radio hybrid presents: gender fatigue

Eating for the Apocalypse: Because you know food is gonna be scarce!

2009-05-18T08:44:00.001-07:00

Spring is probably the best time to start integrating planting in your lifestyle. The frost is over. And the apocalypse is impending. Like we say over and over again, the key to surviving the apocalypse will most likely include finding reliable and healthy food sources! So where do we start? Start with growing your own because a grocery may not be your safest option if it's an option at all. It may take some time but it's fresher and cheaper to grow your own veggies, many times over. Below are some of the greens that are taking over our front yard! By the way, we're urban gardeners so don't let city living stop you.

And below are few of the herbs we are growing: mint and rosemary. I think that means we're having a mojito and rosemary bread summer.

A few weeks ago, Gender Fatigue had another amazing guest. Gail Taylor, a farmer at a community supported agricultural farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland called Clagett, came into the studio to talk about spring planting. For those who don't know, a CSA is a membership supported farm. So basically folks can buy a share and they are guaranteed a portion of that year's harvest every week for a certain amount of months.

If you're a novice, what do you need to start growing:

1. good seeds--we can go into the politics of seeds...like genetic modification and patenting of seeds. But for right now, we're just looking to get any seeds that will allow us to grow something like lettuce or kale--greens are perfect to start with.
2. good soil--we've been composting for a couple of years so we have some really good soil but just go to a garden store or any place with soil to sell. Or you can contact us and we will share with you...maybe
3. water
4. A tool for digging

Okay, here's an inspirational video:

that's what i'm talking about!

Whiskey you're the devil

2009-03-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's the day after St. Patrick's Day, and bent has quite a hangover, but thought she would take the opportunity to blog about Gender Fatigue's activities on the Irish day. Bent has fond memories of listening to her grand-father (bless his soul) sing along to Irish drinking songs in her childhood, getting drunk most every night. While she can't recall any of the specific songs or artists, and she doesn't recall him drinking much aside from Genesee 12 Horse beer, she does imagine a memory of him singing "Whiskey You're the Devil":

As a punk rocker, of course had to like the Pogues, basically the only well known Irish punk rock band. Gender Fatigue had a fantastic party in 2008 to the tunes of the Pogues on St Patrick's Day, and the tradition continued this year. We also had our radio show the same day, which featured plenty of Pogues, as well as a tune by Lick the Tins, from the soundtrack to Some Kind of Wonderful. Mothersheister and bent love to sing along and dance to the Pogues version of "Whiskey You're the Devil."

On this day, Gender Fatigue likes to recall the similarities between Mothersheister's and bent's people's experience with the English, conniving colonizing bastards that they are! After all, Ireland (and to a certain degree Scotland and Wales too) was a testing ground for their colonizing tactics elsewhere, like in Kenya. As we ate corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, we pondered the Irish Potato Famine which killed more than a million and sent another million (all together a quarter of the island's population) fleeing the country. It was not the case, as some mistakenly believe, that Irish people only ate potatoes, and so when the potato crop failed back in 1845-1849, people starved. The Irish grew many other crops, but the English colonial regime would take most of their crops (like grains) as taxes. There was actually more than enough food in Ireland to feed everyone during the potato famine, it's just that the English took it all.

[This is a mural in the Falls neighborhood in Belfast, photo by Asterion.]

The famine, and the English government's lack of reaction to it, resulted in an uprising in Tipperrary. Also really interesting, according to Wikipedia, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire sent food and money to help the Irish, and the Choctaw Indians in the US, who had just endured the Trail of Tears, raised money and sent it as well. Hooray international solidarity!

Another example of international solidarity came at the same time, in the United States, but this time from the Irish towards Mexico. In 1846 the US invaded Mexico, and many newly arrived Irish immigrants (along with other immigrants) were conscripted into the military. When they were sent to war against Mexico, many of them deserted to the Mexican side, for various reasons. Treated poorly by the Anglo officers and wider US society, and by the English before that, they also saw similarities with the Mexicans in religion and being attacked by a larger empire. In addition to many Irish, lots of Germans and other European immigrants deserted, as well as a number of black slaves - they all were given Mexican citizenship immediately.

Since they knew they would probably be killed for treason if they were captured, the San Patricio Battallion soldiers fought extremely hard against the US army, and were exceptionally successful in part because many of them had more combat experience than their Mexican counter parts. Mothersheister says she heard that when the Mexican troops would put up the white flag of surrender, the San Patricios would tear it down and put up their own flag, to keep fighting. San Patricios also probably enjoyed shooting down US army officers who had abused them, and some records show that officers were disproportionately killed during battles involving the San Patricio Batallion. The battallion is fondly remembered in Mexico, where it is celebrated on St Patrick's Day but also on September 12, the anniversary of the executions of those members of the Battallion who were captured by the US army. So have a drink for these amazing fallen soldiers!

Surviving the Apocalypse Task # 1: Learn How To Use a Gun

2009-03-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

For our loyal blog readers, you know that Gender Fatigue spends a lot of time talking about the apocalypse and how we're getting ready for it. Some would argue that we are in the apocalypse right now but that's another post for another day...

Part of our journey of preparation is learning how to shoot a gun properly and safely. The only time Bent shot a gun was as a child and mothershiester has shot guns in her dreams. But a couple of weekends ago, we made it to the gun range at the Virginia based National Rifle Association Headquarters.

Bent had been in contact with the Pink Pistols, a gay gun rights and shooting group that organizes shooting get togethers. They organized an outing to the NRA range. One of the members said he would provide the guns and the bullets so there we went.

We needed a bit of food fuel to get through a morning of shooting several rounds so we went to this greek family owned diner near the NRA. We almost passed up the Have A Bite eatery, but thankfully we didn't because they served the tastiest potatoes. Potatoes with lemon are very tasty!

Thanks to milmo, we were able to make it to the gun range full and without incident. We were were one of the first cars of the morning. "Early to bed, Early to rise"...Actually, just kidding, we went to sleep super late but we still woke up super early for this moment.

The gun range is located in the lower level. It kind of set the mood for Mothershiester who was starting to regret coming. Images of accidentally shooting herself or other folks at the range bombarded her mind while Bent walks giddily.

We definitely didn't know what to expect when we got there. Both of us are just excited to demystify the gun. Below is us 'excited'!

Once you enter, you can't take photos. Since we'd never been there, we had to read through a gun safety and NRA rules manual plus take an open book test before we could set foot onto the live fire part of the range. After taking the test, you buy some targets, and pick up a set of eye goggles and ear muffs--and you definitely need those. Once you walk into the range, it's pretty surreal. It's set up like a bowling alley because each shooter is in their own lane. In front of you is this huge empty space with walls riddled with bullets and each lane has a target at different distances from each other depending on how far you want to shoot.

The sounds of the guns firing scared the hell out of mothershiester. It was much louder than she expected and it seemed like the shooting would never stop. At one point mothershiester wanted to run out before she could even hold a gun. Bent handled things much better. Some of the loudest guns that were being shot were shotguns and assault rifles.

Our pink pistols contact gave us a mini practice session before using the real things. We started out with a .22. Bent graduated to a 9 mm and a colt .45 with a type of precision that should make any person scared.

5 things that surprised us from our gun range visit:

1. Gun enthusiasts/users are not gun wielding vigilantes that want to shoot first
and ask questions later.
2. You should not focus on the target to shoot the target accurately. Instead the
target and the back of your gun should be blurry while the front of your gun
should be clear.
3. Guns are fucking LOUD.
4. Limp wristing is not just a joke on the gun range. It can apparently happen.
5. BENT and MOTHERSHIESTER are obsessed with shooting! We will be back!!!

Comic Gazing at the American Indian Museum

2009-03-16T09:13:00.001-07:00

Palace house guest and dear friend, Papa Raul, and Mothershiester spent Sunday afternoon at the American Indian Museum checking out their exhibit: Comic Art Indigene. The exhibit features comics and comic-inspired art centered around Native American culture and explorations of identity--including myths, sterotypes, as well as contemporary narratives.

There were several pieces of comic art by Native women that were featured. Below is a picture I took from a series by New Mexico artist, Rose Bean Simpson --Objectification: Seductive Woman with TV, Super Pueblo, Graffiti Artist, Lesbian Couple

Simpson's art style reminds me of the Hernandez Brothers' love and rockets comix. Here is a closer look at the lesbian couple in this series. very cute!!

As you all know, Gender Fatigue is ga-ga over comics. And despite the lack of respect comics get in the states as serious art forms, gender fatigue knows that comics are one of the most accessible and oldest art forms pre-dating written language, um yeah. It was also pretty inspiring for Mothershiester who will be taking illustration classes in April. Stay tune for her illustrations on this site in the late spring.

Word on the Papa Raul Grapevine: The next comic that gender fatigue should start reading is Black Lightning. A comic book about a superhero that takes on DC comics' chief executioner of justice, Superman. This character confronts superhero and ask the age old question, "Why aren't you dispensing your justice in the south side of metropolis?" riddling Superman with white guilt plus some kick ass dispensing of justice on his forgotten streets.

Mothershiester tried to buy a couple of issues this weekend but Big Monkies Comics on 14th street was sold out. Damn it! So give them a call and ask for more issues so that another comic character of color doesn't bite the dust. We know how it is.

2009-03-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

On March 3rd, Gender Fatigue was very excited to be joined by amazing local artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer. We've only known Lisa Marie since last year, but we are consistently amazed by her work, her charm, and her energy. Most recently, Lisa Marie teamed up with Kathryn Cornelius to hold Soup Kitchen at Transformer on P St NW - a kind of performance action involving soup, sharing with others, connections between art and soup, and more, in their own words: "Join the artists as they fill bowls, slice bread, and entertain guests with an event that addresses the relationship of art and community service with the common concerns of our current economic situation, in the format of a communal experience." Sales of customized soup cans benefited local group SOME.

Lisa Marie has also recently had a new exhibit, Lifeguard, open with Decoy at Hounshell Realty on 14th St, had an incredible portrait of Michelle Obama in the exhibit Manifest Hope: DC in January, and continues to garner rave reviews for her amazing art featuring women and challenging gender stereotypes - including Lot Lizards, Boxers, and Girls & Guns (hey, that's kinda like Gender Fatigue! We're girls with guns! More to come on that).

[could this be bent in the future?]

Due to technical challenges, we are bringing you the transcript of the interview, though we hope to finally have audio streaming capabilities up and running soon on the blog...

Our show started with Lisa Marie talking about her work like what it's about and what it's made from. Due to technical challenges, our efforts to record the first bit was thwarted, so we pick up with our transcript a bit into the interview. You can read more about her work on her website albeit in the form of reviews that don't hold a light to Lisa Marie's personal explanation. Maybe this one comes closest...

We begin halfway through Lisa Marie's answer to our question about being an artist in DC:

Lisa Marie Thalhammer: ....telling me their stories like about dc space, I've had the privilege to meet really interesting people in this city and I think its the people I've met that have kept me here. I'm not on the Hill or talking to a lot of people on the Hill. I'm just talking to everyday people, people that come into my gallery, or when I used to work at the bar, people who used to come into the bar, and I think it was those interactions that really inspired me. Yeah, so don't talk shit about DC!

dj bent: That's right! Can you talk more about how DC has affected your art? Like being here vs where you were before, like New York or whatever, and especially in light of the fact that the whole Lot Lizards series is based on that. So how has DC affected that? Especially I think of one of my favorite pieces, it's the one with DJ Natty Boom in it. And maybe Natty Boom has been at a truck stop, but obviously that's putting those two contexts together, right? [note: Natty Boom is a phenomenal DJ and also was a collaborator on Lifeguard]

LM: Well it's hard to appreciate where you're from until you're away from where you're from. So I think finally moving out of the midwest and being on the east coast, I found it interesting that east coast people have this strange curiosity with middle america: What's going on with middle america? You know? It's this big mystery! So then it sort of also sparked my interests in middle america too, like what is going on there? So i thought about my experiences there, and being on the east coast is how that series of work came about for me. I don't know if I was still living in Illinois, Missouri, or Kansas if I would have came to that same type of understanding about where I was from.

dj mothersheister: What are some of the challenges of being a working artist?

LM: There's a lot of them! Being an artist you have to challenge yourself daily; you always have to kind of challenge your own thinking, think about what you're putting out to the public, what you're putting out in culture. It's kind of a circle, the culture affects the art but also the art affects the culture. It's important to me that there's positive images in my work. This latest series deals primarily with sex workers in the trucking industry, also trying to shine a light on that sub culture that isn't looked at very often. So those are important things to me. There's challenges you know... I'm not going to talk about the economy. [laughter] There's always challenges and i think especially with what's going on right now, it's important that as a culture we all come together to value art and make a stand on what we want our culture to be about. What do we want our hard earned money to go to? Do we want it going to war or do we want it going to creating art and culture? That's an individual question that everybody needs to ask themselves, but also a larger question of what we value as society.

B: That kinda of came out recently with the economic stimulus package. There is a part about arts, and people were like, "What is this doing in there? That doesn't generate economic stimulus! Those aren't workers that need economic support!" It was crazy the way people talk about the arts and cultural production as this totally separate thing that has no relation on our larger society.

LM: And it has such a huge relation! Arts and economic stimulus is hand in hand! I just think it's important that we keep talking about that, and the importance of that.

MS: You were talking about challenging yourself on a daily basis and I'm very interested in that. Because we often talk about that - we've been working on creating a space for people to be creative in, and sometimes it's very hard to motivate yourself to finish projects, or start on them, or continue them. How do you do it? Do you have a plan?

LM: It mainly comes down to obsession, to a certain degree. I'm really obsessed with my artwork, and I'm always trying to find three more hours in the day to focus on a drawing that is 2 inches by 2 inches, or something crazy like that. Art is something that is part of me. Even when I'm not feeling particularly creative, I make myself sit in my studio and free draw. There is a business aspect to art making. Especially if you're trying to take it to a professional level where you're having exhibitions and shows and you're writing grant proposals. So if there's a day I'm not feeling particularly creative then I focus on writing that grant, or sending an email to some friends with an image of a new painting i just did, and then on the days where I am feeling creative, and I go with that. So there's different hats that you kinda have to wear in this day and age as an artist. Different days call for different hats.

MS: You don't have something you say to yourself in the mirror, or a drink you take in the morning? I mean I think that's great....

LM: We all have our tricks! Secrets of the trade! [laughter]

B: It reminds me of a panel that Mothersheister and I attended a couple weeks ago that was about arts, and a lot of it goes back to what we were just talking about: the economy. Artists are small business people, and no one wants to give them that credit! In this panel they were talking about that, how in art school you don't learn about running a business, finances, whatever, and that's really an important part of being an artist if you're trying to make a living off it, or even if you do it on the side, but that's not recogized.

LM: As an artist it's your job to get your artwork out there for people to see, but if you don't put it out there for people to see it, then it's never going to be shown. Or it might be something you do for yourself, which is totally valid if that's your intent, but if you're intent is to get to show it, and for it to interact culturally on a larger level, then there's definitely a small business aspect to it. I file sole proprietor taxes, I have my own business technically. They don't teach you that in art school, you have to learn that on your own and there are a lot of great resources on that in DC, like the foundation center is really great. If you live in DC you can definitely check out DC Commission on Arts and Humanities site, they have classes like grant writing. So you definitely have to take it on yourself, they're not gonna teach you that in art school.

B: Another question: Could you talk about the role of gender and/or sexuality in your work, or other stuff like that. [laughter] Like our show is about gender fatigue, but we talk about all kinds of stuff.

LM: Gender, identity and power are definitely major themes through all my work. I definitely attempt to challenge what traditional gender roles are in my work. For me especially with some of the works of portraits I've done of female friends, trying to pull out this powerful glance or pose, but still make it their own is important and it's also important to me that different people find that in an individual way. It's not the same for everyone, not everyone's gonna want to come in and pose the same way for a portrait, but collectively when yous ee them together, I feel like there is a message of power through gender identity.

B: Awesome.

LM : Awesome. [laughter]

MS: I had another question. In terms of having a support network for all the things you work on, what are the communities of people that do that? Do you have that? How does that work? Do you meet? I don't have the language for it. What does your support network look like?

LM: There's definitely a support network for visual artists and for me personally and I feel like a lot of that revolves around cetain galleries and nonprofit spaces, like where I work (the Ellipse Art Center) we definitely have a community that we've built around that space. Also Transformer, which is a local non profit that creates community with emerging artists, and connects emerging artists with people who have had longer professional careers in the arts and collectors. There's also a community around people who collect my work and support my work. Also the O Street artists studios, where I have my studio space, that's a really interesting community of artists. It's a really unique space for DC, there's not many artists studio buildings left where you'll find multiple artists in one building I think there's probably about twenty artists in our building. We have an open studio every year, this year I think it's gonna be the weekend of April 25, 52 O St NW, open house, come by, see my studio, my artwork, the studios and art of twenty different artists in the building. All different kinds of artists, from sculpture to furniture making to jewelry making, drawing, painting, wood sculpture, wood carving, all over the board. So I've been really lucky to find that community in DC because there's not very many of them. I've also found a community through Girls Rock! DC which is a local non profit of women in the DC area who come together to put on a rock camp for young girls age 8-18. Organizing around that has been really inspiring to me and has given me a whole new artistic community to be involved in or get inspiration from. You have to seek it out, but it's out there, and you know, from your own community too, just friends hanging out, like in the studio...

[laughter]

B: That was pretty much what we wanted to cover! Could you tell folks where can people see your work, and what exhibits have you been in lately, and website?

LM: Website is www.lisamariestudio.com. See some of my work at Hounshell realty office at 1506 14th St at 14th and P Sts NW. It's a real estate office but you can go in during the day, just knock and they'll be happy to let you in, through April 11.

[gender fatigue hearts dj natty boom and lisa marie thalhammer!]

Exciting things soon to come!

2009-03-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

On March 3 Gender Fatigue had the honor of interviewing local awesome artist Lisa Marie Thalhammer on our show! We had a great chat about all kinds of things including art in DC, roots and traveling influence on creativity, pushing ourselves to be creative, and more. The transcript should be up tomorrow of our great interview!

Additionally, over the weekend, Gender Fatigue made an expedition to the shooting range. Pics and commentary coming soon - and if we get lucky, maybe we can even figure out how to upload some audio from the day!

Stay Tuned!

MZBEL - 16 Years

2009-03-06T10:41:00.001-08:00

Gender Fatigue wishes that they had a song like '16 years' on our playlist when we were 16.

Denver Colorado is Actually Quite Nice!

2009-02-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

This is bent, on my way back from Denver where I was attending the Creating Change conference, "The National Conference on LGBT Equality" - hosted each year by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. It's an opportunity for lots of LGBT activists from around the country to gather and discuss what's going on nationally and in their communities. It tends to focus a bit on the more mainstream "gay" issues like marriage and such, but there are still radical and interesting spaces at the conference, including spaces created by folks coming from communities of color and poor communities. There's plenty to write about, but let's talk about one of the best moments for me of the conference: the plenary with Dolores Huerta speaking.

Dolores Huerta herself is obviously off the hook, and was really excellent to hear speak, and more on that in a second. But what really amazed me and will make me remember this for time to come was how the session included a video presentation about the history of LGBT struggles in Colorado, an emphasis on the local that we don't always get in these kinds of spaces. Boulder, a city not too far from Denver, was the first in the country to include sexual orientation in their anti-discrimination law in 1974 and had an openly gay man on city council. Shortly afterwards however, a popular vote on the ordinance was held and the sexual orientation protections were stripped - the gay council member was also recalled. Then, in 1975 the county clerk issued marriage licenses to several gay couples, which we accepted as valid until revoked by the Colorado district attorney. Consistent efforts by local activists got sexual orientation added to the city non-discrimination laws again in 1987, by popular vote! According to some sources this was the first time that happened in the US.

It seems so important to learn about this local struggles and efforts - and obviously this was only a brief overview. Sometimes it feels like we are so focused on what is going on right now - Prop 8 or ENDA or whatever - and we don't keep a historical perspective for what we are working on. A historical perspective would serve us well particularly in strategy and not repeating mistakes or making new ones. At Creating Change there was much talk about the importance of an "inclusive" ENDA, but that neglects the fact that ENDA itself focuses solely on employment non-discrimination - allowing discrimination in various other settings to continue. That's a different approach than what was used by folks to get non-discrimination laws pass in the past such as ADA or the Civil Rights Act. That was a historical decision made way back when the bill was originally introduced, but does that still make sense at this point? And with so many discussions at the conference focused on federal policy change and legislation, the logical thing to consider is: can we really legislate social change? For sure it's part of social change work, but do people, especially folks with the power and the resources, tend to see it as the whole or the bulk of social change, rather than a tool for social change?

In terms of history and social change, hearing Dolores Huerta speak certainly connected both of those. And although she didn't really knock my socks off or make me think about things in some way, it was truly beautiful to see this amazing activist, who has been doing so much for so many years. She is sweet and old, angry and fierce, really funny and clearly thoughtful. It seemed important to have her speak in that space as to remind people that issues of immigration, fair wages and working conditions, worker organizing, racism, and other crucial things are "gay" issues, need to be part of this gay agenda. Creating Change is a space where people are more likely to see those connections than other places, but it could get a lot better. At least it gave me the opportunity to see some friends, make some new ones, and enjoy the beautiful Denver.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about Denver was the Charlie's on a Thursday night. It's a cowboy bar, and there are many amazing looking cowboys and cowbutches. Most drinks are only $2.50! There is an incredible mix of different body types and genders, as well as some straight folks in the mix and acting normal amongst mostly queers. Not many trans folks its true, but a good number of folks of color of various backgrounds. And maybe best of all there are two rooms of dancing - one a more typical club scene with top 40 hits, hip hop, R & B, but that's important. The other room however was like no where I have ever seen: a huge wooden floor where couples waltz together in a circle to country tunes or do choreographed line dancing. Phenomenal. It totally enthralled me, and I was especially excited when on a return visit a friend actually joined in even though he didn't know any of the steps. But I was content to sit and watch, soaking up the beauty of folks being free and loving. Oh and there's no cover, a $1 coat check, and a woman selling fresh burritos out front!

Georgraphy lesson!

2009-01-13T07:09:00.001-08:00

This is Galicia, a province of Spain that is next to Portugal in the northwest of the country. If you look at the lower left hand side of the province, you'll see a little pink dot and that is Tui, the little town the DC Hot Commondities visited. We liked Tui a lot - it's a very small town but beautiful, very gothic and european looking, and just across the river is Portugal! That was pretty cool. It helped that we also had a very sweet apartment to stay in with gorgeous views and we had many adventures. For perspective, here is a map of Spain:

You can see where Madrid is, in the middle of the country in blue, and then Galicia is that green area up in the northwest. It was a rather pretty drive but with some pretty crazy mountains that were hard to go through at night in the sleet. They speak a different language in Galicia - Galego, which is the closest to Spanish/Castellano of the different languages spoken in Spain - the other main ones being Basque/Euskara and Catalan. It also has a lot of similarities with Portuguese, and apparently there is some controversy about whether or not it is a separate language from Portuguese. Speaking of Portuguese, since were so close and you can cross the border without a passport, we took a day trip to Portugal, and ended up going all the way to Oporto/Porto, a large city in northern Portugal. It was really beautiful, had an excellent radio station that we enjoyed very much, and we even found black eyed peas in an immigrant market there! That was good because we were afraid of not having good luck in the new year, although we did eat our grapes.

That's Oporto. Mothersheister said she thought "the black people are more free here." It was raining most of the time in Oporto so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked. Here's a pic from Tui, of the church/fortress:

Although you wouldn't know it by the language, which is not connected to the Celtic ones, bent had always learned that Galicia was connected to Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, Isle of Man and Scotland as a Celtic area. But aside from some old myths we didn't find a whole lot of evidence of this. Galicia is really green and coastal, kind of like Ireland, and its rainy and warmer than you expect it to be, also like Ireland. There are even palm trees! And they have bagpipes! But we also called it the "Maine of Spain" because it's pretty rural, "it's beautiful" and far away from everything, on the Atlantic coast.

In addition to our Portugal visit and our meanderings around Tui, we also went to the beach at Baiona, a small town on the ocean that is super picturesque and has a big castle fort which is neat. The waves were really amazing and we got to watch the sunset over the Atlantic - a first for most of us!

Tui was a really fun place to spend new years eve and the first few days of 2009.

Some things we miss about Spain, some things we are glad to have back in D.C.

2009-01-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

so there were a lot of great things about spain, despite all the drama. we really liked all the graffiti everywhere:

we also miss some of the food, which is so tasty.

we miss drinking in public, damn that is so great.

we miss the lackadaisical pace at which each day passed, including eating dinner at like 10pm.

we miss walking around tui in galicia, acting like zombies, and we miss the hot commodities!

we miss the metro in madrid, the longest wait we ever had was 4 minutes! what's wrong wmata?

we miss the good, strong wine, and olives.

we miss portugal, even tho it's not spain, where they had great music on the radio, black eyed peas, and beautiful city of oporto:

not so much missing stepping over dog-doo everywhere. or the rudeness. or in mothersheister's case potatoes at every meal (wait to we go to ireland!). we certainly don't miss spanish thieves. or expensive prices, in euros no less.

we love to be able to eat tofu again!

and our lovely beds are the best ever. we're happy to see friends again, and happy to eat other tasty treats like black beans, burritos, and bacon.

but mostly we hold very fond memories of a great time in espana.

So happy!

2009-01-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

it seems best if mothersheister gives a first hand account of her perspective of the process of going through spanish border and u.s. border, but in the meantime, here is a very cute picture of us, so happy to be on the plane after we got through the spanish side. the u.s. hurdle was still ahead (which included some uncertainty for dj "i love edward cullen") but we were not yet worried, only euphoric that all three of us were on the plane and no kenyan was left behind. if you would like a version of this photo that reveals our top-secret identities, please let us know, b/c it is wicked cute, and if you have security clearance we will email it to you.

Safe and sound back at home.

2009-01-07T07:44:00.000-08:00

This is a mini-post just to say happy new year to all and we are back in DC! We are feeling so happy to have made it successfully through the borders with dj mothersheister and dj "i love edward cullen". More of everything that you love to come soon.

Travel document.

2008-12-31T04:42:00.000-08:00

The mothersheister has finally got her "travel document " in hand. As you can see here, it's her "certificate of identity" sent by courier from Kenya over the past few days. It was a time of many long waits at the Kenyan Embassy in Madrid, but the staff there were super nice and so helpful. We believe they have never dealt with such a thing before, and they tackled the challenge with gusto. We are hopeful that now the mothersheister will be able to get on the plane and back into the US on Tuesday when we fly back, between this piece of paper which is huge and cool looking, and her residency card.

Now we are about to embark on an expedition to Galicia, in northwestern Spain. Bent just had her first driving in Spain experience with our gigantic 9 passenger monstrosity of a van/truck, and it went all right. We don't know what the internet situation will be in Tui, the tiny village on the border with Portugal where we will be staying, but hopefully we can keep yall updated.

In the meantime of all this drama, we have had a lot of fun times with djs RadIUS and Choque y Fuga. Some highlights include going out dancing at a gay club with the longest drag show ever (but dj Ratita did win a song competition with prizes of a car and a free whisky), riding bikes around town, living in our "hut" aka a nice little hotel room right downtown, and more. Lots of drinking wine and beer and whisky as always and lots of good food as always.

We leave you with another shot of the mothersheister and her document:

This is our definition of suck:::Nuestra definicion de asco.

2008-12-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

Dear readers-

Thanks for checking in and also commenting! Responses to comments are coming, they have been delayed by extraordinary circumstances. It's a long story but it involves thieves, late night Madrid, stupid police (duh), and the loss of two cameras, credit cards, euros, assorted other things and most importantly the Mothersheister's passport and therefor visa to be in Spain and to go to Morocco. This is a calamity of the highest proportion and we have spent the last 15 almost sleepless hours trying to resolve it but in the end there is only so much we can do. It had to happen on a Friday night, the day before we were scheduled to leave for Morocco, just hours after we bought bus tickets to the straits of Gibraltar b/c the bus was selling out of seats. So in addition to the actual items, the thieves also temporarily stole all our fun and joy in life, stole our trip to Morocco from us, stop about 150 euros/$200ish dollars for the fees to cancel the tickets, and much more that is not articulable.

Fortunately, a bright ray of sun did arrive about 5 hours after this tragedy struck - the infamous djs choque y fuga arrived in Madrid from DC and we were overjoyed to see them. They have brought great strength and support to all of us here already including dj RadIUS (who we are not able to post photos of his first day b/c they are almost all gone with the two stolen cameras. that of course is in addition to the stolen/lost camera of our second day here. and the stolen sweater and jacket of dj ana the night before. Ay Cabron!!!!)

We are now temporarily shacked up in a cute hotel downtown just of Plaza Puerta del Sol, one of the most important public squares in Madrid, to get some needed rest and regroup to make a new plan.

We understand the social dynamics of theft, and have not been exempt from engaging in it in relatio to multinational corporations or for immediate need, but we would never take someone's wallet with their travel documents. Fine, take the money, but leave the damn passport. Of course such demands from the karma of the universe are met with silent betrayal. Especially considering the number of times we have gone out of our way to return IDs and such to people, or other stolen goods.

Perhaps Mothersheister will be interested in recounting the full details or some of them at a later date but now it is still a bit too raw, so we'll leave it at this. We will bring updates as soon as possible, and thanks again for reading and all your support, especially to djs robbins-sibouih.

Stay tuned!! We leave you with a beautiful moment of happier days, climbing the mountains of Madrid

xoxo

bent

Food: we like it

2008-12-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Although christmas eve dinner let a bit to be desired, we have had lots of delicious food in Madrid so far. And usually food comes along with drink, which any one familiar with gender fatigue knows, we love!!

So this was at one of the best places we have been so far. It's called "El Tigre" - they had big glasses of wine and FREE tapas. That's what's up!!! And they were so tasty. S so tasty. Mothersheister and bent got a little bent at that bar, and loved the food. Going to bars and eating little bits (or lots) of food is pretty fun - it's totally not like bar food at most places in the US which is pretty cool, and there's a different selection at a lots of different places, but somethings that are almost always on the menu. Like papas con 3 quesos. We've had a couple different versions of that. Here is a picture of it, in the upper left hand side:

You also see in the foreground the wine, next to it was a tasty dish with peppers and tomatoes and ground beef that was spicy - rare for Spain! They said it was from somewhere in west African, maybe Ghana? Anyway, it was good. Behind that is "una canya" which is a short little glass of beer. To the left of the canya is olives and you can see their pits below the potatoes. They had good food at this place and we played cards afterwards - it's a bar owned by some of DJ "ana"'s friends and one of her exes served us which was very funny. But not awkward which is good.

Another great place we got good food for cheap (7 euros for two sandwiches and a sangria!) was at the fleamarket on Sunday. We have been so lucky it's been nice weather, so it was great to enjoy these treats outside. Here is bent enjoying her "tosta con atun" and sangria! Yum!!

We were super excited to find at the fleamarket two copies of the record containing now one of our favorite songs which we heard on the radio one night: Eddy Grant's "Gimme Hope Jo'anna". So damn good:

Despite the aformentioned disaster that was Christmas eve dinner, we had some delicious treats from a famous cake shop for breakfast on xmas morn, along with mimosas and a delicious brunch including the coveted black beans that were carried from DC to Madrid!!

And how can we talk about food in Spain without mentioning ham...

Buen Provecho!!!

Cochina Navidad!

2008-12-25T05:32:00.000-08:00

We're stuffed and feliz this christmas day! Drinking mimosas and recieving eye-popping regalos (presents)!

We're off to the mountains. But before we go on our travels, we wanted to share a bit of something to all of you potential migrants to Espana. You may want to change your mind. Apparently, Spain has a new program encouraging immigrants to leave the country. They are using billboards and other media to promote the program. Check out this ad.

"If you are thinking of going home..."

--Voluntary Return Plan--

in smaller font underneath the yellow box is "tu eliges tu futuro" or "you choose your own future"

Ummm, what the hell does that mean! Yeah, We think that you can insouniate that your future in Spain is pretty grim if you don't choose to get the hell out!!!

TO BE CONTINUED.....

Verdad Esa!

2008-12-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

querrida amigas,

Unfortunately, bent has come down with some bug that kept her in bed the whole day. But DJ "I love Edward Cullen", DJ Ana, and I spent a beautiful evening together in the center of Madrid. Before we get to that, let's just say that Mothershiester has had a difficult time getting up in the morning. Late starts are part of this girl's game and she needs to snap out of it. But alas on the bright side of things, I'm quite relaxed despite starting the day at 1 p.m. And there was alot of accomplished.

1. I went to the market with DJ Ana to get supplies for a delicious beef stew that she made. We had a very spanish lunch, not because of what we ate but how we ate it. It was in 3 courses and we took it between 2 and 4 pm. It's even part of the commercial culture of Spain. Alot of shops close during those times so that the workers and owners or owners/workers can go and get their eat on.

2. After the tasty meal, I went out on my own to the downtown center of Madrid. Thankfully, DJ Ana gave me awesome directions for my first outing solo. I took the Opera stop and walked along called de arenal where i felt like I was going to be engulfed in the crowds. I wonder if it is this busy during the non-holiday season. The area that i was walking through is basically closed to cars. You can walk around and do alot of window shopping or stopping in for vino o cafe at a bar.

I bought a few things including these asombroso lps from this store called Killer's Discos. You may recognize some of these folks from our website. I think they area all Spanish musicians from the 80s including Radio Futura, Nacha Pop, and Los Secretos. Don't quote me on that.

Don't you see the happiness in my eyes.

Very stoked for this one!

3. I met up with DJ Ana, DJ "I love Edward Cullen", y DJ Ana's friends, DJ "Trapecio" y DJ "Cumpleanos" for Crepusculo aka Twilight. My new favorite move. It was subtitled in spanish and not dubbed. Dubbing sometimes is not a good idea. Okay, I like it alot more the second time. And I loved it the first time.

Vale, tengo ir. Pero take the time to comment. And pray that bent will pulvarize the bug para manana.

Putamierda = mothsheister's new spanish vocab word!

2008-12-19T02:27:00.000-08:00

After every possible plane delay as well as waiting an hour for our luggage and then another hour to find out that it was lost, we officially arrived out of the airport into sunny Madrid Spain. One serious problem of the modern airline industry that we have observed: severe under staffing. We waited in line (with only 2 passengers in front of us) to check in at BWI for over an hour b/c fourof their staff ended their shift and they did not replace them. The rest of the staff were assigned to assist passenger's using the self serve kiosks (which we could not b/c of discriminatory immigration practices) - but WHY HAVE THE MACHINES? if you need ot have people staffing them anyway? There was literally a staff member who kept asking us in line "are you sure you can't use the machines" rather than actually staffing the ticket counter and helping us check in!!!!!! AGH!!! After intervention by fellow passengers and ourselves, we got the line moving and were able to make it to our flight, which was eventually delayed two hours anyway....

That, by the way, was while we sat on the smallest plane ever (photo to come). Mothersheister did remarkably well considering the small size of the plane and her deep seeded fear of flying - maybe she will overcome it completely some day? The next plane could have fit at least three of our first planes into it, yet it did not even have individual TV screens on the backs of the seats for our veiwing pleasure! Not that Fred Claus is viewing pleasure but still... The Morning screening of Mama Mia on the other hand was excellent and Mothersheister had a great time dancing and singing while bent and dj "i'm in love with edward cullen" slept fitfully.

The lovely eye-coverings provided by Delta were very helpful in the sleep department.

Unfortunately, by traveling on December 17 we missed the commemoration of International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Check out what we missed at the big march in DC :(

Once we landed we thought all was clear as we wizzed through customs (we all had to go throught "the rest" column as opposed to "spanish and EU" line) and we eagerly made our way to the baggage claim. Our enthusiasm was trampled as we watched bag after bag pass us on the conveyor belt, some as many as twenty times in repetition. Yet our bags were nowhere to be found. An hour later they said no more bags were coming from JFK, so we headed over to the baggage info line, which once again was understaffed. We probably smelled and looked like characters from the last scene of Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise.

During yet anotherinterminable wait, we were pleasantly surprised by our host dj ana who had somehow made it past the security guards into the secure area of the airport to find us because she had been waiting so long for us. While we were overjoyed to see her, it does not bode well for security at Madrid's Barajas airport. When we finally were able to speak with the one person assigned to answer our questions, she told us our bags had not arrived but that they would be delivered when they did. Damn!!!!

Undaunted, we headed into the city and hung with dj ana's mom/dj "i love edward cullen"s grandma. we had a sumptuous meal of cake cut into stars assembled into a christmas tree-like stack and dribbled with flat whip cream... This was followed by our first Spanish shopping mall experience where we witnessed a phenomenon that bent thinks is very European - groups of old people sitting on benches. Like dozens, not tlaking, just staring off into space. Creepy. Mission accomplished at H&M (which we must say the Spanish version of this store does not reflect well on the country) we headed out to Estremera, the far nether reaches of "Comunidad Madrid" - basically it's the country side but they call it Madrid, trying to fool people for some reason that is a mystery to us non-Spaniards. This would be like calling a small town in Shenandoah Valley part of DC.

But it's beautiful here in Estremera, very picturesque, although FREEZING! We ate an afternoon meal of paella and wine on the sidewalk outside our new home, exchanging pleasantries with old men and Romanian immigrant youth. The white washed stucco walls and the dusty streets, as well as the desert like landscape, had us imagining ourselves as part of the Three Amigos, a comedy classic.

Yes, we know it's set in Mexico, but whatevs. And no, our lives do not revolve around movie references, we just happen to make a lot when we are strangers in a strange land!

We're off to more adventures. Stay tuned!!

OPeN StUDiO ROcKS!!

2008-12-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

This Saturday December 6 saw the unveiling of the force that is known as "Open Studio" which genderfatigue resident mothersheister has been moving forward since the beginning. She exhibited her much anticipated "Ode to Shirley Chisholm", the product of open studio:

Open studio is a really brilliant really simple idea: create space for people to create. Particularly but not only art and other creative endeavors - like watercolors, sculpture, drawing, collage, and more. Open studio is about creation and that also means silk-screening and sewing and djing. We had all those things and more on display Saturday night, as bunches of folks passed through the newly reopened Sheesha Palace Cafe.

There was wine and snacks galore and lots of new faces - and who could forget the excellent performance/art piece by Marcia on the trombone. Off the hook!

One beautiful thing about the night was that so many people could take away their creations, including mix cd sleeve collages and incredible new clothing created by silk-screening beautiful images of phenomenal females onto shirts, hoodies, and more.

Keep your eye out for future Open Studio events and the final Open Studio of the year will be next Sunday, Dec 14th.

Viva Open Studio!!

Help out $pread Magazine

2008-12-05T09:34:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately - more to come soon we promise!!!

In the meantime here are two great mini videos that the fine folks at $pread Magazine have created - please give them money so they can keep up their amazing work!

Also don't forget OPEN STUDIO this Saturday from 5pm on! It will be great times!

"Prostitutes threatened my life!" and other ridiculous foolishness

2008-11-12T08:09:00.001-08:00

Last Friday the DC Council Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary held a hearing on "Strategies to Combat Prostitution." I (dj bent) was unable to attend but I did catch some crucial moments on the DC Council video streaming - OMG it was so awful. I was at work or else I would have been screaming at the computer screen "What is wrong with you idiots!!!?!?!"

The Washington Post had an interesting article on the hearing (chaired by Phil Mendelson, At-Large Democrat) and includes a neat video that I like:

I am so impressed with Sharmus, she is the bomb and really stuck it to them - I didn't get a chance to see her testify, but I helped her craft her testimony and my sources at the hearing said she was the best and strongest voice present for sex worker rights.

Some of the proposals put forward by witnesses from PSA 102 in Northeast included:
-making prostitution a felony offense
-mandatory HIV testing for anyone arrested of a prostitution offense
-increasing the length of time of prostitution free zones and expanding the area that they can cover
-longer sentences for prostitution charges (currently they are up to 30 days first offense, up to 60 second offense, and up to 180 third offense and beyond)

To show how uninformed and operating on assumption and moralistic foolery these people are, they also proposed two "solutions" that are not only offensive like the ones abose, but:
-already law: increasingly long sentences the more convictions you have
-impossible and contradictory/ie make no sense: mandating diversion programs

Diversion programs are when people agree to plead guilty so that the charges are suspended and they participate in a program, which would be helpful (like drug treatment) or bad (like re-education programs for clients of sex workers). If they fail to fulfill any part of the program they face the jail time for the guilty plea and full sentence.

The atmosphere and language of the anti-prostitution dudes was vitriolic with them complaining that there are condoms everywhere in their neighborhood that their kids try to eat them, that sex workers threaten them and make everyone in the area afraid for their lives, and more foolishness. Incredibly, Chairman Mendelson seemed to be taking their recommendations seriously!! WTF?!?! He is supposed to be this measured, thoughtful guy and I've heard him in other hearings repeatedly say to advocates of harsher criminal penalties on other topics "It's important to hear individual stories but we need to think about the broader policy issues and find what is going to work." Not once did he bring that critical eye to this issue. It's so obviously about political calculations - as Mendelson told researchers with the Alliance for a Safe & Diverse DC that he thought it's time to try new approaches to sex work that don't rely on criminalization but that it's not politically viable. Plus he used the passage of the prostitution free zones in his campaign literature for re-election and probably is worried about being portrayed as "soft on crime" again in the next election.

Folks in the community recognize the seriousness of the situation, that this hearing is probably going to lead to new proposed legislation that will be horrible, so we are organizing to put pressure against that kind of solution. Between this debacle and the overt, violent efforts to remove all non-yuppies from 5th and K Street area now that there are new condos and such there, this violent battle for public space in DC continues. They are even fighting against social services! When does it end? Oh that's right, when every poor, person of color, gender non-conforming, homeless, etc person is run out of the District. That's probably when DC will become a state too.

It is really a shame that more groups are not working on these issues, recognizing the fundamental threat to all of us that they represent, and creating stronger coalitions across issues to fight back. Low income housing advocacy groups, homeless advocacy groups, people of color groups, LGBT groups and more should all be working on this and educating their membership about the issues. Because of the fiercest witnesses demanding the heads of all sex workers at this hearing: most of them were white gay men.

Election thoughts Part III

2008-11-11T07:57:00.000-08:00

This amazing clip from the Colbert Report (Nov 5) has many high points (and a few weird ones) but the best comes at the very end - when Andrew Young puts the election of Barack Hussein Obama into context of the first elections of black mayors across the country...

It's really amazing to me that the election of Obama has given people so much license to just spew ridiculous racist BS. It's been a week now and not only are hearing the classic racism from here in the US but even from abroad. Of course the same election night that Obama won the presidential election Nebraska eliminated affirmative action, and Colorado came close. This will naturally be a time of people saying that "racism is over" (as one comment I saw on a photostream said "blacks haven't been oppressed since the seventies") and "I don't see color, I voted for Obama" but will it also be a time of people engaging with those kinds of comments? I wonder if Obama himself will shy away from taking these topics head on, or if he will tackle them head on. Meanwhile I guess we can at least hold him to his words about MLK that King would not have endorsed any candidate but would organize people to pressure the elected president to do the right thing.

On another note (kinda related) I really like this song and video (minus one stupid mini-moment), which I came across in dj/rupture's post on Earplug about Auto-Tune:

mohamed lamine feat mokobé mory kanté AFRICAN TONIK NEW
by FUN_DANCEFLOOR_1980

Thoughts on Election 08' Part II

2008-11-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

So election reflections are still a part of the genderfatigue mind this week. And instead of giving our own. We thought we'd share some from our friend, radio producer and all-around journalist, Jenka Soderberg:

jenka's journal: a black president

11/6/08
ok! i admit it. It does feel good to actually have a black president. i mean, yeah ok, he's compromised, corporate, and part of a system that was set up to maintain inequalities... but damn!!!! we actually have a black president!!!!

i have to admit it, i was cynical up to the end - i didn't believe it would actually happen, no matter what the polls said - i was absolutely convinced that the bush/cheney gang would figure out a way to steal yet another election. but it didn't happen! i mean....... how could i NOT be moved when i, sitting in the radio studio providing live coverage of the election returns, started getting the reports phoned in from washington dc, so loud i could hardly hear the reporter on the phone,
telling me about watching black people pour out of their homes by the thousands, into the streets .....the same streets that had burned in the anger of the 1968 riots when martin luther king was killed.... and had remained burned out and dismal until the last few years when they've been whitened by gentrification....but on election night, the streets were black again - with the exuberant reality that we finally have a black president!

and so i start wondering - how will this be remembered ..... will barack obama be assassinated before he takes office? will he turn out to be a mediocre leader that lets the nation be led into even more war? will people take the action for the change that so many are talking about, or just go back to sleep now that the election is over?

i wonder.....

and then i think to myself wow!!! it sure is good to be feeling WONDER - instead of exasperated outrage! because after eight years of having to steel myself to not be shocked by the latest atrocity carried out by the gang in power, i don't think i could take another day of
exasperated outrage.

i don't know if i even realized just how deep and pervasive my feeling of exasperated outrage had become - every time the bush administration came out with another insane policy to further erode the constitution, to run the economy further into the ground, to further entrench the
imperial occupations of iraq and afghanistan, to justify torture and other atrocities - i just became more and more exasperated, more and more outraged..... and sheesh....that really wears a person down! even a person engaged in ceaseless struggle against such injustice.

So .... now that everything is possible (...i say with a smirk and wry smile....), I'd like to offer this suggestion on the question of Israel-Palestine.

A lot of talk has been made about a 'two state solution'. In my humble opinion, the only just two-state solution would include the following:

-The original UN Resolution of 1948 that created the State of Israel should be implemented. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be set according to that resolution, and the city of Jerusalem should be an international city, administered by the United Nations.

-Palestinian refugees have an internationally-recognized right to return to their homeland. Israel should offer all of those refugees registered with the United Nations Refugee and Works Association a choice of residency rights in Israel or compensation. Those who choose compensation should be allowed full citizenship rights in the countries where they have chosen to reside (mainly Jordan and Lebanon). The leaders of those nations housing Palestinian refugees who choose compensation over a return to their ancestral home should allow the Palestinians full and equal rights, including allowing them freedom to travel and freedom to build homes.

-Israel should implement a general amnesty for all Palestinians currently being held in Israeli detention camps. These prisoners number about 10,000, many of whom have never been charged. Israel has no jurisdiction over the Palestinian people, and no right to enter
Palestinian areas and take Palestinians prisoner at a whim, as is the Israeli practice now.

-Palestinians should hold a general assembly to determine the type of government they prefer, which may not necessarily use the model of the Palestinian Authority, which was imposed upon them by Israel since 1967, Israel has controlled all aspects of Palestinian life. The following controls must all be lifted in order for there to be a just peace:

-Israeli control of all Palestinian residency rights
-Israeli control of all Palestinian water rights
-Israeli control of all Palestinian airspace
-Israeli control of all Palestinian sea borders, including control over
fishing boats -Israeli control of all Palestinian land
-Israeli control of all Palestinian borders and travel abroad
-Israeli control of all Palestinian movement within Palestine
-Israeli control of all Palestinian construction permits
-Israeli control of all Palestinian imports and exports
-Israeli control of all Palestinian taxation
-Israeli control of all Palestinian farmland
-Israeli control of Palestinian freedom to worship (banning most Palestinians from praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem)
-Israeli control of all Palestinian vehicle registration and licensing
-Israeli control of all Palestinian ID cards -Israeli control of Palestinian students' right to education (Israel has the final say on whether a student, once accepted to university, is allowed to go to the university)
-Israeli court system and laws enforced on Palestinians

If all of these things are implemented by Israel, then we can begin to talk about a two-state solution.

But since Obama decided to set the tone of his presidency by selecting, as his first act as President-elect, Rahm (nickname Rahm-bo, middle name Israel, who volunteered for the Israeli army and is described as more hard-line than Bush on the Israel-Palestine issue) Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff, ......well, I kinda doubt that'll happen.

still, i can't help but wonder if we could maybe make it happen......just maybe.

Thoughts on Election 08' Part I: Proud to Live in D.C.

2008-11-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

This is Mothershiester writing from the inner depths of her ex-home office. There's a lot going on in my mind. I'm sure it's the same with you all. I wanted to update our blog with a letter I wrote to Obama. I think I'm going to send it:

Dear President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama,

Last night, when bent and I emerged from the Columbia Heights Metro elevator to head home to pick up records for our election show, it hit me that the chances of you becoming the President of the United States was inevitable. And that broke me down. I never thought I'd ever live to see our country led by anybody else that didn't look like those that have been minions to this power structure that has time and time again proven to suppress us.

When bent and I started hearing the exuberant yelling, it became clear that this was going to happen. I couldn't do anything but scream your name at the top of my lungs with the dozens of other people outside that were also making the same realization. I was so overwhelmed with tears that I couldn't hold myself up at one point because my head couldn't wrap around the idea of not only a black president but a black president that could possibly inspire agency amongst people. Someone that had the background that could shape our lives for the better despite the hard road this country is set to follow. I didn't realize how much the Bush administration had strangled a part of my soul until my wounded yelling of your name would not cease. I didn't realize how your election to this seat of power meant something, something that I needed to restore my belief in people. Because everywhere we went people took to the streets: dancing, crying, smiling ear to ear, screaming, setting off fireworks, hugging strangers, shaking hands with strangers, showing the best sides of themselves. Usually the idea of unity seems corny if not naive. And usually the idea of unity comes after something tragic and it often signifies that to be unified, you can't question. But I didn't feel any of that last night. I just felt alot of hope.

Don't get me wrong, I was never one of your great supporters. I didn't door knock for you. I didn't vote for you [because of citizenship issues but I probably would've voted for Cynthia Mckinney]. I never contributed money to your campaign. My deep critiques of the state apparatus, the electoral process, and the U.S. as a irresponsible global mega power shaped my attitude towards the election. And over the next 4 years, I'm going to make some critiques--hopefully constructive--concerning your presidential actions. But with all of that said and done, you really inspired me, you gave me more upliftman than any person in higher office has ever done and I thank you for that. I look forward to seeing what you do in the next 4 years. It's going to be so hard for you but if you can continue to find ways to maintain the spirit that I saw the night of November 4, 2008--I will keep the faith that the people in this country can stop surviving and start building communities that rely on each other out of respect of differences and love for each other.

Peace from your Kenyan Compatriot,

Mothershiester

Halloween is past but scary things could be yet to come

2008-11-04T11:58:00.001-08:00

Gender Fatigue was super excited to rock out with our dearly beloveds DJs Choque y Fuga at the Black Cat on Halloween - hopefully some pics coming soon! Yours truly, mothershiester and bent, had a duo costume as "You Can't Do That On Television" for which we rekindled our love that lay dormant since childhood. In case you forgot how amazing, smart and excellent this show was:

After all the sliming was done we had a blast of a night, including judging costume contest in Mt Pleasant, party hopping and eating too much candy. Now it is election day in the United States - and Gender Fatigue is special because we are also half-Kenyan! We will be joining other exciting Radio CPR DJs this evening for a special elections broadcast - who knows what shenanigans we will get up to?!? Of course our regular broadcast is also tonight, 6-7, and the "elections coverage" (if you haven't gotten sick of it by then) starts at 9pm - we'll be on again from 11pm to midnite. Tune in and give us a ring with your opinion about the emerging results!

Don't make Glen angry!

Kumbia Queers = The Bomb

2008-10-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were very excited to get the new cd from one of our favorite groups, Kumbia Queers, in the mail. Kumbia Queers are from Argentina and Mexico, a bad-ass group of women making great music. They started out doing primarily cover songs put to cumbia with their own lyrics (so is that still a cover song? or a remix? or just campling the original?) , and they are creating more material all the time. We first came across them when bent found a link to their myspace page and listened to the amazing hits "Isla Con Chicas" and "Chica del Calendario." Now we have the full cd "Kumbia Nena" which is 12 tracks of excellence.

The tracks include the songs we already knew well (see above) as well as many that were new to us including an amazing tune called "Kumbia Zombia." A perfect tune for the time of year, it also seems they are quite attuned to the important theme shared by Radio Hybrid - zombies and the undead. Other stand outs include "La China es Kumbianchera" (to the tune of "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" by the Ramones) and more. It's really great to find a cumbia band that not only is composed of women, women singers, but singing about great stuff and not the same old same old - even as we love cumbia and many other genres that are dominated by the usual powers that be, it's refreshing to see our people making this great music.

It seems Kumbia Queers have made it to the US at least once before, so Mothersheister and bent are determined to bring them to DC, come hell or high water. In the meantime we will have to settle for listening to them and playing them at dance parties and clubs whenever we are rocking the decks.

In the meantime a great vid of them:

And a great video of some other random group that is hilarious....

Speaking of rocking the decks - OMG - our dear friends DJs Choque y Fuga are opening for DJ Rekha on Halloween at the Black Cat!!!! This is very exciting and you all should get your butts there because it will be OTMFH!!!!

Disco is alive and well....and we're dancing to it on Radio Hybrid!

2008-10-08T07:43:00.001-07:00

So we've been late on updating but we will soon put a whole host of witty commentary, reflections, and humorous sentiments. But in the meantime, check out this video from one of Mothershiester's new favorite songs--fotonovela.

Thanks Ivan for keeping disco real.

Hos Up! Haters Down!

2008-08-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

I need to start today's post with this statement: My life has been changed today. I went to Museo Frida Kahlo, the house where Frida and Diego Rivera lived, and my mind was completely destroyed. I am so completely in love with Frida Kahlo, there are no words for it. I am obsessed. OK, Diego Rivera is OK, but Frida Kahlo is OFF THE HOOK!!!!!

Otherwise, I wandered about Mexico city, buying many great CDs and even some vinyl! OMG! I found this sidewalk vendor stall with probably 3,000 records for sale - they said for 1 peso each but in the end most cost closer to 2 or 3 pesos - it was just too bad that I had already spent most of my money.

Tonight, after all this, I got to attend a fancy dinner with lots of big-wigs and speeches, but at least my good friends from EMPOWER were there- we had great times last nite at the same exact place, drinking and dancing. The hos and the drug users always bring the party, what can I say. But EMPOWER did deserve to get honored tonight for sure. They are a huge example to all of us in the sex worker/HIV/human rights world, and I know that we in DC at least unabashedly copy them. Their latest amazing work is the creation of a popular education game/show about the 7:55 that we sex workers are not actually having sex (as opposed to the 5 minutes of sex that most people are obsessed with).

Today I took a break from the conference, but tomorrow I will be back in action, as I have to present a poster an there are many exciting things going on. Then at night, otra fiesta! I spent a lot of time on the Mexico City Metro today (funny that it is called the same as in DC) and I like although some fucker was sticking his hand down my pants when we were really packed in but I held my anger in and simply moved. Kind of like when UNAIDS head Peter Piot was talking tonight at the reception of the Red Ribbon awards about supporting the rights of marginalized people and I wanted to scream "Why doesn't the UN have a coherent platform supporting sex worker rights!?!?!?!" but I didn't.
Ok see yall soon at wild times party the nite of the 8th when I make a crazy appearance after 9 hours of travel!!!!!! Expet much new musica!!!!

Sex Workers of the World Unite in Mexico City

2008-08-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is my amazing new friend Samanta, who is one of the key organizers with an amazing sex worker organization in Guatemala that's called Mujeres en Superacion - they do rights organizing and leadership development as well as HIV prevention. Samanta is an incredible activist and we stayed up late last night drinking an entire bottle of rum, talking about sex work experiences, activism, children, and more. She is a mother of two, married, and a very public sex worker activist. One beautiful story she told is how she doesn't work for a pimp, in part because she works on a street where there are trans sex workers and all the sex workers there are human rights activists so they don't shit from anyone!

Wow, what an amazing couple of days it has been here, at the pre-conference event with all these incredible women and men, including trans people. It has been a little frustrating at times with too much talking in circles, but mostly amazing to see activists from other countries who i've met in the past, and to meet new ones from all over Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Asia, and Europe. Today we are having a march for sex worker rights and we all have these amazing shirts:

Then the conference (International AIDS Conference) begins soon and we get to cause troub le, learn from each other more, and try to make the foolish governments and international institutions listen to us and stop criminalizing sex work, stop arresting us in the name of saving us from traffickers, and support sex worker rights as an integral part of HIV prevention and the fight against AIDS.

I leave you with one last photo of new beautiful friends - Dino, Mariam and Princess, from Jamaica and Guyana.

Final day in Chi-town

2008-07-18T23:51:00.000-07:00

It's a few hours before heading back to DC. The final day here brought excitement and sadness. I got to finally eat a jibarito which was very very tasty. On the way back to the conference I had a nice talk with an old man as we waited for the bus. The conference was cool although I spent most of the day moderating sessions, and won't be able to make my presentation about our research tomorrow, but oh well. There was a really interesting session at the end of the day with a panel of current and former street-based sex workers, and it was pretty intense. There were some quite controversial comments made, and some tension, but then things came around and good discussion was had. It is not easy for people who feel that sex work is bad and people who feel that its ok to speak together about how to commonly confront the challenges that all workers, regardless of their feelings about the sex trade, face. But it was an important space and especially to try to keep having those kinds of conversations because they are difficult. At the end of the day I got to enjoy a really nice meal with some fantastic folks including the amazing Scarlot Harlot, folks from SWOP in San Francisco and SWOP Tucson and from Chicago and DC. Not to mention to beautiful little munchkins! We ate at Soul Veg which I didn't realize is actually part of the same business that is Soul Veg in DC - they had a really big restaurant with nice seating and a menu, no buffet and the food came quick (except for Scarlot's but that seemed a mistake). They did not have the traditional delicious man n cheese, but the lasanga with greens that I had was fantastic. About to get on a plane and head back to the District - hopefully photos can be uploaded soon.

Windy City Part Dos: Hos and Jibaritos

2008-07-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

OK genderfatigue-ers, it's been another action packed day here in Chicagoland. I hope you enjoyed my drunkenly written post yesterday, and again I apologize for lack of photos! I was hoping to borrow a cable today to upload pics from the digi-cam, but alas it did not work out. So you will have to wait! But I will give you one photo - of a sandwich that mothershiester has commanded me to search out and eat.... el jibarito...

damn that looks good. i am going to eat it mothershiester!!!!

meanwhile, i got to watch two of my favorite tv shows last nite! hooray for hotel cable! the shield i have not been able to catch for a while since the stupid my20 channel in DC changed it from late sunday nite to late saturday nite, but i got to see a great episode in which vic and that female cop make out! oh shit! then there was an episode of aqua teen hunger force, which sadly was quite up to snuff but still had funny moments.

today we had anti-oppression training at the conference, and it was pretty good. it was interesting b/c the trainer kinda rejected the idea that power+privilege=oppression, instead saying that anyone can act out oppression (like not only white people can be racist) - i don't know if i really agree with her analysis on that point but it was an interesting argument that she made and overall a great training. we got to talk towards the end in little mini-affinity groups, and i was in the sex worker parent group (since i'm a god-parent and have done sex work) and it was really nice conversation and cool. hm, not very articulate right now but whatevs. then i moderated a workshop by a great woman who started an organization in guatemala for very low-income sex workers, who i'd seen a film about at last year's sex worker film festival in san francisco, called "las estrellas de la linea" (the railroad allstars, because the women work by railroad tracks). it was pretty inspiring to hear about their work, and how they are overcoming some pretty intense obstacles to organizing and service provision.

The group is called MuJER (Spanish acronym for Women for Justice, Education and Awareness) and although it's a shame that it was started by three non-sex workers, at least Ana (who gave the presentation) is herself Guatemalteca, and she is committed to transferring leadership to the women in the organization. Some of the women from the program will be at the sex worker pre-conference gathering in Mexico City in advance of the International AIDS Conference. Speaking of which, I will be blogging from there not only on our very own gender fatigue blog, but also the blog of CHAMP (Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project).

Gender Fatigue on the road again

2008-07-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

This time our intrepid blog heads to Chicago. Bent is here in the Windy City for the Desiree Alliance Conference, an annual (or semi-annual, depending on how things go) conference for sex worker rights activists. Although extremely underfunded as a movement, sex worker rights activists have worked hard to get the resources together to make these conferences together.

Right here we should have a picture of an amazing sex worker activist from California who has been battling cancer this past year, and she is looking damn good. This year's Desiree Alliance Conference has started off with an homage to one of the early sex worker rights activists: Margo St James. Margo was on hand tonight to give a short speech recalling some of those early days in San Francisco and her belief that the next generations have carried the flame forward for sex worker justice. She recalled the early days of the movement when she was living in Marin County north of San Francisco and helped to start the organization WHO - "Whores, Housewives and Others" ("Others" she quipped, "were lesbians but you couldn't say that then."). Margo St James went on to help found COYOTE (Call Off Your Tired Old Ethics) and start the first Hookers' Balls, amazing parties for sex wokers which often attracted politicians and top police officials among others. The night ended with some amazing films from the 70s about Margo's work, including a PSA on HIV called "Margo's Message" and the short film "Hookers" which includes some amazing Hookers' Ball footage as well as hilarious shots from sex worker sessions and intense stories from sex workers themselves.

The conference is happening in this interesting neighborhood of Chicago that is mainly light industrial - as in autobody shops and such - with residential pockets interspersed. I ate at a delicious Mexican joint called Traspasada where I had a chorizo taco with a Negro Modelo, and some chips and amazing salsa, probably some sort of chipotle, tomatillo mix. Pics to come! I came there (at intersection of California, Elkton and Belmont) after stopping in an amazing little taqueria just around the corner from the conference space, but they didn't serve beer! There seems to be an interesting trend in Chicago restaurants to not offer beer or liquor, and a lot of them say "BYIB" on the door, which is really cool but if you're from out of town maybe you just want to eat and drink in the same place.

Ironically, our hotel is located on the trans stroll and almost directly across from the bar where trans women can pick up tricks. Stay tuned!!!!

Trans inclusion/exclusion

2008-07-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Recently there has been a kerfuffle over at thenewgay about transgender inclusion in the weekly dance nite be:xx at be bar, where both bent and mothersheister, along with assorted other amazing djs, have rocked the dance floor. While we appreciate conversations about space and dance and party and who's included or not, it does seem disingenuous when people who themselves don't do much in the way of inclusion (trans or otherwise - check out these inclusive photos) talk trash about a nite that actually brings together a pretty interesting crowd (though there's certainly PLENTY of room for improvement). Nonetheless, we are also concerned about recent developments with very real negative consequences for trans people in our city.

The DC Trans Coalition has had a campaign for a number of months to pressure the Department of Corrections to change how they treat transgender prisoners. After a lot of BS and not listening to the community, the Dept of Corrections recently released draft operating orders for handling trans persons in their custody - which trample trans people's safety, identity and human rights in the name of protecting them. The DC Trans Coalition is holding a demonstration this Saturday July 19 at the DOC headquarters to protest their lack of responsiveness to the community.

Demand real "safety and security" from the DOC this Saturday!
The DC Department of Corrections thinks that running their jails with "safety, order and security" means compromising the safety and security of our community.
We need to correct them!
Join the DC Trans Coalition this Saturday from 1-3pm to tell the Dept. of Corrections that they can't ignore our voices, our allies, and OUR need for safety and security within DC Jails.
Bring yourself, as many friends as you can, some righteous indignation and join the protest!
The Dept. of Corrections is located at 1923 Vermont Avenue NW (near 10th and U; U St. metro).
Want to help make signs this Thursday? Drop an email to Max, meestertoth @ gmail.com for directions to a sign-making party.
Also, the DCTC's campaign against the Department of Corrections was the focus of a very good article in the Metro Weekly that hit the newsstands this past Thursday. Check it out here:

Meanwhile, unknown actors within the DC Government (but more than likely officials with the DOC, Mayor's Office of LGBT Affairs, and Human Rights Commission) are pushing for BAD changes to our relatively new regulations that protect transgender and gender variant people's human rights in the District. Folks should contact the DC Human Rights Commission, the Mayor and City Council to demand that these changes NOT be made to DC Municipal Regulations Chapter 8 Title 4!

On The Road: AMC Part Deux

2008-06-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in the Motor City.

It's Motheshiester, on the road again, as I promised I am blogging from the Allied Media Conference. And thankfully this conference is in the home of Motown aka Detroit, one of 5 cities, I have dreamed of visiting since the first time I heard the Marvelettes singing "Please, Mr. Postman".

After an 11 hour drive (full of dance parties in and out of the "Detroit or Bust" cars) to MotorCity from the District starting late Thursday night, friday seems like a blur so I'm going to write about saturday since it's fresh on my mind. And hopefully, in the next couple of days, I can give you my impressions of the AMC from the very beginning but for right now, give me a virtual kiss for making it to this morning's 9 a.m. workshops.

First up, I went to a screening of black./womyn.:conversations. The screening was part of a a 3 hour 2o min workshop on Transporting Silenced Voices Through Interviews for Film/Video. In the film, the director, Tiona Mcclodden, interviewed several self-identified lesbians of African Descent about a range of issues from coming out to falling in love to gender roles in the black lesbian community. If you get to watch the film, you may recognize some of those being interviewed like Staceyann Chin (slam poet extroadinaire--i usually hate poetry but she's so good that there is no way I can groan) and Aishah Shahidah Simmons (director of NO! The Rape Documentary--a film that forced me to reexamine how consent has played out in my past relationships). I was really excited to here from Tiona about why she chose the documentary format she did and how did the interviews shape how she saw her own identities. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish watching the film because there were other sessions that I wanted to partake in such as....

Party Promotion As An Organizing Tool which was facilitated by folks from the 5th Element. 5th Element is a collective of women who use hip hop to challenge sexism and misogyny by producing shows and workshops, and promoting artists who embody those values. I sat in this workshop for a few reasons. You all know how much Bent and I value good party spaces. You also know that Bent, me, and several of our friends spend a lot of time on our CPR shows and lives in general talking about the kind of parties we want to throw . For us having spaces where people feel free to express their gender, sexuality, race, and other identities in whatever way they want-- free of harassment-- is critical to building a healthy community. And equally important is the fact that if there is harassment at a party, than the person(s) who is being harassed should feel like we as party promoters have their back.

So when I saw this workshop on the AMC agenda, I was impressed because honestly I don't think a lot of people consider partying/dancing/movement as political acts that lead to positive changes in our communities. And often times folks when organizing parties end up not being intentional about the space they create even with parties that are fundraisers for 'community' driven work and/or organizations. The only thing they may think about is how many kegs to get, how much liquor to buy, and whether to get a dj or not. The question of how to shape a space to allow folks from different communities to share the dance floor in respectful, inspiring, risk taking and booty dancing ways rarely comes up. [and even though I'm talking mainly about dance parties, I also think these questions must be applied to all party like spaces).

okay, here's a few things I was hoping to get out of this particular workshop. How to set the tone for a party that lets everyone involved know that harassment will not be tolerated and why it won't be tolerated; examples of creative outreach that appeals to culturally different communities (and that's not relegated to just racially different communities); and how to foster the tone you set (by having such a HOTT party in more ways than one) after the party with those folks--does that make sense? Lots that I was hoping they would explore but several INCITE DC folks came into the workshop in the middle so I thought it made sense to get a report back from them about this one while I peaced out and headed to .....

Doin It: Sex, Disability and Videotape/Why They Gotta Do Me Like That? The Fe Fes Take On Bullying

so i'm totally impressed by the Empowered Fe Fes girls. Yes, I came late to this one. Practically more than half way late but luckily I came during one of their films, Why They Gotta Do Me Like That, a public service announcement type film about school-based discrimination and bullying of people with disabilities. The Fe Fe are a group of girls from Chicago who have disabilities and come together to do kick ass things like make films that make people like me and the 50 plus people that were in the room with me want to jump up and scream "H-O-T-T". Why? Because this is what the AMC is about, having folks tell their own stories instead of expecting mass media to do it for them. How many times do you see folks with disabilities even represented on the screen? and when they are, it's really negative. And here are these girls, totally bringing it by creating films that are creative, fun, and can be used for organizing. The scenes that were off the hook involved dramatizations--which you know I love. The Fe Fes created two dramatization scenes contrasting what school administrators should and shouldn't do. For instance in the bullying film, one of the Fe Fes plays this girl who has been targeted by classmates because of her disability. She decides to seek help from her counselor but instead the counselor blames the harassment on her and basically calls her a baby because she decided to seek help from the administration. And in the other dramatization, the same counselor instead of berating her, offers her help but not in that colonial way, she actually asks her what her needs were and how they could proceed together to stop the harassment. Like all good dramatizations, the screen turned fuzzy/dream like.

okay folks I have to jet out because I am in the middle of a Degrassi marathon but here's a bit of Detroit Music to get you twisting. This little diddey comes from Yvonne Fair....

A bit of detroit music for you!!!

june 17: zines, histories and the apocalyptic future

2008-06-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

gender fatigue listeners will be well acquainted with our show this past week which featured an interview by bent with zinesters/authors/historians/activists cindy crabb and erick lyle. they are on tour and recently visited the DC area reading from their zines and books, including cindy's long time zine "doris" and erick's new book "on the lower frequencies" which is largely a collection of his zines and newspapers "scam" and "turd filled donut" among others.

we hope to have the interview up here soon, but in the meantime check out "on the lower frequencies" which has been published by soft skull press.

and check out any issues of "doris" including the compilation published in 2005 by microcosm. cindy also compiled and edited the amazing "support zine" about supporting survivors of sexual violence, which you can from microcosm as well.

indeed, it is really important to understand history as we think about the present and future, apocalyptic or not.

On The Road: Mothershiester heads Northwest sort of

2008-06-19T19:16:00.001-07:00

Tonight I am heading to Detroit for the Allied Media Conference. The AMC is celebrating it's 10th year with an exciting theme: Our Evolution Beyond Survival:

Media Strategies for the Next Ten Years

It should be an exciting weekend full of media making (zines, blogging, etc) and connecting with other media makers that are challenging how we view communication. I'm so excited...Like 'so excited', that I must refer you to this Pointer Sisters song.

So now that I have your toes tapping, please think of me as I make my way north to one of the five places that 5 year-old mothershiester dreams of. Luckily, I am going with a group of folks from the DC chapter of INCITE! Radical Women of Color Against Violence.

Final Note: Despite my excitement, I am sad that I will be leaving a delicious bar-b-que dinner with my boo 4 life, Bent.

radio hybrid don't know diddley

2008-06-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

on our show last week we commemorated the life and music of the one and only bo diddley. at gender fatigue we like rock n roll, and we like to give credit (in case you haven't noticed) - so let us once again say that black folks created rock n roll. folks like bo diddley and little richard, chuck berry, muddy waters and so many others. and as so many others have said - that distinctive sound of his is so infectious!!!

which made dj bent think of this song, featuring such a bo diddley beat!

I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow

but then she discovered that it was originally done by a group, the strangeloves, back in 1965!!! but of course, they were using the bo diddley beat....

damn i love those dancers.

and how great is it that he always toured with an amazing woman on bass!!!

anyway, mothersheister and bent are committed to keeping the memory of bo diddley and his phenomenal contribution to music well known, in spite of his fears that he would not be remembered after his death. long live the bo diddley beat!

Rocking Out to Afro-Pop Music!

2008-05-30T15:54:00.001-07:00

Musings from Mothershiester: When I was living in Johannesburg, six years ago, my appreciation for music from the continent was born. Even though I grew up listening to music from Kenya, I associated that music with my parents and a country that I didn't want to be connected to. Now that I djay music for other people, I really want to share my love of the various beats that make my continent so hot. Case in point, the South African band that made my knees weak with energy when I first heard them--Mafikizolo . Their music is a blend of Afro-pop, kwela (a genre of southern african music that sounds sort of jazzy and is characterized by the pennywhistle--a six-holed wood wind whistle), marabi (indigenous to South Africa, and also has a jazzy sound like kwela but includes the use of the organs). Mafikizola's style is definitely a blend of the traditional with the new pop beats that we are so accustomed to. If I'm ever on the run, from the law or fighting to survive the apocalypse, I hope to have my Mafikizolo tape in tact....Hell, I'm already fighting to survive the apocalypse.

Here's a video of one of my fav songs by them. Keep an eye for the butch that is representing for us gender and sexual variants.

Hey, get out of your chair and dance!

The Price of Rice

2008-05-30T05:21:00.000-07:00

Oh snap! Two posts in one day~ we are on a roll!

One clear sign to us at Radio Hybrid of the impending/existing apocalypse is the phenomenal increase in food prices. This has led to riots around the world, as well as rationing in various countries, and even here in the US, o land of plenty, Costco and Sam's Club have been limiting the number of bags of rice you can purchase. Ironically, while 88% of rice consumed in the US is grown here, the US also is one of the biggest rice exporters in the world - representing 13% of global rice exports (both according to the USA Rice Federation). Talk about capitalism at work!!! India and Vietnam each export a bit more rice than the US, and Thailand, biggest rice exporter of all, sells about three times as much as the United States.

Rice is a really important food staple for many people, and we have discussed its significance and what's going on with it and other food on our show over the past few months. While some people have said that rice production needs to be increased by developing new strains with higher yield, our friend dj starbane disagrees, and some facts support him. Starbane says it's a lot more complicated than manipulating rice plants to produce more, and that we should all put more emphasis on growing our own food. On the other hand, starbane notes that as some have observed, growth of the middle class in China and India is also a factor in the increase. "The answer is to destroy the middle class altogether and keep 99% of people poor," says starbane, "therefor nothing really needs to change."

At Radio Hybrid we do support class war, against the rich and middle class that is, but we also like eating food we grow ourselves. On wednesday we had a nice salad of the tiniest lettuce that we had thinned from front yard plot and roof-top boxes, delicious with some added cherry tomatoes, pickle and vinaigrette dressing. We've also been eating kale and collards from a roof box, and plenty of garlic scapes. We are excited about the growth of plants that bent and starbane planted in the front yard of a neighbor a couple doors down - including collards, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant!

Of course rice is not the only food rising in price - so is corn, wheat (even as its price falls on commodity markets, gotta love capitalism), dairy products and meat. And that is rough stuff for those of us who love to eat a piece of meat - like mothershiester, bent and Adesh Samaroo, who has a great song, "Eating Meat" (until we figure out this blogging thing and can stream here, you'll have to follow the links, sorry!)

dance tutorial

2008-05-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

at gender fatigue we like to dance to many kinds of music and we like to know what the music is and the history behind it - who made it, where is it from, why did they do it, what is it connected to, that sort of thing. so apparently this year marks 20 years since house music got big in the UK and one blog reposted an interesting article from 1989 about house music and its roots and backing from black gay cultures in the US: The House the Kids Built
(altho in dc it would be called "The House the Children Built")

that blog, History is Made at Night, is pretty interesting to check out in general in addition to that post. another blog (fem.men.ist) has an interesting and related post on house music, masculinity and race: Thoughts on Jamaica, Masculinity, Performing Gender, Orishas and House Music

And a classic song with lots to consider regarding history, culture and race, gender and more... all while rocking out!

[George Kranz "Trommeltanz" aka Din Daa Daa]

Ground-Breaking Report on DC Police Department Abuses

2008-05-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Check out this important community driven research project on abuses by the DC Police Department towards sex workers and people profiled as sex workers.

The report, "Move Along: Policing Sex Work in Washington D.C.", was lead by Different Avenues in partnership with Dr. Salvador Vidal Ortiz (a sociologist from American University), Dr. Penelope Saunders (of the Best Practices Policy Project) and the Alliance for a Safe & Diverse DC.

Turning over a new leaf in 08'

2008-04-18T16:31:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've been waiting to hear about the inner workings of Gender Fatigue. We'll we're back with a new theme and name--Gender Apocalypse!!! And we're ready to hit you up with an exciting new year of apocalyptic adventures to prepare you for the inevitable.

Here is what you can look forward to:

Analysis of DC's Emergency Evacuation Plans
Apocalyptic Literature and Films
Preparing grab and run packs
Investigating DC's water filtration system and how to make your own
World Financial and Food Crisis

And we've been interviewing artists that make you wanna jump...jump

Speaking of, here's an interview that mothershiester did with "Twink" Little, drummer from Mambo Sauce.

The show must go on!

2007-11-21T11:57:00.000-08:00

One of our big hopes for this blog is to post the audio of our shows so that anyone can listen to them any time. We are working on putting up some samplers and mixes as well, but in the mean time, here is the first show we are posting - yes it's randomly from May, but what the hell - and we'll be posting more an more and more, especially the newer ones.

Radio Hybrid presents: Gender Fatigue - May 15 2007

dance tutorial

2007-11-19T16:13:00.000-08:00

this will be a recurring feature on gender fatigue:
we find it really important to dance, and we often try to do that on our show as well as every day of our lives. so here is a photo to remind you good ways to dance!
all identities protected of course, including of secret dance operatives djs bj, ry-ry, bent and rat.
photo credit: dj trash formerly known as dj food sometimes known as 1/2 of choque y fuga

another pic!

2007-11-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

this is bent with one of our great recent guests - pisey from cambodia; she works with the group womyn's agenda for change.

here we are in the studio with another recent great guest, manoher, from sangama in bangalore india:

theme song we play every week on our show

2007-11-18T15:08:00.001-08:00

this is the newest version of the themesong that we play at the start of every gender fatigue show. we hope you like it!!

Fair is Fair!

2007-11-18T12:32:00.000-08:00

Billie Jean: I'm Billie Jean Davy, and I wanna set the record straight.
Ringwald: [notices hair cut very short] Oh my God!
Policeman #1: Wow!
Billie Jean: I'm not a liar, I'm not a thief, and neither is my brother.
Binx: [cuts in] Hello, ma!
Billie Jean: [shoves Binx aside] Sorry, that is him. Mom, I don't know when we'll be comin' home, but we love you. I know people are making up stories about us. Don't you believe them. As for you, Mr. Pyatt. You are so sleazy.
Putter: [cheers on camera] YEA!
Billie Jean: You think you can do anything you want and then lie about it and we just have to take it, because what are we? Just a bunch of kids. Well not this time. From now on we're doin' this our way. No lyin', no cheatin', fair is fair.
Kid #1 in Crowd: [at electronics store watching TV] Alright!
Billie Jean: $608 dollars for the scooter your son trashed. That's what you owe, and we're NOT turnin' ourselves in til we get it. Fair is fair! We didn't start this, we didn't mean it to happen, but we're not givin' up til you pay. FAIR IS FAIR!

genius is born

2007-11-18T10:47:00.001-08:00

dance!