Django Jane

If Django Jane is any indication of how Dirty Computer will sound, well then, consider my wig  completely snatched.

Released on the same day as Make Me Feel, Django Jane is a quieter video, shot among shadows and plants.

Underground, Jane sits gorgeously, here wearing forest green, there in ruby red. She's flanked by stylish revolutionaries, who move with the staccato unity of Beyonce's Formation dancers.

Only in this video, a smudge stick sits extinguished in a bowl.

Guards watch the front door. 

This revolution feels different.

Here, it's shielded like a candle, protected from the inside out -- spiritually, physically. 

Lyrically. 

Django Jane is both shield and bullet, deflecting against and attacking all manner of prejudice: white supremacy, male patriarchy, restrictive notions of womanhood.

One could say that Django Jane is a continuation of Formation and all of the other pro-black, feminist anthems that came before it.

 But really, Django Jane is her own person. Incomparable. 

Refusing to Perform

This year, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave birth to a baby girl without uttering so much as a word to the general public. 

You may know Adichie most famously as the confident voice on Beyonce's 'Flawless,' where she lists the many expectations that society places on womanhood.

Because I am female
I am expected to aspire to marriage
I am expected to make my life choices
Always keeping in mind that
Marriage is the most important
Now marriage can be a source of
Joy and love and mutual support
But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage
And we don't teach boys the same?

This time, Adichie has tossed aside another expectation: she had a baby and refuses to discuss it.

"I just feel like we live in an age when women are supposed to perform pregnancy," she said in an interview with the Financial Times.

"We don’t expect fathers to perform fatherhood."

At first, this really surprised me, and I smirked at the idea of 'performing pregnancy' (since it is pretty difficult to hide). Then I thought about it a little harder.

When was the last time you read an interview where someone outright refused to discuss their pregnancy or newborn? Probably never. Celebrity interviews on the topic are usually full of platitudes about transformation and thankfulness, even from the most private people.

Confessions about the challenges of motherhood, or infertility, are rarer still, inspiring lists like this one.

It's because, "we enter the world prepared to perform roles and manage the impressions of others, with the ... aim of getting along and getting ahead in the social groups that define who we are," as psychologist Dan P. McAdams writes.

Yes, society begs our performance and there are so many things to perform...happiness, fun, composure, wealth, motherhood. Personhood.

But what if you're not ready to talk about being a parent? What if you can't have children, or don't want to? 

What if we want to keep our relationships and careers private? Our moods, our outings with friends...

If we start refusing to perform, new expectations could emerge --- a world where people aren't compelled to explain their life choices in interviews and status updates all the time. One with less platitudes and phoniness.

And a good kind of silence, too.  

Computer Love: Janelle Monae's Electric Lady

I'm listening to Janelle Monae's The Electric Lady and feeling like I'm a part of history! (no, really). Thanks to a well-timed leak, I (and many others) are among the first to hear an album that will likely change the course of popular music.

In thinking about The Electric Lady, I realize now why I like it so much--because of its 20th-century feel, even down to an album cover reminiscent of Off the Wall.

Here, Monae showcases her broad vocal range, and Lauryn Hill-esque runs, soaring above chimes, gentle guitars, and the murmur of her backup "clone" singers.

"It's Code" brings me back to the crooning of groups like Blue Magic, and is one of many gems in an album that jars one with its combinations of swing and computer love. Speaking of love, there are many love songs here, and a subtle android theme, sung in plaintive notes. And that's not the best part... Janelle Monae's rapping has a way of making you start upright in your seat after its meaning sinks in.

I love everything about this album. Mostly, for touching my heart and for reminding me of songs before and after me-- I'm Janus-faced, nodding to the past and future of music.

Foreign languages...

I'm getting older, yet I still cling to the idea of learning a second and third language fluently. I wonder if I still can now. I've taken  courses in French and Spanish through the years, but without total immersion, I've never been able to speak either language.

I can understand spoken Spanish somewhat, however; and at one point I felt like I was nearly fluent in French...sadly, I can understand hardly a thing when I hear people speaking it (frickin' homophones).

I wonder how I can learn at least one of these languages fluently without spending a lot of money...  

UPDATE: I found Duolingo.com. It's the best thing to ever.

Paradise Lost

After Prometheus came out, I read so many articles comparing it to John Milton's poem, Paradise Lost. I never saw the connection between the two (even after reading the articles), but it made me wonder if a Paradise Lost movie would come out any time soon. The answer is no, sadly.  "Paradise Lost" was in production but apparently was put on hold due to budget concerns. The producers had planned to give it the 3D treatment, which makes me kind of want to vomit. Anyway, I hope they'll find the money to make the movie soon, because I can already see myself watching it on a cold, snowy day around Christmas 2013 -_-

If you don't remember much about Paradise Lost, the story is pretty simple. It's based on the book of Genesis and recounts the fall of man into sin. Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends, and at the end, we're all richer from the experience.

This movie is asking to be made! There's so much controversial material there, like Milton's crazy ideas on angelic interpenetration. Annnd if you have no idea what I'm talking about, take a gander in Book 8. You're welcome.