Daddy Dear, You're Still Number One

The Indelicates Versions Project 2010

2010-05-29T11:16:00.004+01:00

The Indelicates Versions Project is LIVE....

In case you don't understand. these are songs which are Versions/ Covers of The Indelicates latest album Songs For Swinging Lovers, which is coming out on CD next week....

Download it for free by entering ZERO in the pay box here:

http://corporaterecords.co.uk/artists/The+Indelicates+Versions+Project/The+Indelicates+Versions+Project+2010/

ARTISTS who made VERSIONS in 2010:

01 - Jerusalem Barbershop - Performed by Julia Indelicate, Laurence owen, and Lily Rae
02 - Mentally Gaga - Simon and Julia Indelicate
03 - Les Savages - Performed and Remixed by Sturm & Harndrang
04 - MNTLLY LL - Laurence Owen
05 - Asia - Laurence Owen
06 - Be Afraid... - I'm 4 and a half (Lily Rae)
07 - Antifolk for Doomed Youth - Owl On The Porch (Lily Rae)
08 - Flesh (Piano Version) - Julia Indelicate
09 - illest - Jamie Woods
10 - Votre Argent - Antoine De Cunt and His Band (Laurence Owen)
11 - Rose is Crunk as Fuck - Al Clayton
12 - Flesh - Billy Butcher (Lily Rae)
13 - Roses (Piano Version) - Julia Indelicate
14 - Savages (Oh Brave New World Mix) - The Far Queue (Btwothree)

The Indelicates: New Business Model: New Album LAUNCHES

2010-04-13T13:05:00.008+01:00

PAY WHAT YOU LIKE
Download The Indelicates NEW ALBUM
http://corporaterecords.co.uk/artists/The+Indelicates/Songs+For+Swinging+Lovers/

A Corporate Records Press Release regarding
The New Album From

The Indelicates
"Songs For Swinging Lovers"

released exclusively on corporaterecords.co.uk
12/04/2010
physical and special editions released June 2010

Cast your mind back to the halcyon spring of 2008. Indie distributors danced happily through the acid green money-fields of Camden, hand-in-hand with the joyous executives supping decadently from the salary cocktails served by sub-prime indie labels. Every other haircut was the genius we'd been waiting for and everything was amaaaaazing. There were banks and mortgages and public services. There were advertising revenues and advances. All was well in the western world.

Somewhere in this fisher price quagmire, The Indelicates saw fit to release their debut album, American Demo - a spite fuelled howl of discontent, it sat distinctly at odds with the time - but still succeeded in gaining the band a serious national and international following. Now, having successfully begged their label to let them out of their contract they are back with their new album - Songs For Swinging Lovers - and a new record company - that anyone can sign themselves to anytime it suits them.

Recorded in Berlin by gifted producer Ed East (Chikinki), Songs For Swinging Lovers is a stunning, diverse and intellectually complex record that marries the band's trademark lyrical precision and songwriting skill with a broad palette of musical styles and influences. The strains of country, Weimar cabaret, holy bible-era manics, belle epoque cafe music, Muder Ballads-era Nick cave, 90s indie and 70s sleaze can all be heard in the arrangements.

A more personal album than its predecessor, Songs For Swinging Lovers veers between the furious (Your Money, Flesh) and the reflective (Savages, Sympathy For The Devil) with detours into the metaphorically historical (We Love You, Tania) and the outright disturbing (Roses).

The Indelicates are convinced that the much discussed collapse of the record industry is being absurdly hyped as something that will harm 'artists' and even 'music' itself. They believe that the weakening of the economic power held by labels and the undermining of their business model by various facets of the Internet can only benefit those who are actually committed to making music. They are vociferous opponents of the measures proposed in the government's 'Digital Economy Bill' and are heavily involved in the campaign to stop it becoming law.

As such, they are treating this release as an opportunity to experiment with the long-accepted norms of the recorded music market. Working with investors, web developers and artists they have built 'corporaterecords.co.uk' an innovative new digital audio platform that is free and easy to use and that allows anyone to release their recordings quickly and simply in a way that encourages the free sharing and promotion of music while giving fans an incentive to reward artists as they see fit.

Songs For Swinging Lovers will initially be available exclusively from the corporaterecords.co.uk site. Once it is released, you will be able to blog, twitter or otherwise share individual tracks (or the whole album) with single static links that take your readers directly to a download page where the song or album will be available on a 'pay-what-you-like' basis using the share code and social networking buttons provided.

Following the initial release, we will be releasing in the following formats.

CD
Digital (inc. iTunes enhanced LP)
Special Edition: CD + full length book of supplementary essays 'Apologies and Explanations'
Extra Special Edition: CD + 'Apologies and Explanations' + Art Book + Customised USB album (details TBC)
Super Special Edition: As above + Simon and Julia will come round your house, perform the album for you, record the performance and sign a contract transferring the rights in the master to you.

The books will both be available independently.

The joint project of Simon and Julia Indelicate, The Indelicates formed in Brighton in 2005 - with Simon's lead guitar and Julia's piano backed by Ed Van Beinum's Drums, Kate Newberry's Bass and Al Clayton's Rhythm Guitar. They were joined in 2009 by bassist Lawrence Owen and guitarist/backing vocalist Lily Rae and currently have a floating line-up for live shows, (with much of the new album favouring a lusher, more acoustic sound). They have played and been released all over the world, headlining the second stage at Austria's frequency festival, supporting Art Brut in Germany, Amanda Palmer in Scotland and The Vaselines in New York; as well as touring extensively in europe and the UK. In 2009 they released a well-received poetry book and continued to give performances of Simon's 'Book of Job: The Musical'.

Largely so as to never have to be called a Brighton Band again, Julia and Simon moved to Lewes in 2007.

Please direct all press enquiries to:
info@indelicates.com

For more quotes, artwork etc, see the full Indelicates Press Highlights Doc:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWXM5KI1s9zhZGNzNnJod18xMTFmZHR0bXhmNw&hl=en

Hi-Res Stills with all permissions granted are available at:
http://indelicates.com/press

For more on The Indelicates see:
http://www.indelicates.com
For more on Corporate Records read the full press Outline here:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AWXM5KI1s9zhZGNzNnJod185NmZ6NjQ4Nmhn&hl=en
More:
Simon Indelicate on the Music Business and Economics
Try Out The Corporate Records Automatic Press Release Generator (beta)
More on The Digital Economy Bill etc from the Open Rights Group

Praise for The Indelicates

"...I was hooked in one, as they took apart, with bitter grace, the media /academic obsession with and delight in the downfall of stars and idols."
– NEIL GAIMAN (Author of Coraline, The Sandman Comic series)

"Neo-Brecht/Weill theatricality? Check. Profane razor strop wit? Check. Irreverent misanthropy? Check. Scathing socio-cultural critiques? Check. Acid sweet indiepop songcraft? Check. Meet the fabulously unfashionable, unfashionably fabulous Indelicates."
–ROLLING STONE

"It’s impossible to overstate how much music today needs The Indelicates; in our darkest hour, hope may yet be at hand"
– THE FLY

"The Indelicates are political punk musos attempting to bring the poetry back into pop"
– THE GUARDIAN

"...this is intelligent, poetic indie-rock. In other words, it bears no resemblance to The View, The Fratellis, or any other examples of that kind of nonsense"
– ARTROCKER

“This record is vicious. It sits in the corner of the pub, performing character assassinations on you and all you hold dear. And you let it get away with it because it is beautiful. “

From Music Towers

“‘We Hate The Kids’, quakes like the cup of water in Jurassic Park as the Tyrannosaurus Rex approaches, and the climax is breath-taking...This is an important album – nothing and nobody will convince me otherwise.”

From Playlouder

“Corrosive performance poetry and pop music passion, this is an album on immaculate themes. American Demo really is the aesthetic arm of the outsiders, and The Indelicates right now are pretty much unbeatable.”

From Music OMH

The Indelicates Christmas Fudge: AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW!

2009-12-02T00:30:00.002Z

PLUS FREE EXCLUSIVE MP3 DOWNLOAD WITH EVERY ORDER !

You probably don't know this, but Simon Indelicate makes very VERY good fudge. It'll turn your world upside down.

So I thought we'd make some Christmas Fudge that everyone can try, especially since we haven't had any new merchandise for a while. It is made in a safe and clean environment, and I will be boxing up and packaging the orders. Once we have posted out your order we will send you an EXCLUSIVE MP3 unheard by anyone, like, ever.

UK -------------------- £6.00 (INCLUDES POSTAGE)

EVERYWHERE ELSE --- £7.00 (INCLUDES POSTAGE)

As this is a limited item, we haven't had time to put it up on the Merchandise pages yet. Please order using the DONATE button on the TOP RIGHT AT INDELICATES.COM, and then type in either of the above amounts, depending on where you live :) Ingredients will be on the boxes, but if you would like to know exactly what they are, please ask ... info@indelicates.com

ORDER NOW! Visit http://indelicates.com

And I hope you enjoy your fudge!

Julia Indelicate Xx

Cover from me and Lily

2009-11-29T23:10:00.002Z

Me and Lily Rae performing 'Class' from Chicago, in plummy posh accents, for fun. Expect more things, it was a blast :)

https://www.yousendit.com/download/MVNjdFdkdENveE1LSkE9PQ

Lewes Bonfire Celebrations 2009

2009-11-08T12:20:00.040Z

Here are last years photos as well, as i realised i hadn't put them up anywhere else. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=84062&id=534765279&l=2cdd788545

This years Lewes Celebrations felt somberer, and more angry. Once again whoever it is who decides these things invited too many police, forgetting that having done this for many many years, Lewesians really do know how to police themselves. There were police excercising 'crowd control' tactics in areas where it was dangerous to do so, as it hindered the flow of people. Also, outside some of the pubs whole rows of police stood watching the people drinking there. Most years the police are fine, so i'm not having a go, but there's was an unnecessarily large presence this year, which always makes people, especially young people, feel more angsty and is generally a silly mistake by the council. Stop having so many police, it doesn't work.

This year commercial square bonfire society (where we usually go) was angry about MP's expenses, you'll see the elaborate effigy below, which was blown up as the last set of fireworks to go off at the end of commercial square's firework display.

Anyway, here are some photos from this year.

Some Photographs from DDR (GDR) Radio Buildings in Berlin 2009

2009-10-07T00:53:00.008+01:00

I forgot to put this one in, it's quite interesting. For the wiki on the 'BRD' go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRD Suffice to say, the BRD was the derogatory term the East German government gave to Western Germany, and this old sticker, probably put up towards the end, says "No BRD-ing of the DDR". Anna Funder says that you experience a lot of "Ostalgie" in former East Germany, nostalgia for the GDR from some of the people.

We recorded our latest album in Berlin. On the same complex as the studio, and the studio building itself, are all former DDR (GDR) Radio buildings. As with much of Berlin, there are many derelict buildings, quite a few relatively unchanged since the wall fell. This is probably to do with money, and the amount of buildings there are, but perhaps also the sheer size of the institutions. We've been to Berlin many times, to tour, to promote things, but never for this long, and never before had we had that much time to really look around. The photographs at the beginning are mainly of the building complex we were working at, including one of the more smashed up and looted buildings. The main thing that struck me, and still blows my mind, is the space - the sheer amount of space - in Berlin. So many empty rooms, so much property, and just EMPTY. Most of the long corridors, a feature of GDR institutions, have identical rooms on either side, uniform and blindingly efficient uses of space. I couldn't help but think about Orwell's 1984, and the bullet in the back of the head, when I walked down them.

In one of the buildings we found, on our producers suggestion, a large amount of old tape just strewn across the stairs. Ed had an old tape machine which played at half-speed, and we then sped up the recordings in pro-tools. The piece we'd cut was a news item about the nuclear corridor from 1986. Another piece was the beginning of a speech by a communist politician I can't at the moment remember. A week or two later, two men who used to work in the same building before the wall fell came to look around, turning out to have worked in the same studio that we were at that moment making our album in. Apparently they made radio programmes there. Ed, our producer, played them some of the tape we found. He said they seemed pretty chuffed. There is a lot of living human history here.

We went to the Stasi Museum near Magdalena Str. U-Bahn which, if you ever get a chance, is an intriguing and uncomfortable experience. In the book Stasiland by Anna Funder she describes going into the museum in the mid-1990s and witnessing a tour group become steadily more inclined to leave and go back to the west. It's a brilliant book, I'd buy it if I were you :) The museum is much more a human history museum, in that the building itself housed the Stasi, and their many many staff, but also the rooms haven't been changed; there is a prison cell, the office of Erich Mielke Minister of State Security of the GDR from 1957 to 1989, with his telephones and a bed, and a cafeteria that looks as though it was a cafeteria for the Stasi, and which we weren't sure we should sit in or not. Upstairs are files which are used for research but also, according to Funder, for people to check their own Stasi files. It's not a fun Museum. It's intriguing and brilliant and harrowing, but Simon was saying that it feels much more like a place that a person who lived in the GDR would come to get closure. It feels unbelievably odd to walk around it only twenty years after the wall fell. A place that had so much power and which controlled and destroyed so many people's lives. Anyway, the Stasi museum photos are further down the page. You'll know them when you start to see Lenin and Marx busts ;)

The photo above is in the main hall of one of the buildings in use, and one of the only sections to be renovated. It is two photographs of people taking down the DDR Radio sign on top of one of the buildings here. On the other wall is a picture of Sting, who recorded in one of the other bigger studios here, and a colourful Trebi car. The rest of the building is not like this. The rest of the buildings are so utterly the past you almost feel like you are being watched. I can understand a desire to watch it rot and yet, at the same time, feel priviledged to have had a chance to experience and document something that existed in my lifetime, but so completely outside of it.

(note: I have tried to keep most of the photos the same light as I saw, so some are a little dark because they communicate better what it looks like)

2009-10-07T00:43:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:41:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:39:00.001+01:00

2009-10-07T00:38:00.003+01:00

There is this sort of paperwork everywhere. It's odd, because it is for the most part mundane battery manuals, but occasionally we'd come across old radio schedules, blueprints for buildings, and in one store room old GDR soap, work clothing, buttons, and even toilet paper.

We think that these bottles of wine are the GDR's pretend Bergundy, made in Hungary. The dates seem to suggest that.

2009-10-07T00:36:00.003+01:00

For batteries. Very dangerous.

The above corridor and the follwing two photographs were taken in the basement of one of the buildings. At the end of one of the narrow corridors, the one with steps, using phone light, the boys (yes, I was too scared) found a recently concreted over wall. By recently I mean recently enough to suggest that behind the wall was a bunker, and that it was bricked off or filled in for national security reasons by the leaving party. St this point my heart was doing somersaults, but we plowed on.

2009-10-07T00:35:00.003+01:00

This is the prison we found in the basement. It is quite clearly a prison, especially when you look inside. They don't have prisons at BBC radio do they? No, they don't ...

2009-10-07T00:33:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:32:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:30:00.003+01:00

Is that a dangling lift shaft cable? Yes. Yes, it is.

2009-10-07T00:28:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:25:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:24:00.003+01:00

We used the natural 6 second reverb of the stairs above for some of the singing.

2009-10-07T00:22:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:20:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:19:00.003+01:00

The old cafeteria, below, which still seems to have a few plates and cups. It also seems to be sealed off properly which suggests poison somewhere, so i didn't want to poke around.

2009-10-07T00:13:00.003+01:00

A pretty old sticker celebrating 10 Years of the DDR

2009-10-07T00:11:00.003+01:00

And here the Stasi museum photos begin.

2009-10-07T00:10:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:08:00.002+01:00

2009-10-07T00:05:00.002+01:00

EDINBURGH: AMANDA PALMER/ INDELICATES: JOB: THE MUSICAL!

2009-08-18T11:03:00.004+01:00

I've been posting this about this weekend, so sorry for the lack of personal touch... Do come and say hello at either of the shows, or wander around with us on the sunday while we try to stuff fliers in peoples hands... We will likely look like a stag/ hen troupe... Unlike Ed and Al Indelicate, who will probably look like this. I know, i know...

EDINBURGH!!

SATURDAY: AMANDA PALMER Show AND ...
SUNDAY: The Book Of Job: The Musical! ONE OFF - EDINBURGH FRINGE

This weekend we drive to Edinburgh to support Amanda Palmer at The HMV Picturehouse, SATURDAY 22nd, which promises to be amazing. Expect the unexpected! Merchandise! Books! Julia, attempting to wear a nice dress! Ostentatious guitar solos! Snarling! And our last Indelicates show before we head of to Berlin to record Album Number Two.

Tickets!

http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/170042CA93EF5F68?artistid=965071&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=1

THEN.... ON SUNDAY 23rd... COME!!!! IT'S ONLY FIVE POUNDS. At midnight...

Rock 'n' Roll! Death! Theology!

All are present and correct in this rollicking blend of showtunes, Thomas Aquinas, and the kind of experience you'd expect from a west end show about a biblical character whose name begins with a 'J'. The Book of Job: The Musical! is a comic tour de force that has Sold Out houses at The Cheltenham Literature Festival, Brighton’s Komedia, Trinity College Cambridge, Brighton Festival Fringe, London's Barons Court Theatre and venues across the country, garnering standing ovations and acclaim wherever it is seen. The Musical is to take it's first trip to the Edinburgh Fringe for a one-off, not to be missed show at the GRV on SUNDAY the 23rd August as part of the Five Pound Fringe.

The musical re-tells the biblical story of Job – that of a righteous and godly man royally screwed over by God for no particular reason – in an inspired blend of Andrew Lloyd Webber-style showtunes, dense liturgical theology and knockabout pythonesque comedy.

Writer Simon Indelicate is a singer and guitarist with cult indie band The Indelicates whose debut album ‘American Demo’ was released to acclaim last year, and who will be supporting Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer at the HMV Picturehouse on the saturday . The show also stars band-mate Julia Indelicate and My Name Is Red singer Chris Hodges. With the rest of the cast, they conjure a multi-million pound west end spectacle using little more than a guitar, some stage directions and the audience’s willing imagination.

Will Job curse God to his face? Will dashing angel with a dark side Satan win his bet? Does God really, as Karl Jung states in his Answer to Job (routledge, 1952, p.10) “Not care a button for any moral opinion nor recognise any form of ethics as binding”?

Find out!! Only in: The Book Of Job: The Musical!

Five Pound Fringe

http://www.gsohcomedy.co.uk/fivepoundfringe/

To book tickets for the ONE OFF SHOW at The GRV. Phone the Fringe Box Office on: 0131 226 0000

Or from here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/56139

Direct from the Fringe Box Office located at 180 High Street, Edinburgh.

Or email Simon or Julia Indelicate directly, and they'll see what they can do for you:

info@indelicates.com

(Please note, this is a late show and due to it's one-off nature, it is likely to be billed as 'For One Night Only', if this helps with purchasing).

DOWN.

THE.

FRONT.

LOVE, The Indelicates AND The Book of Job: The Musical! XxX

--
Testimonials:
http://corporaterecords.co.uk/jobtestimonials/
The Book of Job: The Musical! on twitter
- http://twitter.com/jobthemusical
The Book Of Job: The Musical (live samples)
- http://myspace.com/bookofjobthemusical
The Book Of Job: The Musical! (mainsite)
- http://corporaterecords.co.uk/job/index.html
The Indelicates
- http://www.indelicates.com
- http://myspace.com/theindelicates

Words By Simon & Julia Indelicate

2009-06-29T13:32:00.003+01:00

Me and Simon Indelicate have made a book. It contains some of his poems, some of mine, and lots of lyrics, (some as yet unheard) with footnotes explaining a few things.

Most of my poems are my attempts at Imagist poems. If you don't know them, have a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagists

H.D. is probably my favourite poet, still, after all these years.

If you want explanations of things when you order the book, then Tweet me :) Or ask here :)

I can promise there is swearing in at least one poem.

The book is shaped like a 7" record, which looks very neat, and the cover references 1984. It's lovely. It will help us in the next few months building up to the various projects TBA, as the money goes direct to us. Ze 'Artists' ;) It will also mean that I don't have to work so much, as it's sort of destroying me a bit, day by day, and i'm getting really tearful and tired.

So, enough begging, buy it, don't buy it, buy it:

You can PRE-ORDER 'Words by Simon and Julia Indelicate' direct from our shop:

http://indelicates.com/shop

Or don't, or do!

Or don't.

(please buy my book it's lovely)

Julia Indelicate xx

Tickets for The Book Of Job: The Musical! SOLD OUT

2009-05-29T10:50:00.001+01:00

Please don't come to the door, the tickets for The Book Of Job: The Musical! on THURSDAY 4th JUNE are now sold out, and you won't be able to get in :)

The Guestlist is now also closed. I am blind to your text messages. You will not fit! ;)

Please try to get to the Camden Head, upstairs bit, by 7pm in order to be seated/ ready for 7.30. You won't be let in if you are late :)

The show is in two acts, with a short interval in the middle.

Please be sure to bring your e-ticket ( not applicable for a small number of Guests, obviously).

There will be a few Job: The Musical books available to buy at the event.

See you there!

Julia Indelicate xX

Indieoma Article

2009-04-02T02:11:00.000+01:00

I wrote a thingy here:

http://indieoma.com/commentaries/julia-indelicate-i-ve-got-such-a-lovely-voice

It's been a while...

2009-03-18T16:48:00.005Z

... But I've had a troubling time trying to work out whether I wanted this to be just about women, whether I care enough (I do, but I'll write that later). So instead, i'm just going to use it as my blog, with bits and bobs that I find and think about. First up, I recently found some old Brownies stuff that is very weird and disturbing. I only lasted three months at Brownies because, like most things English, it and the socialising it involved was alien to me, as I was expecting to leave at any minute for another country. As I remember it my Austrian mum got very upset with some of the 'Owls' or whatever they're called, and that was the end of that. Anyway, here's some scans from the book. I like how I've ticked the box for the stealing of flowers, though I'm certain it was confusion, and not rebelliousness.

Girls Go Tech

2006-12-25T21:33:00.000Z

I quite like this... not sure about girl scouts though...

http://www.girlsgotech.org/

ji xx

Princesses...

2006-12-25T11:09:00.000Z

Thought this was interesting, even if i'm struggling to decide what position i hold... I remember equating pretty dresses with getting my father, and any other men around me, to say i was pretty, and then give me sweets. But you can't ban your kids from wanting to have what the others have, so what on earth are you supposed to do? (i'm not a mother, but i'd struggle with this i'm sure...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/magazine/24princess.t.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

I'm in the process of writing a 'feminist' critique of the band The Video Club. A positive one... ;)

Until then, merry yule bambinos

xx

Oooh, and this...

2006-11-27T00:47:00.000Z

Concerning James Bond

ji x

A few links to recent things...

2006-11-26T23:46:00.000Z

From the Guardian, 17th Nov '06. Features Ariel Levy. Of some interest, not much.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1950379,00.html

And this, from The Guardian again, September 25, '06 http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1880260,00.html

Also mentions Ariel Levy, but the more of it i read, the more it annoyed me.

Also this:

Poetic? Charmingly Vague? As ridiculous then as it is now? ... ...

I'm still gathering my thoughts about the whole Lily Allen/ NME thing too - I have some specific points to make, i think, so expect that next week.

I'm still collecting quite a lot of material, so when it calms down i think i'll have a proper chinwag with y'all.

ji xx

How to get what you really really want...

2006-11-04T00:42:00.000Z

Some stuff from the Spice Girls fan book, written by The Spice Girls. I'm not putting this up because i think it is solely responsible for damaging our children, or anything like that, or anything as wanky as it's encouragement to working class girls to sell their sexuality as a means to an end...

I'm putting it up for the tone, really. I think it's quite interesting how on programmes like The Word a woman could drop her pants to a stunned audience. Likewise, though the Spice Girls aren't that long ago, the tone is actually (messages aside) alot more gruff and full of swearing. Which is a bit weird, as i really think that if we were to see a girl drop her trousers on an evening tellly programme, we'd be as shocked as we were then. The Spice Girls would NEVER be allowed to say 'Bitch' in a fan book now. Why? (i know why, but you tell me...)

Vogue Article from the summer

2006-11-03T23:59:00.000Z

Interesting? Not sure. These articles tend not to be, but i found the tone a mixture of upsetting and weirdly engaging... So i thought it could be some kind of 'Talking Point' as they call it...
Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3:

Buffy, and Why.

2006-11-03T23:51:00.000Z

A couple of years ago I watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer for the first time, got hooked, then watched series 3-7 pretty much back to back. It didn’t immediately occur to me why it was probably one of the best pieces of Art I have ever witnessed because these things rarely do – you get lost in the story and, if you’re like me (the annoying person who wants to talk about films straight after you’ve seen them), you think and talk about the specifics afterwards. Obviously with a series you can talk about each episode afterwards, and one of the main advantages of this is that even when one episode isn’t as good as the previous or the one following it, each of them goes towards building this incredible fantasy world that seems real enough to be recogniseable to you. In Buffy, the town of Sunnydale, where demons and vampires and all sorts of nasties come out and gather around an ancient and mythical hell mouth, and where one girl, Buffy, is the girl chosen from her generation to kill them off, that world is finally destroyed by it’s creator (Joss Wheedon). With it he kills not only the whole idea of a town with demons and slayers, the original comic book style hero/ heroine story, but in the final episode turns it on it’s head with Buffy getting her witch friend Willow to channel the power and energy sourced in an ancient scythe to give every potential slayer the power that Buffy has, to share it, and remove Buffy as the only Heroine of the story. Buffy, in my circle (white, British, university educated, middle-class), was criticised for it’s ‘pop culture’ references, it’s ‘obnoxious’ and ‘obvious’ and ‘out of date’ references to and understanding of cultural and contemporary theory, and it’s stance on or depiction of (strong) women in the late 20th century. The general view seemed to be that it was unnecessary to be aware of and speak about what you know about what you’re doing/ making/ saying – that is, to have a writer say ‘Hey, I know this stuff, so I’m going to get it out of the way now, so we can get on with the story. Ok?’. As an aside, I think another of the reasons this happens is a general view, especially where I came from, and especially when I was growing up, that anything that is too popular must be tainted somehow, especially if it’s American, which is of course NONSENSE. All hail capitalism *bows*. I appreciated the various references to pop cult/ theory etc etc in Buffy because it made me feel more involved in the story, it made me enjoy the intelligence of the author but also, and most importantly, it didn’t matter a whit if I didn’t get it, because that wasn’t the point. What mattered was the story and that the information was shared, not hidden, or stowed away for only a professor and their pupils to contemplate. I haven’t ever seen a series or film that does as much referencing as Buffy, (except maybe Woody Allen films, but that’s not my time, so we’ll leave that out) so I don’t see how making them could be seen to be ‘out of date’.

However, the criticism that probably struck me the most was the one which undermined its depiction of the late 20th century girl/ woman. Buffy has all the characteristics of a feminists’ tour de force (by which I mean: this is what some ‘70’s feminists must have hoped for future generations of people [women]). Like hero’s in stories before hers, Buffy physically beats her opponents, and goes through all the problems this invites (boys, power, strength, alienation, death, depression etc etc). Academics spoke of post feminism, or Buffy as part of the (in England, Spice Girl) girl power generation. Post-feminism became (to me, as I learnt what it was) a rebellion against radical feminism (burn bra’s) which allowed the argument that, to put it simply, the material way you represent yourself – sexy clothes, make-up, flirtation, sex – is as legitimate a way to gain power as intelligence, an understanding of equality and so on. Girl Power is understanding that utilising your gender and sexuality can give you power and control and confidence, characteristics which have come to identify you as an ‘independent’ woman. I think that the post-feminist rebellion had to happen, but it seems to be an idea that is more and more used to justify a kind of female-ness that I think is quite backwards. The issue, as with any political or social argument really, is choice. In Buffy the story goes that the first slayer was physically tied to the power which made her a superhero, by men not brave enough to fight themselves, but powerful enough to force it onto someone defenceless. At it’s close, Buffy’s power is that she smashes destiny for the sake of winning a war, but you actually get the impression that she’s also a bit pissed off at having somebody (whoever it is) decide what she does with her life. Throughout the series Buffy goes from being a capable, but slightely dumb blonde girl, to growing into someone who understands enough to be able to make her own decisions about her life, and not live as others wish her to. She is liberated, but growing up she has her hang ups (which is universal), she is strong, but her strength alienates her at times and when she is weak, she is frightened in a way that girls are. The final episode demonstrates perhaps one of the most feminist things I’ve ever seen in my culture – the ability and struggle to fight against the men who’ve kept you down. However, because Buffy is a story, it’s universality shouldn’t alienate men because it is in essence a story about growing up. It’s central idea is of a girl growing up, yes, but does not concern the struggle between the sexes – it is a bigger war.

Here’s her final speech to her friends, teacher, and all the potential slayer’s:

BUFFY: I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there’s evil and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish a whole lot of the time that I hadn’t been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn’t been, either. But this isn’t about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes. Not when its army is ready. Now. Tomorrow morning I’m opening the Seal. I’m going down into the Hellmouth and I’m finishing this once and for all. Right now you’re asking yourselves what makes this different. What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one? It’s true, none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here’s the part where you make a choice.

(later on in the episode, just before the ubervamp army attacks, we flash back to the rest of this speech)

BUFFY: So here’s the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power? now? In every generation one Slayer is born because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. (She points at Willow, who smiles nervously.) This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can’t stand up, will stand up. Slayers? every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?

From ‘Chosen’ (Season 7)

I don’t think I really need to expound upon the speech, apart from to identify it’s most important word: CHOICE.

Cheesy to capitalise it, I know, but…

It is the main issue I have with current trends in understanding and discussing female-ness. To be honest, like our single and it’s controversial cover art, if everyone is happy then that’s fine. Bully for them. But I’ll not have my children grow up without choices, and if the current trend (I’m not naming examples until people ask me to, as there are too many) of suggesting that ‘this is what women are like’ (which is basic, but I spent ages trying to qualify it and I think someone else can do better) continues to saturate every form of media that I consume, then I don’t believe the choices available to (young) women will any longer be clear. I’ve had to go through the whole Whore or Goddess period I my life and I doubt that those options-as-ways-to-manipulate-for-power will ever leave me entirely, but I think that there are other choices, and this is why I started this.

There are loads more things I could say, and I expect people would like very specific answers to very specific questions, so feel free to ask them. I’ve also edited this first post several times, as those who know me will already know, because I’m pretty shitty at prose, but also because I wanted to try and fit everything I’ve thought about in the last couple of years into one post. But I’ll get to those things eventually 

In the meantime, everyone should read Ariel Levy’s ‘Female Chauvinist Pigs’ as it is a very important American account of what is going on with women now, and why, and how, and all that. The best thing about it for me was drawing British parallels between her American examples.

I will post articles/ weird stuff I find/ art/ music/ links/ books and so on up here as I go on. I think you may need a blogspot account to comment eventually, but for now I’m leaving it open to anons.

Until then, then.

JI x