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Buffy Sainte-Marie, Queen of Folk

Posted on October 7th, 2009 in 60s, music with 3 comments

From Sasha

I just got my latest issue of Bust magazine (one of my fave reads– the thinking woman's Cosmo, I like to call it) in the mail, and I was excited to see an article about Buffy Saint-Marie. Buffy started her career as a folk singer in the wild and wacky 60s, and I knew about her because my friend Angela in high school had her record Illuminations:

I didn't really get folk music back then, since I was mostly into goth and British guitar bands, but I totally got her cool "Vampire" song. That chilling voice with its sustained vibrato, that haunting melody and dark lyrics– amazing.

Even though all the big names covered her songs at one point or another (she wrote songs that were huge hits for Donovan, Chet Atkins, Janis Joplin, and Taj Mahal- even Elvis covered her music!), I personally don't recall that Buffy was ever considered "cool" until the recent Folk Revival. Come to find out this was probably because her music was blacklisted for decades in the U.S., due to her strong political stance. She continued to play in Europe, but her main venue in the U.S. was as a regular member of Sesame Street. She even breast fed her son on one groundbreaking episode!

A few months back I found this record in a clearance bin, and I picked it up based on the merit of the remembered "Vampire" song, and of course also for the great outfit on the cover: Continue Reading... (321 words + 3 images, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

This is a preview of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Queen of Folk. Read the full post (321 words + 3 images, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

Loud, Proud, and Dancing Like Crazy

Posted on July 2nd, 2009 in behind the music- personal stuff, local artists, musicians, & other creative folk, music, the folk we frolic with with 1 comment

From Sasha

Whoa! Somehow the weekend is racing towards me, and I haven't even caught up from the last one! If you're like me, a member of the technologically co-dependent generation, you don't quite feel ready to move into the future until the recent past is uploaded.

Sidewalk Art, Dolores Street

Last weekend was Pride in San Francisco, the biggest celebration in the whole world of the awesomeness that is the gay/lesbian/bi-sexual/tran-sexual community. Gay folks may be more present than ever before in the media and American consciousness, but (as I often have to remind people), it is seldom easy in our culture to grow up gay. There is still so much shame and fear around the expression of different sexualities, if not the experience of downright social ostracization and violence.

You might wonder why I am standing on my soap box in my fashion blog to tell you something you already know, but there is still an incredible amount of ignorance around this subject. In my small town the "cool" post-person raised is eyebrows sky-high when I told him where I was off to for the weekend, and even in the Bay Area I have known of people who have been beaten up, had rotting veggies thrown at them, etc., just for being "queer". So many of my friends are gay/lesbian, and I feel very strongly that they deserve all the rights afforded to "straight" people. This is not just a theory, it is a conviction that comes from life experience– try counseling a dear friend who, as a lesbian mother, lost her child when her wife left her, because gay marriage isn't legal in California and she had no legal custody. I could really go on. But let's talk celebrating!

Here I am at The Roxie on 16th Street… my friends Kymmie and Denah made a film (with me in it) called Devil's Dairymaid, which showed at the prestigious Frameline Gay/Lesbian/Trans-gender film festival, as part of the experimental film shorts program.

There's (left to right) Inbar, Chris, and Jessie, and Amy; thanks to everyone who came out and made it a full house!!! You cheered so loud for me and that butter churn… gotta love it.

Me and my dear friend Armelle, who came down from Oregon to visit with me and our mutual friend Terese– here we are waiting for the 24 Divisadero!

My friends have the cutest kids…

The girls reunited: me, Terese, and Armelle!

Andy from the SF band LSD and the Search for God (I can feel my father's comment coming here- I dunno Dad, you're going to have to ask Andy yourself!), Chris, and me… musical buddies 4 ever!

The Dyke March!

Ladies…

Rockers! These are my friends who play in the all-girl SF band Excuses for Skipping. They rocked the whole parade as it marched by!

For those of you who want to see it in action, here's a video snippet from their amazing cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean!:

Continue Reading... (560 words + 15 images, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

This is a preview of Loud, Proud, and Dancing Like Crazy. Read the full post (560 words + 15 images, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Ghosts, Miners, and Mandolins

Posted on April 20th, 2009 in behind the music- personal stuff, bohemian, local artists, musicians, & other creative folk, music, photo shoot fun, prairie, the lore of the land & herbs with 16 comments

…and the beautiful family homestead that encompasses them all…

From Amber

Last Friday me, Sasha, Graham, Mycie, and a couple other friends headed out to the home of local musician Mariee Sioux and family for a night of homemade pizza, catching up with friends, and snapping gorgeous photographs of their haunted land and of some lovely haunted threads:

Okay I don't exactly know if the land is haunted, but there is a palpable history to the place. The building in the above photographs, for example, was built by a miner in the 1850s. The mandolin hanging there is symbolic of Mariee's father's love of the instrument. A love that you can actually hear come through on the tracks he contributed to on her album Faces In The Rocks .

There is literally no end to the amazing backgrounds we found to take photographs in front of around their place, and we didn't even get around to all of it! Here are some shots of the new pieces that will be listed in the shop this week:

Continue Reading... (625 words + 47 images, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

This is a preview of Ghosts, Miners, and Mandolins. Read the full post (625 words + 47 images, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

All In The Family

Posted on March 27th, 2009 in behind the music- personal stuff, local artists, musicians, & other creative folk, music with 1 comment

From Sasha

I wish I could blog more, but alas, between working full-time at my day job, running an online store, leading a rock band, and trying to have A Life, there is very little time left over to share with my wider community of online friends. Oh, the Catholic Guilt!

My Excuse For Not Blogging:

(that's a Marie Antoinette costume, circa 1969, that I rented from the costume shop in rough and Ready, and altered into a shorter dress)

But, Good Blogger or Bad Blogger, despair I shall not, especially because while one blogger rests, others are picking up the slack… most notably, two members of my very own family!

First, there is my hubby, Chris, who writes a satirical blog a la The Onion. He errs too far on the side of modesty, and tells NO ONE about his blog, but he agreed that I could share it with all ya'll! It's called Fakeblog and it now features a photo-shopped pic to accompany each post (yes, this is from the man who draws the hilarious comics you see on our Flickr)!