Wiscon, Necessary Voodoo

There is another cool point about madison in addition to the smoking ban and cool facial expressions mentioned in the interview below. That point is an event, which is a convention, specifically, America's largest feminist science fiction convention. Yes thats right, I, racist chauvanistic DJ am going to Wiscon, coming up May 25th-28th. No seriously. Except about the whole racist chauvanist thing. I don't really know how I feel about it except that two of my favorite new writers Kelly Link, and Benjamin Rosenbaum are going to be speaking, discussing and reading, and for that I'm really excited. If any of our readers happen to be going I totally want hang out with you (I can imagine the Venn diagram in my mind now, two zero dimensional points of space separated by an infinite distance.) I feel a little weird about it because one (1.) I'm a guy and will totally stick even more than I would at normal sci-fi convention, and two (2.) I've heard sci-fi conventions are notoriously cliquish, and hard approach as a newcomer. In a certain way I'm really nervous and afraid. Kind of in the same way a fat, balding, forty-something guy can make me feel lame for not having read the Sandman comics, but more like, with female authors. One of the things I'm doing to prepare and hopefully help fit in is I started reading A Room Of One's Own, which is really really good, and in fact less about what I expected feminism to be than about a need to express a creative spirit and a love of life gone about in a very Cartesian logical manner as to actually apply to real life. Anyways, at least theres no RPG room or medieval costume contest.


Okay, I also wanted to talk abut the new Björk album. In the beginning, a few weeks ago, I downloaded a few tracks and liked them all. The day before it came out Pitchfork gave it about a 5.7, which is a pretty big slam especially considering the extremely explanatory and charismatic interview she did with them two weeks prior. So I got the CD the next day anyways, and it turns out, they were right. Goddamn pitchforkmediadotcom was right. But its more complicated than that. This album has marked probably the most collaborations and guest artists she has worked with to date. In the interview she even expressed some anxiety about this issue, and now I can totally understand why. Björk it seems, works best when alone. When its just her, her laptop, and her incredible voice like on basically everything Vespertine and earlier she kicks ass. This is demonstrated by the awesomeness of Declare Independence off near the end of Volta. Its the most energetic in my opinion, and may even be a violent reaction to having to satisfy so many eager collaborators. Even the duets with fellow diva Antony, against all logic, don't always come off well. Again, I love Brian Chippendale and his work with Lightning Bolt, but that doesn't mean I have to hear his drums tacked on to the bottom of a Björk song. Etc, Etc... I also like the title track, Earth Intruders, which features a Timbaland beat, but to be honest its tweaked and sampled beyond any recognition of its source, and probably to its betterment.

Björk - Declare Independence

Björk - Earth Intruders