whatever happened to julie ruin?

lately i've been feeling nostalgic for the riot grrls of yesteryear.

queercore is practically mainstream nowadays, and it kinda takes the fun and subversive nature out of gay punk/indie music. queer punk is suffering from the same downfall of original punk music... with notoriety and publicity comes a sort of grudging recognition and acceptance. which is exactly what punk tries NOT to achieve. rebelling ceases to exist when it's done en masse. don't get me wrong, i'm not saying it's a bad thing that queer rock has made its mark, it's fantastic! that's a central goal (among others, of course) of the marginalized, right? to get your voice heard, make some changes, stir up issues, shift the current ways of thinking? it makes me smile to turn on a radio station and hear, say, tegan & sara.

BUT I WANT MORE.

it's queer-lite nowadays, if you will. what next? where has the spark gone? issues haven't quelled, but the diy spirit kinda has. sure, there are some great groups out there today, such as scream club, boyskout, girl in a coma and the dead betties. but they don't come around here. hiding in the safeland of the west coast and vancouver, if they tour, they skip right over detroit and hide away in nyc.

NOT VERY SUBVERSIVE OF YOU.

those little 80s/90s homocore pioneers traveled all over and would play wherever to just get heard. groups today have it much easier and seem to only be playing where it's comfortable. how un-punk.

and how unfair to these groups that fought for you to even get gigs. i want some riotous, angry, fun, tongue-in-cheek, black eye-inducing, laugh-out-loud, fuck your mother, 'recruit them all' queer kind of music! and i know i'm not alone. where are the pansy divisions, bikini kills, hedwigs, team dresches, and vaginal creme davises of today? staying away from the midwest, for sure... my little homo heart is aching for some REVOLUTION! and if you're one of these groups scared of big, bad michigan ~ you can all crash at my place, i'll book you and show you it's not so bad.

let me end this short little rant with the lyrics from classic bikini kill song by ms julie ruin herself, kathleen hanna. this track is called 'i like fucking':

Hey! do you believe there's anything

Beyond troll guy reality?

I do, I do, I do

It gets so hard

Just to be okay

Sometimes being happy baby

Is what I'm most afraid of

Baby, you know,

It gets so hard for me to fight

I don't know how

I guess I never did

Why don't you show me how

How to lose control?

She's so very, 'I don't care'

Just cuz my world, sweet sister

Is so fucking goddamn full of rape

Does that mean my body must always be

a source of pain?

No, no, no

She's so very 'I don't care.'

Just cuz I named it right here sweet Chickadee

Don't mean for a minute you should think

I'm opposite of anything

But if you wanna know for sure I'll tell you

We're not gonna prove nothing nothing

Sittin around watching each other starve

What we need is action/strategy

I want, I want, I want

I want it now

I believe in the radical possibilities of pleasure, babe

I do, I do, I do

oral sex causing cancer?

so the washington post is now reporting this.


Previous research has found that up to 50 percent of nonsmokers with throat and mouth cancers were infected with HPV, according to the study.

get your dental dams and condoms out kids. tongue cancer's on the rise, and doctors apparently naively believed that getting people to stop smoking and drinking would eradicate throat and mouth cancer.

this is yet another excuse to get that hpv vaccine, even if you're not covered under FDA approval... by one year... like me. but i'm not personalizing or anything.

why, you ask?

why have i not posted in what feels like a cyber-millenium? i've been busy would be an understatement. i've been moving, heaving, hauling, cramming, squeezing, sneezing (new animal allergies) and panic-attacking my way to a new apartment. i'm trying my best (and pretty much failing miserably) to cram an apartment's worth of furniture into an already furnished place. 5 rooms of stuff needs to be crammed into empty room and 3 full ones. my legs are covered hip to ankle with bruises, and the (formerly) well-manicured lawn behind my place now has foot-deep ruts marring its expanse due to a minivan-stuck-in-the-mud disaster. my paycheck will likely be demolished as well once the complex owners discover them. the maintenance crew put new tile in the bathroom, but destroyed the cabinets, removed everything, replaced nothing and left black gunk in both the sink and bathtub. my new roommate is out of town for a few days, and has yet to see the disaster that is her place, thank gods, else she'd be freaking out more than yours truly. at least i'm totally and completely out of my old apt. i have no money, but have to find a way to construct floor-to-ceiling shelving in order to make more room. it's no secret that i'm less than handy, so if anyone has extra tips on how to build them, or how to make tons of extra space and save a ton of cash, please let me know!! if i only had an extra studio to make all of my stuff fit...*sigh*

GABnet 3 unfairly detained in the philippines

dr. annalisa enrile, the head of gabriela network USA, a us-philippines women's solidarity group, along with two of its founders, have been watchlisted and subsequently banned from coming back into the us after attending the 10th Women's International Solidarity Affair. enrile, ninotchka rosca and judith mirkinson, have been unfairly detained by filipino leader gloria macapagal arroyo. macapagal arroyo is obviously flexing her political muscles, as there is no real reason to hold the ladies unless there is some kind of perceived threat from them. what, they're protesting the massive amounts of murder, rape, and abuse of hundreds of people, particularly women, living and working under her rule? how DARE they!? injustice and her intimidation tactics must be exposed, and obviously should not be tolerated. vigils were held in their honor yesterday in chicago, ny, san francisco, and la in front of the philippine consulate offices. (i know, i've dropped the ball a bit on this one, but i've been swamped with work lately...) anyway, today, they're to attempt boarding a flight ~ i'll be waiting to see if they arrive home safely :)

the yin and yang of it all...

this made me smile... and then this made me frown.

in the same paper, the same city, the same day. two steps forward, one step back. or is it one step forward, two steps back? hmm...

happy friday, all

comfort for 'comfort women?'

i came across this article today in the bbc news. of course our government, as bullies of the world, is yet again pushing others to claim responsibility for wrongdoing. but at least in this case, it's justified.

the idea of 'comfort women' bends my stomach in ways it just should not warp. these poor women, and japan's denial to compensate them, is atrocious, as PM Shinzo Abe apologizes for the rampant sex slavery induced (after getting flack for denying its existence), yet will not recognize a necessity to act further. this article discusses the issue a bit more clearly.

ugh. politicians are sleazy and doublespeaky everywhere. he's acknowledging spilling the milk but refusing to wipe away the puddle.

the act passed holds japan to no promises of reparations, and abe's apology smacks of media motivation and insincerity, as he just lost upper house control, and is less than popular with japan's citizens (see here.)