sintalentos: Give Her Rome For Mother's Day

Drawing by Nathan Sensel

A few weeks ago my buddy Nate and I started the live model drawing session +DRAWING+MODEL+MUSIC+BEER+. The idea's in the name: have some tallboys, listen to some chunes and draw from a live model. We have been using his studio, so it's a rare chance to get an up-close view of a model. Nate's the pro in this department, as he's the artist and has plenty of experience and ideas of how to situate subjects. We've been working together to create themes for each of the sessions, which I link through the music.

The sessions are something of a dream for me. Captive audience and nuanced music themes? That's ideal for any musician or dj. And the results have been very satisfying as many participants have given hearty feedback. We didn't formally share the theme of last night's session (which was hosted at The Mansion, instead), but opening with "Independent Women" and "I Don't Need A Man" was enough to send a clear message. So, as both a follow-up resource and a small thank you, below is the set-list from last night's session. I've been meaning to post these, so I'll do a little back-tracking over the next few days and post up the past lists.

A quick postscript about last night's session. The idea came from the "effaman" blend I made for the homie KC a few years back. The theme is in the title: the spurned hetero woman or gay man shouting, "Eff my man/fill-in-the-blank-ex-lover." I re-listened to the blend and realized that many of the songs didn't actually express such an aggressive sentiment. I started combing through songs and found that many female artists offer more nuanced messages of self-love and getting over. Sure, there are plenty of songs expressing anger towards a former better half -- Dixie Chicks' murder-pop "Goodbye Earl" takes my vote for being both over-the-top and a comic counterpart to Eminem's "Kim" -- but themes of independence, strength and recovery rose to the top of my pile. I sub-divided each of the poses into the various ideas I came across, as listed below. All this begs another question: is the gendered difference in music also reflective of how men and women view the end of relationships?

If you're interested in participating in a future session, holler at me.

10 30-sec:
what it means to be a woman...