Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 03/21/2010

Support Women Artists Sunday: Marina and the Diamonds

Marina and the Diamonds

Marina Lambrini Diamandis (born 10 October 1985), better known by her stage name Marina and the Diamonds, is a Greek-Welsh singer-songwriter. She rose to fame after reaching number two on the BBC Sound of 2010 poll list, coming second to Ellie Goulding. After releasing one private extended play, Diamandis released her second extended play, The Crown Jewels EP, with help from Neon Gold Records in 2009. Now signed to 679 Recordings, she released her debut full-length studio album,The Family Jewels, in 2010. Diamandis will be releasing her third extended play, The American Jewels EP, on 23 March, 2010.

Her eponymous name “Marina and the Diamonds” consists of Diamandis’ first name and the translation of her surname which means “Diamonds” in Greek.…

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Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Laura H on 03/17/2010

Ladette to Lady: How to be an Acceptable Human Being

A while ago I was off school ill and, in the grips of extreme and irreversible boredom, I started browsing through 4OD (for those who don’t know, that’s the website of the UK Channel 4 which allows you to watch recently aired programmes online). I came across the latest series of Ladette to Lady and started watch. To put it mildly: what the hell!

As the name suggests the main aim of Ladette to Lady, is to take a bunch of the “most wayward and shameless girls” they can find, who have previously been involved in such shocking activities as drinking and – brace yourselves, girls – having s-e-x! They then load these girls onto a minibus and ship them to Eggleston…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 03/16/2010

Kathryn Bigelow: The Woman Behind the Landmark

Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow made history on March 7th when she became the first woman to win the award for Best Director. And to be honest, up until that point I knew very little about her. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one, since she hasn’t exactly been the most prevalent director of our time.

I haven’t seen the Hurt Locker because, frankly, it is my junior year of high school and when I emerge, blinking at the unexpected brightness of the sun after hours of light generated by my computer screen I usually take shelter at a friend’s house so that they might remember I still exist.

So, instead, I did what I do best and took to Google. Apparently, Kathryn Bigelow…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 03/14/2010

Support Women Artists Sunday: Little Boots

Little Boots

Victoria Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is a British electronic musician. She sings, plays synthesizers, the Yamaha tenori-on and the stylophone. She was the former lead singer/synth player in Dead Disco.

Hesketh was born in Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool, Lancashire and now lives in London. She attended Rossall School, Blackpool Sixth Form College and then the University of Leeds, gaining a first-class honours degree in Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on “The concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum”.

At the age of 18, Hesketh participated in television talent show Pop Idol, being eliminated after three rounds. She went on to form a Jazz trio, toured Europe with a big band, and later formed the dance-pop band…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 03/9/2010

A Generation of Prosti-tots

the good old days

Last year, I worked at an after-school day care center for kids in preschool-6th grade. Basically, after a long day at school, I hauled my ass to work where for 3 hours I was surrounded by a bunch of kids who were primarily in their single digits and not only acted as though they hadn’t just been at school for 8 hours but had also shot up some 5 hour energy. Seriously, these kids were nuts.

A family friend recently sent me this article about “prosti-tots,” a catchy yet disturbing phrase, that got me thinking about my experience at work. Basically, if you think our generation is messed up, the next one has it coming.

For some reason the little…

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