Flyin' at the Mayan: A Recap

It's that time again, and not a moment too soon: Last Wednesday, June 21, I was privileged enough to witness the spectacle that is... Lucha VaVoom!



The theme of this edition of LVV was "Flyin' at the Mayan", referring to the historic Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the home of Lucha VaVoom. The show is produced by my sister, the artist sometimes known as Ursulina.

Once again, I am lame for not having pictures to share -- but it's not for the usual reason. This time, I actually remembered to bring my camera; but unfortunately, due to circumstances way too complicated to go into here, my posse and I were forced to sit in the balcony. That's too great a distance in too dark a room for my weak camera to handle. Mea culpa.

The lack of pics is a particular shame, becase many of the acts were brand-new...SO new, that you're not likely to find pictures of them anywhere.

Most notable on the burlesque portion of the bill was the new duo of Gypsy Roze and Sweet Leighdy. These brave women in frilly gold bikinis performed a death-defying duet while hanging from a suspended metal hoop. And when I say "suspended", remember that I was 20 feet above stage level in the balcony, and they were directly opposite me, often hanging onto the slippery hoop with only one hand each.

This was a genuinely dangerous routine, and the performers pulled it off with incredible skill and grace. Yet they were SO vulnerable, that I was almost more scared than turned-on.

The same ladies also did a bang-up job as the corner girls for the great Mistico!

Also much appreciated were the performances by the luscious Lola La Cereza, Rocket Saffire, and Moana Satana.

Somewhat disappointingly for this fan, the Poubelle Twins (see their permanent link in the menu to the right) were in another "unannounced" match. The lights came up after a burlesque number, and next thing you know, the Poubelles jumped into the ring along with their nemesis Cry Baby and her partner (whose name I didn't catch, because the match was unannounced!!). Not that they weren't spectacular as always, it's just that these unannounced matches can be confusing for the audience, which could make them lose interest -- and THAT is unacceptable! If only I were a close relative of the show's producer, I could provide some feedback about this...

Appearing on the wrestling card were such luminaries as Los Gallineros (The Chickens), Human Tornado, Chilango, Cassandro, and the "Mini's" Tsuki and Mascarita Sagrada. And in a strange twist, the L.A. crowd showed their true colors by rooting for the Rudos (bad guys) Shamu Jr. and El Chupacabra, in their tag-team match. Must be because the lizard made his debut in the Mayan.

Keeping the crowd entertained as usual were color commentators Blaine Capatch and Tom Kenny (yes, the guy who does the voice of Spongebob), making a difficult job look effortless.

You know, as a Los Angeles resident I'm proud to add this mashup of Mexican masked wrestling and burlesque to the long list of innovations "invented here". Rest assured that I will stay on top of this phenomenon and report back to you for as long as I can.


Everything you need to know about
Lucha VaVoom in one photo!

Happy Birthday to Me

Yeah, it was yesterday, June 22.

Who the hell is late with their OWN VANITY BIRTHDAY GREETING?!?

*Sigh* -- Me, that's who. Is it even still a vanity greeting if it's late? A query for the ages.

In honor of my birthday, I will share with the world the magic that is Hasselhoff. If you haven't seen it today, then you haven't seen it! Click below!

"Hooked on a Feeling"

The Hoff rollin' deep.

No Comment

I'm sure that 50 million other bloggers are posting this today, but...

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis



Click here if you (understandably) need a larger version to read.

Kate Bush: (Another) Whole Story

This just in:



I have finally updated the Special Artists section of femalefront.com to add a tribute to a very special artist indeed: The amazingly gifted Kate Bush.

I had originally intended "Special Artists" to be the main section of the website, but it turned out to be the one that I updated the least. The music from these artists is so meaningful to me, that it's difficult to properly express in writing, and Kate has been the biggest challenge so far; but I gave it a shot, and I think that the resulting wall o' text is testimony to her influence on me.

This particular tribute was prompted by my finally purchasing her long-awaited album Aerial (pictured above). One thing I didn't point out in the review was the amazing album cover. To me, it initially looked like what it is: A series of jagged rock formations rising out of a still lake, with a sky of honey reflected in the water. But if you look carefully, you'll see that the image also resembles a spectrograph -- a picture of sound waveforms, similar to how a heart monitor graphs cardiac activity. How fucking cool is that? (Rhetorical.)

So, if you're brave enough and have lots of free time, click here to go directly to the article; or here for the "Special Artists" section's main page.

Retrospect: It Is Decidedly So

Mere hours after (re)launching Female Front radio, I was contacted by Charlene, the singer and guitarist for a band out of England called Retrospect, who were looking for promotional outlets for female-fronted bands. How's THAT for results?! So, I guess my little re-branding idea worked? Could be.

Anyway, for being the FIRST band to contact the new station, I promised Charlene a plug in this blog, and a spot on the Female Front playlist (coming as soon as they can ship their CD halfway around the world). So check out Retrospect's Myspace page, which has four tracks available for your listening pleasure. I especially like "No not now", for its melody and some nice riffage from Charlene.

And I can't fault anyone who respects the Magic 8-Ball. Will Retrospect be a successful act? Signs point to yes!

(God, that was awful. Sorry.)

Just to give you an idea of what a Retrospect gig is like, here's a photo of drummer Andrea, Charlene, and bassist Rich loosening-up. Yeah, but you should see them when they've been drinking.




So, cheers to Retrospect, and thank you for contacting Female Front! Here's wishing you the best of success.

FEMALE FRONT: The Re-Branding of ESTROGENIUS

And now, for our first post: A repeat! (copied from the previous blog space).

ESTROGENIUS Internet Radio went on the air in June 2001 with one mission: To provide exposure to under-played and under-appreciated female artists and vocalists. Not to get sappy or anything, but it has been my incredible honor to have dealt with so many talented artists, and even the occasional listener. (Kidding! It's, er, always this slow during the summer.)

Five years on, I felt like it was time for a bit of a shake-up. The music has been stronger than ever, but I thought that I could somehow be serving it better. Thus, I decided to re-brand and re-launch the station with a new identity: FEMALE FRONT.

What is Female Front? As I describe on my homepage (also re-branded, but still available at the same old links you always had, and now also at the convenient http://www.femalefront.com/), it's a pun so bad, I had to share it with everybody on earth. I mean, a triple-entendre? How could I pass that up?!

Since I couldn't very well change all of that without also changing the blog, here's the important news as far as this space is concerned: It is moving to a new Blogger address.

Please bookmark http://femalefront.blogspot.com, as this is where the blog will be continuing. The previous version (http://estrogenius.blogspot.com) will remain up as an archive, and as a handy way to redirect everyone who keeps forgetting to bookmark the new address. There are permanent links to the previous blogs located in the menu to the right.

To all of the artists and repeat listeners, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are two of the reasons why I do this (the third being myself, because I really need something other than corporate radio to listen to). And if you're a first-time visitor, thank you for stopping-by; I hope you check out the station and enjoy it.

Oh, and the blog will still be called "Minor Notes", because that's another annoyingly cute play on words that I've come to like, and because all of this shit is confusing enough as it is.