“To write in a journal is to consciously or unconsciously acknowledge the corrosive capabilities of time. Journal writing is an act of mummification: one embalms the present in expectation of a future hunger for remembrance.”
—Hannah Kingsley-Ma, The Rumpus
June 2013
3 posts
Northern Lights
Allo Darlin'
“Northern Lights” - Allo Darlin
April 2013
2 posts
“
My friend Emily Prince designed and embroidered it for me. I wanted an album cover that depicted real, touchable, substantial materials & handiwork (partly because of the album title, with its references to mending, and its excerption from the album’s central song—”Sadie”—which is full of sewing-related lyrics). It was actually a sort of distressing thing, initially, because I wanted to include everything significant and beautiful to me, and I didn’t know how that could be done. Emily and I started by itemising some objects which have accrued symbolic, nostalgic strength for us over the years (like narwhales, owls, hot air balloons, skeletons). We decided that she’d embroider these, and have them inhabit little fields of calico and burlap, the edges of which could touch and intersect, to give a sense of dense, almost airless amalgamation…because I think those symbols are at their most powerful when they brush up against each other. I’ve always been sort of obsessed by the alchemy of closeness, of cramming things together, compacting myth denser and denser.
Then we started collecting real objects… teeth, feathers, buttons, bones, acorns, a dead butterfly, leaves, coins, that sort of thing. And Emily attached them all to her tapestry. The photo went right in the center, with a macaroni frame, so it looked sort of like something a third-grader would make as a Mother’s Day gift, and sort of like a shrine for a dead person.
” —Joanna Newsom on the cover of her album, The Milk-Eyed MenderMarch 2013
1 post
Automechanic
Jenny O.
“Automechanic” - Jenny O.
February 2013
10 posts
“Now, there are also plenty of other really great reasons not to talk about Dunham’s attractiveness or lack thereof — women: not reducible to objects, even when they’re on screens and stuff — but assuming it’s going to come up (and sometimes is even one of the things a movie/TV show/etc is trying to bring up), the most basic thought that should be in a man’s mind is: “I am not an arbiter of what is attractive.” This is pretty basic self-awareness stuff, but there it is: You can acknowledge someone is outside the norm without assigning a value to that fact. More to the point, unless the question is explicitly “Do you find Person X attractive?” — which, just to spell it out here, it effectively never is in a cultural criticism context — your opinion on the matter does not matter one tiny, goddamn iota.”
—David Barry
Cry for Judas
The Mountain Goats
“Cry for Judas” - The Mountain Goats
Holy Roller
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
“We The Common” - Thao and the Get Down Stay Down
A Brief History of the Elusive Card Carrying Feminist
Rumors of the Feminist Card began circulating in the late 1800s and early 1900s during the rise of the women’s suffrage movement. Women who identified with the sociopolitically unpopular notion that women were equal to men would mysteriously receive a small card, by post, with the word FEMINIST, printed on one side in black ink, the other side blank. These cards were considered dangerous, and the consequences, should a woman be found with her FEMINIST card, were grave, so many women hid their feminist cards in the hems of their skirts or near their G-spots where they knew their husbands would never find them. When questioned about their cards, these women denied such existence vehemently, a practice that continues until today.
The FEMINIST cards were useful for allowing feminists to find like-minded women in a time when few women could publicly share their seemingly heretical ideas about equality. In church or other such male-approved gatherings, women would surreptitiously hold their FEMINIST card in a gloved left hand, and look around to see if other women were presenting their cards as such. After, these women would congregate in each other’s parlors to discuss freedom, voting, getting rid of corsets, and the latest skin treatments under the guise of sewing circles and “charity” work.
Once women received the right to vote, rather than become part of the mainstream, card carrying feminists became even more secretive. Women in the public eye would openly declare, to anyone who would listen, “I am not a card carrying feminist,” even though such was rarely the case. The more vehement the disavowals, it was often discovered, the more ardent the feminist.
In the 1970s, FEMINIST cards began appearing at women’s homes with much more frequency and before long, nearly one in three women had a FEMINIST card hidden somewhere in her home or on her person. Today, women holding these cards still congregate wherever and whenever, exchanging bold ideas about the future of women. When they are together, they proudly admit they are card carrying feminists.
Old Friend
Sea Wolf
“Old Friend” - Sea Wolf
“I thought I understood it, that I could grasp it, but I didn’t, not really. Only the smudgeness of it; the pink-slippered, all-containered, semi-precious eagerness of it. I didn’t realize it would sometimes be more than whole, that the wholeness was a rather luxurious idea. Because it’s the halves that halve you in half. I didn’t know, don’t know, about the in-between bits; the gory bits of you, and the gory bits of me.”
—Like Crazy
November 2012
1 post
August 2012
3 posts
Ruin
Cat Power
“Ruin” - Cat Power
“What I would like is to ban men from speaking about women’s bodies for a period of time sufficient enough for men, and mostly politicians, to stop being afraid of the word vagina, stop spouting bizarre pseudoscience about magical uteri, stop legislating abortion and being particularly cavalier about the lives of women while sacrificing those lives for fetuses out of some misguided political or religious fervor concerning the sanctity of life, stop trying to categorize rape as illegitimate or legitimate as if such a bullshit distinction were possible, stop encouraging a lax attitude toward rape reporting and prosecution, stop concerning themselves with the sex lives of women and antiquated notions about promiscuity, stop trying to frame birth control as necessarily expensive whore medicine, stop trying to undermine the one organization dedicated to providing women from all walks of life with affordable healthcare and also to stop with all the breast staring unless the mood is right.”
—Roxane Gay
July 2012
6 posts
1904
The Tallest Man On Earth
“1904” - The Tallest Man On Earth
“As a feminist, I cannot simultaneously believe that “the personal is political” and that a white American terrorist murderer has “no political motive”. Everything we are and do is informed by our politics, while would mass murder be any different? the disdain for human life necessary to execute the crime IS political. The insistance that a white man acted in a vacuum causes me severe cognitive dissonance. How can he be devoid of politics when he is the by product of a system that upholds heteronormative, patriarchal, white supremacist values? That those values have become so ingrained and pervasive doesn’t mean that the killer has “no political motive”, it just means that those politics are so normalized to the point of being invisible.”
—Flavia Dzodan (Red Light Politics)
Where Was I
Rosie Thomas
“Where Was I” - Rosie Thomas
“Dudebros: When you’re a proud member of a class that has been dominant for millennia, and occasionally you find yourself not on top, that’s not oppression–that’s backfiring. It’s a side effect. No system is perfect. When you create and enforce a system of gender roles in which “real men” are strong, fearless, stoic, and violent; and “real women” are delicate, emotional, compassionate, and nurturing; you will occasionally find yourself held to those same standards. When you establish combat and money-earning as “men’s work” and childrearing and caregiving as “women’s work,” you will occasionally find yourself stuffed into an assigned role. Even when they aren’t your standards or your preferred roles, per se–when you personally want to diverge from them and are being punished for it–it’s still your system, your patriarchy, and you’re still soaking in its benefits.”
—Caperton
June 2012
7 posts
The Only Place
Best Coast
“The Only Place” - Best Coast
Keeping Things Whole - Mark Strand
In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.
When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.
We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.
Music I Am Looking Forward To In 2012 (AKA Albums I Am Telling You To Buy)
01/17 - Ani Difranco, Which Side Are You On (song: Which Side Are You On)
01/24 - Laura Gibson, La Grande (song: La Grande)
01/24 - Ingrid Michaelson, Human Again
01/27 - John K Samson, Provincial
02/07 - Sharon Van Etten, Tramp (song: Serpents)
02/07 - Jenny Owen Youngs, An Unwavering Band Of Light
02/13 - The Rosie Taylor Project, Twin Beds
02/14 - Rosie Thomas, With Love (song: Where Was I)
02/14 - Peter Broderick, http://itstartshear.com
02/27 - Fanfarlo, Rooms Filled With Light (song: Replicate)
02/28 - Anais Mitchell, Young Man In America
02/28 - Memoryhouse, The Slideshow Effect
03/05 - Bowerbirds, The Clearing (song: In the Yard)
03/05 - Dry The River, Shallow Bed
04/02 - Seeker Lover Keeper, Seeker Lover Keeper
04/09 - Sea of Bees, Orangefarben (song: Broke)
04/09 - Lisa Gatewood, Midway
04/13 - FM Radio, Out of the Blue
04/17 - Horse Feathers, Cynic’s New Year (song: Fit Against the Country)
04/23 - Tom Williams and the Boat, Teenage Blood (song: My Bones)
04/24 - Joe Pug, The Great Despiser
04/24 - Sarah Jaffe, Body Wins
05/01 - Hurray For The Riff Raff, Look Out Mama
05/15 - Beach House, Bloom
05/16 - Chelsey Scott, The Faithful
05/21 - Admiral Fallow, Tree Bursts in Snow (song: Beetle in the Box)
05/28 - Polly Paulusma, Leaves From The Family Tree
05/29 - Regina Spektor, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats
05/29 - Sun Kil Moon, Among The Leaves (song: Sunshine in Chicago)
06/05 - Gregory and the Hawk, Come, Now
06/11 - The Tallest Man on Earth, There’s No Leaving Now (song: 1904)
06/11 - Skinny Lister, Forge & Flagon
06/26 - Cory Chisel, Old Believers
09/04 - Jens Lekman, I Know What Love Isn’t
09/04 - Stars, The North
09/10 - Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra, Theatre is Evil
09/11 - Cat Power, Sun
09/11 - Sea Wolf, Old World Romance
09/11 - The Avett Brothers, The Carpenter
09/18 - Wilderness of Manitoba, Island of Echoes
09/24 - Mumford and Sons, Babel
09/24 - Lucy Rose, Like I Used To
10/02 - Dark Dark Dark, Who Needs Who
10/12 - The Mountain Goats, Transcendental Youth
10/15 - Bat For Lashes, The Haunted Man
Seeing Ghosts
Rosi Golan
“Seeing Ghosts” - Rosi Golan
“We let Willow cut her hair. When you have a little girl, it’s like how can you teach her that you’re in control of her body? If I teach her that I’m in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she’s going to replace me with some other man when she goes out in the world. She can’t cut my hair but that’s her hair. She has got to have command of her body. So when she goes out into the world, she’s going out with a command that is hers. She is used to making those decisions herself. We try to keep giving them those decisions until they can hold the full weight of their lives.”
—Will Smith, forever awesome.
May 2012
10 posts
Sunshine in Chicago
Sun Kil Moon
“Sunshine in Chicago” - Sun Kil Moon
Baboon - The Mountain Goats
“This is a song I sing, that I want you to have in your heart when the day comes that you see a person whose lips, when they first met yours, filled you with a joy that you had not known before that day. When the day comes that the same lips fill you with the revulsion you would reserve for an open grave, I want you to know this song. You may not want to sing it, you may not want to remember it. But I have sadistic tendencies! And I want you to remember me on that day, cause I’ve been right down there with you.”
— John Darnielle
the sun came up above the strange white plain.
blood red flowers all wet with rain
and the spirit wasn’t really willing anymore, but the flesh was very very strong.
and i’ve got very little money left, and i’ve got no sense,
but I’ll have none of your god damned impudence.
the sun came up above the new white fields,
everything was new again.
pure power, stripped of meaning, sky burning, spring cleaning.
daisies on the hillside like cancer on the skin.
pretty little yellow eyes that flutter in the wind,
I’d be grateful my children aren’t here here to see this,
if you’d ever seen fit to give me children.
and my defenses may be working with a skeleton crew,
but I’ll be skinned alive before I’ll take this from you.
the sun came up above the ocean out west,
all the colors of the rainbow.
stand up straight, you can see the house leaning.
day breaking, spring cleaning.
“If there’s anything we’ve learned from Michelle Pfieffer in Dangerous Minds, or Sandy Bullock in The Blind Side, or Hilary Swank in that movie nobody ever saw, is that all you need to fix minority problems is a really pretty white woman.”
—Laurie
“If I’m going to hold this whole vessel of my life, I have to have the emotional stamina for it. It’s not that useful to just toss things off and say, “Screw you.” There’s a deeper message of holding all of the things that you experience in your life and that you’re going to experience. You can’t stop the rough stuff from happening and you’re never going to. And that’s okay. That doesn’t mean go crawl under the covers and never talk to anyone and never do anything. It means, hold it. Just hold it.”
—Mirah
Fit Against the Country
Horse Feathers
“Fit Against the Country” - Horse Feathers
“Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.”
—Napoleon Hill
April 2012
7 posts
‘Vagina’ Sonnet - Joan Larkin (1975)
Is “vagina” suitable for use
in a sonnet? I don’t suppose so.
A famous poet told me, “Vagina’s ugly.”
Meaning, of course, the sound of it. In poems.
Meanwhile, he inserts his penis frequently
into his verse, calling it, seriously, “My
Penis.” It is short, I know, and dignified.
I mean of course the sound of it. In poems.
This whole thing is unfortunate, but petty,
like my hangup concerning English Dept. memos
headed “Mr./Mrs./Miss”–only a fishbone
in the throat of the revolution–
a waste of brains–to be concerned about
this minor issue of my cunt’s good name.
If you are ever on a game-show and asked the following:
What Is The Best Way To Compliment A Woman?
a) “I fancy your sister.”
b) “You smell like a new car.”
c) “You don’t sweat a lot for a fat lass.”
d) “You look like you’ve lost weight.”
you better respond with a gigantic fuck you and storm the fuck out, I swear to god.
The Unlocking
Sam Airey
“The Unlocking” - Sam Airey
Real Women - Hanne Blank
Excuse me while I throw this down, I’m old and cranky and tired of hearing the idiocy repeated by people who ought to know better.
Real women do not have curves. Real women do not look like just one thing.
Real women have curves, and not. They are tall, and not. They are brown-skinned, and olive-skinned, and not. They have small breasts, and big ones, and no breasts whatsoever.
Real women start their lives as baby girls. And as baby boys. And as babies of indeterminate biological sex whose bodies terrify their doctors and families into making all kinds of very sudden decisions.
Real women have big hands and small hands and long elegant fingers and short stubby fingers and manicures and broken nails with dirt under them.
Real women have armpit hair and leg hair and pubic hair and facial hair and chest hair and sexy moustaches and full, luxuriant beards. Real women have none of these things, spontaneously or as the result of intentional change. Real women are bald as eggs, by chance and by choice and by chemo. Real women have hair so long they can sit on it. Real women wear wigs and weaves and extensions and kufi and do-rags and hairnets and hijab and headscarves and hats and yarmulkes and textured rubber swim caps with the plastic flowers on the sides.
Real women wear high heels and skirts. Or not.
Real women are feminine and smell good and they are masculine and smell good and they are androgynous and smell good, except when they don’t smell so good, but that can be changed if desired because real women change stuff when they want to.
Real women have ovaries. Unless they don’t, and sometimes they don’t because they were born that way and sometimes they don’t because they had to have their ovaries removed. Real women have uteruses, unless they don’t, see above. Real women have vaginas and clitorises and XX sex chromosomes and high estrogen levels, they ovulate and menstruate and can get pregnant and have babies. Except sometimes not, for a rather spectacular array of reasons both spontaneous and induced.
Real women are fat. And thin. And both, and neither, and otherwise. Doesn’t make them any less real.
There is a phrase I wish I could engrave upon the hearts of every single person, everywhere in the world, and it is this sentence which comes from the genius lips of the grand and eloquent Mr. Glenn Marla:
There is no wrong way to have a body.
I’m going to say it again because it’s important: There is no wrong way to have a body.And if your moral compass points in any way, shape, or form to equality, you need to get this through your thick skull and stop with the “real women are like such-and-so” crap.
You are not the authority on what “real” human beings are, and who qualifies as “real” and on what basis. All human beings are real.
Yes, I know you’re tired of feeling disenfranchised. It is a tiresome and loathsome thing to be and to feel. But the tit-for-tat disenfranchisement of others is not going to solve that problem. Solidarity has to start somewhere and it might as well be with you and me.