100 Women Strong!

No Wind, No Rain

Funny lady, Rachel.

College was awesome for many reasons, one of them was getting to know amazing people who shared your same interests, challenged your ideas and inspired you to work harder and be better at what you do. I made some great friends in undergrad but none of them has offered me this rare opportunity to push myself more than Rachel. Aside from being styley, fun to run around central park with, get bbq on the upper west side with or smoke a bowl with on a Brooklyn balcony, she is fiercely smart, talented and most of all an incredible writer. In school we both loved music, talking about it, listening to it, walking through Diana Ross park and singing it. We have had similar trajectories. It's just fun to know someone who is after the same bones as you. We have remained in touch as I went off to Cal Arts, and she got on the No. 1 train to Columbia. I'd like to think we have gained strength in having an ally and someone in our corner. That is why I am so so so excited and proud to know her this week. Her piece on Jay Z in the New York Observer is so brilliant it makes my head spin. For real, it's already gotten rave reviews and kicked up controversy in the few days that it's been out. Adam Wilson at BlackBook said this the day it came out:

Anyway, click here to read the entire thing, you won't be sorry.

Mating Rituals

Back to Business

"I'm just twenty-two and I don't mind dyin."

Time to put away the personal platitudes and portraits and get back to the business at hand. The amazing, fierce, smart as a smart can be, critic of all things that need to be critiqued, music/feminist warrior Erika Anderson aka EMA is back, sans her badass band Gowns -r.i.p- with her new project, AWE and let me tell you, this stuff is crisper, more cutting and cleaner than anything she's done before. It's as if her vision has been funneled and reduced to a super potent potion. One drop goes a long way.
click here for two unreleased tracks from her upcoming EP
California (Boys) is AMAZING.
Here's a snippet of the music vid that is forth coming, by Erika. But click the link for the entire track.

Just Say That You Love Me

Excuse me while I toot my own horn here. Best Music Writing came out and in the introduction Ann Powers said the most amazing thing anyone has ever said about my writing ever. Ann is basically one of my heroes and when i read it, I died. The book is out now so go give it a read! Lots of amazing, amazing pieces by Sasha Frere Jones, Michelle Tea, Randall Roberts, Robert Christgua, Jessica Hopper and Mary Gaitskil, to name a few.
In other news, Nick has a new blog, ahem, sorry, Tumblr, Tumble, where he is posting the awesomeness that is his brain. Go see why I love the guy so much. He's even posting some of his poetry, which is what he's in grad school for, so you better believe its good stuff! click here to be transported to a tumblr orgy
Heather has been in town and we've been kicken it. Here's us at Antie Ems. Courtesy of Athena Schindelhiems.

Okay, schmos, talk soon.
Also, things you should read if you haven't already
The Ihop Papers by Ali Liebegott, The Lost Art of Reading, by David Ulin and Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America by Michelle Tea, any article in ArtForum by Catherine Taft.

Let your love light shine

In 1969, 27-year- old Dr. William J. Kaufmann III became the youngest Director at any major observatory in the United States. His youth and vitality fueled his efforts to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the general public to allow everyone to share in the advances of astronomy.

Under Kaufmann's direction, Griffith Observatory would host a lunar exhibit, showcasing lunar rocks that allowed visitors to see up-close a piece of the celestial object which has been viewed countless times through the Observatory's telescopes. The exhibits in the Hall of Science reflected the public's interest in the space program, with an exhibit of a "spacemobile" and models of other spacecraft.

The new information about the moon learned by Apollo 11 and 12 also led to a new planetarium show entitled "New Discoveries from the Moon," which not only presented data but also dealt with the practical issue of whether these efforts were worth their lofty price tags.

In 1973, the first Laserium show in the U.S. was presented in the Observatory's planetarium theater. This laser-light program, set initially to classical music and later to songs from artists such as Pink Floyd, proved to be instantly popular. These exhibitions of modern laser light technology were conducted by a "laser-artist" (Laserist for short) with computer-programmed material to create eye-catching images. Kaufmann's goal to reach out to the public extended beyond theatrics, and in 1972 the Observatory premiered its first planetarium show in Spanish. Dr. Kaufmann left the Observatory in 1974 to pursue other interests and passed away in 1995.

Dress You Up

A little vanity never hurt anybody. New cut, new color, a few new clothes.