Mary of Egypt

Error 403 - Verification Not Found: Investigating OpIsrael

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:56:00 -0400

In the wake - or at the start - of what hacking groups using the name Anonymous have dubbed “OpIsrael”, I want to write about my own in-depth investigations into this murky and mysterious internet event. There are many reasons why #OpIsrael has been so fascinating to me (even at the expense of my work), which I will attempt to enumerate. At the very least, what I have learned through my efforts has reinforced my belief that journalism in the age of the internet is sometimes unsound, trigger-happy, and negligent. As comics-journalist and expert Joe Sacco so often implies, interpretation of the Israel-Palestine conflict is limited by lack of information - Twitter aside. At the end of the day, there are still no clear answers and few solid sources. If “hacktivism” is going to continue to grow as a form of protest, there must be new methods of fact-checking which also emerge to provide citizens with reliable information. If the internet is deemed as untrustworthy, and yet the internet is the only means of verifying hacktivist claims, we are truly in a bind when we seek to fact-check as third-party investigators. However, when tools as basic as a web browser can show irrefutably that some official Israeli statements, as well as statements from hackers, are false and misleading, some credence must be given to the internet as a means of source verification. This is what I have been attempting to explore; to point out inconsistencies that are easily verified, to discover which information is unverifiable by nature, and why.

I vividly remember the first time I heard the word “Palestine”. While participating in the 2001 Oklahoma Model United Nations, in which high-schoolers represent countries and participate in mock UN-proceedings (I was assigned to Albania, and my team participated in diddly-squat capacity), I learned of the existence of the PLO. The kids representing the PLO were all business — they had something to say about every damned proposal being discussed and were constantly submitting their own for consideration. The moderator would remind them that they did not have the correct status to submit; they would remind the moderator that they had at least the right to speak for 2 minutes, and would proceed to rant on about those strange, supposedly oppressed and insignificant Palestinians - every ten minutes. At the time, I was fairly annoyed that a large bulk of our sessions were being hijacked by this organization that I had never even heard of. “They’re not even a real country”, I remember thinking, as I sipped diet cokes and waited for something to come up which had anything remotely to do with Albania - not much, it turned out.

More than a decade later, my impression of the Model UN PLO representatives is a perfect metaphor for media coverage of the current #OpIsrael “cyberwar”. As Oklahoma kids described human rights violations that seemed almost comical in scope (I was incredulous), I distinctly remember feeling a dull sort of shock over never having heard anything about their accusations during my many 15 years of life. This feeling of shock is shared by Sacco, who describes feeling compelled to write about Gaza and Palestine after hearing accusations of human rights violations that he had never been exposed to in the media.

“Americans really think that they’re hot shit when it comes to journalism, but all those years of so-called objective journalism have really obscured the reality. For instance, going to the Middle East myself and seeing what I saw, I thought: Why isn’t this stuff in the paper?”

What I love most about Sacco’s mammoth work, Footnotes in Gaza, is that it subtly points out how information based on anecdote and personal experience is difficult to trust or verify, how eyewitness accounts of events differ in detail and thereby compromise integrity, and how difficult it is for a journalist or even for a reasonably intelligent person to make sense of the grey area surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Regardless of these implications, Sacco manages to somehow trust the first-hand accounts he obtains from residents of Gaza regarding a massacre in 1956 in the village of Rafah. Eyewitness testimony, like a Twitter feed, is often very difficult to fact-check. But sheer volume can raise suspicion, as it does in his work, and as it does in my OpIsrael research. Digging my heels into the Tweet-wars and the cyberbattle, I think: Why isn’t this stuff in the (virtual) paper?

Regarding the sheer volume of misinformation, let’s take as a first example claims about the Israeli Stock Exchange, which I am monitoring as I write this essay. A twitter account, @AnonymousHispanico, posted at 10 AM Tel Aviv time on April 8th that the TASE website was down to all users outside of Israel - laughable indeed, since I was watching the TA composite tick by on TASE at that very moment. Indeed, many news sources reporting on the “complete failure” of OpIsrael cite these types of false claims as evidence that the only power behind this event is social network storming and the spread of inaccurate information, and use completely false rumors such as the TASE claim to discredit the entire hacking attempt. Though markets did drop on April 7th, and again at noon on April 8th after hacking attempts officially resumed, it is impossible to say whether or not financial losses are related to the OpIsrael hacks. It will, however, be expensive for the many small business websites taken down in the first wave of attacks to hire developers to repair damage - and if these sites bring in income for their owners, those personal losses may not be minimal.

Having never used Twitter prior to this weekend, I was unaware of how incredibly easy (and tempting) it is to re-tweet and get excited about every rumor one hears. The Times of Israel claimed that the OpIsrael hackers intentionally posted false reports - that the stock exchange was taken down (it wasn’t), that the internet was out in Tel Aviv (it wasn’t), that certain important sites were hacked (they weren’t). Having watched the tweets come in from official organizers of the OpIsrael movement, I can definitively report that I saw no official mention whatsoever of these specific claims - they were only coming in from outside rumormongers. In fact, the @OpIsrael team had been silent for over 8 hours prior to the stock exchange claims, regrouping and resting after over 24+ solid hours of work. The majority of their posts during the initial attack were lists of sites that had been taken down - easy to verify and sticking to the point.

Besides releasing names of allegedly hacked sites, @OpIsrael also has been posting links to reported information leaks. On April 8th, around noon Tel Aviv time, @OpIsrael released what they claimed was a confidential report from Bank Hapoalim meant to be released in May 2013. I read this document carefully, and it appears to only be public information supplied by the Bank of Israel. I am not a financial expert and never will be, but none of the information in the report seemed to be very damaging to my lay-person’s eye. Information in the document is mostly dated from January and February 2013, and its opening sentence states: “The Bank of Israel’s Annual Reports are published at the end of March”, which implies that this information could have already been publicly released. Since some information is past dated, I am doubtful of the legitimacy of the claimed leak, and chalk this claim up to sensationalism. However, first quarter 2013 earnings reports are not posted on the Bank Hapoalim website yet, and the leaked document states that “Recent Economic Developments (RED) are four-monthly reviews published about a month after the end of each period”, which would be the end of April at the earliest; so perhaps this leak is indeed credible. Again, this demonstrates the murkiness of information when trying to verify the validity of leaked documents.

What about Israeli misinformation? What about how the most cited example of #OpIsrael failure is the alleged hacking of the Opisrael website by Israeli counter-hackers? Somehow, journalists from CNN to the Jerusalem Post to the AP managed to avoid the easiest of fact-checks - perhaps because they lead to inconclusive results. Israel claims to have hacked the main website for the OpIsrael attempt. The current Opisrael website, operationisrael.tk, never lost functionality and was never hacked. This website was linked to a week ago when Anonymous first declared the start date for OpIsrael on its blog. I am completely and utterly appalled that so many reputable news sources cannot perform such a basic task as verifying the purchase date for websites. The creation of opisrael.com was easily verified using WhoIs - a third party free information website that verifies creation dates and locations for any website. According to WhoIs, Opisrael.com was created on April 4th. Operationistrael.tk does not use a dot com domain name and is therefore unverifiable (at least by me), however, this purportedly legitimate website for the hacking operation was linked to on the “official” Anonymous Tumblr and Twitter pages well before any news agents reported the opisrael.com hack. Furthermore, though I am in no way involved in hacking, I do have an interest in open-source and open-web activism, and I know that no hacker in their right mind would ever, ever, ever use a dot-com domain name (let alone pay for site or information hosting). The fact that Israeli officials claimed to hack opisrael.com is not surprising to me. What IS surprising is the readiness with which global news media accepted this story. If I am one lone woman, sitting at home watching a Twitter feed, and I can search for this this information, why can’t such reputable sources such as CNN and the AP?

Jerusalem Post writer Andre Oboler has responded to counter-claims that the original opisrael.com site is a fake, citing wsdata.com and saying that the website was indeed created on March 17th and linked to in one cyber-news bulletin as the official announced OpIsrael site.

“The opisrael.com hack appears to have replaced the DNS record with one that is just 2 days old. The original information is, however, still archived. Before the hack the domain information was last modified on March 17th and the server resided in Switzerland. While originally seeking to down play the hack, OpIsrael activists are now pretending the site was never part of their campaign and was instead an Israeli front.”

These claims, however, do not explain why the site was moved on April 4th (prior to the hack), or why hackers would use a dot-com site. Hacking does not tend to replace DNS records - and why would Israeli hackers move the DNS records themselves, if this action only discredits their claims? The official OpIsrael twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr groups have not linked to OpIsrael.com, or at least they did not when I started following their cyberwar on April 6th - prior to when the site was allegedly hacked.

There are also several inconsistencies with supposedly leaked data from credit card companies and banks. One list of credit cards I found did indeed have thousands of names leaked, but the addresses for the hacked accounts were all based in the US, not Israel. A group claiming to have hacked into Decell Inc GPS coordinates for sensitive Israeli sites posted a thousand Israeli coordinates, but they were encrypted, so there was no way to check their validity (I tried to verify Decell ownership myself and its business undertakings in Israel - but their website was down, leading me to believe that the site is either hacked or has been taken down by the company to avoid further hacking attempts - which implies that the Decell leaks were actually somewhat valid). Regarding the information leaks, various folk were tweeting that they personally had had their email or Facebook accounts hacked via dumped email lists, or that they had used leaked credit cards to illegally purchase iPhones and Rolexes. On the one hand, this somewhat attests to the validity of some of the leaks, on the other hand, anyone can make a Twitter account and claim that their Facebook has been hacked or that they’ve bought something. For me personally, one indication that some of the leaked information has actually been real is the fact that some of it has been mysteriously deleted, only a few hours after being posted. @OpIsrael claims, of course, that the Israeli government is behind these deletions. Most dumped information has been posted online using PasteBucket, a free website that lets you post text on the internet. Usually this website is used for people to post open-source computer code. There is no reason why these dumps would be deleted so quickly- unless PasteBucket itself is getting involved to remove these illegal hacks. This seems to be the more obvious explanation to me, and it indeed makes sense for a third-party website to attempt to keep their content within the confines of the law.

I would, after all, be committing a felony if I myself tried to verify leaked bank account information in the most obvious way - by attempting to log into bank websites using the supposedly leaked user IDs and passwords. This really wouldn’t be very difficult and I could probably do it quickly using a ghost or remote VPN, a traceless browser such as TOR, and a lot of courage. Committing a crime in the pursuit of good journalism has probably been done countless times over, but it doesn’t seem like an intelligent move for one single non-journalist lady (me) to be making.

Which brings me to an important point - how can any journalist or activist or layperson seeking to verify leaked information do so at all without committing a crime? In this new and burgeoning world of “cyber-warfare” and “hacktivism”, some traditional methods of source verification are impossible to utilize unless one commits a felony. While I am reasonably certain that affected banks and other institutions are verifying supposedly leaked information: “credit card companies follow up on these numbers and cancel the cards for customers whose numbers appear in public” (TimesofIsrael.com), private citizens are unable to do so without breaking the law. It is a case of hearsay to the absolute extreme - claims of legal breaches with no means of verification unless one commits a legal breach oneself. This could create a very dangerous and difficult future for journalists: if this sort of hacktivism becomes more mainstream and it thereby becomes increasingly important to verify information, there must be a legal means to do so as an unbiased third party.

This led to my next, and perhaps more dangerous/dubious step — to manually check functionality of important websites that OpIsrael was claiming to have hacked. Let’s examine some of the glaring discrepancies I was able to find. I have already mentioned the opisrael.com debacle, unchecked by journalists and cited as reasons for Anonymous’ “failures”. As pointed out by The Times of Israel, some claims by OpIsrael supporters that police.gov.il were hacked were in fact using broken or incorrect links - replacing the “.il” with “.li”. As Goldschlager states, “whatever it was they thought they were hacking, it wasn’t the Israel Police site”. At some point, links to “president.gov.il” were indeed non-functioning - but they were missing “www” at their start. Once “www” had been added, the president’s website loaded in my browser just fine. Other claims by hackers to have brought down the Ministry of Defense website, which they claimed was defence.gov.il, not only contained a spelling error, but in actuality the real Ministry of Defense site, mod.gov.il, remained fully functional - that is, until this error was pointed out in various tweets. A few hours later, mod.gov.il was indeed tango down in my browser around 5 PM EST on April 8th.

In an article published on The Daily Beast, Eli Lake interviewed a team of Israeli “counter hackers” and described their attempts to strike back at Anonymous OpIsrael affiliated groups. There is major misinformation contained in statements by Israeli hackers when they say

“Most Israeli hackers acknowledged the fact that the Arab hackers are… well not smart,” [SIC]

Besides being tinged with an air of racism, this comment fails to take into account that hacking groups have been posting on Twitter based out of many non-Arab nations, including Brazil, Italy, and Uruguay. Some of the more “interesting” and potentially serious (if legitimate) leaks have come from groups based in Argentina. The claims that these hacks are only being carried out by Arab hackers (and by Western implication, terrorist hackers) are completely untrue - unless Arab groups are fluent in Spanish and lying about their locations by posing as South Americans or Europeans. This is indeed a worldwide hacking attempt. Furthermore, Mr. Lake’s article, which is riddled with typos, hails the Israeli counter-hackers as more successful than the OpIsrael hackers. As an argument, he describes their methods: bringing down Hezbollah websites using Ddos attacks and leaking the name of one single OpIsrael leader based in the US. These supposedly successful hacks, claimed to be superior to those of the “not smart Arabs”, use the exact same tools being utilized by OpIsrael hackers around the world - in effect, claiming that the actions of Israeli hackers are somehow more legitimate even though they are using the same methods.

Lastly, Lake describes an interview with the director of a security systems analyst for the firm Radware in which he states:

“As of Monday, no major sites were shut down or defaced […] Though OpIsrael claimes [SIC] to have done damage to more than 100 websites in Israel, including the press office for the Israel Defense Forces, Kenig says he has seen no evidence of that”.

At the time of this writing, idf.il is indeed functioning - at 3AM on April 7th, however, I was personally unable to connect to this website, implying that it was down at some point. Interviewing professionals involved in security analysis seems like great journalism practice to me - as long as those analysts are not themselves enmeshed in the situation. Perhaps if Mr. Lake had interviewed a systems analyst based out of Europe or the States (or really, any third-party local besides the country in which the event is taking place), I wouldn’t be suspicious of credibility. Perhaps if Mr. Lake had, like I did (for what seems like 24 hours straight), checked the functionality of government websites reportedly hacked (and tried to verify that these sites were indeed the correct government sites prior to April 7), I could take his article more seriously. The fact that this type of journalism is allowed to be published on such a reputable website as The Daily Beast is troubling.

I have demonstrated that the OpIsrael hackers and affiliated groups have also supplied false information and made ridiculous claims as far as information breached, so please make no assumptions that I am approaching this event with information bias. However, as previously noted, none of the Anonymous claims I was able to quickly verify as false were made by the official OpIsrael team - only by other Anonymous twitter accounts. Nearly every hack, defacement, and tango down that was posted by @OpIsrael was, in some respect, legitimate, even though many websites reported as down were fully functional on my end when I checked them. As of 10 PM EST on April 7th, I had re-checked functionality of every government website that was listed on the official OpIsrael information page as hacked - and 43% of them were still non-functioning. 43%. This was more than 24 hours after OpIsrael began - and more than 18 hours after Israeli officials released statements that all non-functioning government websites had been repaired after only being down for a few hours. Why, in that case, were sites that I personally was trying to access still not functioning? Why didn’t reputable journalists do something as simple as verify the pre-existence of these websites and load up a web browser to check their functionality? Why, as of 3 AM EST on April 7, were 60% of non-government websites (such as the Israeli site for Coca-Cola) reported as down or hacked indeed down or hacked, on my end? Granted, I was only able to personally check about 600 websites, which is a small fraction of the purported 100,000 Anonymous claims to have hacked. Mainstream media puts the number at around 1000, and I found 487 down, with my tiny probe. I hardly think that my minimal findings of 487 downed websites accounts for nearly 50% of all websites affected by OpIsrael. Again, this is journalism gone haywire.

What about statements from officials at the Israeli Finance Ministry, which state that “The Foreign Ministry’s website was taken down for a few seconds, but no other ministries behind the government firewall were affected” (Times of Israel)? Are the dozens of government sites that I personally have been able to verify as down simply not behind a firewall? Perhaps the affected sites do not contain vital information, and perhaps Anonymous is not truly seeking to cause “damage” beyond making a large percentage of sites unavailable. Former director of Israel’s Cyber Buereau, Issac Ben-Israel, has stated that “Anonymous doesn’t have the skills to damage the country’s vital infrastructure. And if that was its intention, then it wouldn’t have announced the attack ahead of time.”. @OpIsrael has responded on its twitter page in retaliation to these claims, saying

“Anonymous doesn’t do that. Actually harming infrastructure is something morally corrupt organizations & governments do. We leave that to morally corrupt governments”.

Whether this is truly a matter of ideology or simply that Anonymous lacks technological ability to damage infrastructure will never be known. As Nir Goldshlager, an Israeli “white-hat” hacker states, “It’s a good thing the hackers post [credit card] numbers …Imagine if they would use them.” (Times of Israel). Indeed, if Anonymous was more malicious in intent, it could have easily coded scripts that would use leaked credit card information to make mass purchases. What is certain is that downplaying the abilities of hackers to cause serious damage is questionable, considering that in

“In January 2012, a hacker network that claimed to be based in Saudi Arabia paralyzed the websites of Israel’s stock exchange and national airline” (CNN.com).

What is also certain is that Israeli businesses were urged to take their websites down or “shore up passwords” in preparation for the attack, and a hotline was set up for victims of hacking. Israeli university experts have indeed admitted that “this is a real battle” (CBS). So why such a dearth of media coverage?

As a final note, I would like to update you with the current status of claimed government site hacks. It is 10:00 PM EST on my end. Out of 72 .gov websites listed on the official Anonymous OpIsrael blog list of hacked sites, 52 are working. Which means that 27% of affected .gov websites are still down, more than 48 hours after hacking began. Some of the sites that are now fully functional were not loading in my browser as of my initial checks at 2 AM April 7th, which leads me to conclude that most of these links are indeed to legitimate Israeli government sites. Why would Anonymous have posted claims to fake sites if the major ones from the list, such as Education.gov.il and Mossad.gov.il are now fully functional? Some of the functioning sites seem to just re-direct me to other functioning sites on the list - which is inconclusive. And sometime during the past 5 hours, the Ministy of Defense site (mod.gov.il) has become operational. However, 27% does not seem like a negligible number - even to non-statisticians. @OpIsrael and @Anonymous have tweeted that Israel should “expect more surprises” in the days to come. The battle is ongoing, and therefore cannot be claimed to be a “failure”. No conflict is ever complete after the first 24 hours.

After numerous postings to Facebook about the OpIsrael attempt and my findings, my best pal called me up. “So, you’re anti-Zionist now!”, he said. One must proceed very cautiously in the face of this sort of terminology. I replied, “I would prefer to be called ‘Pro-Palestine’. I believe that Israel has a right to exist and I believe that Palestine has a right to exist. I’ve been reading about this conflict for much of my adult life and I’m tired of hiding my true feelings for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic. I’m tired of what I believe are credible sources, the UN for example, documenting human rights violations. And if anything, my research into OpIsrael has made me even more incredulous about the accuracy of mainstream reporting regarding internet activism”. My friend paused, and said “Yeah, you’re probably right. The media sure hates Anonymous”.

Much like the Model UN PLO group from my youth, the ongoing OpIsrael hacking project could be initially perceived as “annoying” at best - as it is described by Israeli news outlets. However, this type of activism has brought an awareness of a political situation to millions as it has exploded across social media. Information advocates are describing DdoS attacks as a new type of legitimate protest, akin to flooding a Senator’s office with paper mailings requesting a specific action. The PLO kids couldn’t really get anything done in our mock general council proceedings - but they certainly took up a huge about of air time. The sheer volume of their “failed” voices did ensure one thing: that I would never forget what they tried to do.

And hey, I’m making a case for legitimacy based on unverifiable claims, too - you’ll just have to trust that I am accurately reporting the status of affected websites and that I checked that the websites are indeed valid. You’ll just have to trust that my version of Firefox is working correctly. I will just be one more voice in the clamor of hearsay that makes this whole mess impossible to unravel. Internet information will always be difficult to unravel unless journalists can obtain new safe and legal methods of verifying information. But I trust my own research, and I can rest easy knowing that I personally made attempts - unlike the AP.

The Femme-Hermit's Manifesto

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:07:25 -0500

Well. It’s certainly been a long time since I’ve updated the MOE blog, and for that I apologize. Many things get in the way, but I most certainly do not want to give the impression that I have given up on musical endeavors.

That being said.

I wanted to write a little bit about a new-found approach, a manifesto, if you will, regarding my work. I have spent some years and months and days and hours attempting to “promote”; to get my music heard and taken seriously in the New York scene; by contacting venues, booking agents, promoters, and labels alike, and all to no avail. Yet somehow, there are reams of complete strangers plus highly regarded musicians who stumble upon and appreciate my music, tell me I am their “hero”, and who scream that it should be heard. I am swimming in a pool of conservatory muck, without “pop” credentials, between a rock and hard place (the hard place being classical training). Who cares if people wholeheartedly believe that my music is “good” - it can always be improved, I will always strive to do better - if I don’t have scantily clad or grungily B+W fire-escaped photo shoots to back myself up, or thousand dollar production, or a massive Twitter fan base, or bizarre Lynch-referencing hipster music videos, I don’t seem to stand a chance. I opt out.

Am I giving up? HELL NO. I am giving up on an industry that I loathe and that saddens me beyond belief. I am giving up on trying to gain monetarily from audiences who mostly obtain their music from Walmart, or, conversely, who crowd the front of DIY shows in Brooklyn to hear the newest, youngest, or most foreign “shredder” improvise emotionally devoid register-oriented soundscapes for other malnourished egos. This is not the same as giving up on myself or on music. After a lifetime of effort, I trust that what I am doing is good. After two decades of performing, writing, studying and listening to music, I trust myself and my own judgements. I just don’t trust money.

For that reason, I have decided to make all of my music free for download and to completely cease trying to promote myself and my work. The sorry state of women in the music industry aside (“see, we are hardcore, clad in leather and combat boots, but yet we will be very polite in your group settings”), I truly believe that all great strides throughout cultural history have been made without concern for recognition. I would rather believe in myself and in my work, in the potential for musical growth in myself and in our culture, and in the capabilities of women to speak up, speak out, be bitches, and tell it like it is. After accepting this, the quality and quantity work has SKYROCKETED, and I am more excited about it than ever before.

I struggle a lot hearing sadness and perhaps a difficult “depressing” nature in my music — but the more time that passes, the more I think that through these judgements I am succumbing to industry and society telling me that women (and especially women in music) are “whiny” or “annoying” at best, if we aren’t gleefully hiding behind Cotton commercials (a la Dechanel) or fronting the “legitimate” sadness written by men. Brahms was depressing and difficult in his era, and perhaps still is. Women are probably really, really sad. We have 3x more PTSD by far than all war vets combined. We are prone to insomnia and anxiety twice as much as men. We still make 75 cents on the dollar for every male salary. We bake the cakes but god forbid we eat them - no fat chicks! And yet our sadness is annoying.

I am done with it — I will do what I feel needs to be done and I will stop trying to play phallo-centric, ego based games. I believe in myself and in my work, and I will continue working no matter what life throws at me. I would rather have this ethic than all the fans or money in the world. So look out for my new album in a few months, or don’t. It will be released either way. After I eat this ginormous pizza all by myself.

Me Listening to Brahms

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:11:03 -0400

whatshouldwecallbassoon:

Dear Brett:

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 21:22:00 -0400

From the eagerly anticipated upcoming music video! By Daryl Seitchik.

A quote for safekeeping

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:42:00 -0400

Some of you may be wondering: What happened to the scathing feminist posts, Julia?

I’ve been working on a very, very long essay about the gender assignment of “domination” and “submission” to males and females, respectively. What started as a short response to an April 2012 Newsweek article, subtitled “Spanking Goes Mainstrean” (which, in essence, hypothesizes that women’s submissive fantasies are the result of -or un-impacted by- their progress in social spheres), has snowballed into a sprawling unwieldy thing, and I’ve decided to publish in parts.

Initially, my only intention was to rebuke the author’s claim: she muses that there is something natural about feminine submission that even those pesky femmes cannot explain. I paraphrase now, of course, but I had so many questions after reading this COVER story in a nationally respected news magazine. I realized that in order to fully discuss the topic, I’d need to do some hefty research about current psychological theory, current feminist discourse, and mainstream media coverage. The Atlantic article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All”, seemed to fall into my lap this week like a graceful yet impossible yet work-inducing snowflake. So the toil continues, stay tuned. There will be many citations.

And in the meanwhile, so I don’t forget to use this info from my current Newsweek:

“[A] study, conducted by social scientists at Harvard, NYU, and the University of North Carolina, evaluated how men’s domestic lives affected their treatment of women in the workplace. It found that those whose home lives are most traditional - married men with stay-at-home wives - were more likely to have retrograde attitudes toward women at the office. These men were more likely than their peers to deny women promotions, to be distrustful of female leaders, and to have negative views of workplaces with many female employees.”

I just thought I’d share. Allow me to dazzle you at a future time with two well-researched cents.

Outside of That: Jean Grae, formerly known as What? What?

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:11:18 -0400

Outside of That: Jean Grae, formerly known as What? What?:

altheawairsullycole:

I’ve done too much bitching and moaning on this thing. That’s why I’m dedicating this summer to positive, empowering things coming out of the music industry, particularly for women of color. Namely, I will be scouting out the underground ladies going against the grain in American music.

kkatkkrap: spooningthehulk: wutevrz: Holy shit, that’s...

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:02:48 -0400

kkatkkrap:

spooningthehulk:

wutevrz:

Holy shit, that’s fucking scary!!!

Reblogging again. I will reblog this every time I see it on my dash. I’m not going to apologise for it.

Oh God, I literally covered my mouth and gasped. This is horrifying.

longreads: A professional musician calls for a rethinking of...

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:02:58 -0400

longreads:

A professional musician calls for a rethinking of how we value (and pay) artists in the digital era:

Rather, fairness for musicians is a problem that requires each of us to individually look at our own actions, values and choices and try to anticipate the consequences of our choices. I would suggest to you that, like so many other policies in our society, it is up to us individually to put pressure on our governments and private corporations to act ethically and fairly when it comes to artists rights. Not the other way around. We cannot wait for these entities to act in the myriad little transactions that make up an ethical life. I’d suggest to you that, as a 21-year old adult who wants to work in the music business, it is especially important for you to come to grips with these very personal ethical issues.

“Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered.” — David Lowery, The Trichoridist

More from Trichoridist

Photo: Flickr/Shankar, Shiv

An open letter to the guys who want to see Lara Croft get raped

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:51:28 -0400

An open letter to the guys who want to see Lara Croft get raped:

“Lara Croft is not some sort of proof that men have been replaced as adventurers, or that men are unnecessary.”

This. Is. So. Good. Read. It.

motherjones:

mohandasgandhi:

newsweek:

think-progress:

Just read it.

What the actual &$%#

Preach.

Emailing the Void: Booking Gigs in New York

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:37:05 -0400

It’s been well over a year since Mary of Egypt played our last live show. We went out with a bang though, at Coco66 in Brooklyn, with decent playing, a respectful and gifted sound-guy, and an audience consisting solely of people who had performed prior to us. It was, after all, the night of the Oscars, and who wants to forego seeing what beautiful people are wearing in order to go hear an awkward nobody attempt to sing angsty songs? Not you.

Now that the band is newly configured and well rehearsed, it’s time to resume the mouth-watering process of contacting venues, looking for gigs. If there’s one bit of actual useful information amidst all the websites out there detailing step-by-step outlines for self-promotion (press kit, demos, “branding”), it’s these cautionary words:

“the thing that’ll suck the soul right out of you is booking your own gigs. The truth is, booking your own shows takes thick skin, patience, networking, confidence, and organization.”

-Some dude

Ok, ok. First sentence, definitely true. I hate, loathe, despair at booking my own gigs. I’d rather listen to Katy Perry for 5 hours straight, which clearly means my soul is not redeemable. Second sentence, a bit more troubling. Obviously, I am lacking confidence if I don’t have the confidence to believe that I might possess these admirable qualities, including confidence. I can be patient and thick-skinned when it comes to the creative process, and learned to at least pretend like I have confidence on stage from my many years as a pianist, but…networking? Organization?

I mean, just look at my workspace:

This is where the magic happens, people. I’m just about the least organized human female on the planet. Also, I find it quite difficult to network when I rarely leave my filthy cocoon in bum-eff New Jersey.

What’s a girl or young upstarting band to do?

Step 1. Email the void. Over, and over, and over again. Box yourself in as much as possible.

“Hi, my band plays baroque-pop-new-disco-jazz-indie-laser-tag. We sound like Regina Spektor, Bach, and Genesis, and also like a dying goat. Our vast experience includes performing at local grocery stores and for your grandmother’s knitting circle. Book us now, please!”

Ok, so maybe not quite like that. But something like that, because of course a discerning booking-person-demigod will want to have an idea of what you sound like before they actually click on your website. They want to know if they can score coolness points by letting your music grace their holy eardrums.

Step 2. Wait for a response. For days, weeks, months. This is where the patience comes in, because when you are one of 100s of bands sending emails to these venues every five seconds, the likelihood that whomever gets your email will actually a) read it b) listen to your music c) like it and d) contact you gets slimmer and slimmer with each passing hour. Do not despair, proceed to step 3.

Step 3. Repeat step one. Or don’t, because all the advice out there says not to bombard venues with the same form email more than once. This, apparently, will make them hate you. Except they probably already hate you because you are just one more plebe filling their inbox with shite. So I say, go ahead and be tenacious like smallpox.

Step 4. Success, maybe! You’ve gotten a response from 1 venue out of 500. Try not to jump for joy just yet, because they will want you to play at 4 PM on a Wednesday, when nobody can come to your show, which will make the venue hate you even more. Then try to convince your bandmates that it’s a great plan to play at Jo’Moma’s Irish Discotech even though you’ll be scheduled in between a rapper and a bunch of 50 year olds crooning death metal. Totally worth it, right?

IN CONCLUSION-

This is not how one envisions spending hours of their life, especially after crapping out loads of soul-wrenching music that the world should undoubtedly hear. But for the stubborn and persistent ones, or the ones who have deluded themselves into thinking that they have a “quality” act (such as myself), it’s an inevitable task, filled with unavoidable pain and anguish. So, I will get to it (I’m on step 3, if you care).

Look for Mary of Egypt playing live in the near or not so near future- hope to see you at Jo’Moma’s.

Sigh

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 14:45:07 -0400

Sigh

THIS IS CRUSTRACEAN thebuffster: (x)

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 23:09:06 -0400

THIS IS CRUSTRACEAN

thebuffster:

(x)

The Crustracean: Album Blabber

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:09:00 -0400

A personal note from Julia.

Beer, or coffee? Beer, or coffee? Coffee? Beer? Cigarette? A resounding yes to all 3 but I’ll go with the caffeine for now, as it’s now 12 AM and I’m madly and incoherently rushing to finish edits for my new album by Saturday. I mean, tomorrow. I mean, today. Yes, I am the one brewing coffee at midnight on a Friday to work on something for which I shall never be paid.

Enter the crustracean.

Some of you may be scratching your heads when you hear this release. I’ve been known for, and touting, my tendency to hand-craft meticulous and detailed (and perhaps overworked) scores. But after releasing LS/HA (as well as recent life-altering events), I needed a break from what I’ve dubbed my “esoteric mess”, I needed a change, and I needed to experiment with letting go of my usual tools. I also felt a pressing need to produce what I could pompously call Culturally Relevant Dance Music - which has been a part of musical history since the dawn of time, which I desperately wanted to create, and which my former albums have been nowhere near. So I label The Crustracean as a “rebound” album, in different senses of the word.

Does this new direction mean that I am catering to popular demands for a throbbing, super-regular bass drum n’ beat? I hope not. Does it mean that this is the goal my future work will ultimately move toward? Definitely No, Maybe. It’s just been a bit of an experiment. Humor, dance, motion, and fun are emotions that music can easily express, and I hope I have scratched the surface in my attempt to get these affects across. I had fun writing it, fo sho. Also, now I can rightfully turn up my conservatory-browned nose at “boring” “repetitive” pop music because I can finally say “I could do that drunk and with my eyes closed” and it will be true.

One thing related to my process which might explain some shady, questionable issues of timing: I refuse to use drum machines or any other digital sequencing life-lines. I am not cool, I don’t own Ableton, so there. I prefer to play and record by hand - I find that even though I probably spend more hours editing my hand-made drum tracks than I would if I just sequenced them, I get a more “live” feel by using my keyboard instead of a grid. Every single sound wave looks different this way, I can hint at dynamics and accents by playing live, controlling parameters with my fingers, and the whole process of decision making is much more organic. In my defense, I will say that my trusty laptop is on its way out of this world, and likes to insert jitter into sound files in lieu of death rattle. I’ve spent countless dreadful hours zooming in to each and every single beat in this goddamn album, and moving things one-ten-thousandth of a second around so that they can be in their correct places. But hair pulling aside, I’d rather have moments of not-near-perfection than beats which imply that HAL is the earth’s greatest drummer of all time, period.

This entire album was recorded and written improvisatorily over the course of three weeks (aforementioned edits, however, have consumed the past 3 months). All synths were lazily constructed or borrowed from Reaktor presets. Subject matter deals with the culture of dating, as experienced through emotional ranges from repulsion to obsession. I aimed for a presentation of female sexual power, using very culturally prevalent words/ways but ultimately (hopefully) describing a new approach towards the whole shebang (giggle). And you won’t miss the moments of good old fashioned girly “dear diary” narration, gleamed from horrific experience.

I have borrowed quotes from advertising, women’s magazine articles, and pornography etc for the misconstrued lyrics (as in “I know how you like it”, which takes a common representation of a woman’s bedroom status and turns it on its head when a woman herself utters it). You may also hear subtle reference to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (roll your eyes, but it’s awesome) or Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping. I think the time is ripe for music portraying sexuality in an aggressive and flawed way, and have been very influenced by Kevin Barnes’s embracing of the unusual in sex-music subject matter, but have felt a lack of this attitude in “mainstream” music created by women. The past few months have been a public smorgasbord for media and political coverage of women’s issues, particularly with regards to our sexual lives. How can we hope to reclaim what is rightfully ours (sexual equality), when at the same time, we are shown only one version of a sexual role (submission)?

So in a way, The Crustracean is an exercise in character creation, as I let myself explore what it would be like to express ideas and ideals about female sexuality - I wanted to do so in a so-called “masculine”, “dominating” way. Yay, gender stereotypes. And thanks to all the boys that spent excruciating evenings with me, being thwarted in their attempts to buy me drinks, and providing me with fodder that I could refer to in my artistic work. I did not intend to use you, initially. Sorry. If it’s any consolation, I’ll never date again. Or call you.

Feminist ravings aside, what else can I tell you about this album? The title is fun, isn’t it? Unlike most people, I had a childhood fascination with lobsters. For some reason, when other little girls liked drawing princesses and hearts, I would spend hours attempting to draw lobsters. And make any adult within a 20-foot radius draw me lobsters, whenever possible. I think I grew out of this phase at around age 5, but lobsters will always hold a special place in my heart. When my dog chewed on my favorite stuffed animal, Larry the Lobster, I’ll admit I may have shed a tear or two or three. Unfortunately, wearing these costumes

would make playing instruments quite difficult. You’re off the hook (har har), bandmates.

Anyways. Adding the repugnant letter “r” to the word crustacean seemed like an easy enough task, as the album sprang forth from my frustration with my lame self, with gender norms in dating, and with the crap-storm that this past year has been. Maybe I identify with lobsters because they are, after all, protected and isolated from the world by their conveniently located outer shells. They have mean claws so nobody can mess with them. A frustrated lobster, alone in this world, safe until some rich motherfucker picks you, special and unique you, for their next Tuesday night $50 dinner, while you are happily swimming in murky muck at the bottom of the ocean or fish tank. This is a fine, relevant existence, says I. Also, lobsters do not really age, supposedly, and I refer to my own tendency to refuse to become a functioning adult even at 26.

Oh, and just so you know, I have been completely celibate throughout this entire process, a fact laden with irony which does not escape me. Not that I’d be ashamed of coming across as some sex-crazed man-eater (or ancient lobster), but in all honesty, that’s not who I am, I don’t think. Obviously I’m much too awkward and pretentious for that shit.

nostandardcuts: Rebel.

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:42:45 -0400

nostandardcuts:

Rebel.

National Magazine Award Nominees: A Byline Gender Breakdown

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:03:37 -0400

National Magazine Award Nominees: A Byline Gender Breakdown:

Nobody likes a woman who puts forth opinions? Or are there really so few female essayists?

Right, like the regime would allow women to be assassins. Come...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:21:11 -0400

Right, like the regime would allow women to be assassins. Come on, Reuters! (but Iranian ninja ladies sound awesome)

futurejournalismproject:

Ninjas, News and Politics

Iran has suspended Reuters’ accreditation in Iran over a story the news agency ran on Iranian women practicing the art of ninjutsu.

At issue is wording in the Reuters report that called the women “ninja assassins” with the perceived implication that they’re training to protect the country from Western infidels.

In a statement, Reuters writes:

The story’s headline, “Thousands of female Ninjas train as Iran’s assassins”, was corrected to read “Three thousand women Ninjas train in Iran”.

Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance subsequently contacted the Reuters Tehran bureau chief about the video and its publication, as a result of which Reuters’ 11 personnel were told to hand back their press cards.

“We acknowledge this error occurred and regard it as a very serious matter. It was promptly corrected the same day it came to our attention,” said editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler.

Meantime, some of the women are suing Reuters for misrepresenting them.

“Reuters has introduced us as assassins to the whole world,” says one. ”The truth must come to light and everyone should know that we are only a group of athletes. We are supervised by the Ministry of Sports and the federation of martial arts.”

Background via The Atlantic.

Image: A Ninjutsu practitioner performs a split as members of various Ninjutsu schools showcase their skills to the media in a gym at Karaj, near Tehran. By Caren Firouz, via Reuters.

Robin Davey: REWIND: What The Music Industry Can Learn From Prince’s 21 Night Stand

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:17:26 -0400

Robin Davey: REWIND: What The Music Industry Can Learn From Prince’s 21 Night Stand:

“If more bands worried solely about the performance and material, and far less about facebook followers and tweeting about their breakfast, it would quickly become apparent that the failing music industry is much more about lack of truly world class performers, than lack of CD sales.” -Davey

robindavey:

By Robin Davey
Originally Posted May 2011 on Examiner.com

For those unaware, Prince recently embarked on an unprecedented 21 night stand at the Los Angeles Forum. With little lead up time for promotion and staggered release of tickets, it seemed that the whole shebang could be one…

Women in Music: Retractions and Elaborations (Schuldeingeständnis)

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:37:00 -0400

“I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do…” (Mea Culpa)

It seems that I have incurred the wrath of a fellow Joanna Newsom fan, and for good reason - I didn’t do my research in full, and implied serious accusation and judgement without providing a complete explanation. We are all guilty of forming opinions about what we don’t fully understand (we also are all probably aware of the public backlash against Mike Daisy for his more-than-questionable monologue about Apple and Foxconn (poor Ira Glass!)). Artistry and journalism are two very different things indeed. I want to make a few things clear about what I wrote in my post Women in Music: Spectacle and Commodity and elaborate on my sentiments.

Firstly, you should know that this blog isn’t about one thing or even a group of things. I work primarily as a musician, and everything I mention in regrettably low detail is quite selfishly filtered through the lens of my creative influence. I recently wrote about Plato’s Theory of Forms. If you asked me to describe this theory in depth I’d probably need a beer and the internet if a cohesive summary was going to be forthcoming. I’ve also written about Lemony Snicket and Jessica Valenti, but if you asked me to outline a chronology of their works, I’d draw a huge blank. I’ve read and studied all of these things/people, but I’m not perfect or perfectly educated, and I will be the first to admit that maybe I shouldn’t be preaching about what I don’t know in complete entirety. The world doesn’t need another Sarah Palin. Unlike Russia’s kooky fence-mate, I don’t have a team of eager media coaches at my disposal…

But I still want to speak my mind.

And without further ado, here is the Joanna Newsom Summer School discussion of my writing:

“A case of misunderstanding between the artist and the public, or the dangers of irony.

In her post about the sexualism of women in the music biz, Maryofegypt writes ‘Even Joanna Newsom, who is lauded for her musical achievements, poses for the album art of Have One on Me in a very provocative way’ and thus gratifies Newsom with the same motives as Madonna, Lady Gaga and other singers seemingly fond of showing skin, butts, boobs, tongues or finger as a strategy to draw attention. Or is it that she just bows down to the sexism of the industry?
I must say I’m a bit surprised by this interpretation. Let us remind how Newsom presented the incriminated cover : “All my three record covers depicted “me” in an allegorical setting—embroidered, on the first album cover; painted, on the second; and then photographed on the third. In each case, there are factors relating to physical appearance that can be tempered to underscore the spirit of the album and the identity of its narrator. The photo on the cover of Have One on Me was modeled after typical Orientalist fantasy-figure iconography, like an odalisque or a Venus in Furs—a sort of cartoonish amalgamation of feminine signifiers stylized to illustrate the Lacanian idea “Woman is a symptom of man.” Annabel Mehran, the photographer, used black-and-white film that the artist Becca Mann later hand-tinted over with watercolors. The idea was to mock-up a shabby, 1920s Parisian studio with an absinthe-dulled lady posing on a divan in bits of old drapery fabric, and then paint over the resulting tableau into some idealized, Technicolor, hedonistic fantasy set. The specifically female, earthbound, corporeal, and decadent character in that album art reflects the character of those songs’ narrator as well as the idea of feminine self-diminishment. That was a definite application of the idea of beauty. I don’t know whether that specific application could have any reason to occur again for me creatively. I have no idea who the narrator of my next record will be, and whether there will be a clear physical embodiment of that character.”

Of course there’s a possibility that she’s intellectualizing her intentions and that, deep down, she’s just like the rest of them, a lascivious callypigian pop diva who just wants her chance to be invited at music awards and sports competitions in order to sell more records to the lecherous populace. But I think that we should give her more credit than that.”

When I read this post I was floored. As a musician, I deeply adore Newsom’s work (as in an entire summer spent listening to Ys unceasingly, and a homemade piano arrangement of Peach, Plum, Pear). I had read some reviews and interviews, but had never researched in depth what her artistic intentions are re: cover artwork. I give the lady credit, I do! And so I hurriedly wrote to this unknown blogger:

”maryofegypt asked: Hello, after posting my “women in music” rant, I have done some actual research regarding my inclusion of Newsom’s cover art and the underlying feminism in this album. I will acknowledge that my discussion of this photo and lamentation of it is perhaps uninformed, thank you for bringing this to my attention. In my defense (of which there isn’t much) I can only say that I was initially disappointed to see the album art.

JSS’s response:

“Hello,
I think the relations between Newsom and feminism are complex and somehow ambiguous, and it’s perfectly understandable that one could misinterpret her persona in that regard. There’s a tumblr called allthebirdsabout Newsom and feminism if you’re interested (if you haven’t found it already). I’m not in agreement with everything they say but their posts are interesting reads.

I just wanted to point out that Joanna Newsom probably didn’t deserve this critique, that her approach to beauty and seduction couldn’t be compared at all with the pop singers’ behaviour you mentioned.”

Yes, intelligent stranger, you are right. Her approach to beauty should not be compared to that of Madonna or M.I.A. But I thought, when writing the post, I had made it clear that Newsom was in a category of her own. The bulk of my discussion of the other singers I mentioned was regarding poor musical-decision-making and safe-bet songwriting. I meant to include Joanna as a polar opposite to their works, and I should have stressed that more firmly. But as you say, the relationships between Newsom and feminism (or really, any woman and feminism) are “complex and somehow ambiguous”. Indeed, I’ve misinterpreted an “irony” that she has utilized in crafting her cover art. I am happy to be more informed regarding Newsom’s intention to depict herself “in an allegorical setting.” Even if she is intellectualizing her intentions, she’s done so in a very interesting and artistic way.

Here’s a bit from an interview with Newsom about the title of said album:

“[Have one on me] refers to a kind of self-sacrifice that is a theme in a lot of the songs. It’s a very feminine thing as well. It’s the giving of yourself in […] drinking terms, like pouring something from a bottle, and the level of the wine goes down and down and down with each glass that you pour and hand out. And it relates to the title track because that’s sort of essentially what I saw in Lola Montez’s life [Lola being the dancer who was the mistress of the King Of Bavaria, who ultimately lived and died an outcast in America, who is the subject of your title track and Newsom seems to be referring to in the album inlay photographs.] This constant wandering and diminishment of the self through the giving of the self, through performing, and just as the myth grew, the self shrunk until she just died poverty stricken and alone[…] The way women were, and the way women are in that sense, is fundamental.”

Now that I’m more fully informed, I completely get the album cover art. Newsom is giving herself, physically as well as musically.

But here’s the rub: I, personally, as an individual woman who may or not be in agreement with other wonderful individual women, see ironic or artistic self-objectification as confusing. Because at the end of the day, to me it is still what it is upon first glance- objectification. I love Have One on Me. I actually bought it twice because I misplaced one of the three gorgeous discs (the second). All the praises I can sing aside and in all honesty, when I first picked up the album, I was shocked to see Newsom looking like a pin-up.

Wanting to put “herself” on the cover of such a unique work is not something that I am critiquing, as a fellow champion of individual creativeness. But I feel that this goal can be accomplished through many, many other visual venues besides including an image of the self’s visual appearance. None of my other favorite albums have ANY artwork which contains the creator’s image, and yet they manage to present a visual representation of narrative voice and self.

As an independent musician, I made the decision early on to never include a photograph, painting, etching, stitching, drawing, sculpture, cartoon (you get the idea) of an identifiable image of myself on an album cover. I even shy away from promotional photos. It’s probably because, when I listen to music, I like to close my eyes. The image of the artist is distracting to me. I acknowledge again that maybe it’s just a personal preference.

I actually have a reoccurring problem with David Longstreth and his tendency to visually hide behind his (albeit gorgeous) female bandmates. I first saw the Dirty Projectors perform years and years ago, before they were well known, at a small Brooklyn venue, where much of the audience walked out halfway through his set. I was struck by the fact that Longstreth seemed to cower at the back of the stage - the pretty girls were at the forefront, but the creative genius preferred stationing himself, nearly unseen, next to the drummer:

Music is often an experience that fundamentally lies both inside and outside of the auditory domain (as my readers will have heard me mention many, many times over). When I write music, my physical appearance is the last thing on my mind. However, I myself write a LOT about female self-diminishment and female mythology, both in my music and in my blogs. A ton of prevalent artists are always writing “about” something. While it’s true that there are many musicians whose main concerns are sound and texture, etc, it’s also common to encounter those who are writing about social, cultural, political, linguistic/poetic, or philosophical issues.

But those artists are usually trying to capture and depict their “extra-musical” ideas inside of the auditory domain. I find that women artists, as wonderful and groundbreaking as they are, are much more prone to resort to depiction of artistic sentiment (like self-objectification) in their visual representations.

Let’s take Feist as another example of personal opinion. The Reminder remains a catchy yet consistent fave of mine. I had looked forward with childlike anticipation to seeing Leslie play live at Radio City for an AIDS benefit concert (also, David Byrne and Dirty Projectors were playing, it was a musical wet dream) a few years ago. When Feist was set to take the stage, I collapsed inwardly when she walked on wearing a see-through white blouse with a black bra underneath. Then (speaking of irony), she went on to sing a song with strong feminist themes: “a slave to her husband for the rest of her days”.

It’s all very confusing. I’m incredibly afraid of how this inward disappointment of mine could stem from a sort of female misogyny. I want to clarify now that I think women should be free (and safe!) to dress however revealingly or seductively they so choose. Self-expression is the ultimate freedom and equalizer.

However, I also am very afraid that women have to to be seductive and attractive in order to be taken seriously as artists. I am afraid that, though they may have the best of intentions and be attempting to celebrate femininity and beauty in general, they are doing so through the male gaze. If a woman writes beautiful music about women and women’s issues, that will come across in the music itself, as it does in Newsom’s auditory work. Furthermore, the common inclusion of sexual images seems to imply that beauty is the domain of women, or a “feminine” pursuit. I admire that Newsom embraces the female voice wholeheartedly. But men can give themselves too. Men (and the transgendered, and the asexual) can work towards the creation of beauty, softness, and generosity. They just seem to do so without providing their bodies as a backdrop.

Does that mean that performers shouldn’t pose provocatively if they so choose? No. It just means that sometimes, I personally wish they wouldn’t, because in my own mind it comes across as confusing if not self-objectifying.

Maybe I just have a problem with pop music in general. Classical musicians, though they are often required to provide sensual head shots and promotional materials, are much more concerned with auditory experience. They’d rather be masters of technique/artistry than masters of fashion. Look at Angela Hewitt, whose manager told her she’d never make it professionally because she “looked like the girl next door” (this info from an Eastman prof in my piano lit class!).

She is now hailed as one of the greatest Bach interpreters of our time.

Perhaps, since Newsom’s work is so thoughtful and through-composed, I have mistakenly assumed she is a “classically” leaning artist.

“I would place myself squarely on the nonclassical side. As a composer, I require assistance. I have ideas and I have an album in mind but I’m limited, I need help making the record. I’m a very poor composer. I really am. That may change over the years, but right now I have such a huge gap between what’s in my mind and what I’m able to notate. I think it would be disingenuous for me to claim to be part of the classical world.” - Newsom
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1969718,00.html

I don’t want to conceive of music as genre-specific. If Newsom is appreciated in both classical and indie spheres, it shows me that music, at its best, is unclassifiable. And that’s because even the blind can enjoy it.

laphamsquarterly: “I am very cold” “The parchment is very...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:18:04 -0400

laphamsquarterly:

“I am very cold”

“The parchment is very hairy.”

“Oh, my hand.”

—Notes from medieval monks and scribes in the margins of their work

Our latest issue “Means of Communication” is now online. Take a break from the scriptorium to check it out!

She's Not Asking For It

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:43:58 -0400

She's Not Asking For It:

“According to Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, street harassment “limits [women’s] freedom to participate in education, work, recreation, and in political and economic life — or to simply enjoy their neighbourhoods.” Additionally, it forces women to live in constant fear for their safety, a fear not unfounded considering the global statistics on sexual assault, and causes many to routinely evaluate the cost-benefit of merely leaving the house on any given day.”