[TypicalGirls] NY punk and riot grrrl

Dina Hornreich dina.hornreich at gmail.com
Fri Mar 30 10:01:13 EST 2007


Indeed it does. He does an overall good job making his point clear -- his 
thesis that "punk is Jewish" is indeed well supported. However, the chapter 
on women for me is a little clumsy. (Even if it seems that he read Yentl's 
Revenge in doing his research for it!)  It seems to me that almost every 
chapter in the book, except for the one on women, is about a particular 
artist/group/person: Lenny Bruce, Lou Reed, Hilly Kristal, Jonathan Richman, 
Danny Fields, Dictators, Ramones, Suicide, and so on. Why did he choose to 
use one chapter as a "catch all" for the women? Didn't he have enough 
material? I think it is because he wanted to make an overt connection to the 
riot grrrl movement. It may have seemed to be a logical choice. He certainly 
doesn't slight women in other parts of the book --  the discussion about 
Lenny Kaye and Patti Smith's relationship was pretty interesting to me. He 
doesn't do a bad job, by any means. In fact, I am thoroughly enjoying the 
book! I just see places where he could've included more people or made 
different connections. I am often left wondering if he will go on to write a 
sequel in which he  proclaims that "Indie Rock is Jewish" -- something that 
he implies in various other parts of the book -- and includes people like 
Gerard Cosloy or Alan Licht.

Another observation I made about the book is that, while he talks about a 
group of people who are ostensibly united by a religion, the discussion is 
pretty secular. I think it is probably because they are united specifically 
as being Jews who are Ashkenazim (from Germany, Poland, Russia, Eastern 
Europe).

-Dina


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sharon Cheslow" <decomposition at mindspring.com>
To: <typicalgirls at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:46 PM
Subject: [TypicalGirls] NY punk and riot grrrl


> >From what I recall, Beeber was interested in the relationship between NY 
> >immigrant culture and early NY punk, and the connections between 1st 
> >generation NY punk to riot grrrl.  So perhaps that explains the holes?
>
> Sharon
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>It's too bad Beeber didn't interview you for his book. His chapter focuses
>>mostly on two punk women Goldie (Genya Ravan) from Goldie and the
>>Gingerbreads (whom he claim is the "earliest women-only rock band to be
>>signed to a major label" but I've always thought Fanny had that feather in
>>their cap) and Helen Wheels. He mentions Kathy Acker working with the 
>>Mekons
>>and Annie Sprinkle's collaboration with Lydia Lunch. He also mentions some
>>inane rantings of Courtney Love (like, if Kurt had "a little Jew[ish]" 
>>part
>>to him, he might've "stuck it out") and her like-mindedness to the
>>apparently Jewish Nancy Sungeon. His discussion eventually leads into some
>>talk about riot grrrl including Kathleen Hanna (who may or may not be
>>Jewish, he doesn't know -- and he says that she denies it altogether which
>>is enough for me), and Sleater Kinney's Carrie Weinstein and Janet Weiss. 
>>He
>>then mentions Heeb magazine founder, Jennifer Bleyer, and eventually
>>concludes the chapter by quoting X-Ray Spex. See some holes?
>>
>>-Dina
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