Annie Bartholomew, KTOO

After sharing his art around the world, former Juneau resident The Luminous Pariah returned home last month for a series of performances with his trio Mod Carousel. Last year the group got over 5 million hits on Youtube for a parody of Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines.

Through elaborate costumes and tightly choreographed routines, the men of Mod Carousel tell a story onstage to explore the lines of gender and sexuality through a newly emerging art. 

In the Rockwell Ballroom The Luminous Pariah counts off the opening numbers to Beyoncé’s dance hit “Single Ladies.”

The Boylesque group Mod Carousel is rehearsing for an upcoming performance. This is the Seattle-based Boylesque troupe’s 5th trip to Alaska the dancers are preparing material never before seen in Juneau. During practice, The Luminous Pariah and his dancing counterpart look pretty normal in jeans and v-neck t-shirts, but come Saturday night they will be almost unrecognizable. Wearing only rhinestone emblazoned leotards, heels and wigs, they will answer to the screams of a packed Juneau audience.

But before The Luminous Pariah lit up the stage as his current persona, he starred in JDHS theatre productions like the Wizard of Oz.

“One really great thing about growing up in Juneau is it’s a really small town but there are a surprising amount of arts that come here and are cultivated here,” he said.

After high school, he moved to Seattle to study professionally at the Cornish College of the Arts. But during a break from school, he discovered Burlesque and started Mod Carousel in 2009. Joining him were twin brothers and professional dancers who go by their stage names Paris Original and Trojan Original.

Onstage the three combine elements of comedy and cabaret to create routines that vary as widely as their stars: the traditional masculinity of Trojan Original, the exaggeratedly effeminate Paris Original, and the Luminous Pariah who embodies both the masculine and feminine.

While they may wear frills and fake eyelashes onstage, these guys aren’t pretending to be women. Boylesque uses dance and strip tease to explore the boundaries of gender and sexuality.

In contrast to drag where the performer typically cross dresses to develop a new character onstage, The Luminous Pariah says Mod Carousel is different.

“What I present onstage is more of a persona. It’s a shiny shellacked version of who I am. I never really fit into that box either of well, this is masculine and this is super feminine. Either you’re a macho go-go boy or you’re a drag queen with the padded hips and fake boobs and it  feels so unnatural to me. I feel that there’s this spectrum between hyper masculine and ultra-feminine and I lie naturally in the middle of that spectrum. And that’s what I decided to present onstage,” he said.

And sometimes that presentation includes the Luminous Pariah pumping up the crowd to Macklemore’s song “Thrift Shop” in a faux fur coat, sailor hat and bejeweled speedo.

After a recent show a crowd was gathering on the sidewalks outside of Rockwell recounting what they had just experienced. Ben Lyman was one of the  men who attended the show that night.

“I just saw some really amazing Boylesque. It’s interpretive dance and a story told through  a more risqué sort of dance –some people connote it with strip tease, but it’s different it’s a lot more artful and sometimes you put your clothes on rather than taking them off ,” says Ben Lyman.

The Luminous Pariah says he crafts his shows to be more than just entertainment.

“And my goal with doing that is to not only promote the fact that yes indeed does this exist but to hope that there’s other people out there and see that and go, ‘Oh yeah I feel that way too and that makes me more comfortable with who I am,’ ” he said.

Paris Original  cites the group’s ability to tell a range of stories onstage, giving people some of what they might expect from a show like this “and even some things people didn’t know they wanted to look at,” says Paris Original.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story referred to performer The Luminous Pariah’s legal name. They have since asked to only be referred to by their stage name and we have honored that request and removed the legal name.

This weekend was the 46th Southeast Alaska State Fair hosted in Haines from July 31 – Aug 3. Attendees experienced great weather and entertainment from all over the Lower 48 and Alaska. Here are some highlights from the musical performances.

For more pictures from the Fair, visit the KRNN Facebook album here.

The Southeast Alaska State Fair is possibly the greatest festival on Earth. Hordes of beautiful people from all over Alaska and the Lower 48 are imported to Haines for one weekend only to celebrate all that makes Southeast Alaska amazing.

You’ve probably already bought your ferry ticket, taken the time off work–but one large question remains, what should you bring with you?

While you’re not packing for the apocalypse, Southeast Alaska isn’t forgiving to the unprepared. Once you’re in Haines, the supplies you have can make or break the festival, so skip the drama and pack for the worst. It doesn’t matter if you’ve done the fair a million gazillion times, learn from my mistakes and prepare to have the time of your life.

Transportation

While you may have romantic ideas about biking your giant bag into town, the reality is that it’s a long hard slog from the ferry terminal. Coming from the woman who was literally the last one to the campsite–this athletic feat is just not worth the tears or bruises you will sustain being a stubborn jerk.

The truth is, nobody does the Haines Fair alone. All it takes is one friend with a vehicle, and you probably already know someone who’s going. Throw em’ a couple bucks and throw that monkey on your back in the trunk where it belongs. Plus they can stake out the best camping spots before the bikers’ exodus from the ferry terminal.

Fashion

The basic rule is don’t bring anything you can’t live without losing, destroying or smelling like a hippie mosh pit. Even though the forecast is great, you’re still going to be outside for hours, so long johns are a necessity and layers are your best friend. No matter how hot it gets during the day, it still gets dang cold at night–so bring a light jacket or flannel for the bottom of your purse. You will also be really sad if you don’t bring a raincoat of some kind if it starts to pour. For footwear, XTRATUF boots are eternally cool and will be your first defense against getting trampled at the front of the stage Saturday night.

Beauty

At the fair, you may see plenty of women with amazing hair–straightened, feathered, curled and coiffed–and you will immediately wish you brought your hair accessories. But you really do not want to bring them. Curling irons and straighteners are deadweight and require time and effort you really should be spending enjoying the fair.

Swap out your usual primping regimen for something simpler: a good bottle of dry shampoo and a beanie. Nothing says “I’m a carefree babe” like the just rolled out of bed/beachy hair look. And no one will judge you if you start developing a mini-dreadlock in the back. Too broke to do dry shampoo? Baby powder works almost as effectively and doubles as a fragrance.

Mama always said don’t sleep with your makeup on. And you don’t have to.  These days there are amazing face wipes that you can use on your entire body. Fragrance free, organic, patchouli-proof, whatever, and they’re probably at Fred Meyer. Even though you’re just disappearing for a weekend, buy the 20 pack. All the babes in camp will love you when they’re too tired to wash their faces.

First Aid

When you’re taking it to the edge every night, it’s pretty likely you won’t feel 100 percent the next day. Prepare for this discomfort with over-the-counter remedies and bring extra because everyone in your immediate camping group will probably feel the same. These are my favorites:

• 

  Aleve – the magic blue pill that will cancel out the aches inflicted from typical Haines Fair behavior: sleeping on rocks, head banging injuries, bike crashes and unexpected migraines.

• Pepto-Bismol/TUMS – Let’s be real here, vendor food is delicious and some of it won’t agree with you. Life is too short to feel nauseated.
• Alka-Seltzer – Because someone’s going to have too much fun the night before and won’t wanna come out Saturday morning.
• Fisherman’s Friend – These taste like crap, but they are the best when losing your voice. At Haines Fair 2012 I sucked on these babies all weekend and they helped me get through my main stage set twice!
• DayQuil – Somebody’s going to be sick while your immune system’s taking a vacation. Don’t spend $15 on this when you’re desperate in Haines.

Food

Whatever you expect to spend on food on a normal vacation, multiply it by four. In Haines it’s impossible to resist the temptation of great eats around every corner. You’re already going to spend a small fortune at the Mountain Market, so take some precautions for your health and wallet before getting on the ferry.

One way to bring down the cost is to outfit yourself with snacks–and don’t wait till you get to Haines to pick these up. Your selection is always better at home. My go-to is apples, little baggies of almonds, Clif Bars and carrots. My criteria are anything that will fit in my purse and I can live off comfortably if I run out of money during the weekend.

An unexpected consequence of so many party rockers hitting up Haines is long lines everywhere. And when it’s late, there are even fewer places to get food. Don’t wait till your blood sugar is crashing to feed your body–you’ve got to make it the whole weekend! That includes the P Bar and Fogcutter both nights!

Final Thoughts

Though the great weather and underage kiddos on the beach may make you feel like you’re spring breakin’ in Cancun, you’re not. This is a family-friendly event and you’re guaranteed to run into somebody from work. So don’t forget your dignity and use these tips to stay fabulous.

Annie Bartholomew is a Southeast Alaska State Fair veteran and each year swears she’ll never go back, but always does. 

The boys of Mod Carousel and special guest Caela Bailey, dropped by KXLL to preview their Saturday night showstopper Glitterboxx with Annie on the Spot. The Luminous Pariah, Paris Original, Trojan Original, and Caela Bailey got on the mic talking over their “sexy boys” parody of Blurred Lines which got over 5 million hits on YouTube!

See the full video here – but be forewarned, these boylesque stars may be too hot to handle.

It has long been forbidden for men to weave in the Chilkat tradition, but Tlingit artist Ricky Tagaban is an exception. Using techniques practiced for thousands of years, Tagaban creates his trademark iPhone bags, hair clips, and head bands, putting a modern spin on an ancient tradition.

In his living room overlooking the Gastineau Channel in Juneau, Ricky Tagaban is spinning wool and wet cedar bark together on moose hide.

The process joins the fibers together creating something called warp which will give Tagaban’s bags their structure. With the big Celebration cultural event just a few days away, Tagaban still has several commissions left to fulfil. Though his finished pieces vary in size and intricacy, they all begin the same way – as cedar bark softening in a crockpot.

“Cooking it is kind of the longest and then I soak the bark in hot water and spin it with the wool and I have to wash it and groom it – and that part’s called grooming your balls and you have to go along and cut all the fluff,” Tagaban says. “And that’s all before weaving.”

Tagaban is weaving in the Chilkat tradition. The textile technique is passed down through Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian families and there are strict rules guiding its practice. Created on an upright loom, Chilkat use abstract shapes and patterns inspired by nature.

Much of what’s known about Chilkat came from the late master weaver Jennie Thlunaut.

Juneau weaver Lily Hudson Hope has been practicing both Ravenstail and later Chilkat weaving since she was a teenager.

“I feel that the traditions and the rules and taboos are set there, and they’re there to protect us,” Hope says.

One of the taboos in Chilkat is to never place a human hand in designs. Another is to always cover up your work after you’re finished.

The one that applies to Tagaban is that men can’t weave. But Hope says there is one exception.

“We don’t know why it started or where it started, but when Jennie was teaching my mother and other weavers in 1986, she would scream – ‘we don’t teach men, I don’t teach men, we don’t teach men,’” Hope says. “And then she made the exception that if they’re funny, and she said, ‘If they’re funny, I teach them.’ They’re funny in the way that they’re two spirited.”

By two spirited, Hope means gay.

In the summer of 2010 Tagaban was invited to learn from Thlunaut’s apprentice and Hope’s mother, Clarissa Rizal because he fit the tradition, and was identified as someone who could carry it forward.

“I was asked to learn this style of weaving because of my sexual orientation and because it’s a Native art form so learning this and practicing it and
really identifying as a weaver had really reconciled my Nativeness and my gayness,” Tagaban says.

Since learning Chilkat, Tagaban’s works have become more elaborate and experimental, incorporating more modern materials like shot gun shells. This spring Tagaban was awarded his second Rasmuson grant and one of his iPhone bags appeared on the Red Carpet in Los Angeles at the GLAAD Media awards. Hope thinks it’s exciting to see the way Tagaban has brought Chilkat to new audiences.

“He’s taken an ancient art form and put it in the hands of the masses in a way that’s revolutionary,” Hope says. “We don’t have to wait for Celebration or cultural gatherings to share our art form with other people. It’s not just for Tlingit people or just for Haidas or Tsimshian. If you like this and you want to wear this, come have some. Come get it.”

Back at Tagaban’s home studio, he lets me try on a pair of leggings decorated by deer hooves. They’re a work in progress, an old world object with a twist. Embedded in the traditional Chilkat pattern is a small patch of geometric Ravenstail weaving, a hybrid design that’s beginning to gain acceptance in Chilkat weaving.

For Tagaban, harmonizing both aspects, the modern and traditional is important.

“It’s cool to have a really specialized skill but it’s also a lot of pressure,” Tagaban says. “It’s not like we’re saving it, it’s just that we’re holding onto it while we’re here.”

The leggings are almost finished. Tagaban just has to sew sea otter fur to the tops before he can see them on a dancer at Celebration.

From halfway down the block, you can hear the drums, a thumping bass and a piano tinkling a jazz riff. The sound is coming from the Lucky Lady Pub, which isn’t really known for its jazz activity.

It’s Monday night and Juneau Jazz and Classics is on its 11th straight day of performances. While the festival is known for bringing their musicians to unlikely venues like churches and classrooms, sometimes they take their audiences to places that are really off the traditional music circuit. The festival transformed the South Franklin pub into a full-on jazz club during an evening jam hosted by the Anton Schwartz Quartet.

Inside the bar it’s standing room only. People are lined up halfway out the door and the Seattle-based Anton Schwartz leads his four piece in a lively jazz number. Spectators hoot and holler, talking over the music and enjoying themselves. At the end of the song the tenor saxophone player does something different, he opens the floor to the audience, inviting any local musicians to join the band.

Bobby Reynolds, 75, is ready to play with his velvet red fedora and brass cornet, an instrument that looks like a misshaped trumpet. Schwartz and Reynolds conspire in whispered voices. Before tonight, the pair had never met. Schwartz says it’s exciting because he doesn’t know where the jam will go.

“That’s part of the fun, you never know what’s going to happen and one of the nice things about jazz is that you have this shared body of knowledge. And you can just put it to work to play with people you’ve never worked with before, ” said Schwartz.

People like Reynolds, whose main gig is at the Red Dog Saloon where he plays Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Sinatra. Back in town for his sixth summer, Reynolds was eager to show off his chops he’s picked up after years of playing on cruise ships and touring.

“In a town like Juneau to hear this kind of music, wow, ya’know  that’s really great. This is a really great band in here. Holy jeez, there’s not this kinda stuff going on in lots of places,” said Reynolds.

For the new owner of the Lucky Lady, Mark Erickson, this show has introduced a new crowd to his bar he hopes will come back.

“That’s what I’m designing the bar for. I want this type of crowd to come to my bar,” said Erickson.

See the Anton Schwartz Quartet on Friday before the Juneau Jazz and Classics grand finale Saturday night.