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Going out over the weekend meant a long walk without my camera, though obviously I had my phone:
I've shot this before, but my original pictures are horrible. Now that I know where this is, I can go and shoot it properly. I might take a few stabs at it, actually.
I could probably have gotten away with having my camera stashed in my bag, but I didn't want to risk causing any friction since it was a burlesque show I was going to. Also, night had enough possible awkward problems because I am photosensitive and didn't know what the lighting was going to be like (I kept my eyes closed through a few performances and also took a break) and also they expected me to print my ticket at home like it was the '00s or something. I expected to print at Kinko's on my way over but they were having technical issues and I couldn't. I was just hoping an image on my phone would suffice.
Overall is was great, very long, but great. Curtains were at 7:00, intermission was at 9:48... I think it ended just before 11:00.
Babia Majora did a really compelling routine about Asian diaspora. They are part of a BIPOC centered troupe from Canada. That was my favorite of the night.
There was also an aerialist duo which was really cool.
The promo for the event emphasized that the show was burlesque and boylesque and would cover all genders and sexualities, but it was mostly femme and boob focused. Even in the intro the MC was like 'you are here for boobs, enjoy an evening of boobs'. There were readings between the performances, and the saucy / explicit ones were all sapphic. Not really a surprise, them really emphasizing the presence of some masc performances was more a warning than a promise.
There were two male performers. One was a black guy with long braids who was an amazing dancer.
The other was prefaced by a long poem explaining what a panic attack feels like. The performances were organized by genre, with a reading then a performance. There was a science book portion, their first time having a western genre portion, kid's book, autobiography, etc. This was the mental health section. The performance involved a guy stress vomiting into a toilet and having a freak out where he threw toys at the audience. He did remove some of this clothes, but that was part of a stress freak out.
I don't know enough about burlesque to really comment on the piece, but I can tell you a lot of people were not into it. This was not the content they were expecting from the evening. Also, having only 2 male presenting performers and one of the performances to be not sexy - Well, I guess some people might find that sexy but I do not think it was meant to be read as sexy, was not super great.
Again, I don't know much about the scene and I've been to very few burlesques despite Portland having a huge burlesque scene. I think difficult material about identity and gender and also anxiety about sex etc all makes sense to me. The awkwardness of other people not being able to go to the bathroom because someone is busy using it for their panic attack seemed to be an interruption to the vibes, not an addition to them.
I did expect tipping to be a thing, but they had these long handled butterfly nets and put them in front of every person for all the performances, they also did a collection for the ASL interpreters (who were awesome and deserve tips), the people who did the readings between performances, the door greeters, and the people collecting the tips. I have not seen tips collected so actively or nearly so often at other burlesques or even at strip clubs. At other events I've been to it was about tipping the specific performers you like, not tipping... 38 people in total?
But, now I know. Going out to this was a bit of a weird choice because I knew I'd run into expected stuff, the possibility of having to ditch if they did certain types of lighting, etc. But this town has a lot of cool sounding events and I want to check them out from time to time. This one was technically a meetup event for that one queer group I am in, but there was no getting together to go as a group or hanging out afterwards.
I am very glad I went, but man that was a lot of unknowns and hassle and cost. They had vendors in the hall, but some only took venmo? And also I really need to overhaul my wardrobe to have better things to wear for going out.
I've shot this before, but my original pictures are horrible. Now that I know where this is, I can go and shoot it properly. I might take a few stabs at it, actually.
I could probably have gotten away with having my camera stashed in my bag, but I didn't want to risk causing any friction since it was a burlesque show I was going to. Also, night had enough possible awkward problems because I am photosensitive and didn't know what the lighting was going to be like (I kept my eyes closed through a few performances and also took a break) and also they expected me to print my ticket at home like it was the '00s or something. I expected to print at Kinko's on my way over but they were having technical issues and I couldn't. I was just hoping an image on my phone would suffice.
Overall is was great, very long, but great. Curtains were at 7:00, intermission was at 9:48... I think it ended just before 11:00.
Babia Majora did a really compelling routine about Asian diaspora. They are part of a BIPOC centered troupe from Canada. That was my favorite of the night.
There was also an aerialist duo which was really cool.
The promo for the event emphasized that the show was burlesque and boylesque and would cover all genders and sexualities, but it was mostly femme and boob focused. Even in the intro the MC was like 'you are here for boobs, enjoy an evening of boobs'. There were readings between the performances, and the saucy / explicit ones were all sapphic. Not really a surprise, them really emphasizing the presence of some masc performances was more a warning than a promise.
There were two male performers. One was a black guy with long braids who was an amazing dancer.
The other was prefaced by a long poem explaining what a panic attack feels like. The performances were organized by genre, with a reading then a performance. There was a science book portion, their first time having a western genre portion, kid's book, autobiography, etc. This was the mental health section. The performance involved a guy stress vomiting into a toilet and having a freak out where he threw toys at the audience. He did remove some of this clothes, but that was part of a stress freak out.
I don't know enough about burlesque to really comment on the piece, but I can tell you a lot of people were not into it. This was not the content they were expecting from the evening. Also, having only 2 male presenting performers and one of the performances to be not sexy - Well, I guess some people might find that sexy but I do not think it was meant to be read as sexy, was not super great.
Again, I don't know much about the scene and I've been to very few burlesques despite Portland having a huge burlesque scene. I think difficult material about identity and gender and also anxiety about sex etc all makes sense to me. The awkwardness of other people not being able to go to the bathroom because someone is busy using it for their panic attack seemed to be an interruption to the vibes, not an addition to them.
I did expect tipping to be a thing, but they had these long handled butterfly nets and put them in front of every person for all the performances, they also did a collection for the ASL interpreters (who were awesome and deserve tips), the people who did the readings between performances, the door greeters, and the people collecting the tips. I have not seen tips collected so actively or nearly so often at other burlesques or even at strip clubs. At other events I've been to it was about tipping the specific performers you like, not tipping... 38 people in total?
But, now I know. Going out to this was a bit of a weird choice because I knew I'd run into expected stuff, the possibility of having to ditch if they did certain types of lighting, etc. But this town has a lot of cool sounding events and I want to check them out from time to time. This one was technically a meetup event for that one queer group I am in, but there was no getting together to go as a group or hanging out afterwards.
I am very glad I went, but man that was a lot of unknowns and hassle and cost. They had vendors in the hall, but some only took venmo? And also I really need to overhaul my wardrobe to have better things to wear for going out.
