Recommendation: SweLL

tnkgrl recommends…

SweLL
Performance

10 years after Taste this/Boys Like Her, Lyndell Montgomery, Ivan Coyote, and Anna Camilleri are back (minus Zoe Eakle) with SweLL/So The Story Goes.

For more information:
http://www.lyndellmontgomery.com/
http://www.ivanecoyote.com/
http://www.annacamilleri.com/

» Recommend something. «


Posted by on September 16th, 2009 at 08:00 am

Category: people, recommendations, videos 5 comments »

5 Responses to “Recommendation: SweLL”

  1. cher

    That’s funny I was just talking about the Boys Like Her book to a friend yesterday. I gave my old copy to the Gay Youth group back in Rochester,NY. Just added a link to it on my site’s store. hehe Thanks for the heads up!

    [Reply]

  2. XylophoneGender

    How beautiful, simple, strong. Swooning over Lyndell is always an added plus.

    [Reply]

  3. genderkid

    This totally deserves a transcription. The first few paragraphs –and ESPECIALLY the last one– are really neat.

    Ivan: Nobody taught me how to be a butch. I didn’t even hear the word until I was 20 years old; I first became something in solitude. And only later realized that there was a word for what I was, and discovered others like me. So now, now I’m writing myself down, I’m sketching directions so that I may be found – or followed.
    Anna Camilleri: In the few photographs I’m in, there’s barely a trace of me.
    Ivan: I never was a pretty girl
    Lyndell Montgomery: I look good in a pinstriped suit.
    Anna: I defer to older femmes, because they are –you are– my lineage. My people. And you’ve got to be tenacious to be femme. Respect is more than deserved: it’s been earned for steadfastness and beauty. And hell knows and right now’s.
    Ivan: Right now?
    Anna: Right now.
    Ivan: Right now. Do not give your butch friends a hard time about having a ponytail, or a Pekinese Pomeranian cross. (Applause.) Or nail polish, or shaved legs, or even a fucking smart car. Get over yourself. Seriously. You are a rare species; not a stereotype.
    Save your pennies. Save your empties. Save your leftover food, save your clothes that you grew out of, save your ziplock bags, your tin foil, your rubber bands, and those weird little plastic tags that keep the bread bag closed. Hey, it’s a fucking crying shame what some people will throw out these days. Save something for yourself.
    Anna: Save yourself – the trouble. If she talks over you on the first date, she’s been doing it for a long time and you’re a fool if you think you’re going to change it. Pay attention to how she talks about her ex-lovers or girlfriends. If they’re all “crazy”, something’s not right.
    Ivan: Watch how he talks to the waitress. This comes from my Gran. ‘Cause that’s the same way he’s going to talk to you in a couple of years.
    Anna: Double-sided tape. Uh-huh. It’s useful in a variety of first date emergencies, and it comes in handy to keep up strapless bras that are unwieldy at the best of times. And not, in fact, gravity-defying.
    Ivan: There’s so much the tape can do, you know?
    Anna: Ok, you talk to them.
    Ivan: Learn to start a fire. With flint, and some dry moss. And then, forever after, use gasoline. And a blowtorch.
    (Lyndell plays a music solo.)
    Anna: I wanna keep it simple. Because it’s a sunny day. We’re on Brunswick beach and I’m boarding a plane in a few hours. So I run my hands along her skin golden. Keep my stories to myself, roll them under my tongue, like a bevel. You know, I can be a soft place to land, but that has nothing to do with the curves of me. My hands are strong enough to hold the ones I love; that’s what these femme hands are built for.
    Ivan: And you’re right: I could. I could choose to go about my daily, everyday, ordinary business, and each and every time I interact with a perfect stranger I could say “Hello, my name is Ivan, and I need a haircut, or a carwash, or a library book, or a latte. And just in case you might be wondering –I don’t know, are you wondering? – but just in case you might be wondering, I guess I should, even though you really don’t need to know this information about me to sell me a newspaper, I guess I should disclose at this, should I disclose at this… uh… I’m a predominantly estrogen-based organism. Okay? And you may now proceed to treat me thusly. Based on how much respect you have for women. Whether or not you hate gay people. And how you feel inside ‘bout folks who, even when forced into a gender box, refuse to close the lid.”

    [Reply]

  4. Rory

    Hey genderkid, you ROCK for transcribing! I love that last line, so powerful!

    [Reply]

  5. Claudius Maximus

    This video is awesome. I like the way Ivan tells stories. Genderkid is second Rory thank you for transcribing.

    [Reply]


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