P0PSCURE

the best of pop culture & what lies beneathmusic, art, comics, tv & movies -- shannonjay.weebly.com

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PRIDE 🏳️‍🌈, a playlist on Spotify

A playlist featuring Petite Noir, Queen, Perfume Genius, and others

Made a playlist to celebrate #PrideMonth that features only LGBTQ artist -- no straight appropriation anthems!

It includes artistic and unique R&B singers Petite Noir, Perfume Genus, and serpentwithfeet. Legendary transgender women make the list in ANOHNI, who is the first trans person to win an Oscar. Also Laura Jane Grace with a track from Against Me!’s ‘Transgender Dysphoria Blues,’ the first recorded by the band since the frontwoman’s transition.

Classic tracks from WHAM!, Dead or Alive, Queen, Soft Cell, and more are odes to the beginnings of openly gay pop music in the 80s. Depeche Mode’s “People are People” became an anthem in gay establishments across the country upon it’s release.

In possibly the most homophobic music genre emerge rappers like ILoveMakonnen and Taylor Bennet, who aren’t afraid to be themselves. Big Freedia and Mykki Blanco push the envelope even further with their androgynous dance hall. Already underrepresented in hip hop, RoxXxan and Brooke Candy not only give voices to women in hip hop, but also lesbians. 

Just about a year after the Pulse shooting, it seems appropriate to create a mostly danceable playlist to bring out all those voices silenced. 

[triedby12co]

[girlsluvbeyonce]

Beyoncé performing at TIDAL X: 1015

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Lorde and Kim K apparently had a baby in the bottom right corner...

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OITNB really speakin’ to me -- new season gearin’ up to be the strongest yet!

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So when we were watching Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” in my film class, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much Takashi Shimura looks like Ben Carson…

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Say what you may about Green Day’s credibility in the sphere of punk rock, the fuckers put on a good show. They were my first real concert in 2005 (technically Britney Spears was, but that doesn’t really count) with My Chemical Romance opening. At a time when my 12 year old self preached “American Idiot” to unamused classmates and kept a diary dedicated to Billie Joe under my mattress, this show was an arguably uncool highlight of my life, and no doubt a defining moment in my passion for music and live shows. 

Seeing them again last night with Against Me! in a much better seat with a press pass felt like everything coming full circle. Nostalgia poured over me, my inner middle schooler screaming every word to songs I haven’t heard in years, rebelliously sticking up my middle finger and grooving maybe a little harder than I’d like to admit. The old rockers proved the aged more like fine wine, exuding much energy in a nearly 3-hour set that served as a time capsule to my youth. My first favorite band will always hold a special place in my heart -- I owe a lot to them.

I was ecstatic when they played deep cut and one of my favorites, “King for a Day,” which -- much like the above video -- epically transformed into “Shout!” Look for my review of the show on AltDaily later this week.

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Some people say life is for the living, so let’s live it baby...

Today marks 11 years since the death of legendary producer and beat maker J. Dilla. If you don’t know him by name, you know his sounds, which have been rapped over by the likes of Common, A Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul. The sounds are ill and electrifying, while staying smooth and calming. The samples are pulled from every obscure corner of the universe -- from sound bites, old soul music, and even older toy commercials.

Since the cradle to the grave, the music never stopped. Dilla’s mother, Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey, recalled the young MC trading blocks for a Fisher Price turntable and 45s as young as 2 years old.

Even on his death bed suffering from a rare blood disease, Dilla’s synthesizer was next to him. It cranked out “Donuts,” his crowning achievement and final completed record, released on his 32nd birthday and only a few days before his death. This synthesizer can be viewed at the African American History museum in D.C., cementing Dilla’s place in music history.

Above is the final track from the record, which is simultaneously haunting but hopeful. Glimmering samples seen throughout the record seemingly slow down and fade away. However, the appropriate Isley Brother’s sample “Don’t Say Goodnight” is Dilla’s way of saying while he may be gone, he’s here to stay.

Celebrate his life & mourn his death with dance, tonight @ W|R

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And since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women?

It blows my mind how some people can write off Tupac and gangsta rap in general as shallow and unconscious. Rap in the ‘90s was overshadowed by the likes of 2 Live Crew’s lewd and downright violent views of women, along with NWA’s narratives of the streets whose undertones were lost on mass audience, the violence only ensuing.

Pac’s “Keep Your Head Up” acts as not only a direct reaction to these songs, but to society in general. In an age where women are still marching for reproductive rights, Tupac’s feminist anthem rings truer than ever, and the “thug’s” soft side could teach a lesson to those in government. When no one else cares, Pac shall. 

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The revolution will not be televised...

And it never was. Thanks to social media, we’ve been shoved into the drivers seat, armed with cellphones recording the revolution and all the atrocities that caused it, live. Uproars have overtaken TV screens and forced a shift of narrative that’s less cheery and doesn’t comb over unpleasantries.

Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 poem-turned-song mentions hidden police brutality, which has only come to light through these means. With shows like “Blackish,” these social issues are finally penetrating even cheery sitcom culture, making it much harder for folks to “plug in, turn on, and cop out.”

[nevver]

Covered

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Doing a newsletter for Ladies Night at my local comic shop this Thursday! Want to do a write up on the new importance of Ms. Marvel in the wake of the Muslim Ban, and came across this rad fan art by @hiphopmummy. 

Want to do a lil blurb section on some of reader’s favorite comics, preferably female centric, and why you love them. Leave me an answer & I’ll include yours?

[smashing-yng-man]

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I hope folks criticizing the historic protests that took place across the globe last week will forever feel the weight of being on the wrong side of history

[nevver]

Art school confidential

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Everybody has that one Facebook friend who just won't stop posting their political opinions. This week, we talk to one of those Facebook friends, someone whose opinions got her into an enormous mess. The Facts Be sure to check out the Radio Ambulante story that this story was based on: #RenunciaYa Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our ad music is by Build Buildings. Sponsors Framebridge Stamps MailChimp

This day ushers in darkness backed by a government padded with plenty of sketchy dollars. For those worried about grim times, just like I am, remember that the people will overcome. Even against a literally militant government, where protest crowds are fired against, one woman led one that overthrew Guatemala’s corrupt president. 

Lucia Mendizabal knew much about ranting on Facebook and much less about protesting, but started a revolution from a Facebook group. After some savvy media branding, the group garnered tens of thousands of supports, accomplishing a nearly impossible feat, and #RenunciaYa was born. Power to the public.

[themaninthegreenshirt]

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Stills from “Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Quiang”

This amazing work by the Chinese artist utilizes fireworks to commentate on smog and depleting environmental health of China. In “Elegy,” vibrant colors represent nature that once was, while dark blacks and blues flood the skies like bruises humanity has beaten into the ozone. Ending with a slime green explosion, the toxic-looking smoke lingers in the air, hyperbolizing current conditions to show what could be. Watch the event in it’s entirety here.

After controversial, publicized displays that were government sanctioned such as the Olympics, Guo-Quiang’s took time to focus on what he values in art, taking on his most personal project. A dream over two decades in the making, “Sky Ladder” documents the pitfalls and execution of a 1,650-foot-tall firecracker ladder to the sky. After failure at several public sites over the years, the pinnacle of Guo-Quiang’s career was carried out in secret a fishing village before dawn. It was “to connect the Earth to the universe,” the artist said in 1994 before his first unsuccessful attempt.

Dedicated to his grandmother, the climbing work is a whimsical site, and the journey just as incredible. Chronicling the artist’s works, the doc is full of fantastic firework displays and museum instillations just as gigantic. 

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There’s been a few little “challenges” I’ve seen on Facebook today that have made me a little nostalgic and forced me to revisit the past. One required listening 10 albums you listened to in high school, and now I’m revisiting Crystal Castles and Sufjan Stevens album that defined my years.

Another was to find an old photo of yourself, and that led me down the rabbit hole to my Flickr. I was filled with feelings of what I thought I was going to be in high school, which was a photography major at a good art college. 

While the photos might not reach that grade, they sure are fun, and I remember how much fun I had making them. One of the few series I did was this “Take Off Your Shirt” set. Revealing while hiding, these were probably the only photos that were more than just pretty pictures.

Makes me want to pick up photo as a hobby again!