So, The Dilettwat's blog has taken a hiatus. You figured it out long before I did. May the drag goddesses bless you, people who have been asking whether I've fallen off the face of the planet.
Why the sudden quiet? Truly, we're in the off-season: Season Six has wrapped filming, and its journey has moved on to the editing room. These days, story producers are having coffee and sitting in office chairs, editing the shade-gong sound effects over innocuous conversations and deciding who we'll love (and who we'll love-to-hate) come January. Right now, editors are choosing next year’s “Bitch I am from Chicago!” and “I’ve had it! Officially!” tag lines; they’re choosing which snips and moments of each queen’s experience on RuPaul’s Drag Race will shape her personal narrative for the season. It's exciting, in its own super-meta way--filming is over, but the writing of The Story of Season Six has just begun.
Season Six's Trinity Bonet of Atlanta, giving us an eight-count of Beyonce at Burkhart's
But here, back in actual-reality, all the Season Six queens returned home months ago. While the internet has collectively clocked 10 or 12 (give or take) of next season's queens, the ones who flew under the radar are back home too, trying to decide whether they're proud of themselves for keeping the secret, or simply offended that nobody noticed they were missing during Drag Race Filming Season. It's safe to say that all the Season Six queens are living in interesting times these days, but from my spectator-and-fan's perspective, the whole affair has entered the quietest days of the annual RuPaul's Drag Race production cycle.
We all bide our time in different ways.
As for me? The last few months have been an immersion in Atlanta drag. I haven’t been writing about it, not for lack of trying, but when I attempt to write about people I’ve come to know personally, everything comes out either sycophantic or shady. I accomplish plenty of both without also blogging about it, thanks, so while I’ve been making brilliant new friends and taking in some amazing drag lately, this space has gone quiet.
I promise, I’m going somewhere with this retrospection: this time last year, I was obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race, but had not yet made the jump from drag-on-television to drag-in-real-life. From my couch, I could gaze adoringly at drag queens without ever making eye contact; I could learn the difference between a kiki and a kaikai without using them in conversation. In other words, I was falling in love with drag, but the concept of Real Life Drag Queens still intimidated the hell out of me.
Trust: it's cute on TV, but this moment would be terrifying in person, right?
Just last November, I went to my first-ever drag show, the Miss Originality pageant, because Sharon Needles had been booked to judge and perform. I’d give anything to relive that night, knowing everything (and everybody) I do now--Atlanta's talent turned out a hell of an evening, one that I didn’t fully appreciate because I was still ignorant to the local scene. I wouldn’t know it yet, but that night would be my first time seeing a double-handful of Atlanta performers who have since become my favorite drag queens; a few months after the show, I’d finally start to pair my memories of clever performances with more-recently-learned names and mugs. That night would also be my first visit to The Jungle, my favorite drag bar; these days, I’m a regular, but last November, I was a stranger to everybody. I could kick myself now, for having only had eyes for Sharon that night--talk about a fucking dilettante.
Pictured: hugging a shitfaced drag queen for the very first time in my life. Weird now, right?
To take this story full-circle: this coming Friday night, in the very same room at The Jungle where I first saw Sharon (and errbody else), The Other Show is hosting Alaska Thunderfuck. Thank heavens I’m not daunted by Actual Living Drag Queens anymore, that I’m completely at-home at the Jungle on a Friday night now: if you know me in person, you know I live for The Other Show; if you were reading this blog during Season Five, you know I live for Alaska. Together, on the same stage? Hold me.
So anyway. My apologies for the quiet lately--I've been eyeballs-deep in drag, but not in a way that's led to my blogging every minute of it. I'll try aiming for the "Publish" button more often.
PS - It’s another post (coming early next week, I swear), but I have a new hobby, too. I’ll give you a hint: it starts with an F, it rhymes with “whoa queen," and it's exactly what you think.