Jezebel: blondie

Sunday Night Wrap-Up

hortense — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST

This weekend, we learned that there is such a thing as a "married romance", that it's not cool to make fun of ginger kids, and that David Bowie is still the most awesome person ever.

Yet every weekend must sadly come to an end, and most of us will be back at work tomorrow, typing from borrowed desks and drinking copious amounts of "It's Monday, get away from me or I will end you" coffee. So tonight, try to put the dreading-Monday blues aside and post some things that make you happy. Watching the SAG Awards or Flight of the Conchords tonight? There won't be a live thread, but feel free to post about them here. While yesterday was a night of (MANY) questions, tonight will be night of fighting the blues. So keep things light, please: Sunday night is rough enough, know what I'm sayin'?

So thanks for another lovely weekend, and have a nice night, Sunday Girls (and Boys!):

Image via Natalie Dee.

Someone Needs To Throw Another Tampon Into The Crowd

Jessica — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:00:00 EST

Every few years someone pens a piece about how women in rock are finally mainstream, pointing to the "emergence" of female singer-songwriters as proof. This weekend, The Telegraph, in an article about the "New Girl Power" in rock, declared that the mainstream music industry "has rarely invested in girls with guitars: it has always preferred them dressed-up and dancing." I'd argue that the rock world has invested in girls with guitars since rock began: At the beginning there were Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, and more recently Sheryl Crow, Annie Lennox, Bjork, Chrissie Hynde, Bonnie Raitt — the list goes on. There have also been loads of successful acts with pretty ladies at the helm, including No Doubt, Garbage, and Blondie. The place where women are still scarce is as part of bands. Besides the Donnas and the GoGos, I can't think of one all-female band that reached the upper levels of the Billboard charts (I'm sure there are others).

What's even scarcer are male-fronted bands with women who play bass or guitar. If there is a woman in a band, she's generally the gorgeous face out front a la Jenny Lewis in Rilo Kiley. Bassists Tina Weymouth in the Talking Heads and D'arcy Wretzky from the Smashing Pumpkins are notable exceptions to the rule.

Joan Jett, one of only two women in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists and former member of the all-girl band the Runaways, thinks that male critics are threatened by female rockers, which could explain the dearth of head bangers in bras. "My personal opinion is that rock'n' roll is very sexual, and when you're playing it, you're owning your sexuality," she tells the Guardian. "And I guess that's very threatening to a lot of people - that's the only thing I can figure why we ran into so much resistance."

My secret hope is that the Rock 'n Roll Camp for Girls will usher in a riot grrrl redux, and we'll return to the halcyon days of the early 90s when people cared about Sleater Kinney and the Breeders and Bikini Kill. Looking at a recent cover of Blender which features a half naked Pussycat Doll, I don't have much hope. Maybe someone needs to a tampon at the American audience to get shit riled up again.

The New Girl Power [Telegraph]
Queen Of Noise [Guardian]

Victoria Beckham Wants To Rearrange Your Face

Jennifer — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:00:00 EDT

Victoria Beckham's latest professional endeavor is a makeup line called "V-Sculpt," which is supposed to give its users finer features. It launches today in Tokyo. Because Asia is known for its coarse, exaggerated features? Also: what? [WWD, 1st item]
Kate Moss had 18 advertising contracts last year; now she has 11. DO WE SMELL A DOWNFALL??? [The Sun]
Andre 3000 is launching a clothing label! Dandy! (Heh.) Menswear comes first, to be followed by lady wear. [WWD, 2nd item]
Italian cabdrivers share Anna and Moe's sentiments regarding the fashion industry. [GlamChic]
Le SportSac's creative director on how she envisions her company's bags: "I want them to be like your friend who helps solve your problems!" Ha ha ha, like all that excess money in your pocket [Fashion Week Daily]

Russell Simmons is clearly a more evolved person than us, and only has nice things to safe about his crazyass ex: On appointing her creative director for all the Phat Farm labels, Simmons says, "Kimora has watched me do it for 15 years and she has already come to me with some great ideas for the men's lines." Zen Master Jay! [WWD, sub req'd]
Christina Aguilera goes nude in fragrance ad: Evaluate here. [Sassybella]
Claudia Schiffer "not really into acting." [WWD, 3rd item]
H&M profits are up 25% in the second quarter. Which gives us pause because we feel like we haven't seen anything good there in OMG forever. [WWD, sub req'd]
Our girl-crush on Gucci creative director Frida Giannini deepens: she was behind the pairing of David Lynch and Blondie for first television commercial for Gucci. Seriously, we think we're in love. [Vogue UK]
Fashion photographer Mario Testino is auctioning off a signed photo he took of Princess Diana, with proceeds, as Kathy Griffin would say, "for the children." [Vogue UK]
Paint manufacturer-discount retailer collaborations are the new designer-discount retailer collaborations! Uniqlo and Pantone are collaborating on a series of cashmere sweaters together. [Fashion Week Daily]
Oscar de la Renta: Now designing men's shirts! [Fashion Week Daily]