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thanks so much to all of the amazing folks who contributed to my travel fund for The International Drag King Extravaganza (IDKE.7). whether you
bought a tie, a raffle ticket, a sex favor, bid on a dinner auction or made an internet donation THANK YOU from the bottom of my mustachioed
heart. i truly appreciate the support.
folks have asked how IDKE was (hi mika!) but as i am not much of a writer and most people just want to look at the pretty pictures
anyway, i'll put links to them first and if you want to read about the highlights they follow.
Thursday October 20, 2005 Meet and Greet
Friday October 21, 2005 Dragdom part 1
Friday October 21, 2005 Dragdom part 2
Saturday October 22, 2005 Showcase part 1
Saturday October 22, 2005 Showcase part 2
Saturday October 22, 2005 After-Parties Galore
Sunday October 23, 2005 Brunch
and some Random Photos also
if you have any photos you'd like posted, or have a link to other portfolios, send them my way and i'll post them/the info. if you have any
photos of me/heywood i'd love to add them here.
first off, i was incredibly sick the entire time. the only time i didn't feel horrendous was the night i decided to drink (Saturday...evidenced
by the number of 'me with friends' photos...) which makes me re-think the idea that alcohol is bad for your immune system.
for those of you who don't know IDKE is an event that has now happened for 7 years. the first 4 it was in columbus, ohio. then it went on the road and
went to minneapolis and chicago. this year was winnipeg, manitoba, canada. there were dragsters from all over the US and Canada. we didn't have the same
international flavor as the last two, with folks from australia and ireland, but we did have berlin in the house, and winnipeg showed us all an amazing time.
i arrived on wednesday, after making it through customs in toronto with all of my UtiliTies. actually, there was a cute and pierced
woman who dealt with my passport etc. i thought, 'well, if she's working here for the next few days, she's going to have a lot of fun.'
"Why are you coming to Canada?"
"For an academic conference"
"Where?"
"Um, University of Winnipeg, I think."
"What's the conference on?"
"Gender and performance."
"Excuse me?"
"Um. A bunch of us dress up like guys and dance around. Then in the morning we sit around and talk about it."
"Oh. Enjoy your stay." it was pretty funny.
I got picked up at the airport (thank you) and brought to my host house where i met the awesome Grayden, kidlet Kinson,
jailbait Nate, and found out I was staying with Veda (red pimp daddy outfit in the Showcase photos) which was all great.
Veda and I met up with some of the folks who were in town early.
thursday day a bunch of us went adventuring and found a great place for lunch and then thursday night was the meet and greet and then bar hop.
friday morning started the academic part of the conference and i decided to see Drag Kings on Tour which was part of the film festival and then caught some
of Veda Renfrow's media literacy presentation/discussion.
friday night dragdom was a blast. i was still feeling like crap, but that didn't stop heywood from doing a 5+ minute medley of his favorite songs and
dancing crazily up and down the stairs to the balcony attempting fred astaire grace. highlights for me were the Space Girls number, DK PDX girl scouts,
ThatWay's costuming, and the sperm and egg number at the end.
saturday i went to Reggie and Jonathan's discussion/workshop about amateurism and professionalism, which was super interesting and inspiring. then there key note addresses
by Bobby Noble and S'ile Singleton, lunch served by Ukranian drag queens, a town meeting where folks discussed issues pertaining to IDKE, and then I got to see some
more films that dealt with gender in different ways.
saturday night was the big show in the big theater with (how many? 700?) tons of people watching. it was pretty spectacular. of course, i don't have any photos
of my number up here, but if anyone has some please send them my way! my umbrella/microphone prop broke in the middle of "I'm Only Happy When it Rains" and i kicked the handle
off the stage and into the audience, hitting a dragster's mom in the head. sorry! i'm not a big drinker, and was still feeling sick, but i decided to enjoy the moment and some (read: a lot of) tequila.
then there were cocktails at the revolving lounge at the top of a building. 20-something
dragsters thought they could make it all squished into one elevator cab, got stuck within hearing distance of the bar, and spent an hour listening to us party while they waited
for the fire department to free them. then there was more dancing at Gio's. and then there were hotel room parties with bathroom antics.
sunday brunch was bitter sweet. we got to see some more terrific performances and got some more time with everyone,
but it's was a frenzy of email and address swapping and teary-eyed, over-tired, worn-out hugs. (i was shooting photos and i didn't do so great on the email gathering
so if you are reading this, drop me a line.) During the brunch we all noticed that the producer of IDKE, Carlos Las Vegas aka Reece Lagartera,
was not with us and we were told why. As if getting stuck in the elevator to the revolving lounge, and missing most of the party in the sky wasn't bad enough, Reece was
attacked and punched on his way to the next party venue, was badly hurt and spent the night in the hospital. Everyone was floored by the news. Here's this person who has given more than a year
of his life to organizing, planning, programming, producing this huge huge multi-day event where we celebrate gender and queerness, and some schmuck takes him out for allegedly 'looking at him funny.'
It's so crazy. Carlos didn't get to see IDKE to its end and feel everyone's gratitude and love. (thank you, carlos! i hope you've gotten lots of messages.)
This is SO why conferences like this need to happen and need to travel to different parts of the world.
while waiting for my plane monday, i met Property from toronto who i hadn't gotten to talk to all weekend and we got to chat. that
was a nice surprise. by the time i arrived in toronto i was nauseous and in so much pain i was buckled over. even the old lady who smelled
bad looked at me and got the stewardess. i was a mess and asked that they have someone wheel me from the plane, through customs, to my
connection. as the woman pushed me through customs the agent said, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone look quiet that shade of green."
I took some medicine, drank some ginger ale and slept the whole way to boston. Surprisingly, i felt a lot better upon arrival.
so that was my trip. it was very inspiring. i'll be running off the energy i gathered at the conference
for a while. and i hope to bring some of the talent i saw in winnipeg through boston to share with the community here. get in touch if you
want to visit boston. next year IDKE8 in Austin!!! the end.
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