Document and Eyewitness: A conversation with Joey Casio on 5-23-03 in Olympia, WA

My connection with Joey was electric and dynamic from our very first conversation.

In early 2003 I was involved in anti-war organizing and going to a lot of events in support of Rachel Corrie and trying to find a way to connect that with punk in the local music scene. I deliberately sought Joey out because after I saw him at a bunch of political events/protests alone in the rain, I saw him play a show in the basement of the Red House and I was intrigued - like, woah - there's not only a new generation of punk kids doing something completely creative and intense, but they are also maybe radical politically.

I was propelled to get to know him. I tried to "interview" him for a magazine I was writing for in England. That "interview" turned into a conversation that lasted for four or five years, up-all-night style that expanded and enriched both of our lives immensely.

Joey is one of the best friends I have ever had and one of my favorite punk artists of all time. Like many of you, I miss him so fucking much. I hope to give back some of what he gave to me by sharing some of our conversation even if it's only a few sketches here and there and continuing to make and share my own work (something that is hard for me).

Here is how our first conversation started, via email:

TOBI VAIL: Hi. I saw your show at the red house and was intrigued. Do you have any records or tapes out? I would like to review it, maybe.

JOEY CASIO: I’m flattered, really. I don’t have anything out right now.

TV: Ok. You really don’t have anything recorded? I’m writing for this magazine in the U.K. and they probably won’t let me do a feature unless there is a record or something, not sure. I thought it would be cool to write about your group, along with some other ‘bands without acoustic instruments’ in light of electro-clash hype. When I was in D.C. recently, there was a WIT show that cost $17.50. There were DJ’s and some groups that were mostly karaoke or whatever it is (singing along to pre-recorded songs). We couldn’t get in but a friend was on the guest list. There was a VIP area roped off. He was ushered back there and set on a red velvet couch, which was then, itself, roped off as “special red velvet couch in the special VIP area” and given a bottle of very expensive champagne - funny, because he is straight edge! While this was happening, another friend was being thrown out of the backstage area because she didn’t have the proper “credentials”. When I got back from D.C., friends here were talking about your show with Anna Oxygen last weekend. It made me appreciate Olympia even more and think about how things are different here than they are in New York or London, or,whatever. I'm wondering how Joey Casio fits in to this trend? Also, you have a good punk singing style and there are elements of chaos to what you do! What are some of the ideas behind the work? 

JC: hi....

No one ever asks me these kinds of questions. I guess what I do is the intersection of several things.For a long time I had this idea that kept stirring: a guitar-less, drummer-less punk band. I grew up listening to punk but the only “instrument” I played was electronics and a little keyboard. If punk is supposed to be such progressive music, why do bands keep using the same tired old sounds? After a few timid incarnations, I started my dream “band”. I began to, if nothing else, play the exact kind of music I would want to listen to, regardless of whether anybody else liked it. But that’s just aesthetics.

TV: Sorry if that is too much analysis, I want to sort of explain how I'm viewing your work in hope that you'd have a response to some of these ideas. Perhaps you just do your band the way you do it because you enjoy working with synthetic sounds and that's all there is to it.

JC: I’m fascinated by the concept of subversive dance and pop music. In contrast to the singer/songwriter mold, people rarely stop to process the words they are hearing or even singing along to. This puts the person singing in an interesting place. The ideas put forth may (in theory) go directly to the subconscious. or, if the song is more catchy, even become stuck in the listener’s head. Of course, Kathleen Hanna spoke of {this} at length in regards to Julie Ruin/ Le Tigre and it was the impetus for Gang of Four.

TV: I’m interested in solo work made by feminists in the one-'man'-band format that utilizes multi tracking, samples, keyboards/fake drums - such as tracy and the plastics, anna oxygen, nomy lamm, julie ruin, the blow etc. and contrasting this mode of solo work with a male singer/songwriter tradition that equates authenticity with the stripping away of layers to get the 'real self' via confessional autobiography. Right now, in the underground, feminists are rejecting this mode of expression and replacing it with work that focuses on the negotiation of many 'selves' via persona (julie ruin, tracy and the plastics), found objects via samples/appropriation of pop forms and lyrics (nomy lamm, anna oxygen) and that this works to expose and possibly subvert socially constructed narratives of traditional femininity... I’m wondering where this leaves “male” artists. will they explore masculinity as part of their work or will they continue to be drawn to the lone wolf blues man/folk hero myth that bare bones acoustic music seems to represent?

JC: I have a lot of ideas/philosophies I would like to share but the question arises - how? I could write them out, but nobody reads essays and manifestos except people that write essays and manifestos. If the music was simpler and less distracting people would stop listening due to lack of subtlety. Therefore, dance music becomes the perfect medium.

{On} the nature of solo work - one of the things I like most about this newish solo medium is that the individual can occupy the same space as a group. This contrasts both with the old singer/songwriter model, where the performer is seen as somewhat alone and incomplete, as well as the band model where the front person is elevated to a hierarchical leader position. But the “new” solo performer can present a project that has been constructed from beginning to end, that is complete and full, but comes from the mind of one individual. This allows, as you said, the performer to create/present multiple selfs or - multiple sides of one self.

So…does my calculated attempt at juxtaposing a slow, vulnerable sounding song with a cold, analytical noisy song really challenge the culturally construed concepts of masculinity? I can’t really say for sure but it’s worth a try.I think my favorite single lyric out of any song I’ve written is “what you create defines the boundary of your identity”. That pretty much sums it up.

Tiny House, Big Heart by marina gagarina (for kim langston)

my friend marina gagarina made this cool animated movie to help out her friend kim. kim's tiny house burned down in a mysterious fire as it was near completion:

Tiny House, Big Heart from marina gagarina on Vimeo.

if you believe in community & sustainability please consider making a donation of $1 or more, thanks!

xo

tobi vail

p.s. while I have yr attention, why don't you check out marina's existential masterpiece, westside elegies?

FREE KTEEO!

This young woman works as a waitress at my favorite diner in Olympia. I had no idea she had been in prison for two weeks for refusing to testify in a Grand Jury Trial. I believe that these folks are innocent. I believe that this trial is a witch-hunt. Please take a moment to read about what they are up against.

You can write to KTEEO here:

Katherine Olejnik #42592-086

FDC SeaTac,

P.O. Box 13900

Seattle, WA 98198

Pussy Riot Olympia

Pussy Riot Olympia demand the immediate release of Pussy Riot Moscow

Dear Jigsaw Readers....Spiritual Warriors demo

Dear Jigsaw Readers,

I realize that I promised to write more this year...I also realize that it takes me a long time to feel like I've listened to a record enough times to form my opinion about it enough to really comment on it...which is why there is so much music writing at the end of the year as opposed to at the beginning I think.

A ton of stuff has been happening locally...but before I let another day go by without reporting on it, may I draw your attention to the Spiritual Warriors demo?

Here, just have a listen:

I haven't seen them live yet but I know they've been playing shows.

Ok talk to you later!

xo
Tobi

polly darton

Plan B is a legal form of birth control

photo of sara and jen taken by diana arens, from wip website


In 2006 a group of people in Olympia, WA started a boycott (grrlcot) of Ralph's Thriftway, a locally-owned grocery store with a pharmacy that refuses to stock Plan B, a form of emergency contraception (EC). Five years later the boycott is still going strong and the legal case, Stormans v. Selecky, is going to the U.S. District Court.

A recent article in The Olympian by Brad Shannon reads:

Those who support the dispensing of Plan B say it is a high dose of the ingredients of a birth-control pill that greatly reduces the chance of pregnancy if ingested by a woman within 72 hours of unprotected sex. The Food and Drug Administration in 2009 ordered that it be available over the counter for teens as young as 17, but with prescriptions for those who are younger.

The FDA also says the medication does not affect existing pregnancies, unlike the RU-486 drug, but that the medication might act to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb.

This is poorly worded and misleading. As I noted in an earlier article (written in 2006 for a class I was taking and posted online in 2009), once again, science is being framed by "pro-life" ideology in our local newspaper.

The Olympian says "those who support the dispensing of Plan B say" it works like regular birth control pills. This is not a matter of debate. This is the established medical explanation of how the drug actually works. It is a form of contraception. It is not an abortion pill. This article makes it sound like the scientific definition of medicine is subjective. Consult the World Health Organization, the FDA, the CDC and current peer-reviewed medical journals for a more objective account. If you are anti-Plan B, you logically should be anti-birth control pill, it works the same way.

The medical definition of a pregnancy is a fertilized egg that is implanted in the womb. By this definition, Plan B is birth control NOT abortion. This is true regardless of whether or not Plan B prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. The newspaper needs to make this clear and not pander to there being "two opinions" with equal weight when there are established legal and medical definitions at work.

As I noted before, there is no conclusive medical research that proves that Plan B prevents an already fertilized egg from implanting. To focus on the possibility that it MAY work this way when this is not backed by science is confusing at best and biased in the way it reinforces the "pro-life" agenda of confusing birth control with "abortion".

Finally, Plan B will not work if you are already pregnant when you take it. Medical research does not back the claim that it will effect a fertilized egg that has been implanted. Plan B is a legal form of birth control. It is not an abortion pill.

If you believe pregnancy starts when an egg is fertilized (not when a fertilized egg is implanted in the womb) and this is a moral issue for you then, based on a scientific understanding of how emergency contraception works, your objection to the use of Plan B should probably extend to the use of regular birth control pills and *possibly* IUD's.

From the Emergency Contraception website:

To make an informed choice, women must know that ECPs—like all regular hormonal contraceptives such as the birth control pill, the implant Implanon, the vaginal ring NuvaRing, the Evra patch, and the injectable Depo-Provera,41 and even breastfeeding42,43,44,45— prevent pregnancy primarily by delaying or inhibiting ovulation and inhibiting fertilization, but may at times inhibit implantation of a fertilized egg in the endometrium. At the same time, however, all women should be informed that the best available evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that levonorgestrel and ulipristal acetate ECPs’ ability to prevent pregnancy can be fully accounted for by mechanisms that do not involve interference with post-fertilization events.

Emergency contraceptive pills will not cause an abortion. EC is not the same as the abortion pill. There is no time when the emergency contraceptive pills available in the United States would end a pregnancy once it has started. Hormonal emergency contraceptive pills don’t have any effect if you are already pregnant. If you decide to use an IUD for emergency contraception, your health care provider would test you first to confirm you are not already pregnant.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this case. It is likely to go to the Supreme Court. I have not been able to shop at my neighborhood grocery store for over five years because I support the boycott. This is something that impacts me on a daily basis.


Here is some more info I gathered in my research on Plan B back in 2006:

The right wing campaign against Plan B is anti-birth control not just
anti-abortion. They specifically see Plan B as immoral because they are
worried it will promote promiscuity and sex before marriage,
particularly among young people. These are the same people who argue
against condoms and want abstinence only education.

Studies show that Plan B has the potential to prevent 700,000
abortions a year. If lowering the number of abortions is really the
issue, Plan B should be made readily available.

A high percentage of rape victims use Plan B.

According to both sides of the issue, there is no medical reason to
require a prescription for Plan B. The FDA ruled that it is medically
safe. Lawmakers ignored the FDA advisory board in 2004 and were
persuaded by anti-abortion politicians to keep it available by
prescription only. This caused all kinds of controversies about science
v. politics/religion that have been widely documented in peer reviewed
journals.

In Washington State some pharmacies (such as those in Safeway and Fred
Meyer) will give you Plan B without a personal prescription--they have a
general prescription that can be used--you don't have to see a doctor
first. This is called a "protocol".

If Plan B is legal but hard to get it is less effective. You
need to take it within 72 hours after sex or it won't work: like regular birth control pills, it is MOST effective when taken BEFORE sex.

Only 60% of Americans know Plan B even exists as an option.

For further research:

Page, Cristina. How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America. New York: Basic, 2006.

If you need access to Plan B or another form of EC, check out this website.

Protesters demand birth control. (Photo by Krista Theiss)

Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music by Marisa Meltzer

Girl Power traces the influence of OG "riot grrl" groups (Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens To Betsy) to the Spice Girls, covering "foxcore", Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre and Ladyfest as well as several other pop stars and other all-female alternative/indie rock groups along the way.

The book is written for a mainstream audience and suffers from some of the awkwardness that comes along with trying to explain this stuff to the general public. Marisa comes across as a former indie-rocker who felt she didn't really fit into the punk scene, yet was invigorated by the feminism (and celebration of girlhood) that happened during riot grrl. This makes sense, as she admits she found out about the movement through Sassy (her previous book is a love letter to the pro-girl teen magazine) She argues that riot grrl's "media blackout" led to its demise and wishes that the original groups would have stuck around and tried to find a larger audience. Describing an experience of seeing Sleater-Kinney play to 13,000 people, she recalls wishing that riot grrl had been able to sustain itself. Paradoxically, she acknowledges that, while the Spice Girls were cool in some ways, their "girl power" was limited to marketing and questions what that means in terms of empowerment. Quoting Kathleen Hanna, she points out that buying a Spice Girls notebook is not going to change the world. This makes me wonder what would be different if it had been Bikini Kill notebooks the girls were buying.

I knew Marisa around 96/7 when she lived in Olympia and had a cute all-girl accapella group called The Skirts. In the interest of "full disclosure"--I was a big Skirts fan and she was my favorite member! It was a weird time period. It was interesting to read her take on things as someone who admits (somewhat reluctantly) that she moved here to go to Evergreen after getting into riot grrl and even "semi-stalking" Kathleen. I wish she would have told more of her own story here. Her voice comes through loud and clear when she is critiquing what she calls the elitism of independent culture. She belongs to the camp that believes that it's exclusive to play basement shows, failing to see how this can be a more inclusive model. By booking our own tours and creating a DIY feminist network through the mail, Bikini Kill encouraged girls to meet each other and start their own scene. Sure a "scene" can be clique-ish and Olympia was/is no exception, but the idea we were were working with is that if we can do it here, certainly you can do it where you live. Only a few bands can get on MTV or sign to a major label. It's far more populist to encourage kids to put on shows where they live and take their own work and friends seriously. To her credit she does acknowledge that Ladyfest was a successful attempt to take this idea to another level.

I was interviewed (via email) for the book and am quoted a lot, which is kind of embarrassing, as I don't think what I'm trying to say really comes through, which is partially my fault, not thinking about who the audience for the book would be and just neurotically rambling on to her about how strange it is to have been a part of something that had such a big cultural impact. I remember telling her how weird and hard to talk about a lot of this is for me without going into a lot of detail. I tried to explain my perspective. On the one hand you want to take credit for your work, especially because women are encouraged NOT to take credit for anything. On the other hand, it's embarrassing. Sometimes I feel like I'm lying when I talk about this stuff because what actually happened is so surreal and bizarre that I often have a hard time believing it myself.

Personal weirdness aside, I think it's cool that someone wrote this book for a mainstream audience. My hope is that teenage girls and young women who don't know this history will get inspired to find out about riot grrl. It would be really cool if it inspired girls to create a new young feminist movement rooted in their generation.

The book made me think a lot about documenting history from a strategic perspective. How could this story be told to incite participation in girls? A big part of the original "girl power" idea, was to get girls to stop being consumers of male-dominated culture and start producing our own. I guess my fear is that this kind of pop-culture history could encourage girls to simply consume "girl-culture", thereby claiming the identity of "riot grrl" or "feminism" through the act of buying a record, as opposed to starting their own band or fanzine or putting on a show. To me the point is to encourage girls to start their own young feminist movement, not just to copy what we did. That is the danger of nostalgia I think...

So I'd be interested to hear what people think about this. How can we tell our story without feeding into this consumer-oriented nostalgic trap? Or is that inevitable?

OPIUM: OLYMPIA PUNK INDIE UNDERGROUND MUSIC

OPIUM stands for Olympia Punk Indie Underground Music. to join the OPIUM list-serv send an email to opium-on@killrockstars.com

All local events will have the subject heading: OPIUM so that you can find them easily.