Brunch is for the Birds

You can't always get what you want, right? Unless you're a girl. Because girls just wanna have fun. This photo was taken in New York in a restaurant-by-day, dance club-by-night. Take a look at what I found. I told them that I had a blog and wanted their picture to post, which wasn't true at the time, I just wanted a picture of them because they looked pretty amazing. But check it out, I ended up telling the truth on accident! Cool. So. Let's take a peep, what do we have here? The book worm, the cutie pie, the comedian, and the bitch. Looks like a pretty dead-on representation of the main seasons of girls. In class today we took a few hours to look at gender differences in the brain, the hippocampus' size difference, the fluctuation of amygdala use, etc. and it suddenly occurred to me that I really enjoy being a girl. We may have smaller brains than men, but we have more gray matter than them. Whatever that means. There are stereotypes to women, words like "catty, sultry, loving, creative, emotional, exclusive, loud, etc" and I'm 100% okay with being a stereotype, mostly because when it comes to real people, there is quite a lot of fine print to add. I guess you could see stereotyping as a sort of rounding up from the sum of a lifestyle. Hey, I'm a girl. I'm stoked! I've got friends to share clothes with, and I have a blast dancing in my room with the other ladies in the hall. I also enjoy a weekend brunch. That's a big one. I don't think guys use that word, but I see them at brunch every Sunday. I think they generalize it by the time of day. Let's get...lunch. With eggs and roasted potatoes. At noon. That works. But me? I get brunch. I like wearing dresses a lot, which is something I just discovered within the last 3 years. But it's really nice having the open option to wear basically whatever. It's funny, but I consider androgyny to be a very important part of embracing femininity. Feminism has really gone downhill since the suffragettes went on their walk through town. Remember them? Remember their shoes? Yeah, they wore heels. I don't really understand the logic behind new feminism through the expression of baggy clothes, boyish haircuts and a ban on cosmetics. I don't see any of these things as personal disgraces if someone chooses them as a part of their life, but to clump it together and call if "feminism" is a bit illogical. Being a powerful woman to me is being able to balance your level of sensuality and personality. Just because you don't want to be a floosey in the eyes of the general public doesn't mean you have to be a man. I love a pair of trousers just as much as the next Diane Keaton, but to call them the sign of a woman untouched by the affects of "Man," well, that's just silly. *smile* You know?

Calling America

Do I see a future of an honest government? Green grass and happy cows? Kids with a good grip on education? I think we're getting closer, and that's the important part. Even if it's just a step, it's one taken. There's gonna be a black family in the white house. If you watched Fox News at all on the night of November 4th, this seemed to be all they could mention. Oh, excuse me, colored family. What's with all the talk, old dudes? Why aren't you celebrating? No sparkling cider or fun size snickers in your office today? Ohhh....yeeeah, McCain didn't win. Thank goodness all the talkers finally got together and DID. After living in Berkeley for a while, I'd kinda lost faith in the faithful. It takes more than ideas and bitching your heart out to get things to happen, so to everyone that voted and took initiative, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I mean it, thank you. Four years from now, it'll be 2012. Things are about to get really really wild. Let's not take 5 and walk away from our posts just because we've got a good looking and seemingly good doing president. It's not his job to be everyone, but to inspire and direct. This should, more than anything, be our cue to take positions and begin our lives as new Americans. Oh wow, what's that amazing smell? Satyuga? Can't wait until it's ready to take outa the oven!

In Defense of Fun

This blog is mostly about music. This picture was taken in Las Vegas during a show. Her boyfriend is the one on the right, clearly not having fun, and she had been sitting silently with him for an hour until she finally got up and gave him a lap dance. He pushed her off, and instead of starting a fight, making a scene, or getting embarrassed, she just found her own space, and used it wisely. The mystery of human shame over fun is one of the many I will never understand. Since I was in elementary school, I've been listening to whatever makes me feel good, watching movies that inspire me to be a better me, and reading books and magazines that whisper constant little jokes, the sarcastic, obvious, corny, hilarious, and real. My first album was by Tina Turner. From then on, it was nothing but good news. When I say "a better me", what I mean is not a person who goes to bed early, finishes her homework, reads nothing but autobiographies and classic novels, and expands her vocabulary to things like fine cutlery or statistics of various causes of child idiocy. No. It's not like that. Some of these things are parts of my life, and I'm perfectly happy to read or get a good nights rest, but the part that I'm very VERY okay with is the Care Bear Share rainbow blast that has potential to knock people out of their chair and onto the dance floor. I believe in the power of rock 'n roll, pop music, good jokes, and the beauty that is the movement inspired by all three. That is, rocking out. There are friends I have who don't understand how I could possibly go see High School Musical 3, or have so much fun watching Hairspray. It's true that I'm a bit closet-y about my harboured love of musicals, but I a love a good movie, and to create a good one with song and dance is a real challenge. Dreamgirls? Bad. Across the Universe? Sorry, but...bad. Both of these movies lacked something very important, and that was the combination of decent plot with decent noise. If you're going to make a catchy pop song, there are three essentials: story! beat! And deadly hooks! Movies are similar, they require three essentials as well: story! pace! And good twists! Thinking about it, combining these two is difficult. It doesn't matter if it's a G movie or a NC-17, if it can make these things fit together and still keep it's form by the end, then they've done well. There is also the stuff that I could just never say no to. Do you know I've met people that claim to hate the Beatles? This is the worst way to try and become different from the crowd, because it's not very honest. If someone did hate the Beatles, it's probably because they have an ex that listened to a lot of them. Bands and artists like Prince, The Knack, The Pippettes, The Shangri-Las, Electric Light Orchestra, Journey, the Gin Blossoms, Vampire Weekend, Billy Joel, The Tough Alliance, Missy Elliot, The Smiths, or Teenage Fanclub, these have sides, and specific moods. People can like them or not. When I hear these bands, there if a direct instruction to sing along and move my feet, but this is my personal translation. Some just don't go for it...I just hope it's for good reasons, is all. Shame in good times is killing humanity. I say that with all the seriousness I can find in my mellowyellow self. I've made mistakes. I have. I've listened to music in the past that did nothing for me in an attempt to divorce myself from who I am. I love my old friends, the Jack Kerouacs and the Jim Beams, but these things bring no noise, bring no funk. There were a lot of inner voices at play during this time. The little adult said, "Baby One More Time is rotting your brain." The little angst-ridden hippie punk said "don't give in to the man, dude." The ugly poet in my heart told me, "stop being selfish, what's all this dancing doing for the world." And then there was me, the real one. I was in constant question but went along with my alternates thinking they could be right. I've since said bye to them. "some call it vain, others say vanity comes from the heart and not the head. And it may be insane but what is insanity if not a cry for the truth to be truthfully told..?" - Neil Diamond