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Tag: Music

Texas Observer: Fuck You, Greg Abbott! (The Musical)

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and The Texas Observer

Some theater experiences are dignified and serious, exploring the depths of human emotion with gravitas and solemnity. On the other hand, there’s “Young Greg Abbott: A FuQusical.”

“This ain’t a subtle show, just thought you should know,” sang the band leader, King Amy Blackard, at the beginning of “Young Greg Abbott,” a satirical show which saw its first two full performances on October 18 in Austin. “Please save your thoughts and prayers. It’s just Sondheim with swears.”

At this “FuQusical,” the audience was encouraged to sing along, shout, and curse at the cast—especially at the actor, Brently Heilbron, playing the youthful version of our now third-term governor. Heilbron also wrote the script and music. Many middle fingers flew during the performance I attended, among the packed crowd at the downtown State Theatre.

Palestine Song at Austin City Hall (Oct 5 2024)

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and Video

The song performed before yesterday’s march at Austin City Hall was a lovely moment of international solidarity with the people of Palestine. I hope they could hear us.

This video represents me experimenting with CapCut to create more short videos in the style of TikTok posts or Instagram reels. As you can see, I’m still learning, but I’m also trying to get better at sharing my imperfect projects and works-in-progress more often too.

GLAAD: Drag Show Celebrates LGBTQ Seniors

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

We’ll always be bosom buddies, friends, sisters and pals. We’ll always be bosom buddies; if life should reject you, there’s me to protect you. If I say that your tongue is vicious, if I call you uncouth, it’s simply that who else but a bosom buddy will sit down and tell you the truth …

At first, you might think that just another drag show is taking place on a Sunday afternoon, in the small leather bar tucked away unobtrusively in the corner of a strip mall at the northern edge of Austin, Texas. It takes a lot to stand out in a city that’s in love with drag, where you can catch a different drag show, packed with talented young queens and kings, every day of the week. 

But there’s something different about the Absolutely Fabulous Sunday Brunch at the Austin Eagle, beyond just the retro choice to open the show with drag queens Minnie Bar and Martini DeVille dancing and lip-syncing to “Bosom Buddies,” from the 1956 Broadway hit Mame. The difference is that every queen that Sunday is a drag performer over 50.

Getting Vicious With Dallas Punk Rockers

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

In Vicious Velma’s world, concerts are primal and raw, rich with immediacy and spattered with bodily fluids.

Photographer Vera “Velma” Hernandez got her start shooting concert  photography in 2014 at a Tulsa punk festival called “Fuck You We Roll  OK.”

She recalled, “I took some photojournalism in high school, never  really did anything after that.” She’d been working at a mall  photography kiosk, but didn’t even have a camera of her own. Hernandez  (Instagram: @vicious_velma)  had to borrow one from her friend Jenni, who’d invited her to the show.  It was at that weekend festival where she realized she’d found her  calling: “I just kept it going after that.”

4Chan’s War On Alternative & LGBTQIA Culture

Posted in Austin, Burning Man, Journalism, and MintPress News

After Donald Trump’s election, 4chan declared war on queer people and the American counterculture.

4chan is a lawless, unmoderated and completely anonymous online forum that frequently serves as a hub of internet troll culture. 4chan helped to spawn the Anonymous movement when some of 4chan’s users launched an organized trolling campaign against the Church of Scientology in 2008. That movement later became known for its hacktivism against the wealthy and powerful during the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in fall of 2011.

In recent years, however, the board, especially a subsection called /pol/ have come to be dominated by a hyper-conservative, white nationalist movement. The users believe, with an almost religious fervor, that their “meme magic” helped to elect Trump. More sober analysts are worried that 4chan and Reddit are helping to radicalize a generation by turning disaffected young white men into dangerous neo-Nazis.

Since November 8, 4chan has been linked to two seemingly disparate, but ultimately interconnected stories.

#NoDAPL Spills Over: Musicians Boycott Dakota Access Pipeline CEO’s Record Label & Festival

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

When it comes to the Dakota Access pipeline, musicians want to stop the music.

Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the corporation building the controversial $3.8 billion pipeline, also owns Music Road Records, a small record label which presents the annual Cherokee Creek Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

The Indigo Girls announced in September that they would not be playing at the next festival, slated for May 2017.

Reaffirming their support for “Standing Rock, the Standing Rock Sioux, their friends and allies in protecting their sacred land and water by stopping the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and all pipelines that carry dirty oil and threaten massive ecosystems,” the folk rock duo also encouraged other musicians to cancel their plans to perform at the festival.