Washington City Paper: Arts & Events: Nightlife

The Money Shot
Onstage, sex workers exploit you.

Show & Tell By Amanda Hess

Twenty-six-year-old Lorelei Lee, a perky, platinum-haired coed with a kinky white scar etched into her upper thigh, calls herself an artist. Lee deals in “bodily performance,” and you can catch her work in such video art pieces as Belladonna’s Fucking Girls 4 and Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Anal Sex. “Tristan’s is educational,” Lee explains. “Fucking Girls 4 was just fucking.”

When Lee isn’t fucking, she focuses on her other art: short fiction and poetry, which she studies at a San Francisco university, the name of which she doesn’t want published. For the past three weeks, she has read her work across the country as part of the Sex Workers’ Art Show, a traveling pastiche of cabaret, spoken word, and performance art put on by prostitutes, porn stars, burlesque dancers, and drag queens.

“I don’t want to say that all porn is art,” says Lee, who lifts her stage name from the Marilyn Monroe character in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. “But porn can most certainly be artistic.”

According to the literature, the Sex Workers’ Art Show intends to “dispel the myth that [sex workers] are anything short of artists, innovators, and geniuses!” But having sex for money isn’t always so inspired. “Sometimes, I feel like I’m on a factory line,” Lee admits before the Feb. 7 show at the Rock and Roll Hotel. “Sometimes I feel like I’m just making hamburgers.”... Continued

Totally Unradical
Critics are convinced that M.I.A. is a politicized MC. But that's not really what she's selling.
Music Review By Brent Burton
Super Bowl Is Gay
U Street bar goes both ways.
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Pulled Punch
In Virginia, you can't have sangria the way it was meant to be.
Show & Tell By Jessica Gould
Retain Calm
In the wake of a violent year, clubowners are turning to security consultants for advice.
Show & Tell By Jessica Gould
Clothes Call
A tiff between a clubowner and an alcohol investigator was as much sartorial as procedural.
Show & Tell By Jessica Gould
A Royalty Pain
A Rockville restaurant gets a crash course in the business of music licensing.
Show & Tell By Jessica Gould
Party Leader
Daryl Francis points the people to the parties.
Artifacts By Amanda S. Miller
Billed to Suit?
This year’s supersized tax assessments have put arts spaces in a tight spot.
Show & Tell By Jessica Gould

DJs and Nightclubs Picks

Event Calendar: This Week in DJs and Nightclubs

Fri. May. 9, 2008 - Thu. May. 15, 2008

BLACK CAT
Fri., 5/16, "Kicks." Sat., 5/17, "Right Round."
BLACK CAT, 1811 14th St. NW. (202) 667-7960.
CAFE SAINT-EX/GATE 54 LOUNGE
Thu., 5/8, "Heat": DJ Nitekrawler. Fri., 5/9, Blake 9. Sat., 5/10, DJ Will Eastman. Tue., 5/13, Yellow Fever. Thu., 5/15, DJ Neville C. Fri., 5/16, DJ Sharkey. Sat., 5/17, DJ Will Eastman.
CAFE SAINT EX, 1847 14th St. NW. (202) 265-7839.
CHIEF IKE'S COSMO LOUNGE
Fridays, DJ Bobby Bishop. Saturdays, DJ Big Apple Eddie.
CHIEF IKE'S COSMO LOUNGE, 1725 Columbia Road NW. (202) 332-2211.
DC9
Fridays, "Liberation." Thu., 5/15, "Blacklight." Sat., 5/17, "Konkrete Jungle D.C."
DC9, 1940 9th St. NW. (202) 483-5000.
HEAVEN & HELL
Thursdays, "’80s Dance Party." Fridays, DJ Giovanni. Saturdays, DJ Freedom.
HEAVEN, 2327 18th St. NW. (202) 667-4355.
MODERN
Thursdays, DJ Tittsworth. Fridays, DJ Stylus Chris. Saturdays, DJ Black Ceaza.
MODERN, 3287 M St. NW. (202) 338-7027.
9:30 CLUB
Sat., 5/17, "Blowoff": Bob Mould, Richard Morel (late).
NINE THIRTY CLUB, 815 V St. NW. (202) 265-0930.
ROCK & ROLL HOTEL
Sat., 5/10, Scottie B, Blaqstarr, Gavin Holland.
ROCK & ROLL HOTEL, 1353 H St. NE. (202) 388-7625.
ULTRA BAR
Thursdays, DJ Psymon, DJ Bounder, DJ Soundflux, DJ William. Fridays, DJ Geometrix, DJ Bomba. Saturdays, DJ Enferno, DJ ECUA.
ULTRA BAR, 911 F St. NW. (202) 638-4663.