Lite + Brite Monthly: July
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the July monthly edition of the Lite + Brite newsletter.
Our weekly newsletters will include many more listings, but here are a handful of events that we know will be coming up over the next month. We’re giving you the heads up now in case you want to pre-buy tickets or block off the time.
- July 7: Matilda the Musical Opening Night at Zilker Hillside Theater
Free theatrical performance of a Roald Dahl children’s book - July 8: Slam Portal at Hi Sign Brewing
Free outdoor interdimensional comedic wrestling - July 8: Boner Bizarre: Squirtfest at Come and Take It
“XXXtreme erotic variety show” w/sideshow, aerialists, contortion + more - July 8: Mortified at the Spider House Ballroom
Folks tell tales of adolescent angst in a new comedic light - July 11: Weird Al Appreciation Night at Mohawk
Watch some Weird Al films + costume contest - July 14: Bodies of Work III at RichesArt
Local artists create works centered around the human body - July 14: Hot Summer Mess at Elysium
Drag contest to see who is the hottest mess this summer - July 15: RE:BOOT at dadaLab
New venue unveiling w/live electronic music + live visual artists - July 16: That Pun Show at GameOn! ATX
Sip pun-themed cocktails + watch contestants in a pun-off - July 17: Cthonic Salon at the Velvet Casket
Drink tea + discuss “guides of the dead and spirits of the doors between worlds” - July 18 – 19: Blues on the Green at Zilker Park
Free outdoor concert series in Zilker Park - July 19: Normal Gossip at the Paramount
Attend a live taping of a podcast about gossip - July 20 – 23: Hot Summer Nights at various venues on Red River
A weekend of free concerts across all of Red River’s venues - July 21: B Scene at the Blanton
Party at the art museum w/live music, drinks, + dancing - July 22 – 23: The Texas Metalesk Festival at Valhalla
Brutal burlesque performers from across the state + country - July 27: No Lights No Lycra at West China Tea
Our own dance party in the dark (+sunset) - July 28: World’s Largest Water Gun Fight at Zilker Park
Break records w/some of the 600 water guns provided or BYOWG - July 28 – 29: BedPost Confessions at the Scottish Rite Theater
Live taping of a podcast about confessions + drag performers - July 29: Party World Rasslin’: The Cryptid Mines at Oskar Blues
Comedic pro wrestling tackles crypto and cryptids simultaneously
Brian’s Pick: June has been Tatsuro Yamashita month for me. We’ve gone on road trips listening to Tats, swam in a pool and danced with my nephews while blasting Tats, and danced around in the dark to Tats. He’s Japan’s greatest musical gift to the world in my humble opinion. His music combines all the best things about 1970s AM gold, disco, and the Beach Boys. He switches back between singing in Japanese and English, but the songs are so catchy you’ll be transfixed whether you know what he’s singing about or not.
The only thing that sucks is you can’t legally buy any Tatsuro Yamashita records without paying a fortune, and he isn’t on the big streaming services, so the only way to listen to him is to pirate his music or to find YouTube streams which are constantly being taken down and then carefully replaced by the legions of rabid young fans of a guy whose musical career originally peaked around 1978-82. The best way to get into him is these collections with a fake Hawaiian radio DJ for an imaginary radio station called KIKI, but YouTube has many ways to listen, here’s a few.
Tatsuro Yamshita – Come Along (his best of collections are called Come Along)
Tatsuro Yamashita – Come Along 2
One hour of Tatsuro Yamashita set to Japanese commercials from the 70s and 80s
Leila’s Pick: Someone played this dreampop cover of Six Pence None the Richer (yes, from She’s All That) on an online radio show the other night, and for whatever reason it is absolutely doing it for me. Taking a song that reminds me of my adolescence (even if I didn’t like it much then) and re-recording it so it sounds wistful and moody is a brilliant strategy.