Tuesday, September 06, 2016

Unhuebsch


So glad I got to spend a little more quality time with a dear friend and colleague, the great Alice Bag of the legendary early LA punk originators The Bags. Besides being lead singer and founder of the Bags, Alice was the high holy priestess of early goth outfit Castration Squad, new wave hooker trio Cambridge Apostles, Chicana folksters Las Tres and my co-conspirator of Cholita the Female Menudo and The Afro Sisters. I could rally off a long list of other Bag accomplishments and music projects as she is quite prolific. I was just so appreciative that she came back through Berlin after a holiday in the right wing Republic of Hungary with her husband Jailbait Velasquez. Miss Alice was going to spend a few more days in the German capital with me, but she had to cut short her trip as her father-in-law was in critical condition back in the States. We were able to enjoy a spirited evening together at the Prachtwerk in NeuKolln during the Neukolln Art and Music Festival seeing Baby Diaper of the Hidden Cameras Joel Gibb perform a solo semi acoustic set of his new country flavoured material. The tight assed,muscular Canuck was donning a Nudie inspired goldenen suit just to add a bit more GeorgeJonesianess to the proceedings which the packed house of devotees appreciated. Thankx Diaper for putting us on your pest list.
Sunday Sept 4th was the second installment of Rising Stars, Falling Stars – Sweet 16 millimeter at silent green Kulturquartier in Wedding.
The sudden summer downpour didn't dampen anyone's spirits in the domed Cupola to watch the rare screening of the 1976 Martha Coolidge film Not a Pretty Picture. Picture combines fictive and docudrama mashings to tell the story of Martha Coolidge's date rape at age16 in boarding school. The young actress playing Martha at 16 was also date raped in a similar fashion while in high school, and her boyfriend plays the rapist which adds another dimension to the film. One of Miss Coolidge's friends from boarding school plays herself even though its obvious she is a grown woman, so there is yet another layer after layer in a film that is still timely as we continue to live in what I consider a rape culture. The discussions after the screening were quite lively if not a bit somber in mood. Joining Arsenal Empress Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Jewish Muzlim Daniel Hendrickson and Arsenal's sensitive projectionist Olaf were Bettina & Jorg, Afrah Bayan of silent green, Anna Muelter the delightful dance curator of The Sophiensaler, recently back from Iran, Lovesexy Hannah Hurtzig of Mobile Academy where I will be performing in October at the Kampnagel,Hamburg, “It” girl Nanna Heidenreich and gal pal, Brazilian film couple Melissa Dullius and Gustavo Jahn,artist Maggie Schneider, my top student from Malmo Art Akademy Maria Norrman,Lea Schneidermann and girlfriend Arnita Jaunsubrena who were my talented students at Justus Liebig Universitaet Giessen back in 2014 Summer Framing the Freakazoid-Doing-By-Doing Seminar, Lisa Teasley's charming German fiance Daniel Dermitzel,scholar Joanna Schaefer, Facebook executive David Marcus scoping out the Berlin scene for god knows what nefarious purpose, the enchanting Ricke Merighi of Queer Lisboa and girlfriend Vera with posse, film scholar Marcuse Siegelstein, who writes the best CHEAP missives to the mailing list, fearless leader of CHEAP and RSFS fervent supporter Susanne Sachsse and a plethora of her dearest friends and acquaintances including the brilliant theatre director/set and costume designer Ida Mueller, Michael Duté, the König von Wilmersdorf, who is a fascinating painter,his boyfriend Robert (I think that's his name), who's the son of a famous photographer, Little Marc, visiting from San Francisco,Christoph,the Magnificent German historian and mathematician,James from Mendocino County wine country, who used to teach Sociology and Trans Theory at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and was a go-go dancer at the old Christian Farrow/April LaRue nitesport Bitter End in Hollywood.
I also remember Boy James as a regular at such notorious 1980s underground haunts as Fake Club, Plastic Passion, Dirt Box, Rhythm Lounge, Nairobi Room and Power Tools.
James even remembered every detail of SPEW 2-The Homographic Convergence at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions where he saw an early Cholita! Performance.
If that isn't enough I even shrimped Boy James' big feet at my Bay Area oneoff Natural Born Shrimpers(subtitle: Aunt Jemima Lite and HotSauce) in the early 90s with Joan Jett Blakkk.
Also scene & herd: everyone's fav lesbiana Paula, an old friend of Pia Thilman from the Drag Kingz of Berlin days, beautiful guardian of the gate Richard Gabriel, handsome tall Afro Brazilian/Brit actor Alfred Enoch(How To Get Away With Murder) with his fellow UK musical bubble butt beau Jake Bugg, and Manuel Schubert aka Vicki Baum of taz, die tageszeitung whose pod cast love it or hate it you can listen to and share here: