Jessica Suarez

On that Awl piece about Rivers Cuomo and Pinkerton

29 April 2010

The piece starts out with this:

Before we begin, let us be clear: We speak not of the Rivers Cuomo that was, nor of the Rivers Cuomo that is, nor yet of the Rivers that shall be. We speak, now, of the Platonic ideal of a Rivers Cuomo: The Rivers Cuomo you have never met, nor ever can meet, nor can ever be sued by (subsequent to writing a blog post that uses his name quite a lot), but who lives, nevertheless, within your brain. Specifically, if you happen to have grown up in the 1990s, and are heterosexual, and also a girl.

And then breaks up into headings like “Seduction” “Consummation” “Couples Therapy” etc. and spends a lot of time exploring the idea of Rivers Cuomo as the secret boyfriend we ladies wished we had at some point in our pre/teen years.

“I am the redhead shot in the head in M.I.A’s video…”

28 April 2010

in General

"…bully’s suck no matter what country you are from…" Well, okay. If that was the message, that's okay. But those bullies had American flag arm bands — anonymity was not the intention there. Avatar was more subtle! Also, I bet the kids on the set were more open about asking "What's the message here?" than most journalists who talk to M.I.A. (me included). But I also doubt her publicist was there keeping an eye on things.

[from the comments on Stereogum's M.I.A. "Born Free" video post.]

from Posterous

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Et tu, Stars?

27 April 2010

in General

– A state/country/etc is made up of people, not (just/only) ideas. Thinking every Arizonan supports this is like thinking I supported my high school’s football team just because I went there.
– Many counties (including my old home county, Pima County in Tucson) is and has voted consistently liberal.
– Tucson is usually voted or chosen as one of the best cities for lesbians to move to in the US. It’s liberal. It’s tolerant. Probably still! Even if you are a Latina lesbian.
– Of course I — like a lot of my NY-via-AZ friends, moved here for a reason (better jobs/culture/dated everyone in Tucson already). But Arizona’s not the land of “rednecks and racists” (now I can’t find the link to the Village Voice column), any more than NY is the land of gays and Jews.
– If you want to scare Arizona’s liberals into action, tell them the lesbians are leaving, don’t tell them Stars is leaving. Stars should be the “and others” in that Tweet. Not the headlining boycott act.
– Stars and other Canadian bands not coming to Arizona to boycott is really only going to bother people who wanted to see them (generally, I think, not people who are also out there fighting for this law. Indie and democrat sort of go together, right?)
– “We have a black president and you do not. So, shut up.” (Out of context, doesn’t really apply, but what a great song, right?)

from Posterous

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My thing with this M.I.A. video (a few quick thoughts)

26 April 2010

in Music

My thing (or rather my couple of things) with this M.I.A. video is that, like most of M.I.A.’s art, it’s unsubtle yet still unclear. It’s not “pointlessly violent” as some people are arguing on Stereogum, nor pointed. It’s just blunt. We’re left to debate whether this is okay in a video:

Gratuitous animated gif ahead…

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