In between sessions of deciding what my Frumpy Podcaster Halloween costume should look like exactly (gray sweatpants aren’t always sexy, by the way), I still find time to go out and do stuff! On that gloriously chilly Sunday night, for instance, I found myself at City Winery watching local queer recording artist, choreo king, fellow podcaster and lawyer-by-day Jack Tracy deftly glide through an hour and a half of original songs on stage with a fleet of sexy dancers. Jack’s got a unique sound –danceable slow jams with poetic lyrics that’s a few grams of Gary Numan with a dash of Bill Withers mixed in and a dusting of Timberlake on top. Also he takes his shirt off and has a reasonable butt, so bonus. At the end of the show when I took a pic of Jack and his dancers I realized that I forgot to ask him to remove his hat, so here he is mysteriously shrouded in shadow… which is actually appropriate for the season and not just bad photojournalism. Anyway, see Jack Tracy perform the next time you can and tell me what you think!
I’ve been supporting and enjoying a lot of musical acts in the local queer nightlife scene recently, because part of me thinks that they are going to reclaim a larger piece of the pie pretty soon. Not that bar drag is going anywhere, nor should it… a great drag performance really compliments a night out and showcases a talent that exemplifies the best of our community: fashion, attitude, camp, subversion. A friend recent proposed on Facebook that maybe drag performers have gotten “less talented” in recent years (the poster was a queen herself), and got a wide and civil variety of responses. I do think it’s possible that the performance art has gotten a little streamlined and stale thanks to the popularity of stunts worshipped on Drag Race’s lip sync battles, and some of the admittedly gorgeous makeup looks the social media queens and kings have perfected. But I think today’s audiences are more to blame for this than anyone else. It seems that today’s girls really need to splatter those pussies into the ground six or seven times a night just to get these kids to look up from their phones… and God forbid they use music in their numbers that isn’t in today’s Top 40, or tell a joke that’s too off-color for their OnlyFans-addled brains. These things usually have a way of fixing themselves by way of evolving, though… maybe singers, drag performers and other nightlifers can join forces, for a more diverse and exciting stage experience?
While you’re pondering that, go watch Hocus Pocus 2! Or don’t! Honestly, I didn’t really care for it, but it’s inarguably wasn’t made for me. It’s millennial nostalgia fodder, which means it’s cutesy, dull and tacky and not-at-all sophisticated like the Gen X memory train we’re all still riding (still waiting on that Oscar-baiting Thundercats movie, btw). Actually Bette, Kathy and Sarah Jessica don’t seem to have a ton of screen time in the sequel (but likely twice the paychecks—well-played, ladies) compared to the plucky teen heroes, which seems odd since they witches were obvs the whole point of the sequel. Or maybe not? It’s a kids movie, after all. So I guess it’s not really for nostalgic millennials either!
I also have a hot take on Bros, but who doesn’t? I’m sure if any of us actually saw the movie our takes would be even hotter, but since nobody did we’ll just have to copy paste our soundbites from Twitter. Or just babble about them on our podcasts! Oh wait, did I only mention 40 times above that I have a podcast now? I do it with Freddie Cosmo from Redefine Radio; it’s called ThotLight (Listen to it here.) and we record it in an office above the soon to open (*fingers crossed*) venue RedEye in Manhattan by the Port Authority. That’s one of Manhattan’s last truly dingy areas, and if you know RedEye’s OG proprietor Daniel Nardicio—the man behind the Ice Palace’s D World underwear parties—that makes perfect sense. The venue is planned to be a coffee shop by day and a bar and venue by night, and when it does open for business our little podcast moves to the stage downstairs for live recordings becoming what will essentially be my first weekly onstage gig! (My co-host Freddie is a singer and DJ, this is old hat for him.) It’s been fun… we deliver nightlife news and some gossip and we interview really fun guests from our local scene. Last week we had OTA ballroom producer and commentator Leggoh JohVera, who spilled the tea on everything from life with the LaBeijas to the YouTube queen that tried to bring shade to his stage to recent OTA cameos from celebs like Lil Nas X. Listen to it, it’s fun!
Next month… let’s talk about the GLAMs, kids!
