Shane’s in Vegas for the Amaz!ng Meeting this weekend, so last night I took advantage of my night alone to watch Teeth. Which is just as well; the many scenes of gratuitous male genital mutilation probably would have sent him fleeing from the living room in hysterics. Yes, a damn shiny movie, ’tis.
In honor of a film about misogyny and the oppression of female sexuality, a few videos that celebrate female sexuality.
Empowerful!
(In order: Consolidated - You Suck; Salt-n-Pepa - Let’s Talk About Sex; and the Divinyls - I Touch Myself)
This pretty much speaks to how I’ve been feeling this week, especially in light of the pending Democratic party implosion. Can’t we all just get along?
Since Memorial Day is this weekend, for this week’s lineup, I’m posting a few classic anti-war songs: I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag by Country Joe McDonald; War by Edwin Starr; and Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols (Is this the m.p.l.a / Or is this the u.d.a / Or is this the i.r.a / I thought it was the u.k or just / Another country).
While you’re out there soaking up the sun and Boca Burgers, remember:
On Memorial Day we’ll hear about men who gave their lives for their country, but many lives were not given, they were taken, and taken stupidly and carelessly. And there has been great public piety about those men and their “sacrifice” on the part of politicians who blithely sacrificed them.
I have two not-so-random songs for your listening pleasure tonight: Morrissey’s Meat is Murder and Me and a Gun by Tori Amos. The first video has some fairly graphic images of animal abuse, and the comments thread for the second is riddled with misogynist trolls. So watch and/or browse with caution.
And since these are both somewhat depressing choices, some loldogz after the jump. Smile, it be Friday, yo!
This week, I’ve only got one video for y’all, since it’s my birthday and I really shouldn’t be wasting it on the internets. My lone offering is Spoon’s The Underdog, which has always reminded me of Dennis Kucinich. Whenever it’s on the xm, I just close my eyes and imagine it’s his theme song, blaring in the background while he’s sworn into office on a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Then I snap out of it and curse the two-party system.
Hezbollah fighters, their guns blazing, seized control of west Beirut on Friday after three days of deadly street battles with pro-government foes pushed Lebanon dangerously close to all-out civil war.
Convoys of triumphant Shiite opposition gunmen firing into the air and flashing victory signs took to the streets after routing Sunni militants loyal to the Western-backed government of the divided nation.
As the fighting eased, the army and police moved across areas now in the hands of Iranian- and Syrian-backed opposition forces which have been locked in an 18-month power struggle with the ruling coalition.
Great feminist-minded country dominated my mp3 player yesterday, so I’m in a hardy candy kind of mood today. Here are three of my favorite country songs (mostly oldies, the newer stuff generally doesn’t do it for me): Loretta Lynn’s “The Pill”, Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA”, and The Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl”. You’ll have to excuse the awful misogynistic video for “The Pill” - ’twas the only listen-able video I could find. Well, not so much “excuse” as “ignore” or “don’t watch, just listen”.
And to round out to selection, NOFX’s “Clams Have Feelings Too”. I think this is one of the songs NOFX initially wrote to mock the concept of animal rights, but the band’s singer did go veg in the late ’80s, and the track is included on PETA’s compilation album, Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA. And really, I think it’s a relatively animal-friendly song either way.
Friday Activist Vlogging = Friday Veggie Vlogging, but with extra awesome inclusiveness. In addition to animal-friendly musak, I’ll be posting feminist, green, pro-GLBT, anti-racist, -sizeist and -ageist, and otherwise librul/progressive songs. Hopefully in multiples every Friday.
Fridays through Sundays are also awfully mofo busy for me, so this should be much easier than trying to cram in a substantial post or a link roundup. Again, we’ll see how long this lasts. And if you don’t hear from me again ’till Sunday, it’s because I’m busy doing first time homeowner stuff, like cleaning up the junk pile the old owners left in the back of the property. (There’s literally a kitchen sink back there, no lying.)
This week’s entry is inspired by the site Stuff White People Like and, more specifically, Elaine’s series of posts on their posts on veganism, dog-love and other so-called white yuppie concerns. Because, like, only privileged white people can be bothered to exercise compassion through their food choices.
Like, um, this guy:
Who’s “kickin’ it” to a song by…dead prez, “a critically acclaimed underground hip-hop duo…they are largely known for their hard-hitting style combined with Socialist and pan-Africanist lyrics, focusing on revolution, institutional racism, critical pedagogy, police, capitalism, education in the United States, prison systems, religion, activism against governmental repression, and corporate control over the media, especially hip-hop record labels.” [Via Wiki]
