Kitchen Girrrls

WARNING THIS WILL MAKE YOU HUNGRY:





Kitchen Girrrls

I'm so excited!

I can't believe Kathleen Hanna is performing again!

In December 2010, Kathleen Hanna and former Bikini Kill band mate Kathi Wilcox previewed a performance of their new project The Julie Ruin at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn


who is Julie Ruin?

Julie Ruin is the independent record produced by Kathleen Hanna under the name Julie Ruin in 1997, while taking a break from Bikini Kill. It touches upon feminism, crocheting, aerobics and resisting police abuse. It was mostly produced in Kathleen's apartment in Olympia, Washington. Despite this project mostly being known for the album, Kathleen Hanna started collaborating with her friends Sadie Benning and Johanna Fateman in order to create a live version of Julie Ruin.





** update -- A friend just watched this ^ video and said: "was that fat phobic though?"
I sadly said yes. In order to provoke laughter and illustrate her embarrassment Hanna uses a half naked picture of a fat woman's body passed out. Fat phobia is all around us. Using Violent, humiliating, and fragmented imagery of fat female bodies is not fucking cool. Although Hanna is a feminist rebel grrrl trying to revamp her career, it is still necessary to critique and question her privilege and presence as a white, able-bodied, skinny, cis-gendered female.

( thanks Kyle )

The Riot Grrrl Archives

The Riot Grrrl Collection is an attempt to document the evolution of the Riot Grrrl movement, particularly in the years between 1989 and 1996. Because Riot Grrrl was (and is) both a political and a cultural movement, its output was diverse, including writing, music, performance, film, activism, photography, video, and original art, as well as documentation of activism and performance. This research collection will provide primary resources for scholars who are interested in feminism, punk activism, queer theory, gender theory, DIY culture, and music history.

The primary area of collecting is the personal papers of those involved in the creation of early Riot Grrrl zines, music, and activism. This includes (but is not limited to) correspondence, artwork, journals and notebooks, audio or video recordings, photographs, clippings, and flyers, as well as any source materials relating to the creation of artworks, writings, fanzines, bands, performances or events.

The Fales Riot Grrrl Collection is not just a zine collection, although zines and other non-unique items will be collected to augment research. The collection's primary mandate is to collect unique materials that provide documentation of the creative process of individuals and the chronology of the movement overall.

(Via NYU )


Interview: Kathleen Hanna on The Raincoats and Building an Archive

Is your vinyl collection really awesome?

I do have a good vinyl collection. I think I might just bring some 7” and my computer to DJ though and just go back and forth because I just don’t want to carry 12”. I would just have to bring so many and I’m into 7” right now.

Are you super obsessive about your record collection, too? Is it obsessively archived?

No, I’m a total slob when it comes to stuff like that. I mean, I listen to mp3s on my computer more than anything,

But how long did it take to make your archive for NYU and did you like the process?

It took like 6 months. I mean, I had everything, it was just a matter of organizing it and going through. Bikini Kill broke up in ’98 and it was 2009 or 2008 when I started working on it. So that’s 10 years and I hadn’t looked at any of that stuff. I had my intern Kate help me and sort through everything and I just sat in my office and looked through every piece of paper and had to make decisions. I did a lot of writing that I never showed anybody back then. About what I thought about the scene or what was going on within riot grrrl. That seemed too inflammatory at the time, but now I included all of that. But I’m happy it’s for scholars, not everyone in the world. The fact that the collection is meant to be viewed as a whole, you have to sign a piece of paper saying you’re not going to put it on the internet, you can’t go in there with chocolate or BBQ sauce all over your hands.

It’s interesting that you say you want scholars to see it.

I mean I’ve been in that same position too, like even in the 90’s. We were all reading bell hooks and her whole thing was being this super smart interesting intellectual who wrote books that most anyone could understand. And I think that we learned a lot from her. And it was like, How do I turn this into a punk song? And for us, that really addressed the question of theory versus practice. That was how we bridged that gap and how we answered those questions for ourselves. And you know, my sister and me were the first generation in my family to like, go to and finish college. So I always felt like it was like my duty to make sure that people who didn’t necessarily get to go to college, which was an amazing experience for me and I always felt lucky I got to go, that I could share. And not to dumb them down, but to put them out there for people that weren’t academics. Just because you’re not an academic doesn’t mean you’re a dumbass.

via fader mag

Remembering Ari Up Of The Slits

RIP Ari Up ... she was only 48.



Do you ever just feel like you're tired of people dying? Your friends die and your heroes die and it's just a sh** reminder that one day we're all going to die. Last night we learned that Arianna Forster, a.k.a Ari Up from The Slits, has passed away after a serious illness. She was only 48 years old. The Slits! THE SLITS!


The Slits were a life-changing band that made life-changing music. What does life-changing mean? It means someone puts a song on a mix tape or throws a record on and you stop dead in your tracks because now, whatever path you were on no longer exists. In that moment, you think of histrionic and cliche things such as "from this day forward" and "from here on out," and you hope to God you have the conviction to follow through with all the things this music has inspired you to do. And, hey, you don't always do them, or all of them, but the fact that some song like "Typical Girls" — with it's swirling punch punch punch of a melody — makes you think that you're capable and bold and a little on fire, well isn't that what music is for?

Not once did a Slits song cease to amaze me, not after repeat listens, literally hundreds of listens. Not once did they fail to excite or inspire me, to make me a worshipper of rhythm, chaos and of attitude. The Slits were giants and they only grew bigger and more potent over the years. Their album Cut — on which the band is pictured topless and caked in mud — is nothing short of a pinnacle. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Cut sat there in the record collections — of both musicians and fans - -as the dynamic, the sound and the uniqueness for which to strive.

But the Slits and Ari Up were and are inimitable — a singular and spectacular force. That's why I'm so shocked and saddened that Ari Up is gone, it creates a glaring hole in a sonic legacy short on pioneers. Damn. So tough.

via Carrie Brownstein on the NPR blog

Gender Studies: What Histories Do We Want to Claim?

this is so inspiring. The amazing Ann Cvetkovich discusses lesbian separatism, Michigan's Womyns festival, contemporary queer cultures, Allyson Mitchell, and affective archives.

I freakin love Tavi's Rant about eighth grade boys! and if you don't know TAVI aka the "tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats." she blogs about fashion. shes wonderful!

this is a bit of her fierce rant:


"Stop making me feel like my body is my burden. Do I, or any other girls, find you to be attractive? Helllllll no. But we don’t stare at your bodies and then whisper to our friends! We are polite! I don’t know if this is because girls are told to keep quiet, or because we are totally over bullying, but whatever! You are assholes in many more ways, but I only have 8 more days of you! Then freshman year, you will maybe be a little more like real people, but not entirely, because you’ll want to make sure everyone knows how cool you are since it’s freshman year and there are all these new people! And by people, I mean chicks! For you to be rude to while making them feel like they’re lucky to have your rudeness bestowed upon them! And for you to grab their ass, and then make them feel like that’s supposed to be a compliment! Sexual harassment/assault is totally flattering! It means you like her!" read more on her tumblr

Erase Errata

LAS ROBERTAS


Cry Out Loud is comprised of ten mesmeric pieces that go from cold to sweaty, always keeping a cohesive charm that enforces the practice crying out loud as long as one smiles out loud. It’s this kind of fainted subtext that raises Las Robertas from the crowd of punky chicks trying to exemplify today’s riot girl. -club fanograma

Las Robertas - Back to the End from Diego Arias on Vimeo.

fraeulein zucker

dear diary

peace to you too, motherfucker

DES ARK

Riot Grrrl Manifesto

BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways. BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other’s work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other. BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own moanings. BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo. BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things. BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can’t play our instruments, in the face of “authorities” who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and…. BECAUSE we don’t wanna assimilate to someone else’s (boy) standards of what is or isn’t BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary “reverse sexists” AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOULCRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock “you can do anything” idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours. BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives. BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process. BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards. BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl=Dumb, Girl=Bad, Girl=Weak BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.

"The Riot Grrrl Movement began in the early 1990s by Washington State band Bikini Kill and lead singer Kathleen Hanna.The riot grrrl manifesto was published 1991 in the BIKINI KILL ZINE 2"

The Runaways: Old School Riot Grrrl!

Im not sure about the twilight chick, but I love the Runaways, and the amazing Floria Sigismondi is directing!... so it must be pretty rad!

Lets get wild!

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

I know this video has been out for awhile, but it must be shared!
When I first saw this I was consumed with this youthful angst. It gave me that feeling of growing up and out of my old shell...a kind of ferocious metamorphosis! and all those leaves flying around are so appropriate for this windy November day.

Who wants to make a movie with me?

Joanie 4 Jackie from Miranda July on Vimeo.

Oh Ms July! your riot girl bleach blonde fro and DIY ambition really makes me happy, warm and fuzzy! So when i found out that Miranda July and a group of NY college students were reviving Joanie 4 Jackie I almost pooped myself!

What its all about:

YOU ALWAYS SUSPECTED IT, AND NOW YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE:

Girls and women are making movies every day.

EVERY woman who sends her movie to Joanie 4 Jackie receives a Chainletter tape. Each tape is an unpredictable compilation of 10 lady-made movies including her own. These video Chainletters and their companion Viewer's Digests are part of a continual correspondence between women moviemakers and with you.

The first 7 Chainletters are available for you to own.

MOVIE MAKING

There's two variables on the video camera. There's the lens: The eye. This is the same eye that's watching you all the time anyways if you're a woman. Especially in public, but even when you're alone in your room. The eye is programmed into your brain. When you are making a movie you stop pretending that you aren't aware of the eye. THEY ARE LOOKING AT YOUR ASS NO MATTER WHAT YOU WEAR.
THE DAD IN YOUR HEAD WATCHED YOU MASTURBATE.
YOU BRUSH YOUR HAIR INTO THE THE SHAPE OF THE HOLE IN HIS HEART. You stop pretending that you are innocent and unaffected by the eye. You turn and face it: the camera. You look into its eye and see yourself and you say: "I see you watching me." I know you are there and I'm not embarrassed to admit it. I admit the role I play everyday in this movie made not by me. I'm not embarrassed because just surviving being watched everyday has trained me to be an expert on the eye. Every woman is an expert on the eye. An expert actress, and an expert at controlling situations while being watched. THIS IS MOVIE MAKING. And making movies means that you are a watcher. Of course you are. You have to be self-conscious all the time just to take care of yourself. So there's the eye and there's one other variable: the on/off button, which is about control. Because this is the one time that you can turn the eye off. You can keep secrets or you can tell lies or you can tell the real truth thru manipulation of the eye-on / eye-off. I'm talking about editing. Editing equals gorgeous control. DEAR DR. WILKINS, I AM MAKING A MOVIE. IT IS ABOUT OUR APPOINTMENTS. I JUST THOUGH I WOULD WARN YOU. DEAR DAD, I AM MAKING A MOVIE. IT IS ABOUT YOU. I PLAY THE PART OF YOU.

DEAR CARRIE, I AM MAKING A MOVIE. IT IS ABOUT THAT GAME WE USED TO PLAY CALLED EVERLASTING LOVE IN THE SHADOW OF THE BLANKET. I WANT YOU TO BE THE LEADING LADY.

the website