Rockeras Sin Fronteras: best drag ever

shit! this is terrible news. grrrrr. heard via lil miss hot mess that charlie horse at the cinch is ending. this makes me very upset, not just because of all the good times, cheap strong drinks, and glamorous company that i won't get to enjoy there. but also because this is another nail in the coffin of a sf neighborhood that was not so very long ago proudly working-class & queer, and is now in the clutches of the devil known as gentrification. here's what lil miss hot mess has to say about it:

Today Anna Conda announced that Charlie Horse is over, effectively immediately. I can’t get all the facts straight but it has to do with the gentrification of the Polk — hell, the gentrification of the whole city — specifically yuppies who want to have their cake and eat it too, and developers who want to sell it to them. Anna thinks that it’s a combination of people complaining about noisy queens and the Polk St. Merchants Association wanting to get rid of the gay bars. The Gangway (nearby on Larkin) already shut down all DJed parties months ago due to complaints. It’s ridiculous!

Like I said, I don’t know the full story, so I don’t want to start the blame game or get too much into the specifics of it. But hello, San Francisco: this is what you get when you invite your city to become a dot-com yuppie playground. This is exactly how neighborhoods gentrify. It’s easy to point fingers at artists and gays as gentrifiers — and not to say that we aren’t part of the system — but the bigger picture is about government colluding with the wealthy using tactics like selective law enforcement and policies that favor development.

foto: the lovely anna conda (sf weekly)

i've been meaning to post about anna conda & charlie horse for so long and of course now i'm sorry i didn't sooner. basically it's the best drag ever.

i have a soft spot in my heart for drag performance, especially the working-class kind in tiny over-filled dive bars and especially latin@ drag like the kind at b&b or norma jeans, a very soft spot. but... admittedly, i don't find most of it all that entertaining, and i don't usually last very long until i get bored. we were talking about this one time and ms. anna conda was like, i know! it's like how many times can you listen to whitney houston greatest love of all before you want to kill yourself, you know? true.

but anna conda & co. on friday nights at midnight, now that's some drag!!! their weekly show charlie horse was this magical combination of messy punk rock, bizarre vintage glamour, and biting social critique. the hair was piled high, the girls wore (and sometimes took off) amazing outfits. the music was always good, or self-consciously awful, either way a delight. and the performers worked their asses off, a new show every week! soooo entertaining, so irreverent, sometimes made me hurt from laughing so hard. the other thing i really appreciated about charlie horse & anna conda was that they saw themselves as holding down polk street for the working-class queers against the forces of displacement & assimilation. polk street for the gays! marina girls go home! as she used to like to chant. plus, at this year's september 11th show anna conda punctuated her mistress of ceremonies routine with a rant about colin powell being a war criminal. not really your average drag show banter. oh, i really wish it wasn't over ;(

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for a little tribute to the beautiful & noisy event that was, here are a few fotos from charlie horse, and song dedications to anna, who is roquera de corazón. thank you so much, ms. anna conda, it was wonderful. here's a little volumen cero & jesus and mary chain especialmente para ti...

eres la queen... eres la queen... eres la queen...