Marg van Eenbergen could be an inspiration to Junos all over the world, smart and sassy girls who aren’t willing to get sucked up and tangled into the status quo. Her latest album is entitled Four-Letter Word and she lets you choose your own – the one that most appropriately rolls off of your tongue. It’s not feminism at work, but there’s much of the piss and vinegar that comes in a cute and aggressive way like the one used when Gwen Stefani was so ska it was embarrassing, but she was singing in that that first No Doubt hit, “I’m just a girl in the world…/I’m just a girl all pretty and petite” in a pouty, sarcastic way that couldn’t have been any further from the rage of sexism that was building steam inside. Van Eenbergen is Holland’s Joan Jett and she is defiant in her wordplay, but kind in real life. She has a song on her new record called “Dynamite Is A Girl’s Best Friend” and Marilyn Monroe might take issue — begging to differ and agreeing to disagree, but it’s the cause and it’s endless fuel to the fire that van Eenbergen can’t help but get infuriated by.

Amsterdam Calling

FIVE THINGS THAT INSPIRED ME THIS WEEK – Marg van Eenbergen/GRAM

One — Last weekend was a strange one. I have my own record out now, so I’m playing all over Holland with my own band, also by the name of GRAM. No time to play with About, but mister About (Rutger Hoedemaekers) is currently also playing temporarily with Voicst, a Dutch band he co-produced. So this Saturday he was doing three high profile gigs in one day, and I had my own GRAM gig. My gig wasn’t easy, it was very very late, and I had to drive back myself through rough weather. Rutger’s numerous text messages pulled me through, even as I got to the car rental place at five in the morning, only to find that the lock on my bike was frozen… It’s been snowing all week here, can you imagine?

Two — Nothing can inspire you more than a really good talk with a really good friend. I called Rosemary, who just moved from New York to Amsterdam. The conversation was in English, the coffee was hot and strong, and the goat cheese was yummy. And I picked up some weird and wonderful art pieces from Amy von Harrington. Rosemary is publishing her first art book about Amy’s work. I love having creative friends.

Three — Didn’t feel like celebrating Easter this year – eggs are not really inspiring (though recipes are welcome). So I started reading the book everybody has already read: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Got to page 40 or so, and I’m hooked. Scary pictures.

Four — Tuesday I visited some artists, who run their own t-shirt design label (www.supershirt.net). I was looking at their website, and found out that they make these terrific two-pieces: a shirt and a skirt, but with one giant print over the two-piece, as if it were a gown. I went over to their workplace, and they were so nice: I got to HAVE some of their beautiful two-pieces. Nobody was wearing them anyway after their last catwalk show, and now I have unique stage wear. The boys in my band will be wearing their t-shirts as well. No money at all, and I’m wearing designer stuff on stage… Can’t even wait for rehearsal!

Five — I’ll finish off with something that made the blood in my blue veins boil again. Yesterday, Wednesday, I attended a one-day congress on the subject of ’50 years of pop music in Holland’. I was a speaker as well, talking about the musicians’ perspective. But in Holland we truly have a ‘Pop professor’ at the University of Utrecht. He had done three years of research about success factors: what defines if you will make it as a professional musician? Turned out not many factors significantly could contribute to this, but there was one thing that did stand out as a reliable predictor of success: don’t be a woman. Don’t be a woman?! This was a careful, university-style, heavily subsidized research, and it tells me I’d better be a man if I want to make it in music?! Shows there’s a lot work to be done still. But hey, I LOVE it.

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