Calpernia’s Blue Glass Demos

Ok, Kids, so as you may know my musical exposure was limited pretty much to Bluegrass gospel and folk during my most formative years. Most everything since then has had a breathless sensation of “catching up on something from the past”, a discovered treasure, but one to which I had no connection in my history.

We were allowed to watch old black and white movies, though, and I’ve really been enjoying coming back around to the music of Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and then related artists (in my mind) like Peggy Lee. I’m probably using the words slightly wrong, but I’ve been using the word “cabaret” to describe my one-person club performances of these high-character, high-camp songs that usually sit somewhere in a cinematic narrative. I know there’s a long Broadway history of this kind of thing, but I’ve always been strangely put off by the “Broadway scene” as I perceive it. Current Broadway music doesn’t have the rich, classic Jazzy, Bluesy or Big Band feel of the movie versions I like. It’s pop-y, overly modern and has the ugly tinge of reality singing competition feel to it: singing as a way to “crush the competition” and build one’s self up rather than bring a character to life or entertain the audience.

I feel something in a lot of Broadway music, and music in general now, that seems to have forgotten that the artist is there in service of the audience. To entertain, enchant and please them. I feel so much ego and self aggrandizement in performance nowadays.

Which is why I love going back to my own personally cherished goddesses and their canons. This summer, I hope to record my first real album in London with Patrick Wolf, a wonderful friend and inspiration. For now, I’m posting some of the “fourth wave” of my music on Soundcloud and Bandcamp and iTunes. The previous waves were: Childhood Folk Gospel, 90′s Amateur Remixes and Early LA Tracks. I’m excited about this next chapter!

Calpernia in Facebook Home Commercial featuring transsexual and drag queen characters

Update: Here’s the commercial!

See Calpernia as one of the new Faces of Facebook in their national commercial for Facebook Home!

The video was originally leaked and introduced by Mark Zuckerberg himself here:

If you peek about 28 minutes 41 seconds into Mark Zuckerberg’s LiveStream announcement of the new Facebook Home software, you might just see a familiar face or two. Yours truly, America’s Transsexual Sweetheart Calpernia Addams and Drag Queen Superstar Shangela of RuPaul’s Drag Race appear over the shoulder of the male lead. I have the pleasure of singing “After You Get What You Want”, a Jazz classic, to him over his shoulder as Shangela bursts forth from a beverage cart. Is Facebook’s featuring of trans and drag entertainers in a national commercial a first for the company? Let’s hope the inclusiveness continues!

Check around 28 minutes 41 seconds in:
http://new.livestream.com/facebooklive/events/1980369/videos/15474908

World AIDS Day 2012

I’m reading a piece as trans AIDS activist Connie Norman tonight 8pm @ The Skylight Theatre on Vermont in further support of World AIDS Day, alongside actors including Ann Walker, Tony Abatemarco, Larry Bates, Michael Kearns, Sandy Martin, Brian Normoyle, Ryland Shelton, Lianna Taylor, Gordon Thomson and David Trudell.

http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/article/Katselas-Theatre-Company-Presents-THEATRE-SEX-BEFORE-AFTER-1130-122-20121121

Text of monologue below:

CONNIE NORMAN

I’m so damned angry that I have to die for the lessons I’ve learned. I am a former drag queen, former hooker, former IV drug user, HIV positive transsexual woman. I’m an activist and the self-appointed AIDS diva. After my surgery in 1976—yes, I’m post-op, darlins—I went to San Francisco and went full tilt disco. Somebody threw some LSD in my face and I was gone for four years. I was a drag queen and a titty flopper for awhile. Then my psychiatrist said, “Get a real job.” So I became a stripper. Hey, it paid a real salary. Ten years later I began to hear the message about how you can get infected:
Yep, did that one. Yep, that one too. Check, check, check. It began dawning on me that in all likelihood I was HIV-positive.

I’ve had lesbian relationships. I’ve had relationships with heterosexual men. I’m married to a fag. I like dick, but I’ve never had a man kiss me the way a woman does. My sexual orientation is whatever the human condition will allow. I’m so glad I was born queer. Being infinitely gendered is so much more interesting. (WHAT IS QUEER?) Queer is really a worldview. I use it and love it because it’s inclusive, and so much easier than having to say, “I’m fighting for gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender liberation.” I want a world where everybody is queer.
And when I die, I’m gonna hit light speed so fast that I become a real star, with my own planets and people and this time we’re gonna do it right, honey. Snap-on interchangeable sex parts, for starters, and I want to be Goddess. No more gray beards running everything.
I didn’t wake up one day and just decide to go become a woman. I am a woman. I was never a man in a suit. I never knew male power. And it hurts me, especially when the strong lesbian women I so admire can’t return that admiration. That comes from the very deepest part of our self-hate. I have spent my whole life traveling down this path of gender dysphoria and I’ve learned a few things along the way.

There is so little of us that is our gender, and so much of us that is humanity. I hope before I die that I’ll become less and less my gender, and more and more my humanity. I worked so hard to become a woman only to discover being a woman wasn’t hard at all for me. Being a whole human being free of oppression and self hate has been the real challenge of my life. I cope with this disease by living in the present. In death, I hope I’ll be present there too. God knows I’ve had plenty of notice. I used to try to blend. I hated myself.

No more, darling. If you fear it, then run to it, honey, because you can’t avoid it.

Angels of Change event October 27, 2012 for trans youth

Frontiers LA has a nice interview about my involvement with the upcoming Angels of Change benefit show, helping trans youth though the LA Children’s Hospital. Check it out!

Get tickets or your calendar of the lovely girls at http://angelsofchange.net

Calpernia and Patrick Wolf October 2012

Ok, a few bad things happened this week (and let’s be honest, this LIFE…) but here’s the positive stuff I’m celebrating:

On Wednesday my amazing business partner Andrea James and I celebrated the 10th anniversary of our company, Deep Stealth Productions. Thursday, my gorgeous boyfriend began our weekend together by greeting me at my door carrying two hot Philippes’s Roast Beef French Dip sandwiches with their signature horseradish mustard. That night I got to play accordion onstage with my musical idol Patrick Wolf and hang out with his fiancé backstage. The next night, I played with Patrick again at the Bootleg music festival. Saturday, I had “Calpernia Presents GODDESS“, my weekly signature live night at Hamburger Mary’s, and Patrick duetted with me as part of the show. Monday I performed alongside the legendary Jackie Beat, sang with Patrick again and laughed all night with him and his boyfriend at Jackie’s killer set.

Today, it’s bright and sunny outside. I had a great breakfast. I’m surrounded by musical instruments, art supplies and computers (several of my favorite things). More friend time coming up all week. Hooray for life!

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Ok, so I do a sort of mega-mix of Marilyn Monroe’s most classic songs in my act, and I doll up with hair and makeup that’s definitely an homage to the original blonde bombshell. But I’m not doing a “Marilyn Monroe impersonation”, or a “celebrity impersonation”. What’s the difference?

Well, if I wanted to do a Marilyn Monroe impersonation, I would try to replicate her appearance, mannerisms, voice, costumes, jewelry and movements as exactly as I possibly could. It would not only be a singing role, it would be an acting role. I must admit, the idea of the challenge is intriguing and I can’t say I’ll never try doing an actual “impersonation” once. But for now, I really enjoy my loose, carefree homage performing my own remixes/reworkings of Marilyn songs in my own Calpernia way. Besides, the Marilyn Monroe impersonation has already been perfected by Jimmy James (who has since unfortunately retired the illusion), so I don’t see any burning need to step into that arena any time soon, ha ha!

One of the changes I made to the performance was to bring back the little intro verses from the older Helen Kane version. Helen was the voice of Betty Boop! I recently googled just those intro lyrics, as was surprised to see that they didn’t result in any relevant results, so I thought I’d post them below for internet posterity. Enjoy!

“I Wanna Be Loved by You”

A song written by Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby, with lyrics by Bert Kalmar, for the 1928 musical “Good Boy”.

I’m not one of the greedy kind, all of my wants are simple.

I know what’s on my mind!

I’m not resting until I find, what would make your eyes glisten with joy,

Now listen, big boy!

I wanna be loved by you, just you, nobody else but you.

I wanna be loved by you alone, boop boop a doo!

I wanna be kissed by you, just you, nobody else but you.

I wanna be kissed by you alone, boop boop a doo!

I couldn’t aspire to anything higher

than feel the desire to make you my own

Bum bum ba deedle a doo

I wanna be loved by you, just you, nobody else but you.

I wanna be loved by you alone

(musical break)

I couldn’t aspire to anything higher

than feel the desire to make you my own

Bum bum ba deedle a doo

I wanna be loved by you, just you and nobody else but you.

I wanna be loved by you alone.

Ba dum pa dum pa dum pa dum boop boop a doo!