December 2009 Archives

YOU GUYS HOLY SHIT I KNOW THIS IS AN ABUSE OF CAPS LOCK BUT OMG OMG OMG

CHECK THIS BAND OUT: chamber maids

they are in high school and jam out to Young Marble Giants AND ARE THE MOST EXCITING JAMS I HAVE EVER HEARD COME FROM THIS TOWN.

(did I mention they have a glockenspiel?)

as soon as i, Cordyceps puts up a myspace or something, I will be listening to the three songs they put up over + over.  although the not-having-a-myspace-thing can, you know, add to mystique.

this band, though: they sound like everything NW good.  there's a little Silkworm, maybe a little Juno, majorly some Unwound, and a lot like every single band I taped on the Young + the Restless in 1999 and never caught the name of.

(Kenneth is responsible for this photo.)

they do this thing where they all step away from the mikes and yell the same thing in growing unison.

also, guitars and vocals that tangle and grow around each other like ivy on a tree.

we played with them and Cold Lake on Saturday, and both are like super-groups, fucking brilliant super groups that remind you of your favorite 7" from the year you turned 16.  which is, of course, the musical glory years to which we will always return.

Happy birthday, Ellen Willis.

"Take back the night? How can women take back the night when they've never had it?"

I am re-reading her essays and memorials, as her daughter Nona Willis Aronowitz suggests; I had forgotten, somehow, the full strength of the force she carries.  I am taking notes, crying a little, having my brain stretched like only she can, every sentence reminding me of conversations I need to resume with friends.

on love + romance:
"It used to be love but I think what I like most is romance. Love is really hard work. So hard. Sex is easy. Too easy. Romance is great. For romance to work you have to be intrigued, attracted, mentally alert, spontaneous and if it doesn't work out at least you get a couple of songs out of it. Whereas if love doesn't work out, you get a broken heart and if sex doesn't work out, it's just plain embarrassing."

on love:
"I forgot to say that love, being the hardest thing in the world to do, is the best thing in the world if you get it right."

on parents + art:
"To really let go and create is difficult with parents watching. It's like becoming a teenager, you have to reject them to become the person you are and not a reflection of them or what they want you to be."

on telling the truth:
"Last year was my 'year of saying yes'  I have a tendency to say no to requests but decided to try the opposite.  If I had a bad year I could always revert back.  I had a good year.

Halberstam on Big Mama Thornton:

"While the history of Elvis has often been told as the history of cultural theft and in terms of the absorption of black cultural influence into white cultural production, only rarely is this process described in terms of the 'straight' absorption of 'queer' cultural influence."



via Gina Young

I keep seeing pictures of this Justin Bieber kid on myspace when I log in, and every single time, for a split second, I think it's a dyke, and I'm like "YEAH, SWEET- GOOD JOB, MYSPACE!" 

And then I realize it's actually a 15-yr-old boy, and I'm like, "oh, no, NOT AGAIN."

seriously.  story of my life.

they are like Vivian Girls x New Bloods.  they are all I can listen to these days.  they are blowing out my mind and my heart.

take a listen if that is yr thing:

grass widow

uh ... I feel like Dan Savage has some real constant + low-level misogyny.  it usually flies under the radar because he covers it up with being really quick-witted and funny.  but this one leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I don't think I am overreacting.

BROTHERS SHOULD DO IT (Frat Brothers, Not Actual Brothers)

not to mention the really questionable position he is taking on consent.

and every single person in the comments is like, "lesbo it up?  haha omg Dan Savage I love u," which also weirds me out.

SOMETIMES THIS MAKES ME FEEL CRAZY because Dan Savage is, like, fucking DAN SAVAGE, and I am a better, saner, healthier person for having spent my teen years reading his column.  but now I just kind of can't deal with how he never talks about queer women and is super-quick to brush off any accusations of misogyny, because HEY, I'M DAN SAVAGE (I think that's his basic counter-argument).  though he sometimes calls out other dudes on their shit, which is cool, but his arguments grow increasingly shrill and are grossing me out.  like, remember that whole "blame black people for Prop. 8" position he was advocating for with hella op-eds and stuff?  whoaaaaa, that is heavy shit, dude, and majorly fucked.

I'm kind of over his whole thing.