pressure to get over these barriers. Learning to play music (and learning to do anything, for that matter) is a messy process. We want to give girls a space to be messy and to discover, to make things that aren't perfect- to have fun!

We want things to be better for the next generation of girls and for ladies, women, and girls of all ages.

What is planned for the day?

The event will get underway at 3pm. We'll have time for people to meet each other (maybe bond over a shared love of Rihanna and Bikini Kill and share ideas about music?). There will be a question-and-answer panel of knowledgeable female musicians and ladies involved in the music scene- they'll be there to share their experiences and create a dialogue about how to get involved with music. There will be lots of time for participants to ask questions. We will have a resource list of female music instructors in Whatcom County. There will also be a workshop on what to expect when you play a show (stage set-up, microphones, amplifiers, sound engineers)- all the intimidating stuff, so that when you do play a show, you will be ready to go! Then, at 8pm, a bunch of really really awesome bands with girls in them, including Thimble vs. Needle, Party Thighs, RHOMBUS, Chamber Maids, and maybe some others, too.

Why is this something that you care about/what is your personal vested interest in this?

We both love love love music and it took us years to do this. Being in a band was always a wish, for both of us; but it seemed impossible to make it happen. We both were on the planning committee for the first Ladyfest Bellingham, and the creative female energy around us was a huge catalyst. Once we got started playing music, we realized how easy it was to play music- and how much fun it is- and everything else just kind of fell into place. Both of us feel like being in bands has been the best decision we have made in a long time. We really want other girls to discover that joy, too, and not feel intimidated. We want them to have as much fun as we're having, and not have to wait as long as we did to figure that out (or longer)!

What is your dream for the Bellingham music community?

Way more spaces for people to be messy in. Art and music doesn't usually come out of people's heads fully-formed; it takes lots of mistakes and second and third and fourth tries and weird accidents. But usually all that we see in public is the finished product. If there were more spaces and opportunities to be weird and messy and not perfect, it might make things seem a lot more accessible.

Let's talk about the total explosion of girls making music in Bellingham right now.

Oh my god, there are so many good bands it's AWESOME! There are ladies who have been making music for a while who are trying new things, there are gals who have never played instruments before who are learning them. There are more active girl-centered bands right now in Bellingham than we have ever seen before- Femme Uke, Hoot Hoot, Cumulus, Rhombus, Party Thighs, Cora Anne Glass, Council of Lions, Chelsey Weber-Smith, Allison Vincler, Golden Hair, Chamber Maids- holy cow, so many! And we are probably totally forgetting some, too. There are new girl projects starting up every month, it seems like! IT IS SO EXCITING. But we are greedy, so we want even more!

To quote the Ladyfest B'ham 2009 manifesta:

"We believe that expertise is too often a male-defined concept. We believe that if the rules surrounding the production of art are preventing you from creating it then you have the right to disregard them. We believe in the necessity of fostering spaces where people can create and share their art without needing to evaluate it. Don't be afraid to try. Don't be afraid to not judge someone else. Your neighbor's noise could also be their liberation."

"I couldn't really play guitar and I didn't care, I just wanted to make noises and get something truthful and real out there."

-viv albertine

I'm gonna go see Karl play tomorrow night at the final D.O.S. show, and I have seriously been listening to this song over + over the past 24 hours.  like, as soon as the video ends on youtube, I hit the "replay" button, and will keep doing that for 40 minutes or so.  until I realize that I've been listening to the same song on repeat for the better part of an hour.



there is serious weird stuff with all of these cold-climes (white) Americans adding sounds that are super African to their repertoire.  there's the obvious ones (Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors- who are maybe less regionally-specific, more the general "Africa" vibe) and the more under-the-radar guys, like Karl Blau and Angelo Spencer, who channel, like, Ali Farka Toure and North African desert blues-type shit. 

it feels like the whole "Under My Thumb" phenomenon- the groove is so, so good, but you feel so, so conflicted about enjoying it.  but you do enjoy it, you can't pretend you don't.  and by "you," I clearly mean "me."

because I, at least, can't stop listening to "Dark Sedan." 

(I can't really say the same for VMPR WKND, but it's so trendy to bash those dudes right now that it's kind of dull.  somebody's gotta call 'em out, I guess, since they've made themselves such easy targets.  though I'd rather tangle with the gnarlier, less cut-and-dried ones, to be honest.  something that I can sink my teeth into.)

so I guess this is the rockstar lifestyle: me + my bandmates, post-show (okay, it was a super-early show, but still) sitting around in my living room after unloading the amps from the car; my clock reads 9:22pm on a Friday night, and all of us are too tired to keep a train of thought.  sit on the couch + fall asleep watching She-Ra: Princess of Power again?  sounds like a plan.

listening to these back-to-back is a way of pretending that July is closer than it really is.

just heard that the Department of Safety is closing.  no details yet.

there have been so many dreams wrapped around that place.  the magic there has always reminded of what is possible, what we can work for and achieve.  like Kevin says, "the radical potential of incubating DIY cultural resistance in small communities."  the DOS looked, to me, a lot like twee utopia for awhile.

I don't wanna say "rest in peace," because that energy has to go somewhere.  it's hard to convince people to move into a big cold concrete building in a small isolated coast town in the middle of Washington winter, and I'm sure that probably has a lot to do with it.

but oh, for a bit, it looked like living the dream- ride your bikes down Commercial, hang out at the Business, late-night donuts, records and cake upstairs, lake swimming at Cranberry, Gus, puppies, the weird Calvin mural, Fontee Fount, the signs everywhere.  Heck Fest.