Governor's Ball Remix

I don't think I ever shared this silly (but completely awesome!) dance remix The Mister made of our Welcome Little Stranger song "The Governor's Ball". Who knew a gruesome, Spaghetti Western-style tale of Old West horrors would lend itself so well to electronic dance beats and Auto-Tune?

Feminist Friday: Halloween Costumes

Dolls and guys, indulge me for a minute, if you will. I know I've focused only on classic country with these Feminist Friday posts until now, but since the empowerment of women and girls is a subject near and dear to my heart, I'm thinking of expanding the focus a bit to cover, well, pretty much anything relating to women's issues that I damn well feel like writing about. So pack that in yer pipe and smoke it! Anyway, I know Halloween is old news and we are on the downward slide to all things Christmas, but something has been on my mind: Halloween costumes, specifically the pervasive sexualization of costumes for women and girls over the last several years.

I'm certainly not the only one who's thinking about this. The Huffington Post recently ran an article with a photo slideshow showing the evolution of girls' costumes over the last couple of decades toward ever sexier outfits featuring super short skirts, bare midriffs, and corset styling. I have seen with my own two eyes costumes for very young girls that appear to be miniature versions of club and fetish wear. Clicking on the "Top Girls' Costumes" tab on a popular costume retailer's site turns up a staggering array of inexplicably sexual costumes. Sexy Oscar The Grouch and Elmo? Are you even for real right now? Now, just let me say right here and right now, I have no problem with a grown adult woman choosing to express her sexuality in any way she likes, at Halloween or on any other day of the year. If dressing as sexy Mrs. Potato Head floats your boat, more power to you, ladies. I myself wore a few sexy Halloween costumes back in my pre childbearing days. What bothers me and a lot of others who advocate for a childhood free of sexualization, is that young girls are incapable of understanding the kind of messages costumes like these send, and are incapable of making choices like these in an informed way. What bothers me more are parents buying these costumes for their daughters and either choosing to ignore that nagging voice that says, "something feels a little off here", or worse, parents not having that nagging voice at all because the sexualization of Halloween, childhood, and indeed everything in this country's sordid culture has erased boundaries that existed just a few short years ago.



When my six year old was having a hard time coming up with a costume idea a couple of weeks ago, inspired by this awesome little girl, I suggested that she choose a historical figure that she admired. Her immediate response was, "I want to be Helen Keller!" She had just read a book about her and was fascinated with her story. So, we pulled out a Victorian-esque sailor dress I had found at the thrift store earlier this summer, and I covered an old book with paper and wrote "Helen Keller" in Braille with embossing ink and powder to simulate the look of Braille type. Of course, we had to explain her costume to every single person we encountered, but it didn't faze her, and I was proud of my thoughtful little girl. Speaking of thoughtful costumes for little girls, have you heard about the amazing new resource that is A Mighty Girl? Take a look at the Halloween photo set on their Facebook page for some wonderful examples. And for thoughtful women, check out Take Back Halloween. I know it has gotten my gears turning for next year.

So, friends, what do you think? Have you noticed this alarming trend of skimpy, adult-looking costumes for little girls? What did you or your little ones (if you have them) dress as on Wednesday?

Halloween Magic

Hellooo, Sugar Babies! I wanted to share a bit of our Halloween with you. We made some wonderful family memories last evening, and I hope you did as well. As you can see, assuming your eyeballs haven't imploded from the cuteness, I wrangled a wee little cowpoke all night. My big girl chose to dress as Helen Keller, which made this homeschooling mama more than a little proud.



Our little town blocks off three blocks of the downtown drag for after school trick-or-treating of all the main street businesses. It's a nice tradition.



Before heading out for the door-to-door candy gathering, we stopped by my grandma's place to show off the great-grandbabies in their costumes. The sun setting in the distance was so pretty and magical, we decided to have a little photo session in the hay meadow.




It was Little Bit's first time trick-or-treating, and her sweet big sister led her to every door with care.





We ended the night with a stop at a local church carnival for a hayride, popcorn, and not one, but two bouncy houses with slides, which pretty much sent it right over the edge into "Best Halloween Ever" territory for my newly six year old.



I hope you had at least half as much fun.

Happy Halloween!

Hello, punkins! I picked up this creepy, crispy piranha at a garage sale for a quarter this summer. He is labeled "Caribe", which make me wonder if he hails from Venezuela, since Professor Google tells me that is the name for the species in the local vernacular. He is year round decor, but I thought he looked appropriately terrifying for the occasion. I hope you're gearing up for a Merry All Hallows Eve, and if you were in the path of Sandy, I sincerely hope all is well with you and yours.

Wanda Jackson and Daniel Romano

So, I saw Wanda Jackson before I fell off the blogging wagon for a month, and she was great; very warm, personal, and engaging onstage. She's got a lot of spunk, and she can still shake some fringe! My friends and I were four of about ten people in the entire audience under the age of 60, which made for a very quiet show, but we had a great time nonetheless. We may have gotten a little rowdy in the nosebleed section and annoyed the Centrum Silver set, but you just can't hear The Queen of Rockabilly sing "Fujiyama Mama" and sit still while tapping your toe! It just isn't done. Wanda still lives just down the road in Oklahoma City, and during the show she dedicated "Let's Have a Party" to her granddaughter who happened to be sitting just a few rows on front of us and had driven up from Tulsa to see her world famous grandma sing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a single photo because my camera battery died right before the show, so you'll just have to take my word for it: I was there, and it was fabulous.

Wanda's opening act and backing band for this leg of her tour was Daniel Romano and his band, The Trilliums, who I hadn't heard before. I am now a new and enthusiastic fan of these Canadian boys! They are some seriously stellar musicians. How did I not know about Daniel before? I mean, the man wears Nudie-esque rhinestone-encrusted Western suits and styles his album covers after the glory days of 1960's Nashville, not to mention his classic country and honky tonk songs, heavy on the steel guitar. If that doesn't butter my bread, I don't know what does! If you know what's good for you, you'll go to Daniel's Bandcamp page and listen to and buy his albums. Here are three of my favorites of his from The Tube of You:

Feminist Friday: Hard-Headed Woman

A hard-headed woman is a thorn in the side of a man. This hard-headed woman will be seeing the legendary Wanda Jackson TONIGHT! I'm shakin' all over just thinking about it!

P.S. How cute is that fiddle player?

Feminist Friday: Heaven Help the Working Girl

Hello, sugar dumplings! I'm around, just running like a chicken with my head cut off. I know all you working girls can relate.