#but jesus is the pop feminism strong with her

[kazhanko-art]

Taylor Swift is not the worst of feminism, because Mary Koss exists, but boy is she a particularly obnoxious example of rich person who milks the feminist label while doing no activism and claiming constant victim status

[ts1989fanatic]

Conservative Christians are accusing Taylor Swift of promoting Satanism and witchcraft on her Eras world tour.

Yep, you read that correctly. We're not making this up.

The bizarre movement has cherry-picked a bit of theatrical stagecraft from Swift's Eras tour and are ranting about it on social media.

They seem to think the 33-year-old pop star is actually trying to promote naughty stuff through her actions on stage

One person took to Twitter to slam Swift and her witchy ways.

They wrote: "Never liked Taylor Swift, but now I definitely have a reason to. [I] just saw a video of her witchcraft/ritual performance on someone's Insta story. Nope! Get that evil out of here," before adding: “Believers should not listen to this."But before it gets better, it gets worse. There was one more bizarre rant that is doing the rounds.

In a now-viral clip on TikTok, one Christian woman takes Swift's stage performance a little too seriously.

"This is Taylor Swift's song 'Willow' where she is a witch during rituals," the woman said.

"The first video you saw was taken by a fan the other night at the concert and he says, 'yes, summon the demons b***h!' The worst part is that [Swift] commented twice [on the video]. [Swift] said: 'This is the new 'one, two, three, let’s go b***h'," the woman explained.

"So what she’s saying is 'summon the demons' is the new crowd chant that they all say when she does his witchcraft ritual.

The person added: "Then she commented laughing emojis."

Riiiight. Anyway, it somehow gets even more bonkers.

The rant continues with a bit on how people 'keep saying stop shoving in Christianity down our throats' when huge artists are 'shoving witchcraft and rituals, crystals, astrology and all that down our throats'.

She then went way off the deep end, giving her explanation as to why people seem to hate Christianity so much.

"It’s because the demons get angry every time you mention God. Every time you mention Jesus they start foaming at the mouth. They start screaming and they start manifesting demons,” she said.

The woman then added: The demons don’t want to hear about Jesus. That’s the only name they’re afraid of. That’s the only name they have to answer to.That’s the only name that sends them to hell."

Goodness gracious, talk about taking it too far.

Admittedly, however, Swift has previously said her song ‘Willow’ 'sounds like casting a spell to make someone fall in love with you'.

She then riffed off that notion, putting out several several witch remixes of 'Willow'.

Also, in her song 'Mad Woman' from 2020's Folklore, Swift sings: "Women like hunting witches too. Doing your dirtiest work for you."

She also referenced witch hunts on her 2017 album Reputation.

"They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one," she sings in the song 'I Did Something Bad'.

What these Conservative Christians seem to have missed is the more modern meaning of 'witch'.

The word is now used as a symbol of feminism and for strong and unapologetic women, as per Psychsex.

It has also become synonymous with the Cottagecore aesthetic, which you'll find all over Etsy and Pinterest.

It's also the 'era' from which Swift's twin 2020 albums Evermore and Folklore draws inspiration from.

So, yeah, perhaps someone needs to show these religious folk another one of her songs, entitled ‘You Need To Calm Down’.

ts1989fanatic I personally think the writer of this piece should take their own advice highlighted above.

This is a few crazies from Twitter I mean come on it’s Twitter, I am sure Taylor Swift has plenty of Conservative Christian fans to offset a couple of crazies. And that’s all it is a couple and as the lady herself says

haters gonna hate”

[ventylatte]

15/06/19 - 3:08am

i wanna try replicate my mind yesterday when i was doing the dishes at 10pm because it was really racing lmao

as mentioned prior, dan’s video on his sexuality really made thoughts that already swarm my mind way louder than usual, paired with the empty shelf that’s been left empty in my mindscape that had once been FILLED with a-level knowledge and stress. it’s now home to a bunch of loud questions about my identity, ranging from my nationality, religion, where i belong (maybe i’ll rant about that some other day, but i’ve made it vocal to people before) to my sexuality. i’m not sure if this was a ‘realisation’ of sorts but a couple months ago on a walk home from school, i remember declaring ‘if i was white, i would have probably come out as bisexual a long time ago’

and yeah i still believe that, 100%!

because despite my coconut-exterior that i seem to project (i hate it, i hate it, i hate it, i feel devalued), i am brown: i do still have asian-indian parents that wouldn’t be thrilled about their son or daughter claiming they’re gay (i say ‘claiming’ because that’s what it would be to them. i know it. ‘such a typical claim in this weird society. bound to happen, it’s a trend these days’, etc.)

i remember asking my mum what she thought about the lgbt, and if i remember correctly, she didn’t mind it, but didn’t want it in her family or ‘circle’.

now i ain’t criticising my parents. many would, but i really can’t. because they were born in a different generation, in a different time where the lgbt community wasn’t exactly as prominent as it is today.

but good god. one day an advert for that reality tv show, ‘the bi life’ i think its called, popped onto the tv, and my dad was all ‘what the hell is this? … freakshow’ (he muttered)

AND I FELT? HURT? no, ‘hurt’ is a strong word. just a bit… prodded at?

and i still can’t decide the reason. was it because i was wondering where i should draw the line with my dad’s remarks towards the lgbt community? i’ve always had this internal debate with myself about whether i’m sort of ‘silencing’ my dad by taking a stand in issues he doesn’t really believe in (primarily the lgbt community, he’s cool with feminism… to an extent lol). he always has a shout about how people can only say what they’re really thinking behind closed doors. would i be taking this away from him? where can i really draw the line in this whole counter-argument of my parents simply being born in another generation? i mean, sure, they aren’t hurting anyone outside (i really hope), but his comments do affect me.

that’s reason 1 i felt a bit disorientated. society’s a bit mad with labels, and i couldn’t find it in me to label my parents a pair of homophobes. BUT AT THE SAME TIME THERE ARE ADULTS THEIR AGE THAT ARE WAY MORE ACCEPTI- i need to stop before i get trapped in this circular argument that i’ve had 19218839 times with myself before - this is already so much longer than i thought it’d be lmfao.

reason 2? and here’s where i feel fake and dumb. something in me resonates with bisexuality.

JESUS, my hands TINGLED and my FACE tingled and it’s starting to heat up right now because i never, ever, ever got that in words, let alone WRITING. because that would make it a real, concrete argument. and maybe no i dont think so elina, stop right theeree duedddeee

i dont know.

i dont know.

sigh.

i dont.

know.

referring back to ‘if i was white, i would have probably come out as bisexual a long time ago’, i know that i would have come out as bisexual if i was white because i feel they have way less to consider when doing so. that’s not to assume that all white people have caring, understanding and liberal parents (but let’s face it dude, white parents are more likely to come around to the idea and other ideas in today’s society that rigid, asian parents would not. might just research into that, lol). a white girl can and will marry a girl if they feel like it, and that’s amazing, that’s so good, that’s so cool that they don’t have maybe other questions that halt this process like: - okay but HOW willing am i to marry a woman? - how plausible is a relationship with a girl? cause, ladies and gents and everything in between, these questions are always pinned under ‘what percentage of me would be with a man rather than a woman’ because fucking damn it, weddings are MAN an d WOMAN AND BITCH IF I AM WHAT IM SCARED TO BE WHAT IF MY HEART LEADS ME TO A WOMAN AND NOT A MAN. think of all the disappointment. white families aren’t as extended as asian families - the news would spread like a vicious wildfire. the prospect of bisexuality for an asian person or a person of colour generally is always pinned with this disgusting, self-denying statement that they really don’t want to think:

‘even if i am, there’s like a bigger chance i’ll marry a man so it doesn’t really matter, right?’

that bigger chance will forever stem from these expectations set by their families, i think.

and it’s always that question that makes them think ‘WELL shit i guess i aint then considering i practically negotiated my sexuality: u cant do that rookie, sexuality is SET IN STONE, so there’s no way you’re that sexuality. you’re only saying it because it’s a thing in society to be.’

it’s just why i dont believe in labels in general, and i love dan’s video so much for dedicated a section towards the matter. sexuality to me is fluid. the only thing that kind of makes it concrete are those labels. labels are great for some people: it gives them a name, a sense of normality in such a heteronormative society. but there’s a negative in that no one can simply just. be.

i wanna.

i dont wanna really.

sigh, am i just trying to align myself with society today? this label-filled society where your worth comes from how many labels you have slapped onto your blazer? it’s like those little patches those sporty, intelligent girls got in assemblies for being leader of the netball team or for excelling in ‘resilience’ or whatever that heck that means. those patches, except they have ones for ‘brown’ +1 point! ‘female’ +1 point! ‘sexually-confused’ +1 point! unless u think ur str***ht, in which case -2 points! where was i going with this AGH my brain isn’t being cohesive it’s just spitting shit everywhere.

another thing that makes me deny it all is my friend. let’s call her peach: she’s brown, muslim, pakistani, has very strict parents, but is still happy to identify as ‘gay’ to the world, and that’s amazing. but it sort of makes me wonder why i haven’t done that yet = thus suggesting ‘yeah im not REALLY, i would’ve felt it like she did in year 8, felt more passion for it - and i dont even have parents as strict as hers, so i can’t be!’ but her sexuality has also been generally fluid: she’s dating a guy at the moment, and has practically abandoned labels for the time being. goals lol.

what the fuk am i saying oh my goddddddd i can’t even make sense of it because i feel like im being super insensitive towards white people sigh forget it im going to bed, maybe i’ll string together something that makes bloody SENSE. its 3am egghj.

EDIT: I POSTED THIS ON RREI-CHAN AFHIAFAHIFA it wasn’t up for long, could’ve been so much worse, could’ve been on ryuga-zuki

[i-may-have-a-point]

My Final Review of Grey’s Anatomy

This is usually the time when I post my weekly review of Grey’s Anatomy.  

That won’t be happening anymore.

I cannot and will not support this show any longer.  

I used to be such a proud fan.  I was proud to support a show that promoted diversity, and representation, and women. A show that wrote characters that represented people who rarely saw a reflection of themselves on screen.  For the first time ever, many of us had someone we identified with showing us that we could be successful.  

It turns out none of that is true.  

The show promotes itself as different from the rest of Hollywood, but it isn’t.   If it was, they would fight like hell to keep characters that represent groups like the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, and liberal Christians.  

Instead, they chose to overpay their title character to keep her happy, and eliminate female characters whose popularity threatened her.  We have all seen it building. The BTS tension and jealousy spilled over on to social media.  There is no denying that couples like Japril and Calzona, and characters like April and Arizona have carried this show for several seasons now, while Meredith faded into the background.  

So, as the articles say, the producers (who I believe are Shonda, Krista, Debbie, Betsy, and Ellen) made a “creative decision” and fired Sarah and Jessica.  In their eyes, this gives them the chance to shift the focus back to Meredith, and it frees up enough money to give Ellen her undeserved raise.    

They claim that Arizona and April did not have any more story to write.  If they truly believe that, they should be embarrassed to call themselves writers.  Shonda has stated countless times that writing a medical show means she will never run out of stories. ��Is that only true for the actors who make selfish monetary demands?  Write about Arizona dealing with the everyday struggles of being someone with a disability.  Write about how she is treated differently because of it. Write about her explaining it to her daughter. Write about the prejudice she faces as both a person with a disability and a lesbian. Write a story about a patient not wanting her to treat them because of either of those things.  Write a story of her helping a young woman come into her sexuality as she did for so many viewers. Write a story about April standing up for the rights of someone the Christian community often shuns.  Write a story about her being torn about performing a medical procedure that goes against her personal beliefs.  Write a story about her educating hypocritical Christians.  Write a story about her using her Army training in an emergent situation outside the hospital.  Write a story about her having PTSD or postpartum.  Write a story where she has a son who is healthy and living. Write a story where she is shown as a strong, capable doctor. Write a story where both of them are appreciated and loved for who they are.  Don’t tell me they have run out of stories.  Be honest.  YOU, as writers, have run out of stories, which means you can’t do your job. But you aren’t the ones who were fired, were you?

Grey’s Anatomy has already been deleted from my TV and all of the accounts have been unfollowed.  I refuse to watch the poor writing and characterization that they put on screen any longer.  I’m also not going to watch until Sarah and Jessica leave because I refuse to support the show in anyway, especially in ratings.  Watching the show now is not supporting Sarah and Jessica. It is supporting the arrogance of the producers who sit back and count their millions while claiming feminism one moment and then firing two of the best actresses on the show the next moment.

I don’t know about Jessica, but Sarah was excited about her story this season.  She pitched the idea of Matthew returning to Krista and Stacey. They took it, ran with it, and then used it to write her exit storyline.  They used her ideas for ratings and then pushed her aside when they felt that had gotten all they could from her.  They claim to be different from the rest of Hollywood, but this display of self-serving unprofessionalism proves they are no better than any other company that uses women until they no longer see their value and then discards them.

I refuse to support any part of that and so should you.

Sarah and Jessica are beautiful, kind, talented women who deserve the world.  I have no doubt that with their talent, and a little bit of karma and Jesus on their side, their futures will be bright, and we will all be right there to watch them shine.

Thank you all for reading my reviews and making me feel like what I had to say was worthwhile.  This fandom has made me laugh, cry, and helped me in more ways than most of you know.  You’ve made me want to fly around the world and meet strangers I met on the internet.  I don’t know where we go from here, but feel free to still pop into my inbox and talk whenever you need to.  I’ll be around.

[foryourart]

Étienne Szeemann’s Swiss cross made of hair from salon clientele, a personal tribute to his receipt of Swiss citizenship, ca. 1919. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2011.M.30) © J. Paul Getty Trust. PLAN ForYourArt: February 22–28

Thursday, February 22

Caravaggio — Part II, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 10–11:30am.

Immigration Workshop, CalArts (Valencia), 12–1pm.

Medeas by Andrea Pallaoro - Film Screening, CalArts (Valencia), 1–4pm.

School of Music Visiting Artist Series: Seth Boyden, CalArts (Valencia), 2–4pm.

Late Night: Tattoo, Museum of Natural History (Downtown), 5–9pm. $10.

Tom Friedman: Ghosts and UFOs: Projections for Well-Lit Spaces, Parrasch Heijnen Gallery (Downtown), 5–7pm.

Learning to Love the Literati Poetry Reading and Reception, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 5:30–6:30pm.

MOVIE NIGHT – The Royal Tenenbaums, ESMoA (El Segundo), 5:30–7:30pm.

TOURS & TALKS: Stories of Almost Everyone Walk-through: Gary Dauphin, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 6pm.

Screening: Eliot Rausch, Underground Museum (Mid-City), 6pm.

ORANGE 6, Coagula Curatorial (Chinatown), 6–9pm.

One Hour/One Painting, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 6pm.

Matthew Rolston: Hollywood Royale, Annenberg Space for Photography (Century City), 6:30–8pm.

Volume I: Cultural Identities, Residency Art Gallery (Inglewood), 7–9pm.

Kybelle Dance Theatre, The Loft at Liz’s (Mid-City), 7–9pm.

Challenge for Change | Mur Murs (1981), LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (Downtown), 7–9pm.

Moving Line, El Camino College Art Gallery (Torrance), 7–9pm.

At land’s edge: Kristina Wong, Human Resources (Chinatown), 7–9pm.

Cameron Rowland lecture, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

David Horvitz with Christine Sun Kim, JFDR, and Xiu Xiu Noise: Watering a Glass Flower II, (Some Meditations for Resonating Hourglasses Sounding the Shapes of Hours), Edward Cella Art+Architecture (Culver City), 7:30pm.

The Broad and X-TRA present Simone Leigh + Steven Nelson in Conversation, The first in a series of talks addressing the legacy of Joseph Beuys, The Broad (Downtown), 7:30pm. $15.

MONDONGO: WHAT ARE WE GONNA SAY AFTER HELLO?, Track 16 (Downtown), 7:30–9pm.

Cheng Foundation Lecture - Chop Suey, USA: How Americans Discovered Chinese Food, The Huntington (San Marino), 7:30pm.

TONY KUSHNER & SARAH VOWELL IN CONVERSATION, CAP UCLA (Westwood), 8pm.

Friday, February 23

Talk: A Bilingual Scholars' Day— Painted in Mexico: 1700–1790: Pinxit Mexici, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 9:30am.

A Man and His Prostate, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 10am–5pm. Through February 25.

Culture Fix: J. Lorand Matory on the Arts of Candomblé, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 12pm.

Distinguished Artist Interviews: Catherine Opie interviewed by Helen Molesworth; The Promise Piece, Ten Years Later, A message from Yoko Ono; Judy Baca interviewed by Anna Indych-López, 106th CAA Annual Conference, LA Convention Center (Downtown), 3:30–5:30pm.

Hannah by Andrea Pallaoro - Film Screening, CalArts (Valencia), 4–7pm.

Art Buzz: Harald Szeemann, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Downtown), 5:30–7pm.

Bill Barminski Retrospective, Castelli Art Space (Culver City), 6–10pm. Continues February 24.

Alake Shilling: Monsoon Lagoon, 356 Mission (Downtown), 6pm.

Gabrielle Teschner, Michael Wall, and Brant Ritter, TAPPAN (962 East Fourth Street, LA CA 90013, Downtown), 6–9pm.

Panel: Chicanx/Latinx Art after PST: LA/LA. Sustaining the Field, Self Help Graphics and Art (Downtown), 6–8pm.

Guided tour: Mari Cardenas & Milton Jurado, Self Help Graphics & Art (Downtown), 6:30pm.

NO TIME TO WASTE, Moskowitz Bayse (Hollywood), 7:30pm.

Pictures of an Exhibition, LA Phil (Downtown), 8pm. Through February 25.

Djanjoba LA 2018: A Drum & Dance Gratitude Festival, various locations (across locations), 8pm. Through February 25.

Witch House: A Witches' Cabaret, CalArts (Valencia), 8pm. Through February 27.

Saturday, February 24

SYMPOSIUM: BLACKNESS AND THE ART OF EMPOWERMENT IN BAHIA, BRAZIL, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 10am–4:30pm.

Demanding Investment Without Displacement, The Wellness Center (Downtown), 10am–3pm.

Feminism and the State: Art, Politics, and Resistance, MOCA Grand Avenue (Downtown), 10am–4:30pm.

What is Contemporary? Feminism and the State: Art, Politics, and Resistance, MOCA Grand Avenue (Downtown), 10am–4:30pm.

Bob Baker Day, Bob Baker Marionette Theater (MacArthur Park), 10am–6pm. 

Not Her(E): A Workshop, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 10am–1pm.

Bonsai-a-Thon, The Huntington (San Marino), 10am–5pm. Continues February 25.

tokidoki x iHasCupquake Launch Event & Signing, La Luz de Jesus Gallery (Los Feliz), 11am–3pm.

Cartomancy: The Seni-Horoscope Re-imagined by Shay Bredimus and Tony Delap: A Retrospective, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 11am–5pm.

Workshop: Finding Autonomy and Connection through Contact Improv, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 12–3pm.

Donna Bates and Corban Lundborg, Gabba Gallery (Koreatown), 12:30pm.

Thinking Like a Roman: How to Renew America's Polarized Landscape, Getty Villa (Pacific Palisades), 1pm.

Artist at Work: Paper and Light, Getty Center (Brentwood), 1–3pm.

Dos Colectivos, USC Fisher Museum of Art (Downtown), 1–4pm.

Closing Reception, Tieken Gallery (Chinatown), 1–6pm.

Public Anchors Finale, Side Street Projects (Pasadena), 1–4pm.

Talk: Artists in Conversation: Isabel Avila and Linda Vallejo, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1:30pm.

Existing On Our Own Terms: Healing Rituals As Liberatory Practice, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 2–5pm. $15–25.

Maren Hassinger: The Spirit of Things, Art+Practice (Leimert Park), 2–5pm.

The Great Compromise, UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts (Irvine), 2–5pm.

"Animalia" - A Voice Event, CalArts (Valencia), 2–4pm.

Male Glaze pop-up, Freehand Gallery (Beverly Grove), 4pm.

The Circuitry of Joyce J. Scott: A Group Exhibition of Collaboration and Innovation, Craft in America Center (Beverly Grove), 4–6pm.

Melvino Garretti: Space Versus Space, Vernon Gardens (Vernon), 4–8pm.

Kevin Larmon: slipping in and out of phenomenon and Nathan Hayden: Strong Magic, CB1 Gallery (Downtown), 4–7pm.

Açúcar: A film series organized by Ellen Gallagher, Hauser & Wirth (Downtown), 4–10pm.

#CAMOLORDS - UNSEEN, Anahid Boghosian - HERE NOW and Brian Reed - From Semi-Abstract And Back, TAG Gallery (Santa Monica), 5–8pm.

UNICEF Next Generation Art Party, 800MAIN (Venice), 5pm. $40–150.

Petra Cortright: CAM WORLS, UTA Artist Space (Downtown), 5–7pm.

ADC Fundraiser: The Koerner Affair, Koerner House (Palm Springs), 5-8pm.

Opening Reception: Carmen Argote Artist Lab and Opening Reception: Mariángeles Soto-Díaz, 18th Street Arts Center (Santa Monica), 6–8pm.

Rodrigo Valenzuela: General Song and Carla Issue 11 launch party, Klowden Mann (Culver City), 6–9pm.

Kevin Cooley: Still Burning, Kopeikin Gallery (Culver City), 6–8pm.

Matthew Brandt: AgX.Hb, M+B (West Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Lorser Feitelson: Figure to Form, Louis Stern Fine Arts (West Hollywood), 6–8pm.

Aaron Wrinkle: LA Salon, there-there (East Hollywood), 6–8pm.

L.A.W.S. presents Language: The Art Show, Los Angeles Water School (Downtown), 6pm–12am.

SHOP and SOLO PROJECT, Denk Gallery (Downtown), 6–8pm.

Robert Moreland: Slow Talker, Wilding Cran Gallery (Downtown), 6–8pm.

Like Ghosts: New Works by Rema Ghuloum and HK Zamani, JAUS (Sawtelle), 6:30–9:30pm.

THE PAIN ISN'T OVER | Leafar Seyer & Prayers, THESE DAYS (Downtown), 7–10pm.

Herakut: Rental Asylum, Troy Brooks: Skinwalker, and Adrian Cox: Terra Incognita, Corey Helford Gallery (Downtown), 7–11pm.

L.A. Dance Project presents Bodies2, L.A. Dance Project (Downtown), 7pm.

Los Angeles Ladies Arm Wrestling Presents Queens at the Table, Bootleg Theater (MacArthur Park), 7–11pm. $10–15.

Sonnets and Sonatas Presents: Animals!, Getty Center (Brentwood), 7:30pm.

Independence Day and A Cylindrical Object on Fire in the Dark, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (Chinatown), 7:30–10pm.

lost tribes, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) (Hollywood), 8pm. Also February 25.

Saluti, Grace Palmer: Secrets of Virtuous Cycle Management Institut IDGAF, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 8:30–10pm.

The Moon Has Made Us Brothers, CalArts (Valencia), 9–10pm.

Sunday, February 25

The Art of the Movie Poster: Highlights from the Mike Kaplan Collection, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 10am–7pm; talk, 4pm. 

Tony DeLap: A Retrospective, Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach), 11am–5pm. 

TURBANTE-SE / A HEAD WRAP WORKSHOP, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 12pm.

Mesoamerica in Midcentury California: Revivals and Reinventions, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1–2:15pm.

Painting workshop with Alake Shilling, 356 Mission (Downtown), 1–4pm.

IN CONVERSATION: ENRIQUE MARTINEZ CELAYA WITH DAN MCCLEARY & DEMIAN FLORES, USC Fisher Museum of Art (Downtown), 1pm.

Symbols in Copper, California African American Museum (Downtown), 1–3pm.

WORKSHOP: FREE THE VOICE: Odeya Nini, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 1–4pm. $35.

Pop-Up Community Portrait Studio, Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Santa Barbara), 1–4pm.

Dora De Larios and Rigo 23: Ripples Become Waves, Main Museum (Downtown), 2-5pm.

Panel: Albert Chong, Andrea Chung, and Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, moderated by Los Siu, California African American Museum (Downtown), 2–4pm.

WON JU LIM: Aunt Clara's Dilemma, AUDREY HOPE: Dreams of Pentecost, and MARISSA GRAZIANO: Lesbian Step-Sisters Better Not Get Caught By Dad!, DXIX (Venice), 3–6pm.

Artist Talk: All Hands on Deck, Otis College of Art and Design (Westchester), 3–5pm.

HOME, HOOD, HILL: Final Projects: Group XLV, Mackey Apartments, MAK Center for Art and Architecture (Mid-City), 3–6pm.

Chad Attie: The Last Island Talk & Screening, The Lodge (East Hollywood), 3-6pm.

Feminism Now, Shoebox Projects (Downtown), 3–6pm.

Anna Wittenberg: Dog Mod, Bozo Mag (West Adams), 4–8pm.

Talk: The Art of the Movie Poster: A Conversation with Mike Kaplan and Kenneth Turan, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 4pm.

Surfing Countdown, Zebulon (Frogtown), 6pm–12am.

WORKSHOP: Orgasmic Yoga: Dr. Victoria Reuveni, Pieter (Lincoln Heights), 6–10pm. $30–40.

SCREENINGS Part of the series The Black Book: Chocolate Babies, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

PlumbLine - Jewelry Objects seminar, Long Beach City College Art Gallery (Long Beach), 7–9:30pm.

Monday, February 26

Artists, Icons and Legends: The Portraits of Michael Childers, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 10am–12pm.

THIS, NOT THAT LECTURE: CHARLES WALDHEIM, UCLA (Westwood), 6:30pm.

Tuesday, February 27

Cut! Paper Play in Contemporary Photography and Paper Promises: Early American Photography, Getty Center (Brentwood), 10am–5:30pm. 

Film: Amadeus, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 1pm.

Artists Council 50th Anniversary Celebration, Acqua California Bistro (Rancho Mirage), 4–7pm.

PAUL ESPOSITO, UCLA (Westwood), 5–7pm.

Artist walkthrough: Black, The Loft at Liz’s (Mid-City), 7–9pm.

PEN PRESENTS X ARTISTS BOOKS: ALEXANDRA GRANT & KEANU REEVES with SYLVAN OSWALD, The Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever (Hollywood), doors 7pm; show, 8pm.

How To Have Hard Conversations, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7–10pm. $16–20.

PlumbLine - Jewelry Objects closing reception, Long Beach City College Art Gallery (Long Beach), 7–8:30pm.

SCREENINGS: Faces Places, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Zoe Buckman: Champ, The Standard (Hollywood).

Wednesday, February 28

MAC Meeting, Lecture & Luncheon with guest speaker David Zippel, Palm Springs Art Museum (Palm Springs), 10am–1pm.

FOWLER OUT LOUD: RANDY REYES: LXS DESAPARECIDXS, Fowler Museum (Westwood), 6pm.

Talk: Michael Govan and Richard Prince, LACMA (Miracle Mile), 7pm. Sold out.

Founder's Day Lecture - In Search of Blue Boy's True Colors, The Huntington (San Marino), 7pm.

CONVERSATIONS: Jeffrey Stewart and Carl Hancock Rux, Hammer Museum (Westwood), 7:30pm.

Getting Fed By Your Feed: Curating An Instagram Diet, Women’s Center for Creative Work (Frogtown), 7:30–9:30pm. $1–10.

Reconstructing Grandfather, ICA LA (Downtown), 7:30pm.

Cross-Hatched: Incidents and Echoes: Jasper Johns + John Cage, The Broad (Downtown), 8pm.

[cloudydamage3]

Erin Hoover's Playlist for Her Poetry Collection "Barnburner"

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Erin Hoover's Playlist for Her Poetry Collection "Barnburner"

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others.

Erin Hoover's Barnburner, awarded the 2017 Elixir Press Antivenom Poetry Award, is a timely work of politics, feminism, and humanity.

PANK wrote of the collection:

"Erin Hoover’s debut poetry collection Barnburner is replete with powerful and timely character-studies. Each character, whether a bad boss, a junkie, a peer on a different path, a boyfriend, or a mugger is examined with the same mordant empathy Hoover is incredibly adept at employing."

In her own words, here is Erin Hoover's Book Notes music playlist for her poetry collection Barnburner:

I am not a musician. As a poet, I’m more in love with the syntax of the sentence complicated by line break than with the music of words. But for much of my life, I have been musician adjacent, hanging out with people in bands and going to shows and then to parties after shows. There was a time in my life where I was likely to be in a reasonably sized party with Interpol or living in the loft where Matt and Kim were setting up a show. And I have always been a “hard listener” to music. I will analyze a song like a text: what a song means, why it’s important, the context of its writing.

I created this playlist for Barnburner from the time period in which I had certain experiences that inspired the fictional narratives of the book. Barnburner is a group of poems organized around tone. The book’s epigraph describes the origin of the word ‘barnburner’: the farmer who burns down his barn to get rid of a rat infestation. I’m not sure if this comes out of America’s puritanical origins, but I think that in our country political and personal commitment is tied to risking annihilation. Not nihilism, where nothing holds meaning, but the opposite: whatever concerns the barnburner at a particular moment in time must mean everything. As my most rock-n-roll friend used to say, riffing on This Is Spinal Tap: “I go up to eleven.”

1. “Clampdown” – The Clash

I used to drive around central Pennsylvania listening to the Clash in high school. I was college bound, but I understood the energetic hopelessness behind “Clampdown,” certain that I was in some way entering into the service economy version of factory life. I don’t think I got the double meaning of working for in “Working for the clampdown” until later on. Now I also know firsthand how you can be both a victim of the clampdown but also one of its unwitting agents. The first poem in Barnburner, “The Lovely Voice of Samantha West,” is about global capitalism, and there are others about labor in general. As a bonus for me, the Clash shout out my hometown of Harrisburg at the end of “Clampdown” because international media attention around the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 made Harrisburg into an emblem of the American working-class city. I’m not sure that people now living in Harrisburg conceive of the place that way, but I did, growing up there.

2. “50ft Queenie” – P J Harvey

P J Harvey blew off the top of my head with this song, which I first saw as a video on MTV’s 120 Minutes. I loved all of Rid of Me. I, too, wanted to be a tough, unapologetic bitch and to turn the tables on people, mostly men, who had made me feel powerless. That’s how I read “50ft Queenie.” Although now I reject the idea that I have to appropriate masculine ideas of power to be powerful, I will love all of P J Harvey’s music until the end of time.

3. “Open Heart Surgery” – The Brian Jonestown Massacre

My affection for “Open Heart Surgery” is heavily influenced by the video for it, which pairs Survival Town Atom Test footage from 1955 with a sound characteristic of one of my favorite bands. The U.S. military built “Survival Town” in the middle of the Nevada desert—the video includes construction scenes too, mannequins being placed in domestic poses—to test the effects of detonating an atomic weapon. What results is something like the mental landscape that produced the poems in Barnburner, an impression helped along by Anton Newcombe wailing and a barebones guitar riff. Not that I’ve suffered more than anybody else—I’m absolutely sure that’s not true—but I’ve tried to interrogate what I know of anguish, in particular, belonging to a cultural system that fundamentally doesn’t respect the same things I do.

4. “Head Like a Hole” – Nine Inch Nails

As a pure expression of rage, “Head Like a Hole” fits the feeling some readers will find in Barnburner. The book has been called angry. I’m including this song for the addict friend of mine who inspired the M. character in several poems, for the endless hours we spent driving through Pennsylvania back roads listening to industrial music because somebody might have a pill to sell us. The lyric “I’d rather die than give you control” is ironic in this context, because like the characters in the song, we had no control outside of using twenty bucks we’d scared up to fulfill our own death wish. Americans prefer to see addiction as an individual moral failing rather than a natural response to late-stage capitalism, calibrated according to various social factors. I wish it were different.

5. “It’s So Hard to Fall in Love” – Sebadoh

I’m not a monster. There are tender poems in Barnburner, mostly about children and wanting to protect them, and poems about being naive myself. Even as a teenager, when I first heard this Sebadoh song, I was amused by the line, “It’s so hard to fall in love / Knowin’ all I know / Seeing all the things I see,” because how does any young lover know anything? And yet I knew that I loved Lou Barlow for writing those lyrics, for making a lo-fi song about falling in love built on the rhythm of a heart beating.

6. “Taste the Floor” – Jesus and Mary Chain

I’ve heard this band called pure dirt. The Jesus and Mary Chain are too much. Fuzzed-out melodies played loud as fuck. Lyrics tinged with bored masochism and sung without affect. I’d nominate the whole album Psychocandy for this playlist. “Taste the Floor” struts in a dark room and then kicks in the way a strong drink or a drug kicks in. And while I don’t understand the lyrics, I don’t have to. No, I will not turn the music down.

7. “New Year” – The Breeders

May I present the Breeders, loud women (and one man) writing powerful songs and playing kick-ass guitars and drums. You can blow out a car speaker with these songs. As for “New Year,” it’s a hard-driving race to the finish once you get past the line “It’s true,” which is a nice pivot if you think about it. I conceive of Barnburner as a race-to-the-finish book, with narratives that I hope propel the reader to go on. Additionally, the Breeders recorded one of two songs I’ve ever learned how to play on guitar (though not this one). See my poem “What Is the Sisterhood to Me?” for the other.

8. “I Wanna Be Your Dog” – The Stooges

Although the Stooges are an American band, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” was standard at early-2000s New York City Britpop nights at Don Hill’s or Bar 13, and it will always put me right back at last call with a mouth tasting like tonic water and ashtray. When Iggy Pop sings, “And now I'm ready to feel your hand / And lose my heart on the burning sands,” I’m ready to jump up and down with everybody else. Barnburner tries in places to capture a post-9/11 feeling as experienced by a certain group of people who were newly adult in 2001 or 2002, when we all thought we were going to die, not from terrorists, but from the stupid actions of our own government, and we danced like it.

9. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” – Cat Power

Chan Marshall’s version of the Rolling Stones song is stripped down and contemplative. I don’t think that I could hear, really hear, Mick Jagger sing “Satisfaction” until I heard Cat Power. I also liked a woman singing this song, the woman as the protagonist who grapples with the emptiness of capitalism. I have wanted to be a woman who could do that. Also, that last line. And I’m tryin’.

10. “Resist Psychic Death” – Bikini Kill

I listened to many riot grrrl bands in high school and college because it felt incredible to hear shouted alternate ideas about sexuality and gender after absorbing so much toxic masculinity, especially in punk rock circles. Bikini Kill is the band I continue to listen to. For me, “Resist Psychic Death” is about pushing back against someone else’s narrative, and thus agenda, for your own life. Those false narratives are part of what I’m trying to pull apart and take down with Barnburner. I want to be the author of my own life, and to me that’s still revolutionary. These lyrics! Listen and learn: “There’s more than two ways of thinking / There’s more than one way of knowing / There’s more than two ways of being / There’s more than one way of going somewhere.”

11. “Prayer to God” – Shellac

Two girls from Washington, D.C. who were into hardcore taught me how to dance, and it was one of those girls who introduced me to Shellac back when 1000 Hurts was new. After listening to me go off about some injustice I’d experienced from a dude, she whispered, “You’ve got to hear this song” and played it for me. “Prayer to God” is more melodic than other Shellac songs, but true to the band’s usual driving rhythms and angular guitars. Like a prayer, the song begins with an address to God and ends with an Amen. The diction switches between holy and profane, between the poetry of a man asking God to strike his beloved “Where her necklaces close / Where her garments come together / Where I used to lay my face” and increasingly loud refrains to kill the lover who has replaced him: “Fuckin’ kill him already, kill him.” For me, there is an important distinction between making poetry that is crafted vs. poetry that is merely polished. Craft can evoke rawness, too. Shellac nails that distinction for me, musically speaking. Sometimes fuck is the word that you need.

Erin Hoover and Barnburner links:

the author's website

Glass review Grist review PANK review Publishers Weekly review

Connotation Press interview with the author The Pinch interview with the author Rob McLennnan interview with the author Tallahassee Democrat profile of the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

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Source: http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2018/10/erin_hoovers_pl.html

[latestnews2018-blog]

Christina Aguilera finds her ‘Liberation’

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/christina-aguilera-finds-her-liberation/

Christina Aguilera finds her ‘Liberation’

After a six-year hiatus, the pop star returns transformed, and says she feels like a brand new artist

In the 20 years since Christina Aguilera’s arrival helped usher in a new era of pop, the performer has shown she’s unafraid of transformation.

Aguilera famously torched the bubblegum teen-pop image crafted for her with a pair of leather chaps and edgier genre-blending music that announced a young woman in full control of her agency. It shocked America and the then 21-year-old singer was slut-shamed by critics, peers and even Tina Fey.

At one point she took her cues from the styles of the 1920s-1940s, committing wholly to a vintage pin-up aesthetic to match the modern take on vintage jazz, soul and blues she was exploring.

She’s assumed the role of a cyborg, channelled Marilyn Monroe and Marilyn Manson — for the same project — and re-emerged as a blissed-out earth mother.

Shape-shifting has always been a part of Aguilera’s charm, but her real appeal lies in that voice.

With a fiery range that recalled early Whitney Houston, Aguilera was able to separate herself from the pack of pop ingenues reaching superstar status during the early aughts.

For a generation who hit puberty during the great Y2K pop explosion, Aguilera was an essential voice with music that tackled self-empowerment, feminism, sex and domestic violence — subject matter her contemporaries were shying away from.

Just look at the lasting impact of 2002’s “Stripped,” her most ambitious work to date and an album that has since become a blueprint for the likes of Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato — young singers who have all come of age in front of the public and sought to shed their manufactured image the way Aguilera once did.

Aguilera has sold over 50 million records worldwide, notched dozens of Billboard Hot 100 hits, won six Grammys, dipped into film and helped make NBC’s The Voice a TV phenomenon.

Yet the past decade has been shaky for Aguilera on the music front.

Her most recent work — 2010s underrated Bionic and it’s mostly forgotten follow-up Lotus — wasn’t met with the same fanfare she was used to and a lengthy stint on The Voice left Aguilera’s fans wondering if she would ever return to music.

Now 37, Aguilera is undertaking her latest reinvention, one that was fuelled by the singer-songwriter feeling “disconnected” from her purpose.

“I had to get back to my own artist body and self,” she says.

Finding her way back to herself and her passion is the core of Liberation, her first album in six years.

Debuting at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 upon its release last month, Liberation showcases a creatively renewed Aguilera, but don’t call it a comeback: “I feel like a brand new artist,” she says.

Leaning mostly toward R & B and hip-hop, genres that have always informed her style, Aguilera’s new album isn’t about being progressive or chasing a trend — she’s not interested in any of that, she says — but instead it’s about showcasing an artist reborn after losing her footing.

The collection is some of her more forward-thinking work in years. When she’s not doing a mix of The Sound of Music with Michael Jackson, she’s crafting downtempo R & B with D.C. rapper GoldLink, smashing the patriarchy and navigating collaborations with Ty Dolla Sign, Kanye West, Anderson. Paak and MNEK.

And yes, she’s embraced a new look — this time, however, she’s found inspiration in her own skin which is why these days her aesthetic is more stripped back (her album cover is just her bare face).

While tending to her 3-year-old daughter, Summer Rain, Aguilera discussed the four-year journey to Liberation, her first tour in a decade and why she gave up The Voice.

For a while there it felt like an album was never going to materialise.

I do take my time with records, but Jesus, yeah, this one was a while in waiting — for many different factors and reasons. I love collaborating so much and taking the time to get to know the people that you’re working with and truly do something meaningful and not just commercialised and cliche. I’m not the artist that’s going to just get a bunch of songs from my label, record it and put it in a little bow and send it off.

What kept you away from music for so long?

I felt disconnected for a while and I wasn’t in the right head space either being in an environment that was just not good for me.

That environment you’re referring to is The Voice. You said you felt suffocated as a judge. When did it stop being fun for you?

Nobody expected [The Voice] to be as big as Idol or take off the way it did. It just became a whole different kind of a machine. You’d have two teams at once because they were overlapping seasons. It just wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing with my life. I’m not a spokesperson. I’m an artist.

The blind audition thing was very intriguing to me because it provided an opportunity for anybody to get on stage and be discovered, regardless of their look. Being in this business for so long and knowing how labels work and how packaging is so very important, that idea of not being able to see them was genius to me. But year by year, I kept seeing things that were not lining up with that original vision. The show progressed in a direction I wasn’t into and that I didn’t think was a lot of times fair.

Do you think there’s still any value to singing competition shows?

Look, everybody has their own experience, and I don’t want to devalue anyone’s own experience with any of those shows. As an artist, I believe in artists being able to express themselves how they feel they should. Just know there’s a lot of other people involved in those shows. Certain factors and things are dictated according to what ratings will be. It’s definitely a business. I also saw blatant things that I didn’t think were OK and that I’m sure no one would want to put up with in a work environment. It was important for me to step away.

Your last projects weren’t critical or commercial successes. Did that add any pressure while working on Liberation?

Because I am a real vocalist, I have always heard, “Why don’t you just stand and do a bunch of ballads?” That’s just one element of what I do, but it’s not everything. I would be so bored if I sat on the stage and just sang ballad after ballad. I’m an artist. The label was great in giving me the freedom to take my time and do what I wanted. I’m no stranger to knowing how to play the game.

It is an amazing thing whenever things are commercially received and successful. I’ve had those successes with Genie in a Bottle and What a Girl Wants, and I was still miserable because I wasn’t connected to the music and wasn’t being able to change it. I’ve done my share of that and I see a lot of artists get into that trap of chasing the charts. After I’m dead and gone, I really want the music paid attention to and not because of where I charted or how commercially successful it was but because the quality has stood the test of time.

Although the album is heavily R ‘n’ B and hip-hop, it was still surprising to hear that Kanye West and Anderson. Paak were key to informing its direction. How did that happen?

I sat with Kanye a few years ago, while I was still on The Voice actually. We met at Rick Rubin’s studio where he was recording at the time — he was finishing The Life of Pablo record _ and we just connected. I loved the tracks he was playing me. That’s where I heard Maria and [the album’s lead single] Accelerate for the first time. They had so much heart and depth. His music makes you feel something impactful, one way or another. He’s a controversial artist, and I’ve been that way myself. Working with him felt really good. I had done some recording before the Kanye meeting but doing Maria with him gave me the base for the album. The whole story unfolded before me when I listened to the song.

And then Anderson really helped the album take shape. I met him last year, and things rapidly unfolded. He is just such a great musician. He’s such a great lyricist with such a strong cadence. I explored different ways to use my voice on this record, and it wasn’t all about hitting high notes and being acrobatic and full of ad-libs. I wanted to scale back again and just really vibe.

There’s always been a thread of empowerment in your music. How much of what was going on in the world influenced the music you were working on?

A: The climate right now is interesting because there are so many people that are feeling oppressed or suppressed. I’ve always been about putting out messages that I feel strongly about and about my truth. It’s why I did songs like Beautiful and Fighter so long ago and why I have songs like Fall in Line and Sick of Sittin’ on this album, records that are perfect for anyone that maybe need to find their own truth. We’re in a place where people need to feel liberated and I wanted to reflect that.

You’re going on your first tour in a decade. What can fans expect?

Ever since I had my son [Max Liron, 10], the idea of the tour has actually scared me. I was like, “How does this work? How do people do this? Do I uproot my kids from their home life and everything?” With this more intimate tour, it’s kind of lessening the pressure. I’m dipping my toe back in the water and also giving my fans a real chance to see me after they haven’t in so long. I’m probably going to take my daughter with me because she’s so little. I don’t want to be separated. It’ll be interesting.

[moon-battery]

From the article:

====================

The Liberal Left is the new Religious Right.by w3woody

‘#MeTooSoon’: Bill Maher met with outrage for mocking Al Franken’s infamous groping photo with Bob Saget aboard a private jet to Hawaii

Comedians Bill Maher and Bob Saget are known for their off-color humor but have been slammed for going too far, too soon, by poking fun at Al Franken’s groping snap.

Maher tweeted out a re-enactment aboard a private jet on the way to Hawaii, featuring Saget of the now-infamous snap of former Democratic US Senator Al Franken appearing to grope a sleeping female reporter, in the early morning hours on Thursday.

Look, let me make my biases well known.

First, you don’t grab women who don’t want to be grabbed. You don’t grab menwho don’t want to be grabbed, either. You don’t molest, fondle, grope or otherwise touch folks of either gender (or, as the kids would have it nowadays, any gender) without their permission.

Second, stuff like this doesn’t phase me or surprise me: Silicon Valley’s elite throw secretive, drug-fueled sex parties where young women can feel pressured to participate. Nor does this bother me in any way–so long as women do not feel pressured to participate. (The pressure doesn’t surprise me but it does bother me; see previous paragraph.)

I have no problems with Saturnalias or Mardi Gras parties or alcohol-fueled Dionysian parties or whatnot. For myself, in my own life, I have drawn a few lines: don’t mix private life and work, don’t drink to excess (the two or three times I have I’ve regretted it), respect those around me. But from a moral perspective while there is significant value in the seven heavenly virtues, remember that the Catholic principle of sin is one of “departing from God”–a little pleasure is not sin, it’s only when that pleasure distracts you from your path that it becomes a problem.

In other words, dropping $100 on a poker table in Vegas is not a sin, unless that $100 is the last $100 you have, and your children will go hungry as a result. The sin is not the gambling. It’s gambling in denial of your sacred duty to your childrenwhich separates you from the bounties of God.

That said, let me note just how absolutely amused I am at the outrage against Bill Maher for mocking Al Franken’s famous photograph where he purportedly groped a woman against her will.

I’m amused because for the past 50 years–and especially in the last 20 years, we have been lectured repeatedly about proper behavior from the Left.

We’ve been told about how we should be respecting women–to the point where we’ve gotten affirmative consent, “yes means yes”, and even in some places “yes means yes” has been adopted into law.

We’ve had the morality police–and I don’t mean the Islamic Religious Police in places like Saudi Arabia or Iran, but Social Justice Warriors monitoring for micro-agressions and searching for purported dog whistles which, apparently, can only be heard by one’s opponents. We see liberal feminists–strong supporters of folks like Hillary Clinton–fighting even more strongly against pornography and prostitution than the religious right. Certainly liberal feminists are also trying to lead the charge against bikinis and scantily clad women, since these things lead to women being viewed (and seeing themselves) as sexual objects–an argument that would be very much at home amongst the hard core Religious Right.

The Left has essentially become the new Religious Right.

For Feminists all we need is some theorist to come up with the notion of “reclaiming marriage from its patriarchal roots” for Feminists to sit side by side with the Religious Right in demanding that children only have sex within the context of marriage. They certainly have joined the Religious Right (while holding their collective noses) at denouncing the sex-fueled and alcohol fueled Saturnalias they see the wealthy in Silicon Valley engaging in–though the fact that the rich have always had the money to throw debauched parties has never really been a secret.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” — Matthew 19:23-24.

And the Liberal Left have, for decades, been encouraging this sort of thing, demanding proper behavior and supporting the criminalization of “hate speech.”

Of course thus far it’s mostly been used as a tool against their political opponents. But what’s good for the goose is good for the gander (as Saul Alinsky noted in rule 4 of his Rules for Radicals), and we’re now seeing the Left turn on itself as it has started to notice the beam in its own eye.

It’s why I’m amused at everything surrounding Al Franken, who reportedly was, both as a comedian and as a politician, a complete and total asshole. The thing is, as a comedian, being an asshole (at least on stage) works in your favor: one aspect of comedy is ripping the rug out of the expectations of the audience, and someone who is blunt and swimming in the opposite direction of the current can do that quite well. But it doesn’t serve you well in politics, nor does it serve you well if you’re pushing the boundaries too far as former Senator Franken did by groping unsuspecting women.

It’s also why I think we’re going to see more of the Left eating its own–reluctantly, and even at times acting in the most hypocritical way imaginable.

And it’s why I don’t honestly think Bill Maher’s photo, showing him supposedly groping a sleeping Bob Saget, was wrong–but within the environment established by the hard left championed by the likes of Bill Maher (who has stood against this sort of feminism as he reaps the benefits of the culture it creates) his microagression reminding us of the unwanted sexual assault of Leeann Tweeden by Al Franken is the height of venial sin which requires one to repent.

Enough venial sins and one will wind up in the purgatory of popular culture.

It is unfortunate that the popular culture as envisioned by the Left has decided to drive us down the road of collective sins: micro-agressions and dog whistles and collective anger at the patriarchy without any sense of what leads to grace–that is, without any sort of tool chest to allow individuals to behave gracefully around each other. Such tools are seen as tools of religion–and as we “all know”, religion is incompatible with liberalism.

And while the toolkit of hate has been useful in trying to remove the political opposition off the stage (by painting conservatives as uncaring neanderthals who don’t care if women are molested against their will, unlike those liberalswho actually molest women against their will), it looks like the chickens have come home to roost.

So our modern day Left only has a list of venial and mortal sins–but no tools suggesting how we should behave. Feminism’s philosophical deficit is even greater–suggesting only that we should act like more evolved women, but without any guidance as to what that should even look like.

Certainly to the ontological framework built by modern liberal progressives, it doesn’t look like the free-wheeling behavior shown by Bill Maher–who, in older times, may have been looked down upon by polite company while in private we all chuckle. But that polite company wouldn’t be trying to figure out if they should try to get the comedian’s head mounted on a virtual pike.

Today, however?

Pop popcorn.

====================

[londontheatre]

Soho Theatre Lucy McCormick Production

Lucy McCormick and her Girl Squad, are back at Soho Theatre having just finished headlining a two night run of Jonny Woo’s Unroyal Variety at Hackney Empire where she devised some brand new original material.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Lucy about her upcoming show and what audiences can look forward to.

Q: I wonder if you could start off by telling me what the show is about?

Lucy: The premise of the show is that I attempt to re-enact the New Testament, playing all the main roles myself. And I have these two backing dancers who join in the big group numbers, as we call them, and take on some “supporting roles”. So, of course, the whole central premise of the show is completely absurd and sort of impossible. The audience watch me attempt to achieve this really epic story but in a very DIY way and also with my own take on pop culture references, so using current pop music, dancing, a lot of vogue and queer gay nightclub references, and also from a feminist viewpoint as well. Choosing to try and retell this story gives me the opportunity to explore different kinds of gender politics and ideas around feminism and queer identity.

Q: You talked a little bit about DIY and the fact that this is a sort of impossible thing that you’re trying to do: Is there a failure element to the show that you enjoy; are there moments of improvisation and things that could go wrong?

Lucy: Yes, there definitely are, and I am really interested in that kind of genuine risk on stage, and genuinely possibly things might fail. But, I think when you play with failure in performance and DIY stuff, it’s about also questioning whether it is actually a failure or whether you can find success. Something could go wrong and this could create something really beautiful or hilarious. The fact the show has “failed” becomes the joke itself and that feels like success.

Q: So your title, ‘Triple Threat’, where does that come from?

Lucy: Well, partly it refers to me having a very traditional training quite a long time ago, being into musical theatre and being a singer. Then I trained traditionally as an actor, which sometimes is a surprise to people because the work I was making for quite a long time was really experimental; influenced by performance art, nightclub performance and subversive cabaret. This show is about me reclaiming my interest in [traditional] plays and musical theatre, but the audience knows I am not to the standard of a West End triple threat! It loops back to he “failure” joke. For me, I’ve always thought, ‘Well I wonder what the triple threat is’, because it could be singing, dancing and nudity or doing explicit things with my body, because that also happens. The last thing I like about the phrase is just that it has the word ‘threat’ in it; it’s sort of like ‘so what are these three threats?’, and I suppose you could even say there’s a kind of mirroring of the holy trinity with it being like a three and a three and for me that also works on a metaphorical level. 

Q: How did you find going from quite a traditional training background into trying the more experimental and performance art type of performance?

Lucy: I think in performance art you don’t necessarily need to have a traditional skill, or the work can celebrate things like DIY and mess. In a way, it can sometimes be almost a bit uncool to have a really slick performance, so I do think they can be quite different worlds and they have a completely different set of politics. I also came at performance art from going to various gay clubs or just going to a bar and finding out there’s someone performing on top of the bar or in the toilets or something and you sort of think ‘Oh wow, OK, performance doesn’t just have to happen on a stage’. I suppose it was just a real eye opener in terms of the potential of performance and where you can do it and what you can look at. I think now I’m massively taking from both of those experiences.

Q: So you describe your performance as queer, as a queer club experience: What does it mean to you to make queer performance?

Lucy: I think, for me, it’s something about going back to the roots of choosing the New Testament; it was a way for me to try out these different identities. In one moment I might be playing Jesus and in the next moment I could be playing Mary Magdalene, and I think I feel that we kind of tie ourselves down to titles too much and sometimes there might be certain expectations on me as a conventional looking female. For me, the queer identity of the performance is about challenging expectations and thinking about my identity.

There are these two backing dancers who are male and super-hot and both have same sex relationships and identify as queer and I think that recently there’s been such a commodity of ‘queer’ and in particular the gay male. You see a lot of gay and draggy references in pop culture and I think it’s a chance to question and celebrate and play around with that as well.

Q: And then in what way, if any, would you describe the work as feminist?

Lucy: I would describe it as feminist because my understanding of feminism is about equality and is about humanism rather than it being sort of exclusively for women, let’s say. I identify as a woman and I’ve only got my own body to use and so it’s about how I fit into these roles that this story is giving me; if that’s even really possible in a socio-political way: being in a woman’s body and being in an historically, patriarchal society. So, it definitely is feminist and celebrates strong women, but I think it celebrates strong people and equality really.

Q: You talked about the show as having this religious story running through it, the retelling of the bible: Would you say that the show is aimed at a religious audience?

Lucy: So, I do have some Christian friends who have really enjoyed the show and that’s been so pleasing to me because I’ve never really set out to undermine the story, I’ve just taken it as this source material and then gone ‘How does that make sense to me and what are those kind of modern references?’, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be for everyone. But I think, just as much as you might be quite a traditional Christian person, you might be an atheist who’s quite traditional or just isn’t into subversive cabaret in which people get very messy and get naked. I think it’s for anyone who wants to have a really good laugh, but also is up for something maybe a bit challenging. I think it’s really, really accessible and that’s something I’ve been so pleased with. I didn’t necessarily expect it to be, that’s almost been a bit of a surprise, but it seems like the show is massively accessible. It’s a bit outrageous for some people, especially if they haven’t seen a lot of this kind of work. I think it’s an ideal sort of work Christmas outing!

Q: The show has previously very successfully played at the Edinburgh Fringe and at the Soho Theatre before, has it changed at all during its development?

Lucy: It’s changed a bit, especially since the very beginning; I’ve been clarifying some of the ideas and images. It came out of club performance, so by this point a couple of years ago I was making ten-minute acts to do in cabarets and clubs, and one Christmas someone asked me if I wanted to do a Christmas thing and I decided ‘Oh we could put on a little nativity’. It worked so well I thought I’d keep looking at the New Testament and see what else we could use.

At that point, I was really playing around with the story, but I think now the show has really clarified itself and it really works with the structure that we have. It’s one of those shows where you know there’s banter and chatting to the audience and, you never know exactly how it’s going to unfold, but the structure stays the same. When I was at the Soho last time I was downstairs in what they call the cabaret space, and this time I’m going to be in the theatre, so it’s going to be quite a different atmosphere. I’ve played it in both kind of spaces before so that will be exciting and, I suppose with it just being at Christmas, it’s just going to be so relevant to everything that’s going on.

Q: You’re working on this show with Ursula Martinez and you’ve previously worked with Lauren Barri Holstein on Splat!: Are there any other performers or companies who have inspired you in the work you now make?

Lucy: There have been so many inspirations. Ursula has been a massive influence and we’ve got a really specific way of working now by which I generally make the material and then she’ll come in and give feedback on it and help me shape it. She’s brilliant at doing that and she’s got such a naughty sense of humour so it’s worked really well.

Lauren is an incredible artist and has kind of paved the way in terms of the performance art stuff. And other influences – gosh I’ve got loads – David Hoyle is a massive influence, and Kim Noble. There’s a performance artist called Daniel Oliver who works in absurdity and awkwardness and I just love watching his stuff. I just want to be like that! But I think that’s what artists do all the time: taking these influences and letting them swim around in your own brain.

Q: What should audiences expect when they come to see your show; what should we be looking forward to or threatened by?

Lucy: Well, on the one hand the audience can expect entertaining dance numbers, lovely songs and lots of really hilarious moments, and on the other hand I think they can expect to be a little bit challenged and made to think a lot; to have some good post-show conversations in the bar – hopefully.

Q: And finally, you’re performing back at the Soho Theatre again: I was wondering if there’s anything particularly exciting about performing specifically at the Soho?

Lucy: I think the show is great for having a really diverse range of audience, because you’ll have people from so many different walks of life that will go there, whether that be because they’re literally walking past on the street, or they work locally and they like to go to theatre after work, or just because it’s a very central location. I also think they’ve got a really good reputation around artists and lots of more edgy performance artists. They do loads of comedy and stuff so I think it is a great place to get your work out there and not know exactly who is going to be in your audience. Whereas, with some of the venues, sometimes you can feel like it might be the same people a lot, or you’re performing to your friends, so it’s a great opportunity to get your work out there. I also think they do a good job at programming really interesting stuff and you know there’s a million different options for what to get for dinner, so it’s great!

Thank you very much to Lucy for being such a delight to speak to this morning. I very much look forward to seeing her show next month. Make sure to catch Lucy McCormick: Triple Threat at the Soho Theatre, Monday 11th to Saturday 16th December 2017, 9.45pm.

Interview by Joseph Winer

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Following smash-hit sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Soho Theatre, Triple Threat returns to Soho Theatre for one week only from the 11th – 16th December 2017.

United Agents & Soho Theatre present Lucy’s provocative and subversive cabaret show that retells the greatest story of all time. Triple Theatre gives the most unique twist to be seen on stage in the run up to Christmas.

Casting herself in all the main roles, Lucy attempts to reconnect to her own moral conscience by re-enacting the New Testament via a nu-wave holy trinity of dance, power ballads and absurdist art.

Triple Threat was commissioned by hÅb and Contact for Works Ahead, with support from Soho Theatre, Cambridge Junction and the Marlborough and funding from Arts Council England and is directed by Ursula Martinez.

Listings Information: Dates: 11th – 16th December Lucy McCormick Soho Theatre 21 Dean Street, London, 020 7478 0100 Time: 9.45pm www.sohotheatre.com

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