There’s so much going on in any given week in the music press/world of pop culture/the world at large that I can’t possibly keep up with it all. That being said, there are definitely things I see that I want to comment on and that being the case, I thought it would be fun to share some thoughts/anecdotes/snarky observations on a few things and get a little cheeky each week on things that I either liked or scoffed at that happened in the world of music/pop culture. I always love a chance to be sassy, sarcastic, and a bit over-the-top-gay, so here we are! Welcome to me serving up my aging punk nerd thoughts—not all of them polite—on some pop culture moments and music news from the preceding week. A little Sunday Brunch if you will.
A pigeon was found earlier this week in Madison Square Park in Manhattan that had been dyed pink and many quickly surmised that it was probably done so for the sake of a gender reveal and then abandoned. To which all I can say is….oh god, the normie cis-hets are at it again!
As the saying goes, there’s a lot to unpack here, what with the animal abuse and— if true that this bird was in fact dyed for the purpose of a gender reveal—the archaic clinging to heteronormative gender roles. I’m of the notion that this bird definitely and unfortunately was violated for this purpose and you know this led to me letting out a very loud scoff.
This is another “are you for fucking real right now?!” moment and I just need a minute to cue the pissed off Leia pics….
I’m also of the notion that oh I don’t know, maybe parents should back the eff off and let their spawn decide for themselves how they want to live their lives and express themselves, something that genitalia has absolutely nothing to do with. For the third week running, I have turned to Matt Bernstein’s excellent and witty takedown to emphasize my point. (Seriously, if you are not following their account already then I just don’t know about you.)
But really, this does beg the question, are straight people okay? Why does it matter what genitalia your baby is being born with? And also why does it warrant telling everyone AND abusing an animal or going to such lengths that you end up starting a fucking wild fire in the process of telling everyone?! This trend has always been cringey to begin with and has only gotten more out of control as time goes on with people keep trying to up the ante for attention/the hope of going viral on social media platforms. If my regular, normal ass, not-exactly-right-wing-but-definitely-not-left-wing-radical middle of the road parents could deal with me prancing around as a child as a miniature proto butch dyke during the Reagan era, then surely these objectively better educated and more worldly prospective parents of 2023 can get a grip.
As for the fate of the bird…it has since been named “Flamingo” and is reportedly struggling to recover as it deals with a myriad of issues including poisoning from the dye, ingested through a bird’s natural preening process. No one is likely to come forward to take responsibility for this cruel and selfish act, with Anthony Genise, a man who owns a bird rental company, being quoted in a Curbed article (that runs down more specifics on wild vs domesticated birds) “You ain’t gonna find where that bird came from.” I certainly feel for this little feathery friend and hope it makes a full recovery, but perhaps the scarier thought for me is that whoever the person who did this is, they are soon to be responsible for the life of a human child and well…that isn’t a comforting thought at all.
And on this day, sapphic screams of joy were heard round the world! Long the object of fantasies of queer women everywhere, Gillian Anderson made us collectively gasp this week when she asked women to send her their sexual fantasies on Instagram which immediately drove us into a gay tizzy. And even more than that, let’s get a hell yeah for some sex positivity for women of all sexualities! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with talking about desire, no matter who you are, but too many of us who aren’t cis men have been socialized that there is and it is somehow “taboo” or “wrong” to discuss what you want in the bedroom. Kudos to Scully…er um GILLIAN ANDERSON…for using her platform to really nail it home that this is normal, healthy and very needed.
Anderson, famed for her role as skeptical FBI agent Dana Scully on 90s cult hit The X Files, and who currently plays sex therapist Jean Milburn on the Netflix show Sex Education (I, among many other queers, choose not to acknowledge her role playing a certain Tory Prime Minister who may or may not have been in office from 1979-1990), says she’s “launching a major exploration of women and sex,” and has requested that women send her letters containing their “most personal desires” for a book she is said to be “curating,” that will feature anonymous tales detailing sexual fantasies of those among us who are not male. “Wherever you come from, whether you’re 18 or 80, you sleep with men or women or non-binary individuals or all or no one at all. I want to know your most personal desires. Let’s open up this conversation together and create something revelatory.”
Watch the video below, I’m just going to go grab my notepad and a pen………..
I also couldn’t miss the opportunity to filter this through the lens of punk (and no, I’m not talking about Anderson’s punk phase in the 80s), because I will always take any and all opportunities for that, so I would be remiss if I didn’t direct your attention to F. Emasculata, the world’s premier X Files themed hardcore band. They are one of my personal favorite bands and are based in Cornwall, UK where the band members are active in the DIY scene in this project and several others. It is unfortunate for me that they are so far away, because I rarely get to see them play live, BUT they will soon be heading to the hellfire shores of Murica for a West Coast tour in March and I may or may not be currently contemplating the purchase of a plane ticket to meet up with the tour.
Their latest release, Hail Mulder, came out in early 2022 (and made my favorites of 2022 list) and I had this to say about it at the time of release: “My favorite track is the closer, “Foxglove,” which is about one of the all time best X Files episodes ever aka also the one where Eve 6 got their name from. The riffs are heavy, the screams are severe, and the truth is out there.” Take a listen below.
I probably won’t comment all that much on the Grammy’s overall which are taking place right now as I write this. They are definitely cool, and a great honor, but just this other stratosphere of the world that is beyond me and I’m happy in my punk rock side of the world, so I generally don’t even tend to pay them much mind. But hey you never know, let’s see how the ceremony goes and perhaps I’ll have something to weigh in on this year (though surely every much more prominent music outlet will have done it before me). But sincerely, congrats to IDLES on their nomination! I love Crawler (and everything else they’ve done) and as I said in my coverage of their most recent NYC show in Sept, 2022 (see pics) “I have laughed, I have raged, and yes, I have cried” to their music. They are as deserving a group of artists to receive this honor as any.
Today I mainly stopped in here to say I love guitarist Mark Bowen’s style and the dress he is wearing to the event! I really am not up on any kind of fashion in terms of designers, so I have no clue who designed it or what label it is, it’s more the fact that I love each and every smashing of heteronormativity that ever occurs in this world in general, and love to see him owning his style in particular. Be it in his underwear or a suit and cowboy hat as I’ve seen him wear at shows to a flowery dress for press photos or a fancy, bright magenta frock at a major awards ceremony, he has a unique “fuck you this is who I am” approach to clothes that I very much admire.
I for sure can’t rock a dress that hard and I’m living for his destruction of traditional notions of hard edged masculinity throughout his work in the band, be it through his fashion choices or taking a paternity leave and having a woman fill-in for him during a major US tour. Neither thing something any male rock star of yore would have ever had the grace or confidence in themselves to do.
Suffice it to say, we need more ex-dentist rock star role models like Mark Bowen. (Yes, he is in fact a dentist and was practicing in the UK before the band blew up. Something I have spoken to him about and that he took great delight in sharing.)