Sunday, April 18
4-8pm
SOMArts
943 Brannan St. near 8th St., SF
$20-60 sliding scale, nobody turned away

Join CUAV and El/La Program Para TransLatinas to wrap up SAFETYFEST 2010 with a fierce and tender afternoon of music, food, dancing, community, and runway.

• Las Krudas Cubensi, Cuban hip hop powerhouse
• Lil Miss Hot Mess, local glamor sensation
• Model Minority Revolt, showing Gwen Stefani a thing or two
• Jamaesori (“Sister Sound”), traditional Korean drumming
• DJ Rosa La Rumorosa, playing everything you want to hear
• MC MamaDora, bringing the fierceness
• El/La’s amazing performers
• Delicious edible food, wine, and beer!
• Glamorous raffle prizes, including bike tune-up, cruise, sex toys, and more!
• All-ages Family Space complete with dress-up, inspiring games, and art-making!
• Queer craft fair with t-shirts, acupuncture, art-making, and more!
• A chance to strut your stuff on the catwalk and dance floor!
• And more!

Don’t miss this chance to party with your people! Bring your friends!

Be sure to RSVP on Facebook! See you there!

Safetyfest is CUAV’s annual celebration of all the ways queer and trans folks stay safe and strut our stuff in the Bay Area. Visit safetyfest.blogspot.com for the full calendar, updates, and report-backs! Visit www.cuav.org for more information about CUAV’s work.

Stay Tuned!
Thanks to Joie Rey Cohen  (joierey AT gmail.com) for the photo!

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of not only seeing The Gossip in concert (again this year!), but also of going back stage to hang out with them.  Oh. My. God.  First of all, I owe major major thanks to Jerry Lee, who the day-of, when I still didn’t have a ticket, asked me if I wanted one and said “oh, by the way, I think they’re all access.”  !!!!! When he said that I knew it was time to shave and put on mama’s face.

(And, for the record, I should actually be thanking the wonderful Tara Perkins, their tour manager and former mama of the Sex Workers’ Art Show tour, who really sealed the deal.  It was great to see her, and I said it once, but I’ll say it again: she looks great as a blonde.)

So a couple words of wisdom to share before we got there:

1. White zinfandel in a small plastic bottle = priceless.
2. Don’t leave your friend’s ticket in your house.  Oops.  But if you do, note that it’s cheaper to beg him to go get it and offer to pay for the ticket than it is to take a roundtrip cab to fetch it.  (Thanks, Alex!)

When we got there, we went backstage.  It was funny, because the only other time I’d been to the Regency was for the Trannyshack Kiss-Off Party, where I served drinks to Heklina and the girls backstage.  Which is to say: hanging out with stars backstage is only natural to me.

Beth Ditto was sitting in one of the tiny rooms with a cute friend of hers from high school, and his even cuter boyfriend.  She knew Jerry a bit, so screamed his name when she saw him and then asked me mine after.  When I told her she asked me, “Sweetie, are you drunk and on drugs?”  I told her “no, but we’ll see.”  Foreshadowing.

It was cute — lots of San Francisco queers who either lived in Olympia at some point or know Tara.  Beth clearly had fun being the center of attention, and enjoyed the gifts people brought her, including a plastic pumpkin filled with candy, condoms, and hand sanitizer.  She ate olives out of a jar (which were on the rider), and talked about high school and her family and Olympia, and said she was going to keep eating the olives until she couldn’t reach them in the jar.  She also smoked cigarettes, had a juicer (though I didn’t see it in action), and drank throat-coat tea.  I drank some (well, a lot of some) of her wine.

And just for a moment of politics: fuck people who act like they’ve sold out.  They’ve gotten “bigger,” they’ve changed a bit, fine.  But until Beth starts hawking McDonalds or Bank of America or some bullshit like that, I’m fine with it.  It is amazing to see this beautiful, talented, sassy, political, fat, queer, working-class, femme from Arkansas be on the move.  And it’s amazing to see her working it in designer fashion every now and then.  Street cred be damned, because girl’s got it.

Overall, the show was fantastic, though I was a little drunker than I’d realized.  (I realized later it was four, not three, glasses of wine, which is a lot for this one.  Be careful what you wish for, honey.)  MEN (JD from Le Tigre’s new band) was pretty cute and fun, especially with their giant props that Chris and Greg got to be in charge of.  But, whoa, Beth Ditto can sing.  She was complaining about being hoarse, but I would kill to have her pipes on a bad day.   And she’s just so in control.  I couldn’t help screaming along with a lot of the songs, which hopefully didn’t drive people too crazy.  I was jealous when friends from backstage ran out, and Jerry dove off the stage but fell on his ass.  Is this not the stuff that dreams are made of?

Later, we all went to Paradise Lounge (which I’d never been to and, for the record, reminded me of the under-18 “club” attached to the roller-skating rink in high school), where fags just attacked Beth and the others.  (I should add that while I spent most of my time that night around Beth — and “around” is probably the most appropriate word — I also met Hannah, who seemed like a giant sweetheart in that way that I tend to fall in love with butch women/genderqueers.)  Apparently I flirted with boys, but of course that’s the part that I don’t remember so clearly!  I called it quits a little early, because darling, sometimes you need to while you’re ahead.

And now the pictures, mostly courtesy of BrownDownCrown:

In case you didn’t believe it.  And I think that was glass of wine 2 of 3 (not counting the white zin).

This boy claimed to be a bigger hot mess than me.  See below for proof otherwise.  Also, doesn’t he look like it’s his job to pose like this?  I have no idea who he was or if we were flirting.

Beth and I are clearly in love.  I secretly wish we had a more formal/posed shot too, but I wouldn’t trade this for the world.

Bearzbub must have heard that there was a “hot mess” challenge going on because he came out of nowhere to put me in my place.  I never do my lips that big — it was a mistake that turned into an opportunity — but honestly, ths photo scares me a little bit.

So, if you missed the concert, you should probably be sad.  You should also listen to the concert that was on NPR, though it’s not as good.  (Although, Carrie Brownstein sounds like she’s announcing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is creepy and amazing.)  You should also find people who know people and start talking.

Iraq Veterans Against the War presents…

MAKE DRAG, NOT WAR!

A Benefit for IVAW and Dialogues Against Militarism!

Halloween! Saturday October 31st
7:30 pm
At Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th St. (at Mission St.), San Francisco

Featuring: Miss Rahni, Garza with Farrokh, Raya Light, Suppositori Spelling & the drag debuts of 15 Iraq veterans! (and Lil Miss Hot Mess!)
Performances by: SF Boylesque and fAction SF
Special Guest: Cindy Sheehan as George W. Bush
Hosted by: Artist Malcolm Drake

This Halloween, join Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) for a night  showcasing activist drag and dance theater for “Make Drag, Not War”, a
benefit for Dialogues Against Militarism (DAM) and IVAW.  DAM is a group of US war resisters, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and anti-militarist
organizers who will travel to Israel/Palestine to show solidarity with Israeli youth refusing to join the military, ex-combatants working for peace, and Palestinians resisting occupation.  The delegation, which includes three of the IVAW members who will perform in the show, will leave the next day.  A dance party to send off the delegation follows the performances.

Buy tickets at www.againstmilitarism.org/buytickets
$15 pre-sale, $20 at the door.

For more information please visit www.againstmilitarism.org and www.ivaw.org

I’m not sure what the best course of action is at the moment — for the US government, or for activists — but it seems that at the very least we need to be pressuring Nobel laureate (!) Obama and our members of Congress for no more troops and a responsible exit strategy.  Here’s a round-up of some ideas for taking action.

Also, not completely related (well, mostly because of US aggression in the region), but I attended the Arab Film Festival’s two opening night films on Thursday.  If you haven’t checked out the schedule, try to make it to one of the great programs!

How great does this look with this background? I'm sorry, but this makes my Bette look even Bette-r.

With my friend Sweet Cheeks. And for the record, it's a banana.

More Sweet Cheeks, who really knew how to milk it. And, for the record, I pulled that out of her ass. And loved it.

With my friend Dirty Hairy. We rode the bus there together.

Thanks to Mike O. for letting me post his gorgeous photos.  Sadly, no video that I know of: I need to get better at my documentation.

And be sure to see the show which opens tomorrow!

(Can I also say that even though I’d seen one of the images from the flyer, I had no idea that eating rose petals was so in-step with the show itself!)

The Kentucky Fried Woman Show! presents

9 to 5 on 9/5: A Dolly Parton Tribute Show

Saturday, September 5th
Doors at 8:30 Show at 9:30
$10
@ Velvet, 3411 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland
Featuring:
Simone de la Getto
Lady Monster
Sir Loin Strip & Friends
Lil Miss Hot Mess
Chichi Amor (aka StormMiguel Florez)
and all the way from Seattle, Pidgeon von Tramp & Honeysuckle Hype!

I told you so.

Homo A Go Go was great.  For real.  A little under-attended, but whose fault is that, missy?

thanks to Jerry Lee for taking this amazing Polaroid. you can see me working the Mission gay hipster look.

I had a great time emceeing, but more importantly, I had a great time being there.  The performances were phenomenal, and between being a bit tired and not making it at all to any of the films, I didn’t even get to see the half of it!  But here are some of my highlights:

TENDER FOREVER.
Wow. Wow. Wow.  Girl played drums using a Wii, which I didn’t understand, but blew me away.  Seriously.  Sometimes shit like that feels gimmicky, but this felt purely beautiful.  (Here is a video of her doing it at another show.) Also, her voice is gorgeous, and she was so full of energy, and gracious as fuck.  When I walked into the dressing room she apologized and asked me if I needed her to clear out.  As if!  What an honor to be backstage with her.  I cannot wait for a new album to come out, because I’ve just been listening to her on repeat.

MIRAH.
Call her folk or whatever but she took me back to my roots and I loved every minute of it.  She played “Jerusalem,” which is one of my favorite songs of hers because it is about Jews and Zionism.  (Here’s a video of her playing it at Bottom of the Hill a few years ago.)  During her show, Jerry Lee let out these huge white balloons which were both beautiful and scary (constant fear that they’d pop on the lights).

DAVE END.
People have been telling me that we should be friends forever, but our paths had never crossed.  I literally cried during this song he played about the passing of his dog and Bea Arthur.  Literally.  (I’d also had coffee for the first time in forever and it made me feel crazy and emotional, but still.)  I told him about how we were supposed to be BFFs, but I think I scared him a little.  But bygones.

NOMY LAMM.
Nomy almost made me cry, and probably fed the fire that resulted in my later tears.  Her harmonies and layering were absolutely beautiful.  There was something that reminded me of Sweet Honey in the Rock, which was absolutely perfect.

FASHION SHOW.
Chelsea Starr knows how to do a lot of things, including make clothes.  Many of the other designers were ‘eh,’ but there were definitely some gems.  Dia and I critiqued, which makes me want to go to Fashion Week some day.

VICKI MARLANE.
I’m ashamed to say it, but I’d never seen her live before.  And holy shit.  Legends are not made of nothing.

SHEBEAST.
I knew Nadia was going to be amazing.  I’ve never been to Homo A Go Go or Olympia, but she is exactly what I fantasize it to be.

KIRK READ.
Always a gem.  I had the honor of being mistaken for him. We share the same birthday, you know.  I’m just saying.

No disrespect to other performers who I’m not mentioning.  There are just too many!  And I felt sort of blah about my own number, which went off with a few hitches that got me a little cranky.  I was excited by the background video I made, though, with thanks to Maura.  Sometimes you just have to scale back, AND THAT’S OKAY.

Anyway, re-live the fun you didn’t have by looking at LarryBob’s photos (many of which are linked to in this post).

And next time I tell you to be somewhere, I expect you to ask what time and for how long.