Every year, Advocate photographers capture thousands of neighborhood-related scenarios. We publish the images in this magazine or here on our website, and most inevitably land on the cutting-room floor. This month, we dug through piles of pics, mining them for interest-piquing peripheral details about the subjects, places and events depicted.
Danny Fulgencio
February 2013
Parasailing Lake Ray Hubbard
Up, up and away
For two years, East Dallas neighbor Rance Rudy spent his summers by the shores of beautiful Lake Ray Hubbard, or soaring above it with his parasail.
Rudy started the business Parasailing the Harbor in early 2012, and Advocate staff had the chance to join him for an afternoon of boating and parasailing last June. From more than 200 feet above Lake Ray Hubbard, we got an only-slightly-nerve-racking adrenaline rush and a breathtaking view of the Dallas skyline.
Unfortunately, however, we never got to share the pictures in the magazine because Rudy shut the business down a couple of weeks after the outing. After weighing the expenses, he decided the business wasn’t lucrative enough to justify the costs.
Rudy started the business after he was laid off with a full year’s pay from his big-time corporate job, but not before he traveled the country to soul-search and figure out his next move.
“I rented a motor home. My girlfriend and I took our five dogs, stuck my Harley on the back, and we went all over the western United States, just talking to people, asking them, ‘What’d you do? How’d you make your money?’” he explains.
Rudy considered his skills and passions and decided to give parasailing a try.
“I’ve always loved both boats and aviation,” he says, “and this combines what I love about flying and what I love about boating, and it brings them both together.”
There are no other parasailing opportunities in the area, so Rudy is hoping someone will buy the business and keep it going. He’s had some possible buyers scope it out.
For now, he’s back to weighing his options. And we’re waiting to see if he needs any guinea pigs for the next venture. —Brittany Nunn
Danny Fulgencio
June 2013
Viva Dallas Burlesque
Simply smashing
If you’re wondering what is happening to the poor chap in this photo, don’t worry; it was entirely consensual.
Well, it was mostly consensual. He consented to being handcuffed and blindfolded; we’re not so sure about everything after that.
The man goes by Jerry Fedora, but the glamorous folks at Viva Dallas Burlesque in Lakewood call him “The Mayor of Burlesque.”
During the show Dirty, Sexy, Funny, in June — which Advocate staff attended in the name of research for our feature “Who holds the power of sex?” — the emcee called Fedora to the stage.
It was Fedora’s birthday, the emcee announced. And boy, do the people at Viva know how to throw a smashing birthday bash.
Burlesque dancer “Courtney Crave” handcuffed Fedora’s hands behind his back, and then three girls fed him cupcakes from various parts of their body. After each bite, Fedora had to guess where on the girl’s body the cupcake was located.
One girl wedged the cupcake in the crook of her arm, which was hilariously misleading to the blindfolded man. Another situated hers snugly in her bra.
But we all saw that one coming.
In retrospect, Danny Fulgencio, the Advocate photographer who took the photo, has some inner conflict about it.
“On an intellectual level, this photograph could be political satire about temptation and illusions of power,” Fulgencio says. “While the photo’s carnal value appeals to my inner-bro, decapitating women admittedly draws ire from my inner-feminist.” —Brittany Nunn
Brandy Barham
July 2013
6IX Confessions
Blackboard Confessionals
Danny “Weso Knarly” Sellars smeared globs of paint across a giant canvas as part of the grand finale for the multimedia show 6IX Confessions.
An audience watched as he and five other artists worked quickly, slapping paint onto the canvas and dabbing or smearing it into a blur of color that glowed dramatically under a black light.
At the same time, six poets chanted verses about the significance of the number six.
“And on the sixth day God created humans, and we are living creativity,” they said.
6IX Confessions was hosted by Dallas actress-poet-fashionista Rhianna Mack at the Bath House Cultural Center in July. There were several components to the show: spoken word poetry, music, shadow puppetry and paintings, all done by local artists.
To kick off the finale, Mack asked three random audience members to each draw a line, shape or squiggle on the blank canvas. Then the artists used those lines as reference points to shape the rest of the painting.
“Having someone from the audience come up and start it off, that was important because it symbolized that all of us are creators,” Mack explains.
The canvas comprised 50 small 10-by-10 canvases, which allowed audience members and artists to take a section home with them as a reminder of the event.
Learn more about Rhianna Mack at TrueArtistBrand.com. —Brittany Nunn
James Coreas
August 2013
Hottest Half Marathon and 10k
Holy, half-marathon, Batman!
It took a little work, but Advocate sleuths discovered the true identity of this Batman (hint: looked up that number on his chest in the official race results).
The Hottest Half Marathon and 10k launched from Norbuck Park and went around White Rock Lake one late-August morning. Because of searing temperatures, participants generally don as little clothing as the law allows.
Hence, Michael Edelstein — dressed as Batman and carrying a substantial American flag and accompanied by his girlfriend Merissa, the partially obscured Wonder Woman — turned heads and elicited spectator cheer.
A week after the Boston bombings, Edelstein tells us, he carried the flag in the Oklahoma City Half Marathon.
“I was already registered to run Oklahoma City when Boston happened. I wanted to run with Old Glory to show strength and motivate others. I have run with it in every race since.”
Also around the time of the Boston bombings Edelstein joined Team Red White and Blue, a running group that supports American military transitioning to civilian life, he says.
“I run despite physical pain and push myself because I’m not a quitter. My friends weren’t killed so I could be lazy on a couch and whine about my problems.”
It’s not all so somber. Take the costumes, for instance. That idea, he says, came from a trip to Six Flags, where the superhero getups were on sale at the gift shop.
“Merissa said it’d be funny to run a race in those. Usually I run in my Team RWB T-shirts, but I figured, ‘Why not?’” —Christina Hughes Babb
Danny Fulgencio
April 2013
Opening of the Bush Presidential Library
An arresting act
Wearing prison stripes and giant papier-mâché bobble heads, two men portraying George W. Bush and Dick Cheney deliberately got themselves arrested at the opening of the Bush Presidential Library in April 2013.
Police arrested Dennis Trainor (Cheney) of Massachusetts and Gary Egelston (Bush) of Fort Worth and charged them with misdemeanors.
Egelston served in the Air Force and is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Trainor is an activist and filmmaker who makes short documentaries for Acronym TV. —Larra Keel
