Went to my third Camp Bitch with the Real Hot Bitches this year. It was my Very Great Pleasure to witness Head Bitch Teleeshea Sunrise perform a lip-sync dance routine to Head Bitch in Charge, with Skittle Bitch and Feminem providing servant backup. Extraordinary, moving and the best finale to a great weekend away.
You don’t get that tho, you just get the original clip, soz
But this is also extraordinary and moving, right? A stirring collaboration from people based in New York and Melbourne, this track has been bouncing around my head for months now.
Great video essay on FilmsForAction.org about the “born sexy yesterday” trope. Women will be like “yawn, this is obvious, eyes-rolling”, men like me will be like “oh yeh, now you mention it…” i know, 18 minutes long, but definitely worth it..
Spoiler: around the 15 minute mark, the commentary says things like this: (paraphrasing) “Born Sexy Yesterday” is about unbalanced relationships, it’s very much connected to masculinity. The subtext of the trope is rooted in deep-seated male insecurity around sex and sexuality; its crux is a fixation on male superiority, and a fixation on holding power over an innocent girl.”
“science fiction is employed to put the mind of a girl into an adult female body. It’s a fantasy based on fear of women who are men’s equal in sexual experience and romantic history, as well as fear of losing the intellectual upper hand to women. It’s based on some troubling patriarchal ideas.”
Loving this slimy weirdness from some superstars of melbn’s punk queer femme colour tribe, messing around with gender, texture, colour and beats.
I saw Gaff-E performing in Fox Pflueger’s “Freaky Sexy Weird” earlier this year at Midsumma – she was hilarious and freaky in a disturbing number about cats. Great to see this full production.
The very wonderful Fox is also in the video, along with the creative power behind Fizzy Fingers Fantascinators and Lexi La Fortune.
Warning: possibly NSFW
*melbn.. or wherever they are now, Berlin New York, i don’t know
**Official release at Kaltblut
Everywhere i have turned in the last 18 months, The Huxleys have been at the forefront of creative work. They were part of Discordia, they’re involved with The Guerilla Museum, they were part of Retro Futurismo, and this other amazing piece i saw at La Mama. Any time there’s a Fringe Festival, you’ll find them doing something incredible.
Here’s a beautiful video explaining where they’ve come from.. they’re like Melbourne’s Gilbert and George, and they’re very very magnificently wonderful.
i saw Childish Gambino live on stage at Falls Festival in Lorne and i loved his performance. I loved the way the crowd knew his material intimately and could recite his rap so exactly and so quietly. The crowd even knew when to have their hands in the air, and when not, as if they were in some kind of hive-mind unison.
So i’m looking him up later on, and it’s only now i realise it’s Donald Glover from Community!! Of “Troy and Abed in the morning”!!
Okay, i’m late to the party. I remember someone telling me that now.
The Worst Guys (ft. Chance the Rapper)
These women have already experienced more than their fair share of dystopian future in Putin’s Russia. So they know what they’re talking about when they warn us against a #maga fascist regime in the USA.
Trigger Warning: this video contains scenes of systemic state violence against women.
On a brighter note, you’ll love their video for “Straight Outta Vagina” (feat. Desi Mo & Leikeli47). Funny, sexy and political all in one go. Thanks Pussy Riot.
Feast on their other artworks over at youtubes.
An extraordinary festival within another festival, The Village couldn’t be further from Falls, and yet it’s right next door, behind the main stage.
What a pleasure to be involved here, performing with The Real Hot Bitches, and also as a guest of Gherkin Khan’s Amusement Alkazar. Great crew, funny funky times and the best musicians in the whole wild world. Anyone who has had the pleasure of dancing to Tek Tek under the moonlight will know exactly what i’m talking about.
Most fun to be had? Watching all the different band line-ups and working out how many bands all these superstars were across. Carrie Webster, Steph Brett, Paul Dornau, David Bramble, Esther Henderson, Kat Karvess, Thomas Mitchell, Ros Jones, Ania Reynolds – all somehow featured in 3 or more of the supergroups on stage.
Most hilarious moment? David Bramble getting a buzz cut during The Haircuts’ song “Buzz Cut”. Or perhaps when Flaps Salad of the Real Hot Bitches strutted their Mulletty Hotness across the grounds during The Haircuts’ rendition of “Disco Mullet”!!
Most touching moment? Meeting Charlie, a 21 y.o. dude from Frankston who was out-of-sight blown away by the whole Village experience. “Forget the Falls Festival,” he told me, “this place is blowing my mind.. i never knew stuff like this existed.. i just want to find out how to get involved!”
New discoveries? Lisa Skye is a very funny human!!
Out there in the crazy world of the Falls Festival, we also saw some delightful music, eg Client Liaison, London Grammar, Childish Gambino, and the very wonderful Gretta Ray on her first big festival stage. Oh and The Avalanches live on stage for special NYE fun – they were so good!!
Some of the bands i can remember seeing at The Village at Falls:
“You Can’t Ask That” is a great series. Just watched the Indigenous and sex workers episodes, both made me cry and laugh.
It’s interesting because the ABC is often accused of being “politically correct”, but here they deliberately open up discussion to all the questions that are likely to offend people. It’s even good to watch the stupid questions, because we can see how people get exasperated when they are pigeon-holed by ignorant stereotypes.
Watch it over on ABC iView, so you’ll never have to ask these questions again.
It’s also making me think about the term “politically correct”, and why people hate either what they perceive the term represents, or the way the term is used.
There’s a few more layers of complexity in this idea.. not sure i have the brainpower to tease it out right now, but it’s definitely a point of division in Australian political debate. Probably better to just watch the rest of the episodes. I’ve been told to watch especially the ones about Muslim people and Dwarf people.
This woman is extraordinary. She’s reclaiming “Freak” as one of her own performer identity words, which is challenging for some because of how sideshows used to deliberately exploit people with disabilities. I love the underground sideshow circus that’s been growing strongly in recent years, and Sarah Houbolt is an engaging performer.
Bed of Nails, High-Flying, all kinds of amazing skills, and all without the benefit of vision.
Honestly i don’t know what this woman is doing, i wish i could write a complex and reflective review, but this piece just takes me to a place where i have no logical understanding. Seriously, listen to this.
okay that’s a bit gushing, right? If i was being critically reflective, i would say.. i need more of this. What happens next? it’s too short in time.
