My Weird Dream

Last night I had the most entertaining dream ever.

I was at a New Year's party in New York City, and the countdown to January 1, 2008 had just begun. I was actually with a boy and we were getting ready to kiss at the stroke of midnight. But as it went to "3...2...1..." things got really hazy and SUDDENLY I got spiraled/time warped back to 1008, instead of 2008.

I popped up in Middle Age England, luckily discovered by an aristocratic woman. I was cold and shivering in the brush (it was January in ENGLAND!) To make matters worse, I was still wearing my NYE outfit... a bright red sequinned mini-dress, over black tights and FMBs, with big hair and heavy dark eye make-up. The lady was speaking in some old English I guess, which of course I couldn't understand, and I was really worried she'd think I was some sort of witch and burn me at the stake. She took me to a castle and introduced me to her husband, some lord or king or whatever, who didn't look nearly as sympathetic as the woman did. Scaryyy.

I tried to explain who I was, and eventually had to draw a picture of England, the Atlantic, and North America... but then I remembered American hadn't QUITE been discovered yet. Crap.

I'll never know what happened. That phase of my dream ended with the utmost confusion and switched scenes to something entirely different... my birthday party. So I guess somehow, I made it back to 2008?

The Battle of the Sexes.... Part 1

One particularly slow day at work, my co-workers and I gathered in Meagan and Steve's office to shoot the breeze and generally goof off. We used the colorful markers to spice up their white board... a Winter Heat Countdown, snowflakes, Top Five Movies You'd Have to Have if Stranded on a Desert Island, etc etc.

But it was the Top Ten Albums You'd Have to Have if Stranded on a Desert Island list that really got interesting. Not because of the list itself, but because of the crazy chauvinistic comments that my male co-workers (sorry guys...I love you anyway!) made afterward. While reviewing a Rolling Stone magazine list of the top 500 greatest albums of all time, Steve noted that "when it comes to producing great music, the majority of good/memorable artists are male" and "of this list, I'd say less than 10% of the greatest albums are from female artists." The other guys nodded and threw in their own misguided observations about how women aren't up to par in musical talent.

Ummm... WHAT?! Meagan was too livid to comment. I just kept writing the lists on the white board and decided to save my soapbox rant for this blog post. :) So here goes.

FIRST off, if you are defining great music as rock/metal bands, then yeah, there aren't many female rockers. But that's an awfully narrow way to look at good music.

SECONDLY, it has only recently been appropriate for women to enter the entertainment industry. As in many other career fields, women are susceptible to the cultural pressure (or personal desire, of course), to fill stereotypically feminine roles--teacher, nurse, secretary. I can't see parents in the 1950s and 1960s allowing their daughters to grunge down their look and bang cymbals in the garage quite as readily as they would let their sons.

Not to mention, it's kind of hard to rock out when you have babies--unless you want the entire world to call you a bad mother. It's funny how lots of male rockers are fathers but no one questions their parenting ability, or chastises their lack of presence in the home. Women would not so easily get away with this.

THIRDLY, it is a sad shame that many talented female artists have to sexualize their image in order to sell and get noticed. It's true--sex sells--but the unfortunate consequence is that once they get there, they are no longer taken seriously as an artist, but viewed as a sex object instead. Christina Aguilera has a phenomenal voice, writes many of her songs, and is a great performer in general, and she has even managed to break away from the sexy teeny bopper image she once exemplified so strongly. It's too bad she will likely be more remembered as a pop tart rather than a powerful female musical artist.

FOURTHLY... I just checked, and the majority of the Rolling Stone staff is MALE. Men like to listen to rock. The whole magazine has more of a rock focus. Great music shouldn't be defined by genre, but how it reaches people, which can be evaluated based on sales and their influence on our culture (whether you like it or not.)

Maybe a less biased look would come from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) or Billboard.

And finally, the comments are just wrong for the long, top-selling, influential list of reasons below:

Celine Dion
Enya
Whitney Houston
Gloria Estefan
Cher
Barbara Streisand
Alanis Morrissette
Aretha Franklin
Carole King
Shania Twain
Stevie Nicks
Vanessa Carlton
Joan Jett
Paula Abdul
Mariah Carey
Pat Benetar
Sarah McLachlan
Janet Jackson
Jennifer Lopez
Mary J. Blige
Diana Ross
Janis Joplin
Alicia Keys
Madonna
Nelly Furtado
Amy Lee
Cyndi Lauper
Amy Winehouse
Tori Amos
Courtney Love
Billie Holiday
Gwen Stefani
Belinda Carlisle
Missy Elliot
Christina Aguilera
Sheryl Crow
Olivia Newton John
Rihanna
Dixie Chicks
Julie Andrews
Gladys Knight
Spice Girls
Tracy Chapman
TLC
Wilson Phillips
Kylie Minogue
Bangles
Ani Defranco
Ella Fitzgerald
Teagan & Sara
Blondie
Go-Go's
Mya
Marie Osmond
Dolly Parton
Britney Spears (like it or not)
Etta James
Charlotte Church
Joni Mitchell
Pink
Faith Hill
Wynonna Judd
Ciara
Shakira
Patti LaBelle
JoJo
Donna Summer
Leann Rimes
Reba MacIntire
Carrie Underwood
Kelly Clarkson
Fergie
Lily Allen
Toni Braxton
Lauryn Hill
Amy Grant
Bonnie Raitt
Norah Jones
Fiona Apple
Karen Carpenter
Ruth Brown
Tina Turner
Patti Smith
Annie Lennox
Bette Midler
Carly Simon
Melissa Etheridge
The Pointer Sisters
Erykah Badu
Indigo Girls
Liz Phair
Nico
Michelle Branch
Jewel
Grace Slick
Chaka Khan
Bjork
Judy Collins

& more can be found at 100 Greatest Female Artists & Greatest Female Artist Albums if you care to argue with me even more :P

My First New Year's Resolution

It's not necessarily how much I spend, but what I spend my money on. No matter how many times I say I will stop buying party clothes, or how badly I need grown-up, classy clothes, I ALWAYS end up buying yet one more party girl outfit that I DON'T need.

December is the month of parties... holiday parties, New Year's parties, birthday parties... So naturally, I used this as an excuse to buy a new outfit for each...and for one party, I couldn't make up my mind so I actually bought two. And with each new outfit comes new shoes and accessories. I'm not the only one who likes to avoid recycling old party wear. Because of course, we cannot be photographed in the same outfit twice! (Common exclamation in my particular social group:"What?! I can't wear THAT! It's been done! It is on Facebook!")

But now that we have actual bills to pay, and life is no longer a party... IS THIS REALLY NECESSARY?! Now I have almost no money for the normal clothes that I need hardcore.

So now I'm making my first New Years resolution: from now until summer, no more cheap slutty clothes! I may only purchase things that I can wear to work, out to dinner, shopping, etc. Things I can get a lot of wear out of! Things I can wear both professionally and socially. So bye-bye to the LVL X's and Wet Seals of the world. And HELLO to the Banana Republic's and Ann Taylor's!

*shudder*

Hold me to it ya'll!!!

"On this Winter's Night With You"

I was enjoying some quiet time tonight after a hot shower, laying beneath my newly decorated, fresh Christmas tree by my "fireplace" with Annie, listening to soft holiday music and soaking up the joy of the season. I was thinking how much I love Christmastime, what it means, being all serene and contemplative and such.  

Then a Sarah McLachlan Christmas song comes on and, looking at Annie, I immediately think of her ASPCA commercial, which is heartbreaking, and I worry about all the poor little animals out in shelters--or worse--with no one to love them. I squeeze Annie tighter, which only serves to annoy her. But she goes along with it so well, like the good kitty she is! :)

 And then I think of all the people out there who don't have anyone to love them. No quiet time. No Christmas trees. No pretty music. No serenity. So yeah... What started out as a nice night ultimately made me majorly depress myself. =P I'm leaving Sarah off the playlist next time.