OCT 20--OCT 26, 2004 and REVIEW of Miss Leon's Pageant
Friday, October 22 from 5—7 p.m. Visual Arts
Open Studio Tour 2004 Party
School 33’s annual open studio tour is the best introduction to the work of scores of artists. Plus you can talk to them in their studios about their art. Both established and emerging artists participate. Free
http://www.school33.org
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street
410-396-4641
Friday, October 22 at 9 p.m. Rock-a-Billy and Bowl Fringe
Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun
Hon, you are in Baltimore. Great guitar. $10 includes bowling and shoe rental.
www.billkirchen.com
Seidel’s Bowling Lanes
4443 Belair Road
410-485-5171
Friday, October 22 from 7—10 p.m. “Fine Art” Fringe Porn
Opening Reception for Photographs by Sam Holden
Elegant photographs of various subjects. Exhibit continues through November 20. Free
www.missionmedia.net/space
Mission Space
338 N. Charles street
410-752-8950
Saturday & Sunday, October 23 & 24 from Noon to 5 Artists' Studios
Downtown Open Studio Tours
The big bus tour will get you to studios in Butchers Hill, Fells Point, Little Italy, Canton, Highlandtown, Federal Hill/South Baltimore, SoWeBo, Mt. Vernon/West Franklin, and Station North Arts District. Don’t miss it! (Uptown Studio Tours weekend of October 30/31) $20, reserve now.
http://www.school33.org
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street
410-396-4641
Saturday, October 23, 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. Jazz
Jacky Terrasson Trio
Great French jazz pianist ahead of his time. $20, students and seniors $18
www.terrasson.com
www.andiemusiklive.com
An Die Musik
409 N. Charles Street
410-385-2638
Sunday, October 24 at 8 p.m. Marimba!
Eric Beach and guest conductor William Henry Curry
With the Peabody Symphony Orchestra
Beach won the 2004 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition, add percusion and... $18, seniors $10, students $8
www.peabody.jhu.edu
Friedberg Concert Hall
1 East Mt Vernon Place
410-659-8124
Tuesday, October 26 at 7:30 a.m. Morning Coffee
Drifting Off...
Watch the tugboat-powered USS Constellation float towards the U.S. Naval Academy as you gradually recover from a bleak Monday. Free
Pier One at the Inner Harbor
410-539-1797
REVIEW
2004 Miss Leon’s Pageant
Saturday, October 16 at 9:30 p.m.
Tysons Place Restaurant
Last week Jimbo forgot to check the local gay papers, a reliable source for high-potential fringe events.
After attending his first drag show a few years ago, Jimbo discovered that this genre is flat-out great theater. When he heard through the grapevine that Baltimore’s oldest gay bar, Leon’s, would hold its annual Miss Leon’s Pageant, a benefit for GLCCB, he couldn’t resist show number two.
Jimbo arrived too late for the evening gown competition, but the doorman told him that the talent portion would be starting soon. Because Leon’s is too small for the pageant, it is held in the adjacent restaurant, Tyson’s Place. The narrow dining room has a rectangular bar in the front, and rows of booths in the back. Center tables were moved to the sides to create a ‘runway/stage’ opening in the middle.
The place was jammed. Fifty/fifty men and women—although it wasn’t definitive which women were female or which men male. At one point the emcee, ‘Miss’ Shawnna Alexander, asked how many in the audience were straight. About half raised their hands.
The only place for me to stand was between the light crew—a slender man wearing a kilt, jacket and tie, standing on a tipsy bar stool and working a spotlight balanced on a bar table in front of the stool—and the sound crew. Several times I had to rescue the light crew, who was as tipsy as the stool, or the spotlight from falling. Just before the last act the light crew suddenly quit, but a woman from the audience took over the job, seamlessly and competently.
Despite the fact that there were only two contestants, D’maje and Samantha Paige, the Miss Leon’s pageant was a very funny and lusty show.
The judges, four leather men, included “Mr. International Leather, Sir!” (!), another man in full leather drag, and two shaved-head men who wore leather pants and shiny, satin, leopard-skin patterned vests. These prancing tough guys were a show themselves.
Several former Miss Hippos, Miss Stagecoaches, and Miss Leon 2002 performed while the contestants changed and while the judges’ votes were tallied.
At one point, Miss Alexander, wearing a two-foot high, white, blonde, beehive wig decorated with cups to hold tips was assaulted by a female from the audience. The woman 'danced' on her hands and knees backing into Miss Alexander in time to the music. Miss Alexander’s facial expressions were worth the $5 price of admission alone.
The pageant producer escorted the assaulter back to her table. Then the woman's breasts fell out of her zip top (several tiimes). So the producer interrupted the show to wrap duck tape around the woman's top to end the overflow. Turns out the woman is an elementary school teacher who was at the show with her mother!
Another highlight was Miss Leon 2002, who wore a strapless, ruffly white gown with pink ribbons, a la Cinderella. She expertly lip-synced and danced to a songy about how much she loved being a girl. However, her dress, including falsies, kept sliding down, revealing his nipples.
In conclusion, Miss Leon’s Pageant 2004 raised $347 for the GLCCB. Miss Samantha Paige won first runner-up, and D’maje won Miss Leon 2004. Her final performance as a New Orleans jazz singer in a huge headdress that nearly touched the ceiling was simply fabulous.
Visit My Current Blog!
Open Studio Tour 2004 Party
School 33’s annual open studio tour is the best introduction to the work of scores of artists. Plus you can talk to them in their studios about their art. Both established and emerging artists participate. Free
http://www.school33.org
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street
410-396-4641
Friday, October 22 at 9 p.m. Rock-a-Billy and Bowl Fringe
Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun
Hon, you are in Baltimore. Great guitar. $10 includes bowling and shoe rental.
www.billkirchen.com
Seidel’s Bowling Lanes
4443 Belair Road
410-485-5171
Friday, October 22 from 7—10 p.m. “Fine Art” Fringe Porn
Opening Reception for Photographs by Sam Holden
Elegant photographs of various subjects. Exhibit continues through November 20. Free
www.missionmedia.net/space
Mission Space
338 N. Charles street
410-752-8950
Saturday & Sunday, October 23 & 24 from Noon to 5 Artists' Studios
Downtown Open Studio Tours
The big bus tour will get you to studios in Butchers Hill, Fells Point, Little Italy, Canton, Highlandtown, Federal Hill/South Baltimore, SoWeBo, Mt. Vernon/West Franklin, and Station North Arts District. Don’t miss it! (Uptown Studio Tours weekend of October 30/31) $20, reserve now.
http://www.school33.org
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street
410-396-4641
Saturday, October 23, 8 p.m. & 10 p.m. Jazz
Jacky Terrasson Trio
Great French jazz pianist ahead of his time. $20, students and seniors $18
www.terrasson.com
www.andiemusiklive.com
An Die Musik
409 N. Charles Street
410-385-2638
Sunday, October 24 at 8 p.m. Marimba!
Eric Beach and guest conductor William Henry Curry
With the Peabody Symphony Orchestra
Beach won the 2004 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition, add percusion and... $18, seniors $10, students $8
www.peabody.jhu.edu
Friedberg Concert Hall
1 East Mt Vernon Place
410-659-8124
Tuesday, October 26 at 7:30 a.m. Morning Coffee
Drifting Off...
Watch the tugboat-powered USS Constellation float towards the U.S. Naval Academy as you gradually recover from a bleak Monday. Free
Pier One at the Inner Harbor
410-539-1797
REVIEW
2004 Miss Leon’s Pageant
Saturday, October 16 at 9:30 p.m.
Tysons Place Restaurant
Last week Jimbo forgot to check the local gay papers, a reliable source for high-potential fringe events.
After attending his first drag show a few years ago, Jimbo discovered that this genre is flat-out great theater. When he heard through the grapevine that Baltimore’s oldest gay bar, Leon’s, would hold its annual Miss Leon’s Pageant, a benefit for GLCCB, he couldn’t resist show number two.
Jimbo arrived too late for the evening gown competition, but the doorman told him that the talent portion would be starting soon. Because Leon’s is too small for the pageant, it is held in the adjacent restaurant, Tyson’s Place. The narrow dining room has a rectangular bar in the front, and rows of booths in the back. Center tables were moved to the sides to create a ‘runway/stage’ opening in the middle.
The place was jammed. Fifty/fifty men and women—although it wasn’t definitive which women were female or which men male. At one point the emcee, ‘Miss’ Shawnna Alexander, asked how many in the audience were straight. About half raised their hands.
The only place for me to stand was between the light crew—a slender man wearing a kilt, jacket and tie, standing on a tipsy bar stool and working a spotlight balanced on a bar table in front of the stool—and the sound crew. Several times I had to rescue the light crew, who was as tipsy as the stool, or the spotlight from falling. Just before the last act the light crew suddenly quit, but a woman from the audience took over the job, seamlessly and competently.
Despite the fact that there were only two contestants, D’maje and Samantha Paige, the Miss Leon’s pageant was a very funny and lusty show.
The judges, four leather men, included “Mr. International Leather, Sir!” (!), another man in full leather drag, and two shaved-head men who wore leather pants and shiny, satin, leopard-skin patterned vests. These prancing tough guys were a show themselves.
Several former Miss Hippos, Miss Stagecoaches, and Miss Leon 2002 performed while the contestants changed and while the judges’ votes were tallied.
At one point, Miss Alexander, wearing a two-foot high, white, blonde, beehive wig decorated with cups to hold tips was assaulted by a female from the audience. The woman 'danced' on her hands and knees backing into Miss Alexander in time to the music. Miss Alexander’s facial expressions were worth the $5 price of admission alone.
The pageant producer escorted the assaulter back to her table. Then the woman's breasts fell out of her zip top (several tiimes). So the producer interrupted the show to wrap duck tape around the woman's top to end the overflow. Turns out the woman is an elementary school teacher who was at the show with her mother!
Another highlight was Miss Leon 2002, who wore a strapless, ruffly white gown with pink ribbons, a la Cinderella. She expertly lip-synced and danced to a songy about how much she loved being a girl. However, her dress, including falsies, kept sliding down, revealing his nipples.
In conclusion, Miss Leon’s Pageant 2004 raised $347 for the GLCCB. Miss Samantha Paige won first runner-up, and D’maje won Miss Leon 2004. Her final performance as a New Orleans jazz singer in a huge headdress that nearly touched the ceiling was simply fabulous.
Visit My Current Blog!
posted by James Beau at 5:25 PM
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