Last year's Homo's Got Talent winners Nicolette and Pony, aka, Art School Dropouts
Tonight
The Cafeteria at Vendetta – The inaugural lunch lady themed new gay night at my new local bar mere blocks from my new gay house! It should also be the perfect cool down from Last Thursday, and it’s, you guessed it, within walking distance. Lunch trays and crunk gays (and $1.50 Pabst) within stumbling distance? I’m there.
Purple Rhinestone Eagle’s tour kick off – Awesome queer punk tour kickoff with STLS, Forever, and DJ Permanent Wave in between sets at Backspace (125 NW 5th). Um, have you ever heard a band with two drummers? Now is your chance dude. It’s time to rock out with whatever you got out.
Mendi tabling for Butch Voices at Latino Gay Pride
This is the big call for ButchVoices’ 2010 Saturday night showcase performance! The show will be on Saturday, Oct. 2nd. Come be part of the action! This is an evening to celebrate people who identify OR perform on the butch spectrum– trans-masculine, studs, aggressives, bois, shy soft butch, genderqueer, androgynes, etc.
We welcome all submissions for performance– anything goes that can happen on a stage. Ensemble dance, performance art, drag numbers, film/video presentations, music performance, comedy, hand whistling, spoken word– show your manly, boyish, tranny, genderqueer stuff to a big queer PDX audience. We welcome you to interpret the labels of “butch” or “masculine” in a creative way; we hope for the evening to be engaging, challenging, and even a bit controversial. The Saturday showcase is open to anyone, with a regional focus on the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.
Already booked for Saturday’s show is Ivan E. Coyote, famed queer storyteller & writer. For more information about Ivan’s work, go to http://ivanecoyote.com/about.
I did not personally know Sam Storicks, the popular BearracudaDJ was a much loved member of our community. And certainly my heart goes out, especially, to his partner Gregg Kerr in these difficult times following his passing. A close friend, Bennie Tan, posted a heartfelt piece over at Fabulous PDXand I have included some of it here.
Numb. That is what I’m feeling right now. I’m sitting here on my bed at 2:21 am on July 24th thinking, “What the FUCK just happened?!” I was going to try and get some sleep but I can’t. Sam Storicks, one of the most fantabulous people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know, passed away at 10:00pm last night, July 23, 2010.
I’ve been trying to process what just happened this past week. From him being found unconscious on Monday, July 19th to the recent, sudden turn for the worse…
Localgay rights organisation, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) is launching a new ad campaign, which begun by showing ads on TV as recently as last week. (If you have seen them, please comment!) Next to showing ads of long-time monogamous gay couples on TV, their campaign involves hitting the streets, engaging in conversations, and handing out leaflets.
Discussing our excitement over the upcoming reunion show with The Need a few days before last Friday’s finale a friend commented that she was worried that they wouldn’t still have it. That they were (as we are) getting older, hadn’t played in awhile, and who knows what kind of skills they’ve lost in the lackadaisical interim (I’m exaggerating her comments here for effect).
But I needn’t have worried. Because last Friday night they brought down the house.
Not only were they tight and nuanced, but every bit a energetic as they ever were. And even as Rachel pulled up her shirt to expose her own mastectomy scars she joked about now being able to mow the lawn shirtless before launching into another perfectly executed anthem. And though my musical taste has tended more toward that which can be danced to as of late, their alt-metal filled a need in my body I didn’t even know I had.
Need and Bangs reunion benefit – I know a lot of you will be here earlier in the night, but you can still dance it up after right?
No Shade – Yes, just keep going. No drama-rama party with a great mix of fabulous peeps. And I really love that they include some mixes to get you in the spirit. I’d totally play it at the pre-funk. Oh yeah, and in case you didn’t have enough Nolita already, she’ll be here too. And you can never get enough.
As exciting as it may be to have a little pre-gay pizza b-ballin’ in the court across from Portsmouth, I have to go with my nostalgic gut and make an appearance at the Rotture (315 SE 3rd) for Nolita’s much missed Fruitcake. Unfortunately, we lost this party to the open arms and venues of the Bay area, and they love it too. Thankfully, they’re willing to share every once in awhile.
Trying to bring a little NYC flavor to Portland has always kept Fruitcake a fresh and intimate night, with incredible highlights such as last year’s Halloween party and New Years Eve featuring Beth Ditto.
SOUL REVOLUTION:
A video document of Riot Grrrl’s ongoing legacy
*New, extended deadline: July 31!
Did Riot Grrrl (or any variety of DIY/punk feminism) change your life?
Whatever gender you are, whether you’re in your 40s or in your teens, whatever punk rock feminism means to you—we want to hear from you.
We (Cat Tyc and Sara Marcus) are making an interactive video installation at girlstothefront.com, in conjunction with Sara Marcus’s book about Riot Grrrl, Girls to the Front, that’s coming out this fall. The point isn’t to wax nostalgic—or, at least, not to dwell in nostalgia; it’s to acknowledge and celebrate the countless ways that the legacy of Riot Grrrl is still very much alive in all of our lives. And we need your contribution to make this happen.
The Need's Rachel Carns with bandmate Radio Sloan in the background in an old school Oly alleyway
It has already been a summer of reunions, but Kaia Wilson doesn’t have the market cornered on dyke rock revival. Avant garde/metal/punk/hardrock scrappers The Need and fellow OlyWa queercore riot grrls Bangs are back in the saddle for a special 3 day benefit in the Seattle, Olympia and Portland this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We get the weekend night, at Berbati’s Pan (231 SW Ankeny St), so expect it to be packed.
Comprised of the energetic and wide eyed drummer Rachel Carns, and the more introverted sound producer dude and guitar god Radio Sloan, The Need were always a little out there, even within the lesbian music community. Their first release featured the vocal stylings and frenetic spoken word of independent filmmaker and performance artist Miranda July and Carns kept up the wild vocals and strange lyrics on their two album releases. They also collaborated in Olympia’s masterful summer 2000 rock opera The Transfused about a misfit band of animal people that were enslaved to the human corporate machine.
The crowd held up fingers to signify which contestant's booty they thought bounced the best.
I used to live a few blocks away from Porky’s and remember happening across the awesomeness that was Booty. Stars aligned last night as the old crew (now geographically scattered) hosted a fabulous reunion party complete with a booty-bouncing contest and double dutch jump roping! Check out pics here.
Discussing our excitement over the upcoming reunion show with The Need a few days before last Friday’s finale a friend commented that she was worried that they wouldn’t still have it. That they were (as we are) getting older, hadn’t played in awhile, and who knows what kind of skills they’ve lost in the lackadaisical interim (I’m exaggerating her comments here for effect).
*New, extended deadline: July 31!
