MEN perform an acoustic version of Credit Card Babie$ in Vienna for the Austrian videographer Playgrrround.  The intimate recording really highlights JD Samson’s politcal, yet humorous, lyrics that deal with the challenges of gay adoption.  As anyone familiar with MEN’s music knows, they (as a band and live) are an incredible pop, dance, electro, dance party (oh, wait I said dance already?), but they are fueled by some of the most consciousness raising lyrics out there.

MEN is playing a special show at The Brooklyn Museum this Friday (5/13).  They are doing a site specific performance of their songs, and I can only imagine what they have in store if this is what they can do in a parking lot.

The Brooklyn Museum is also home to the Elizabeth A Sackler Center for Feminist Art, an entire wing of the Museum devoted to, yep, Feminist Art! They have a current exhibit from Brooklyn based artist Lorna Simson that I’m looking forward to seeing, and then there’s the centerpiece of the center: the famed, iconic installation The Dinner Party, from Judy Chicago and and a small army of artisans.  A work that is phenomenal in ambition, it’s scope, and it’s ultimate rendering, using folk art (in the past, one of the only pathways of artistic expression for many women) to begin by illustrating the role of the feminine across vast periods of time and cultures, then showing how the feminine and women began to be suppressed, and and culminating with a celebration of the achievements of women artists, scholars, and pioneers of the women’s rights movement.  It is incredibly humbling to stand in that room and think of the herstory. 

When MEN played at the Music Hall of Williamsburg last month, they encored with a Bikini Kill song in recognition of the musicians and activists that came before them.  If you’re an activist, a musician, an artist, a scientist, you can’t proceed without learning from those who preceded you, and I’m really excited to see MEN play in a museum that honors and educates about feminist art, while consistently looking to engage feminists in meaningful ways.

The show is included with the price of sliding scale admission to the museum.

Bonus:  You saw those awesome green shoes, right?