My daughter has been waking up like clockwork at 6:30am to call me out over the baby monitor. (This morning she was yelling: “Nathan! I want to say hi!!”) This isn’t impossibly early, but the problem is that I’m not wise enough to adjust my bedtime so that I’ve gotten enough sleep to compensate. Maybe someday.
Last week I was reading the newspaper (yes, actually, this isn’t just a setup for a joke) and came across an interesting blurb about an upcoming fundraiser. Two local musicians are doing an event called “he sings her songs” — lowercase styling being part of the title. They’ll be performing for two days this weekend, covering songs by female songwriters, with proceeds going toward a local women’s shelter and a pregnancy crisis centre. March 8th also happens to be International Women’s Day, which the musicians acknowledge. And I just want to add here that I have no beefs with either of the musicians or the organizations they’re supporting.
But here’s the thing — the musicians are both men. And what’s more, in the blurb, one of them points out that “Female musicians and writers are unfortunately under-represented so I think it makes impeccable sense to try to level the playing field.” Further, he adds that “Historically, there have just not been as many female artists, at least so far as I know, and that’s said [sic]…there are more now and that’s a development I find altogether quite heartening.”
Hey, I have an idea! If it’s Women’s Day and women are such wonderful under-represented artists, why not, you know, cede your performance spots at this fundraiser to them? I can think of four local artists off the top of my head, and I’m sure there’s more — are they all busy somehow? How exactly is this “leveling the playing field”, my dude?
Anyway I’m not mad, it just stuck out to me. Can’t wait for the mansplanations of each song’s meaning, should be great 🙂
Thing I Saw: A full case of donuts at Valley Bakery because I was finally there early enough in the morning, and it is a glorious sight to be sure
Thing I Learned: It’s been 7 years since Mass Effect 3 came out, concluding in a messy and often hamfisted way one of my favourite video game trilogies ever. I paid for the game with money I won playing bingo, and that is the truth.
I’m Grateful For: This long john donut from Valley Bakery that I am going to mindfully consume after finishing this post.