The History of My Future

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Girls! Girls! Girls!

In extra celebration of today's 19th Amendment anniversary, here is an interview with Liz Phair on npr.org discussing the 15th anniversary reissue (out June 24th) of her poignant debut album, Exile in Guyville.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91142975

Phair will also be giving four acoustic performances of the album, but all but San Fran is sold out. So Cali buy your tix on ticketmaster, the rest of ya, SNEAK IN!

6/23 in San Francisco at The Fillmore
6/24 in Chicago at The Vic (SOLD OUT!)
6/25 in New York at the Hiro Ballroom (SOLD OUT!)
6/26 in New York at the Hiro Ballroom (SOLD OUT!)

Also, this is an awesome performance by her on SQUIRT tv from the late great '90s. Oh how did I sneak downstairs after my parents had gone to bed to watch that show!

LAST THING! Here's another really great memory blog that I just found about Liz and the reissue:

http://hungryhearted.blogspot.com/2008/04/exile-in-guyville-reissue.html

Such a shame that her last album was such a bomb. :(

Nomination Goes to Obama but Don't Hate on Your Mama!

Sixty-two years after the date (June 3, 1946) the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregated interstate bus travel leading to the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the very first black man has received a nomination for presidential candidate. Not only did he receive the nomination, but he won it against an opponent who happens to be the first woman to furvently campaign for the position, and who just may end up running alongside him as his VP (His very loving remarks in his acceptance speech last night may begin to justify those rumors.)

In further coincidental moments in history, today (June 4) marks the anniversary of the approval of the 19th Amendment in 1919. Also on this day, I received a sad email from the Hunter College listserv regarding the infamously brash (and sexist) Chris Matthews speaking at the college's commencement ceremony today. The email is below:

HUNTER COMMENCEMENT DEGRADED BY THE INCLUSION OF INVITED SPEAKER CHRIS MATTHEWS

June 1, 2008

Dear Hunter College Community,

As you may know, MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews has been invited to speak at Hunter’s graduation day ceremony on Wednesday, June 4th. Administrative staff at Hunter looked for a speaker who could address political issues in this election year and decided to invite MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. After agreeing to speak, Olbermann then backed out of his commitment and instead of returning to the drawing board, a Hunter staff member called MSNBC to see who they could send in Olbermann’s place. Matthews was offered and accepted. There was no formal vetting or real consideration given to the selection of this particular graduation speaker.

Mr. Matthews has gained notoriety throughout the country for years of insensitive, sexist comments on his show “Hardball” and his insulting treatment of women—not only, most visibly, Senator Clinton but also his television colleagues who happen to be female.
Matthews referred to Clinton as a "she devil," called her a "strip-teaser" and "witchy." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." He has commented on the physical appearance of women including his CNBC colleague Erin Burnett, calling her “beautiful” and “a knockout” during a discussion of economic news. In an interview with John and Elizabeth Edwards, Matthews asked the former Senator, “Does she bite your balls like this when you go home?” He then went on to ask, “What is this with the equal marriages? Why do people marry their equals? It used to be different. What happened to the Stepford wives? The good old days?” These are but a small sample of Matthews’s on-air sexist comments.

It is, in our view, disgraceful for Hunter College, for all of us who love this institution and most of all for our present and future students who look to Hunter as a bastion of women’s empowerment, to confer this honor on someone whose words in public so contradict the most basic feminist and civic values. Inviting him to be our speaker is asking him to represent Hunter College on this important occasion, and this should never have happened. We are outraged.

We urge President Jennifer Raab to adopt a process in the future that would prevent such mistakes. We hope you’ll join us in this call to improve the process by which the college selects commencement speakers. Write to President Raab to encourage her to establish a more careful, transparent, and democratic process. Her email address is: jennifer.raab@hunter.cuny.edu.

Sincerely,
Students, Adjunct Faculty, Policy Committee of the
Women and Gender Studies Program

While many of the quotes in this letter are not word for word, I did find the correct ones, and they are pretty damn close. (i.e. Does she bust your balls like this when you come home?, and more!)

Some people take Matthews as an innocent blowhard-- a comedian or entertainer of sorts-- but when he is delivering comedic "news" commentary, perhaps he should be on Comedy Central right between The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Regardless of his intentions, I agree he is not the appropriate choice for a college graduation.

This is not to say I hate chauvinistic comedians. So, here's Andrew Dice Clay talking about how much he likes Bush (I can't tell if this is political commentary or not.)

OOOOOoooooh!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Up On The Roof

Good Night. Goodnight.

A Teenage Dream

Okay, so I guess I am managing to drag my birthday out to the full two weeks, even if the last few days have only been on the WWW. Whatevs.

Winnie's is one of my favorite scummy karaoke joints in the city. I began a tradition of going there on Thanksgiving two years ago, even though my boyfriend at the time ended up so drunk he ran out in the street and got hit by a car (Don't worry. He lived.) There's an old fellow named Jim who is always there that only sings classic crooner tunes of the 1950's and 60's. He sang "Sixteen Candles" and dedicated it to me the other night. It must have been my purity that gave him the idea as you can see.