by Tiff -

Peaches makes best of bad situation, performs kinky “Wheelchair Show”

Unless you’re a fan of the indie electronic & hip-hop scene, or a member of the GLBT community, you may have never heard of Peaches before.

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This 43 year old electronic musician from Toronto, Canada (with a penchant for svelte trannies and naughty lyrics <3) twisted her ankle stage diving at a show in Portugal last month. She Twittered, “i twisted my ankle at the beginning of the show last night in porto but still walked on people, scaled the rail and stage dove. adrenaline.”

And since Peaches (site) is a top-tier member of the bad ass club, she’s not hiding in some posh hotel somewhere, waiting to get better; no. She’s FIERCE and 43, and doesn’t give a shit if she’s seen in her wheelchair. What other musician would dare perform in a wheelchair? Hell, Bono and crew cancelled their entire 2010 summer tour this year because Bono’s bad back. LAME Bono.

Peaches has much bigger balls than you, my friend.

So behold! The kinky and the fanastical – The Wheelchair Show – (9 mins long) featuring a sexy naked tranny as a back-up dancer, funny backstage moments, and one of the most creative wheelchairs I’ve ever seen.

Peaches newly revamped show (which she’ll be doing for at least 6 more weeks as her tour progresses through Europe), makes my heart smile like a big dopey grandma.

Watch Peaches show how rockin’ a wheelchair is really done – here.

by Tiff -

Pledge, help make “Redneck Ninjas” a reality

Out of all the interesting people I’ve met online, Drew Bates is one of my favorites. A quadriplegic (C5, injured on a road trip in 2007), I adore this mouthy Southern boy for multiple reasons: 1) He makes me laugh (hard), 2) He’s foine (vs. fine), AND 3) He’s creative, like professionally creative. He is a voice-over actor and writer, with a super exciting project in the works. But he needs your help!  
 
 
His creation, Redneck Ninjas (think Blue Collar Comedy Tour, animated, and featuring a wacky family instead of whiny men), is an idea he’d LOVE to make into a 60-second short.
 
 
To make it happen: Help Drew raise $10,000 by September 30th, 2010. If he meets his goal, he will use the money to pay Powerhouse Animation (animation studio) in Austin, Texas, who will – using traditional 2D animation and Adobe Flash animation – bring to life Drew’s already written and produced 60 second short for Redneck Ninjas.
 
And have no doubt, IT WILL BE AWESOME. I don’t know about you, but it would be fucking cool to know a quad is behind an Adult Swim program one day. Just sayin’. 
 
Pledge and see Drew’s intro video here! Good luck Drew! 

 

Read more about Redneck Ninjas and it’s awesome characters on Drew’s official site here.

by Tiff -

Hate Chipotle’s high counters too? Wheelchair-user sues, wins

Whatever you do, don’t get between a man and his burrito. You’d think someone who makes burritos by the millions would know this truthitude, but no, Chipotle managed to make this faux pas with their truly thoughtless counter design. Their high counters have been getting off scott-free for years, violating every ADA law in the book, and FINALLY, finally they’re being (legally) chastised. But only in California, for now.

 

The pissed AND hungry wheelchair-user we have to thank is San Diego State University professor Maurizo Antoinetti, who became a paraplegic in the Italian army. He began his crusade against Chipotle in 2005 after he realized he couldn’t see a damned thing. He couldn’t see which ingredients he was picking, couldn’t see his burrito being made….nada. And might I add how much I hate this?? Fucking Chipotle. I’m lucky, my chair has an elevator seat if I really want to see my burrito being made, but the line is so fast and rushed, it just isn’t practical.

 

I love your burritos Chipotle, but your counters can suck it.

 

Professor Antoinetti in completely in the right. He believes every wheelchair-user has the GOD GIVEN RIGHT to see his burrito being made, and he’s right! And while California courts have been disappointing as of late (Prop 8), they finally got it right this time, with a Federal Appeals court in Pasadena ruling Chipotle violated the Americans with Disabilities Act at two of its San Diego locations. And Antoinetti didn’t do it for the money. He said he’s spent over $500,000 on the multi-year legal battle. Here’s what Chipotle had to say after the battle:
   
 
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling, however, the matter is largely moot because several years ago, independent of this lawsuit, we retrofitted all of our California restaurants with a new counter design that eliminates concern regarding wheelchair accessibility.”

 

So let me get this straight – they knew the counters were too high, fixed them at two locations to appease Antoinetti, but why don’t they replace all of their counters across the country if they know they were too high?

 

See, this is total BS. Support your locally-owned Mexican taco stands people. Chipotle is evil.

by Tiff -

Can you hide disability with tight jeans and makeup? She did

 “If everybody’s not a beauty, then nobody is.” – Andy Warhol.
 
 When Laura Maffei was diagnosed with progressive Muscular Dystrophy as a young teen (the nerve disease that the Jerry Lewis telethon supports), she was told by her parents to hide her new condition, to mask the growing-in-strength symptoms – the encumbered gait, the inability to hold in her gut – for as long as she could because discrimination based on disability is one of the worst kinds of discrimination you can experience. And it is.

I can tell you from my own experience, from going from a healthy 14 year old blonde white girl to a very disabled-looking individual, you really see two vastly different life perspectives; and it’s heart-breaking. Some people will never like someone with a disability no matter how hard you try. It just won’t happen.

So when Laura Maffei, author of her just-finished memoir, How I Tried to Hide Muscular Dystrophy with Tight Jeans and Makeup (also known as Girl with a Secret. She’s currently looking for representation), was instructed by her parents to hide her condition (using control-top pantyhose, makeup, and a bag of excuses), I can’t actually say it was completely bad parenting. There were protecting her from negative life experiences for as long as they could. I can’t say I blame them. But Maffei knew there were other reasons her parents wanted her to hide it, the main reason chiefly being: Their over-concern with physical appearances.

“My mom always told us to hold in our stomachs and, from when we were 13, to wear makeup outside the house.” (And after being diagnosed) “I‘d even not eat or drink anything on days I was going to the beach with friends, to lying to my gym teachers about how many situps I did, to refusing to tell even close friends why I was walking with a labored gait in college.” “All that hiding is exhausting,” she says. “And even though my story is a specific one, I think women of all physical abilities feel compelled to hide or change things about their physical selves, things of which they needn’t be ashamed, but they are because our culture tells us to be.”

Laura eventually came “out” of the disability closet, and now gives speeches on her journey of self-discovery, in addition to writing memoir. Also, stop by her blog, Everybody’s a Beauty, where she’s compiling a collection of user-submitted experiences on disability and beauty, and the struggle that can come with that, which needless to say has become a topic close to her heart. Add yours here!