Each time I peruse the CDs at Revolution Records, I'm intrigued by a used copy of Northern State's All City album. I've never bought it because somehow the cover picture led me to believe that it would be a feeble attempt at hip hop. Perhaps I was turned off by the fact that one of them was wearing a pink one of those long sleeveless shirts that is tight on top and wide on the bottom. (Check out the album cover to see what I mean. Plus she's wearing flip-flops.)
I admit that's a lame excuse not to be a CD in support of a female hip hop group, but there you go. After reading an interview with N.S. in this issue of Bitch, however, I'm beginning to think I was guilty of succumbing to immature superficiality and that I should scoop up their album the next time I visit Revolution, if I'm lucky enough to still find it there. With assistance from producers like Cypress Hills' Muggs and the Roots' ?uestlove, as well as a guest performance by Har Mar Superstar [yup, that's him in the above pic], the album may be a surefire hit. Has anyone heard it?
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Check out the new Women Teaching in the Sciences website, co-hosted by Women's Prerogative and the National Women's Law Center. They only evaluate science faculty at some of the big research universities, but the results are telling nonetheless. Read the entire report or check out how your favorite school stands on the main website.
Here are the results for the U. of Minnesota:
Astronomy/Astrophysics
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 17% (2 out of 12)
Chemistry
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 10% (4 out of 39)
Civil Engineering
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 13% (4 out of 31)
Mathematics
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 3% (2 out of 69)
Physics
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 3% (2 out of 68)
Chemical Engineering
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 6% (2 out of 35)
Computer Science
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 10% (3 out of 30)
Mechanical Engineering
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 10% (4 out of 41)
Electrical Engineering
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 10% (1 out of 10)
Biological Sciences
Percentage of Professors Who Are Women 26% (33 out of 125)
Pathetic.
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Maureen Dowd's op/ed on the white male network news anchor paradigm raises some interesting points. I think she shot herself in the foot by ending her otherwise decent column with her ridiculous friend's comment:
Women like to read books about men and go to movies about men. But men don't like to read books about women or go to movies about women. The only way this is going to change is if women refuse to watch men. And the problem is, women like watching men.
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Finally, read some of the absurdities that are being taught as part of "abstinence-only" curriculum around the country in an article from today's Washington Post.
3 comments:
I forget where it was, but I read a horrible review of Northern State. Just ripped them apart. I think the author had a lot of problems with the fact that they were ironic without any skills. Sophomoric, maybe.
Hmmm...good to know. But - I like irony. And criteria for judgement of hip hop skills probably varies according to the listener's knowledge of whatever is determined in the music crit world to be "good" hip hop. I have no idea what those particular criteria are. So, I might give it a shot anyway, and perhaps my amateur hip hop ears will enjoy the album. Or perhaps that writer's take on Northern State will be dead on and I'll have just purchased a crappy record. Either way, I'm supporting a feminist band, which is something worthwhile.
I hate to say it (because believe, i WANTED to like them), but the Northern State album is A-W-F-U-L. Like, totally completely shitty. It just sounds like the worst pathetic "Female-Themed Parody" of early Beastie Boys. It's definitely bad that the music is mega weak but it doesn't help that the raps/rapping is pretty bad too. I dunno, i feel like buying this album is like voting for Liddie Dole - or, gasp, Dr. Laura - for President just because she's a women. But then, i'm a hater (ask alex).
You want female rapping: get the new Jean Grae album. She rocks.
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