Jamie Faye Fenton's Blog |
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This page covers Jamie's life as a transgender journalist and personality. |
Friday, February 28, 2003
A listing of regular drag shows at San Francisco Bay Area venues My friend Rys is a fan of the The Faux Girls, who perform regularly at Marlena's. Their web site includes a links page listing the other regular shows in town. I have produced and directed several cabaret (meaning small) drag shows myself for Transgender San Francisco, working with Tianna DeVil, Alexis Miranda, Lulu Blau, and many others. I find show biz to be intensely exciting. I usually work behind the scenes, but had an absolutely wonderfull time as a contestant for Miss Transgender San Francisco 2000. I do find it hard to sit down during a show - I just have to get up and dance. Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Deanna wrote a terrific summary running down all the TG night life in the Bay Area ... and posted it to TG Party Girls I am quoting it here: Diva's, 1081 Post St. Open 7 nights a week with the most beautiful TS's in the city. It is a working girl's bar, so if that turns you off, it may not be the place for you. There are 3 floors open on weekends and the dance floor is to die for. Sundays and Mondays...not much happening in the city on those nites...anyone else have some suggestions? Some t-girls meet at the Matrix in the Marina on Sunday nites. Tuesdays...Trannyshack at the Stud Bar on Harrison and 9th Sts. Late arriving crowd around 11 PM and show at midnight. Wednesdays...members of this group and others meet at Tinker's Damn in San Jose...about 50 miles south and an hour's drive from SF. Also, Bondage a Go Go at the Cat Club on Folsom and 8th Sts. Just a few trannys, but a wild fetish dance club. Thursdays...N'Touch on Polk and Sacramento has a drag show...only 2 or 3 T-girls in the show tho....the rest is mostly a male strip show. Fridays...best time for Diva's (no cover for trannys before 11 PM...$10 afterwards) and also Club Rendezvous on Polk and Bush Sts. where Cockatelia hosts drag shows at 10:30 and midnight. Saturdays...Marlena's on Hayes and Octavia has drag shows on certain Saturdays of the month. Asia SF is a restaurant/dance club with TG waitresses who perform on the bar! It's at 9th and Howard Sts. Power Exchange is a sex club catering to TG's and their admirers Thursday thru Sunday. TG's are admitted free. It's a block west of Mission and South Van Ness. And San Francisco being what it is, trannys are welcome almost everywhere in town. A couple of favorite mixed clubs are Martuni's (a piano bar) on Market and Valencia and the Lush Lounge (Wednesday is cabaret night with singers from the stage shows) at Polk and Post Sts. Enjoy your visit to our little city by the bay! Deanna Monday, February 24, 2003
Alfred Mele's notion of a Default Responsibility Principle: "If no one else is responsible for your being in state A, you are." (snarfed from http://www.reason.com/rb/rb021903.shtml) Saturday, February 22, 2003
How to avoid injury or death when dancing in a crowd The two recent tragic events in Chicago and Rhode Island remind us that being in a large crowd in a small space can be very dangerous. Fortunately there is some information on the web that we can use to "Be Prepared" - which is both the Boy Scout and Girl Scout motto. Crowd Management Strategies - crowdsafe for rock, rap, rave, public safety and crowd control. WWW.CROWDSAFE.COM is the first website dedicated to improving crowd safety at music events worldwide. It is the brainchild of Crowd Management Strategies, a unique consulting firm and clearinghouse for information. This site has an extensive database on adverse events at concerts and parties worldwide. A pamphlet on crowd safety published for an event in Denmark includes the following suggestions: If you find yourself trapped in a crowd or pushed in a surge, try to escape by moving away from the direction of the crushing force. This can often be achieved with patience and skill. Do not resist the force of the crowd. However, whenever a lull develops, move in the direction of the least resistance. This will likely be a diagonal or lateral move away from the origination of the crush force. Repeat this process until you are out of danger. If you fall and you cannot get up then you may want to protect your head and bring your legs close to your body. Immediately help others who have fallen or are lying down. Remain calm and alert. Help calm the anxiety and panic of others through conversation or non-verbal communication. Several sources mention that in an emergency, it is common for everyone to head for one exit, jamming it, while other exits are barely used. It is wise to locate all the alternatives before trouble starts. This goes double for an underground party of any type where the emergency planning might be poor or nonexistent. Listen to your intuition - if something is making you feel uncomfortable, chances are you really are unsafe and you should gather your friends and leave. For example, I deal with the crowds at Trannyshack by either staying near the entrance and watching the show on TV, or if I want to get in close, by staying near "stage right", where there is a fire exit. I also try and get there early so I have room to dance. Thursday, February 20, 2003
Several web pages dedicated to how to dance with LED lights I am becoming rather notorious as a rave light collector. Perhaps someday I will gain skill as a performer too! Last night I came up with a trick with the Purple/UV Photon II. I put it in my mouth and let the light shine through my teeth! Another Jamie trick is to light up my cocktail by hiding a light in a napkin at the base of the glass. Here are several web sites dedicated to teaching performance moves. Dancing with Micro-Lights Lights, or as I like to call them, lights, are little LEDs *light emitting diodes* that are commonly placed in a plastic shell for ease of use. They are usually about an inch or two long, and are powered by lithium watch batteries (cr2016s and cr2032s being most common). They come in a variety of colours and have a variety of uses. Amongst these uses are dancing, lighting dark paths, and trying to find where you put the remote in the middle of the night when you find yourself stuck watching re-runs of "I Love Lucy". They look really cool because of human beings' obsession with shiny and colourful things (everyone has it). That, and the illusions they can leave. A floating light is fascinating, a light trail is even more fascinating. Some magicians use lights in their acts, lights within fake plastic thumbs which they can change the colour of and dispatch at their will (this, in fact, is how I got started). Many people get interested in lights because of friends or public scenes. Id est, their friends get interested in the power that is an LED and it passes on, or they go to a club or other social gathering and see someone performing with lights. The best part of lights is, if you can think it, you can probably do it. Make a light go through your body, out your ear and bounce off of your fingertips? It can be done. Photon Tricks Animated Photon Tricks My pics are pretty self-explanatory, but if you don't look closely even they can fool you! I don't take credit for inventing all of these moves, I'm just cataloging them for the world to learn by. Thanks to all inspirations! The manufacturer of the Photon Lights has a discussion board about dancing Dancing Photons Forum for those of you dancing and playing with your Photons, this forum is for discussion of techniques, moves, etc. Included among the topics are numerous pointers to other web sites about this subject. Monday, February 17, 2003
Electroluminescent Wire Art A year or so ago, I created several art objects using electroluminescent wire from an outfit called Cool Neon. These included a illuminated martini glass and a glowing drawing of a stripper from a classic neon sign. Here are images of each.   The stripper sign, which is roughly 14" x 22", is called "Didi Mau" and is named after a local TG personality that loves doing classic striptease acts. Unfortunately it was stolen from me at a party at the Club Ibiza Motel near Oakland Airport last fall. Art theft is the highest form of flattery. Update on Lannie's Genital Repurposing Surgery They finished around 1:30 and I picked her up around 3 and I took her over to the the Menlo Park Surgical Hospital. (MPSH is on Willow Road between 101 and Coleman). Lannie was pretty wiped out, as you would expect. After two hours on the morphine machine and a visit from our friend Benji, Lannie perked up and her sense of humor came back on with full force. The staff at the surgical center told me that Lannie did very well and should recover easily. I will check in on her tomorrow. I took my best friend in for her GRS earlier today. Her name is Elaine Rose. In the past several years, we have had almost every imaginable adventure together. Welcome to my bio page. Here's a little bit about me, Elaine Rose. First of all, just call me Lannie, that's easier. ("Laaan - ni", as in "Lannie the Trannie!") I'm a transsexual woman living in Silicon Valley, California. I cross-dressed for many years, but I began living as a woman full time just recently.. December 23, 2001 to be exact. Hurray! At 6:30 this morning, I drove Lannie up to a small surgical facility just of El Camino Real in Palo Alto to have her GRS done. GRS means "Gender Reassignment Surgery", which is the currently fashionable way of designating "Vaginoplasty by Penile Inversion", or what the unwashed masses call a sex change. Even GRS is a little misleading, as Lannie has always regarded her gender as feminine - she likes using the phrase "Genital Repurposing Surgery". She wrote an essay anticipating today's events which she circulated last night and handed to the doctor just before they wheeled her into the OR, smiling. Here is a fragment: I was born woman, nearly half a century ago. I was born a baby, as we all are. Flesh moulded around seeds of goodness, kindness, even greatness. As we all are. What kind of person a child becomes depends on many things. The best results obtain when the child is raised in harmony with her true nature, her true self. Only then can the seeds flower to their full potential. I was raised with good values, discipline, and lots of love. Many fine qualities flourished in me. But there was a problem. A big one. A vital part of my true nature--my gender--was terribly misinterpreted. I was raised as a boy, and I lived as a man. I could not reach my full potential. I could not find happiness or meaning in life. A couple of years ago I discovered the dreadful mistake. I set about correcting it. I was like a topiary twisted and pruned into a grotesque shape. I began untwisting and reshaping my psychic limbs. Fortunately I was not fatally damaged, and I quickly sprang into my natural and beautiful shape. For over a year I have lived as woman. As I was born. As I shall live the rest of my life... The office will call me at 2:00 PM or so and let me know how it went. Then I will take her to a recovery facility nearby where she will rest for several days. Sunday, February 16, 2003
Wonder Cloth Removing makeup after a night out is always a chore. I picked up a Wonder Cloth recently and have been using it. It really works, and it does not take up much space if you are traveling. Here is a blurb from their website: Wonder Cloth removes makeup instantly, while gently exfoliating the skin. Wonder Cloth is all natural, has a soft,velvety feel, and rinses completely clean in water - no stains remain! Wonder Cloth is economical and can be used again and again. Friday, February 14, 2003
Why DJs play strange music now and then If you go out dancing often, like I do, you are probably puzzled as to why every now and then the DJ puts on something that does not seem to make any sense at all. Actually, chances are he or she did it on purpose. Why? - a pretty good explanation comes from the book "How to be a DJ" by Chuck Fresh. Its in a section on page 66 called "Rotating the Dance Floor". In clubs, you can watch the bars, watch the room, and watch the dance floor. Know when the bar is sluggish, and know you can do something about it. This is a perfect opportunity to throw one of those curve balls. Take a chance by playing a ballad, showing some short funny video clip, initiating a promotion, or just playing a really wierd song that you would never expect to hear in a club. The dance floor will probably clear, and people will probably stare at you for an instant. But all of a sudden the bar and the dance floor will both be busy again! I call this the "incremental drink program". Customers are buying another drink they may have skipped had I not changed the programming so drastically. Around San Francisco, the usual way this is done is by switching from Deep House to Hip Hop, or making some other programming rotation that some in the crowd love and others don't. By flip-flopping they can keep the bar busy and the dance floor busy all night. Thursday, February 06, 2003
Jamie has enjoyed playing with LED jewelry and "Glow in the Dark" toys for several years. An excellent list of vendors of such devices can be found in Open Directory - Shopping: Toys and Games: Novelty: Glow in the Dark It all started several years back when I made some LED jewelry of my own. I wrote an article about how I did it which has been seen by many. I have even gotten email from several girl scout troups which has done this as a craft activity. One outfit with good stuff (and reasonable prices) is Glowspace.com of Ontario, Canada. Hi! Welcome to The GlowSpace, where fun is a Snap!™ We've been expecting you! We are your one stop online shop for quality glow light sticks, glow necklaces and jewelry, battery operated novelty items, and Photon Micro-Light LED flashlights. We specialize in providing our glow products at wholesale prices, shipping them worldwide, and focusing on giving our customers outstanding service! Someday I will have to organize my collection and post a roster. Since I take these things to parties, I sometimes lose them or wind up giving something away - which is always part of the fun. Wednesday, February 05, 2003
A writeup about Dish's party is running today Mercury News | 02/05/2003 | 'Tranny' Santa Cruz mailman retires after 23 years. A quote from the article by David Beck: He prefers ``tranny'' to the term cross-dresser, which he calls stodgy, and says the wearing of women's clothes is his second-favorite hobby, after backpacking in the Sierra. In T-shirts and jeans he may be a ``dowdy little man,'' said Allen. But when he dresses up, he can have a little fun, with his collection of wigs, thrift-shop chic and size-11 pumps. Why? His short answer is, why not? ``Put it this way,'' he said. ``I don't know any trannies who have quit and are happy -- who aren't miserable. It's a little easier for younger ones to come out. Back in my generation, we'd have purges -- get disgusted, throw everything away, say, `That's it!' '' All you were doing, though, was ``making yourself miserable. And you've thrown away your whole wardrobe. ``I did that twice. But around 1979, '80, I decided, `You know what? This is what I . . . am.' '' The TG Party Girls Lannie, Rys, Michelle, and I all made it to this event, initially reported in the 1/19 entry here. (Usually links to Merky News articles die in a week, so don't be surprised by a 404 later). |
