One of the biggest ongoing jokes in my family is my ever growing lust for "culture." Mom and Dad like to poke fun at the weird art exhibits I like to visit but in the end, I can usually convince one of them to go with me. Last week I was particularly excited about a performance at Memorial Theater. While North Carolina generally puts on view large art exhibits or big name artists at its performance centers and arenas, many smaller or more nice artists don't make the cut. Anyways, last week in one of my most boring classes (sorry professor), Business Associations, the professor recommended going to see Taylor Mac preform. The professor, who is from New York, said he had seen him before and found him highly entertaining and a great "cultural experience." As soon as "culture" came out of his mouth, I was in.
I am pretty lucky as a UNC student to be able to attend any performance at Memorial Hall for just $10 so I bought two tickets and then let my parents argue over who didn't have to go. I swear, it was just like the episode of Modern Family where Gloria and Jay are trying to subtly come up with reasons why they couldn't go to the live reading of Moby Dick with Manny... Anyways, after bickering between each other, my mom decided to suck it up and come with me.
Well... in as few words as possible, the performance was unlike anything I have ever seen before and thoroughly entertaining. Taylor Mac is a flamboyant, outlandish, honest, and refreshing drag queen who rocked my world that night. The performance was titled "1910s -- A 24 Decade History of Popular Music." So, the performance that I watched was about two hours long and he sang songs from the 1910s while also giving a historical synopsis of the era. I learned many facts about WWI that I did not before, while also laughing, cringing, and awkwardly doing what he instructed the audience to do. It really is very hard to describe without actually viewing it. But, in 2016 he will perform for 24 hours straight, a recap of popular music from the beginning of the United States until that year. This performance will take place in NYC and I can only hope that I might get to view it.
One of my favorite quotes of his from that night: "perfection is for assholes." For some reason I had a very easy time identifying with that statement. As a struggling law student it feels like everyone around you is striving for perfection; as a woman, I feel that everyone strives for perfection as they stare at the photoshopped images of others; and as a human in general, aren't we always tying to be the most perfect version of ourselves?
Maybe we shouldn't focus so much on perfect, but if so, what should we set our sights on? Just being better? Reaching our goals? After all, isn't perfection impossible anyways?
As one side note, this performance is not for anyone who dislikes being uncomfortable, pushed, or who is not open-minded. He does make crude jokes and ones that can easily clash with those who are more conservative.
Happy Monday y'all!
