My favourite Berlin band Ducks! just released a new song Homo Inferior based on Valerie Solanas' 1968 manifesto SCUM. Awesomeness! I love Valerie Solana's manifesto, a radical message indeed (Society for Cutting Up Men), but put in such a smart and humorous way. I mean, Valerie Solana's turned around Freud's Penis-Neid and called men out for having Vagina-Neid: "The male is a biological accident: the Y (male) gene is an incomplete X (female) gene, that is, it has an incomplete set of chromosomes." How daring! SCUM, however, is often interpreted in a flat, black and white, good and bad way. Once I gave a private guided tour at the museum of contemporary art for a group of what turned out to be religious people. One person got really upset when I talked about Valerie Solanas' SCUM in the Andy Warhol space of the museum. Since there's no single woman represented in that particular collection of the museum, I always take detours to talk about female artists. And of course, as it happens to be the case, Valerie Solanas shot Andy Warhol (did you see the movie?). The person got in an angry fit, because he thought that one shouldn't speak of something that led to violence. Well, I said, then let's not talk about the bible, that led to a lot of violence too. And that's where our discussion ended. The good news is: on Friday Ducks! is presenting its new album Ding Ding Ding, which makes me think of another great figure, Dr. Seuss and his Oh! The Thinks You Can Think. I myself can't wait for it to be Friday. Check out the event here and see you there!
