Evelyn McDonnell

For some reason, I’m Tweeting the Grammys. If you’re interested.

I saw the Runaways movie yesterday. I’m going to save detailed discussion for the pieces I’m writing about it, but in short, while it’s problematic historically, it’s also powerful and important. Here’s a pretty good review of it.

Joan Jett is the hardest working woman in rock ‘n’ roll. Last night she and her longstanding buddies the Blackhearts performed for a Sundance Film Festival crowd at a packed Harry O’s, playing those songs she’s played thousands of times — “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah),” “Crimson and Clover,” “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” etc. — but never sounding tired.

My thoughts are with my friend and former boss Maggie Steber, who is in Haiti shooting for the New York Times. No word or images from her yet, but the Times has posted some of her historic photos of the country, and a brief essay.

Studying with fan studies pioneer and author Henry Jenkins has been a highlight of my fellowship at USC. If I had known people like Henry were going to knock cultural studies off of its podium pedantry, I might have stayed with academia (probably not). His New Media Literacies course exposed me to ideas about digital [...]

My heart goes out to Haiti. This is a country that had hardship enough. I hope that all the loved ones of my Haitian friends are safe, and that my journalist friends that are working there are helping to spread the word of need. I urge everyone to donate. Here is a list of services [...]

The news that MOCA has hired Jeffrey Deitch is fascinating on several levels. It’s an unusual move for a gallerist and museum to meet up. But more significantly, it’s evidence of just how important LA’s art scene has become, that the city could lure first one of New York’s top museum directors (Michael Govan), and [...]

I don’t like nostalgia. I always try to look forward. But I can’t help but be cheered by what I sense as snowballing interest in ’90s Feminism. Kathleen Hanna just donated her Riot Grrrl collection to NYU and has a blog. FSG is publishing Marisa Meltzer’s Girl Power: The ’90s Revolution in Music in February [...]

This glimpse of Ontonagon in 1979 is also a flashback to an era before shipbuilding monstrosities and Just Say No.

I interviewed Lita Ford for a startup called Guitar Goddess a few months ago. I knew it was a dubious proposition, but I wanted to talk to Lita for my thesis. Sure enough, never got paid, no contract, magazine, nothing. What did I expect from a publisher called Ezina LeBlanc? Anyways, they put my name [...]