Michelle Shocked: Search & Destroy.

If only she'd done it during the spoken bridge of "Graffiti Limbo" it might've worked.

yeah, in the same vein as buzza's link:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-05-28/features/9202170604_1_blackface-bart-bull-minstrelsy

choice quotes:

At the recent South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, for example, she gave a rambling keynote address in which she compared the black funk-rock group Fishbone to the blackface minstrels of 100 years ago. Shocked now concedes, "My performance could be called into question."

...

"I felt that this image (a blackface cover) was so powerful, so potent, that the controversy would swallow up the music. I would have been just like a tar baby - controversy would just stick to me."

aaaand the mccabe's show is cancelled.

wtf

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/3/19/1363691341607/Michelle-Shocked-in-2005-010.jpg

http://blog.chron.com/askacat/files/legacy/hatcat.JPG

Maybe it's actually Howard Devoto.

i read all his quotes with matt pinfield's voice regardless. you know you did it too.

*nods shamefully*

The pure products of America
go crazy

sounds like pretty much the entire tour has been called off:

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/garchik/article/Shocked-shows-canceled-in-wake-of-anti-gay-tirade-4367370.php

also note: "Cheryl Renee, who was said to have been Shocked's PR person, responded to an e-mail from The Chronicle saying that as of Feb. 25, "I am no longer working with Michelle Shocked. I cannot comment on her behalf and was not present at Yoshi's. ... I personally do not support the sentiment of what Michelle is being accused of saying."

what's it like to work for someone like this who starts to go off the rails?

she's claiming on twitter that she isn't against gay marriage or abortion as well. I think she's having a mental breakdown.

Yes.

Holy mackerel. This all comes as quite a shock.

seen shared:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/32624_10200305192405425_1720273674_n.jpg

my take: she's mentally ill AND a bigot, and the bigotry is no doubt fueled by the illness, although it must be said that not all mentally ill people are bigots, and mental illness does not excuse bigotry or assholish behavior. also: yes, she's a closeted queer (at least bisexual), and it seems like the is-she-or-isn't-she thing has always been a thorn in her side, based on interviews going way back, and judging from her problems with act up as "outers." to me, her ambiguity is more than bowie-ish mystique-building, it veers close to "don't ask don't tell" territory.

http://www.cosmik.com/aa-septemberoctober05/reviews/pics/review_michelle_shocked.jpg

yup, i posted that upthread.

The cover for 'On The Greener Side' used to freak me out when I was about 8
http://ring.cdandlp.com/disclo/photo_grande/114094436.jpg
Actually got a bit of a fright seeing so many of it in Google images

Well...

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2013/03/michelle_shocke_1.html

The audio of the set, tweeted by Erin McEwan. "Michelle Shocked 2nd Yoshi's Set" will be a noise album title at some point soon I predict

https://soundcloud.com/therealtofuandwhiskey/michelle-shocked-2nd-yoshis

dibs

McKeown I should say.

"Folks wonder about my sexuality, but denying being gay is like saying I never beat my husband."

I honestly believe that people with so poor a grasp of rhetoric that they can't mention the "when did you stop beating your spouse" rhetorical gambit without making people wonder if they actually beat their spouse are better off not writing lyrics

When did you stop beating your lyricist?

as discussed earlier here's what she put in the liner notes of Arkansas Traveler:

My early intention was to present this record with a cover
photo of myself wearing blackface. Aside from providing
controversy for hatemongers or offending the delicate sensibilities
of the politically correct, my sincere intention was that it would
provide a genuine focus on the real 'roots' of many of the tunes
included; blackface minstrelsy. It's my contention that a blackface
tradition is alive and well hidden behind a modern mask. I believe that
'blacking up' should be done correctly; as an exploration for the source
of that hollow ring we mistakenly believe was immaculately conceived in
Las Vegas, and in a context of true respect for the cultures we ape.

iirc the label had to tell her "we're not putting out a record with a white woman in blackface on the cover, Michelle"

I believe that 'blacking up' should be done correctly; as an exploration for the source of that hollow ring we mistakenly believe was immaculately conceived in Las Vegas

I think this is where the weed kicked in?

the soundcloud makes pretty clear that she's saying what _she_ thinks. "from their vantage point. well i shouldn't say their because i also mean mine. from our vantage point." etc. the "god hates" thing was said ironically/jokingly though.

my parents listened to a fair bit of michelle shocked in the early 90s, i wonder if they've heard about this.

also never knew any of that stuff abt arkansas traveler, a record i had more than a passing familiarity with when i was 9.

wow. at 7:30 in or so, things turn ugly.

has anyone suggested that she was doing a significant amount of drugs before the show?

at 17:00 or so they shut down the show and take her mic while people heckle, and she keeps trying to sing and play guitar even as everyone leaves.

"i just want y'all to know that i did not ask for a deposit for this performance. and i'm pretty sure i'm going to be told, when i leave here tonight, that i did not give anyone their money's worth. and so now i would like to pass the hat, and ask if you wouldn't mind putting a dollar in."

this is amazing.

And my statement equating repeal of Prop 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a description of how some folks - not me - feel about gay marriage.

this is pretty lol because she literally says the opposite of this from stage.

I think this is where the weed kicked in?

if I end up spending the whole time thinking about American race relations next time I blaze up I'm going to be really mad you afterwards

"...and in a context of true respect for the cultures we ape."

Hmmm . . .

Michelle Shocked should start a Kickstarter campaign. For ... something.

if I end up spending the whole time thinking about American race relations next time I blaze up I'm going to be really mad you afterwards

if this happens ask for a rebate from yr dealer imho

this whole thing makes me sad
i first saw michelle in abt '89 or so opening up for billy bragg, the campfire tapes had given buzz but short, sharp, shocked had not hit yet. all of us were there to see billy but this solo acoustic performer made him work to get the audience back and i became a fan through following albums, live shows
(the arkansas tapes blackface idea was ...... umm. complicated, it was a whole idea of how to address blackface and minstrelsy in american music and was a half-baked idea but not racist) (now seems more compliacated)
andit is heartbreaking to hear her lose her shit this way and is def fucking with a lot of the audience that supported her over the years

"when did you stop flogging that dead horse?"

"when it was sold to Tesco"

ask for a rebate from yr dealer

lol I'll let you know how this shakes out but I am not hopeful

This is the first time I've thought about Michelle Shocked in like twenty years so clearly she's doing SOMETHING right

the written explanation is just...it's so full of handwaving it's almost unreadable.

oy:

http://www.xojane.com/issues/on-my-confrontation-with-homophobe-michelle-shocked

“Hey, can you hold on a second? I need to talk to the sound guys.”

bring your ball of yarn
http://www.xojane.com/files/800px-Wild-Goose-Festival.JPG

wow @ that article, great stuff glad the writer found the notes

Leroy says shut the fuck up, girl.

puppet show
michelle shocked

She's due on Nicole Sandler (never heard of her)'s talkshow which has just started
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/radio-or-not?utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=667764&utm_medium=social