Harriet Tubman is dead.

4th quarter review.

http://articles.citypages.com/2007-12-19/news/help-unwanted/

What more could we want? Good times? Yes. Christmas show? Good times. No show is complete without someone telling me to fuck off, or quitting. And this year is definitely no exception. Harriet Tubman told me to fuck off, the whole troupe told me to fuck off (in the spirit of a good-luck send off mind you– like, “break a leg”). And the tuba player and one of the violin players I told I loved; also said they would never do it again..

So, I saw a great show the other night – The Heroin Sheiks. They made me laugh really hard all night. One of the lyrics that really stood out for me was; “Fuck You”, which I must say is THE lyric I have most desired to use this year.

And speaking of the word “fuck” and it’s intense meaning to most people; let’s talk about the word” fuck”. Scarry? Offensive? Meaningful to some? Yes – to me. When I think of parents who choose to smoke Meth in the back alley of a coffee shop, I think: "they are fucked up, and I’d like to do a benefit and give them money.

"Fuck" is like an exclamation point. I like it sometimes.

So we got in trouble with the charities because of the words "fucked up". And they yelled at me and said they were going to sue me. What can I say?
We tried to remove the charities names from our website, but not before the press had picked up on it. We'd gotten ton's of press on our event, well...because of the catchy name - sorry - I'm sure some parents are caring and good – however, some are abusive, neglectful, and addicted to drugs, putting their children through some terrible experiences..

Many people loved our candor, and it drew a lot of attention. Maybe it's time people were taken to task for being awful parents and held to a higher standard. Sorry this offended the organizations, and I really apologize for the ball being dropped in making sure we had their permission.

In hindsight, I may have called it something else, however the outpouring of attention we have received and the amount of money I hoped we would raise, it made me think that it might be better to focus on what I wanted out of this. We definitely got the attention of the public. I hoped the name would appeal to all the adults who had fucked up parents, that they might get a laugh out of it and support our event.

“My friend Jim Walsh; when told about this whole ordeal said; “Harriett Tubman is dead, she’s laughing at this”. To which I replied; “and she’s dead”. We laughed. “I don’t want them to have our money”, I added. They have too much if they are going to sue me because I didn’t get their permission to give them money. Sorry is all I can say.


But anyway, the X-Mas show? What a blast!!! Sean Roderick did a great job of orchestrating the music, and each performer put on a brilliant show. I feel so lucky to be involved with such a talented cast of performers, who embody the LCR spirit, which despite my staunch atheism, I believe in wholeheartedly. Our spirit is inimitable. Our hurdles are constant, but we’re Olympians when it come to jumping over them and making a great show.

I want to thank PBR for sponsoring our benefit "for kids with fucked up parents". I drank quite a bit of PBR during our show, and I completely credit them with making me personable and charming. And Vita.mn, I can’t thank enough for sponsoring our event, as well as giving C Reimenschnieider another opportunity to show he’s a philistine.

Amy Buchanan
LCR
"organizer"


http://articles.citypages.com/2007-12-19/news/help-unwanted/

Revealed!!

The personal e-mails of

Le Cirque Rouge

cast members!!!!!!!

“It is my new goal in life to instigate more fights by being completely passive and doing my job”.

-Gwendolyn Rae, Burlesque Star

Monday November 8, 2005 12:20 pm

Gwendolyn,

Let's see what happens this weekend. I'll make sure Garron rents the spotlights from Cinequipt. I've heard the audience was bitchy to each other trying to see. We've got wonderful problems.

AB

Monday November 8, 2005 12:28 pm

Amy,

Maybe some fights will erupt on account of people not being able to see our nudey splendor! The last time my sister was here she said that the man who got a birthday dance from me got into a HUGE fight with his girlfriend after my number. The girlfriend made a scene and STORMED out of the bar and he chased after her. HA!

It is my new goal in life to instigate more fights by being completely passive and doing my job.

toodles-

Gwendolyn Rae

Monday November 8, 2005 12:35 pm

Gwendolyn,

Garron says that all these guys were high fiving and right-on-ing him, saying, you’ve got a great job - and he’s thinking yeah right.....all these lovely girls and none of them will let me sleep with them.

-Amy

Thursday , Nov. 3rd, 2005 9:53 am

Amy,

Have you come across my "happy skirt" in any of your things? I lost it at the Triple Rock show and I am just checking to see if anyone has it. I will likely need another black skirt for Saturday night, so if you have one that would work and could bring it, that would be cool. I don't have any time to shop between now and Saturday. I'm literally working night and day for the next two days. It's gonna suck ass. And I'm getting a cold which also sucks major sweaty ass.

toodles,

Gwendolyn

Thursday , Nov. 3rd, 2005 10:20 am

GR,

I have a perfect skirt for you - I will look for your skirt in my piles. I don't know too many details yet, It will be at night though - not too late - not early for sure - I think - I'll let you know when I know.

Garron needs a whipping for losing clothes all the time - that’s his job - you whip him!

Hope you feel better soon - now.

Thursday , Nov. 3rd, 2005 10:31 am

Amy,

I'm afraid Garron would like the whipping too much. I need to do something that would actually PUNISH him. Like taking away his right to touch Choulette’s thighs.

Monday, August 29th 10:01 AM

If you attended our show you would have seen that we were all having a very, very good time. The Tin Star Sisters graced us with their lovely presence, performing their songs: February, The Beautiful Ones, A Romance of convenience, and Suck. They were so great!!! They will be joining us in Wisconsin next week when we go in the studio to make our record with Grammy Nominated engineer/producer Jason Keillor. They will be featured along with Corinne Caouette, Erin Muir, John Eric Theide and the rest of our performers on our full length CD which will be out by the end of the year - Finally!!!!!! We are especially excited to have Dave Salmela of Creative Electric Gallery and Work of Saws reclaiming his space on piano. Erin Muir will be making one of her last appearances before she leaves for her new home in L.A. We're sad she is going, but at least she'll leave us with a recording of her fiery version of 'Carmen", and hopefully a place to stay when we come out there to play. Graham Chapman has also left us for the west coast :-( Gwendolyn Rae will no longer have someone much too young to flirt with. We Love You Graham - you are a really nice person and a bad ass bass player!!!we were very pleased to have had you with us this last year. Speaking of musicians.....Former piano player Sean Roderick, whom we fired recently for putting an "a" on the end of every word, will possibly be replacing Graham Chapman on upright bass. He thinks he might have an easier time dropping those extra vowels if he's standing up. The truth? He's lonely and he misses us...hee hee. We miss him too!!! If the bass position fails, we are hoping to include him in one of the other male roles that Garron our Houseboy has hogged for two years. Check out our show on Friday Sept 9th, where if cured of their itchy, chaffed nipples, Kira and Gwendolyn will don some beautiful orchid pasties in their new Hula-la number. Also make sure you get a listen to our guest drummer, Paul Lagos. Paul comes from a background steeped in Burlesque tradition, having played @ The Gayity Theater in the 60's. Paul tells me that a true Burlesque band is, sax, piano, and drums, which is exactly what we'll be showing off on Friday, as Tom Sozel, and Steve Blake join him in bringing it back to some authentic Burlesque bangin!! See you at the show, XO Amy

Friday, Sept 16th 4:04 am.

I thought that if I just lay there and stare at one spot on the wall I might be able to fall asleep. I tried counting sheep as they jumped over a fence, but then I began to question the plausibility of sheep actually jumping over a fence, because after all, they are rather stout and hefty creatures. We are going into the studio tomorrow to record our first record, and I'm damned nervous trying to organize the performers and musicians in my head, making sure I have enough wine and ramen soup to get me through the weekend, wondering if I have anything else to sell to come up with the rest of the money for the session ( I'd like to thank Swank for buying my vintage Knoll chair, which I bought for my ex-boyfriend who didn't want it, so I took it back and sold it for a hefty profit, Ha!, ex-boyfriends, all for the greater good! ) Up until 4:00 yesterday we didn't have a bass player for the session, however an email arrived, and that good old Le Cirque Rouge magic was working! At the last minute Robert Bell introduced himself to me via the internet, saying he heard we were looking for a bass player. "Why yes Robert, we are. Can you go in the studio tomorrow and make a record with us?" He said yes, which surprised me and left me feeling great relief. I hope we don't scare him as we work into the wee hours of the night! Well, the cat keeps trying to lay on my computer, and my Winston is nearly burning my fingers, so I'll try to fall asleep again and stop worrying.

9-16-05 - on the road to River Falls, Wisconsin

Dave, Corinne and I left around 11:30 for River Falls and Angel Tits recording studio. We stopped off for food at “Food From The Homeland, Vietnamese Restaurant”.

10:45 pm

We’ve been laying basic tracks for hours, and Corinne and I nailed the Sing Along Sisters songs and had a bottle of wine in doing so - We drove into town and got provisions; tacos, coffee, and more wine...... I have drank too much coffee and I am now crazy. It’s been a super productive night, Corrine finished the vocals on “Gloomy Sunday” and “Angel Eyes”, and I finished “The Late Late Show”. Tacos, Coffee, Wine............

12:50 am

After running around saying “hey you guys, you just haven't drank enough coffee, have some more”....everyone drifted off to sleep, and/or left for Mpls. Not yet able to come down from the excitement, I walked around the prairie under the full moon, wishing I had a dog. Once I finally went to bed and fell asleep in the loft, I dreamt I revived a turtle that was dead inside a giant pickle jar in salt water and it became my friend.

9-17-05 11:20 am

Well I survived the night, I had a hard time sleeping, but I’m ready to work. Dave and Robert Bell arrived at 10:00 am to start listening to the tracks to figure out if we needed to do any overdubs - so far it’s sounding good.

12:50 pm

Paul Lagos our drummer called and said his brakes went out, and we don’t have a drummer. Sean Broderick the assistant has offered to play drums on “Tip Toe Thru The Tulips”, “I Wanna Be Loved By You” and “The Houseboy Song” which our friend Aaron Poochigian wrote for us

3:00 pm.

No Paul yet, but Sean sounds great on the 3 tracks we’ve been working on - I actually like how rock drummers play jazz. He doesn’t have the slick beats of Paul, but he’s sassy. Sean likes it when I call him a sassy drummer......hee hee.

4:40 pm

Paul, Garron, and Choulette just showed up, so Garron is doing his vocals on The Houseboy Song. It’s not going so well. I think he’s been listening to the Cure too much. Dave is going in to try the lead vocal. Dave made Choulette cry with his vocal on The Houseboy Song. We decided to do a group vocal with Paul, Garron, Dave and myself singing as low as I can to sound like a guy - this song is starting to be one of those bar room sing-along numbers. Paul's voice is sooo funny, we put him right up front on the mic. He sounds gravelly and New York. It’s hard to keep from laughing. Jenna and Choulette are coming in on the end and it’s sounding like we’re all drunk - but good drunk - this is turning out to sound just like any average night with the LCR cast and a few too many drinks - good - authentic!

8:00 pm

Sean has begrudgingly showed up - And Erin Muir has called to say that she can’t make it - we’re so disappointed. oh well, I did the main vocal to “Tip Toe”, and “I wanna be loved by you”, and “You hurt me”, and then we moved on to the group vocals. Sean, Gwendolyn, Garron, Choulette, Dave, and The Tin Star Sister all sang “oohs and ahhs”, and plenty of giggles - and it sounds sooooooooo good!!!!! Jason is cutting us off, so we’re headed out to the field to have a campfire and lay under the moon and drink wine.

1:35 am

We’ve sang every Prince song, Led Zepplins “Goin’ To California", and "The Houseboy ong" 15 times and we are very happy and having a blast. I’ve never seen Ivy of the Tin Star Sisters so sassy and funny. Luckily I stashed a bottle of wine and we can sustain ourselves a little longer. The moon is full and the white flowers around the field are glowing. We took a long walk through the Christmas tree farm next door, and the bottom of my skirt is wet and dragging. I feel like “Little House On The Prairie”. Choulette is asleep, yet Garron keeps spanking her on the butt. She doesn’t move. She’s really out.

2:45 am

We’ve moved on to slushy versions of Sesame Street songs which I’ve recorded on my computer and will include on the album as hidden tracks - there have been so many hidden track moments I might have to just release a hidden album, with all those “special” versions of songs we did..Ha!

Gwendolyn Rae has surprised the hell out of us by singing “ Hit me Baby One More Time”, by Britney Spears, and playing along on the guitar. I’m trying to arrange for her to perform that with the show - topless of course. We are now using Choulette for a pillow and something to prop up the computer on. Garron has covered her with my poncho using the hole at the top as a “molestation hole” Garron!!!!!!

3:55 am

Garron insists on scraping the bottom of the barrel by singing Journey. ..........Time for bed

9-18-05 11:00 am

Our heads hurt - too many tacos - I mean wine. We’ve packed up and we’re off to find breakfast in Hudson. Sean really likes Boyz to Men and we’re listening to them in the car

.

Huevos!!!!!!! Choulette keeps speaking in spanish and it makes us love her even more!!!!

The sun hurts and I can’t wait to sleep. The record is nearly done. We’ll come back in a few days to mix and try to get Erin Muir back in to do Carmen.

XO

Amy