Get On That Crazy Train

You may have seen comedian Maria Bamford in those recent Target commercials. As her agent told her - at first I didn't think I would like her due to the high pitched girly voice. But it grew on me.

Maria Bamford - Montreal 2006 - watch more funny videos

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Maria Bamford - Impressions
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Ringing in the New Year

Maluca: El Tigeraso [Mad Decent]



OOIOO - Loke Kika


Transvision Vamp - If Looks Could Kill


Vanilla Ninja - Kauge Kuu


Mika Miko - I Got A Lot



The Plasmatics - Butcher Baby

Bring It On New Year!

Apparently sales of Emergeny Contraception double the day after New Years Eve. This is a funny ad reminding you to back up your BC for the New Year.




Okay time to go party like its the age of Aquarius and we're an Army Of Lovers!

Female Sensibility

Lynda Benglis- Female Sensibility (1974)

A Whole New Year Ahead

Santa Baby

And my buns: they don't feel nothin' like steel.

RIP Brittany Murphy

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy last day of Hanukkah. Here's the old Adam Sandler classic.

Its Kinda Like Ya Know, That Time Of Year

The Christmas Episode of My So Called Life

Da Cherry Bomb

Finally! The trailer is out for The Runaways.


Although my expectations for the movie are just sort of lukewarm- I'm sure they're going to water it down a bit- I am excited to see a movie with some teen girls who rock - and also staring some teen girls who can act. I've really liked Kristen Stewart since Panic Room and I think its awesome that Dakota Fanning is coming into her more adult self with an awesome role like Cherie Currie. Also up and comers Alia Shawkat and Scout Taylor Compton have been pretty awesome so far so I'm glad they're getting some good parts.

The Runaways were sort of like the girl punk/pop version of the Modern Lovers in the way that almost everyone went on to have a killer career after the band.

There was Lita Ford the lead guitarist.

Then Lita went on to become the Godmother Of Metal. My favorite Goth Metal bar Lucky 13 has tons of Lita photos on the wall.

Kiss Me Deadly Color Correction
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Of course there was also Cherie Currie, The Runaway's lead singer at 15!





Cherie went on to have a pretty cool acting career in Foxes, Parasite, Twilight Zone the movie, and This Is Spinal Tap. She also put out a solo album and an album with her twin sister.
These days she enjoys making wood sculptures with her chainsaw.


The Runaways also had a rotating bassist position that was filled with all sorts of gals, such as Mickie Steele who went on to be in The Bangles and Jackie Fox who went on to Harvard to become a lawyer.


But honestly, my heart has always belonged to Joan Jett



When I was a depressed teenager I hit a point where I'd completely given up on feeling good. Life involved the saddest of indie music and trying to sleep as much as possible so I wouldn't think about my shitty boyfriend and why he'd dumped me. Then I discovered Joan Jett and AC/DC and it was like having a total breakthrough. I believe Oprah refers to this as "your ah-ha moment". Anyhow, I realized that I didn't have to listen to sad music, and I didn't have to save the lost cause of a boyfriend. I'd always known about Joan Jett but hadn't ever considered it a thing to listen to on your own. I'd put on the Joan Jett and try on tight black jeans and practice what my "look" was going to be for college. It's totally embarrassing to think about that phase now, but having some bad-ass music and college to look forward to was the only thing that got me through those last few months of living at home. That summer I used to tape over old audio tapes by putting tape over this little indent on the top - so I could listen to them in my car. Anyhow, I ended up taping over my mom's autographed Livingston Taylor tape with the best of Joan Jett. This consequently got my cd player and all my music taken away until I could find her a new version. In a roundabout way it lead to her finding out that I'd been smoking pot and drunk driving so the car was taken away. I was working at a music store that summer and found her a copy of The Best of Livingston Taylor, the best I could do. However when I think back on that crappy summer, I think about the video to I Love Rock and Roll. Joan is singing about a 17 year old boy standing by the record machine and how she knows she's gonna make him hers. It felt really cool to have a song about a girl checking out a 17 year old guy. It felt like there was going to be some place for me that had cute guys my age who were into good music - but more importantly it felt like I could just do Joan's swagger and call the shots all on my own.



Joan Jett continues to rock even today.


Did you guys know she produced this Bikini Kill song Rebel Girl. You can totally tell. More proof that Joan Jett will continue to influence generations of future musicians.


I hope The Runaways movie is cool. Cause when you watch this video below you can just tell how bad girls probably wanted to be just like them. I don't think I'll ever stop wanting to be like them.

Vintage Fits Like A Fine Wine

Threadbared posted an awesome article the other day about the political ramifications or at least insinuation of what we wear - especially in reference to vintage. I was super into this since I think vintage stuff shaped who I am before I was even old enough to pick out my own clothes. My maternal grandmother has the most amazing attic and basement full of everything anyone in the family ever wore. Her house itself is totally crisp and modern in that Mad Men meets 1980s mirrors and fake plants way - but the attic and basement are so packed that only one narrow path leads through each. You might find her sister's prom dress from the 1930s or the boxes of 1960s floor length cocktail party dresses.
Or if you take another turn it'll be amazing shirts from the trips to Hawaii in the 70s or cruises in the 80s. And it isn't just my grandma's clothes...its all three of her children's from infancy until they left the house in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I've worn these clothes since I was a baby. I grew up not really thinking it was weird to wear pinafores over all my dresses at a time when everyone else was wearing neon. This probably was helped along by the fact that the only barbies I owned were from my paternal grandmother who'd discovered a box of 1960s and 70s Barbies and Skippers in her own attic. In Jr. High and early High School I was totally a snob about what was really "hippie clothes" since all of mine came from the actual era of hippie. I felt bad for girls who had to buy their paisley shirts at the mall. Next was the era of the hipster t-shirt when I found a stockpile of 1980 Summer Olymics shirts. Then I discovered the furthest section of the attic with my aunt's 1980s aerobics clothes and a new era was ushered in. Of course the elastic was shot in almost everything but it was a phase when I didn't mind replacing elastic or sewing things to be tighter or just layering them to work out. I think all my galpals in art school had an embarrassing 80s bathing suit -probably the one thing you shouldn't wear due to the disappearing elastic problem.
Above is me and Gram in the 80s. And me on my first day of first grade. Below is Gram and Pop in the 50s, and Mom and Dad in the 80s-dressed for a costume party. We still have at least one of the dresses I'm wearing, Gram's dress below, Dad's pants, and the shirt mom is wearing which was my great Aunt Gia's from the 30s.





In their post on vintage Threadbared mentions Gertie Lang's Blog and her post Vintage Sewing and Gender Politics. Gertie, who is really into 1950s fashion, received a comment that was concerned about the celebration of Fifties fashion being an un-feminist move. Gertie, who does consider herself a feminist, wrote the following questions as a way of thinking about this.

• Is wearing a fashion from an oppressive time period indeed a symbol of that oppression?
• Is there such a thing as "reclaiming" these fashions so that they are symbols of power rather than domination?
  
• Should we only make patterns from the eras that were the least oppressive to women?
  
• If wiggle skirts and the like are offensive to those with feminist sensibilities, what is the alternative? I mean, what could we possibly wear that would establish us as feminists to those who view us?
• Are 50’s wiggle skirts really that different from modern pencil skirts?
• What about current fashions that are restrictive? Stilettos, Spanx, etc? Skinny jeans? Are these symbols of oppression towards women?

Gertie responds by saying that she usually changes the patterns a little bit to be more contemporary and girdle free - and that she sees it as a way of honoring the lives of the women who came before her. On the blog Renegade Bean, they discuss how although they love this era of fashion it is at times hard to overlook the fact that as Asian Americans this would have been a doubly difficult time with the repercussions of the Japanese Internment Camps and Chinese Exclusion Act. However both Blog's writers admit that they will go on loving vintage -with all the good and bad baggage it entails.




I've also thought about this era of vintage a lot. I think its why I tend to like a mix of eras. I find that my generation tends to be a motley crew of appropriation, at this point we've run out of eras and we're back in the 90's - in a decade we're old enough to actually remember.

I guess I've had some phases of being skeptical of 1950s fashion - there were a few girls I remember who did a really uptight version of it and were strictly into gardening, cleaning, and baking pie's for their crushes. I think that's why as in and out and in again as the riot grrl vintage look is, I never really loose my love of it. In any city with a good music scene and a high unemployment rate you will always be able to find these girls. I think I love it because the look is more post modern and self aware. Its like if you took Betty Draper out for a burger and a Bikini Kill show and then threw her in the mosh pit. Its a look that's all tongue in cheek with the concept of femininity. I mean maybe its a little bit too much like those magnets with the sassy 50s housewives on them.


Nah, riot girls had more sass.




Babes in Toyland



Then when I think about it there was also a lot of 50s and 60s nostalgia in the 80s. Just look at the B-52s. Cindy Wilson and Katie Pierson rocked those beehives. It wasn't quite as roughed up but it was certainly self aware. They don't look too uncomfortable in those outfits either.









This is my favorite B-52's video Theme For a Future Generation. Does that mean they made it for us?

Its interesting though to think about what the eras that were great for women were. Like if you're gonna wear vintage....are the 30s really so progressive? Even the 70s were pretty rough. Wearing your hair long isn't really a sign of emancipation any more.


Well unless you're black. It seems that going natural with your hair is still fairly unusual. I bet people in the 70s thought it would be old hat by now.



People really went crazy when Solange Knowles cut her hair short and natural recently.


As far as the 70s go there are plenty of girls who tried to look punk and rebellious in a more dude rocker sense. Take this video where L7 looks like a mix between the Ramones and Nivana.


But then again all the boys probably wanted to be Patti Smith.


It seems that everyone was always looking to some other era. Kim Gordon had her ode to Karen Carpenter. John Waters helped us remember all the naughty bits of the 1950s. And Grace Jones was doing Don Draper way before GQ started declaring it the new look.


















I think that in a lot of ways embracing vintage fashion has always been a feminist move. First of all one of the most powerful modes of oppression that we still deal with is economically. Women are expected to constantly be upping their wardrobe to stay more current and therefore appear relevant and worthy. By being creative with vintage (or your own patterns like Gertie) you can stay outside of the massive expense of trends that have been developed to keep you in a hamster wheel of desperation. Its also a good way of keeping your head clear to make your own decisions. While I totally recommend making your own better fitted vintage patterns or altering your vintage to fit ( we don't live in the age of girdles anymore), I do think that there can be positive aspects to walking a mile in someone else's high waisted pants. Sometimes older is better.