Saturday, March 01, 2008

The Virginia Monologues: madonna, sex and seattle.

2/13/07.

on the plane from boston to LA.
i just read a long spread about britney spears ("an american tragedy") in rolling stone magazine. dammit, man. i feel terrible for her, poor baby. never got a shot to be human.
however, all the bullshit surrounding this chick is so indicative of EVERYTHING THATS WRONG AROUND HERE.

however again, fuck me. i bought the magazine. i always do, i allow myself at least 2 magazines of my choice per plane trip. i gave up my "teen people" phase two years ago. it got boring.

i looked out the window and wondered.

when i find myself sucked into reading this sort of trash/trainwreck stuff i always think i'm doing it as cultural research. following the movements of the masses, reading with my heavy media filter and bullshit detector, always trying to find the story behind the story behind the story behind the story our our cultural downward spiral.

but come on. i could just as well be sitting at the airport gate reading proust or hegel. i could!!!!!!!! i don't.
what makes me really wonder is how we all seem to approach the celebrity hype ironically, yet we're still there, flipping through the magazines, chatting about the trainwrecks....the most intelligent young people i know. i travel the country tirelessly and we have two things in common everywhere: the local weather and britney spears. village mentality, something to talk about, something to have an opinion about, something to chat mindlessly about with no danger. who is going to blame you for having an opinion about the snow or brit-brit? seriously? harmless. mindless, indicative. here we is.

...............................

What kind of yoga do you recommend? Should I use classes or DVDs, or what? I was actually planning on trying it before all of this happened, but I didn't know where to start.
You are the best. Thanks again.
Love,
Megan


i recommend any kind of yoga that touches on the idea of being present and mindful in the moment. some yoga is treated like aerobics. i would stay away from that kind.
i practice baptiste yoga, also called power vinyasa (i know, it sounds pretty embarrassing). there's a link of affiliate studios here.
bikram is good for people who want an ass-kicking jumpstart. it's not quite as mindfulness-oriented as baptiste but it's decent. there's a list of international studios here.
try going to a few studios until you find a good one. sometimes there's only a couple studios in your area and you have to hunt to find cool teachers. don't give up. they ARE out there.
if you can't find a class in your area, i've heard that there are some great feeds online. just hunt. but it's not the same as being in a class full o people, obviously. try to find someone who might know something about and see if they are willing to teach you. chances are if they're into yoga, they'll be psyched to transmit.
when i travel, i just plug "yoga near xxx" into google maps and look for places that have lots of classes and aren't cheesed out.

...................................

2/29/07

i just got back from seattle.
it was a great, hard-in-the-best-way trip, jason and i worked tirelessly with the conjoined twins Evelyn Evelyn on their debut record....all of the songs are recorded but not mixed.
the record is 100% awesome. what raw talent. it will most likely feature 11 songs and possibly one bonus track.

we worked days and into the nights (and mostly slept at) estradasphere's studio and also held one show there featuring the twins....they were really nervous but they pulled through.
some night we stayed at jason's houseboat, which is approximately 11x11 feet, and i'm not joking. there was room for a bed and a desk and a bookshelf. miraculously, there was cell service and wireless internet.

i spent most mornings at the ballard yoga studio and then jason and i would meet up at mr. spots chai house. we would sit there, plugging away at our email for a few hours and then one of us would say: "well, i guess we should go work on the record." jason made a comment about how we were obvious representatives of the glamorous rock star lifestyle. toiling away at and sucked into our macs. DIY has it's price, and i'm not even DIY. i have a fucking manager, a label, a lawyer, a business manager and publicist and the whole nine yards. the point? work is endless and i communicate and project beyond my means. This Is Not New. it's Life.

we made it away from our macs and our recording project long enough to go see st.vincent play at neumo's one night, she ROCKED as usual....we sang with her on "marry me" and i still recommend if you haven't checked out her last disc, marry me, do yo'self a favor and grab it,. if you're going to coachella, go see her there. she's just amazing live and her record is sublime.

....she's also in boston TONIGHT (3/1) at the middle east, if you get this in time. i'll probably be there, not sure, depends how my day goeses.
.............................

in the recommending department:
baby dee. baby dee. baby dee. she signs and plays the piano and the accordion and the harp and is devastating.
baby dee was first introduced to me a few years ago by sxip, who featured her at one of his variety show sin new york. she is hard to explain, but impossible to miss and totally in her own world.
instead of doing a lot of explaining, i urge you to just go to her myspace or site and listen to just about anything up there.
hymns for the broken. where antony and johnsons meets kurt weill meets bach.
she's on tour with a full band for the next long while....please, please go. it will be an experience you will not forget, so bring a loved one with an open heart and mind and prepare to weep a few times and also laugh your ass off. yes, it's that good. she's playing europe too....dates are up on her page. if you see her, and you probably will since the clubs are small and she hangs out, send her hugs & love and greetings from amanda.

.................

i ordered the infamous 1992 madonna "sex" book while i was on the road. i enjoy ordering books from amazon when i'm on the road and then seeing them waiting patiently for me in yellowy packages on my kitchen table when i come home. i actually ebay-ed it. the best part was when paypal got all effed up and i had to email my business manager's assistant, to help me out with my payment for the madonna sex book, since all of my credit card and check billing goes through their new york office. i was like: IT'S RESEARCH, NOT PORN. truly spoken. (btw: it was $51.00. AMANDA PALMER, YOU HAVE WON,,,,,!).
it's not actually porn. unless you're into...god, who can say what...it's not a turn-on. my business mind can't get off topic. madonna is so madonna.

why research?
i'm trying to mentally put together two books right now: one companion for "yes., virginia" and "no, virginia" and one for my solo record.
when i first got the idea for "the dresden dolls companion", which is the sheet-muisc-lyrics-photo book that came out about a year after our first record, the content seemed obvious. band history, stories of the songs, all of our awesome back-logged photos and artwork that had no home. with these books, i wanted to get away from an obvious formula.

now.
don't start thinking that these books will feature pretentious photos of me and brian fucking each other, fucking goats, fucking lesbians, or fucking ANYTHING for that matter.

i don't know a hell of a lot about madonna. i was certainly as obsessed as the next 12-15-yr old with "like a virgin", "true blue" and "like a prayer". she was not to be defined, i had no opinions other than: she is MADONNA.
she simply exists, is a Rock Star, and that's it. we loved her. we dressed up like her. it was the way things were done, fingerless gloves & crucifxes and all, no argument. it was 1985. them was the rules.

i remember being in high school, actually, probably college when i think about it, far out of my madonna phase and well into coil, nick cave, death in june, current 93, the legendary pink dots and swans. madonna was by then way in the guilty pleasure category along with the thompson twins, the cocktail soundtrack and wham!. i was at a random friend's house and i saw the madonna sex book on his coffee table. i remember thumbing through it and thinking, eh. i remember loving her naked hitchhiking picture,



which is AWESOME, and lots of soft-to-medium-core art-porn...but thinking...good idea, madonna.
but what seriously gives? who is this for? what's the deal? shocking? personal? media whore? demons out? just cause?
c'mon, madge, gimme some truth.

tonight, i opened the book up and flipped through, having not seen it since then (which indeed must have been around 1993 or 1994).

i am Torn, the way i am always Torn about madonna. and not natalie imbgrulia Torn. the other kind.

on the one hand, my inner critic sees the whole thing as so stylized, so manufactured and so calculated that even the raciest photos seem transparent.
madonna kissing two women. madonna getting ass-fingered. madonna whacking off suggestively with a dog. madonna tied up and getting eating out, madonna smoking another cigarette. madonna getting humped by vanilla ice....etc. tons of confessional-down-dirty scribblings, not quite turning me on. would they if i were turn-onable by this stuff? real? fantasy? for you to decide. in my cynicism: it seems like she sat down in a boardroom with the photographer and gave them a checklist of taboos. the insertion of faux-fantasy letters between her (or, as the book would have it, her alter-ego "dita") and a fictional lover just seem....i dunno. bland? i attempt to imagine the impact it must have had at the time. i try to imagine, as i'm sure everyone must have imagined at the time, how madonna's dad reacted to his daughter putting out a book of totally r+ rated naughty fetish (....no penises, lots of boobs and LOTS of baginas.).

on the other hand, somewhere in me is like: YAY! go madonna!!! YAR!!! show your bagina and get all fetishy and leathery and kinky and let us all make what we want out of it for Whatever Reason. why not?
i mean, you must have been paving the way for SOMETHING, loads of shit, who knows, for gad's sake. or if not, at least you pissed off a bunch of critics and sold books and records and probably put soft-to-medium core porn into homes that might not have otherwise had it in the (if perhaps thinly veiled) name of Art. what would camille paglia say?

the sex question is hard. beyond just the obvious: sex and porn are good/healthy/shouldn't be demonized, there's that other question of how you deal with yourself (ok, how I deal with Myself) as a woman in The Market. like it or not, you are out there and your tits must be dealt with. you can play it up like madonna, play it down like fucking, i don't know, ani difranco, or play it sideways like bjork, but they're under there, being assessed in all their glorious absence or flagrant blingy-blang.

this begs the question that rustles around my head and probably the heads of many women, the post-feminist question that haunts us all in the post-sexual-revolution age: women still wield all this sexual power but what do they do with it? to use what, where, to what ends? when to feel guilty and when to feel proud? can you do it without relying on it? can you glam up one night in heels and false eyelashes and go out the next night to the same restaurant with hairy legs, shorts and combat boots and feel the same amount of self-confidence? should you need to? is that where empowerment really lies? does it lie in being able to expose yourself like madge? not need to expose yourself like madge? wtf? camille, help.

i think the thing that consistently disappoints me about madonna is that i want to find out the truth behind the madonna and i never do. i remember watching "truth or dare" about 5 years ago and being totally fascinated by her willingness to live on camera but totally dismayed at the lack of actual truth or dare, lack of humanity. then again, this is coming from me. madonna, to be fair, offers more than what 95% of god-fearing citizens can handle. but on what level? what does this say about me?

here, i pour another glass of elderflower cordial and start to reflect.

why did i order this fucking book anyway? who am i to judge madonna? madonna job is to get us discussing this, right? she's not a pop icon, she's a cultural fulcrum. i said fulcrum!
fuck. i'll never know how much she/it/The Thing shaped me, and how much she shaped girl/rock/culture in general.
i have to leave that one up to camille. it's an endless chicken-egg battle. madonna as pseudo-sociological processing plant.
madonna as post-modern cuisinart.

one difference for sure: the thing that's interesting about these books that i'm about to compile (especially in the case of the virginia companion) is that i'm peddling wares to a pre-existing audience,
i don't plan to cross-over onto the NY times best-seller list or get any press attention or prove to the fetish/alternative/gay/fill-in-the-blank community that i'm down in the trenches with them. it's all me and blank canvas and not much to prove. i am preaching to the choir, writing for an audience that already has (we hope) some connection with me, my band, the songs. so why am i even doing it? here we go.

the only thing i can learn from this situation is what i already know: the closer the note is to it's neighboring string without being perfectly in pitch, the more discordant it sounds. why is anyone doing any of this shit?
i have been reading a bunch of rock biographies in the past few years hoping to either find out my answer, their answer or any answer and the only thing i can come up with is that i'd like to answer my own personal challenge of displaying some kind of truth that's profound but not shock-valuizing, meaningful without being pretentious, self-inspecting without being egotistical, and relatable without being stock and cornball. this is hard.

i don't think about these questions when i go to make a record, not as much.
i have some sort of instinctive song-making auto-pilot that doesn't question WHY. i don't feel that way about blank paper when it comes to book-making.

all this being rambled, any comments on upcoming content are heavily welcome.

i know this much: i have plenty to say about where the songs came from (though those stories are usually short and probably not necessarily exciting), there will be plenty of fan art and unused submissions from the yes, virginia booklet, and there will be lots of bizarre band pictures, studio and non.

we are saving all the naked band pictures (which number in the hundreds by now) for the dresden dolls sex book which will be issued at some point long after this blog has been forgotten so that i do not feel post-modernly self-conscious.

what else can i put in two dimensions? surgery is tuesday, i have plenty of time to sort through the boxes of crap in my bedroom to come up with something interesting.
perhaps i will watercolor. madonna doesn't watercolor. shit, wait, does she? what about that children's book? fuck fuck fuck.

.................................

on that note, here's a clip of me singing a madonna cover song last saturday night in seattle. it's barely recognizable from the original, it's called "i know it" and off her first record.
i arranged it, along with estradasphere, as a big band number because...it just had to be done.

the sound is shite and it cuts off at the end, but it's still kind of awesome. please admire the glue-gun jean-jacket i bought at the goodwill across the street the day before.






http://www.youtube.com/v/y67I5Ga9w2k

............

hey amanda,
i would like to know, do you have a middle name?
(i may or may not want to call my kid after you, in the hopes that they will be excellent at life)

Posted by HANNAH on Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 7:33 PM



i do indeed. it's MacKinnon, my scottish family name.

my alternate middle name is Fucking, which will upset my mother so don't tell her.



love

AFP

p.s. our good friend and genius-director-filmer-putter-togetherer of girl a, coin-operated boy, paradise, and sing, Michael Pope is up for "Best Visual Artist" in the Boston Phoenix "Best 08" poll. Please vote here. Also, feel free to write him in for "Best Filmmaker" here. just to be clear- you need to click the "skip to finish" button and fill in an email address and name for your vote to count. long live the pope!!!!!!!!!!!

25 comments:

cucu said...

Madonna´s death day will be worst day from Elvis´ death day!!!!!

As Bardem would say: ¡se lo dedico a Madonna y a mi querida madre!

Hellossss from a spaniard fan!

ahna the ladybeast said...

i'm about to start working with a photographer on his project of exploring gender. i DO go out all vamped up in gold powder eyeshadow & pink tights one day, then full makeupless hairiness the next, and i want to really dig into that.

i've spent a good deal of the past three years getting naked for money & pleasure. sometimes i freak out about it. these moments are usually solved by shaving my head (thankfully, i don't get called insane like britney) or recalling moments from the sex worker's art show. i consider myself an adamantly pro-sex feminist, but conversations with other short-haired girlfriends can leave me in tears. i want to believe that running down comm ave. wearing only a thong & tit tape is liberating, and at the time it certainly was! but then i get down on myself for being self-centered.

a liberated cunt can choose to be naturally furry just as she can choose to be waxed bare...?

Rose said...

I was just having a conversation with a group of my feminist friends about hair. and what it means for feminists, and how its lack is to some extent a tool for objectification and in some ways can be the opposite of empowering. It's funny how ideas arise in some kind of localized zeitgeist event. Makes me wonder whether we all really do communicate with pheromones or brainwaves or something.

(I could go on for a while about... being a woman? and many other subjects semi-related, but I'm too tired to try and make sure what I'm saying makes sense, so I won't subject you to it.)

Instead I'll say, hope silence goes okay, and much love.

- rose

ps- also: so psyched you do baptiste yoga! if you are ever in new haven, CT, go to Fresh Yoga and take one of Peg Oliveira's classes. She's awesome, and definitely riffs on simultaneous physicality and mindfulness/"be here now".

David Westway said...

i shot that video with my little digital camera. i'm surprised it sounds and looks as good as it does. pretty neat seeing that you used it on your blog. that show was a lot of fun. definately worth the trip to seattle.

i read a book about ten years ago called the satanic witch by anton lavey. i think you might find it interesting. it talks about all the things you were just talking about.... or writing about.

David said...

Thanks for another wonderful rambling thoughtful post AFP! (MacKinnon- very classy. That you have Scottish ancestry somehow makes sense!) Thanks for the musical links too, as always.

May the force be with you on Tuesday and beyond as your vocal cords heal. I'll light my Virgin of Guadalupe candle for you. That should help. How long will you need to stay silent? What if you talk in your sleep?

I like your thinking on Britney and Madonna. The life of any "icon" must be a human life at its very core, flawed beauty at best. Not knowing these people personally makes it impossible to accurately conceive how they deal with meaning in their lives. It seems inescapable to me that fame, fortune, and papparazi impose mighty hefty obstacles. And yet, we all want to be loved, and we all want to be rich.

Britney and Madonna, while they may have similar amperages in the Public Mind, seem so different, especially in the way they changed after having children. But it's just more speculation. Have you EVER seen ANYONE at the airport reading Proust or Hegel?? And whatever Camille Paglia would have to say about Brit or Madge, I would not get.

Not. That. Smart.

But I know what I like! And that's YOU AFP! Rest up girl.

Unknown said...

Best of luck with the surgery and recovery. Take good care of yourself in the days to follow, and know that we're all sending you positive energy.

Spike said...

I honestly don't think you should leave it up to Camille Paglia. I think, at her best, like in her poetry analysis book "Break! Burn! Blow!" she's fabulous, but her post-feministy stuff is worse than Madonna at her most obfuscating.

I said obfuscating!

xo
Spike

Spike said...

Whoops, I just double checked the title of that book and it's "Break Blow Burn." Leave it to me to move the best to last.

S

FancyHat said...

good use of the word fulcrum.

Kate Austin-Avon said...

I posted over in livejournal's feed of it, but this is the original, so probably better to reply here, eh?

as a visual artist (watercolorist, even - ha!) i have been struggling so hard with that... how do i create something original and new and edgy without being shocking for shock's sake (seems immature to me from where i stand in my life - appealed to me very strongly at one point, but i've lost interest in making people uncomfortable)... it's a very hard thing to do. you do it in your music. you put it out there and it works. it's hard to translate that to different media. i haven't found the right one yet, maybe.

anyway, i'm with you on that. it's a hard thing to do and i have no idea how. i suppose things pop into your head as you're creating and you can't worry too much about it or it won't come naturally, as it's meant to...

good luck, at any rate.

oh, and here's my britney art: http://flickr.com/photos/aeph/442625597/

sarah said...

i forgot to finish my comment. good luck with your surgery.

i was watching the madonna movie. Madonna: Truth or Dare.
I fell completely in love with her.
And on that note, I shall leave you with this:
“Everybody loves you when they are about to cum.”

June Miller said...

'i am Torn'

Immediately when I read this, I heard 'I'M ALL OUTTA FAITH. THIS IS HOW I FEEL.'

I'm cold and I'm ashamed, lying naked on the floor. Shut up, shut up, get out of my head now.

Re: 'bagina'
New Favorite Word.

Did you ever read the embarrassing stories section of Teen People or YM or whatever teen girl mag? Those were really the only reason I'd flip through them. I read some chick managed to bounce off a trampoline and smack herself into a sliding glass door. IN FRONT OF BOYS (!!!). She faired well, don't worry. Twas only her pride that bruised.

Personally I enjoy discussing Brangelina more than Brit-Brit. Or maybe Winehouse. What.

However...I love that damn Madonna, secretly. Look, it makes me feel lame talking about it even more so because I'm not one of the original "Like a Virgin" Madonna fans. I was born slightly, ever so slightly, later. I mainly remember always hearing my parents (god love 'em, they're a bit reserved) talking smack and making sure I didn't really get in too many glimpses of her when she was on the toob. And that's exactly why I wanted to know who this woman was.

Anyway. I liked her during Blonde Ambition leading up to Bedtime Stories. I actually really really like the latter. She's mixing it up with some (really good) r&b stuff and Björk wrote the title track, with this interesting little tidbit to boot: 'The lyrics to "Bedtime Story" are Björk's own criticism of Madonna's aesthetic.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedtime_Story_%28Madonna_song%29

I'd have to agree that the Sex book was sort of just a collection of taboos to shock the masses and sell copies, but at the same time Madonna's always thrived on riling folks up like that. She's always kind of set up a specific (usually pretty risque) image, worked with it, and then moved on. A very calculated image, each time. It's just how Madge does her thang. Damnit, I loved the "Vogue" video.

But um...yeah, "Secret" is the jam.

...

MOVING ON.

St. Vincent played in SF the evening after I checked out Estradasphere. Unfortunately, I made plans beforehand to check out this other group I'd been wanting to see for a while over in Berkeley. Torn, indeed.

...

I saw a video of your performance, recently, and I thought to myself 'My goodness, that jacket is fresh.' Hot glue gun action, though? That just makes it amazing.

...

'i'd like to answer my own personal challenge of displaying some kind of truth that's profound but not shock-valuizing, meaningful without being pretentious, self-inspecting without being egotistical, and relatable without being stock and cornball. this is hard.'

Yeah. But you seem to be doing a damn good job of it.

Good luck on Tuesday. You'll be fine. The metal gods will aid you in your journey. Get lots of rest and recover well, ma'am.

...

My alternate middle name would have to be 'Fucking' as well. I don't even have to change my original middle initial. I'm not sharing what it stands for, outright. I say it somewhere in this comment. It's like a mystery game! Very Hitchcockian, indeed. :)

ampersand said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
proph said...

Hi Amanda. You ranted beautifully on Madonna putting her vulva out there. I think the critical part of this process is not to allow our clothing, our faces, our packaging to define us. It's like a canvas we can paint a mood on, but what is inside should remain untouched by what we put on the exterior. Too much insecurity and self loathing come from body issues and beauty issues. We will be lucky to grow old and unattractive. Your sexuality is something so deeply internal, so connected to you inside and out, emotions, tactile sensations, mental bullshit. Sex and sexiness open up such a door to the inner person. To me it's as much an energy as an invasive "thing" I can get so hung up on. No matter which, the perceptions of others, they should not apply to us sexually. no part of this body or soul belongs to another, to know, or label, categorize or throw away. They may form their perceptions, but I'll not have them foisted on me. What should I be today? A slut? A frigid bitch, a tease? Maybe just be what I feel and make sure those labels peel off easily and don't take too much skin off with them.

Alameda Green said...

I'm about to parallel the discussion you just brought up in a way I highly doubt you'd have figured would come out of someone in your fanbase.

I wrestle. Not mat, ugly headgear high school gym wrestling, but loud-mouthed, showy, WWE McMahon family and fake punches wrestling. And really, it's not so much me wrestling as it is the wrestler I manage, but here's where the similar rub is:

In this industry, just like in music and acting and pretty much ANYTHING media driven, there are things that are greatly expected of women. I'll give you a hint: most of these involve me walking out ringside in a g-string and high heels and getting spanked on the ass by the rival wrestler if I interfere. THOSE are the sort of things expected, and frankly, while TNA has an EXCELLENT women's division full of chicks who aren't out there to be bunnies and ARE there to compete, the global corp (the WWE) hires Playboy models and cheerleaders almost exclusively these days.

Here's where I'm with you on this whole ordeal: I made it abundantly clear, like a few women before me, that I will NOT be going ringside in a bikini. I will not do pudding matches for vouyeristic assholes slinging beer at me. I will not wear lingerie into the ring, and I will not fall down for a three count if a 110 pound girl pulls my hair.

However, apparently, if I don't go out in a turtleneck, I'm a hypocrit.

Tits are the problem here. If I cover them up, I'm "ashamed" of my sexuality, and in all honesty, I could never be comfortable hiding my "light under a bushel" so to speak. If I go out dressed like a Pussycat Doll, as would be expected, I've compromised everything I've believed in for the sake of selling my sexuality.

I am not afraid to be sexy. I'm not afraid to wear a halter top or skirt (with my usually unshaven armpits), but I'm also not afraid to take off my shoes and DDT someone like a man. There are women who push for this equality there, but not nearly enough, and we are the grand minority, because I assure you the audience will pop twice as hard when Bunny McBunniton or what have you struts out and shakes her 2000 dollar knockers at people.

A lot of people don't like that about me. But a lot of the guys respect me for it. I may not be the pinup on the wall, but I don't have the supression of my sexuality for the sake of being obstinant OR selling my pussy out for crowd interaction resting on my conscience at night.

This was long, I know, and probably in an alien language as I have yet to meet a Dolls fan (other than the wrestler, who I brought to your show) that is even remotely wised up on this. It's one of my quirks.

Nonetheless, you fight the good fight of not hiding and not whoring. Let your light shine.

bobbingforapplesx said...

I ordered the companion book (what? two years ago?) and I remeber my mom finding it and ripping out all of the pictures(which was the primary reason WHY I bought it in the first place...)

She thought it was straight-up porn. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. I think it's funny, though, she left the very last picture. the one that mimics yoko ono and john lennon.

was it a statement about what nude art really is? or did she just forget to tear it out?

malte said...

Good luck for surgery. I'd say your voice is still perfect for the things you do, so I demand at least a perfect queen of the night aria after the wounds healed ;)

Following this thought... What about a Mozart-/Haydn-/I-dont-know-all their-names- cover. Piano and drums should do a good job for some of those classical pieces, dont they?

Robin the Mad Photographer said...

Hi there...it's Robin of knitted Trent doll infamy stopping in for a moment...

Good luck on your surgery tomorrow, says someone who's also had surgery on a Tuesday at MGH--apparently Tuesday is Elective Surgery Day there. I assume you've got tea/soup/popsicles/juice/honey/whatever you usually use to soothe your throat stocked up at home for your convalescence, right?...oh, and a dry-erase board so you can communicate without having to use up reams of paper.

For future reference, or just for shits and grins, you might want to check out this lady--while she works mainly with extreme metal singers, it sounds as if she's good with all kinds of vocals; even if you don't decide to take lessons, getting The Zen of Screaming might not be a bad idea, and if nothing else might keep you amused while you're lying low. *mama hen mode OFF*

Take care of yourself, and we'll see you around, OK?

yorksdevil said...

I can't be alone in finding Bjork sexier than Madonna, surely.

Nanna said...

Heya =)

Interesting thoughts about how to deal with oneself as a woman... I've given that a lot of thought as well, growing up with a feminist mum, now studying art-history and modern culture with a bunch of radical feminists force you to think *grins*
And seems like I'm ending up focusing on gender-issues and how we create ourself gender-wise (not specifically women, though, I guess all genders are equally interesting) in my studies.
But anyway, growing up marked by hardcore radical feminism makes you feeel kind of guilty when you become 'too feminine', at least I did for a long period, and it has personally made me have some very different stylish periods, from the hippie look to the tomboy, from the feminine goth to the grey 'I'm not here'... Tried to find that I'm-the-perfect-woman look which wouldn't make me feel like I did it because I was a woman and wanted to use that - it didn't work. Ended up in black, but not really in any box, it was too frustrating and hard to have a certain style all the time ^-^ Threw all the boxes away and decided that it was a waste of time.
And yes, it can be dressing up totally one day, wearing baggy pants and no makeup the next - but I still guess I have a kind of feministic approach to things, but I don't find my sex being the most important part of me.
Don't know exactly what my point was with this comment, except from trying to come up with an opinion, didn't really work, did it? ;)

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Baby Dee, dammit, I missed her last visit to Copenhagen... But My friends who saw her said she was wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

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Hopefully your surgery went alright - thanks for making so fantastic music!

Greetings from Denmark =)
- Nanna

Jack Guignol said...

Amanda, we have got to get you reading another literary/cultural critic besides Camille Paglia!

sarah said...

'During her long career Madonna has taken on several personas, from the Material Girl to Marilyn Monroe. Come Monday she'll be known as a Hall of Fame rocker.'

Ashley said...

Madonna says now that Sex came from a place of anger, which I find so interesting.

I love her, for the simple fact that her music was the first to ever really get to me. 7 years old. 20 years later, and I still get emotional when I realized how truly inspired and moved by her music I am. It's pop music, yes, but sometimes music that makes you forget about your problems is just as valid as music that makes you explore your problems, or music that relates to your darkest moments.

From a purely selfish standpoint, I would love for you to cover Promise to Try or Oh Father.

By the way, I'm totally jealous you got a copy of Sex! I've always um... wanted Sex?

sarah said...

duuuuuude. madonna just made me cry.
i listened to "like a prayer" and it reminded me of my moms friend who died.

Zia said...

You raised excellent, and bloody petrifying points. All my life, my family and surroundings have scorned at the stereotypical middle aged women with hairy underarms walking around braless, in a drive state of emasculation. After growing up, It’s made me question why we do scorn at this ‘stero-fied’ individual. Is it because we feel shamed or guilty inside for having the ‘balls’ to do it ourselves. It is the typical and classic; ‘we reject what we don’t know hypothesis’. I don’t understand. I, myself at a younger age would copy word for word detail of what my sister would said to me and would say ‘why don’t they wear a bra, surely its more comfortable to wear a bra that not to wear a bra’. Now I realise that may be the most superficial and shallow way to look at the life and the work of a person who strives to evoke ‘feminist thoughts or feelings’. But then again, what are feminist thoughts of feelings, why do I, as a 16 year old seem to separate my female thoughts and feelings to those of a classified ‘feminist’. Also, another thing which gets me is why do I, as many people seem to associate the feminist movement, with ‘the bra’. Women have other assets, (I’m making dreadful unintentional puns) So why don’t I associate feminists with the changes which they have cause for women in this society?, and why are we so satisfied with the changes which have been implemented already?, This may be completely of point, but it’s quite an eye opener, and yes I know its very sad that the point of view from another person, who is I guess idolised by people can spark thoughts, seriously why haven’t I ever thought about this before!!!

When I think of the current ‘issues’ that demeans women, the first thing that comes to my mind is the objectification of women, porn, playboy, burlesque, prostitution. I’m not entirely sure if prostitution can be categorised under the same title, and I’m cautious about putting it there.
Why do I feel that these objectify women? Why don’t I look at it from the prospective that these allow female beauty, sexuality and beauty through sexuality to be explored? Is my mind determined by the close minded realms of ‘Asian society’, because if so, it is definitely something which needs changing, or broadening? Why is it acceptable for a man to walk around shirtless, but it is ‘shocking or taboo’ for a woman to do the same thing. Breasts alone?, and if so why do are we meant to cover ourselves up? Is it to protect women from physically being hurt, or is it more likely to do with controlling and facilitating the requirements of horny males. But then I suppose I could take it to the extent, why don’t we all walk around without clothes on, why do males cover up their penises. Is that the same concept as for women covering up their breasts, to create a ‘harmonious world’ where sexual excitement isn’t introduced with every Tom, Dick or Harry which we meet, again with the puns!.
I’ve never really looked at life from this prospective, and it’s so scary because it makes me feel, I suppose the word is ‘empowered’, but I quickly suppress that with ‘morals’. What are morals though, morals are what we, as society impose or implement to decide what is acceptable. In tribes, women walk around shirtless, as do men, are we to consider them as amoral?, I wouldn’t have thought so. This is all so confusing, and petrifying to allow yourself to think in this way. It sort of feels, in a cliché way, that a new and broader way of thinking has suddenly been evoked for me, which I know a fifteen minute talk with my family will suddenly shunt and make me go back to my, I would say atavistic way of thinking originally!.