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Dinosaur-Themed Anarchist Variety Show To Benefit Denver Zine Library

Submitted by strongwindsahead on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 18:46.

Dinosaur-Themed Anarchist Variety Show To Benefit Denver Zine Library

story and photos by Emile Hallez             

         Adam Tinnell, a tall young man with a slender build, perches atop a wooden stool, gently cradling a microphone. He addresses an audience of at least 100 in the Jungle Room of the Mercury Café. He is nonchalantly clad in a sparkly green dress, a feather boa and heels. A Marilyn Monroe-style wig rests on his head. From left to right the words “Lady Luck” are spelled out across his knuckles.

            The night is another installment of a strange and deliciously ironic phenomenon in Denver: Louis Vuitton Night, a semimonthly celebratory coming together of local anarchists that raises cash for community projects. Among the Feb. 7 festivities were live bands, a music-and-puppet theatrical troupe and an acrobatic performance by a duo known as the Vaj-a-bonds. The café’s abundant backdrop of strings of lights, fresh flowers and life-size ceramic tigers added to the whimsically abnormal atmosphere, the theme of which was Las Vegas.
            “Louis Vuitton Night is all about creating an anarchist-friendly space,” Tinnell said. He and two friends, Bradley Albas and Kate Kershenstein, had lived together at the Circle A Ranch, an anarchist collective in Lafayette, which regularly threw parties hosting more than 500 people. After moving out of the collective, the trio decided to create an event that would serve as a nexus for Denver anarchists and the free-spirited public. Tinnell had studied early anarchist history and took note of the use of French cabarets to assemble and entertain like-minded politicos.
            The upcoming Louis Vuitton Night, which has a Jurassic Park fashion theme, will take place at 9:30 p.m. on May 3 at the Mercury Café. Optional donations will benefit the Denver Zine Library.
            “What makes Louis Vuitton Night interesting is its appeal to live cultural arts in the anarchist and non-anarchist local scene,” stated Chris Conners, a Denver activist on whom was bestowed the unique title of Outstanding Anarchist of the Month at an earlier Louis Vuitton Night. “As a live, participatory variety show it allows the audience to return to the aesthetic of American vaudeville or French cabaret. These aesthetics, historically and in the present day, allowed audience members to be integrated together.” Connors is known for his involvement with community service for Denver’s youth and for his penchant for dioramas – the 29-year-old regularly throws diorama-themed parties.
            Though the idea of combining high fashion with the do-it-yourself ethos of Denver’s anarchist scene may seem as comically counterintuitive as an anarchist-of-the-month award, the events are as informative as they are gleefully entertaining.
            “I did nothing in particular to get the award but was nominated by my friend Geyl, because my birthday was coming up,” Conners stated. “I was a just a little bit better than her other option, Roxie, who is a dog. That’s the truth of it, really. I feel like I do good radical work and stay fairly well abreast of people’s struggles and victories. … I spent most of my acceptance speech talking about ADAPT, a great local organizing group that I’ve only now just begun to work with.”
            The winner of February’s title is Evan Herzoff, a shaggy-haired 29-year-old who volunteers for Denver CopWatch, an organization of activists trained to record police behavior, or lack thereof, at mass demonstrations and other political events. He walks in to the show in the middle of a reading by The City Mouse, the performance pseudonym of Charly Fasano. Herzoff scans the room for a place to sit, but the café is packed. Like many others he stands at the back of the room, dodging pacing audience members, activists and the latte-carrying wait staff.
            Herzoff eventually makes his way to the stage, where Tinnell conducts a brief interview about the ideology of Denver CopWatch and Herzoff’s mission to keep police in check.
            “I had to have a few drinks to take the edge off,” Herzoff said. “I wasn’t about to accept an award for being an anarchist completely sober.” Well aware of the tongue-in-cheek irony of such decorations, he used the soapbox occasion to promote CopWatch. Among the anecdotes was his own account of being illegally arrested for filming police activity.
            “Apparently somebody wanted to give me props (through the award),” he said. “What I ended up talking about was CopWatch … and the issue of police brutality.”
            Following the dialog Herzoff quietly retired to the corner of the dining room, where he ordered dinner far away from the passionate ruckus in the Jungle Room.
            Meanwhile, the audience was jittery for the next act. Some read a copy of the Louis Vuitton Night Review, an independent publication of anarchist ethos and community events.
            “There’s not much media for anarchists other than on the Internet or (in) ’zines.
Anarchists don’t really like entertainment media much,” Herzoff said, concerning the publication, which is touted by Louis Vuitton Night as “a variety of subjects including celebrity gossip, anarchist theory, community happenings, (do-it-yourself) herbal healing and self care, local history and more.”
            Tinnell overtly waved a handbag in the air, shattering the relaxed atmosphere. The item was but another paradox of the evening – written on the side of the bag were the words Louis Vuitton, though the looks of the ragged purse suggest it came not from an upscale boutique, but from a thrift store, or more likely, a Dumpster.
            Porlolo, one of the evening’s singers, decides to give away the bag to anyone who can guess what animal she saw crossing a street that morning – a fox. Several audience members ravenously dart toward the stage to claim the souvenir, and all but one walk away empty handed. Disappointed, they return to their seats.
            The red-suited Vaj-a-bonds jump to the stage, dancing and intertwining with zany but athletically precise energy to “The Age of Aquarius,” which instantly claims the crowd’s approbation.
            The rest of the evening is a similar blur of radical energy. It is well past midnight when the show draws to a close, and like previous Louis Vuitton Nights, the end is signified with a long-winded ‘80s power-ballad sing-a-long. The audience intermingled with performers, as Albas, Adam’s vintage-tuxedo-clad cohort, who goes by Albatross, pointed with a star-topped fairy wand to a transcript of lyrics to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Don’t Stop Believing.”
            “I wanted to have a final song that brought everyone together, but I didn’t want to write it myself,” Tinnell said. “I was going through some old Journey albums ... and I thought, ‘This is perfect.’”
            The next round of anarchist extravaganza is scheduled for May 3, also at the Mercury Café. The performing acts and theme for the event have yet to be decided, Tinnell said, though, “The theme for (the Louis Vuitton Review) is anarchism and science.”
            And if it’s anything like its predecessor, the evening will be a unique mix of politics and variety performance.
            “Our culture, even ‘activist’ cultures, are largely built out of how we spend our leisure,” Connors stated. “Leisure is important and real change can be made if you give folks a little fun with it. If we want to communicate radical ideas we need to make the leisure scenes just as accessible and fun to people as Monday Night Football.”