I have been really into Tegan & Sara lately (in particular their fifth album, The Con), and I have always had a soft spot for Hayley Williams (Paramore). So when I stumbled across this interview over at autostraddle it was a match made in heaven (there is also a fascinating bit about Lady Gaga at the link, which I’m sure I’ll address sooner or later). Enjoy!
Last week I was absent for very exciting reasons. First, my mom came out to visit and then my partner and I headed over to Lyons, Colorado for Planet Bluegrass’s 20th Folks Festival. And it folked my socks off. Old favorites were there, like Ani DiFranco and Jenny Lewis, and I found some new favorites, too, such as Girlyman and Dala. Consider the following to be souvenirs I brought back for you!
Ani DiFranco - Her new stuff keeps getting better. Which is astonishing. Check out this sweet folk ditty (sorry about the poor visuals, but the sound is great and this vid is from the festival!):
Jenny Lewis - Jenny had me at Rilo Kiley, and her solo stuff continues to win me over. She played Silver Lining at the Folks Festival, but this clip is from a different performance:
My introduction to Felicia Day came when one of my favorite geeks, Wil Wheaton, posted the trailer for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on his website and told me to watch it. I did. I even waited up with anticipation waiting for the final installment.
The Trailer:
It was (and is) easy to love Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It’s a well-written, well-acted, well-produced 45 minutes of entertainment. It was also rather groundbreaking in the fact that it was independently produced by highly-respected professionals and proved that you don’t necessarily need the big studios to make something good or profitable.
Dr. Horrible also spawned a lot of discussion, most of it surrounding the character of Penny (played by Ms. Day), and the role she plays in the story.
(If you haven’t seen all three parts of Dr. Horrible yet, you should be warned: there will be spoilers.)
Or: Things that I considered writing about but never got around to and now other fantastic bloggers have said it better than I could, including:
An important question regarding women rockers in video games
Janelle Monae: sweet dancing in sweet suits
Beyonce as a 50s housewife, and
M.I.A.’s latest political statement on ________ (careful on that one – NSFW w/ graphic violence)
Will we ever get Rock Band: The Donnas, or Guitar Hero(ine): Heart? [jukebox heroines]
Will we get a popular video game that focuses exclusively on women as artists? As it is now, we have rock games that do nothing but focus on male artists, with a few token women tossed into the mix, complete with busty cleavage and skimpy clothing.
Janelle Monae is an Avant-Garde Film Geek (“Tightrope” Video) [cultural voiceover]
Janelle Monae was already promising to be a distinguishable kind of talent with her 2007 EP and her 60s soul sound with a touch of outer space. And the music video for her new song “Tightrope” (to be released on her upcoming album in May) has given us even more to look forward to.
Beyoncé An (Un)Happy Homemaker In New Video [jezebel]
More than anything, the song — and the video — gets better when BB sings “there’s nothing not to love about me,” as more of a statement, instead of a plea.
[F]ew seemed prepared for the incendiary clip, which was met with heated debate and taken off YouTube within hours. Directed by Romain Gavras, the nine-minute epic documents a militia breaking into civilians’ homes, terrorizing the inhabitants, rounding up redheads in hiding, and executing them at gun point. It’s grisly stuff, to be sure. Frankly, I’m not sure if I like the video. I certainly haven’t enjoyed watching it, though I’m not sure how one could.
What have you been reading, writing, watching, or listening to this week?
“Historically, country music would rather an artist be a drunk – they even encourage and endorse that one. You get good money from Jim Beam to put that emblem on the side of your bus. I was on the Crown Royal tour, and I have to say it was one of my favorite tours. They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay. They will forgive you if you beat your wife, lose your kids to state, get six divorces, make a sex tape, get labeled as a tramp – any and all of it is better than being gay.”
The past month or so has seen a number of celebs – specifically musicians – coming out publicly and engaging in (or at least instigating) dialogues about what is often a controversial and risky decision. Some of these have been not so surprising, but some have been more unpredicted. It will be interesting to see the longer-term effects of Ricky Martin, Jennifer Knapp, and Chely Wright’s coming out on their corresponding communities, each of which have attitudes ranging from mixed to hostile when it comes to coming out (Latino machismo, Christian fire-and-brimstone, and country homophobia). What do you predict the outcomes (pun not intended but left anyway) will be?
Ricky Martin is now publicly gay: “The word happiness takes on a new meaning for me as of today.” [greg in hollywood]
These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.
Christian Singer Jennifer Knapp Comes Out [the advocate]
Knapp no longer feels like being gay and being Christian are in opposition, even if others do. “I’m quite comfortable to live with parts of myself that don’t make sense to you,” she says. She acknowledges that such peace is hard-won in her community. “I keep running across people living closeted, who have literally chosen one or the other,” Knapp marvels.
Five reasons why Chely Wright’s coming out matters [after ellen]
The closet in the country music industry is deep and it is full. Talking about Wright and Knapp can change things; it can set an example. They have given us a specific topic, and a reason to discuss it.
Last night, I saw the most beautiful woman in the world. I have loved Ani DiFranco since about the 9th grade. I picked up the album Dilate at a used record shop, popped it in my walkman + car tape-deck adapter, and dove in head first. With my mom. Who kind of liked it, but didn’t “know about all this F%$# You business.”
Then there was the time I headed off to camp for the summer as a volunteer junior counselor and my mystery bunk-mate had an extensive Ani collection, guaranteeing me that we would be BFFs (which we are). Ani posters have accompanied me from home to home, dorm to rental, state to state. I’ve driven hundreds of miles to see her. I’ve driven tens of miles to see her. And I think I’m up to about… 7? shows now. Last night was one of the greatest.
I’ve never fallen in love with Ani’s new material as quickly as I did last night at her show in SLC. Like this one (which is not a video that I took, and which is not the best video quality, but listen to it for the song anyway – you won’t regret it):
I was especially impressed with the way that she introduced this song in such a conservative state. She prefaced it with how hard it is to write political songs, since they aren’t very romantic or emotional or pretty, but that she felt it was time to get down to business. She added that not everyone was going to agree with what she had to say in the song, but that that’s okay, and “welcome so much” to her point of view. And (although I’m admittedly biased in her favor) I honestly liked her political stuff better than her personal stuff last night.
Ani has always tapped in poignantly to the human experience: pleasure, pain, suffering, longing, desire, dreams, hope, anger, power… We love her because she puts to words and music what we feel. And humans love that dark, suffering, angsty stuff. Last night Ani was happy and busted out some love songs and celebrations of how far she’s come, her new marriage, and her new outlook on life as a mother. It’s not what Ani fans are used to (although we’ve been slowly acclimating to it over the past few albums), but Ani’s music isn’t for us. It’s for her. And she has every right to celebrate her joy. She certainly deserves it.
Ani DiFranco has been my hero since the seventh grade, and some of the best relationships in my life have evolved from a mutual love of the little folksinger. I could list 100 reasons to love her, but music aside, these snippets of her politics should give you some insight into the worldview of one of the most outspoken (and idolized) feminists of the modern era.
1. On feminism today:
“When I do many interviews and I’m faced with the is feminism really relevant anymore question … I’m sort of trying to put [it] out there more than ever now [that] our idea of feminism has stagnated and almost been abandoned by many, many people at a time when we should have evolved it. It should be embraced by men and women. I mean why don’t we call ourselves feminists? Young women don’t even [call themselves feminists] anymore, let alone women and men; and instead of feminism as equal pay for equal work – okay, we got that – but try to understand it as a consciousness shift. We have to use feminism all together as a tool to dismantle patriarchies so that all of us together can rise.”
2. On patriarchy in world politics:
“It’s the elephant in the room. As I get older, I really understand peace to be a product of balance. And there’s a fundamental imbalance inherent in patriarchy. Unless you have a dynamic interplay between the sensibilities of the two sexes, you can never create peace. It’s impossible.”
3. On the power of the people:
“I’m still very optimistic for the potential of grass roots change. I still see and feel it out there. It’s what allows me to get up in the morning, the immense possibility that exists all around us right now… We don’t need to change the world. The world is changing around us. We just need to direct that change. And our power to direct it is immense once we use it.”
“I don’t think much has changed, to tell you the truth. The media says that equality for women has arrived, but if you look around, you still don’t see girls playing guitars and having success with it. What’s different is that there are now girls in every city playing in bands. Girls feel that it’s okay to pick up a guitar, which they didn’t when I started. But as far as getting accepted by a wider audience, it’s still not happening.”
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“When I do many interviews and I’m faced with the is feminism really relevant anymore question … I’m sort of trying to put [it] out there more than ever now [that] our idea of feminism has stagnated and almost been abandoned by many, many people at a time when we should have evolved it. It should be embraced by men and women. I mean why don’t we call ourselves feminists? Young women don’t even [call themselves feminists] anymore, let alone women and men; and instead of feminism as equal pay for equal work – okay, we got that – but try to understand it as a consciousness shift. We have to use feminism all together as a tool to dismantle patriarchies so that all of us together can rise.”
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