Scrape your knee; it is only skin

thedoppelganger: Rick Owens’ Paris Home, ph. François Halard,...

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:00:58 -0400

Rick Owens’ Paris Home, ph. François Halard, Wall Street Journal, Sunday, April 21, 2013

allthebirds: byaspringforaspell: “I’ve photographed Joanna...

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:34:28 -0400

byaspringforaspell:

“I’ve photographed Joanna Newsom a couple of times now and what stands out to me the most is her wicked sense of humour. The second time I met her we had to shoot in the local launderette because she had to do her laundry and had no other free time. I noticed as I was taking the photo of her sat in front of the machines that somebody had scratched ‘slut’ into the glass door above her head. “Leave it in” she insisted, “Don’t photoshop it out”. You can see it if you look close enough… As we drove her back to her hotel we passed a massive billboard of Razorlight. She gave them the two fingers and hollered “Fuck you Razorlight” as we zoomed through the heart of Shoreditch.”

- Cat Stevens

This quote is interesting to me for many reasons: people often do not discuss the (dark) humor in Joanna Newsom’s works or even the irony. That deeply saddens me, even though I have done nothing much about it myself. The Milk-Eyed Mender is full of humor and even songs like “Easy” are hilarious if we interpret them as sarcastic rather than coquettish.

But I think Cat Stevens errs when he says that she left the word “slut” on the machine because of her humor. Or maybe…he just omitted another reason why she insisted it remain there: her intellectual interests in female sexuality and how it is policed and interpreted. Songs like “Only Skin,” “Have One on Me,” and “‘81” show that Joanna is critically and deeply concerned with slut-shaming and gendered double standards. What is a “slut?” Is a slut real? How is it a figment of heteropatriarchy?

Moreover, if we consider the belt she is wearing (her “Bill” belt), how does the slut inscription add to the visual humor and irony of the scene? The belt is a dramatic and overexaggerated symbol of monogamy to a man, which Joanna explores time and time again as a symptom and expectation of femininity. How does the slut inscription problematize that symbol of monogamy? How does it show how female sexuality is policed? How does it show that the condemnation of “slut” always looms for women as a construct, even if they are “following the rules?” How do both the “Bill” belt and the slut inscription show that women are only reduced to their gatekeeping of sex? How does it show that all women must fall within the constraints of the madonna/whore dichotomy?

Now that I know that inscription is there, I think this is one of the more important photographs of Joanna: it shows her humor (as Cat Stevens rightly says), but it also speaks to her feminist, philosophical, and intellectual concerns in a way that I never conceived of before.

virare: Ecphonesis: Is Exclamation Or Outcry Alyona Osmanova by...

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:33:29 -0400

virare:

Ecphonesis: Is Exclamation Or Outcry

Alyona Osmanova by Roger Deckker for 10 Magazine Spring 2008

Japan. Miyazaki. The Artificial beach inside the Seagaia Ocean...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:05:28 -0400

Japan. Miyazaki. The Artificial beach inside the Seagaia Ocean Dome. 1996.

Martin Parr

ktspit: why wont thurston moore msg me on okcupid i know he has one.

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:04:56 -0400

ktspit:

why wont thurston moore msg me on okcupid i know he has one.

Audio

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:54:24 -0400

Photo

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:01:46 -0400

Considering I slayed three finals in seven hours, today has been...

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:24:00 -0400

Considering I slayed three finals in seven hours, today has been great. My Spanish final was relatively painless, I got to write about my favorite movie ever, 8 Mile, for two hours, I got a perfect 140/140 on my English research paper, an A on my rape culture paper for Masculinity in Literature, and I got to listen to Psychocandy while I wrote a terrible in-class essay on “Sonnet 76” and “A Red, Red Rose.”

IT ONLY TOOK ME FOUR YEARS TO FINISH MY FIRST FULL YEAR OF COLLEGE, BUT I FUCKING DID IT. Now I’m ready to sleep until June.

First trailer for Arrested Development - Season 4!

Sun, 12 May 2013 22:53:02 -0400

First trailer for Arrested Development - Season 4!

lonely days and sleepless nights this doesn’t seem so...

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:29:17 -0400

lonely days and sleepless nights

this doesn’t seem so right

psychreaction: The Velvet Underground perform at the Delmonico...

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:18:39 -0400

psychreaction:

The Velvet Underground perform at the Delmonico Hotel (502 Park Ave.) on January 13, 1966 during the 43rd annual dinner of the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry.

worst-witch: Summer reading.

Sat, 11 May 2013 11:39:04 -0400

worst-witch:

Summer reading.

poesiegrenadine: Interview with Lindsay Joy on her “Anxiety...

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:50:07 -0400

poesiegrenadine:

Interview with Lindsay Joy on her “Anxiety Series”

1000scientists: Bregenzer Festspiele, 2011Rowena Waack

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:48:38 -0400

1000scientists:

Bregenzer Festspiele, 2011
Rowena Waack

howtotalktogirlsatparties: “Teenage Wasteland: Japanese Youth...

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:46:38 -0400

howtotalktogirlsatparties:

“Teenage Wasteland: Japanese Youth in Revolt”, Life, September 11, 1964.

Photo

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:20:13 -0400

Audio

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:20:00 -0400

amajor7: accessories include extra-large coffees and handfuls of...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:12:51 -0400

amajor7:

accessories include extra-large coffees and handfuls of unorganized notes and sketches

"when it comes to dressing myself, i live by a very simple principle. i am fat, therefore, i look fat..."

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:02:52 -0400

“when it comes to dressing myself, i live by a very simple principle. i am fat, therefore, i look fat in everything; consequently, i can wear anything.”

- Advice from perfect goddess Kim Selling, whose writing you can expect to see in issue #2! (via filmmefatales)

meladoodle: try to close someone’s eyes like a corpse when you’re bored of talking to them

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:27:42 -0400

meladoodle:

try to close someone’s eyes like a corpse when you’re bored of talking to them