Saturday Wrap Party: But Why Is The Rum Gone

Oh what a week it has been, kittyboots. Hope everything is going well. It's the big push before Thanksgiving and then, before you know it, Christmas will be right around the corner! I'm already listening to my yultide tunes on repeat..yes I'm one of THOSE people. So sue me.

But anyhoosale, a lot has been going down around the internets this week, but that is why you're invited, every week, no cover charge, to the RPR Saturday Wrap Party!

It's pretty much the social event of the season. So let's dive right in, shall we? The water's fine.

+ just dance

A;ex and Stef from Autostraddle have made a video for Lady Gaga's new single, "Bad Romance." There is dancing and ukelele. That is all.

+ a grain of salt

Dorothy Surrenders takes a look at the new Angelina Jolie action movie, "Salt," opening this summer.

+ testing testing

Grace Fox from Grace the Spot gives those hetra-sexuals a pop quiz to see if they could cut it as a real lez girl.

+ how did we get here
Arlan from Your Daily Lesbian Moment proves that hot girls make everything better with Paramore's rendition of that Kings of Leon song that will not die, "Use Somebody."

+ don't they know, it's the end of the world

I rarely watch Oprah, but even she's getting out while the gettin is good as she announces the end of her show in 2011. (via The Huffington Post)

+ hired a construction crew, cause it's hell on the engine

+Feministing looks at a game that tries to be proactive, and yet went terribly, terribly wrong.

Jessica Valenti v. Bust Magazine

On Sunday, an article ran in the NY Times. They were interviewing one of my heroes in life, Feministing.com editor/co-creator and author/feminist extraordinaire, Jessica Valenti. I was reading along happily about her views on the internet and "fourth wave" feminism, but then everything came to a screeching halt.

"Q. How large is your readership?

A. This past month we had over 600,000 readers. Unless there’s some feminist publication I’m unaware of, we’re the most widely read feminist publication that there is.

Q. What publications are you comparing yourself
with?

A. There’s Ms. magazine and there’s Bitch. Bust used to be a feminist magazine, but now it’s more crafty and about making things out of yarn. I’m not a D.I.Y. feminist. I once tried knitting a scarf but threw it away after 15 minutes."

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what?

Now, as you probs know, my loyalties also lie deeply with Bust Magazine. It is my all-time fav magazine of all-time after all. It is smart, hip and yes crafty, but also delightfully feminist.

That's the great thing about Bust. It's what sets it apart from any other magazine out there. They run stories about music, fashion, crafts, pop culture and news, all things you would find in a typical magazine, but with a feminist twist.

But anyways, I'm not trying to take sides, because I do love them both dearly. But the fact that someone I admire so much would make such a flippant comment like that is really distressing to me.

I think Debbie Stoller, Editor-in-Chief of Bust, put it best when she stated on the magazine's website,

"Here at BUST, we've always been supportive of other feminists. Always. We don't hold a narrow view of what feminism means, and understand that there are different ways of being feminist.

For fuck's sake, Jessica, so you don't enjoy knitting, and that makes BUST not a feminist magazine?

I'd never criticize Jessica's approach to covering feminist issues. Never. But really, this kind of girl-on-girl crime? Not feminist. At all."

I really can't stand all the in-fighting that goes on within the feminist movement. If we spent less time battling each other and deciding what qualifies as "feminist" and just respected each other's views and helped each other everything would so great. Sunshine and rainbows totes forreals. C'mon ladies. Lets get it together.

New Music Tuesday: Norah Jones

Norah Jones can be a hard person for her fans to follow steadily. She pops up from time to time in obscure musical endeavors like The Little Willies, El Madmo, and performing with the Foo Fighters, and The Peter Malak Group.

I even have a Chinese version of "My Blueberry Nights" (Norah’s first foray into acting, with Jude Law oddly enough, but there's a Cat Power song in the trailer!) because I couldn’t find it in the States for the longest time.

Now she is making her way back from the shadows into the light again with a new haircut and her fourth studio album, “The Fall,” which was released today.

Following her career religiously, since 2003, has been an interesting experience. I have driven six hours (granted that would have been shorter if map quest didn’t suck) non-stop to see her perform in an opera house, found one of her secret projects by accident at Waterloo, a CD superstore in Austin, and almost re-bought “Come Away With Me” just because it was in that iTunes LP format.

Listening to “The Fall” makes my love of Norah stronger than ever. None of her albums really have the same sound, and that's a good thing, but she still manages to maintain her balance of soft, soothing tunes. Each one also sounds distinct, so it feels like you are truly listening to an album, not the same song on repeat.

As far as what songs are going to become singles, I can’t really say with the exception of “Chasing Pirates,” which is already a single. The one I am pulling for the most though is “Back to Manhattan.”

With every album, she gets a little bit braver and a little more entertaining. Take a look at her videos for proof of this. The “Come Away With Me” album had videos that were all straightforward and honestly lame for the most part. The first videos were her driving a car, or walking on a beach.

With “Feels Like Home” she got a little more creative bringing us musicians in trees and a hula and “Not Too Late” brought us stop-motion creatures. So far, from “The Fall” we have Norah piloting a New York City building as a pirate ship, so I think we are off to a good start.

Stay up to date on Norah by visiting her offical website or Myspace.

[This post was submitted by RPR's new Photographer at Large, A.J. from "Bathing in Fixer." When he's not busy taking photos and making graphics for me, he busies himself by obsessing over Norah Jones and any other pretty lady with a piano or acoustic guitar.]

Saturday Wrap Party: Vote For Courtney

Welcome back to the Saturday Wrap Party!

It's that time of the week where I give you the lowdown on all the things you shouldn't have missed on the interwebs.

So let's jump right in for all of your reading pleasure, don't worry, it's a short one this week.





+rock the vote
Feministing editor, Courtney Martin, is in the running to be the Washington Post's Next Great Pundit!

+ceo of ideas
Autostraddle reveals how their new music blog, Audiostraddle, came to be.

+alternative to what
News flash! The Oink Joint exists!

+this just ouch
just. read this. that's all.

Lilith Fair Showdown

The predictions for Lilith Fair are out in full force now that they have officially announced the first batch of cities. Industry insiders are already scouting everyone on the label over at Netwerk (home of our beloved Uh Huh Her) and some familiar faces from years past.

But with 2010 quickly approaching, we need to get things straight. I want to know who is gonna be at this girl-fest I've been waiting half my life for.

So, for your entertainment, discussion and enjoyment, Team RPR has cleared up who really needs to be at Lilith Fair with this nifty bracket system. It's like the Superbowl play-off, half-time, full-court system. You know the one.

The only rules for our play-offs are:

1. The nominees could not have attended the original Lilith Fair (just wanted to clear that up before you all start asking me where Alanis Morissette was)

and

2. The act must be primarily women*, obvs.

*Howevs, bands like the Ting Tings and She & Him are still acceptable since they have a prominent female member and although Lilith Fair celebrates women in music let's get our feminist cards out and remember teh mens.)

Click to ENLARGE!

So as you can see, Esthero is the number one lady I want to see at Lilith Fair next year. I think this is a pretty plausible option, since she does a lot of festivals in her native Canada and she's all about this feminism.

Anyways, this is a fun game to play with your friends. I even questioned my own lesbian credibility when the Uh Huh Her juggernaut fell to Natasha Bedingfield. Howevs, let me clarify, this list is based on many things such as live performances, studio albums and overall hotness. Of course this is all very scientific. I had to get out my beakers and my abbacus and everything.

So, try it on a napkin while you're waiting for the bus or when you should be taking notes in class. You don't have to narrow it down to 20 either, go through your whole iPod and let us know who your Lilith Fair 2 queen is!

"Oh Baby Baby.."

Over the past couple of days there have been numerous reports that hundreds of Britney Spears "fans" allegedly walked out of her concert in Perth, Australia last week.

The thing that gets me about this is, people were demanding their money back because she was *gasp* lip-syncing.

Really? Really Papi?

It took them 10+ years to figure out that Britney Spears lip-syncs in concert?

As you know, I am a huge Britney fan. I will not deny it. I also saw her on the first leg of the Circus Tour earlier this year and it wasn't really my favorite show of hers, but it was good. The Dream Within A Dream Tour was still totes my fav.

But anyways, for the most part it was standard Britney operating procedure. There was fire and confetti and things exploding and about a grillion costume changes and crazy video interludes and lights and dancing. Oh was there dancing.

But was there singing? No. Not really. You know why? Because Britney Spears has built an empire on the very fact that she does not sing live.

Ok, I take that back. She does sing sometimes. Sometimes she will pull out a stool and sing a slow song and during the fast ones, she does sing along periodically to a pre-recorded backing track of her own voice. You can always tell when she's in the mood to sing and when she's not, because it's really obvious when you hear her own, out-of-breath voice over the backing track.

Howevs, I could see these people actually having a valid point if:

1. She claimed she does not lip-sync

[But she doesn't, it's not a big secret. She knows it, I know it, you know it. No big deal]

or

2. She stood on stage the whole time in front of a microphone and based her fame off her vocal skills and then lip-synced in concert.

[But she doesn't, her concert is a SHOW. It's not about the singing, it's about the spectacle. If you're going to a Britney Spears show to hear her beautiful voice, you're just lying to yourself.]


I mean, if I went to a Kelly Clarkson show and she lip-synced, I would be pissed. If I went to see Ingrid Michaelson and she lip-synced I would be pissed. If I went to see Esthero and she lip-synced I would just cry and the world would explode. But, you get the picture.

Not many people lip-sync anymore, in fact I'm not sure anyone lip-syncs anymore besides Britney Spears, even when I went to the Spice Girls Reunion Tour they were really singing, and talk about a spectacle.

But, whatever, that's her thing and if you claim to be a "fan" of hers enough to go see her in concert, you should know what you're getting yourself into.

Additionally, according to the The Daily Mail, "politicians in three Australian states [are] calling for new laws to force music promoters to disclose whether a concert will be live or lip-synced."

And according to the NY Daily News, "Spears' Australian promoter, Paul Dainty, vehemently denies reports of mass walkouts in Australia, going so far as to say it is "the biggest lie I've ever heard.'"

So, do with that what you will.

To conclude, I present to you the most epic Britney performance I've ever had the pleasure of seeing live. To this day it is one of my fav. concert moments/openers, lip-syncing or otherwise.

Enjoy.

The Evolution of Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is one of few stars who have managed to transform from quirky hipster to high fashion sensation.

What I don't understand about Lady Gaga is that it seems like she has a different kind of fame. She's not as famous as say, Britney Spears, still has immense immense record sales.

What I mean is that she has a cult following, but she still manages to straddle the line between being "undeground" and being mainstream. She's not like Tegan and Sara, (who I love) who are crazy popular in their niche market, but I don't hear still don't hear them on the radio.

So how did Lady Gaga get so famous? What is that "it" factor? Let us take a mini trip down memory lane of a career that barely a year old. (In case you're a visual learner, I've also included the "Gaga Graph." Hey, if Alexa Chung doesn't want to do hers anymore, I'll take that idea and run with it. Click to enlarge!)


1. "Just Dance" was just the beginning. Aw, it's baby Gaga. She was still rocking the lightnening bolt at this time and this song had a distinctly different sound than anything else that was out on Top 40 radio at the time. Plus, everyone loves a good house party video. Remember "Before Your Love?" No? Ok, me neither.

2. "Poker Face" comes along and totes blows everything out of the water. You could NOT get away from that song. Why was this such a hit? I don't know. No one knows. All I know is that I had it on repeat for like two weeks straight.


3. "Eh, Eh, (Nothing Else I Can Say)" kinda tanked, let's be honest. I never understood why it was on the CD and understood it even less when I saw the video. Since this was the obligatory third single, I thought she was done with "The Fame" and we wouldn't hear anything else from her til the next album. I can admit when I'm wrong.

4. "LoveGame" was a pretty good video and Lady Gaga started to climb back up the charts. It was pretty successful, but nothing compared to "Poker Face." Still it was catchy and lent itself to multiple remixes and let's be honest, that beat is sick.

5. The last single off of "The Fame," "Paparazzi," is still my favorite Lady Gaga music video, because I enjoy videos that tell a story. I like the song and I thought the video was clever. I kind of wish this song was more popular, but I think it lacked the danceability factor that had her first two singles on heavy rotation.


And now, in case you missed it, I present to you the next in a long line of Lady Gaga videos.




Well, there you have it. Athough I'm not quite sure why she was on fire at the end, my conclusion is this: the theme of all these videos is, still, no pants, and that's fine by me. Bring it on Gaga, bring it on.