Some are about lighting, some are about fashion, some are about love.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Blogs I Love
Jezebel
This is my main source of news. It has a feministy angle and covers a lot of topics, serious and otherwise. Tracie’s Pot Psychology videos are very funny!
http://jezebel.com/
Loveology
http://mila-loveology.blogspot.com/
A Dutch girl who adores all things light and soft. Do browse her links to other blogs and some tumblrs.
The Snail and the Cyclops
http://thesnailandthecyclops.blogspot.com/
Effie is a local girl (JP) who loves 1930’s vintage. And I’ve actually met her! I bought a typewriter and a skirt from her at the South End Open Market and when I got home I realized I had seen her before.
Simply Breakfast
http://simplybreakfast.blogspot.com/
Lovely photographs of breakfasts anyone can make.
Garance Dore
http://www.garancedore.fr/en/
I’ve just started reading this French fashion blog after being enchanted by Parisian street style.
Feather
http://feathergirl6.blogspot.com/
Very unique style.
A Cup of Jo
http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/
The actual lady who runs this blog sort of annoys me. She is a yuppie who is dealing with the resession in a very odd way. But she has great taste and a beautiful blog.
Wish
http://wishwishwish.net/
British fashionista.
Audrey Monroe
http://audreymonroe.blogspot.com/
My darling friend’s blog!
Grace Undressed
http://graceundressed.blogspot.com/
I needed to research stripping for a story and found this girl’s blog. I am shocked that she does not have a book deal yet- it is some of the finest writing I have read anywhere. This post is not typical of her others, but the last line gave me chills
“SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2008
the anniversary
November 9th is an anniversary of sorts for me. It's the day in 1997 when my friend Sara died of a blast to the head from her meth-head half-brother's shotgun, one night while she was napping on the couch in front of the TV. He killed himself right afterwards. Sometimes I think about their mother, how she must've woken up to the noise, gone into the living room and found she had no children.”
http://graceundressed.blogspot.com/search?q=shotgun
Unicorn Dreams
http://unicornmagic.tumblr.com/
Photography.
This is my main source of news. It has a feministy angle and covers a lot of topics, serious and otherwise. Tracie’s Pot Psychology videos are very funny!
http://jezebel.com/
Loveology
http://mila-loveology.blogspot.com/
A Dutch girl who adores all things light and soft. Do browse her links to other blogs and some tumblrs.
The Snail and the Cyclops
http://thesnailandthecyclops.blogspot.com/
Effie is a local girl (JP) who loves 1930’s vintage. And I’ve actually met her! I bought a typewriter and a skirt from her at the South End Open Market and when I got home I realized I had seen her before.
Simply Breakfast
http://simplybreakfast.blogspot.com/
Lovely photographs of breakfasts anyone can make.
Garance Dore
http://www.garancedore.fr/en/
I’ve just started reading this French fashion blog after being enchanted by Parisian street style.
Feather
http://feathergirl6.blogspot.com/
Very unique style.
A Cup of Jo
http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/
The actual lady who runs this blog sort of annoys me. She is a yuppie who is dealing with the resession in a very odd way. But she has great taste and a beautiful blog.
Wish
http://wishwishwish.net/
British fashionista.
Audrey Monroe
http://audreymonroe.blogspot.com/
My darling friend’s blog!
Grace Undressed
http://graceundressed.blogspot.com/
I needed to research stripping for a story and found this girl’s blog. I am shocked that she does not have a book deal yet- it is some of the finest writing I have read anywhere. This post is not typical of her others, but the last line gave me chills
“SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 09, 2008
the anniversary
November 9th is an anniversary of sorts for me. It's the day in 1997 when my friend Sara died of a blast to the head from her meth-head half-brother's shotgun, one night while she was napping on the couch in front of the TV. He killed himself right afterwards. Sometimes I think about their mother, how she must've woken up to the noise, gone into the living room and found she had no children.”
http://graceundressed.blogspot.com/search?q=shotgun
Unicorn Dreams
http://unicornmagic.tumblr.com/
Photography.
Monday, January 12, 2009
My Future (As I Saw it at Age 10 and Now)
I was feeling nostalgic tonight and happened upon a notebook from the Limited 2 with only one entry in it, titled "My Future" and dated 10/10/01 which I think makes me ten years old.
I have copied the entry exactly, misspellings and all. Here it is:
I will graduat from Durby or Sacred Heart with top grades then go to Tuffs collage to become a vet. When I am their I will bring Angie and one horse. I will be a great rider and compet in shows. I will stay in Boston and get my masters degree. After that I will somehow meet Andrew Purcellie and he will be tall. After 10 months of dateing he will propuse as we walk along a beach. Our wedding will be in a church. We will move to a white New England farm house with a barn, pool, pound and 15 acres of green land. Kayliegh Macrea will live 10 miles away from us and she will not flirt with Andrew. Me and her will often shop together. Amy Almedai and me will open a vetanry hospital and do great. Andrew will be a Lawer and always come home for dinner. We will have a daughter named Emma. During the day the maid will stay with her. Every Sunday and Thanksgiving my parents will come for dinner. In our barn there will be ten horses of our own and one for my daughter. We will have show rings, turn outs and trail rides. Andrew and my barn will always be clean. Our house will be filled with things from Anthroplogy, Pottery Barn and Martha Stewart crafts. There will be lots of flowers.
When Emma is 7 years old we will have twins, Mike and Rose. All of the children will have horses and goats. If this could happen life would be great.
So, wow. I was a horse-crazy, tradition loving Masshole as a kid. Also, I was a neglectful mother who gave her kids boring names and only one horse whilst I hoarded her nine. And I just wanted my husband tall, as clean as my barn and not-flirted-with, dammit!
I thought it would be fun to write a vision of my future now at 19:
I will finish up my BFA and move to New York City. I would like to work for a cultural/ music/ fashion photography/ feminist magazine, or in a publishing house or literary magazine. I would love to travel, maybe see Japan or take a vaction. If I feel like I need to, I would like to go grad school at Columbia, or move to Iowa (eek) for the famed Iowa Writer’s Workshop and finish my first novel.
I would like to have fun, go dancing, learn ballet, make friends, fall in love, run in parks, cook fabulous meals in my apartment. I’d love for my book(s) to do well. But if they do not I would think about opening a café. I would want to get married between 24 and 29, ideally. And never, ever in a church, but rather a meadow, with good music and cupcakes. We would never leave the city, we would feel like drowning outside of it. In someways I am still my domestic 10 year-old self: I want to decorate our brownstone and have 2 or 4 kids. This is embarrassing, but I like the names Greer, Matilda or Calla and Isaac and Finn. We might move to a little, liberal town near the sea one day, but only if we really want to. My kids can do what they want, I would actually like for them to avoid horseback riding. I think I would be a cool sort of earth mamma.
Whether all of this, or none of this happens, I just want to be happy, and I want my friends and family to be happy. I think I've done a good job on that so far!
I have copied the entry exactly, misspellings and all. Here it is:
I will graduat from Durby or Sacred Heart with top grades then go to Tuffs collage to become a vet. When I am their I will bring Angie and one horse. I will be a great rider and compet in shows. I will stay in Boston and get my masters degree. After that I will somehow meet Andrew Purcellie and he will be tall. After 10 months of dateing he will propuse as we walk along a beach. Our wedding will be in a church. We will move to a white New England farm house with a barn, pool, pound and 15 acres of green land. Kayliegh Macrea will live 10 miles away from us and she will not flirt with Andrew. Me and her will often shop together. Amy Almedai and me will open a vetanry hospital and do great. Andrew will be a Lawer and always come home for dinner. We will have a daughter named Emma. During the day the maid will stay with her. Every Sunday and Thanksgiving my parents will come for dinner. In our barn there will be ten horses of our own and one for my daughter. We will have show rings, turn outs and trail rides. Andrew and my barn will always be clean. Our house will be filled with things from Anthroplogy, Pottery Barn and Martha Stewart crafts. There will be lots of flowers.
When Emma is 7 years old we will have twins, Mike and Rose. All of the children will have horses and goats. If this could happen life would be great.
So, wow. I was a horse-crazy, tradition loving Masshole as a kid. Also, I was a neglectful mother who gave her kids boring names and only one horse whilst I hoarded her nine. And I just wanted my husband tall, as clean as my barn and not-flirted-with, dammit!
I thought it would be fun to write a vision of my future now at 19:
I will finish up my BFA and move to New York City. I would like to work for a cultural/ music/ fashion photography/ feminist magazine, or in a publishing house or literary magazine. I would love to travel, maybe see Japan or take a vaction. If I feel like I need to, I would like to go grad school at Columbia, or move to Iowa (eek) for the famed Iowa Writer’s Workshop and finish my first novel.
I would like to have fun, go dancing, learn ballet, make friends, fall in love, run in parks, cook fabulous meals in my apartment. I’d love for my book(s) to do well. But if they do not I would think about opening a café. I would want to get married between 24 and 29, ideally. And never, ever in a church, but rather a meadow, with good music and cupcakes. We would never leave the city, we would feel like drowning outside of it. In someways I am still my domestic 10 year-old self: I want to decorate our brownstone and have 2 or 4 kids. This is embarrassing, but I like the names Greer, Matilda or Calla and Isaac and Finn. We might move to a little, liberal town near the sea one day, but only if we really want to. My kids can do what they want, I would actually like for them to avoid horseback riding. I think I would be a cool sort of earth mamma.
Whether all of this, or none of this happens, I just want to be happy, and I want my friends and family to be happy. I think I've done a good job on that so far!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Female Comedians
I realized that in my last comedy post there were no ladies mentioned. I do think women can be funny, but I will take Zach Galifianakis over Sarah Silverman any day. However, here are two women who knock my socks off.
Amy Sedaris
Her about me's on her website, for example, are very funny:
"She really wanted some Vicodin one Christmas Eve. Upon walking out of her apartment on a search for it, she ran into a woman on crutches--who took her up to her apartment and gave her Vicodin. Amy calls it the 'Miracle on Christopher Street.'
Everything in Amy's apartment comes alive at night. Even her dustpan, which is known to be a real pain the ass.
In Fall 2003, she started an amateur craft club called The Crafty Beavers. She's the club president and they meet on a weekly basis. Felt is their medium of choice, and it's largely an excuse to smoke pot.
She once made a Visine-laced cocktail because she heard it would cause instant diarrhea, and she wanted to see for herself if that was true. It was.
She makes seasonal hats for her taxidermied squirrel, Winks, such as a pilgrim's buckle hat for Thanksgiving, and Indian headdress for an Indian summer.
When she was about 12, she'd dress up, call her father at work and proposition him, pretending to be a woman from the art gallery that her family frequented. The charades went on for a while, and her dad always fell for it."
Sarah Haskins
She collects clips of commericals which target women, and basically makes fun of them. She's getting popular, too. You can find the rest of her videos here: http://jezebel.com/tag/sarah-haskins/
The cleaning one:
Amy Sedaris
Her about me's on her website, for example, are very funny:
"She really wanted some Vicodin one Christmas Eve. Upon walking out of her apartment on a search for it, she ran into a woman on crutches--who took her up to her apartment and gave her Vicodin. Amy calls it the 'Miracle on Christopher Street.'
Everything in Amy's apartment comes alive at night. Even her dustpan, which is known to be a real pain the ass.
In Fall 2003, she started an amateur craft club called The Crafty Beavers. She's the club president and they meet on a weekly basis. Felt is their medium of choice, and it's largely an excuse to smoke pot.
She once made a Visine-laced cocktail because she heard it would cause instant diarrhea, and she wanted to see for herself if that was true. It was.
She makes seasonal hats for her taxidermied squirrel, Winks, such as a pilgrim's buckle hat for Thanksgiving, and Indian headdress for an Indian summer.
When she was about 12, she'd dress up, call her father at work and proposition him, pretending to be a woman from the art gallery that her family frequented. The charades went on for a while, and her dad always fell for it."
Sarah Haskins
She collects clips of commericals which target women, and basically makes fun of them. She's getting popular, too. You can find the rest of her videos here: http://jezebel.com/tag/sarah-haskins/
The cleaning one:
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Rant: Katy Perry
Oh Katy Perry. Her songs ruled the summer of 2008. She has cute clothes and seems nice enough. She was raised in a very religious home. She made it okay for straight girls to kiss other girls while their boyfriends looked on. And I cannot stand her.
When I first heard her song "I Kissed a Girl” I was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s catchy and I guess it has a good message.’ How wrong I was. On closer examination of the lyrics it is actually a pretty terrible piece of pop. First the speaker has a boyfriend, thus kissing another person, girl or boy, is cheating. Which is fine if they have an open relationship, but that is never specified. Plus, I have a feeling if the girl was kissing a boy she would bet her boyfriend would mind it. This makes it seem like two girls kissing is silly and meaningless because it is of course all for male enjoyment.
“No, I don't even know your name,
It doesn't matter.
You’re my experimental game,
Just human nature.
It's not what good girls do,
Not how they should behave.
My head gets so confused,
Hard to obey.”
A few things here, aside from how no one should be reduced to a nameless “experimental game” it is fairly insulting and contradictory to say that something which is “just human nature” is also “not what good girls do, not how they should behave.”
This song is really getting to issues people have with bisexuality. To quote Dr. Alex Comfort (real name? I’m not sure) “All people are bisexual—that is to say, they are able to respond sexually to some extent towards people of either sex. How far people act bisexually depends on many things, including the society they live in, their opportunities, and how far the same-sex part of their response worries them.”
Also it is important to note that Perry (or whoever penned this) is sure to tell us she “had a drink in hand.” Clearly drugs and alcohol open people up to all sorts of things that they would not do otherwise. Or things that they want to do but need an excuse to do so. And while that is not necessarily a bad thing, it is something to be examined. In the media girls kissing is very much steeped in alcohol, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, for example. I have been at parties where this song will come on and the guys will move to the sidelines so the ladies can kiss each other. I kid you not. This clip from the Tyra Show (I know, I know) explains it pretty well:
Later in the show a lesbian debates with the “barsexuals” about how their behavior makes her and her girlfriend be taken less seriously, which is a valid point when you think about how lesbianism in general is seen as something womenfolk do until the big, strong men come and sweep them off their feet.
This song is not nearly as bad as her other song “Ur So Gay,” which I will pick apart as well, but “I Kissed a Girl” does no favors for the confusing realm of bisexuality. One of the main reasons culture accepts women as bisexuals (at the same time questioning it’s legitimacy: “she just can’t find a boyfriend” or “she’s just really drunk”) is that it turns men on. But what if, I don’t know, Jack Johnson or Lil Wayne wrote a song called “I Kissed a Boy.” Would all these drunk, straight identified boys at parties make-out with each other and then coyly hope their girlfriends don’t mind it? I doubt it. If any popular male singer wrote such a song he would not be considered bisexual, bicurious or straight but drunk/ fun loving. He would be considered undoubtedly gay. Masculinity is a strict place to live in and there is a big double standard as far as bisexuality goes.
So, fine, she sang a stupid song, I’m okay with that. But for the The Advocate to recognize her as one of the people who did the most for the cause in 2008 when she has a song like “UR So Gay?” Terrible.
Embedding has been disabled, but please go watch the video. The song is about a girl who has fallen in love with a pretentious boy, and when she falls out of love with him she chides, “You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys.” She takes things that are stereotypical of the gay identity: “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf
While jacking off listening to Mozart
You bitch and moan about LA
Wishing you were in the rain reading Hemingway
You don’t eat meat
And drive electrical cars
You’re so indie rock it’s almost an art” and puts a negative spin on them. And it seems that the only reason she dislikes this boy is that he has characteristics and interests she describes as “gay.” The song is saying that if you are a straight male, but you like things like makeup and vegetarianism then, oh, you must be gay. And according to the girl dating him, this is a very bad thing.
Also in the video she demasculinizes gay men when the Barbie doll version of herself pulls down the Ken doll’s pants to reveal the absence of genitalia. Because we all know gay men are basically women, right?
The GLBTQ community as more acceptance and prevalence in the media than ever, and of course not all of it is going to be positive. What irks me about Ms. Perry is that her songs are packaged as forward thinking, when right under the surface, they aren’t at all.
When I first heard her song "I Kissed a Girl” I was like, ‘Oh, well, that’s catchy and I guess it has a good message.’ How wrong I was. On closer examination of the lyrics it is actually a pretty terrible piece of pop. First the speaker has a boyfriend, thus kissing another person, girl or boy, is cheating. Which is fine if they have an open relationship, but that is never specified. Plus, I have a feeling if the girl was kissing a boy she would bet her boyfriend would mind it. This makes it seem like two girls kissing is silly and meaningless because it is of course all for male enjoyment.
“No, I don't even know your name,
It doesn't matter.
You’re my experimental game,
Just human nature.
It's not what good girls do,
Not how they should behave.
My head gets so confused,
Hard to obey.”
A few things here, aside from how no one should be reduced to a nameless “experimental game” it is fairly insulting and contradictory to say that something which is “just human nature” is also “not what good girls do, not how they should behave.”
This song is really getting to issues people have with bisexuality. To quote Dr. Alex Comfort (real name? I’m not sure) “All people are bisexual—that is to say, they are able to respond sexually to some extent towards people of either sex. How far people act bisexually depends on many things, including the society they live in, their opportunities, and how far the same-sex part of their response worries them.”
Also it is important to note that Perry (or whoever penned this) is sure to tell us she “had a drink in hand.” Clearly drugs and alcohol open people up to all sorts of things that they would not do otherwise. Or things that they want to do but need an excuse to do so. And while that is not necessarily a bad thing, it is something to be examined. In the media girls kissing is very much steeped in alcohol, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, for example. I have been at parties where this song will come on and the guys will move to the sidelines so the ladies can kiss each other. I kid you not. This clip from the Tyra Show (I know, I know) explains it pretty well:
Later in the show a lesbian debates with the “barsexuals” about how their behavior makes her and her girlfriend be taken less seriously, which is a valid point when you think about how lesbianism in general is seen as something womenfolk do until the big, strong men come and sweep them off their feet.
This song is not nearly as bad as her other song “Ur So Gay,” which I will pick apart as well, but “I Kissed a Girl” does no favors for the confusing realm of bisexuality. One of the main reasons culture accepts women as bisexuals (at the same time questioning it’s legitimacy: “she just can’t find a boyfriend” or “she’s just really drunk”) is that it turns men on. But what if, I don’t know, Jack Johnson or Lil Wayne wrote a song called “I Kissed a Boy.” Would all these drunk, straight identified boys at parties make-out with each other and then coyly hope their girlfriends don’t mind it? I doubt it. If any popular male singer wrote such a song he would not be considered bisexual, bicurious or straight but drunk/ fun loving. He would be considered undoubtedly gay. Masculinity is a strict place to live in and there is a big double standard as far as bisexuality goes.
So, fine, she sang a stupid song, I’m okay with that. But for the The Advocate to recognize her as one of the people who did the most for the cause in 2008 when she has a song like “UR So Gay?” Terrible.
Embedding has been disabled, but please go watch the video. The song is about a girl who has fallen in love with a pretentious boy, and when she falls out of love with him she chides, “You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys.” She takes things that are stereotypical of the gay identity: “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf
While jacking off listening to Mozart
You bitch and moan about LA
Wishing you were in the rain reading Hemingway
You don’t eat meat
And drive electrical cars
You’re so indie rock it’s almost an art” and puts a negative spin on them. And it seems that the only reason she dislikes this boy is that he has characteristics and interests she describes as “gay.” The song is saying that if you are a straight male, but you like things like makeup and vegetarianism then, oh, you must be gay. And according to the girl dating him, this is a very bad thing.
Also in the video she demasculinizes gay men when the Barbie doll version of herself pulls down the Ken doll’s pants to reveal the absence of genitalia. Because we all know gay men are basically women, right?
The GLBTQ community as more acceptance and prevalence in the media than ever, and of course not all of it is going to be positive. What irks me about Ms. Perry is that her songs are packaged as forward thinking, when right under the surface, they aren’t at all.
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