Category Archives: Culture Club

Feminism 101: RIOT GRRRL \m/

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club, Politics. No comments.

Key Bands: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, Huggy Bear, Excuse 17, Team Dresch.
Supporting document: The Riot Grrrl Manifesto

The riot grrrl movement was an important clash of third wave feminism, punk rock, DIY politics (and aesthetics), and youth culture in the early nineties. Twenty-something women wanted to play their guitars loudly and be heard; they were tired of being sidelined through patriarchal musical standards and business; they wanted to reconstruct femininity and make it tough. The isolated clusters of pissed off college educated (mostly) white women located in Washington D.C. and Olympia eventually spread into a little feminist army, resembling to consciousness raising groups of the second wave feminist movement. Loud punk music with nationwide tours combined with ‘zine distribution and mainstream press coverage to give salience to their message.

And for the first time, mainstream media took notice of these women taking music production and cultural revolution into their own hands. Soon, publicity ranged from sincere Sassy profiles to hilariously patronizing television exposes, rich with “look at how these cute girls are destroying their dresses and yelling and spitting and smearing their lipstick.” Consumption culture cast the death spell on the movement, because once riot grrrl mentality was being sold back to the suburban girls in the form of pseudo-feminist role model Courtney Love and the latest scent of Teen Spirit deodorant, the cultural movement was a joke. Maybe the movement was destined to peril with the insistence of decentralization and social democracy. Maybe we can only rage so long. Who knows.

Regardless of the inevitable death of the movement, evidence from its relevance still exists. Everything from the Spice Girls and the bubblegum “girl power” moment of the late 90s to Lady Gaga of the current moment highlight how the path for independence and feminist politics was paved by these Olympia and D.C. bands in the early to mid 90s. Riot grrrl was a true a cultural and political revolution.

Solicitations

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club, Friends. No comments.

I’m working on an art project. Well, maybe less of an art project; it’s more of a kick-start-my-creativity project. My goal is simple. Each day I want to create something. So far it has been rewarding. I have re-learned to prioritize my off-time. So far, it has worked out like this:

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That big purple part is my creating time. It’s a large chunk. It feels good, even if it has come at the expense of my Assassin’s Creed re-play.

The point of this post isn’t to brag though. I want to share the fruits of my project with you all.  Shoot me an email at radioheadluv [at] gmail dot com with your mailing address. I’ll make sure and surprise on some random day with a gift soaked in grand intentions (and maybe low in actual talent).

Au Revoir Scott

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club, Nerdy. No comments.

As you probably know, the venerable Scott Pilgrim series is now over.

(If you are perplexed as to why this is transitioning into a mourning post since the movie and the video game are about to be released, get thee to Neighborhood Comic Shoppe. Buy each volume. Return when you are done. )

I am uncomfortably sad. Not because the sixth volume let me down, but because this is an end of an era.

The last six years of reading Scott Pilgrim have been monumental. The series had wild and unpredictable arcs that mirrored my own crazy years. I cycled through apartments, moved across state and country lines, fell in love a couple of times, and through all the ups and downs somehow still developed into a functional adult. The development of Scott’s character mirrors my own changes, probably because creator Bryan Lee O’Malley is the same age as I am. This may be a reach, but I feel like the maturation in art and tone and direction from O’Malley (and by extension, Scott Pilgrim) reflect the same journey of improvement and challenges that I have taken on. It’s as if we were all on this wild ride of our twenties together and we have all the missteps and bad decisions and weird lettering patterns to show for it. Now the ride is over.

I won’t even attempt to review volume 6. For one thing, it’s been reviewed all over the internet. But most importantly, I am not sure how critical I can be of the book. I will say this though – it was a lovely ending.

Of course I’ll see the movie and I’ll buy the video game. But honestly, there is nothing that means more to me than looking at my bookshelf to see my autographed and nowhere near mint condition copy of volume 1 that shows the wear that only six years of re-reads and loans and moves can make. It reminds me that there was a time when Bryan was so unknown that I ordered my copy directly from him (this makes me excited for my own future success). It reminds me of the person that got me into the series. It reminds me of all the friends that I have forced to read it.

Scott P. and I…well…we’ve been through a lot. It’s been a fun six years.

Saturday Afternoon Jam

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club. No comments.

The scene:

A mild, mid-70s late July day in the Pacific Northwest. The air is crisp and clean. Smiles are freely shared on the street, as these folks know these days of sunshine and shorts are numbered (and are all chasing those afternoon delights).

Zoom into our hero; a female with her headphones on. Nothing about her appearance is particularly noteworthy until a passerby sees a slight smile on her face that is angled down towards the ground. He searches her face, but can’t find any clue. It appears that she is having a happy moment with herself.

Cue:

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Boner List, July Edition

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club, Nerdy, Photography. No comments.

1.  Fuck Yeah Daniel Clowes

True fact: if you don’t like Daniel Clowes, we cannot be friends.

2. Kayaking

Sure, you might look like a d-b, but it’s fun. And if you are super fancy and fashion forward you can bring a beer in a cozy to complete the amazing ensemble of fat suit life-jackets and awkward (flailing) rowing.

3. Sunshine in Seattle
Glasses

It appears that we will be breaching the 80 degree mark in Seattle this week. This means that the hipsters will break out their cut off skinny pant shorts, the curmudgeons will begin smiling at fellow humans, and people will fall in love. Summer in Seattle is epic in its awesomeness.

4. Smena 8M

Once upon a time I bought this old toy lomo camera. The translated “instruction manual” is hilarious, as it is full of unhelpful and poorly constructed tips that apparently were at one point helpful in Russian. My first roll will be hilarious (if I can figure out how to actually remove the film), and I promise to post the inevitable disaster to my flickr account.

5. Jenny Peterson photography

This Seattle photographer came to my attention when I needed an injection of inspiration the most. Her work is full of humor and weirdness and awesome light. Check it out.

What have you guys been checking out?

P/30

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club, I am a sap. 3 Comments.

Knowing that someone has the potential to succeed is beautiful, but when you get to watch that person come into real success, it feels like the world is right and the stars have aligned and fate feels a little more believable. When I caught wind of Patrick Tafoya’s restaurant being written up by the San Francisco Chronicle and local food critics writing glowing reviews, it seems as though his world is on the verge of changing forever. I always knew he would make it big. And now that he is really, truly, tangibly successful, the world has righted itself.

I have an admittedly misguided pride in his success. I see his burgeoning fame through a prism of memories: I remember trying to encourage his interest in cooking while he was a server at the Courtyard Marriott in Albuquerque, I remember driving a U-Haul of our belongings from Albuquerque to Portland so he could attend culinary school, I remember quizzing him with flash cards covered in measurement conversions, I remember moving to Santa Rosa so he could move up the kitchen ranks.

(Note: this is about all I will offer publicly. The words aching to spill out are best saved for a therapists couch.)

Lucky for him, he seems to have met his match in his wife Christine. She seems to offer equal parts creativity, ambition, and drive. It is clear from concept, design, website, and a robust Facebook marketing mechanism that this is not his endeavor alone. There is an organic coherence between concept and menu, website and interior design; working in tandem has clearly worked out well for them.

For some of my oldest friends, you should also take a moment to be excited. You probably also remember him as a culinary student or a server, or maybe you encouraged us to move to Portland to follow his dream, or maybe you were even there at our wedding. And in this moment of collective pride, I gladly extended the same warmth and well-wishings to my other successful friends – the web guru in Albuquerque, the photographer in Las Cruces, the tech-whiz in Albuquerque, the teacher in Indianapolis, the instructor in Manhattan, the whip-smart SLP in Tukwila. The list goes on and on.

Before this gets too tangential or sentimental, just do me a favor and drop into P/30 if you happen to be in the North Bay area. And in the midst of a kitchen rush, with tickets stacking up and  a mob of four-tops waiting to be seated, look up to the chef and give him a polite wave for me.

Busy bee

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club, I am a sap. No comments.

I’ve been too busy with finals to properly thank you all for lifting my spirits about my hair-tastrophe. (Oh, sleepless nights make me think I’m soooo witty!)

Anyway, this is not a proper gift, but I figured I’d share a song with you all that should inspire the fiercest of booty-shakin’.

Because the night belongs to lovers.

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club. 2 Comments.

If I admitted that I shed tears while Patti Smith sang “Because the Night” a capella, would you make fun of me?

Despite the vastness of Benaroya Hall and the heaviness of her poetry and the sadness buried with Robert Mapplethorpe, a smile crept on my face each time she mumbled an apology for fumbling a line as she nervously fussed with her hair. This was intimacy intensified, so strong that it pulled me down from my nosebleed balcony seat into her lap. I felt like it was okay to reach out and touch her wild mane. Her voice scratched with the richest texture which snapped my heartstrings.

It was a beautiful night.

Peaches and her “Mommy Complex”

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club. 3 Comments.

I love me some Peaches, especially when she is dressed up like a neon clitoris.

Peaches “Mommy Complex” (Dir: Antuong Nguyen for MOOP JAW) from Moop Jaw on Vimeo.

h/t Cookie

A little something for your head on an introspective Saturday afternoon.

Written by serene. Filed under Culture Club. No comments.

(Burial, “Fostercare”)