Get your New Year on with Mel Arizpe and Laura Carrizales as Mi Diva Loca tonight. The partners in life and song turn top hits into their own with subtle rearrangements and way fab voices. Besides, live music should be your resolution for 2012.
DEETS: Sue Ellen’s, 3014 Throckmorton St. 7 p.m. SueEllensDallas.com.
The Pretty Things Peepshow recalls old-timey circuses or better yet, the HBO show Carnivale, which really left viewers hanging. This vintage vaudeville sideshow packs in a whallop of acts into two and a half hours. For a hump day, acts that include electric chairs, animal traps and whip cracking might even outdo the Dallas Eagle. We’re kinda looking forward to the special burlesque dancing which includes a fan dance and spinning fire tassels. For real! You won’t see that on the dance floor at S4.
The show even features the “Midget of Mischief” Lil Miss Firefly who stands just over two feet and performs as the night’s glass walker and straight jacket escape artists. Yeah, there’s too much to miss to not make this show tonight.
DEETS: The Kessler, 1230 W. Davis St. 9 p.m. $15. TheKessler.org.
The responses to “The Response” are under way in Houston. First out of the gate was Friday night’s LGBT Texans Against Hate Rally. Despite temperatures that had barely come down from the triple digits, Houstonians thronged to Tranquility Park in downtown. Beyond commenting on the temperature, the common theme of most of the speakers was that the American Family Association and Gov. Perry’s rally is not representative of Houston and is not welcomed.
Robert Shipman, president of the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats, said: “I kinda think Rick Perry chose the wrong city!”
He continued “They are the bigots, we are not … we are Houston.”
“I guess we should take comfort in the fact that, except for some of his staffers, [Gov. Perry] couldn’t find enough homegrown bigotry in the state of Texas to put on the event himself,” said Mike Craig, co-chair of Out & Equal Houston. “He had to bus them in from Tupulo, Miss., and Colorado Springs, Colo.” Craig was referring to American Family Association (based in Tupulo) and Focus on the Family (based in Colorado Springs), both co-sponsors of “The Response.”
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, provided the closing address. He criticized Gov. Perry for using divisive religious rhetoric for political gain. “Being here today I’m proud that we are fighting back against a narrow, theocratic view of the world that we live in and of our country that says that people are not welcomed — that says that people are bad because of who they are. That is not America,” said Coleman. “That is what is dividing our city, our state and our country.”
Stay tuned to Instant Tea for more coverage of the LGBT community’s response to “The Response.” More photos from the LGBT Texans Against Hate Rally below (click to enlarge):
Once you recover from last night’s MetroBall, then you have a full day of Razzle Dazzle with today’s street festival. The day starts with the Sidewalk Sale and Fair where merchants once again offer discounts on your shopping excursions. The cool part will be the vintage auto show.About 50 autos from Classic Chassis Car Club will be parked along Cedar Springs Road until 4 p.m.
The night picks up when the Street Festival gets underway featuring live performances by Cheer Dallas, The Bright, Uptown Players, Chaz Marie, the Gary Floyd Trio and more. DJs Mickey Briggs and Tim Pfleuger provide dance music all night. All that will be highlighted by the return of Cazwell on the mainstage. And there is still all the goings-on in the bars and Midway of carnival games, a mechanical bull and an obstacle course. This could be like gay Wipeout.
DEETS: Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Streets. Sidewalk sale 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Street Festival 7 p.m.–1 a.m. Free. RazzleDazzleDallas.com.
Over at Slate, Dave Weigel has recapped last night’s GOProud party at CPAC, which sported an open bar sponsored by the Poker Players Alliance, a group that lobbies lawmakers for the legalization of internet gambling. I don’t recall having seen online poker on GOProud’s 2011 agenda, but whatevs, because this is the best part of Weigel’s review:
A word about Sophie B. Hawkins. Michael Steele, who was chairman of the RNC until last month, showed up at the party and stayed a while. Right before I showed up, in an exchange witnessed by several people who described it to me, Steele met Hawkins. She explained her political philosophy to him. “I’m not a conservative,” said Hawkins, “but I’d like to fuck Sarah Palin.” Steele reacted quickly. “Well, she’s very attractive,” he said.
How about it, ladies? Could you?
New report:
“The 2009 survey of 7,261 middle and high school students found that at school nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students experienced harassment at school in the past year and nearly two-thirds felt unsafe because of their sexual orientation. Nearly a third of LGBT students skipped at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns.”
STUDY: 9 OF 10 LGBT STUDENTS FACE HARASSMENT AT SCHOOL [GLSEN via Towle]
New sadly factual supporting evidence:
Same old negligence:
“We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled,” Focus on the Family education expert Candi Cushman told the Post. Cushman worried over the public school system’s portrayal of same-sex partnerships as normal and voiced concerns that Christian viewpoints would be interpreted as bigotry.
Focus on the Family: Anti-bullying efforts push LGBT agenda [Edge]
If you’re interested in helping out with Saturday’s Prop 8 protest in Dallas but couldn’t make last night’s organizational meeting, there’s plenty of contact info and volunteer opportunities after the jump.
