TOPS 2010

MUSIC
 
1. Grass Widow - Past Time
2. Big Eyes - Big Eyes
3. Big Soda - Paper Rte.
4. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
5. Zombie Dogs - LP
6. Marvin Berry & the New Sound - 7" (because it's my blog, and I can!)

ART

1. Andrew Hurst solo show at STOREFRONT
2. Raymond Pettibon, "Hard in the Paint" at David Zwirner
3. Austin Thomas, "Drawing on the Utopic" at STOREFRONT
4. Tamara Waite-Santibanez... always
5. Aimee Lusty, new works in drawing & collage

NEW YEAR

"My Grandpa always said, 'New Year's is a holiday for amateurs.' I think he's right." - Neil P. Callaghan

BRAIN WAVES POSTPONED

ATTN: FRIENDS, BRAIN WAVES WILL NOT BE DEBUTING AT TONIGHT'S PARTY. Unfortunately the unruly blizzard of 2K10 ruined any chance of getting the zines up tonight. Hopefully, they'll be up for STOREFRONT's New Year's brunch opening on the 1st, but alas, I will be in Georgia. Any updates I have will be announced from there!

ANNOUNCING: BRAIN WAVES

BRAIN WAVES: STOREFRONT's Zine & Print collection will debut at our beloved gallery's holiday party this December 28th. BRAIN WAVES is a collection of zines, artist books, prints, and other ephemera at Bushwick’s STOREFRONT gallery, curated by Kate Wadkins. Maintaining STOREFRONT’s mission, BRAIN WAVES includes work by emerging local artists and writers. The party is a benefit for Norte Maar and should be a great time. If you can't make it, please check out the NEW YEAR, NEW WORK, NEW FACES show opening January 1st at the gallery.

>> brainwavesbrooklyn.tumblr.com <<

BRAIN WAVES debut

featuring work by:

Lauren Denitzio

Aimee Lusty

Kathleen McIntyre

Pen 15 Press

Jess Poplawski & Matt Sidella

Jason Roy

Cynthia Schemmer

Bob Thompson

Tamara Waite-Santibanez

at

*HOLIDAY PARTY*

to benefit NORTE MAAR

Tuesday, December 28

7-9PM

BEER + PIZZA + PREVIEW

$20

Jason Andrew and Deborah Brown cordially invite you to celebrate the holidays in style with a party benefiting the collaborative projects of Norte Maar. Join us for beer and pizza and private preview of the upcoming show of our new season featuring new work of over thirty rising artists.

NEW YEAR, NEW WORK, NEW FACES:

Ali Aschman * John Avelluto * Gregg Baker * Yevgeniya Baras * Myles Bennett * Jim Butler * Maria Calandra * Paul Campbell * Ceclie Chong * Henry Chung * Amanda Church * Elisabeth Condon * Mila Dau * Blane De St. Croix * Kylie Heidenheimer * Cooper Holoweski * Leslie Kerby * Wendy Klemperer * Lars Kremer * Matthew Langley * Mary Kate Maher * Karen Marston * Loren Munk * Carol Salmanson * Rob Servo * Julie Torres * Rhonda Tymeson * Don Voisine * Robert Walden * Chuck Webster * Josh Willis * Mark Weathers * and others.

MUSIC MONDAYS at IF YOU MAKE IT

I contributed to Dave's new section, "Music Mondays," at If You Make It. Katie Crutchfield (P.S. Eliot) is up next week, and we are in good company with a calendar of contributors that includes many of our great friends and colleagues.

I also made that sweet little stereo icon!

MIX TAPE #4: FULL CIRCLE

or IF I AIN'T DEAD ALREADY...

The Beatles - Yer Blues

Grass Widow - Shadow

Jay Reatard - No Time

Toots & the Maytals - Louie Louie

Far - I Like It

The Movielife - Sailor Tattoos

Reigning Sound - I'd Much Rather Be With the Boys

The Thermals - I Hold the Sound

I named this mix FULL CIRCLE because it marks one year of mix tape-making on this blog. Do you guys realize how long a year is? It's pretty long. I'm getting outta dodge for New Year's, so this is my holiday card, farewell card, and Happy 2011 card to you all. 11 is a lucky number, so let's hope next year is like, better than this one.

P.S. 8tracks should be paying me for this shiz!

RAH RAH REPLICA

Kim Gordon reads the riot grrrl manifesta.

World premiere of THE JULIE RUIN.

click the photos to enlarge

LOVECRAFT LOGO

Over the summer, I met my friend Dragana's dog, Sid. I drew him a little badge that said "el sid," and handed it it over to Drag for safe-keeping. Dragana has since started a printing press called "lovecraft" and asked me to tweak el sid's banner to read lovecraft instead. I was sent this glorious photo of Sid, but maintained the original sketch drawn from the life of Sid himself. Dragana will be selling her zines at this weekends' Ergs & Hunchback reunion shows to benefit Jackie Nixon, so be sure to pick up some copies!

WATCH OUT! PUNK IS COMING!

Every now and then while I'm working on my thesis, I find a really great quote. Here's today's:

Overnight, punk had become as stupid as everything else. This wonderful vital force that was articulated by the music was really all about corrupting every form--it was about advocating kids to not wait to be told what to do, but make life up for themselves, it was about trying to get people to use their imaginations again, it was about not being perfect, it was about saying it was okay to be amateurish and funny, that real creativity came out of making a mess, it was about working with what you got in front of you and turning everything embarrassing, awful, and stupid in your life to your advantage."

-- Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, 334.

RE/VISIONIST HAPPENINGS

We just launched the December issue of RE/VISIONIST, featuring a review of Made in Dagenham by Roz and I. Over the holiday weekend, Elevate Difference posted an interview we did with Lizzy Shramko this summer. If you ever had a question for us R/V-ers, it's probably answered here.

"RIOT GRRRL: TRACES OF A MOVEMENT" & THE FEMINIST CONTINUUM

photo courtesy of Dragana Drobnjak

A few Fridays ago my friend Rachel and I indulged in lots of art activities, walking from PS1 for Printed Matter's Art Book Fair, to Prints Gone Wild in Williamsburg, and back. Saturday, we walked to Long Island City for more. I quickly bought a ticket and ran to the "Riot Grrrl: Traces of a Movement" conference session while my pals continued to check out the tables at the Book Fair.

I sat down and a good friend of mine, Dragana, happened to be sitting right next to me, camera in hand. Dragana took photos of the entire slide presentation, and when we got near the end, I gasped in surprise (seriously).

Jenna Freedman, founder of Barnard Library's zine collection, featured selected images of the collection, tracing the history of twenty years of zines from the original riot grrrls through today. In one of her last images, she projected the caption "EveryGrrrl plans a feminist conference," with a scan of our [For the Birds'] She-Bang pamphlet from this year. I think of DIY feminist cultural production in a continuum, something that is always in conversation with its history, present, and future. This one moment really solidified that feeling. My review of the conference might explain what I am getting at a little more.

You can read my review of the conference now at Elevate Difference, featuring another photo by the lovely Dragana.

STILL LIFE

of a feminist birthday!

JHOPPS HEARTSTOPS

"Not to floss," but one of my fav feminist music writers just gave my conference review a legit shout-out on her blog, which I am an avid follower of. Psyched.

BIG TIME

RE/VISIONIST got a shout-out on Feministing yesterday, which made us feel pretty big time.

THIS IS A THANK YOU SONG

My summer internship with Le Teegs came to a close, and I got to celebrate with LT and fellow associate Lily! Dreams do come true, y'all. Food coma, feminist heroine dreams.

OLD NEWS IS NEW AGAIN

I HAVE A FEATURE UP AT RE/VISIONIST this month. An updated edit of my review of the plenary panel at "The Message is in the Music: Hip Hop Feminism, Riot Grrrl, Latina Music & More" conference, including Mimi Thi Nguyen and Fiona Ngo, and an illustration by the lovely Cristy C. Road!

In sync with Sarah Lawrence’s recent call for papers for 2011’s Women’s History Conference, I am syndicating my review of the plenary panel from this year’s The Message is in the Music: Hip Hop Feminism, Riot Grrrl, Latina Music & More with RE/VISIONIST (it is also currently published in this year’s Women’s History newsletter). Specifically Ngo and Nguyen’s papers, in the context of the Conference at large, really inspired me to pursue my thesis work on masculinities in punk rock. Watching other scholars dare to take on pop culture subjects like music gave me hope and certainty that cultural production is worthy of an historical treatment.


This article is also timely as it preempts the publication of International Girl Gang Underground, a compilation zine about the way riot grrrl has influenced punk feminist cultural production over the past twenty years. Nguyen’s early iteration of her paper, “Aesthetics, Access, Intimacy” or “Race, Riot Grrrl, Bad Feelings” will be included in the zine, nestled in among scene reports and personal stories from all over the world.

Read the full article here.

WORK THAT BEAT: BUSHWICK ART SPACES STAY OPEN LATE

I'm holding down the fort at Norte Maar, with Norman and Fern, of course.

Queering Categories, Bringing Wreck

My review of (personal fave) Mimi Nguyen's panel, "Aesthetics, Access, Intimacy" or "Race, Riot Grrrl, Bad Feelings" at the Sarah Lawrence 12th Annual Women's History Conference is up at the Sarah Lawrence website now, included in our annual WH newsletter!

Nguyen’s comment about “quitting punk” illustrated the way many marginalized people feel within white dominated movements. Women, people of color, and queer folks alike have written extensively about how punk rock can be completely isolating to them. On the other hand, with its do-it-yourself ethos, punk rock offers the tools for positive things like grassroots organizing and creative self-expression. The potential for social change within punk and riot grrrl creates a tension: the simultaneous acceptance of marginalized folks within the subculture versus its constant re-creation of social hierarchies.

Read the full review here.

For more on how much I loved Mimi's panel, click here.

LEARNING

YR MID-TWENTIES = LEARNING HOW TO BE AN ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF, BOTH TO YOURSELF, AND TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU.

Review of Critical Intersections conference up at Elevate Difference

My review of this pretty great conference was published at Elevate Difference yesterday.

Critical Intersections was cosponsored by Barnard Center for Research on Women and the New York Women's Foundation, its core focus on the inextricable link between reproductive justice and women's economic security. With a sampling of seventeen New York City organizations, the conference provided a wide array of interpretations of “reproductive and economic justice,” with that definition as a point of intersection for multiple struggles: economic, gender-based, racial, and community-specific.

Read the full review here.

DIY OR DON'T WE?

For the Birds was asked by the lovely folks who do DIY or Don't We? zine to contribute something about our experience as a collective. It was released last month and is currently Feature of the Month at Ms Valerie Park Distro (where it's also available for sale)! I co-wrote a piece with fellow Birds Cynthia, Kathleen, and Lauren about our triumphs and tribulations in the past two years.

Very Okay at Stolen Sleeves by Allison Weiss. We played a fun show with SLEEPiES last night and just got added to a rad mini-fest (on a Thursday night no less) called "Girls will be Grrrls." More details to come, check out our blog for updates!

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE

Austin Thomas shout-out

The lovely Austin Thomas (whose solo show is up at STOREFRONT until October 17th) gave me a little shout-out on her blog today, among many great people, places, and things.

Thanks, Austin!

FALL UPDATES

Unsurprising, but it turned fall just about over night. I think it was over 80 degrees on the fall solstice, but October has been totally 60 degrees, grey and rainy style.

I recently made inserts for both Cheeky and Aye Nako as part of the 11"x11" full color (!!!) booklet to be included in Are you with the band?, a women-fronted pop-punk compilation by my cohort and friend, Lauren Measure. Yep, that means there will be a Cheeky track on there too.

On deck, I just submitted a review of the Critical Intersections: Reproductive and Economic Justice conference at Barnard to be published at Elevate Difference. Also, ED recently republished my Marnie Stern review (as they switched identities from Feminist Review). Check that out here.

Racialicious linked to RE/VISIONIST again, so we are excited about that.

Hopefully my next fall update will have something to do with apple/pumpkin picking, hanging out in the woods, and making pie and cider.

CHEEKY TATT-TWO

On Mike, by Marissa. I guess that means that all Cheeky tattoos are only officially sanctioned if by the hand of Missy P.

TOO OLD TO INTERN, TOO YOUNG TO CARE

That's our story and we're sticking to it.

Very Okay has a blog now.

Review of Trophy Wife’s new record at Sadie Magazine

Sadie Magazine's Fall 2010 issue just launched, featuring my review of Trophy Wife's new record, Patience Fury.

Musically, Patience Fury appeals to my Black Sabbath fan sensibilities as well as fulfilling a lot of what I want out of good punk rock. Ideologically, it is rare that a metal band has a direct relationship to a feminist scene, or feminist politics, and Trophy Wife embodies that relationship. Otto and Foglizzo face each other when playing shows, building off of each other’s energy and connecting in a way that perhaps only two people can. They share personal stories with political ramifications and engage the audience in the conversation. As this is Foglizzo’s first band, Trophy Wife exemplifies creative openness that a DIY approach to music makes possible.

Read the full review here.

THIS WEEKEND

A Bushwick & Greenpoint arts/music dispatch:

1. Austin Thomas' birthday + solo show at STOREFRONT.
2. Alvin Baltrop: Color Photographs 1971-1991 at Famous Accountants.
3. RVIVR (with Little Lungs, The Measure (SA) & friends) at 538 Johnson.
4. Canadian Rifle at Tommy's Tavern.
5. SUPERCHUNK at Music Hall of Williamsburg. (!!!)

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH

Drawing by Pettibon, layout by me.

Are you an artist? Do you love International Girl Gang Underground?

Reblogged from International Girl Gang Underground HQ:

WE WANT YOU TO DESIGN OUR COVER!

The International Girl Gang Underground zine needs a cool, one-of-a-kind cover that will represent the breadth of subjects, styles, and stories of the Girl Gang Underground. The zine will be 1/2 of an 8.5” x 11” page, copied in black & white. Your art should be suited for black & white copies - so a good amount of contrast is necessary.

Please submit your sketch or proposal (along with a link to a portfolio/images of your other work, if you have one) by Wednesday, September 29th. The final product is due Wednesday, October 27th.

E-mail submissions are preferred (PDFs or JPEGs) at girlgangunderground@gmail.com
See website for mail-in submissions, must be postmarked by 9/29.

In Solidarity,
Kate & Stacy

P.S. PASS IT ON!

MY "DEEJAY" DEBUT

Jared had his last 'tending shift at Coco 66 and I created a just-about-four-hour playlist for the occasion. Hence "deejay" in quotation marks.

Here it is! It's kind of just like if someone asked me to narrate the last four years of my life in a four hour mixtape.

ANNOUNCING: GIRL GANG GIG VOLUME

My sister and I co-booked this show. As a tangible extension of the International Girl Gang Underground zine, we have chosen the moniker GIRL GANG GIG VOLUME to keep track of shows we've booked and to maintain contact with other feminists who want to/book punk shows or need their own show on tour in the future. You may recall that this has been on my mind for over a year. This being Jess's first show-booking experience, we thought it would be appropriate to start now! Stacy, co-editor of International Girl Gang Underground is on board too, but we need some time to, y'know, PUT OUT THE ZINE and then figure out the future of both IGGU and GGGV.

The 5th Annual BIG SHE-BANG

Interview I did with Jesse Sposato in the Greenpoint Gazette.

full-size photos at my flickr (click on them!)

MESSAGE FROM KATHLEEN #2

FEMINISTS WE'RE CALLING YOU

MIX TAPE #3: ENDLESS BUMMER

 Rod Stewart - (I Know) I'm Losing You (Temptations cover)

Jawbreaker - Into You Like a Train (Psychadelic Furs cover)
Big Soda - I Know You

Nomeansno - Tired of Waiting

Descendents - Everything Sux

Discount - Antiseptic

Cleveland Bound Death Sentence - Drain
The Weakerthans - Anchorless
Superchunk - Swallow That

WHY I RELATE TO LE TIGRE

As part of my internship, I am currently transcribing the Le Tigre: On Tour film; it's my last task of the summer! Jo said something that just reminds me of the reasons I do what I do, too:

"I remained attached to this idea of having something cheap that you could reproduce, that would circulate and that would have a life kind of in the— in an art world, and in a punk scene and in a feminist scene."
-- Johanna Fateman, Le Tigre: On Tour

TRAVELS JULY 2010

CAP'N JAZZ @ MAXWELL'S HOBOKEN, NJ / SUNDAY, JULY 25 2010






for full-size photos and for the rest of the set check out my flickr, as always

SAVE THE DATE: THE BIG SHE-BANG V

[flier by Lauren Measure]

SUMMER UPDATES

July issue of RE/VISIONIST launched and we're all really proud of it, super strong pieces. It might be my favorite issue yet! We were linked by Racialicious (a favorite blog of ours) in April which I didn't pick up on until last month. As always, remember that we are looking for fresh new writing from feminist (with a lowercase "f") perspectives, and we'd love to hear from you.

For the Birds also announced our 5th Annual Big She-Bang celebration coming up quickly this August. We too are looking for submissions, and fast! So please get in touch. This year's theme is feminist communication.

In terms of other eggs that have hatched: I am the new Gallery Manager at Storefront and an intern for Le Tigre on their new film, Le Tigre: On Tour.

Friend Orlando Perez has provided the goods as usual, so here are some more photos of my work at the Pen15 show:







I don't have detail shots of my book yet, but will work on it. I might even have some exciting news, like another group show coming up this summer! We'll see. Hope you are all not sweltering in the NYC heat, and have roomies like mine that are stoked on pumping some AC.