what's with the thread locking?

[bebopbalogna]

Now, popping and locking, i can totally understand.

[matthew]

Finally watched "The Killing". Nice little film from Kubrick.

But come on, that was Thompson's dialogue, not Kubrick's.

[bebopbalogna]

matt, have you seen this, yet?

[Tripp]

Finally watched "The Killing". Nice little film from Kubrick.

But come on, that was Thompson's dialogue, not Kubrick's.

I love that movie. Apparently Thompson stayed pretty drunk and was hard to deal with which, if I'm remembering correctly, disappointed Kubrick cause he was a fan of thompson's. But yeah, Kubrick had that way of taking writer's credits for himself  which pissed off nearly every writer he ever worked with.

[matthew]

Waiting for women to take the lead

A new exhibition highlights the shortage of female guitarists, writes Helen Brown

It's the big irony of the electric guitar. Its body mimics the waist and curves of a woman. And yet, alone among instruments, the electric guitar is still regarded as mainly male territory.

I'm always hoping this will change. But next month Harrods will stage Born to Rock: The Life and Times of the Electric Guitar, Europe's biggest guitar exhibition.

Alongside the designer instruments for sale, the store promises to exhibit "priceless guitars played by the likes of Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Noel Gallagher, The Edge, the Velvet Underground, John Lee Hooker, Ted Nugent, Marc Bolan, Neil Young, Eddie Cochran, and blues legend Rory Gallagher".

I read the list with feminist hackles rising. No female musicians. No Joan Armatrading. No P J Harvey or Cat Power.

I contacted the show's publicist. She said one of the guitars up for sale had been customised by J-Lo. "J-Lo!" I squeaked. As far as I'm aware, Jennifer Lopez would only be familiar with the sort of G-string she'd use to accessorise her famous derriere.

The show's curator, Ian Spero, admits he "was conscious at an early stage that we didn't have guitars from women. But it's a fact that there aren't so many great women guitarists. History talks for itself."

I have to concede that he has a point. Girls aren't encouraged to play guitars. Walking into guitar shops as a teenager, I trembled at the macho disdain of attendants and wasn't invited to join in with the clubby males fiddling their way through Stairway.

If a woman actually manages to buy a guitar, potential suitors may be intimidated. I once brought home a date who froze at the sight of my guitar. "I didn't realise you had a boyfriend," he said.

And then, there is a genuine lack of role models, although in pre-electric times we had Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the gospel-belting heroine whose righteous guitar-picking inspired Elvis Presley, Keith Richards and Johnny Cash.

Spero talks of his show in terms of the guitars that changed the sound of rock, or at least in terms of players with an identifiable style. And I'll grant him many of the men on the list riff like nobody else. But Noel Gallagher? Come on!

Which women did he approach? "We tried Madonna God knows how many times and were rebuffed," he says. I am tempted to hang up. Madge is a dancefloor diva, not a guitar goddess.

For solidarity I talk to Lucy O'Brien, author of She Bop: the Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop, and Soul.

"The guitar is a symbol that confers a lot of power and independence," she says. "It's a sign of leadership – the electric guitar is traditionally the lead instrument in the band. It's about image and charisma and women have done very well with the electric guitar in their own way. Think of Joan Jett and Courtney Love, Sheryl Crow and Chrissie Hynde – the ultimate rock chick."

But O'Brien says we're still uncomfortable with the idea of women amping it up. Electric guitars aren't demure, don't defer, require technical expertise and block the male gaze.

"It's interesting that, when it comes to videos, many female performers are pressured into not being filmed holding the instrument. Apparently Sheryl Crow was advised not to hold her guitar in front of the camera.

I think marketing departments worry that the guitar gets in the way of the audience viewing the woman purely as a sexual image – although guitar magazines still sell their products by draping female models all over them."

On the upside, we have seen a rise in the number of women such as K T Tunstall and Sandi Thom playing electro-acoustics more boisterously. "But, even plugged in and played loudly, the acoustic's not threatening in the same way is it?" says O'Brien. "There's something about the sheer volume of the electric guitar, and its history as a phallic symbol: cock rock. Women like Courtney Love and PJ Harvey are saying: I've got balls too."

Joan Armatrading agrees with much of this. She's shy in person but acquires a mighty confidence with a guitar slung over her shoulder. "Often in the past when you saw women playing guitars it would be very strummy, genteel, three chords," she says, "but I actually play."

Not that the public always credit her with this talent. "The record company did a survey on one of my songs, Cradled In Your Love," she says. "They played it to focus groups and asked, 'Who do you think is playing the guitar?' The groups named every famous guitar player – Clapton, Knopfler and all – and nobody thought it was me. It's frustrating that people don't think of me as a guitarist because I am very good."

Armatrading has nearly 100 guitars, she thinks, although she has never counted. She plays Fender Stratocasters and also has a yellow Gibson Les Paul once owned by Eric Clapton. Playing the electric "feels fantastic", she says.

"But it's a challenging instrument: unwieldy unless you really know what you're doing." Armatrading is so cross about the absence of cool female-played guitars in the Born to Rock show that she offers to exhibit one of her own. She hopes it will inspire an aspiring young female guitarist.

But O'Brien says there's much to be done. "Women still have to struggle through a lot of male misconceptions. Women do still find it difficult to walk through the guitar shop door. Maybe we should have special empowerment lessons which include women getting a go on a good electric. Just let them play really loud."

[matthew]

So, what do y'all think of the Libby-Cheney-Plame thing that the so-called "Liberal Media" is ignoring almost entirely?

[bebopbalogna]

So, what do y'all think of the Libby-Cheney-Plame thing that the so-called "Liberal Media" is ignoring almost entirely?

i will be extremely surprised if cheney or rove ever get their just desserts.  i'm thinkin the media is aware of this, too, and therefore not wasting any more ink on the story.  those guys were exposed a year ago and nothing happened.

[Just Some Girl]

Will poutine take Manhattan?

Trendy Manhattan diners are about to experience one of Quebec's most guilty pleasures: poutine.

A celebrity chef who has eponymous restaurants in New York, Paris, Palm Beach and Las Vegas has teamed up with a couple of high-profile Canadian expats to open a Manhattan pub with a distinctly French Canadian feel -- bookshelves made of old canoes, Quebec artists on the wall and poutine and pigs' feet on the menu.

Chef Daniel Boulud had never tried Quebec's signature dish of fries and cheese curd slathered in brown gravy until he was approached by Jeffrey Jah, a former Torontonian, and Lyman Carter, who spent much of his childhood in Quebec's Eastern Townships.




Lucky lucky New Yorkers.

 

[Just Some Girl]

That was actually on the cover of the National Post today. A national "newspaper."

Jeez.

[Just Some Girl]

I get major jitters and big waves of anxiety whenever I have to go to a party. I guess I'm just crazy that way.

I usually dread parties too. I usually get drunk super-fast so I can deal and actually talk to people. Unless I'm hosting a house party. Then, I'm strangely calm. Maybe it's just that it's my turf (= safe)?

[brainfiber]

how's this for party anxiety...last night at the party we went to my daughter threw up all over my wife at the party...right down the front of her shirt.



burning the midnight clam

[brainfiber]

not you'd all be following this...but a certain company in under investigation for bribes and corruption...and i guess it's bigger than they thought...

anyways this is the best headline ...

Siemens stains spread

[Moetown]

The party last night turned out fine, though a few of the guests didn't seem to get the clue that it was time to leave. By the end of the night, I was actually sober enough to drive home. My mix cd was a big hit with the crowd at the bar. The proprietor asked if they could keep it.
The only trouble was that I seemed to be making eye contact with several hott women in the bar, many of whom smiled at me. Of course this only happens when a fella is about to get married. If I had just "been at the bar," I'm pretty certain that none of those women would've looked my way. Chicks are weird like that.

[matthew]

No girls ever paid as much attention to me as when I was involved.

Even then, there was very little.

I am simply of no interest to anyone.  

[Moetown]

When you're rarely seen, how can anyone know you exist?