I wrongly assumed that it would be easy to fire off a blog briefly summarizing the history of women’s pictures. When I began, I quickly realized that it is a genre that’s simplistically treated as synonymous with both weepies/tearjerkers and their near opposite, the rom-com; it quickly proved to be more than I bargained for, which … Continue reading From the women’s picture to the chick flick
Month: March 2009
Fleeting and Forgotten Female Folkies — Women’s History Month
Lately, whilst reading about unfamiliar folkies popping up on my Pandora folk station, I sometimes feel like I'm reading the same thing over and over when it comes to a handful of female artists. I doubt that the reasons were the same, but several new (to me) discoveries had similar careers involving under-recognized talent, followed … Continue reading Fleeting and Forgotten Female Folkies — Women’s History Month
Happy Nowruz!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Today, for most observers (but tomorrow for others), is Persian New Year, variously and roughly Anglicized as Navrus (Tajikistan), Nawroz (Afghanistan), Nevruz Day (Albania), Nooruz (Iran), Nov Ruz Bairam (Kyrgyzstan), Nauryz Meyrami (Kazakhstan) and Novruz Bayram (Azerbaijan). As with the Lunar New Year, which is often referred to in the media as … Continue reading Happy Nowruz!
Ya Hoidz Me? – Talk About Bounce Music
For some reason, the Bounce scene, born nearly 20 years ago, seems to be undergoing a minor critical reassessment as it inspires curiosity in a new generation of fans amongst the young, the Euro, the old and new. I can only guess why. I suspect that part of it is a development of the ongoing, … Continue reading Ya Hoidz Me? – Talk About Bounce Music
Women of the Western — Female-centric Horse Operas
Since the dawn of film theory, film critics have loved the Western; probably because its engagement with formula and its psychological subtext are so obvious, so close to the surface, that theorizing about westerns is a bit like kicking gravel and striking oil. The genre bears a similarity to tales of knights errant, who … Continue reading Women of the Western — Female-centric Horse Operas
The unsung heroines of Punk/Post-Punk/No Wave/New Wave
Since its beginning, rock music has been a male dominated affair. Women, such as Wanda Jackson, were not just anomalies but curiosities. By the '60s there were plenty of girl groups, female soul singers and a few female-fronted rock bands, but the few actually female-dominated rock bands like Ace of Cups, Fanny, The Girls, Goldie … Continue reading The unsung heroines of Punk/Post-Punk/No Wave/New Wave
Samantha Bumgarner — fiddling ballad woman of mountains
Aunt Samantha Bumgarner (née Biddix) was a fiddle and banjo player from North Carolina who, in 1924, became the first woman to record hillbilly music. In doing so, she opened the doors for all the great female hillbilly and country musicians who followed. Imagine for a second a world without Brenda Lee, Iris Dement, Jean … Continue reading Samantha Bumgarner — fiddling ballad woman of mountains
26 women’s history fictional films
Le Mépris (1963) ***** Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities — or salaried work. He is not interested in writing advertorials, clickbait, listicles, or other 21st century variations of spam. Brightwell’s written work has appeared in Amoeblog, diaCRITICS, and KCET Departures. His … Continue reading 26 women’s history fictional films
24 Fact-Based Films Celebrate Women’s History Month
***** Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities — or salaried work. He is not interested in writing advertorials, clickbait, listicles, or other 21st century variations of spam. Brightwell’s written work has appeared in Amoeblog, diaCRITICS, and KCET Departures. His work has been featured by the American … Continue reading 24 Fact-Based Films Celebrate Women’s History Month
Ruth Crawford Seeger – Modernist-cum-Folkie
Female composers getting the short shrift is certainly nothing new, and is by no means limited to classical music. But as an admittedly casual fan of atonality, dissonance, modernism and serialism, I was surprised in February of this year to, for the first time, stumble across Middlewestern composer Ruth Crawford Seeger's unique, innovative musical voice. … Continue reading Ruth Crawford Seeger – Modernist-cum-Folkie
Eric Brightwell 