Last night I had a conversation with a friend about this whole lesbian anthem thing and she shared her point of view.
Although we’re almost the same age, we hail from different parts of the country. I’m from the west, she’s from the south. I came out later in life, after opposite marriage and a child. She’s known she was a lesbian forever.
Posted in Culture, LGBT, Opinion
Tagged Ferron, Holly Near, Meg Christian, music, Tret Fure
Rebecca Drysdale’s terrific new song for the It Gets Better Project has launched on iTunes. Download a copy and play it loudly everywhere you go! It’s a fantastic contribution to the project.
But this got me thinking. Is there a lesbian anthem? Do we have that one song that makes us want to stand up and cheer? That will inspire us to pump our fists in the air? (Thumbs tucked in, please!)
In a folk version of the classic slip-and-fall accident, legendary singer-songwriter Joan Baez was injured after falling 20 feet out of a tree house. Baez, who was climbing down when the accident occurred, was treated for minor injuries and is reported to be resting comfortably.
The tree house is nestled in a 200-year-old oak tree on her property in Northern California. Baez reportedly had the structure built as a meditation retreat and sometimes sleeps there as well. (It’s okay, Joan, lots of us fall asleep during meditation!)
Baez will be 70 in January and is still hot – maybe even hotter with this whole tree house thing.
Yep. My love affair with my iPhone continues.
Even my hard-convert PC-using sweetheart drank the Kool-Aid last weekend. She’s had an iPhone 3GS for more than a year, but its functioning has been spotty. It kept turning itself off with ever-increasing frequency. She was frustrated and making android noises. I finally convinced her to tell her story to the folks at the Apple Store and guess what? Apple replaced her phone even though it was 120 days past warranty.
They were friendly and sweet and quick about it, too. In fact, they were so nice, I actually got choked up for both of us and cried real tears. But then, I’ve had a love affair with Apple products since 1984, when Steve Jobs stood by the first Mac. (Admittedly, this video makes me tear up, too.):
Now, let’s all celebrate how far we’ve come with some music:
I guess music by trans musicians is my theme today.
Here’s another video featuring a trans artist – “A Guy Named Joe,” with Joe Stevens and Ingrid Elizabeth of the hot young duo Coyote Grace.
The video is the directorial debut of the multi-talented Joshua Klipp, another trans musician well worth checking out.
I’m having a little end of summer blast this weekend, seeing Coyote Grace at a backyard concert in Oakland. Lucky me!
And, if you’d like to give these guys a boost, head over to the Logo Online Clicklist and vote for “A Guy Named Joe”. The top vote-getters get airtime on Logo television. You’ll find them about nine spots down in the right-hand column.
Read my other posts about Coyote Grace.
Posted in Culture, LGBT, Uncategorized
Tagged coyote grace, folk, gender, ingrid elizabeth, joe stevens, joshua klipp, music, trans, transsexual
Check out this hot video offering from The Cliks and then wander over to transguys.com to read Carson Rader’s review of the new Clik’s CD release, Dirty Kings. While you’re there, enter the contest to win a copy of Dirty Kings.
Tagged Lucas Silveira, music, pop, rock, transgender, transguys, transsexual
I’ve written quite a bit about music here, including my childhood spent at folk festivals.
Peter, Paul & Mary started to sing together in the year I was born.
Like many other people who grew up in the Wonder Years, they provided much of the soundtrack to my early life.
Their songs were family music, heavily laced with a peace message. These were the lyrics we memorized, the stuff our parents listened to on eight-track in the car, and the very first songs we learned to play on our guitars. Songs like “Blowing in the Wind,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and “Puff the Magic Dragon” seem so specific to a time period (embroidered bell-bottom blue jeans, anyone?) and yet timeless. PP&M are so iconic they were featured in a PBS special.
Mary Travers, the singular female voice of Peter, Paul & Mary, died today, taking with her the clear voice that bridged generations.
My thanks to my friend BigBrainGirl,
another guitar-playing child of the 70s,
for the links & this video.
While this video is technically safe for work, it’s suggestive beyond what it actually shows.
Tramaine de Senna, is the creative assistant for sales and marketing at MAKE magazine. She is also a talented artist and musician. Here’s an amazing song and video she created, and thanks to Boing Boing for sharing.
Nancy VanReece's watercolor based on the cover of Joan Baez's 2008 recording "Day After Tomorrow". Click on the image to visit Nancy's website and see more of her art.
.
I grew up going to folk festivals in Sonoma County.
While my parents weren’t hippies by any means (they were both career newspaper people), my mother’s love of folk music had a big influence on our family.
We went to lots of live performances in places my parents could take their kids. We went to places that no longer exist, and some that still do. The Painted House was a cafe and coffeehouse in Santa Rosa where I ate my first alfalfa sprouts and heard Kate Wolf sing. West of the Laguna was a pizza joint in Sebastopol where kids ran around between the tables and guitar-pickers showed off their syncopation. Dinucci’s family-style Italian restaurant is still in business in the tiny coastal town of Valley Ford, and I remember going there to hear The Irish Rovers sing the unicorn song that made them famous. My parents took me to hear Burl Ives sing “Big Rock Candy Mountain” in Sparks, Nev. (some of you younger types will know him as the voice of the narrator snowman in the original Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Christmas special).
There are singers I’ve never heard live, but only on my mom’s albums – people like Woody Guthrie, Odetta, Pete Seger, Bob Dylan, June Carter Cash, and Phil Ochs. Some of them I’ll never have the chance to hear, because, as the saying goes, heaven has a hell of a band. But I’m still a fan of live music, and I’ve been blessed to hear more wonderful amazing artists live than I could begin to count.
While we heard lots of other kinds of music too – like our local symphony orchestra on Sundays – it’s the voices of these folk singers that feel like old friends.
In the 1970s, the football field of Santa Rosa Junior college became the site of a short-lived regional folk festival. We gathered with other families to spread our blankets out in the sunshine and picnic on celery sticks with organic peanut butter and cheese from local cows. The festival experienced many missing years and reorganizations, but is the forerunner of the now firmly established Kate Wolf Festival, named for folksinger that died in 1986, that happens every year at the end of June at Wavy Gravy’s Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville.
Joan Baez inspired cheers and tears as she sang "We Shall Overcome" in Farsi under a blue sky in Stern Grove.
This is why I felt right at home yesterday on the lawn in San Francisco’s Stern Grove, listening to Joan Baez.
Joan Baez is one of those voices from my childhood. Now 68, she is a graceful and elegant woman, grown out of the girl sensation that sang on the stage at Woodstock 40 years ago.
She’s made a career of music, but is equally known for her vocal and unflagging support of non-violence, civil and human rights, and the environment. Against war, in support of gay and lesbian rights, against the death penalty, for the planet, and now for Iran, this woman has used her voice to the benefit of so many people.
Just weeks ago, she was moved to post this video on YouTube, recorded in her kitchen, of her singing “We Shall Overcome” in Farsi in support of the people of Iran.
Shortly thereafter, this message appeared on Iranian.com, encouraging Iranian people to come to the Stern Grove concert:
As many of you know, Ms. Baez, who has been a beacon of the American civil rights movement, has already expressed her solidarity with Iranian people’s struggle for civil rights. Ms. Baez has performed the famous “We shall overcome”, the iconic song of American civil rights in Farsi.
Since those of us who have been following the struggle of Iranian people for their freedom and justice in Iran are looking for venues to express our solidarity with Iranian people in Iran we would like to ask all of you to participate in this concert. Our presence on Sunday gives a voice to Iranians who have been killed, are currently in jails under the worst unimaginable tortures, and are currently continuing this struggle.
Since the color of green has been recognized internationally as the symbol of current struggles in Iran we would like to suggest to those who decide to participate to consider wearing greens and bring green balloons.
Yesterday, she was joined on stage by Iranian musician Tahmoures Pournazeri, the son of musician Kaykhosro Pournazeri.
Someone who was at the concert made this video. The camera spins around a lot, but you can really get the feeling of the energy of the concert, and all the people on their feet:
Also, present at the concert was Baez’ 96-year-old mother, to whom she dedicated “Forever Young”. A strong woman in her own right, her mother was arrested, along with Baez and nearly 70 other women in October 1967, for blocking the doorways to an Oakland induction center to prevent entrance by young inductees, and in support of young men who refused military induction.
There was so much love in the crowd yesterday. You could feel it hanging in the air the way marijuana smoke hung in the air at the folk festivals of my childhood. You could feel it in the awesome opening act, the popular Bay Area band Blame Sally.
I was in my favorite place, on a blanket on the lawn with a good friend, and surrounded by a great group of women. We were sharing wine and cherries. Everything thing was exactly the way it should be. And, in the minutes before the concert started, the sun broke through the San Francisco fog to shine on Joan Baez – undoubtedly expressing its appreciation for everything she’s done.
Tagged folk festivals, folk music, iran, iranian, joan baez, kate wolf, music, stern grove
A friend was telling me about the transistor radio that was her prized childhood possession.
“It was bright blue plastic,” she said, “and this big.” As she told me, her hand was holding the memory of the radio.
She said she listened to it under the covers after her family had gone to bed. In her bed tent, in the dark, the radio gave her some privacy that was hard won in a family with four children in a small house.
“I remember that I stayed up until midnight one New Year’s eve, listening to the countdown of the year’s top songs. I was so disappointed when an Elton John song won. I couldn’t believe I had stayed up that late for Elton John.” Although she says her appreciation of Elton John increased as she got older, her voice still holds the echo of bewilderment.
Her story piqued my own memories of my first real radio. It was a Panasonic Toot-a-Loop. Now a 1970′s icon, at the time it was cool beyond belief.
I was a child of the Wonder Years and grew up in a true Wonder Years town. By the time I was – like my own son is now – stumbling into puberty, I was cruising around on a Schwinn 10-speed bike that I earned babysitting, with the Toot-a-Loop on my handlebars. The bike was a bright, flat orange, which is still my favorite color. We roamed with the illusion of freedom, often out of the sight of our parents, and without the “stranger-danger” concerns of my son’s childhood.
In the summer months, my friends and I spent huge amounts of time hanging out around the community pool. The wide expanse of over-chlorinated water and rough concrete was bordered by lawns, and it here that we set up our day camp in the same location every summer. We’d ride our bikes to the pool and spend the hottest parts of the day acting out our teen dramas. Relationships budded and ended. We got sunburns and scuffed hearts. I learned to play a wicked game of pool in the rec room, and nine-ball became the one summer love that followed me into my adult life.
We established the boundaries of our camp with beach towels and music. There was always one, sometimes two or more, bright-colored plastic radios tuned into the Bay Area’s 6.10 KFRC AM, then a pop station lorded over by D.J. Dr. Don Rose. The pool’s management and parents were always asking us to turn our radios down, under threat of having them confiscated, and we would, only to creep the volume back up again.
In my memory, it seems like each summer had an anthem. In the early 70s, it was the peace anthem “One Tin Soldier,” by the folk-pop group Original Caste. As we got older, the songs grew in sophistication, including Led Zepplin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” and songs by Peter Frampton, and (yes) Elton John. But the sappy song that ruled the top-40 countdown for at least two summers – to the disgust of some of us and the delight of others – was “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks. I found this video on YouTube and the moment I heard it I could smell chlorine, freshly mowed grass, and Johnson’s Baby Oil:
In my adult life, there are still summer anthems.
Anthems are the songs you listen to over and over again on long road trips. These are the songs that worm their way into your brain with either a catchy melody, or a phrase that hits home.
Sometimes they’re improbable – like my summer-long attachment to the Kentucky Headhunter’s bouncy, addictive “Dumas Walker,” and sometimes political, like the 1998 Catie Curtis song that became a coming-out anthem for me, “What’s the Matter?,” with its question:
What if I am Black or Jew
Straight or queer mother of two
Run around in a hippie dress
Ride my bike in a leather vest
What’s the matter?
The first time I heard this song, Catie Curtis sang it in the sun at a hot, dusty folk festival in the hills of Northern California. I’d never heard her music before, but the hippie liberal audience seemed to know what was coming, and when she sang these words, it collectively roared to its feet and cheered. And, of course, my budding lesbian heart swelled.
I’m a fan of the fantastically talented folk duo Coyote Grace. I’ve played their first cd Boxes & Bags until it’s worn smooth, but it’s on their latest release Ear to the Ground, that I found this summer’s anthem, “Girls Like Me (Summertime)”. A flip on the vocal pairing of their first album, this song is written and sung by the lovely Ingrid Elizabeth, backed up by Joe Stevens. (The cd features three songs written by Ingrid.) And, when she busts outs this tribute to queer love, the audience stands up, cheers, and sings right along.
And thank god that boys like her, like girls like me.
Here’s a performance video, but you should really play the song on their MySpace page, so you can catch all the lyrics and their sweet sound:
Tagged coyote grace, folk, ingrid elizabeth, joe stevens, music, singer, songwriter, trans
I love live music, and I have a little game I play at concerts. Before the show starts, I try to guess the last song that will be played. If I’m feeling confident, I try to name the last two.
For example, at a Melissa Etheridge show, I’d guess that her second-to-last song would be something popular, maybe “I Need to Wake Up,” the song from Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Then she would probably finish with something that everyone in the room would know and get on their feet for: “Somebody Bring Me Some Water,” or “Come to My Window”.
I’m pretty good at this guessing game, which is why I love it when an artist or band plays an unexpected cover – something outside their genre, and just plain fun.
The first time I heard a musician do this, it was singer-songwriter Patty Larkin closing with Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walking”.
Speaking of fun, here’s Nancy’s original version on The Ed Sullivan Show, a little eye and fashion candy:
Some years ago I was the “sound guy” for an all-girl rock band. They were very earnest about what they were doing, and I spent months trying to get them to understand the charms of the ironic cover.
I would suggest a song, and the conversation would go like this:
Them: “But that’s not the kind of song we would play.”
Me: “Right. But that’s what makes it so ironic.”
Them: “But that’s not the kind of song we would play.”
Me: “Never mind.”
Some bands are just good at it. They manage to take ownership of the most unlikely songs and get the audience singing along.
Girlyman is one of these bands. Wildly talented songwriters, they’re almost as famous for the songs they didn’t write, often closing with a send-up of Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” lead by Nate. Although, the last few times I’ve seen them, they were tackling “Angel of the Morning,” made famous by Juice Newton, and “Fist City,” a Loretta Lynn smack down. (Check out their music on their MySpace page.)
When I saw a group concert with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dar Williams, Shawn Colvin, and Patti Griffin sharing a stage, they closed with a Backstreet Boys song. And, once I saw British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson close with Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
So last night at Slim’s in San Francisco, waiting for Chris Pureka to come on stage, I commented to my traveling companion that I hoped Chris would come up with a good ironic cover for the close.
“That won’t happen,” she said. “Chris Pureka isn’t ironic.”
She may be right. But Chris did close with a powerful cover of Bob Dylan’s “Rock Me Mama”. While it wasn’t completely ironic, it did keep me humming all day.
Rock me mama, like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama any way you feel
Hey,
mama, rock me
(If you’ve seen a good ironic cover, put it in the comments.)
Flying near the Easter/Passover spring holidays means planes full of parents with little kids and crying babies. Thank goodness for my iPod.
For a secret “If you only knew what I was listening to right now” thrill, I recommend the Savage Love podcast, but for chilling out, nothing beats Chris Pureka. (Sample her music on MySpace.)
I’ve listened to her Dryland and Driving North albums many times and I never get tired of them. I took them on this trip along with her new EP Chimera. She’s the perfect soundtrack for cruising over the heartland, looking down at the patchwork quilts and mountain tops.
I was recently able to hook into her tour, and saw her show at Slim’s in San Francisco (thanks, Boz!).
I’ve seen her in concert before, and once again, she delivered a great show.
Of course, half the fun is the audience – a room full of androgynous girls in short-sleeved snap-front shirts. There was a lot of plaid going down.
But the rest of the show is the music. There’s a hypnotic quality to Chris’ music. She jokes about having “two happy songs”. But this wasn’t a sleepy show or a downer. In fact, the smoothness of her recordings, which are carefully engineered, belie the energy of her live performance. The crowd was hopping – dare I say darn near dancing? – through much of the show.
Chris was backed up by a drummer and two musicians who both played the violin. One also provided harmonizing vocals.
Lyndell Montgomery (aka Captain Dirt) really stood out during this show. She is a classically trained musician, who managed to weave her violin around Chris’s voice like one of the sugar-phosphate spines in a strand of DNA, not quite playing solo, but not fading into the background, either. She also played the electric bass, notably bowing it part of the time.
Check out Chris Pureka’s tour schedule here.
If you’d like to check my Twitter stream from the show, you can see it here. There are some links to photos, also.
A Billboard interview with Chris:
Tagged dan savage, folk, Lyndell Montgomery, music, podcast, San Francisco, savage love, singer, slim's, songwriter
Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage – and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.
The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.
The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.
It’s now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.
Posted in News Items, Uncategorized
Tagged California, civil rights, gay marriage, government, house, mormon, music, No On 8, override, prop 8, prop H8, proposition 8, romance, Same Sex Marriage, senate, vermont
I don’t know how I’ve ended up writing so much about such an annoying song.
But, the straight-but-curious-girl chapstick jingle seems to have spawned at least one really terrific cover, and also a great response song by lesbian singer-songwriter Jen Foster. Foster’s latest single, called “I Didn’t Just Kiss Her” is … well… everything the original “I Kissed a Girl” isn’t – earthy, warm, sexy, smart, and really gay.
Read Cherry Grrl’s interview with Jen Foster about the new song.
You can hear it on Jen’s MySpace page and you can buy the single on her website. It’s on iTunes, too, but it’s always nice to buy from the artist if you can.
I’m totally loving this ironic cover on Katy Perry’s megahit “I Kissed a Girl,” staged in a men’s restroom.
Ivri Lider, Israel’s top male pop star, is openly gay.
This version is so much hotter than Katy Perry’s. I love his look. Now, if only he was a girl…
Posted in Humor, LGBT, Uncategorized
Tagged I Kissed a Girl, israel, israeli, Katy Perry, music, singer-songwriter, video ivri lider
Jill Sobule‘s new video “San Francisco,” directed by Margaret Cho, is filled with all sorts of faces familiar to denizens of the Bay Area, including SF Chronicle sex columnist, author/blogger (and so much more) Violet Blue along with Peter Ackworth, king of the Kink.com empire.
And for the record, Jill kissed a girl long before Katy Perry knew what cherry chapstick was:
This is part of Ellen’s Bathroom Concert Series. “I Kissed a Girl” might have been one of the most annoying songs ever written, but this is cute:
Posted in Culture, Humor, LGBT
Tagged ellen degeneres, funny, I Kissed a Girl, Katy Perry, music, singing
These girls look like what the L Word’s poor underfed Shane once aspired to be – sexy, androgynous, and cool as all hell.
Canadian musical trio Hunter Valentine hails from Toronto, and is making a splash everywhere.
Lead singer and lead guitarist Kiyomi McCloskey has a warm, earthy voice that rounds out their dynamic girl-group sound. She backed up by drummer and vocalist Laura “Long Play” Petracca, and bassist/keyboardist Adrienne Lloyd.
Equal parts angst, youth, and power, Hunter Valentine’s got attitude and beat – lipgloss with some grit in it.
Check out their MySpace page for everything you’d want to know.
Last night, my son and I, and a few thousand others, made the walk from Harvey Milk Plaza to San Francisco’s City Hall, as part of the Eve Of Justice candlelight march, intended to encourage the State Supreme Court to overthrow Prop. 8.
I’m not a mommy blogger, I’m not even a lesbian mommy blogger. Although I know I’ve mentioned that I have a son, I tend to write more about things I’m not ready to have my kid read, than about my interactions with him. However, tonight was one of those special nights and I have a really special kid.
I’m hoping that my son, who is stumbling into puberty, will grow up to be a kind man. All arrows point that way. He’s a great guy with an easy way about him, a good sense of humor, and he’s genuinely nice to people. In return people are nice back.
I asked him if he wanted go to the rally in SF last night, and at first he wasn’t sure. Then he thought about it and said “I think I would”. So I left work a little early and we drove south, over the bridge, and into the city. (Well, actually I drove, and he did his math homework.)
We arrived in the Castro with a few minutes to spare. My son sized it all up and said “I need a restroom, candles, and a sign to carry.” True to form, my son asked a shopkeeper if we could use his restroom, and he agreed. By the time I emerged from my turn in the restroom, a nice guy in a black fedora was comparing hat brims with my son. Minutes later he met us outside and handed us a sign. And again, within minutes, my son found a guy to sell us a pair of little electric candles for $2 each.
Then we were off with the crowd.
It was a school night. We’ll have to be out of the house at 7:15 this morning – he to school, me to teach a yoga class before my “regular” job. And we live quite a distance north of San Francisco.
So what was this lesbian mommy thinking?
I was thinking that I had an incredible opportunity to teach my son something about civil rights, and – hopefully – to let him witness something historic… and I think I did.
You see, one of my great hopes is that he won’t have to see many civil rights rallies in his lifetime. I hope they won’t be needed. I want him to understand the important of equal rights – not just for his lesbian mommy – but for everybody. I want him to be able to explain that importance to the people of his generation, although I’m hoping he won’t ever have to.
You can read about the Eve of Justice rally on SFGate, the SF Chronicle’s website. There’s also a video below that will give you a taste of the event.
Over the past year, I’ve made quite a few posts about Milk, beginning with the story of my walk around San Francisco’s City Hall. I thought you might want to check them out.
And of course, the Academy Awards and the aftermath:
**********************
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged California, civil rights, Dustin Lance Black, gay marriage, george moscone, harvey milk, lds, Milk, mormon, movie, music, No On 8, prop 8, proposition 8, protest, Same Sex Marriage, San Francisco, sean penn, Texas
 | Rufaro on Protected: Bridging the G… |
 | dabodog on Hooray for Doonesbury! |
 | sapphicstripper on Required Viewing for the … |
 | Jen on Let’s Not Waste Our Ener… |
 | Anne on Let’s Not Waste Our Ener… |
