Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Just Cause Its Been Stuck In My Head

This little squirrel I used to be
Slammed her bike down the stairs
They put silver where her teeth had been
Baby silvertooth, she grins and grins

I know all this and more

So take your hat off, boy, when you're talking to me
And be there when I feed the tree

Saturday, December 25, 2010

I've Been An Awful Good Queen

I said Tiffany not JC Penny! I may not know karate but I know crazy! Merry Christmas!

Hanna

Well, sign me up! This new trailer for the forthcoming movie Hanna looks really great. Saoirse Ronan plays a 14 year old assassin trained to kill CIA agent Cate Blanchett.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Punk rock girl give me a chance Punk rock girl let's go slamdance


Ok, so when I was doing the different decades I totally skipped over the 80s. But I'm back to it now! First to start; here are the 60s, the 70s, and the 90s. But now the 80s- with a punk twist.













This band, 45 Grave, was a Los Angeles punk band from 1979 to 1985. Their singer Dinah Cancer revived the band years later with different musicians. 45 Grave was one of the first punk bands to use horror themed lyrics making them early innovators of the goth rock genre and also more specifically forerunners of the horror-punk and deathrock sub-genres. Dinah also went on to be in a band called Penis Flytrap which is one of the funniest band names of all time. This video, below, of 45 Grave is from 1984.


Before performing in 45 Grave Dinah Cancer still went by Mary Simms and was in an all female punk band called Castration Squad that was formed by Alice Bag of The Bags. Watch them do their thing circa 1980.


Continuing the performance vibe here is a video by Johanna Went who is mainly a performance artist now but who got her start in the punk scene. This video was made at UCLA in 1982.


Oh but wait! Here's more Alice Bag performing with The Alice Bag Band in 1979.


I'm not sure enough people know what an absolute pillar of amazingness Annabella Lwin is. At 14 she was spotted singing at the laundromat she worked in by Malcolm Mclaren. He immediatly recruited her to be the lead singer of Bow Wow Wow. Of course she was kicked out of the band at 17 but she went on to make her own music and be one of the coolest hottest Buddhists out there.


Sometimes the ladies prefer to play the instruments as with The Cramps. Here Poison Ivy on lead guitar and Candy del Mar on bass back of Lux Interiors vocals.


Also of course there's Dianne Chai of The Alley Cats who does both bass and vocals. And how do I get my hair to look that good?


You probably know Romeo Void better for this song. But I'm way more into this video for "Say No". Deborah Iyal fronted this one with style and power. And yea, I know they're more New Wave then punk but whatever get off my back!


Also kind of in the New Wave camp but definitely weird enough to be punk was the band Missing Persons. Interesting fact to note is that all the major band members met because they knew Frank Zappa. Cool huh! Also lead singer Dale Bozzio totally had Lady Gaga beat on everything by like two decades. Doing drag of your own gender is so where its at.


And now back to the punk. Here's the queen of the scene, Exene Cervenka with X. My two favorite facts about Exene are that A. The book Dances With Wolves is dedicated to her and B. She has a kid with Viggo Mortensen. Hello, thats hot! And of course she's really badass and makes amazing music.
Here she is getting the kids all riled up!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Friday At Bernie's


Senator Bernie Sanders lead an amazing filibuster last Friday. The 69 year old Democratic Socialist from Vermont gave the Senate a good ole' fashioned 9 hour filibuster, explaining why we should not continue Bush's tax breaks for the very wealthy. Unfortunately, the bill was still passed. However, the White House did notice Bernie's efforts and the collective anger of progressives according to this article. Bernie is my new hero! Here's just one clip from his speech.






Monday, December 13, 2010

Wrap Me In Lace, Satin, Metal, Wool, Straw, Silk, Cotton, Metallic Thread,and Leather

The Metropolitan Museum has the most exquisite online database collection. Here are some selections from The Costume Institute collection at The Met. There are so many images that I just spent the last 4 hours looking at them and only got 1/10th of the way through. Here are some of my favorites!


Apron/Skirt, Thai, 20th Century, Cotton



Hat, French, 1774, Silk, Metal Thread



Wedding Robe, Afghanistan, 1875, Cotton, Metal, Synthetics



Chemise, American or European, 1910s



Hat, Tibetan, 20th Century, Silk, Fur, Wool, Metal



Coat(House of Worth), French, 1905, Wool, Metallic Thread



Top(House of Worth), French, 1899, Silk, Metallic Thread



Turban(Bergdorf Goodman), American, 1942, Wool, Silk



Jacket, Greek, 19th Century, Wool, Silk



Bonnet, American, 1892, Straw



Evening Turban, American, 1823, Cotton



Headdress, German, 19th Century, Silk



Riding Habit (Busvines & Co. Paris), French or British, 1927, Wool



Earrings, Eastern European, 18th Century



Top/Huipil, Guatemalan, 20th Century, Cotton



Dressing Gown, British, Early 19th Century, Cotton



Top, American (Eskimo), 1959, Cotton, Wool, Fur



Cap, German, 18th Century, Silk, Gold Thread




Costume Headdress, Chinese, 19th Century, leather, silk, bast fiber, mirrors, metal, glass



Vest, French (Breton Peoples), 19th Century, Wool, Silk



Hat, African (Kuba People), 19th Century, Raffia, Metal, Glass



Hair Accessory, Austrian, 19th Century, Silver, Stones



Norwegian Headdress, 18th Century, Tin, Glass, and Gilt Thread

Hell Yea!

Barbara Lynn - You'll Lose A Good Thing

Friday, December 3, 2010

Skipping School, Wearing Plaid

House of Style, will there ever be anything so cool again?

Voice and Body

Man, sometimes Tavi just really hits home. This little video she made is awesome. Sometimes girls can get so held up by the fact that they're going to sound awkward or knowing that they'll be so much more educated or experienced on a topic in a few years - and these things add up to just not saying anything. I love that in this video she confronts both those facts and yet still decides to speak up and to value what she has to say. I love her blog but its also great to hear her voice!

TAVI RULES from RIOT GRRL VIDEOS on Vimeo.


In addition to conquering those two media formats Tavi is also teaming up with Jane and Sassy magazines' founder, Jane Pratt, to create a new magazine that is going to be like Sassy but updated for now. I am so so thrilled about this.


Tavi's video was also making me think about one of my favorite feminist books of all time: The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. If you haven't read it I really recommend it, it doesn't get too lost in academic speak but manages to convey some of the clearest messages I've read in regard to the way culture, religion, sex, work, hunger, and violence make the possiblity of flourishing an uphill battle for both girls and grown women. Honestly, this is my pick if you only read one book on feminism.
One of my favorite parts of the book is when she sets aside the journalistic facts and the harsh realities and takes a different tone to paint a picture of what a girl who actually owns her body might look like.

"What if she doesn't have to worry about her body and eats enough for all the growing she has to do? She might rip her stockings and slam-dance on a forged ID to the Pogues, and walk home barefoot, holding her shoes alone at dawn; she might babysit in a battered women's shelter one night a month; she might skateboard down Lombard Street with its seven hairpin turns, or fall in love with her best friend and do something about it, or lose herself for hours gazing into test tubes with her hair a mess, or climb a promontory with the girls and get drunk on top, or sit down when the Pledge of Allegiance says stand, or hop a freight train, or take lovers without telling her name, or run away to sea. She might revel in all the freedoms that seem so trivial to those who take them for granted; she might dream seriously the dreams that seem so obvious to those who grew up with them really available. Who knows what she would do? Who knows what it would feel like?"

I Just Want To Dance

Its almost the shortest day of the year, and I'm already feeling the lack of sunshine in my life. This woman is perhaps having the opposite issue, maybe too much sunshine. Or too many mushrooms? Either way it looks like fun.