A new configuration from New Orleans’ own puppet darlings,
risen from the ashes of the Black Forest Fancies – The Mudlark Puppeteers
are back in Austin with two new shows. They will be performing The Six Swans
and The Nightingale at Center Stage Texas
2826 Real St. 78722

Thursday, July 29th and Friday, July 30 at 8:30 pm.
Admission $10 for adults, $5 for students, seniors and children.

We are hosting a very special party
on Saturday July 31st at 10pm
The Mudlarks present the
WORLD PREMIERE of
The Story of St Dymphna
Behold the making of the beloved martyr
and patron saint of madhouses, motherless children, and princesses in exile.
Told through rod and shadow puppetry – to a score of very black metal.
WARNING – MATURE CONTENT!
and The Six Swans – from the Brothers Grimm.
A princess braves an incredible trial to free her
brothers from a cruel witch’s curse.
Told in rod and shadow puppetry.

Also featuring the amazing Lex Land, chanteuse extraordinaire
and DJ Lina X spinning into the night for dancing under the trees!
1051 Springdale Rd – admission $6

(Pandora and Nina, post-bloodwrestling…)
The last two parties we threw for the Fancies were great successes,
with money raised for the Mudlark Theatre in New Orleans, and from
the Fish Fry for the Gulf Coast Fishermen. We threw an underpants
party, with live bloodwrestling, which was quite a hit, as you might imagine.

And before: as Dolly Parton

…and J. Lo!

Sick, as carny-barker presents the bloody spectacle, with Zibby, Frannie and Marrow wrasslin’ to the death!

Analy and Rachel tipped the pool over with their exertions!

Our donation bar was generously provided by the awesome folks at Tito’s Vodka,
with applejack cocktails that enabled and inspired much of the wrestling!

The bartenders did double time at the kissing booth.

Lovely Monika wielding sparklers in her fanciest underthings.

The lovingly cradled PBR was merely a prop to display her talent for showcasing.

Hans Christian Andersen’s story, The Nightingale was brought to life by the Mudlark Puppeteers,
as a fable told through shadow puppetry and marionettes. The Emperor’s palace and garden are
the most magnificent in the world, but of  the many wonders in his vast empire, the nightingale
is best of all. The emperor never leaves his throne, so heavy is he with his own importance,
so he has never heard the beloved voice of the little bird. The nightingale is summoned to the
palace, to please the Emperor, but can nature’s beauty thrive in a gilded cage at court?

Waiting for Gumbo was hysterical. Beckett’s Godot performed by crawdads, mice and live cockroaches!

Miss Amelia, radiant and lovely, and wearing only her unmentionables!

I don’t remember this chicky’s name, but I like her Aeon Flux hair-do.

Elves, I tell you! Amanda Stone is made of elves, and don’t let nobody tell you different.

See the full set of The Black Forest Fancies Underpants Party photos here!

Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort!

Nicole Labry slays me every time! She is so brilliant, hilarious and sweet –
and can whip outfits like this out on a whim. Oh yeah, and she’s a mama!

Allyson Garro of Coco Coquette in one of her custom wigs – so sassy!

Miss Erika Payán Zanetti, a dashing swashbuckler.

Pierre owns the place with his lovely wife Justine – they have really given
the neighborhood, and the city such a gift. If you haven’t been yet, let’s go!

Penny Stark + Chia Guillory, wearing some of Chia’s incredible designs.
Matching rumba outfits? Ruffles and sequins and satin, oh my!

This is Emily. I love her hat and gamine face.

Dan + Jen = moustaches + white tulips make me happy.

Vive le France!

Francesca is a tiny dynamo who has always loathed being referred to as “cute” –
and though she’s so much more than that, I’m happy to see that she’s finally just
accepting and owning the fact that she is cuter than all get-out! Beyond cute!

I mean, seriously? Own it, girl! Rompers + clown-noses forever!

Mistress Stephanie’s luscious red ribbon heels.

Vintage deadstock sunglasses from Coco Coquette, hair ornament from Tail of the Yak.
I collect clothes with little hearts, and painted or enameled deco ball chain jewelry. FYI.

Allons enfants de la patrie,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé.
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’étendard sanglant est levé.

Arise, children of the nation!
Our day of glory is here.
For against us we see raised
Tyranny’s bloody banner!

My full set of Bastille Day photos are up on Flickr! – take a peek!

also, a charming Scotsman named Sandy Carson
took amazing photos all night – go and see!

✸ One of my favorite films ever, I Am Dina, is available for your viewing pleasure
on Hulu right now, and though it’s not the ideal medium to watch something so
incredibly beautiful and powerful – it’s free! Also, I’m not sure that this film is at
all available widely (I had to order my DVD from Canada when it came out)
and that’s a damn shame, because it really is so wonderful. I came across some
information about it before it was ever released in the States, and managed to
catch it at a movie theatre when my Grandfather and I were in Copenhagen.
It just happened to be showing at a little art-house a few doors down from our
hotel (across from Tivoli Gardens!) So, it was everything I had hoped for and more:
a gorgeous, sweeping period drama set in Norway at the turn of the century
with wolf-wild, filthy snarling half-orphans, tragic deaths, cellos, and incredible
cinematography, set and costume design. The casting is superb, from Gérard Depardieu
to Maria Bonnevie (who I loved in the role of Dina). Not only that, but two of my favorite
actors, Christopher Eccleston and Hans Matheson have roles as a foxy Russian anarchist,
and sexy stableboy, respectively. Swoon. If you’ve ever wanted to ask me about my who
my dreamboat crushes are, well there you go. Also, Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton.
So now you know, just in case you wanted to send me a singing telegram from any of
those people. Right. So – I went right out to a bookstore after we saw the film and bought
two of the trilogy that inspired the film, by Herbjørg Wassmo. Sadly, these are hard to find
in the States as well, and my copies were lent out and lost – so if anyone in Scandinavia
would be willing to send me English translations of Lykkens sønn or Karnas arv (which
I don’t even think was ever translated, actually. Damn it.) I’d be so grateful! Let me know!

✸ Rima Staines of The Hermitage recently made a fantastic post about
Old Women Who Paint On Their Walls. These magic self-taught crones
channel their passion, fears, hopes and joy into maniacally beautiful
paintings that cover their homes from floor to ceiling. The remind me
a bit of Nita and Zita, the burlesque acrobats from New Orleans. Their
house on Dauphine Street was painted everywhere too! Nita and Zita
are my patron saints, and number one fashion and lifestyle inspirations.

“What fascinates me about these women is the obsessiveness in their painting.
Perhaps because they’ve kept a lid on their creativity all their lives, and it boils
over dramatically in their later years, we see wild, imaginative, otherworldly art
produced lavishly beyond the boundaries. There is a difference about it.
But the interesting thing is that it is not “Art” but paintings, all over the walls
of these women’s houses. This transgresses any staid assumption of social
boundary – i.e. what is or is not acceptable in one’s dwelling place.
It is too much. It is mad. And it is marvellous!
They are peasant frescoes, and are utterly truly-wrought I think.”
– Rima Staines, on Old Women Who Paint On Their Walls
and
“Those works created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses –
where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere –
are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of professionals.
After a certain familiarity with these flourishings of an exalted feverishness, lived so fully
and so intensely by their authors, we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works,
cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade.”
~ Jean Dubuffet. Place à l’incivisme (Make way for Incivism).
Art and Text no.27

✸ Dagnabit, but wouldn’t you know I went and missed the Annual Coney Island
Mermaid Parade again this year? Well, Tod Seelie Suckapants was there,
and he took lots of great pictures, which you can peer at in the following sets:
GHOST-FACED AND FRIENDLY
DISAPPEAR WHEN YOU DRAW NEAR
BOW DOWN AND DIE

Also, I highly suggest you develop an addiction for his blog, because not only
does he regularly post amazing photos of my friends making art, making music,
making out, or making giant messes but he always does fun giveaways, and he
usually posts great music for you to check out. He’s introduced me to a lot of stuff
I might never had heard otherwise, including my top heavy-duty rotation summer
anthem of the moment, which is Lissie’s cover of Kid Cudi’s song Pursuit of Happiness.
It’s my get to it music right now. I’m normally not turned on by folky girls covering rap
songs ironically (barf), but this is just really good. Also, on that note – if we’re gonna
get cute, let’s not fuck around right? Who knew the Carebears were Ice Cube fans?

(Photograph by Madi Ju)

✸ I just discovered The Ladies’ Guide to the Apocalypse
tonight, purely by chance (if you believe in that!) and am blown away.
I need to go eat nachos with Summer Burkes real soon, and I think we
all need to be reading about her experiences doing cleanup in the Gulf.
Read her writing on the I Ching, and prepare to knocked on your ass.
I was just explaining what the I Ching was to someone earlier tonight,
and this makes me want to get some yarrow stalks. My dad taught me
how do it with quarters when I was 11, and though I feel far more
connected to the tarot, the hexagrams are so elegant and powerful.

✸ Welcome to East Austin! from The Hipstercrite
This is my neighborhood: sweet little alleys with junkyard dogs and magic
and also ridiculous modern condos that stick out like sore thumbs. Strange mix,
for sure – but here we are. A lot of them are just standing empty now. It’s be nice
if some families came and brought all their car parts and kids and cats and just
filled them up with life and barbecue and loud tejano on the radio. Fingers crossed!

✸ On the subject of hipsters, Alan Moore expounds on
his definition in an excellent interview in The Quietus by John Doran.

JD: “You’re proud of your status as a hipster. Do you regret
the way it’s become a disparaging, pejorative term now?

AM: Has it? Yeah, that’s probably true. It used to be a fashion statement,
but it was information as a fashion statement which is probably going to do
you more good than the clothing you wear. I got an incredible education starting
from the point at which I was thrown out of school. Now, I could probably hold my
own intellectually with most people who have had university or college educations.
And indeed some of them will have done courses on my books. So, despite the fact
my ‘education’ ended at 16, I had hipsterism, which was wanting to be hip, and that
led me to read this incredibly diverse array of books on science, mysticism, science
fiction, literature, art… I would find out about these movements that I had heard about,
and it’s given me a pretty comprehensive education. Now I am an autodidact,
which is a great word… I learned it myself.”
and this:
“Everybody is becoming [a superhero]. In the past I’ve tried to say,
‘Look, we are all crappy superheroes,’ because personal computers
and mobile phone devices are things that only Bat Man and Mr Fantastic
would have owned back in the sixties. We’ve all got this immense power
and we’re still sat at home watching pornography and buying scratch cards.
We’re rubbish, even though we are as gods. I think the idea that we can all be
superheroes if we want might still be contagious, like in V For Vendetta.
I’ve heard of urban superheroes springing up across the world.
I think there’s one in London called Angle-grinder Man…”

✸ Recently a caravan of friends went to go see Lois,
the Amorphophallus titanum blooming now at the
Houston Museum of Natural Science, but alas,
she was being shy that day! There have been quite a few blooms
here and there, and if you get the chance to experience it, you’re a lucky one
indeed. I hope at some point in my life, I will get to smell the corpse-tastic aroma!

FUNKWATCH: Corpse flower “On The Bloom”

✸ Care and Feeding of a Mermaid – superb vintage footage from 1961 (found via Miss Swissmiss)

✸ Inspired? You can make a mermaid tail of you very own! Finally!

Afternoon light and shadow-lace veils. Dressing up is a balm
for my soul. It’s still my favorite game, and I’m going to endeavor
to do it much more often – even when I’m only stepping out for
a little while. I feel like it makes a difference in other people’s
lives too. Also, I feel that those of us that enjoy it owe the rest
of the world an example of how not to succumb to the perpetual
casual Friday that has sadly become the norm. Dress to inspire!

We went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants the other night,
the Eastside Show Room, and had fabulous cocktails and tempura-okra
and little quails stuffed with figs and talked of exciting plans,
and of cabbages and kings. I found this 70′s wrap dress at
Feathers, (one of my favorite vintage shops here) and wore
it over a black slip (yes, the same one I’d been living in for days!)
fancy stockings and a pair of suede foldover boots from ASH
that I’m wearing as much as possible despite the rainy days
we’ve been having. The sequin headband was made by my
sweet Miss Nina Carolina, and the golden leaf necklace is
from Ren at Lux Revival. I love wearing things from my friends!

Speaking of, I borrowed this dress from my BFF Pandora. It’s a very special
dress, and has magical powers. It’s the most comforting, happy-making
thing to wear, ever. As if it were cotton spun from buttercream and sunshine.
I hope you’ll forgive the outfit and vanitas heavy post, but it’s been quite a
spell, so I’m cramming a few into one! Are you down with the fripperies?
The brown wedges are also from ASH, and I adore them. They are so well
made and comfortable, and obviously I like being artificially tall. Plus, it’s
nice to be able to throw on a summery frock but then take it up a notch
with some serious footwear. Dressing for heat like this with any modicum
of elegance is definitely an art. My advice? Always carry a hand-fan.

My darling friend Chad Merritt (of St. Mary’s and Mon Petit Fantome)
came to town, and did much to lift my spirits from the doldrums!

Sweetness! I don’t know how I never realized before that the horse mural
on Milton St. (off South Congress) is a superb backdrop for picture-taking!

If you aren’t familiar with his beautiful music, or his wonderful
artwork, I suggest you get yourself acquainted! Not only that,
but he is one of the funniest, sweetest and most thoughtful
people I have ever known. I only wish he could be here all
the time! Chad lives on the Gulf Coast, near the Texas/Louisiana
border, and has been through several vicious hurricanes that
basically destroyed his hometown (as well as his home and
belongings). I’ve never met anyone more resilient and open-
hearted. We talked about our sorrow about what BP has done
to the Gulf, to our oceans and to the lives of everyone in the
region. He’s been a real inspiration to me to not get mired
in the swamp of despair. We’re both Capricorns, and our
saturnine natures make us a little pre-disposed towards
gloom – but you just have to pick yourself up and take
care of business, and then make art or writing or music
from what’s in your heart. My concepts of justice and
fairness have really been tampered with lately. I’ve
been feeling like a little kid, stomping and screaming
about how unfair various situations are – these huge
corporations that get away with destroying our world,
these cops that get away with shooting unarmed young
men in the back, and all the little dramas that we perpetuate.
I’m starting to wonder if justice really even exists – or it it’s
just an outdated concept, a mythical beast. I had a vivid
dream recently that I’d thrown a big party at my house
where the guests got drunk and rowdy. I found a card
from my mother’s tarot deck torn in half. Can you guess it?
Yep – JUSTICE. I fixed it with cellotape and kicked the
hooligans out of the garden. Pretty clear symbolism there.
What do you think? Is there any justice left in our world?
Was there ever? I try to think of it more like a wheel –
sometimes the wheel takes a long, long time to get
back around to even things out, but I like to think
that it does eventually. I do believe in karma, but
I don’t think it’s always as instant as we would like
it to be, and there’s always run-off. See what happens
when I try to make a frivolous post about outfits? Ha!

Woman with Cross and Skull
19th c. – Qajar period, Iran
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Mistick Krewe of Comus float design, by Jennie Wilde — 1910
(see link below for the full set!)

(Any idea about who painted this? Tin Eye was stumped.
I traced it back toblessedwildapplegirl but the buck stopped there.)

✸ Bibiodyssey’s post on vintage Mardi Gras Designs
Mistick Krewe of Comus 1910 float designs
of float design drawings by Jennie Wilde
browse them all at the Louisiana Research Collection
I remember at French Quarter Postal Emporium they used to sell little postcard books of these.
I was always too broke to buy them, so would look at them when standing in line waiting to mail
my parcels, much to the chagrin of the fussy queens who worked there.

✸ I think I’ve mentioned my love for Shirley & Spinoza Radio before,
but it’s been awhile. I had forgotten how much I loved them. How could I?
They play the best, oddest and most obscure scraps of brilliance ever.

✸ Academy Award-nominated actress and Austin artist Susan Tyrrell loves sex, fags and gangsta rap.
Hooray for Susu Tyrrell, and hooray for my friend Chris Apollo Lynn, who interviewed her.

This article on the temptation of memory engineering is extremely absorbing:
✸ Removable Truths – A memory expert’s indestructible past.
By William Saletan
Reading it has made me fixate on our fallible and flexible memories. I recently
had an odd experience, where I realized that I had vividly remembered something
(the color, make and model of a friend’s car) that turned out to be wildly inaccurate.
It’s disturbing to think about, really. How could I remember it to be a burgundy Chevy
hoopty when it was really a white Mercedes diesel? I guess it was dark, and I was very
distracted – but really? That’s kind of a huge discrepancy. I was shocked to discover it.
Thanks to William Gibson for recommending this article, among many other things-
and speaking of, for the following recommendations as well:

✸ William Gibson’s favorite science fiction novels
I haven’t read a single one of these, though Wiley Wiggins did try to foist
Dhalgren on me years ago. Gibson says, “It won’t work unless you can allow
it to become your head for a few weeks; it helps if you’re rather young.” I think
I was too jaded by that point to really get into it. I’d discovered early on what my
bag was as far as science fiction went, from devouring my dad’s 70′s pulp paperbacks.
I tend not to dig anything where the characters are named Zorn or live on planet Xerzon.
The incredible images on the covers definitely made a huge impression on me, though.
I think I’ll need to see if my pops has any of the books on that list, and get my summer
space-sorceror escapist thing going. How about you? Got any favorite science fiction
I need to read? Lay it on me. We’re getting a new hammock tomorrow, so I need book-fuel!

✸ I just went on a bookspree and snatched up seven new books
but I absolutely must get this one next – it looks amazing:
CYCLONOPEDIA – Complicity with Anonymous Materials
By Reza Negarestani

“An American woman arrives in Istanbul to meet a pseudonymous
online acquaintance who never arrives. Discovering a strange manuscript in her hotel room,
she follows up its cryptic clues only to discover more plot-holes, and begins to wonder whether
her friend was a fictional quantity all along. Meanwhile, as the War on Terror escalates, the US
is dragged into an asymmetrical engagement with occultures whose principles are ancient, obscure,
and saturated in oil. It is as if war itself is feeding upon the warmachines, leveling cities into the desert,
seducing the aggressors into the dark heart of oil …

At once a horror fiction, a work of speculative theology, an atlas of demonology, a political samizdat
and a philosophic grimoire, Cyclonopedia is work of theory-fiction on the Middle East, where horror
is restlessly heaped upon horror. Reza Negarestani bridges the appalling vistas of contemporary world
politics and the War on Terror with the archeologies of the Middle East and the natural history of the Earth
itself. Cyclonopedia is a middle-eastern Odyssey, populated by archeologists, jihadis, oil smugglers,
Delta Force officers, heresiarchs, corpses of ancient gods and other puppets. The journey to the Underworld
begins with petroleum basins and the rotting Sun, continuing along the tentacled pipelines of oil, and at last
unfolding in the desert, where monotheism meets the Earth’s tarry dreams of insurrection against the Sun.”

✸ Burkas and Birkins -
I Watched 146 Minutes of Sex and the City 2 and All I Got Was This Religious Fundamentalism by Lindy West
This is so goddamn hilarious – and I’m so grateful to Lindy for seeing this awful bit o’ tripe
so I don’t have to! I still have never seen even one episode of that show, and an entire film
based on it sounds completely intolerable. I do love pretty frippery and all, but whoa. Scary!

✸ Pamela Colman Smith’s Russian Ballet
Pixie Smith is my number one magicienne inspiration.
She’s at the head of the invite list for my fantasy seance
dinner party, along with Joseph Cornell, Edward Gorey,
Louise Brooks, Vali Myers, and Austin Osman Spare.
Who would you invite to yours?

✸ Why are the East of Cities usually Poorer?
(via the always kick-ass from Brainpickings)
Interesting! I’d always wondered about this.

✸ Honeybee death mystery deepens
Colony collapse disorder linked to mix of fungal and viral infections.
A good article with actual information rather than hysteria. Don’t get me
wrong – I am worried about the bees every day, but having any clues as
to what is actually ailing them is the only way we can setting about changing
that. I can’t wait for the day when I can start to set up my hives. Honey magic!

✸ Post Pridematic Stress Syndrome – Shaking out Austin’s weekend of Pride
Here’s the run-down of articles, info and tantalizing tidbits from Pride,
including the entire text of Silky Shoemaker’s stunning speech at Queerbomb!

My dear friend Ooops is an amazing aerial artist who recently choreographed
and performed this piece as an homage to our friend Noah Vasilchek.
With Niki Frisky as her deer-twin, and the inimitable Chris Lane as emcee, and a bunch of
rowdies at One Eyed Jacks hootin’ and hollerin’. This is one of my favorite aerial performances, ever.

That’s what’s floatin’ around the rusty brainpan of late!
If you’ve got any suggestions for books/music/art/culture/information
that I need to know about, drop me a line on my tin can telephone.
I’ll be hanging out with the reading in my cave by the river with the
skulls of obscure saints to keep me company. Passenger pigeons
or smoke signals are accepted also, and if you travel in dreams,
come say hello. I get around most nights, more than I would’ve
guessed – but judging from how often I seem to pop up in the
dreams of friends and future friends, it seems I’m a nightly roamer.

I forget this boy’s name (and his kitty’s name) but aren’t they the best?

My electric friend Penny (aka DJ Lovecat) is a magic dancer and has a
blog: The Mothership Connection – you can download or listen to her
special new Queerbomb-insprired mix “Lovecat Supreme” there!
I can tell you from direct experience that it is the perfect
soundtrack for dancing around in your underwear.

Silky gave a really beautiful speech in this incredible jeweled cloak she made.
It’s a very special garment indeed – she must have spent a million hours hot
glue-ing those suckers on. It’s geometric sparkle magic, and it makes me think
of Mardi Gras Indians and DMT gnomes.

This is one of my favorite pictures ever of Brianna. She is so beautiful!

Los Blancas Locas! I love Will and his band of naughty albino cupid go-go dancers.

Allyson Garro (of Coco Coquette!) and Tiana Hux (MC Sweet Tea) are the
hottest sugar-mama baby-dolls! They smell like candy and new dollie!
Also, if you are bad they will spank you with their candy-sticks.

Sadly, this was taken after I had lost most of my tinsel beard, but you get idea.

Kate X Messer + I = love. She has entered the pantheon of totally mind-blowing
Virgo women who I admire and adore. A great writer, and a great friend.

Caleb and Maverick. Cuteness.

I love this photo of Miss Lea. She is very lovely indeed.

Angelica + Lea sharing sisterly love. They both have such elegant, elfin
chins and jawlines, don’t you think? I’m a sucker for good bones.

Katzen, displaying her bisexually proud leg. Love it.

More photos are here, but be warned some are so NSFW!:
Queerbomb 2010!

Related posts: QUEERBOMB!

The Cockettes! Let them be a constant inspiration to let that flag fly, to raise it high and dance together.

I’m also thrilled about all the great thought, dialogue and writing that all this action has inspired.
There are so many kick-ass pieces in The Chronicle this week, holy moly – please do, if you have
a minute, go read them. My friend Kate wrote three of my favorites, linked below – but wow, there’s so much!

★ PRIDE Weekend 2010: I Am QueerBomb. I Am Austin Pride.
How queer is your Pride? How Austin is your bomb?

★ History’s Morgue – We choose whether to let our stories live or die

★ Preaching Beyond That Choir
Is Austin ready for Bishop Yvette Flunder’s good news of radical inclusivity?

Sinister Wisdom by Leah DeVun

★ Heads in the Sky; Feet on the Ground
Leah DeVun’s very intentional exploration of lesbian space by Andy Campbell

Coco the Sasquatch, Rebecca Havemeyer and Silky Shoemaker in Trivia Travesty!

There’s a fantastic piece on one of my heroes:
★ Pride Piper
Silky Shoemaker brings a heapin’ helpin’ of DIY to the Pride table by Cindy Widmer

“In that moment, the slight, androgynous Shoemaker is both the spunky girl
who grew up doing musical theatre in Amish country and a wicked-sly,
multilayered performance artist, sending up cornball theatricality –
performing camp, if you will – with a kind of manic weirdness
that is one part homage and two parts subversion.”

I particularly like her definition of what it is to be queer:
“‘I think of queer as being about nonheterosexuality,’ she explains. ‘I think sexuality is really important –
claiming sexual perversity and excitement and desire. I want there to be sexuality involved in homosexuality.
It’s also about being feminist and having an understanding of expanded gender categories.
I think of it as challenging a capitalist model of society and community.’”

Speakin’ of heroes! Paul Soileau (aka. Rebecca Havemeyer, aka. Christeene)
just really continues to blow me away. Wow, wow, wow. This amazing creature
has done so much work, and pulled so hard to make all this happen – by
encouraging, and organizing and speaking so powerfully and eloquently.
I have so much admiration and love for this man! Glory be!

QUEERBOMB AHOY!

There are some really fantastic posts by some of my fellow Austin bloggers
that I highly suggest you read! From Miss Tolly:
It’s Ok To Be Me (Even if I’m a Drag Queen)! – QueerBomb
and from Chris Apollo at Republic of Austin:
Will a Queer Bomb destroy Austin in 2010?

P.S. – If you are unfamiliar with the amazing phenomenon of community access television may I scar you
permanently with this exceptional example? I don’t think Austin can claim this one, but it’s pretty close:

Attention New York! An amazing show is headed your
way, and you absolutely must not miss it. Trust me.
Go see this incredible piece of work, and help spread the word!
The Pomology of Sweetness and Light at Manhattan’s Theater for the New City

“New Orleans’ own “The Black Forest Fancies” are bringing
their latest work in puppet innovation to New York City.
“The Pomology of Sweetness and Light” is a large scale puppet operetta
that involves an interdisciplinary collaboration with the fields of stop-motion
animation and dance. We follow the tale of Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman,
an American folk hero whose wholesome identity is complicated by
the little-known fact of his thwarted engagement to a ten year old girl.
Legend has it Chapman ended the engagement when he saw the girl
flirt with a boy her own age… Our story is told from the child bride’s perspective.
Her understanding of the world and Chapman’s philosophy are expressed
through puppet craft and acrobatics. Our puppets range in size from 4 to 10 ft.
This is a story of exceptional beings, inspired by the journey of the apple on the frontier.
Onto the backdrop of the American Eden, we graft the figures of Dionysus and Snow White,
of St. Lydwina and the Big Bad Wolf. We put these fables into conversation to tell a story
of misfits seeking their place in the new world. Through a juxtaposition of scenes from
our collective folklore, we seek to create newly meaningful hybrids and revive a story of forgotten love.

The Black Forest Fancies
will present
The Pomology of Sweetness and Light
at Manhattan’s Theater for the New City
155 1st Ave between 9th and 10th St.

Thurs March 25th, Fri the 26th, and Sat the 27th at 8pm
Sun the 28th at 3pm

Thurs April 1st, Fri the 2nd, and Sat the 3rd at 8pm
Sun the 4th at 3pm

tickets are $20 – $15 students, seniors and groups of 5+

tickets are available at www.theaterforthenewcity.net
and by phone at:
212-254-1109

this tour is funded in part by a grant from The Jim Henson Foundation
Spread the word! Please forward this to everyone you know!
love always,
The Black Forest Fancies”

Quick, quick – some tasty tidbits for you & you & you!
I’ve been a bit under the weather still, and all I want
to do is sleep and listen to this over and over:

★ Dark Dark Dark – Bright Bright Bright
I saw them play in New Orleans, and they hypnotized
a whole room of us rowdy kids with their beautiful songs.
We all sat in rapt silence and listened, and then for the
last song Nona sang “This Woman’s Work”, one of my
most favorite Kate Bush songs and we all freaked out
and sang along and it was so incredible, my heart exploded.
Get their new album! You can listen to it first, and it will ensnare you!

★ I can’t stop looking at these images from Chile’s catastrophe:
The Big Picture – Earthquake in Chile
After Katrina, I think a lot about how tenuous our situation
is on this planet, and how fragile our homes are. So much
that we take for granted in our day to day can be totally
destroyed literally overnight when the Earth decides to
flex her muscles. What more is to come? I fear the worst.

★ How about some good news? Hollis Hawthorne woke up
from her coma! She’s a good friend of a lot of my friends,
and everyone is super-overjoyed that she’s regained
consciousness after her horrible motorbike wreck in rural
India. Please send good thoughts for her full recovery!
Mer wrote a wonderful article at Coilhouse back when this
all went down, with lots of great pictures of Miss Hollis:
Performer/Cyclist Hollis Hawthorne Needs Our Help

★ Miss Tamera wrote the most wonderful, eloquent article about
personal style, and the vicissitudes of the trendy, and fashion’s
horrible new homogeneity. This is a subject I’ve been thinking
about a lot, and talking about with Tam and other friends, but
she really, really nailed it here. So worth reading, even if
(or especially) you couldn’t give two hoots about fashion.
read it: & they’re all made out of ticky tacky

“In my world, clothing is about plumage & creativity [...]
What I love about clothing is creating places, characters, ideas.
Time travel, the past and the future! I love the idea that fashion can
be feminist, that we don’t have to wear what’s created for us if we
don’t want to! We can take it back, refuse to fit into ideals, use clothing
as a tool to break glass ceilings in the workplace. We can get married
in black, wear metal spikes on our shoes, vote with our dollars by
shopping only vintage! I like the fact that I can be a different person
every day if I want to.”

I couldn’t agree more!

★ Meanwhile, Miss Gala Darling knocked my sock off with this gem
of an article, or more MANIFESTO! I think this would be really good
to print out, post up and read often. Again, such important words
for ladies to absorb. I’m so grateful to my bad-ass friends for
writing and sharing such powerful thoughts and messages.
Also, can I just say how excited I am that Gala will be here
for SXSW in just a matter of what, 14 days? We will dance
and sing and frolic! It’s actually going to be a typhoon of
lovelies, actually! I’ll finally get to meet Anja Verdugo and
Molly Crabapple! Not to mention Chad (Mon Petit Fantome)
and possibly even a Tamera? Fingers crossed!
I think Austin will never be the same after
this horde of fabulous fancies gets done with her!
Read this now, I command ye:
Empty Bellies Do Not Beget Genius

★ A Lucky Bounce
There’s a good article in Offbeat magazine this week about New Orleans
Bounce music. It’s exciting to be helping bring bounce to Austin! I love
seeing all my ladies twerkin’ it! We so much fun at the Bounce Benefit
for Gay Bi Gay Gay last week. Vockah Redu was unreal. So exquisite!

In lieu of a good video that really shows how awesome Vockah’s
stage show is, here’s Sissy Nobby’s latest. Inspiring, y’all!
I’m workin’ on one day having a magic booty that can do things
like what you see here. Practice makes perfect!

Since I’m on a New Orleans roll tonight (every night?)
here’s Sweet Emma + “I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None Of My Jellyroll”

Also, this old newsreel documentary from the 1920′s with photography
and animations illustrating old New Orleans, the Crescent City, at work and at play.
(Many thanks for these videos to Miss Christy Kane!)

Last but not least, here’s a little bedtime story for you,
from Neil Gaiman – Cinnamon.
Goodnight!
(p.s. I love you!)

I was so bummed to miss Poux, especially since it meant not being given
one of the much-coveted commemorative handmade glass medallions,
a grand Poux-doubloon if you will. Lucky stars for me! My dear friend
Forest had kept one warm and close to his heart for me. Good thing
I went out Ash Wednesday, eh? So here are my treasures, which oddly
enough I never cared about collecting until the hurricane blew me west.

Typical Poux antics. I believe this is some sort of trebuchet, no?

Randall and Drew in their amazing ensembles. They make me so happy.

Tanya Solomon (aka Dr. Flummox) is a great clown. Not the bad kind. The good kind. Really!

Liser is the big bad wolf and little red riding hood simultaneously. It happens.

Ratty and Oops were the King and Queen of Poux!
This year they won their crowns again (yes, the
naked knife-fight!) and continue to reign triumphant!

Myrtle von Damitz III, odalisque-ing out with Drew’s giant neon head.

Laron + Kelvin, two of my favorite NOLA/NYC darlings.

Jock is the leader of the 9th Ward Marching Band, a gentleman and a great dancer.

Haley Lou Haden has a stick ‘em tattoo of toast, and I love her.

Hungry for more Lundi Gras Poux?
★ Here’s more photos from Lundi Gras 2009, just for you!
★ Lundi Gras Valentine
★ Lundi Gras (A pictorial essay on the nature of debauchery)
★ Vicissitudes from Cradle
★ Voila les petites creatures musicales qui se cachent dans les fleurs!