National Vapidity

Nicole is in charge of music round 'here, but this is so gaggilicious you're all gonna love it...

Billboard's top ten this week consists of T.I., Britney Spears, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kanye West, and Ne-Yo.

In "Circus", which is at spot #3 on the Billboard chart, Spears asserts, "There's two kinds of people in this world, those who entertain, and those who observe" -- well, what about those who actually have something worthwhile to say other than mediocre poetics such as, "I'm like a firecracker, I like it hot"? Congrats to the teacher who taught Spears' lyricist the power of similes. I understand she's trying to make a comeback, but donning diamonds and dancing around with pasties on her boobs while giving the camera come-hither eyes isn't exactly the pinnacle of regained dignity.

Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold" comes in at #7 where she spews out some great stereotypical piss, but hey, she's a woman and she's shooting that shit at a man, so it's cool, right? Her lyrics contain gems like "You PMS like a bitch I would know" and "You change your mind like a girl changes clothes"... yep, we're all menstruating fashionistas. Thanks, Katy, this totally tops your radical "I kissed a girl and I liked it." If she really wanted to be rebellious, the song would be "I licked a cunt and I liked it" but that totally wouldn't jive with the party-bi, preppie audience to whom she's packaged and sold.

Maybe if I heard mainstream rap hits calling guys dicks and cocks as much as I hear women being called hos and bitches I'd be more amicable toward women shaking their asses to a pop beat under the guise of art.

Gotta love the patriarchy's pop princesses; they're doing a grand job keeping us bitches in our proper place.

Sammi.

New year, new Polly Jean

PJ Harvey is one of the best female musicians to come out of the 90s and she's already releasinig new material! White Chalk, which is haunting and lovely, just came out last year so I'm somewhat surprised that her latest endeavor, A Woman A Man Walked By, will be out March 2009 (according to pjharvey.net).
For the record, I am not at all bothered by the closeness of the releases. The album is a collaboration with John Parish who regularly works with Harvey.


As for me, as stated by Laura I'm heading to the pacific northwest in a mere twenty days, it was a sudden decision so I've spent all of my free time this semester planning that... hence no posting. But there will be lots from me in the new year! As for this month, I'm getting to work on an end of the year list so look for that.

Buy Me a Cake & I'll Have Sex With You

For the last two years I have been preoccupied with one lover or another, constantly trying to attach myself to that so-highly-prized ‘other half’. I cried myself to sleep often. I was hung up on. I dealt with women answering my boyfriends’ phones. I said “this is good-bye” often but always returned. I apologized for feeling hurt or offended, de-legitimizing my emotions. I cleaned up piss and vomit. I ditched friends to take care of these much older men whom I loved. I hated myself. I got fucked a lot. And I got fucked over more.

I finally managed to extricate myself from imprisonment, from my self-imposed patriarchy, and what did I do after that fateful “break-up” morning? I ran to the dating pool, seeking out some other form of completion. I hadn’t loved myself for two years running, but somehow I thought I was going to find what I couldn’t give myself in a complete stranger.

I’ve been on ten dates within the last two months, and this is what I learned: *

Dima called me on the phone. He sounded far more foreign than I had expected. I think I wanted to meet up with Dima because I felt nostalgic for my first lover, a Dutch law student. I told Dima, “I’ll just meet you at the restaurant” but he refused to let me drive myself anywhere. “I’ll drive you; this is the Russian way. In Russia, the men drive.”

Lesson One: Decrepit American me must have forgotten that having a vagina means I can’t navigate through traffic.

But, I was willing to sacrifice my pride to meet anyone new. He brought me flowers and a box of Driscolls strawberries. A bit much, but sweet. We had sushi and watched “Burn After Reading” after which he confessed he only laughed because other people were laughing; he had no idea what was going on in the movie. Good times. After the first date, Dima must have assumed he had some possessive power over me because I couldn’t go 24 hours without seeing him in my “Missed Calls”, nonetheless hearing his accented pleas, “Allo, Samanta, where are you? Who are you with? Why you no call me?”

Lesson Two: If a man buys you Driscolls, beware the tracking device subtext.

A month passes, and I’m so beaten down by his calls that I finally give in to having a date number two. (He’s driving, of course.) He brings a strawberry-laden cake and another big, beautiful bouquet of flowers. We have Chinese. Over shrimp and broccoli, he admits that he’s married, has two daughters, and a litter of kittens at home. But, hey, he still hates his wife, so it’s OK for him and me to be intimate.

Lesson Three: If you buy a woman enough shit, she won’t even notice your wedding ring.

My second experience was with Matt, who was a working lawyer. We had great conversation, gorged on sushi, and went back to his place to continue the conversation. We smoked a bowl on his couch, talked about art, had a glass of wine, and wham, he’s kissing me. We make out a little and then I stop him, and tell him I don’t want to go farther since we’ve just met. He says, “Ok” and then shoves his tongue down my throat again. I stop him again, and repeat my wishes. He puts his hand on my crotch and tries kissing me again. I stop him for a third time, and by this point I’m frustrated. I tell him I should probably get back home, and he gives me a good guilt trip, “I drove you all the way heeeeree…”

Lesson Four: If a man drives you all the way to his abode, he expects to get laid. A woman’s integrity = a gallon of gas. Simple economics.

Lastly, I want to mention Ryan, who ten months ago, let me sob my guts out on his bed because he had slept with me for a month under the pretext of a “connection”, a “relationship” and when I brought commitment up, he told me he had just wanted to sleep with me. When I started to cry, he told me he didn’t feel comfortable with me sleeping with him that night, and wanted me to leave. It was 2AM. I refused, popped a couple of pills, and passed out. Worst of all: I had brought a book of my favorite writings to share with him that night.

Well a couple of days ago he e-mailed me saying how much he regrets it all. I challenged him, telling him I wanted to hear it face-to-face, and that I deserve it. He said he can’t see me face-to-face because he feels too vulnerable. He’s 27. I’m 19. He fucked me for a month, and then told me he wanted nothing to do with me and to go home as I sat there crying. What does he know about vulnerability?

Lesson Five: Men, you can fuck ‘em over young, if you make up for it later with a half-assed, typo-ridden e-mail. Women go crazy for that sort of thing.

And that’s not the least of it, unfortunately. I used to think “objectification” was a bogus, out-dated theme of fogey feminists from the 60s, but at this point, I’m feeling it through-and-through and I’m fed up.

I’d rather be single than be disrespected. So until a man’s reading my poetry before he’s reaching between my legs, I’m going solo.

And I’m damned happy about it.

(*Names were changed for privacy.)

RiGIDcast: Now four grrrls strong!

I am thrilled to welcome our newest contributor, Samantha, to the RiGID family. You may remember her from earlier this year as my cohost on RiGIDcast's podcast on pornography and masturbation. The founder of Baltimore's Liberal Literati book club and the co-creater of the performance duo OVA, Samantha lends her unique perspective on relationships, sex and feminism to our already fabulously diverse blog. 

Another note: soon RiGID will be a presence on both coasts! Our resident music expert, Nicole, is shipping out to Olympia, Washington this month. We will miss her here on the east coast, but secretly can't wait to hear about the music she encounters at the alma mater of the Riot Grrrls!

Stay tuned for RiGIDcast episode two sometime within the next month or so.

Dan Savage Said What?!

picture via http://sfist.com/attachments/SFist_Brock/prop%208%20hot%20guy.jpg

If anyone's been following the blogosphere, you've probably seen something about this. To summarize, Dan Savage, one of my all time favourite bloggers, did a post titled Black Homophobia. He then goes on to say that recent polling showed that 70% of African Americans voted for Prop 8, which is far more of a margin than any other ethnicity noted in polls. Savage then wrote than the gay community, by and large, consistently support African American rights, while not recieving support in return. To quote Savage, "Finally, I’m searching for some exit poll data from California. I’ll eat my shorts if gay and lesbian voters went for McCain at anything approaching the rate that black voters went for Prop 8."

Now, personally, I don't feel like he said anything racist here. It seems to me that what he said means that African Americans should still have equal rights, and its not as though he's removing his support of them, he just thinks this should be a two-way street. The main problem with what he's saying here comes from that quote. When people, including the gay community, voted for Barack Obama, they were not voting for African American rights, and most usually they were not even voting for an African American! We voted for the man because we wanted him to be president, not his race.

This whole thing brings me back to the first Palin SNL skit. The one where Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton delivered the line, "No! When I was running for president, I didn't want a woman to be president, I wanted to be president!"

It is absolutely amazing and fantastic that we have elected our first African American president, but I think we need to remember what seemed so prevelant during the election process: we did not elect him or choose not to vote for him based on the colour of his skin.

anything is possible.

I took my "Bush Quotes" poster down from my wall this morning. Reading over all of the dumb things the *still* president has said, I began to think about how we dealt with the past eight years. We created biting and hysterical political satire. We created feminist dance music. We made potent documentaries and films. We wrote. We built. We drew. We survived, and many of us came of age in a time where dissent and creativity went hand in hand. We should be proud of what we did, even when we were silenced and marginalized. Our efforts paid off yesterday, and culminated in the greatest victory we could have possibly imagined: Barack Obama, President of the United States of America.
So what happens to creativity now? Do we still need dissent? Conservatives seem to have the idea that liberals are nothing without something to complain about. I don't think anyone needs to worry about a lack of things to bitch about, quite frankly; after all, Fox News ain't going anywhere and California's Prop 8 is looking like it may very well become law. But even if these and other things weren't so, I can't imagine that we'd lose our spirit. Barack Obama is not George W. Bush, not remotely, and won't label you a terrorist if you disagree with him. He does not think artists are creepy culture vultures (fellow rigid bloggers, did either of you keep that gem of an editorial?). I don't think I can say it any better than Michael Moore, who told me in an email (ok, it was from a mailing list, but I like to imagine that he and I actually correspond) this morning:

"We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, "gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?" Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We've entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible."

Jay Smooth warned us a week ago not to get complacent about the prospect of Obama's likely victory. Now that we have it, we still can't afford to sit on our asses. We still have much to fight for, but as we fight, lets continue to create. We hear this constantly, but it's true: now is our time. I encourage you to start a project, anything creative. A novel. A painting. A movie. Use what you have, and make it as big and bad as you can. Share it with the world, and let yourself grow through it. We may never see a better time than now, and to reference illdoc again, we want to be able to tell our children:
YES WE DID.

Geeks for Obama!

Just wanted to put a up a few of my favourite Obama supporters before I go vote (omg, yay!)

First of all:


Wizard rockers and wrock fans have been signing up voters and encouraging the youth vote for longer than I was even aware of! For those of you who are unaware, wizard rock, or wrock, is music based on The Harry Potter series. It all began with Harry and The Potters, followed by Draco and The Malfoys. There are now tons of bands, and a documentary on the phenomenon. Check it out sometime, its actually really good music, and just generally fun. My favourite is The Remus Lupins!

Wizards for Obama has both a facebook group and has taken over on Harry and the Potter's myspace page, if you'd like to check it out.

While I'm at it, here's a video Alex Carpentar of The Remus Lupins put up on YouTube.

I absolutely love these guys!

Tegan & Sara - October 2, 2008 - Baltimore

This show was pretty fantastic. I'm not very eloquent when it comes to talking about live music as I'm usually seeing a band I love. I persuaded Laura to join me at the last minute so I'm sure her review will be less gushy.

Opening Acts: The opening acts were Girl in a Coma and City and Colour. I've heard of and heard Girl in a Coma before but I've never been too into them. I know that being an opening band is a bit of a weird place to be in, especially if the crowd is unresponsive. I don't know how the crowd took to them, to be honest. But I know I felt they put on a good show, tons of energy. City and Colour, which is just Dallas Green, he was good. But! I felt he was a bit out of place. He was an acoustic act with a bit of harmonica and it just did not fit in between the energy of GiaC and the louder songs T&S kickoff with. But that's just my take, as I said he was good and they crowd loved him and obviously as OC about mood and theme as I am.


Songs: The setlist was ace. They kicked off the show with "You Wouldn't Like Me" which is from their album "So Jealous" and ended with the ever popular "Back In Your Head." Sandwiched in between was a good mix of popular songs, old fan favorites, a cover, and even two "new" songs. The biggest "surprises" of the night (surprises in quotes as I'm a sneak and I tend to look at what artists have been playing at shows before the one I'm attending. I also read movie synopsis' before I actually view the movie, figures.) were "Superstar" and "The First."


These were both surprises as Tegan (who wrote and performed both) is pretty vocal about her dislike of these songs. Which makes sense, she wrote them before she could legally drink in the US and she has just turned 28... just like I don't connect with the person who wrote my 7th grade diaries. But, they are fan favorites and have been shouted out at shows for quite awhile. I guess the only way she could play these songs was to retool them, and that she did. She only played the "chorus" and a verse of "Superstar" with "Hop A Plane" as a lead-in (they share the same chord, one minored) which was a pretty good segue. With "The First" she totally changed the feel of the song. I say she but it was in fact Dallas Green who opened as City and Colour and used to be in the band Alexisonfire. He joined her onstage for a mellowed out "boy-girl vocals" version of the song. It was good, technically, but I think it was put in a weird place in the show as it felt a bit too mellow at the time.
The two "new" songs were "One Second" and "Give Chase" which were, again, Tegan songs. The songs are not technically new as "Give Chase" was written quite awhile ago and Tegan apparently soundchecks it at most shows. Serious fans have been wanting to hear it since someone recorded Tegan soundchecking it earlier this year. As far as I know there are no plans to make a studio release. As far as "One Second" goes, it's on their E.P "I'll Take the Blame," which was released digitally last year. I really wish they would play Sara's song from that E.P as well but we can't always get what we want! Anyway, "One Second" is an excellent song, it's a bit synthy which is always good for me as someone who is perpetually stuck in the 80's.



Looking back at what I've written this seems like it was The Tegan Show. Sara did perform less songs but she did great ones. Her shining moment was probably the cover of "Umbrella," both girls sing on this song but I always get the feeling that it's more of a Sara thing. Aside from that (which is a fan favorite, by the way) Sara did some songs of hers that I love. Aside from the obvious hits like "Walking With A Ghost" and "Back in your Head," Sara also did "Burn Your Life Down," "Floorplan," "Like O, Like H," and "Love Type Thing." The latter was Sara's surprise of the show as it's not really a usualy in their setlist. My favorite Sara song of the night was definitely "So Jealous," guess what album that's from.



Banter: If you know the slightest thing about Tegan & Sara you know a big part of their live show is the banter. People ask me how I can see them live a few times in a row* and a big part of it is the banter! It's like a comedy show AND a music show. Of course I love the music but the banter is what really sets each show apart, you know you'll get different and amusing banter at each show. As I expected, tonight was pretty political (all in attendance were missing the VPs debate in favor of seeing TnS). Lots of jokes about what's going on in our country right now. The best probably being when some girl threw her bra at Tegan (which, btw, she brought an extra bra just for tossing) and Tegan insisted she take it back as "bras are expensive" and "you're in a recession right now." Sara also made a few amusing remarks there. I'm not going to try to quote them as I'm bad at retelling stories/jokes in person, I imagine it would be a trainwreck typed. It'll be on Youtube by the morning, I'm sure.


Overall, a fantastic show. Next stop: Philly @ The Electric Factory.