I just sent this message to my mailing list. It applies to all of you blog-readers as well! Happy Solstice, one and all!
Hello Dearest Mailing List,
2009 has been a satisfying but insensitive lover. It never listened to my safe-word. It brought me presents, but promptly broke most of them. We had some great laughs, but it's time to move on! And so. I've decided to break up with 2009. Just in time for 2010.
Thanks for sticking with me these past 12 months, dear readers and friends and audience members. In April, after two years of development, we finally produced "You Will Experience Silence." People liked it. Over the summer, I started developing new plays at The MacDowell Colony where I met many amazing people. This fall, we skeered up a reading for my new musical, "The Material World," a prequel to "You Will Experience Silence."
Meanwhile, the Cheese On Bread album "The Search for Colonel Mustard" was released in Japan by Moor Works Records. My own song "Some Boys Are Bullies" was featured in the film "Hollywood, Je'Taime." And my band Old Hat started its own religion.
2010 is promising to be no less bizarre. Here's a sneak peak at what's gonna happen...
January: THIRTYNOTHING
I'll be reading new work as part of Dixon Place's "QT (Queer Text) Reading Series," along with my soul sister Max Steele. My piece will include fragments and notes from my new work-in-progress, thirtynothing, a solo show about growing up in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic.
That's: Tuesday, January 26th, Dixon Place (161 Chrystie Street), 8pm, $6, QT: Dan Fishback & Max Steele
February: CHEESE ON BREAD
My band Cheese On Bread will be reuniting on the West Coast for a month of songwriting and performing. You can catch us....
February 11: SAN FRANCISCO: Dolores Park Cafe (501 Dolores Street) with Malcolm Rollick & Pablo Das!
February 13: SANTA BARBARA: Biko Garage (6612 Sueno Road, Isla VIsta)
February 16: LOS ANGELES: Echo Curio (1519 Sunset Blvd)
February 20: PHOENIX, AZ: Trunkspace (1506 Grand Avenue)
Feburary 25: LOS ANGELES: The Silverlake Lounge (2906 W. Sunset Blvd)
April/May: YADDO
For the spring, I'll be tucked away at the Yaddo Artists Colony in Saratoga Springs to continue writing "The Material World!"
Summer: THE MATERIAL WORLD
My time at Yaddo better be productive, because this summer "The Material World" goes into workshop. It'll be just like "Guys & Dolls," except it's about Jewish socialists, gay porn and Madonna.
Somewhere between those things, I'll be releasing my third solo album, "Mammal" - a record Casey Holford and I started recording in 2005.
I won't be doing much performing in the next year, but if you crave my presence, you can order cds by me or Cheese On Bread at Olive Juice Music Distribution: http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/ojstore.html .
Or, if you're feeling financially secure and wanna sneak in another tax
write-off before the year is over, you can donate to the ongoing
project that is me at Fractured Atlas*: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/donate/1311 .
It's a privilege making things for you. Let's all have a beautiful new year, no?
Much Love
Dan
http://www.danfishback.com
*Dan Fishback is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Dan Fishback may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
***
Hello Dearest Mailing List,
2009 has been a satisfying but insensitive lover. It never listened to my safe-word. It brought me presents, but promptly broke most of them. We had some great laughs, but it's time to move on! And so. I've decided to break up with 2009. Just in time for 2010.
Thanks for sticking with me these past 12 months, dear readers and friends and audience members. In April, after two years of development, we finally produced "You Will Experience Silence." People liked it. Over the summer, I started developing new plays at The MacDowell Colony where I met many amazing people. This fall, we skeered up a reading for my new musical, "The Material World," a prequel to "You Will Experience Silence."
Meanwhile, the Cheese On Bread album "The Search for Colonel Mustard" was released in Japan by Moor Works Records. My own song "Some Boys Are Bullies" was featured in the film "Hollywood, Je'Taime." And my band Old Hat started its own religion.
2010 is promising to be no less bizarre. Here's a sneak peak at what's gonna happen...
January: THIRTYNOTHING
I'll be reading new work as part of Dixon Place's "QT (Queer Text) Reading Series," along with my soul sister Max Steele. My piece will include fragments and notes from my new work-in-progress, thirtynothing, a solo show about growing up in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic.
That's: Tuesday, January 26th, Dixon Place (161 Chrystie Street), 8pm, $6, QT: Dan Fishback & Max Steele
February: CHEESE ON BREAD
My band Cheese On Bread will be reuniting on the West Coast for a month of songwriting and performing. You can catch us....
February 11: SAN FRANCISCO: Dolores Park Cafe (501 Dolores Street) with Malcolm Rollick & Pablo Das!
February 16: LOS ANGELES: Echo Curio (1519 Sunset Blvd)
February 20: PHOENIX, AZ: Trunkspace (1506 Grand Avenue)
Feburary 25: LOS ANGELES: The Silverlake Lounge (2906 W. Sunset Blvd)
April/May: YADDO
For the spring, I'll be tucked away at the Yaddo Artists Colony in Saratoga Springs to continue writing "The Material World!"
Summer: THE MATERIAL WORLD
My time at Yaddo better be productive, because this summer "The Material World" goes into workshop. It'll be just like "Guys & Dolls," except it's about Jewish socialists, gay porn and Madonna.
Somewhere between those things, I'll be releasing my third solo album, "Mammal" - a record Casey Holford and I started recording in 2005.
I won't be doing much performing in the next year, but if you crave my presence, you can order cds by me or Cheese On Bread at Olive Juice Music Distribution: http://www.olivejuicemusic.
It's a privilege making things for you. Let's all have a beautiful new year, no?
Much Love
Dan
http://www.danfishback.com
*Dan Fishback is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Dan Fishback may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
It is no secret that I think my Close Personal Friend Max Steele (who you may have seen in my play or on television) is pretty much the best. Today he was generous enough to put his gorgeous solo show "Lover, Ferocious" on YouTube, in its entirety. Listen: this is sort of required reading. If you want me to think you're cool, you should memorize this:
I know, right?
Love
Dan
Love
Dan
Did you see Rachel Maddow's rigorous coverage of the really upsetting anti-gay legislation happening in Uganda? I was particularly struck by this interview she did with "ex-gay" leader Richard Cohen - a man I've been familiar with ever since my dad started doing LGBT activism in our home town. Check out the interview here:
Yeesh! After that interview aired, my mother noticed something totally weird - namely, that Cohen's book, "Gay Children, Straight Parents," bore a remarkable surface resemblance to a book she read when I first came out - "Straight Parents, Gay Children." While the latter helped my mom come to terms with my sexuality, and eventually to become an activist in her own right, the former is totally bogus "ex-gay" propaganda, denounced by every major medical and psychiatric institution in the country. Check out the covers:
Weird, right? When you google the good one, the bad one comes up second! I hope no one makes a terrible mistake and accidentally buys the bad one for their parents!
Happy Chanukah.
Love
Dan
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Weird, right? When you google the good one, the bad one comes up second! I hope no one makes a terrible mistake and accidentally buys the bad one for their parents!
Happy Chanukah.
Love
Dan
I'm at my parents' house for Thanksgiving and, ostensibly, for my 10-year high school reunion. And so I'm thinking a lot about the past decade - what has changed and what hasn't.
Last night my dad and I watched my friend Jeffery on The Joy Behar Show for a segment on gay issues. He sat between Kevin Meaney and Judy Gold and the three exchanged coming out stories. This felt significant not just because Jeffery is decades younger than Kevin and Judy, and came out in high school (The others came out much later.), but because Kevin Meaney, now in his 50s, has been closeted, to himself and to the public, until relatively recently.
For the record, I was mildly obsessed with Kevin Meaney as a kid. (Am I the only person in the world who can say that?) Though I no longer remember his routines, he was one of the comics (along with Bill Hicks, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho, Brett Butler...) who captivated me in the early 90s, back when Comedy Central was the MTV of stand-up comedy, running 3-minute blurbs of comedy specials in rotation like music videos. Those people were rock-stars to me just as much as Kurt Cobain or Tori Amos. They were dangerous, violent and direct. Someone gave them microphones, and they were allowed to talk. Just talk. To me. The really transcendent ones, like Bill Hicks, seemed to realize that their occupation was sacred. He realized he was a preacher. He realized that talking in front of large groups of people is a holy, erotic act.
I am not a stand-up comedian, but, 10 years after high school, I do talk in front of groups of people for a living. "Performance artist," in my case, just means that not everything I say on stage is meant to make people laugh. It's odd - the labels we use to describe what we do, the existing structures through which we act out this simple, basic impulse: to talk in front of people. That's what I find inspiring about Jeffery and Cole - that they have funneled that impulse into the medium that, in 2009, reaches people in the most direct way:
In the early 90s, during the stand-up boom (I can't believe there was one.), people with this impulse went to clubs specifically designed for them to talk. Now, there's no middle-man. You just sit at home. Like this beautiful creature:
I am thinking about these things in a house in suburban Maryland, where I was raised by my parents and my television, where I first fantasized about writing and performing, where I first imagined that queerness in America could change through art. Since I was a teenager, all of my performance fantasies were highly politicized. I wanted to perform in front of people so that I could do so As A Queer Person. My queerness, and the way I articulated that queerness, was, I imagined, my contribution to society. It was what I had to offer. It stood to reason that if Scott Thompson could make me feel that my life was worth living, then I could do the same thing for the next generation.
That felt like a pipe dream until I started getting emails from younger gay men, thanking me for the solace they took in my work. That kind of activism could succeed, where my other efforts failed. And that's all I can think about when people in my community catapult to a bigger pulpits and louder megaphones, when I realize how many young queer kids can watch Jeffery & Cole Casserole and feel empowered to be just as deranged as the people they see on TV.
This is all a very roundabout way to say: Adam Lambert! Now that I'm in a house with cable, I can hear a thousand people's opinions on his recent award show performance, in which he kissed a male member of his band - a kiss which has been blacked-out in subsequent airings. Watch this interview and notice that they DON'T black out a similar same-sex kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears:
Like it or not, we now live in a world where Adam Lambert is the Most Famous Queer Performance Artist In The World. Unlike other famous artists who are queer (Michael Stipe comes to mind), Adam Lambert's queerness is an integral part of his performances. This "controversial" production number is, arguably, all about his sexuality - and not just because he kisses a man. Every time he touches one of his female dancers (AND IT HAPPENS A LOT), he is messing with his audience - an audience that is well aware of his actual sexuality. It's a burlesque of sorts - eroticizing something by concealing it, accentuating his queerness by reminding us how dangerous and forbidden it is.
Maybe this all sounds like bullshit, but I am duly intrigued, and feel like it's my responsibility as a queer artist (and, often, a queer pop singer) to acknowledge that the game has changed. We finally have a viable gay male mass-market pop star who is, no doubt, seriously changing the way young queer people feel about themselves and their voices.
And so, since it's Thanksgiving, I'm feeling thankful for all the queer performers who have been turning it out over the past 10 years, making life easier for the current versions of the kids we once were...
Actually, screw it - the kids we still are. Time makes no sense at all. You never stop being the people you were.
I think the reason I get so emotional watching these performances is because part of me is still 13, still, petrified, still convinced that the whole world is out to get me. Maybe that's the same reason any of us watch or make art - to comfort the sad faggots who survived to become the magnificent warriors we are today.
Love
Dan
Last night my dad and I watched my friend Jeffery on The Joy Behar Show for a segment on gay issues. He sat between Kevin Meaney and Judy Gold and the three exchanged coming out stories. This felt significant not just because Jeffery is decades younger than Kevin and Judy, and came out in high school (The others came out much later.), but because Kevin Meaney, now in his 50s, has been closeted, to himself and to the public, until relatively recently.
For the record, I was mildly obsessed with Kevin Meaney as a kid. (Am I the only person in the world who can say that?) Though I no longer remember his routines, he was one of the comics (along with Bill Hicks, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho, Brett Butler...) who captivated me in the early 90s, back when Comedy Central was the MTV of stand-up comedy, running 3-minute blurbs of comedy specials in rotation like music videos. Those people were rock-stars to me just as much as Kurt Cobain or Tori Amos. They were dangerous, violent and direct. Someone gave them microphones, and they were allowed to talk. Just talk. To me. The really transcendent ones, like Bill Hicks, seemed to realize that their occupation was sacred. He realized he was a preacher. He realized that talking in front of large groups of people is a holy, erotic act.
I am not a stand-up comedian, but, 10 years after high school, I do talk in front of groups of people for a living. "Performance artist," in my case, just means that not everything I say on stage is meant to make people laugh. It's odd - the labels we use to describe what we do, the existing structures through which we act out this simple, basic impulse: to talk in front of people. That's what I find inspiring about Jeffery and Cole - that they have funneled that impulse into the medium that, in 2009, reaches people in the most direct way:
In the early 90s, during the stand-up boom (I can't believe there was one.), people with this impulse went to clubs specifically designed for them to talk. Now, there's no middle-man. You just sit at home. Like this beautiful creature:
I am thinking about these things in a house in suburban Maryland, where I was raised by my parents and my television, where I first fantasized about writing and performing, where I first imagined that queerness in America could change through art. Since I was a teenager, all of my performance fantasies were highly politicized. I wanted to perform in front of people so that I could do so As A Queer Person. My queerness, and the way I articulated that queerness, was, I imagined, my contribution to society. It was what I had to offer. It stood to reason that if Scott Thompson could make me feel that my life was worth living, then I could do the same thing for the next generation.
That felt like a pipe dream until I started getting emails from younger gay men, thanking me for the solace they took in my work. That kind of activism could succeed, where my other efforts failed. And that's all I can think about when people in my community catapult to a bigger pulpits and louder megaphones, when I realize how many young queer kids can watch Jeffery & Cole Casserole and feel empowered to be just as deranged as the people they see on TV.
This is all a very roundabout way to say: Adam Lambert! Now that I'm in a house with cable, I can hear a thousand people's opinions on his recent award show performance, in which he kissed a male member of his band - a kiss which has been blacked-out in subsequent airings. Watch this interview and notice that they DON'T black out a similar same-sex kiss between Madonna and Britney Spears:
Like it or not, we now live in a world where Adam Lambert is the Most Famous Queer Performance Artist In The World. Unlike other famous artists who are queer (Michael Stipe comes to mind), Adam Lambert's queerness is an integral part of his performances. This "controversial" production number is, arguably, all about his sexuality - and not just because he kisses a man. Every time he touches one of his female dancers (AND IT HAPPENS A LOT), he is messing with his audience - an audience that is well aware of his actual sexuality. It's a burlesque of sorts - eroticizing something by concealing it, accentuating his queerness by reminding us how dangerous and forbidden it is.
Maybe this all sounds like bullshit, but I am duly intrigued, and feel like it's my responsibility as a queer artist (and, often, a queer pop singer) to acknowledge that the game has changed. We finally have a viable gay male mass-market pop star who is, no doubt, seriously changing the way young queer people feel about themselves and their voices.
And so, since it's Thanksgiving, I'm feeling thankful for all the queer performers who have been turning it out over the past 10 years, making life easier for the current versions of the kids we once were...
Actually, screw it - the kids we still are. Time makes no sense at all. You never stop being the people you were.
I think the reason I get so emotional watching these performances is because part of me is still 13, still, petrified, still convinced that the whole world is out to get me. Maybe that's the same reason any of us watch or make art - to comfort the sad faggots who survived to become the magnificent warriors we are today.
Love
Dan
Woah, the JCC bought this ad in the Village Voice this week!:
I should probably clarify that tickets are $10, not $20. Also, that's an old synopsis (there are no longer peasant girls (only communists from the 1920s)), and it's a reading, not a staged play. Other than that, wow, a fancy ad!!!
I'm pasting the real, up-to-date info below. We've added so many amazing performers to the cast! I laughed so hard at the table reading, I almost barfed on our director. Since then, we've roped in Micah Bucey of The Gay Agenda! I enjoy him so much! He will be playing Ian Fleishman, the character I played in "You Will Experience Silence." (Did I mention this is a sequel?)
Anyway! Please come! It's gonna be ridiculous!
**********************************
The JCC Manhattan Presents
THE MATERIAL WORLD: a musical work in progress
written by Dan Fishback, directed by Stephen Brackett
starring Erin Markey, Eleanor Reissa, Audrey Lynn Weston, Matt Katz,
Micah Bucey, Mary Wiseman, Ben Beckley and Lynne Rosenberg
musical accompaniment by Matt Katz and Dibson Hoffweiler
334 Amsterdam Avenue, NYC, Tickets: $10, Reading starts at 8:30pm
The time is 1921. The place is the Bronx. The Fenster family is contemplating a return to Russia, years after escaping the Tsar. As Mama and Papa fight about socialism and communism, their daughter Gittel hangs out with Madonna, Britney Spears, and an amateur gay webcam pornographer. Everyone breaks out in song. "The Material World" is the sequel to Fishback's "You Will Experience Silence," which ran at Dixon Place in Spring 2009.
This reading is being presented by Nehirim, as part of their Queer Shabbaton New York "urban retreat." For more information on a whole weekend of events, visit http://www.nehirim.org/qsny.
http://www.jccmanhattan.org
http://www.nehirim.org
http://www.danfishback.com
I should probably clarify that tickets are $10, not $20. Also, that's an old synopsis (there are no longer peasant girls (only communists from the 1920s)), and it's a reading, not a staged play. Other than that, wow, a fancy ad!!!
I'm pasting the real, up-to-date info below. We've added so many amazing performers to the cast! I laughed so hard at the table reading, I almost barfed on our director. Since then, we've roped in Micah Bucey of The Gay Agenda! I enjoy him so much! He will be playing Ian Fleishman, the character I played in "You Will Experience Silence." (Did I mention this is a sequel?)
Anyway! Please come! It's gonna be ridiculous!
**********************************
The JCC Manhattan Presents
THE MATERIAL WORLD: a musical work in progress
written by Dan Fishback, directed by Stephen Brackett
starring Erin Markey, Eleanor Reissa, Audrey Lynn Weston, Matt Katz,
Micah Bucey, Mary Wiseman, Ben Beckley and Lynne Rosenberg
musical accompaniment by Matt Katz and Dibson Hoffweiler
334 Amsterdam Avenue, NYC, Tickets: $10, Reading starts at 8:30pm
The time is 1921. The place is the Bronx. The Fenster family is contemplating a return to Russia, years after escaping the Tsar. As Mama and Papa fight about socialism and communism, their daughter Gittel hangs out with Madonna, Britney Spears, and an amateur gay webcam pornographer. Everyone breaks out in song. "The Material World" is the sequel to Fishback's "You Will Experience Silence," which ran at Dixon Place in Spring 2009.
This reading is being presented by Nehirim, as part of their Queer Shabbaton New York "urban retreat." For more information on a whole weekend of events, visit http://www.nehirim.org/qsny.
http://www.jccmanhattan.org
http://www.nehirim.org
http://www.danfishback.com
Dear Friends,
Halloween is a time for scary things, and I can think of nothing scarier than this: I AM WRITING A MUSICAL. The folks at Nehirim and the JCC have kindly invited me to do a reading of my new work-in-progress on October 31st, as part of their Queer Shabbaton New York weekend. Feel free to come in costume! I will be going as "Person Who is Barfing All Over Himself," because that's how nervous I am to put this thing on stage.
Scroll down for the synopsis. I needn't say more.
Perhaps I'll see you there?
Much Love
Dan
************************
Saturday, October 31
THE MATERIAL WORLD: a musical work-in-progress
The JCC Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Ave at 76th Street, NYC)
Tickets: $10, Reading starts at 8:30pm
written by Dan Fishback, directed by Stephen Brackett
starring Erin Markey as Madonna, rest of cast TBA
musical accompaniment by Matt Katz and Dibson Hoffweiler
The time is 1921. The place is the Bronx. The Fenster family is contemplating a return to Russia, years after escaping the Tsar. As Mama and Papa fight about socialism and communism, their daughter Gittel hangs out with Madonna, Britney Spears, and an amateur gay webcam pornographer. Everyone breaks out in song.
This reading is being presented by Nehirim, as part of their Queer Shabbaton New York "urban retreat." For more information on a whole weekend of events, visit http://www.nehirim.org/qsny.
http://www.jccmanhattan.org
http://www.nehirim.org
http://www.danfishback.com
Halloween is a time for scary things, and I can think of nothing scarier than this: I AM WRITING A MUSICAL. The folks at Nehirim and the JCC have kindly invited me to do a reading of my new work-in-progress on October 31st, as part of their Queer Shabbaton New York weekend. Feel free to come in costume! I will be going as "Person Who is Barfing All Over Himself," because that's how nervous I am to put this thing on stage.
Scroll down for the synopsis. I needn't say more.
Perhaps I'll see you there?
Much Love
Dan
************************
Saturday, October 31
THE MATERIAL WORLD: a musical work-in-progress
The JCC Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Ave at 76th Street, NYC)
Tickets: $10, Reading starts at 8:30pm
written by Dan Fishback, directed by Stephen Brackett
starring Erin Markey as Madonna, rest of cast TBA
musical accompaniment by Matt Katz and Dibson Hoffweiler
The time is 1921. The place is the Bronx. The Fenster family is contemplating a return to Russia, years after escaping the Tsar. As Mama and Papa fight about socialism and communism, their daughter Gittel hangs out with Madonna, Britney Spears, and an amateur gay webcam pornographer. Everyone breaks out in song.
This reading is being presented by Nehirim, as part of their Queer Shabbaton New York "urban retreat." For more information on a whole weekend of events, visit http://www.nehirim.org/qsny.
http://www.jccmanhattan.org
http://www.nehirim.org
http://www.danfishback.com
I am not the first person in my family to keep a blog. Sam Fishback started "City Ditties" in October, 1937, under the pen name "Poisson Lac." This archaic form of blog was then known as a "journal" (pronounced: [jur-nl]). The 20-year-old New York City postman made observations on global politics and city events, with the occasional personal anecdote. He also wrote humorous verse. I'd like to share a few highlights, as I peruse the archive...
***
December 12, 1938
Left Wing Hollywood and Broadway gave their all for Spain at Mecca Temple last Sunday night. Gypsy Rose Lee did a superlative bit in her striptease satire. It was a striptease with a social significance. Remarking to the audience that she no longer can do that which made her famous, she said, "but for Spain," she would "strip everything." (And strip she did, way down to three tiny patches covering no man's land (but all men's paradise).) When she lifted her skirt, exposing an exciting pair of gartered bestockinged legs, she said, "Now if only we could lift the Spanish embargo!" Gypsy's take-off brought down the house.
February 5, 1939
"Words Words Words!"
You've talked with the girl for weeks
And you know your minds are compatible
Ne'er at a loss for something to say
Your topics for gab are indefagitable
Before you met her your voice was strong
But now it's down to a whisper
Tell me, my talkative topic tickler:
When - Oh - when will you kiss her?
November 15, 1938
...The Jews must go to that country where there are "livings" for all and where the Jews are not looked upon as an undesirable minority because of their race. That country, where the Jews could go, unfortunately does not allow them to enter. The Soviet Union has fought for twenty years to rid its people of religious and commercial ways of thought. Hence that nation finds that it would be dangerous to allow in to its lands a group, the Jews, famous for their religious steadfastness and their commercial cliverness. What is more, Trotsky was a Jew, and the Jews might be harboring a few more Trotskys. What then prevents the Jews from finding a homeland in Russia? Their religion and their business talents. Two eternal millstones around the Jewish neck. Again I say, Jews must cease being Jews. Jews must cease being capitalists or tradesmen. ...Russia now can't forget that Trotsky was a Jew. Perhaps Russia will remember that Karl Marz was also a Jew. Perhaps the new Russian film "Professor Memlock" (portraying Nazi persecution of the Jews) will be followed by a Soviet offer of haven for the Jews. Prestige lost by the recent purges can be regained by such a gesture. Of course, the Soviet offer cannot be an unconditional one. Any Jew who settles in Russia must forget his prayer book and his account ledger. He must become a "godless" worker. He must forget that past of his heritage, his religion that has brought him much more sorrow than joy. How many Jews, if offered a place where they can live and work unmolested, will accept the offer? How many only want a place to pray? I feel that most Jews, especially the young ones, would take the Soviet offer, conditional (and at the present time, conceptual) as it is.
February 4, 1939
"Know Thyself (Superficial Fishback)"
Superficial Sam Fishback
(Pseudonym is Poisson Lac)
Never can let pass a crack
For puns his brain he loves to rack
Why does Fishback have few friends
Though often backwards he does bend
Won't someone him this message send:
"Words are Means and never Ends."
***
Maybe I'll share more later.
Love
Dan
nl
***
December 12, 1938
Left Wing Hollywood and Broadway gave their all for Spain at Mecca Temple last Sunday night. Gypsy Rose Lee did a superlative bit in her striptease satire. It was a striptease with a social significance. Remarking to the audience that she no longer can do that which made her famous, she said, "but for Spain," she would "strip everything." (And strip she did, way down to three tiny patches covering no man's land (but all men's paradise).) When she lifted her skirt, exposing an exciting pair of gartered bestockinged legs, she said, "Now if only we could lift the Spanish embargo!" Gypsy's take-off brought down the house.
February 5, 1939
"Words Words Words!"
You've talked with the girl for weeks
And you know your minds are compatible
Ne'er at a loss for something to say
Your topics for gab are indefagitable
Before you met her your voice was strong
But now it's down to a whisper
Tell me, my talkative topic tickler:
When - Oh - when will you kiss her?
November 15, 1938
...The Jews must go to that country where there are "livings" for all and where the Jews are not looked upon as an undesirable minority because of their race. That country, where the Jews could go, unfortunately does not allow them to enter. The Soviet Union has fought for twenty years to rid its people of religious and commercial ways of thought. Hence that nation finds that it would be dangerous to allow in to its lands a group, the Jews, famous for their religious steadfastness and their commercial cliverness. What is more, Trotsky was a Jew, and the Jews might be harboring a few more Trotskys. What then prevents the Jews from finding a homeland in Russia? Their religion and their business talents. Two eternal millstones around the Jewish neck. Again I say, Jews must cease being Jews. Jews must cease being capitalists or tradesmen. ...Russia now can't forget that Trotsky was a Jew. Perhaps Russia will remember that Karl Marz was also a Jew. Perhaps the new Russian film "Professor Memlock" (portraying Nazi persecution of the Jews) will be followed by a Soviet offer of haven for the Jews. Prestige lost by the recent purges can be regained by such a gesture. Of course, the Soviet offer cannot be an unconditional one. Any Jew who settles in Russia must forget his prayer book and his account ledger. He must become a "godless" worker. He must forget that past of his heritage, his religion that has brought him much more sorrow than joy. How many Jews, if offered a place where they can live and work unmolested, will accept the offer? How many only want a place to pray? I feel that most Jews, especially the young ones, would take the Soviet offer, conditional (and at the present time, conceptual) as it is.
February 4, 1939
"Know Thyself (Superficial Fishback)"
Superficial Sam Fishback
(Pseudonym is Poisson Lac)
Never can let pass a crack
For puns his brain he loves to rack
Why does Fishback have few friends
Though often backwards he does bend
Won't someone him this message send:
"Words are Means and never Ends."
***
Maybe I'll share more later.
Love
Dan
To mark the Jewish New Year (the real New Year), I'd like to make the following observation:
I have a good feeling about the year 5770!!!
Love,
Dan
I have a good feeling about the year 5770!!!
Love,
Dan
I ate soy meat on the steps of an F.I.T. building yesterday, watching the incoming freshmen. This is how I know it's September in NYC: I find myself drawn to a collegey part of town to experience...
orientation.
The urge usually takes me to Washington Square, but F.I.T. presents a more dramatic scene. Hundreds of 17 or 18-year-olds, all wearing their fiercest, bitchiest, craziest shit, all trying to impress the pants (literally) off of each other. Their limbs flail, their bags swing every which way. The most tender buffoons. They're rehearsing to become New Yorkers.
I couldn't stop thinking, this time, ten years after my own freshman orientation, what a different world (from mine) these kids have known. What a different experience of being a teenager. The World Trade Center collapsed when they were, what, 10? It's been such a depressing decade. And yet, as the Pitchfork Greatest 500 Songs of the 00s reminds (those of) us (who decide to pay attention), the soundtrack to all this misery has been, relentlessly, pop.
(Odd: that the soundtrack to the comparatively mild 90s was so melancholy. Or: actually/really: is that like the least odd thing ever?)
What a funny time to be a freshman at F.I.T. If I was one, I imagine I would feel very important.
Love
Dan
I couldn't stop thinking, this time, ten years after my own freshman orientation, what a different world (from mine) these kids have known. What a different experience of being a teenager. The World Trade Center collapsed when they were, what, 10? It's been such a depressing decade. And yet, as the Pitchfork Greatest 500 Songs of the 00s reminds (those of) us (who decide to pay attention), the soundtrack to all this misery has been, relentlessly, pop.
(Odd: that the soundtrack to the comparatively mild 90s was so melancholy. Or: actually/really: is that like the least odd thing ever?)
What a funny time to be a freshman at F.I.T. If I was one, I imagine I would feel very important.
Love
Dan
I took a much-needed vacation in Woodstock. Here are some things I enjoyed:
Love
Dan
Love
Dan
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow night, I'll be playing songs at my old stomping grounds, The Sidewalk Cafe. Except I won't be doing much stomping. I will be sitting down. I guess this isn't such exciting news, but, for a singer-songwriter, the decision to sit down always feels calculated and significant. Anyway, I will only be singing songs I've written in 2009, so much of my set, if not all of it, will be new to you. I'd love for you to hear.
I'd also love for you to hear all of my wonderful friends on the bill. Dibs' new songs are totally insane. Susie Asado, Sibsi and Horror Me have come all the way from Berlin. Andrew Tipton is about to release a new album. Etcetera, no? It should be a warm and magical evening.
Much Love
Dan
Thursday, September 3rd
The Sidewalk Cafe (94 Avenue A, NYC)
7:30 Dibs, 8:00 Dan Fishback, 8:30 Susie Asado, 9:30 Andrew Phillip Tipton, 10:00 Nan Turner, 10:30 Horror Me, 11:00 Kat Burns, 11:30 Toby Goodshank, 12:00 Sibsi. No cover, two drink minimum, as always.
Tomorrow night, I'll be playing songs at my old stomping grounds, The Sidewalk Cafe. Except I won't be doing much stomping. I will be sitting down. I guess this isn't such exciting news, but, for a singer-songwriter, the decision to sit down always feels calculated and significant. Anyway, I will only be singing songs I've written in 2009, so much of my set, if not all of it, will be new to you. I'd love for you to hear.
I'd also love for you to hear all of my wonderful friends on the bill. Dibs' new songs are totally insane. Susie Asado, Sibsi and Horror Me have come all the way from Berlin. Andrew Tipton is about to release a new album. Etcetera, no? It should be a warm and magical evening.
Much Love
Dan
Thursday, September 3rd
The Sidewalk Cafe (94 Avenue A, NYC)
7:30 Dibs, 8:00 Dan Fishback, 8:30 Susie Asado, 9:30 Andrew Phillip Tipton, 10:00 Nan Turner, 10:30 Horror Me, 11:00 Kat Burns, 11:30 Toby Goodshank, 12:00 Sibsi. No cover, two drink minimum, as always.
This is what my sign looked like:
This is what some other signs looked like:
But what's with the signs that say "THANK YOU"???
Anyone know?
Love
Dan
This is what some other signs looked like:
But what's with the signs that say "THANK YOU"???
Anyone know?
Love
Dan
I'm going to a Health Care Reform rally tomorrow in Times Square, and I'll be making a sign. What should it say? Send me ideas!
Here is the official press release for the event:
CONTACT:
Tim Foley 646-229-1379
Mark Hannay 212-925-1829
Geoff Berman 917-847-5828
UPDATED PRESS ADVISORY:
Times Square Event and New York City Community Walks to Honor Sen. Edward Kennedy and Declare Support for the “Cause of His Career” – Health Reform in 2009
Members of Congress, Health Care for America Now, Organizing for America, Labor Unions, Grassroots Progressive Groups, Physicians, and Others Unite to Send Elected Officials Back to Congress with Mandate for Reform and the Fulfillment of Sen. Kennedy’s Legacy
New York, NY – In memory of Sen. Edward Kennedy and in honor of his extraordinary legacy, New Yorkers representing the best of the grassroots progressive movement, people of faith, physicians, labor unions, and coalitions like Health Care for America Now and Organizing for America will come together on Saturday, August 29, for a tribute to one of health care reform’s greatest advocates and to pledge that on this issue, “the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
Beginning with community walks in all five boroughs, New Yorkers of all backgrounds will come together at a 2:00 PM in Times Square. Here, at the crossroads of the world, the participants will send a clear message both to their elected officials and to their fellow citizens across the country that now is the time to rededicate ourselves to completing Senator Kennedy’s unfinished work to achieve quality, affordable health care for all.
What: “The Dream Lives On: Together We Walk, United We Stand” Community Walks and Times Square Unity Event
Who: The Honorable Charles Rangel, the Honorable Carolyn Maloney (both confirmed to speak), and a grassroots coalition of over 75 organizations including non-profit advocacy organizations, faith communities, labor unions, Health Care for America Now, progressive grassroots organizations, and many, many more.
When: Saturday, August 29, at 2:00 pm
Where: Times Square
West 42nd Street and 7th Avenue
New York City
Note: Times Square Unity Event will be preceded by community walks beginning at hospitals throughout the five boroughs, from 12 noon onward. See complete list at www.nycforchange.org
Here is the official press release for the event:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2009
August 27, 2009
CONTACT:
Tim Foley 646-229-1379
Mark Hannay 212-925-1829
Geoff Berman 917-847-5828
UPDATED PRESS ADVISORY:
Times Square Event and New York City Community Walks to Honor Sen. Edward Kennedy and Declare Support for the “Cause of His Career” – Health Reform in 2009
Members of Congress, Health Care for America Now, Organizing for America, Labor Unions, Grassroots Progressive Groups, Physicians, and Others Unite to Send Elected Officials Back to Congress with Mandate for Reform and the Fulfillment of Sen. Kennedy’s Legacy
New York, NY – In memory of Sen. Edward Kennedy and in honor of his extraordinary legacy, New Yorkers representing the best of the grassroots progressive movement, people of faith, physicians, labor unions, and coalitions like Health Care for America Now and Organizing for America will come together on Saturday, August 29, for a tribute to one of health care reform’s greatest advocates and to pledge that on this issue, “the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
Beginning with community walks in all five boroughs, New Yorkers of all backgrounds will come together at a 2:00 PM in Times Square. Here, at the crossroads of the world, the participants will send a clear message both to their elected officials and to their fellow citizens across the country that now is the time to rededicate ourselves to completing Senator Kennedy’s unfinished work to achieve quality, affordable health care for all.
What: “The Dream Lives On: Together We Walk, United We Stand” Community Walks and Times Square Unity Event
Who: The Honorable Charles Rangel, the Honorable Carolyn Maloney (both confirmed to speak), and a grassroots coalition of over 75 organizations including non-profit advocacy organizations, faith communities, labor unions, Health Care for America Now, progressive grassroots organizations, and many, many more.
When: Saturday, August 29, at 2:00 pm
Where: Times Square
West 42nd Street and 7th Avenue
New York City
Note: Times Square Unity Event will be preceded by community walks beginning at hospitals throughout the five boroughs, from 12 noon onward. See complete list at www.nycforchange.org
In the past week, I have taken tremendous solace in the media remnants of the following women:
Love
Dan
Dan
I would like to send out some big applause to Human Rights Watch for finally calling attention to the anti-gay pogrom in Iraq. Their new report, "They Want Us Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq," has mustered up a lot of press, after years and years of virtual silence. It's shocking to hear Wolf Blitzer call this an "important story," when the facts and journalism have been readily available in the gay press, particularly in Gay City News for a long time, almost entirely ignored by the mainstream media. Here are some of the reports that have popped up today. I'm curious to see where this goes...
Hello friends,
When I planned my late summer/early fall, I imagined there would be no performances or mass emails or anything. I'm in the thick of research for my new play, "The Material World," which will have a debut reading on Halloween at the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan. That's pretty far away, but the play is...err....VERY COMPLICATED, and I knew I would need lots of very ascetic, monkish, scholarly time to absorb as much information as possible.
But then two things happened!
1) The Black And The Jew asked me to be on their radio show today! I love The Black And The Jew. They are a married couple. He is "A Jew." She is "A Black." They make performances about their relationship. I haven't heard their radio show, or even seen them for a few years now, but this seemed like a nice opportunity to hang out, especially since I'm not really plugging anything, and don't have any particular reason to be on the radio. I'll be singing songs on my new ukulele! Tune in from 6pm-7pm on the internet at http://nytalkradio.net/
2) My favorite Berliners are coming to town! And so, obviously, we're all playing a show: Thursday, September 3rd, at The Sidewalk Cafe. The line-up is full of beautiful Americans and beautiful Germans: 7:30 Dibs, 8:00 Dan Fishback, 8:30 Susie Asado, 9:30 Andrew Phillip Tipton, 10:00 Nan Turner, 10:30 Horror Me, 11:00 Kat Burns, 11:30 Toby Goodshank, 12:00 Sibsi. No cover, two drink minimum, as always. (94 Avenue A, NYC)
Whenever folks like Sibsi, Susie Asado and Horror Me come to town, I think: "Wow. Maybe one day my grandchildren will be playing folk music shows with kids from Tehran and Baghdad and Pyongyang. It boggles the mind. Anyway, this will be a really lovely show, I think. I'll be playing only new songs. Maybe I'll see you there and we'll make plans to visit Birobidzhan.
Love
Dan
When I planned my late summer/early fall, I imagined there would be no performances or mass emails or anything. I'm in the thick of research for my new play, "The Material World," which will have a debut reading on Halloween at the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan. That's pretty far away, but the play is...err....VERY COMPLICATED, and I knew I would need lots of very ascetic, monkish, scholarly time to absorb as much information as possible.
But then two things happened!
1) The Black And The Jew asked me to be on their radio show today! I love The Black And The Jew. They are a married couple. He is "A Jew." She is "A Black." They make performances about their relationship. I haven't heard their radio show, or even seen them for a few years now, but this seemed like a nice opportunity to hang out, especially since I'm not really plugging anything, and don't have any particular reason to be on the radio. I'll be singing songs on my new ukulele! Tune in from 6pm-7pm on the internet at http://nytalkradio.net/
2) My favorite Berliners are coming to town! And so, obviously, we're all playing a show: Thursday, September 3rd, at The Sidewalk Cafe. The line-up is full of beautiful Americans and beautiful Germans: 7:30 Dibs, 8:00 Dan Fishback, 8:30 Susie Asado, 9:30 Andrew Phillip Tipton, 10:00 Nan Turner, 10:30 Horror Me, 11:00 Kat Burns, 11:30 Toby Goodshank, 12:00 Sibsi. No cover, two drink minimum, as always. (94 Avenue A, NYC)
Whenever folks like Sibsi, Susie Asado and Horror Me come to town, I think: "Wow. Maybe one day my grandchildren will be playing folk music shows with kids from Tehran and Baghdad and Pyongyang. It boggles the mind. Anyway, this will be a really lovely show, I think. I'll be playing only new songs. Maybe I'll see you there and we'll make plans to visit Birobidzhan.
Love
Dan
Last week, I emailed the State Department to complain about their lack of response to the rising surge of anti-gay violence in Iraq. Today, I got a friendly response! I've pasted it below. Emphasis mine.
from: U.S. Department of State <usdeptstate@mailnj.custhelp.com>
reply-to: "U.S. Department of State" <usdeptstate@mailnj.custhelp.com>
to: danfishback@gmail.com
date: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 6:29 AM
subject: Anti-Gay Violence in Iraq [Incident: 090721-000104]
Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support
center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.
Thank you for contacting the State Department.
Subject
------------------------------
Anti-Gay Violence in Iraq
Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Support Agent) - 07/28/2009 09:29 AM
The Bureau of Public Affairs is in receipt of your message. Please visit our website at www.state.gov for Secretary of State Clinton's speeches and Department publications.
Thank you for contacting the U.S. Department of State.
Question Reference #090721-000104
---------------------------------------------------------------
Category Level 1: U.S. Foreign Policy
Date Created: 07/21/2009 09:43 AM
Last Updated: 07/28/2009 09:29 AM
Status: Solved
[---001:000750:62919---]
Hello all!I'm writing you from sunny Los Angeles, in the back yard of Sara FitzSimmons and Kevin Kelly, who you may know as my bandmates from Cheese On Bread. Matt, also from Cheese On Bread, is programming computers (or something) in the guest house, and Kevin is picking up Cheese On Bread's Dibs and Daoud from the airport. It is the week of The Great Big Cheese On Bread Wedding, and I am the priest. (No joke.)
Anyway, this is all just to say that "The Mattachine Project" will be debuting material at Dixon Place TOMORROW and WEDNESDAY, and I won't even be there! When I started out in theater, I would just show up at the venue with a bag of props, run on stage, and do something I'd created all by myself. Nowadays, as a Respectable Bodyless Playwright, I don't even have to be in the same time zone.
"The Mattachine Project" is the most collaborative theater piece I've ever worked on (on which I've ever worked). I am technically the "writer," but much of what you'll see was crafted from the actors' improvisations, from devised scenarios created by the director, and from tireless research and visioning by our dramaturg and producer. There will even be one or two scenes I HAVE NEVER SEEN.
This is only the first showing of material from what will eventually be a longer and more developed piece. And while much of the show is historical (retelling the early history of the modern American gay rights movement), I'd wager to say that it's actually about the present moment - a moment in which you participate - and so we are desirous for your feedback! This is a show about YOU, and so we want to know what you think! So please come, stay for the talk-back, and then TALK BACK!
Meanwhile, I'll be getting a tan and playing with Phyllis, Sara's and Kevin's pet chicken.
Much Love
Dan
******************************
THE MATTACHINE PROJECT (a work in progress)
Dixon Place (161 Chrystie St, NYC), July 28 / July 29 at 7:00pm
Directed by Stephen Brackett
Written by Dan Fishback in collaboration with the ensemble: Chris Andersson, Satya Bhabha, Yuval Boim, Sean Donovan and Philip Taratula. Ken Nielsen, Dramaturg. Andy Horwitz, Producer
Tickets: $15 (USE DISCOUNT CODE HOTPROJECT for $4 off)
Join us for the first showing of The Mattachine Project, a devised theater piece exploring and responding to Harry Hay and the oft-overlooked history of the Mattachine Society.
I just went to The State Department website to send the following letter. Please do the same! This is NOT a form letter from an activist organization; as far as I know, LGBTQ groups have not begun organizing around this issue. (If you have heard otherwise, please let me know.) We have to do it ourselves!
To whom it may concern:
On May 26, 2009, U.S. Representatives Jared Polis, Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank sent Secretary Clinton a letter urging her to investigate the increasing wave of anti-gay violence in Iraq. The letter was co-signed by 38 other Representatives. To date, there has been no public response. When will Mme. Clinton at least respond to this issue, let alone take action?
Sincerely,
Dan Fishback
To whom it may concern:
On May 26, 2009, U.S. Representatives Jared Polis, Tammy Baldwin and Barney Frank sent Secretary Clinton a letter urging her to investigate the increasing wave of anti-gay violence in Iraq. The letter was co-signed by 38 other Representatives. To date, there has been no public response. When will Mme. Clinton at least respond to this issue, let alone take action?
Sincerely,
Dan Fishback
I just sent the following message to my mailing list...
Hello List Friends,
You haven't heard from me since the run of my play, "You Will Experience Silence," this past spring. It's been a pretty intense few months. During the rehearsal process for that show, I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which got quite bad by the time we closed. For a while, I was seriously considering moving away from New York, living with my parents, and figuring out how to get through the rest of my life with a condition that most doctors claim is incurable. Instead, I started acupuncture, went on a strict macrobiotic diet, and stopped going out at night. After a month, I was starting to feel better. Still slow, but not totally incapacitated anymore. My half-recovery arrived just in time to go to the MacDowell Artists Colony in June, to work on two new plays, "The Mattachine Project" and "The Material World." Now I'm back in the city and looking forward to improvising a new, slower-paced version of my previously chaotic lifestyle.
As part of that slowing-down, I won't actually be performing in these new plays. You can get a sneak peak at one of them when we workshop "The Mattachine Project," July 28th and 29th at Dixon Place's 2009 HOT! Festival. It's an uber-collaborative piece, and I am the trusty script writer. Director extraordinaire Stephen Brackett, who miraculously turned "You Will Experience Silence" into a piece of viable theater, will be doing that for this one too. The two workshop presentations will be preceded by three FREE salon events ("Mattachine Mondays") where we'll present historical films and other information to open a public dialogue about queer politics and queer history. We're holding our first salon this Monday, and we'll be screening "Hope Along the Wind," a documentary about Harry Hay.
So, mark your calendars! I'm excited to see where this show will take us, and your feedback is incredibly valuable at this stage.
Wishing you great warmth this summer,
Love
Dan
***********************************************************
The Mattachine ProjectDirected by Stephen Brackett; Written by Dan Fishback in collaboration with the ensemble: Chris Andersson, Satya Bhabha, Yuval Boim, Michael Cyril Creighton, Sean Donovan and Philip Taratula. Dramaturgy by Ken Nielsen
Tuesday, July 28 & 29 (7pm), Dixon Place (161 Chrystie Street, NYC)
Tickets $15 in advance / $18 at the door / $12 students and seniors
The Mattachine Project is a devised theater piece exploring and responding to the origins of The Mattachine Society, America's first gay rights organization, and its enigmatic founder, Harry Hay. By juxtaposing Mattachine's much-overlooked history with depictions of contemporary queer communities in New York and the Middle East, the
performance will explore the complicated relationships between queer people, privilege, oppression, and the search for freedom.
http://www.hotfestival.org
http://www.dixonplace.org
Mattachine Mondays
Hosted by Andy Horwitz, Stephen Brackett, and Dan Fishback
Tuesday, July 6, 13 & 20 at 8:00 pm, Dixon Place (161 Chrystie Street, NYC)
Tickets: FREE
Monday July 6th: Hope Along the Wind
The first Monday Salon will feature a screening of the documentary Hope Along the Wind about Harry Hay. Following the screening the performance project will be introduced and discussed.
Monday July 13th: The history of Homosexual Organization
Harry Hay often claimed that he didn’t know about previous attempts to organize homosexuals in the USA or in Western Europe. In this salon we’ll investigate earlier attempts to organize and define gay male sexuality as a way of understanding the unique qualities of the early Mattachine Society. This historical framework will lead into a discussion of contemporary forms of gay/lesbian/queer activism and organization.
Monday July 20th: Gay Representations on Stage and Silver Screen
From early in the 20th century representations of gay men became part of the standard repertoire of both the commercial and the alternative theatre. This Monday Salon investigates some of the representations of those who were “that way” as a historical background for our new piece. This leads into a discussion of contemporary representations of queer sexuality.
Tax Deductible Donations
Dan Fishback is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Dan Fishback may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
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