Who doesn’t find the idea of an event named Large, Dangerous Rocket Ships intoxicating? The moment I heard it, I was sold. I wouldn’t have cared if the next thing I heard was that it was held on a barren wasteland in the middle of nowhere. Which is a good thing because that’s the next thing I heard…
Nature abhors a vacuum, which is why nature is so into tribute bands. Say a classic band dies in a mysterious plane crash. Kablam!!! Fifteen tribute bands spring up before the NTSB has a clue of what went down. Artists don’t even have to be the victims of gnarly circumstances anymore to spawn tribute bands. They can be pouting in Malibu…while a red-hot tribute band named for their last hit is playing packed bars in the Valley and sucking face with their old groupies — a red-hot all-girl tribute band. I’m not sure if that’s hot or completely hot. But I am sure this is Tribute Band Land.
Half pickup truck, half pig, the glowing blue roadhog turns left onto the bustling esplanade, its bemused expression as hard to decipher as its owner’s intentions. Kandy-kolored glowstick bicycles veer to avoid it, as do a half-dozen pedal-powered muffins and cupcakes. A convertible Cadillac spacecraft idles at the side of the bustling ring road, its passengers haranguing passersby from atop its beer-keg booster rockets.
One of the early DIY clips I made for UNDERGROUND before videographer/producer Didrik Johnck joined me. It was just me, a cheap video cam and all the filkers, faeries and freaks of LA World Con 2006. This clip was my summation of the event. The “actual rocket scientist” in the clip is Bridget Landry, famed Mars Rover mission leader whom I was just meeting randomly at the World Con. We did a clip on Bridget, visiting her at JPL to talk with her about her advocacy for girls science, math, TK. (WATCH VIDEO)
I guess you could say I was gay rodeo curious. So I went to the LA Gay Rodeo. And What I saw there was real McCoys and chatroom cowboys, ropin’ and ridin’ all day, bulls so mean, here and there a drag queen, beefcake every which way…