I’m totally tired today and possibly getting sick, and I don’t particularly seem to have any thoughts about anything except when I want to run up the street for Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. Luckily, there’s craploads of new music on l’internet, too, including this new Annie video that Stereogum just posted about.
I like the yellowy bits the best, but “lots of girls with dark hair and gloves” works pretty fine as a video concept, too. I just wish the whole thing didn’t seem like the director walked on the set and said, “OK everybody. We have a really tiny budget so we’re going to blow the whole thing on makeup! Can the fancy set ideas, more garish purple lipstick!!”
Filed under: music | Tags: al b sure, girl guides, guided by voices, robert pollard
While I wait impatiently until I get paid tomorrow to buy the new Portishead and Santogold albums, I noticed that The Girl Guides put some new stuff on their (her?) Myspace since the last time I checked. (more…)
Despite the fact that I’ve been swooning over the Long Blondes for the past two years, I’ve yet to pick up “Couples”, their second album, which came out digitally a couple of weeks ago. I’m holding out for the physical release on May 6th, although what with my being broke and with three exciting albums coming out tomorrow and a big trip to New York City this weekend I’m not sure if I’m actually going to get the chance to buy it right away. Especially since I also need to buy tickets to see the Long Blondes when they come to Boston on the 19th; I’m sort of nerdily anxious to hear if Kate Jackson will be able to hit all the super-high notes that seem to have replaced the spoken interludes in all their songs.
In the meantime, they’ve been kind enough to release a new video for Guilt, the second single from the album. It has lots of dogs so of course I love it. As for the song, it’s not quite as exciting as Century, I don’t think, but I feel like it might be a grower.
Sweet Jesus, it’s been over two months since I made one of these. Sorry, sex workers!!!!!!!! Anyway–this mix is a little bit Motown, a little bit Italy, a little bit Stock Aiken Waterman, and a little bit Norma from Twin Peaks:
AIDS is a serious problem in Africa that all you guys can help with, but, um, we’re not going to tell you how because HOLY SHIT is Alicia Keys wearing crazy distracting earrings right now!
Teenage Love Affair is a pretty good song, in an Ally McBeal sort of way, but it doesn’t have the farty oomph that made me love No One so much. Also, I don’t really care that Alicia’s marketed as the mature, non-trampy R&B diva that plays the piano sometimes, but if that’s the angle she’s pushing then why make a single and a video about being a teenager?
Also, watch for 3:38 into the video, which is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week.
Alicia Keys And Her Earrings, Teenage Love Affair (video)
There’s a lot of things to not like about The Ting Tings. The singer lady’s hair. The singer man’s mouth. The way her vocals are mixed too high. The way his vocals are mixed too low. The way I swear she’s saying “Are you calling me darling? Are you calling me Burt?” The way their new single, That’s Not My Name, recalls so many other things that I can’t find a single thing about them that’s remotely original–from the three-note Beth Ditto homage before the chorus to the way the way the guy’s part sounds like the male backing vocals in Belinda Carlisle’s cover of I Feel Free. I mean, do you really want to be known as this year’s Dragonette? (nb: I really like Dragonette. But still.)
That said, That’s Not My Name has been playing basically non-stop in my car for the past four days.
Maybe because it reminds me so much of Dani Siciliano’s Walk The Line, which is one of my very favorite songs of the past five years. Or maybe because the singer lady sounds like she should be in Sugababes or something. Anyway. The video is terrible, and I’m disappointed in the video edit of the song (which shaves a minute and a half off the length and adds goofy and even louder girl vocals at the end.)
mp3: The Ting Tings, That’s Not My Name
…And the people from the clinic lost my results.
Today there were free (anonymous, rapid) HIV tests at my workplace (which is big, so there was little chance of me actually knowing anybody else there. Not that I was particularly worried about the anonymity part anyway.) I went in, filled out a survey about my sexual history (where it occurred to me for possibly the first time that I have done some really dumb shit in my life, like snorting drugs off the same twenties as whoever it was that was giving me the drugs. Not that I do that regularly–or at all for about three years now–but still.)
Half an hour later I went back to get my results, and they couldn’t find them. There were two paper towels laid out on a table, with three tests on each one, and none of them had my name on it. Was there a negative group and a positive group? Was there really a 50% positive rate? Did they give someone else my results by mistake? One guy started going through the trash to see if they’d thrown mine out, but thought better of it, then told me that actually they hadn’t gotten any positives at all today.
Which, fine, whatever. I’m pretty sure I’m negative, anyway. But what was bugging me more than anything was the way the people didn’t seem really worried about losing my test. THEY COULD HAVE GIVEN SOMEONE ELSE THE WRONG RESULTS. And then I was thinking about if my test had come back positive–would I have wanted these people to be the ones to tell me?
Don’t get me wrong, they were nice enough and seemed pretty knowledgeable and I got there toward the end of what was probably a long day. But Jesus Christ.
The worst thing is that it’s not the first time it’s happened to me. The very first time I ever went for an HIV test, back when it took a week to get the results, they couldn’t find mine when I went back. Is this something that happens often? Is the world that inept? Or do I just have bad luck when it comes to finding out if I have diseases?
It’s funny, incidentally, that the clinic was today, since getting tested is one of those things I always put off for way longer than I should. (See also: changing the oil in my truck.) And I went just a few hours after I did something else I’ve been putting off for, well, my whole life thusfar: I went to a gym for the first time ever.
And not just any gym, mind you, but a personal training studio that’s wicked expensive but run by an insanely hot man with incredible legs, whose dangly nutsack I could totally see pressed against his cute little shorts. (I think I did a pretty good job of not staring.)
But that’s not why I went. I’ve felt pretty shitty about my weight lately, and even though I have a free gym at my disposal thanks to my job, I’m never going to use it because I’m a wimp and a loser and really insecure about athletic things and also also completely inept when it comes to knowing things like what machines do. And while I’ve started running, I think it’ll just be easier if I have someone else around to tell me what to do and how to do it and, like, what posture to have so I don’t wreck my back doing it.
Fun fun fun.
Unrelatedly to all of that, the girl at the coffee place I go to made me an Orange Juice CD because I told her I didn’t have any. Consolation Prize was on a mixtape I got in high school and until today I don’t think I’d heard it since I had a car with a cassette player in it (2003 at the latest, although I think it might have been more like ‘01.) I’ve gone on about Edwyn Collins here before, so I’ll keep that to a minimum and just give you the song to listen to.
Orange Juice, Consolation Prize
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Providence, Rhode Island has a gay mayor, legal bathhouses, and legal prostitution. It also has a thirty-year old Gay Pride festival. Why, then, isn’t there a larger queer community?
Perhaps it’s because the dominant gay community actually ignores far more people than it includes. This June, a Providence art event seeks to question what it means to be proud in 2008.
It’s called The Dirty Gay Picture Show, and it’s open to local and non-local artists of any gender or orientation who deal in subject matter relevant to gay and/or queer communities. More specifically, this show will focus on works that evaluate the current state of gay identity.
Every summer, cities across the world have festivals proclaiming Gay Pride. Begun in the early 1970’s to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, the parades and parties have morphed into hedonistic celebrations of gayness. Today, mainstream movies and television shows feature openly gay characters who (sometimes) aren’t mincing dandies, while networks and advertisers target gay audiences, and gay men are even being used as indicators of real estate value.
However, an increasing number of queer individuals–gay males included–have become disenchanted with the concept of Pride. Many feel that the celebration is only suitable to a certain kind of gay white male, while other queer people are left out. Women, transgendered individuals, queers of color, and even gay men are ignored if they are “too fat,” “too fem,” or “too straight.”
Even the dominant (white male) gay community faces an array of serious issues, from racism and transphobia to drugs to marriage rights and an alarming increase in unsafe sex practices. Unfortunately, these issues tend to be ignored, especially during Pride season, when flag-waving and partying hinder any opportunity for serious discussion.
The Dirty Gay Picture Show wants to showcase the work of artists of all genders and orientations who feel marginalized by the dominant gay community, as well as those who simply seek an alternative to mainstream gay culture.
To submit work, please e-mail yurigellerbentme@gmail.com with your name, location, a brief biography, and brief description of the work (or proposed work.)
Work requirements:
VISUAL ARTISTS
- up to three submissions (jpegs of at least 300 dpi, no larger than 2MG each) via e-mail or CD
- art to be hung should be no larger than 24X24
- if submitting a proposal for new work, include three examples of recent completed work
- while not a requirement, smaller, affordable pieces are strongly encouraged
WRITERS
- up to 25 pages of prose or 10 pages of poetry (Word or Rich Text format if e-mailed)
FILM/VIDEO ARTISTS
- complete works of any length should be sent by mail in either DVD or VHS format
- e-mail entries will be accepted if the work is available online.
The deadline for entries is May 5. Any questions should be directed to yurigellerbentme@gmail.com
