Girls to the Front

I wish I wasn't a little late on this but Cat Tyc and Sara Marcus are making an interactive video installation at girlstothefront.com, in conjunction with Sara Marcus’s book about Riot Grrrl, Girls to the Front, that’s coming out this fall.

I look forward to watching it and reading the book!


             

Interview with Author Stephanie Kuehnert

New York Public Library interviews author Stephanie Kuehnert who wrote I wanna be your Joey Ramone and Ballads of Suburbia about Riot Grrrl for women's history month.

       

Typical Girls: The Story of the Slits

I saw the new Slits book, Typical Girls: The Story of the Slits by Zoe Street Howe in the bookstore a few months ago.  I am already overloaded with books to read for nursing school so I didn't pick it up yet, but it does look interesting.  If you've read it please let me know your thoughts, because it is definitely on my wish list.  Check out the Myspace for Typical Girls because they are posting some excerpts from the book. There is already a story of The Slits meeting John Peel on there.

   
 
       

I interrupt this feature on Norwich...

I'm going to interrupt my Norwich lovin' for a couple of days, because I want to write about a couple of things. (I promise I will get back to my feature soon.) But first I want to tell you about a technique in music therapy called music synchronization. You can read about it in the book Tao of Music, which I highly recommend.  I can't find my copy of the book right now, so it will be hard for me to do the theory justice.  However I will try to break it down very basically but it will only be from what I can remember because I read this in graduate school several years ago.  In this book John Ortiz talks about how music has the ability to influence different affective states.  And that you can utilize the power of music to help move your mood from depressed to happy or from angry to relaxed (or to induce whatever emotional states you wish.)

You start the mix by "matching" the mood you want to move out of with the music.  The music can match the mood on a number of different levels (lyrics, rhythm, tone, etc.)  And after you put on several songs to match the starting feeling, you then slowly move into songs that have a little more of the feeling you want to evoke (whether that is more upbeat songs to illicit happiness or relaxing songs to calm anxiety or whatever.)  And of course, you end the mix by having multiple songs that match the mood of the feeling you are hoping to evoke.

I think this technique is cool and I have actually used it with some clients in the past.  Like making a mix tape, it makes people slow down and become very conscious and introspective.  The reason I'm writing about this is because I spent the day at a funeral. And it seems like I've been to way too many funerals lately.  Sooo I thought about making a "I go to way too many funerals, and too many people I care about die/But I'm going to stop feeling sorry and depressed about it and and I'm going to accept it and start living" music synchronization mix.  I tried to start this a few months ago when a good friend of mine's life was altered when one of her closest friends committed suicide. I tried to make her a music synchronization CD, until I realized I don't have a CD burner that works.

Anyway, I'm not done going through my itunes yet, let alone looking at my record and cassette collections.  And actually, for one music synchronization mix this is actually way too many songs. But here are the songs so far.  I chose these songs for all different reasons. I chose some of them for the use of a certain instrument, or because of the title, or for an emotion or memory that it evokes in me, or just for one line that seemed really poignant, like: "I'm with everyone and yet not" or "Don't be like the one who made me so old / Don't be like the one who left behind his name."

by ~cloud-room deviant art

These are not all grrrl songs, because believe it or not, I am into aaaallll kinds of music (even some stuff that I should be embarrassed about, but screw that!) Obviously I just devote this blog to celebrating female musicians.  The theme here is loss and resiliency, because that's what I was thinking about.

Cry for everything bad that's ever happened - Le Tigre
Bad news - Kanye West
Lost someone - Cat Power
Heading for a breakdown - Soundtrack of Our Lives
Swallowed - Bush
I'm a broken heart - The Bird and the Bee
Bone driven - Bush
Coldest winter - Kayne West
Feel the pain - Dinosoar Jr
You can't put your arms around a memory - Johnny Thunders (or the Ronnie Spector cover)
I am stretched on your grave - Sinead O'Conner
Bury my heart - Spinnerette
Rainy dayz - Mary J. Blige
Dream brother - Jeff Buckley
Naveed - Our Lady Peace
Life is so hard - Eve
R.I.P. - Bikini Kill
Questioning my Sanity - L7
Crucify - Tori Amos
Second skin - The Gits
Come dig me out - Kelly Osbourne
God send me an angel - Amanda Perez
Are you happy? - Juliette and the Licks
I never got to tell you what I wanted to - Juliette and the Licks
Torch - Alanis Morrisette
No more drama - Mary J. Blige
Baby don't cry (keep ya head up) - Tupac
Are you sad? - Our Lady Peace
Don't worry baby - Ronnie Spector
Life - Our Lady Peace
I'm not afraid of life - The Ramones
A Change is gonna come - The Gits
Fighter - Christina Aguilera
Stronger - Kanye West
Keep on livin' - Le Tigre
I wanna live - The Ramones
I believe in miracles - The Ramones
Don't give up - The Noisettes
Take the pain and use it - Bratmobile
Sing - The Dresden Dolls
Wonderful Life - Gwen Stefani
Life uncommon - Jewel
Walkin' in the sunshine - Roger Miller
Heaven tonight - Hole
Look for the silver lining - Chet Baker
Surrounded - Chantel Kreviazuk
I gotta find peace of mind - Lauryn Hill
Hope Chant (organic) - Wayquay
Amazing Grace - Ani Difranco
Woyaya - Art Garfunkel

Okay, so now you can stop reading my blog because you just realized that I'm not actually as cool or as indie as you thought I was. hahha but if you wanna be judgmental, I don't care cos I am sick of music elitism.  Anyway, I'd be really interested to hear if any of you decide to use this technique, what songs you used and what your experiences are like with it...

            

Grrrl Zines

I miss swapping zines and mix tapes in the mail.  As a kid this is how I conquered the isolation of being a  suburban punk.  And this is also how I found out about so many cool bands, many of which I still love today!  I think while I'm feeling nostalgic about this, I'm going to try to dig up copies of my old zine and try to find some new pen pals. A new book, Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism by Alison Piepmeier, is set to be released on November 18th.  Here is a review of the book from The American Prospect.

And if you're interested in reading more about grrrl zines, I can recommend the book: Girls Guide to Taking Over the World: Writings From The Girl Zine Revolution by Tristan Taormino and Karen Green. 

And if you want to learn how to make a zine yourself, one of my favorite authors of all time, Francesca Lia Block, contributed to the book Zine Scene: The Do it Yourself Guide to Zines with Hilary Carlip.

And for a great website and more information about zines, check out the Grrrl Zine Network!