I love the words of U of M’s Thomas Zurbuchen regarding Brian. I don’t believe I’ve ever met Thomas, and we certainly work in different fields, but when he says “it is Oscar who taught me what art is really about,” it rings so true for me. I hope you’ll read his full blog – just click here – because it will give you a fantastic sense of the kind of person Brian was. I’ll never understand why he was taken so soon, but knowing him was really one of the best gifts I’ve been given. I hope that in the coming months I’ll be able to find better words of my own that will help me share that gift with you.

Strangely, though, I still feel that Lilith Fair’s all-female lineup is essential. It’s more inspiring to me personally, even though I totally idolize male artists as well (hello, Grant-Lee Phillips and Michael Penn!). Also, I’m generalizing, but I think women can be really competitive – especially because often, we’re forced by others to compete (I refer back to the Tori vs. Sarah story I shared the other day). I try to remind myself all the time that another woman’s success is not my failure. Seeing women at the top of their game like the Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, etc. all on the same stage back in ‘97 and ‘98 really convinced me that women can achieve more working with instead of against each other.

There’s also a message of empowerment inherent to Lilith that draws from its female source. Back to an article I quoted in my first blog, “Despite the fact that Beyoncé and Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift and Rihanna are all making waves in pop, they’re mostly still singing about men, singing to men, or titillating men. A place where women sing for themselves and to other women is a feminist act…” And the incredible Ann Powers will always say it better than I do, so I leave you with a link to a recent NPR interview with her that I think you’ll enjoy. Says Ann, warming my lil’ heart, “We have to remember and always reiterate our values, to say it right out: ‘I am a feminist.’”

While I think I beat the whole “need” issue to death yesterday, it’s worth asking – if it’s more “want” than “need” now, why has Lilith Fair lost artists and canceled a third of its stops? But that question becomes less important in light of David’s point #2: “John Mayer, the Eagles, Limp Bizkit, Rihanna, and Christina Aguilera, among others, are canceling shows and tours.” Indeed, while concert promotion is no science, according to an NPR report I heard on the subject last week, I’m solving no great mystery by asserting that in troubled economic times, people will attend fewer concerts. And, as another NPR report attests, some concert promoters have gotten just downright greedy, and will probably (God, hopefully!!!) adjust their prices in answer to lagging sales next summer. Or, at least Lilith Fair’s McBride seems to think Lilith will.

An article on Autostraddle called “Panic! On the Lawn: What Happened to Lilith Fair” poses just that question to its readers. Author Jess writes, “Maybe it’s the high ticket prices, maybe it’s the lineup of artists, or maybe it’s hard to re-create the pure artistry that happened from 1997-1999 when we’re now living in a Ke$ha world.” While there’s a little genre bias there (one I admittedly share), I think Jess is probably right, and it’s some combination of all of these elements. Commenters on the blog cite a combination of disappointment in a “ho-hum lineup,” prohibitive cost, and geographic hindrance (it’s true. Irvine is not Los Angeles, in fact it’s really far from Los Angeles in heinous SoCal traffic, so LF should probably have just said “Irvine”).

I admit – I didn’t even go to Lilith Fair! I was out of town that weekend and couldn’t really afford it (which is true, but doesn’t it sound excuse-y? Also, my dog ate my homework…). But in retrospect, I am disappointed in myself for not saving up my pennies in advance and making the trek, if only to support the idea of Lilith and women in music. I know an idea is not really enough, and it has to be a great show, but I certainly believe in its possibilities. The first time around, I didn’t love every single artist I heard, but I still remember loving every single moment of just BEING there. I hope that circumstances get better for all of us next summer, and that if there are lessons for the organizers and promoters to learn, they’ll learn them, and 2011 will be even better. Who’s coming with me to Lilith Fair next summer?!

If we once “needed” Lilith Fair and now we don’t, it must be because the landscape is more favorable to female artists. The brilliant Ann Powers, in an article I read on PopMatters.com, asserts that Lilith’s “purpose may not be so clear now, when female artists dominate the Top 40.” Which immediately made me question: DO women dominate the Top 40?

I plugged “billboard top 40″ into Google, and the page that came up as the top 40 was a list of albums. I put each of the 40 into categories – female solo, male solo, mixed (which includes mixed-gender duos, bands, and soundtracks), and male bands. (I would’ve made a female band category…but there were none). The percentages came out this way: male solo 41%; mixed 19 %; female solo 24%; male band 16% (put the male bands and male solo artists together, and they make up 57% of the top 40.)

Of course, I’d need to look at the larger trend. I picked a random week (last week). I’m sure looking at other stats might tell different stories. Journalist Shani Hilton notes some lady-highlights, including the incredible success of artists like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. But I fear that asserting that women in music are doing just fine is a new form of dismissal. Is saying, “you don’t need Lilith Fair, you’ve got Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift” any better than, “We don’t need to play Sarah McLachlan, we’re already playing Tori Amos”?

Given how much the music industry has changed, comparing 1997 to 2010 is a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison, I know. Now the idea of Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan competing for airplay seems downright laughable – you might not hear either on a pop station at all! But try to avoid Ms McLachlan at Starbucks! Impossible (not that I mind). Music is consumed in an increasingly fragmented way by ever-expanding niche audiences, and while this can be liberating for independent artists, it becomes insanely difficult for them to rise above what was described at LA’s New Music Seminar this year as “the noise floor.”

And that brings me to why something like Lilith Fair is still necessary – because it provides, as I mentioned yesterday, an avenue for discovery, especially the discovery of artists in genres that may not make it to radio (or even to Starbucks). To quote Shani Hilton again:
“This is why Lilith Fair is still relevant. Despite the fact that a few highly packaged women dominate the charts and sell out stadiums, there are dozens of genres and hundreds of female artists who will never make a single Billboard chart, despite being loved by a devoted, if small, group of fans…”

Tomorrow, a look at why, if it’s still relevant, it’s been such a supposedly troubled concert tour. Later this week, delving more into Lilith and diversity. And in the meantime, your thoughts are welcome.

In the midst of all that, I fell in love with the music of the Indigo Girls. My sister and I memorized every single word and harmonized in the car to 12,000 Curfews – through which I discovered Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joan Baez. They were my gateway drug to singer-songwriter addiction! I begged for a guitar for Christmas when I was 15, which I received, and I toted it down to a local guitar teacher along with my songbook for “Rites of Passage.”

When I was 16, I heard about Lilith Fair, and I thought my little teenage feminist heart would burst. Lo and behold, they held a “Lilith Fair Preview” show that December in West Palm Beach, close enough to where my family lived at the time, and my wonderful mom was good enough to take my sister and I to it. I heard the Indigo Girls and Sarah McLachlan live, and that was it. That thing where the “bug” bites you; the moment when you know what you want to do – that was the moment, for me. That energy, that GIRL POWER! I was lucky enough to attend another show the next summer, near Cleveland, where I heard Bonnie Raitt rock out for the first time, and I discovered artists like Catie Curtis and Chantal Kreviazuk. I felt super in-the-know to hear Dido’s songs on a Lilith Fair sampler months – even years – before she shot to fame.

Lilith Fair spurred my desire to keep writing and singing and learning songs, and on some subconscious level must’ve made me feel like singing and writing songs for a living was viable. I spent hours at the piano teaching myself Sarah McLachlan songs and hours with my guitar teaching myself Indigo Girls songs. And once I learned those chords, I used them, and variations of them, to set my own teen angst to music – often on weekends, when everyone else I knew was out on dates or at parties. What would I have done without that music? I really can’t imagine. The time I spent listening, playing and feeling inspired is one of the few things from adolescence that I can look back and feel warm and fuzzy about.

Now Lilith Fair is back, and I keep hearing far more bad news than good about it. This may purely be a testament to the media’s penchant for negativity, but it does make me sad, either way. And there’s so much discussion about whether Lilith Fair is “necessary,” or “relevant.” That’s really been troubling me, enough that I feel that I have to investigate. The assertion has been made that we don’t “need” Lilith Fair, because women now dominate the pop charts, and I don’t know if the facts really bear that out, and further, should it be a question of “need,” in the first place? Personally – whether I need it or want it – I think that there should be a Lilith Fair so that women can be inspired the way I was; whether to become artists or just to become empowered to dream a little bigger. For me, Lilith was also about the discovery of new music, and it gave exposure to women who were, perhaps, not being heard enough in other arenas. I do think that women in music (in most genres), still need more exposure than they’re currently getting, and the success of the few at the top certainly prove there’s a market for them. So, in my humble opinion, the music industry still needs Lilith Fair, too.

All this week, I’m going to be blogging about Lilith, women in music, and what it all means, at least to me, from various angles. I hope that you’ll chime in as well! Tomorrow: women dominate the top 40 – true or false?

I know that I cannot hide from bad news forever, and when I’m feeling braver I turn NPR back on. One thing that helped me cope recently was a special on the bank meltdown, “Bad Bank,” on This American Life. The hour-long show somehow made banking entertaining, and it was so helpful to me in terms of really understanding what’s gone on. Granted, understanding things better sometimes made me angrier or more frightened than I was before, but it also somehow made me feel more in control. And to be honest, my commute was over before the very end of it, so I need to hear that myself. I recommend we check out the whole thing together… it’s really worth the 59 minutes of your day.

If that doesn’t make you smile, here on Thanksgiving-eve, nothing will. I suggest you read the whole article and look at ALL the beautiful photos. And now, back to my sweet potatoes.

redwood

After a friend’s wedding in Northern CA, Mike and I stayed on in Sonoma County with my parents, hiking, drinking some wine, eating, exploring cute little towns, taking in the rocky Pacific Coast, drinking some wine, and drinking some wine, and…you get the idea. But wine is good for you, or at least that’s what the French say. I think the best part, besides the company, was the scenery, though. I LOVE California!

pacific ocean

7:30 am
I arrive at the criminal justice building downtown and get in the security line. The officers around the metal detector are already just slightly cranky, as though they’ve dealt with one idiot too many today, but…it’s 7:30. The police officers who direct me to the elevators are quite friendly, though. (I could have figured it out on my own – there are signs – but I’ll later realize that this is just the beginning of all the redundant instruction I’ll hear today.) In the elevator, I notice that there’s no 4th, 8th or 10th floor. Weird, eh? I wonder if they really don’t exist, or if they’re just super-secret floors closed to the public.

7:55 am
Although I’ve been more than punctual – we were told to be here at 7:45 am – not so for the jury supervisors, who just emerge from the locked room now. They’re not that late, but clearly I am cranky over getting up at 6 today. A man who I’ll call George asks us to get into a single file line, which prompts us to form a 4-to-5-person-wide clump clamoring to get into a room where we will wait some more. I am surprised that a hallway full of adults can’t handle the kindergarten skill of line-forming.

8:15 am
After an unexplained bout of silent waiting in the jury pool room, we are greeted by a Judge. I noticed a sign in the hallway for the courtroom of Judge Wapner (isn’t he on TV?), but this one’s not a TV judge. He welcomes us and tries to sell us on the merits of jury duty first with references to the founding fathers, and then with a list of celebrities who’ve recently served. The latter list proves the dual point that no one is exempt from jury duty, and that we’re in the good company of Jamie Lee Curtis, Ed Asner, Kurt Russell, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Sylvester Stallone. Only in Los Angeles.

9:15 am
We’re addressed by a a new jury supervisor – I’ll call him Fred, and then our buddy George is back again. Both of them go over some rather obvious instructions that we also have written in our jury summons and orientation papers. George reminds us not to talk to media, reminding us that all the “high-profile” trials happen here in downtown LA. This is probably no joke – I used to work downtown and once saw Mark Geragos coming out of my lunch spot. And there’s a friendly “I performed my jury service, have you?” poster on the wall featuring Lance Ito. I get a little chill pondering my possible placement on a murder trial. Lance smiles back nonchalantly at me. Once done with his speech, George gives us a morning break that we’ve earned with the hard work of sitting still for an hour and a half. We return from the break to sit still some more.

10:50 am
A panel of potential jurors has been called, but I am not among them. I’ve watched two videos now – one, a dramatized version of the Judge’s earlier speech about the merits of jury duty, and the second, a chamber-of-commerce type video exhorting the merits of downtown Los Angeles over the background of energetic horn music. Those are both done, and it’s back to me, my laptop, and the Vogue magazine I wish I hadn’t already read cover to cover. Must purchase more reading material on the lunch break.

3 pm
After a lunch break and the calling of 3 more panels, my name still hasn’t been called. An announcement comes over the PA that jurors will now be called for a potential 30-day trial. I immediately start thinking about all the stuff I have going on in the next 30 days…and then I get a little panicked thinking about what kind of scary crime a 30-day trial would be for. I think about those O.J. trial jurors sitting in a room like this one. My heart is pounding while they call out the seemingly interminable list of names…but I am not called. Phew!

An hour later and all of us – the ones left – are free to go. I have to say, I hoped that I’d at least make a panel so I could see what the selection process was like, but I’m happy to get my next week (or month) back, and be done with my civil duties. That is, ’til next year…

I’m not a true stress eater, but food is definitely a comfort on a day like today. Or any day. I made a comforting tortilla casserole with a southwestern bean and corn salad tonight, taken from my Mollie Katzen cookbook. The casserole called for buttermilk, and though I’m usually a slave to a recipe, I didn’t want to hunt down the real thing. Thanks to the internet, I now know that you can make buttermilk by throwing a tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar) into about a cup of milk and letting it sit five minutes! It’s amazing how tickled I was by a trick that everyone else probably already knew about. And I’ll definitely be using the internet to figure out recipe substitutes before I run to the store for that ingredient I forgot…although you can’t always substitute or omit, as I discovered last week when I forgot the baking powder and made rock-hard muffins. But THAT is another story.