I feel like I’ve dropped off the face of the Earth recently. The film festival has been going well – as well as some of the collaborative projects we’ve got on the go. What I’m doing now – it just really keeps affirming that this is what I want to do. Other than that I’ve been back at ole University – and currently working on a seminar on Gender In Cultural Performance. I love music, I really really do – though maybe am not at culturally versed as other members of my group. Female artists have always had a major influence on me – stylistically, emotionally – the whole shebang. From Spice Girls to Riot Grrls, the way woman are portrayed within the music media is constantly evolving – but as I ready more in to it, it’s very difficult to try and put together a very black and white argument in which is a far more complex issue than female oppression.
It seems as long as there has been contemporary music there has always been woman pushing the gender boundaries – Grace Jones, Le Tigre, Sinead O’Connor, Missy Elliot – yet it feels easy to argue that in this case the exception proves the rule. For the most part in music videos – woman seem to be conforming to all these conventions of portrayal of woman in the music video. It’s little things that you see in advertising, the cock of the head – biting on fingers. It’s become so common in music video (and advertising in general) that we don’t realise how odd it is till we put men in the same position.
When discussing gender in performance in the past few years, it’s almost in avoidable to not talk about Lady Gaga. I can’t quite decide if she is using pop culture and conventions, subverting them to make a statement about mass media and gender identity or if it’s just all performance art playing to the patriarchy (although in a very non-traditional sense.) Either way I have all weekend to mull over the issue (and a mass of textbooks to keep me company) but I really am curious to know about how you feel about gender roles in musical performance, and how woman and men are portrayed in the media. Thoughts?
In other news – the film festival IS less than two weeks away, so everything has been pretty mental. I’ve finally managed to book a piano company to bring a disclavier down from Dundee to Glasgow. Do you have any idea how frigging expensive piano moving companies I? To be fair – who we ended up using was actually pretty cheap, but some quotes were frightening. That out the way – one of the collaborative efforts with one of our partners is nearly complete. The photographers, make up artist and models have been great for this particular number – really looking forward to fully coming clean with dates and info and the like, but here is sneaky little peak courtesy of the photographer Levi Macdonald.
Unedited and behind the scenes. I think it looks pretty good, and the partner seems pretty darn pleased with the results too. A few little loose ends to tie up, but it’s looking pretty sweet so far. Luckily Jessops loosing the film from the first day of shooting didn’t do us too much damage! The partner we’ve been working with have been nothing but astoundingly supportive – so hoping everything goes off without any further hiccups.
In other news Pyuupiru has an event page here. FYI you can get tickets at GFT,CCA or hell…even online.
I’m hoping to post a highlight of things I’m hoping to get to see this year at the film festival, but for now I’ve got to brush up on my feminist theory and reacquaint myself with a budget sheet. Hope you have a lovely weekend lovelies!