The SPECTACLE’s art auction is AMAZEBALLS!

Hey!!!! Know what’s exciting about the SPECTACLE? EVERYTHING! Really! But right at the moment I am all revved up about our dynamite art auction! The art auction is a really important component of of annual fundraiser. I’m always blown away by the incredible pieces that are donated to us – Nan Goldin, Cathy Opie, Xyler Jane, Richard Hell – and this year it’s no different! The art auction brings in a major part of the money we need to make the Radar LAB writer’s retreat happen, AND it’s an awesome way to bring seriously brilliant art to the RADAR audience for a fraction of what it goes for in the marketplace. It’s also a joy because auctioning art triggers the same part of Ali Liebegott’s brain that enjoys gambling, so she gets really high off it and it’s a good time for everyone. So, come ready to bid! Above is an AMAZEBALLS piece by Dynasty Handbag performance artist Jibz Cameron! (All art photos taken on the fly with my cell phone – dig it!) I believe it is a weary, put-upon, hairy scrotum with bat wings; a worn-out, bad-boundaried superhero for out time! Look how bummed out Amazeballs looks, despite the triumphant banner beneath him and the little balloons of thanks and praise. With bidding starting at $50, this is a great gift for that handy person in your life who just CAN’T SAY NO!

When Tammy Rae Carland sidled up to Ali Liebegott’s truck and shadily handed over this gorgeous print, she said, “I feel like I’m making a drug deal!” Well, I felt giddy and high when I immediately tore into the wrapping and beheld this wonderful piece! The words HAPPY MOTHERS WE LOVE hanging from a ceiling against the backdrop of ornate pink vintage-y curtains – this photo just makes me really happy. It’s full of DIY family joyfulness and would be the sweetest, coolest Mom’s Day gift for a happy mother you love.

I blogged about Paul Madonna on MoMA’s Open Space blog after catching his fantastic show at the Electric Works gallery a couple years ago. Since then I’ve gotten way into his comics on SFgate and The Rumpus, had the wild pleasure of hosting him at RADAR and devoured his collected works in a City Lights collection. And now we have this giant, perfectly framed piece to auction off this evening. The above is just a detail of the larger piece – it’s a good size, an inky European landscape that tells a story of glamorous, literary ennui. My favorite kind of ennui! I love this piece!

Edie Fake is such a genius! The Gaylord Phoenix creator just showed some exuberantly sick work at our Chicago Sister Spit show some weeks ago, as well as designed our spectacular Sister Spit 2012 tour poster! And now he’s handed over this humble yet intricate piece that I am seriously salivating over. Don’t worry, I mopped up my drool. Edie Fake is the king of some new queer punk psychedelica that I am totally grooving on!

If you are not obsessed with Maira Kalman you just do not know her work. Educate thyself – she just illustrated Michael Pollan’s Food Rules her own books, And the Pursuit of Happiness and The Principles of Uncertainty are like falling down a rabbit hole of charm and whimsey and occasional tragedy – just like life but rendered so, so beautifully, in the brightest colors and with big heart. Maybe you caught her show last year at the Jewish Museum, or maybe you’ve just snagged her children’s book collaborations with Daniel Handler or David Byrne? We initially thought this sweet piece was an original watercolor (!) and lost our minds – rather, it is an incredibly high-quality, signed ink jet print that goes for $1,400 out there in the art market. I love this piece so much I got my nails done to match.

I know you are familiar with this iconic shot of our hero, Harvey Milk. Dan Nicoletta, the beloved photographer who shot this as a teen (and was later portrayed in Gus Van Sant’s biopic Milk) donated a print to our auction. It feels like not only a terrific piece of art but a real piece of history – and it is. I’m sort of jittery just sitting in the same room as it! What queer (or, like, totally awesome queer ally) wouldn’t want this hanging in their home?

That’s not all – as I type, Sara Thustra, one of my most favorite artists ever, is putting the finishing touches on a piece she’s making just for tonight. You know Sara, right? Check this out -

An installation at Needles and Pens. Sara Thustra is a world unto herself.

We’re also eagerly awaiting the UPS delivery of a piece by Amanda Kirkhuff, who we at RADAR are rabid for! Did you catch her incredible show at 2nd Floor Projects? It was mind-blowing! We don’t know what she’s sending it, we only know it will be a masterpiece.

Right? This one is called Waitress. Thank you, Amanda Kirkhuff. Okay, I got to run to Arizmendi Bakery and pick up a bunch of donated pastries for you bitches to snack on tonight! Oh – want to know some of what we’re raffling off? A bunch of books from MCSWEENEYS, multiple ACUPUNCTURE sessions, rentals from LOST WEEKEND, BURRITOS, gay flag dog blankets hand made by ALI LEIBEGOTT’S MOM, dog training classes from PAWSITIVE TAILS, gift cards from CLIFF’S VARIETY, gorgeous first editions from WAVE BOOKS, tote bags and books from CITY LIGHTS, a $75 gift card to BI RITE MARKET, PILATES or REIKI, a FRAMELINE membership, multiple family memberships to YBCA, 2 VIP season passes to HARD FRENCH, 2 year-long passes to PORCHLIGHT, and MORE! This is RADAR’s 4th-annual NO SEX TOYS raffle! We are very proud of ourselves, grateful to all who donated and psyched for the winner!

Okay, see you TONIGHT! There will be tickets AT THE DOOR, come on down!

SISTER SPIT presents ERIN MARKEY

I love Erin Markey so much, and if you don’t believe it read this essay I wrote about her for the San Francisco Film Society. I first checked her out when she traveled on the Sex Workers’ Art Show Tour, performing excerpts of her one-woman musical (yeah, musical) Puppy Love: A Strippers Tail, in which she erected a portable stripper pole and danced around it while singing poignant ballads to St. Bridgette in her amazing voice. By my count, Erin is a sextuple threat – a powerful singer, a whip-smart writer, a shockingly disarming performer, a hysterical comedian, a hypnotic  actress, and a dancer to boot. And she often serves up all of these talents in one piece, leaving you gasping for air and unsure if the tears in your eyes are from laughing so hard, or . . . something else. I can’t wait to hang out in the van with this lady, and I am really excited for the mandatory karaoke stops, and just beside myself with the excitement of getting to watch her do her thing every night for a month. I’m going to be in Erin Markey heaven, and so will you! Read on!

Michelle Tea: What is your zodiac sign?

Erin Markey: Leo Sun, Leo Rising, Aries Moon

MT: What is your favorite road snack?

EM: Apples and potato chips. I would say a soy latte but I know better than to expect a good one off the freeway. Though it’s a lesson I’m willing to relearn every single day we’re on the road.

MT: What was your first concert?

EM: The Vienna Boys Choir.

MT: What will you be doing on Sister Spit?

EM: Stuff from the musical TV series I’m spending every birthday wish on: The Dardy Family Home Movies by Stephen Sondheim by Erin Markey.

MT: What is your favorite state in the US?

EM: It is my lot in life to say Michigan.

MT: Your favorite US city?

EM: Kroger.

MT: What place have you never been that you’re excited to visit with Sister Spit?

EM: Iowa City. I just did a show with someone from Iowa and it kneaded a doughy part of my heart that ought to be put in the oven before it spoils.

MT: What book/s will you be reading in the van?

EM: I’m not gonna lie. I travel with Louise Hay because she’s a pocket mom. Also, I discovered Joan Didion really late in life when I got paid to decoratively paint the walls of her building’s lobby last summer. The doorman started telling me about when they wheeled her dead husband out on a stretcher after he had a heart attack and then a couple minutes after he told me that, Annie Leibowitz and her Vogue team came in to shoot her. I was wearing knee-length polyester softball shorts and had to pretend like I had faux-painted a million times before. I’m compelled to read everything she’s ever written now.

MT: Have you been on tour before? What was it like?

EM: Yes. With different plays and companies and with my own work, but the most intense and awesome time was with the Sex Workers Art Show Tour. It was sort of like the freeways of America were having a yogic breakthrough while we were coursing through their veins in a white cargo van. I made friends for life. I slept in a different double bed every night with the same outrageous, brilliant folks and dragged suitcases full of the stupidest, most fun costumes past Christian protesters in Virginia. Amber Dawn made her boob spray breast milk into a dance mirror in a rehearsal room. Lorelei Lee got into some serious arguments with folks in her dreams every night at 3am. Starbucks became the grossest beacon of hope and release. We all got matching travel mugs and Sharpied our names on them.  We all had the flu in Vegas but we just individually pretended to ourselves that we weren’t sweating with fever so we could play the slots and have an 8 billion star meal.  I learned how to paint my face. Or, actually, I just learned that I really, really should. So I really, really did, and I always ended up looking like a 2 X 3 glamour shot wedged into an electric socket.  There is a reverence I have that I cannot wrassle to the ground to answer this question. God bless the seat belt.

MT: How do you prepare for a performance?

MT: Mama sings so she’s gotta do her sirens and puppy whines and scales. I also try to just get my head in whatever game the circumstances of the piece have set up. The last show I did was a Tennessee Williams play about a Vietnam soldier on leave who kind of takes his PTSD out on his wife sexually. The wife ends up liking it a lot. But it’s complicated. of course. After the 40th performance it was harder to get in the zone. None of my old tricks were tricking me any more. (I was the wife.) So I organically and accidentally got to some insane place where I imagined Tony the Tiger assaulting me in alley right before I went out on stage. But it ended up making the show so much better for me. Honestly, the more I can get to some kind of absurdist idiot psychological arena, the more sincere and realistic I can be.

See Erin Markey with Sister Spit all through April, 2012!

Catch the San Francisco Kickoff Show April 1st at 2:00pm at the San Francisco Public Library – all ages and FREE!

For complete tour dates, go here: http://www.radarproductions.org/tour/

Meet the Intern! Introducing LENA BROOKS!

This is Lena, one of RADAR’s terrific new interns! You might have seen her taking care of business at Femina Potens events, or perhaps Occupying Berkeley in her sleeping bag. Lena is die-hard and committed! Let’s talk to her!