I Got A Name

I was in a nostalgic mood this morning and played Jim Croce's Greatest Hits album. It carried me back to my childhood, and the thought occurred to me that one of the strongest connections I have with my parents is the music of the 70s. Given how much their playing loud music bothered me as a kid, it's pretty ironic that now few things make me feel closer to them.

I've also been thinking back to Labor Day weekend four years ago. I was in Portland for a good friend's wedding, and during the trip I made the decision to move back. Given my situation, it seemed like the best possible plan. I had so much hope.

Alas, things didn't go smoothly at all. Hard to believe that four years have passed since that moment. But I've still got Jim Croce. :-)

Farewell, my friend...

For Wanda.


(Tori Amos - "Gold Dust" Video link)

It's Doris Fish Day

Twenty-five years ago I made the drive from Stanford to San Francisco on a warm Thursday night. After parking and a few anxious moments of convincing myself to get out of the car, I walked into a gay bar for the first time. My life changed in the next moment when I saw men dancing together.

The emcee for my evening--and the End Up's Wet Jockey Shorts contest--was the incomparable Doris Fish: the first drag queen I had seen in person. To this day she remains my favorite.

Four years later on June 22, 1991, Doris aka Philip Mills died of AIDS, the same month that I moved to San Francisco.

The last time I saw Doris was two years before that. My friend Gerard and I had gone to a fundraiser at the Victoria Theater to help pay her medical expenses. I recently ran across this video of Doris performing that night. It's a memory that has always remained so clear for me because of how the energy in the theater changed when Doris came on stage. The show had been entertaining enough up to that point, but there was the "before Doris" part of the show, and then there was Doris. She had such a powerful presence; even as she was thanking the crowd for turning out, her acidic wit ensured that no one got too weepy.

Somehow that evening was half my life ago.

I miss you, Doris. And I miss what it was like to be young and gay and free in San Francisco. This was your life. And it is mine.

(Video link)

Funny how a lonely day, can make a person say
What good is my life
Funny how a breaking heart, can make me start to say
What good is my life
Funny how I often seem, to think I'll find never another dream
In my life
Till I look around and see, this great big world is part of me
And my life
This is my life
Today, tomorrow, love will come and find me
But that's the way that I was born to be
This is me

RIP, Donna Summer

Who knows why certain songs set up home within us? Who knows why anything, or anyone, does?

This is one of those songs that is magic for me, one that is going to have to be played at some point during my wake. I remember listening to this song one perfect day after a long and eventful canoe trip, sitting next to someone I loved as the sun shone overhead. I've long imagined what it would have been like to have been on the dance floor when Donna's disco version of "Macarthur Park" was first played.


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Song of the day

My friend Romaine are going to see Bonnie Raitt at the Edgefield on September 7th... which just happens to the 25th anniversary of my coming out. And that makes Bonnie's new video of "Right Down the Line" very timely. :-)

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Wicked with Wanda

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And thanks to Broadway Cares for caring all these years... it made a difference. It makes a difference.

Spring has sprung

And I listened to Boston's "More Than a Feeling" about ten times at the gym today. :-)

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Song of the day

I watched the live stream of GusGus performing at EVE Online's FanFest in Iceland this afternoon. Here's "Arabian Horse" from their album of the same name.

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Queen redux

Fun. has been compared to Queen. (Speaking of, where is that Freddie Mercury movie???)

Here is Fun.'s "We Are Young."

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When you were young

Just watched Flashbacks of a Fool... good flick. Between the plot and this Roxy Music track, I had some of flashbacks of my own. Oh, the paths we take...

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RIP, Whitney Houston

Whitney died today; she was only 48 years old... so sad. Here's her classic "I Will Always Love You" from The Bodyguard soundtrack (which was, for the record, the first album of all time to sell more than one million copies in a week).

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Video for the day

Lana Del Rey's "Video Games"

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Mesmorizing...

Wow, just watched Ryan Gosling in Drive. Great flick!

And I love this song from the soundtrack: "A Real Hero" by College, featuring Electric Youth.

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Concert of the year

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a concert as much as Adele's last Thursday...

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For Tara

She was one of my best friends as a kid; she was my first love. We've long since lost touch with one another, but Billy Joel's "She's Got A Way" has always been the song that comes to mind when I think of her.

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I want a time machine

Back in the 80s, even Reagan knew how and when to compromise.

And then there was cruising Main Street, listening to music like 38 Special's "Hold On Loosely."

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Sigh.

You did it

Congrats to all those riders and roadies who are finishing up AIDS/LifeCycle 10 today!

I'm looking forward to see if they can beat this:

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For 99 cents, sure...

From Lady Gaga's new album, Born This Way, which Amazon had on sale for 99 cents today, here is "The Edge of Glory."

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And here's to a new day tomorrow. :-D

Hard to believe...

That's it been five years.

Here's Mary J. Blige's "Be Without You" which was so much a part of my 2006 in San Francisco.

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Song for the day

Cher's "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" from Burlesque.

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Cher has been re-inventing herself my whole life... and she still has the power to inspire me.

The New York Times had a good interview with her around the time Burlesque came out.