But… onwards and upwards! only loose ends and packing left.

I tell you what. Coming up with this stuff is more fun than you can imagine. And then people actually donate real prizes for the winners. People are actually encouraging this behavior.

From the official site:

Part game show. Part reality TV. And the possibility of pain.

If
you come to any of our shows in May, you will be treated to
the first public performance of the underground Japanese hit reality
game show, Kikioke, in which two contestants are chosen to compete
against one another in a cut-throat version of “Name That Tune”, only:
if you’re wrong, someone pays! But all in good fun. Fun like going
water skiing and busting your ass over and over as your maniacal uncle
refuses to “take it easy”.

Our past game show winners have
walked away with fabulous Kiki t-shirts, bottles of wine, and
“pre-owned” panties, but this time, we’re upping the ante! Come,
compete, and possibly win:

• a gift certificate to Sermet’s Corner, in Charleston, SC
• a gift certificate from Crushed Fine Wine, in Charleston
• a gift certificate from O’hara and Flynn’s Wine and Cheese, also in Charleston.

…and
more prizes may appear! This is real shit, y’all. Stuff you’d actually
want to have. Stuff worth embarrassing yourself and a number of your
closest companions by singing to a packed audience of people for.

How
do I sign up? 1. Get yourself some tickets to a Kiki show coming
up. 2. Come to the show. We’ll be set up in the lobby to
audition possible contestants. 3. Show us what you can do.

That’s it? Yes! That’s it! See you in May. And a hint: start brushing up on your classic 70s and 80s torch songs. KIKIOKE!!

I’m so lucky.

The first time I saw Nathan Durfee’s work hanging at Theatre 99, I was immediately driven to find out who the artist was, and I am glad that I did. I was a fan of his long before I met him, and upon this meeting I was shocked and delighted to find that the guy that created this intense and beautiful work was actually really really nice, kind of bright and shiny, in fact. We’ve asked him to design the backdrop flats for our Kiki show in May, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

I uploaded three new songs to the Kiki myspace page, and looked into creating one with Facebook after seeing my friend Amanda’s new Facebook Music page. I was worn out before I could even start putting new dates on the official Kiki page. Which might be pointless, anyway, to have. It doesn’t have enough emoticons and ads for dating services on it, for my taste.

I’m not complaining too much. I’ve always been a proponent of using the internet to reach strangers and familiars alike; the rock band did it long before the word for it was “blogging”. Back then not many people were reading because they didn’t have the internet, but it was still cool to express yourself online, and now not many people are reading because there is too much internet, and it is expected of every Man, Woman, and Child to express themselves online. Probably Dog, too. I’m not even going to look, but I bet there is a Dogster.

If I was a genius I would invent one site that ruled them all, that automatically posted all the songs, dates, information, to whatever the hip-sites of the moment are at the same time. People have been trying, but I haven’t found one yet that actually made the process easier. It’s a logistical nightmare and how could you predict what was coming ’round the bend, web-wise? Today, Facebook seems to be edging out Myspace. Tomorrow, it’ll be something else. I can’t wait to find out! I could come up with a hip web 2.0 name for it: “Sploinxt’r”! “Broseefussez”!

or “Kurmujiin”!

Cabaret Kiki performance for Art Magazine, Valentine’s Day 2008.