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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2012)
local Spotlight: Bg Art Group Claudia meza TBA LATENIGHT: Queer Artists vENUS x – Future legendary DJ venus x has been bringing together the diverse crowds of nerdy dancers, art school kids, uptown gays, black drag kings, skate punks, music snobs, immi- grants and more to her New york City GHE20G0TH1K party since 2009. Credited with reinvigorat- ing the city’s underground night- life by the New york Times venus says, “I’m going to play Al Jazeera in the club, and you’re going to like it. And it’s going to be cool, but not weird cool. It’s going to be like Kanye West and Jay-Z cool.” Washington High School SE Stark, Between 12th and 14th Capacity: 550 Free Admission All Ages September 6 10:30-12 am CHRISTEENE - “Drag terrorist” CHRISTEENE keeps the man be- hind the performer (Paul Soileau) far in the background, succumb- ing to a sexually infused sewer of live rap and RnB. The gender dysphoric goth metal CHRIS- TEENE challenges traditional society as purposefully crosses 34 Justout.com the boundaries of charm, grace, and even good taste. Washington High School SE Stark, Between 12th and 14th Capacity: 550 $5 Members, $7 General All Ages September 7 10:30-12 am ALExIS BLAIR PENNy – With a voice like an angel Alexis Blair Penny guides the viewer through a “live television broadcast” that features drag, monologues and a full backup band. What would be good as just a singer/ songwriter act is taken to the next level with the performative juxtapositions of self-deprecating, fourth-wall-shattering Alex and lightning-wielding, world-weary, diva-goddess Alexis. Washington High School SE Stark, Between 12th and 14th Capacity: 550 $5 Members, $7 General All Ages September 13 10:30-12 am Claudia Meza is an auteur. Overachieving and busier than anyone else holding down multiple jobs can even imagine, she is a collaborator only in the sense that she directs others involved in her vision. This hasn’t changed since she began recording music on tape recorders and cutting up rented videotapes she re-spliced them from her childhood home in El Monica, California. “[Those tapes] are probably still out there,” she says, “I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to do that.” She also went to an arts magnet high school for theater before continuing in Music Composition at Evergreen State College. She was a multimedia artist from the very beginning. And yet, her idols, such as John Cage, as well as the laid back town around her, are all about the collective. An openly gay artist, Meza doesn’t con- sider sexuality hugely relevant to her work but she is quick to remind you, both purposefully and subconsciously, that she is an unapologetic Chicana who creates art that speaks to the audience and creates a conver- sation of substance. Anything else, she says, “…is masturbation.” Meza got involved with PICA's Time Based Art Festival in 2009 when they asked her band, the quickly up-and-coming Explode into Col- ors, who had just won Willamette Week’s Best New Band, to play their late night venue The Works. But that wasn’t enough for her. Instead she wanted to curate the whole night, bringing together the varied talents of her band mem- bers, animated short stories she wrote in high school and sowed the seeds of what would be- come another big sound project in conjunction with PICA and Holocene called New Musics. This project featured a wordless opera and focused of sound above “music” in a way that paid homage to her Cagian idolatry. For this year’s TBA Meza takes her love of sound to various corners of the city with Sonic City PDx. She asked over 30 local musicians to iden- tify a place where they enjoy the ambient noise, anything from a gently rumbling freeway to Meza’s own favorite, an outdoor drumcore practice space under the Morrison Bridge next to the train tracks, and created a tour incorporating these locales. Using QR codes and online maps on your smartphone you can access the audio tour that encourages you to put down the device you just picked up and enjoy the acoustics of Port- land. you can discuss if this conjunction even makes sense when the 10-day installation takes one day to have a formal performance featur- ing contributing musicians. Daniel Menche, Luke Wyland (AU), Matt Carlson (Golden Retriever), Mary Sutton, Eric Mast (E*Rock), Holland Andrews (Like a villain), Thomas Thorson (Interiors x), and Meza. various Locations Free Admission All Ages September 6 through 16 (QR Code Tour) September 15 . 4-6 pm (Live Concert) soniccitypdx.tumblr.com September 2012
