SassySays.com #GlaadAwards 2012 NYC Sassy interviews Carson Kressley, Megan Hilty, Johnny Weir, Kim Wayans, Isis King & Jay Manuel from America’s Next Top Model. RoBear from NY Ink, Laverne Cox and many others!!!
SassySays.com Adele sweeps the 54th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Jennifer Hudson pays tribute to Whitney.
SassySays.com Sassy & Samara at The RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4 Premiere Party. Interviews with: Madame LaQueer, LaShawn Beyond, JujuBee, Pandora Boxx, Manila Luzon and Sahara Davenport!!
SassySays.com - Drag History Month - January 23, 2012 - Jimmy James
Jimmy James. UNABASHED. UNASHAMED. OUTRAGEOUS.All can be accurately used to describe the persona of one Jimmy James. For years, Jimmy James has delivered one of the most unique experiences on the entertainment scene, but you knew that right? Well just in case, maybe a little history lesson is in order. OK, let’s make one thing clear: history is one thing Jimmy has plenty of. Who else could boast of talents that have been called upon to perform for major celebrities such as Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, Patti LaBelle, David LaChappelle, Luther Vandross, Debbie Harry, Boy George, Cyndi Lauper, Desmond Child and more? Jimmy James can make that claim….loved and revered for his unique impersonation talents the world over. But yet still, a yearning..
Yes, Jimmy’s talents have always been recognized by his peers and audiences alike, and for that he is grateful. Who wouldn’t be? Yet, deep inside this talented man was a desire to be seen differently, a desire to deliver a different entertainment experience than that for which he had become so well known and adored. A desire to share with the whole world the musical calling that has been burning up inside of him. Call it… a yearning.
Enter top-shelf producer Markus Moser, world-renowned himself for his many dance/pop hits and chart topping records. Markus meets Jimmy, Markus studies Jimmy and Markus gets Jimmy. Oh don’t get it twisted, everybody gets Jimmy for what he does. But Markus gets Jimmy for what he is yet to do, what is his destiny, what is his… yearning.
Together Markus and Jimmy tackle that desire head on to create a musical collaboration with JAMESTOWN that transcends all of the repetitive and recycled sounds of todays dance/pop scene. An amazing culmination that can only happen when talent and desire meets opportunity and vision, when a yearning becomes a reality.
Warming things up for the clubs, first single FASHIONISTA teased dance floors across the world. Is that the same Jimmy James they asked? And a funny thing happened with a song that was meant solely as an introduction - a Billboard Club Chart smash.
Now comes the full-length release of JAMESTOWN that finally showcases Jimmy James stunning vocal prowess and performance abilities. With an uncanny ability to transform himself visually and vocally into many different persona’s, James is set to establish himself as a dance and pop icon.
As Billboard Magazine recently stated, “Jimmy James is so damn clever, it is hard not to offer a howling squeal of approval before clicking replay again and again.”
No longer just… a yearning.
For More: www.JimmyJames.com
SassySays.com - Drag History Month - January 7, 2012 - Rollerena “Queen of Studio 54”
Roller (A)rena (the A is silent) came into being on the evening of Saturday, September 16, 1972. Born in Gravelsnatch, Kentucky in 1948, the boy who became Rollerena came out in 1961. He would hitch hike or take a bus to Louisville and became the “bluegrass* belle” of three counties as a teenager. In April of 1966, at the age of 18, he registered for the draft and graduated from High School in May of 1967. He served in the artillery infantry in Vietnam and returned to the states in September 1969. Late in 1969 he worked on Wall Street spent New Year’s Eve of 1969 in Times Square.
He started roller skating to work in 1970 (this was regular roller skates, not in-line rollerblades which became popular on the streets in the 1980s and 1990s). He was 5 feet 11 inches and 128 lbs, he practiced at 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. He was given the nicknamed “Rollin’ Skeets”; he wore a visor, umbrella on his head, a backpack and a little horn at his waist for foot traffic. In 1971 he was in the Gay Pride Parade as “Rollin’ Skeets.”
On September 16, 1972, he went into an antique store on Christopher Street put on a bathrobe-like gown, a 1950s hat, a straw basket and skated up and down Christopher Street. He went into a bar, “the whole place went absolutely wild!” “A crowd gathered like they were awaiting Glinda landing in Oz.” This was the birth of “Roller Arena the Fairy Godmother”. She made her debut as “Roller Arena” in the 1973 Easter Parade. Her skating was limited to well-heeled neighborhoods, gay spots and chic haunts like Studio 54. She collected thirty 1950s hats, costume jewelry earrings, and 15 pairs of rhinestone glasses. October 15,1979 “Roller- Arena” changed her name to “Rollerena.” In 1980-81 Rollerena became a cartoon subject in “Rollerena” published in The New York Native, by Mike Thomas. The creator of Rollerena did not consider himself a drag queen; instead she became the character of a Fairy Godmother. As Rollerena became more and more well known people began to request her presence at various events. She had a post office box, a friend as business representative, post cards, began skate dancing at the popular discos, and was in many newspaper articles and TV and radio talk shows.
Rollerena went by the names Rollin’ Skeets in 1970, Roller Arena Fairy Godmother in 1972 and Rollerena Fairy Godmother in 1979. Various newspapers gave different spellings to the Fairy Godmother and these spellings are used in the Finding Aid as they appear in the articles, they include: “Rollerina”, “Roller Rena”, Rolla-Reena”, “Rollerarena”, “Roll-Arena.”
For more check out this article on Rollerena in the NYPress: http://www.nypress.com/article-16374-when-being-a-freak-was-chic.html
