Screw this, I'm moving to New England

I live in Wisconsin, a state that in 2006 voted 59% to 41% to amend the state constitution to define marriage as "between one man and one woman" and ban anything "substantially similar" to marriage. Lame.

The positive strides that have been made for equality over the last few years have come from the coastal states, and mostly the east coast. This week is the epitome of that trend. An article by the Associated Press sums it up nicely.

I'm not saying relationship recognition is without hope in the fly over states. In fact, it's strong gay and lesbian individuals and organizations that will make it possible for change to come to those states in maybe five or ten years, so a mass exodus is not the order of the day. But I don't want to wait - I want in the fray now.

Hence I say "Screw this, I'm moving to New England."

Riot Grrrl Thurrrsday

First off I should explain that I'm going with an expanded definition of the riot grrrl genre to women that are making awesome music. This allows for new musicians and others outside the movement to be included in these posts

This weeks Riot Grrrls are Ida Maria. They're poppy-punk rockers from Sweden (love it!). I think the sick vocals and smart lyrics speak for themselves:

Lesbian. Vampire. Killers.

The feminist in me knows this is wrong, but the vampire enthusiast just thinks this is too funny to care. When you think about, it's not that bad. It pokes fun at the notion of lesbians as evil seductresses (although I have to ask, what's wrong with that?).

Riot Grrrl Thurrrsday

This is a big "duh." I promise subsequent installments won't be so trite, but for the first round I felt the need to go with a classic. This is just one of my favorite songs of all time. I hear those opening drum beats and everything is good.

Favorite lyric: "When she talks I hear the revolution/In her hips there's revolution/Where she walks the revolution's coming/In her kiss I taste the revolution"

Kathleen Hanna is just full of awesomeness.


And I will always love the Kathleen Hanna reference on the L Word ("Oh, she just pretty much started the whole riot grrrl music scene, but hey...""What's the riot grrrl music scene?").

Marry Me, Juliet

I don't listen to a lot of Top 40, but this song caught my attention. Only hearing bits of the lyrics on the radio, the song sounded a little bit, well, gay. What can I say? The line "My daddy said 'Stay away from Juliet'" sung by a girl evokes forbidden love of the sapphic kind.

Upon further inspection, the song is about as heteronormative as it gets. But I'm always a sucker for a Romeo and Juliet re-imagining...



... and I'm definitely a sucker for a cute blonde with southern drawl.


So, I'll keep listening to it, just ignoring the pronouns.

This post can also serve as the first installment of Ways the Straight Girl Knows She's Gay (WSGKSG). Pretty self-explanatory.

WSGKSG #23 (the numbers mean nothing - there's no method to this madness): Upon reading Romeo and Juliet, she identifies more with Romeo than Juliet. Not necessary in an I-want-to-be-a-boy kind of way, but in a way where she gets to be the one to climb up to the balcony - gets to be the one to fight for love (literally). To be explored further.

Who wants sunshine when you've got The Dead Weather?

A team of rivals...okay not so much rivals as contemporaries. Alison Mosshart of the Kills in the new Jack White band The Dead Weather.

Her vocals are just sick, I love it. Her work as part of the duo The Kills was extraordinary. She reminds me of the best women rockers of the 80's like Joan Jett. And I guess Jack White doesn't suck too.

Inaugural Blog Post! Ooo, Ahhh...

I think blogs are inherently self involved. When a person writes a blog, they're saying "what I have to say is important enough that other people want to hear it." That's not how I tend to think. I'd like to think of this blog more as a place for people who share my interests. So, only slightly less egocentric :-).

The point is, I think I have a weird set of interests. Actually, I know this to be true and am told so frequently. Some don't seem to mesh with each other, but it all makes sense to me. Everything from politics to fashion, entertainment to philosophy. I guess I'm just hoping it makes sense to some other folks too and goodness will ensue.