Melody Berger
Amy Ziff, Alyson Palmer, Elizabeth Ziff |
In her new book, Grassroots, Amy Richards describes the band BETTY as "a feminist pop trio- think the 'Bee Gees' meets Margaret Cho." Back in January, when I read this psuedo-review, I knew I had to check them out! They sounded simply scrumptious.
After visiting their very cute website and listening to all their mp3 downloads, I sent off a "please let me interview you, you're neat!" note to which they replied:
"We're all PSYCHED you can help us plug the awesome and totally feminist Off-Broadway hit BETTY RULES in its foray into Enemy Land in DC this March!"
Soooo, the publication was delayed and the timely plugging did not occur. But it was super to meet with these rockin' grrls, and I pledge to plug them continuously in the future! (although that sounds a wee bit violent) Not only is their music extremely kickass, but they are fiercely feminist and rambunctiously fun. They've dominated Howard Stern, they played at Clinton's inauguration, a large portion of their shows are benefits for righteous causes, and they wrote/performed the new theme song for "The L-WORD." Now that's pretty damn cool.
A third of BETTY was missing when we met at Elizabeth's NYC apartment to chat, but Elizabeth and Alyson were quite the entertaining duo!
Melody: I'm so excited about your new show "BETTY RULES!" It's basically highlights of your lives, right?
Elizabeth: It's highlights of our lives together, which has been for almost twenty years now. Hopefully we have highlights when we're not together too, but this is specifically about our life as a band and as friends.
Alyson: And also it's about a relationship among three people. Doing a creative endeavor for that long is really unbelievable. It's more intense than a marriage! And the fact that it's lasted as long as it has is really incredible...
Elizabeth: It's miraculous.
Alyson: It is miraculous. And that's what the show is about too: how you sustain long-term relationships. How you keep your respect, your love and your own fresh ideas, your autonomy and your sense of self going over a long period of time.
Elizabeth: But mostly it's about sex and drugs and rock n' roll.
Melody: In this context you're kind of all sisters, like, Alyson, you're the adopted sister. I'm just amazed that you've been able to work together so well!
Elizabeth: We're at each other's throats!
Alyson: But, on the other hand, it's sort of like a manic-depressive relationship because, when it's great we have the most fun of anyone on earth!
Elizabeth: And we bring people along for the ride!
Alyson: And the opposite side of that is like, you know the bad part of Parent Trap? Where they're at each other's throats? That's what the bad part is.
Elizabeth: But I think sometimes you need to have the lows to have the extreme highs. We're extreme people. And, when you have those extremes, it's really hard to ride the middle... you hit the peaks and the valleys.
Melody: In your email to me you described bringing your show to Washington as invading enemy territory. I'd love to hear what your plan of attack is gonna be.
Elizabeth: Well, it's not all enemy territory. We came from Washington during the Reagan era, which was equally as horrifying, if not quite as apocalyptical. When you're in a place that is that oppressive and that conservative, there is an enormous underground that swells and really thrives. And that's the exciting part to me. The underground isn't necessarily kids with pink hair, that's a part of it, but it's also the straight up people who go to work everyday and don't feel like they're being represented by their government
Melody: It's great that there's so much room and freedom in our society for subcultures to thrive; I guess I'm just worried that it makes us so ethnocentric in America. You know, the rest of the world could be completely going to hell and we're just like, "well, at least I can have my sort of freedom here."
Elizabeth: Well, I think that's gonna end. I think it already is ending. I mean, the one thing about television is, it does turn you off and make you more apathetic, but, if it's utilized in the right way then you do see the rest of the world.
Alyson: We also can't forget two really important things: One is our geographic location. I mean, we really are this enormous island. So, it is easy for us to feel kind of cut off from the rest of the world. As Americans we really do have to take the extra step and reach out. Because it's easy to stay on your island and say: "the sun is shining, the palm trees are swaying, the coconuts are landing in my lap, why do I have to worry about anything else?"
The second thing we have to always remember with this country is that it is a very young country. We're one of the youngest countries on the entire planet! So, yes, we've got a lot of fucked up problems in this country, but a lot of them are the problems of adolescents. The selfishness, the stomping around, the "I'm number one!"... I literally think we're being led by a frat boy president right now because we're going through our frat years as a country. Europe looks at us and they're like "Oh, grow up, you child!" And that's what we are!
Melody: What was your "uh huh" moment with feminism?
Elizabeth: For me, it definitely came from my mother. I grew up thinking that I could do whatever I wanted to do, regardless of being a girl or a boy. I don't remember having those constraints put upon me at all until I went to school and people said "that's not what girls do" or whatever. I remember the first time I really got it, when I was in third grade and I was in gym. All the boys got to take their shirts off, and we didn't, at all! First of all, we didn't have tits at the time, and who cared anyway? I just didn't get it! So, I led a riot with all the girls in my class, we took off our shirts and we ran through our school just waving the shirts and screaming!
Alyson: My feminist teachings came from my father, actually. I remember when I was really really really young, I was at the dinner table, and I had just watched some really sexist movie or something, and I said "I know a girl's not supposed to worry her pretty head about certain things." I didn't mean it in any serious way, I'd just heard the phrase so I said it. And my father got FURIOUS! He was like "You never say that! As a person, not even as a woman, but as an African American person you need to find out everything there is! You never ever step back from knowledge! Never. Because knowledge is power." It was really intense. I've never forgotten him freaking on me at the dinner table when I was like, five!
(after Alyson had to leave)
Melody: I'm so impressed that, like, half of your shows are benefits!
Elizabeth: A lot of them, yeah. Since the inception of BETTY we've raised over six million dollars for AIDS. We've done a lot of work for pro-choice. A lot. We're on the board of advocates for Planned Parenthood, we're on the steering committee for the V-day organization, we've done a lot of breast cancer stuff, a lot of gay and lesbian stuff, the list goes on and on. We actually were doing benefits for AIDS when it was dangerous to do it, like 1983, '84.
Melody: When Reagan was denying...
Elizabeth: He never said the word AIDS. Honestly, people wouldn't do it, they wouldn't go near it. Now it's like...
Melody: Everyone and their mothers...
Elizabeth: Which is great! I'm glad it happened like that, but when we started, people honestly thought it would destroy their careers. People were scared to associate with AIDS because of homophobia. It wasn't about the disease. Maybe we did put a crimp in our career, but, we had a lot of friends who died of AIDS. And so, we had to come out and talk about it and sing and play about it. But mainstream people wouldn't touch it. And I think you're going to find that more and more with pro-choice, because it's becoming so marginalized. We have a fundamentalist Christian president who has sworn to his constituency that he is going to take abortion away, and he's doing it! Not only that, but the whole abstinence thing he's pushing... it's sick! It's crazy! It's like a bad science fiction movie.
Melody: Yeah: "Killer Shrubbery takes over the US; vows to smother the world! (Whilst purportedly promoting a "culture of life")
Elizabeth: I think it's really time for women to take to the streets and start burning shit down! Burn the fucking Capitol down! It's not working anymore! We don't have representation... we don't even have a fucking equal rights amendment in the Constitution! We're not mentioned! It's fucked up, and it's really time for it to be over. The boy's club is not working. They're completely destroying the entire world.
Melody: Cut down the little "boys only" treehouse of political power...
Elizabeth: And the little boys are now corporations that are multi-national and very very difficult to fight! So, no wonder people are alienated and want to watch television all day long and go to fast food restaurants. But there is a lot of really great underground stuff happening, and it's not so underground. You have to remember that nearly half of the people in this country did not vote for this fool!
Melody: And it was so close in so many of the states. It's not so clearly demarcated between blue and red states.
Elizabeth: He thinks he has free reign, but he really doesn't.
Melody: A "mandate from God" is what he thinks he has!
Elizabeth: I don't think he believed it before, but I think he truly believes it now. He's started the Crusades, literally! There was a moment in time, when 9-11 happened, when everything could have changed. Where a real leader could have come in there and said: "OK, this is fucked up, but, this is not a war!" A war on what? Who are we fighting!? Instead, we've been thrown back to the dark ages. We let it happen because we were afraid, and they fed that fire. The thing about it is, the world is so fucked up, but it's always sort of been fucked up. It seems really desperate right now, but it's been much more desperate before. We just have to remember that and continue to live the good life and fight the good fight; continue to stir things up and be radical. Because we're moving so far back to the fifties right now, there's going to be a humongous frontlash.
Melody: I'm waiting for the sixties to start again.
Elizabeth: Well, we're making it happen! You can't wait for anything. If you waited for it, it just wouldn't happen! We have to be vigilant. We really have to watch what our government's doing and respond to it. Every single thing you do in reaction to something you don't believe in has an effect. And, there's a lot of hope. I'm pretty fired up, I think it's going to be a really interesting time. There's a lot of great music that's coming out of it, a lot of great art. That's the one good thing that comes out of living in a really oppressive culture: the art community flourishes.
Find out more about BETTY and order their music at: bettyrules.com