2014: A Year in Drag

Each year, I realize that I'm getting older.  A thought that I am still not ready to succumb to.  This year, like every year before, has gone by faster than I would have liked for it to.  Some awesome things happened.  Some horrible things happened.  Some things that are really sad happened, and some things that I will never forget, (because I took the time to write about them, so when I get to be old and senile, I'll at least have some kind of record of what I have done).  Over all, I don't have a lot to complain about for the year.  And, yes, I know I still have 4 days, technically, before the year is over...but the news channels have been pushing this end of the year crap for a week now, already, even before Christmas...

Manila Luzon

I'll start with the sad stuff, first, and get it out of the way.  This year marked the passings of Crystal Eaton, Scott Randall, Chase Wakeling, and Mildred Poland.  These are all people who at some point have had some kind of impact on my life.  Only one did any kind of drag.  Evie Does-It/Scott, made an otherwise exciting day, less so, as his passing happened to coincide with Latrice Royale's appearance at Styxx.  Crystal, who got her own post at the beginning of the year, was my babysitter, when I was a kid.  Chase invited Dan to live with him and his husband, when Dan had to evacuate an apartment, with only days notice, and Dan was still living there, when we met.  Chase was a supporter of us as a couple, from the very beginning, and it's still a shock to me that he's gone.  And, Mildred was my ex's aunt.  She reminded me an awful lot of my grandmother, and even after the breakup, she kept in contact with me via Facebook.  Her passing was a shock, but, it wasn't unexpected, and she had already made plans that it was her time to go.  Out of respect to the family, I opted to not go, because I didn't want anything to be weird, nor did I want to make it about me.  

Jessica Wild

2014 also marked the passing of one of the first "drag queens" that I was exposed to...Robin Williams, as Mrs. Doubtfire.  When I first heard the news, I thought it was another hoax, like, Macaulay Culkin's three deaths.  When it turned out to be true, it brought up a lot of things, for the kids I work with, as well as myself.  If nothing else, Robin Williams, as Mrs. Doubtfire, taught me that there is sometimes a thin line between the place where Love is Everything, and Love just isn't enough.  And, his final teaching, was that life is short, and let the people who mean anything, and everything to you, know that, because you never know for sure, when you won't get the chance to tell them again.

Joslyn Fox

There, now that the sad stuff is out of the way, I'll focus on some of the big things that happened this year.

2014 brought about my biggest year in RuPaul girls, yet.  I will have met, by the end of tonight, seven different RuPaul girls... Jujubee, Joslyn Fox (twice), Manila Luzon, Jessica Wild, Alyssa Edwards, Latrice Royale, and Mimi Imfurst.  It also brought about the first time I've ever won any kind of contest.  It only took me 34 years to win something more than a participation ribbon... This was the year, that I accidentally won a VIP ticket to see Alyssa Edwards...accidentally, because I forgot that I had entered, and, given that it was a Facebook contest, I didn't actually expect to win...

Alyssa Edwards

While my attempt to create a graphic novel, featuring drag came to a screeching halt, due to a lack of interest (on my part), and an attack on my creativity and imagination, due to doing some actual research by interviewing some queens, I put it aside.  It hasn't been scrapped entirely.  But, it's not a main focus.  At this point, I'd do better, writing a book..."The Boyfriend's Guide to Drag Husbandry." While it wouldn't necessarily be a best seller (or maybe it would), it would give me an opportunity to write what I know, and then nobody could attack me based on a lack of creativity, or plagarizing stories, by using bits and pieces of someone else's life...

Latrice Royale

I learned just how much my parents love the drag.  I have to admit, when I first started dating Dan, the biggest fear, was how they would react to the drag.  I obviously had nothing to worry about, since my mom's goal for this year was to start getting picture

s of her with the RuPaul queens, and, she's now working on hunting down DVD's of all the seasons of Drag Race.  It's been through this whole process, that I realized just how cool my parents really are.  They probably always have been, but you never think that your parents are cool, when you're a kid.  

Mimi Imfurst 

The year has been a giant teaching experience for me. I started to take my blog seriously, as a soapbox of sorts. On top of teaching about the acceptance of drag as an art, and an understanding of trans issues, I have also tackled why drag is dying in Maine, why we need to continue to teach about AIDS, and I grew a beard for testicular cancer. 

My No-Shave November Beard

At work, I've also been able to teach more about acceptance as well.  We took the kids to Salem, Massachusetts back in October, just before Halloween.  While we were there, the (at the time) Duchess Gigi Gill was out and about taking pictures with the tourists.  The boys all saw her, and started saying really mean things about her. So, it was my job to talk about the fact that not all drag is RuPaul "grade". And that it is as much about playing a character, as it is about dressing in the opposite gender's clothes.

Cherry Lemonade

Over the course of the year, I made some friends, and lost some friends. The friendscape of my life is in a big time flux right now. People are moving away. Other people just have stopped making the effort. And, I've done the same. Yet other people have surprised me. Cherry Lemonade has become someone  I consider to be a good friend...and she's going to be famous now. Starting January 7th we'll get to see her journey on American Idol.  

I went to so many shows throughout the course of the year.  Two fundraisers in January, March Dragness,  Jujubee at Styxx, Joslyn Fox at Mainestreet,  the Frannie Peabody AIDS Walk weekend in Ogunquit, Dragapalooza,  Zumba Wekend at Point Sebago,  all the Pride events and fundraisers, the shows at Seacoast Rep with Manila Luzon, Jessica Wild and Joslyn Fox,  Alyssa Edwards at Paradym, Latrice Royale at Styxx, the Miss AIDS Awareness Pageant, and Mimi Imfurst at Styxx. And I'm sure I missed a few shows as well.

The year gave me a totally different view of RuPaul's Drag Race, as a show. While it is still one of my favorite shows on tv, I learned through listening to stories from some of the girls, just how much the show is edited. What you're seeing on air, likely is not necessarily the way things happened in reality. 

I learned that some people just don't get how to promote. If you're trying to get people to come support your venue with a show,  it's important to get the word out on the street as early as possible. A last minute, "I need a poster for tomorrow,"  is NEVER going to get you the same business that you would get if you let people know a month or more in advance. 

I'm looking forward to New Year's Eve in Lynn, Massachusetts. I'm hoping that this will be the beginning of a year when I finally step out of the role of silent photographer, and start mingling on my own. I've done it a couple times this year, but it's always awkward.  I just have to keep trying. You know, "Fake it til you make it."

And, here's to a great 2015,  to all of you, my readers. Thank you for your support!

You're Kinda Famous, You Know?

Shaunna Rai: Photo by Jason Poulin

I've never been what you would call popular.  I keep mostly to myself.  And, I have a hard time letting people get close to me.  I have issues with speaking.  I don't stutter, or anything like that.  But, I just have a hard time, stringing words together on the fly, when I speak.  You might not know that, reading what I write, because, generally, I do much better writing than I do speaking.  It's a thing, you know?

Having lived with both Shaunna Rai, and Vanila Honey-Bush for a year, I learned quickly, that keeping to myself is boring.  People wonder what's wrong.  And, I often wonder what's wrong with me.  Since I started the blog, I've had a number of people come to me, while I'm out, and tell me how much they love it.  This is always an awkward situation for me, because on the one hand, I'm all like, "Go on, tell me how much you love it," and on the other hand, "I'm like, you read my blog?  Really? And, you think it's good!? What's wrong with you?"

I find it funny, sometimes, to know that Dan feels the same way about Shaunna Rai as I do about the blog.  Shaunna Rai has been around for two decades.  She's worked all over the Northeast.  She's worked with some big names...Joslyn Fox, Manila Luzon, Latrice Royale...She's performing with Mimi Imfurst this coming weekend...And I remind him, often that Shaunna Rai, is famous in her own right.

Dan went to get his hair cut, by his daughter, and while I was there, she was telling us that she had cut someone's hair, and told him that she was Shaunna Rai's daughter.  According to the story, the guy went wild! He couldn't believe that she knew Shaunna Rai, much less, that she was his daughter.  These are the kind of stories that I try to remind him of.

Why?

Drag in Maine, is on the decline.  There are shows on a semi-regular basis, but those have been trickling away.  This is a sad thing, because people love it.  Dragapalooza sells out every year, as well as the Royal Majesty Drag Show.  People want the drag...but they don't want to pay for it.  And the performers don't want to do it, if they're not getting paid for it.  It's kind of a vicious cycle.  Why would I work for free, when other queens have a booking fee of $2000 or more, plus transportation, lodging and free drinks on the house?

The truth of the matter is, though, that the only way to get that kind of recognition, aside from being on RuPaul's Drag Race, is to put yourself through all the free benefit shows, and the "you're working for tips, and the door", and the, "Hey, you wanna work with a Ru Girl?" shows.  Because the Ru Girls talk.  Joslyn remembered Shaunna from the AIDS Walk weekend in Ogunquit, and recommended her by name to do the shows at the Seacoast Rep over the summer (if memory serves correctly).  

Shaunna really is, the "IT Girl" of Maine. If there's a show, she's usually there.  If there's a show she's doing, it's promoted more than anything has ever been promoted in the history of promotion.  Dan promotes it, Shaunna promotes it, and I usually promote it both on my Facebook page, and here, either with a poster, or a shout out to it.  This is really how to make yourself famous.  Because it works.  Everyone knows what Shaunna is doing when.

This became most apparent, after the announcement of the RuPaul's Drag Race Battle of the Seasons's announcement that it was coming to the State Theater, here in Portland, in March.  As soon as it was announced, Shaunna and Dan were both promoting it like crazy.  And, it paid off.

During the Drag at Sea cruise, which Dan/Shaunna have been dying to get on for the last two years, a friend of ours went.  He was hobknobbing with Michelle Visage, one of the judges (my favorite, aside from Ru) of RuPaul's Drag Race.  He was talking to her about the upcoming Battle of the Seasons in Portland.  She told him that she didn't really "know much about Maine, other than it's cold, it's near Canada, it's pretty redneck, and there is this one queen there, Shaunna Rai, who comes across my feed all the time."

If Michelle Visage knows who you are, and talks about you to people, then you're definitely doing something right.  With a following of over 2,700 people, you're doing something right.

 Meanwhile, I'm limping along on Facebook, with a following of 137 people.  But, it's enough people to remind me that in my own little way, I'm a little famous too.

New Year's Eve Plans

So, it's inevitable.  Every year, I end up working New Year's Eve.  And, every year, I end up being so tired at the end of the night, that I struggle to make it to the ball dropping.  And, then, when it's all over, I conk out, and I'm not heard from again, until the following year... (haha).

Because I'm so flexible, and I worked Thanksgiving, and will be working both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, work decided to honor my request to have New Year's Eve evening, and New Year's Day off.  Which is a good thing, because Shaunna Rai booked a show in Lynn, MA, for New Year's Eve.

 I'm excited about this, because it's a New Year's Eve party with Shaunna and E,on, and that in itself should be a ton of fun.  But, along with seeing Asia again, and meeting some new girls, I'm going to be working the event.  This will be an opportunity for me to start off the New Year, by cracking my shell a little bit.  I'll be taking pictures of the event, the audience, and whatever I feel like taking them of, really.  And, I have the okay to actually sell photo cd's, which will be sent out in the days following the event, while I'm there.  So, just a heads up, if you're reading this, and will want to get a copy of the photo CD, it will be $10, you can email me here.  I'll need mailing info, and will be able to send you to my paypal.

My biggest nervousness, comes from the fact that the last few shows that I've done, my battery has run out before the end of the show.  So, I have to have a backup camera ready, just in case, because I generally am not taking pictures of the audience as well.

Anyhow, it should be an amazingly fun night.  I can honestly say that I've never spent New Year's Eve out of state with Drag Queens.  I encourage all my friends who are available to come and hang out with us and make this a night that we won't forget any time soon.

Also, I heard a rumor, that Shaunna may bring out some "Old School" (before I ever knew her) music for the night.  So, on top of getting to see a show, I get to see some numbers that, while not exactly new, are new to me.

And, I want to throw out a big thank you to Fran's Place, and Dineen Bartolo for having me as the photographer, and promoting me and my photography for your show!  I hope I can do it justice.