interview with Ashley Haag: Drag 101

I did an interview with Ashley Haag about her preforming art which is doing drag shows. A drag show is where men and women dress as the opposite gender and preform different acts like sing, dancing and so on. I have known Ashley for a while but only recently found out that she did drag. When Halloween came she dress in her drag clothes and she made a pretty convincing man. I was curious about what drag is, so I asked if I could interview her to help me understand it a little bit better. This interview happened November 12 of 2013.

Q: What type of preforming acts do you do?

A: I do drag show in which I sing in them.

Q: When did you start doing drag shows?

A: I started doing drag shows around September in 2012.

Q: what part of your act is special to you?

A: when I make someone in the audience feel special when I give them a rose during one of my acts

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Q: Does your character that you perform in have a name?

A: when I perform I become Ashton Tastethe Raynbon-starrz which is my character’s name.

Q: Does this name have any special meaning?

A: the name doesn’t really have any special meaning to it. I just wanted it to be fun.

Q: what types of genres do you sing?

A: I sing all different types of genres; the ones type of genre I sing the most is jazz music. The artist that I like to sing from the most is Frank Sinatra.

Q: do you have any influences that help you make this decision of preforming?

A: the biggest influence is my future wife. She helped me get over my stage fright and help me feel comfortable on stage. Another influence is my life is my drag dad, Rico Sauvé, which gave me the great advice. His advice is “if you don’t feel nervous anymore, you have lost the passion in performing” and it stayed with me all this time.

Q: is there any special way that you prepare for your performances?

A: My future wife and I always smoke cigarettes to calm ourselves down before performing.

Q: Where and when do you perform?

A: I perform at skives, a bar in Topeka, Kansas, where I perform every Sunday. The shows usually start around 10 to 10:30.

Q: When performing, is your act part of a duet or are they done solo?

A: I do most of my acts solo but sometime I do duet with my girlfriend. The duets are usually when I am doing a love song and I need another person to help me sing.

Q: Is there anything that you would tell a person who wants start doing this?

A: I would tell that be yourself and having your own style is very important. I would also tell them that being nervous about performing is always going to happen.

Q: What are the steps that you take in getting ready?

A: I make sure I have enough hair to make my beard for my character. Then the transformation starts, first I tape down my chest with duct tape, and yes it does hurt. Once I when removing duct tape from my girlfriend I accidently ripped a huge chunk of skin off but that story is for another time. After I tape down my chest then I get dressed and listen to my music that I am going to sing while doing it. Then after all that is done I chill and smoke some cigarettes. Then it is time to perform.

Q: Is there anything special about the drag community?

A: They accept you no matter what, it like my own little family. The one thing I like the best is that for people who have no families that agree with what they are doing the drag community becomes their family and is with them no matter what happens.

Q: What does performing do for you?

A: Performing is an emotional release for me. When I get sad I sing sad songs and hope that the audience feels the emotion that I am trying to bring out.

Q: For those who don’t know that the drag community is about is there any key terms that they would needed to know?

A: There aren’t really any key term for anyone who is advance or who is an amateur like me. But to help people who are confused out the males that turn into women are called Queens and the women who turn into men are called kings.

new article: saving Tibetan folk songs

This article is from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070629-tibet-music_2.html. A group of student have the hopes of collecting all types of different folks and traditional songs of Tibet. As the group continue to study Tibet they discover that because of the conflicts and globalization that they folk songs are slowly disappearing. The decline of folk songs started in 1966 when China gain control of Tibet. The biggest threat in the disappearance of the folk song is modernization.many of these songs aren't being passed down because of technology has came in and there is no need for the songs. This team of student have collected more than 250 songs from the Tibetan people. One of the restraints said that she would be sad if the old folk song disappeared and the younger generation would never hear it. This article also reminds me of the song catch a movie we watched in class, because these student are collecting songs to save a culture from being lost. I think I would enjoy listening to these songs if given a chance. I hope that the Tibetan culture is preserved and the younger generation get to hear these lovely songs.

news articles: Preserving Tibet

I found this article on http://www.voanews.com/content/filmmaker-attempts-to-preserve-dying-art-of-tibetan-folk-music--105272293/164789.html.Ngawang Choephel a Tibetan person who was captured and imprisoned for six years in a Chinese prison decides to movie of Tibetan dying folk art. His passion for starting this movie , is when he was a little kid around two years of age, he listen to the old people of the camps  sing this folk songs. So as he got old he realised that the music was slowly going always, and that some one need to record it before it disappeared. The movie is called " Tibet in a song".when filming in the rural regions of Tibet he was arrested for spy and was sentenced to eighteen years in jail. Many people freed him after he already spend six years in jail. The filming went on and after collecting seventeen songs and telling the story of Tibet of what happened in the last fifty years the film came out. After its release the film won a Sundance award. The author of  This film hopes that people will see this film and be inspired to help save Tibetan culture. After reading this article I really want to watch the film. I feel like this is a film that everyone should see. This article also reminded me of the movie we watched "the song cather" and how it's important to capture the songs and cultures of different places to better understand them. 

news actricle : Dying for Tibet

This news article come from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-j-furney/dying-for-tibet-but-will-_b_3137218.html. Tibet has been fighting for their freedom ever since China has placed its hold on tibet. The people of this land want freedom so bad that are willing to set themselves on fire. About one hundred people have died by this passionate act so that tibet can be free, other have starved themselves or other self mutilation.the Dalai lama a public figure of Tibet and its people said harmony and stability help with Tibet's development and prosperity.so as long as the people are full of harmony and stability that tibet will be free. Though the movement of free Tibet has draw a lot of celebrities from the states, according to this article the popularity among celebrities is not helping the fight. What most people are worried about is if the Dalai lama died, that the people will get even more radical and might do serious damage to themselves and China. For now the Dalai lama is still alive and the free movement may have deflated but the hope to free Tibet is still there. After learning about Tibet in class I thought a little digging was in order. I found out so much about Tibet , it's people and the culture they live in. I am glad I was able to learn about this culture.

image : the thighbone trumpet

This image came from http://www.mtac.gov.tw/cultural_e/show_photo.php?sno=22&show_h=1. This instrument is called the thighbone trumpet, it is made from a human femur. Both end are decorated with metal and gems. This instrument  is used during rituals like exorcism and weather control. The instrument is also used to warn away evil sports though their beliefs. Though their beliefs the thighbone of a sixteen great old was the best trumpet bone to use. Animals were also used for example a tiger bone was use because it thought that it trapped the animal spirit. Reading about this instrument I because or interested in the tibet culture. I would like to hear how this instrument sound and why they created so many items from human bones.

image : singing bowls

This image was found at http://www.tibetinfor.com.cn/tibetzt-en/xzyq/doc/0101_02_01.htm.This instruments are called the singing bowls. They are made from seven different metal to make up different pitches an  tones used to make music. The  metals used are gold, sliver,mercury ,iron, tin, Cooper , and lead. The seven different metals are believed to be seven different planet that will help a person heal. The way a person plays This is by first hitting the bowl with the wooden pen and then with even pressure and speed moving the wooden pen around the outside rim of the bowl. The singing bowl aid in mediation in the Buddhist community.the pitch of each bowl is fixed  by the thickness, shape and size of each bowl. The player can controller the volume and the tone of the bowls by how they are played. I have been around places that have used this instrument and I think they sound so pretty.

image: the conch

 These images came from http://www.tibetinfor.com.cn/tibetzt-en/xzyq/doc/0101_01_01.htm. This is one of the oldest instrument. It made from a conch shells which is cut off at both ends. Some of these conch trumpet are embellished with metal and gems. The Tibetan people use them for rituals.This instrument is played by blowing into th  opening of the conch, they are mainly for signaling.The  specie that is used is turbellina Pyrum which is the specie that is close to the coastal region of this area. I have seen the conch be played in Many movie and always wondered if was a really instrument. This helped me figure out that it is really instrument and that this instrument is very important to some cultures.