While You Were Sleeping, Lauren Mayberry Of Chvrches Was Calling Out Online Misogynists

Albo shocked Australia with proper pronunciation of his name, as the Labor leadership campaign continued

In a fairly uneventful episode of Q&A last night, Labor Party leadership hopefuls Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten met up for a proposed “debate”, in which they instead spent most of the time putting on “a united Labor front” and nodding in agreement at each other’s answers. Some brave audience member called them out on it, and everyone applauded… but then everyone instantly felt bad, as though we’re only after political bloodlust.

The highlight came when Albo taught everyone how to properly pronounce his name (it’s nothing like “spaghetti bolognese”, people), and explained that if elected, he’d be the first ever Australian party leader with a non Anglo-Celtic name. Geez, are you f**kin’ serious, Australia? That’s ridiculous.

You can catch-up on the whole thing here.

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Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches wrote an editorial about online misogyny for The Guardian

Echoing the sentiments of Grimes’ epic Tumblr post from earlier this year, Lauren Mayberry — the singer of Scottish electro-pop band Chvrches (who’ll be visiting our shores as part of next year’s Laneway Festival) — penned an essay for The Guardian overnight about the daily bullshit she’s had to face as a female musician in the age of blogs and social media.

Titled ‘I Will Not Accept Online Misogyny’, the article was a response to gross comments she received following a recent Facebook post that highlighted some of the sexist correspondence she’s received since the band’s popularity exploded over the past year. Mayberry wrote:

Perhaps people assume we have a team of fancy PAs who deal with our social networks for us. Maybe the men – and I’m sorry, but they are all men – sending the notifications of impending unsolicited “anal” bothering don’t realise it will actually be me who reads the emails – or maybe they don’t care either way. But in order to get to the messages from people who genuinely wish to share something with the band, I must filter through every condescending and offensive message we receive.

I read them every morning when I get up. I read them after soundcheck. I read them, as we all do with our emails and notifications, on my phone on the bus or when I have a break in the day. And, after a while, despite the positive messages in the majority, the aggressive, intrusive nature of the other kind becomes overwhelming. During this past tour, I am embarrassed to admit that I have had more than one prolonged toilet cry and a “Come on, get a hold of yourself, you got this” conversation with myself in a bathroom mirror when particularly exasperated and tired out. But then, after all the sniffling had ceased, I asked myself: why should I cry about this? Why should I feel violated, uncomfortable and demeaned? Why should we all keep quiet?

Read the entire piece here.

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Lena Dunham shared a sad love letter with you

If you’re not signed up to Miranda July’s ‘We Think Alone‘ email project, you’ve missed out on so much already. Amongst all the introspective Kareem Abdul Jabbar thought-poems and Sheila Heti hilarity, you’ll find Kirsten Dunst’s unmistakable blandness and Lena Dunham’s excellent oversharing.

In yesterday’s installment, in which participants were asked to share “a sad email”, Dunham got pretty personal once again, including a love letter she’d once written to boyfriend Jack Antonoff. It’ll make you cry, or at least think of your grandparents and/or pets.

 ———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Lena Dunham
Date: Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 5:14 AM
Subject: a love letter to Jack M. Antonoff
To: Jack Antonoff

Dearest Baby,

I’m trying to keep a journal on this trip. Historically I have done really poorly with a journal. The idea of writing without an audience seemed futile at best and like a bad voice over on a cancelled ABC show at worst. When I was little I left my journal out, open, for my parents to find (then hid behind the counter waiting for them to read it so I could be incensed.) But somehow my book makes every piece of writing feel as though it has an eventual home (maybe that’s how your album feels?) and gives record-keeping a kind of fullness it never had before. Which is good, because my old move was to write these long belabored emails to people at home and find a way to enjoy my travels by imagining them imagining me enjoying my travels. I think I can enjoy my travels on my own this time, but I did have one revelation:

I was walking through a beautiful Indian garden this morning (Lodi garden! The oldest in the city! It looks like if someone crushed Versailles with a giant Doc Marten) and passed a big green pond with a dozen disorderly swans. All the old people in my party were cooing about the swans but I was focused on this young couple, late teens or early twenties, curled up on a bench talking really animatedly. We spent 40 minutes walking around the garden and when we circled back they were still there, chatting like fiends. And And I thought of you, like always, and I felt I could spend four days on a bench with you and it wouldn’t be enough time to hear all the stories you have to tell– I literally want to know everything you have ever seen and what you felt like while you were seeing it. And I will be so much better my whole life for knowing those things.

I love you,
Lena

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Watch The National on the set of The Mindy Project in this awesome behind-the-scenes video

It’s worth it just to see how weirdly excited Beth “Sometimes I Doubt Your Commitment To Sparkle Motion” Grant is about the whole thing.

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