did you know there is an emoticon for "sisterhood is powerful"

today was spent doing some SERIOUS multi-tasking. organizing Damelo Todo production from sunrise to sunset (8 DAYZ AWAY FROM THE SHOOT!!!), and at the same time solo-journeying into the mystical world of adhoc legal adocacy. Damelo Todo tasks included: simultaneously email/skyping/chatting/phone-conferencing/photo-texting (those are all different modes) about shoot schedules, floor plans, casting calls, camera tests, post timelines, editor workflows, hiring crew, stage-blocking actors, previewing stack of old club films that inspire me... basically everything under the sun from burning dvds to designing/printing "extras" recruiting posters en español. that was today. intermittently i was also trying to help a trans women friend who was trapped in the jaws of the LA prison industrial complex, lost somewhere in an inmate detention center under a fake name awaiting placement to a mens jail. she got arrested on christmas eve for a minor offense, and of course hours later found herself sucked all the way inside... also she had just gotten a housing eviction notice the day before. it took several days to piece together the information, from the initial fragmentary midnight collect call on christmas eve to a website that gave me a booking number, and just now finally half an hour ago confirmed she is being placed permanently in Men's Central Jail with no visitor permissions. initially, having almost no information, no way to talk to her or assume the $20,000 bail, plus being radioactive and not a lawyer, i felt pretty powerless to do anything... but slowly i tried to think through what could be done. i asked for help, and a lot of people responded (dean spade to the rescue 4EVA riiight!) today i'm hopeful - which makes me a little heartened though still full of rage - that she is going to be ok(?), whatever that means... at least until her court date... which leads me to to my new idea that...

ANYONE CAN BE A LEGAL ADVOCATE!

IT'S FUN AND EASY

TOTALLY DOABLE WITHIN YOUR GLAMOROUS LIFESTYLE

YOU CAN HELP SOMEONE WITH JUST YA BRAIN AND YA CELLPHONE
AND YA LAPTOP AND YA SEXY BIZNESS FRONT

LETSGO LIBERATION!!!

LGL LGL LGL

here's what i did... SRSLY anyone can do it!!!

first i befriended her roomate and we figured out a way to 3-way call with her in jail (i guess you can only call landlines from jail which is why we initially couldn't reach each other) to get as much information as possible (such as her fake booking name, apt number where her stuff was stashed, etc). then i sent out an group email to LGL and available folks responded! Shayla Myers, a BOMB ASS lawyer and LGL collective member, led me to a website where i could then search her fake name and find her actual booking status. got the roomate to fax us the eviction notice (Shayla actually even rushed the courthouse), and put the smack down (ok a very little) with the landlord who was trying to front like they could change the locks. but even if they HAD, we already had a crew ready with SUV to grab and stash her belongings as a last minute resort (WOOORD April Saravia). this was today. but unfortunately it's just phase I.

the system is fucked. but today left me with a feeling of ok we can do this... as do so many other days when i commune with LGL folks. and integrate this stuff into my life.

I SUPPOSE UR ASKING ME WHAT THE BUTT IS LGL???
I MEAN IMPRENTA TRANSGENDER LAW PROJECT BUT WE UPGRADED TO A WAY HOTTER
COLLECTIVELY-CHOSEN ORGANIZATION NAME.

LETSGO LIBERATION (LGL)

oy we have lots to catch up on... let me catch my breath and get back to you. sisterhood is powerful.

BTW damelo todo narrative shoot crew is now 13 and counting!!!

SHOUT to ernesto foronda, archie hernandez, ashley hunt, michelle lawler, dani carrera, candi guterres, britt ringer, elsa valdez, suzanne mejean, miguel barragan, rhys ernst, and taisha paggett

TONIGHT

TONIGHT.

BIB.

BROOKLYN IS BURNING LOS ANGELES

@ IMPRENTA (705 S RAMPART) 8PM

AND DEN WILDNEZZ

getting personal for a minute.

so i feel like i want to come out about something... which is that i been dealing with thyroid cancer. it sounds worse than it is (i'm extremely fortunate to say), and it's changed some things about my life for the better. nuff said. by way of explanation, i'm unfortunately quarantined inside this week doing radiation therapy, so there won't be actual outside life to report BUT... rrrrrradiation has created the possibility for a few things. like messing around in the bathroom until i realized i can TOTALLY RECREATE BEYONCES VIDEO PHONE DO WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY ROCKING THE L.A. ANGSTY ASIAN TEEN DO... so um green glow, stuck at home, photoshopy hair self portrait is best i can do cause no one is allowed within striking distance til thursday, and i'm not reeeeally supposed to be all up in my wardrobe touching things (on account of being radioactive). so i'm hoping instead to reflect on a backlog of stuff i've been meaning to talk about. somewhere between a continued discussion of trans politics and the stack of intl vogues on bedside table. look out for random volume. thanks for your patience. and sorry if i'm slow to respond to emails because brain is not operating QUITE so efficiently ;)

ps. it's been really chic to get to tell people who ask about the badass throat scar that's cause i just got my adam's apple removed...! shh

OH holidayz

presents. money. love. exchange. value. hmm figuring it out...

AAAAANYWAYS. i can finally talk about it!! bit by bit... DROP DROP

this past week, MALUCA  & NGUZUNGUZU were here recording a really insanely amazing original cover of Gloria Trevi's Hoy Me Ire De Casa for DAMELO TODO!!! barring all kinds of moviepapa laws we'll see where this goes. but. it. exists! woa. feeling blessed. honored. um feeling like money and skill raining all around me. what a way to end the year. bless you all. thank you. really.

look at this cutie

 

SRSLY TALENT

merry berries

is it all over my face

not sure if you're following this whole sitch in the news, but military just announced a new policy that PREGNANCY IS NOW A PUNISHABLE OFFENSE - added to a list of other court-martial-able things including alcohol, drugs, entering a mosque without permission(!)... mmhm.

i don't know if your mind goes where mine goes, but this is beyond alarming fucked up right. uhyes on a basic level it raises the question of do women's bodies belong to WHO! and like by definition is pregnancy something that happens to women, or like something women do, or...? ??? I KNOW! we need to get the lawyers out on this one. and me thinks this is definitely another possible link/continuity between trans and da women's movement... something about questioning woman-body-essential-ness-NOT.

fleshit. werkit.

(it says "surprise... you're pregnant!")

emily roysdon for LA Eyeworks (bomb lezzies!)

PS IF YR READING THIS NOW IT'S TIME TO GET DRESSED FOR WILDNESS.

this tuesday. and next.

NEXT TUESDAY

BROOKLYN IS BURNING LOS ANGELES

DEC 29TH @ IMPRENTA 8PM - INTO WILDNESS

SCREENINGINSTALLATION EXTRAVAGANZA

Curated by Sarvia Jasso and Andres Bedoya

Brooklyn Is Burning (BIB) West Coast premiere and features the work of both emerging and established artists whose work deals with gender, sexuality and the body. Whether they are defying normative categories, exploring the unconventional, or simply arousing your curiosity, these artists are radically changing our notions of sex today. Videos include Narcissister’s ode to kinky work out videos, New York-based Kathryn Garcia's video montage of porn and pop culture entitled "sit on my face" and nineteen year old Londoner Theo Adams' dance-cum-performance video set to Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You.

For this screening, we will be showing a curated selection from all three past Brooklyn Is Burning programs including: Theo Adams, Skip Arnold, Andres Bedoya, Cara Benedetto, Rachel R Blackwell, Morty Diamond, Coco Dolle, Fritz Donnelly, Ruthie Doyle, Zackary Drucker, Monica Elkelv, Kathryn Ferguson, Kathryn Garcia, Matthew Greene, Amy von Harrington, Desiree Holman, Scott Hug, Katarzyna Kozyra, Lennie Lee, Nadja Verena Marcin, Tara Mateik, Ben McCoy, Divya Mehra, Narcissister, Gilad Ratman, Natalie Rodgers, Scottee, Bec Stupak, Rhys Ernst, Wu Ingrid Tsang, Tobaron Waxman with Moritz Wettstein, Marine Weber, Dena Yago, Rona Yefman, plus more…

 

Andreia Chaves shoes

BLOW YOUR MINDDDDDDD

storyboard. rehearse. storyboard. rehearse...

WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK WERRRRK

NO MORE REST TIL JANUARY 11TH

PLUS NEW SUPER TEAMMATE MIGUEL BARRAGAN ON THE WEARDROBE

inspiration.

i had a champagne and a half with the one and only lovely Philip Yenawine (aka DA ORIGINAL CONTENDER) yesterday evening before wildness... talked about absolutely everything, got reinspired about the epic trans worldwide movement. i've been thinking to write about caster semenya for a while, but for the moment just want meditate on her image. because it was the inspiration for more...

CLUB LOOKZ

mkay i know it's a stretch but the sporty butt /green shoes are for you Semenya.

(notice! symmetry with señorita de la rocha)

wildness was so fun you guys.

MALUCA is in town for a special reason (we flew her in for DAMELO TODO... details soon to be reveeeaaaled) and at like 1am she busted out a little jam over Uproot Andy's dj set to inspire danceoff. guess inspiration is the word of the morning.

you so pretty who are you?

cisko cameo ;)

damn you all so pretty


ps. in case it's not tohtally obvious that it's not caster i claim for the movement but the discussion that her being inspires. she be who she be... not all that relevant to me...

two things i've been waiting to see in couture

jacket by Luxirare

 (me thinks this is susie bubble uh yup it is)
(7 YEARS LATER)

Tara Mateik, LTTR 2002baby

HIGH HEELED CLOGS

CHANEL s/s 2010

i don't have anything radically queer feminist to relate this to from my furturistic past, except that i've been wearing 5-inchers n' clogs for the past 2 yearz and just WAITING WAITING for them to have a baby. now i just gotta wait til i'm 65, to find them in a thrift store

body parts

it NEVER rains in LA... so when it does, people act in the craziest ways. they drive up onto sidewalks and into telephone poles, seriously for like NO reason. i was leaving the silver platter tonight, with a bodyload of equipment (camera, tripod, computer, several inches of scripts), with 2 beers in me, and i stepped squarely into the gutter as i was trying to load my car. as the brown oily water streamed over my shoes, 4 inches up my ankles, my phone slipped down the drain... i just stood there, watching the river rush over it, saying outloud, "phone is dead, phone is dead, phone is dead." it was a pretty dead experience. not at all like loosing a family jewel or a limb. at the same time, i admit my phone is probably the closest thing to being part of my body; at the very least it's an extension of my fingers, brain, voice, social network, and sentimental life (literally hundreds of pet pics- um you know you do too!). i was surprised by the matter-of-factness of instantaneously realizing my entire day tomorrow and money i don't have will have to be spent trying to replace it, because i depend on it for pretty much all functioning... employment being the most/least of it.

THIS IS ALL TO SAAAAAY
tonight is the first night i can officially talk about DAMELO TODO casting/rehearsals!!! OMGGGGGGGG

INTRODUCING

GABY

as Teódulo/Topacio

(this is her boy drag... total hotness baby butch riiiiight?????) gaby is half colubian half ecuadorian, she's 24, and she's a naturalz. and the hottest thing on video camera ever.

AND

YASENIA

as Rogelio/Rubia

Yasenia is 21 (!!!! woulda never guessed the diva is such a baby!) from Colima and like... I can't even tell you about her power. umm when i was adapting raquel's story i wrote this for her - she embodies everything about the role, period. and she BRINGS it. and she NAILS it everytime. some of you may recognize her also as the leading lady of Morales Y Sus Geishas.

AND

RAQUEL GUTIERREZ

as Herself

*say* *no* *more*

magic!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tonight was our first full on rehearsal. we were blessed by the

AHMAHZING GIFT OF

SHAKINA NAFAK

acting coach (mexican butoh/PHD) life light

i just met Shakina tonight so i really couldn't do her justice now in this post. but i was completely blown over by her serious talent, skill, and singularity... we werked it to the bone.

afterwards, raquel said it, that Shakina can take a text and put it into the body. that's literally simply it. she can take words on a page, and bring them into her body. and then teach it to anyone! it's crazy and cool and soooo fun. acting exercises! the best part was watching her show Yasenia how to find a her inner gay Salvadoran machismo, blow fake smoke rings into the air, and then lay Gaby up against a wall...

ROGELIO
(smirking while smoking a cigarette)
Que te paso?

His eyes fall onto Teódulo’s crotch tent and places a hand over his mouth to smother the hearty guffaws erupting from his belly. Teódulo is mortified but his boner still will not yield. He cups his crotch in vain attempt to conceal.

ROGELIO

Vergón...

(hissing as he exhales smoke from his flared nostrils)

Tu mano es tu mano, una compañera leal. Pero, es mejor con algo real. Lo has hecho de verdad alguna vez? Esa cosita se ve como un ratoncito rosado, sabe como una jocote podrida y se siente muy rico, hombrecito... (Your hand is your hand, a trusty companion. But, it is better with the real thing. Have you had the real thing? That little thing looks like a pink mouse, tastes like a rotten jocote and it feels really good, little man...)

it warms my little heart...

and today is only day 2!!! we get to do 4 more rehearsals before filming!!! iiiieeeeeee. lots to do. i met Shakina through the butchlalis's most recent production (she directed cosa rara) and it all keeps feeling like a little magic happenstance. Raquel was saying that a good project pulls the right energy together... fingers crossed!!! AND i'm so grateful tonight to be reminded where my body starts and stops.

Imaginary Film Festival: Bodysuit Without A Soul: New Wave Musical Marathon

Imaginary Film Festival: Bodysuit Without A Soul: New Wave Musical Marathon
Curated by Alexandro Segade
12:00 PM Sunday Dec 13 – 12:00 AM, Monday Dec 14 at Imprenta

1. Phantom of the Paradise (Brian de Palma , 1974) starring Jessica Harper
2. Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978) starring Adam Ant and Tilda Swinton
3. Breaking Glass (Brian Gibson, 1980) starring Hazel O’Connor
4. The Apple (Menahem Golan, 1980)
5. Shock Treament (Jim Sharman, 1981) starring Richard O’Brien
6. Starstruck (Gillian Armstrong, 1982)
7. Young Soul Rebels (Isaac Julian, 1991)

MORE INFORMATION

SOUNDS OF DAMELO TODO

ONE OF THE MAJOR THINGS ABOUT DAMELO TODO IS THAT NGUZUNGUZU ARE DA MUSIC DIRECTORS
IE MIXING REMIXING AND DROPPING ALL THE TRACKS IN THE FILM...

i actually delayed posting this for a while just cause i wanted to find a less nerdy mpee3 embedder
but fuck it i actually just want to you to HEAR

HERE'S A SKIM OFF THE TOP (THEY DELIVERED OVER 96 TRACKS YALL)

GHOSTS N' THE PAST

besides going to see the butchlalis (GENIUS), and somehow several champagne soirees, i spent most of the weekend story-boarding and in ENDLESS production meetings for the upcoming DAMELO TODO narrative shoot... which is fuckkkkk coming up in early jan. all of a sudden money time people everything seems to be draining, even though i haven't been doing anything except thinking.

i had to make these composities for two of the setups that involve a lot of people (obviously not multiples of me)... but they either crack me up or creep me out- can't decide which, or at this point is anything a good idea anymore BUT WE'RE DOING IT! no ok actually i'm super excited yayy. will be, i swahear.

could anything be more lonely?? WERK. actually if you look closely javier is also multiplied cause of the time lapse factor ;) but anyway no i mean creepy? cool? creepy

umm. i wasn't going to mention this but do you LOVE my workmodeman look? bold huh.

NO WEAVE TONIGHT

sorry :(

CAN WE JUST LOOK AT THAT

LEZLOOKING

MAKE TIME IN YOUR DAY

UM, YA.

TUEZ AT WILDNESS CUMBIA BAND FROM TOKYO

WAAAAAT TO DO SATURDAY

IF YR IN LA...

and interested in the transsexual movement, this is an OBZ building opportunity...

"Already, the U.S. incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation in the world. One out of every thirty-two people in the U.S. live under criminal punishment system supervision. African-American people are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white people; Latin people are twice as likely to be incarcerated as white people.  LGBTS and queer people, transgender people, and poor people are also at greatly increased risk for interaction with the criminal justice system.  It is clear that this monstrous system of laws and enforcement specifically targets marginalized communities, particularly people of color." - SRLP

AND DEN...

NACHO'S NEW PARTY W NGUZUNGUZU

WEAVE WEAVE WEAVE WEAVE

mmmmmkay?

CLUB LOOKS 4

 

gaultier from out of the closet...