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Genre Jukebox: Tori Amos, “Original Sinsuality”

In which Tori goes all gnostic on us. I’m including heretical Christian apocrypha in my definition of mythology, mostly so I get to include Tori’s Magdalene stuff. Also, some of the stuff early Christianity came up with is quite entertainingly wacky. I always wonder if the current fans of Gnosticism have actually read the arcane cosmologies of the orginial gnostics…

Anyway, this is in honor of Tori’s new album, Unrepentant Geraldines, which I picked up yesterday at my local indie record shop. I was a bit leery of the title, but I have to admit I actually love the title song. The album is stuffed to the gills with mythological themes, so expect tracks from it as videos become available.

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Genre Jukebox: Janelle Monae, “Q.U.E.E.N.”

Yeah, obviously there is going to be significant contributions from Janelle Monae to this series. A time-traveling android has been sending revolutionary messages of liberation from the future, disguised as two incredible concept albums. Every time I watch this video I pick up another brilliant reference: Little Richard, vogueing, John Coltrane, Philip K. Dick…and then she throws in Erykah Badu, just when you thought it couldn’t get more awesome.

“Will you be electric sheep? Electric ladies, will you sleep?
Or will you preach?”

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Introducing Genre Jukebox: Led Zeppelin

I’ve decided to try something new. I thought I’d start a series of posts about my favourite music that has a “genre” theme — music about mythology, science fiction, fantasy, fairy tales etc. I have a pretty wide taste in music, so expect everything from Enya to the Flaming Lips to Mozart. I think I’ll try to do it weekly.

Why not start off with a bang: Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”. I always imagine this on the soundtrack to the Bordertown movie that exists in an alternate universe.

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rest in peace, Pete Seeger

“My father said the truth is a rabbit in a bramble patch, and all you can do is circle round it and point and say it’s somewhere in there.”

I first saw Pete Seeger on an episode of Reading Rainbow when I was little (Pete Seeger and Levar Burton, on the same show! What could be better?), and he’s been an important artist in my life ever since. His gentle humor and relentless optimism were as inspiring to me as his courage. I feel kind of sad that I’m living in a world without him now.

One of my favorite tracks is the second video, a version of his song “Well May the World Go” from The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 2. I never get tired of this song, I love it as much for the stories and wisdom Pete dispenses between verses, as the song itself.

Blessed be, Pete. Thanks for the music.

2013: A review

Hello, internet! How’s things? I missed you. 2013 was a quiet year, a very internal year, a year of Working Through Things and not talking about them much. It was better than the previous years, but it was still pretty…challenging.

Here’s a round-up of the Good Things about 2013:

 

    • I was sick for about 6 months with chronic sinusitis—Not a Good Thing. It was hideous and miserable and my doctor was no help whatsoever. Luckily, I asked to see a different doctor, and she gave me a prescription for a Wonder Drug, and voila! I no longer resemble a Snot Monster. I really can’t even begin to articulate how much it’s improved my life — I hadn’t realized how much I normalized being vaguely sick all the time.

 

    • I got two interviews for jobs that I was really interested in, in areas we would really love to move to. I did very well in the first interview, I didn’t get the job but apparently I was second choice, the feedback was really positive. It was actually an ego-boost, weirdly. I’ve never felt so good about not getting a job before. I decided not to go for the second interview, because timing and circumstances weren’t right, but I’ve never been that assertive about my job-hunting before, so I’m counting it as a plus.

 

    • We went to Hay-on-Wye, twice, yes, twice this year, because we have our priorities in order and we know what’s important in life: books, and canoodling in front of rustic fireplaces. Our second trip was at the beginning of December, and it was kind of surreal, because we hit their Winter Festival by accident. We arrived in Hay to find it overrun with wacky-haired ladies who felt (you know the kind! They are very loud and enthusiastic in their love of felt as an artistic medium, and are often surrounded by dogs), and hipsters selling vintage clothes at obscene prices. Which meant we pretty much had the bookstores to ourselves: score!

 

    • I got a therapist, which I think is the final item on the list of Lesbian Rites of Passage. He’s cool, I can (just about) afford it, and wow, it’s pretty intense. Therapy ain’t for wimps. Three months in and I’m really starting to see the benefits in my life and mental health.

 

    • I knit my third sweater this year, a boat neck button-back sweater (so, essentially a backwards cardigan) with 3/4 raglan sleeves in Rowan Pure Wool 4ply. It went smoothly, took me ages to seam up, but in the end it was a thing of beauty. A thing of beauty that didn’t fit. Sweater Attempt #3 was yet another failure. Turns out there was a hideous gauge catastrophe that didn’t manifest itself till I tried it on, when the boat neck refused to stay on my shoulders. I looked like an extra in Flashdance, which is not really the look I was going for. This is being listed in the 2013 Good Things list because, well, I seem to express my lingering Catholic masochism through this godforsaken hobby. And I enjoyed the process, and I learned from it, and the yarn can still be re-used, and I’m 3/4 the way through my fourth sweater attempt, and it’s really gonna work this time, it is!! I’m knitting Ruth Garcia-Alcantud’s Agnes Pullover in Rowan Organic Wool DK. Cross your fingers, pray to your favorite saints, burn your incense, please.

 

    • A lot of my 2013 reading and watching was about self-care. There were large stretches when I just couldn’t really manage reading or watching anything that required serious brain power. Enter Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Corps of Engineers. The qualities that make TNG bad television are also the qualities that make it such good comfort food for when you’re feeling down (also, I am a little bit straight for Captain Picard). Plus, reading Fashion It So really just improves your quality of life. Corps of Engineers is the series they should of made instead of Enterprise. (I have yet to make it through a single episode of Enterprise. SO. BORING.) It’s got Sonya Gomez, who is no longer a flustered ensign but a competent, capable, agnsty Commander, and Domenica Corsi, who is basically the reincarnation of Tasha Yar. It’s fun watching the various writers “fix” and play out the consequences of one-shot plots and Monsters of the Week. Also, I really like Bart Faulwell, the openly gay character.

 

    • I bought, and read everything that lesbian authors Sarah and Jennifer Diemer have published, and just spent the year continuously re-reading their work (Sarah is on lj as mermaiden) . I find their writing both immensely comforting, and fun, even when it’s dark and gothic, which it often is. I’m so excited about their publishing projects for this year — I can’t wait for more. I’ll probably write a more in-depth post in the near future.

 

    • We went to a wedding, and in the process of getting an outfit for said wedding, I rediscovered my love of dresses, this time without the internalized misogyny and gender angst. Dresses are so fun! And they make my working life so simple! Throw on a dress, a pair of tights, my Doc Martens, and I’m done! No more angsting about my outfit first thing in the morning and getting to work late! No more frustration that I have to buy another set of cardigans/tops/whatever because I have too many things in the wrong color! I find myself, at 31, finally completely comfortable in my skin, and with my gender presentation. My gender has shifted back and forth throughout my life from Butch Enough to Get Called Sir on a Regular Basis to Femme Enough to Pass for Straight, and you know, I’ve finally learned to stop worrying and just have fun with it. It’s nice to feel relaxed about it, at last.

 

    • Finally, my Kobo Glo ereader has just been a pile of Awesomesauce on a giant plate of Fuck Yeah. I love it so, so, so much. Best £99 I ever spent that I couldn’t really afford, and I don’t regret it for a moment. It’s made supporting my favorite authors and bookstores a lot more feasible, and thanks to Pocket, reading online is sooo much easier and enjoyable now. Plus, I can secretly pretend that it’s a Star Trek Padd. I play with it all the freaking time. I’ve decided to call it Jane (because I like naming my appliances, for reasons even I don’t understand).

 


Okay, 2014. Bring it on. I’m ready for you.

In which I join The Dark Side

This morning, I went out an bought an e-reader. I had a minor panic attack about it last night, because I don’t generally spend that much money on myself for purely frivolous reasons in one go — and a month or so before Xmas too! But I wasn’t going to ask for it for Xmas, too pricey. And I had the money. Plus a recently paid off credit card, so I feel I’ve earned it.

And I don’t really feel I’ve joined the dark side — I just can’t help remembering all the research I did for my disseration, about e-readers, and DRM, and the tolling death knells of publishing, independent bookstores, and midlist authors as we know it. But luckily, since then, there’s been some interesting changes on the e-reader front, namely the ability to buy something other than a Kindle. This morning I went down to W.H. Smith’s and bought a Kobo. I’ve been playing with it all afternoon, and I’m really, really happy with it. The Kobo supports Epub — so I’m not locked into the Kobo bookstore. Which means I can start buying my genre fiction from Weightless Books — DRM free ebooks from small independent genre presses. Plus, Kobo works with independent bookstores — in the U.S., you can get a Kobo from your local indie, and buy Kobo e-books through them. They don’t seem to have that set up here in the U.K. (yet), which is why I had to go to Smiths, but it’s still an awesome concept.

One of the reasons I got an e-reader was so I could start weaning myself off from Amazon. I have a ridiculously huge wishlist, and frankly of the 10 to 20 odd books I buy a year, the majority come from Amazon. The rest come from my local second-hand shop, and Oxfam. But with my Kobo I can get the niche genre titles I love, direct from the small presses. Because I just can’t afford the paper copies of these books, most of the time, unless I buy them used off Amazon. At least with the ebooks, the authors and presses actually get my money. This way, I liberate myself from Amazon, actually get access to the stuff I want to read, and save money so I can buy hard copies of the titles I really want on my shelf.

Besides, I’ve always wanted read Pepys’ diary, and that’ll be a lot easier on an e-reader.

So, moral of the story: yay, technology! Anybody know of any other good indie ebook sites?

soundtrack to June

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Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer, Child Ballads

I’ve been completely addicted to this short album (EP really). I’ve been into Anais Mitchell since Hadestown, and here she covers some of my favorite Child Ballads. It’s a good introduction to ballads for those unfamiliar with them, and a refreshing interpretation for hard core folkies like me. Mitchell and Hamer combine classics with less familiar ones to me, like “Willie’s Lady“. Ballads can be long, repetitive and boring if they’re treated too respectfully; they were the soap operas of 16th century, after all. Mitchell and Hamer have a minimalist interpretation which serves the material well, combining tight harmonies with an energetic tempo. The stripped down, Americana approach makes well-worn chestnuts like “Clyde Waters” and “Sir Patrick Spens” sound new again, and highlight what I’ve always loved about ballads: the intriguing storytelling. I’ve always loved that queer (in every sense) line in “Willie o’ Winsbury“, where the king admits that he finds his daughter’s illicit lover pretty hot too.

“No wonder, no wonder,” the King he said
“That my daughter’s love you did win
If I were a woman as I am a man
In my own bed you would have been.”

The version of “Tam Lin” is a new, startling one for me, because of the story’s resemblance to Beauty and the Beast, and the lack of any mention of the Fairy Queen, which is in all the other versions I’ve heard. It’s quickly becoming my favorite rendition.

Steve Earle, “The Galway Girl”

Pretty sure Earle must have wrote this after listening to the Pogues. In my head, I’m the lead singer and guitarist of a lesbian cover band, and we totally end our gigs with this track.

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Joanna Newsom, Have One on Me

Something about Newsom’s meandering, meditative music just speaks high summer to me. Have One on Me has a strange combination of melancholy and playfulness that I find fascinating. My favorite track is definitely “Good Intentions Paving Company“.

 

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Sinead O’Connor, Faith and Courage

Picked this up in a used record shop and it’s reawakened my interest in O’Connor’s work. “The Healing Room” is good, comforting track for difficult days, but the song that really stands out is “No Man’s Woman.” It’s a great piece of songwriting, catchy but with an unexpected twist. The first two verses sound like O’Connor is nailing her flag to the mast of political lesbianism:

I don’t wanna be no man’s woman
I’ve other work I want to get done
I haven’t travelled this far to become
no man’s woman

and just as you’re about to cheer “Yeah, fish don’t need bicycles! Sisterhood is powerful!”, you get to the third verse and realize she’s sworn off men because Jesus is her boyfriend. In retrospect, the cover art really should have been my first clue…Definitely check out the video, which features O’Connor with long hair and wedding dress, being rescued by magical Rastafarians.

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Kristin Hersh, Cats and Mice

This live album is probably the next best thing to seeing a Kristen Hersh gig, a good example of her intense, electrifying performances (laced with her quirky sense of humor). I’ve been listening to “One Train” and “Krait” on repeat.

best laid plans

Yeah, so I had all these things I wanted to write about after we got back from vacation, and then I came down with my second bout of sinusitis this year. So that torpedoed that plan. I’m better now, but I still have a cough that makes me sound like a Victorian consumptive. Too bad I can’t use it as an excuse to relocate to Italy…

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Anyway, I meant to write about my vacation reading, The Virago Book of Ghost Stories, edited by Richard Dalby. There’s nothing I like better than a good ghost story on a late summer evening; unfortunately this collection is marred by some seriously questionable editorial choices. For one thing, it’s a kind of combination of the first two volumes of the Virago Book of Ghost Stories, and the Victorian Book of Ghost Stories. I’m just gonna say it, unless it’s by M.R. James, pretty much any ghost story written before 1900 is complete drivel. “The Old Nurse’s Tale” by Elizabeth Gaskell is probably the most readable of the lot in this book, but even it suffers from that typically Victorian clanging morality. I think Victorian ghost stories are generally terrible because they mostly seem to be about how hauntings are the result of characters failing to be sufficiently Christian; when really the best ghost stories are less about morality and more about psychology. Terrible as they are, the really serious stinkers are Amelia B. Edwards’ “The Story of Salome” and Rosemary Timperley’s “The Mistress in Black”. Edwards is better known as a renowned Egyptologist, and no wonder. She’s not a very good writer and her story is an unsavory example of Victorian anti-Semitism. The ghost is a beautiful, “exotic” Jewess who infatuates the narrator; she has a hook-nosed, greedy father who seems to literally be Shylock (he’s a merchant, in Venice!) and she haunts our Aryan hero until he discovers her secret conversion and gives her a Christian funeral. Nice. Rosemary Timperley’s story was offensive on a more personal level for me, since the moral of hers is that all-girls’ schools lead to lesbianism, madness, and fiery suicide. It’s also laced through with misogyny, full of nasty comments about chattering, clucking women lacking the steadying, rational influence of a man. I can confirm for the author that being a lesbian at an all girls’ school is a pretty miserable experience, no thanks to the sour likes of her. Stepping back from my own personal reaction, it is a telling story about cultural anxieties, since it was published the year homosexuality was decriminalized in the UK (1969).   I’m pretty sure Virago is meant to be a feminist publisher; apparently Richard Dalby didn’t get the memo.

Luckily there were also some really good stories that introduced me to new authors to check out. Margaret Irwin’s “The Book” creeped me right out and made it difficult to sleep that night — it was very reminiscent of M.R. James. Elizabeth Bowen’s “The Happy Autumn Fields” and Penelope Lively’s “Black Dog” were good examples of classic female gothic writing, along the lines of Daphne Du Maurier. The best story by far was Edith Wharton’s “The Eyes”, which was both creepy and insightful, and showed that you can write a ghost story with a homosexual subtext that isn’t hateful, even in 1910.  I plan on following up on the good stories, and dumping this book back in the charity shop.