I’m sure The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie is already all over your feeds, but promise me you’ll read the whole thing:
As he writes the five letters, he presses a long, invisible blade down between two destinies, hard enough to cut them off from each other for 80 years. There will be Elvie, a singer, who lives nowhere, and L.V., a woman, at her house in Houston. They call her song “Motherless Child Blues,” even though it doesn’t have those words anywhere in it, and the woman singing, in the song, is not an orphan, so that when 31 years later Mack finds her and asks about that song, she doesn’t know what he’s talking about, she never had a song called “Motherless Child Blues.”
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I was watching The Last Waltz with my mom this weekend (so amazing) and then Googling all the members of The Band (shoulda been called The CANADIAN Band, amirite?) to see what everyone who wasn’t Levon Helm was up to (RIP Levon.) It’s hard to believe that Robbie Robertson once looked exactly like Tim Curry:
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“Blood Sisters: Why Girls Cut Themselves and Why We Can’t Blame Tumblr”:
I couldn’t have imagined online forums with thousands or even dozens of other cutters. In my day we did not run in packs. We sniffed the air when we spotted another one and eyed each other warily, like tigers breaching each other’s territory. I had a complex personal ethos: if a girl didn’t hide her cuts, she was doing it for attention and I pitied her at best, loathed her at worst. Girls who hid could be trusted, but not implicitly; if she was worse off than you, she probably viewed you as a pretender.
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Conrad Black is on Twitter now.
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“Megabus is a Heisenberg Free Zone” – @itsintheshow:
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Girl pants. Might as well just give in and wear maxi dresses.
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there is no better feeling in the world entire than picking up a phone by your bed and saying to a Man, “Have a steak sent up to my room.”
— Mallory Ortberg (@mallelis) April 14, 2014
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I was skeptical, but the video of Leonardo DiCaprio rocking out to MGMT was totally worthwhile:
Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
My cat, Lord Conrad Blackcat, has a disused twitter account used for playing games and used to get occasional tweets to Conrad Black. The word cat is in his handle and everything. (My Lord Conrad is a much nicer soul than the other, adopted the day Conrad Black was found guilty. Also he’s black.)
For extra Band-related info, I highly recommend Levon’s book, ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’ & then, if that has floated your boat, for extra-extra Canadian country music completists, Ronnie Hawkins’s biography.
This Wheel’s On Fire is SO GOOD that I don’t think you even need to be particularly into The Band to enjoy it.
My dirtbag dad sold coke to Ronnie Hawkins, which Ronnie then snorted off a table across front of my mom, who claims she didn’t even know what it was.
I looked at Conrad Black’s Twitter and it’s just as bad as I thought it would be, which is impressive given how low my expectations really were.
Also new to Twitter: Robert Downey, Jr. @robertdowneyjr, and his profile says “You know who I am,” because obviously he has lost the distinction between himself and Tony Stark… if there ever WAS a distinction.
Also I would like to request a Game of Thrones Spoiler Post today, please!!
There was never a distinction. RDJ IS Iron Man, etc etc etc. He and the suit are one.
A+ Iron Man reference AND an antidote to the scourge that is the faux-humble Twitter bio (“I write stuff”)? Perfect.
YES PLEASE. I need to talk about last night’s episode desperately!
Just wanted to take a moment out to register unhappiness with all the preparations for the Boston Marathon going on right now. Is there anyone who really thinks there are terrorists out there who have picked the Marathon as a great spot for a repeat bombing?? It seems like a classic case of chasing the past blindly… and all the policemen who are already at the local T stop and will continue to be for the next full week giving us a look-over (indeed I was sure I was being checked out, until it became apparent it was another kind of checking-out) are such a bummer for alienating a person from feeling like part of a community, as well as a bad use of city money. Plus all the reminders of the bombings are really hard for people who were actually injured in the event — the ones I know are taking to their homes and staying there until the hoopla is over. Who is it really for, people who don’t live in Boston? Why haven’t we figured out better less fearful ways to handle these kinds of events?
EDIT: I should say it was a very nice policeman who could tell the effect he was having on people, and kept saying “How ya doin'” to take off the edge, but it was still not the right situation to put him or us into.
You have to wonder whether each person involved in the bombing and the reaction saw Four Lions, and what they thought of it. Along those lines, on Saturday I read Emily Nussbaum’s piece on Archie Bunker with that amazing bit from the Nixon tapes.
I am so glad I have that day off from school/work, because I live one block off of Beacon Street and already know the National Guard’s going to be in riot gear asking for my papers if I so much as step outside my front door while the marathon is happening. I’m getting as far away from the 128 corridor as I can. It’s total security theater, and I can’t think of a single person who actually appreciates it, other than the ones who are still knee-jerking whenever the word “TERRORISM” is tossed around by people in positions of power.
Speak for yourself! I’m in sales and marketing for bulletproof vests, and I think everything is great! What better use could there be for your tax dollars?
In history of fashion we learned that “ladies’ ” clothes don’t have pockets because they don’t ‘need’ them.(They should always be accompanied by a gentleman when out, or a chaperone.) This mistaken belief has persisted in fashion since the invention of pockets. Before pockets both sexes carried variations on the drawstring bag, but again, women only had small ones. Because men will take care of all of our pocket needs, right?
And yet now women are expected to carry giant purses, which men expect to put all their stuff in. If we do not get pockets, we should each be issued a man to carry all of our things for us. Silently.
Excellent idea, what else are men for but to carry our stuff and kill/remove stinging insects?
Although I can change a tire, I do appreciate living in the south when I actually have a flat, because I don’t even have to look flustered before some nice dude is squatting by my car and changing the tire for me. So, if I could rent one of those dudes to ALSO (silently) carry my stuff? I’d be into that.
My high school boyfriend used to carry my purse for me when we’d go out. That was the only good thing about him.
(a) yes but also (b) I like this sociological post on the subject of pockets vs. purses.
For real. I am constantly have an extra pound or two added to my purse because my SO doesn’t feel like putting his keys and his wallet in his pockets. Why isn’t he carrying all my stuff? I am going to need to make some changes…
Weirdly, it is mostly my female friends who do that! I’m a bit more on the feminine side than many of my friends, and they don’t like to carry purses, but can’t fit their stuff in their tiny lady pockets, so somehow they all end up piling their junk in my purse.
This is relevant: http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/bl_a…
That is fantastic.
“8. Because pockets have been used by men to carry tobacco, pipes, whiskey flasks, chewing gum and compromising letters. We see no reason to suppose that women would use them more wisely.”
“compromising letters!”
Girl pockets are the biggest drawback to buying clothes online – even when something is listed as having pockets, there’s no way to tell if they are functional or just vestigial. Meanwhile there are websites that let you filter for whether a dress has bias cut princess seams (or what have you, I don’t know what those words mean) but not for whether it has pockets!
Grr. You’d think that even if Big Fashion was unmoved by basic civil rights advances they might think it was trendy and futuristic to let us carry our phones around on our persons.
GIRL POCKETS. Diva and I have FAKE front pockets on our skinnies (mine are charcoal, hers are purple). Just stitching. Not even a 2 inch pocket!!! We call them “pretend pockets”. (I call them bullshit)
UGH fake pockets are the worstttttt
Do I take it that you and Diva have matching pants? This fills my heart with warm joy.
I’ve just got back from the post office, where we sent my partner’s visa application off. Eeee!!! I’m all nervous excitement right now, with slightly too much adrenaline.
good luck! that shit takes foreeeeeevvveeeeeerrrrrrr.
Thanks =)
Yup, just gotta hurry up and wait now
GOOD LUCK
Toasties I’m trying to get myself pumped to go talk to my boss about getting a raise but I feel like I’m going to barf!!!!!!!
Listen to some Janelle Monae or Rage Against The Machine. Either one works. Get hyped!
yessss do it, u can always buy yourself a new barfless outfit with your raise moneys!!!
Seriously, barfing and then walking in to ask for a raise would be hardcore. Just walk into your boss’ office and say, “Not even the nausea that asking for a raise causes in my stomach will stop me from asking for this raise, so don’t even tell me no!!!” Then threaten to barf all over the boss’ office if s/he says “no.”
Write down your bullet points, or just write a script out for yourself. Helps! GOod luck!
Wait can we talk about The Ballad of Geeshie and Elvie? This article is taking over my morning on a day when I was planning to galavant around Manhattan and now all I want to do is go upstate and hunt through record bins in farm houses and also to invent a time machine so I can lie on the floor at their feet and just listen.
Yes! I appreciate this feeling. I read the article Saturday morning in bed. It eventually redeemed itself, but I almost slammed my computer shut at just before the half-way point for featuring so prominently the precious voices of the cultured few (almost exclusively) white dudes and their honking. I mean, it turned around a little bit by including the voices of actual people and not just record hounds, and I appreciated that eventually they got to just posting the music that they’re talking about, but the subtext of the article still irks me in a way I haven’t quite ironed out.
Me too, glad to see I am not the only one. JJS kind of points it out but I felt he did that just to do it, not really interrogating it. And article could and should be made about how we formulate music history and what race has to do with it, but putting that into an article that promised to be about two black women felt a little off.
Also it was the longest thing of his I’d read and actually turned me off reading Pulphead because some of his stylistic turns were kinda….wanky. THAT SAID I do love MOST of the article, the parts about L.V.’s life in particular.
It’s like a real-life “Savage Detectives” and I just want to re-read it all day while youtubing all this music, holy crap
Ummmmm “you can’t tell the story of the early blues without the lesbians” yes, we can talk about this.
Yes! I’m a bit of a geek about early 20th century music (although by no means am I an expert in its history) and I had NO IDEA that this was a thing. Man do I hate that Sullivan just dropped that in there without giving any suggestions for further reading.
This is what happened to me on Saturday. I cannot stop thinking about these women. L.V.’s voice is just intoxicatingly beautiful.
I am a working historian, and it’s rare that a Journalist trying to do history does something I approve of. This had me floored.
Also, Caitlin Love deserves a Ph.D. in History/Anthropology/Musicology/General Awesomeness or whatever she wants. This is work that a lot of Tenured Professors wouldn’t be capable of doing.
Pretty much all of my eShakti dresses have pockets in them, and it is The Best.
I pretty much only wear maxi dresses/other cotton dresses all summer because fuck pants and I don’t have air conditioning and it is just so much easier to put on one thing when it it hot and sticky and disgusting out.
I NEED POCKETS ON MY WORKOUT GEAR. Where the crap am I expected to put my freaking house key? Currently I wear it on a lanyard that I tuck under my shirt but it’s actually relatively annoying to feel it bouncing on me when I run.
The R-Gear stuff from Road Runner Sports has a small pocket for keys/burts bees/gummies. Not big enough for a phone (I don’t think) but a good size.
You know those loose polyester Nike (usually) shorts that the athletic youngin’s wear nowadays? (as opposed to the cotton Soffee shorts I had back in the day)? They have built in undies (not as weird as you’d think!) and a little pocket on the inside that can easily fit my car key.
I do not pay Nike retail, prices, however, and get the shorts for half off at Marshall’s. My sister also ties her house key into her shoelaces, which is free.
I love to dig through thrift stores for good athletic gear. And I ADORE built-in panties in running shorts, they are the best!
I get Under Armour shorts at Marshalls. They always have extremely weird prints (gold honeycombs on red and black!) and also have a little key pocket.
I also have several pairs of running leggings from Target for cold weather that have a little key hole in the band.
I didn’t realize the panty-shorts were a young’un thing? My mom used to wear them in the 90s. They squicked me out then, but now I love them.
It’s not so much the panty-shorts as the cut/style of the nike ones I guess? (see: http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.j…
And generally in the way that things cycle in and out of style…when I was a teenage athlete we all wore these cotton shorts and now the cool thing is these looser polyester ones again. I’m jealous, the key pocket would have been helpful when I was younger!
Come to think of it, I did notice a student wearing a pair of my running shorts the other day, but I just chalked it up to the slovenliness of students at (large US university).
We all wore the cotton soffe shorts when I was in school, but I didn’t start running until I was in my mid-20s, so I always figured they were for serious runners. They are super-comfy though (IMO under armour wicking fabric is the BEST) and I do like the key pocket.
If we’re talking pants, can I ask who is buying the office yoga pants that are popping up CONSTANTLY as an ad in my FB feed? I work at an office where I honestly could wear just about anything, but even I can’t picture wearing OFFICE.YOGA.PANTS.
I had a coworker who wore them! She said if they were all black you couldn’t tell them apart from black trousers. That statement was…not at all accurate.
Many of my coworkers! Technically we just have to wear black pants and yoga pants would be well suited to our job, but…it’s just cheating somehow.
(And then they have to come up with a thousand places to stow everything they need for work since there’s not even the pretense of lady pockets.)
I have those FB adverts too! I keep trying to figure out what I clicked on to get them! I own one pair of yoga pants and they’re from Walmart #fancy
Thanks for the link about self harm.
There’s so much obnoxious bloviating about it, primarily done by people who 1) don’t do it and 2) haven’t done any actual research into who does it and why and it’s just… painful. I started self harming in 1986 (it started out as skin picking, I was 7 and already depression and anxious) and didn’t encounter the internet for another ten years. When I was in highschool, and not online, I had several friends who also weren’t online and who self harmed. We all had started doing it before we met, and we absolutely did not encourage it in each other, or compare “war wounds” or compete to be the worst or wev. We were all pretty embarrassed by it.
Ugh, yep, more hand-wringing about Young Women by people who’ve probably never sat down and LISTENED to a young woman in their life.
Or… people who have been young women?
Self harm can manifest itself in ways other than cutting, too. I still have the scar underneath my right eye where I tried to scrub my face away using hot, wet washcloths. (When I was quite young, I wanted my ugly, sad self to “disappear”. Ugh. Somedays I still have a good, hard cry for that past me-child).
Bright side! Life as an adult is gloriously (for the most part!) good.
I FEEL CREEPY FOR WATCHING THAT COACHELLA VIDEO.
:E
Also that self-harming article is making me not want to ever punish my kids. 🙁 This isn’t to be flippant, but seriously I feel so bad for kids/adults who were brought up thinking that they were damaged.
I have recently begun to rankle at the expression “just doing it for attention.” If a young person–and this expression is overwhelmingly said about young women–is acting out in a way that provokes that response in someone else, we should wonder why they need attention and where in their life they are not getting enough. What the fuck!
This. I mean, what’s more human than wanting attention? And what’s easier to give? It’s just mind-boggling (and infuriating) that our cultural script is “ugh, attention whores, just ignore them they’re doing it for attention.”
PS: Is this the right place to rec Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams? Because it seems relevant.
Leo dancing @ Coachella was in fact worth it. I want to give him a hug! Good job, buddy, enjoy yourself!
Here's a few articles I thought were good: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/singing-…
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/blues/garber.htm…
http://www.outhistory.org/exhibits/show/queer-bro…
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Bentley/…
How did I know that not only would The Toast be talking about this aside (AND WHAT AN ASIDE I MEAN REALLY), but that somebody on here would know way more about it than I (and Sullivan) do. I love this community!
After reading those articles, I must say, the Bessie Smith I learned about was certainly a scrubbed-up version!
I especially cosign that Collectors Weekly article, which I read a few weeks ago and talked up for days after. I think I will go devour the rest of them now.