Week of January 16, Because I'm Worth It (hair swoosh)

Dear Reader,
Below, please find a list of cool shit.


1) I'm Singing Vocals For a Band
Here is a rehearsal demo of me singing with Freak Radar at Smash Studios. A song called Hypocrite written by our guitarist, Kuch, and his fiance. Check out the video by clicking on this here hyperlink. Or you can click on the below video, but it seems to be taking a little time to download. Either way is cool with me.

2) Paris is Burning

The second I started watching this documentary, I was hooked. Shot in the mid-to late 80s in New York City, it depicts the Black and Latino Gay and Transgender "Ball" sub-culture. These "balls" are elaborate competitions during which participants "walk" to a specific theme, not unlike a fashion catwalk. Their themes cover a huge range: school girl, military, successful white business executive etc etc. I kid you not. And the winner is the walker who most realistically embodies the character. Being gay at that time was hard enough, but being gay in communities with very macho cultures was that much tougher. So the Balls provide an outlet and a family for these people, often runaways, often in their teens, who are rejected from their own families and communities. Issues of gender identity are complex, fascinating and a little heartbreaking. Remember Madonna's Vogue? This is where Voguing started.

3) PBS American Experience: Billy the Kid
If you've been going by Billy Joel's song "The Ballad of Billy the Kid," as I have, to get all your info about the legend, then we are all sadly mistaken.

Billy Joel: From a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia rode a boy with a 6 gun in his hand...
American Experience: WRONG. Billy the kid, real name Henry McCarty,
was probably born in New York City.


Billy Joel: Well he never had a sweetheart...
American Experience: WRONG. He was in love with a 16 year old Mexican girl.
In fact, sticking around for her is probably what caused his downfall.


Billy Joel: Well he robbed his way from Utah to Oklahoma...
American Experience: WRONG. He pretty much stuck around New Mexico and robbed only when he had to and on principle.


Billy Joel: And the cowboys and their kin like the sea came pourin' in to watch
the hangin' of Billy the Kid.
American Experience: WRONG. That's not how he died, dudes.


Ah, well. Billy Joel, we still love you... and your historically inaccurate song.


4) My Apartment

I think my apartment is really cool, don't you?


I'm very lucky.


But also quite proud.


Because it's kind of my life's work.