This Week In On Pirate Satellite - Carrie Brownstein Book Edition

by Joshua B. Hoe So another week has passed. This week I wrote about Doctor Ben Carson, tried to determine when U2 jumped the shark, and told the story of my long trip through Kansas with Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted.

But, by far, the coolest thing I did this week...BY FAR was sitting down to read Carrie Brownstein's amazing new book "Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl."

Hunger Makes Her A Modern Girl

Carry Brownstein, Hunger Makes Makes Me A Modern Girl

Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely LOVE the band Sleater-Kinney.

They kind of were a band that started at the tail end of the RIOT GIRLLL movement and I still listen to several of their albums weekly (usually Call the Doctor or Dig Me Out).

Carrie Brownstein is one of the guitarists for SK (they use a unique two-guitar and drums line-up without a bass player). But, I suspect most people probably know Carrie from the IFC show Portlandia.

There are so many great things about the book...let me share a few:

1. It is absolutely fearless and courageous, she is so open and bare about sharing her personal and family history (Mom's serious anorexia, Dad repressing his gayness for years, and her childhood responses) that it is often sad, troubling, uncomfortable, and beautiful.

There is a short story about the demise of the family dog and neglect that made me tear up a little (seriously).

And that is just in the first 30 pages.

2. I felt so "at home" following her musical journey.

She talks about encountering early punk and having record store owners turn her on to Television (I had a very similar first exposure to Marquee Moon). She talks about how Bikini Kills lyrical honesty effected her (me too). She talked about seeing Heavens to Betsy and Nirvana.

She shares how performing let her pretend she was not that person from that broken family.

She shares how it feels to be trying to find, in bands and music, a new family. And about how sometimes that support system can fail.

And we have similar tastes in music.

I can't tell you how many times I changed what I was listening to while I was turning pages just because she started talking about another band I had either forgotten about or had let fall into the stuff I haven't listened to in too long.

3. It is really well-written. She is really smart and funny and talented and has, seemingly, no fear about sharing her feelings and experiences.

I guess I am just always happy when a music bio comes out and the musician can really write.

Anyway, the book is not that long and it is both a great way to follow her journey from suburban kid to post-punk legend all while getting great music curation and really gaining an appreciation for Carrie Brownstein the person.

I heartily recommend you giving it a read (and listen to Sleater Kinney).

Margaret Cho's 12 Days Of Rage

Maybe a tie for best thing this week was the 12 Days Of Rage campaign by Margaret Cho.

I was honored to (Twitter) walk alongside Margaret Cho over the last week and a half as she tried to create some new spaces for victims of sexual violence to speak out (I tried to help fight off trolls).

What Margaret has been doing is creating public spaces for people to share their stories while Margaret plays blocker basically taking all the flak from trolls and critics.

The sad thing is that most of the people who were responding poorly to her work spent most of their time bashing her comedy, her looks, and misunderstanding what she was doing.

Basically, she wrote a piece about how survivors of sexual violence should "kill their rapists" - but she meant that they should kill the power their rapist had over them...Many people took her statement as literal (without reading the piece).

It should not be surprising that victims of sexual violence have a great deal of anger that they cannot find a place to put. Margaret was helping people release the anger...and trying to help them find healing.

What I do not understand is why people ignore the literally 1,000's of people who shared how much Margaret was helping them to bash her.

Why would you want to silence or shame someone for helping 1000's of people share their stories?

Look, I have been on both sides of abuse, it is and will remain my position that we are each of us capable of terrible violence and of great good in the world. But, we have to be honest with ourselves first and be reflexive about what we do that is bad in the world.

I certainly try to live by that myself.

I also want to send my prayers out to anyone struggling with their feelings of rage.

And I also send my thoughts and prayers to all the people of color on college campuses feeling threatened or at risk! Stay Strong!

Last week I wrote a piece about sexual violence and my own struggles as both abused and (sadly) abuser...Today I wrote some Tweets on the subject I was really proud of:

Again, millions upon millions of cases of sexual violence do not happen b/c a few sexists "outthere" = bad actors https://t.co/ik8opEajSb

— Joshua B. Hoe (@OnPirateSat) November 12, 2015

And even if you are without blame - you probably contribute to economies of sexism and racism - so reflection good https://t.co/ik8opEajSb

— Joshua B. Hoe (@OnPirateSat) November 12, 2015

We need desperately to change how we raise boys to disassociate from emotion and swallow pain https://t.co/wAJgECoY8d

— Joshua B. Hoe (@OnPirateSat) November 12, 2015

We need desperately to stop normalizing objectification of women (give voices + possibility of consent to bodies) https://t.co/wAJgECoY8d

— Joshua B. Hoe (@OnPirateSat) November 12, 2015

And we need to respond to sexual curiosity with information not shaming + not culturally shame sexual inexperience https://t.co/wAJgECoY8d

— Joshua B. Hoe (@OnPirateSat) November 12, 2015

And this one about racism:

We have to break the belief that being called "racist" is worse than participating in racist structure + privilege https://t.co/05mT9fWbaW

— Joshua B. Hoe (@OnPirateSat) November 12, 2015

I was kind of on a roll (If I do say so myself).

Usually I make some music recommendations here, but I would rather close on that...Everyone have a great weekend!

Calculated by Heavens To Betsy

OpinionJoshua B. HoeComment