Summer Reading

Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone
by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew Thomson

My next choice for summer reading was significantly different. This book is a meaty, intense read, far from the light fare so many pick for a beach or camp book. That said, read it immediately.

This memoir from three perspectives details a decade of service in the Red Cross and United Nations. The authors are deployed in Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, and Liberia with stopovers in New York throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. They are young, attractive, clever, and hopeful in Cambodia, there to help democracy reach the oppressed masses. Thrown into situations they don't fully understand and surrounded by the luxury and excitement of being a liberated and comparatively rich white civilian in a tropical paradise. They are naive, idealistic, adventurous and excited, and it is beautiful. Heady by their success, they keep their positions with the UN and seek deployment in the newly developing wars across the world.

Of course, as they face genocide, hatred, and corruption, each of the authors must reexamine their own motivations and positions. Their perspectives, while immersed in the chaos in each of the above nations, reveals the failures and poor choices of the US and UN leaders, the fallibility of individuals on either side, but also those glorious moments of pure and noble humanity so starkly exposed against the horrors.

Regardless of how thorough your history of the 1990s is, this well written set of vignettes and essays will give you an entirely new way to look at the involvement of the UN and US in developing situations around the world then and, in all likelihood, now.

The Fame Monster Bites Back

Oh, Gaga. I really do like you. I find your music, videos and daily life a really awesome perspective on fame, performitivity, and contemporary pop culture. I pretty much think you are awesome. And you always make for a rockin' dance party, even if it is just me in my living room.

But your new video for "Alejandro", above, is disappointing. First off, can we please talk about how the song itself is just a collaboration between Madonna and Ace of Base? And a really mediocre one at that? It's like a desperate attempt by both of them to regain number one status, but they've run out of ideas, so they just remix "La Isla Bonita" and "All That She Wants" and fail hard. If this song was anyone but Gaga, I doubt it would make the radio top playlists. I suppose, from a critical perspective, this faux collaboration could get some pop culture academics really excited, and so much of Gaga's work holds echoes of Madonna, but I'm not really sold.

And then there is the video. It is essentially a strange retrospective WWII scifi film featuring crazy Nazis and Madonna. All it was missing was Bai Ling's character from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, though I suppose Gaga's outfit first seen at 1:06 fills that role. And by Madonna, I mean her whole bag of crazy right up through Erotica (but definitely before Ray of Light). Seriously, all our favorite Madonna wacky antics feature in the video, and not in a great way. I know the director of the video has often collaborated with Madonna for her videos, but really?

Lady G is certainly all about the shock factor, and an androgynous nazi porn shoot definitely has a shock value, but in an almost predictable way. "Telephone" messes with gender expectations and plays with pop culture references, but is like very little we've seen before. "Alejandro" plays out like the first time a kid learns he can use Hitler as the ultimate insult -- inappropriate and shocking, yes, but really not innovative, compelling, or worth a second look.

PS: I did really like the brief dance sequence from 0:29 to about 1:00. And maybe 2.5 of her dozen outfits...
PPS: I really hope that the Dorothy Hamill haircut that she sports at 5:36, and that some indie babes are starting to rock (Inara George, for one...), doesn't catch on. I can't go through that again!

Oh dear...

I know I risk sounding like an overly analytical academic when I say this, but I'm going to do so anyway. This campaign is beautiful -- a sort of naive, glorious, sexy fantasy -- but as soon as all three models came together on the screen my thinking cap turned on and started analyzing all the LGBT (well, mostly LGB, though who knows with models these days...) connotations at work here. I'm pretty sure they just had a really steamy three some in the barn, but that childlike delight they display the whole time keeps things so innocent. Very interesting, but I must confess I was a bit too distracted by the film -- and I'm not even mentioning the rain -- to even notice the clothes. Oops.

Oh My

Do you know Gin Wigmore yet? She's a Kiwi, so I don't think so big on the US scene yet. My boy's sister sent us the album last Christmas and it quickly made its way onto my go-to playlists, and several of the tracks are on my workout mix. This is one of them. As a bonus, the video is rad. How does that voice come out of that cute little thing?

Summer Reading

Okay kiddos, apparently now that Memorial Day has passed, summer is official. For those of us who live in L.A., summer never really stops, but I think that actually fades some of its charm. What fun is summer if you don't have to wait impatiently for it during winter?

That said, I still love summer. And my favorite part as a student was the summer reading. I could read any and everything I wanted, without having deadlines or papers or analyses to keep in mind. I plan on doing quite a bit of summer reading, though with the added benefit of not stopping come Labor Day. And I'll share what I like here, so you too can have fun. First up is a book I've read before, but decided was worth yet another reread, and thus doubly worth a recommendation. I hope you enjoy.

A Taxonomy of Barnacles by Galt Niederhoffer

The love child of Jane Austen and Charles Darwin, this is a novel about characters, love, relationships, and growing up as a girl. Lovers go courting, sisters fight and defend one another, and the parents are inevitably bonkers. It has the charms of Austen's England, in a way, but is set in modern New York, and has a decidedly Darwinistic slant -- that is, nature vs. nurture -- to its dark and wry humor. Spunky, at times silly, but definitely delicious.

Time for a Picnic

Okay, so maybe I'm a little late in the blog world to profess my desire for a summer of picnics. Too bad. Between a delicious bottled pink lemonade found at the local grocery chain, the berries just begging to be made into a crumbly pie, and my everlasting love of chicken salad, potato salad, and deviled eggs, I think I need a picnic.

Now I just need a destination -- a hike up the foothills? A stroll over to a park? Perhaps a trip to the zoo? And a few happy eaters. Oh, and maybe a swell striped vintage dress... As soon as I'm done altering one of my finds from the always fab Playclothes, this picnic is on.

ps: Sorry for the lack of images lately... I'm trying to use only my own images (or at least mostly), but haven't got my camera up to speed yet...