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NOISE QUEEN #1, original production 4/1996...
so forgive some revisions!


THE PLAY'S THE THING





On January 23, I saw the future of theatre, and its name was Bruce Springsteen. Oh, wait - that's someone else's grandiose cliche, isn't it?

No, I saw Satan's Mistress, a play written by Fifth Column's Caroline Azar, who also directed it, and Rosa Von Praunheim, a German, male film-maker. It had everything a good play should - S&M, rock music (both taped during the show and live afterwards), queerness, psychotherapy, slides and extreme controversy. It also had the advantage of costing only $3.99 and being staged in a bar rather than a stuffy hall (to wit, the 360 on Queen Street West).

In a nutshell, the play deals with Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), the German female director who pioneered or perfected many film techniques, such as a moving dolly, and produced a beautiful, if mostly lost, movie called "Blue Light". However, she is far more infamous for her work on Hitler's propaganda pictures, which were instrumental in helping him to advance his murderous agenda.

The play creates a fictional granddaughter of Leni who is doing a video about her notorious relative and follows her through the ambivalent feelings she has about the project and Leni in general - feelings not always helped by her Jewish lover, Michelle/Mike (played by Azar), who is morbidly obsessed with Nazi imagery.

It is an entertaining evening, often funny and horrifying and thought-provoking all at once. It dares to advance the theory that genius and evil can co-exist in one person. As such, its interpretation of Riefenstahl is made more full, human and, yet, still ends up as a critical and troubled portrait.

With any luck, other companies will take up this production, because it has some important things to say.

CHIXDIGGIT - AND BUOYZ 2!





I first met Calgary, Alberta's CHIXDIGGIT when they opened for famous queercore band PANSY DIVISION in Ottawa. It was love at first sight for me - so to speak.

K.J. Jansen (vocals/guitar), Mark O'Flaherty (guitar), then-bassist Michiel Eggermont and Jason Hirsch (drums) play simple but clever guitar pop a la Ramones.

While they are blatantly straight, which generated irony when they sang "I Wanna Hump You" to a mostly queer male audience, I forgive them this failing, because they are just so darn fun and sincere. Besides, I like to think I am open-minded enough to accept those whose sexual preferences are different from mine. Furthermore, they let me dance on stage with them, and I took that opportunity to purposely combat the stereotype about queer men and tripping the light fantastic, deliberately hoofing badly (yes, that's it).

(ed. note from 2007 - what followed was a paragraph about records they had out at the time - I'm reasonably certain that the vinyl singles they had on Sub Pop and Lance Rock are hard to get, nor is the band signed to Sub Pop anymore - Fat Wreck Chords was the last label I saw. I still have their demo cassette, HUMPED, signed with love and everything, and I shall cherish it for, er, a long time (as long as my tape player still works, anyway. :) ).

PERVERSE PLATTERS



Want to annoy your child-molesting, women's-clinic-doctor-murdering, adolescent-self-esteem-destroying neighbours and cause to those hypocrites to start screaming about a return to family values? Here's a few suggestions of what to play:

1. Anything at all by Diamanda Galas (various records on Mute - the one on Asphodel (MALEDICTION AND PRAYER) is out of print, and a couple of earlier ones are as well...)). If the offending parties are fond of gospel or opera, Ms. G. should either sour them on such music or maybe even point them in a new direction. Fierce, though I suggest for your own protection that you not stray too far from the volume switch while she is singing, as she can go from gentle breeze in the trees to Hiroshima nuclear wind in a heartbeat.


2. Pansy Division's UNDRESSED. It's their longest non-compilation album (at the time) and has some of their most explicit queer-sexed material. Furthermore, the cover should irk some prudes by suggesting teenagers might (gasp) be sexual.


3. Fifth Column's "Fairview Mall Story" on JD'S TOP TEN TAPE. In a time when cops are harassing young male prostitutes in London, Ontario and old male prostitutes/sexual renegades in Toronto (ed. note for 2007 - Project Guardian and Gerald Hannon respectively - don't think there aren't contemporary equivalents, though...), it's nice to remember a time when young male cops who couldn't deal with their own homoerotic feelings hung out in mall johns and tried to entrap people who just wanted to have sex. Ah, nostalgia...(ed. note: you may feel free to think I've matured and become less nasty - I encourage imagination...)


4. Tribe 8's "Frat Pig". For all those guys who think they have to get laid or they will die/have testicular pain - for those creeps who think a woman's presence at a party is an invitation to rape - these scissors are for you, boys...


5. Phranc's "Bulldagger Swagger" 7". It's funny as hell and folky. They'll hate it...(ed. note from 2007 - I was just listening to this a few days ago - still adore it...)

6. Big Man's "Too Scared To Be Queer" on JD'S TOP TEN TAPE. For all those, queer and straight alike, who think queens are weak little things. Remember - the people who slugged cops and ripped up fire hydrants at Stonewall in 1969 were drag queens. The navy cooks who broke would-be bashers' hands with soup ladles were effeminate too. Just because you're butch in the streets doesn't mean you aren't femme in the sheets (with all due apologies and credit to Tribe 8 again).


7. Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" from WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT. It's 17 plus minutes long, it's loud, and it's sloppy. Furthermore, it's about drag queens, drugs, sailors and slaughter. What's not to love?


8. Team Dresch's "Hate The Christian Right" from PERSONAL BEST cd on Chainsaw. Of course, the hated ones won't recognize themselves in the song, but that's all right - you will...(ed. note from 2007 - Revenant Falwell, I'm looking in your general direction...hope you enjoy sucking cocks in hell...and, with no coherent thread to the previous sentiment, the grrrls are back together these days!)


9. Huggy Bear's "Pansy Twist" and "Her Jazz", which were on TAKING THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOCH, which no longer seems to be in print on Kill Rock Stars OR Wiiija, sadly. Had to get both the buoys and the grrrls in - hence two songs. For all the homophobic cops/cop lovers and sensitive new age guys in your life...


10. Heavens to Betsy's "Me and Her" from THESE MONSTERS ARE REAL 7" on Kill Rock Stars. At this point, Corin Tucker's singing was not fully developed, and the music is just bass and drums, but it is raw emotion and intellect and a hearty, catchy "fuck you" to anyone who doubts the reality or depth of queer lives. A phase? Phase THIS. (ed. note from 2007 - Corin went on to be in Sleater Kinney)

READ A BOOK - DON'T BE AFRAID!

1. TAKE IT LIKE A MAN by Boy George (still in print)

2. AND THE ASS SAW THE ANGEL by Nick Cave (reissued by 2.13.61 - I have it in a cheap mass parket paperback by Harper Collins...)

3. A LOW LIFE IN HIGH HEELS by Holly Woodlawn (not in print, and going for rather high prices by private sellers on amazon.co.uk these days :( )

4. DIARY OF A TRADEMARK by Ian Stephens (RIP) (not in print, but not horribly priced on amazon.co.uk through private sellers)

5. WOOLGATHERING by Patti Smith (search hard - hideously overpriced on amazon.co.uk :( )

6. FAITHFULL by Marianne Faithfull (ok pricing by private sellers on amazon.co.uk - new volume of memoirs in October, 2007!)

7. HIS (a collection of queer male prose) (unsure of status)

8. THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT by Quentin Crisp (RIP) (should be easy enough to get)

9. LAST WATCH OF THE NIGHT by Paul Monette (RIP)(reasonably priced, both used and new)

10. HOMOS by Leo Bersani (still in print)