2009
First of May by the Mind on Fire Choir.
It’s officially The First of May, and many of you decided to join me in celebrating spring by putting together a little cover of the infamous Jonathan Coulton song. Thanks to everyone who answered the call a couple of weeks ago!
Before I link to the podcast proper, credit goes out to:
- A cover version created to remember and raise money for the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund, which I heard on Bill Shunn’s excellent podcast. The effort was led by Paul Fischer and edited by Phil Rossi (thanks, Bill, for the clarification).
- Of course, Jonathan Coulton, the creator of the original masterpiece (which is freely downloadable!). Also, here are the lyrics.
- Each person who contributed to our community choir (in order of appearance):
G (blog)
Me!
Lessie (blog)
Our very own xJane
Melinda (twitter)
Alana (flickr)
Brecken (handreach) and her voice teacher, Izolda, not pictured, but who couldn’t resist joining because this was her favorite song by JoCo, and Gina, also not pictured, who introduced Izolda to the artist!
Thanks again, everyone, for joining in the fun! Thanks for confirming once again that the web really can bind us.
Um, for those of you who haven’t heard the song, here’s your explicit/nsfw warning (unless you work for Rahm Emanuel).
[podcast]http://www.mindonfire.com/kike/MindonFirePodcast-Episode002.mp3[/podcast]
2009
Fucking Friday: Photo.
This is definitely not directed towards you, dear reader, nor to anyone I know. But I’ve felt these conflicting feelings before, even if I haven’t expressed them. I’ve definitely been on the receiving end of this mixed message. I figure most of you will understand what I’m talking about.
2009
By John
14 Comments
Mind on Fire First of May Celebration Project.
All right, folks, come hither and hearken unto my latest hare-brained scheme:
Have any of you heard the Jonathan Coulton classic, First of May? If you haven’t, here it is (warning: there’s literally some fucking language in there). If you have, I know you’re all like “MST LISSEN NAO”, so here it is. See how we at Mind on Fire take good care of you?
What I’d like to do is assemble a community cover of the song, which I would then post on May 1st for all the world to hear. It’s a fun, accessible, NSFW song that celebrates spring and all the things we enjoy here in MoF-land. I wish I could claim that I thought this up all on my own, but that credit goes to Bill Shunn. He even did it for a better cause.
Anyhow, if you’re interested, here are the prerequisites. You must:
- Be able to sing (or chant or shout or read the words in a sultry or Woody Allen voice or approximate singing) anywhere from one to four lines, and the full chorus (my idea is to create a composite of everyone singing the chorus together).
- Be able to record an mp3 of yourself singing the above.
- Be willing to provide a square photo/avatar and a web home that I can link to.
If you want to join in the virtual chorus, please comment below or send me a message via email (mindonfire, preceded by john@) or twitter (johnremy). The First of May is coming up soon, so you have until the evening of Tuesday, April 21st to let me know, so that I can send instructions and give you time to record and for me to collect and edit the final audio. Feel free to invite your friends and neighbors and tweeps!
Pitch: For all you exmos and/or SF lovers, I’d like to pitch Bill’s Shunncast. He’s releasing the audio of his entertaining and poignant Accidental Terrorist memoir, which helped Jana and I survive, with humor intact, our transition out of the Church. It explains why Bill, who was serving a mission in Canada, is still–sadly–not permitted into the country some two decades later. Also: stalked by stake presidents, and testicles in a jar.
2009
By xJane
20 Comments
Fucking Friday: Rape (S.A.A.M.)
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and, to kick things off, I’d like to take issue with the growing prevalence of the word “rape” as a slang synonym for “dominated”, “rocked’, or “killed”. Both I and a friend have recently had Facebook “friends” (which of course could be anyone from a mere acquaintance to a spouse) claim to have “raped” a final in their status:
her: is hoping that she raped that final!!! PARRRRTTTAYYYY time!!!
him: Fuckin raped 2 finals and now one more to go
I know the author of the second well enough to comment on it. Facebook now allows a user to “like” or give a thumbs up to something someone else has posted. The following thread ensued:
me: “Fuckin raped 2 finals” …I wonder if one can “unlike” a comment.
him: haha possibly… all you gotta do is type that you dont like it.
me: consider it done
He later changed his status to
him: fuckin destroyed all three finals and now time to turn off the brain!
which I considered a win. I “liked” that status.
But now I wish I’d gone farther. I wish I’d made it more clear that I was offended by the status, and that I was offended by “raped 2 finals” rather than “fuckin”. Swearing on your Facebook page is stupid, but inoffensive to me (I know for a fact that all his managers are on Facebook—I’m friends with most of them). Using “rape” as a description of power and of power over an inanimate object is flat out offensive. When I sent my messages, I felt like the Bad Feminist FriendTM: the one who is offended by little things that “normal” people aren’t offended by and don’t even notice; the one who never finds jokes funny and is just a pain to ever be around. But I simply couldn’t let it slide.
I know that others disagree, but I would much rather replace “rape” with “kill” in the above. I have killed finals in the past (I have had finals kill me, too); I have dominated, I have destroyed, but I have never raped a final. Or anything else (besides the earth, with my car…). This is not a term to be used lightly. This is not a word to be normalized.
2009
Fucking Friday: Fucking Early
A kid in a South Pasadena high school has declared this week “no cussing week”. He started the No Cussing Club in seventh grade when he realized that his peers were beginning to cuss, a word I find entertaining, something that his parents did not allow.
I respect this kid for standing up to what must be an overwhelming number of people who swear and wish him no ill will. But “no cussing week”? Fuck that.
His website says, presumably as an encouragement to stop swearing,
Your words become your thoughts.
Your thoughts become your behavior.
Your behavior becomes your character.
Your character becomes your destiny.
My response?
Well behaved [people] rarely make history.
There is a time and a place for all kinds of words, from aardvark (the best time and place for that word being when you require a word that starts the dictionary) to ZOMG!. I do not ever want my thoughts, behavior, character, or destiny to be complacent, calm, nor accepting of that which ought not be accepted. There are times when what is demanded is that people stand up and say “fuck this,” to think in their hearts, “oh, my god,” to invectively spit, “Jesus H. Christ,” to chant “cunt cunt cunt cunt,” and to reclaim “faggot” and “bitch”.
Swearing is certainly not always good, and perhaps it may be good for people at large to give it up for Lent. A personal choice to practice love and to control one’s own actions is never a bad thing (unless taken to an extreme) and certainly encouraging others to do the same is similar. And so again I say, “More power to Mr. No Cussing, but respectfully, bugger that for a lark.”
This bitch will keep on swearing until nothing remains to swear about.
2008
Fucking Friday: Bitch 2.0
This is a link dump for things that make me want to spit. Things that piss me off & make me want to bitch—remind me why I should be angry. John just posted his experience at Church the other day, I think most of us can agree that his experience counts as something we all want to bitch about. Feel free to respond to mine or add your own in the comments.
“Sweetie” pisses me off. In fact, most diminutives or “familiar” forms, especially from strangers (although also from other sources: DH called me “baby” once during sex & that did not go over well for him…) really make me mad. I’ve posted about this in the past, but now, research shows that it’s not just me: treating people like you’re better than them affects them psychologically, which can then affect them physically. I wonder what it says about the person who’s doing the treating.
The Republicans’ sheltering of Palin makes me mad. The fact that they don’t want to let her have a forum reminds me how little they think of women. Andrew Sullivan calls on us to “Demand a Press Conference” and both Rachel Maddow & Keith Olbermann have offered to let Palin name the terms in order to get another interview (after the Couric interview, apparently, the Republicans locked her in a penis-shaped tower, word has it that they’re tending their garden of cabbages below, flying about on broomsticks at night, and climbing up her hair when they want to access her—no word yet about a white knight). The awesomeness from CNN’s anchors (which I previously posted) reminds me that sometimes, the mainstream media doesn’t suck.
Trayce Hansen, Ph.D. and her ilk infuriate me. She’s the one being quoted on Christian & conservative websites as claiming that “social endorsement of homosexuality [...] will lead more individuals into a homosexual lifestyle”. Which, if you think about it, really means that closeted gays will no longer feel shame if society didn’t think that homosexuality was an unnatural, dirty activity that leads to STDs and death. Wait, isn’t that their same argument about sex? About divorce? About abortion? Oh, that’s right, they’ve only got one! Her name might be Hansen, Coulter, or Schlafly, but whatever her name, the Conservative Woman Who Hates Women So That She Can Prove To Men That All Women Suck But Her (or maybe that She Is The Only Woman Who Will Suck) drives me crazy.
People who deny the rights of everyone because they don’t want to exercise them. This goes for the anti-abortion lobby (don’t have one!), the anti-gay marriage lobby (don’t be one!), and the anti-euthanasia lobby (don’t do it!). Don’t tell me I can’t do it just because it makes you feel icky. What if militant vegetarians took over the country & denied people the right to hunt and eat meat? Or if militant environmentalists turned every highway into a bikeway? Sure, the world might be slightly better, but it wouldn’t be right. Equally, it is not right to deny rights (heh. get it?) just because you don’t want them. Hell, I don’t want to marry a woman. But you know what? I’m glad I have the right to if I wanted. I do not understand what is going on in the minds of people who want to deny rights. So often, we hear the story of a person who was anti-this or anti-that and then suddenly finds themselves in such a position that they are glad that they and their friends were unsuccessful because now? Now they’re really glad they have the right to this or that.
There are too many links for that one, but here’s Dan Savage’s recent experience with his mother’s terminal illness and death. He lives in Seattle, too—I’m not really sure who has the greater reach, though, my father, with his religious network or Savage with his queer network (I hope it’s Savage), but at least someone there is standing up in opposition to my father’s desire to take rights from others.
*pant pant*
Again, I have to say: if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention. Leave in the comments the things that get you righteously angry, and about which you are passionate. Anger is only helpful if it’s channeled.
2008
By xJane
11 Comments
Fucking Friday: Bitch.
“I’m a YUPpie,” goes the old joke, “You know, a Young, Upwardly-Mobile Professional.”
“We’re DINKS,” comes a reply, “You know, Double Income, No Kids.”
[in one version, the third response is "WIFE", but my favorite is]
“Me, I’m a BITCH.” Jaws drop. People stare, drinks raised halfway to their lips. She smiles naughtily and purrs, “You know, a Babe I n Total Control of Herself!”
(the videos that follow are simply mood music—easier to find & embed than mp3s)
[wp_youtube]rhfiiGGy7Ls[/wp_youtube]
My love affair with this word started in high school with Meredith Brooks, who told me that bitch was one of the many things that I was (daughter, student, bitch…) Around this time, I discovered angry feminist rock (although I didn’t know that’s what it was) and started hiding it from my parents.
There’s something buried in these songs, in this word, that speaks to my inner bitch. Screams at her, wakes her up, and lets her out. On days that I’m feeling too meek and mild, I listen to some bitch to remind myself of the vicious dog within.
[wp_youtube]UdMq6X3FiXc[/wp_youtube]
Aside from the swearing, which I knew my parents wouldn’t approve of, there was something deeper in these songs that some part of me knew wasn’t “acceptable” for the kind of person they wanted me to be. Republica says it: “I want everything. I want…to be who I want to be. I want the best of both worlds.” It’s a sentiment that I didn’t think was acceptable (for anyone, not just for me) but one that I really wanted.
With these wonderful bitches showing me what was possible, I thickened my skin, straightened my spine, and bared my teeth. I learned that the reason that they were angry and I wasn’t was that I hadn’t been paying attention. My [figurative] sisters were beaten, denigrated, unlistened to, and pushed to the edges. But some of us were standing up—and I wanted to be one of them.
In college, “bitch” was “sister” to my friends, a secret password among strong, educated women. A club handshake for those in the know. It was a complement, an acknowledgement that “lady” was a poor goal and that the establishment needed someone to upset it. Perhaps a bunch of someones. We weren’t always strong, but we held each other up. We were a pack & we defended our own.
When I met my husband’s step-mother, I met my first alpha bitch. I’d met alpha males before—the kind of person you want to lead your pack, the kind of person you want to follow into battle (even if there are none to fight). I hadn’t realized that alpha bitches existed. I hadn’t realized that I was one. She and I occasionally snarl at each other, occasionally pace around warily before lunging at the jugular; but for the most part, we submit to each other in our areas—she’s alpha bitch in her home and I in mine.
[wp_youtube]BytyXtiyeDU[/wp_youtube]
Just like “fuck” in the video previously linked to (in the comments), bitch is a versatile word. I am a bitch, I have been a bitch, I’ve been someone’s bitch, I’ve had bitches, I’ve bitch-slapped, I’ve bitched, I’ve flipped a bitch, I’ve been bitchy, I’ve never sat bitch (to my recollection), and I’ve hung out with my bitches. I’ve called people “bitch” meaning a compliment, I’ve called people “bitch” meaning an epithet. I’ve screamed “BITCH!” at the screen while playing video games (for some reason, it’s my cuss of choice for playing video games). I’ve resolved, with other bitches, to end every sentence with “bitches!”. As in, “I’m tired, bitches!” or, “Let’s go bowling, bitches!”
I like that “bitch” is being reclaimed (like “gay” and “witch”). It’s a magazine, a diet, an awesome blogger, and a knitting club. It’s a word I claim as a title and as an aspiration. I’d like it on a t-shirt (not sure if I could wear it to school, but damn, I’d try!) because I think it’s something that everyone should know. It’s like being a feminist—this is what a bitch looks like. I’m a bitch & I’m proud of it. I’m a bitch, you got something to say to me? Because my teeth are sharp and your neck looks tasty.
[Love Me or Hate Me, Lady Sovereign]