I'm sure you've heard about the career suicide folk singer Michelle Shocked committed this week when she appeared at the San Francisco club Yoshi's and launched into an anti-gay tirade. Steveningen has covered the story well if you're not familiar.
Well, shortly after she went on her rant, in which she signaled support for the idea that "God hates fags," literally her entire United States tour was canceled. Her career really did go "poof" right before our very eyes as venue after venue decided they didn't want a homophobic bigot performing for them. She has since tried, in bizarre, rambling "apology" statements, to walk her comments back and claim she's the victim here, but it hasn't worked. Shocked's career is nothing but a smoldering pile of ash at this point.
But not if Shocked has anything to say about it!
From the Hollywood Reporter:
Friday afternoon, the beleaguered singer tweeted that she would be appearing at Saturday night at McCabe’s in Santa Monica for a “speaking engagement” on the subject of “Effects of Gay-Bashing on the L.A. Mayoral Race.”
This came as news to the club -- and not good news.
See, McCabe's is one of the venues that quickly told Shocked to pound sand after her anti-gay meltdown. So imagine the club's surprise when they find out that she's still planning on coming.
The story continues:
“She is not welcome at McCabe’s,” said the venue’s angry concert director, Lincoln Myerson, who had just learned about Shocked’s vow -- or threat -- to show up after he got calls regarding the singer’s mysterious tweet.
“Had Michelle attempted to talk to me [about taking part in some kind of nonmusical forum], I might have attempted to work something out with her." Myerson said. "But for her to go rogue on this shows that she’s her own sheriff. If she wants to do it at the park down the street, she can do it there, but she can’t do it at McCabe’s. I’m not intending to clean up this mess for her. I wish I could get on and tweet, ‘Hey, it’s at her house -- here’s her address.'"
It gets weirder:
Asked by The Hollywood Reporter via Twitter if she intended to make her "appearance" some sort of guerrilla action, Shocked, who was arrested two years ago at an Occupy protest, responded: "OK, OCCU-PIE!!" She also retweeted a fan who said: "You mean like on the sidewalk in front of @McCabesGuitar? It doesn't get much more punk rock than that. I'm there."
I don't know what's going on with Michelle Shocked, but I think it's time for her to get used to the reality that her career is toast, and it's her fault. This isn't 1954, and she shouldn't be "Shocked" that going on an anti-gay tirade in public is not a wise career move. You want to be brutally honest with your fans about what you think? Okay. This is the price you pay. Time to move on.
So tonight might be interesting...