Impressive protesting in London

Protesting sexist new laws regulating pornography in the UK, participants chanted: "What do we want? Face-sitting! When do we want it? Now!" Um-- I can't believe these types of morality regulations are still being implemented. Article

Anna Karina can even make buses beautiful ...

Angel Olsen- Stars

I'd like to once again profess my love for Angel Olsen's "new" album (Feb. 2014). The latest song I'm falling all over my self for is "Stars". I was going to simply attach an album version of the song, but YouTube offered up this gold:



One of the things that I like about this track is Olsen's stream of consciousness/fearless lyrics.

I wish I had the voice of everything.
I wish I had the voice of everything.
To scream the animals, to scream the earth.
To screams the stars out of our universe.

Olsen's guttural, twangy, searching vocals climb and fall and make you believe her unbelievable words. These words are expressions of things that we can't usually express- they sound like colours a painter would use, unleashed when nothing else seems to make sense or satisfy. And this video is great because Olsen delivers all this pain and frustration and exhilaration with a stoic stare. Just look at her eyes.

cell phone photography + android photoshop

Apartment corridor

South Philly pizza

Self-portrait (by apartment window)

Angel Olsen- Forgiven/Forgotten

Music and the politics of place- Broken Deer and Theesatisfaction

Alright-- so these two seemingly very different albums- Polaraura, by Broken Deer and Sandra Bollocks Black Baby, by Theesatisfaction- share an interesting thematic connection. The songs "My Heart's in the Highlands" and "Born Identity" both discuss, in very different words, references and sounds the way we understand our identities, our destinies, our histories, our dreams and visions as connected with our respective space. Both vocalists are women and through their lyrics we glean that their being women bears some importance. My Heart's in the Highlands is the title of an 18th Century Robert Burns poem about attachments and longing for the highlands of the "North", but the song in question (which was recorded in and drew influence from Whitehorse, Yukon- a "forgotten wilderness- within themselves") contains different lyrics- ones that reflect a more mysterious and feminine relationship between the land and the artist. The sounds Broken Deer generate are absolutely beautiful and searching and expansive and solitary.
The second track is from Theesatisfaction (for the life of me, I could not get the html link to embed in this post--

 %$#%$#a.ekt ahbvl.ea vr$%^$*

.... i'm over it though.. so I've attached a link to the webpage where you can play the track).

"Born Identity" is similar to "My Heart's in the Highlands" insofar as it makes great use of minimalist sound composition and it is explicitly dealing with the topic of identity as it is formed through one's space and place. Stas, however, does not paint a picture of solitude with her words. Her space is that into which she is born and takes claim of, not through some seemingly deep historical, mystical or natural connection, but through articulating her familiarity with the city she inhabits by way of chance and with which she continues to identify, by choice. Her world is loud and crowded, while Broken Deer's is absolutely silent, save the violent sounds of nature.

It's hard for me to not think about how the history of race is present in these songs. -- but since I know far too little about the politics of the former artist I will abstain. Both songs (and BD's video) are nonetheless stunning.

 

**Apologies if this post is jumbly.. I wasn't planning on writing tonight update:

Q-Tip - Let's Ride