I know it’s pride weekend and I haven’t blogged about events or marches or drinks or all the other good stuff that goes on in Chicago. I’m sure you have a facebook, and I’m sure you’re cool friends keep you informed. Be sure to come to the Dyke March though. It’s trailblazing over in South Shore this year, and it should be just as historical and epic as when it moved to Pilsen. When you are out and about, make sure to keep some sunscreen on, watch out for roofies, wear a bike helmet and take Monday off! It’s a gay holiday. Finally, be sure to have hot jamz on cue. The Hood Internet continues to do no wrong with this new DVAS track featuring recent Chicago to L.A. MC Kid Static. It’s a scorcher.
IF ONLY PEOPLE COULD SUDDENLY CARE ABOUT THE OIL SPILL THE WAY THEY SUDDENLY CARE ABOUT SOCCER!!! GOOOOAAAALLLLLLL
…and then went on to this:
PERSON #1
The oil spill is less entertaining to watch. I doubt people *don’t* care about it, but soccer is a nice distraction from real life. We need those from time to time. How depressing would Facebook be if every post was “OMG BP OIL SPILL! BOYCOTZ!”?
i know what you mean PERSON #1 but actually, if FB was filled with oil spill boycott news, that would feel really encouraging for me.
PERSON #2
can we get shirtless soccer guys to clean some birds on live tv?
PERSON #3
you overestimate how much most Americans care about the world cup.
PERSON #2
we could call it the “World Fuck Up” and have these guys kick giant hairballs into the gulf! (shirtless)
PERSON #1
It would be kind of irritating to me. Facebook activism is frustrating at best. Doing something in the real world is what would be encouraging for me.
PERSON # 4
I agree with PERSON #1, if all I saw were groups to boycott or bitch I would tune it out. What would you like to see happen in terms of activism or solutions?
Erik, I’m just not sure why Facebook should be purely a venting ground for political and social causes. Assuming people doin’t give a crap about what’s going on, because they’re talking about soccer, or baseball, or whatever the cool band is at the moment doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t care. Maybe they’re using better avenues to prove they care…. like donating time and/or money to the clean up effort? At least that’s what I’m doing.
i think you can correlate someone’s general interests and activities with what they are posting on fb. i’m all for positive energy in the cyber realm but if there is a high volume of updates on soccer, and hardly any when the government realizes it can’t stop the oil from gushing, it worries me. that’s my interest and activity, and i’ll try to remind people to redirect their energy to something worthwhile if i can.
PERSON #1
I think I disagree with that. Personally, I think I’m a very socially conscious person, as are most of my friends. I just don’t think waving the “look what I’m doing” flag on the internet is worth it. I know that my politics tend to be way to the left of a lot of people, so I keep it personal. No need to advertise it on Facebook, because ultimately, the masses don’t care and just scroll past it. It just seems like real life action is way better than Facebook activism.
well you can disagree all you want PERSON #1, but outness is the bedrock of activisim and if you don’t tell anyone about your efforts, no one can know to join you. that concludes this facebook faceoff about how to best be out about your activism. i reserve the right to have the last word, goodbye.
PERSON #2
I had similar feelings regarding the earthquake in Haiti — how so many rallied behind online fundraising efforts to text and donate money for the cause. I wouldn’t necessarily say that spending capital to fix systemic problems is the best route either. I am, however, so happy that feminists taught me there are many routes to change and progress … See Moreand none are more ‘right’ or ‘better’. Let’s donate what money or time we can, and post on facebook, and clean birds, and stop buying gas at BP, and teach each other about histories and experiences, and rally in the streets, and be out and support each other.
Haven’t heard too much from ADULT. proper in a bit, it’s probably a good thing. The best part of their last album, 2007′s Why Bother? was the album art. And actually, ADULT.’s album art has always been a defining aesthetic for the band; through lineup changes and sonic detours, the sinister mystery that has adorned the covers of their records and singles has been consistent. In fact, their last series of singles, The Decampment Trilogy, were MORE about the photos than the music, and were priced accordingly. This part of ADULT. is driven by Nicola Kuperus, ADULT.’s vocalist. Aside from bringing a wail predating The Knife and a slicing discomfort that mothers Alice Glass, she uses her refined visual skills as a counterpoint to the band’s aggressive, sometimes sludgy sound. The pictures always feature a woman dressed in modern vintage, usually with a chunky heel and an exposed calf, you hardly ever see her face and the scene is intentionally artificial. Something has just happened in in these outdoor Detroit spaces – an accident or a murder, a fight or a fatal collapse, and just as equally present is what is about to happen – the aftermath of these images MUST include a cover-up or funeral, or at the very least an alarming phone call. To pull it off with a Hitchcockian sense of humor is more than icing, it’s what keeps Kuperus’s heart-stopping pause, her emergency theme, compelling. What grabs me the most is the thought that these pressed business suits are in her closet, the cars are her neighbors’s, and the yards, corners and fences are places she often walks by. It’s bringing them all together into a cohesive body of film stills that made me drop EVERYTHING to find out about prices. I could stare at these all day.
Nicola Kuperus is showing at (In)Familiar at Canteen Gallery in Ottowa through June 27th.
…pretty cool way to defend your love of some weirdo sisters, Stereogum! Get some indie celebs to write about how you are correct to like a record. BAM. Instant correctness. Antony, JD Samson, Nico Muhly, Jamie Stewart, Yoko Ono and others contribute their reasons as to why CocoRosie rules.
Antony quote: I have concluded that the reception of CocoRosie in the US reflects the denial of a greater feminist issue, an ecological issue, a racial issue, a spiritual issue. If we cannot face that our collective brokenness in these areas is the rockbed of our crisis as a virulent species, then we will continue in our blindness to dismiss our American art revolutionaries who are out in the field, working through exactly these issues.
Jamie Stewart quote: They always strike me across the knuckles as so wrong in so many ways that it is wonderful actually, like when you look into a cloud of poison gas.
“Baptism,” the fourth track on Crystal Castles II, continues to fill my need for day time catharsis. Its mix of euro-dance and extreme noise take you from uncomfortable and pressured to a 32 bar club synth riff and really, this is quite sophisticated. Quick notes: Ethan Kath is totally smoking hot. Also, if you tweet something bad about Crystal Castles, Ryan5000 will diss you or prove you wrong. Try it!
Everyone’s blogging about this song – for good reason. Basically, it’s an OMD song, don’t kid yourself. This song could come right out of OMD’s best album Sugar Tax, and that’s high praise. That record came out in 1991, and I wonder if ceo’s Eric Berglund is old enough to be retro. If he’s not old enough to have grown up with OMD and Simple Minds on the radio, then the resemblance is that much more remarkable. I’m not one to begrudge someone’s sound as a direct descendant of another’s, as long as the heart is there. And the minor synths and earnest yearn is in this song make me SWOON! I’ve not been thrilled with any Touch Alliance album proper (Berglund’s first band) so if this solo debut (White Magic) is a step up, I’m excited.
You can find out more about his fancy gala and benefit for The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health here. Read the full list of Ten Thoughts from when he was here for IML 2010 here. These two are my favorite:
9. There are a lot of big & hairy men in Chicago… but there apparently aren’t enough big & hairy gay men to sustain a retail operation catering to the t-shirt/flag/windsock needs of the local bear community. Or maybe gay bears have outgrown the t-shirt/flag/windsock phase of bear pride and no longer feel the need to bedazzle their apartments with bear-pride merchandise.
7. The lakefront. The bike path. Spend the day in Chicago’s endless lakefront park and you’ll wanna get in a time machine and go slap Seattle’s founders to death for preserving so little of our waterfront(s) for parks/recreation/posterity.
Watch the trailer for Criminal Queers, the new film by Eric Stanley and Chris Vargas. CQ is a sequel their first collaboration, Homotopia, (2006) where they tackle the mainstreamification of queer politics through the cloud of gay marriage. The new film uses the same protagonists as Homotopia, but addresses the Prison Industrial Complex as a systemic gender oppressor. Local writer and activist Yasmin Nair interviewed the film makers for Bitch Magazine, read it here. Above is the trailer for Criminal Queers,Homotopia‘s below. Set up a screening with friends and get you queer, anti-new establishment learning on!
