This is for Mike!

Don't wanna lose my cred as certifiably OLD SCHOOL, now do I?

In my 80s-music post on Wednesday, Mike commented that I needed to turn the clock back 10 or 15 years, so these next videos are for him!

~*~

This is like a really good movie! Great work... it was made by another young classic rock fan named Jordan Bell.

I have always imagined something remarkably similar when I hear the song. Love the hoodie-as-grim-reaper touch, where you never see the hitch-hiker's face. WELL DONE!


The Doors - Riders on the Storm (1971)



~*~

Watching the Sonic Youth video--which has already been removed "by the user"* (((curses substantially)))--I was puzzling over whether that was a quickie-shot of Joni Mitchell from LADIES OF THE CANYON, so I went looking for it. It is; the same head-shot is featured in this one.

And I was reminded of how very much I love this song. Very, very Lilith Fair, so if you don't like female-folkies, do not listen. After all, she is the prototype, my friends.

One of the first songs to pass the Bechdel test--a song about how much a woman admires and loves a certain group of other women, and wants to be like they are. (Just try to find another one this early... go ahead, I'll wait.)

I'd say she succeeded admirably, too.


Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon (1970)



~*~

Rather obscure Eagles song that I identified with in my youth. As a young woman, it was the first time I'd seen men acknowledge that some women may not enjoy constant sexual attention, and in fact, might even find it threatening, harmful, stifling and just thoroughly unwelcome. I therefore found it very validating at the time, although listening to it now, I realize it was an early sign I might have been in some trouble.

Or at the very least, I was getting pissed off:

there's too many hands
being laid on her
too many eyes will never see
that it's dragging her down
but you won't hear a sound
as she turns round

Obviously, a radical feminist in the making!

This song was written by Randy Meisner and Don Felder, sung by Meisner. Great guitar work and excellent production.

The Eagles - Too Many Hands (1975)



~*~

*We finally have a baddie to blame for this phenomenon... which I have complained about before. WARNER MUSIC GROUP, capitalist swine, are keeping us from looking at Sonic Youth, as well as several other videos I have already posted--and probably a few you've already posted too!

FREE THE MUSIC!

Grand Old Man 1993-2008

My Grand Old Man's kidneys and heart failed today. He was about 15 years old, pretty old for a kitty. I blogged about him here, here and here.

Emotionally devastated; I don't have anything to say.

~*~

The following comic is from Dykes To Watch Out For. (It's kinda hard to read on a blog, so for a larger version, click here.)

God Bless Alison Bechdel, for giving me the art and the words.

Goodbye, my dear friend.

~*~

Bisexual Invisibility

At left: from FUN HOME by Alison Bechdel.

I loved Alison Bechdel's fabulous graphic novel FUN HOME, but am I the only one who wondered why she labeled her father *gay* rather than bisexual? If someone has been married for decades, but still enjoys periodic sexual relationships with their own gender, to me, that makes them bisexual.

Perhaps because the parallel between her own (gay) sexuality and her father's became much more poignant and obvious; it makes for a great dramatic narrative. Nonetheless, as much as I adore the book, I feel as if the reality of bisexuality is ignored and downplayed, here as elsewhere.

Why does this happen? Does bisexuality cause people to feel disoriented? Too many possibilities? Or are we simply accustomed to either/or thinking?

Other questions I have pondered lately: If someone is legally married for a long time, yet has a few gay afffairs, why are they then considered gay, instead of "heterosexual who likes a few gay afffairs"? If it were the reverse, they WOULD be considered "homosexual who likes a few straight affairs." This brings to mind the infamous racial "one-drop rule" of days past. The one drop rule held that "one drop of black blood" whether it be 1/2 or 1/16, makes a person black, period. The underlying concept of the one drop rule was that whiteness is purity.

I think we have a *one drop rule* as applied to heterosexuality. ONE POSITIVE OR ENJOYABLE GAY RELATIONSHIP (or encounter) makes one gay; again, the underlying concept is that heterosexuality is purity and can therefore be sullied and ruined.

Bisexuality messes up the binary and the *one drop rule.* Therefore, people just sort of tune it out.

~*~*~*~*~

Other questions: If you are bisexual and monogamous, do you ever stop saying you are? If one has been monogamous for a decade, one is assumed to be gay or straight, depending on the gender of your partner. Do you ever "correct" people who make these assumptions? After so long, does it even make any sense to correct people? Why should we? Do you ever feel foolish doing that?

And several transpeople are now reading my blog, so I'd love for you to weigh in here. I have noticed many transfolks are bisexual, so please jump in: Do your partners ever get neurotic over their own sexuality and whether they are gay or straight?

Do you think bisexuality automatically means polyamory or the possiblity of threesomes to many people? Bisexuals are presented as fickle, immature cheaters in a lot of TV shows and movies (thinking now of SIX FEET UNDER); how can we "rehabilitate" the bisexual image in media, for instance?

Discuss!