What Would Wendy O. Do?

When I was 12 years old a boy in my 6th grade class, Mike Henle, told me that he could beat me at baseball any time. The rules: he'd get one other boy as a teammate and I could get as many girls as I wanted as teammates. Many days after school, me, Jenny, Lupe, Lydia, and all the other little girls I could round up would be out at K Street park, huffing and puffing, trying our darndest to kick those boys asses.

Mike always won. (He was a really good baseball player, dammit!) Although I was always disappointed, it didn't slow me down. Around the same time, I bought this shirt that said "GIRLS LIB". The i's were dotted with little baseballs. You can't really read it in this picture, but here I am wearing it:

I don't know why but it's ingrained in me. I've always felt this overwhelming urge to fly the feminist flag.

So here we go: I am a woman. I drive a van. I love vans. When on roadtrips in my van my boyfriend and I will switch off behind the wheel, help get each other snacks and both keep the tunes rocking on the stereo. So when I read a recent column in the vanning magazine SLOWLY WE ROLL, pathetically titled "Riding Bitch with the Vanner Babes", I couldn't help but groan and roll my eyes. Even if it was meant to be tongue in cheek, it irritated the fuck out of me. It's been a long time since the 50's chumps! The intro to the column dripped with cringeworthy bits that I found totally demeaning to women.

So to any vanner dudes out there who agree that a "righteous vanner babe riding bitch" should be keeping the "inside of your rig nice", keeping the "drink tray stocked with a cold one" and whose main job is keeping the "tunes cranking" while you are being a "Van Man" I say FUYA!

See you on the road motherfuckers, where I'll be in the driving seat!

--Beth

Where is She Now? The Decline of Penelope Spheeris

I have always thought a DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? would be amazing. I mentioned this to filmmaker Penelope Spheeris when I interviewed her in '98 for Punk Planet magazine. And again when I met her at a Women's film fest in SF in the early 2000s. She always said she would never do a WHERE ARE THEY NOW? for various reasons. One being that the folks from her first two movies thought she made a bunch of $$ off them -- but she didn't. So she didn't think they'd be in another film for her.

Early this year I was thinking about it and decided to make a DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? website. Figured I don't have time or resources to make a movie but I COULD make a killer website and go through each movie and do little head shots with quotes... and links to what people are doing NOW. Thought it would be hilarious. Especially some of those in the Decline #2 The Metal Years who claimed they were GOING to be rock stars and make it big.

So I made the site. Started watching the movies and filling it out.

Then I saw in the paper that Penelope Spheeris was coming to SF to show Suburbia and Decline #3 and do a Q&A. Cool!

I went to the show and met her while she was selling and signing posters in the lobby. Told her about my website I'd started and was immediately met with a very defensive "YOU CAN'T DO THAT." She told me that she is working on a WHERE ARE THEY NOW? movie. WOAH!!! I had NO idea!! I have always wanted to see that so was VERY stoked!! She was not however, stoked on my project. I told her that I'd send her a link and that it was just a website, maybe it would help promote her product. Talked to her daughter a little too, who was also there with her, and is working for her mom now. (Her daughter Anna put together the recent DECLINE box set that just came out.) They told me to send them an email via Penelope's filmmaker website.

So I did.

In the email I sent her links, wrote what I thought was a very nice and heartfelt, genuine email -- expressing my love of her movies. I told her I'd like to continue my site but of course would take it down if she objected as I'd never want to piss her off. Told her it was a labor of love (labor is right, it was a painstakingly time consuming site to fill out) and I wasn't making money off it or anything.

A few weeks later I got an email and letter -- from her lawyer. Telling me to take site down. So I did.

I feel really bummed that after talking to her AND sending the email to her, she (or a fucking assistant) couldn't have just sent me an email back herself and asked me to take it down.

I guess because I considered myself a kindred spirit, not a douchebag.

I am realizing now though that I am not a kindred spirit... because I would not have treated someone like that.

I feel disappointed. Not in having to take the site down, I said I'd do that. But in how she "replied" to me.

Fucking Hollywood. Bleeeech.

--Beth

Here are some screenshots of the website template I made... it was gonna be funny! Was gonna cover everyone who got interviewed in all the Decline movies. 

--Beth

Child Abuse Takes on a Whole New Meaning

Years ago I saw a documentary on Shiloh Pepin, known as the Mermaid Girl. She was born with her legs fused together. A rare condition called sirenomelia. She didn’t have a uterus, a bladder, a large intestine, a vagina or rectum. She had her first kidney transplant when she was two and had more than 150 surgeries in her short lifetime. She fought hard to live, but died at age 10, spending the majority of her time with doctors.

Shiloh was spunky, cute, funny, and full of life. She was also very miserable most of her life and suffered terribly. During the documentary, there is an interview with her mother, who is crying. She said that she knew Shiloh would be born to unthinkable misery (she knew about the condition but decided not to abort). She admits that in selfishness, she wanted to have a baby, and so she did.

I don’t understand why this isn’t child abuse. Yes, Shiloh was extremely lovable and even led an admirable life. But it’s bullshit to make someone suffer so, when it could have been prevented.

When I saw the story online last week about the baby boy born with his brain outside his head, I felt sick. He’s already lasted longer alive than doctors predicted. But what kind of “life” is in store for him? 7-month-old Bentley Yoder is alive and kicking and has undergone surgery to place his brain back into his skull. As with Shiloh, his mother knew what was in store for him but had him anyway. 

Is it really worth it? I say the CONS outweigh the PROS in cases like this. 

Think about it... what if it was YOU who was going to be born with a defect like fused legs or a brain blobbing outside your cranium. If you had a choice, would you CHOOSE life? 

Nah, I didn't think so.

--Beth