Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits (BAAITS) 2nd Annual Two Spirit Powwow!

You’re invited: Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits (BAAITS) 2nd Annual Two Spirit Powwow!

This year’s event will take place Saturday, February 2nd in Oakland, starting at noon. For directions and more information, visit the BAAITS website.

Last year’s groundbreaking powwow attracted over 500 people, and made history as the first and only public Two Spirit Powwow in the world.

A Powwow is a public gathering with Native dancing and drums, seeing friends and family. It is a cultural event, large and crowded at times, yet intimate. It holds a place in the hearts of the Native community, and BAAITS offering up this Powwow in the name of Two Spirit peoples is truly an honoring. The overwhelming response of our allies honors and recognizes the work and important role of the Two Spirit community.

We welcome all Two Spirit people as well as allies. Come one, come all. All dancers and Drums are invited to join us. Special dance categories this year will include a Switch Dance (Women take on the male roles, and vice-versa) and a Duct Tape Special, in which the dance regalia is made of duct tape and found objects. There will be contests for dancers, fry bread and Indian tacos, crafts and gifts for sale, a raffle, and most of all – community!

Giant Poodle digs Street Art: Haunted Euth – Beware Wolf!

Jam the Giant Poodle digging on public poster art by Haunted Euth. From and/or for Beware Wolf music video with Hampton Beats. Sight seen on Polk Street in San Francisco. Woof!

Snap! Sexy Christo shoots Himself…NSFW!

SFXO – A quirky, sexy art boy, good friend of this site and fellow photophile. Snap!

What’s next for Occupy? Try Mediagenic Activism. Makana Occupies APEC Dinner!

Makana. Photo via The Yes Lab.

When Hawaiian guitarist and singer Makana took the stage at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation gala dinner in Honolulu on November 12th, the audience expected instrumental background music. They got more than they expected.

Attendees at the hyper-secure dinner, which capped a summit of world leaders “included Presidents Barack Obama of the United States of America, Hu Jintao of China, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, and over a dozen other heads of state.”

Makana proceeded to unbutton his suit jacket to reveal a home-made “Occupy With Aloha” t-shirt, pick up his guitar, and spend the next 45 minutes singing a very extended version of his freshly-pressed protest song “We are the Many.” According to The Yes Lab, who together with Occupy the Board Room, provided strategic assistance to the performer: “In recent weeks, Occupy protesters have been showing up at corporate events, headquarters and even on the doorsteps of those in power. Makana really raised the bar by delivering the Occupy message inside what is probably the most secure place on the planet right now.”

Makana never expected to be allowed to continue, but the objections he anticipated never came. He recounts his trepidation: “I found it odd that I was afraid to sing a song I’d written, especially since I’d written it with these people in mind. I just kept doing different versions. I must’ve repeated ‘the bidding of the many, not the few’ at least 50 times, like a mantra. It was surreal and sobering.” The ballad includes the refrain: “We’ll occupy the streets. We’ll occupy the courts. We’ll occupy the offices of you. Till you do. The bidding of the many, not the few” For complete lyrics, plus video and more, click here.

Sight seen in Clarion Alley: Angel Boy plays Guitar

Scruffy Hippie Boys at the Berry Fest

I heart Covelo. Seeing them seeing us seeing them at the annual blackberry festival. In the remote hills of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle. Three decades of music, mischief, munchies…et cetera, et whatever else grows there…

Enrique Iglesias’ strange on-stage boast: “I have the smallest penis in the world!”

Ouch! Today in public self-humiliation: Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias took a twenty-minute break from a set in Melbourne, Australia during which time he invited four men on stage to compare bare chests and quiz them about their sexual experiences. His declaration that “I have the smallest penis in the world. I’m serious” was the crowning degradation of the weird interlude. The singer later attributed his odd behavior to mixing alcohol and antibiotics. Maybe not such a good idea… Carl Stroud, of the Sun UK, reports on the bizarre incident here.

Who you jivin’ with that Cosmik Debris?

A Pox on All Gurus! This video of a live Frank Zappa show from Sweden in 1973 is not particularly gay, but resonant in a lot of different ways. This Mother (of Invention) stares down The Mystery Man and tells it like it is. Whether it is snake-oil or salvation, spiritual hucksters are as American as…well, nevermind! “Who you jivin’ with that Cosmik Debris? Look here brother, don’t you waste your time on me!” Take home message: think for your blinking self.

 

John, They’re only Dancing – Marines Shake It! (Hot & Silly Video)

These two are just too cute. Barely more than kids, as soldiers usually are, they are caught in a complicated history, their own personal stories intertwined with that of their country at war. Vets, and children of vets, understand how one can despise war and still honor warriors. Many of us still carry the physical and emotional effects of conflicts long past. “It’s complicated” – as they say on Facebook. War is hell, but it is also boredom. In these media days, that’s easily taken care of with a camera and a YouTube account. The Internet is awash with interesting videos made by soldiers with time on their hands. These two mess around to Soulja Boy’s Donk. For a great Lady Gaga Telephone re-do, click here. For an interesting musical political commentary, based on a lyrical re-working of the Beach Boys’ classic Kokomo, click here.

Backstage with the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus

…tonight at our “Hootenanny” Western-themed show (country and Americana). Catch us Saturday at 2pm or 8pm. Details here. Dancing gay cowboys, country drag, “Home On The Range” like you’ve never heard it, and much more!
-AidanAbroad