Black Coffee – The Careless Lovers (The Official Music Video) from Joon Chang on Vimeo.
I spotted this interesting little vid while browsing for coffee features. The song is called Black Coffee by The Careless Lovers, and the video is produced by Joon Chang. A perfect example of the perils of drinking too much Black Coffee!
This Friday, 25th March, Wotever World are hosting their biggest queer club night at the Scala in Kings Cross, Pop Factory. For a mixed gay/queer/straight crowd, this will be a poptastic, tune-orgasmic night of dancing to some of the best pop, electro, indie, punk, rock n roll, glam and riot grrl music from the past few decades!
As you will have noticed, the term ‘pop’ is themed in a kinky kind of way, not following narrow-minded definitions, but keeping to a much broader spectrum, which is what we like! With POP ART (by the multi-talented, magically gifted Joe Pop) on display, free POP noodles to the first 50 through the door and lolliPOPs for the masses.
A live PA by BOY, a fantabulosa line-up of DJs to include Bob Henderson (Club Motherfucker), DJ Wanker (Fuck The Pain Away), Jo Bunny (Bar Wotever) and Vicki Lester (who I’m sure you all know from Torture Garden) means there will be plenty of choice for you to hit the floor, with happy dancing feet.
Entry is only £5 with a flyer/concessions before 10.30pm, others £7; or £7 concessions, £8 others after 10.30pm, so it won’t break the bank. Remember kinksters, sometimes it’s all about the music, so get down to Pop Factory to mingle with a wonderfully wotever crowd and start the weekend off with a POP (to go with a bang!)
A-wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-wop-bam-boo! Calling all LGBTQ hep cats and happening chicks (and all you ker-azy rockin’ Wotevers), Wild Thing is the happening place to be on Thursday 17th March, at the Retro Bar.
Wild Thing flyer courtesy of Joe Pop
This is the place that gathers the best in Rock n Roll, rip-up Rocksteady, girl group harmonies and the coolest music throughout the ages, courtesy of the talented (and Bearishly handsome!) Joe Pop and, this month, Dapper D from Nitty Gritty, with her soultastic sounds and skanking ska beats.
A place where the good and great (hairdos) can meet, drink and dance their dappily dancing boots away. Wild Thing (formerly Retrosexual) has that glorious mix of great music, cheap booze and gorgeous lovelies to bop and chat with, which is what all us happy (and slightly degenerate) LGBTQ folks look for in a fab night out. Tattoos are de rigueur (especially old school ones!) as is plenty of cleavage, whether ’tis on the same person or not.
So all you queers with attitude (of the best possible kind) or, indeed, everyone with a quiff to tease and a story to tell, get yourself down to Wild Thing. Hair don’ts need not apply!
Night of the Blue Stockings, photo K.James for Coffee Cake and Kink
Be upstanding for the fabulous Night of the Blue Stockings! We were lucky enough to go and see this popular and busy evening of cabaret and burlesque performance held monthly at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club last Thursday night, and what a glittering, fun-packed show it was. A host of hilarious acts with a warmth and sense of joy that would be hard-pressed to better, captivated their appreciative crowd.
Fancy Chance, photo K.James for Coffee Cake and kink
Our honorary Madam Chairperson for the evening was reigning Alternative Miss World 2009 and London’s Top Tranny 2010, Fancy Chance. Keeping things swinging, with her humour and audience interaction, she MC’d throughout the night between the other great acts on offer. She also delighted us with her own revolutionary act, taking us all the way from North Korea’s national anthem to good ol’ Yankee capitalism via an outrageously funny dance and rhythmic gymnastic display that had the audience on their feet and wanting more.
Honey Wilde, photo K.James for Coffee Cake and Kink
First act up was Justin Pants, with his alternative burlesque Action Man strip. If you ever wondered what Action Man keeps under his pants, well, yes, it is a weird, plastic non-penis. A very clever take on male stripping! Next up was Honey Wilde, the fantastic burlesque artist, with an avant-garde, in the most tongue-in-cheek way, musical performance of inventive cover versions of some 80s electro classics. Never before have two (yes, TWO!) toy pianos and a kazoo (!) sounded so good. The crowd both recognised and loved her amusing renditions of tunes by A-Ha, the Pet Shop Boys and others. Laurie Anderson could learn a thing or two.
Misster Blanche Dubois, photo by K.James for Coffee Cake and Kink
All the way from 1933, Depression era Kentucky (kinda), came songstress Miss Anna Kronist. Playing her guitar and singing quite beautifully, she entertained us with her songs about love, death and a Blondie cover in the style of down home Americana. A wonderful musical moment. She was followed by Misster Blanche Dubois, who was somehow able to blend drag with a lion costume! Singing ‘La Vie En Rose’ in an operatic, lionesque (trust me) chanteuse way, he then transformed into a kinky, burlesque striptease. The audience bellowed with laughter as we were treated to what a ‘naked’ lion can do.
Anna Kronist with Fancy Chance, photo by K.James for Coffee Cake and Kink
The Madam Secretary of The Blue Stocking Society is Audacity Chutzpah, and, as her name suggests, she certainly had plenty of both and more besides. She amused and delighted the house with a very witty sketch about being stuck on a desert island. It was an inventive and engaging act, which had the audience in stitches. Ending with a sing-along, in which we all happily joined in, this was a fantastic evening.
Audacity Chutzpah, photo by K.James for Coffee Cake and Kink
With tea and cakes on offer (a nice little touch) and DJ Josephine Shaker playing a suitably impressive selection of retro sounds in keeping with the ambience of the night, a very enjoyable and entertaining night was had by all. The lack of any pretension, the engaging nature of all the performers, and the unique blend of inventiveness and hilarity on offer, makes this a night out I can not recommend highly enough.
Night of the Blue Stockings, photo by K.James for Coffee Cake and Kink
The London Launch of Art Wank happened last night, and what a happening it was. Curated and hosted by the talented, funny and damned sexy Ophelia Bitz, Art Wank is the perfect night for lovers of classic, retro porn, the curious and those of us who like a chance to dress up, have fun and be enlightened to our kink history. Yes, a pornucopia of entertainment was had by all!
Ophelia Bitz, photo by K. James for Coffee, Cake and Kink
Art Wank was held at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury, a wonderfully intimate venue that felt just right for the occasion. Ophelia Bitz, our hostess with the mostest and wearing a stunning outfit to boot, welcomed a glamourous capacity crowd who had also dressed for the occasion. The night itself was a glorious mixture of showings from very early porn films (from the silent era up to early 70s ‘lost’ classics), entertaining acts, music, comedy and an insightful mini-lecture on ‘Why sex is fun’.
Kitty Stryker, photo by K.James for Coffee, Cake and Kink
Ophelia has spent days, nay months, researching early porn films (so you don’t have to!) to delight a very appreciative audience. From early (mostly French, ooh la la) films, that seemed to have a penchant for outdoors threesomes, up to early 70s football themed gay male porn, with a witty, specially selected (by Ophelia herself) and apt music accompaniment , the films showed how both the aesthetics and content of porn have changed over the decades. The innocence, naivety and lack of camera awareness of the early performers was a refreshing joy, and the audience happily laughed along to the films. Mr Tom Baker provided wonderful musical accompaniment on the accordion to these very early classics, which seemed especially fitting for the French films, in particular.
Kitty Stryker, sex worker and sex educator, who you may know from Kinky Salon London, gave a thought-provoking, amusing, empowering and well researched mini-lecture on ‘Why sex is fun’. Challenging the audience to think about how we view and consume porn, how we should bring the fun and pure joy back to it, even encouraging us to take control and make it ourselves; Kitty reminded us that sex is both fun, and often funny. She is also probably the reason why there were so many clowns in the audience (you should’ve been there).
Crimson Skye, photo by K.James for Coffee, Cake and Kink
Ophelia Bitz held the night together with both wit and aplomb. Charming all who were there, she added her amusing asides to accompany and introduce the films, performed a very funny take on the song ‘Falling in Love Again’ (with an apt change to the lyrics) and held a competition that had the crowd hooting with laughter. Performance artiste, Crimson Skye, also entertained the crowd with her sassy, sparkling (in more ways than one!) act. She had the audience whooping for more, and added to a brilliant night’s entertainment.
Ophelia and contestants, photo by K.James for Coffee, Cake and Kink
Art Wank is a magical amalgam of a night out. Educational (though not in the way that our education system works. If only school was like this, I would’ve paid more attention!), fantastic performances, fabulous films, humour and the chance to socialise with a charismatic crowd, it was all very enjoyable. There will be another Art Wank next month, and if the popularity of last night’s event is anything to go by, I recommend you get your tickets early. Trust me, you will love it!
Rihanna, the successful, chart-topping pop/R&B singer has been causing some controversy and much publicity with her new single and video ‘S&M’. No sooner does YouTube deem the video too explicit for the under-18s, then the BBC upsets the diva by considering her lyrics are a little too risqué for young people’s ears. Apparently singing about “pain is my pleasure” and how “chains and whips excite me” is a “na na na na” for delicate dispositions! Even the title of the song is deemed too controversial for pre-watershed ears of the BBC, with the alternative title “Come On” replacing it.
Well, it’s not exactly new for pop stars to court controversy around the subject of sexuality. Why, it seems like only decades ago that Madonna’s ‘Erotica’ single and video caused a similar stir! How things have (not) changed. Still , it gives Rihanna a lot of publicity and makes discussion of kinky sexuality a hot topic. Shame it hasn’t been particularly favourable or seriously in-depth. Though, at the end of the day, it is just a pop song.
Tricity Vogue & her Naked ukulele
On Thursday I found myself trotting along Hampstead Road for another performance by Tricity Vogue (Tricity is also one of the Bluestocking ladies we had the pleasure of reviewing the week before). Her nakedness came in the form of honesty and self-disclosure – and in an absence of amplification, which wasn’t necessary in the intimate Red Room in the basement of Positively 4th Street on Hampstead Road.
Tricity Vogue
She kicked off her ukulele set with a song about booty calls, reminding us of all the different ways that people like to get together and ‘drink tea’. We may all be coffee lovers at Coffee, Cake & Kink, but I think we can all agree with Tricity Vogue that ‘tea drinking’ is a wonderful activity to engage in with a wide variety of people! The rest of her set was a satirical and entertaining look at the highs and lows of relationships through the risqué lens of cabaret – offering up a satirical and sometimes dark look at love and sex.
Tricity and Des O'Connor
Her guest for this month’s set (she performs monthly at the Red Room) was the delightful Des O’Connor (He assured us he is not THAT Des O’Connor – but one of the team of Des O’Connor’s ready to perform for us). His camp and cheeky set took us on a tour of the more disturbing side of human nature, ranging from necrophilia(!) to body modification. This was carried through to the finale, when Des was joined by Tricity to perform a duet – Motherly Love – a tongue-in-cheek exploration of Des’ conflicting feelings towards Tricity – attractive lady on one hand, like a mother figure on the other. We were left with a rousing rendition of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”, complete with a make-shift balcony (though to the untrained eye it might have appeared to be a chair). Tricity will be returning to the Red Room on the 3rd of March, and has numerous appearances lined up around London in the coming months as well. Find out when she’ll be on a stage near you on her website (or our events calendar, for that matter).
Tricity
Ukulele-playing guests
Tricity and Des
all photos taken by K.James.
I Envy the Rose…
18 NovIt was a dreadfully grey winter’s day in 2006, dull and drizzly and damp enough to guarantee we wouldn’t be warm until the third class of the afternoon. The wind howled down around us, though none of us really noticed it; we were transfixed by the song being thrown out of a friend’s mini speakers, the tinny voice ensnaring us and causing us to cry with laughter. That was the day I was introduced to Tom Lehrer and the amazing Masochism Tango.
My best friend had stolen her father’s mix CD, and we could hardly contain our mirth when the erstwhile Lehrer warbled lyrics such as ‘your eyes cast a spell that bewitches/ the last time I needed twenty stitches/ to sew up the gash/ you made with your lash/ as we danced to the masochism tango’. Incredible. Invincible. Immortal.
Tom Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. A Harvard graduate, he went on to lecture at MIT, Harvard and Wellesey. To say he is a genius is an absolute understatement.
Years later, this song still brings a smile to my face. A truly timeless tune: I urge you all to take a few minutes of your day and watch this video. I assure you, you will never regret it.