Band Review: Benhur

This is getting posted very late. Some of that does relate to today being a busy day, but a big part of it was difficulty in listening to the band's music.

The video for "Lay Me Down" is pretty easy to find, and I was able to listen to "Walk On Through" pretty easily as well, but things that I thought I had found would not come up when I tried to find them again. They are on Spotify, but searches were frequently fruitless.

I think part of this is getting confused between searching on Benhur and Ben Hur, both of which I did multiple times, but a big part of it is similarly named search results. In addition to results related to Ben Hur (mainly movie, but the book could come up too), there are other musicians, including four unrelated albums on the profile when you find Benhur. And while Benhur is apparently only the title for Allahindan Bul's album, it seems to be the band name for the Sabor Latino AND the reggae guy, which is really only to say that my listening experience was disjointed and frustrating separate from the music, and so I still feel like I don't have a handle on it.

I can tell you that the albums that are definitely for this Benhur are Tryst from 2008, and this year's Between Flower and Hive. I have focused more on the more recent music, and I think it has a more mature sound, but I do like "Start Again" from Tryst pretty well.

The more recent music is generally kind of quiet, a little downbeat but still hopeful. "Walk on Through" is a little more rock - there is a beat that reminds me a bit of the Strokes or Queens of the Stone Age, and the band does have some guitar chops, but then is goes back to something quieter.

Still, the easiest starting place is the video for "Lay Me Down" which in muted sounds and colors goes somewhere you weren't expecting, and it goes where it should and comes out right, but there is still pain in that, which works with the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJnKvOTRUz8

http://www.benhur.ca/

https://www.facebook.com/benhurband

https://twitter.com/benhurband

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJnKvOTRUz8&feature=youtu.be

Band Review: Ben Landis

Ben Landis is a pop-rock and chiptune songwriter. If that did not make immediate sense to you, we were in the same boat.

As I started listening, it was clear from all the beeps and boops that this was music inspired by classic 8-bit videogames. Wikipedia defines chiptunes as "synthesized electronic music produced (or emulated) by the sound chip of vintage computers, video game consoles, and arcade machines, as well as with other methods such as emulation.

With that in mind, it made sense, and it was pretty fun, but I was thinking that was probably something he was doing more for fun than as a career, and then I saw the link to buy Adventures in Pixels. This is an album/comic hybrid, where each track has a comic page embedded as album art, so you can listen and visually follow the progress of the story, making it, I think, my first legitimate concept album of the year.

And I still didn't know if that would be everyone's bag - a long time spent listening to the high-pitched sounds that you tend to get with 8-bit could be jarring for a lot of people - but still, what a neat, neat idea.

Going over the Soundcloud page, there is a lot of variety. There is collaboration with other artists, and there are different moods and styles, and there is quite a bit of nostalgia, because we have all played those game.

So this is something unique and fun, and there is a lot available on Soundcloud.

http://music.adventuresinpixels.net/

https://soundcloud.com/benlandis

https://twitter.com/benlandis

Positive words and images

I've been doing a lot of writing, rewriting, and rearranging for these last few posts. I will probably still wander a lot.

Monday's reviews were built on a few things, including some really nasty writing about Pretty Deadly, but also frequent slurs against female writers and artists, and against female characters. I thought about four female creators who mean a lot to me, realized they all had current projects, and so reviewing them seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

I came to Becky Cloonan because of Killjoys, but once there, she is the reason that I took any interest in Swamp Thing. Not only did she draw some of the most beautiful work I have ever seen, but she promoted it. Just seeing one page of Amy Reeder's art on Halloween Eve, I had to track it down. I did not know the name, but it was so visually compelling I had to know.

Back at the time of the MOOC I was still unfamiliar with a lot of this, but I was instantly drawn to Kelly Sue DeConnick's passion in talking about not just her work, but other work. Listening to her at ICAF has taught me so much about collaboration, and writing. Gail Simone has not just been a key figure in writing comics, but she is a consistent cheerleader for them. Comic stores need help, and she reached out to them, offering to re-tweet sales and specials, and then doing it. (And yes, I love her for her work on Women in Refrigerators, but that is not all she knows or does.)

So my first thought when I see any criticism of any of them is "What kind of idiot are you?" And I thought this might end up being a feminist piece today, but it appears to be getting a bit more complicated, because I nearly got sidetracked by a Facebook post.

It was a friend of a sister, but she read it to me, and it was so appallingly ignorant. It was wondering why young black men were so violent, because the jails are full, and that can't be that all the police are racist, and we really need to start using the death penalty.

That was just what I remember. Initially we both felt like there was too much ignorance there to even start, and then I decided I did need to say something, and wanted the exact text, and she checked back and it was deleted.

(Let me just throw out there that prison population is largely due to drug enforcement policy, which is very racist, the death penalty is not a deterrent, and many things correlate more with economic factors than race, though don't think racism didn't play a role in creating some of those economic factors.)

It is easy to be stupid about people you don't know, and it is easy to not get to know people outside of your own walk of life. It is a really good thing to get to know people who are different from you. That does mean race and gender, but also it means ages, jobs, religious background, economic status, and everything. It is good, but it doesn't happen enough.

Something that can help with that is seeing a variety of images in media, because that affects what we can imagine for ourselves. If the magazines only show tall, dangerously thin girls, which is a pretty unusual body type, it is hard for the rest of the population to feel attractive. If all of the professional positions are white males, and all of the heroes are white males, and girls only exist to be in distress, and black people only exist to die and provide some emotional resonance, that really only works well for white males. If you only see one story about your group, whether that story is crime or academic achievement, it feels limiting,

One of my teen girls is black, and she has written that she hates being black because people always look at her with suspicion. That is unacceptable. It is unacceptable for the human cost to her, because surviving adolescence is a difficult thing no matter whom you are, and no one needs added layers of difficulty. But there is also an unacceptable cost in terms of the loss to society of developed talents, service given, and resources provided.

(Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu-Dunn is a pretty good book on this, but also right now I am thinking of Dasani: http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1)

There are thousands of factors at work here, so the comics portion of it is only a small slice, but it can be an important one. Seeing Dayoung fly in Rocket Girl and be herself, yes, that is a great comic for young girls. I don't think the enjoyment has to be limited to them, but it is important for them to see.

Returning back to one of those annoying threads, an article about potential developed projects from comics mentioned White Tiger, specifically Angela Del Toro. One person, no matter how many points others made, kept arguing against it. She has no following, no strong story arcs, but yes, there was this undercurrent of "Cooties!"

What I say next may be hurtful and offensive to some, and I am sorry, but comic fans do not make movies successful. If a movie only gets people who read the comic there, it is a flop. It would be nice if each movie broadened the base of comic readers, but there's no guarantee there.

Also, movies based on comic books don't always adhere strictly to the comics. Sometimes they borrow plotlines or people - I love what they did with Lucius Fox in Batman Begins, but if someone sees just a spark of a character that may resonate with film or television audiences, that can be enough. They may end up creating a mess, or they may create something that doesn't find a big enough audience, because there are always those risks. However, sometimes an idea to turn a stereotype on its head can lead to a movie that while not incredibly successful on its own, spawns two successful series, several comics, and careers. There's always a risk, so why not try and do something good.

So I would love to see something happen with White Tiger, and something with Daughters of the Dragon. I could see that being a good television series. It doesn't have to be fictional. I would love to see a comic book series about Apartheid and the ANC. Feature Mandela of course, but also Biko and Mbeki and de Klerk and Esterhuyse. There's a lot to tell.

You know what other things could be good? Series based on Chang Apana (loose basis for Charlie Chan) and Bass Reeves (possible inspiration for the Lone Ranger). Because it's not that people of color have not been contributing all along, but their stories don't get told. The Old West has been especially white-washed.

And then we take that, and we create this idea of how things are, and whether it comes to various individuals as virulent racism, or a fairly "benevolent" racism, or an internalized idea that amounting to anything is impossible, none of it is good enough.

Comics know heroes really well. They can also be them.

Bad attitudes about comics

My love for comics is entwined with my love of rock, so I am going to use that to justify starting with a story that is not about comics.

It was about a year ago, and Fall Out Boy guitarist Joseph Trohman was asking people for the most overrated movies of the year. Someone suggested one that was actually a pretty good movie. I pointed that out, but he said it was still overrated, basically because people acted like it was great, when it was really just good.

This is the only time anyone in Fall Out Boy has responded to a tweet of mine, so that was kind of special, but I was sputtering with irritation. "This is how people become hipsters!"

And this is nothing against Trohman, whom I love. He is a great guitar player - underrated, I think - and smart and funny and his death in the last video made me very sad. (We'll be spending several posts specifically on Fall Out Boy when we get to music videos.) And, I haven't seen him tweet about overrated things lately.

It is an easy attitude to take of course. I did it too, with that crack about hipsters. Yes, people who are always thinking they are too good for everything would be annoying, but once I have that label in mind, it is easy for me to venture into Northwest Portland, see a bunch of people dressed in black and looking disaffected, and being annoyed, without really knowing anything about them, which is unfair.

So, this brings me to this summer, and a list of the Top 100 Overrated Comic Writers. Initially I thought it was a funny idea, especially seeing "Alan Moore's beard" at number 98. If you have seen the beard, it is really easy to get fixated on it, but I'm pretty sure it is not really its own entity. If you want to propose a theory about how the beard changes him or represents him, I'll listen.

Reading further into the list, though, you would find there are a lot of good writers on the list, and not so famous or highly-paid that overrated seems like a legitimate complaint. Then I started wondering if a top 100 would even make sense. I don't know how many writers are currently working in comic books now, but even if we accept that some of them are overrated, I don't know that there could really be 100. Rob Liefeld is listed three times though, so it is technically only 98. Hey, there's that sloppiness again!

Methodology was questionable as well. The post with the list says there were ballots distributed and they got back 3000, which would have been out of over 100,000 attendees. However, I read from someone else that they were holding up pictures and seeing if people recognized them. So, if anyone one in a comic-centric environment recognizes you from your work in comics, clearly you are overrated. There seems to be some self-loathing there.

And that was where it became really interesting. I recently finished a book on slut-shaming, and the double standard is a factor, of course, but another interesting factor is that most of the enforcement is done by girls. They could easily be the next victims, but by putting down someone else, it reinforces their secure spot. Since they are already marginalized as girls, any security they have becomes more important. Often the leaders are middle class (economic status is a huge factor), so their parents may have some anxieties about moving downward that they internalize.

(This is from Slut! Growing Up Female With A Bad Reputation, by Leora Tanenbaum.)

Sometimes the people who ended up outcast found it very liberating. I have seen tweets going around about how the metal people, with their tattoos and piercings, are the nicest people around. Some of them are, and maybe part of that is that they are free to be kind, having given up a place in the normal hierarchy.

Some of them can also be real jerks, which is another reason not to judge people. They could have some hurt and anger over being outcast, or they could also be setting up a replacement hierarchy where they can be the ones doing the rejecting.

Personally, my experiences in comics have been really positive, except for that Catwoman thing. Otherwise I have met really great, supportive people. I know there is a contingent out there that feels the need to play gatekeeper. What changed with the book is starting to see that maybe they feel really threatened, as a marginalized group, losing their one safe space. Or, they could feel so lacking in power and status they enjoy the chance to put anyone else down. It could go either way.

I do know that whether you are a teenage girl or comic-convention attendee (two things that are not mutually exclusive), you will get greater confidence and satisfaction out of being kind and inclusive. There can be an endorphin rush with destruction, but there is a lasting glow with creation.

That may sound pretty smarmy. I read a piece recently on snark versus smarm, and so I am sensitive on that. Also, this isn't that much different from my recent posts about writing and inclusion. And yet I keep doing it. Tomorrow there will be more, because it keeps coming up.

Comic Review: Demeter, Red Sonja, Rocket Girl, and Pretty Deadly

I know, two different posts reviewing comics within just a few days of each other is pretty unusual for me, but these are all pretty new, and I have just started reading them, and I wanted to take advantage of that. They vary in content and probably in target audience, but I will try and give some impressions.

Rocket Girl, written by Brandon Montclare, art by Amy Reeder (Image Comics)

Dayoung Johansson is a teenage cop from an alternate reality 2013, sent back to 1986 to prevent that alternate reality from happening. I guess it is sort of like the second Terminator movie, except instead of Arnold the protagonist is a freckle-faced girl, and so far there is no Robert Patrick. (And why it's more like the 2nd instead of the first has to do with some issues of how the technology develops.)

I'm not sure that's a good description, or that I would be interested in it from the description, but I wanted to see more by Reeder, and this seemed like a good chance. Her artwork soars, so having her work on someone who flies with a rocket pack was inspired.

Currently on the second issue, they are building some interesting relationships among characters, but the establishment of Dayoung has been the most important part. She is passionate, impulsive, and stubborn, so very 15.  You can relate to others who are frustrated with her, and still root for her. Those are not the qualities we look for in cops today, but in the alternative 2013 that is what is necessary, and that should be what carries the day.

Many of the other books being reviewed are more adult, but this one should be safe for teens, and really good for them to get into.

Red Sonja, written by Gail Simone, art by Walter Geovani (Dynamite)

This one is a little more adult, in terms of scanty clothing, violence, and general mayhem. I think it would still be fine for teens though; certainly for older ones.

What I appreciate most about it is the character of Sonja herself. She is impatient, but will put up with a lot, and is loyal. She is certainly given to excess, but even hung over she will try to give people options for not needing to be killed by her. So many refuse to take her up on that, but she still tries, and there is a humor about it all that makes her very likable. You understand why she inspires the same loyalty that she gives.

This is again only two issues in, so it would be easy to catch up. Gorgeous colors done by Adriano Lucas.

Pretty Deadly, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, art by Emma Rios (Image Comics)

And this one is the most adult, with more violence, more sex and nudity (in a brothel), and also strange elements, like a rabbit skeleton telling the story to a butterfly. It's not for everyone, but it is fascinating.

I cannot tell in any way where this is going. I think I kind of understand the central conflict after the second issue, so that is big progress (for me) from the first. I'm not sure that matters though; it's something where you ride with it. Perhaps the riding is more literal, because there are horses journeying across the Western landscape here. Anyway, it gets under your skin, and I think it is the most visually inventive work I have seen to date. If nothing I have said about it already causes you to object to it, then you should probably check it out.

Demeter, story, art, and publishing by Becky Cloonan

You could view this as a stand-alone comic, or as part of a trilogy with Wolves and The Mire, or if we get lucky, it could be more, because I read recently that Cloonan is getting more ideas that could relate.

http://www.avenoctum.com/2013/12/inteview-becky-cloonan/

Of the existing three, none of them need to be read for any of the others to make sense, but taken together common themes emerge, where the environment exerts its own force, and no deceptions or betrayals can stay buried.

Cloonan has described these works as "the stories between the pages". I initially interpreted that as between the pages that she does on other series (Killjoys and Swamp Thing just to start). That can still be true, but I would also buy it as one where the plot points of the stories do not all happen on the page. The reader gets glimpses, but there is much that is hidden, and the apparent meaning may shift.

(I know this is very similar to my other review, but the works are related: http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/01/comic-review-wolves-and-mire-by-becky.html)

I go back to the pages, trying to understand them, but also because Cloonan's artwork is beautiful, and I can get lost in it again and again.

Band Review: The Black Sea

I believe if you enjoy Bruce Springsteen, you will enjoy The Black Sea.

It feels weird for me to say that. Although I have been gaining an appreciation for him lately, I'm not really a fan of the Boss. However, The Black Sea reminds me of him, and I nonetheless enjoy them.

It started with the first song I heard, "Now That We're Alone". It was a double punch. The music does some neat things with building and softening and is really well-constructed, so there is excitement, but there is also real poignancy from the lyrics, and it all works together.

I started noticing the resemblance to Springsteen later. There is a grittiness to the music, not only in the vocals, but also I think in the way the guitars are tuned. So there is that blue collar feel, though coming out of Leeds instead of New Jersey. There is still that feeling of being downtrodden, but not out.

Because of the reviews, I am always listening to at least two bands, which I like, but some weeks are more of a joy than others. This week was pretty good. I thought of giving them the Song of the Day today too, but I think it makes more sense to do that later.

Right now the band seems to be focusing more on getting gigs than on selling music. I have been doing my listening mostly via Soundcloud, which has five songs available. Check them out.

http://www.theblacksea.co/

https://twitter.com/TheBlackSeaUK

https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackSeaUK

https://soundcloud.com/theblacksealovesyou

Band Review: E-Mute

I was initially confused by who was whom in the band, but I think I have it now. E-mute is not just the band, but also a person, who sings, drums, and plays piano. He works with many musicians, but also has three other people - Svetlana Vassileva, Darren Ashford, and Tolis Zavaliaris - who play with him when he is doing his own material  So the one in the shocking red pants is E-mute himself.

Based on the "E", I was expecting a lot more synthesizer and beeping, but that has not really been the case. They self-describe as alternative/rock/electronica at their simplest (they have a more complex description too), and that seems fair.

There are some electronic components, but with so much piano and guitar, that does not end up being the main sound. The piano especially makes a difference, whether it is being funky on Elixir's "Wake Up Call" or moody on "Across the Sea".

The song that made the biggest impression on me was "Clock Moves Forward".

The clock moves forward when life goes backward,
Sane conclusions of past confusions, The older you get the wiser
Don't worry. Don't worry.

There is a video, and E-mute smiles charmingly as he says it, so I believe that he is sincere when he advises not worrying, though I am not sure he is correct. Anyway, that song sticks. You should also check out "The Darkness Inside"; the intro is lovely.

I did most of my listening via Soundcloud and Youtube.

Music is available via iTunes, Google play, and Bandcamp.

http://www.emute-music.com/

https://www.facebook.com/electricmute

https://twitter.com/emutemusic

http://www.youtube.com/user/emutemusic?feature=watch

https://soundcloud.com/emutemusic

http://emutemusic.bandcamp.com/album/too-proud-to-say-loud

Comics Review: March and The Montgomery Story

I mentioned a while back that I really need to catch up on the digital comics that I had before getting any more. That sounds so reasonable, but then I will see some deal I can't resist, and, well, I have a lot of comics I still get to read.

The deal that has been the most exciting to me lately was this one:

http://www.comixology.com/March-Book-One-Martin-Luther-King-And-The-Montgomery-Story/bundle/44

The timing was good, because I was reading about African-American history and civil rights, and also, how often do you get a comic book written by a Congressman? (Never before. This was the first, and the first comic to be presented to every member of Congress.)

http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/12/03/representative-john-lewiss-publisher-donates-hundreds-of-comics-to-other-congressmen/

It excited me. It excited me to think that maybe people who don't normally read comics will read March. I am excited that maybe comic readers who don't normally read a lot of history or a lot of multiracial material will read this. And I am excited to learn that a comic played a role back then.

I would be excited at the mere existence of these comics, but their importance in that way only makes it more necessary that they are good. So, let's take a look.

Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, written by Benton Resnik and Alfred Hassler and drawn by various artists. Originally published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, it is republished in connection with Top Shelf Productions.

That is probably the most complex set of credits I have ever done, but that makes sense for an issue with its history. The information says it "went unnoticed by the mainstream comic book industry, but spread like wildfire among civil rights groups".

The first thing I need to mention is that with various artists, it has a very uniform look, and one that I believe is very much in keeping with the styles of the time. The page layouts do change in some sections, but I don't think it is jarring.

There is an emphasis on the religious aspects which may seem outdated now, but the churches were a huge part of the Civil Rights movement of the time, and the religion of the participants was a key part of their motivation both for working towards progress and for doing so non-violently. It is clearly not merely a Christian idea either, with a section on Gandhi who was an important source of inspiration for the movement.

I suppose I was reading it largely as a historical document, but I was touched by the words about the importance of understanding and loving your enemy. It can be so hard, but that is what sanctifies the conflict. The section "How the Montgomery Method Works" is just as true now as it was then.

March: Book One, written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, with art by Nate Powell (Top Shelf)

One of the things that struck me when reading Dr. Abernathy's book, And The Walls Came Tumbling Down, was the description of the drilling that they did. It gave a new comprehension of what militant meant, and its necessity made perfect sense, but it was a new thought. The Montgomery Story shows some of the drilling, but March gives a fuller view. They had to be ready to face horrible things. It is hard to see allies shouting abuse and pouring fluids, but it would have been harder to face it from your enemies without being prepared.

I guess I am saying that March is grittier than The Montgomery Story, and it is, but also, I am saying that seeing the images, rather than just reading about what happened, gives a new feeling.

The book does a beautiful job of humanizing Lewis, and giving you a feel for how events built on each other, leading to what will come. It starts on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but the flashbacks will take a while to get us there. That's okay; there is a lot that goes into how people can do what needs to be done, and why it needs to be done.

The artwork is kind of stark, like early black and white television. This is history. There are things happening in the present day as well, but they are connected with the history.

March is lengthy, which is more of an issue for me as I am still not great at navigating digital books. The end of Book 1 occurs on page 121, and is very much at a point of continuations. Some victories have been achieved, but there is a lot more to do, then and now.

These are such important stories, and so close to my heart, and I am excited to see them in the medium of comics. I think there is room for wonderful things to happen.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-pictures.html

Inclusion and intersectionality

Sometimes there is a nice synchronicity to things. Shortly after I started reading Suzanne Pharr's Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism, I saw a tweet:

"This really pisses me off, why is a boy called a 'faggot' for not objectifying women" and it linked to a "joke" from UK Banter that is not worth repeating.

I knew the answer now, though, because it was in the book, and replied "Because he is rebelling against the patriarchy by not objectifying women." And she knew that, but was still frustrated by it, which I get.

So, building on yesterday's post, since June I have been reading books that have related to African-American history and to feminist issues. During that time period there have also been several things coming up via the internet related to the intersection of different marginalized groups.

Most of them have been negative, like a hash tag going around at one point, #feminismisforwhitewomen, and a solidarity one, because prominent feminists often ignore women of color. There was also an article about black men not supporting black women. There are very valid reasons for the frustration, but I'm not sure it is always handled well.

There are two things that come to mind for me. One goes back to Pharr's book. It focused on lesbian issues, and I spotted those blinders on myself, because previously "homophobia" meant persecution of gay men to me. On one level I knew it was more than that, but men are the default, and I was subject to that, despite being a woman.

The other issue is something that has been bugging me for a while. When I read stories about women facing sexism and misogyny, and especially sexual harassment, women of color have it worse. Where I might just get something said to me, they will get groped.

This makes me feel like crying tears of rage. I have not done anything to deserve my privilege; they have not done anything to lose it. That is not anything small. The shame of the time there was physical contact is seared into my brain, and that was just once. To always have that increased risk - that lack of safety, and that lack of control over your physical space - I know I don't fully grasp how that feels, but it's wrong that it exists.

I am becoming more aware of how things vary. There also seem to be more stories of physical harassment from England. That may be centered on low income communities, because there is certainly privilege that goes away as your economic status drops, or there may be some cultural issue there; I don't know.

I do know that I am better off for being located in the Willamette Valley. If I was in a small rural area, or in the South, being female would have different ramifications, as would being a person of color. It doesn't make Portland paradise, but I'm still grateful to be here.

When one of the flare-ups was going on, I remembered something about Ida B Wells breaking away from the women's suffrage movement because it would not stand up for black rights as well. Women felt like they would lose support by including black men in their efforts. I tried to look into that, but what I found instead was something on how Wells criticized Susan B Anthony for letting her efforts take a back seat to raising her family. I guess these conflicts go back a long way.

I know that no amount of marginalization makes up for marginalizing others. I am really positive about that one. I also know that trying to throw all of those groups out and just being for humans doesn't work. There are specific things that happen that require examination, and there is a need for safe places.

I may not know the best way to balance all of that, but we need to listen to other voices. Privilege is so blind. There are things that I would never know about if I did not read, or talk to people from other walks of life. But just because you are not forced to think about something doesn't mean that you shouldn't think about it.

Apparently, there is always going to be someone who will tell you that you are doing it wrong, whether it is being female, being black, or being gay. Right now it seems very popular to tell poor people how what they are doing wrong. A lot of it makes me want to smack people, but that's not the answer.

We need to be listening to each other. Part of that listening means to quit making judgments. A lot of the criticism that comes at various voices is because they aren't speaking for a particular group. Well, yes, if all women were alike, then one could speak for all of us, but there is a great diversity of human experience, even when you start subdividing it, and it's not a fair burden to place on anyone. If any one man said he was speaking for all men, we'd know he was full of it, so why does one woman, or one gay man, or one Mexican, have to cover everyone?

At the same time, we need to be looking outward to make sure that we are not only listening to voices similar to our own. There is not true equality of opportunity now. That must change, and it has to be equality for everyone, not just some. The false idea that one group needs to put down another to get their own has the people with actual power laughing all the way to the bank. Keeping that division going works better for them than anyone else.

The dominant voices should not be the only voices. I appreciate Roxane Gay's work on this:

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/10/calling_for_submissions_by_feminists_of_color/

Technically that is closed to me, but it doesn't take anything away from me, and the pieces that come from this add to the dialogue. They are too easily overlooked in the current system. This kind of outreach is vital.

The chasm between how I would like things to be and how they are is discouraging some times, but there are things that give me hope. One thing that has been becoming clear is how many options there are to see another side better.

With Slavery By Another Name, there is a thick book, and I love thick books, but there is also a 90-minute movie. As I start my Native American Heritage reading for the year, because I saw some art in Chicago, I am going to explore that art more. There are plays and blogs and movies. And, there were two other things I read for my Black History reading that I was not expecting to be an option at all, and that please me greatly. They get their own post tomorrow.

Black History Month 2013

It is pretty common for me to be running late on these. Part of it this time is that I decided to work on my Black history reading along with my troubled teen reading, and so working on two different lists at once, along with anything else that happened to come up, definitely slowed things down. It also worked.

I had written before about thinking it was a good idea to intersperse comics with the history readings, because sometimes reading about hard topics requires some breaks. It did not work well then, because I had some pretty heavy comics in the mix. Here, it is still a lot of heavy material, so the idea of a break does not really work, but then the books go together in ways I might not expect, so that works.

It is messier, and part of that is that many things were unplanned, and changed, and there ended up being more multimedia, still working together. So, perhaps I am merely becoming more integrated, and everything is connected.

The first book was Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey, by Ana Maria Spagna. I had read good reviews a while ago, but I had not realized the author was white. This led to her feeling like an outsider at times as she tried to reconstruct her father's experience, but it also allowed her to see correlations between racism and homophobia, and to consider her own experiences differently.

The most important lesson was about the importance of recording memories and sharing them. Some memories and accounts disagree. You can guess how those tie together now, and some of the details may be unimportant, but having more written at the time would have helped. Many of the participants downplayed the significance of their actions. Maybe they did not realize it at the time, or they were uncomfortable with treating their actions as important, but it matters to those who come after.

Next I read Mirror to America, by John Hope Franklin. Franklin was the quintessential history teacher; I believe his text From Slavery to Freedom is still the standard African American History work. At times, reading his autobiography is like being in a lecture hall, with a sonorous voice that might lull you to sleep, though it was not boring. There was a lot that was interesting on the history of the time period, and how levels of acceptance varied, and even on academic history, because he knew the writers of all of those other standard texts.

Mainly I was touched by his warmth. He faced more than his fair share of mistreatment, and his brother's fate is heartbreaking, but there was still such a gratitude for the people who were in his life, and for the experiences he had. I ended up with feelings for him similar to those I developed for Ralph Abernathy while reading And The Walls Came Tumbling Down, though I did not end up dreaming about the book.

I had decided to start reading more poetry, so I checked out Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. I was surprised that some of the poems I knew were not included, and also at the recurring theme of "a dream deferred", which comes up in poem after poem. That made more sense after the next book. Mainly I felt like it gave me a peek into the Harlem of that time, with its rhythms and moods.

That next book was Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A Blackmon, and it was the most devastating. I had to take breaks from it (show business autobiographies may be the answer for that). It was information dense, written at a fairly high level, and emotionally painful. It was like some of the Native American heritage reading I have done, where you realize it wasn't just sending them away once, but many times.

People have the idea that the slaves were freed over the war, and that was plenty of time to succeed, but it wasn't like that. The ridiculous laws designed to keep them down not only made economic success next to impossible, but kept slavery alive and a constant threat, just by another name.

I remember one of the men who came to the soup kitchen in Fresno. He was usually very quiet, but kind when he spoke. I was told by others that he had been a slave, and that he had scars all over his back. I didn't understand how that was possible. Now it makes more sense.

There was a documentary by the same name that was well worth watching (and more digestible), and a short making of film. One of the moments that struck me in the short was the author being about to meet Green Cottenham. This was a figure whose life he had used to tie the different pieces together, and yes, it was just that they had cast an actor, but it gave this feeling of immediacy and connection to "find" him.

There was also a lot of emotion in the interviews with descendants of the re-enslaved and of their abusers. It would have been a hard thing for some of them to face some really ugly things in their family histories. These people did evil things, but they still had families that they treated well, and who loved them and were proud of them, without knowing everything. There is a lot to think about there, especially about the things we do and believe now.

http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/

I was planning on reading Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett Jr., and I found that I was not up for it. I do still plan to read it, but I was worn down, and I felt that with its length and some possible concerns about Bennett's style, I could not manage it now. There was still so much else, though, because everything related.

With For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf, by Ntozake Shange, I am not even sure whether that was more for feminism, and for my troubled teens, or for the African-American experience. It might even be poetry, a little bit. It transcends.

I had not specifically planned to watch a three-part series from The American Experience: The Abolitionists, but I did, and it was valuable. One of the people they covered was John Brown, and I have always been torn on him, because of the killing. I am still not sure he did right, but I see so much more clearly why he would do it.

The Independent Lens series gave me things about Wonder Woman and Native Americans, but also it gave me The House I Live In which goes well with Slavery By Another Name and with The New Jim Crow, and which becomes more disturbing in light of stories like these:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/09/19/are-governments-incentivizing-longer-prison-terms/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/15/throwing-children-in-prison-turns-out-to-be-a-really-bad-idea/

This goes beyond history, but history is how we got here.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/house-i-live-in/

Also, you just learn about people. For example, we read one book by Michael Oher and one book by the Tuohy's as add-ons to The Blind Side, and both of them pointed out some of the same things that were wrong in the movie. You expect some of that in a movie, but it was interesting how important it was to them to have certain things understood. That also happened with John Hope Franklin. Maybe it is more important to know that the press misrepresented a Clinton program, or that a different administration tried to use Franklin to cover a faux pas, than it is to know that Oher did not need tutoring on football, but it is important to people to be heard. Everyone wants to feel understood.

History is humanity. There's a lot of ugliness there, and I deliberately delve into it, but I know it's important. I guess ultimately I believe that it will make me better, and help me to help others make things better. I always find beauty too.

Band Review: Bon-Bon and Buried By Tomorrow

As I indicated in an earlier post, I have been worried about this weekend, in terms of whether the reviews will really get read. For the Fourth of July weekend I made sure to write about British bands, thinking that it would be a normal day for their fans, and I think it worked out okay. This weekend I did the negative review, and I have two bands that I was not sure how to handle, so I am combining them. I became aware of both when they followed me on Twitter.

Bon-Bon

I have been holding off on reviewing Bon-Bon because she only had one song. Previously the minimum number of songs for any of the bands has been 3, with 5 being more common. I thought perhaps I could do a bunch of single song bands together, but she was sort of the only one. So, I thought I could do her today, and she suddenly added a second song on the 25th, which is getting some attention. I am sticking with the plan, but now I have doubts. I guess I can always return to her if there is suddenly more.

In the two songs on Soundcloud, there is a sort of a retro funk vibe, possibly some Amy Winehouse influence, but not as obviously indebted to the 60s. Technically "She Don't Want To Know" is listed as indie pop, and "Lois Lane" is listed as Lo-fi Pop. The accompaniment is interesting, but at times it seems to overpower the vocals, so could probably benefit from better mixes.

https://soundcloud.com/yeahbonbon

https://twitter.com/YeahBonBon

Buried By Tomorrow

Buried By Tomorrow had the usual five songs, and I listened to them some time ago, and then as I started the write-up, I discovered they had broken up. That week required some scrambling, but I still got two reviews in. I wasn't sure what to do about Buried though. It did not feel right to skip them, but was there a point in covering them. Therefore, they end up on today. Their EP Even The Dead Can Dream is still available on iTunes and Spotify.

Buried By Tomorrow was a hardcore/metalcore screamo from Quebec. They had some pretty good range to them, with a delicate instrumental in "Intro", and then moving right into the grows and aggression that is expected of screamo on "Every Smile Tells A Lie", but without completely losing melody.

It's not exactly my genre, and I am more aware now of how triggering their album cover can be than on my first round of listening, but I find myself disappointed that they are gone. I think there was some real potential there. I hope the individual members move on to other things.

https://twitter.com/bbtmontreal

https://www.facebook.com/BuriedByTomorrow

Salome and Portland Opera

I'm afraid my criticism is more of the director, Christopher Mattaliano, but focusing on Salome, which I saw November 9th, will help me make my point.

My history with Portland Opera goes back pretty far. I remember reading a review for Rigoletto in the early '90s and really wanting to see it, but I couldn't afford tickets. When they produced it again shortly after I started working at Intel (this would have been '97 or '98), I could.

I went and I loved it. The music is amazing, I appreciated the sets and effects, and it was exciting to be a high culture event, Portland-style, where some people dress to the nines and some really don't. I ended up subscribing, and for a while I was subscribed to the opera, the ballet, and White Bird. After an amazing first season with White Bird, I started liking it progressively less, and gave up that subscription, but I stayed with the other two and was pretty satisfied.

In 2003, there was a great arts shakeup in Portland. Much was made of the fact that the symphony, ballet, and opera were all changing at the same time. Also, much was made of the new directors being Christopher Mattaliano for the opera and Christopher Stowell for the ballet, and okay, it was Carlos Kalmar for the symphony, but that's still a C-name, and also in 2000 Portland Center Stage got a new Artistic Director named Chris Coleman.

That was very interesting, but I didn't think of it as more than interesting, because I had never realized the impact of an artistic director. I started to notice it more with the ballet. I saw changes in the styles and even the physical types of the dancers. It went from reminding me very much of James Canfield to looking more like Stowell. I liked Canfield better. It wasn't that Stowell was bad at all, but he was not as compelling to me.

I don't go to the symphony or plays that often, so I don't have an opinion on their changes, but I really started to hate the opera.

It took a while. I would say that Mattaliano's first season looked very much like the previous director's last season. Yes, the first one would have been pretty much arranged by his predecessor (I can picture him, but I can't remember his name), but even the season after that still seemed pretty normal, but somehow less moving.

Things were colder and uglier. I blamed post-modernism. The voices always sounded good, but the staging did nothing for me, and I realized I could hear beautiful voices on the CD, and much more cheaply. I let that subscription go too. I never would have thought of it again, but I have a friend who loves opera, and can't find anyone else willing to go with her, so periodically she talks me into one, and each time I get more irritated with them. Salome was the worst.

I'd read the Oscar Wilde play that inspired Strauss years ago, so I had some familiarity with the characters and plot. That may have made some of the disappointment worse, but I would still have been pretty disappointed.

For the setting they chose revolutionary Cuba. I'm not sure correlates exactly with Jerusalem under Roman-installed Herodians, but that wasn't the problem.

One problem was Narraboth's knife. He is going to kill himself with this knife. Showing the knife can give some foreshadowing, but he was moving it around in the air as if he was mesmerized by it, when he is supposed to be mesmerized by the off-stage Salome. It was so over the top, like, "We get it! He has a knife!" It was as if they inverted Chekhov's gun - this is going to go off before the end, so we need to really fetishize it at the beginning, or the audience may be confused when he dies. How did that knife get there?

At least we knew what they were doing there. Two other things were more puzzling. The opening characters in the play are The Young Syrian and The Page of Herodias. The Young Syrian becomes Narraboth, and The Page just becomes Page. She looked like Honey from Doonesbury. China was going through some similar changes, but they are still two different countries. I suppose this could have been to make her appear more separate from Narraboth, but since he was the Syrian, it would have made more sense to make him look foreign. I don't think it made sense to make the page the fish out of water.

So that was off-putting, but then you see Herod in a coat with enormous sleeves that give him some trouble. I think this was to indicate that he was not up to his role, and as other characters mention how cowardly he is, and he does get himself in over his head later. I guess that makes sense, but with both of these issues, it is too distracting. Changing the setting, or details with costumes, or visual cues like that should enrich the performance without distracting from it.

One other change that kind of bothered me was that the page was female. I assume that would be a change that Strauss made, possibly to balance the vocal parts, or possibly due to unwillingness to have someone who was clearly homosexual. That was kind of important in the play though.

The page's love for the Syrian was not the key relationship in the play, but it was part of the overarching theme of unfulfilled longing and the destruction that it brings. Everyone wants something that they can't have. If they get their small desires, it only leads to more trouble.

The Syrian does get Salome to pay attention to him briefly, when she is trying to see Iokanaan, but she grows obsessed, he cannot bear it, and he kills himself. Salome wants to the Iokanaan, and does, but it stirs up things within her that she cannot bear, and leads to her own death. Herod wants to see Salome dance, and gets that, but then she requires something that terrifies him, and all his other desires for Salome end up crushed. You could argue that his desire for Herodias only brought him censure and a new coveting for his niece and stepdaughter.

Where the other characters seem at best foolish and at worst venal, the page in the play is the one character who seems able to see beyond his own desires. He is still tortured by them, and there is a feeling that it is harder it is not merely that his love is obsessed with someone else, but that his love would never even think of him that way, and he cannot even confess his love openly. Perhaps the page was a stand-in for Wilde himself, but he was the character that I felt the most for.

The gender switch may take away some of the anguish, but there is still a lot of anguish and fate and doom, and tortured, beautiful language, and that was the real problem with the Portland Opera performance. Salome is not opera buffa, but it felt like it, with the knife and the sleeves, and Salome's eventual death being by a lot of paper falling on her. I know effects can be hard, and Cuban soldiers don't carry shields like Roman soldiers, but still, it just looked silly, and it should not have been silly. And I haven't even mentioned the fake blood! I realize that on stage you have to make things bigger than you would on film, so it carries to the entire audience, but you can do that without descending into camp.

The potential was there. Soprano Kelly Cae Hogan really did a great job. You saw her make the emotional progression from an idle young girl only a little bothered by her creepy stepfather, to having new feelings stirring within her, to going crazy and cold. She hit all the right notes, on multiple levels. There was nothing silly about her, and I appreciate that, but it was just not enough.

After it was done they announced a Q&A session with Mattaliano, and I immediately thought of three questions. What were you thinking? Were drugs involved? Has a more avant-garde city made an offer for you yet?

The rest of the audience seemed to like it. They got the traditional standing ovation, which I know is kind of a cliche about Portland, and I usually think it's snobby to criticize that, but when the show feels that bad, I get it. At the same time, arts funding is going down in general. That could be largely a financial issue, because times have been hard, but a lot of the people who were supporters of the arts should be rebounded by now. It's a concern.

I love that Portland has opera, symphony, ballet, and theater, along with all the writers and rockers and artists. I don't mind that sometimes things are more modern. Under the previous regime there was one more off the wall selection each year, and that was okay. I didn't exactly like The Cunning Little Vixen, but I don't object to the idea of broadening the idea of what opera is, and the very modern staging made sense without being too distracting. The green neon circle represented the circle of life; okay.

I just think Mattaliano has really questionable taste, and when there are hard decisions to make about how to convey the meaning and the passion and the intensity of the story, that he stumbles over and over again. I thought The Flying Dutchman was hitting bottom, but I was wrong.

Holiday Gift Guide For Grieving My Chemical Romance Fans

Despite the passage of time since the breakup, the fans' grief remains palpable. If you have loved ones among the afflicted, you may find that asking what they want produces the same answer over and over again: "For MCR to get back together!" (Do not be surprised if they incorporate the MCR cover of "All I Want For Christmas", or sob, or both.)

While the band members are working on various projects, not all of these are easily accessible as gifts, and there may be some feelings of 'Oh, I get it; you want to make music, you want to be in the studio, just not together!' Again, it has all been very emotional, but their music still lives, and music itself still lives. I've compiled a list of five albums released this year that may be enjoyable for the bereaved.

I have written about each of these bands at least once, but this is in the context of being for My Chemical Romance fans. Most of them should be available via Amazon, iTunes, and normal outlets, but I will indicate if there is a specific source.

Burials by AFI

This is an excellent band. While their sound and themes are not strictly similar to MCR, they are not incompatible either. There is a skill and depth and emotion, and they have so much already recorded that if the recipient responds well, they can spend a lot of time going over the catalog.

Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 recently (November 15th)  tweeted "Greater Than 84 on the new AFI album is my super jam. Please repeat it into my brain over and over ad infinitum." My two favorites were "A Deep Slow Panic" and "Heart Stops", but I had felt like "Greater Than 84" and "17 Crimes" might be more integral to the album, so I don't know. Uncle Mark is very wise.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/11/concert-review-afi.html

Gold Tattoos by Farewell, My Love

Farewell, My Love is newer than AFI, but they are similar in that while they don't really sound like MCR, they work well with them. The band often mentions MCR in the list of those whose fans might appreciate them. They also mention Black Veil Brides, Falling In Reverse, and Get Scared. I can't vouch for any of those, but as an MCR fan, I like Farewell, My Love a lot.

Because this is a relatively young band, you can get in on the ground floor. The band follows followers on Twitter, and checks their mentions. They are pretty responsive. It is totally possible to meet them, and they will tell you to believe in yourself and follow your dreams.

Gold Tattoos brings in my favorite songs from the previous EPs, seems to be bringing everything together under a theme about the contents of a mysterious chest, and gives us a chance to hear drummer Chad Kowal sing on "Paper Forts". All the members are likable and charismatic and good, but I feel like the gooey-centered heart of the band is Kowal, and that track is really special to me.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/06/concert-review-farewell-my-love.html

No Country For Old Musicians by Reggie and the Full Effect

Yes, James Dewees has done keyboards for My Chemical Romance for years, and that might be reason enough, but also, he does have participation of other band members here. And the key attraction for a grieving fan on this album is not that you will hear some righteous guitars, see that the song features Toro or Iero (or both!), and think, "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about." That does happen, but I think the most comforting thing is the speaking voice of Frank Iero.

I have mentioned before that I find Ray's voice very soothing, but Frank has this kind of Zen quality that I'm not sure I fully appreciated until this album. You hear him on "Robo Fonzie Meets Frank" and "We Make a Breakfast", and there is something so guileless and positive about him, even as he is being called a Guido. There may be a pang, but there will be enjoyment too, and there is a lot to cheer up a sad person on this one.

On a side note, does "Guido" only mean Italian back East? I thought it specifically meant the orange and trashy ones, like "chav", and I know Frank's not a chav. Anyway, I know there has been a lot of Reggie this past week, but I think that's everything out of my system now, until February. Probably.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/11/music-review-no-country-for-old.html

Exiled from Bear Country by Revenir

On my initial review of No Country, I was careful not to dwell on the connections between Dewees and My Chemical Romance, because every project should be able to stand on its own merits. I have carefully done the same with Revenir, but this is the time to talk about it.

Revenir drummer Matt Pelissier is the original drummer from My Chemical Romance. That has brought some fans to him, and that's good because Revenir is a great band. They are so approachable and accessible and just there for their fans. It has also brought him some harassment and stupidity, and he does not like talking about it.

So, I will make a few points. One, moving forward, and concentrating on the current projects, is appropriate and healthy. Two, there is no reason to hold it against anyone. I've been looking at a lot of bands over the past couple of years, and lineup changes are pretty common. Since these often happen with young (immature) males in the heady world of rock, there are often hurt feelings. It's still not reason to hold it against anyone. (And I say that as someone who does hold a grudge against Pedicone for stealing.) There is room in my heart for both bands, and I know I am not the only one.

(A third point could be 'Don't be stupid to bands or band members, but that will probably be its own post someday.)

Anyway, my point is that Revenir is a great band, and you should buy their record. They do not have a label yet, so may not be available everywhere, but you can buy Bear Country through Bandcamp:

http://revenir.bandcamp.com/

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/10/band-review-revenir.html

Save Rock and Roll by Fall Out Boy

It is fairly common for MCR fans to also be FOB fans, and this album has been out the longest, so the odds are high that the fan you are shopping for already has this one. However, I could not exclude it. These two bands are friendly with each other, and Fall Out Boy is the band that knows how to get back together after years and side projects and will be able to offer helpful advice on the subject. Therefore, Patrick Stump's voice is the voice of hope. Maybe some of us have known that all along.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/06/fall-out-boy-this-isnt-just-concert.html

Honorable mention goes to the All-American Rejects. They are also friendly with MCR, and compatible, but people don't seem to make the connection in quite the same way that they do with Fall Out Boy. So, while their most current album, Kids In The Street, is already over a year old, this might be another option.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/03/one-year-of-kids-in-street-1yeaarkits.html

Happy Holidays and, as always, support your local record store!