Slutwalk Wellington

Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.
- Toni Morrison.

One of my biggest problems with how the media and some of the (I want to say annoyingly close minded) people who do not support the Slutwalk movement is that they have focussed on the word slut and the skimpy clothing. NOT the actual message behind it, which was that we need to put a stop to victim blaming.

We did not miss the point of this march. You did.

Being there at the march was amazing, because there were hundreds of 'sluts' and 'friends of sluts' chanting for our (and I mean ALL women's) rights to be able to wear what we like and NOT be blamed for rape. The media uses language that blames the victim, so society does as well. SHE was dressed promiscuously, SHE was drinking, SHE has slept with a lot of people in the past, SHE is a slut, a whore, a skank, SHE was asking for it. Why is it rarely HE IS A RAPIST? We live in a society that tells us not to get raped. That if we do it must be our fault some how. That we weren't vigilant enough, that we weren't careful enough, that we were probably asking for it anyway. Rape is a crime of violence. I have heard this comparison been made: If a store is robbed, we do not say it was the owners fault for having all his goods on display, it is the shoplifters. If a person is mugged we do not say it is their fault for carrying a wallet, it is the person who robbed them. So WHY does a woman get blamed for her rape?



The truth is, that the majority (and that's a LARGE majority) of rape is committed by people who know the victim. Meaning that it has nothing to do with how you are dressed. A skimpy outfit does not mean that you are 'open for business to anyone with a penis' and the number of sexual partners you have had in the past does not mean that you have to say yes to every person who comes along demanding it.

I found this video on youtube of one of the speakers, Nicole Skews from Wellington Young Feminists' Collective & Rape Crisis: who put it very eloquently:



I would love to have video footage of more of the speakers, but that was all I could find online.

My favourite chant of the day was "However we dress, where ever we go, YES means YES and NO means NO" which is the point of the march. The signs said it perfectly, so I will end with some pics I took on the march and some links to go if you want to read what other people had to say:











Further reading:
http://theladygarden.org/2011/06/27/walking/
http://yestodayiamthankful.blogspot.com/
http://thehandmirror.blogspot.com/2011/06/slutwalk-stuff.html
And def. read: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/5186785/SlutWalk-takes-aim-at-rapists

Escape The Fate and Oh Sleeper

Escape The Fate and Oh Sleeper

Tue May 3rd, 2011
The Studio, Auckland.



Oh Sleeper opened, and while I enjoyed them I don't think I will bother getting their album.



Escape the Fate however were amazing! From the moment they stepped on stage I was captivated. Craig (the singer) was sick, and had apparently been in the hospital earlier that day, but didn't want to cancel the show so he performed anyway. He occasionally had the shakes (understandably), but it was still a brilliant performance. They sang all my fave songs (including 'Situations'), and even sung one of my other faves with acoustic guitar.



I got a little damaged in the mosh pit - I managed to get my hand on a drumstick - only to have someone gouge my hand and take a couple of (small, but still painful)chucks of flesh out of my hand. They won that unfortunately, as my other hand couldn't get there fast enough to yank it away from them, but still - battle scars.



I was gutted when the show ended, and will def. see them again if I get the chance.

Richter City Roller Derby Presents: Triple Header

Richter City Roller Derby Presents: Triple Header



16 April · 18:00 - 21:00
TSB Bank Arena, Wellington


"To kick the 2011 home season off with a BANG, Richter City brings you a one off special night of roller derby you will never forget!

Three short, sharp and fast games featuring established Richter City favourites Brutal Pageant and Smash Malice, as well as the introduction of an exciting new third home team, filled with crowd favourites and new faces." - Richter city's event page.

I decided to cheer for Brutal Pageant again this year (because I love their outfits, and a couple of my fave players are on the team). Alex however jumped ship and now supports the new team Comic Slams (because their name is a funny play on the awful font, plus hey, superhero/comic book themed) so we have forgiven her.

Brutal did not do as well this year and they did in 2010, but I will still LOVE them. Comic Slams were the winners for the night, but all the games were very close.

Lots of fun (as always).

Richter City All Stars vs. the Sydney Assassins.

How cool is it that Wellington hosted the first ever international derby game to be played in New Zealand! That is freaking awesome! Even better, we went down for the day to see it! Yay for derby!!

The Sydney league has been playing as a leauge for longer than our Wellington girls (I think), so I thought they would probably win, but man did the kiwi girls give them a run for their money! It was the best game I have seen so far. The Assassions are amazing on defence, but Richter City held there own.

After an impressive game, the Assassins came out on top with a 164-128 victory. But that score in derby is a very close game.

Freaking AWESOME!!

Homegrown

So this is the fourth Homegrown since it started, and was the fourth one I attended (yup, I am very proud of that fact!) I didn't get to spend as much time in Wellington as I would have liked (my heart will forever belong there) but I did get to see some of my favourite NZ bands. I can't be bothered doing a proper review, so here are some pretty pictures I took, and maybe some comments.

Supermodel: I had never heard of them and didn't know what to expect, but they were playing before Motocade so we thought 'Why not?'. They turned out to be awesome!





Next was Motocade: and they are always brilliant (fun fact, I first saw these guys live at the first Homegrown). I love the single 'Holy Moly', but even better they played my fave song 'Friends'.



After that was Ivy Lies. I had heard the single 'Addicted' a year earlier on the C4 ad and had been trying to hear more of their stuff since. I had even leagally downloaded a couple of their singles from itunes, but was worried that they would be one of those girl groups who were made awesome by autotune in the studio, and sucked live. Not the case. They rock. I bought the album afterwards. WOOT!





After that we headed over to the Jim Beam Rockstage. We managed to get to second row of the mosh pit in time to catch the end of Black River Drive, who I thought were good, but I didn't enjoy them enough to want to race out and buy their album or anything.



After that was one of my fave NZ bands THE CHECKS: God I freaking love these guys. I have actually lost count of how many times I have seen them live, (and I am pretty sure four of those times were at each homegrown). Unfortunately because they were on the rock stage instead of their usual place on the indie stage, the sound quality wasn't as good (and by that I mean it wasn't as LOUD) and you couldn't hear the actual words half the time. Plus the singer did seem REALLY out of it (just how many drugs did he take before getting on stage?). But as always, it was still an awesome show. Squeeee The Checks!!





Then we killed some time before heading over to the Redbull Studio Live stage and caught the end of Cairo Knife Fight before The Phoenix Foundation. And if I could go back in time I would probably stay at the rock stage longer and miss these acts.



But then came The Clean! These guys are the Godfathers of Indie rock in NZ and it was so amazing to see them live.



And we finished up with an always amazing, very energetic Die! Die! Die!. I love these guys (even if the singer does look a lot like my mate Jeremy) and as always they were well worth seeing.





So it was a great night in the end. A couple of run ins with rude, drunk, annoying people in the audience, but that always happens. The music more than made up for it. Only next year guys can you not make it such a long walk between stages! We missed out on seeing Tiki Tane because he was all the way across near Oriental Bay, and by the time we pushed through the crowds and waited in line numerous amounts of time we had missed his show. Boo. But the rest was good. I think I will give it an A-

AFP Goes Down on Napier! A.K.A my Sappy Love Letter to AFP

A Letter to Amanda Palmer.

I saw you for the first time performing with Brian Viglione under the band name 'The Dresden Dolls' in 2006. I had never really heard any of your music before, but that night I knew I had been converted.

I got your albums, I learnt the words and I saw you both times you returned to Wellington to play solo shows at Bodega. I loved your punk cabaret style, your beautiful outfits and the fact that you don't believe in the beauty standard (which as someone who has always felt self-conscious about my appearance, appealed to me). Your lyrics are clever and moving and are always stuck in my head and usually played on my ipod.

You are honest and most importantly you don't forget your fans. I think your total dedication to the people who love you is what makes me adore you the most. Constantly keeping us up to date through twitter and your blog posts, your ninja gigs and the fact that you have come to New Zealand three times in three years (when most musicians will visit us maybe once or twice in their careers) just makes you so much cooler!

So when I couldn't afford to go to your Wellington gig this year (because I lost my insurance job in Wellington and had to shift to Napier where I now work on check outs)I was heartbroken. I tried to make the best of it and enjoy art deco weekend, but it wasn't quite the same. Until Sunday morning when a friend updated their fb status about a ninja gig at Marine Parade. WHAT! AFP in Napier? For reals? I almost couldn't believe it.

The show was amazing, even in the rain. And although the crowd was not as big as I was hoping for, the fact that you managed to convert randoms from off the street into fans (two men asked me who you were, where you were from and how they could find out more about you) shows just how impressive you are.

The fact that I then got your autograph and a photo with you made up for the fact that I had to miss your gig. However, next time you come back I will be in the front row of Bodega, singing along and wearing a big grin.

Napier Art Deco Weekend...

Because a lot of Napier was destroyed in the Hawkes Bay earthquake of 1931, most of the city was rebuilt in the Art Deco style that was wildly popular at the time. So to celebrate every year lots of rich white people come to our city, with beautiful vintage cars, dress up in '20s-'30s style clothes while getting drunk and dancing to jazz and big band music. There are lots of lovely old people and quite a few guys in uniform (Navy boys, army boys, air force, oh my), and the atmosphere is lots of fun.


Most of the events cost (A LOT), but there was lots of free stuff for us to enjoy. Friday and Saturday nights we went dancing at the Soundshell, there was a vintage car parade during the day and jazz in the evenings. Sunday there was also The Great Gatsby Picnic but we had to miss it because of skating.







Next year I will have to make sure that I save up more money so that we can do some of the more costly events. Like the Jitterbug dancing lessons and one of the fancy dinners.

But you have to love it when the whole town dresses up for a whole weekend. Even if you can't afford to do alot of the paid events, there is still plenty of free stuff, and I love any excuse to dress up :)