writer, performer and activist Julia Serano's blog! most posts will focus on gender & sexuality; trans, queer & feminist politics; music & performance; and other stuff that interests or concerns me. find out more about my various creative endeavors at juliaserano.com
Showing posts with label *soft vowel sounds*. Show all posts
Showing posts with label *soft vowel sounds*. Show all posts
As some of you may know, in addition to being an author, I also write and perform music – originally with my noise-pop band Bitesize, and currently with my solo music project *soft vowel sounds*. Quite a few of my songs are transgender-themed – back in 2014, I chronicled many of these in a blog post entitled Transgender-themed artists, bands, music, songs & anthems.
Just this last December, I debuted a brand new transgender-themed song. Actually, it's a cover of one of the catchiest classic rock hits from the 1970s, albeit with me "trans"-ing the lyrics (for reasons explained in the following live performance video of the song). I've also included the lyrics below, so feel free to sing along if you wish! I will be performing "Cisgender" at my next *soft vowel sounds* show on Saturday, April 6th at El Rio in San Francisco, and will likely do it at future shows as well. To keep posted about my upcoming live shows and recordings (including a new album later this year!), I encourage you to sign up for my music email list. Happy listening...
In a previous post, I described my two different email lists: The julia update comes out about 4–6 times a year, and shares all of my latest writings, shows, and creative endeavors. Then I have a music-only update (for my two music projects *soft vowel sounds* & Bitesize) that comes out more frequently, anytime I have a new music show or release. You can sign up for them via those links, if you wish.
I'm telling you this because I just released two new updates: a music one, and a more general julia update — I encourage you to check them out! Here are a few highlights:
my first college speaking events of the 2018-19 year are coming up in early October! If you want me to visit your school, please check out my booking webpage.
Finally, a reminder that I am giving away a free mp3 of one of my songs with each music update – another reason to consider signing up! This month's free song is the Bitesize classic "Yellow Belt" – check out the update if you wanna download it!
If you appreciate my writings, music, and performances, I highly encourage you to sign up for my email lists! I have two separate lists that you can join:
julia update - this is the most comprehensive list. Once every 2–3 months, I will send out a thorough update about all my creative endeavors, including info about new book & music releases, links to my recent writings & interviews, plus upcoming speaking events & performances. Basically, the whole shebang!
*soft vowel sounds*/Bitesize update - this is my music-specific list. Updates are shorter and more frequent (but no more than one per month), mostly to alert folks about upcoming *soft vowel sounds* shows, as well as new music & videos when they arise.
You can sign up for either update (or both) by clicking those links.
As a bonus, each update will include a link to a free mp3 of one of my songs! These will be available exclusively (and for a limited time only) through my email updates. So be sure to sign up!
Happy Pride month everyone! I have three *soft vowel sounds* live shows lined up for the summer, the first one being this weekend! This Saturday, June 9th, I will be playing at a benefit for LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ Youth. The event will be held at Laughing Monk Brewing (1439 Egbert Ave, Unit A, San Francisco, CA), who will be donating a portion of the evening’s sales to the cause. It's a great slate of music acts, including Cindy Emch, Mya Byrne, and Polythene Pam! If you're on Facebook, here's the event page.
I am the opening act, starting promptly at 6pm, so seriously, be sure to show up early! If you want a sneak-peak into my set, I will be performing Open Letter, Switch Hitter, Macbeth, Greta Garbo, Music Box, Understudy, and my usual closer I Killed Sting, amongst other songs! All of those links will bring you to YouTube videos or Bandcamp pages where you can listen along to the songs. So prepare yourself to sing along! Or not, it's totally fine to just listen... : ) I have two other summer *svs* San Francisco shows lined up! While I'm not actively promoting them yet, you can find find out the dates by checking out my latest music email update, or you can sign up for my music email list here.
other recent pieces about "autogynephilia" and "identity politics"
a call for beta readers
two new music videos!
plus the following upcoming events: May 16, 2018 -- I will be giving a keynote entitled “Queer Communities and Future Possibilities” at University of Washington, Tacoma Pride, at 1pm at William Phillip Hall. More details can be found here. May 24, 2018 -- I will be interviewed live at the California Institute of Integral Studies event: “A Conversation with Julia Serano and Zara Zimbardo: On Trans Feminism.” The event will be at CIIS, 1453 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, at 7pm. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door; more event details can be found here and here. May 28, 2018 -- I will be reading some of my new fiction at Yarn: Comedy Storytelling. Other featured performers include Heather Gold, Gina Gold, and Aundré the Wonderwoman. The show is at Shotgun Players (1901 Ashby Ave, Berkeley, CA), doors at 7pm, show at 7:30pm. Ticket info (including reduced-price advanced tickets!) can be found here. June 9, 2018 -- my solo music project *soft vowel sounds* will be playing a benefit for LYRIC Center for LGBTQQ Youth. The event will be held at Laughing Monk Brewing (1439 Egbert Ave, Unit A, San Francisco, CA) who will be donating a portion of the evening's sales to the cause. The other acts include Polythene Pam and Mya Byrne. More details here. You can read the full update here. If you want to receive my email updates directly to your inbox, you can sign up here.
Many of you who follow me here do so because of my writings, but I occasionally write and perform music as well. For many years, I was in a noise-pop band called Bitesize, and my current lo-fi solo indie-pop music project is *soft vowel sounds* - you can listen to and learn more about both projects via those links.
I have a bunch of new news music-wise to share!
First, I will be doing a *soft vowel sounds* live show this Sunday, April 8th in the East Bay at the Ivy Room (860 San Pablo Ave, Albany, CA). The other bands will be Polythene Pam and The Sweet Trade. I will be opening up the show, so get there early if you don't want to miss my set! Doors at 6pm, show starts promptly at 7pm, $6-$10 sliding scale NOTAFLOF, must be 21+, more details here and here.
Second, over the weekend I released two new music videos for songs I plan to do at Sunday's show. Here they are:
Open Letter is a "coming out" song that I wrote way back when I was transitioning (circa 2001-02). My previous band Bitesize used to perform the song, although we never formally recorded it. In 2014, I recorded this version for the *soft vowel sounds* EP Ray versus Macbeth and the Music Box, part one (which you can download for free via the link; just enter "0"). You can find the lyrics for the song on Bandcamp.
So a few bits of new news! First, if you haven't seen it, earlier this week I published a new essay: Thoughts about transphobia, TERFs, and TUMFs. It addresses the different underlying motives/sentiments/beliefs that often drive transphobia, and how we might take these into account as trans activists. It's on Medium - the more "applause" it gets (the clapping hands icon at bottom of the article), the more likely it will appear on other people's Medium feeds. If you really like it, you can give it many claps! So clap away!!!
Second, I just updated my events webpage to include some upcoming college speaking appearances. More may arise, but the ones currently listed are in Ohio, Maine, and Philly, so check it out if you live in those necks of the woods! And as always, if you are interested and able to bring me out to your college campus, please check out my booking page. One of the other shows listed on my events page is happening this Monday (Feb. 5th): Yarn comedy storytelling! I will be reading a few humorous excerpts from my forthcoming novel. Other featured performers include Heather Gold, Aundré the Wonderwoman, and Bridget Schwartz. The show is at Homestead (4029 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA), doors at 7pm, show at 7:30pm. Reduced-price advanced tickets are only $12 and can be purchased here. Finally, I didn't put this on my events page yet because it's not 100% confirmed, but it's looking like I will be part of a "Quirky Queer Tuesday" music show at the El Rio in San Francisco sometime in March - those details will be listed as soon as I have them, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if you're not familiar with my music, you should check out my current solo music project *soft vowel sounds*and my old (now sadly disbanded) noise-pop band Bitesize.
Hope to see you at some of these shows! Otherwise, you can follow me here or on other social media platforms, and as always, please consider supporting my work on Patreon!
I wanted to get the word out about this sooner, but I recently updated my "stuff to buy" webpage for the impending holidays!
If you click that link, you will find:
links to order all three of my books (Whipping Girl, Excluded, and Outspoken) online, including the (fairly) recently released Whipping Girl audio book! note: I also include links for independent bookstore options, if that's a cause you want to support!
as a special offer only on my website, you can buy signed copies out Outspoken, made out to you, or whomever you wish! (btw, I normally ship them by USPS Media Mail, which usually takes about a week to arrive, so you should act fast if your goal is to have it before December 25th).
if you enjoy my music (my bands Bitesize and *soft vowel sounds*), you'll find links to order digital copies there, plus PayPal buttons to purchase compact discs (if you happen to be old school).
Once again, here's the "buy stuff" link. Happy shopping!
Tomorrow (Friday, August 3rd), Bandcamp is donating 100% of their profits to the Transgender Law Center (a wonderful organization). So I encourage you to check out my old noise-pop band Bitesize and my current solo music project *soft vowels sounds* on that platform. Via those links, you can listen to all the songs for free, and if you enjoy them, please consider purchasing them tomorrow!
If you are unfamiliar with my music, feel free to check out my blogpost Transgender-themed artists, bands, music, songs & anthems, which shares many of my trans-themed songs (including my "Lola" parody: "Ray"), plus links to lists of many other transgender musical artists that you can also support...
Last week, I encountered quite a number of posts & tweets in which people shared their favorite transgender music artists and trans-themed songs. I later discovered that these posts were initially inspired by an article in Bustle that featured videos of trans anthems by trans artists (e.g., Laura Jane Grace, Namoli Brennet, and Mina Caputo) in response a recent trans-themed song by Kate Pierson. Subsequently, The Advocate published a post called 37 Alternative 'Trans Anthems' by Trans Musicians featuring additional trans-themed songs/music videos by trans artists - definitely check all those wonderful songs out!
Since I have recently returned to making music, and since many people who know me primarily as a trans author & activist are not aware that I started out as a musician/songwriter, I figured that I would take this opportunity to compile some of my own trans-themed anthems to share with the world. So here we go:
My current music project is a solo lo-fi indie-pop endeavor called *soft vowel sounds*. I recently released my first record, and it contains two trans-themed anthems:
The title track Ray is my take on/parody of The Kinks' song "Lola." The video is admittedly not especially video-ish, as I wanted to highlight the lyrics of the song:
The record also includes the song Open Letter, which I wrote shortly after I came out to my family as trans back in 2002. My previous band Bitesize used to regularly perform the song, although we never formally recorded it.
During 1997-2009, I was the guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter for the noise-pop indie-rock band Bitesize. We had a number of trans-themed songs & anthems - here are the ones that we recorded:
Understudy is my very favorite Bitesize song. It is about a transgender teenage thespian who gets to play the role of Ophelia in a Catholic boys school production of Hamlet.
Switch Hitter is an embellished story about how I first decided to change my sex at my little league’s all-star game.
Surprise Ending is about a trans woman who accidentally runs into the bully who picked on her as a child.
Finally, one of the first songs that I wrote for Bitesize was I Forgot My Mantra, a coy and flippant anthem that is mostly about me being a crossdresser (how I identified at the time). The chorus is the single line: "I'm a hermaphrodite, but that's beside the point." (For the record, I was not trying to claim an intersex identity with that line - I’m not sure I even knew what intersex was back then. I was just trying to express that I saw myself as harboring some combination of maleness/masculinity and femaleness/femininity within me.)
Anyway, happy listening! And if you like what you hear, you can sign up for my *soft vowel sounds* email list to stay posted about my future music and shows. . .
[note: If you appreciate my writing & music and want to see more of it, please check out my Patreon page]
So earlier today, I sent out my latest email update (btw, you can sign up for my email list here). It offers links to some of my more recent writings, an interview, plus two speaking events coming up this week in St. Louis & San Francisco.
I also describe two music videos I recently created for my new solo music project *soft vowel sounds*. Since I couldn't embed them in my email, I will do so here:
Music Box is the first song on the record. It is about being a third wheel and it appropriately takes place inside of a vehicle:
Ray is my parody of The Kinks' song "Lola". The video is admittedly not especially video-ish, as I wanted to highlight the lyrics of the song:
and speaking of music, on Tuesday December 2nd, I will be performing a couple of songs for the Bad Dyke Book Release + Bawdy Storytelling, featuring Allison Moon, Dixie De La Tour and other storytellers TBA. At Awaken Cafe (1429 Broadway, Oakland), Doors at 7, Show at 8, Tickets $15 (available for purchase here). More show details can be found here.
So earlier this week I sent out my latest email update. It offers links to some of my more recent writings plus a bit of news about Excluded.
But the update mostly discusses my new solo music project*soft vowel sounds* and my first record (a four-song EP) under that moniker called Ray versus Macbeth and the Music Box, part one. The record includes the eponymous song "Ray," a contemporary parody of The Kinks' song "Lola." To listen to the record and/or find out how you can download it for free (for a limited time), simply check out the email update!
