4/30/10

MAY I MOTHER

Dear everyone who reads this blog. Maybe everyone has switched over to tumblr I don't know. Anyways I just sent out my big May mailing list email and I wanted to send it to as many people as possible so here it is. Have a good weekend, friends.
___________________________________________________________________
Hello Friends,

So glad it’s Springtime, right? I have some really exciting events happening in May that I’d like to invite you all to.

First of all, thanks everyone who came out to the Scorcher zine release party at PPOW Gallery. So much fun! If you haven’t yet, you can get a copy of the newest issue here: http://birdsongmag.com/the-zines/scorcher

For those of you in Philadelphia, I was asked to contribute text to the catalog of an exhibition that just opened at the UPenn Institute for Contemporary Art called THE QUEER VOICE. The artists include: Laurie Anderson, Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, Sharon Hayes, John Kelly, Kalup Linzy, Jack Smith, Ryan Trecartin and Andy Warhol and I was among a pool of 80-odd queers asked to define “the queer voice” for the catalog. Check it out, it is up until August 1st and you can find more info on the show here:
http://www.icaphila.org/exhibitions/queervoice.php

Saturday May 8th 8:00PM
SKINNYFAT
Center for Performance Research, 361 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn
(http://www.cprnyc.org)
Ear Dax’s wonderful new festival QUEER CONSCIENCE (queerconscience.org) is presenting a screening of the new film SKINNYFAT, and I am doing a live interview with filmmaker Andy Bydalek afterward.
Tickets $10 (includes free admission to INTERLACE NYC after-party)
More info: http://www.queerconscience.org/skinnyfat.html

Sunday May 9th 7:30PM
QUEER ARTS IMPACT PANEL DISCUSSION
The Tank, 354 W 45th St. NYC
Part of the brilliant GAY WARS project masterminded by Mat Heggem, I’m so excited to be on this panel! Brian McCormick will moderate a cross-section of artists/activists will unravel the significance of LGBTQ performance in affecting social change. Panelists include: Charlie Demos, Shalonda Ingram, Shelly Mars, Max Steele and Yozmit. I am totally smitten with everyone on the panel, and this looks to be a really exciting event.
Tickets: $5
More info: http://www.matheggem.com/matheggem.com/Q.A.I._Panel.html

Friday May 14th 8:00PM
BIRDSONG TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY / RELEASE PARTY
3rd Ward, 573 Metropolitan Ave @ Lorimer St. Brookyn
Featuring readings by members of the Birdsong Collective, a performance by PAPS, and Two special guest readers: SARA MARCUS and ALEXANDER CHEE. While each Birdsong party is special, this two year anniversary blowout is definitely something you won’t want to miss, I am going to be reading some new material and I’m very nervous and excited to share it with you.
Free Admission, Lovers.
More info: http://birdsongmag.com

Saturday May 22nd 10:00PM
VAGINAL DAVIS IS SPEAKING FROM THE DIAPHRAGM
PS122, 150 First Ave. @ 9th St., NYC
I am BEYOND beyond psyched to tell you that I will be making an appearance in Miss Vaginal Davis’ upcoming performance at PS122.
Here’s a description of the show: “A performance piece that re-examines the heyday of 1970s American daytime television chat and variety programs. Taking the format of legendary talk shows like The Mike Douglas Show and Dinah!, which starred lesbian icon Dinah Shore. Ms Davis isn't interested in assimilating into the mainstream entertainment complex, but instead wishes to dissect a kind of TV staple and reconfigure it by presenting an array of live and Skype guests from the various worlds of literature, dance, theatre, film and art she has intersected in her over 30 year career as a performance and live artist, writer and cultural raconteur. With guest hosts, Downtown treasure Carmelita Tropicana, and Jennifer Miller the famed bearded lady of Circus Amok, expect ten days of the unexpected, the unusual and the sublime.”

I don’t know who the other guest stars will be yet, but I will be part of the 10PM show! I’ll be discussing my zine, doing a little performance, and some other surprises I’m sure. DEFINITELY DON’T MISS.
More info and Tickets available here: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/7890005

Enjoy the sunshine, everyone!

4/29/10

A Party For Lovers



SOME THINGS WHICH JUST SO HAPPEN TO BE TRUE, LATELY:
  • We do need new maps. I wanna find other ways to measure distances, how much we've put behind us.
  • Everything is anxiety, so make it like water: realize it is composed of basic elements which we can recycle.
  • And, really, now is the time. I was going to make a kind of storyboard of HOW BILLY SURVIVED WINTER, a Choose Yr Own Adventure novel or something. But then I realize the way I was measuring survival was like, a list of boys or something. Outfits I wore. Anyways the point is now it's spring and I've Made It, Miraculously.
  • Being permeable. Being unrockable. Immaterial. It feels good / it doesn't feel like anything / it feels like you. It feels like how I imagine you to feel, and imagining how you feel is equal or greater than how you must actually feel.
  • Symmetry sounds nice. It seems romantic or ideal. It is impossible and therefore seductive.



Been thinking a lot about that old SF band The Quails. Gosh, I loved them so much. Springtime for me feels like their music, cause in spring everything comes alive and then it's almost summer and in summer the Quails play a bunch of shows and you can hear the new songs before the record comes out in the fall. Worth mentioning, obviously, that they are worth getting back into since there is something of a nascent riot grrrl revival happening (or at least a wider discussion is taking place for the first time in ten-twenty years) and Quails lead singer Jen Smith (aka Miss Lady Hand Grenade, a stage name which had a profound effect on my life) was one of the founders of the Riot Grrrl thing, after saying to her friends in DC one summer that there should be, you know, a girl riot. Living Legend. Let's not get all the way into it. Also Julianna and Seth from Quails are now living in Portland and are playing on the upcoming Corin Tucker solo record. So, like, check them out. One of my favorite Quails songs, "More Gender, More of the Time" has a really awesome refrain: "The Quails are throwing a party for lovers!" which I always liked. Also on their first record, the song "Don't Do That", Julianna sings counterpoint to Jen, and while Jen gets all woo-woo in the chorus, Julianna just keeps saying "Young Lover!" and I dunno. That word, LOVER, is obviously a favorite. I notice it. I look for it. I root around for it.



Thinking a fair bit about, you know:


You want to find a more perfect union and I do not blame you. You want to be with someone who has the same damages as you. Who has matching scar tissue.



YOUNG LOVER!

4/27/10

The Most Cake

Tonight I'm actually going to see Courtney Love perform. Finally and for real.


by Hedi Slimane, obvs.

My buddy Johnny Darling wrote a really cool piece about Courtney's return to NYC. I think that it would be a fair comparison to say that Courtney is for me what Judy is for theater queens. Iconic, emblematic, complex, and worth defending. I love Courtney's work and I am literally beside myself.

Oh gosh.

Locking

notes from LOCKING, work in progress.

At a fancy apartment where you are house sitting. We're getting really fucked up on booze and drugs and listening to records. We take turns choosing songs and you only put on these really long house tracks with no lyrics, or lyrics in Swedish or something, and I put on punk songs that only take a minute and make me want to wrestle with you on the expensive carpet.

NICK: Stop jumping around, you're going to knock something over.
BILLY: No I'm not. Sorry. I'm antsy. I'm all keyed up from the gym.
NICK: My friend told me about guys that have sex at the gym. I had no idea. Do you have sex at the gym, Billy? Is that why you're keyed up?

You've never even heard of people having sex at the gym. This is something new to you. You probably don't know a lot about cruising because for years you had a boyfriend. So maybe you never got the memo that guys cruise in gyms. Anyways, I didn't go to the gym to fuck. I came to the apartment where you're house-sitting to fuck. But you've invited this other guy over, I'm trying to seduce you and punish you before he gets here.


BILLY: That's not why I'm keyed-up, Nick. I don't go cruising at the gym. In fact, I chose the gym I use specifically because it's not cruise-y.
NICK: I think my friend Cynthia goes to your gym.
BILLY: Yeah, I saw her there tonight.
NICK: Where was she?
BILLY: We were in the cardio room but we didn't say hi or anything.
NICK: Was she cruising?
BILLY: Maybe. Maybe I'll cruise Cynthia at the gym. Maybe we'll have sex in the locker room. Would you be pissed?
NICK: What?
BILLY: If I had sex with your friend Cynthia. Would you be mad at me?
NICK: No.
BILLY: Who would you be mad about? Who would you be mad at me for sleeping with?
NICK: Nobody. We're not the bosses of each other. I'm not into that kind of game.
BILLY: I bet I can think of someone.

I'm thinking of your ex-boyfriend. I'm thinking about sleeping with him just to upset you.

NICK: Who?
BILLY: You know who I'm thinking of.
NICK: You mean... whatever. That wouldn't even make me mad. That would just be evil.
BILLY: So you wouldn't be mad at me if I was evil?
NICK: No. I'd be sad.
BILLY: That's the same thing.



I'm running my fingers through your hair and I'm trying to think of a way to hurt you. Without, y'know, actually pulling your hair or anything. We're talking about how your hair is turning gray. I don't see it, but you do and it freaks you out.

BILLY: Hey Nick, y'know what would be a good haircut for you?
NICK: What?
BILLY: Do you know that band, that old punk band, the Misfits?

There is a long pause as I'm coming your hair forward with my fingertips. It's brown, the color of very expensive Mahogany wood. You are staring at me and you're too surprised to be mad, but when you finally do talk you're speaking in a low voice, very slowly.

NICK: Billy, are you talking about a Devilock?
BILLY: Yeah, Nick. I was.
NICK: Did you... did you really think I didn't know who the Misfits were?
BILLY: Well, I dunno. I thought you only listened to techno.
NICK: I can't believe you thought I wouldn't know what a Devilock is.
BILLY: But Nick, I didn't mean it as a value-judgment.

But I totally did mean it as a value judgment. I think your taste in music sucks. I don't think you're cool. I want you to know that I think you're un-cool, in fact.

NICK: Anyways, I used to have one.
BILLY: What?
NICK: A Devilock.
BILLY: Oh.
NICK: Yeah, my old boyfriend Paul and I got them together. We dyed our hair black.
BILLY: When was that?
NICK: That must have been 2003.

In 2003, I had black hair too.

The Queer Voice

I was asked a few weeks ago to contribute text to the exhibition catalog of this really cool art show at UPenn's Institute of Contemporary Art. If you're in Philadelphia, check it out!

Queer Voice

April 22 - August 1, 2010

Presenting video, installation, and audio works, this group exhibition foregrounds the voice as a material in contemporary art—in particular, a queered voice. Manipulated, mediated, or otherwise affected, the voice present in these works both signals a disengagement with gender norms and with everyday conventions of communication. Casting light on what it means to "sound strange," they insist that the viewer become a listener too, engaging with art works that are performative and narrative in nature. Throughout the voice takes on a complex of guises and strategies: it can mask the speaker, tweak identity, obscure gender, test points of view, amplify and nullify emotions. It may create a disembodied or virtual presence, filling the listening space with avatars and mediums, the very presence of which signal a shift in the nature of reality itself. The queer voice opens up a queer space where a heightened sense of artifice and affect signal a new norm. Artists: Laurie Anderson, Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, Sharon Hayes, John Kelly, Kalup Linzy, Jack Smith, Ryan Trecartin and Andy Warhol.

I am very honored to have been asked to contribute, and I can't wait to see the catalog. We were asked to respond to the question: "What is the Queer Voice?" and this is part of my response:
We’re told to restrain our impulses, thoughts, feelings and voices. This means, also, that we’re taught to notice them. Our pleasure is by nature illicit. We are trained to cum silently or else in code. We can recontextualize our message, though. Change our minds halfway through a sentence. Find new holes in new bodies. Heal wounds.
Good news.

4/26/10

Soldier Song

Oh wonderful! Look at what finally came in the mail for me today!

It collects a bunch of CdG advertising campaigns, editorials, and various inspiring ephemera from CdG prior to 1998. It includes some photos from a 1994 campaign featuring Cindy Sherman, which I never knew about. There's a pretty interesting piece about this collaboration by Jessica Glasscock here.

Cruising Kitty

Gosh. I guess it all began on Thursday night, the way these things tend do. I was trying to "save my energy", or something. After work I went to the gym and ran really really fast while listening to that Björk remix. I met up with the Genius of Erin Markey at her house to work on a commercial for her show, coming up in May at the SoloNOVA Festival at PS122. I am a big fan of Erin's work, and I am always super excited about her, in a general sense. A lot of people these days are getting pretty excited about her. You should be on board (if yr not already). Anyways, here's the video we made. I think there's going to be a second one too (stay tuned). I have to admit that Erin wrote this rap, I can't take credit for it.


and you can buy tickets here.

Hey speaking of cool things and videos my friends are doing, check out this new video by Kevin City from his recent trip to Stockholm! There are (I hear) some very exciting rumbles and rumors coming out of Kevin City lately / soon, and I couldn't be more excited about that. Check him out:

Then check out the rest at KevinCity!

SO after I left Erin's house I went to go pick up some friends to go out to the Mattachine party, where PLD was celebrating his birthday. I stopped by Ben Rimalower's apartment, which, I think needs some kind of a nickname. Maison du Rim? Ben's Pad? Les Mouches Nouveaux, perhaps? Any of the above. Anyways, at Ben's I saw the deeliteful Cole Escola and Bridgett Everett and they were sure cracking me the hell up! I couldn't convince them to get on the train with me though. I got myself to Mattachine at Julius' after getting very extremely lost in the West Village. It was PACKED as usual I guess for Earth Day / PLD's Birthday. It was so packed that I couldn't even get through the bar to go sit with my friends! I mean, I could and did but it took forever. PLD was there with Tommy and Ptrick. Ran into all the glamorous kids. I was exhausted tho and didn't stay long. Zzzs fest.

Friday at work was hard but not impossible. After work I went to Jeffery's house to film a new episode of Jeffery & Cole Casserole. The episode they were working on features Geo Wyeth from Novice Theory and Jive Grave as a hunky new transfer student. Get excited. From Jeffery's I went home to Brooklyn where PLD and Ptrick and I got excited fro Friday. We did some stargazing and then made cocktails with Jack Daniels and Vanilla Coke. I had Jack with Dr. Pepper. It was delicious. The three of us did an epick midnight stroll around the neighborhood. All night. It was such a nice change from, say, getting drunk in some loud bar or something. We cruised a couple of cats on the street, like got down on the sidewalk and hung out with them. Really nice. Perfect springtime evening.

PLD said this really adorable thing which I wanted to repeat. He and Ptrck were talking about how the previous night, Thursday, Earth Day and PLD's Birthday, they saw that the Empire State Building had been lit up green. I told him: "I only know one other person who gets the Empire State Building lit up especially for their birthday," I was going to say, "and that person is Mariah Carey" but before I could, PLD interrupted me and said "SANTA?!" Which is cute because, really, when is Santa's birthday? What sign is Santa? Maybe Erin Markey knows. And in any case I was misremembering about Mariah and the Empire State Building, they lit it up for her when E=MC2 came out, not her birthday (which is March 27th, she's an Aries). I just thought that was too cute.

Saturday I did chores, cleaned my room and felt extra productive. I tried a new breakfast recipe that Mark Bittman once wrote about-- quinoa with parmesan for breakfast. Really cool idea. I met up with my friend Christian to discuss a photo project we're gonna do together, and I'm excited about it. Went to a party at my office, then at Roy's house, with fucking everybody ever, then the Metropolitan. Long night. Long, fun night. Lasting well into Sunday. I was amazingly sleepy but dragged myself over to the Birdsong office where I hung out with the editors, did a little art project, ate pizza, watched TV and talked shit with the girls. Fell asleep reading a Thurston Moore interview.

Wonderful Weekend. Real great.

4/23/10

Look Straight

BURY THE HAIR



God there's so much to do every second of every day. Life in New York City is exciting, and it generally makes me happy. But it's also exhausting, sometimes. I'm sort of waiting for something really important to happen, maybe. I'm tempting fate, I think.

I wanna lay down next to you and not get up all day. I wanna wait until after dark for us to get up, out of bed, and go out. Ply each other with vodka and soda pop, candy bars. Junk food. Get a real sugar high, fizzy in the front of our heads and go out dancing. Like being a team of spies. I wanna be in on something but only if I can be in on it with you. I want you to know that there is no telling what you and I could get up to. I know it, and because I know it it's my job to convince you. You might not even take that much convincing. Maybe our job is to see if it's true, and how true. To what extent. Let's exhaust the idea, like internal combustion. Burn each other up and then give to the air what we can't breathe by then we'll be down the road you look so good with the wind in yr hair.

WHO BURIED YOU THERE?



COLA THINKS WE OUGHT TO TO DYE-A-LOG



(all pix + vid from Tracy + The Plastics Archive)

TGIF

FOR REAL.

Christina Martinez by Richard Kern, 1990

4/22/10

Cord Daze

Future Stepchildren.


Him: What's your middle name?
Him: J...?
Him: I ask you too many questions. I'll slow down.
Me: Joseph is my middle name.
Me: I'm an open book. Read me. Check me out of yr library.
Him: I owe late fines....
Him: I'd never return you.
Me: Smooooooooooth.
Him: That was good huh...
Him: I have more...



Thinking about Stepchildren and romance makes me think about making this my life:



Only, like, in my version, Julia goes to smoke a joint with Susan and then Susan's cancer is cured and Susan and Julia dump the hubby and kids and run away a la Thelma and Louise, picking up Geena Davis on the way and then in the end nobody dies.

I guess it would be fair to say that my perfect idea of romance is a Susan Sarandon movie where nobody dies.

Sister Sigil Syllable

Feeling sort of moody this morning. Overburdened with the world. Wanted for a second to share this with you here on the blog, but decided against it. Think a better use of my time would be to articulate love.

TODAY IS PERFECT LITTLE DANIEL'S BIRTHDAY.
His Birthday is Earth Day.

We met a little over a year ago, I guess. We were pen pals on-line, we read each other's blogs and sent ach other emails, for a couple of weeks. We kept planning on running into each other at various parties or events but couldn't get it together.

Here are some things that remind me of PLD.






We finally met at Glasslands. He came to a show I played at the Secret Faggot party. It happened to be House of Ladosha's incendiary first show. He came up to me to ask to buy a zine and I recognized him immediately. Jiddy, who had danced back-up for me that night and I were headed out to go get high on the waterfront, sweaty and post-show. I invited PLD who came with us around the corner, silently. After passing one of Jiddy's magickal joints around our circle, the first word PLD said to me was:


SISTERHOOD

4/21/10

Call Michelle, Call Lisa, Call Nancy, Call Sharon

Make a list of everything that everyone has ever done to piss you off. Be specific. Make your list of grievances. Hold yrself hostage. Promise to kill yourself unless the Universe meets your demands. The Universe, or your parents, or your friends, or the bullies you knew in high school, or the guy you think is hot but won't go out with you, whoever it is that you think should be held accountable. So write it all down, or organize it in your head in list form.

Then, burn the list.
I know that righteous indignation feels, y'know, righteous, but letting it go leaves room for feeling all sorts of different things, including better. I feel productive for measuring the exact length of my temper and discovering each time that I have a bit more rope than I used to. No ceiling-swinger. No chair-kicker.

But I've discovered enough rope to play double-dutch. I think. Let's call the rest of the girls.

What I mean to say is: when I discover that there's enough patience and goodwill and "get-over-it"-ness, as I am discovering now, I want to share it with you. Let's play double-dutch, and you're invited.


These. Pants. Are. Mine. I had a huge crush on them in January when they were prohibitively expensive but I found them on sale at Barney's and for some reason the Barney's downtown had them in my size and they fit and they look cute and they are my dream and I am happy that I will have to eat only beans and rice (meaning I should have gotten them in a smaller size? a-m-b-i-t-i-o-n). The point is: it's okay to feel like you want something and deserve what you want. Sometimes.

Okay. Last night I was with Missa, Bobo, and Jiddy walking to a very fine dinner on the Upper East Side. We had just been bonding on Cedar Hill. And we were walking behind this glamoroous woman and I wanted to remember the look ('MEMBER THE LUKE) but my camera phone sucks so I dared Jiddy to take a photo with hers and Jiddy ALWAYS SUCCEEDS AT DARES. Check out this gorgeousness:

OKAY OKAY LET ME SAY:
This BRAID mixed with this T-SHIRT that says LIONS on it.
Mixed with (you can't see this in the photo) her busy, busy, post-workout, on-my-way-home-to-snuggle-with-my-pet HUSTLE that this woman was doing down the street. As her braid came ever so slightly undone.

I LOVE THIS.

4/20/10

Crazy. Sturdy. A torpedo.







PARTIAL LIST OF THINGS I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH TO HAVE:
  • A kitty.
  • A pair of really nice new blue jeans. I always end up getting indigo on everything.
  • A car, even a driver's license.
  • An iPhone, probably (but I want one so bad)

(Romance used to be on this list, but I just crossed it off).

I Was Thinking Of You


Dorothy Iannone, I Was Thinking of You (1975)

I caught myself. I was thinking about you the other night. I was sitting and reading a magazine and you popped into my head.

Truisms

4/19/10

Excerpt from "DEEE-LIRIUM"

Hip-hop bass drum car speaker sound meets thunderstorm. Spraypainted streetsign meets Bossa Nova. Sun never sets. Back of knee meets shoulder.

Where We Found It

Well. I feel great. A little beat, though. As you know, Mercury is Retrograde. I'm trying to not see this as a horrible thing, this time. I'm trying to see this as the Universe giving me an opportunity to realign, correct my course, and fix old mistakes that need fixing. I'm trying, basically, this optimism thing, because feeling good feels better than feeling bad.
Usually, anyways.

So, gosh. Where to begin? Love this picture, obviously. Love this smell. Smell like it today, in fact. My hands are not greasy though. They're clean, and in fact I've painted my fingernails bright green.

Thursday night was Pussy Faggot, Earl Dax's amazing marathon blowout party at the Delancey. I read as part of the Reading for Filth event which happened early in the night. It was so much fun. I thought the reading was fucking fantastic. I was really nervous beforehand, which is weird since I never get nervous (about anything-- I'm not scared of anything). Strange. Had a super duper blast. Hung out in the front with all the cool kids. I can't even get into it. Too, too much fun.


Here's a picture taken of me right after I finished reading by The Wonderful World of Walt Cessna. My hero.

Managed to sneak out early (for me) and didn't get drunk or anything so I didn't get a hangover. Kudos me. I'm kind of getting the hang of this. Despite any and all precautions, Friday was still rough. I dunno why, but I was super exhausted. I guess maybe even though I didn't get a hangover I still wanted more sleep. So work was rough but I dragged myself to the gym and out the door for fun party times. I went to go see Paps' show in Park Slope but I arrived just after they played. Bummer! I took a car (I had just gotten paid) and it took forEVER and the driver was playing this jazz station that was doing a tribute to Herbie Mann and with the rain and everything it felt sort of perfect. And then my driver got into a fight with another cab driver and kind of ruined my groove. Oh well.

PLD and Diego and I went to a really fun party at Pozsi Tecnikolor Banshie's house. It was really fun and tons of glamorous kids came and danced and we all had a great time. I love a good house party. Pozsi was DJing and he played this really amazing remix of Björk's "It's In Our Hands" by the Soft Pink Truth. It could have been the crazy rum punch or something but when we were dancing to this song I was really feeling it. In fact, I told PLD at the time "I hope this song never ends" and while the song is satisfyingly long, it did in fact end. Bummer. And then I found it online! Probably everyone's heard it before, but it's really blowing my mind this weekend. I cannot get over this. Won't even try.



Saturday I painted my nails, did some errands, and generally got some rest. I went to go meet up with the kids to go see Paps play at the Silent Barn. This time I made sure not to miss the show. We all had a fantastic time.

Jiddy's beautiful face. Jess, lounging.



Onstage moods.

They did such a good set. I sat in the very front. Afterwards, some home girls went out to the Gag! 6 year anniversary party at the bar. I wanna start calling it the Cosmopolitan but I think that's not the correct use of the word cosmopolitan. I had too much fun, as usual. Again. But so nice for springtime.

Sunday was Lola's amazing birthday party.


We hung out on her roof underneath this ominous clock. Weird, huh? We watched this rally horrifying movie called House of the Devil. I succeeded in not having nightmares last night.

Ok. Headed back into the week. Yikes.

4/14/10

We Love You









Photos by Lea Golda Holterman with help from Luigi Vi.
August 27th 2009, Berlin. Me with my dearest sister La JohnJoseph. After the show at Chantal's House of Shame, Bassy Club.
Some videos of the performance here.

4/13/10

I'm the girl without the girl in me


STYLE ICON: ANNA WILDSMITH


I love Sow. I've always loved Sow. Well, I've loved Sow since 1998, when she released Sick. Sow is the name for the recording and performance projects of Anna Wildsmith. She began the project in the late 1980s, originally coming out of a collaboration with Raymond Watts (a.k.a. Pig) whom I believe she was also dating at the time? This is part of the mythos.

Sow makes really beautiful music which primarily consists of industrial, electronic and generally fucked-up music with Wildsmith's dark, sexy, often violent spoken word performance.

Her first release was a 12" called Manripe.

Accompanying press release from 1989: "SOW is ANNA WILDSMITH, a lusty beast from the Basque country with a faible for disturbing frames of mind. At 13, she developed an obsession for blood-letting and at 15 was caught manipulating small boys with dentistry tools in the forests near her home. It was a much publicized case and for a year Anna did not speak a word. Her despaired parents decided to place her within the walls of a french convent. Deranged by the effects of Anna's newly discovered vocal chords, the mother superior personally chastised her, motivating a resurgence within Anna's wickedly rebellious enzymes, so she ran away to Paris to give lessons in vocally transmitted sexual hedonism. Anna's famous activities led to her voluntary incarceration in a psychiatric clinic, where she was successfully diagnosed as suffering from Erotomania. Anna discharged herself and certificate in hand, went to hunt the streets of Berlin. Roumors of her powers of seduction and unique anatomical expertise soon come to the ears of one RAYMOND GEORGE WATTS alias PIG and celebrated musical megalomaniac. PIG MATES SOW - MANRIPE IS BORN - A CULMINATION OF 2 WEEKS IN HELL - THE COLLABORATION OF THE 90'S - EAT IT."

In 1994 Sow released her first proper album, Je M'Aime (it was later re-released in 1999 with "Pig vs. Sow"-- which I considered horribly tacky at the time). I remember buying this CD off of eBay for like $18, since it was only released, initially, in Germany.

Obviously, I love this record. It features re-workings of the songs of her 12", some kind of jazz-y music, and totally fucking psychotic / beautiful writing and reading. The phrase "Je M'aime" has taken on a great deal of significance for me. I used it as the title for Scorcher #3, it seemed especially fitting as a reappropriation. I had buttons printed with the phrase as a 2008 New Year's gift. (I still have a ton, if anyone wants one).

But for my money, the best Sow record has to be 1998's Sick.

I loved this record so much. It is catty, it is cruel. It is hyper-intelligent. It's also sort of romantic. Not 'romance' in some Quixotic sense of perfection or beauty, necessarily. But 'romantic' as an ache towards the impossible. Anna Wildsmith indulges in the impulses which propel us to describe our most improbable fantasies, our most 'out-there' feelings. It remains a favorite. It featured music by Hoppy Kamiyama (who many including myself consider to be the Japanese Brian Eno, and also he is a tranny). Kamiyama's various bands, particularly Optical*8, Pugs, eX-Girl and O*N*T*J are total touchstones for my life, immensely shaped my whole thing. So he's on this record, and it's great, too. One of my most favorite things ever, though it's not sweet or really easy to listen to all the time.


Her hair is so black that it is blue, natch. AKA perfection to 14 year old me. CONFESSION: I still think it's perfection and I'm going to be 26 soon. ANOTHER CONFESSION: In high school I was really into e-mail groups and I started and maintained a Yahoo! Sow fan discussion group. Trust.


She is a total style icon and I adore her forever.

And very recently, in fact in preparation for doing a blog post about her, I found out that she just put out a new record!


Here's the video for "Crybaby" off of Dog.


It looks amazing. I just ordered my copy from Sow's website. And I suggest you do the same. I am thinking a lot about making Spoken Word Albums (hint motherfucking hint), and Sow is a big reference point for me (along with Kathy Acker's brilliant posthumous Redoing Childhood).

Anyways. Anna Wildsmith, welcome back.

In an interview with Sphere Magazine, Anna is asked if she has any advice she'd like to pass on.
Anna: "Do as many drugs, smoke as many cigarettes, drink as much booze and eat as much as you can ‘cos Life kills…"
My Hero!