Bleaching My Hair and Listening to Podcasts: Try Not To Make Any Noise

I bleached my hair. It's like I'm 17! Well, that's not too surprising considering that's about where my fashion sense progressed to. I mean, you're talking to someone who is not above shopping at Hot Topic. (And I will have you know the only one anywhere close to me is at the Harlem and Irving Plaza -- or "HIP" as it is known, which I think is hilarious.) I've always been open to fun hair colors and haircuts and putting ridiculous things in it like twigs, string and plastic animals. And when I was sick and had to shave my head before I lost my hair, well I guess in retrospect it made me kind whatever about my hair. There are also days where I expect so little from my personal appearance, that I simply say to myself Just as long as I don't look like a TOTAL ASSHOLE and that is what it takes to get me out the door without being too OCD.

Anyway, I was very lazy about the way I put the bleach on my hair. Well, actually, I was pretty lazy even in the process of going about getting the supplies for my hair. In fact, I walked in to Sally's Beauty Supply and when the woman asked me if I needed any help, I just announced, "I want to bleach my hair. I am very lazy." So she showed me powder I needed, a hair net that you pull hair through, gloves, a hair dye painting brush, gloves and some conditioner. What she did not tell me was that I had to buy this lotiony substance that you put with the powder. So I had to go back and get it a few days later. When it came time to do the process, the hair net lasted about 5 minutes before I ditched it and just started painting the bleach powder-lotion stuff on where I felt like it. So I wasn't particularly methodical about it. I was actually paying more attention to the podcast I was listening to at that moment, which was Comedy Bang-Bang podcast. I was trying to not make any sound so I could hear what they were saying, which means I had to work sort of slowly and not too far away from the computer so I could still hear it, which is ridiculous of course, I mean, why didn't I just turn the computer up louder? I have no good answer for this.

Sidenote: Sometimes with podcasts I just have to remind myself that it's OK to miss part of it if I have to make some sort of noise like turn the water on to rinse out my mouth after brushing my teeth. The thing is, if I'm really engaged in listening I don't want to have to relisten to part of it again if I missed something, but I listen to so many podcasts that I sometimes have to give myself permission to miss part of it; after all, having it on to listen to and just hearing some of it is better than not hearing any at all, so according to that logic I should be happy to hear any of it, which is better than no hearing it at all. So I shouldn't care if I miss a few words. However, there is one podcast that I usually listen to during activities like walking to and from work, where I know I won't miss a word, and that's the Pod F. Tompkast which I always enjoy. That I listen to on my I-pod. But everything else, I can listen to it in a variety of other places: either of my computers, on I-Tunes at work, etc.


When I was done with the bleach job I decided to trim the back of my hair so it wasn't so thick at the bottom of my neck. But then I cut my neck on the scissors, because it was at a weird angle. Then I decided to even out the nape of my hairline on my neck, but I wanted it shorter than I knew how I'd be able to get with scissors, so I decided a razor would be the way to go with it, but all I had was a disposable razor. It was all dorm-room-tastic except that I'm 37. The whole thing with the bleach and the cutting and the shaving is quite preposterous but I actually kind of like the way it looks now.

I feel soooooo glamerous. I may put some dye in it when this starts to bore me.

Events I'm in this month!

I'm in three events! Come see me!

Homeroom Presents: Britney Spears 101

Featuring Me, Chris Smit and Judy Hoffman

at The Hungry Brain 8/9

So this is a Homeroom event, and I also am thinking of it as a release event for Caboose #7: Britney Spears 101. I wasn't totally happy with the print job for the first edition, but I've fixed them with this edition, and also added 24 pages. And I got fancy book blurbs from writers I enjoy and a grant from the city of Chicago to reprint it. 


Also these fine folks will be joining me:

Christopher Smit, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His newest book is The Exile of Britney Spears: A Tale of 21st Century Consumption. His work on disability, aesthetics, culture, and popular music can be found in a variety of texts and journals. He is also an award-winning singer-songwriter and musician who currently fronts the band The New Midwest. For more info: smitwork.com/blog

Judy Hoffman is an award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer, as well as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies and Department of Visual Arts. Hoffman has worked on films about such topics as Howard Zinn, Studs Terkel,the Dalai Lama and Chicago politics, just to name a few. She is also the director of Stages: 3 Days In Mexico, about Britney Spears’ 2002 concerts in Mexico City. For more info: kartemquin.com/about/judy-hoffman

Tuesday, August 9th

The Hungry Brain, 2319 W Belmont, Chicago, IL 60618

Doors at 8pm, show at 9pm 21+, donations appreciated

Homeroom is a not-for-profit organization promoting new creative content, featuring some of Chicago’s best new art, film, music and literary readings. For more info: homeroomchicago.org/

The August installment of
UNCALLED-FOR READINGS CHICAGO 

at Woman Made Gallery 8/14

This event is in conjunction with Woman Made Gallery's Underground show, curated by Ruby Thorkelson in collaboration with the Chicago Underground Library and Spudnik Press. The show features a slew of underground and self-published artwork and publications produced by women, queer, trans, genderqueer and gender-nonconforming writers and artists. 'm reading as one of six writers who have been involved in underground writing and publishing, as well as music, in various capacities: MAIREAD CASE (editor of ACM), CURIOUSER JANE (a.k.a. DALICE MALICE), MARIE HUNT, ROBIN HUSTLE (Mirror Tricks, Curdled Milk, The Skeleton News) & JAMI SAILOR Your Secretary, No Better Voice, Archiving the Underground).

Sunday, August 14th, 2pm

Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 
60642

August Logan Square Literary Review Reading

at Comfort Station

Wed, Aug 17th, 8pm

Comfort Station Logan Square, 2579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647