nobody's daughter

i just wrote a post over at pretending to be japanese about the new album hole is releasing soon. i know!

hole!

crazy. so go here and read it.

girl power

reading the krs mail order freaks* blog i stumbled upon this book i really want to read, "girl power - the nineties revolution in music" by marisa meltzer [amazon here, adlibris here]. the aforementioned blog linked to a review of said book by a very young american fashion blogger (who, after doing a little digging i found out, seems to have made a little stir in the fashion world by, i guess, being young, which seemed fun. or maybe not. i mean, why do fashion people care so much? but that's a whole different story and doesn't really have anything to do with this book or it being reviewed. i digress.). this review made me so happy! how wonderful to be a 13-year-old girl and discover so much great music and so many awesome women at the same time! she writes

For me, personally? The book was seriously eye-opening. Despite my having not listened to a vast majority of the music mentioned in the book, I was frowny-sad-face upon reading about how Riot Grrrl faded.. /../ Never before had I felt that feminism was something I could be so much a part of. It sounds like I'm talking about being part of the Riot Grrrl movement itself, but really, just the history of it, and the fact that it even existed, makes me very excited, and proud, to be a girl, and to be who I am.

that last part makes me so happy, i cannot tell you. cos it's a fucking harsh reality now for girls growing up. despite progress and enlightenment in various arenas, such as equality, since i grew up, there's still so much ugliness and, i think, more ugliness than before because of the misuse of technology and the shallowness of all things. very few of my peers growing up even had the words plastic surgery in their vocabulary. so there you go. moving on.

i, of course, want to read this book purely out of nostalgic reasons. well, almost purely. i also want to read it and go "i knew that. i knew that. i had that t-shirt, i bought that cd in '95" and so on. to boost my ego a bit, but mostly to be nostalgic. i still do discover things here and there about my beloved decade of the past, this is true, but when it comes to women musicians in the indie rock scene of the 1990s, most of them are in my brain already. and, considering what tobi vail** herself said about this book in her review, i doubt there will be much to discover. i choose to stay somewhat shallow here - my and my geekiness - even though tobi makes great points in her review about the writing of history/herstory and how awkward it is to her because she was in the middle of it and also how it can become so focused on the consumer part and not on the activist part. just go read it yourself!

the krs blog also linked to flavorwire where author marisa meltzer, because of the release of her book, had been asked to list 10 essential female artists of the 90s, and i must say, i'm really pleased at what she listed. veruca salt, that dog., juliana hatfield [yeah!], elastica, breeders, hole, liz phair [hell yeah!], sleater-kinney, kim gordon and bikini kill. all excellent choices in my book. there was some nagging in the comments about why L7 wasn't on it, and why liz phair was, and where the hell is p.j. harvey and tori amos, OMG WHERE IS TORI AMOS, and so on. i'm sorry, but chill out! this is one person's opinion and clearly other people will think differently. there is no such thing as the truth.

that being said, i must defend her addition of veruca salt and liz phair. it's suggested that if liz phair is in it then jewel or tracy bonham might as well be in it. clearly this person hasn't paid much attention to liz's early work. actually i'm going to quote our friend the fashion blogger here, cos even she gets it;

At the same time, reading about Liz Phair's lyrics and behavior also surprised me, as the songs I hear now that are so blatantly and graphicly about sex are sung by men, and women have to keep quiet

liz's exile in guyville is essential listening if there ever was such a thing! [read this.] as for veruca salt, in hindsight they've proven not very influential and sort of strangely became viewed as a one- or two-hit-wonder depending on who you're asking ["seether" and/or "vulcano girls"]. for me, listening to them early on, they just struck me from the beginning as being really great, and i'm sure many others agree. i'd hate to sound important, but everybody that was into indie rock at the time knew the words to "seether". when hole hosted 120 minutes in '95 they played veruca salt's "number one blind" and i fell in love right there, recording it onto tape from the speakers on the tv (hey, that's how we did it in the 90s!) and then buying their debut and loving it. i still listen to veruca salt. besides, marisa herself defends her addition by saying

Is it okay to love a band just for one song? I think when you make a song as perfect for karaoke as “Seether,” it totally is.

so, i ordered the book and if you're lucky i'll tell you what i think after i've read it.

wow. this post got so much longer than i thought it would.

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EDIT: oh, yeah, i forgot. i loved what marisa said about liz phair on the list;

She sang, “Every time I see your face/ I get all wet between my legs,” and all the girls were like, “FINALLY!”

that settles it.

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* krs = kill rock stars, awesome record label that's been around since the early 90's that carries a lot of great indie and favors feminist and queer artists. has released a lot of riot grrl stuff.

** tobi vail is an awesome woman, musician, feminist and activist who's been in deep with the riot grrl movement and all that great stuff that happened in and around olympia in the late 80s that became so influential for the 90s indie rock. she was in the go team and in bikini kill. read more about her here and here.

what's going on?

my new look accompanied by the lyrics to the fabulous song "going blonde" by juliana hatfield. enjoy.

Na na na na na na / Baby baby baby / I don't want nothing / Means I want something / Millions of diamonds / Sparkling and shining / Singing stupid songs / I'm going blonde
Bleaching my brain / I dig the pain / Firing squad pointed at the sweet spot / I'm turning myself on / I'm going blonde
Never want to be forgotten / I'm speaking American / I need some attention / Tell you my problems / What's going on / I think I'm going blonde
Na na na na na na / Na na na na na na
Baby baby baby / Baby baby baby
Na na na na na na na na

my time in america pt 2

it's a fact that i enjoy food a bit too much for my own good. good food. i'm not a fast food junkie, i'm a good food junkie. and i don't eat meat. so, with little more knowledge than your average european about american food culture (meat, fast food, large portions, obesity) i have to admit i worried a little bit about how i was going to be fed my two weeks over there.

let me tell you, the worrying was totally uncalled for. although they do seem to have more preservatives and salt in their pre-prepared food than here in sweden, pretty much everything i ate was enjoyable. here's a top 5 list, starting with a taste orgasm;

1. coffee milk shake and salmon burger at blt burgers in las vegas. this milkshake is to die for! now i totally get the conversation in pulp fiction about the $5 shake (although if i remember correctly, this shake was $6, but inflation hits even $5 shakes). the burger was also great.

yes! it was this good! i swear!

2. sweet potato cannelloni at the red rock in park city, utah. O. M. F. G!

3. dave's mom & husband's delicious salad with homegrown vegetables and japanese pears (i hope i'm getting this right, i was too busy enjoying it to really pay attention).

4. arby's mozzarella cheese sticks. i may not be a fast food junkie, but i am a cheese junkie, especially mozzarella.

5. the cheesecake factory's pumpkin cheesecake. i mean, just look at it!


honorary mention: kate's homemade butter nut squash soup was great! and it was my first encounter with butter nut squash, which is always exciting.

more fast talking fantastic!

a belated birthday present was given to me today. it was fantastic! the fourth season gilmore girls dvd! this birthday season has totally rocked! i should turn 30 more often.

ups and downs

first i was happy, cos i snowed! and i do love snow, even though it gets extremely wet and sticky in this part of the country. my love for snow is firm and i'll never be like lorelai who first loved snow for season after season and then all of a sudden started hating it cos it fell on her car. no, never, not me. i'll always love snow.

then i was more happy cos i met my friend susanna and after coffee and chocolate cake we went to the mall and i found a pretty pretty dress that i liked and she bought it for me as a birthday present! (note: coffee + chocolate cake + presents = happy jenny)

then i got depressed cos i found that amazon.com have the gilmore girls dvds for $15 a season which is awesomely cheap! but, see i have no money right now and even if i had i'm prohibited to buy anything for myself before christmas. that's what my sister says and who am i to argue with her? (besides i already cheated cos i ordered the season 3 dvd of battlestar galactica the other day. oops.)

i'm gonna go try on my new dress now, eat chocolate and forget about this last part.

still august

now i'm on season 5. or at least i should be, could i find it. so make that season 6. i'm also about to start reading paul auster's the brooklyn follies, so soon i'll know nyc from within without even having been there. comforting thought.

i'm out of words. i'm sorry.

what a good day looks like

eventful day, today. and a good one too, mostly. started out by sleeping in, strangely only till about half past ten, at which i, mildly frustrated, got bored of trying to fall back asleep and got up, and felt non-tired. that's a feeling that i hardly ever have before i've had coffee and breakfast and been up and about for an hour or so. it makes for a good start of a day!

i took care of about half of the annoying bureaucracy that's a bit pressing right now. go me. after doing so i treated myself to a large vanilla latte at my favorite coffee shop. how i love reward systems.

decided on a whim to visit one of our bigger record stores, actually one of the more decent ones, but like record store are nowadays, expensive. haven't been in there for over a year, probably more. it turned out to be an excellent idea! they had a sale, and being as i am i just couldn't resist going through the cds on sale. even though they were placed on the floor underneath the ordinary racks. so there i was, crawling around on the floor looking for cheap good cds, for a good half hour, probably longer. usually i'm quite thorough, but to tell you the truth, my legs fucking hurt being bent like that for so long (i couldn't very well sit on my ass on the floor, now could i?!). thorough or not, i found 7 that was totally worth buying, for the total sweet sum of 207 kr (divide by 6 for dollars, 9,5 for euro).

my findings included the may queens (oh, how i love that robin proper-sheppard and everything he touches), mudhoney, madder rose and nina gordon - you know, from veruca salt? and, guided by voices' last chapter half smiles of the decomposed, which i, so far, am not too impressed by. seems a bit bland. maybe it was a good idea to disband after all. since it's not like mr pollard's been putting his feet up on the table and leaned back much since. he must be one of the most prolific people out there. what is it with ohio anyway?

i also found one - a really good one - for my dear sister. she's turning 25 on 12 july and she already knows she'll get cds from me - she always does - i'm just writing it here to tease her. we have this really neat system going; she buys me books on my birthdays and christmas; and i buy her cds on hers. basically cos i'm a discophile and she's a bibliophile. nice to have a sense of understanding in one's family.

i also finally bought tickets to cat power's show here in july. i would scream that i can't wait and that it's the only thing i'm thinking about right now, if the circumstances were what they usually are, but since i'm leaving for a two week vacation in the south of france on saturday, THAT is what i can't wait for and the only thing i can really think about. cat power has priority no 2. if you know me you should now realize just how much i long for the mediterranean sea. last time cat power was in the vicinity i went to both the show in town and the one in copenhagen the day before. and it was totally worth it.

what matters?

one of my all-time favorite novels is high fidelity by nick hornby. the movie is also awesome. i love the novel for several reasons.

first of all i really like the language, and the tone of it. the flow of it is fantastic. you're really there, you can see the racks of records you want to go through so badly, and the awkwardness gets under your skin.

second of all, i really dig the characters. they are really real, like it says on the back of the penguin edition "oh god, i know people just like that!", we really do. rob becomes your best buddy, or worst, and you fall in love with him, or with dick. barry is.. well, he's jack black, essentially, which is one reason the movie version works so well.

third, it really appeals to the geek in me; top ten lists, obscure musical facts, pop-cultural references, anal filing systems, obsessive behavior, the focus on mixed tapes.

at one place in the book (p.91) rob ponders on something he's been talking to the others about in relation to his underlying women problem, namely what really matters, what you like or what you are like, and says that

"..the truth was that these things matter, and it's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently, or if your favorite films wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party."

those of you who's read the book or watched the movie knows what it eventually resolves to, but whatever that is i still think this is an interesting dilemma, cos even though it's superficial and even mis-guiding to judge people on what they like, it does, after all, matter. at least to me. certainly not as much as it does to barry with his questionnaire, but still.

however, there are morons with impeccable taste, just like there are awesome persons without taste (i call them radio listeners). i think it matters what people are like, but generally i do prefer them to have good taste.

that's what i think. what do you think? i put the poll to the right up just to find out, so please click it. thanks.

oh, and for the love of god, if you haven't read the book, make sure you do that first, but fast, you only have a week before my poll closes.

kevin is teasing us

i love kevin smith. i think he's one of the funniest people alive. i love his movies, or flicks as he calls them. i force them on everyone i know - not too seldom with a positive result mind you. he writes great characters and awesome dialogue. if i had to pick one thing about them that's better than anything it would be the dialogue. they're also incredibly nerdy and sweet. and foul of course.

people usually say that clerks is their favorite (makes sense; back to the roots and all), but i'd say mallrats. casting jason lee as brodie must be one of the best thing he's ever done. what an obnoxious character and how perfectly portrayed! there are so many things i love about that movie it's too vast to list.

the reason for this sudden expression of love is that his new film zack and miri make a porno is coming out this year and he's just put a teaser (not a trailer) up. enjoy! (don't worry, there's no porn in it, just a lot of talk about sex.)

[updated: damn. the embedding first seemed to work just fine and then didn't. click here to see the teaser.]

oh, and yeah, kevin's one more thing i love about the 90s. so if you haven't seen any of kevin's movies yet, DO IT NOW! your life will never be the same. :)

sun anyone?

i'm not feeling too funky, so no real interest in writing anything. except maybe that i've become cynical and even more sarcastic since watching a season and a half of house md. for the last week or two. and that this time of year is the worst for teachers. especially the ones that grade. who wants summer vacation?!

juliana has updated with two more songs

10. fleur de lys
11. hole in the sky