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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2004)
38 • dficemhfiii2004 Nil PORTI AND IFSBIAN CHOIR AND IISRIAN (X )MMUNIIY PRC)JI C l INVIII YOU IO ... G LLLlM Il O UI! (IlIY! WHERE HOPI SI UNIS IN 7005 A NI W Yl AK XI VI I »ANI mi » I’M HI I AM ■ ' i / \ / \ K X ) | | DUINI,S. VII WS AIK ; I K >N SMC S i 11,11 DANE :i I K K )li warn .izs in ADVANC I lx X )|{ I IK )M M l 11 I AMIDI IN O l i l i li W( )I!DS AN ) MUSIC: Mil 11 NNIUM CON I A( I INI IK )lill AND II Sl>l AN Cl K >IH Al POh’ llANDIJSDIAN( IK )|IK>IK O R bua m ( C )\\ aaoii JOIN USAI SHENANIGANS ON THE WILLAMETTE RIVER! '/IM ', ▲ / p c oA m w rrrr-rrrrm m / O jf uw m yy Fallen Angels regroup just in the Saint Nick of time by P at Y oung hey’re back— back on the streets where they belong to make some noise and have fun. T h at’s how Judith Rizzio refers to the regrouping of the Fallen Angels Choir after an eight-year hiatus. And they’re hack just in time. T h e Fallen Angels are exactly what we need to help us through this post-election holiday season: four women dressed in Dickens-like outfits per forming political theater and satire on the streets of Portland. It was the election and President Bush’s “political capital” comment that motivated Rizzio to call her buddies, dig out her old cos tume and create some new Duhya-inspired lyrics. Here’s a sample from “Pardon Me, George,” sung to the tune of G lenn Miller’s “Chattanooga C hoo C hoo”: T Start reading our lips, you know you’re sinking our ships You’re still at Pennsylvania Avenue on Nov. 4 T he Bible Belt belted out, “Let’s have four m ore” The rich are getting richer, we need a relief pitcher. Sill \ \ \ |( .ANS IV !) N CIIANNII * > ¿11/ - Heaven help us n another moment of strange synchronicity, the renewal notice for the Fallen Angels trademark arrived in Rizzio’s mailbox Nov. 3. It was a definite sign that she needed to get things going again. T he group started in 1976 with men and women before becoming an all-women act. Rizzio was there from the beginning. She remembers heading to their first appearance at By the time the women took a break in 1996, they were playing in some pretty fancy venues, drawing crowds of several hundreds and performing in Seattle and Newport. But times have changed, Rizzio notes as she calls around town trying to find places for them to perform. T here’s an air of conser vatism that she has ever felt before. “Right now, people are so bristly and careful not to offend,” she says. “And it is scary. It’s as if being liberal is being anti-patriotic. You aren’t bad people, but you really aren’t the type of entertainment we want here. But we regrouped because we felt so strongly that we needed to immediately respond without silence.” Rizzio is committed to keeping political theater alive. To bring in young women. To teach them about the form and how to have a voice and to not fear going out there and using it. T he outspoken bisexual sees her politics are being more complex now. She found turning 50 to be quite liberating. “I’m feeling more radical than I did 10 years ago. And I am going to be more. It’s wonder ful. I don’t care if they think I’m a crazy old lady. It’s fabulous,” she laughs. athryn Cushing was with the choir for six years during the early 1990s. She had per formed in various venues for most of her life, but becoming a Fallen Angel was her first experience with comedy and political theater. She didn’t have a political motive when she joined the group, but she soon found the mes sage to be exciting. Today, politics is absolutely the reason she agreed to join again. Absolutely, she repeats. Rizzio and Cushing both have children. T he kids grew up watching their mothers take a stand to make a difference. Years later, one of Rizzio’s sons laugh ingly told her that she had mined his favorite Christmas songs. Back in the day, when the group was performing before hundreds of people, “It was a family business,” remembers Cushing. “Everybody was work ing. My mom, our spouses, our From left, Kate Finn, Judith Rizzio, Sharon Knorr and Cathryn children. Cushing put political twists on holiday songs “I think all of cxir kids mourned Portland Saturday Market on a cold morning the passing of the Angels. They’re excited we’re when they decided to stop inside Meier and doing it again.” Frank to get warm. O ne of the clerks thought Cushing is looking forward to the choir’s they looked ever-so-cute in their outfits and first performance at a fund-raiser for the was delighted when they offered to sing. Oregon affiliate of the National Abortion Well, she was delighted until she heard the Rights A ction League. Turns out that her lyrics to “We Wish You a Merry Business”: daughter, Meredith, who is a member of The “Now Christ was a profit, that’s perfectly clear. Gypsy Moths, is also performing at the event. ’Cause his birth brings in profits that grow “So, my daughter’s band is opening for us!” she says proudly. j H every year.” T he Fallen Angels were quietly escorted out of the building. They were escorted out of many places, The F allen A ngels C hoir will perform during including the Galleria. Rizzio remembers see the “Evening o f Cidtural Activism" hosted by Just ing Bill Naito laughing after they performed. Out News Editor Sarah IJougher from 5 :3 0 to “He loved us, but his merchants didn’t,” she 9 p.m . Dec. 6 at D ante’s, I S.W. Third Ave. says. He waved to them as they left. “It always Tickets are $15 from 503'223'4510, ext. 18, or was something that, even if people didn’t like as, uuw.prochoiceoregon.org. they laughed,” she adds. “We were funny. And there was always a bit of tmth in everything we P at Y oung is a Portland free'lance writer and said, even if you didn’t like the politics.” gay and lesbian historian. C
