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Just testing this out. I kind of love technology.

The Last Two Nights…

(to the left: Black Santa. More on him later…)

have been super fun and relaxing.

I have been having a little bit of a rest break from all of the performing (save the trip to ATL last weekend) and it was nice the last two nights to not be fretting about costumes or acts or choreography. Don’t get me wrong, I am still working on stuff (I ordered ten tons of fringe and feathers and sequins from Lynch’s the other day) but it was great to catch up with my bestie E and her boyfriend Aunty Onion and then have a nice fun evening with Special Lady T.

On Thursday, I went to E’s and she made one of her usual delicious vegan meals. I’m always worried that I won’t feel full when she’s whipping up one of her amazing veggie and whole grains extravaganzas (did you know that quinoa is a complete protein?), but it’s always delicious and filling and the best ever. We hung out and she cooked and then we ate. Aunty came home from work, their halftime-evil cat Ati did not claw my feet, and then we watched Lars and the Real Girl.

I HIGHLY recommend that movie. It was touching, it had a great narrative flow and it was beautifully acted. I really enjoyed it–it was one of those moments where you enter someone else’s world and really see stuff from their perspective. And lose touch with your own self for a while.

Then last night, I came home early and me and T went to the Peter Jones Gallery, which is sort of disbanding. It’s sad, because it was the place where I went that had the vintage carnival art show with the carnival-ride skirts-up thing and where I first performed with Beast Women. I wish that they had been able to maintain the space, but these kinds of things always come to an end in gentrifying neighborhoods. (They have been there since the 80’s). Anyway, there was a huge sale and we purchased an item that is sure to always remind us of Peter Jones Gallery–a 4′ light-up Santa that looks white when he’s not lit up, but turns african american when the light’s on. Amazing. T and I both justified it by saying that we’ll get “lots of use out of it during my shows and when we have parties.” (And we also agreed that Black Santa’s size means that we need a bigger place.)

Then we went out for Cuban food at Cafe 28 (not amazing, but definitely expensive) and came home to watch Zack and Miri Make a Porno. This movie was, somewhat to my surprise and much to T’s, hilarious. (Best line was the title of a porn that someone else was in: “You Better Shut Your Mouth or I’m Gonna F**k It”. We laughed really hard about that. Twice.)

Fun night. Good times. No performances or prep. (Which reminds me, I better get to it. I need to choreograph for Girlie-Q’s Pride Show, our annual Chicago queer prom!)

xox,
Ms. Bea Haven

Auditions!

We’re holding AUDITIONS!

Here are the details…

Are you a trapeze artist with a passion for politics? Do you train gay ferrets to do circus tricks? Are you a feminist magician with some tricks up your sleeve?

Girlie-Q Productions, Chicago’s first and only queer burlesque troupe is holding auditions on Sunday, June 7 and Tuesday, June 9 from 1 – 3 pm for burlesque and variety acts of all stripes for a new run of its most beloved classic vaudeville-inspired burlesque variety show, the Girlie-Q Variety Hour.

The show is slated to run as the headlining show of the Naked July Festival Fridays and Saturdays at midnight at the National Pastime Theater. This is a paid gig.

Interested performers should contact producer Ms. Bea Haven msbeahavenburlesque@gmail.com) or director Shifra Werch (shifrawerch@yahoo.com) to reserve a time. Auditions will consist of 15 minutes to show us what you’ve got–the more queer, the more sexy and perplexing, the better.

This is not an open audition, you must have a timeslot.

Mini Update & Some Videos

Yesterday, I bought like 42 yards of fringe in preparation for pride. I’m pretty excited–I should have it by Monday. I’m psyched to get going on our group act (Six girl shimmy/strip to “Do You Wanna Touch?”) and to make my clamshell (giant rolling clamshell coming by July…). I’m going to do an oyster girl act for our Pride Show.

Just some videos today. Pinup makeup advice–she does a pretty good job and a pinup hair tutorial.

Original Ideas?

There are none.

To the left is a photo of me executing what I thought was a very original idea, an act where I pour booze from my bra (it’s hidden in there) into a martini shaker and shake up a martini. I was heartbroken to realize I was not the first to think that up. My lovely queer burlesque friends each cited an example of someone they knew or had seen somewhere doing something the same as that.

In art, I learned in undergrad, there is nothing original. Even things that one thinks are highly completely new ideas are not. And the few that seem like they are? Well, those are pretty rare. And probably are not new. The mythos of originality runs deep. I just googled “originality in art” and there are all sorts of quotes from various famous artists and writers talking about how originality is the goal.

It’s pretty hard when you have an idea and think that it’s brilliant and has come only from you to imagine that someone else could have thought it up. I think as human beings, we’re so ego-driven that we want to think that we are each a precious diamond. Even I think that–some of the reason why I did someone else’s act last year (yes, on purpose. Yes, to be an asshole.) was because there had been a few incidents of She Who Must Not Be Named and her ladies doing songs and acts that were so similar to songs and acts that I had done–and emailed her about a few years back–that I got really angry and ripped off one of her famous acts on purpose.

I’m not saying it was mature or even advisable.

Sidenotes: She nearly cut me with her eyes when she came backstage–at a show that was not hers. Talk about entitlement–and had an extremely drunken diva fit. Oh, and then her posse came over to me after the show (the dickhead husband of another performer who I actually find to be lovely. Her husband? Another story…) and told me I was “not classy.”
But back to the originality story. Yes, I did that on purpose. Yes, it was not what the burlesque world thinks is “right” (unless you’re already famous and doing an “homage” on a national stage). But really? Do I not get credit for figuring out the act? And the rehearsals it took and the costuming I made? (This was a particularly complicated technical problem…) Does that not make it mine on some level? And I have heard that this particular act was already being done elsewhere, just not by anyone famous. Why does one person have the right to claim that over other people and call it hers?

And do I deny the other performers who had the same idea as me the right to have their moment with the same idea?

All interesting questions to ponder in the world on burlesque. As far as that one act goes, I haven’t done it again–SWMNBN scared me enough when she came storming backstage that I haven’t. But that does not mean that I might not in the future.