Sidetracks - June 4, 2012

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag.

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➝ The Culture Gabfest covered the literary/genre divide. Ana, you should listen and then come rant at me. ;)

➝ My favorite song for this week:

➝ Slinky on a treadmill! I love these things.

➝ I started following lacigreen and it's so fun! I spent a few hours going through all the videos and learned a lot.

➝ Ana, have you seen this review of Straight?

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➝ I’m a reader, so I write for readers. I write about books, and why I like certain books. Liz B's Audience and Writing for Readers is only one of the many interesting posts to come out of the Unconventional Blog Tour. You should check them all out.

➝ Renay, I know you're always on the lookout for interesting bookish podcasts, so I was wondering whether you'd come across The Writer and the Critic yet.

➝ The Horrifying Gender Gap in Media Sourcing: Even when news stories are about issues central to women, the press overwhelmingly quotes men. Though as people have been pointing out, the paper that published this piece really should have included itself in the analysis.

➝ I loved seeing Ursula Le Guin discuss her recent reading. It was particularly interesting to read her thoughts on Kij Johnson, since they're both authors with such a huge place in my heart.

➝ And speaking of authors I love on other authors I love (something that never fails to make me happy): Katherine Langrish on The Brides of Rollrock Island.

➝ There's a Kickstarted project going on right now to fund a zine called It's Complicated: A Feminist Zine on Loving Misogynist Art. I'll start with a disclaimer about linking to Kickstarter projects akin to Jodie's from a few weeks ago: this is not in any way an attempt to subtly pressure you into contributing. As someone who's been unemployed for almost a year, I know very well not everyone is in a financial position to do so. But I wanted to let you know about this project anyway because it sounds so interesting. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's had the experience of feeling attached to, or seeing value in, works of art that are very blatantly sexist, and I'm always interested in how people negotiate those experiences. The creators of this project say,

We hope to start an ongoing cultural conversation about the uncomfortable yet influential role that misogynist art plays in our lives. Over the next several months, our plan is to expand It's Complicated into a book and create a website where even more contributors can publish their writing and readers are invited to participate in discussions on the topic.

I really hope this conversation does happen.

➝ I'll leave you with a wonderful TED talk — Leymah Gbowee: Unlock the intelligence, passion, greatness of girls.

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➝ It's Jubilee weekend in the UK. So. many. flags. My plans for the weekend revolve around doing the most patriotic thing a Brit can possibly do by walking through rainy streets to get some drinks in with friends :P Then I'll watch the boat pageant on TV Sunday while my hangover calms down. Looking forward to lots of historical commentary on boats (yes, yes I think we've established that I'm a huge geek).

➝ Over at the History Girls Leslie Wilson asks why we don't celebrate the Putney debates:

'Have we ever had Jubilee celebrations for the Putney Debates, country-wide? Why not? Instead, at a time when people are beginning to question the idea of an unelected Second Chamber of Parliament, the institution of unelected monarchy remains largely unchallenged - to a point where, when a member of the Royal Family made a mess of his ambassadorial role recently, Parliament was instructed that the Royal Family were not to be criticised. Incidentally, until the Human Rights Act was passed, it would have been illegal for me to write this blog piece, as it was a felony (I think that's the correct term) for anyone to advocate in writing the abolition of the Monarchy.'

I had the good fortune have a really passionate lecturer teach me about the English Civil War and it is a little bit of a historical obsession of mine, but we didn't spend much time on the Putney debates. Whatever you may think about Cromwell's final judgement on Charles I (we could totally talk about this is you'd like), it sounds like it's difficult to argue with the value of these discussions.

➝ Julia Stone’s recent cover of The National’s ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ seems relevant to Ana’s interests. I'm thinking about maybe doing a post on my favourite cover songs by female artists. What does everyone think?

➝ Congratulations to Birmingham women's football team for winning the women's FA Cup :D Local ladies for the win.

➝ This ad, which shows Oscar Pistorius, para-olympic athlete, looking like a super hot superhero/demi-god is playing repeatedly at Euston station:

I may have watched it quite a few times now and it never gets old.

Comments

[bookgazing]

I love that the It's Complicated Project already got funded. That's 3 great peer backed projects I've seen reach their goals this week. Question though, if you didn't back this project will you be able to buy these zines anywhere online when they're produced do you think?

Renay I really like the lacigreen tumblr. That's it, I'm getting a tumblr.

[renay]

YES! If I had known it was as easy as showing you a super cool tumblr account I would've pulled out my stash. :D

[bookgazing]

If you could think of a name for my Tumblr I'd get one even faster. Should I just go with Bookgazing again?

[myfriendamy]

yes trust me it's easier. I had a different tumblr name for awhile and no one knew who I was.

One thing that does bug me about tumblr tho is how often ppl change their urls ugh.

[bookgazing]

Well the space exists now at least: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/bookgazing Now to do something with it!

[nymeth]

yay, that's awesome that It's Complicated got funded so fast :D I do hope the Zine will be widely available, or alternatively that they get enough funding to go ahead with the website and book. But judging by the way Kickstarters normally work, everyone should be able to buy it - normally supporters get perks, but the final product is available to the general public. Fingers crossed that that's the case here too.

Thank you for the Bloodbuzz Ohio cover, Jodie :D I'd definitely love to see a post about your favourite covers by female artists.

Renay, thanks for the link to that review of Straight! I agree about the accessibility. Blank has a knack for bringing different strands of knowledgeable together and making the end result really fun to read.

[bookgazing]

Yay! I will get on creating a post. You probably won't be suprised to hear that another Julia Stone song is on there. I considered making one about my top ten favourite songs by ladies right now, but then I would have to show my Rhianna love and I'd probably get blacklisted by all the srs muso people.