rebel grrrl archive

i’m so sorry if i’m alienating some of you. your whole fucking culture alienates me.

: bikini kill (white boy)




hey, there's a bikini kill archive that started up earlier this month, with fotos & reflections from their devoted current & former riot grrrl fanclub. one reminiscing fanática put it like this: i loved punk rock, but the first time i heard kathleen’s voice i knew punk rock loved me back.

sweet. just like them ;)



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reject all american : bikini kill



distinct complicity : bikini kill

olympic black

olympic gold is over-rated. personally, i'd like to see more olympic black...



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young, gifted & black : bob & marcia (original, nina simone)



say it loud-i'm black & i'm proud : james brown

ojalá

ojalá : favi, vocals & joe garcia, guitar (original, silvio rodríguez)



i recently came across this version of ojalá and found it very lovely. this young vocalist, favi, lends a sort of halting urgency to her recording of this song that complements the music & letras so well. kind of reminds me of some of the live silvio recordings, beautiful and oblique, with an overwhelming sense of longing and lament.

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probably the most collectively adored of all silvio rodríguez songs ojalá is a love song, written for his first love, several years after they parted. they had met when he was 18, and she introduced him to many new things, including the work of leftist peruvian writer césar vallejo. eventually she had to move away for her studies, and so they called it off. their relationship had a profound enduring affect on him, and he has called her the inspiration for several songs.

this is how he describes ojalá:

... se fue a su pueblo Camagüey, a estudiar ... y yo me quedé solo aquí en La Habana, totalmente desolado. Pasaron los años y el recuerdo de aquel amor tan bonito, tan productivo, tan útil (ojo, no confundir con utilitario), enriquecedor, de aporte a uno... pues, estaba obsesionado yo con esa idea. Y porque fue un amor frustrado, tronchado por las circunstancias, por la vida, no fue una cosa que se agotara, pues se me quedó un poco como un fantasma y por eso compuse esta canción en un momento quizás de delirio, de arrebato, de sentimiento un poco desmesurado: ojalá esto, ojalá lo otro...

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she left to her town, to camagüey, to study ... and i was left here alone in havana, completely devastated. the years passed and the memory of that love, so beautiful, so productive and useful (careful, not to be confused with utilitarian), that enriches and makes one better... well, i became obsessed with that idea. and because it was a frustrated love, cut short because of the circumstances of life, it wasn't something that had exhausted itself, well what i was left with was a bit of a ghost and so i composed this song in a moment of very heightened sentiments, perhaps a fit of delirium: ojalá this, ojalá that...

[the word ojala comes from inshallah and means god-willing or similar, that something wished for will occur]

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f-a-v-i = fuego. agua. viento. ira por la tierra robada / fire. water. wind. rage for the stolen land

éso! gracias, compañerita. looking forward to hearing more...

Thank you, Lucille Clifton

won't you celebrate with me

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

Lucille Clifton

June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010

pop confessions

once upon a time, i was visiting with a friend. we were sitting in my living room, and he was looking through my computer, surveying my itunes library. i'm not going to say it's the most complete or best-curated collection of songs in the world, but you know, there's a decent amount of good music in there. so, he would play an occasional song, usually rock en español, and say things like oh my god where did you get this? or oh i loooove this band or whatever. but then it got quiet. i looked over and he had this sort of crushed look on his face and his eyebrows furrowed. finally he said, paulina rubio? (pause, avoiding eye contact) really???... like he couldn't believe his eyes. like it was a political betrayal. like i had broken his heart. i blushed.

you know, i could have made up some excuse of how she ended up in there. but truth be told, i put her in there. i admit.

y yo sigo aqui (remix): paulina rubio



y cuando me acerco a ti, hay una bomba explosiva! that song hit 1 on the "latin" charts or equivalent not only in the u.s. & all over latin america but also the philippines, malaysia, portugal, & finland. oh my god, that video is so crazy though. me da verguenza all over again.

: diabólica

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and now, because admissions are always better in good company, i introduce my co-conspirators...

la pachuquita :

I confess...to the love that knows no name or reason. I love Ricky Martin. Yes world, I love the ex-Menudo, now international hip shaker, vida loca living, ambiguously sexual, single parent, sometimes hot mess. I forgot about my childhood crush on Menudo Ricky Martin until 1998 when "Copa de la Vida" became the anthem for the 1998 World Cup and then Summer of 1999 when "Livin' la Vida Loca" was forever connected with nights out dancing in Colorado. What sealed the deal was "Vuelve", which I will forever associate with a great novela ("Sin Ti") and late nights out inebriated while foolishly mourning young love in Mexico City. Ricky also has a cute humanitarian-steering-towards-left bend, including giving Bush the one finger salute during one of his songs and then saying this when he was criticized for it, ""My convictions of peace and life go beyond any government and political agenda and as long as I have a voice onstage and offstage, I will always condemn war and those who promulgate it".

I feel better after my confession, but what will be my penance? I heard Ricky Martin is coming out with another album in 2010. The waiting will be penance enough.

vuelve : ricky martin



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la cumbiambera :

Ever since my marido moved in with me a year ago, my house is almost always filled with románticas, pop-rock, bachata, etc. Music that used to be cheesey and intolerable to me has earned its place as our family soundtrack. I am embarrassed to say that I am no longer embarrassed when my playlist subjects my dinner guests to songs such as this one. ¡Que viva el pop!

hacer el amor con otro : alejandra guzmán



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¡¡feliz día de amor & amistad!! besos--

las rsf

Behind the scenes with MJ and a kick-ass femme guitarist

I’m a sucker for DVD extras so when I found myself browsing the shelves at the movie store I fell right towards the recently released This Is It documentary of Michael Jackson’s last concert rehearsals. I am not an MJ fan per se, but having grown up in the 80’s and 90’s, I couldn’t help but get a little caught up in the MJ craze in the months following his death.

But if the film was a treat to watch (which it was) is wasn’t because I needed to know any more about Michael Jackson but because the entire film is a glimpse behind-the-scenes of the production of what was to be a spectacular show. This Is It is basically a whole DVD of DVD extras, plus the actual extras, which for This Is It are the behind-the-scenes of the behind-the-scenes that is the feature. As a former performer, I was swept up watching the artists in action—dancers and vocalists, videographers and costume designers, producers, directors, musicians and of course, Jackson himself.

The best part, though, was discovering this 24-yr-old guitar “prodigy” as she has been called, who was to be the lead guitarist for the show. For those who haven’t already done so, meet Orianthi.

a hot mess

lil miss hot mess i know by day as a fierce anti-zionist activist & talented artist/designer and by night as a kick-ass drag queen. super-adorable that one. i wouldn't be able to describe her number at charlie horse's last show and really do it justice, but for me the highlights were: 1. deconstructing the gender/sexuality binaries and 2. stabbing many dispersed helium-filled balloons with a pair of scissors. and because this is her birthday weekend and because i like her so much, she gets her own post.

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here are some fotos & the song that goes with her number...








pop goes the world : the gossip



feliz cumple, lil miss!! besote.

the last shout

ok, ok. i won't go on too much about this now because i already have but... i want more charlie horse!!!



anna conda & friends, las punk rock drag queens, had a marathon last show last weekend, charlie horse, the last shout. i only saw an hour or two but i think they were at it for like seven. it was, as always, brilliant. bravo, reinas! best drag ever. for reals.

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songs & fotos from the last shout...











dog days are over : florence & the machine



wheels : ac/dc



lola : the kinks



right back where we started from : maxine nightingale



paparazzi : lady gaga



word up : willis (original by cameo)

Mean Things

Note: it’s not worth it to be a culture vulture. Back in October, James Aurthur Ray, a self-help “expert” (he appeared in the video The Secret) led a faux sweat lodge ceremony that killed 3 people. He was charged yesterday with manslaughter. According to reports, the lodge was covered with plastic (toxic when heated!), and Ray would not let some people out of the lodge when they requested. He also charged participants thousands of dollars for the retreat of which the lodge was a part. Anyone who has been to a Native-led sweat lodge ceremony knows this: the lodge is covered with blankets if hides are unavailable. If you need out, all you have to do is ask. And in a Native sweat lodge you are never charged at the door.

On the topic of racism and tragedy, here is Diné (Navajo) band Blackfire performing a nice cover of Woody Guthrie.

mucha policía, poca diversión = enough!

Todo esto va a acabar muy mal
Todo sí, todo tiene que acabar muy mal
Si siguen así machacando a la gente
Un día de estos se levanta potente
Con el puño levantando pa' decir que es suficiente
De los palos de la pasma ya tenemos bastante
Nosotros queremos salir de este cine mal oliente

Matarile, rile, rile, rile, ron
Escucha mi son, es son de la revolución

...

acabar mal : sergent garcia

Never too late: Felipe Staiti’s solo album rocks

With a new album recently out from Amandititita and new albums to be released by Julieta Venegas and Enrique Bunbury this spring, La Cumbaimbera takes this opportunity to hop back on the blog and spotlight Felipe Staiti’s solo album, which was released last September.

Most know Staiti as the guitarist from Los Enanitos Verdes. No, Felipe has not deflected from Los Enanitos (they did, however, recently swap out Daniel Piccolo, the original baterista, for new dummer Jota Morelli). During the Enanitos’ current 4-year recording hiatus, Staiti recorded his solo project titled after his band Felipe Staiti Trio. The trio, as it turns out, is more of a quartet, as it features Felipe guitar and vocals, Felipe’s long-time friend Gerardo Lucero on bass, and both of Felipe’s sons – Natalio on drums and Juan Pablo as the “invitado” that appears to have a regular role as rhythm guitarist in the band.

The album’s songs are mostly instrumental, with Felipe performing vocals on the three tracks with lyrics. Some songs were recorded years ago while others are new. And while some, like the single “Buenos Días” which aired on Argentine radio, display the familiar melodic pop-rock flavor of Los Enanitos, others, such as the aptly titled “Toro Salvaje” offer a peek at the heavy rocker that Felipe is at heart. Also indicative of Felipe’s personal gustos, is the visual aesthetic of the video for the track “Leviatán.” (Enanitos fans may recall the spooky green lady that was featured as cover art for Néctar).



Not only is Felipe one of the best guitarists in Latin America, he is, as far as I can tell, simply a great guy. He still lives in the city he was raised in. He has responded personally to the MySpae messages I have sent him (yes, I confess – but look how it turned out!). And in between Los Enanitos’ international tours, Felipe passes the time by hopping on stage at venues in his hometown of Mendoza, Argentina and rocking out with his sons. If only all famous artists had his ability to remain true to the music, their family, their roots, and their fans.