Gillicorn Blessing is going to make you believe in myths and legends. Photo by Erika Stanley.
Thursday
Start your weekend right with 2 great neighborhood favs Dirtbag and Sweet Tea. Just a heads up for the newbies cuz the rest of you all should know this.
Friday
Homomentum presents Myths & Legends– That gayest of vaudeville drag revivals (I think that was redundant but, really, it’s that gay) returns fora 3rd year running to give you some of the weirdest, wildest, and hottest dance and performance art in queer Portland (yeah, pretty gay). Opening month will feature epic tales and fantastic journeys re-imagined through drag and debacuherous storytelling. And who better to tell this story than one of the featured performers, Gillicorn Blessing (did you know that a group of unicorns is called a blessing?), who I hear will also be debuting a new member.
Fist: Electro queer night – New dance night at a new venue. And we like new and different don’t we? Jams from DJ Hookerface so be prepared. This is an electro night and Hooker and I used to rave a decade ago so shit’s gonna be real, and hella danceable.
Smutty Clown open mic – Here in P-Town we like to make everything dirty. So naturally, we already had dirty poetry, now we need dirty comedy. I’m a huge fan of the innuendo myself, as anyone who has spent time with me after 5 o’clock can tell you. I also appreciate sexy comedians. So who knows what to expect from those signing up but it’s hosted by Whitney Streed and Sterling Clark (basically the template they used for Portlandia‘s “…all the hot girls wear glasses… line) so you know it’ll be off to a good start.
Melanie Griffith is workin' our her "Executive Realness' too
Laborday is gayborday (or LaborGay, how far can I work this bad pun?) in the hard-workin’ heartland of Portland, so us young retired people are just gonna use Labor Day weekend as an excuse to extend the party…right?
A painting show from Mason Bondi & I Mirror/Your Mirror art openings – Downtown/Pearl’s First Thursday may have a snootier reputation than the ridiculous and bohemian Last Thursday on Alberta but it’s always been about the art and there’s good art to be had. Here are two examples from experimental artist and former local Sarah Gottesdiener and Mason Bondi, a painter whose images of small figures amidst huge skies are at once whimsical and haunting.
I won’t say that I’m always particularly verbally eloquent but I was a little aghast at my rambling questions posed to Hole drummer and subject of QDoc Friday night film Hit So Hard Patty Schemel. I wasn’t necessarily nervous, but I can’t deny that Hole’s 1994 album Live Through Thiswas second only to Team Dresch as the most played tape on my Freshman year walkman. And despite any verbosity on my part it was great to hear Schemel’s take on the documentary, and I’ve included the uncut audio below, in addition to the written interview. For a brush up on the film you can read the earlier post reviewing Hit So Hard.
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qPDX: How was it coming out publicly as a musician in the 90s? Any contrast to being out personally?
Patty: I didn’t have any concerns about it. I was out with my peers and in my band. In my band it was a safe place to do that.
q: Any public backlash?
P: None that I knew about. It was a good experience. I got a lot of kids that would say thanks for coming out.
Patty Schemel with Hole, for Rolling Stone in the 1995 issue where she came out. From L Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Schemel, Melissa Auf der Maur
For any rock fan who was a teen of the 90s Seattle grunge reigned supreme and Hole was its seat of feminine power. The seminal grrl grunge group was fronted but the unmistakable, if not always likeable, Courtney Love, wife and baby momma to the most well known grunge persoanlity of all time,, the late Kurt Cobain, frontman for Nirvana. But as big a personality as Love was, all the little baby dykes had eyes only for the lady behind the drums. Patty Schemel was a kick ass ginger drummer with heart, and she was gay.
Portlandia‘s not the only place the 90s seem to be making a comeback. Compared to Sleater-Kinney and The Breedersriot grrl/punk outfit Sick of Sarahis wooing ladies and winning hearts across the music industry with their genuine sound that calls upon their riot grrl roots while still remaining current.
The Minneapolis based band is currently on tour promoting their new album 2205, and will be playing tonight in Portland at Backspace (115 NW Fifth Ave).
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.
Originally titled with the much preferred Le Tigre: Who Took the Bomp, the video diary for the last Le Tigre tour is a bit of self-indulgent nostalgic fluff. But it’s good nostalgic fluff. And you should all know how much I adore both of those things.
Beginning with a random home rocket kit test flight Le Tigre: On Tour takes an irreverent look at the comraderie and adventures of the team, and spends a lot of time fawning over the most masculine of the trio JD Samson. Dykes will appreciate the attention paid to this mustachioed butch dreamboat who comes across as genuine, humble and sexy, even when she’s accepting champagne from adoring fans.
*New, extended deadline: July 31!
