Folks , I'm behind on my postin!' That isn't to say I haven't been doing anything. Especially if getting dressed up is involved. Here are a few pics from this year's Wasteland Weekend.
Folks , I'm behind on my postin!' That isn't to say I haven't been doing anything. Especially if getting dressed up is involved. Here are a few pics from this year's Wasteland Weekend.
Posted at 06:04 PM in Desert Rats, Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
Folks, I’ve gotten behind on my posting, and my adventures. Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do. Now you might have noticed that just about every time you go to some fundraiser, no matter what the organization is, they follow the same dang format: hotel, conference center-style chicken marsala, boring speeches about said cause, lots of self-congratulating from the organizers. TwentyWonder ain’t like that.
Now we went last year and it was pretty terrific. And this year’s line-up was just as good. Instead of boring speeches, they have Mexican-style wrestling. Instead of chicken marsala, they have food trucks. Instead of a hotel, they have the Derby Doll Warehouse and an exhibition rollerderby match. Instead of self-congratulatory introductions they put the focus on the beneficiaries – adults with trisomy 21 aka Down syndrome. And then there are the acrobats. Can’t leave them out.
Shout out to Jim Hodgson, whose son Henry motivated him to start TwentyWonder five years ago. Jim’s now the full-time Director of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles (DSALA), and still chief TwentyWonder wrangler. All proceeds for the event go to the DSALA for programs to support people with Down syndrome who are 18 years and older. There are a lot of programs to support school-aged kids with Down Syndrome, but few to support these folks and their families once they become adults. So the need is definitely there.
“TwentyWonder, a Carnival of the Mind” goes down like a 3-ring circus. The evening starts with roller derby, moves on to lounge acts in the Cool Room (which is also the room with air conditioning; it was a mite warm last night) then a stunning show by Cirque Berzerk, followed up by music and wrestling. In the meantime, there’s a midway in the main hall with lots of little booths and exhibits to inspire thinkin’ about science.
There’s a chair that magnifies your pulse 32,000x and features red flashing lights until you’re having a relaxed rave of one, an entomologist with tarantulas to play with and lots of bug specimens, a couple of UCLA students explaining planetary mass, some presidential reinactors hosting Mad Libs (changed to mad liberties) Willie Wonka hawking benefit chocolates and golden tickets, a couple of bars, Tom Woodruff's batmobile and so much more.
You sure won’t want to miss it in 2015.
Posted at 02:09 PM in Art, Current Affairs, Music, Science, Theater | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: bat mobile, benefit, carnival, Down Syndrome, Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, DSALA, Jim Hodgson, LA Derby Dolls, lounge act, Lucha Va Voom, Trisomy 21, TwentyWonder
Couple months back, Jane went off to see Radmilla Cody give a presentation about Native American identity issues. Radmilla Cody is beautiful, talented and smart. She made headlines a few years back as the first half-Black, half- Diné Miss Navajo Nation in 1997-1998. At the time, and maybe now too, she caused a lot of waves because she didn't look like a typical Miss Navajo. Rest assured, if anything she was overqualified. See, to be Miss Navajo you don't prance around in a bikini and do floral arranging for your talent. The Navajo expect their women to work, not just sit around looking pretty and making bland conversation. So Miss Navajo has to be the best at public speaking in Diné, traditional dress, singing and butchering a sheep. She has to get things done.
At this presentation, Radmilla showed an abridged version of her film, “Hearing Radmilla.” It described her beginnings being raised by her very traditional grandmother, her experience of being bullied at Navajo schools and being called a jinny, which is a derogatory word for a mixed-race Black Navajo. That’s kind of unusual, but not as much as you might think.
Radmilla decided to come up with a new, non-derogatory word that would describe being mixed-race, but in a positive way that would honor both heritages. The word she (and an elder) came up with is Naahilii, which breaks down to:
Naa = those who came across (overcame)
hil – dark and calm
ii – oneness.
Over at the left is Diana Fletcher of the Kiowa tribe. Anyway, I think this positive re-naming is really beautiful, and it’s a concept that should be exported to all tribes so that they have an inclusive word for the many Native folk who belong to more than one race. Now it's not like Radmilla just sits around reminicing about her glory days as Miss Navajo Nation - she's got her movie out, she's working on campaigns to address domestic violence and Native identity issues and she received a Grammy nomination for her album "Shi Keyah: Songs for the People" in the category of best regional roots.
Posted at 10:13 PM in Current Affairs, history, Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tonight I'm headed out to the Pasadena Playhouse to see Aladdin and his Winter Wish.
Posted at 01:46 PM in Music, Theater | Permalink | Comments (0)
Seems like zombies are everywhere these days - even in the mirror this time. As you know from a few posts down, I was in a zombie video for Canadian country-rock singer Tim Hicks a few weeks back. Well, it's all cut together and ready for the public now and it turned out to be a lot of goofy fun.
In other zombie-related news, we watched Warm Bodies the other night, and I gotta say it's one of the better flicks I've seen in a while. It's very loosely based on Romeo and Juliet - Rrrrr and Julie in this case, a zombie boy trying to connect with a human girl in a post-apocalyptic not-too-distant future.
In my own apocalyptic not-too-distant future, I volunteered to be by friend Suzanna's guinea pig for the make-up artist class she'd teaching next week and guess what? The theme is "zombie." Y'all will be seeing more pictures of me undead than alive.
Down there, I'm in the straw hat behind Tim's right shoulder a little left of center.
Posted at 05:51 PM in Music, Paranormal, Raven Jake Dawes | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: country, Hell Raisin' Good Time, music, Raven Jake, Tim Hicks, zombie
Last weekend, we were lucky enough to be the invited guests of Susan McLeod and her husband Jerry Smith to Aloha Hula Ho'ike 2013 at the Orpheum Theater downtown. The Orpheum has had a major makeover and looks great, by the way. The Ho'ike showcases the work of the Aloha Hula Dance Studio in Granada Hills where Susan has been taking lessons over the past few years. What an amazing show - 300 dancers on the stage and around 2,000 people in the audience. Three hours of Polynesian dance. All the girls did a terrific job - even the little teenies. I was pleased that a lot of boys are getting into dance - dance class was one of my favorite things as a youngster, and boy did I take some heat for it. Good to see things are changing. Of course, the best offence is an awesome Haka - just ask the New Zealand All-Blacks.
The San Dimas Ho'olaule'a is comin' up on June 8-9 and it goes to support the San Dimas Canyon Nature Center
Posted at 12:23 PM in Belly Dance, Current Affairs, Music, Raven Jake Dawes, wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Aloha Hula Dance Studio, dance, hula, Polynesian, The San Dimas Ho'olaule'a
Now folks, I'm an old-fashioned kinds guy, so when I think about zombies, I'm liable to be thinkin' of old-school zombies. The ones that are the thralls of some voodoo witch doctor in a Caribbean paradise. These new-fangled animated corpses and the quick-moving vampire-zombie hybrids are alright, I guess, but it just ain't the same thing.
But none o' that prevented me from zombie-ing it up for a music video yesterday. The artist is Tim Hicks and the song is, I believe, Hell Raisin' Good Time. And me and the other zombies had exactly that. Wishing every success to Tim as well - he and the whole crew were a pleasure to work with.
Posted at 01:23 AM in Current Affairs, Music, Paranormal, Raven Jake Dawes, Video Projects | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: canada, corpse, country, Hell Raisin Good Time, Jeryd Pojawa, make up, music, Raven Jake, rock, tim hicks, video, voodoo, zombie
Folks, I'm almost ashamed to say that I ain't heard of the California Institute of Abnormal Arts until last night, when Jane, Sigrid and Greg "forced" me into goin' out for dinner and a show. An old acquaintance of ours, Zamora the Torture King, was making a rare L.A. appearance. That's him over at the right. Eatin' fire. He also swallows lightbulbs, walks on broken glass, lies on a bed of swords while having a cinder block smashed on his chest; all of those old sideshow acts - he's done it.
Joining Zamora was one of his co-stars from Knott's Scary Farm, Dr. Odd. Mike Odd is also the lead vocalist of Rosemary's Billygoat. He's been studyin' up on the snake oil, though, and has apparently invented some sort of tonic. Or maybe it's an elixir. Anyway, if it don't cure you, it'll surely kill you. Either way, problem solved. Dr Odd's electric chair short circuted during one of his therapy sessions (below) but he seemed just fine. Probably on account o' all that "medicine."
Now the California Institute of Abnormal Arts, [CIA] which is nestled among the head shops and auto repair places in North Hollywood, is the brain child of one Carl Crew. Carl, much like myself, likes his entertainment with a
sideshow twist, and that's why he's known as "The Barnum of Burbank Boulevard." His institute has the look of a Wunderkammer, or an old-time museum, and the performance space is kind of a circus tent / burlesque stage / speakeasy with broad strokes of pirate-clown set dressing.
Going through the gate (Carl handles the tickets himself) he manages to personally meet and greet each person coming through the line. Unfortunately, his hand stamping device is a little old fashioned and it gives you a hell of an electrical shock and kicks up quite a racket. Maybe he'll just get an ink stamp some day, but I wasn't going to pay another $12 for in/out privileges.
From there, you start through a creepy maze of semi-permanaet shrines, sitting areas, tiki bars and suchnot. A skinny cat popped out to meet up, and I got a fondness for the sort of casual atmosphere that encourages curious critters to put in an appearance.
Anyhow, it was a great venue, a fun show and a terrific night out. It's kinda hard to tell, but over at the left, I'm hanging out with a Feejee Mermaid. Down below, I'm hangin' out with Mike Odd. Discerning readers will immediately be able to tell the difference.
Posted at 05:57 PM in Art, Current Affairs, Music, Paranormal, Raven Jake Dawes | Permalink | Comments (0)
Y'all know I'm a sucker for a street piano. Turns out the one in Joshua Tree really has some history behind it.
Poor thing is as flat as can be - could really use a tuning. Now the public pianos I'm familiar with are mostly the ones in LA left from last year's Play Me I'm Yours project so I had to turn to Wikipedia to get schooled about this one:
The Public Piano Project in Joshua Tree California began as a public grand piano Valentine Gift to the community in 1995 as the Self Serve Serenade by artist Piano Bob (aka Bob Fenger). In 2002 Piano Bob began a donated piano consolidation project building a weather proof outdoor piano from the parts of 3 pianos and installed April 2004 in front of Joshua Tree Health Foods. It was enjoyed by thousands of Joshua Tree National Park Visitors and locals for nearly 2 years and was reinstalled 20 April 2012 at the Coyote Corner Gift Shop in Joshua Tree as the first Public Prepared Piano. The piano is reminiscent of a Gamelan Orchestra prepared with everyday items such as coins, screws, paper mutes, wedged into the strings in a typical John Cage manner(inventor of the prepared piano in the 1940s also see Bob Fenger's Acoustisizer at Prepared piano 2.10). The Public Prepared Piano is the third phase of the Public Piano Project dedication to unknown closet pianists, art in public places, and instant drum circle fun around a keyboard. Through regular tuning and maintenance of the public pianos another opportunity presented itself for the public to observe, learn and interact with the total Public Piano Project experience. Questions like: how long does it stay in tune outside? The short answer: the colder the better the more in tune. The fact that Joshua Tree is in the High Desert above Palm Springs with many 100 degree plus days in the summer gave numerous opportunities for tuning, sharing and exchanging ideas. The artist's stated intention: 'The Public Piano Project creates momentary beauty thoughts and ideas that resonate out across fields, parking lots and sidewalks. It invites others to play along and gives way to song and laughter, accidental bonding and new friends; even possibly an ephemeral center of insight and change'. On 21 December 2012 Piano Bob launched his fourth phase of the Public Piano Project with the Prepared and Unprepared dueling pianos for peace at the Joshua Tree Hospice. Public Piano Locations Public Piano Tour Pictures 2007.
Posted at 03:23 PM in Art, Current Affairs, Desert Rats, Morongo Basin Historical Society, Music, Piano, Raven Jake Dawes | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Coyote Corner, Joshua Tree, live, music, piano, Play Me I'm Yours, public, Public Piano Project, Raven Jake, street, upright
Why just the other day I was out in the desert, gettin' some gas and a hot dog and this beautiful woman was screaming "I LOVE YOUR SHIRT!" out her car window at me. That ain't so unusual. I've got a lot of nice shirts. What was unusual, though, was that I was wearing my LA Derby Dolls shirt and the screaming woman was Vodka Toxic of the University Brawlers. I chanced to see her play in a winning bout against the Fight Crew a few months back. This time around, she was on her way to Coachella and I was off to Parts Unknown. Just shows you ought to dress it up a little, 'cause you never know who you're going to meet.
Posted at 02:35 PM in Desert Rats, Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Coachella, LA Derby Dolls, music, Raven Jake, roller derby, skating, University Brawlers, Vodka Toxic
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