Outwrite 2018 kicks off with "Laughing Our Loud", standup comedy

The Outwrite 2018 LGBT writing festival in Washington DC kicked off Friday night with a standup comedy session ("Kickoff: Laughing Out Loud") at the Ten Tigers Parlour on Georgia Ave in the Petworth neighborhood.  Chinese food was available to order (and this was all Bourdain Parts Unknown type of food that you’ve never heard of, except for the tofu, which Twin Oaks in Virginia can make.  (Does the name “Parlour” imply a timocracy?)

The host was Chelsea Shorte, who spun a lot of material about food as a business, and said don’t compete with the children.   The other speakers were Joanna Cifredo, Camille Roberts (“bits in Paradise”), Tsaitomi Duchicela (“Thunder Bay Sy”), Anthony Oakes, and keynote Michelle Tea.

There were stop quips at white privilege, and some emphasis on gender fluidity. I believe one of the presenters was M-F trans.  There were also some interesting comments on multi-lingual capabilities. 

   

I befriended a stanup comedy artists who worked in a coffee place when living in Minneapolis.  The film “To Err Is Human” presents a comedian in Denver who overcame a birth-related handicap due to medical error.

Pizza delivery man near Detroit is a self-taught virtuoso pianist

In the Detroit suburbs, eighteen year old Bryce Dudal works as a pizza delivery person for Hungry Howie’s.

Recently he was invited to demonstrate his piano skills at a home with a grand piano.
   

He plays the finale of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata (#14 in C# Minor, Op. 27 #2) here, on a Fox story. This movement is fast with a lot of passage work (unlike the more notorious slow first movement.) 

Amazingly, he is self-taught, since the age of seven. He performs with great virtuosity and technique.  

(By the way, why doesn't Fox news use https yet?)