Lesbian Rock n Roll Meets the Arts!!

Annie Parkhurst's Cut&Paste Rock&Roll

Cut&Paste Rock&Roll is a celebration of music and art supporting queer culture and creativity within LGBTQIA community within Southern California. Currently this is a grassroots DIY organization however we are working on obtaining an official 501(c)(3) status for The AMP Organization which eventually will be responsible for CPRR and other queer events. The AMP Organization: Art, Music and Philanthropy, was formed in 2010 and will focus on supporting, promoting and empowering the talented people within the LGBTQQIA community. www.amporg.org

The 2nd annual Cut&Paste Rock&Roll was a huge success. We met our fundraising goals for the CPRR Queer Youth Scholarship and we had our biggest turn out yet. Thanks to everyone who donated their talents, time and dedication to making this event and idea come to life. Check out the Flikr stream on the Feb 5th show, hilarious stuff!

I have some exciting news to share with you all!



First, I would like to proudly announce that Sylvia and I are moving forward with the nonprofit 501(c)(3) status for The AMP Organization that will be responsible for Cut&Paste Rock&Roll and other events like it. We will be putting together a board of directors soon and applying for a few grants to help us get on the ground running. I welcome your ideas, suggestion and interest if you'd like to somehow get involved. The AMP will continue the quest of CPRR; Promoting LGBTQQIA creativity, culture & community. We plan on hosting more events in different areas of interest like film and dance, along with workshops, meetups and volunteering opportunities.

Secondly, I have received a great deal of feedback suggesting that CPRR be a more frequent event and not just an annual thing. In hopes of raising money for the startup costs/legal fees for The AMP Organization, CPRR #3 will go down on August 20th 2010. We'll be doing the show from the same venue however I've worked out a plan to host the vendors/artists out in front of the club and clearing out the tables inside giving everyone more room inside along with giving the vendor tables the elbow room they deserve. Below are a couple of items that I could really use your help and input on regarding the upcoming CPRR #3. Let me know if you have any ideas you'd like to share.

#1) Booking bands and artists. Particularly queer ones, however allies are a big focus of mine so I'm open. I want to keep it fresh each year and no re-book people/performers that have played before. If you have any ideas on local artists, bands, performers that you think would want to play, send me their info. See the performer tab on the site for details: http://www.cutandpasterockandroll.com/PERFORMERS.html

#2) Sponsors. If you know of any business/organizations that you think would want to sponsor this event send me contact/links if you have them. There are several levels of sponsorship, and discounts for non-profit like minded organizations. At the bottom of the page here there are more details on what sponsors might be looking for: http://www.cutandpasterockandroll.com/CONTACT.html

#3) Queer Survival Kit goodies. Last year Condom Revolution, Blackheart Records, Queer Control Records, Daisy Rock Guitars, Teen Line, The Trevor Project and several local bands donated goodies to the gift bags. If you know of any businesses, organizations or nonprofits that fall in line with our rockNroll theme and want to support this queer event, send me your suggestions and contacts!

Also, if you have any suggestions or ideas in general, send them over, I'm all ears.
Lets make magic!

High five,
Annie


Annie Parkhurst
Cut&Paste Rock&Roll
5318 E 2nd Street #186
Long Beach, CA 90803
www.cutandpasterockandroll.com
www.twitter.com/cutandpasteRnR

A Celebration of Queer Music, Art and Community since 2008

Butchlalis de Panochtitlan Dissect Gender Identity in 1980s East L.A. Barber

What was it like for you when you first saw two women kissing? Do you stay in the place where you grew up even if being out is dangerous there? Can you move past discrimination, or will memories of it haunt you? And how much of your butchness is in your haircut?

The Butchlalis de Panochtitlan—Raquel Gutierrez, Mari Garcia, and Claudia Rodriguez--explore these questions and many more in their stage show The Barber of East L.A. I saw a staged reading of the show directed by the legendary Luis Alfaro last night at Cal-State L.A. as part of the larger Joto Caucus supported by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies.

This witty trio produces consistently capitvating work, their most recent feat no exception. The performers use humor, personal homages, historical anchors, and their monumental moral compasses to challenge and skewer traditional notions of gender conformity. The Butchlalis are uniquely clever in their treatments of somber and complex subjects, rendering deeply thoughtful statements into a provokingly sensuous and unfailingly entertaining medium.

The show’s story revolves around Chonch (played by Gutierrez), a butch lesbian in 1980s East L.A. returning home from barbers’ school to the hostile climate she left behind. Chonch reconnects with the ghosts of her past, some expected and others a surprise, all the while processing loss, harassment, and her own stubborn perseverance. Another protagonist of the show, young Betty (played by Rodriguez), must confront her own identity as bicurious latina punk from a broken home in an area increasingly inhabited by skinheads and cock-rock. The two characters mediate between the extremes of return and escape, love and anger, past and future.

Other notable characters include Martinez the shithead male cop (played by the inimitable Garcia), Betty’s best friend young gay boy Julian (Gutierrez), recurring Butchlali superstar Juana Chingas (Rodriguez), and the ethereal Isabel (Garcia). The three Butchlalis are assisted by a plethora of wigs that also serve as scenery when not in use.

I learned of the Butchlalis at their last show, Dickwhipped!, for which I got tickets on a whim last April at the Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica and could not believe my good fortune. That show was composed of a series of vignettes, most notable in my mind a video about anal submission play and a sketch about the oldest living butch lesbian in East L.A. about to die. I had a friend with me, and we both were starstruck--and super-turned on. In full disclosure I admit I have major problems deciding which Butchlali is the hottest, even though my companion and I debated it for the rest of that evening, and even though I have given it much thought since then.

The Butchlalis will hold their next performance of The Barber of East L.A. November 22, 2008 at MacGowan Hall (MacGowan 1330) at UCLA as part of the Actions of Transfer: Women's Performance in the Americas event presented by The UCLA Center for Performance Studies. The video I am including below shows a staged reading--much like what I saw last night--but I understand the show next month at UCLA will be off-book. I urge you to join me in supporting these radically awesome butch artists; I can guarantee you will enjoy them.

Also, Butchlalis member Raquel Gutierrez performs tonight in her first solo performance piece at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. Click here for further information.

IDKEX Diary: September 10 Miz Ginger Jones

As part of IDKE X, the International Drag King Community Extravaganza pre-event festivities, many of the performers and drag troupes have agreed to share their thoughts and stories about the upcoming event. Our 4th journal entry comes Miz Ginger Jones.

What did I get myself into?

This phrase has gone through my head more than once since embarking on this train ride through drag history and future. Had I known what my life would be like for the months of September and October 2008, perhaps I would have declined getting so involved with IDKE.X. But, I would have missed out on an amazing opportunity to be involved with a historical event in my town, in my community, and the idea of that is worse than the headaches and late nights.

But perhaps I am just a masochist.


Perhaps I am just a nerd who cannot help but get excited when reading abstracts and proposals which use the words “subversive,” “reify,” “deconstruction,” “genderqueer,” “feminism,” and “queer theory.”

I think, perhaps, I am a masochistic nerd who loves academia and performance and critical analysis of our community’s/communities’ queer and gender-fucked ways of expression, living, and performing.

I became a performer because of a queer theory course in grad school when I realized that I as a femme too could be a gender performer. My deep-seated love for the glamour, glitter, and jiggles of the stage came pouring out and hasn’t really stopped since. Ultimately, IDKE.X has been the perfect place for me to both nerd-out and glamour-out. Through organizing the IDKE.X Conference, I have been able to once again combine my love for the academic and my love for performance, performers, and the stage. In many ways it has gotten me prepared to re-enter the academic world as a student in just a couple of (very) short weeks, just before the hordes of genderfuckers descend on Columbus.

When I entered graduate school the first time I asked myself, “What did I get myself into?” The answer then was a crazy, self-directed rollercoaster ride of education, exploration, excitement, and a lifetime of memories.

The answer now isn’t much different:
IDKE.X has been a once-in-a-lifetime train ride with highs and lows and a lot of education. And while I could have been just a passenger watching it all whiz by, I am so glad and grateful I took charge of my trip through the drag kingcommunity’s past, present, and future.

Kisses,

Miz Ginger Jones