Sunday, 1 December, 2024
This evening I found myself glancing at the taint of an older gentleman, all 360 degrees, from a front-row seat in a black box theater in Denver’s warehouse district. This isn’t necessarily how one expects to wrap up their holiday break–but we will get to that.
My Holiday Weekend
Apologies for not posting anything on Friday. I had a whole listicle planned– “Things I Don’t Want to See at a Brewery”– but with the holiday weekend and whatnot, the whole thing got away from me. The weekend was wonderful. I spent Thanksgiving with both sides of the family (both sides being my mom and my dad’s ex-wife) out in Longmont. On Friday, I hit the grocery stores with the Co-Editor in preparation for the house’s friendsgiving dinner party; the stores were mostly empty which is a rare blessing in Denver. After the store we prepped three trays of enchiladas, all catering to specific dietary restrictions and preferences. Most of Saturday was spent manically rushing around, trying to get everything ready for the party.
Of course, the party went off without a hitch, just as our parties always do. This one was specifically pleasing, because it was held entirely inside instead of in our backyard, and I think the closed space really encouraged friendly conversation. It was an impossible space for wallflower-type activities, and it paid off. Laughter and merriment were audible from outside the house– and everyone really enjoyed my enchiladas! It was truly a beautiful night spent among friends and loved ones.
Over the past few months, Sundays have become more-or-less ritualistic for me. A few months ago I started seeing my now-boyfirend. We’ve been taking things slow, but we’ve established a habit of seeing each other on Saturday nights and spending the day together on Sunday. Usually, we get brunch or go to a park or something cute like that, then we kill an hour or so staring into each other’s eyes longingly before he goes home. In the evenings I have band practice, and by the time that wraps up, I have just enough night left to eat and get ready for bed.
Today, my boyfriend is out of town and band practice was cancelled, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. Instead of sitting around and doing nothing (which I was very tempted to do), my go-getter roommate encouraged his partner and me to get off our butts and organize our disaster art/music room. It took hours, but we managed to organize the entire household’s monster stash of craft supplies and we vanquished the weird smell from the carpets. It was an overall win for the house, and I also think I might take up crocheting again, now that all of my stuff is easily accessible.
That’s enough about my personal life, let’s get back to the old man’s taint.
Limit Breaker Open Mic
As I mentioned, I usually have band practice on Sanday nights, but this evening it was cancelled, so I tagged along with the roommates to the Limit Breaker Open Mic at the Dangerous Theatre off of 2nd Ave and Bryant St.. the Limit Breaker Open Mic is an 18+ UNCENSORED event. Performers are encouraged to push their own personal limitations, whatever that might mean for them. Truly, anything goes on this stage and mistakes and fuck-ups are applauded. It’s a great environment for performers who are new to the stage, and still battling the shakes and jitters. The venue goes so far to accommodate people who struggle preforming in front of crowds that they even provide a black privacy screen for shy-folk to stand behind when it’s their turn.
For those who aren’t as shy, pushing your limitations could look quite different. For the man who sat at the other end of my row, that meant preforming a sexy-strip-interpretive dance to Dove Cameron’s “Breakfast”, slowly getting butt naked up on stage, then adding several (impressive) stretches, flaunting every profile of his dick, balls, and butthole. I felt inspired by his preformance. The song I was planning to sing was one I’ve played a hundred times over, so I knew it wasn’t really pushing my limitations. I considered taking my shirt off or something, but ultimately decided against it.
Mr. Hero (he/him) runs the event as stage manager, and the event is hosted by local writer and streamer Sylvane Spectre. Despite the emphasis on queer love and divergence from the norm, the space is not a “safe-space” but rather a “brave-space”. The two prioritize not providing a space where people are comfortable, but instead a space where people are “bold, honest, and unique”. The sense of community in the space was palpable, when we arrived people were chatting and eating Thanksgiving leftovers like they were at a family party. Throughout the show, Sylvane made sure to shout-out all the first-timers and returners alike, and they took special care to shout out all the ongoing projects of their friends and collaborators.
Genuinely, I think what these folks are doing is wonderful. I think many people are afraid to do open mics because they are afraid they won’t be perfect. I think the best way to combat that attitude is create artistic spaces with this same “Anything goes!” attitude. To be honest, it’s the sort of thing I’ve dreamed about since high school. A place where people are free to get on stage and say what they need to say, do what they need to do, a place where the audience doesn’t need to understand, they just need to be receptive. I thought it was a wonderful time, I will certainly be returning.
Limit Breaker Open Mic takes place on the first Sunday of every month at Dangerous Theater. Doors are at 6:00 pm and the event starts at 7:00 pm. Admission is $10 but performers get in for free. The event is pot-luck optional, so feel free to bring some snacks.
bottlerag.org updates
Finally, I want to give people a few updates on what to expect in the month to come. We have big plans for December, right now it’s just a matter of getting all of our ducks in a row. There are a few boring things we need to fix that have to do with SEO and other website jargon, and there are more interesting things we are working out the bugs on, like the radio-stream. All things to come, but also all things that require plug-ins. We need to find the ones that will suit us best, then crunch some numbers and figure out the cheapest-but-also-best way to do things.
We also have some new writers starting soon, so you won’t just be hearing from the editing team anymore (lucky you). We are still looking for more content creators! We can’t pay you, we barely have enough money for plug-ins as it is! Any participation is purely voluntary, but we will take just about anything. We are looking for artists to post on our artist page, that essentially means that you would write a little bio about yourself with all your links and @s and then we could post some of your work (visual art, fiction, poetry, cool videos). Alternatively, if you are interested in being a featured writer, that would entail you writing stuff for us whenever you want, about whatever you want. We really can’t ask for much, because as I said, we have no money (uwu). I’m also looking for people to interview for Denver Life This, so if you live in Denver and you have a story to tell, or a passion you want to share, interviewing for the podcast is another cool hip way to get involved.
All that said, if any of that interests you, contact us at staff@bottlerag.org
We are expecting hard-launch before the end of the year, maybe one Dec, 31st. We will circle back on that. I know, that may be suprising to read, considering you are on the site reading this post right now, but this is only our soft-launch. Consider yourself lucky, you’re getting in on the ground floor ;).
With that,
I am off, I have to go to bed early because I’m back to my real job tomorrow.
Love,
M.
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