Local Look First

TRIGGER MORTIS, AKA BUCK WYLDE

Corporate marketing professional/drag king

WHEN

Trigger Mortis was thrilled.

“I was like, ‘Wow, I’m early!’ ”

The 38-year-old, who works in the corporate office of a major retailer, dedicated seven years to roller derby. She was a star player and the marketing director for Assassination City Roller Derby.

About a year and a half ago, she organized a fundraiser for the derby’s traveling team, and a drag king troupe, Mustache Envy, provided the entertainment.

“I loved doing it so much that I was asked to come back and perform on a Tuesday night,” she says. “I had no idea what I was doing, and they said, ‘Don’t worry about it. It will come together.’”

Now Trigger (that’s her derby name) performs at Sue Ellen’s every Tuesday night as her drag persona, Buck Wylde.

She refers to mentors Stefani Mikyles and Jimmy D’Stone as her drag mom and dad, and she says they taught her everything she needed to know about makeup, hair, costumes and performing. Her boyfriend, Keith Kundak, is her “man-tor,” and helps her “square up,” perfect her facial expressions and other masculine gestures.

“I’ve studied a lot of Elvis,” she says, rattling off a list of things that inspire Buck Wylde: the 1985 movie “Just One of the Guys,” actor John Paragon, David Lee Roth, Ritchie Valens, Little Richard, Jackie Wilson and “anything Vegas.”

The Tuesday-night drag king performances at Sue Ellen’s (which are free, by the way) start at 10 p.m., and sometimes she drives straight from her day job to get ready at the venue. The transformation takes about two hours. Just the facial hair, which Trigger makes out of the clippings from her own haircuts, takes 30-45 minutes to apply.

Her corporate co-workers have no idea.

“I don’t let it affect my job, but I’m just really tired on Wednesday mornings,” she says.

Sometimes, if she doesn’t want to disassemble Buck’s full pompadour before bed, she rolls into work with the front half up and the back of her hair curled, a look that co-workers often compliment. Once, she got through most of the day before she noticed a big smudge of black makeup on her ear.

It’s not that she thinks her boss or coworkers would mind, but she likes keeping those worlds separate. After all, Buck doesn’t work in a corporate office — she does.

Buck Wylde recently took home the top prize in a pageant at Sue Ellen’s, and Trigger now co-hosts the Tuesday-night events. She’s working on a Mötley Crüe look for Buck for an upcoming ’80s night.

Since portraying Buck requires her to get in touch with her masculine side, Trigger says she is more likely to wear skirts and dresses when not in costume.

“I’m really a pretty girly girl,” she says. “I like pin curls and bright red lipstick. It’s all about balance.”

Select Openings for Fall 2014

Pre-k through Eighth Grade Co-educational stjohnsschool.org

214-328-9131 x103

SJES admits qualified students of any race, color, religion, gender, and national or ethnic origin.

Lakehill Preparatory School

Leading to Success. 2720 Hillside Dr., Dallas 75214 / 214.826.2931 / lakehillprep. org Kindergarten through Grade 12 - Lakehill Preparatory School takes the word preparatory in its name very seriously. Throughout a student’s academic career, Lakehill builds an educational program that achieves its goal of enabling graduates to attend the finest, most rigorous universities of choice. Lakehill combines a robust, college-preparatory curriculum with opportunities for personal growth, individual enrichment, and community involvement. From kindergarten through high school, every Lakehill student is encouraged to strive, challenged to succeed, and inspired to excel.

ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

848 Harter Rd., Dallas 75218 / 214.328.9131 / stjohnsschool.org

Founded in 1953, St. John’s is an independent, co-educational day school for Pre-K through Grade 8. With a tradition for academic excellence, St. John’s programs include a challenging curriculum in a Christian environment along with instruction in the visual and performing arts, Spanish, German, French, and opportunities for athletics and community service. St. John’s goal for its students is to develop a love for learning, service to others, and leadership grounded in love, humility, and wisdom. Accredited by ISAS, SAES, and the Texas Education Agency

NOT LONG AGO, Opalina Salas’s life was like a country song, and not in a good way.

Her husband, Carlos, hurt himself and couldn’t work. They had to close their bookstore, Cli Notes. They could no longer afford their Winnetka Heights rent and had to move into a one-bedroom apartment with their teenage daughter, Paloma. Then their cat, Mario, got run over by a car.

“We were having a hard time there for a while,” she says. “But we got through it.”

After two years in that tiny apartment, the Salas family now rents a three-bedroom house in Kings Highway. Opalina, 41, has a job as a teller at Bank of Texas, and Carlos is back at work for DART. They’re thankful for the work, but their jobs are not their passion.

Opalina and Carlos are poets, and they’re part of a community that keeps the performance poetry scene alive in Dallas.

The two met at a poetry reading in 1995. At the time, there were poetry events almost every night in Deep Ellum. When Paloma was born, Opalina took a couple of years o . But then Paul Sexton organized a weekly reading at Suenos Sabrosos, the bygone ice cream shop in Bishop Arts.

“That would be our big Saturday night,” she says, and that lasted for about 12 years.

After the Salases opened Cli Notes in 2009, they started Poets on X+, a regular poetry night inside their shop or in the Mighty Fine Arts Gallery.

Now they are bringing Poets on X+ back thanks to Wordspace and Lucky Dog Books. Opalina has been hosting the summer series at Lucky Dog — the August installment is Saturday, Aug. 16, from 7-9 p.m. with Kymberly Miesha and Dionne Keaton. When the summer series ends, Opalina says, she wants to keep it going, even if she has to host it on her front porch.

The Salases also are a big part of Mad Swirl, a monthly performance poetry night, usually somewhere in Deep Ellum. She gets excited when she talks about it and says she can’t wait for the next one.

“The poets who perform are so good,” she says. “There’s such a receptive crowd, and we push each other. You’ve got to bring your Agame to Mad Swirl.”

The commute from Oak Cli to her job in Richardson by train and bus is what inspires Opalina’s work lately, she says. The movement of people, the rhythms and sights, the shared human experience of public transportation are what she writes about at night.

Even though it was heartbreaking to have to close their bookstore after less than three years in business, they’re still touched by the experience every day, she says. Through Cli Notes, they met Je Liles of the Kessler Theater, a place they say feels like home to them.

“It wasn’t about selling books; it was about community,” she says. “It wasn’t financially profitable for us, but it was profitable in so many other ways. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like without it. I wouldn’t be as happy or fulfilled as I am.”

She feels much the same way about having lived in the small apartment, because it made the family extremely close. Anything seems possible now. A big dining room and a front porch are luxurious.

Opalina has applied for a job as a banker with her company, which would pay more. And that’s good because the rent in Oak Cli home — keeps going up.

“I’m really happy with my job because I think it’s going to allow us to stay here,” she says.

At a house across the street from her porch on Edgefield, Opalina spies a kitten, playfully attempting to engage a mother cat by pouncing on her.

“Oh, I’m going to have to show Carlos that kitten,” she says. “He said we could get another kitten when we moved.”

Life is pretty good.