Life's a Drag - and I *LOVE* it!

This past Sunday, I was the MC for the 2011 calendar release party for The Liberty City Kings, aka LiCK. They are Philadelphia's only drag king and burlesque queen troupe, and I was extremely excited to be invited by their fabulous leader and co-founder, Heather Coutts, to be the MC for this event. I met Heather two years ago at QFest, and worked with her immediately thereafter on my first ever film set. She is one of my favorite Philadelphians and when she invited me to her favorite playground - gender - I wasn't about to turn her down.

I take my lessons in gender identity and drag from the great post modern theorists and New York performance artists: Kate Bornstein, Justin Bond, http://taylormac.net/TaylorMac.net/Home.html. Each in her/his/hir own way helped explode the binary gender system for me. Each is like an angel or a prophet from a future where sissies are as celebrated as the captain of the football team, a butch diesel dyke is the President of the United States, and nobody has to be anything but what makes them feel safe, loved and happy. They are so beautiful that they're sometimes almost too much to take in.

In truly post modern fashion, it doesn't exactly interest me to be a "man" in "women's" clothing. I think there's still huge value (and just plain fun) in drag queens and drag kings. For many audience members, it's still subversive. For those performing it, it's still a thrill to act in roles that aren't readily available in daily life. However, as Stephen Heath once wisely observed, "the difference inverted is the difference maintained."

Don't take that to mean that I think that drag artists are reinforcing the patriarchy, far from it. But at a certain point it is the destiny for some of us gender warriors to move beyond the binary entirely. Sometimes this looks like painting from both palettes at once; some go so far beyond anything recognizable in culture and fashion as to like more an alien species than another sex. This is what I yearn for in my performances. I'm not interested in being a drag queen exactly; I intend to ascend my throne as genderfuck royalty.

The really magical part, for me at least, is to realize that not every member of the audience lives in the gender fluid world that I do. For some, it is their first drag show. Probably, for many, they have seen many a drag queen belt out (or lip sync) a hundred and ten Liza Minelli songs, but never seen a drag king sing Buddy Holly. Many of our audience members may be gay and lesbian, but may have never considered living too far outside their gender norms. Whether it's the endless gay porn sites fetishizing "real straight men fucking" or another singles ad from a "discrete masc dude" who wants "no fats or fems," so many lesbian, gay, and bisexual people have been so busy telling straight people (and themselves, including a younger version of myself) that our sexuality doesn't make us any different, that we've jumped through gender normative hoops to prove it. In the process we've wounded ourselves and our own, and drag isn't just fun; it's healing.

As binary gender disintegrated practically before my eyes with every chapter of Gender Outlaw and every gender transcended performance I saw in New York, I found new things to love about myself and others. As it turns out, glitter accentuates chest hair, as opposed to somehow tarnishing it with "femininity." Never mind the point that we all come from mothers and are taught to hate femininity expressed pretty much everywhere but straight porn and Swiffer commercials. And let's face it, six inch heels are the only shot I've ever got to be taller than my Dad. (In fact, they make me the tallest man in the whole family! Well, whatever a man is anyway, and assuming, for the moment that I am one.) So there you go. If one more person leaves a show that I've performed in finding new and more beauty in the world, then I've succeeded not just as a performance artist, sassy queen, and hot leather boy, but also as a human being.

In Which Twitter Debates Whether I am Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

OK, actually they were debating whether I was Guy Pearce in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but that makes for a less fabulous blog title.  Read from the bottom up for the conversation chronologically; I was too lazy to screen shot each individual tweet and put them in the right order.  Besides, then they wouldn't have come out the same exact size and I would be shedding sad, perfectionist, Virgo tears ;D

I really, really love my friends. And will be re-watching Priscilla as soon as midterms are through.

This Week in Fabulosity - Mean Little Deaf Queer (& Other Assorted Faggotry)

I was very joyful to get out of the house this weekend.  I was nearing a total meltdown with school, and frankly that didn't fully resolve until late last night when I cleared a thesis with a professor, realized I had plenty of time to write it, and calmed my raggedy over-achieving Virgo ass down.  But I digress.  This Saturday, my fabulous sex blogger flatmate Sarcastabitch reminded me that Giovanni's Room has having both an author reading and Holler, their (relatively) new open-mic night which I have attended previously.   Side note: Sarcastabitch is so intensely, delightfully, snarkily and brilliantly fabulous that she'll also be guest blogging for The Evil Slut Clique because her wit and swish cannot be contained to just one blog.

The evening started with Terry Galloway dramatically reading from her memoir "Mean Little Deaf Queer."  (Follow the link to buy the hardback from Giovanni's Room, or here to get it in paperback edition when that comes out shortly.)  She was pehomenal and an off-the-wall wonder.  She read/performed three excerpts.  The first was about meanness as a way of coping with deafness in her youth, and the second two about passing.  One was passing as less disabled to order to feel less an outsider, and the other about passing as more disabled than she really was in order to make sure she qualified for public assistance in getting new hearing aids. 

It was the latter that I found the most interesting of all, though both about passing made me think about behaviors in which we, whether queer, disabled, ethnic or racial minorities, etc., may take on a very affected behavior outside of us in order to demonstrate ourselves to be either "enough" or "not too much" of whatever it is we think we have to be for the audience we're currently performing for.  Performing different versions of ourselves and others is something that most or all of us do in adolescence or in college or other times in our life that are formative of our emotions and identities.  To see someone not only recall this in their own life but to recreate the performance for us was captivating and it begs the questions: "How does she perceive both her own disability, and that in the context of her larger identity?  How does she perceive her disability compared to others' disabilities?  What does this performance of disability tell us about her perceptions, and do they seem accurate either to us or to her in retrospect?"

Overall, Terry's reading and answering questions for the audience afterward was unwaveringly energetic and captivating; in addition it was, at turns, laugh-out-loud hilarious, cringe-worthy, sympathetic, tugging at our heart strings, and, in moments, cruel.  The title of the book, after all, is "Mean Little Deaf Queer."  In little more than an hour she took us on a real journey that certainly left me wanting more, and so I joyfully purchased the book and had it signed, and am glad to report that Beacon is already looking for Terry to write a sequel.  In this endeavor she has all of my best wishes, and I cannot wait to finish the first, and read the second when it comes out.

I've had so many things to say about Terry's fabulosity that I'll sum up the rest of the evening in a quick stream of consciousness: most  read from anthologies, I from GENDERqUEER, though one young man performed a monologue on performing queerness (performing identity = evening's theme) with great hilairty.  "I am a Christian Woman!" he exclaimed.  Delicious audience member with beautiful braided hair.  Delicious hummus afterward with some queer gals and one "butch tranny fag."  Baklava and coming out stories.  His fascinated: first as a dyke, then as a trans man who has a wifey, is queeer, is "down for the tranny cock" (as in, other trans men like himself), does not love cis-men's penises.  My cock barely bristled; not everybody can love it.  More than enough do and that's fine.  Strawberry-vanilla hookah and homemade baklavah.  Deliciousness abound.

Kisses,
Pistol

This Week in Fabulosity - It's all About Our Lady J

Perhaps at some point later this week when I've snagged photos from friends and family and I'm ready to parse out what about the holidays and what was emotionally traumatic, I'll review the whole week.  For just now I'd like to make this post all about our trip to Manhattan yesterday.  My Christmas Saturnalia gift to Sarcastabitch was a trip up to Joe's Pub in to see Our Lady J, our very favorite transsexual Gospel singer.

I love Joe's Pub, and have seen Justin Bond perform there several times in the recent past.  In fact, it was via Mx Bond's Twitter feed that I first heard of Our Lady J, and she was Justin's pianist when I saw hir perform on Halloween.  (Twelve year old aside - teehe, I said "pianist!")  Having downloaded her EP "Our Lady J:  Live from the Zipper Factory," and loving her original songs, I was really excited to see her perform again.  She performed songs from that EP, her new single "Pink Prada Purse,"  and other new original songs, as well as covers ranging from Dolly Parton's "The Grass is Blue" to Nine Inch Nails "Hurt."



While her singing and songwriting are enough to claim great talent and dedication to her craft on their own , Lady J is also a wonderfully accomplished pianist.  Between gospel sets and Dolly covers she started into a classical piece asking "anybody in the audience know who that is? Anybody? It's Chopin!"  She continued playing, sharing the deligthful yet morbid story of the expatriated  Chopin willing that his heart be cut out upon his death and taken from France to be buried in his homeland in Poland.  Weaving this and family stories with her thunderous gospel crescendos on the piano and great vocals, she is an act not to be missed.  If you are in the NYC area next Monday, I highly recommend seeing her third annual "Gospel of Dolly."  Her passion and performance do Ms. Parton great justice.  Tickets availible here.

Yours in fabulosity,
xoxo
Pistol

This Week in Fabulosity - Cabaret, College & More

Thursday - I started my internship with First Person Arts and, as with pretty much everything in my life right now, it's not just that it's fantastic and contributing to the fact that this is the happiest I've been in my whole life (see also: I got fired from a job I hated, I adore my flatmate and my puppy, I've been hanging with fab New York authors and performers).  This is more than just an interhsip for me.  Like my most recent dating experience, it's a short term attunement to be what it is to be treated well, have open communication, and feel that the energy that I contribute is honored.  This hasn't been the case in past dating or work experiences, and I'm on my way to unbelievable creativity, a career and a relationship.  This is great training for how to do that.

Friday - I headed out to see The Big Mess Orchestra perform Big Mess Cabaret at the Trocadero.  The Troc is one of my favorite things about Philadelphia and, like First Person Arts and the film festivals, will be one of the things that I miss dearly when I move, and that I will visit when I come back.  I've seen Pansy Division there, a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show, attended great dance parties and more.   However, it was nice to see cabaret there as one of the many historic incarnations of The Troc was as a burlesque hosue with cabaret and vaudeville.  

Right: Miss Carlotta in her 3rd frock of the evening. Girl can rock the purple sequined micro dress, but I'm sorry I missed a picture of her holiday dress.

The show had a great live band, flamenco, smoking elves, an insane singing ten foot tall nun who was also an insane ten foot tall singing Christmas tree (under her habit, naturally), vaudeville, stripteases, and the auctioning of dresses for an HIV/AIDS charity.

Despite all of this immense talent and hilarity, the favorite performance came not from a performer, but from Mic Boy, who rearranged the mics for each performer...in a jockstrap and work boots.  Yum.  Have I mentioned lately that I love my people?  I mean, straight people in Europe might be that cool, but the the U.S. of A. I'm sure as hell glad to be an urban dwelling fag.

Another highlight: nine foot singing purple penis.

Saturday - My college (re)acceptance letter from TCNJ arrived! In less than a year I won't just be a whip smart actor/writer/handsome gentleman, but I'll have a piece of paper (from on of the finest institutions in the country, I might add), that certifies me in at least one of those arenas.  Or something.  So yeah, huzzah to me going back to finish my degree in gender studies at the same time as I intern, continue my Meisner training with the Ward Studio, and keep my expenses down while I'm living on unemployment, all without losing it.  Wish me luck!

Sunday - A great schlep out to West Philly for our Solstice Heart Circle, which I blogged about here yesterday.  What a great way to celebrate the end of the year with some of my favorite Philadelphians, and some beautiful new ones as well!

This Week in Fabulosity - Photo Edition

I realized shortly after posting that I had completely neglected the photographs from the most recent instalment of "This Week in Fabulosity" so, voila:

First up two pictures taken after "Christmas Spells" with  Justin Bond and the Pixie Harlots. Here, Sarcastabitch and I pose with Mx Bond herself.  Now that is one hell of a sassy hairpiece, but if only you had seen her rocking out in a dress that seemed to be constructed largely of silk poinsettias the size of my head.  Now *that* was a serious costume!

Oh but not for those pesky winter layers you might see Sarcastabitch's tie.  We coordinated outfits, makeup and nail polish in all blue, white, black and red.  We even wore ties from the same collection, mine solid red and hers black with white polka dots.  This furthers out theory that we must not be seperated lest, like conjoined twins, one of us wither and die.

Next up, this busker in the subway station at Times Square.  In Philly you'd only find this kind of thing in Rittenhouse Square, but in New York there are artists and singers and performers of all types everywhere - in Union Square, on seemingly every subway line - and I love it.  I want to know this guy's story - was he a ventriloquist or a clown, an actor or what?  Whatever his story, he's clearly dedicated to doing whatever it takes to put food on the table and keep making his art.  From this distance you probably can't tell but the box he's standing on says "NEVER GIVE UP."  Even better, check out the card that he gives out when you drop money in his bucket:

It's a little wrinkled from it's trips around town in my billfold, but this makes me smile every single time I see it.

This Week in Fabulosity

Thursday - I interviewed with my favorite Philly arts org, First Person Arts, for an internship.  I'm not sure yet when I'll start with them but I really look forward to picking up a whole new set of skills and learning about the behind the scenes work of event production, contract writing and all of the nitty-gritty of making art happen.  More on that as it unfolds!  

Saturday - An almost indescribably amazing trip with my flatmate and fabulous sex blogger Sarcastabitch to see Justin Bond and the Pixie Harlots perform their original show "Christmas Spells," based on the short story "Dixie Belle" by Kate Bornstein.  Now I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, Pistol, is it possible for you to talk about fabulosity without mentioning Justin AND Kate?  Well, I suppose it is, but why try?  I want to see great art, they make great art, and they  often collaborate to make and/or present it together.  Who can argue with that?

In addition to telling a new gender-bent Huck Finn story the way the only such an assemblage of artists and queens can, we were treated to:

• solo and ensemble  performances of holiday songs, written by artists from The Gossip to Richard Carpenter to Irving Berlin
• Justin performing songs from his EP "Pink Slip,"
• Justin's outrageous tales and incomparable, fucked-up humor.  Try on for size this punchline from one notable (true) story: "And when they finally caught him and asked him why he had been punching these babies he answered, 'they were stealing my glamour!'"  

With tears rolling down my cheeks, I was grateful that Sarcatabitch uses only high end makeup and that my waterproof mascara was not running.

In addition to the sheer fabulosity of Justin's high heels and the hot and hairy Pixie Harlots in jockstraps and fishnets and glitter (well all of my favorite pixies were hairy anyway), I played another round of "It's a Small, Queer World."  I not only spotted a recent Philly to NYC transplanted Faerie friend, but also noticed that Sean Kennedy, previously known to me only via his Twitter stream, was tweeting from the same theater as I!  After some online coordination and at least one follower breathlessly waiting to see whether we'd find each other in the crowd, we met up and headed out to Yaffa Cafe for some post show food.  (Why yes, I was just there for breakfast last week with Kate.  It seems queer writers and creamy hummus go together like Lady Gaga and fake blood soaked avant garde costumes.)

Somewhere in transit, a Faerie whispered in my ear (with a little help from text messaging) "Wanna come to Justin's?"  Bless her heart, Sarcastabitch and her short little legs managed to keep up with my dead sprint from Yaffa to the after party, catching her breath as I grabbed some ale because I was NOT showing up to Mx Bond's empty handed!  We arrived shortly before the Pixie Harlots had to make their way out to Brooklyn for a second performance and I was surely pleased to make their acquaintance. 

Machine is just as sweet as pie and an excellent conversationalist to boot; PamperZ confirmed what a queen told me on Halloween about applying glitter to one's lips and added the essential information of how to remove said glitter!  So yes, the party was great. A performance artist and indie film actor here, Mx Bond's favorite rockstar there, Faeries and general faggotry abound.  The room represented ten times more artistic achievement than your standard soiree, yet without one iota of the pretension.  AKA, my personal heaven.

Sunday - My dear friend, mentor and Faerie elder Chris Bartlett and his gay history wiki project were written up in the New York Times.  In fact, my understanding is that this was on the front page of the style section of the print edition.  I am so proud and excited of and for Chris and his work.  I look forward to how the wiki will grow and eventually go viral over time.

With love and fabulosity, and body glitter adorning body hair,
xoxo

This Week in Fabulosity

Tuesday - My fellow actors at the Ward Studio in both Philadelphia and New York agreed to extend our semester of Mesiner Technique II by a day in order to do a joint showcase of our work for one another, performing at the new studio space at 150 West 28th Street in New York. My classmate Brandon and I performed a scene from the Odd Couple and I was (perhaps obviously) cast as Felix Unger. I remember the first time we worked through the scene and classmates were really laughing and I couldn't believe it because while I knew the script read as comedy, all I could feel acting it was anger and frustration at bickering with my juvenile, slovenly room mate. In that scene I gained a better appreciation of humor and why it need not and should not be funny to the people performing. It was great to do it in NY with a (partially) fresh audience who didn't know the jokes and gags because once again I got to experience that weird parallel of being angry Felix, but also having some consciousness as myself hearing big laughs and knowing that I was entertaining my audience. A most excellent feeling. Stay posted for when I'm cast in an advanced study workshop and, later, for when I'm on Broadway and subsequently accepting my Tony. ;D

Thursday - Another trip to New York. (Are we seeing a trend here? Yes, the Liberty Bell is neat but no, it's decidedly *not* always sunny in Philadelphia). Before it closed, I wanted to see COLD WATER, an art show curated by the absolutely fabulous (and fellow Radical Faerie) Justin Bond. It was a show of visual art created by artists who typically channel their creativity into other media, ranging from performance art and song to acting to post-modern gender theory and more. *swoon*

Another highlight of the evening was a heading to Therapy (where, bless their hearts, pints of Stella Artois were only $3 - cheaper than Philly) and staying to see Levinia Draper perform along with Dorothy Bishop who was doing her best Sarah Palin, and damn it was good! Somewhere in the mix, my friend Nicholas and I decided that between the two of us, one was bound to win the $100 for the best audience go-go dancer and up we went. Long story short: I was ahead in the first round as Sarah Palin's pick because being from Alaska she “likes her men hairy and hung like a moose.” (Thank you Calvin Klein for bikini briefs that gather and lift!) However Nicholas pulled ahead and won in the dance portion. Feh! Regardless, it was an absolute hoot following Levinia's dance routine as she went along, singing “The Sun Will Come out Tomorrow” with her, and hearing Sarah Palin sing about converting gays to the tune of Wicked's “Popular.”

Friday – I volunteered for and attended Philly's premiere holiday party of the season, TOY by the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund. They collected a veritable mountain of toys for pediatric HIV/AIDS patients and presented aa big 'ol honkin' check to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Additionally, co-director Chris Bartlett (see how often we Faeries pop up where fabulosity is concerned?) delivered a beautiful speech, outlining goals for our community in Philadelphia for the next ten, twenty and thirty years. Bravo to our Lady Bartlett, we love you dearly!

Sunday – One more trip to the Big Apple. I don't even know how to describe how great it was. I saw a fellow classmate perform in an advanced workshop at the Ward Studio and was immensely proud of him. This was bookended by breakfast at Yaffa Cafe in the East Village with the delightful Kate Bornstein and dinner in a Midtown diner with one of my favorite new people of 2009, David Badash. “Auntie Kate” to teens, freaks, and other outlaws (that's me!), Kate asked great questions about spirituality, what challenged me most in life, and lots of other stuff that got my brain moving early on a Sunday. We discussed her latest blog about gay marriage and what it meant to move forward with a civil rights movement that built coalitions and addressed issues by urgency rather than popularity. More thoughts on that later in the week.

I met David later in the day with that same energy and had probably one of the best conversations I've ever had with someone I had only just recently met. This reaffirms that I will never again ask someone what they do as a first question, but rather, what they're strangest childhood dream or nightmare was or maybe what secret good deed they did that nobody ever found out about. Life is too short to not be asked and be asking the interesting questions. I'm here to keep it real, learn, grow, heal and make some fucking amazing art. And, of course, to be fabulous. In any event, David, who writes The New Civil Rights Movement, also really inspired me (OK, he told be what I should be doing, then apologized, but seriously I'm thankful because *somebody* needed to tell me what the hell I should be doing!) with regards to writing consistently. Hence, I outlined a week's worth of blogs on the bus ride home and am writing this now.

Know something fabulous, daring, brilliant or heart warming that I should be covering? Hit me up here in the blog comments section or on Twitter. Until next time, always be kind, never be cruel, and stay fabulous. xoxo