Police Brutality Strikes Fifth Anniversary of Sylvia Rivera Law Project

NEW YORK - On the night of Wednesday, September 26, officers from the
9th Precinct of the New York Police Department attacked without
provocation members of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and of its
community. Two of our community members were violently arrested, and others were pepper sprayed in the face without warning or cause.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (www.srlp.org) is an organization that works on behalf of low-income people of color who are transgender,
gender non-conforming, or intersex, providing free legal services and
advocacy among many other initiatives. On Wednesday night, the Sylvia
Rivera Law Project was celebrating its fifth anniversary with a
celebration and fundraising event at a bar in the East Village.


A group of our community members, consisting largely of queer and
transgender people of color, witnessed two officers attempting to
detain a young Black man outside of the bar. Several of our community
members asked the officers why they were making the arrest and using
excessive force. Despite the fact that our community was on the
sidewalk, gathered peacefully and not obstructing foot traffic, the
NYPD chose to forcefully grab two people and arrested them. Without
warning, an officer then sprayed pepper spray across the group in a
wide arc, temporarily blinding many and causing vomiting and intense
pain.

"This is the sort of all-too-common police violence and overreaction
towards people of color that happens all the time," said Dean Spade,
founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. "It's ironic that we were
celebrating the work of an organization that specifically opposes
state violence against marginalized communities, and we experienced a
police attack at our celebration."

"We are outraged, and demand that our community members be released
and the police be held accountable for unnecessary use of excessive
force and falsely arresting people," Spade continued.


Damaris Reyes is executive director of GOLES, an organization working
to preserve the Lower East Side. She commented, "I'm extremely
concerned and disappointed by the 9th Precinct's response to the
situation and how it escalated into violence. This kind of aggressive
behavior doesn't do them any good in community-police relations."

Supporters will be gathering at 100 Centre Street tomorrow, where the
two community members will be arraigned. The community calls for
charges to be dropped and to demand the immediate release of those
arrested.

*******
The Audre Lorde Project
Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit & Transgender

People of Color communities
85 So. Oxford St. * Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tel: 718-596-0342 * Fax: 718-596-1328
Web: www.alp.org * Email: alpinfo @ alp.org

It's a crime.

It's a crime that people are willfully ignorant of sexual diversity.
It's a crime that the police in New York attacked the Silvia Rivera Law Project.
It's a crime that graffiti art is illegal, an activity youth are often active in and that there isn't enough alternative space for.
It's a crime that Astria Suparak has been ousted from her position of director at The Warehouse Gallery, just as the Come On: Desire Under the Female Gaze show is on.
It's a crime that intolerance is alive and well in Montreal.
It's a crime that not enough folks know about our wee smut zine.
It's a crime that you don't know about this awesome stencil tutorial.
It's a crime that you can't see my pink lace panties under my dark clothes and balaclava.

A xo

Flasher Fetish Party this weekend! (for a good cause)

A friend of the Head & Hands Sense Project is hosting a “Flasher” Fetish party in the old port this Saturday with Plastik Patrick. There will be a costume contest, so wear your best trench coat and flash dance. I’ll have a cute Sense Project table with condoms, t-shirts and zines…flash for donations, maybe?

Here’s the deal:
Who? Davide 514-924-0687
Where? Club Cherry, 417 St-Pierre (Old Port)
How much? It’s $7 for guests and $15 at the door.
When: Saturday, Sept. 29th 2007 at 10pm

lickety split oddcast no. 4

Lickety Spliting Headache

When you wake up it is already dark and the world has a druggy bounce to it. Was it dark when you went to bed as well? You do not recall. Outside two men are smashing apart a small coffee table with big rubber mallets in the street, and the shows on TV don’t match those advertised in the guide. You’re happy to indulge yourself some more. You’re not even wearing socks.
In the darkness of the street only the traffic lights seems vivid and harsh. Everything else is flat. The people who pass are novelties, different animated characters in department store windows. Look at how their legs kick, so lifelike!
It is perhaps seven hours into your day before you speak aloud, and when you do no one is there to hear it. It is still exciting to do bad things in public places, and so you go out to do just that. But you’re only a rebel for a moment; and for most of the time you’re still dull ole regular you. Walking back home, you party alone until you are dizzy and go back to sleep. It is still dark. Or is it dark again?
Your lifestyle has made you very open-minded: everything bores you.

Lickety Split Oddcast no. 4

Side A
IN YOUR EARS

Featurin’

Donovan
Espers
R. Buckminster Fuller
Tim Hecker
Portishead
Skip Spence
Suicide
The Vague Angels
The Unicorns

***

Chance of a Lifetime, I Tells Ya!

"A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words."
Never have I felt more compelled to envy the lucky so and so who coined this incredibly apt yet decidedly overused phrase. Ultimately, this sexy pic of me atop a Hooters zamboni (omigod, I know!) will always be much more exciting than the actual event. But does this really matter? Of course not! What I will say, is that I now not only have a historical record proving my unwasted youth, but also a story about getting turned away from Greenfield Park's brand spanking new cultural establishment. Invite only or ten dollar cover? No, thank you, I think I'll go pimp your zamboni instead! Seriously, my overeducated brain just smolts with all the ontological possibilites. How many hooters zambonies are there? Do they ever actually go on the ice or are they forever doomed to be the ephemera of nice cold beer and a good view of a soothingly warm rack? What is the correct pluralization of the word zamboni, anyway? Pontificating aside, how jealous are you of me right now? My guess is a lot!

CONSUME: Sexy finds on Etsy.com!

Ah, yes. Th old type "sex" into the Estsy search engine and see what comes up trick! Here are a few things you might like. The above cards can be found here and are by thecraftydevils.


The painting above can be found here and it's by greenwing.

...and lastly, for today, here are a pair of earrings I'd love to rock:


xo

lickety split oddcast no. 3

LICKETY SPLIT IN YOUR EARS

you should totally download side b
hot! and annotated!

T.B SHEETS
i was playing this in the office the other day and of the new kid was all like "ahhh yess... t.b sheets,.. a clASSic!" and i stopped and stared at him with this pathetic expression on my face because he'd just casually labeled one of the most emotional songs in my life like he was naming bugs by their latin names. such detached appreciation. good god. everytime i listen to this song my girlfriend dies of tuberculousys and a little part of me crumbles to his knees. everytime.

PAT GARRETT
i like weird spacey noises and this is a damn good slab of that stuff. the magik markers came into the record store i work at to sell us their album and i put it on immediately while they wandered around for like 45 minutes which was really kinda weird now that i think about it

WE WILL BOMB YOU
i love the bassline in this song. plus i find it funny that you can play two modern oddpop bands on top of eachother and noone can really tell where one ends and the other begins.

WHO BY FIRE
i was walking down st. laurent street and a buncha people waiting for the bus all back away from some guy in a trenchcoat who i naturally look at and he looks so familiar that excitedly i blurt "holy shit it's mr. spock" to the giggles of everyone and he smirks and walks away and it was only a few blocks later that i realized it was leonard cohen and i was an idiot. meanwhile this song is so poignant it's probably what dying sounds like.

A DAY IN THE LIFE/ WEIRD FOLK STORY BY IKE REIKO
i like the idea of an alternate universe where the beatles live in japan all bloated and jam in pachinko parlours seven times a day, really just kinda joshing around and having fun, like the hamburg days, but in crazy old japan

LET IT WIN
more clipd beaks. i like songs that feel like places, and this is a good one. perhaps running out of gas in the mountains somewhere. thought the simmering guitar stuff underneath makes me believe its more like hard drugs and cruel war and alice in chains vigils

SLEEPWALK/ BAD CRAZINESS IN PALM BEACH (exert)
this is the point of the oddcast: synergy, that magic unpredictability of the assemblage of stuff

Lickety Split Oddcast No. 3
Side B

featurin'
The Beatles
Clipd Beaks
Leonard Cohen
Johnny & Santo
Magik Markers
Van Morrison
Ike Reiko
HST as read by Patrick Cadell


***

Support for Astria Suparak and The Warehouse Gallery

Astria Suparak is an awesome artist and curator who invited out our video program Daughters of Joy! down to NY state a few weeks ago. The work she has done over the last year as Director of the Warehouse Gallery in Syracuse, NY has been inspiring, contemporary and emerging artist driven. This week, we
have learned that Astria is being fired from her position. The
Syracuse arts community is stunned by this: faculty at Syracuse
University, local arts organizations, and artists in the area have
been thrilled by the great programs Astria has organized in her short
tenure at the Gallery, and feel she has contributed much to the city.
Astria is very professional in all her undertakings.
She has made strong connections in this community, and fostered great
dialogue. The only reasons we have been given for this decision, made
by Jeffrey Hoone, is that he is restructuring the Gallery to meet his
high standards. We do not know what these standards are, and feel
that The Warehouse Gallery has been very successful in bringing
important contemporary art to central New York.

If you feel comfortable in doing so, we ask you to write a letter to
the people listed below. As a member of a larger art community,
showing support for Astria and her fine work will help us to improve
arts programming in Syracuse, as well as allow Astria to continue to
contribute her talents to the art world at large. Below is an email
that is being circulated to as many people as possible. Please feel
free to send it to anyone you feel should know about this, or would
be willing to help.

You can see some of the letters that have
already been written on her behalf at http://syracuse-warehouse.blogspot.com/
-----------------
Dear All,

This past last week, I have learned that an exhibition of the social
activist artists The Yes Men, scheduled to open in November at The
Warehouse Gallery in downtown Syracuse, has been canceled by upper
management. When I inquired about the reasons for this decision, I
learned that CMAC (Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse
University) is planning personnel changes at The Warehouse Gallery,
and canceled this show because of the anticipated lack of continuity
in the staff.

What is most alarming about this is that it appears that Astria
Suparak, the current Director of the Gallery, is being forced out. If
you feel that the work that Astria has done is valuable, please take
the time now to let others know.

I am writing to urge you to show your support now for Astria and the
programs she has organized at The Warehouse Gallery (including Come
On: Desire Under The Female Gaze, Faux Naturel, Embracing Winter, and
Networked Nature, along with various screenings and events around
town). You can do so in a number of ways:


1) write a letter to the following people:

Jeffrey Hoone, Executive Director, CMAC, jjhoone@syr.edu

Nancy Cantor, Chancellor, ncantor@syr.edu

Eric Spina, Vice Chancellor/Provost, efspina@syr.edu

Carole Brzozowski, Dean of CVPA, Brzoz@syr.edu


Please write of any personal experience you have had, either in
working with Astria, attending exhibitions and events at The
Warehouse Gallery, and/or your thoughts on its programming thus far.

Some points you could make ( I offer these only as a things to think
about):

- The Warehouse Gallery is needed space for contemporary art. The
exhibitions it has offered have been important. This is due in a
large part because of the work of its current staff.

- The programming at the Warehouse Gallery has the support of people
on campus, and in the local as well as national/international arts
community. Astria has made strong connections with different
departments on campus, with local arts groups, and with national/
international artists.

- Astria Suparak is a young curator worth supporting. She has shown
her abilities to put together intelligent exhibitions of artistic and
social importance. See http://www.thewarehousegallery.org for details.

- The Warehouse Gallery has been a significant contributor to the
"cultural capital" of Syracuse, something that both the city and
University claim as being valued.

- It is important that CMAC, and its Executive Director Jeffrey
Hoone, as a powerful cultural entity, be responsive to those who care
about the arts and be transparent about decisions.


2) Write a letter to the Editor to the following papers (include your
address and daytime phone number):

--The Post-Standard letters@syracuse.com. In the "subject box,"
please type "Post-Standard letter."
The Readers' Page, Box 4915, Syracuse 13221.
Fax : 470-3081.

--The New Times: editorial@syracusenewtimes.com
Syracuse New Times Letters, 1415 W. Genesee St., Syracuse 13204
fax: 422-1721

--The Daily Orange: letters@dailyorange.com
The Daily Orange Corp.
744 Ostrom Ave.
Syracuse, NY 13210
(315) 443-2314

3) Attend the opening reception this Thursday at the Warehouse
Gallery, from 5-8 pm, to show your support. Refreshments provided.

4) Pass this email on to anyone you think would be interested in
issues concerning the growth and appreciation of dynamic,
contemporary art in Upstate New York.

Would you like a little Spanish Fly with your Kinsey? “A Cartoon Guide to the Kinsey Report.”

When famed father of “sexology” Alfred Kinsey released his bestsellers “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male” in ‘48 & “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female” in ‘53 who knew his revolutionary saucy statistical studies would fly off the shelves like aphrodisiacs & put the populace in a panic?

He was the subject of a self-titled Oscar-nominated movie in 2004, & underground film luminary Kenneth Anger said he would’ve made the best American president. But decades before all this post-mortem hubbub, cartoon editor Charles Preston gathered together a motley slew of mostly unremarkable gag cartoonists to fill up this quickie mainstream 1954 paperback response to the entomologist-turned-biologist’s controversial findings. And as the book’s intro implies, he tried to lighten the load; “if you’re a man are you interested in women? If you’re a woman are you interested in men? Do you wish that just for once someone wouldn’t take the whole business so seriously?” Yeah but why couldn’t it have been someone with an actual sense of humour? Chapters are divvied up with various Kinsey quotes as headers.

We get cartoons of little girls gleefully tarting themselves up slopped with lipstick & makeup cuz Kinsey’s findings determined “sex life in the human female begins at five.” HA, HA.

We get predictable deadpan caricatures of uptight prigs lamenting the collapse of society as we know it cuz of Kinsey’s dialogs. HO, HO.

And the inevitable overabundance of average-Americans turned sex-crazed after just a whiff of Kinsey, but with barely a bare bottom to be seen throughout all its 128 pages.

Preston chose to close his collection with a rather maudlin, borderline reactionary two-pager showing a conservatively illustrated fully-clothed romantic couple hugging under a full moon with the caption “the world BEFORE the Kinsey Report” & the second picture identical to the first; “the world AFTER the Kinsey Report.” Way to predict, Nostradamus.

But my favourite has to be the cartoon depicting one hubby’s extreme allergic reaction if only for its mind-boggling brutality (pictured below). Retroactive payback is the answer to Kinsey’s report that “nearly 50% of women married by the age of 25 have had pre-marital sexual experiences”! Ouch. The growing pains of a burgeoning sexual revolution. A picture sure tells a thousand words.

Back to School Burlesque: A School Girl's Delight!

So, although I had mixed feelings about returning to the monotony/regularity/self-imposed guilt of school this last week, my desire for a good dose of “back to school burlesque” has never been stronger and I gladly clicked my heels down to Salon Officiel Thursday night to ogle what promised to be a feast for both eyes and spirit. Accompanied by the lovely Miss Lollipop, I lounged on red velvet seats and downed several surprisingly strong G&T’s, all the while eagerly anticipating my first glimpse of wayward flesh. You see, it was none other than the sexily sumptuous Miss Sugarpuss and Seska we awaited and as these ladies slowly maneuvered their way through the hefty crowd I could tell we were in for a treat.



Beginning with a comical number in which the ladies erkel-walked around the dime-sized stage to the sounds of the Beastie Boys’ “Girls,” it was laughter -- so intense you start to hiccup -- inducing Lucy Fur that stole the show. At one point her fake teeth actually flew onto my table, something I was later told had occurred because they were interfering with the feverish cunnilingus she was performing on her spread-eagled fingers.



Other highlights included Miss Sugarpuss’s lesbian school marm routine and the hot and horny little stage kitten’s continual teasing of the crowd. Dressed as a Britney-style school girl only with a lot more class—if one can imagine such a thing⎯she used a long wooden ruler and shiny red apple as her tools of titillation for most of the night. Finally, this little piece of jailbait ended the show with an impromtu chair dance which left everyone creaming for more.

Oh, and let’s not forget Seska’s frumpy school girl gone bad routine which was not only a pleasure to watch but also delivered an juicy tidbit of insider info. You see, much to everyone’s dismay (cough, cough) Seska lost a pastie during this particular performance and while she maintained the perfect twirl of her right tassle I later learned the possible cause of such a mishap. It seems an important part of preparing for a rip-roaring shimmy not only depends on the strength of your spirit gum but also on the pre-show prayer: May the clothes come off and the pasties stay on!



Be sure to catch Seska , Miss Sugarpuss and guests in the Sweet Dream Soiree this Saturday, September 15 at MainLine Theatre. Described to me by Miss Lollipop as a naughty musical in which “instead of breaking out into song the characters break out into burlesque,” it promises to be the heathen’s version of heaven sent.

Nostalgia Dept: Neighbours Against Porno

I was rummaging thru some old files & came across this 80's handout from Montreal's Parc Ave area near where I used to live. "Pornography makes sex dirty & ugly," it screams. Would you want it any other way? I wonder if this is the same group that got the Cinema L'Amour (on St-Laurent & Duluth) to finally take down the pair of cartoon spread legs that used to make up the "L" in their name on their XXX marquee? Around that period, anti-porn hysteria had reached a fever pitch in Montreal (in tandem w/most North American hubs) & I do remember exposés on TV about newly instated laws for the mandatory removal of "offensive" signs outside strip clubs & smut movie theatres. I blocked out the residential address on the handbill but they seemed to have been located around the Plateau. Who were they? And where are they now? Do they walk among us? "Getting rid of pornography takes time & money" it says, "if you have either, or both, send cheque or money order to..." Gee, don't we even get a "pretty please" with that? I'd love to know how much they raked in. And wouldn't it be fun to try to pull the same stunt today just to see what the reaction and/or cash-flow (if any) would be as a barometer of current temperaments? "Local residents feel embarrassed walking down the street"! (Note: if the image is too small to read go to this URL where it's posted: http://www.snubdom.com/antiporno.htm)

lickety split oddcast no. 3

in the morning the yellow leaves dot the trees. at night, a hard day's rain has sent them all to the pavement. remember to wear a scarf: it will keep you warm, identify you by house or clan, and is oh so saucy always.

i guess then this oddcast is dedicated to scarves: may your tassels never tangle and may your existence remain as fuzzball free for as long as possible.

i love you now, scarf: but will your colours be right next fall? or is this the only one we've got. hold me scarf: i'm not cold; i'm scurred.

Lickety Split in your Ears

lick here for sonic goodstuff.

SIDE A

featurin'


Charles M. Bogert’s field recordings of frogs
Bohren and der club of gore
Serge Gainsbourg
Alastair Galbraith & Matt De Gennaro
Bert Jansch
David Kristian
Psychic Ills
Judee Sill
Stevie Wonder

this is the last september 11th. in commemoration of how absurd this young century has been, september 10th will be followed immediately by september 12th, while a new date, Patriot's Day, will be added on the 31st.

***

Lickety Split expands its readership!

Fun with Photoshop!

Hee hee!

Thanks to Alex for stealing this from the doctor's office -- it couldn't be more perfect!

lickety split oddcast no. 2

so h.r. was having a big dance party blow-out on the main and all the warm guns were there with the lithe young things, twisting and grooving to the four-dollar snaps of cool beer; to the last muggy day of august the impenetrable yellow haze above darkened and heavy with moisture, long lost in the barometric frame work and she asked me to spin a little for some b-day goodvibes but clarky and twiggy aren't the sharing types and kick it up from staid old weezer right into the danceparty mere moments before my set in a taunt, a tease, a test or a throw down but for me it's no problem: i'm not the best but i'm the best in the room and rightaway it's kompact and cult chants and the idle shoulder dip explodes into the foot stomping hand clapping celebration of the church universal and triumphant incorporated maaaan i mean these main street cats will dance to anything but i'm rusty with the public and i dont know how to respond to requests for the arcade fire and h.r's sister is all up in my face in her toothpaste persona sqwaking about spinning already and the blood of a friend is the last person i'm going to tell where to smoke it, while clarky stares at his shoes and wonders what to do and where to go when you got the moves but you ain't got no soul but i'm no goldenhawk i don't need any extra saturday night friction so i pack it up and bike home forever in the rainstorm double soaked from sweat and sky and humming and smiling lost in a vision of my 11-dimensional self: gray eye permasmile and the hot fuzzy burning of giddy lips unleashed

NOW DIG THIS

side A: dancemixxx
side B: smart is sexy

TOO FAR! click above you pave your mind in truth

featuring:

Amina Claudine Myers
Excepter
Richard P. Feynman
Vincent Gallo
Etta James
Justice
The Knife
Laotian flute death rites (exert)
LCD Soundsystem
Ramsay Lewis
Charles Manson
Ennio Morricone
Gary Numan
Charlemagne Palestine & Tony Conrad (exert)
Paul Panhuysen and the Mexican Jumping Beans
Polmo Polpo
Soft Canyon
Suicide