What a picture doesnt say

I posted this Rolling Stone cover pic of Gaga a few weeks back. I wouldn't say I was a "fan" of her in that very definite sense of the word, but I liked the image's ferocity and the way it made 'Bikini Girls with Machine Guns' by The Cramps start up in my head like a charm.

I found out today that the shot was taken by major industry snapper Terry Richardson. This article, by Kate Harding, made me reassess the image in a number of ways. As with most products in the Western world, there was a journey behind the item way before it reached our eyes/ears/mouth/hands/body. I wonder whether Mr Richardson made Gaga feel the way he made Rie Rasmussen or Jennifer Peck feel? I wonder what she would have said if he'd asked her to drink tea made from her own used tampon, or give him a hand job during the shoot?

Anne Rice comes out. Not in that way.

The infamous Vampire-lit author joined the Christian church some years back, but announced this week that she's officially vacated.

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."

Uncanny.

In yr face same-sex adoption haterz

This study has added some serious weight to the existing evidence that supports gay couples as healthy adoptive parents equal to their hetero counterparts. It's a pretty small study population, but then the fact that gay adoption is still illegal in (far too many) places means this was bound to be the case.

Thanks to Salon for the heads up.

Best Coast - Crazy For You

"If you’re after some popsicle-sweet, beach-blanket anthems, you couldn’t do better than this"

Here kitty kitty to check out my review of Best Coast's Crazy For You:

Hip Hop 4 Revolution

Neat and informative article by film maker/activist Iara Lee on the power of HH as a medium for revolution. Good reading for anyone who thinks hip hop is all about gunz n hoes, and also worth a quick glance for brief introductions to Middle East MCs that may not have blipped on yr radars yet. Lee's upcoming documentary Cultures Of Resistance sounds like one to watch out for too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/iara-lee/hip-hop-as-global-resista_b_660608.html?ref=twitter

Dark side moves

Some dude dressed up as Vader and robbed a bank. Only in the US man, only in the US.




http://www.cinematical.com/2010/07/23/caption-this-darth-vader-bank-robber/

DELS - 'Shapeshift'

Nicki Minaj - 'Your Love'

Bruce Haack - 'Party Machine'

Get to know. 

Jon-absolute legend-Snow VS Zac Goldsmith

Watch Zac Goldsmith bitch, squirm and long out his answers to avoid explaining why he rinsed funds via loophole shiz. What a dickhead.

Going bersurqa

(Amazing puns aside), what the F.

French MPs have voted 335 - 1 to ban the burqa. Women who are "caught" wearing them could be fined 150 euros whilst men forcing women to wear them could be jailed. Closer to home, the Tory party have obviously been inspired: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10612670

My own thoughts on the burqa as a feminist issue are equivocal, but I think we should be talking about the fact that mostly white, mostly upper class, mostly heterosexual, mostly privileged men are aggressively attempting to use the law to dictate what Muslim women can or cannot wear.

I think we should be talking about the anti-Muslim agenda  inherent in this legislation, and the wider implications this has for everyone, everywhere. I don't think this is about safety (though there is a case for it), and the idea of  privileged Western man "liberating" veiled Muslim women by using state control to demonise their religion is so farcical it makes me wanna vom.

This is a big deal, whether your a Muslim, a female, both, or neither.

Paper Tiger - Made Like Us

Behind those white rimmed shades is a man who makes fine, fine music. This is when he's not crafting up fine, fine art for his Doomtree crew members or taking care of that ole deck/mixer/deck biz.

On 27.07, Paper Tiger releases his LP Made Like Us. Ive heard it, it rocks, and you need it in your life. Not least because it features the lady behind one of this year's best releases (Dessa, A Badly Broken Code).

Pre-order right herrrrr -
http://www.doomtree.net/papertiger/
And for a taster, checkout 'The Bully Plank' here:
http://www.myspace.com/doomtree
It makes sense.

Skream - 'Listening To The Records On My Wall'

Adam and Eve style ting, 'cept Eve is born from a sun-like ball that Adam's gives birth to rather then his  spare rib. Purdy.

Oh. And this.

Cutting funding to protect rape victims whilst changing legislation to protect potential rapists and discourage other victims from coming forward huh? Anyone would think this government is actively trying to make it easier to rape people.

Rape victims lose out so Croydon's Tory councillor Mike Fisher can give himself a pay rise

Apparently, Mike Fisher thinks it's ok to cut funding for victims at the Croydon Rape Crisis centre so that he can give himself and his Tory colleagues a big ole pay rise.

I emailed Mr Fisher earlier today (mike.fisher@croydon.gov.uk) and asked him to explain his waste-man actions. Feel free to do the same. I'll update if/when I get a reply.

( via http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2010/07/croydon_council )

Croydon’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre is having its funding cut by £27,000 a year - while the top Tories in the council are giving themselves pay rises.
This is the currently the only rape crisis centre in London one of only two rape crisis centres in London (the new Ealing centre is already open), and it may have to close its waiting list if the funding cut goes ahead. Via gorilerof3b, RASASC is asking people to write direct to council leader Mike Fisher:

We need your help - urgently. A decision was made to cut the Corporate Funding Budget of Croydon Council two weeks ago and there was pressure on the Council Lead, Mike Fisher, to do some cost saving, pretty quick. Fisher chose the easiest option as the corporate funding applications were due for ratification. So instead of cutting jobs, pensions, council staff or even not giving the third sector an inflationary rise across the board - he gave himself a rise in pay and slashed one department’s budget of £1 million!
The cuts for RASASC of £27,000 per year is the equivalent of supporting 2,700 survivors of sexual violence on our helpline, seeing 23 survivors face to face for one year specialist counselling or supporting 108 survivors through our Advocacy department from reporting their rape to the end of their trial. We need your help to save our services! Please email mike.fisher@croydon.gov.uk to voice your disgust at these cuts and speak for the thousands of London women this will affect. It will only take 5 minutes of your time but may stop the only Rape Crisis Centre in London from having to close our waiting list.

More girls with guns

Oh hai Michelle.

"Trying to do what is right - in tights"

Shock G's open letter to Fox News and Murdoch's plans for BSkyB takeover

Seems its open letter season for US rappers right now. Immortal Technique said his piece for Haiti last week, this week sees Shock G calling out Fox News for their inherent racism and right wing politics. Pretty pertinent for us Brits since Murdoch is pushing for a 100% ownership takeover of  BSkyB right now (petition here http://www.38degrees.org.uk/murdoch)

Shock G's letter to Fox:

Racism is a form of mental illness. Imagine a mother cat refusing to nurse her black, brown, or orange kittens, and only nursing the white ones. Crazy right? Well mother America sometimes suffers from this same illness and FOX TV helps it spread. Even a common housecat is smart enuff to know that the entire litter are all equally her babies.
Now imagine if people born on odd numbered days felt they deserved more than those born on even ones. Crazy right? We all know we haven’t actively earned our skin color anymore than we actively chose our birthdate; any person seeking extra credit for this non-achievement is actually insane, and lives in an eschewed reality. Help us fight FOX! The letter below takes only 90 seconds to read, and the e-petition takes 2 mins tops to sign. Thanx!!
Shock-G

Dear friends & Family,
On Wednesday, Rand Paul, the GOP’s US Senate candidate for Kentucky repeated his claim that a central piece of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was wrong, and that businesses should be free to discriminate against whomever they please.1 Paul and his supporters don’t seem to care that without federal intervention, Black people might still be second-class citizens in most aspects of American life: where we eat, where we work, even where we live.
Then, on Thursday, FOX contributor and business anchor John Stossel went even further than Paul and called for the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that applies to business to be repealed.2 And he’s refused to back down.
It’s time to hold FOX accountable:
http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/?id=1966-705465
While Rand Paul may have started this outrage, he can be taken care of at the ballot box — FOX News can’t.
Stossel’s position is an affront to Black America and everyone in this country who believes in racial progress. It’s one thing to be a candidate with backwards views. It’s another to be employed by a supposed news network and to use that platform to push hateful ideas that our nation repudiated decades ago.
It’s time that FOX drop Stossel. It’s why I’ve joined ColorOfChange.org in demanding Fox do so immediately. If after hearing from thousands of people like you and I, FOX refuses to act, it will make clear that FOX stands with Stossel and his values, and ColorOfChange has pledged to go directly after the network with a major public campaign.
Can you take a moment to add your voice to the call to fire Stossel? After you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same:
http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/?id=1966-705465
FOX has a history of providing a platform for bigoted views and race-baiting. Most recently more than 300,000 people helped us hold FOX accountable by stripping Glenn Beck of more than 100 of his advertisers, after Beck called President Obama a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people.”3
But Stossel has arguably gone beyond Beck, echoing segregationist arguments from the Jim Crow era:
“It’s time now to repeal that part of the law because private businesses ought to get to discriminate. And I won’t ever go to a place that’s racist and I will tell everybody else not to and I’ll speak against them. But it should be their right to be racist.”
Stossel went on to argue something that history has disproved time and again — that private business will do the right thing, without being compelled by laws, because no one would patronize a business that discriminates. It’s a blind belief in market fundamentalism that just isn’t in sync with reality. In the ’60s, white-owned businesses that allowed Blacks as customers lost business. Market forces actually perpetuated discrimination; they didn’t combat it. Simply put: segregation would still be active in parts of this country if government hadn’t stepped in.
And recent history has shown that the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act is still needed. In 1994, it was used to hold Denny’s Restaurants accountable, after the chain repeatedly refused to seat Black customers.4 Just last year, it was used to go after a Philadelphia pool that prevented Black children from swimming there.5
It’s time for Fox News to make a choice. Are they willing to continue to give a platform to racially-divisive rhetoric and revive dangerously outdated perspectives? Or will they move with the rest of the nation into into the 21st century? Please join me in calling on Fox News to fire John Stossel. And once you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same:
http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/?id=1966-705465
Thank you.



(Source: HHC Digital )

Janelle Monae - 'Tight Rope' remix ft B.O.B & Lupe Fiasco

Skip through the first two verses (sorry fellas, you got out-shined) to hear Ms Monae's fly self rhyming like a Metropolis delight. Fressssshhhh.

Jean Grae is the coolest

I have that very same Prime helmet.

Mystro - 'Around My Way'

Ha Ha at 2.13

Judith Butler turns down Civil Courage Award @ Berlin Pride 2010

...on the grounds that the organisation has become commercialized, and both ignores and facilitates racism and the double discrimination suffered by homosexual/transsexual migrants. 

Tip of the hat to No Homonationalism for the heads up.

Some people talk aboutcha, like they know all aboutcha

I cannot stop obsessing over Ms Monáe. Bad Boy need to cherish her. Androiddreamboat supreme.

Future Sex panel @ the BFI 02.06.10

I had my mind blown like a neon coiffure sprayed with stardust-infused Elnett at the BFI's Future Sex panel this week. Thoughts on gender, queerness, science, cinema, sex, sci fi and possibilities for the future all rolled into one brain-expanding presentation led by some seriously intelligent, wonderfully engaging thinkers/writers/creators.

Dr Patricia MacCormack's academic theories on cinesexuality and gender were intriguing, Sophie Mayer and Katy Price both read awesome sci-fi-ish pieces, and we got to see 'The Making Of Dandy Dust', a behind the scenes doc on an obscure 80's film about a "split personality cyborg of fluid gender who zooms through time to collect h-selves in the fight against a genealogically obsessed family".  The highlight for me was Dr Rachel Armstrong's discussion on her work with  protocells. This is her speaking at another event:


And this is the video we were shown:



Rad. Rad. Rad.

"Corporate socialites and poverty pimps"

Immortal Technique's open letter on his visit to Haiti.

http://hhcdigital.net/blog1/2010/07/01/immortal-techniques-open-letter-to-haiti/