INTERVIEW WITH GEFFEN³ (from Issue #4)

INTERVIEW WITH GEFFEN³

GEFFEN³, consisting of Geffen, Kakaokatze and Wijnstijn, is trying to bring the punkrock  and good ol’ pop back in electronic music. Why I feature them in here? Because it’s out of the ordinary dancefloor sound that enables you to feel somewhat intellectual while grooving! The lyrics are straight to the point but still filled with subtile hints, the sound is energetic but never stressy. And I deem this combi as a good way to perfection.

Listen yourself:

Oh, and because they appear to be really nice folks, too.

You can also enjoy some of their music on myspace.com/geffen3

Here’s GEFFEN³:

1. Tell us about your music – what you love about it, what inspires you, etc.

g3: The insparation is people, relationships, love and hate.

And of course foood !

So we put all our joy and sadness, our carelessness and seriousness in one pot, cook them 2gether till the delicious meal is ready.

Tea mixture for period cramps (from issue #4)

Tea mixture for period cramps

 

Take 30 grammes of stinging nettle herb, lady’s mantle and white deadnettle herb and mix it with 20 grammes of stinging nettle’s seeds and yarrow.

Put half a litre of boiling water over 3 tea spoons of the herb mixture and let it brew for 5-8 minutes. Then pour it through a filter.

As long as the cramps appear, drink 2 cups every morning.

Poem from Dayna

(contribution from the Mixed Issue)

*****************

 am more than solid

I’m myself, me in seventeen different

flavours

My songs are flowers

and your words are guilt free.

I’m dreaming in open eyes

laugh like ripe fruit

Smile

the weather is better

inside yourself.

branch and sunset,

bread and water

kisses fluent in goodbye

underneath street light

reflecting

heart struck eyes

I peel away to a

better place

We make magick in the

spaces between my fingers.

I am still, in passing

Honest like the open

sky

Promises making

this painless

run away with

me and my ambitions.

Stars explode the stereo

and my eyes are in your direction

swinging towards

something just past my mind.

The pavement

welcomes us

to how it’s supposed to be.

(written by Dayna)

http://www.myspace.com/bata_motel

Girl thinking stuff

(orioginall appeared in  Wolverette’s Mixed Issue)

GIRL THINKING STUFF

What are your first thoughts when you get out of bed in the morning? Do you still get out of bed at all? High five for you. That’s cool.

Do you ever count your daily sins? Like, what you think sins are. And what other people think sins are. Is there a difference between both? And which? Because sometimes it’s sure hard to find the loopholes in society that hold you back from living.

Did you brush your teeth today? How often? Do you like the taste of toothpaste on your tongue? And why? Does it give you the feeling of doing something right, makes it feel you fresh and hygienic cause it tastes like mint? What i fit didn’t taste like anything?

I didn’t comb my hair today.

Are you on your period today? Do you tell people you are? Why? Or why not? I like my menstruation. Some girls don’t I wonder what makes the difference. It can’t be only about having cramps or not.

What was the last time you went out on the streets, completely without any make-up? Do you think „This is my face!“ Or is your made up face more familiar to you by now?

Recognizing a thin Line

I’m a lucky girl. I am 26 years old and I cannot say that I am scarred in any way when it comes to sexual harrassment, being molested, rape, and the likes. Sure – there HAS been sexual harrassment. But nothing that really hurt me.

I have to say I am quite self-esteemed and what happened to me most likely would’ve been a lot more hurtful for other girls. I also have seen so many times how women got into really uncomfortable situations when a guy didn’t know when it’s time to stop.

The advice I usually give is: search the public. If you scream at him, if you hit him, whatever – if you are LOUD, people will turn around and actually recognize that there is a girl with an unwelcome guy around her. This gives the folks around you the opportunity to take an eye on you if necessary instead of thinking this is a private issue or maybe just playful banter between a flirting couple.

But there are situations when public just isn’t around.

We all know that most cases of rape happen within the family or a circle of friends.

I still cannot imagine how this must be like and I am dead glad I don’t have to. To recognize that it is WRONG what people who should encourage, love and respect you must be a huge thing to master. To turn against them even more.

But as for someone like me who has an awesome family and great friends it always was seen as quite unevitable that girls who experience must , at least inside of them, feel the need to fight back, even if they don’t dare to.

Until I remembered some things from my past.

Quote Collection from Wolverette’s Mixed Issue

Have fun!

 

You don’t have to signal a social conscience by looking like a frump.  Lace knickers won’t hasten the holocaust, you can ban the bomb in a feather boa just as well as without, and a mild interest in the length of hemlines doesn’t necessarily disqualify you from reading Das Kapital and agreeing with every word.  ~Elizabeth Bibesco

Women are all female impersonators to some degree.  ~Susan Brownmiller

 

I didn’t want to be a boy, ever, but I was outraged that his height and intelligence were graces for him and gaucheries for me.  ~Jane Rule

We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons… but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.  ~Gloria Steinem

 

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.  Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort.  ~Sydney Smith

I’ve spent most of my life walking under that hovering cloud, jealousy, whose acid raindrops blurred my vision and burned holes in my heart.  Once I learned to use the umbrella of confidence, the skies cleared up for me and the sunshine called joy became my faithful companion.  ~Astrid Alauda

 

The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others.  ~Sonya Friedman

 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.  ~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles,” 1992

 

Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?  ~Fanny Brice

 

You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny.  The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand.  ~Irene C. Kassorla

Classroom Gender Issues

As a post-graduate teaching student I have studied literature relating specifically to the topic of gender issues in the classroom and the difference in attainment between the sexes. Through my reading I identified four key areas of study and discussion which particularly interested me. Several of the pieces of literature I looked at made reference to the ways in which boys and girls learn, “suggesting gender differences in how individuals think” (Bleach 1998, citing Kohn 1995, page 3). This was a recurring theme and appeared in strongly feminist literature by authors such as Skelton, Francis and MacNaughton, as well as less politically-motivated works. I knew from my own practical experience that boys and girls behaved differently in the classroom, as in any situation, so it does stand to reason that their preferred learning styles will vary. However, I disliked this way of thinking of the two genders as being completely abstract and different from one another; surely all children (and indeed all adults) are an individual composition of gender, social and natural factors. Skelton and Francis also take into account the idea that perhaps male and female teachers teach differently, or “that boys perceive their male teachers in a [more] positive light” (2003, page 7), yet point out that no study has yet identified a “positive link between higher numbers of male teachers and increased primary schoolboy attainment” (2003, page 7).

 

 

Several authors discussed social class and background, considering it to be a key factor central to a child’s educational potential. It has been put forward that children from white, middle-class backgrounds are much more likely to succeed academically than counterparts from ethnic minority or working-class backgrounds (Holt 1990; Francis 2000; Skelton and Francis eds. 2003; Mackinnon et al. eds. 1998). I found this interesting and this is an idea that, on the whole, educators do accept as fact. Indeed “we can expect to see many more poor and/or non-white children” (Holt 1990, page 7) struggling academically, in comparison their wealthier, white peers. While this is an interesting factor to consider and explore in a study on attainment in school, it is not very applicable to my own research, as all the children in the class in which my study and work took place are of white backgrounds, and the vast majority come from wealthy, middle-class families.

 

 

A further recurrent theme in the works I studied was the idea of children studying ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ subjects at school and consequently moving on to gender-biased careers or places of work (Mackinnon et al. eds. 1998; Coffey and Acker 1991; Bleach 1998). These so-called ‘feminine’ subjects have been identified as creative, language-based subjects, while mathematics and science subjects are considered more ‘masculine’. This idea does seem to feed into my own research and subsequent findings, as the girls in the class I worked with did prefer subjects such as literacy, art and music, perhaps because of a natural aptitude for the subjects. I found that the boys performed slightly better in mathematics than in literacy. The final key theme I identified in the literature was the construction of masculinity by schoolboys. The idea that boys need to create their gender identity by behaving in a certain social manner, such as domination of physical space in the classroom (MacNaughton 2000), as a way of accounting for poor behaviour and attainment featured strongly in feminist literature.

 

(written by Amy Louise Cunningham)

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Francis, B. and Skelton, C. eds., (2001) Investigating gender: Contemporary perspectives in education, Buckingham: Open University Press

 

Francis B. and Skelton, C. (2005) Reassessing Gender and Achievement, Oxon: Routledge

 

Head, J. (1999) Understanding the Boys: Issues of Behaviour and Achievement, London: Falmer Press

 

Skelton, C. and Francis, B. eds., (2005) A Feminist Critique of Education: 15 years of gender education, Oxon: Routledge

 

Francis, B. (2005) Not/Knowing their place: Girls’ classroom behaviour In: Lloyd, G. ed. Problem Girls: Understanding and supported troubled and troublesome girls and young women. [online] Routledge/Google books, pp9-22 (only page 9-12 are available online), Available from [Accessed on 7thJuly 2008]

Interview with Petty Booka

Interview with PETTY BOOKA

 

Hey and hellooo! Thanks for answering my questions! Let’s start with the basics: do you remember your first musical experience? When did you start music and when found a ukulele first the way to your heart?

 

Petty :  My mother’s nursery song.

Booka:  Whistle!

Petty:  Actually we started learning to play Ukulele when the Petty Booka project started.

Booka: And now Ukulele is the only instrument I can play.

Petty: I play guitar.

 

Now founding a hawaiian bluegrass band isn’t exactly the most 

obvious idea, especially in Japan, I can imagine. So – how was this ingenious idea born?

 

This ingenious idea was born from Hiroshi Asada, our music producer.  

He is a promoter and has been brought lots of great musicians to Japan from 1970s, like Tom Waits.

 

Is there any philosophy behind Petty Booka?

 

We (whole Petty Booka family, we and Audrey, Hiroshi  and our band musicians) love American roots music and America.

We would like to tell people how great  all the singer/song writers and all the musicians are we have listened to.

 

Let’s hear about the most enjoyable gig you’ve played! Any other 

anecdotes welcome, too!

 

We did one once on the train. Yeah, we were invited to Dan Hicks Christmas show at Fillmore in SF and we sang with him!  It was the most fantastic show we had ever.

 

How do you choose your songs?

 

Team Petty Booka (Hiroshi and Audrey + some more people) choose all the songs we sing.

 

Do you see still any challenges for Petty Booka?

 

Hiroshi is starting collecting songs of canzone… maybe we need to learn Italian!

 

Please tell us a bit about your latest album – what do you love 

about it, why did you wanna make it the way it is?

 

We love it!  We have been making Hawaiian albums, country + bluegrass albums, Dance Hall music and Christmas albums but this is the first full bluegrass album.  Of course it was 

our producer’s idea but we love bluegrass the best.

 

What do you do besides your band?

 

We do another unit called Duet, sing Bob Dylan songs.

 

Any specific wishes for Petty Booka’s future? Any personal 

dreams and hopes you’d like to share?

 

 World tour!!

 

—————–

Thanks to Petty Booka for the interview!<3

www.sister.co.jp/pettybooka

Bailey White on Fertility & Feminism

appeared in Wolverette #4:

On Fertility and Feminism

 by Bailey White

 

Last month, I had my first real period in five years.

Cramps, irritation, bloating – the whole bit. I felt like a teenager on the cusp of puberty. After all, it wasn’t long after puberty that I started taking the birth control pill.

Periods were on non-issue on the pill. They were regulated, down to the hour, and easy to manage. When I ran out of pills last month, I neglected to go see a doctor[1].

For the first time in five years, I didn’t know when to expect my period. When it came, I was at school, and I was unprepared.

I never had to use a tampon dispenser before – maybe if I had I would have known that they are seldom refilled. I scurried building to building, looking for one that was stocked. But it’s a small campus, and to my chagrin, there were no tampons to be had.

It wasn’t five minutes before my political science class that I blew past the instructor. He was heading to the class, and I still searching the ladies’ rooms.

He said with a smile, “Bailey, you’re going the wrong way,” and for a second, I considered grabbing him by the shoulders, shaking him and shouting, “I need a tampon!”

That’d teach him to assume I didn’t have a good reason for my frantic demeanor. Instead I said something like, “Be right back,” and kept walking.

Eventually, I ran into a classmate who put me out of my misery, and all was well again. But it was around this time that I began to think about my fertility and my body.

I’ve read articles about coming off the pill, and reclaiming “womanhood” (that is, one’s menstrual cycle). The implication is that the pill is a man-made (and the emphasis tends to be on “man”) apparatus by which we stifle what it is that makes us female.

The idea is that we should not fix what is not broken, and should not medicate that which is not a disease. Many people will say the same about anti-depressants stifling the human condition. Incidentally, one often finds a substantial number of pot-smokers and drinkers among those who argue this point[2].

I’ve also read articles about young women getting tubal ligations, only to be met with condescending doctors who assert that women simply can’t make such a weighty decision while still young – they may change their minds. After all, women do have an obligation to give birth.

If I haven’t made it clear already, allow me to do so right now: I did not enjoy that period. During it, I found myself contemplating sterilization, or at least, some more permanent form of birth control, like an implant or IUD.

I am a feminist, and that’s not something I hesitate to say. But is feminism not about defying the social norms that dictate what a woman’s role should be? I fear that feminism has developed its own set of norms – of rules by which we must abide to truly identify ourselves as feminists.

And if feminism means that I need to embrace my period, renounce birth control and revel in my heavy flow, than I don’t know if I can call myself that. But, if feminism is indeed intended to level the playing field for all people, however the choose to administrate their bodies and all its functions, then that is something I can adhere to. Lately, I’m just not sure which it is.

---

[1] Admittedly, I have no good reason for this, my self-imposed busy schedule and a general dislike for the campus clinic are the excuses that I cite, but if I really needed to, I would have gone.

[2]  That is not to suggest that the argument is completely invalid, but rather, in my experience, it is often underdeveloped.

Pregnancy: Facts & Fiction (from Issue #4)

Pregnancy: Facts and Fiction, what Every Feminist Should Know!

by Sabrina Smith

(pictures: Chaz)

Pregnancy is one of the few things that most women will experience. What I mean is, most women will get pregnant at one stage or another in their lives; however feminism seems to turn a blind eye to this occurrence, especially third wave feminism and younger feminists.  There are countless third wave feminist message boards and websites that speak about music, but very few that address pregnancy, motherhood and birth. This leaves feminists vulnerable to media-led and un-feminist views about one of the most natural and collective experiences of womanhood. Currently, All I would like to do is address some of the myths and some of the facts and perhaps generally discuss my overall experience of being pregnant and being a feminist. I’m not saying “rush out and get pregnant” or anything like that. I just want to express how it’s felt for me and perhaps one day you’ll think back to this article, if you ever get pregnant, and be armed with a little bit of extra knowledge that they don’t tell you!

At the time of writing this I’m a twenty-seven year old feminist who resides in the UK with my partner and I’m currently seven months pregnant with my first child. I know it’s a boy and I know when he’s due. I’ve been to all the appointments, been to all the scans and we are both pretty healthy. Basically it’s considered a normal pregnancy. I’ve sectioned off things I wanted to say into various headings, both to organise my brain and for easy reference for you.

Antenatal Care

I’ve always been vaguely horrified that most doctors I have dealt with are male. Midwives are female it seems but they tend to act in a nursing capacity. Doctors are still male when you are pregnant and give birth and you will barely see one. The UK has a NHS facility which basically means that all your basic antenatal care is free. My experience is that this is pretty great, but don’t expect the best care. Anything that is considered “non basic” is extra and you will have to seek it out yourself and then be charged for it. Remember those TV shows where antenatal classes are a series of breathing techniques and funny positions often with hilarious consequences? It’s a lie. You will NOT be told about them by the midwife. She will inform you of a one off class, at the hospital you give birth if you are lucky, and it will be information for the birth. The 6 or 8 classes on the TV were once provided (your parents and/or your partners parents may tell you they still exist) but are not deemed “necessary” now.  This is fairly scary especially if you are a first time mum or a single parent or an expectant mother at all! The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) do the classes now. They are a charity and I’ve found it pretty hard to find one locally to me. They also cost around £200, but I think they are worth it if you can afford it. The elimination of these classes also eliminates the right for women who live on a lower income to have that basic knowledge and rights in birth and primary care of their child.