✸ 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!

In the third buckwild installment of Azz Everywhere
we are bringing you the dirtiest mouth in the south,
hot lady rapper and New Orleans Bounce diva
The Legendary Ms. Tee! Our DJs Rusty Lazer
DJ Twerk (aka. Chicken Kiev) will be makin’
your booty go all night long. With poppin’
aerial dance performance from Miss Marion Ette
and hostessed by Miss Angeliska!
Bootylicious visual projections from RECSPEC!
The party goes from 10pm – 3am –
$7 at the door – 18 +
Friday, June 25th
at The Independent (ND) 501 Brushy & East 5th
We will also be featuring an Bounce Dance Class
with the lady, the legend – Altercation!
It’s at 9pm and sliding scale of $10-$20
Learn how to twerk like those girls on YouTube!
RSVP at bounceclass@gmail.com

My head exploded in a crystalline shower of laser chrysanthemums.

Val + Al

Dawn + Tootie

Miss Marion Ette doin’ her thing.

…and being sweet with Big Freedia.

Work it for Freedia!

I am surrounded by sweetness + fabulousness!

They are brothers, too – can you believe? So cute!

Alan had to take his boots off eventually, but can we talk about fierceness?

Penny Stark aka. DJ Lovecat

Mike Peen of The Peen Scene, an extremely useful and trusted source
for fun nightcrawling and music out and about in Austin. This guy is tireless,
or so it would seem! He and and his lovely wife Jen always do great coverage
and photos, and make me happy whenever I see them out and about. Go Peen!

Jen Peen!

Want more? Oh, there’s lots!
Check out all the photos from
AZZ EVERYWHERE!

Okay, so even though it’s a little bit late, I want to wish a happy belated
birthday to Stevie Nicks. I’m a latecomer to the enchantments of the Welsh Witch,
as my parents were definitely not into soft rock of any kind. I was raised listening to
old country music like Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Jimmie Rodgers, and The Carter
Family. My parents played traditional old-time folk music and Irish reels, and were
more likely to drag me to a Sacred Harp Shape-Note singing revival than to a concert
where people were wearing feathered roach clips in their hair. My dad plays bagpipes,
banjo and concertina (as well as a dozen other instruments), and has exposed me to
incredible music my whole life. When I was in high-school, all the rich hippie kids would
be wearing their mom’s crochet blouses and listening to all their old Fleetwood Mac and
Led Zeppelin records. I scorned them, scowling in my dog collar and ripped black rags,
listening to Skinny Puppy, Legendary Pink Dots and (oh yes) My Life With The Thrill Kill
Kult. Cokehead faux 70′s bourgeois brats could suck it, as far as I was concerned. I can
remember a few times hearing a snatch of Stevie on the radio, and being oddly captivated
by the catchy hooks and mystical allusions, but then feeling sort of guilty and embarrassed.
I managed to grow up completely innocent of almost an entire era of music featuring permed
performers, but there was something alluring and forbidden about the songs I’d hear still being
played at the dingy Playland roller-rink amid the disco lights and the constant danger of falling over.
I’ve never been able to successfully enjoy roller-skating (gasp! I know.) so maybe that’s why
I focused so hard on the music while waiting for my friends to finish their spins and join me in a heated
game of air hockey (still obsessed!) This might explain how I came to adore ABBA as well. (My thing with
Cher, I promise I’ll get into another time! I know!) I remember an afternoon shortly after I moved
to New Orleans, getting dressed to go into the French Quarter to get coffee. My sister was watching me
lace up my black platform boots and giggling. I was wearing them with a long, tattered cream lace dress
and, a gold fringed shawl. I thought I looked very magical. “What, it is too Stevie?” Uh, yeah – it was.

It looked rad though! I think I changed, but now I wish I hadn’t! I wish I’d rocked my Stevie look without
shame, man. A few years later, I had a spate of loved ones dying in quick succession, and was mired
in some of the darkest times in the Crescent City. All of the sad, bleak music I’d always relied on for years
fell short. I couldn’t listen to Death in June or whatever, because there was no music depressing enough
to resonate with where I was at, and I knew I needed not to feed it. In order to keep going, and keep my
head above water, I found the only solution to be music I had previously scoffed and cackled at.

Fleetwood Mac – Gold Dust Woman – Live in Japan 1977
(Naysayers, behold! I think this video is spectacular — surreal, dark and oh so Biba!)

Oh yes, my darlings. That spring and summer, I listened almost exclusively to the Mac, and to George Michael.
“Father Figure” was guaranteed to make me laugh instead on wanting to lay on the floor weeping, and when it
seems like everyone around you is dying, well – sometimes you just need to listen to some ridiculous shit to make
it through. What’s the word for a sense of nostalgia for a time and place you only barely experienced? I must admit,
out of all my passionate anachronisms, I’m most embarrassed by my weird thing about some of the tackiest elements
of the 1980′s. To be fair, or at least more specific, I get really excited by anachronisms of anachronisms – like 70′s does
Art Deco/Art Nouveau (swoon! My favorite!) or 80′s does the 30′s-40′s (shoulder pads, draping, killer hair, red lips) as
well as 80′s does renaissance (unicorns, flowing shifts, fluffy perms with bangs). The fluffy renaissance redux perm is
my hair fixation of late. Why can’t I have this hair? Flashdance hair! I think it’s so, so pretty and I love seeing curly-headed
girls rock it. So tired of blow-outs and silicon stick-straight mendacity. I’m ready for big hair to come back. Let’s do it, y’all.

NIGHTBIRD by Stevie Nicks and her sister in law Lori, who I think is really gorgeous. Kohl-eyed sorceress, yes!

Obviously my favorite Fleetwood Mac song. The video is absurd, and I love it.

I’d love to go to Night of a Thousand Stevies in New York one day, speaking of absurd — have you ever been?
Imagine a thousand queens, spanking each other with tambourines and twirling, twirling the night away! Too dreamy.
While I’m at it, I’m afraid you might need to go see this video of Xena, Warrior Princess playing Stevie in a SNL skit -
she actually kind of nails it, and it’s so right. We won’t go into any backstage stories or witchcraft denials (lame),
since it’s the lady’s special day (or it was earlier, anyhow). It’s all part of the magic, right? Viva la Belladonna!

“I still look up
I try hard not to look up
That girl was me
Track a ghost through the fog
A charmed hour–a haunted song
Track a ghost through the fog, baby…“

✶ I’m very excited to hear that The Invention of Hugo Cabret
will be made into a film soon (directed by Scorsese, in 3D no less!)
It’s really a little redundant, as the book is such a work of wonder.
If you’ve not come across it yet, I entreat you to do so — promptly!

✶ Also, I’m waiting with baited breath for this:
THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET by David Mitchell
Mitchell is probably my favorite living author. For real.

✶ B. Traven: A Mystery Solved
I’ve been totally absorbed in this fascinating BBC Documentary
about the elusive author, thanks to Rusty Lazer who turned me
on to his books in a late-night kitchen-table mind-meld recently.
I realized after hearing a description of this man, that the author
in Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 had to be based on none other!
I just bought The Savage Detectives today.
My summer reading list is gettin’ real tasty — blankets and margaritas and books, ahoy!

✶ Does anyone here remember this movie playing on television all the time?:
“Just One Of The Guys, the 1985 crossdressing teen comedy that
seamlessly integrated boob shots and gender discrimination critiques”
This movie made a huge impression on me when I was wee! I loved it, a lot.

✶ WILD WOMAN: TALLULAH BANKHEAD
I love Tallulah — hooray for Violetville!

✶ If you’ve ever asked a doctor if you could keep a piece of your body
they’ve recently extracted, or if you’re obsessed with the ballet, (or
my case, both apply) then you absolutely must read this article:
A Ballerina, Inside Out – by Toni Bentley
“A ballet dancer goes onstage on a given night, in a specific theater,
in a specific ballet and executes, in a specific fraction of musical time
a movement that is already past just as it appears. And it takes far more
than 10,000 hours of practice and repetition to make this movement exquisite,
worthy. A dancer’s entire career consists of these moments of non-existence;
they are not even fleeting, they are, somehow, never there at all,
a shadow in someone else’s mind at best.”

So brilliant. Many thanks to Odette O. for sending me the link!
She’s also the one that turned me on to this – (which I must see!):

✶ The Desert of Forbidden Art
“How does art survive in a time of oppression? During the Soviet rule
artists who stay true to their vision are executed, sent to mental hospitals or Gulags.
Their plight inspires young Igor Savitsky. He pretends to buy state-approved art
but instead daringly rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artist’s works and creates
a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan, far from the watchful eyes of the KGB.
Though a penniless artist himself, he cajoles the cash to pay for the art from
the same authorities who are banning it. Savitsky amasses an eclectic mix
of Russian Avant-Garde art. But his greatest discovery is an unknown school
of artists who settle in Uzbekistan after the Russian revolution of 1917,
encountering a unique Islamic culture, as exotic to them as Tahiti was for Gauguin.
They develop a startlingly original style, fusing European
modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions.”
See also: ART; In a Far Desert, a Startling Trove of Art

✶ 36 chilling photos of last Wednesday’s earthquake in Yushu, China (via brainpickings)
So many earthquakes. Volcanos. The end times are feelin’ kinda nigh, eh?

✶ This is one of my very favorite Siouxsie and the Banshees songs:
- Il Est Né le Divin Enfant (It’s a very grainy rip of a televised performance
of a French Christmas carol that was the b-side to 1982′s “Melt!”)
(Thank you, dear Monsieur Scythrop!)

✶ I love, love, love, love this:
Marina Abramović Made Me Cry
Thanks for the link, Tavi and thank you for your work Marina!

✶ New favorite blog: Ephemera Assemblyman

✶ Loving this: Miu Miu in Japan from Mlle. Clever Nettle!

✶ Other new favorite blog: Crappy Taxidermy
It’s my favorite kind! The rattier and weirder, the better.

✶ Okay, and one more thing:
LOST Tarot Cards by Alex Griendling
(These are beautifully designed!
Hi, I collect tarot decks and I’m a dork. Gimme.)

What are you reading/singing/loving right now? Do tell!

This one’s gonna be extra special, because not only is
my sweet brother Rusty Lazer coming all the way from New
Orleans, but he’s also bringing Miss Marion Ette to wow you
with her aerial dance skills, and Miss Altercation to teach you
all her moves! Ever wanted to learn how to twerk it right?
Here’s your chance: as of right now we still have 19 spaces
left for the A Bounce Dance Class with Miss Altercation herself!
It starts at 9pm, you gotta pre-register, and spaces are filling up!
Sliding scale- 10-20 bucks, for one hour. Send an email to:
bounceclass@gmail.com now to register!
Cost of the class includes FREE admission to the PARTY!
At 10pm we open the doors and roll out sets from
DJ Rusty Lazer
Christeene
DJ Chicken Kiev
Plus a very special aerial performance by Miss Marion Ette!
Hostessed by your very own Miss Angeliska!
Presented by the insatiable Glitoris!
Friday, April 16th at The Independent (ND, 501 Studios)
located at East 5th + Brushy.
This is gonna be a hot hot mess, dress appropriately,
or inappropriately if you got it and you wanna flaunt it!
More info and RSVP over on the Facebook.

Until then, here’s some dance party videos to get you in the mood:

Miss Altercation, Rocky and ReRe dancing
with Katey Red at Gay Bi Gay Gay 2010

Ass Everywhere from Nathan Brescia on Vimeo.

Super-fun times in Detroit!

Christeene! So very, very NSFW, okay?

5TH WARD WEEBIE & YA BOY BIG CHOO
Learn all these moves, and you’ll be alright!

♥ I can’t get over these pearblossoms. Giant fluffy snowball trees exploding
all over town. I wish they had a nicer scent – our smells kind of awful, but
aren’t they heart-stoppingly lovely? I hope we’ll have pears this year, the
last few seasons it’s been the birds or passersby on the street who’ve
nabbed them. Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a homegrown Poire Belle Hélène!

♥ Advanced Style
This is such a fantastic fashion blog. Sometimes I think that the only people
who really know how to dress with real joie de vivre are the very young
(Here’s lookin’ at you, Tavi!) or the silver foxes. I know I plan on being the
most outrageously well-dressed granny ever. No sweatsuits for me- not now, or ever!
(Thanks you for this, Mlle. Amelia!)

♥ On that note, I know probably everybody’s seen this already, but
LY is a great style hero of mine, and this peek into her marvelous home
and collections of dollies and toys is just priceless. I want to go there for tea!
Lynn Yaeger on a Lifetime of Collecting

♥ This made me happy: today, we operate on objects from girlwonder
(Thanks for the link, to Mr. Warren Ellis.)

♥ Michael Bay to remake Rosemary’s Baby. Really? What a travesty.
I can’t think of anyone less qualified to do it justice.
I rarely am pleased by remakes of any films, although
I must say that we watched Alexandre Aja’s version of
The Hills Have Eyes, the other night, and were very,
very impressed. It’s seriously grim, but quite well done.

♥ If you’re an aspiring photographer, read this
and become part of the solution, not the problem:
For Photographers, the Image of a Shrinking Path
(Clayton Cubitt, on a recent article in the NYTimes)

♥ Stunning images of sleeping insects festooned in dewdrop diadems
(By an aspiring photographer – I wonder if he was paid for them?)

♥ On The Road With Dark Dark Dark Here’s a great playlist from Marshall
+ Nona + company. We got to see them again during SXSW,
and they were wondrous. They’re on tour, so see them if they
come your way – and get that new album, it’s so sublime.

So, something bad happened this past fall when I was recovering
from surgery. I developed a nasty habit. Not as bad as, say, crack-
but similar. I started watching Lost. Yeah, it’s true. You see, I don’t
have a television (I’ve never owned one, and never intend to) but
now you can watch these things on the internets, and that is very
dangerous indeed. While I was laid up in bed, I wanted to watch
something very absorbing, slightly supernatural and not funny
(because laughing with stitches in your belly is no good) and
somehow we ended up getting totally hooked. Two months later,
we’d made it through five seasons. Horrifying, I know. It’s like I
said: crack cocaine. If you’ve never seen it, then take my advice:
don’t. Not unless you are also laid up and high on darvocet
like I was. That being said, I am relatively unashamed of my
bad habit- especially since it’s very nearly over and done with.
Now we go to the Alamo Drafthouse every other week and watch
it with a bunch of other dorks (some who show up in Dharma
Iniative jumpsuits. Yes, really.) So, if you’re similarly addicted,
you will definitely appreciate the wonderful LOST Underground
Art Show that Mister Ales Kot alerted me to recently.
Great stuff. A few of my favorites are below:

Ben Strawn
“The Number 108″
acrylic on plexiglass, layered

Leontine Greenberg
“Smokey In Disguise”
watercolor, pencil and gouache on paper

Chris Ryniak
“Circle Of Ash”
acrylic on panel

It’s interesting to think about art being inspired
by something as banal as a television show, but
why not? Being a latch-key kid, I was largely baby-sat
by the television (and large stacks of true ghost stories
and books about the paranormal- not great for reading
when you’re eight and at home all alone!) and I remember
being hypnotized by it for hours and hours, and how tired
and sad I would feel afterwards. The commercials always
made me hungry and angry. So I’ve tried to shun it for a long
time. Kind of ironic, considering that my grandfather was a pioneer
in that world (he produced and directed the first televised operas,
as well as the first science fiction television show, Captain Video.)
I was just reading Rachael Gibson’s (Fur Coat, No Knickers)
confession about her obsession with The Tribe. Oddly enough,
I caught a few episodes of The Tribe when my grampa and I
were traveling though Europe. I think maybe we were in Spain?
I remember being totally captivated by this weird show about
raver-goth kids living in a post-apocalyptic shopping mall.
Now, thanks to the magic of the youtubes, I can see what it
was all about! Oh dear. Someone stop me, please.

Related posts:
☛ Fruit + Flower
☛ All The World is Green
☛ Strange Season
☛ Avgvstvs I.

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!)

Me and Darby Rose. I love this one so much.

Colin is the king of my heart.

Now, that’s what I call a mohawk. This girl ain’t messin’ around with no faux-hawks!

Something about this pretty lady reminds me of Natasha Khan. Do you see it?

Miss Vu, the resplendent frittilary.

Francesca, sleek and lovely

La Bella Franziska!

Miss Allyson Garro and her sweet fellow Greg.

Winovino were amazing – when our sound went out, they kept the party
going by playing acoustically until we got it all sorted. Total heroes.

Dominique Vyborny did beautiful aerial dance on the silks!

I love this sad face so much. This is how I feel about the Disko ending!

Big Freedia + Katey Red – photo by Ports Bishop

“Hello from the Dirty South!

It’s Rusty Lazer (Jay to some of you!), and I’m writing a short letter for some big help!

The Bounce Music performers and promoters I work with here in New Orleans
have been invited to a showcase at this year’s South By Southwest Music Conference
in Austin to our great joy and surprise! They are all creators and originators of what we
call Bounce, which has become the music of the streets of this city over a 20 year period
of steady growth. Katey Red, DJ Jubilee, Big Freedia, Partners n’ Crime, Vockah Redu,
Magnolia Shorty and Miss Tee are all going with us and we couldn’t be happier!

For those that don’t know, Bounce Music is merely the latest unique offering from a city
that defines originality, taking its place among the many historical gifts of New Orleans.
It contains elements of everything you’ve ever heard from here before – voodoo chants,
Mardi Gras Indian songs, Jazz, R&B, Soul, Brass Bands – these are its lineage and
Bounce Music will, like its predecessors, define the music of the future of this city
and possibly much more.

All of these artists are at the top of their game, but none are wealthy, and many have
seen the fruits of their labors commercialized by hugely successful artists like Beyonce,
Lil’ Jon and more. They don’t complain, they just continue to develop the soundtrack of
our reconstruction, bring happiness to their fans and toil in virtual poverty. For a majority
here, their music is what makes some of the challenges of post-Katrina life manageable.

Unfortunately, the conference doesn’t pay for any aspect of the event for artists,
so bringing 10 rappers and just as many dancers, baton twirlers, DJ’s and more,
not to mention leaving lucrative local performances for a weekend, is nearly impossible.

We don’t need much to do this right. Hotels and travel expenses are all we’re trying to cover.
We’re asking for donations through an innovative website called Kickstarter which allows us
to provide interesting premiums to accompany your donation, but we don’t receive any money
if we don’t reach our goal of $1500 by March 1st!

You can see our Kickstarter page here, donate to our cause,
and learn more about what we call “Bounce Music” and the people who make it!
Please spread it far and wide, and if you blog please get it up if you can as soon as possible!
We’ve only got 1 month to pull off a lot!

Kickstarter – New Orleans Block Party Music goes to SXSW

Please help us out, and get some cool stuff in return.
I for one am hoping for Katey Red’s voice
on my outgoing message – stay tuned for that!

Feel free to write with any questions to rustylazer@gmail.com

Thanks everyone, and good day,
Rusty Lazer
aka
Jay Pennington”

See also:
GADJO DISKO – BALKAN BOOTY BOUNCE BLOC PARTY!

Sissy Bounce!

(Photograph by @nt!x)
I can’t wait to re-inhabit our tipi-yurt-lavvu-thing!
I’m still hankering for a proper one,
but they’re quite pricey – oh, one day…

(Photograph by Oregon State University Archives)

Okay, just a heads up – this eclipse is pretty gnarly!

(Photograph by Richocam)

“The Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on December 31st, 2009
occurs at 10°15′ Cancer, in conjunction with the Fixed Star Alhena,
a star which is reputed to be favourable for hunting, besieging towns,
and the revenge of princes! It would be wise to avoid travel at this time,
if you can. Known as “the wound in the tendon of Achilles”
it destroys fruits and harvests. Cancer is an emotional sign,
ruled by the Moon, so since neither the Sun nor the Moon
form any promising aspects on this day, expect quite an emotional,
even teary New Year’s Eve. Mercury is retrograde in Capricorn,
and Mars is also retrograde in Leo, so issues and attractions
from the past will demand to be dealt with under this eclipse.
Breakdowns in communication will spark the issue.
Since at the moment of the eclipse, Warrior Mars
(action; passion; violence; accidents) is rising exactly
on the degree and minute of the ascendant,
tightly opposing the Part of Fortune (within 4 minutes of arc),
the chances of a blood-stained celebration are high.”
- Rob Tillett
Um, whoa. Yikes much?
For further reading, I suggest you
check out what Heather Burdette
has to say – it’s a little more calming!

(Photograph by Carlos Lisboa)

Regardless of celestial influence, I truly hope that
everyone has a marvelous turning of the year!
There are so many things I want to accomplish
this year, so much ground I want to cover -
it’s a little overwhelming to contemplate!
I’m starting slowly and quietly, cleaning
and sweeping my house to make it ready for
the approval of the Blanchette, and lighting
candles and making wishes that this year
I can achieve my goals – no more Procrastination
Station, please!

“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings!”

I read this somewhere recently, and it made a big impression on me.
(So much so, that I can’t recall where I read it? Eesh.)
I think that this will be my motto for the year,
in hopes that I will be reminded to take the reins
for myself and stop waiting around for divine
intervention to crown me empress of my life.
Drive your own chariot to the moon.
Now or never!

(Photographer unknown to me!)

“Begin doing what you want to do now.
We are not living in eternity.
We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand -
and melting like a snowflake…”
- Francis Bacon, Sr.

Here’s a little happy/sad number called Days With You
from fine fellows Jason Webley with Sxip Shirey.
Watch out – it is extremely catchy!
Hopefully you can remember the words
and sing it tipsily with your best friends, eh?

More reading material from days of yore:
✶ Lone Grove New Year – 2009
✶ Pink Moons
✶ The New Year – 2008
✶ Lucky Stars and Garters – 2007
✶ La Nouvelle Année – 2006