In case anyone missed the memo, I am obsessed with the Glitterbox and need little to no reason to attend events there. I am trying not to be SO OVERZEALOUS that I cause apprehension from the staff though. But when I saw that there was a SLEAZY FEMME FILM FEST featuring SANDY LOAF of Smoker’s Lounge fame, I sent the event details to Henry with “!!!!” Ofc he said, “ok whatever you want to do” because I rule the roost and he is but my servant.

Chooch was actually home this weekend for the Dominic Fike concert and was so annoyed that he and his friend Ben had to take the T there because mommy and daddy needed the car for their sleazy date night haha. I think he is lowkey also annoyed at the swerve our lives have taken since he moved out. Like, we’re way cooler than him now.

First, we wanted to get dinner and drinks at Golden Age but it was PACKED since it was storming so the outdoor seating was flooded. So we settled on Duke’s which was whatever.

I was in a bad mood immediately because the hostess was the epitome of “blank” and discarded us at an awkward table so I immediately was like fuck this we’re sitting at the bar. Then I was annoyed because 95% of their draft list was IPAs and I am so sick of IPAs. I ordered one anyway only because the name was Pernicious and that’s what I used to call Marcy. :(

Then!! Come to find out (I hate when people say that btw) that the idiot hostess gave us an OLD MENU and the current one had Oktoberfests and brown ales on it!!! The bartender (who I couldn’t tell if she hated us or what but I swear I caught her scowling at me several times) was like, “I’ll give her a pass because she’s only 16—she doesn’t know.”

She…doesn’t know how to read a date on the menu? Got it.

The one nice thing about the bartender was that she did warn us not to engage with the old man near us at the bar and that he was the reason another couple bolted. Luckily Henry is so naturally standoffish that was had nothing to worry about and the man eventually left and walked in the middle of traffic so…

I will say that the pizza we got was exceptional and it was fun watching some international little league game on TV while talking about BIGBANG.

But then it was time to go to the Glitterbox right down the street and I was immediately SO CONTENT. I can’t stress how much I love this place. It is so special. So inclusive. So quirky and cozy.

This show had a pretty robust turnout too, much like Sandy Loaf’s Smoker’s Lounge! This show was in collaboration with Pittsburgh Sound and Image:

From the Pgh Sound + Image website:

Filmmaker and curator Maren Moreno graces Pittsburgh with a new Sleazy Femme Film Festival. Are you a first-timer? Well, it does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s sleazy, it’s femme, it’s film, it’s festive! And it’s the only place you’ll find this all-star lineup of DIY powerhouses:

-A rough cut of Maren’s new lezzy erotic film FILTH EATER, with live score by Frogonbough/Ava Lowry/Maze Phillips

-SANDY LOAF and NASTY TAXI present a singular array of vignettes, with live score by Bella Figlia

-And we’ll close it out with a 16mm print of Heather McAdams’s experimental doc of a Kentucky drag queen, Meet…Bradley Harrison Picklesimer

Join us Saturday, August 22nd. Doors at 7:30, show starts at 8:00.

Meet…Bradley Harrison Picklesimer preserved by Chicago Film Society through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters program and The Film Foundation. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

I think this might have been after Anna walked by, recognized us, and said, “Oh hi guys!” and I was like smiling so hard after that, I could NOT get my face to relax, I was frozen in this big-cheese manic visage that Henry was like, “JFC.”

OMG this is my favorite Glitterbox person! I always call him “the Kurt Travis guy” because I don’t know his name but he reminds me of Kurt Travis (duh). He wasn’t at the last event we attended so I was excited to see him running around making sure everything was set up.

Henry was originally lowkey uncomfortable about attending this, being a straight white guy at the sleazy lezzy film show, and I was joking about, “Hi everyone, I’m here and I brought my incel” but he quickly realized that, like every other event we’ve attended there, no one cared, no one gave him a side-eye, he was just another patron of queer art.

Anyway, a quick recap:

• the first short silent film was called Filth Eater by Maren Moreno. It was incredible and had a three-piece orchestra set up behind us, performing a live score. It was intense, explicit, erotic, and uncomfortably intimate at times,  but had some moments of levity that had us all cracking up.
• then it was Sandy Loaf’s short film called Imaginary Boyfriends which was like an offshoot of Smokers Lounge—creepy and nightmare-inducing! This one had a live score performed on the side of the stage by Bella Figlia. Sandy Loaf also brought one of the masks and babydolls with her, which were chilling on the sides of the stage all night, judging us.
• the finale was Heather McAdam’s short  doc from the 80s about the drag queen Bradley Harrison Picklesimer. IT WAS SO GOOD. It is purposely not available anywhere online, to stream, etc., because Heather insists that it only be viewed in its original 16mm and I love her for this because it was so visually pleasing in this format. It felt extra special and like a treat to get to see this that night. Some parts of it had the whole theater LOLing loudly – what a character!

All of the artists post-screening. These people are so cool and talented!

I love these events so much because it gives Henry and I so much to unpack and discuss. We drive home and just dissect everything we’ve seen and it just feels so bonding. I am desperate to take Chooch to something here when he’s home on his next break!

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