My sister called me today to ask my advice on whether she should allow my 14-year-old niece to get purple highlights in her hair.* Of course I said, �Definitely!� She was feeling odd about the fact that she actually cared. She said she never would have thought that she would have a problem with any kind of hair coloring, but found herself worrying that people would treat her daughter differently� maybe teachers would be weird to her or other kids would make fun of her. The age-old question of identity and how to handle it rears its ugly head again. Yes, you�re putting an image out to the world no matter what you wear or how you wear it. But why put yourself in a box that someone else has created because they�re too little minded to live life without strict categories and guidelines as to deciphering humans. Humans are messy and complex. To live up to what other people expect by molding yourself into as vanilla (or spicy and crazy, as the case may be) a human as possible so that they can feel comfortable is just asinine� nothing short of suicide could ever satisfy other fearful people�s expectations. People who negatively judge you because you have some colors in your hair (or don�t) will always find something wrong. This is across worlds and genres and gender and cliques from prep to punk. People have a tendency to try to escape the possible meaninglessness of life by categorization and attaching themselves to communities. This is not altogether terrible if it doesn�t hurt anyone, I suppose. When my mom died I actually found some solace in the fact that she had attached herself to the church community, because the priest talked so candidly about her and her funeral didn�t feel as cold as it could have. For once in my life I was relatively emotionally trusting of community. And I have a big group of friends, as well as individuals that don�t know each other, but I am innately distrustful of crowds, as I�ve seen people I thought were ok take on the ugly mob mentality. And the old �strength in numbers� adage is true. And people think they�re right when other people agree. Look at the Nazis. So I guess my point is, why keep Julia from getting purple highlights just to appease the mob mentality? Yes, it is a bit of a dramatic jump, but what�s next? Sacrificing ourselves on the altar of who we think we should be seen with? This is not to say we shouldn�t want to look a certain way. Like, I don�t find bloused jackets on men attractive�you know, like the Members Only look and those puffy colorful leather jackets. Yes, I could go on about what I find attractive on me as well as on other people. It does, though, depend on the person, for the most part. But I say, wear whatever the fuck you want. I got a kick out of Ani DiFranco doing a show naked. She basically brought together in stupidity the two parts of her audience who would consider themselves at odds. The ones with the frat boy mentality of �oh, dude, look, a naked chick,� and the hardcore self proclaimed lesbian feminists who say, �oh look at the political statement she�s making� and none of these people are listening to the music�they�re just doing a lot of talking. Only those who came for the music and not the tits or the politics are the ones hearing the music� the ones who could care less if she were naked. She has always been very honest about herself. And she lost a bit of her fan base because they wanted a spokesperson for strong bisexuality or something� and then she went and (how dare she do what she wants!) got married� and no longer fit into their little box that they decided she was about (I wrote about this on Jack Kerouac�s Tristessa too). I respect her for pissing them off. How dare they tell her who to be? She wrote the songs. If you need a spokesperson for something you�re into well, damn it, go be a spokesperson. Yes, humans do not particularly enjoy change. We get mad because the new Les Savy Fav isn�t as hard and rocking as the last one� but I consider my favorite musicians to be similar to friends, in that they�re allowed to change and grow, even mellow. It can be depressing but it�s not their fault�it�s simply our fear of the ending of an era, and in turn, our slouching towards old age. When we love an album we want more of the same.

Sometimes we need categories, yes� I�m glad I have a room specifically for pee and poo.

My Zephyrs review from Amplifier Magazine is up on Insound.com. There�s a cool little music player on the site too.

Hey Punker! Go get your Rocket from the Crypt name from the RFTC Name Generator and be just as cool as Speedo and the boys! Mine is 666 Calculator!

*My cousin sent out this terrible email last year that contained a poem some kid wrote about prayer in school. I could give a shit about prayer in school. But the dumb poem was all about how kids can have any color hair and it made it sound like having dyed hair was the devil. And it rhymed, all like, �In school I�m not allowed to say what Jesus said, but kids can have ripped jeans and hair of green and red.� I�m making it up but that was the gist. I idiotically didn�t respond to it� sometimes I just get sick of being a teacher� but I should have emailed him back saying, �do you think this red hair is real?� When people are darn ignorant, especially family, it gets to me. I mean, does he really believe that the answer to taking away someone�s right to pray in school is taking away someone else�s right to dye their hair? Give me a break. This is the same guy who sent out a �Happy Easter� email last year that was like, �And remember, Easter isn�t just about candy and a bunny hopping down the bunny trail� it�s about Jesus rising�� and all that� So I emailed him back, �It IS? I wish someone had told me sooner! Thanks so much for reminding me.� I can�t stand when people get on their high horse in a form email or letter as if they�re on a stage. Go sing karaoke instead, if you think you need to be up on a stage. Isn�t saying �Merry Christmas� or �Happy Easter� enough? Or expressing love? Is it really necessary to tell people, like you�re so much smarter than they are, condescendingly, what it�s all about? No. It�s not. But then I�m evil because I dye my hair and don�t have babies and a swing set past which I cannot see. But I do pee in the toilet so I�m not totally barbaric. But I�m writing about pee here� so that�s not terribly civilized either. I�m more Hanna-Barbaric� I always wanted to be called Wilma when I was little. And I think she was the original inspiration for my red hair.

I'd better go work on my proposal and stop blathering.

Word of the Day for Friday March 1, 2002:

prolix pro-LIKS; PRO-liks, adjective:

1. Extending to a great length; unnecessarily long; wordy.

2. Tending to speak or write at excessive length.