I am singing this Sunday March 13th at the Blue Moon Bar in Lawrenceville, with guitarist Carlos Peña! 10 pm, 21 and over, no cover, 5115 Butler St, Lawrenceville!
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| More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1754252291472851/ |
However before that fateful performance, specifically in about 17 hours of the posting of this blog/email blast, if you would like to know what *I* recommend on a Friday night in Pittsburgh....May I suggest that you attend Friday March 11you might attend the 33rd Anniversary Concert celebrating the Afro American Music Institute? The Spelman College Jazz Ensemble is the guest artist, they are here all the way from Atlanta, GA and also performing will be the Jazz Lab students, who are taught weekly by my old friend Howie Alexander! They sound great and the future of music is safe with these young ones! They rehearse right after my own vocal class every Saturday and if you can make it tomorrow you will really be in for a treat! 7 pm at St James AME church, 444 Lincoln Ave, in Homewood! $10, all ages!
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More info:
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AND THEN THE THING YOUVE BEEN WAITING 23 YEARS FOR!!!! BEWARE! BEWARE!!!!!!
On Tuesday March 15 is the 23rd Annual Ides of March March!!!
Come march with us for no particular reason at all! This proud and completely unreasonable annual tradition has plagued the Southside for over 2 decades! Join us with your heads held high in a celebration of the IT that IS! For we are, we have been and we shall continue to be for as long as we are able! Beat the gong soundly and dress up like the best version of you that you could imagine! Afterwards we retire for a bit of cake and coffee, so wear some comfortable walking shoes and bring your own percussion! Clowns and nefarious ne'er do wells welcome!
Gather 6 pm at 12th and Carson! March at 6:30!
More info:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1072236659474513/
And then the DAY AFTER THAT (no rest for the artful) I am singing on Wednesday March 16 with Christiane D at Artful Wednesdays at the University of Pittsburgh's William Pitt Student Union! All ages, 12 pm, no cover, at 5th and Bigelow, in Oakland!
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| More info about the show: https://www.facebook.com/events/831030443692824/ |
And then..... as I started the week singing in a Gay bar.... and because every good story uses bookends.... something that is reminiscent of that which was at the beginning is again referenced in the end.... I shall go back to my roots and sing for a benefit fundraiser for the nation's ONLY LBGTQ BURLESQUE FESTIVAL! On Friday March 18, we shall celebrate the Fierce Queer Burlesque Festival and perform a murder mystery burlesque variety cabaret extravaganza at James Street Gastropub! I am on FIRST so if you want to see me DON'T BE LATE! There are over 26 performers, so if you are late, there will be plenty of bawdy beauties to tempt the eyes!
9 pm, $5, over 21 only, 422 Foreland St, Northside!
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| More info about Fierce NOIR: https://www.facebook.com/events/1086719181359276/ |
And as if that was not enough, all these opportunities to see me LIVE and IN PERSON, iffen you just live too far away, or you work too much, or you would like to share the fascinating world of Phat Man Dee with a friend or loved one.... please enjoy these video offerings.... the first video here is one shot and edited by Smokin' McQueen and myself at the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria during European adventures last year. I sing with a young musician named Jake Goldwasser who was on his way to study at the Conservatory of Music in Vienna.... the models and the incredible artists who painted them were so inspiring and beautiful, I was so happy for the opportunity to sing to them while they worked!
https://youtu.be/tkkVNYbq0WA
And, because the world isn't all body painted wood elves who play the flute....I have been feeling the fear of the nation building around me, as madness threatens to create a hellish kingdom on this earth.... I believe that we on the planet are one people, with the capacity to love and honor each other and celebrate our diversity with opportunity, equity and respect. Not everyone feels this way. As a patriotic American I have a sacred duty to do my best to prevent the rise of fascism. If his name is Trump, if his name is Cruz, or Toomey or even Hitler, whatever you call him, we need to fight the home grown "American" terrorists who would like to see him in the Oval office. So, I wrote a song about it. It is in demo form, I just wrote it and I recorded it in my home studio, it's not what I would consider a finished piece by any means, but if you would like to check it out, here is the demo for "4th Reich is Rising" by Phat Man Dee.
https://youtu.be/kDdGFAU1x6Ehttps://youtu.be/kDdGFAU1x6E
One final thought, horrible thing happened yesterday, something I can't understand. A family was massacred while having a bar be que in their back yard, in Wilkinsburg, PA, its a small city just east of Pittsburgh. I have been there many times. It is on hard times, but there are some wonderful people who live there. Today there are 5 less. 5 people and an unborn baby were shot and killed. There are 11 children orphaned now as a result. The family has a fund set up at Citizen's Bank, the "Shelton-Powell Memorial Fund". If you can share something, they have many people to bury and now many children to care for. The bank info is Citizen's Bank, 2020 Ardmore Blvd, phone: 412-271-9183.
As I cannot just let you go on that horrible reality, I wrote a song called "Why Wait (to say I Love You)" which the World Bodypainting Festival featured in a video they made of my dear friend's wedding! My friends Madelyn and Scott are award winning bodypaint artists from the Livingbrush, which is the reason I went to the festival last July in Austria.... my song is my way of saying don't wait. If you love someone, now is the time to say it. Now is the time to love. Now is the time to be beautiful.
https://youtu.be/0xMeCMmWgcQ
One love,
Mandee
