Sunday January 11, 2009 2:30pm
Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School Burlesque Life Drawing Session
featuring: Sugar Dish!
Great Scott
1222 Commonwealth Ave (corner of Harvard and Commonwealth) Allston
$7 2:30pm-5:30pm 18+ (bring your ID, this is a bar)
media folks, click the thumbnail to the right for high res image for print.

Dr. Sketchy is every Second Sunday afternoons. And occasional Tuesday Evenings. We're trying to nail down a permanent Tuesday Session and will post here when we do.

This month's lovely model is star, creator and director of the wildly sucessful Slutcraker, Sugar Dish!

Dr. Sketchy's is what happens when cabaret meets art school.

Starting in Brooklyn, in 2005, artists Molly Crabapple and A.V. Phibes created the Dr. Sketchy's Empire. Now with over 60 braches including new ones in Cape Town, South Africa and Bogota, Columbia. Dr. Sketchy's is on every continent except Antarctica Dr. Sketchy's is by far the most diverse, largest chain of drawing sessions in the world.

Aside from the standard structure of short poses to warm you up and then longer ones to give you more time to concentrate, this is definitely not your typical life drawing class. The model wears gorgeous burlesque outfits and slowly strips out of them! The model talks! You'll clap for them and hoot and holler! You'll tip them! You'll chat with your neighbor! There is no teacher to embarrass you when you don't produce enough! You get to drink and draw without getting in trouble! There are snacks! Now is the time to heal those art school wounds. Dr. Sketchy's will guide you.

Boston's a huge art school town but it's hard to find life drawing sessions, plus it has a huge burlesque, drag and performance art scene. So we'll have lots of great models to work with. You don't have to have any experience, or you could be the guy who does the pointalist portraits for The Globe. Dig out your dusty sketchbooks or hit the store and get a pad, and come join us for a little late afternoon nudie drawing date.

Need a high res image? Click the thumbnail. or email me.
Prizes are graciously provided by Artist and Craftsman Supply 957 Commonwealth Ave. downstairs next to In Your Ear and a few doors down from The Paradise.
Check out the photos section for images of past Sketchy's Sessions.

Sunday January 11, 2009 9pm
TraniWreck and The Shondes
at The Milky Way
405 Centre Street in Hyde Square Jamaica Plain
doors: 9pm show:9:30pm cover: FREE!!!! ages: 21+
media folks: hit the thumbnails to download high res image.

It's January. It's hard to motivate yourself out of the warmth of your living room and into the dark and cold...but we've come up with the perfect incentive! FREE TRANIWRECK! plus! All the way from New York City: The Shondes!. Did the holidays break your bank? Or did the sinking economy break your bank long before the holidays? We feel your pain. Come enjoy TraniWreck on us this January. We'll give you a good couple of sets of drag, burlesque and drama and then The Shondes will blow you away. Take those dollars you save at the door and shove them into a performers cleavage or crotch...it does wonders to warm the heart. Plus you have to give money away in order for more to come back to you. At least, that's what the fortune in Heywood's cookie said. Join us! For Free!

Truth Serum Productions and Heywood Wakefield have been producing this brilliant and successful show since August 2004. TraniWreck is all gender, all genre, unparalleled irreverent performance. Drag, burlesque, dance, comedy, trashy vaudevillian mayhem, dirty lap dancing, challenging sexy political feats of gorgeousness.

with performances by the TraniWreck crew and friends:
Heywood Wakefield
Frieda Fries
Johnny Blazes
Kielbasia (Best Drag Queen with an Accordion)
Mel O'Drama (from Portland, Me)

What "they" say about us:

Bay Windows April 28, 2005
"...likely the most surreal event Boston has to offer, remains a must see, where creativity and eccentricity rule the night."

Awarded Stuff @ Night's "Nightlife Player's' list April 2004
"Aliza Shapiro of Truth Serum Productions holds the kind of events that spank stodgy old Boston firmly in the posterior with their edgy, often gender-bending creativity. Shapiro, along with her drag alter-ego Heywood Wakefield, makes it happen."

TraniWreck guarantees lapdances for everyone!

Sunday January 18, 2009
Xray Aims teaches temporary piercing at MOB

Monday January 19, 2009 10pm
Cherry at Jacque's Cabaret

Ok folks. If I don't freak out and bail, I'll be showcasing my femme drag character at Becca and Katya's show, Cherry, tonight. Sela Morehouse is Heywood Wakefield's ex-wife. I'm sure you've heard about her. Well, now's your chance to meet her. I guess. God, why do I agree to these things?! And who wants to go shopping for lady clothes?

Tuesday January 20, 2009 7:00 to 9:30pm
Evening Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School Burlesque Life Drawing Session
featuring: A gorgeous model TBA
Great Scott
1222 Commonwealth Ave (corner of Harvard and Commonwealth) Allston
$7 7:00 to 9:30pm 18+ (bring your ID, this is a bar)

Dr. Sketchy is every Second Sunday afternoons. And occasional Tuesday Evenings. We're trying to nail down a permanent Tuesday Session and will post here when we do.

Dr. Sketchy's is what happens when cabaret meets art school.

Starting in Brooklyn, in 2005, artists Molly Crabapple and A.V. Phibes created the Dr. Sketchy's Empire. Now with over 60 braches including new ones in Cape Town, South Africa and Bogota, Columbia. Dr. Sketchy's is on every continent except Antarctica Dr. Sketchy's is by far the most diverse, largest chain of drawing sessions in the world.

Aside from the standard structure of short poses to warm you up and then longer ones to give you more time to concentrate, this is definitely not your typical life drawing class. The model wears gorgeous burlesque outfits and slowly strips out of them! The model talks! You'll clap for them and hoot and holler! You'll tip them! You'll chat with your neighbor! There is no teacher to embarrass you when you don't produce enough! You get to drink and draw without getting in trouble! There are snacks! Now is the time to heal those art school wounds. Dr. Sketchy's will guide you.

Boston's a huge art school town but it's hard to find life drawing sessions, plus it has a huge burlesque, drag and performance art scene. So we'll have lots of great models to work with. You don't have to have any experience, or you could be the guy who does the pointalist portraits for The Globe. Dig out your dusty sketchbooks or hit the store and get a pad, and come join us for a little late afternoon nudie drawing date.

Need a high res image? Click the thumbnail. or email me.
Prizes are graciously provided by Artist and Craftsman Supply 957 Commonwealth Ave. downstairs next to In Your Ear and a few doors down from The Paradise.
Check out the photos section for images of past Sketchy's Sessions.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:30pm
CineMental Presents: 68 Pages plus live performance by Mesma!
at Brattle Theater
40 Brattle Street Harvard Sq. Cambridge
9:30pm $10
for advanced tix hit this link.
followed by discussion and drinks at Casablanca downstairs from the theater.
media folks: hit the thumbnail to the right to download high res image.

CineMental presents 68 Pages Directed by Sridhar Rangayan. 92 min 2007
68 Pages official website.

From the director of award winning queer films The Pink Mirror (Gulabi Aaina) and Yours Emotionally! comes another hard hitting drama about marginalized people. Subverting the Bollywood film genre of song-dance and high drama, the film places characters ignored by Bollywood centerstage - a transsexual bar dancer, a prostitute, a gay couple - to tell their stories of pain and trauma, of happiness and hope, about being HIV+ and alienated.

The film lays bare the ground realities in India, the society's apathy and cruelty towards HIV and AIDS in a honest and sensitive manner. Coming from a country like India that is still in denial, where being HIV+ is still a curse, 68 Pages rips open the underbelly of its society to reveal how it stigmatizes and shuns those who are HIV+ or even those who just want to be what they are.

Through 68 pages of a counselors diary, we see the stories of Paayal, a sex worker; Nishit, an ID user; Kiran, a gay man and Umrao, a transsexual bar dancer - their stories of pain and fear, humiliation and rejection - not only by the society, but even by their loved ones. While these stories expose the shallowness of the system, it also offers hope and healing by trying to bring about a better understanding of their fight to live with dignity.

The film is a tribute to the human spirit of optimism and survival. In Hindi with English subtitles.

Preceeding the film there will be a performance by Mesma (Sudarshan) Belsare.

Mesma is a Boston-based dancer, choreographer, actor, visual artist and art-museum educator and belongs to a generation of young dancers in the South Asian Diaspora in North America who have created a unique niche for themselves in the realm of classical Indian arts, while expanding their repertoire in the contemporary idiom. Formally trained in Bharatanatyam (South Indian Classical dance) for over 15 years by Shankar Hombal and Padmashri Geeta Chandran, she has been subsequently working on creating choreography that addresses gender, gender-identity and sexual ity. As a transgender performer, Mesma is perpetuating the classical tradition of Stri-Vesham where the target gender identity of a woman’s psyche and body is the medium to communicate Nayaki Bhava (the voice of the female protagonist) in the traditional Bharatanatyam repertoire.

The screening will be followed by a discussion on HIV and the LGBT community in India and Southeast Asia.

CineMental January and 68 Pages is being co-presented by MASALA, the Massachusetts Area South Asian Lambda Association. MASALA is a social group based in Boston, that provides a safe and supportive environment to New England based Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning South Asians (people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet; and from the global South Asian Diaspora).

James Nadeau and Aliza Shapiro, who have been involved with programming for the Boston Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festival and other independent film/video presentations, have created a series that explores the fringes of queer film, video and groundbreaking performative work with a decidedly alternative perspective. CineMental showcases the best of independent queer media in a way never before seen in Boston. CineMental is the convergence of film, video, performance and music. It will change the way you think about what is queer, what is art and what is queer art! In a world where "The Gay" is becoming mainstream, we celebrate the radical. CineMental is every third Wednesday at The Brattle (though sometimes we move around.)

CineMental is co-presented by The Video Underground in JP

and we even have a Facebook page: join us here!

Sunday February 8, 2009 2:30pm
Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School Burlesque Life Drawing Session
featuring: A gorgeous model TBA
Great Scott
1222 Commonwealth Ave (corner of Harvard and Commonwealth) Allston
$7 2:30pm-5:30pm 18+ (bring your ID, this is a bar)

Dr. Sketchy is every Second Sunday afternoons. And occasional Tuesday Evenings. We're trying to nail down a permanent Tuesday Session and will post here when we do.

Dr. Sketchy's is what happens when cabaret meets art school.

Check out the photos section for images of past Sketchy's Sessions.

Sunday February 8, 20099pm
TraniWreck and musical guest tba
at The Milky Way
405 Centre Street in Hyde Square Jamaica Plain
doors: 9pm show:9:30pm cover: FREE!!!! ages: 21+
media folks: hit the thumbnails to download high res image.

FREE TRANIWRECK! Heywood Wakefield's 60th birthday is Feb 14, so we're celebrating early. Bring dollars and come spank the old man.

Truth Serum Productions and Heywood Wakefield have been producing this brilliant and successful show since August 2004. TraniWreck is all gender, all genre, unparalleled irreverent performance. Drag, burlesque, dance, comedy, trashy vaudevillian mayhem, dirty lap dancing, challenging sexy political feats of gorgeousness.

with performances by the TraniWreck crew and friends:
Heywood Wakefield
Frieda Fries
Becca D'bus
Johnny Blazes
Kielbasia

TraniWreck guarantees lapdances for everyone!

Wednesday February 11, 2009
Truth Serum and Nine Inch Needles present: Holiday Handjobs
Dilboy VFW Hall Davis Square Somerville
7pm-11pm maybe later if there's lots of people hanging around, all ages, $1-2 donation goes to $pread Magazine
media folks: hit the thumbnail to the right to download high res image.
http://www.holiday-handjobs.com

Featuring over 25+ vendors and
DJ Mark E. Moon of Big Digits spinning all evening.
And then at 10pm live performances by Kielbasia the accordion playing lunchlady drag queen! And Billy Hough of The Scream Along with Billy Show plus dance numbers from Providence's Dance Troupe Jazz Handjob.

Holiday Handjobs is a curated market with a queer/sex/punk focus/ethic/aesthetic. And lots of slashes. It will be held Wednesday February 11, 2009 from 7-11pm at the glamorous Dilboy VFW in Davis Square, Somerville (site of the inaugural 2001 Bazaar Bizarre which Greg Der Ananian/Nine Inch Needles founded). (We re-scheduled it from our Dec. 19th date because of the crazy snow storm...)

Holiday Handjobs will showcase work by folks who are queer-identified AND/OR whose work has naughty or raunchy overtones. We'll be featuring dirty/sexy/naughty handmade stuff with punk-rock attitude. We also value art, stuff made from recycled stuff, queer bands selling merch. We're easy and and easily persuaded...so, you know...expect a mix bag of handmade eclectic stuff priced to sell.

Holiday Handjobs is more than just a vendor market - it's a social event, an occasion to meet, drink, listen to some cool music, see some neat stuff, and do a little v-day shopping. Our goal is to showcase queer crafters & artists, as well as other underrepresented creative types, and create a space where they can show their work and hopefully make a few bucks off it. Come join us for a beverage, and avoid cliche gifts and other chi-chi corporate crap by buying handmade gifts for the one you love, or hate for that matter. You'll be supporting people who need support, and you'll be scoring awesome stuff that you really can't find anywhere else.

$pread Magazine is an independent publication by and for people in the sex industry and those who support our rights. From peepshow girls to porn stars, and call-girls to hustlers, $pread Magazine creates a space for sex workers to speak for ourselves. For more info visit us at: spreadmagazing.org

Help Us Get The Word Out! Click the link and print out copies!
color poster
b+w poster
b+w flyers 4 on a sheet
web flyer

Thursday February 12, 2009
Truth Serum and Todo Mundo team up to celebrate Aliza's 40th Birthday
at The Milky Way
405 Centre Street in Hyde Square Jamaica Plain
dancing and live music times tba, but like 9ish. cover: FREE!!!! ages: 21+

So, my birthday is really Feb 10th and yes, I'm going to be 40...but one of my favorite places to dance is at Todo Mundo on a Thursday night. So, I've teamed up with DJ Lone Wolf to put together something special and I want everyone to come out and dance with me. We'll be announcing our special musical act soon. Stay tuned. There'll be gluten free cake and other stuff. Come out.

Wednesday, February 18, 2008 9:30pm
CineMental Presents: Queer Animation from near and far
at Brattle Theater
40 Brattle Street Harvard Sq. Cambridge
9:30pm $10
for advanced tix hit this link.
followed by discussion and drinks at Casablanca downstairs from the theater.
media folks: hit the thumbnail to the right to download high res image.

The Brattle is running their Bugs Bunny-a-thon and so CineMental decided we'd play along and put together a screening of the best and newest queer animation we could find. It's sure to be a blast...and The Brattle might even have their beer and wine license by then...

James Nadeau and Aliza Shapiro, who have been involved with programming for the Boston Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festival and other independent film/video presentations, have created a series that explores the fringes of queer film, video and groundbreaking performative work with a decidedly alternative perspective. CineMental showcases the best of independent queer media in a way never before seen in Boston. CineMental is the convergence of film, video, performance and music. It will change the way you think about what is queer, what is art and what is queer art! In a world where "The Gay" is becoming mainstream, we celebrate the radical. CineMental is every third Wednesday at The Brattle (though sometimes we move around.)

CineMental is co-presented by The Video Underground in JP
and we even have a Facebook page: join us here!

Regularly Scheduled Events and The Future:
Second Sundays at 2:30 pm Dr. Sketchy's at Great Scott
Third Wednesdays CineMental at the Brattle

Sunday March 8, 2009: Last TraniWreck at the Milky Way Lounge and Lanes...it's closing, but TraniWreck will find other homes.
Wednesday March 18, 2009: CineMental

...don't tell me you're tired