Thursday, February 15, 2007

 
UPDATE - well, everyone survived the first outing of The Realm (Acoustic Version) in several years. They saw some old musical acquaintances (who seem to be springing up everywhere these days) and played a few of their songs. our good friend AdequateDer showed up and had a drink and watched them play. This made us SO happy.

They were rusty, for sure, and did suffer for lack of opportunities to rehearse together. However, the material is still as strong and compelling as it ever was, maybe more so now that the lyrics have acquired a sort of wistful maturity over the years and the musicians have more than gained in heart and feeling what they might have lost in technical precision and lightning speed.

all in all, a worthwhile experience. at least from my point of view. I'm such a big-haired tight-jeaned starstruck groupie for my husband though, so maybe I lack objectivity. I can't help it. I just love to watch him play. he's so entertaining.


Don't forget - tonight around 10:00, The Realm at C.J. Sparrow in Cheshire. Come see my husband's chubby little fingers dance nimbly like spiders and perform miracles of fretboard finesse at Acoustic Open Mic Night (or as we like to call it, An Evening of Musical Schadenfreude).

seriously - he and his friend are both decent players, and they wrote decent songs, and it's fun to see them play. frankly, I just just just LOVE seeing my husband on stage. It makes me all stupid inside.

Meanwhile, all kinds of stuff is going on in the world - wars a-raging, orphans a-starving, bootheels a-crushing, patriarchy a-oppressing,...

and my main question, as the maelstrom of human suffering swirls around me? the biggest quandary weighing heavy on my mind? the thing that kept me up last night and distracts me from my job today?

OMG what to wear tonight...black sweater or green blouse? gold sparkly scarf or purple scarf, or no scarf at all...blue earrings or multicolored? which bracelet? which necklace?

thank god I have only one shoe choice or I might just have a seizure.

Tonight I want to be, um, pretty. and I find that nearly impossible to admit, let alone to accomplish.

the funny thing is, of all the things I've ever blogged about, of all the confessions I've made and personal information I've shared and desires I've confided (if "confided" is the word to use; I mean, this is a blog post, not a whisper in someone's ear) - this is the one that makes me most uneasy.

I guess I'm not secure enough in my masculinity to be able to admit I want to look like a regular woman this evening, and not like myself.

I'm not even particularly butch, really, in real life.

But I know we're all supposed to be over "pretty". All that extraneous "girly" stuff is distracting and poisonous and possibly even oppressive - and in my daily life, I walk that walk. my shoes are sensible, my face is makeup-free, my clothes are without exception secondhand and fashion-backward. About 99% of the time I consciously reject the tyrrany of pretty. and, you know, life goes on. I don't die over it. I'm not fired from my job on a daily basis. My husband doesn't refuse to get with me. I don't, as far as I'm aware, get any kind of shit for it from anyone. It's just not my bag, baby.

but tonight I don't want people to know that. Tonight I just want to look normal.

wannawannawanna! as Kim's kittens would say.

And I feel guilty as shit about it. of all the horrible rotten evil corrupt terrible things I've done that I ought to feel guilty for, I'm having opera-diva angst about wanting to look nice for my husband's little mini-gig.

Ha!

so which is it, blogosphere? black sweater or green blouse? put me out of my misery already so I can get back to worrying about important things...

Comments:
Do you have a green sweater? No? Well, then go with the green shirt. Green is a good color.

And I so get feeling weird about wanting to be pretty. Oh, how I get it. *sigh*
 
"But I know we're all supposed to be over "pretty". All that extraneous "girly" stuff is distracting and poisonous and possibly even oppressive - and in my daily life, I walk that walk. my shoes are sensible, my face is makeup-free, my clothes are without exception secondhand and fashion-backward."

I'm not entirely over "pretty". I have plenty of "girly" clothes, heels even. I've recently cut way back on the makeup and I haven't shaved in a few weeks, but that will change when I see the terrible patriarchal oppressor in my life.

"so which is it, blogosphere? black sweater or green blouse? put me out of my misery already so I can get back to worrying about important things..."

Well, since I can't see either or you, it's hard to say. How about just wearing whatever feels best to you? (Yea, I know, you wouldn't be asking if it was that easy. That's about the best I can offer tho considering.)
 
this is FS201 (blogger won't let me log in!)

ap you can never look "normal" when you try to look pretty you always do...so don't fret...funny how I use the word fret and one of the main components of a guitar are the frets!

GOOD LUCK WITH LOOKING PRETTY!

mom says go for the green blouse...
 
poor little green blouse lost the battle - black sweater claimed victory and now green blouse is sulking in the closet.

I managed to pull off "normal" pretty well, I think.

except I wore this dumb pink lipstick, which was cool and all last night, but now IT WON'T COME OFF. it's stuck. I washed and scrubbed and attacked my mouth with a brillo pad but to no avail. I feel very odd and conspicuous now, sitting here at work with this pink stuff all over my mouth.

And I so get feeling weird about wanting to be pretty. Oh, how I get it. *sigh*

right?
how does something so - so - what? trivial? that's not the right word...but how does it get us all so tangled up?
 
Well, at the risk of bursting your normalcy bubble...you are pretty.

Alcohol will get off the lipstick- either rubbing or vodka, on a cotton ball and rub rub.
You may want chapstick or a dab of lotion afterward.
 
:)
jeez, rootie - I never know what to say. (blush)

why is that stuff so sticky? I feel like a dog with peanut butter on the roof of his mouth.
 
sorry i missed, sounds like a fun time. next time...
 
belle - you'd really hike all the way out from new york?

you're the best.
 
I'd actually use oil (I like olive) to get most lipstick off--it actually removed it from my backpack when a lip gloss sort of exploded in one of the pockets, and it's less drying than the alcohol.

Oh, yes. The "pretty" thing. The fact that some so-called feminists feel that all women who put on lipstick are giving into The Patriarchy (TM) shows that they aren't over "pretty". They're as obsessed with it as Hugh Hefner, except they demand plainness rather than prettiness. IMHO, a truly "revolutionary" attitude (whatever "revolutionary" means) would be to not care if other people want to look pretty or not.

Maybe it's like the dialectic: thesis (look pretty!), antithesis (don't look pretty!), synthesis (we don't care if you look pretty or not!), and the rejection of prettiness is a necessary but insufficient step to making prettiness a non-factor. (I miss college. Can you tell?)
 
(I miss college. Can you tell?)

oh wow! so do I!

welcome, maureen!
 
Antiprincess!

"But I know we're all supposed to be over "pretty". All that extraneous "girly" stuff is distracting and poisonous and possibly even oppressive - and in my daily life, I walk that walk. my shoes are sensible, my face is makeup-free, my clothes are without exception secondhand and fashion-backward. About 99% of the time I consciously reject the tyrrany of pretty. and, you know, life goes on. I don't die over it. I'm not fired from my job on a daily basis. My husband doesn't refuse to get with me. I don't, as far as I'm aware, get any kind of shit for it from anyone. It's just not my bag, baby."

Hey, If you frame it as always tyrannical you might be missing out on a lot of fun.

Being able to discern between pretty and pretty inc is the key.

Like I'm a guy who did/does this in spite of the fact I know better; treating women (and to some extent men) on a scale related to how close they come to the impossiblities of prettyinc's ideal.

THAT is tyranny.

it has nothing to do with you wanting to treat your husband right.

Please proceed with ease.
 
Being able to discern between pretty and pretty inc is the key.

yeah, that is true.

but I gotta wonder - how important is it all anyway?

important enough to still thrash ourselves half to death over, all the while saying "this is not important!"
 
I think you're confusing pretty with simply wanting to look nice (at least per society's standards) for a public event where your husband is one of the attractions. There certainly is a tyranny of pretty in this society, but there can never be a tyranny of love (i.e., wanting to do something special for your hubby). Don't feel guilty! Feel sexy!
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?