me kissing you: me kissing against malaria

Sunday, August 26, 2012

me kissing against malaria

So tonight, Grace Lutheran Church had a fundraiser variety show, proceeds going to the ELCA Malaria Campaign. The show was called DragNet Follies. Grace is in the heart of Montrose, the traditionally LGBT neighborhood of Houston, and they knew they would have several drag performers in the show. Since they were raising money for mosquito nets, they hit on the idea of DragNet. Clever, no? I thought so.

Since this little blog has had some popularity, I offered to do kisses for tips to add a few more dollars to the total for the night. I mostly ended up kissing performers and friends who came out to see the show (some of whom I've kissed before). I also relaxed the rules a smidgen and let a couple of people kiss me. For charity, rules can take a hike.

I'm not identifying the people in these photos. For one thing, I didn't get my usual permissions to do so, mostly because the evening was a little fast paced for all that and I announced I wouldn't in hopes of encouraging some shy folks to kiss against malaria. (For a drag audience, they were a little reserved. Well, many were my people---Lutherans---so there you go.) So I invite those kissed to identify themselves in the comments below.

Or, if you kissees prefer, I'll be glad to re-post your photo as an individual post. For tonight, it just felt like this group belonged together, recognizing all these folks who came out to support a good cause.

3 comments:

Hal CoreAugust 26, 2012 at 12:17 AM
This is Hal, I'm the 5th kissee from the top. I was techie guy for this evening's DragNet, wearing my lighted headgear to see in the dark...Thanks, Neil, for all your support to the worthy cause of fighting malaria in Africa. "YOU light up MY DragNet", mwuahh!
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KoomahAugust 26, 2012 at 6:14 PM
Koomah here, Bearlesque cub 'o love in the last pic! Thanks for your contribution through the kissing booth! :)
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bridge2peaceAugust 28, 2012 at 1:24 PM
Bridget here, third from the top.
I think the occasions when I end up on Neil's kissing blog are testaments to his willingness for adventure and his being a good sport. Last time it was when I invited him to a performance, thinking there would be tickets at the door, but it ended up being sold out. The evening turned into a kind of entertainment scavenger hunt; though we came up empty handed, it was fun just being together.

This time, I was once again doing a kind of entertainment scavenger hunt, looking for acts to be part of our variety show at church. Sounding pitiful enough in my pleas asking Neil to participate, he agreed. Not only that, he offered a kissing booth with tips going to the cause for which we were raising money.
Thanks Neil for being such a good sport and for lending your professionalism to our very amateur show.
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about this blog . . .

So 2011 saw me dealing with a bad 2010 by posting a picture of myself, taken first thing every morning, as some kind of conceptual art project. You can see all 365 blurry, bleary photos here.

As it was, at it's core, a response to loneliness, I knew it was not something I could or should sustain beyond the one year boundary I initially set for it. But I sort of liked this photo blogging thing . . .

So I decided the next logical step was to reach out to other people. Not just reach out, but cross some of my own comfort zones and kiss them. Not on the mouth, not in a romantic or sexual way, just a kiss on the cheek.

So, this year, I plan on kissing as many people as I can. I won't even try to kiss someone everyday, but in various situations, I may just ask someone, "hey, can I kiss you and photographically document the event?" If they say no, no worries, I'll move on. If they say yes, I'll say, "I have this tiny release form granting me permission." (It is a tiny release form, postcard size.)

It's a small way to get me out of a rut I'm in and also to spread a little love. In the ancient Christian church, there was the custom of the "kiss of peace" (which survives in liturgical churches today as "passing the peace," usually signified by a handshake). I think of this exercise as something of passing the peace, too, of offering a kiss of peace to whoever will let me do it. And document it.

Wait---there's more! You can be kissed, too! If you're in the Houston area and would like to be kissed by me, let me know. Or if you're coming to Houston. Or even if you're not in Houston or coming to Houston, but want to be on a list of potential kissees, in the event that I might be traveling to where you are (I get up Austin a few times a year, I hope to get to Chicago this year, etc.), let me know that, too. you never know where I might pop up. Email me at neilellisorts (at) yahoo dot com.