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Archive for the ‘Feminism’ Category

Bikini Kill / Sweeping Promises (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, September 10, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bikini Kill, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Riot Grrrl, Sweeping Promises on September 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 10, 2024] Bikini Kill / Sweeping Promises

Last year my daughter and I saw Bikini Kill, 1,244 days after I bought the tickets.

And we really enjoyed it.

When they announced another tour this year, I grabbed a ticket for my daughter, my wife and I.  And then my wife and I got tickets to two Pearl Jam show just before this one.  And we were wiped out.  Fortunately, my daughter didn’t feel compelled to go either, so we were able to get rid of the tickets and feel okay about the evening.  I’m sure the show was fun.

The setlist was almost exactly the same, but I’ll bet the energy was great.

I didn’t know Sweeping Promises who are a post punk duo from Boston, Massachusetts now based in Lawrence, Kansas consisting of Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug. Multi-instrumentalist Spenser Gralla has toured as their live drummer since 2019.

They sound… a lot like Bikini Kill.

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Jann Arden–The Bittlemores: a novel (2023)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Cows, Environmentalism, Farming, Fears, Feminism, Funny (ha ha), Jann Arden, Kidnapping, Mercer Report, Pregnancy, Rick Mercer, Sports on February 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JANN ARDEN-“Could I Be Your Girl” (1994).

It’s fascinating to watch the video for this song now, since all I really know about what Jann Arden looks like is the author photo and her TV appearances since the 2000s.

She’s got long dark hair!

The song is pretty and I guess lyrically it’s pretty dark and poetic.  This lyrics is pretty surprising for a pop song

And I am ashesI am JesusI am preciousCould I be your girl?

I don’t really care for the “oh my lord” backing vocals, for the sound, not the words.

Indeed, the whole song feels kind of bland.  For a song that seems pretty dramatic, I want a little more from the song.  Maybe the production is too smooth?

It’s catchy though and I suppose in the 90s it was pretty remarkable.  But really it’s just not my style.

At the bottom of this post, you can see Jann Arden talking about this song and basically telling me that I’m an idiot.

[READ: February 2024] The Bittlemores

I’ve known about Jann Arden pretty exclusively from her appearances on Canadian TV (she has her own sitcom too which is pretty funny in the parts I’ve watched).  She was a perennial guest on the Rick Mercer Report which I loved.  She was always funny and game for something.

Her music, on the other hand, is serious and poppy.

I didn’t know what to expect from this novel, but I knew I wanted to support her first foray into fiction (I won’t be reading her memoirs which sound very sad).

And I have to say that this story shocked me from the start because the home life she conveys in this story is so horrible, so miserable, that I was fairly shocked at the things I read.  And yet, her tone is never heavy, so even the most unpleasant things (an old man drowning kittens) are delivered in a tone that makes you not want to throw the book across the room and say “I thought you loved animals, Jann!”

But she pulls no punches as the story starts: “Harp Bittlemore is a horrible man.”  The Bittlemore farm was once a thriving farm but it is now mostly dried up and useless.  It is in the middle of nowhere, miles from anything and even more miles from the nearest city.  There’s a couple of sad cows and pigs.  And there’s a young girl.

Margaret is the Bittlemore child.  She hates living with the Bittlemores.  They are mean and unloving.  And she wants to get even with them.  What does a girl with no agency do to get back at the adults around her?  She gets pregnant.  At 14.

This didn’t punish the adults as much as it punished her, of course.   And as soon as The Bittlemores found out she was pregnant, they locked her in the house–for five months.  Margaret had been going to school but the adults told everyone that she had been accepted to a school in France and that she would no longer be in the area for a while.

When Margaret has the baby–at home, with Mrs Bittlemore stitching her up, Margaret makes a bold decision.  She runs away.  She climbs out the window of her room (while in a ton of pain) leaving behind her baby, and flees up the road with no destination.  She meets a truck driver (female, thankfully) named Tizzy who has a soft spot for this poor girl in trouble and she takes her as far as her route is going. (more…)

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Jodi Taylor–A Symphony of Echoes [The Chronicles of St Mary’s, #2] (2013) [audiobook 2014]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Death, Dinosaurs, Fears, Feminism, Fire, Funny (ha ha), History, Huh?, Jodi Taylor, Morality, Murder, Mystery, Supernatural, Thieves, Threats, Time Travel, Violence, Zara Ramm on July 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: January 2023] A Symphony of Echoes

This is the second book in a something-teen long series.

I sometimes wonder if I enjoy a series more for the narrator of the audio books than the quality of the books themselves.

I didn’t think that at the time of reading this, because I was swept up in the comedy and adventure and (yes, I’m saying it, time travel).  However, while looking for a cover image, I read a scathing review of this book and felt that I did agree with many of the criticisms.  I guess I just didn’t care.  And I wonder if that’s because Zara Ramm gave great voice to the lead character Max and also did an amazing job with all of the different characters (male and female from all over the place).

Book 2 continues the time travelling saga of the historians of St. Mary’s.  Like the other stories there are several seemingly random adventures that the crew must go on.  The first, in this case, is with a soon-to-be-retiring historian named Kalinda Black.  She wishes to go to Jack the Ripper times and suss out what actually happened.

Things go horribly wrong when Jack the Ripper (in some form or another) hops a ride with them back to St. Mary’s.  It’s confusion and chaos trying to fight a near invisible enemy.  And that’s before anyone realizes that Captain Farrell is missing.

It is, of course, the dastardly duo of Izzie Barclay and Clive Ronan, set in a future St. Mary’s.  In a sign of things  to come, Max realizes that they cannot kill Ronan because of time paradoxes (I am not about to go into details of that) and that Izzie is much harder to kill than it seems when Max shoots her and dumps her in an elevator.

Because the future St. Mary’s has been decimated by Barclay and Ronan, Max stays on as interim head. (more…)

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Jodi Taylor–Just One Damned Thing After Another [The Chronicles of St Mary’s, #1] (2013) [audiobook 2014]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Death, Dinosaurs, Fears, Feminism, Fire, Funny (ha ha), History, Huh?, Jodi Taylor, Morality, Murder, Mystery, Supernatural, Thieves, Threats, Time Travel, Violence, Zara Ramm on July 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: July 2022] Just One Damned Thing After Another

This is the first book in a something-teen long series.

I sometimes wonder if I enjoy a series more for the narrator of the audio books than the quality of the books themselves.

I didn’t think that at the time of reading this, because i was swept up in the comedy and adventure and (yes, I’m saying it, time travel).  However, while looking for a cover image, I read a scathing review of this book and felt that I did agree with many of the criticisms.  I guess I just didn’t care.  And I wonder if that’s because Zara Ramm gave great voice to the lead character Max and also did an amazing job with all of the different characters (male and female from all over the place).

As we meet Madeline Maxwell (Max), she is in a bad way.  She has few prospects and fewer coins in her pocket.  She’s pretty desperate until she gets a surprise visit from a former teacher who tells her about a job with poor pay and worse conditions.

This leads to a job as a historian at St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research.  The cool thing about St. Mary’s is that historians travel to the past to “confirm” details of things that happened.  Essentially University researchers get to experience historical events first hand, including all of the dangers involved.  The Institute is a part of University of Thirsk. (more…)

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K. Eason–Night Watch on the Hinterlands [The Weep #1] (2021)

Posted in Adventure, Advice, Aliens, Duology, Feminism, Funny (ha ha), Gender, K. Eason, Magic, Multiverse, Political Humor, Sci-fi, Science, Violence on June 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[READ: April 2023] Night Watch on the Hinterlands

I absolutely loved K. Eason’s The Thorne Chronicles (How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse).  I had no idea that she had a new duology out until this book came to my desk at work.

I had audiobooked the first duology and loved the world that Nicole Poole read to me.

But now I was jumping in to the print version.  Shockingly for me I haven’t been reading many books this year.  I have gotten so into the audiobook world that I’ve been listening far more than I’ve been reading.  And in some respects it was hard to get into this book because there’s a lot of made up stuff here and you really have to get into the world and the vocabulary and it was a bumpy start for me.

This book is set in the same world as the Rory Thorne books.  Yes, that is true.  But it is set far in the future so there is no overlap with characters or anything like that.  So that was a bit of a bummer.

There’s a lot of “hard” science fiction in this story, which is probably more of the reason why it was hard to get into it.  I accepted the new world, but you have to learn so much to get up to speed with everything that it can feel like a slog even if you are flying through the pages.

There are two main characters in this book.

Lieutenant Iari is a tenju templar (which you have to learn about and which I don’t think I fully did, but tenju are rather large humanoid race with tusks).  She was orphaned during the Expansion War and joined the templars because she believed in their mission.  The war is over now and her primary purpose is to stop The Brood.  Brood are deadly, seemingly invisible monsters that have come through a rip in the Void (which you have to learn about).  The rip is called The Weep, and I feel like I never quite got the hang of how or why the Weep happened.  The one thing that was clear was that the vakari inadvertently created The Weep during the war. (more…)

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Peter Swanson–All the Beautiful Lies (2018) [audiobook 2018]

Posted in Drinking, Feminism, Guns, Maine, Marriage Trouble, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Peter Swanson, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Sex, Sexism, Unlikable main character, Violence, Yuck! on June 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: June 2023] All the Beautiful Lies

I loved Swanson’s Eight Perfect Murders.  I hated the characters in The Kind Worth Killing (but I loved the twists).  So I had this third book as a kind of final litmus test for if I would listen to anymore books by him.

And the answer is no.

Once again, Swanson’s twist and surprises (and the ending) are really good.  But if possible, he made main characters who are even more horrible and unlikable.  How was that possible?

There’s a few spoilers in this review, although none that reveal the twists or who the murderer(s) is/are.

I’m just going to get this over with, so yes, there’s a spoiler here.  One of the main characters is a pedophile.

It’s bad enough when, at some point in the middle of the book, we learn that he is happily going to essentially make a new life with the daughter of his second wife (step-daughter, so not incest, but Jesus Fucking Christ).  And then we find out that this guy was introduced to sex when he was a teenager by a bored housewife.  So he is basically “paying it forward.”

How did Swanson even write these words?   How did his moral compass allow these words to pass his fingers onto the page?

I mean, the blurb on Goodreads starts with this:

Harry Ackerson has always considered his stepmother Alice to be sexy and beautiful, in an “otherworldly” way. She has always been kind and attentive, if a little aloof in the last few years.

I mean, who reads that blurb and wants to read more (I go into my books totally blind, so I had no idea this was coming). (more…)

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Peter Swanson–The Kind Worth Killing (2015) [audiobook 2012]

Posted in Airplanes, Drinking, Feminism, Guns, Johnny Heller, Karen White, Kathleen Early, Keith Szarabajka, Maine, Marriage Trouble, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Peter Swanson, Sex, Sexism, Unlikable main character, Violence on June 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: June 2023] The Kind Worth Killing

I had enjoyed Peter Swanson’s Eight Perfect Murders so much that I wanted to get more audio books by him.  I had heard that he was creating a sequel to one of his popular books, but I didn’t know which one.  It turns out it was this one.

So this seemed like a good one to start with.

As it opened, I absolutely hated it.  It may have been Johnny Heller’s voice, which I did not like.  Although it also sounded familiar and I wondered if I knew him from reading a children’s book and I didn’t like him in an adult role.

Why did I hate it?  Because within the first few minutes, his character, Ted Severson says something to the effect of, “My wife cheated on me.  So I have to kill her.”  I mean, who the hell thinks like that?  And who bases an entire book on that?  That is psychopathic.

Interestingly, I have read many complaints about Swanson’s bland characters, and while I’m not sure they are bland, exactly, they are certainly deadpan or flat or disinterested.  At least that’s how the narrators read them.

So when Karen White took over as narrator for Lily Kintner’s parts, I enjoyed the book more.  Lily was a flat character, but I found her dispassionate voice to be kind of interesting.  (more…)

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Bikini Kill (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, April 7, 2023) [Fifth rescheduled date!]

Posted in Bikini Kill, Brontez Purnell, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Riot Grrrl on April 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 7, 2023] Bikini Kill [rescheduled from November 22, 2020, October 2, 2021 and July 13, 2022]

I bought a ticket for this show on November 10, 2019.  That’s 1,244 days.

And it finally happened!

It felt like a pretty long time before the band came out.  My daughter was a little nervous about the place being sold out and the crowd definitely pressed in on us, but she was a trooper and we enjoyed talking to some of the other people around us.

And then the band came out.

Three of the original Bikini Kill members were touring, Tobi Vail on drums (and vocals) Kathi Wilcox on bass (and drums) and Kathleen Hanna singing (and bass).  Original member Billy Karren was not part of the reunion and was replaced by Sara Landeau who has an impressive musical background.

They came out and launched right into song after song.

Kathleen Hanna is a great front woman–talking to us about the songs, saying how great it was to see so many young people whose parents were into th eband and talking about how different it was back in the 90s when people would heckle and throw things at them.

They played a bunch of songs and the crowd was singing along with them all the way.

After about six songs, Tobi Vail came down from behind the kit and sang a couple of songs.  Kathi played drums and Kathleen went to the bass.

Then Kathleen retruned to the fore for a few more songs.  She talked about “No Backrub” as being about self-care and she was delighted to see punks slamdancing to a song about self-care.

It’s been a pretty long time since I listened to these records very carefully so I didn’t know the songs all that well.  But I enjoyed the energy and singing along to the songs and parts of songs that I knew.  I love “Reject All American.”  And it was soon after that they played a whole bunch from Pussy Whipped, the album I know best.

As the set drew to a close, she said they were going to a play a song that she wrote because her sister used to say it to all he guys who harrassed her on her way to school.  Everybody shout along now: “suck my left one!”

After a short encore break, Kathleen apologized for not introducing the band and shouted “We are Bikini Kill and we want Revolution Girl Style Now!” before playing “Double Dare Ya!”

And then came the moment everyone was waiting for.  They started “Rebel Girl” and the play exploded.  It was great fun.  And at about 80 minutes it still felt pretty exhausting from all the dancing.

  1. New Radio §
  2. This Is Not a Test ⇓
  3. Don’t Need You ©
  4. Alien She Ψ
  5. Feels Blind ⇓
  6. I Hate Danger § (Tobi Vail singing)
  7. In Accordance to Natural Law § (Tobi Vail singing)
  8. Carnival ⇓
  9. Resist Psychic Death ©
  10. No Backrub Ø
  11. Capri Pants Ø
  12. For Tammy Rae Ψ
  13. For Only Ø
  14. Demi Rep §
  15. Reject All American Ø
  16. Jigsaw Youth ©
  17. Sugar  Ψ
  18. Rah! Rah! Replica §
  19. Hamster Baby Ψ  (Tobi Vail singing)
  20. Tell Me So Ψ  (Tobi Vail singing)
  21. Magnet Ψ
  22. Lil’ Red Ψ
  23. Suck My Left One ⇓
    encore
  24. Double Dare Ya ⇓
  25. Rebel Girl Ψ
⇓ Revolution Girl Style Now (1991)
Ψ Pussy Whipped (1993)
© The C.D. Version of the First Two Records (1994)
Ø Reject All American (1996)
§ The Singles (1998)

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Brontez Purnell (Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, April 7, 2023) [BIKINI KILL] [Fifth rescheduled date!]

Posted in Bikini Kill, Brontez Purnell, Feminism, Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA, Riot Grrrl on April 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 7, 2023] Brontez Purnell [rescheduled from November 22, 2020, October 2, 2021 and July 13, 2022]

I bought a ticket for this show on November 10, 2019.  That’s 1,244 days.

And it finally happened!

In the 4 years since I bought these tickets, my daughter became a fan of the band and I was able to score a ticket for her that wasn’t marked up all that much.  So we both got to enjoy the show.

There were a couple of different opening acts planned for this show.  I would have loved to see Alice Bag.  But for this date we had Brontez Purnell.

I had no idea who this was and even had kind of a hard time imagining what they would do.  Especially since his Wikipedia page states:

Brontez Purnell is an American writer, musician, dancer, and director based out of Oakland, California. He is the author of several books, including Since I Laid My Burden Down, and the zine Fag School; frontman for the punk band The Younger Lovers; and founder of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company.

I didn’t know if Brontez would speak, dance or sing.

So it turned out Brontez fronted a three piece garage punk band.  And they were very much okay. (more…)

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Lucy Ellmann–Things are Against Us (2021)

Posted in Absolutely Fabulous, Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, E.L. Doctorow, Essays, Femicide, Feminism, Greta Thunberg, Guns, Jane Austen, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lucy Ellmann, Mary Ellmann, Murder, Pizza, Raymond Chandler, Sex, Sexism, Sherlock Holmes, Violence, Virginia Woolf on March 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[READ: March 10, 2021] Things Are Against Us

I loved Ellmann’s book Ducks, Newburyport so much that I had intended to read all of her books.

So I’ve gone back and read some of her previous novels.  Which I found to be…okay.  They were mildly amusing with some very personal diatribes thrown in to put some passion into these otherwise comic novels.

Then I saw that she had a recent collection of essays, which I thought might be really interesting.

I agree about 95% with everything Ellmann says in this book.  And yet I hated this book more than almost anything I’ve read recently.  And I think I’m not going to bother reading the other novels that I haven’t read yet, since the other two weren’t that great anyhow.

Ellmann’s style in these essays is so unpleasant, so superior and self-righteous, so… (and I hate to use this word because of the anti-feminist implications of it but it is definitionally accurate) strident, that I almost didn’t finish most of the essays (I forced my way through to the end of all of them).  Strident, btw: “presenting a point of view, especially a controversial one, in an excessively and unpleasantly forceful way.  I mean, that is this book to a T.”

In the past, strident women have been very important to many movements.  But hen your arguments are so scattershot, it’s hard for your stridency to be a positive force.

“Things Are Against Us”
In this essay Ellmann all caps the word THINGS every time she writes it.  On the first page (which is half a page not including the title), THINGS appears over 30 times.  The tone is kind of amusing–about how things get in our way and cause us trouble: Things slip out of your hand; things trip you, things break.  Then each following paragraph gets more specific.  Clothes tear, socks don’t stay up.  Matches won’t light, water bottles spill. Then she gets into the body.  In her novel Doctors & Nurses she lists 12 pages of bodily ailments.  So there’s not much new here.  And there’s no real point.  It doesn’t end with any grand idea.  It just stops. (more…)

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