girls girls girls!

girls girls girls, a limited edition (only 10!) chapbook made for popsickle 2010. each cover has a different 1970s pornobabe with drawn on tattoos in honor of feminist mavericks. $3.50/includes shipping. or we can trade, in which case, email me. xo

american women

in nyc last sunday i went to visit the "american woman: fashioning a national identity" exhibition at the met museum.



it was breathtaking. as i slid into the first room, which gave us the most perfect, ornate, insane late 19th century drawing-room gowns, i felt that stab in my stomach which means that i am having BIG FEELINGS. these frocks, once worn by monied women and now suspended in time with beautifully styled wigs atop.



the gibson girls room was my second favorite, with all that heavy wool, goth-psycho high drama femininity. my notes from my journal after viewing all these antiqued clothings use the words goth, heavy, insane, psycho, dramatic, over and over again. my body felt like it was being taken over by the forces of the women who once wore these clothes, and so, the clothes themselves. i felt like i'd been taken.



there were lumps in my throat and something in my body- my heart or slick, juicy veins- called out to these clothes. i want to know their stories, and who had worn them, and in what contexts. in which outfits did those women receive great and somber news, and how did their outfits make them feel. were they comforted, or did they seek out more comfort from a different outfit.



in response to the quietly hysterical, constrictive and heavy clothes my own body felt a kind of hysteria, the same kind, i imagine, that teenage girls feel when they see their teen idols who they do not know yet are fags. i see these clothes and they feel like history, an entire personal story, is available in the folds of cloth. but we are not allowed to touch.



in the hollywood gown room clips of rita hayworth and jean harlow showed us how they used their clothes to tell part of their story.



it was still not enough. i still ached to know, to know, to know, to create or know these stories sprung from the dusty old frocks. the vintage and antique clothing i own and love most all seem ripe with stories, smells, History with a capital H. the history of a woman or women i will never know. in chicago i acquired a '40s deadstock dress which came from the vaults of universal studios. it's never been worn and still has the original tags on it. that dress has a lonelier story, and i want to now give it a life in the sun.

i have so much i want to write, in the next few days: movies (inception, life during wartime, valhalla rising, the kids are alright), books (slut lullabies, some girls, green girl), music (joanna newsom live on her have one on me tour), popsickle.

popsickle

on saturday evening i will be reading some new poems (& will have a very limited edition chapbook that is both cheap and uneasy) at this grand event in brooklyn:



POPSICKLE 2010 unites Brooklyn’s literary curators for a two-day festival of readings, performances and screenings. The festival will take place on Saturday July 24th from 3-8 PM & Sunday July 25th 1-5 PM at Bushwick's beloved MARKET HOTEL | 957 Broadway | Brooklyn.

FEATURING: Alaina Stamatis, Anna Fitzgerald, Ben Fama, Brett Price & Dani Leventhal, Carter Edwards, Dan Magers, Eddie Hopely, Emily Pettit, Evan Burton, Gina Abelkop, Jamie Peck, James Copeland, Jordan Michael Iannucci, Joshua Mehigan, Lauren Russell, Leigh Stein, Marc Nasdor, Michael Barron, Natalie Lyalin, Nicole Trigg, Paige Taggart, Parker Phillips, Timothy Donnelly and more!

visit popsicklefestival.blogspot.com for the schedule & more info

xox

female misogyny

i've been reading julie klausner's i don't care about your band. it's smart and funny and often insightful, but it bums me out to see it's constantly written that you just can't have a close girlfriend without lots of icky drama. is this really true for some people? and even if it is, can't those who have the brains to talk about the jealousies and complications in girl/girl frienships (and klausner does) do just that thing instead of writing those relationships off as impossible or not worth pursuing? sisterhood is powerful; women can have really beautiful, supportive, loving friendships with each other. i also think that i may have completely different take on all this, as a queer woman; much of the female misogyny i see comes from hetero women (and trans men and masculine-identified women, but that is a different story) and it makes me sad. come into the queer fold. you don't have to fuck women, but to be around women who love each other unconditionally is really life-changing. i've had my share of horrid female friendships but i've never seen those ones as the end all and be all of what's available to me from my sisters. and i do think that offering this idea- even in a context that is humorous and otherwise feminist- to your readers is problematic, as a woman and as a feminist. if anything, i'd like the people i read to encourage me to break ties with those female friendships that hurt me and to pursue the others that offer love, support, honesty, and fun. that is a feminist action: don't write off female friendships, even in jest. all that said, i am enjoying lots of other aspects of the book, though i've been a terrible cranky reader lately, wanting/exoecting queer-feminist-brilliance-sisterhood-is-powerful-but-also-intense-and-messy-and-strange-and-let's-explore-that. any recommendations?

speaking of misogyny, you can read a poem i wrote after viewing iron man 2 over at the popsickle blog. popsickle is festival of poetry coming up in brooklyn at which i will be reading, most info forthcoming, or just read their website.

alabama

on friday i had the great pleasure of hearing rae armantrout, anna joy springer and elizabeth willis read at the cwwn conference. all three were brilliant- elizabeth willis read a bewitching poem about witches that will be in her next book, out early next year. rae armantrout read from her next book which is ingeniously titled moneyshot. anna joy read from the vicious red relic love, her novel that will be out next year which is beyond-genius, psychotically perfect, disgusting and gorgeous and slutty and sad and i know it will be my favorite book of all time, even thought i haven't read it yet.



in the past two days i have heard SIX different no doubt songs on various radio stations in san diego & los angeles (just a girl, sunday morning, ex-girlfriend, excuse me mister, spiderwebs and underneath it all.) i love no doubt so this sits well with me. in san francisco i very rarely hear no doubt on the radio.

summer songs

here is a mix of songs i've been loving. sadly i recently lost about half of my itunes music collection, so i can only offer what is left behind, but there's plenty good here:

1. possibly maybe (lucy mix)- bjork
2. wild heart- stevie nicks
3. dance this mess around- B52s
4. howl!- bat for lashes
5. working for the man (live)- pj harvey
6. trophy- siouxsie & the banshees
7. scentless apprentice- nirvana
8. no one lives forever- oingo boingo
9. we only come out at night- smashing pumpkins
10. humankind, as the sailor- rasputina
11. who's a big baby?- the white stripes
12. over it- tori amos

download here

i just finished reading both of joanna ruocco's books- man's companions and the mothering coven- and enjoyed both of them. they're quite different, with the mothering coven being denser, i think, and requiring more explicit attention during reading. i wasn't crazy about it at first, but as i got further into it, and gave it the brain space it needed, i found myself enjoying it quite a lot. man's companions is a more fluid read- or was for me, anyhow- and the stories are terrific.

magic

unicorn heels by roger vivier

suddenly