Wednesday, November 27, 2013
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You need to travel this winter break. With the exception of the spirit-crushing period of unemployment that will likely visit you after graduation, this vacation is one of those rare moments in life when you don’t have much to do. It’s too shor t to get a job, too long to watch Netflix and still feel good about yourself. If you’re concerned about your budget, as many of us are, don’t despair — just make sure you’re searching in the right places. StudentUniverse is a flight and accommodations booking site built specifically with the impoverished student in mind. After creating a free account, it really does find the cheapest, easiest flights available to students. Combine this with hostels, and you’ll be able to travel the world in style.
The Target Holidazzle Parade After a 21-year r un, the city is finally pulling the plug on the tradition that is Holidazzle. If you miss this year’s iteration (Nicollet Mall, 6:30 p.m. ever y Friday and Saturday night from now until Dec. 21), there’s a good chance you’ll never see it again. It’s a little hokey and under whelming, but you’ll miss it when it’s gone. Created in 1992, Holidazzle star ted as a means of drawing attention to downtown Minneapolis’ shopping in the shadow of a brand-new complex to the south: the Mall of America. Looks like the MOA is go be getting the lion’s share of attention now …
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CULTURE COMPASS BY THOM Q. JOHNSON Printing at Leg Up Studio Leg Up Studio opened in 2011 as an experiment — three friends hoping to make the tools of printmaking more accessible to the public. Now the studio is a one-stop shop for pretty much anything that involves putting ink to a sur face: letterpress, T-shir t and poster printing, intaglio, lithography and even photo making. With reasonable hourly rates of $15 for drop-bys or $80 per month for unlimited use, it’s a great place to cut your teeth in a suppor tive environment. The group even r uns regular classes in a half-dozen areas using the same tools used in the shop. Who knows, maybe you could be the next Adam Turman. Get your hands on the tools and find out.
SEX INDUSTRY
Stripper Twitter How social media is forming a better networked backstage for sex workers. BY THOM Q. JOHNSON tjohnson@mndaily.com
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trippers, like any professional per formers, can break their job into roughly two worlds: backstage and onstage. Onstage is where the fantasy is created, said Britta Danielson, a full-time stripper in the Twin Cities with a bachelor’s in art from the University of Minnesota. But backstage is where she’s free to decompress. “The strip club is not real life. People will expose you to different aspects of themselves that they wouldn’t in real life. You’re dealing with all kinds of stuf f ranging from owners treating you wrong to just nasty customers,” Danielson said. “Even someone who is just dropdead gorgeous — she has
to be really strong mentally for this job.” To strengthen the network of sex workers in an industry where performers have little institutional power, Danielson and her colleagues created their own virtual backstage. Danielson, who tweets as @feministripper, calls that community “Stripper Twitter,” and customers aren’t always invited. “Sometimes dudes that are obviously your own customer join a conversation. They’ll basically get their asses reamed,” Danielson said. “We’re like, ‘Get out! This is our space.’ ” Stripper Twitter builds connections between dancers from all around the country. It’s a break from the way things used to be, when an individual performer’s advocacy group was limited to the small group of women backstage at a club. The conversations and kinship was powerful but unstable and temporary.
“I started direct messaging and then texting with a girl from Philly I had met on Twitter,” Danielson said. “It’s gone way beyond just Twitter. I have been entertaining the idea of doing a tour around the countr y with the girls that I’ve met.” Sharing work oppor tunities also liberates dancers from being beholden to their club. Criticizing a club or making waves can get you immediately dismissed, and that can create a ver y one-way power dynamic, Danielson said. On her blog, “Twerking for the Man,” Danielson tries to create an informed dialogue about issues like working conditions, payment systems and management behavior that don’t often see the light of day. She works to change preconceptions about the kind of people who choose to work in the industry. “I wanted people to stop assuming that strippers
were just big-boobed Escalade Barbies,” Danielson said. Stories like Diablo Cody’s — the cerebral writer/feminist stripper who made good — have illuminated the realities of the industry. But knowledge of that reality has not changed the onstage world of stripping. In the minds of customers and management, dancers are still sex objects and employees in a sometimesexploitative system. In a recent blog post on “Twerking,” Danielson imagined opening her own club, run by and catered to the dancers. The entire staff, except door and floor guys, would be women; the décor would be classy; and the stages would be designed for comfort. “If a strip club — ‘gentlemens’ would be nowhere in the title — like I described existed, women would be r unning, driving, flying from all over the countr y
to work there,” Danielson writes. With the help of the net-
work she’s helping build, the dream doesn’t seem too far off.
@feministripper: “Years of dancing and nothing to show for it. Swallowed my pride. Time to get [expletive] rich! #stripperrecession”
@feministripper: “The remaining 1/4 of the pizza I just smashed for #ghettosnacks at work later. Imma spend all shift burning it off”
@feministripper: “I just received my first gift from a regular. Ever. Thanks... I guess? #metaphorzzz” @feministripper: “Stripper input at a haiku contest: (#WordsatWAM13)”
@feministripper: “Skipped work. Met this #puppy. Yer welcome.”
@feministripper: “Forecast: heavy rain. #teamclearheels”
SOURCE: TWITTER.COM/FEMINISTRIPPER
DANCE
More than a website: SuicideGirls burlesque
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUICIDEGIRLS
The “Blackheart Burlesque” tour combines cultural spoofs and sex appeal.
The SuicideGirls’ newest burlesque show aims to make you laugh till you’re horny. BY JOE KELLEN jkellen@mndaily.com
SuicideGirls like “Doctor Who,” too, you know. Their touring “Blackheart Burlesque” show, which hits Minneapolis on Friday, will feature a full-on “Who” costume and a flurry of other surprises. SuicideGirls is an alternative pin-up website created by Sean Suhl and Selena Mooney (aka Missy Suicide). It hosts more than half a million photos from girls across the country. Any prospective pin-up can submit
photos, but not everyone is chosen to be a SuicideGirl. “We like to think of the SuicideGirls as sexy selfexpression,” Missy Suicide said. The website has gotten into trouble in the past over its tolerance for darker and more violent images. With a name like SuicideGirls, it’s not hard to assume their material has overtones of edginess and BDSM (Bondage, Dominance, Sadism and Masochism, though definitions vary). While some models have used these tactics to subvert the traditional pin-up photo, this aesthetic isn’t representative of all their work. “I actually think we’re the opposite of that,” Mooney said of the BDSM label. “Sui-
cideGirls are about allowing the girls to set the scene and promote how they feel sexy about themselves. It’s not about the photographer or anyone else’s vision.” Mooney said this idea extends to their burlesque show. The event, consisting of six solo performances and some group routines, is designed to highlight their personalities. Their vivacious showcase contains ever ything from extensive piercings, tattoos and badassery to “Whovian” pop culture references. Their dance-heavy style dif fers from classic burlesque. The SuicideGirls focus more on complex footwork and employ their darker sides to give “Blackheart Burlesque” a twist of maca-
bre fun. The playful performance is never meant to objectify. If anything, its goal is to wow audiences with acrobatic dance and subsequently endear them to the girls with humor and tongue-in-cheek attitudes. “It’ll be hard for anyone to go and not laugh at least once and not find themselves saying, ‘Wow, that was really, really hot,’ ” Mooney said. The Twin Cities have a thriving burlesque scene already, and while the SuicideGirls are only staying for an evening, they seem to fit in with the locals. Red Austere, a burgeoning burlesque star in Minneapolis, said she hasn’t been significantly exposed to the group but had seen snippets
of their work. “I think they’re bringing a wider knowledge to burlesque; they’ll bring a whole different audience than the people who come to our burlesque shows,” she said. Austere considers herself to be part of the body-positive movement at the heart of the Twin Cities’ burlesque community. For her, the art form is much more than raw sexuality. “It’s about being unafraid to go out there and be exactly who you are,” she said. “A great burlesque number will make the audience forget where they are for a moment.” Austere hopes to see more alternative burlesque hit the Twin Cities. She said that she loves the traditional
WHAT BLACKHEART BURLESQUE WHEN 9 P.M., FRIDAY WHERE VARSITY THEATER, 1308 FOURTH ST. SE, MINNEAPOLIS COST $23-25 AGES 18+
performances but that the unique styles used by groups like the SuicideGirls benefit the scene. And for those who come to these performances expecting a custom-tailored peepshow — Missy Suicide doesn’t sweat ’em. “There’s always gonna be haters,” she said. “You just have to do what you love.”