Home again

Stoked to see Michael Kiwanuka getting props for that lovely jumper-clad perfomance on Jools last night. Here's my Tour Dates interview with him, which ran back in May:

http://www.tourdates.co.uk/londontourdates/issue-073/2011/05/20/2594-michael-kiwanuka-home-boy

and the preceding First Sight feature: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/05/first-sight-michael-kawanuka 

THEEsatisfaction @ Jazz Cafe 17.11.11

Debut UK show for this Seattle duo, and they rocked it. Jazzy, abstract, queer hip hop joints - including every track bar 'Early Bird' from their THEESatisfaction Loves The Sa-Ra Creative Partners EP - and the cutest synchronized two-step before a surprisingly protracted and kinda shambling headline set from Shabazz Palaces.

http://theesatisfaction.bandcamp.com/

Don't forget to douche!

Taken from a 1971 edition of a well-known, mainstream women's magazine that was still in print up until this year. Suspect chick lit, pro-domestic violence editorials, tragi-comic slimming ads, vagina deodorant and procreation propaganda. Thank fuck for the second wave, eh?

"I love you, Lisa, I love you," Richard said. "No," she whispered, but without conviction.

"I've talked to a friend who is experienced with girls and he says that she isn't the only one and that some girls are brought up by silly mothers who didn't fancy sex themselves and influence their daughters to be afraid of it, too"

Bubble boobs.

Queer kitty

So it turns out we have no idea what sex Magnus is. The folk we adopted him from didn't bother to check before they brought him round, and our own lackadaisical examinations have failed to really clarify anything other than a healthy abundance of fur. We should find out when we get the vaccinations sorted. My pa says he'll keep calling her Magnus, even if she turns out to be a grrrl kitteh, which I totally approve of. We're bouncing quite sweetly between pronouns when I call to check up: "How's he doing?" "Is she eating well?" etc. 

Tiger style. 

Pouncin'.

Oh hai.

Just curling up for a cat nap. Don't tickle me, yeah? 

Reading the charity inserts from Saturday's Guardian. Checkin' out the puppies.

 Camouflage kitteh.

Mighty paw.

Lounging.

ZZZzzzz

Make your soul burn slow

"The 'Occupy All Streets' T shirt was created in support of the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement. Rocawear strongly encourages all forms of constructive expression, whether it be artistic, political or social. 'Occupy All Streets' is our way of reminding people that there is change to be made everywhere, not just on Wall Street. At this time we have not made an official commitment to monetarily support the movement."

Rocawear's official statement on co-opting the #occupy movement for a quick, dirty buck.

Enter Magnus

My pa has adopted a kitten, Magnus. It's a big name for such a tiny fur ball (he's just 7 weeks old), and one I have to resist typing in capitals. I think he'll grow in to it. I stopped off to meet him at my dad's house on the way to the St. Vincent show at Southbank last night. He's the first feline we've welcomed into the family since our beloved Eric passed away, 2 years ago this September. Raise yr paws for the new RA kitteh!

Fat Joe on LGB folks in hip hop

Major props for the LGB-friendly discourse, Fat Joe. Not sure I'd co-sign the "gay mafia in hip hop" theory though, as fabulous as it sounds. 

Interview: Romily Alice of Japanese Voyeurs

“I'm not a big fan of the babydoll look, and riot grrrl's overt sexuality thing looks-wise. I have mixed feelings towards it. I think, as a women in music, it can be a bit of a cheap trick.” She's a fan of Babes In Toyland's Kat Bjelland, who, incidentally, never specifically allied herself to the riot grrrl movement. “The way Bjelland mixed her image and her music was brilliant. She snarled, and sweated and screamed”. But Alice feels using sex in rock as any kind of feminist message would be futile in the pervading climate of raunch pop, “where all these pop star women are sex on a plate with a soundtrack. If you want to be taken seriously you have to not let the pressure to be like that effect you.” 


My interview with Romily Alice of Japanese Voyeurs. I really, really dig JV, who put out a promising debut, Yolk, earlier this year. They're a young London outfit who make dirty, petchulant rock full of psychology and graphic novel references. Romily is a whip smart front woman, and the UK rock scene needs more of her ilk. We talked about steering away from the "grunge revivalist" label, sexist rock criticism (sigh), the guitar pedals she puts together between JV tours, yearning for a pre-internet era and using comic strips as an alternative to social media marketing. Salute.



http://www.tourdates.co.uk/londontourdates/issue-077/2011/10/01/2623-japanese-voyeurs-the-comic-strip-presents

Found: Cambodian Grrrl - self publishing in Phnom Penh

Anne Elizabeth Moore is the former co-editor and associate publisher of the now defunct site Punk Planet. Cambodian Grrrl is a diary of her time teaching zine production to a group of young female students at  Cambodia's Euglossa Dormitory for University Women. 

It is a tiny, slim thing, less than 100 pages long, and a heart-breaking account. Moore knows this, and is at pains to sustain a sensible, reportage in the face of the injustice, corruption, beauty and potential she encounters in Phnom Penh. It is fitting then that she owns the power of her encounter, promptly and honestly, at the beginning of the book, when recounting the moment she first introduces herself to the shy Euglossa students. 

"An means to read in Khmer. You will not say this out loud though, point out that you think it is funny that a writer would be named to read, until I put my hands up like a Sampea in front of my eyes, spread them, and pretend to be engrossed in the invisible text written across my palms.

"An," I say. "We will have a relationship based on reading"

And then, finally, you will laugh. And my heart will rend open like a ruby red grapefruit."

It is the closest to indulgent that Moore allows herself to get in an account that is all the more moving for its economy of emotional vernacular, and the encounter captures the shy and tender way Moore and the Cambodian girls go on to negotiate their ensuing relationships, across the divides of culture and language. 

Moore is conscious of her privileges - as a white, 1^st world teacher, as a visitor, and ultimately, as a narrator. It's an account free of the West’s ugly, assumed sympathy-style discourses, and yet, for all her balanced narration, Moore’s love and respect for the Cambodian girls is there, vulnerable and implicit, a careful, complicated and abundant thing free of romanticism. 

There is no great reveal at the end, no gratifying final scene or promise of safety for the girls of Euglossa or their genocide-wracked country, but reading about the simple power of zines, unfolding, in action, in Cambodia, is an aching and radical thing. 

http://www.anneelizabethmoore.com/

All oppression is connected, you dick

"Even in friendly conversation
I get the bell hooks-ian urge
to kill mother-fuckers who say stupid shit to me
all day
bitter branches of things I cannot say out loud
sprout deviant from my neck"




Full transcription here: http://jessicaannabelle.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/all-oppression-is-connected/

Shimmer and rot

First Sight: Cold Specks

My First Sight feature on Al Spx's deep south-style songstress Cold Specks, fresh off her spellbinding performance on Jools Holland this week. Out in today's Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/nov/03/first-sight-cold-specks