My Life as A Radical Whore/Madonna

Okay - so almost a week ago, I went to see Ms. Ani DiFranco at the Chicago Theater (MANY THANKS TO ALICIA!), and as usual it was awesome. There were marimbas. And the baby belly has not as-of-yet impeded any rocking out. I was totally sick and sneezing and blowing my nose, but I couldn’t miss it - I mean, how many chances will I get to see Ani perform pregnant? Who knows, but I’m glad I went. Everytime I go see her live, it reminds me why after so many years (10 now), I’m still totally into Ani DiFranco.

So any haters out there can bite it, ’cause I don’t care what you say. Ani rocks the fuck out. Seriously though, it still trips me out how some people go way out of their way to hate on Ani DiFranco. The vitriol is thick and seemingly unnecessary - I think it’s a lot of latent sexism and anti-feminism. But this is the deal: She calls out the criminal acts of the U.S. gov’t administration live, onstage, with or without musical accompaniment. She gives back to her communities (in Buffalo, NY, and in New Orleans), and encourages others to do so. She’s an activist. She calls out the systemic racism in this country. She advocates feminism, and calls out the bullshit capitalist patriarchy. How many musicians are total anti-social assholes, who do nothing for anyone and no one cares? Besides which, I personally enjoy her music. If you don’t like her music, that’s fine. But she’s an artist who’s been making work consistently, working with all kinds of musicians, developing her sound, touring and making albums practically nonstop. That deserves respect. She’s doing it. She stands up and represents. I think it’s pretty fucking bad-ass.

I got out my old copy of ‘Not A Pretty Girl’ that I bought when I was still in high school, which I hadn’t listened to in years. I put it on, and goddamn if I didn’t enjoy it as much as ever. More so, kind of, since I no longer hold the associations of all the high school bullshit that used to be tied up in all of the song lyrics for me. I danced around in front of Stella, who always appreciates dancing, and had a fine time. I love going back to things and seeing what new meaning they hold. That’s why I like to read books over and over again over the years. As my vocabulary expands, I learn more and more about the work.

I haven’t blogged in a while, huh? Life is good. My new thing is anti-bias education. That’s a big part of what I’m doing in my internship. See my newest blog for more info (antibias.wordpress.com). I’m determined to use these tools to change the world. It’s overwhelming though, the kind of thing that can test relationships. When I talk to my friends about it, a lot of the time their eyes seem to glaze over, though they nod and smile. Not many people like to talk about the bias that is intrinsic to all of our lives and how it lies between us, even the best of friends. Alas, good work is worth doing, even if it’s hard work. Even if it makes my friends somewhat uncomfortable.

It’s nice to be back in academic/professional life. It’s interesting to do it with baby in tow. All institutions involved have been very accomodating - I’ve taken Stella to my internship when I needed to, she’s becoming a regular at my school library, and she attends the first 15 minutes or so of each of my group seminar meetings and it’s been all good. I’m doing it. I’ve got the family and I’ll have the degree. Any parent out there who’s in the world of work or school or whatever takes you out of the home - whenever you have the opportunity, do what you can to support parents taking their kids to work or school or whatever. So many things are possible for working parents if you just reach out and lend a little support. The world is changing - we need to make more room for families to express their creativity and productivity in more ways. Everyone wins.

Oh - for any knitters learning to knit: Talking on the phone with Amanda, I discovered something really cool - KnittingHelp.com! It has actual video of how to execute knitting techniques. I heart the internet!

Anyway - I need to get some food in me and do something to get ready for the arrival of my superawesome sister-in-law. I’ll try to write again soon - as ever, it’s a challenge. But it’s important to stay connected, so I’ll make the effort. In the meantime, go dig out an old CD or mix tape and groove it up in a new way. Or learn to knit! Have fun!

Love,

Atena

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.