On Sat night I brought a few friends and my cousin Lori to the Ottobar to see Trixie Little and The Evil Hate Monkey, Baltimore's long-time "beloved acrobatic burlesque superduo" of whom I had heard so much. The show was called "High Brow" - "A Night Of Intellectually Sophisticated Low Brow Entertainment."
Indeed Trixie, Monkey, and several other performers delivered all and more that was promised. While I have no true acting ability, I have a deep love for actors and for performers of all sorts, as well as the many quirky, funky art students who fill the city (no shortage of which were also there last night) and among whom I rather like to mingle and emulate and disguise.
Like Trixie, I am also on the "vertically-challenged" side of things (clocking in under five feet tall), my last name begins with "T," I tend gravitate to the vivid, the sparkly, and the outrageous, and I also enjoy (when they allow me) to vent my occasional frustrations with men in the tried-and-true "Elaine of Seinfeld" way--that is, to "whack" male friends every now & again--playfully, of course, it is I suppose a sort of special license of women who call themselves spunky and small. And so my reasons for feeling a special bond with Trixie, "the sassy burlesque superstar" known also as "Tiny T," embued not only with "super-human spanking powers" but also a special brand of Bawlmorean quirkiness to call her own, are various.
During the show, I found myself riveted, like everyone else in the crowd, also by the show's MC ("Scotty the Blue Bunny")--so named for his blue latex-clad and bunny-eared attire, whose charm, sense of humor, and taller-than-7-foot-height-in-heels impressed everyone. By the end of the night, indeed, I found myself relating ever more to Scotty, whose jokes and stories about his own Jewish Mom from New York and her angst about his chosen career and life path rather echoed my own.
Really the show was extremely witty and fun and entertaining. Although, as I stood in the crowd of overwhelmingly "goth"-inspired folk (my friends and I had really, by & large, not worn the properly dark or outrageously coordinated attire worn by the typical "Ottobarian" participant), the emotion I found myself nearly overcome by was love.
It struck me while watching Trixie and Monkey perform their final rites of acrobatics and intimacy on the swing (see pic above, more in the Flickr slideshow display on the right side), that really only in such settings as this, and those mostly in Baltimore, have I felt truly thrilled and fulfilled. While I have experienced pleasure and even wonder at times in various places in which I have lived, it is really only in Baltimore where I have felt deeply and soul-drenchingly happy, truly at home in my own skin, and comfortable and accepted by a populace which by and large not only accepts difference & individuality & full-fledged creativity but treasures these commodities far above money or material things.
And so all at once I felt all the doubts and fears and anxieties of last week dissolve (see last week's Episode 3--"Sweatin' Over My Choices at The Charles"). I understood, quite clearly then, that I have given my whole heart and soul now to Baltimore, and since that is done really my choices have been made already.
For better or worse, the only dreams possible to me now are those of a particularly Baltimorean sort, and further committing myself to Baltimore--and to the romantic notion I have of it--is the only path I can and must traverse. And so even if (as I worried last week) all I can succeed at in the end in making with my life is "cannabilistic meat pies," then so be it, I swear I will make the most delectable, most savory and most spectacular "cannibalistic meat pies" in town.
If you also love burlesque but missed Trixie last Saturday, you can take in some tonight at The Sex Workers Art Show, to be held at 7 pm at The Creative Alliance at The Patterson--more details here and in the "LoisLife Calendar" of events found at the bottom left of my Blog. Trixie and Monkey themselves will be back performing live also at The Creative Alliance on Thurs-Fri, March 28 and 29th at 8 pm.
Can't get enough Trixie? Check out her Blog, "The Adventures of Trixie Little." You'll find many stories and pics of Trixie and her friends working seriously at circus school, as well as partying it up equally hard.
Copyright 2008 by Lois
July_10_2010_vlog.mp4
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