Audrey Kawasaki: Manga meets Art Nouveau

Audrey Kawasaki is a very precise painter, utilizing bold, beautiful, sharp line-work and slight shading to communicate female figures. And though I don't favor her delicate style, I do favor her subject matter and materials. Audrey primarily paints on wood, depicting seductive females, sometimes alone, sometimes interacting with another, floating in a serene realm. However, that's not to say these figures exist blissfully, or that she intends the "realms" to be serene. In fact, there's something disturbing about them. And in the case of works like the one depicted second to last below, I kind of wish Audrey would take the whimsical and morbid a few steps further... But that's just me.

 http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/index.php

I really need to digress again...

As some of you may know, I posted about HooRooRook 3 days ago, and I mentioned my parents finding it at Super H Mart in Doraville, GA. Well... after getting lost several times on my bike in the Georgia heat wearing my new suede-backed vintage vest (thank heavens I'm from the deep south)... I found Super H Mart and took a gander for myself. It comes as no surprise that all my parents had to tell me was the produce was good-looking--they're easily distracted (it's endearing, I admit). Super H Mart, in a few words, is Sam's Club on some serious crack.

TO START! They're produce section is fly. It takes up 1/3 of the store. If my parents can go through an entire, big-ass store and the one thing that sticks out most in their minds is the very first thing that they saw, then word. Not to mention, they had $0.79/lb. Gala Apples and 24 oz. plastic containers filled to the top in cut pineapple for $1.99... What? I said they had 24 oz. plastic containers filled to the top in cut pineapple for $1.99. Feel free to take a minute cause I'm just getting started.

MOVING ONWARD! As noted above, I'm from the deep south. I love meat. It's true that living in Rhode Island for nearly 5 years has made me more of an omnivore, and I'm proud of that. Nothing like reducing health risks with veggies. But one reason for less meat in my diet was the price of it. Yeah, well, try the healthiest looking chicken you've ever laid eyes on for $1.99/lb. Chicken is nearly, if not more than, $4/lb. at your average grocery store. Walmart will have it cheaper. Regardless, all these stores' meat look sickly compared to H Mart. No yellow flesh and gooey excess here! Also, there's affordable, gorgeous seafood everywhere. Huge salmon fillets for $7.99. However, if you're sensitive to raw fish heads, frozen cow heads wrapped in plastic wrap and large bottles of frozen beef blood, you might want to steer clear of this section.

AND FINALLY! Super H Mart is a korean mart, yes. But it's more accurate to say that Super H Mart is an ethnic foods mart (indeed, on crack). If you're looking for kitchen-ware, and name brand cereals, condiments, seasonings, sausages, canned goods, hygienic products, etc., you have plenty of options to choose from. The rice section, in true people-of-color fashion, is so large that it stretches from before to after the cashier counters. And of course they had a 25 lb. bag of thai jasmine rice for $19.99. I mean... why the hell not, right? Swad indian spices (no madras curry though, womps). Tabasco hot sauce. Louisiana Hot Sauce. Tropicana. Jarritos sodas. An entire isle dedicated to italian/american-style noodles. A ton of campbell's soup... not sure what that's about. Candies from all over the asian world. Name-brand hair and skin products. Anything under the sun that's been dried: peppers, little fishies, things i've never seen before.

Jk! I'm not finished. There's a food court at the end of the store, and I'm not talkin' Mickey-D's. I'm talkin' 5 restaurants and plenty of sushi and stir-fry to go around. After that, a jewelry shop half-dedicated to Hello Kitty. Then, a futon/fancy massage tables shop. Then a furniture shop with a beautiful chinese medicine cabinet for $350 (I have my eyes on it, don't you worry). And then refrigerators? Yup. One designed especially to store kimchi. Ok, now I'm finished.

It has dawned on me that Super H Mart is not just versatile in it's food selections. It's also versatile in who it's serving. Unlike Sam's Club, you don't need a fancy membership or awkward hours, depending if you're a business or personal shopper. Super H Mart serves both, and obviously caters to various types of asian restaurants. Holla, Super H Mart. I SEE YOU!

IndieQueer Multiracial Cinema

IndieQueer Multicultural Cinema presents

GLADD "Outstanding Documentary" Nominee

U People (Directed by Hanifah Walidah and Olive Demetrius)

Screening will include a brief discussion following the film lead by Director Hanifah Walidah and cast member Red Summer.

Tickets $13 - Limited Seating
Advanced Tickets available at http://upeople.eventbrite.com/

[U People is an accidental documentary where an entire cast and crew of 30 gay, straight women and trans folks of color were caught on camera behind the scenes of a not so typical music video shoot. What the camera caught will introduces a strong, candid and very human voice into the discussion of gay and straight relations and the diversity within the minority.]

[Indiequeer Multicultural Cinema is an Atlanta based monthly film series aimed at providing positive, artistic and accurate depictions of LGBTQ community. The series will promote films and filmmakers addressing matters of LGBTQ life, expressly matters pertaining to multicultural affairs. Each film showcased will be accompanied by a film overview and discussion lead by the filmmaker, producer and/or cast member(s).
For more information email indiequeercinema@gmail.com]

When: September 19, 2010 from 5pm to 7:30pm
Location: The Historic Plaza Theater, 1049 Ponce De Leon Avenue Northeast

Nightlife: Providence

Providence, RI, is a swell place, but not for everyone. If you're young, hip, with-it and looking for queer women of color, you will definitely find a little more than a handful. The issue remains: will you find a handful that's also your type. AND FURTHERMORE! Among those who are your type, will you be their type, too? If you're like me and you linger in the middle in terms of your gender expression, you'll definitely have a hard time--if not at first, then later. In my experience, couples in the clubs comprised of butch+femme, femme+femme, and butch+butch relationships. I, for one, need ambiguity. I, for one, did not find it. In fact, after dating 6 (yes, only 6) women, the incestuousness of dating in a small community started to really become an issue. Truthfully, it started to become an issue at 3, but I digress.

For those of you taking up residence in Providence, find a keeper and hold onto her tight! For those of you who are committed/married and moving to Providence, I think you'll have a groovy time. And for those of you passing through, you have nightlife options: Gallery and Platforms on Saturdays, and Lot 401 on Sundays.

Gallery is 21+, primarily for women and a mixed crowd. In all my life, I've seen one out and proud Native woman, and she was at Gallery, dancing her ass off... MC Hammer style, and rocking a jean jacket with a wolf/native design on the back and a feather in her hair. Made my night. Platforms is 18+, super QPOC (queer people of color) and unless it's overrun by Brown students, the crowds tend to be less friendly than Gallery, in my experience. And finally, Lot 401 (21+) has gay salsa night on Sundays. It's a great venue if you want to dance the night away with whomever your heart desires.

Lot 401                    Platforms                    Gallery
44 Hospital St.      165 Poe St.                  150 Point St.
02903                      02905                          02903

Where my ladies at?

It's a conundrum: where do queer women of color go? How do you find them?! And then I thought about it... and I'm one of those queer women of color who's hard to find. I don't particularly like going to the club. In true lesbian fashion, I prefer to have beers with the girls and in true southern-black fashion, there's nothing more satisfying to me than a shindig. I'm not an easy person to get to know, either. This lead me to a few conclusions:

1) LGBTQ ladies of color are hard to find because many of us just don't like to make "our business" known.

2) We might not be in the club because we just straight up don't club! I know quite a few queer women of color who, frankly, don't like to club. It's a chore, a tiresome sustenance to our sex lives.

3) You have to know people to know where we go. Networking is essential because where to go might not be a public place but rather, a residence or fleeting private event.

It's a sad truth to live with but the only solution to the problem I can offer is to meet people. Constantly meet people! And do your damnedest to not fall prey to small community syndrome. Keep it fresh, ladies, keep it fresh! Nothing sucks more than becoming best friends with your only options...

The Clothing Warehouse: Atlanta

I'm one of those people who constantly needs to evolve. After every summer during my school days, there was something different worth noting about me. Dated a girl and it didn't work out? Change the hair. Feeling trapped in my own closet? Buy something I wouldn't normally wear. Fashion-wise, I've always had an idea of what I'd like my wardrobe to look like but have never really had the time, money or resources to make it a reality. And finally(!), I've found a place that will suit my needs... for now. In my foray into gay Atlanta, I happened upon Little Five Points, and the fabulous thing about this small gay neighborhood is its plethora of vintage/secondhand/urban clothing stores (not to mention the Afrocentric stores, pizza parlors, and a swell feminist bookstore). And let me tell you, there are things I really missed about the south... like really... It's cheaper to be here.

And that brings me to my great find! My starting piece that will launch me into a beautiful world of quirks and cross-dressing! My new vest:

It appears to be homemade, which is great because that will just help me when I'm ready to buy a sowing machine and start making my own damn clothing. Let's face it, looking good is very expensive. Unless, of course, you live in the south; then, it's just kind of expensive. I got this piece from The Clothing Warehouse for $26.

Little Five Points: The Clothing Warehouse

She Hate Me [****]

A trippy flick, to say the least. She Hate Me, a Spike Lee joint, has an Enron-type plot. And for a while, I thought this movie would be about corporate corruption, and teach the age old lesson that “white don’t dirty white.” But in true Spike Lee fashion, the plot took me places I never imagined it would go.

Alex (Dania Ramirez) and Fatima (Kerry Washington) in She Hate Me 

She Hate Me really is about corporate corruption. But more importantly, it’s about doing the right thing… and lesbians. John Henry “Jack” Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) is a miserable man, and it all starts when his friend commits suicide, and leaves behind a video journal detailing the shady behavior of the biotech company that they both work for. Soon after anonymously reporting corruption to the ethics bureau, Jack gets fired for whistle-blowing and his former-bosses sic the law on him to take the fall. This is further exacerbated by his ex-fiancée (Kerry Washington) who convinces him to become a baby-making machine for lesbian couples at an enticing $10,000 a try; and all of this is ultimately topped off by his incarceration. Wild? I’d say so. But just wait ‘til you see the end...

Ramen wishes

Disclaimer: this is off-topic. But to those of you who know me personally (and well, at that) know that deep down, I'm a fatty at heart. And so naturally, I couldn't resist posting this.

I recently moved to Atlanta. I'm jobless, broke and am trying to start an MSG (monosodium glutamate) free diet. MSG is the devil, and the FDA doesn't require manufacturers to put MSG in the ingredients label if it doesn't exceed a certain percentage. It can effect short term memory, can increase cramping in women during menstruation, cause severe headaches, promote weight gain, so on and so forth. What all this means: I pretty much have to shop at Trader Joe's to get many of my foods. Translation: groceries will be ridiculously expensive.

But not all is lost. In my parents' foray to find the nearest Walmart to my apartment, they ran across Super H Mart. And what a find it was! H Mart is a Korean emporium that, according to my parents (who grew up in rural areas, mind you), had the most beautiful produce they've ever seen. But perhaps even better than that: HooRooRook! HooRooRook is Ramen on crack, with NO MSG!, lower (stress on "-er") sodium levels, and... better flavor? That's right! It tastes better! The whole experience was quite mystifying. When I opened the package, the noodles were in a flat circle instead of a square, and there were three flavor packets instead of one. One of the packets even had a slew of veggie bits... and not carrots and peas like Cup Noodles... I'm talkin' zucchini, onion, seaweed, red pepper, ginger etc. And on top of all that, the noodles aren't mushy! What? Delicious.

$1/pack, people. I feel lied to.