Twitter Lists

I just made my first attempt at building quasi-comprehensive Twitter Lists. Much like Facebook Friends lists, lists on Twitter allow you to organize and even filter your followers. By making these lists public, you can also allow others insight into who you follow and who of your followers you really value. So, here are the lists and what they mean:

Texans - pretty self-explanatory. You're someone I knew in Texas and you're probably still in Texas. That's awesome and I hope we get to see each other at Christmas!

SceneSLC - you're in Salt Lake City, Utah and you know what's going on. You could also be a club, restaurant, or events calendar. Thanks for keeping us posted on what's up North.

SportsGuys - I started following you and then moved to @BYUrally. I like to keep up on sports, though, so I kept you around. :D

UtahArtsy - You could be in Salt Lake, Provo, or Park City. You might be art, music, or promoter of strange cultural phenomena. Either way, you're in Utah and you're for the culturally aware.

ldsconf - This is the official #hashtag for the semi-annual LDS General Conference. I found you on the twub and enjoyed your tweets. And I still enjoy your non-spiritual tweets. :D

BYUdepts - You're either the official Twitter account of some department or group at BYU or you're the person that runs it. Good work.

Photographers - People are always asking me for good photog recommendations. Well, now you're all in one place. Some of you are in Utah, some not. But I love you all the same.

ProvoBusinesses - Indiscriminate listing of businesses in Provo. I've worked with most of you through EDP or Summer Heat and I appreciate your support of local arts. Hopefully this list will encourage other tweeple to support you!

InUtahNow - Yeah. Had no where else to put you. So you're just here. Way to be.

Networkers - Imma just come out and say it -- this is the creme de la creme of the people I follow on Twitter. You are involved in just about everything. You have a natural inclination to connect people and pass along information. I wish we could spend more face-time together, but our schedules never match up.... no worries, we'll always have Twitter.

FamousDJs - Not everybody on this list is a "DJ"... some are performers, MCs, music festivals, etc. Chances are, though, I've seen you live and I love you. Most other musically inclined people I have @ElectricDP follow, but you guys are my favorites.

ProvoMusic - You're involved in the music scene here in Provo, whether you're in a local band or you're a Provo-based DJ or you're a promoter that I still follow (consider yourself blessed if this last one is true - can't stand promoters).

ElectricDP - You're either an EDP DJ, related to one, or you're a venue that we consider family.

BYUSA - You were, are, or are going to be involved in Student Leadership. You're great and I want more narrow-minded BYU students to stop using you as scapegoats.

Journalists - I rely on you for fast, accurate information. Second to Networkers, you're probably my favorite people. Some of you are famous (and will probably never read this) and the rest of you deserve to be. You'll find individual journalist's accounts on this list along side news outlets that I love.

If you find yourself on a list that you don't think fits or (even worse) that you should be on a list that you're not currently on, either leave a comment or @reply me. Refining will happen over the next few days.

Long live Twitter!

The Peanut

Feminists

This post has been moved to http://voler1.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/feminists-reposted/ in order to facilitate public conversation through comments. Please jump over there to share your thoughts.

Thanks,

Vanessa

Calm down. This is going to be a rational blog post. Promise.

First - Know that this blog post is in direct response to this article from the Daily Universe at BYU. Photo by Natali Wyson, published in conjunction with original DU article.

Second - You have to know that I'm female. If you haven't figured it out by now... I'm sorry to break it to you this way. You also must know that I'm from Texas, which is probably the most male-dominated state in the country and that I shoot skeet competitively. Which means hangin' with the good ol' boys in the oil industry. More on that later.

Third - There are about a million other apologetic ways to start this post.... so I'll just leave it at: if you get offended, please come talk to me instead of getting your panties all in a twist. ktnxbi.

Alright. History lesson.

What's become known has feminism or the feminist movement has two distinct periods: the time in the early 20th century that produced women's right to vote and is synonymous with names like Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the time in the 1960s and 1970s that was galvanized by Betty Friedan and The Feminine X-Men-Character. Since then, no major or earth-shattering milestones have been met in terms of equality for women. In fact, I might argue that legally and politically equality has been achieved. Especially if you are white, middle-class and attending BYU.

Now -- half of you are yelling at me that my history has a gaping hole in it. That hole is called the "third wave." We'll get to that. You are the same people who stopped reading this because you just wrote me off as a post-feminist and don't think I know what I'm talking about. Well, that's fine. Humor me and keep reading.

The other half of you are yelling at me because of the BYU comment. Well. That's also fine. You need to get outside the bubble and get a taste for what real gender discrimination looks like. Look at the women in Ukraine who can't go home because their husbands beat them. Look at the girls in Asia who are left on the streets to die because their parents keep trying for a boy. Look at the barefoot and pregnant women in South America who are considered not good for much more than something to do at the end of the day. These women are legitimately stuck because they have no legal rights to combat these horrors. Or, those rights might exist on paper but are not culturally actionable.

Pause. There's that word -- culturally.

Culturally, Western society is driven. Regardless of where this drive stems from (gold, God, or glory) you can't deny that it's there. It's resulted in a primarily capitalist society and, historically manifested itself through successful men. Why? Because until the first and second wave of feminism, women weren't given a fair shot. And I thank the Suffragettes every day for their ground-breaking work in that era. Because of them, I can be a strong-minded, financially independent woman, receiving a college education, and hold any position I'd like in corporate (or otherwise) America.

I won't say I haven't encountered challenges. Those challenges usually take one of two shapes: first, the narrow-minded male who subscribes to a line of reasoning incongruent with this century (aka, the chauvinist pig). Second, the narrow-minded female who subscribes to a line of reasoning incongruent with this century (aka, the modern feminist).

This is where the "third wave" comes into play. Feminist historians claim that there is a third distinct period in the feminist movement that began in the 1990s in reaction to perceived failures of the second wave. Translation? Women who feel they've been slighted in any way now have an outlet for their complaints -- they slap a label on it and parade it around instead of doing something productive with their time.

Example. The vast majority of my weekends in Junior High and High School here spent here:

At a local gun range on the North side of Houston, Texas. We were usually the first to arrive with our long-standing shooting buddy Bill, so we had no problems getting the field of our choice and keeping it to ourselves until noon. One day, for whatever reason, we were late. Bill was already in a full squad, so we headed towards the second field. There were only two people on it -- clearly, a father and son -- and we asked to join. After a few minutes with them, I noticed that the father of the father-and-son team did not look at me. When referring to me, he merely nodded in my direction. Being 15, I didn't think much of it. So, I went to the truck to grab a couple boxes of shells. When I returned to the range, I found the father-and-son team had vanished and my dad was furious. I asked him what was wrong. He kind of laughed and just said, "they didn't want to get beat by a girl."

Much later my dad divulged the nature of their conversation -- the father of the father-and-son team had chastised my dad for polluting the gun range with a human being too weak to withstand the rigors of the sport. I laughed at first (mostly because I'd shot my first 24/25 that day) but the more I thought about it, the more disturbing it became. Was there something to what he said? Was I really not going to be good enough because I was a girl? Did other guys/men feel this way, but were just too polite to voice it? Did I not have the right to be on the gun range at all?

Needless to say, I was a wreck the next weekend when we showed up at the range. I shot the worst round of my shooting career since I'd left the title of "newbie" behind. Halfway through the second round, Bill pulled me aside and asked what was up. I broke down a little and voiced my concerns. He racked his gun, sat be down on the bench, and looked me in the eyes. "Vanessa, don't you dare listen to that asshole. I saw him last week and he's a notorious son-of-a-bitch. He also can't shoot worth a damn. Birds don't break because of your testosterone levels. They break because of what you can do with that gun. So, get up and show me what you've got." And I did just that - finished out the round without missing a single bird.

Much to my delight, the Notorious SOB came to the range the following weekend. It was so busy that he and his son were forced to be on a field with my dad and I. I put on my best smile, began every sentence with a good, Southern "yessir," and proceeded to wipe the field with him. After station four, the son complimented me on my shooting and timidly asked for a few pointers. The father was fuming quietly behind us. I enjoyed it way too much.

That series of weekends taught me a valuable lesson. You are always going to run into people who want to put you down -- whether it's because you're a girl, you're a different color, or simply because they were neglected as children. The best way to handle the situation is to realize that your self-worth is not based on their narrow opinion of what you should and shouldn't be/do. So, just keep being and doing. Eventually, they will either come around or be shamed out of existence.

Now -- here's the issue I have with the "third wave" idea. It purports that society as a whole is still sexist and provides no opportunity for women to be equal. I am living, breathing proof that that is not true. Even in Texas, amongst the most manly of men, the Notorious SOB is a rarity. And we've already discussed how to deal with his type.

That brings us to the question: what are feminists fighting for these days? We have the right to vote. We have the right to education. We have the right to abort unborn children. We have the right to have multiple sexual partners. We have the right to dissolve unwanted marriages. We have the right to own property. We have the right to a career. We have the right to hold city, county, state, and national office. We have the right to travel. We have the right to read, to write, to tweet. What else do you want?

.... oh, right. You want men to treat you like equals. But you still insist they hold the door for you. You want English to become a gender-neutral language. But you still insist on using the "she" pronoun instead of a vague "they." You want to run with the big boys. But you still insist on wearing stilettos to work.

Ladies, it sounds like you're whining. If you want something - go get it. Make it happen. Pilgrims wanted religious freedom, so they crammed on a boat and got over here. Patriots didn't want to pay for tea, so they dumped it in the harbor. Mormons didn't want to be tarred and feathered, so they moved to Mexico. If you don't want to get shafted because you're a girl -- don't make such a big deal about being a girl. Just put your nose to the grind stone and do good work. I've said it once and I'll say it again - you're going to encounter challenges. Gracefully handle them and move on. Earn the respect of your peers (whether male, female, or canine) and you'll succeed in life.

Now -- it's time to respond to some of these quotes. And, just for the record, I have no qualms with the DU or their reporter. Excellent journalistic work. I just wish these "self-proclaimed feminists" would think before speaking (after all, both those rights were won for them a long time ago).

I'm not sure where Ms. Vranes comes up with this:

“BYU is already in question for their equality and patriarchal nature and this will only fuel the fire.”

Having attended this university for four years, I have never had an issue gaining access to materials, professors, TAs, etc because of my gender. As far as the administration of the university is concerned -- I'm assuming that Ms. Vranes knew when she applied and certainly when she was accepted that BYU's parent company (as it were) is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is organized accordingly. This means that the board of trustees for the university is comprised of General Authorities who also hold meaningful offices within the Church (thank you Wikipedia for a good break down of the CES org chart). Even then, the board has two highly respected women serving on it currently.

Also - this quote just drips with the victim attitude characteristic of third wave feminists:

“I am concerned that robbing the Women’s Research Institute will diminish the ability for women to have a voice in society,” Kendall said. “We are amazing women, but our story is not told and we deserve to be studied.”

So, what's stopping you from studying women? There are still ample resources on this campus to do just that. It's not as if the administration burned every book that contained the word "woman" or "female." I also highly doubt that an organizational decision made by a mere 30,000 student campus in the mid-west will "diminish the ability for women to have a voice in society." Seriously? Listen to yourself before you speak. (ps. if you want to be studied, do something worth studying.)

Favorite quote, by far, though is this:

"This is a ridiculous and foolish decision to cut the Women’s Research Institute, because BYU and the church already have a bad record about women’s rights,” Pickett said. “The message it sends to eliminate a group for minorities is that the college doesn’t care about the group.”

First - at a 48/52 percent split, you can hardly call women a minority on this campus. Especially women aged 19-21, when men of the same age are nowhere to be found. Second - since Utah was one of the first territories (second two Wyoming) to enfranchise women in 1870, you can hardly say that the church has a bad record with women's rights. Women were only disenfranchised by the US government when they voted in favor of polygamy. Also, let's consider that the Relief Society is one of the oldest women's organizations in the world (only bested by the International Association of Charity in 1617).

I would like to finish by asking all 1,655 members of this group if they knew what or even where the WRI was prior to the aforementioned DU article on November 4th.

That's all.

The Peanut.

PS: Something's the matter with the comments feature on this blog..... so you are welcome to send me a message on Facebook.

Non-Verbal Communication

Tonight, I was with a friend who just received some unfortunate news. (Don't worry -- no body died). We talked it out, then sidetracked ourselves with other bits of conversation, then talked about it some more.... but there were several times where dialog just wasn't happening. It wasn't awkward silence, but I felt the need to communicate with something other than words.

I wanted to hold his hand.

Not in a romantic "I want to date you" way. But in a "I'm not sure what to say, but I want you to know that I'm here" way. Mere seconds away from reaching out to take his hand, I remembered that we were in Utah and (even worse) at BYU. It's a sad fact that once you cross the Provo city limits, physicality carries so much more weight (we'll save discussion of the pent-up sexual tension that consumes BYU campus for a later post). And the last thing I wanted to do tonight was throw that "does she like me?" issue into the mix.... so I resisted.

Now that I'm home and the moment has passed, I regret not doing it. I feel like nothing I said tonight really hit the mark, but that small gesture could have.

Fail.

Fresh.

Everybody is gearing up for Battle of the Bands tomorrow -- the excitement is downright electric! No more so than in the basement of Merrill Hall, where a three-week old band of Freshmen boys are beaming like it's Christmas morning.

There is something about Freshmen that I just love. It's probably that unadulterated, wide-eyed hope for the future mixed with an unbridled passion for just about anything. Staying up late. Playing really loud music. Being completely crazy. Jumping headfirst into relationships. Experiencing spirituality on a much deeper level.

(the rest of this is written post-BOTB)

As a band, they need some fine tuning but for one night they were on top of the world. And you could see it in their eyes. They owned that stage and the 1,300 students watching them. There was no holding back.

Some time in the (probably near) future, they'll look back and laugh at themselves for being so "young and naive" and they'll realize that they've grown up. They've lost innocence. And they'll want it back.

I want it back.

The Peanut.

Official Declaration

Recently, you all read this on Facebook:

Vanessa Oler

successfully mastered the cross-fade between iTunes and YouTube. Get me a DJ name and start payin' me millions.... sheesh.

Or this on Twitter:

voler Is tired. Of the cross-fade. I'm no longer paying to get into your party if I can recreate it myself.

And, now, here's the explanation:

Scotty and his friend Chelsea planned a "Thriller Dance Party" in honor of the late Michael Jackson and as their annual costume party coinciding with Halloween. Scotty was in charge of set up and Chelsea took care of the music. She put together a playlist with crowd-favorites and classics from MJ, made sure the 1 second delay between songs was taken out, etc. For what it was, it was really good. However, what she hadn't planned on was the battery life of her iPod failing mid-dance.

Because I came to the party early and with one of the hosts, I became de facto problem-solver. So, I had Chelsea run in the house and grab her laptop, figuring we could just open her iPod in iTunes and go from there. Apparently not. On top of that, for whatever reason, her computer iTunes and iPod are not synced so only 1/3 of the playlist could actually be recreated in iTunes.

Thankfully, two things came to mind: YouTube and the Volume Control panel. From there... the rest of the night was a breeze. With a working knowledge of current and favorite top 40 and hip hop songs, the ability to Google any song lyric requested, and a rudimentary idea how a party should flow (thank you Nam), I kept it bumpin' right up until close.

At one point, some guys arrived who had no faith in me whatsoever. They made this clear standing behind me and watching over my shoulder. What they saw was, over the course of four songs, a successful transition from electro/dance music to "sexy time" hip-hop and back.... carefully chosen and smoothly brought in and out at appropriate moments by adjusting the volume in iTunes and in the YouTube window. They were impressed.

In one night I'd managed to attain the skill level of most people in Utah who call themselves a DJ and (crime of all crimes) get paid for it. After the third round of "Wow... this girl is good." "You did that really well!" "So, when can you come DJ my party?" I made up my mind. Never again would I pay money for a party that I could recreate on my own. In other words -- if you (alleged DJs of Utah) don't beat match, mix, splice, tease, spin, warp, trigger, or scratch in a way that is creative and builds the energy of the crowd, I want nothing to do with you.

That's right. We're done. And to show you how serious I am, here's a list of local DJs I will continue to support because they know what they're doing, and do it well:

NAWM (of EDP)

kiDD wiDD (of EDP)

DJ Insomniac (of EDP, now in LA)

Danger Stranger (of EDP)

Red Spectral (of EDP)

DJ Codon (of EDP)

Matt Hoffman

The Crate Dwellers

Hot Noise

JSJ & Chic Bangs

Muscle Hawk

FreqSho

Shawn Phillips

Danny Dance

Illoom (of dubscouts)

If you're not on this list that means two things:

1) I've never heard your stuff. Send me some! media (at) electricdanceparty (dot) com.

2) I hate what you do. Plain and simple. Offended? Good. Maybe you'll spend some time researching your own, chosen profession and figure out what it takes to improve.

The Peanut.

PS: Tonight, the DJ name was "Cuzzin V" ... hahaha!

"Draft"

I'm in the library. With no homework. And little-to-no event planning to do.

(shameless plug: I better see you here on Friday night)

So... I'm take the next few hours to correct this problem:


The Peanut.

The Mary Poppins Bag

Last EDP, the guys kept asking me where stuff was - cables, cords, wireless mics, batteries, glow sticks, sound permit, gum. The answer was, unfailingly, "in my bag" and was met with several strange looks. Nevertheless, they looked in my bag and found exactly what they needed.

Since then I've been keeping track of the strange things that end up in there and I think tonight's contents are the some of the best:

• Wallet/keys/phone/lipstick/Visine-A
• USB stick for Icon Memories file swaps
• Scotch tape, electrical tape, and medical tape
• Press pass from the Vans Warped Tour
  
• letter from my dad
• blank special events permits from Provo City
• random fliers that I love and have taken off street corners
• letter from Lihua
• Icon Memories invoice for EDP
• Invite to the Glammy Awards (aka Sam Strong's birthday party)
• kiDD wiDD's Hot as Hell Summer Mix
• Illoom, Dubskank, and the best of Liquid Dubwise mix CDs
• Notebook, moleskin, and journal
• custom earplugs - in hot pink
• Subway cookie, gummy bears, M&Ms, and 5 gum
• Seventeen, Allure, 3 recent issues of Rolling Stone, Nylon Guys
  
• $17.94 in loose change

Who knew when I paid and arm and a leg for this bag in LA that it would turn into a repository for all the random things in my life?

Wouldn't have it any other way.

The Peanut.