The Crystal Precious First Timer Guide to Festival Raving

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Shifting Gears - Less Performing, More Recording!!!

YEEEEOWWWW

So with the exception of Bass Coast (of course) it's looking like 2015 is gonna be that year where I take a summer or two off from performing a bunch on the festival whirlwind . Also, with the exception of my Crystal Precious Guide to Festival Raving (coming next week!), I'll probably be blogging less often over the summer.

This step-back is not a perma-change by ANY means; I'm just taking a time-out this summer to re-focus and enjoy this gorgeous province on a more introspection-style tip, taking the time make sure my record is getting out there, and maybe even writing some new effin' songs for eff's sake. It's Transition O'clock in Sass Town, I'm very much shifting my energy slowly but surely away from the stage for awhile and into more recording and shooting, with the end goal of getting my work out there and maybe even doing more substantial tours in the future. I'm still gonna do Keefer Bar for the time being -- because it's the BEST -- but I'm also gonna give myself the space to fully get swept into our big video project, create/collaborate on more new songs and plant all the seeds that will hopefully keep more of that type of thing coming out for a bit over here.  So I might not be out gallavanting on dancefloors or on stages as much this year... but I'm very much “here”, maybe even more so than usual. 

SO looking forward to Sweet Soul Burlesque's show this year on their Main Stage!!! YAHHHH!!! Gonna be so fabulous I can't even handle it. At ALL. Well, maybe a little. With my hot hot hand. :) 

Kisses n' kix
xoxo
CP

A "light" post about ONSTAGE SAFETY. By Crystal Precious

Wow... 4 days later and I'm still a bit shaken. I think its time to share this. Onstage accidents: they are a thing.

First-up I'm fine, everyone is safe and ok. But I'm posting this story for two reasons. The kinda selfish reason, if I'm being honest, is because I'm hoping it will help dillute my shaken-ness a bit, the way sharing sometimes does. Like truth, puhlayyyse, not goin' lie about that. 

The less selfish and more important reason is to ask that you PLEASE PLEASE remember to DOUBLE CHECK that stage areas are secure, especially pop-up or alternative venue stage areas. This is not just the responsibility of the venue or stage crew... it is also performers' responsibility. So many times we will go into a tech run and scope out the area for sound, lights, choreo or prop capacities but not necessarily to look for the safety concerns. Please let this story remind you not to take those things for granted and not to take any chances. Here's what happened. 

So this weekend the Sweet Soul grrlz and I were lucky enough to do a show in a gorgeous venue with giant picture windows surrounding the room. We were on a standard 3' raised pop-up stage floor tucked into one of the corners of the room, which coincidentally lined up flush to the bottom of said giant picture windows. We were 4 stories up, but each storey had 15 foot ceilings, so actually it was more like 6 or 7 stories up. We had beautiful views of the city as our backdrop, which I loved. Great idea. 

It was a super fun crowd, and I was getting into it with cracking jokes, rapping, dancing, etc. and pointing out the view, much the same way as when I'm hosting and performing at the Keefer Bar. And much like with THEIR giant side-flushed picture window, I decided on a whim mid-show to use one of the windows as part of a joke, and went to lean against it. THANK EFF the grrls sidestage were in the exact right position to see my mistake and quickly yell out “NOOOO!!! STOPPPPPPP!!”

I stopped dead in my heels, literally inches away from leaning onto a window that was not only unlocked, but was also a teensy fraction of an inch ajar. Literally if I had stepped forward it would have pushed it RIGHT OPEN and seen me falling a hundred or more of feet below.

HOLY. SHIT. And or those of you who know how NOT a fan of heights I am... double HOLY. SHIT. Of course in the moment my performer instinct was to crack a joke and carry on, then process after, but I'm not going to lie, this gave me a really good scare. Trust: all the gratitude. Close call.

Sooo I think the lesson is that as the DIY performance community expands and we appear in more and more underground or pop-up spaces, let's double check on shit like this, even if that seems like the most obvious thing ever. Let this be your reminder to please INSIST (politely) that cracks be taped, rolling pieces or stairs be braked properly, hot lights be safe distance, that cables are backlined, that your aerial rigging is pro-rated. Throw a flashlight in your bag so you can see where you're going backstage if it's dark. WAIT until water or slippery glitter is properly swept from the stage. Don't push it with the heel height. Trust, it's worth it. 

To my angels --- and my grrls -- hearts.

xoxoxo
CP

OH YEAH. Also, PS: MY STRIPHOP EP CAME OUT!!! For those who enjoy rapping burlesque grrrlz, grab it!

Download the EP:
http://www.eastvandigital.com/EVDvelop/sample-page/store/crystal-precious-the-striphop-ep/

Link to the release info:
http://www.eastvandigital.com/EVDvelop/evdep023-crystal-precious-the-striphop-ep/

I'm uploading one track a day this week to my Soundcloud. Here's the first one!
https://soundcloud.com/crystal-precious/dark-night-prod-self-evident-the-strip-hop-ep-available-now

Thanks so much to Fubarfoto for the amazing photos for the rollout... kisses. xoxo

SASSFLASHES: The Striphop EP, VIBF 10 Year Anniversary & New Video Underway

Lots to share! It's been pretty non-stop since my last post, hence the little lull in bloggy land. TONS of shows in the latter part of last year, including the Bass Coast boat cruise, a couple runs of shows in the Yukon, a big vogue battle with legendary New York City qween DJ Mike Q at the Celebrities 30th Anniversary Party, a special performance for the Pivot Legal Society as well as the Keefer Bar 5 Year Anniversay show. WHOA. Add the weekly there every Thursday -- yah, it was pretty full-on this winter. OH, I also had the total honour of hosting the Calgary 1st Annual International Burlesque Festival followed by a gorgeous drive through the rockies with 60-something burlesque legend Judith Stein to perform in Nelson. Capping off the gallavants was a beautiful trip to the remote Lasqueti Island to hit their beautiful hardwood stage and then got some down time in Washington for the holidays. Whoooooooosh!! Peace out 2014!

With CIBF's Miyuki Divine, Sweet Soul grrlz Villainy Loveless & Lola Frost, Ruthe OrDare, Judith Stein & her hot date!

Clearly we then needed to throw GIANT PARTY in a random warehouse with my troupe-mate Cherry & the SHAHdjs helmsman Willis Lombard and a team of about 35 extreme sasspots for NYE because, uh, raver: me. Check this video shot by Vasho Pekar & edited by Jason Snell to see what we came up with this year.. was an epic night and a true collaboration between a lot of people that I simply adore.


AURORA NYE 2014/2015 from SHAHdjs on Vimeo.

NOW: 2015. Taking a shift homewards. I'm slowing down on the shows and instead am embarking on four larger closer-to-home-type projects. I just really love spring in Vancouver and am happy for the shift in focus and change of pace for a bit here.

FIRSTLY and MOST IMPORTANTLY: I'm VERY pleased to announce that last year's recording project with Self Evident has been picked up for release this spring as "The Striphop EP" by East Van Digital! HURRAYY!! The release will include six remastered tracks from the original eight and will be fully publicized with a college radio campaign and big media push. I'm THRILLED to no end with how the final product has come out and I can't wait to finally give this project the promotional energy it deserves. Looking back I have to chuckle on what a massively audacious endeavor it was to bite off and chew without really having a clue around how to go about it...  getting this far was a learning curve sharper than a tightlaced corset, to be sure. But you know me and my big mouth and my big ideas. :) The point is: we did it! And it's coming out... SOON!! Wooot!!

This means that the older versions of the songs will no longer be available online, as well as ANY versions of the two songs that got cut. So if you grabbed the indie "Queen Of Sass" bandcamp release, you gots the super spesh rare goods. Boom. :) Also anyone who downloaded that, btw (and thus provided me with an email address) will get a free copy of the updated EP, so check your inbox over the next couple of weeks if that is you! PS -- thank you for supporting in the fledging beginnings of my very first big recording project... hoping it's the first of many. Purrz. :)

SECOND: Pleased to announce that Sweet Soul Burlesque will be re-staging our Bass Coast "Mutiny" show for the 10th Anniversary of the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival at the historical Vogue Theatre on Friday, May 1st 2015. The production will feature our guest performers Subscura, dancer/choreographers Tawni Krystal and Leiah Luz, designer/dancer Rori Satya as well as boylesque sensation Munish Sharma. The undersea-themed show is set largely to original tracks from forthcoming Striphop EP, so this timely production also kind of serves as an unofficial "re-release" showcase. In addition, I'll be performing my Venus Fly Trap routine for the festival's ten year retrospective event, aka the first routine I ever did at the first ever festival back in 2006. Those who were there for that particular performance all those ten years ago may remember that it was, umm.. well... to sum it up, a complete disaster. So it shall be a glorious moment of retribution for both my ego and my beloved new fly trap, Seymour II!! Ahhh the circle of life.

Captain Hooker's triumphant return! May 1st, 2015 at The Vogue Theatre

THIRDLY: Pre-production is officially underway for a new music video featuring all the Sweet Soul grrlz as well as many, many other hot burlesque babes of the DIY persuasion. This one's going to be significantly larger project than Apple Pie - NO PIE FOR YOU, this time involving different locations over a multiple-day shoot, which is oh-so very exciting and creatively fulfilling for me on all kinds of new levels. Lucky as hell to once again have Stuart Mackay Smith as the hot genius guiding the vision's fierceness into a reality. You're gonna hear A LOT about it come April so I'll stay fairly mum for now, but shooting is to begin first week of May, immediately after the Festival! YUSHH!! WERRRRRRRK.

FOURTHY and presently in our lives, Cherry & I are FINALLY attacking a complete re-vamp of the Sweet Soul website that will include our new members Melody Mangler & Villainy Loveless, along with a shit-ton of lush new video footage. S'been a minute there too, as not gonna lie, it's easy to get distracted by these new troublemakers running around as they are hilarious and definately livening things up around here. The danger is that it becomes all fun in the moment and no uploading of recorded evidence -- a balance that must be restored. We're on it! There will also be special dedication archive to our past productions & underground venue The Dollhouse (RIP), which we realized should probably maybe be a thing when we came across flyers like THIS on our harddrives:

Ummm, amazeballs. (Yes that's Tristan Risk on the flyer, who is busy making ten thousand new awesome horror films at the moment, in case you haven't heard).  Our deadline to get all this up is the end of March. My own crystalprecious.ca site is gettin' a Cher-style facelift as well, so hopefully I won't be on here in April saying things like, "almost done" and instead will be posting on an embedded blog on the new site. Tassles crossed / famous last words... heh heh. All in good time.

Aside from that, come say hi at Sweet Sip Thursdays at the effin' Keefer at 135 Keefer in Chinatown eh? We're still there drinking Opium Sours & murdering new / favourite acts on a weekly at 10 & 11 pm Thursdays. Seriously, it's the best and we love it, aka why we're still doing it 5 years later. COME. AAAAND if you're down for something a little more scandalous, this weekend I'll be guest-starring at the infamous NSFW: Hiphop Meets Striptease show at the Cobalt doing some dirty-ass rap stuff. So ya know. Still a few shows here and there for ya nerrrrrve while I'm wrangling all this other biznatch.

WITH THAT - sincere and MANY many thanks to each and every fabulous soul for the continued support in the mission to spread all that we do and love, DIY style. I'm insanely endebted to you. Thank you. :)

That's it for meow... stay tuned. Gonna be a helluva year.

kisses 'n kuffs,
xoxo
CP