Showtime!

I've been largely MIA this month, due to a heavy rehearsal schedule for two shows. Tonight is the first of those shows, so here are some performance-related postcards:

This was my first post-college professional dance gig, a 20ish minute piece with live music that was part of an amazing dance festival in Vancouver, BC. We left Seattle early in the morning and I slept funny in the car, causing my back to go out. My memories of the performance aren't great - it was a matter of being able to do the work at all, not how well I could do it - but the group I was performing with was great fun and we managed to get up to all sorts of mischief. There's a BnB in Vancouver that probably still has my name on a 'banned' list.

There weren't any printed programs for the shows, so I grabbed a few of these postcards. I recall sending one to a college girlfriend and she later asked which one in the photo was me. Er...

Promo picture for the whole festival, not our group!

A year later, I had formed a dance collective with some of the dancers from the previous show. Our first production was in October 1997. On our opening night, another dancer gave everyone postcards for good luck (a nice performance tradition that I think has faded away).

Gold Crown Gas Queen, 1957

"You've done it! You 4'8", 91 pound dynamo. You are SO money, you don't even know how money you are. But beware, as the only reason that man put you on that stand was so he could look up your cape!

Have a super run + see ya in MAUI! Merde...."

Rest assured, I am neither 4'8" nor 91 pounds, but that's a reference to one of the dance pieces, in which I portrayed a gymnast preparing for the Olympics. I even had a cape! Not as nice as this one, though. Nice 1990s pop cultural reference to the film Swingers, too.

Now to get ready for tonight....

Four for Me, One for You

Time to show off some great postcards I've gotten this summer! Scanning has gotten more complicated in my house, so I've been pretty bad about keeping up. To be fair, the scanning process was kind of ridiculous already, but now space and electrical outlets are at a premium, so I need to set aside some quality time to scan them in batches.

This one I got way back in the spring, but it is so fabulous that I had to post it. It's a Peep, of course - but it's really a postcard of a Peep that was squished and scanned. By David Byrne of all people. Which kinda makes sense if you look at it - so simple, yet a little creepy.

A great postcard to Tilly and me from friends we got to see in July. It's an advertisement for liquor, but it's a cute image.

A handpainted postcard! Gah, I had a set of blank postcards for creating one's own and I think it went away with the Great Purge in the spring because I hadn't done anything with it yet. I totally loved getting this.

This one showed up just last week. Kind of a dark card for a relentlessly sunny summer, but I like it.




I did manage to get one postcard of my own out the door this week:

Titouan Lamazon - Heiata, égérie de la perle de Tahiti

Is this a black and white image with a slash of color down the middle? Or a color painting that didn't get finished at the edges?



I also got a packet of MOMA postcards given to me by a friend, so it looks like I'm going to have to block some time out for another scanning party pretty soon.

Sick Day, TBT, Vaults etc...

It's a lovely August Thursday and I'm home with either the worst allergies or the most annoying summer cold. I'm too unfocused to write correspondence, so I thought I'd go with Throwback Thursday and pull a postcard out of the ol' vault. I didn't even recognize this one, so it must have been unearthed during my spring cleaning.

June 1988, to my roommate and me:

Bear and monkeys, Egyptian painting c. 1335, from Bidpai's Fables.

"hey guys - how's it going? Not much here - DC is great - Joe N' I have been getting around by subways (they get you everywhere). You know I miss you both cuz' DC's nice but, just ain't no CINCINNATI. Tell Danny I said hi. Been playing lots of cards? I've been teaching Joe how to play games - cuz' he don't know none - we went to the FREER Gallery & the Hirschorn Museum AND the Sculpture Garden - I'll tell you more when I get home -- See you areound 7:00 (I THINK?!) Friday -

love,
Mimi"

The summer between my 1st and 2nd years of college, my friend Susan and I lived in Cincinnati. Mimi came into the café in our building a lot - she was a teenager, still in high school, and unbelievably precocious. Girl had a LOT of energy. Joe was her older brother (our age), and was the shyest punk to ever rock a mohawk. They made a funny pair.

It seems so odd now to read a postcard from a brief trip letting us know what time we would see her next, clearly only a few days away - but then I remember how careful we were about long distance phone calls back then. We didn't even have an answering machine at our apartment, let alone voicemail, so this was the most efficient way to let us know she was coming back!

Summertime Blahs

It's hot.

This summer has been so hot that I haven't had much else to say, here or through the mail. It's no surprise that the only postcards I sent last month were written on those rare days when the temperature dipped below 85 degrees.

I'm not sure where this one came from. I haven't been to San Francisco since 1997, but it looks too faux-old-timey to have come from by grandmother's postcard collection. 

I grabbed a handful of postcards and asked Tilly which one I should send, and this was her choice. She liked it because it is an homage to Edward Hopper's Nighthawks - a fact that I did not know, despite the presence of many of the Sunday "tribute" panels in this MUTTS postcard collection AND the fact that I've already shown my affinity for Hopper's moody restaurant-themed work.

A couple of summery images rounded out the July post:

I've only just noticed that there is a dog driving a boat in this image.

"Pool Sharks"

For the last one, I was flipping through my address book and saw one for SEV, which surprised me. I'm positive that the address is at least a decade old and odds are low that the postcard reached its intended audience, but .... maybe? This process of writing has helped me reconnect with several people I'd lost touch with, so why not?

Centennial

A much-delayed follow up to my last post:

The reason I couldn't attend the Pride parade, and the reason I was in New York at all, was to celebrate my grandmother's 100th birthday. Ever wish you could be two places at once? Returning to the city in late afternoon on the 28th, the celebratory mood was still quite strong, and I came home to tales and videos of Seattle Pride that made me a bit wistful - but I wouldn't have missed this birthday party for the world.

My mom requested that people send cards that could be read at the party, so I selected one of the postcards from my grandmother's collection: 

Cold Spring Harbor, New York

Of course, being the introvert I am, I made sure to NOT have my card read in public at the party - I know these will be read to my gran over and over again.

The Notorious FTG

I did manage to send off a few postcards while I was away:

This is a postcard I picked up many trips ago, brought it with me in case I didn't have time to grab a new one. Is that cheating?

Paper Milk postcards! Always so weird and wonderful. The art shop near me finally got some new ones in. Sent to a friend who is battling a brain tumor - hoping to cheer her on to victory.

---------

There was a neat little card shop near Stonewall where I picked up a few new postcards and My Awesome Sister got a cool pin. If I could just find where I put them....

Historic PRIDE

I set up a draft of this post a few days ago because I'm visiting family and will miss Pride weekend at home. I figured I'd just pull something from the vaults and call it good. But I'm in New York City, and after the Supreme Court ruling yesterday, guaranteeing gays and lesbians the right to marry in all 50 states, my mom, my sister and I hoofed it down to Christopher Street and the historic Stonewall Inn, where the modern gay rights movement began in the US.

It was a momentous afternoon, spent laughing with strangers as we passed around cameras and flags and stories. I think the only reason we could even get this close to the entrance is that it was Friday afternoon and many people were still at work.

I'm now a bit conflicted. My honeyboo is back at home, and I won't be attending Pride celebrations on either coast (for a good reason - check back next post). I hate to miss out on the massive celebrations about  to happen, but I remind myself that I was there - I am here - for a little slice of it. I'm sure the party will still be going by the time I return to the left coast.

In the meantime, here is my previously selected Pride postcard from 1995. From a college girlfriend - we were already exes by this time, and I had graduated.

"What is it you're looking for?" Rosa Ainley

"Hey sweetie-pie
honey bunch
punkin snatch
     (no offense intended, claro) ~
Wha's up?

Thought this postcard might give you some ideas for your new + improved dating game - any action yet? Good luck...

SO- here I am at [school]. Eek. I'm doing the LGBC fwsp [Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Center work study]. Eek. I'm leaning towards a women's studies major with a queer emphasis. Eek. I love my little cubicle of a room, but feel rather alone on the outside. T. told me there are some cool 1st years. We'll see.

Love + back rubs to you...send me postcards! (I can't find all the shit i usually put on my walls.) SEV

¡Amo café!"

Ugh - I just sat here deciding whether to redact this silly postcard, since my mom is in the other room and will likely be the first to read it. hell, we just went to see Fun Home together, I think she can deal.

My favorite part of the postcard is the silly doodle by the stamp:

"ANARCHY
QUEER
PERVERSION
CHAOS
Revolution
(American flags make me want to spew ideological rhetoric. Excuse the dribble.)"

SEV and I exchanged correspondence for many years after college and I always loved her droll humor.

Happy Pride to all!

Clearing out the cobwebs

I feel so random this week. For the first time in months, I've got some space to focus on various projects that I've planned (and the state of my apartment, which is a fright), but I keep bouncing back and forth between wanting to do all of it, RIGHT NOW, and sinking into deep inertia.

Nevertheless, I managed to get a few postcards out the door this week:

I picked up this postcard of Ellen Degeneres (photographed by Annie Liebowitz) a few years back and every time I've thought of sending it, I put it back in the box. Why? Perhaps because the picture is so relentlessly '90s (taken in 1997), perhaps because the image is such a contrast from the Ellen of today: she's now America's Lesbian, the soft androgyne next door, safely quirky but still feminine enough to be a Cover Girl. That's not a knock on Ellen - disliking Ellen is like kicking a puppy - but it can be hard to remember when her very Ellen-ness was considered feral, dangerous even.

Anyway, it's Pride month so I thought it was time to send it OUT in the the world (see what I did there?).

This one, on the other hand, I've been holding on to because it's just so cool

I've been on a Mad Men kick - I know, who hasn't been? But I never watched the show until a few months ago and I've been tearing through the first 6.5 seasons, only to wait for the final episodes to be released on Netflix several more months down the road. I can't say this image quite matches up to anything I've seen on the show, but it looks like it could. Plus, this lady, in her fabulous dress that I would love to wear, looks like a distant predecessor to the sketched out guy above with his boom box.

Also: Alert! Alert! The new postcard stamps are out and appear to be of the forever variety. FINALLY!