Cacophony Daniels sings with a few members of the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps drum line. My favorite shot of the night! Click on any photo for a better view.
February's a rough month at work. There are multiple deadlines, all of which are important and none of which care about the existence of the others. Ends up involving a lot of long days at my desk.
One might even say February can be A DRAG!
So what better way to celebrate the end of the month than with WOOHOO! DRAG QUEEN BINGO!
My friend Gail, who's been having a great time with all sorts of music following her retirement last year, joined the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps four months ago as a piccolo player. They perform as a symphonic band during the wintertime, and then in the summer they morph into a marching band. For grownups! How much fun does that sound like?
And in keeping with that spirit of fun, their big winter fundraiser is a Drag Queen Bingo Night.
Gail had mentioned this on her Facebook page earlier in February, and I just grabbed onto the idea of celebrating the end of February with a good friend, a saucy entertainer in sequins and heels leading a corny old-fashioned game, and some yummy cocktails. Gail was happy to have me join her and although I'm not quite as done with the February grind as I'd hoped (had to get an extension on the last project), it was everything I'd thought it would be. Just so much fun!
It's funny, I am a theoretical fan of drag - I like the idea of a glammed-up performer skewering gender expectations, singing their heart out, and getting an audience laughing hard with bawdy jokes - but I'm not sure I've ever seen a drag performance live!
I do have one great memory from one of my summer evenings at the barge formerly known as Pier 63 Maritime (now Pier 66 Maritime) - there was a drag show fundraiser at the barge and at one point some naughty, naughty person on board the fireboat John J. Harvey started up the water cannons. The wind was blowing the spray from the display onto the barge, right towards a bevy of the evening's stars. They saw it coming (you may insert a salty drag queen joke there if you like, hee hee!) and started to run away as fast as they could in their glamorous gowns and towering heels. I threw my hands up in the air and shouted "Run, drag queens, run!" and one of them heard me and grinned and caroled out "RUN DRAG QUEENS RUN!" and a minute later there was a full stampede of drag queens squealing "RUN, DRAG QUEENS, RUN!"
My gosh, what a Pier 63 moment that was.
And what a blast I had last night. What a great spirit there was in that room - the band and friends of the band are a really nice and enthusiastic group, with so much love for their 41 year old organization. Great stuff! Walked out saying "How did I make it 52 years without ever going to Drag Bingo?" Looking forward to next year already, if not an earlier opportunity -- and I'll definitely be going to the Corps' Spring concert. Sounds like fun!
One might even say February can be A DRAG!
So what better way to celebrate the end of the month than with WOOHOO! DRAG QUEEN BINGO!
My friend Gail, who's been having a great time with all sorts of music following her retirement last year, joined the Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps four months ago as a piccolo player. They perform as a symphonic band during the wintertime, and then in the summer they morph into a marching band. For grownups! How much fun does that sound like?
And in keeping with that spirit of fun, their big winter fundraiser is a Drag Queen Bingo Night.
Gail had mentioned this on her Facebook page earlier in February, and I just grabbed onto the idea of celebrating the end of February with a good friend, a saucy entertainer in sequins and heels leading a corny old-fashioned game, and some yummy cocktails. Gail was happy to have me join her and although I'm not quite as done with the February grind as I'd hoped (had to get an extension on the last project), it was everything I'd thought it would be. Just so much fun!
It's funny, I am a theoretical fan of drag - I like the idea of a glammed-up performer skewering gender expectations, singing their heart out, and getting an audience laughing hard with bawdy jokes - but I'm not sure I've ever seen a drag performance live!
I do have one great memory from one of my summer evenings at the barge formerly known as Pier 63 Maritime (now Pier 66 Maritime) - there was a drag show fundraiser at the barge and at one point some naughty, naughty person on board the fireboat John J. Harvey started up the water cannons. The wind was blowing the spray from the display onto the barge, right towards a bevy of the evening's stars. They saw it coming (you may insert a salty drag queen joke there if you like, hee hee!) and started to run away as fast as they could in their glamorous gowns and towering heels. I threw my hands up in the air and shouted "Run, drag queens, run!" and one of them heard me and grinned and caroled out "RUN DRAG QUEENS RUN!" and a minute later there was a full stampede of drag queens squealing "RUN, DRAG QUEENS, RUN!"
My gosh, what a Pier 63 moment that was.
And what a blast I had last night. What a great spirit there was in that room - the band and friends of the band are a really nice and enthusiastic group, with so much love for their 41 year old organization. Great stuff! Walked out saying "How did I make it 52 years without ever going to Drag Bingo?" Looking forward to next year already, if not an earlier opportunity -- and I'll definitely be going to the Corps' Spring concert. Sounds like fun!
Ooh sparkly!
Me and Gail and our evening's fabulous hostess,Cacophony Daniels. Oooh, she's sparkly too!
Opening number
Getting ready for the first game
There were fun musical prizes for each game - this one was for everyone's inner hippy: bongo drums and a pair of finger cymbals.
Calamity introduced a variety of games. This one was called "L is for Lesbian".
The corps' Chairman of the Board managed to steal a little of Cacophony's thunder. Maybe that made up for the drum line giving her a little more thunder than she'd expected earlier. Her song with the drum line only lasted a minute because they were drumming with such vigor that she couldn't hear her music (she said "I didn't think this one through very well!") but it was fun while it lasted!
Closing out the evening with a love song
Everybody dance! A great ending to a great night.
5 comments:
Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun.
It was!
That looks like so much fun!
Just what you needed! And just what we needed to hear about! It sounds like so much fun! I hope it swept away some of that February 'blah'!
Totally! Still looking forward to being done with the unfinished report but that was just the best thing I could've done for myself last week.
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