Molly Crabapple

"Burlesque is so not profitable. Stripping and porn are careers and ways to make good money but Burlesque is pretty much a hobby."

BURLESQUE PERFORMERS

Nasty Canasta - “She is one of my favorite burlesque dancers. I’ll always remember when she came on stage dressed as Tanya Harding and stripped to ‘Hit Me with Your Best Shot'. It was absolutely amazing!"

Melody Sweets - “I love Melody Sweets. She's a beautiful girl with a gorgeous singing voice who sings while she dances.”

Miss Dirty Martini - "I absolutely love Miss Dirty Martini. She's such a burlesque legend."

Amber Ray- "Amber Ray is always a delight. She's so fun to watch and she's beautiful."

Copyright Heidi Calvert, BlueGirl Productions

BURLESQUE SHOWS

The Box - “The Box is kind of an underground supper club in the Lower East Side. Their acts are very polished and well styled. It’s a mix of variety, burlesque, singers and circus acts. The place looks like the Moulin Rouge. It totally rocks! You should definitely go if you can get past the door guy.”

Box by Molly Crabapple

CIRCUSES

Circus Amok - “Circus Amok is an underground circus that I see in the park every once in a while. They're amazing and really fun to watch”

photo by Mary Ellen Mark

The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus - "The Bindlestiff Family Circus is just genius. You should definitely see them if they’re in town."

Sideshow By The Seashore - "The Sideshow by the Sea Shore out in Coney Island is one of my favorite things to do in the city. Go out there before the evil corporations destroy Coney Island for good.”

BLOGGERS

Nick Denton - “I have a huge admiration for the creator of the Gawker. He really proved that blogs can make money. Even though I've never met him, I sort of think he's a genius.”

Lux Alptraum - "Lux Alptraum of Fleshbot is a dear friend of mine and a great editor even though we spend most of our days writing vicious things about each other."

COMIC BOOK STORES

Jim Hanley’s Universe - “I absolutely love Jim Hanley’s Universe. I’ve done book signings there and they have absolutely everything. You won’t even believe the things they have at Jim Hanley’s. It's totally the mecca of geek but so cool."

Molly (right) at Jim Hanley's Universe
SOURCE

Rocketship - "If you’re going for sheer indie street cred, you want to go to Rocketship in Brooklyn. They have all these signings with great indie artists...and beautiful books.”

"I think what inspires me most about New York is that it's for real. In other places people might be a hobbiest artist or a hobbiest muscian but here you can do those things for a living. It's not just to make themselves feel better about being a cubicle jockey all day. It's not just about finding a way to express to themselves. It's their actual life."

 
GALLERIES

Jonathan Levine Gallery - "I’m really interested in the sort of pop surrealist galleries like Jonathan Levine's. To me, this gallery actually shows art that you don’t need an MFA to look at."

Ad Hoc Art - "Ad Hoc Art in Bushwick is a really cool gallery that I've shown at. I think that the scene there is just boiling hot and filled with incredibly talented people.”

Arena Studios “I had a show at Arena Studios, which is this great gallery in SoHo. They do a lot of stuff with the Fetish and BD/SM scene. We had Dr Sketchy’s in the backroom going on and it's always a freaky scene.”

AROUND THE CITY

The Strand - “The Strand bookstore is one of the best ways to waste time. They have so many books and it's fun to just wander around there until one catches your eye.”

 COMICS 

Backstage -  “I'm friends with tons and tons of comic book artists and they peer pressured me into doing a comic even though I thought it would be way too much work and that the pay wouldn't be worth it. So I got suckered into it and now I love it. I started a web comic called Backstage, which is a tribute to the vaudeville halls of 1904 New York. It's a murder mystery set in the seedy underbelly of the city.”

Illustration by Molly Crabapple

Act-I-Vate - "Act-I-Vate are web publishers that run tons of cool underground and indie comics including my own. It's free and they have a nice collection of work."

League of Extraordinary Gentleman - "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is my favorite comic book in the entire world. I could get lost in those multi-layer references for years and still come back begging for more. I’m also a pretty classic geek girl.”