It's January, it's cold, it's wet, we're still hungover from the holidaze and nothing sounds better than making love to a space heater and watching 90s reruns 24 hours a day... well it's an intervention you lazy fools! So get in loser, we're going partying.
On the way out the door be sure to raid grandmas closet for this month's FRINGE, because honey it's VINTAGE. That means really old dead FUR (FUR FUR FUR), floral dresses, SILVER, some good NAVY coats and garb, MOD, BOHO, COOL, LAME, everything created before the invention of the CAPS LOCK button, bust it out, dust it off, layer it up and wrap it around.
Special Guest DJ: ALMOND BROWN (Sensorium / The Cuff, BUMP)
Resident: NARK (Your mom's house)
Live Performances: LISA DANK URSULA MAJOR
Theme: It's VINTAGE
Where: The EAGLE 314 E. Pike Street
Bone$?: $5
When: SATURDAY 1/21/12 10PM-CLOSE
$2 Jello shots, gogo floozies, cheap drankin', hott new photos provided by Nark Magazine, boys to men, ladies to gals and all the in betweens xx
Good morning, wake up, pour a cup of coffee, turn on your computer and see who's getting shit all over today!
I couldn't help but bring this up for discussion as my entire Facebook feed today was top to bottom filled with putting apparent "douchebag" Andy Meyer on blast for his actions Friday night at the Cha Cha (Click here to see a very long image of all the posts/comments).
Now let me just say first, that this persons actions are totally unacceptable, Victoria has been holding down the fort at the Cha Cha forever and she is amazing, if I was there in person I would have personally had a few words to share with this person... but that raises two points. 1. I am glad the Cha Cha took a stance on this (or did they?.. I wonder who was running their page for that...) because we all know, well... it certainly hasn't been filled with the liveliest of folk lately, however, point number 2. Here we go again also raising the bar yet again on Seattle's infamous passive aggressive culture.
I agree, if a patron is not going to tip AND be a jerk, who would want him anywhere? But is throwing someone into the public pool of furious fingers really the right answer? Someone was an asshole, and called someone that is very dear to Capitol Hill overweight, and that is awful- now the entire Seattle social internet is calling him a, let me sum this up, 'retardo douchebag jerk asshole big eared crazy face ugly' bla bla it goes on. Does he deserve it? Probably. Does it show that we, as the scene that desperately holds on to Capitol Hill and all it's original glorly, are mature? Definitely not.
There is another reason I bring this up, because it seems all too familiar to the great cyber scandal of 2011, the illustrious, totally over the top public affair of Lisa Dank, the 'dog napping crazy bitch'. Obviously if you have ever looked at Nark Magazine you know that Lisa is a close friend, and I am her backup and DJ, so clearly I know what actually happened in this incident. But that doesn't/didn't matter at all, because one person publicly announced that Lisa Dank is a crazy bitch and stole some guys dog (untrue), and then like sheep everyone followed in suit, starting the biggest cyber bullying scandal I had ever seen, and maybe the first really. Nobody cared to find out what actually happened or maybe help the situation, they just slammed away, crazy bitch crazy bitch crazy bitch. In fact, the offended party here was one of the top slammers. I lost a lot of respect for some very important people that day, and honestly, haven't really gained it back.
Now when you are someone like Lisa Dank, this can (and did) work brilliantly in your favor. By no control of your own, bam, you just became famous. You found a dog, you took care of it, you gave it back, now you are even bigger news than police shooting people for whittling wood. For people like Lisa Dank, this is good. Even things like this came about, and they are, hilarious.
Now for some random Texan nobody that it would seem to me that Andy Meyer is, this is going to be really awful, and it could get some people tied up in some nasty law suits for slander. Yes people, even though Facebook helps us hide behind screens, slander still does exist. Once again, I'm not taking sides, but I am opening up the discussion here:
Cyber-bullying: Good? Bad? Effective? Passive? Immature? Resourceful? Pointless? Useful? Does it look good for you or your business to jump on these band wagons?
Isn't not doing the research and confrontations on rumors even WORSE than this? Sometimes, in life, you don't get a tip, and someone calls you fat. It happens to the best of us, and to the worst of us.
Thoughts?
(Once again, check out the whole spread of comments here).
UPDATES: Looks like the Andy Meyer that was pointed out by Victoria Liss on Facebook was the wrong person, sending tons of people, businesses and news sources into a frantic back peddling as they scrambled out their apologies for posting 'his' name, 'his' photo, and probably meeting up with their lawyers to talk about their next step. This is just one of the points I was trying to make about jumping on a bandwagon of this caliber. Whatever happened to research being a part of journalism?
NPR at least pointed out this obvious fact when briefly citing the story- "In Seattle, Victoria Liss was angry when a guy left no tip and wrote that she could stand to lose some weight. But her Facebook rant exposed the wrong guy. It's another lesson about when to pause before hitting send."
Also the two most apparent things that came out of this article to people were-
1. That I didn't regurgitate the same verbatim post going around Facebook so I was clearly on 'Andy's' side even though I openly and honestly expressed how situation that occured was not okay and should not be tolerated and I am glad someone stood up about it, before going into a totally different point. And in the end I had no back peddling to do, I didn't have to stress out and call people and ask them to take down that post or that mention or that photo or any physical tie in with the story, but I did receive quite a few of those calls!
2. Because I mentioned Lisa Dank, in a completely valid way, I was later referred to in press as Lisa Dank's complaining friend, but guess what- my prediction was exactly on point. Now that this story has been mentioned on Huffington Post, NY Times, Good Morning America, NPR and more, the benefiting person is now national news.
Looks like social media justice was served in many different forms here, I can't say I look forward to the next cyber scandal but I certainly hope someone thinks a little more next time. It is interesting to me that in the blink of an eye Facebook can turn into US Weekly. A lot of us hate the 'internet commentary' type but guess what, thanks to Facebook everyone is just a few keys away from being one, think about it.
I'm really looking forward to being a part of Noise For The Needy this year, between this and my Pride party and benefit for Gay city, Hey Tranny It's Tranny coming up, it's really great to be giving back to the community of which I love being a part of.
This year I will be DJ'ing as well as performing with Lisa Dank for NFTN at Chop Suey on June 12th, alongside a fantastic lineup, as follows;
Fresh Espresso Redwood Plan Lisa Dank & Nark Brite Futures (new Natalie Portman's Shaved Head) DJ Nark
Give back to the community by purchasing your tickets now! Get them right Here.
Noise for the Needy w/Lisa Dank Chop Suey, June 12th $10 Advance
Also check out the Noise for the Needy website and calendar as there are a lot of AMAZING shows they have put together, including one show that contains Soft Metals, Ononos, The Tempers, Sports, Spurm, USF, Fly Moon Royalty, DJ Gin & Tonic, DJ Up Above, Floyd Beastie all in one night!? K.i.l.l.e.r.
We're on our third week now of the Dark Tour, flippin' hair and glitter all over the southwest. Today we leave Austin and its madness behind, after turning the Red Fez into a riot, and ending the week being serenaded by my personal idol, Yoko Ono.
Check out a vicarious stop by stop run-through of our trip so far..
Waitin' for a cab in Portland, photo by Endresen Evans
Our first stop was in Portland where we had trannies tearing up the floor at the Ella Street Social Club..
Next up was spending some time in San Francisco, where I spun it out for some grizzlies at Bearracuda, and discogays at Viennetta Discotheque. In the mean time, Lisa had some run-ins with the cops while wheat-pasting herself all around the bay; if you're on the cover of magazines carry them with you, apparently it gets you out of anything (and into everything), much of the pasting and cop run-ins are chronicled on Lisa's Tumblr.
Can't rip us down..
In between promoting for our shows coming up later this month in SF and doing phone interviews with L.A. radio-stream Moheak, we took some time to let our Seattle skin soak up some sun and excercise, and try to scare some children of course.
Before we skipped town I got to see my favorite King and Queen, Joshua J, and momma Juanita More, do it up birthday style for Bootycall at Qbar, and snapped some locals. Road tripping has been crazy so I haven't had a chance to get those photos out yet but very soon!
Then it was time to hit the road to Los Angeles for our gig at Bardot in Hollywood. We arrived the night before and passed out, only to wake up and realize we were staying right on the beach which couldn't have been any better.
Tsunami free in L.A.
The tsunami had everyone in a panic but couldn't let that stop us from touching some sand and sleeping on the shore for a bit, and of course doing another paste.
Then we did our thing at Bardot the next night, it was an interesting change of crowd for us but they really got into it by the end and we had a blast.
Apparently Deadmau5, which we didn't realize until after our show, was playing through the door right behind us, it was a pretty surreal thing to walk in on (you can see a tiny little video Here on the book of my face.)
Afterwards, we slept for two hours, got up and started our insane non-stop 25 hour trek to Austin, Texas from L.A... something I never want to do again, although I'm writing this on the road from Austin to L.A., we at least have some time to stop and rest on this swing. Before leaving L.A., Lisa got this little beauty up on the beach at Playa Del Ray.
We charmed our way through border patrol but unfortunately not out of a speeding ticket, 66 in a 55? really? Our first taste of Texas patrol... the car also nearly melted two miles outside of Austin but we did, in fact, make it.
Ramona the Road Dog
We had just enough time to slap on some face and head straight into downtown Austin and smash up the Red Fez with the Secret Shoppers, check it out (more videos to come).
We spent the rest of the week in Austin putting around, confused by the madness of SXSW, slapping wheat pastes up all around the town and venues, and catching some sunburns, as well as delving into the Austin gay scene and realizing it needs a LOT of help, massive queer SXSW Nark party next year? I think so.
Babydank paste reppin' the typos
Did I mention we spent the whole week camped out at the St. Edwards Catholic University fresman dorms? Although it was probably the most accommodating spot, it was also certainly the most hilarious... nothin' like a couple o' old dudes lurking around campus, watching 18 year olds play sports. Luckily it was spring break so it wasn't too bad, but we were too weird for all those uppity kids, luckily Lisa Dank's brother, who we were staying with, kept up with our antics.
Dorm fridges, BARF I miss my mommy..
SXSW in a nutshell- total shit show. Everything was crazy with so, so, so, so, so many people around, and way too much stuff to do, and overpriced taco trucks. Austin was pretty great but by the main weekend of 'South-by' (a term I never want to hear again) it was a little overwhelming, of course that was ALL redeemed when we got the chance to see Yoko Ono... if you know anything about me you know Yoko is my Lordess Jesus'ess sister savior, I've missed a few opportunities to see her in a person and now it finally came to fruition, and in a small, intimate venue where I got to be just a few feet away, it was a truly inspiring moment for me (check out a super crappy cell-phone video Here.
Lisa did some more pastes... in fact... I think she may have lost it a bit when she started whacking at her mane with a pair of scissors and wheat-pasting her hair in random places around Austin. Gross? Kinda. Amazing? Definitely. We definitely left our mark...
Non-synthetic Dankstache
Now back to the awful drive, on the plus side we get to hit up the Grand Canyon on the way back, desert photoshoot? I'm thinking so.
Downward dog
Come check out Lisa and I's most ridiculous and final shows in San Francisco THIS WEEKEND! Starting off with an explosive, drag-queen go-go'd monster-mess at a BIG TOP, where we'll be doing our thing alongside Rupaul's Drag Race's own Raja, and legendary San Fran queen Heklina, Saturday March 26th at Club 8. Then get your last taste the next night at Rebel for Cocktailgate, Sunday March 27th! I'm so excited for these shows, and we've got some Seattle-ites, Portlanders and even some Sacramento..ians(?) coming in just to see us. I'll be easing out the rest of the week with another dj set at Viennetta Discotheque on Monday at SF Underground, and catching some new photos at Bootycall Wednesdays, and then that's it for the road! That is until we get back for our return show in Seattle, tentatively the 'Dankfest', you won't want to miss what we've been cooking up for that... (4/20 at Nuemos).
