February 2012
7 posts
Not Pretty
lareviewofbooks:
Edith Wharton was born 150 years ago. Jonathan Franzen’s piece on the occasion in the New Yorker got VICTORIA PATTERSON mad. Image © Paul Bausch onfocus.com
Victoria Patterson’s work has often been compared, for good reason, to Edith Wharton’s. This Vacant Paradise, Patterson’s first novel, is a contemporary retelling, quite consciously and intelligently, of The House of...
In the Guardian, a theory of how false images of... →
“In both city streets and war zones, men are far more likely to rape in groups. They feel they must uphold the cult of masculinity in the eyes of other men. As one soldier in Democratic Republic of Congo reported to Swedish researchers: ‘You feel you have to do something bad. You mix it all: sabotage, women, stealing, rip the clothes off, killing.’ Military officers sometimes...
"The thing about 'overwhelming' music, though, is... →
One of my favorite music writers, Nitsuh Abebe, absolutely nails what it is that attracts me to genres like metal, screamo, and noise: The more crushingly overwhelming the music, the more it fills me with an unshakable sense of calm. The truth is that a brutal sonic assault usually feels like an antidote to all the confusion in my head. It’s like, instead of thinking about all the colors in...
David Grossman wrote about Permanent Wave for... →
"The Komen controversy...has ramifications beyond... →
A good argument for why we need radical feminism in 2012:
“The past decades have seen the rise of a nominally apolitical marketing campaign masquerading as feminism, with Komen merely the most visible symbol. Komen aligns perfectly with what Linda Hirshman labeled ‘choice feminism’—a moral-relativist approach to feminism that tries to scrub the movement of politics and value...
January 2012
8 posts
The Last Thing I'll Ever Write About Lana Del Rey
So it’s kind of weird that people are now quoting me about hating Lana Del Rey. I don’t actually hate her, although I know a lot of people who do. Actually, I can count the number of people I hate on one hand—and none of them are pop stars.
The piece that I wrote about Lana Del Rey many months ago was about us more than it was about her. It was about our willingness to devour a...
Ten Anthems for a Feminist Revolution →
I wrote about one of my favorite subjects for Spinner. Enjoy!
Cool News: My band Hily Eye is going to release a... →
Read all about it here! Expect some psychedelic noise rock headed your way in 2012!
La Maestra Esme →
Here’s a photo of Esme—and also a really touching statement about what it means to volunteer at Girls Rock Camp. For anyone in NYC who would like to support Esme’s family, Jo Schornikow and Permanent Wave are organizing this benefit show to try to help.
ericabadont:
I first heard about Esme Barrera’s death on New Year’s afternoon, after I had spent the afternoon having brunch...
Esme Barrera, Girls Rock Camp Austin volunteer and... →
When I heard the news, the first thing that came to mind was the murder to Mia Zapata from the Gits. The similarities stood out to me—a woman walking home late at night—Esme from a party, Mia from a bar, the way the two women loved music and used it both to inform and to uplift, and the seemingly random nature of the crime. Except neither crime was as random as we’d like to...
December 2011
9 posts
Kate Zambreno on Writing the Feminine →
“The difference is privileging in literature a hero as opposed to a heroine. The difference is dismissing anguish that is seen as feminine, and not “universal” (i.e. masculine). Perhaps Gregor Samsas also takes the form, in literature, of 18-year-old chorus girls, or unraveling divorcees, or suicidal overachievers from a prestigious woman’s college.”
Why can’t the feminine...
Nisennenmondai Comes to America
In 1999, guitarist Masako Takeda, bassist Yuri Zaikawa, and drummer Sayaka Himeno met at a meeting of their University’s music club, formed a band and named it Nisennenmondai, after the impending Year 2000 Crisis. The name stuck, and the band kept playing—even after Y2K itself turned out to be something of a dud. Looking back, it seems pretty quaint that we all expected every machine on the planet...
“As marriage has become less necessary to support yourself, to gain...”
– From an article on the website Good.is focusing on the reasons why marriage rates (presumably among straight couples) are declining.
RadioActivists Rock for Japan!
WHEN: Thursday December 22nd, 8pm to 12am
WHERE: Big Snow Buffalo Lodge - 89 Varet Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206
WHAT: Live music show, bake sale, video screening, speakers to address the current situation in Japan, calls for solidarity with women’s movement to protect children.
WHO: Permanent Wave (organizer)
FOR MORE INFO: Click #here# to go to the Facebook page for the event. ...
I Talked with Cyndi Lauper about Overcoming Sexism →
“I think the only reason that I’m still goin’ now is that I don’t listen. I think you can’t listen. You listen what works and what doesn’t work for you and you just ignore people. Understand where it is you want to go. Then picture yourself there. If you can picture yourself there, then you can be there. Bottom line.” —Cyndi Lauper, REAL TALK
Erin Sheehy on Gender, Music, and Freedom →
“For a long time the issue of ‘women in rock’ seemed trivial to me, and frankly, I didn’t think about it much. But reading Ellen Willis has given me pause. There’s a lot more at stake than whether or not a girl decides to learn guitar. Most of the women in my consciousness-raising group have said that as adolescents they felt like they didn’t relate to girls. Smart, dynamic...
Hot Topic: Pepper Spray, Race, and the Police
So pepper spray is in the news again—this time because two police officers, whose M.O. can only be described as “overreacting,” took it upon themselves to squirt streams of the fiery stuff straight at a group of students seated on the U.C. Davis quad.
Watch the video on YouTube. It’s a troubling image—young people huddled in a row, clinging to each other for support,...
November 2011
8 posts
Transport
I’m on the Greyhound bus, riding home to New York after Thanksgiving. Outside it’s dark—the big, deep, ocean of the road swells and falls, and in the distance, you can see far away lights like buoys in the water. Is this the city or someplace else?
Everything that’s familiar becomes unfamiliar when you leave it behind. The feeling I have now reminds me of the feeling I...
Maura Johnston on why calling Michele Bachman a... →
“Bachmann is the first 2012 GOP presidential candidate to be on Fallon, although she’s certainly not the only one who’s been caught in her own deceptions. She’s also the lone woman remaining in the field, which makes me wonder if Rick Perry or Rick Santorum would have been greeted by this particular Fishbone track had they been first to Fallon’s couch. The answer,...
Civic Pride
Last week, I learned about the Penn State sex abuse case. Immediately, I read the entire Grand Jury report. I wanted to inform myself about what had taken place so I could discuss the facts in an educated manner. I had no idea that the narrative of children’s rape allegations would expand, would engulf me, and would become intertwined with the narrative of my own memories. In the beginning, I...
Late Night Thoughts
Have you ever felt like, the more you want to do something, the more afraid you are to do it? I find it easy to do things that other people want me to do, or demand that I do, but when it comes to something that I really want to do, not for anyone else, and just for myself, it feels like an uphill battle to even get started. I am at the point in my life when I am just figuring out just how much I...
Aha!
I figured out how to change the URL of my website to amyrebeccaklein.tumblr.com.
Unfortunately, this means that all the links that might have led people to my old website are now broken. I’m sorry to everyone who linked to my old website!
Hopefully, you can update your links if you are seeing this message and have a link on your website to my website.
Argh, internet.
voletasam asked: are you going to keep blogging? please do!
October 2011
12 posts
A Message to Titus Andronicus’ Friends and Fans
I just got back from my last tour with the band Titus Andronicus. Yes, it’s true. As of today, I am no longer a member of the band.
No, there was no big fight or anything—no wild partying, drug, or alcohol addiction leading to me getting fired—no dramatic story—nothing like that. It is just time for me to move on.
I want to say an enormous thank you to every one of you for supporting me over the...
Autumn, 2011
I saw the leaves falling for the first time
all along the road—one at a time.
It was like looking at your spirit
falling out of the sky—I saw myself
at the occupation, saw my face
crumpling like a leaf.
I was trying to shout—
but the sound fell out of my mouth.
I understand what it is to be so angry,
you forget how to speak.
A country is a tree with many leaves.
We have grown up among so many...
ryantcarson asked: Hey Amy, I was at the Titus show last night, and I just wanted to say that it kicked all kinds of ass. The last time I saw you guys was back in April, and it seems like you guys are a tighter and tighter band all the time. I've been incredibly stressed out lately, and the show last night was the perfect way for me to let all of that out. You guys were great!
The Perks of Being a Killjoy →
Another excellent Rookie article about figuring out how to call people out on their b.s., when their b.s. is offensive and bothers you to the point of making you real angry.
I particularly like this part:
“Sometimes when you think you are being the ‘humorless feminist,’ you might be saying something that everyone was thinking but didn’t want to be the one to bring it...
“Katy: Do you think the broad public has a fascination with seeing creative,...”
– Katy Otto interviews Sabrina Chap for Sadie Magazine.
“As T.S. Eliot said, ‘Every generation translates for itself.’ It’s...”
– Patti Smith
Listening to The Boss
Although I hail from the great state of New Jersey, I never listened to Bruce Springsteen growing up. The only music my parents played was Classical and when I was a teenager, I never turned the radio dial too far away from the contemporary rock station or WFMU. To me, New Jersey was a referent for neat suburban lawns, strip malls, and the road to school and back. I never knew that my home turf...
When I Am Happy
When I am happy, my body feels like mine—as if I’m diving into the water and the water is my body. My body is right up against me, holding on.
I feel very safe here. I stop thinking, “That over there is me.” I stop looking at her. I say exactly what I mean. Even the word “I” feels as if I were falling into it.
“I” is a light that shines directly...
September 2011
13 posts
“Rock ‘n’ roll matters because it is the story of growing up. Arguably, rock ‘n’...”
– Helena Fitzgerald, in a review of the Ellen Willis anthology, Out of the Vinyl Deeps
The Problem With Lana Del Ray
The problem with Lana Del Ray is that she may be smarter than you. After all, here she is, half-formed and already fully famous, ready for her closeup, clothed only in fantasy and in nostalgia for an America that no longer exists.
Sometimes, on YouTube, in between shifting veils of 1950’s stock video, her image rises and squints at us, like a reflection of our own. Lana Del Ray is trying to...