bunz

Recently a few friends and I have been going to Bunz, the weekly dance class at TAPAC where we get sweaty while dancing to Beyonce, Nicki, Taylor Swift et al., all in the name of exercise. Lead by a professional dancer, it's fairly informal and she makes the moves up as we go along. There is a lot of hip shaking, grapevines and swinging power arms. It is SUPER fun, even if I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am not co-ordinated enough to do the arm movements with the feet/leg moves. One of my faves has been learning some moves at the barre to Beyonce's Naughty Girl.

Bunz has been excellent for giving an extra boost to the start of the working week.

Bunz
Every Monday at 7pm at TAPAC
$10 cash at the door.

link-up #5

Bianca Jagger at Studio 54 in 1977. Photograph by Robin Platzer.

- Bianca Jagger has set the record straight on the myth that she once arrived at Studio 54 on a white horse. She wrote to the Financial Times, saying, “It was a beautiful white horse that reminded me of mine and I made the foolish decision to get on it for a few minutes … No doubt you will agree with me that it is one thing to, on the spur of the moment, to get on a horse in a nightclub, but it is quite another to ride in on one. As an environmentalist and an animal rights defender I find the insinuation that I would ride a horse into a nightclub offensive … I hope that you can understand the difference between ‘coming in’ on a horse and getting on one.” 

- At the moment, the most empowering thing in my life is my friendships with women. We often meet up for brunch, or go to gigs and theatre together, because they're sources of inspiration for us, providing further motivation for our own career goals. After-midnight dance parties are another important element of our friendship. Stevie of the Discotheque Confusion blog has written about the importance of female friendships in her life in a post called The Women Are Emailing, and I just had to share this one with my own super rad babe friends (and now you!).

- A couple of weeks ago, popstar (and my queen) Robyn hosted a technology conference for girls. Pitchfork reporter Laura Snapes went along.

- Binge Reading Disorder. The last paragraph on this story about online reading habits just kills it - and I won't spoil it by posting it here.

- The ever-brilliant Karley Sciortino asks Should You Be Friends With Your Ex? An article that couldn't be any more pertinent for me when I discovered this week that no, I can't be friends with my ex, even two years later.

- Hayden Donnell writes about the madness and huge expense that went into the creation Kim Dotcom's Good Times album for The Pantograph Punch.

- It's Nice That has a look at the finalists for Best Magazine Cover.

- When Divas Talk Back: Pitchfork has put together a fantastic playlist that explores "songs where divas address their divahood or being a queer icon writ large. Together, these selections represent a cursory archive of self-asserting divadom, divas who talk back to the culture that created them."

the gentlewoman

Penny Martin speaks to Lou Stoppard of SHOWstudio.

The sister publication of the equally brilliant Fantastic Man, The Gentlewoman has defined itself as an intelligent magazine that celebrates women, speaking to its audience as a reader, rather than a consumer. Aiming to be inspirational rather than aspirational, the magazine gives space to everyone from fashion designers to astronauts, journalists to artists. "Modern women of style and purpose", as it says on the website.

The Gentlewoman is a feminist publication without needing to state the obvious. It just inherently is. Its editor and founder Penny Martin says, "It's not a magazine about feminism. We just assume that the people we work with would respect equality, in terms of ethnicity, economically... it just seems like common sense to me."

Alongside lengthy profiles of clever women, the bi-annual magazine features modern details, where they take a closer look at everyday objects, even giving a two-page spread to a loaf of bread. With strong design and writing, every element is carefully considered, right down to the clothing credits of each fashion story.

To me, The Gentlewoman is perfection in a magazine.

link-up #4

@therealdebbieallendanceacademy

 - "Curating a perfected self might win followers or Facebook friends, but it will not necessarily cure loneliness, since the cure for loneliness is not being looked at, but being seen and accepted as a whole person – ugly, unhappy and awkward, as well as radiant and selfie-ready." Excellent write-up by The Guardian's Olivia Laing on The Future of Loneliness.

 - How Journalist Ann Friedman Built a Newsletter Empire.

 - Cookie Lyon and Peggie Olson are two of my favourite badass career women on television. The Financial Diet explores how TV (and these two characters in particular) has made it okay to be a career woman.

 - Nick Shelton was only 25 when he started Broadsheet, and he's building an empire. Listen to an interview with him on ABC about how he got started.

 - Grantland's Dave Schilling takes a look at The Comedic Circle of Life: Trevor Noah, Justin Bieber’s Roast, and the State of Insult Comedy.

 - "A good theatre review (let alone criticism) is a rare treat. Reading the rest evokes the same pain as making small talk with someone you used to love: everything that once shifted your centre of gravity is still there, but it’s been paved over by polite and descriptive banalities." The Critic in New Zealand by Rosabel Tan.

- "Jamie xx is the kind of producer whose sound evokes both past and future London dance music and ‘Loud Places’, the glorious new single from his forthcoming debut solo album In Colour, holds and releases at all the right points.

Featuring the vocals of childhood friend and xx bandmate Romy Madley Croft, the power of the song comes as much from her almost whispered verses as it does from the stirring chorus: “I have never reached such heights, I feel music in your heights”.

 The sample is lifted from an Idris Muhammad disco track from the ‘70s and the accompanying video for ‘Loud Places’ features Romy and Jamie skateboarding through tungsten-lit London streets. I can’t imagine a better place to listen to the song." I wrote about Jamie xx's new song, 'Loud Places' (which I LOVE) and Rihanna's 'Bitch Better Have My Money' for The Wireless.

feminist reading club: mansplaining

Yesterday my friend Kat and I hosted our first ever Feminist Reading Club. We started the group because we spend 90% of our time together discussing feminism and we knew a lot of our friends were doing the same, so we thought we'd bring everyone together to a safe, accepting space where we can all share our ideas and be challenged.

This month's theme was 'mansplaining', specifically as explored in Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me'. Going into it I thought I was already quite familiar with the topic, but I got so much out of our discussion - everyone had brilliant points and the varying skill sets and personal histories brought lots of great new ideas (new to me!) to the topic. My brain was buzzing!

We're keeping it small and women-only for now, because that feels most conducive to open, unfiltered discussion, but if you'd maybe like to join the next one (it's monthly), send me a message. We don't really know what we're doing, so we're just going with what feels right and figuring things out as we go along. 

link-up

Louis Vuitton's set for their Fall 2015 collection.

 - How to be a good mentee.

 - "All I know is that if I want to experience this show, I have to do these things I do. I never think it’s difficult—it’s just what I have to do." - On going to shows when you have a disability.

 - Rihanna is the first black person to front a Dior campaign. Here, Dazed Magazine explores what this means for the fashion industry.

 - While the X Factor thing was a complete eye-roll on so many levels, watching the public's reaction and the viral-ity of the story has been fascinating. What was it about this situation that caused such a huge witch-hunt when other situations with wider-reaching consequences haven't received the same attention? Two of the best articles I read about it came from Duncan Greive, and Duncan Greive's TV website, The Spinoff.

 - Drake and the problem with ageing rappers.

 - Charlie Porter, one of my favourite fashion writers, asks: Where are the discussions about gender in womenswear?

 - I was addicted to Neopets as a tween and it served as an introduction to HTML, so I am glad that 15 years later, they're committed to getting girls into coding.

 - Rookie magazine contributor Minna Gilligan on reconciling her fine art and commercial practices, and why people should just shut up about it and let her live.

 - Mark Broatch from the NZ Listener on book reviewing in NZ.

- Emoji praise hands for Monica Lewinski, who shares her experience of being publicly humiliated and why we need to put an end to cyberbullying: "You're looking at a woman who was publicly silent for a decade. Obviously, that's changed."

 - With a neck that cranes under the weight of her extraordinary brain, Notorious RBG shares what feminism means to her:

champagnepapi

Drake rehearsing at Roundhead Studios - Auckland, New Zealand 21/02/2015 instagram.com/champagnepapi

Tomorrow night I get to see one of my favs. 

call your girlfriend

Over the past few weeks I have found myself saying "ugh" and "woof" more often, and it's because I have been catching up on episodes of Call Your Girlfriend, the podcast of Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow. I tend to do that: adopt the vernacular of the people I spend intense spells of time with, or pop culture I overindulge in. There was also one time when I adopted a slight Southern twang after binge watching True Blood. Ugh!

Anyway, I digress. Call Your Girlfriend is the podcast for "long-distance besties everywhere", where IRL long-distance besties Ann (a killer pop culture and feminist writer) and Aminatou (named as one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 in the tech sector, nbd) discuss everything from Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Notorious RBG), Kanye West, Shine Theory (SO important - look it up) and dish out some pretty solid real talk on things like friendship breakups, wedding season, navigating the workplace as a woman and most importantly, this week's Menstruation News.

Listening to each episode feels like eavesdropping on a conversation between two super smart and hilarious friends, who clearly are having these kinds of discussions even when the microphone isn't on. AND they're named after a Robyn song, and if that's not an indication of greatness, I don't know what is.

Call Your Girlfriend on BlogTalkRadio

lonely

I popped into the new(-ish) Lonely store in Ponsonby over the weekend. Featuring marble, parquet floors and plush pink carpet in the dressing room, it is the most serene lingerie store I have ever been in. Too bad they don't make anything in my size, but hopefully that will be changing soon.

Photos by Simon Wilson for Home Magazine

Drowning

Banks' music video for her song Drowning has been my primary source of inspiration these past few weeks, and I've probably largely contributed to its view count. She further establishes her vamp-y aesthetic by giving the '80s female power uniform of a pantsuit a 2014 update c/o a crop top and winged eyeliner (sharp enough to kill a man, of course: "You are not deserving, you are not deserving"). With Al Shux (Empire State of Mind, This is What Makes Us Girls) on production duties, one of my favourite moments in the song comes in the first verse, when the pitched echo of "Need me don't need me, need me don't need me" is reminiscent of a schoolgirl tearing petals from a daisy. Stalking back and forth like a lioness in her hall of mirrors, I'm getting total sassy/sultry/empowered vibes, which is kind of the perfect combo really. Tonight I'm taking my inspiration for vampishness from Banks.

Botanical

Image by Ophelia King

We visited a plant shop ("I think it's called like a guy's name or something") on a drizzly, hungover Sunday afternoon. It was a long weekend and the geriatric gardening gang was out in full force. I tried to shake off my headache and the feeling that I didn't belong there by wandering up and down the narrow paths, which mostly just resulted in being overwhelmed about having to choose just one plant. We gathered up $300 worth of new botanics for the Fuzzy backyard (and a lil cactus for my room!) in two wheelbarrows, only to be told once we finally reached the till that they only accept cheques or cash. What is this, 1993? Cue a frantic rush to the nearest ATM five minutes away. I stayed behind, keeping an eye on our new purchases, engulfed by greenery, soothed and content.

Kepler

This time a month ago we were walking the Kepler Track near Te Anau. Day two was my favourite, high up on the alpine ridge, eye-level with the clouds, winds threatening to sweep us off our feet and down the mountain pack-first. It was tough going, but the views made it all worth it. Around each curve in the track was a landscape vista even more stunning than the last. That word is used so often that the power of it has softened like a blunt axe, but in the context of Mt Luxmore, I mean it in the most literal, genuine way possible. I struggle to capture what we saw in words, so I won't try. Every so often I made us stop to get another photo. And another. What I could see on the picture preview screen never came anywhere near to the stupefying beauty that we could see right in front of us, but we knew it wouldn't. The photos will serve as a reminder of this amazing adventure we did for ourselves and everything we experienced along the way. I never want to see another muesli bar again in my life. Which might be hard, because now I plan on walking all nine of New Zealand's Great Walks. I think I've got the tramping bug.

faabgal.gif

Possum Fur Shrug by Andrea Moore

Mr Fox by Deadly Ponies

I've got my eye on purchasing one of these fur collars so I can achieve my life goal of being as fabulous as this gal in 45 years:

(note: I saved this image to my computer as faabgal.gif)

Link-Up: Saturdays

Meet The Model: Derya @ 62 Models by Harriet Were for Oyster Magazine

The big news I woke up to this morning was the announcement that Topshop is opening a flagship store on Queen st, financed by Karen Walker + Barkers + some mega rich Christchurch guy. I ranted about it on Twitter. And probably will rant about it here too, so heads up!

I nearly missed my hair appointment this morning because I was too busy dancing in front of my mirror to the finger-snapping good (great!) track 2on by Tinashe and also to 1998 by Chet Faker, which is this week's on-repeat. Everytime I listen to it I wish I could be instantly transplanted to a club where it's playing. Seriously loving the chilled-out house vibes of this song.

I read an article on the forever-excellent-and-very-powerful-in-its-own-right Business of Fashion that explores the power dynamics between fashion magazines and brands that includes this quote by a very well-known, nameless, fashion journalist: “I feel that we are now just garnish for fashion PRs and designers. Few people read what we say; we are not the gatekeepers any more, and none of it matters. So I am feeling bleak and don’t want to talk about it.”.

I also read about why "Problematic" Has Become Problematic, the Self-regulating Homogenization of Style Communities, and why There is No Shame in Being on the Dole: "It was as important as any professional development program or university course I attended during the same time. I worked harder in those four years than I have in my entire life. It was not by choice, it was by circumstance, but every day I felt supported by everyone in this country to take the time needed and never once was I disenfranchised."

I got my haircut at Stephen Marr after a year of growing my fringe out - I wanted Haim hair (hai'm hai'r?) - but I decided I felt more like me with a fringe, so it's back. There may be selfies later - no promises.

The Auckland Writers Festival is on this weekend and I attended my first session this afternoon (omg so many grey hairs!), with Scandanavian Crime Queen Camilla Lackberg. She was great, but the low-key offensive comments from the clueless adjudicator were distracting for me, like the way he introduced her as an "authoress", opened with questions about being a writer with kids, commented on her age and weight and spent too much time on about her divorces and relationship status. He was insulting, and down right condescending at times, but she brushed it off with aplomb. I ranted about that on twitter too.

Ugh, let's not call a female writer an 'authoress'. Let's also not comment on her age or weight or the nanny... #awf14
— Ellen Falconer (@Ellen_F) May 17, 2014

One of my writer-crushes Sarah Nicole Prickett interviewed Nona Willis Aronowitz about her mother Ellen Willis, the pop culture writer, who sounded like a total badass: "She was incredibly ambivalent about religion her entire life. At face value she’d seem like a textbook atheist, and she definitely found the idea of giving your free will over to a larger moral power repugnant, but she knows the power it wields over people, and that made it interesting to her. It all hinged on whether she thought it was authentic or not. I don’t know if she’d go so far to call religion “beautiful,” though, except maybe the acid-trip version she describes in “Next Year in Jerusalem” — like, finally figuring out nature." I am looking forward to getting my hands on the Essential Ellen Willis.

I heard about FuckBoyJihad and wished I had been in the loop/cool enough to go to one of their parties when they were around. Seriously, how did I miss this?! Feelin' v. uncool rn. They're having their last one tonight, in Wellington.

Feminist Theory in JLo's 'I Luh Ya Papi' Music Video

Jennifer Lopez's new single I Luh Ya Papi has been my addiction these past few weeks. Seriously, I feel a bit sorry for my flatmates who have had to put up with me listening to it on repeat. I became even more addicted to it after watching the video...

It's a JLo video that references feminist theory!!!!!

I feel like it's kind of a breakthrough for someone at Lopez's level to be talking about the male gaze and objectification of women, but not only that, it's an hispanic woman (and her friends) talking about the male gaze.

She draws attention to how effed the representations of women in music videos are by drop down, flipping it and reversing it - by having a whole lot of naked, oil-slick dudes writhing around on her yacht while she sings about how much she luhs her papi. Heck yeah, girl!

Basically we're all tired of 90% of music videos featuring women wearing -90% clothing, dancing in a overtly sexual way 90% of the time, who are merely an accessory to the suit-wearing men (hello, Blurred Lines!), and Lopez is using her celebrity to say something about it.

I know that some of the criticisms of this video (without even looking at the YouTube comments) will be about how she's doing exactly what she claims to be sick of by turning men into objects. But No, silly, she's got her tongue firmly in her cheek and the message is more about highlighting the disparities between representations of men and women in music videos, rather than it being about tit for tat, so to speak. Because having passive, half-naked beautiful men makes us feel soooo much more uncomfortable than seeing the same in women. See, it's gender role reversal!!

I guess also "the male gaze" is quite an entry-level feminist theory (much like my commentary here, but, meh, it's nearly 2am on a school night), but it's really not every day that a mainstream pop star dares to speak up against the patriarchy. We've all got to start somewhere, and if this video gets at least one person to start questioning this stuff I will be very, very happy.

(REMEMBER: There is no such thing as the perfect person, the perfect feminist, the perfect woman. Kill your idols. So there will always be flaws, and more ways we can educate ourselves to do better next time. So of course there will be something to criticise here, as we should be criticising everything that is presented to us in the media.)

Also I love that by being a part of American Idol, Lopez has changed the conversation. Remember how her butt was the OBSESSION of tabloids back in the early 2000s? Now that she's been on American Idol for a few years, she's more than just a body (more than just a butt), and she has given herself a voice. Not one in the form of lyrics being written for her, or tabloids fabricating stories about her day-to-day life. She has allowed the audience to see more of her personality and her vulnerabilities... more realness than that stuff about still being Jenny from the Block, which always seemed a little contrived, lbr. And now her "voice" includes feminism! Yaaaassss.

Other highlights from the video:
- The Drake reference: "Started from the bottom, baby, then we went roof"
- Her girlfriends cackling at "a whole bunch of naked guys on the bed, for NO REASON!"
- #blessed

- NOT French Montana tho. He's about as captivating as Jay-z in everything he's done since 2011 (excluding Watch the Throne, duh)... which is to say, not captivating at all. Also, it's the one teeny tiny moment in the video that drops the ball on the subversion thing and reverts back to the same old tropes. Like I say, not perfect, but a step in the right direction, and still better than it was before.

Sidenote: I would have loved if they had also made an 'I luh you puppies' version, with all puppies, all the time.

The Warmest Colour

This evening I went to the shop for some chocolate wearing three different shades of blue + tramping socks. These are the comfiest clothes I own so they're kind of perfect for a day at home. I got two weird looks. I'm into it.

Link-up: Sick Day

James K Lowe for katherineisawesome.com

I've been at home sick today, drinking copious amounts of tea, and wishing I was wearing cosy Penny Sage knits. A teal mohair jumper from a Kilbirnie op shop will have to do for now.

I've been catching up on some writing, reading What is Literature? in bed, and bopping along to the new Katy Perry single (the tempo of which is at odds with the fog in my head, but who am I to say no to the considerable virtuosity of Dr. Luke and Max Martin?).

I've been reading about the Confidence Gap, identifying with a lot of it (definitely too much of it) and vowing to stop telling everyone I am "lucky" to have my job, and instead allowing myself some credit for the hard work that it took to get it. I read about being #blessed, why We Need More Alter Egos Now More Than Ever, and comparing a Rihanna meet and greet with an Avril meet and greet.

I loved the energy of this shoot for adidas on Charta Magazine.

I somehow managed to coincide my sickness with the day of the Met Ball, where Lupita, Janelle, Gabrielle, Karen, Suki and Kristen were my personal favourites. I would have liked to see Lorde there!

Margaret Howell on Why Good Quality Clothes Matter

Backstage at Margaret Howell's SS'14 show by Dazed Digital

"Good quality rides over to everything, though. It can be apparent in something like a cotton T-shirt that has faded well – it doesn't have to be expensive. I prefer clothes that get better with age – cotton raincoats that get softer, moleskin that wears in well. We should respect what it takes to produce something that is of a quality to last, and I feel we should be thinking about that now, especially in terms of protecting the environment. We should be more careful with our water, with everything." - Margaret Howell in an interview with The Guardian.

Margaret Howell practices what she preaches. Her clothes are all clean lines, quality fabrics and casual fit, pairing feminine elegance with masculine nonchalance. Each collection is a wardrobe of ageless designs that will fit into an everyday uniform with ease.

The Secret Power of Beauty

"What looks to the spectator or listener like an elegant, smooth and naturally developing sequence, probably had to be achieved by endless anxiety and doubt on the part of the artist. The artist is always aware of the possibility of getting it wrong; of putting the notes in an imperfect sequence. In life when we look at other people we are spectators. But when we look at ourselves we see from the inside - from the position of the artist. And this means that we are aware of the possibilities of getting it all wrong. Our lives, when seen this way, lack just the quality we admire in art and in certain other people. And, unfortunately, we cannot really see our own lives in any other way. We cannot get an external view of ourselves."

- John Armstrong, The Secret Power of Beauty 

As a perfectionist (especially when it comes to my writing), this passage in the book I'm currently reading really resonated.

Georgia Alice Winter 2014 - 'Battenberg'

From Georgia Alice's Instagram. Photo by Sam Lee.

For Winter 2014, designer Georgia Currie is sticking to what she is good at (and what sells out in store), with another collection of wardrobe essentials.

Keeping the edit to just 15 looks was a good decision given that this is only her third collection. Taking small, considered steps will allow the brand to grow organically and ensure longevity for the fresh designer.

With a simple colour palette and familiar silhouettes, Georgia Alice has created an entirely wearable and versatile collection.

View all the looks from the show on the NZHerald website.