What I'm Reading: 'Girl in a Band' by Kim Gordon

My inability to connect with the music of Sonic Youth is one of my life's greatest embarrassments. When I think about it now, it conjures up a lot of "missed connection"-type feelings, as if I just barely missed out on being a huge fan. On paper, they were the perfect band for me -- I worshipped Marc Jacobs, Sofia Coppola and Chloe Sevigny as a teen and any band fronted by a woman was of interest to me. I got really into a lot of bands peripheral to and clearly inspired by Sonic Youth, and even listened to Hole. But somehow I missed the boat, and as an adult I have always had a hard time listening to their music, which is so dissonant, and tends to conjure up memories and emotions from adolescence that I'd rather not indulge in.

I'm really hopeful that reading Kim Gordon's exceptional memoir Girl in a Band will change that for me. This has always been my experience with music memoirs -- when I lack an entry-point into the band's catalog, I have used literary connections to forge my own path, which comes so much more naturally. Kim Gordon is someone I greatly admire and even though I didn't listen to her music, she served as a major style and feminist icon in my coming-of-age. Her memoir is really great, with just enough dirt on the 90s music scene, and a really intense description of her Joan Didion-era California upbringing.

This Week in Books Kim Gordon Talks to Carrie Brownstein

I haven't done a 'This Week in Books' post in a few weeks; it's one part apathy, one part late-winter depression, but March is here and it's 50 degrees out and my snowdrop bulbs started popping up, so I'm back and ready to round up.

Credits | Campaign video directed, produced, edited, shot by RAVA Films Client | Vann Alexandra, Griffin Dunne We’re so thrilled to have had the opportunity to dig through piles of history and into the life and work of notable author, Joan Didion. RAVA edited, shot and produced this campaign video for the amazing team behind the project “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live,” a feature length documentary about the legendary author, screenwriter, journalist, essayist, fashion icon, Joan Didion, who today launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to produce the film. Thanks: To our ever reliable music source the Free Music Archive, and the musicians who so generously share their work through the Creative Commons platform: U.S. Army Blues, Waylon Thornton. Original score composed by Hahn Rowe.

The folks working on the Joan Didion document 'We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live' have made a nice pseudo-trailer/fundraiser video. If you've already donated, it gives you a better idea of what the finished product will look like.

The National Book Critics Circle Awards were handed out this week, with top prizes going to Marilynne Robinson and Roz Chast. I don't know why, but I feel a sense of accomplishment when a book or author I've read wins a major award. It's validating of how I spent that time, I guess.

To simply call Kim Gordon a musician is like saying that Andy Warhol was just an artist. Sonic Youth co-founder, visual artist and fashion icon. She coproduced Hole's debut album, nurtured a young Kurt Cobain and put a teenage Chloë Sevigny on-screen for the first time.

My post on Kim Gordon's memoir Girl in a Band is forthcoming, but in the meantime you can watch this terrific interview between Kim Gordon and Sleater Kinney/Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein.