girlofprey

Alanis Morissette
(tw: child abuse)

The other day I was reading a fic, and they quoted a line I recognised, and looking it up I realised it was from 'Hands Clean' by Alanis Morissette. It's a song I used to really like, assuming it was about a relationship Alanis had had with a younger man, and he sort of took advantage of her connections in the music industry and now doesn't talk to her. But reading the lyrics, I thought "hmm, that does sound like an abusive relationship though", so I looked them up again, and it turns out the song is actually, reportedly, about a relationship Alanis Morissette had with an older male music executive when she was 14 years old.


Years before Me Too, women were outright talking about being abused in entertainment industries, and we all just sort of bought it as a pop song.

Head Over Feet is the first song I ever heard and loved by Alanis Morissette - I heard it on the radio when I was a teenager, without knowing who sang it or what the song was, and ended up in an HMV trying to sing what I remembered of it to a shop assistant, in the hopes they could help me identify it. They couldn't, but luckily it was on the radio and around enough after that that I could eventually find it. The beginning could be argued as okaying sexual harassment ("I had no choice but to hear you/You stated your case time and again/I thought about it"), but I still think it's a really nice love song. And seen through the lens of Hands Clean and the experiences Alanis Morissette apparently had...I think it's even more touching.



Alanis Morissette is apparently still hanging out and creating music. She had a new album out just last year, and apparently played in London (presumably before the lockdown). I think I'm going to try to check out what she's doing now.

They have HYENA BABIES at Yorkshire Wildlife Park! I didn't even know they had hyenas. Colchester Zoo made a big deal about how they were the only zoo in England with spotted hyenas, but maybe they are new additions? Anyway. IT'S SO CLOSE TO ME. And extremely rare to have hyenas breeding in European zoos apparently, but here we are. I'm not really looking to go there anytime soon, but maybe next year when things are maybe a bit safer, and it's my birthday, and the babies are cute pre-adolescents.

I don't really want to go cleaning mold off my books, but it's largely the only job left to me in my bedroom. And I do want to rearrange the books up there. I also, while going through the drawers under my bed, found a huge amount of old notebooks and journals, and I'm not really sure what to do with them either. Some I'm definitely keeping, like my leaver's book from college, but with the others, I feel bad throwing them away when they're part of my history. But also I never look at them, don't have a huge amount of reason to check back on things I was doing and feeling 7 years ago, and also a lot of them have lists of slash pairings, fic ideas and kink lists - because that has been a huge part of my life for so long. And while I'm not ashamed of that and think it has value, it's not like I'll be looking to pass these notebooks onto my descendants, or wanting my parents to read them if something should happen to me. So they're just sitting in a drawer under my bed, taking up space. While I decide if I want to do anything with them at all. Really they should go in the loft I guess, but I'm not very good at the loft, and don't feel like giving my dad an extra job. So under the bed they'll stay, for now.

I've also been going through some CDs, hoping to get rid of some and make some room. It's annoying when you find one song on a CD that you really like, but not enough to really keep the whole CD, or be excited to put the whole album on for ever. But you still want to keep hold of the song. I'm relying on Youtube to keep me in touch with that music now. But also I've discovered some new songs I really love. Here is a selection of songs I've found groovy recently:

Obstacle 1 - Interpol


Don't Go Back to Dalston - Razorlight


Pet Semetary - The Ramones


Cish Cash - Basement Jaxx feat. Siouxie Sioux


I need more Basement Jaxx in my life. They're probably one of my favourite bands, but I never think about them that way.

Kyla La Grange

This is one of my favourite ever non-romantic songs. Written and performed by Kyla La Grange.

Tracy Chapman

I used to listen to Tracy Chapman religiously after hearing Fast Car on one of the music channels back in the day. The below song, Telling Stories, is as relevant to things going on today as it was when she released it.

Goodbye Earl by The Chicks

(tw for domestic violence, murder)

Azaelia Banks


(Tw: slurs, homophobic language)

I always liked Azaelia Banks. I know she's weird - I mean, the above song contains homophobic slurs as well as graphic depictions of herself as a bisexual woman. And I know she said really awful things to people in real life. But she also apologised for those things, from what I heard, and talked openly about her mental health issues that she claimed were responsible for those moments, and she's obviously very talented. And Kanye West has also said some really terrible things, without ever personally talking about his mental health problems or apologising for them. And I bet his next album will sell gangbusters whenever it's released. Anyway. I always like Azaelia Banks.

Kate Bush



I think Kate Bush is a genuine genius. She became the first woman to get a UK number one with a song she'd both performed and entirely self-written, and she did it when she was 18. By which point she'd already written 100 songs. The above, Running Up That Hill, is probably one of my favourite songs of all time.

It's my birthday ::blows noisemaker::

Some nice things for my birthday:

Fox cubs on a webcam

A video from a nearby farm attraction about what they're doing after closing, all their pregnant animals, and at around 19:30 on the video, their new Shire horse foal that was just born on the farm.

And since there is some sad anti-Chinese sentiment around, I would like to share this poem from the Tang Dynasty that I read recently:

Dreaming of Li Bai (2), Du Fu (trans. Peter Harris)

Throughout the day the floating clouds go by
And even now the wanderer has not arrived.
I have dreamed of you three nights in a row;
How kind and caring this shows you to be!
When you take your leave you are always uneasy -
'It is hard coming,' you say bitterly,
'There are wind and waves on the rivers and lakes
And I am afraid the boat may sink.'
Going out the door you scratch your white head
As if you have failed to achieve your life's ambition.
Officials' caps and canopies fill the capital;
This man alone looks worn and out of sorts.
Who will say 'the net is spread wide', when as
things are
He is beset with difficulties as he grows old?
Having a reputation that lasts thousands of years
Is a lonely business if you acquire it after you are dead.


I mostly know Li Bai from Civilisation 6, so I can say that he certainly has a reputation that's lasted hundreds of years. Whether he only acquired if after he was dead though, I can't say.