I was recently explaining having been straightedge in the mid 80s to friends who’d never heard of it, and heard tell that these days, straightedge kids drink but don’t do any illegal drugs, & to that I say: feh. The whole idea was to be raw to the universe, with no pain-bearing barriers. & For the record, some of us weren’t self-righteous or judgmental; we just got tired of being asked if we wanted a beer.

FWIW, I never did like most of the music made by straightedge bands, but preferred music by guys like Mark E. Smith, who “took some of these.”

But punk wouldn’t have been punk without him.

The impressario is dead.
Love live the impressario.

Starting a conversation on the understanding that accusing someone of privilege of whatever kind – straight, male, white, cis – is usually met with a “fuck you i’ve suffered” rejoinder is a good place to begin. Most people’s lives are hard, so it’s unlikely anyone wants to hear how much less hard his/her life is because s/he is male / white / rich / educated / physically abled / cis.

Maybe it’s unexpected that I should admit I liked Farrah Fawcett, pinup as she as for the dumb blonde, but I was a tomboy in the 70s, and Charlie’s Angels were fantastic. They really were, in those crazy velour shorts and flippy hair. But I had the trading cards, and I remained a fan even through the Cheryl Tiegs season(s?). I became a fan of Fawcett’s when I saw her in Extremities and in Between Two Women – both of them, believe it or not, cementing what I would articulate as my first feminist awareness.

But Michael Jackson’s death is unreal, much like his life was. Keith Olbermann used the word “human” a lot tonight in talking about Jackson’s death, which is something we all need to be reminded of. He was a person, a broken, fucked-up soul, maybe wrong and bad in criminal ways, maybe just broken and sad. We don’t really know, and won’t really know, I don’t think.

As someone who loves to dance, though, there is no denying his talent: Off the Wall is a perfect gem of pop music, and it dances from track to track. I have it on vinyl from way back when – the secret perfect dance music of a punk rock child. I was a little surprised tonight to remember exactly how many “world premieres” of his videos I saw – “Thriller” I remember, as many Gen Xers do, but also “Bad” and even “Remember the Time,” which is a hokey but perfect little romantic song. It’s impossible to deny a man’s talent who was – despite your best efforts – a major soundtrack of your life. His music had something so perfectly immediate about it; I remember where I watched all of those world premieres, and I remember the first time I saw, and held, a copy of Off the Wall, and the party I was at the first time I heard the tracks on Thriller.

It’s hard to explain to younger people than me that MTV never ever showed videos by black artists before MJ (and that hip hop had its own special show in the late 80s, because hip hop was just too *whatever* to mix with the rest of what they played). & You can’t hate a man who obviously took notes on every move James Brown ever made & every sound he could make.

So goodbye to Ed, to Farrah, and to Michael. As the duo Yazoo once put it, a little early, Goodbye Seventies, too.

Betty was not a big fan, having been introduced to them when they were doing kitschy goth things like

1. “Grimly Fiendish” (which dammit I love anyway), but I took her to see them live & she was, alas, converted. What I think she said was, “goddamn they’re the loudest band ever.”
2. “New Rose” was the first punk single. They beat everyone, including the Pistols, to that one.
3. “There Ain’t No Sanity Clause” is very Captain Sensible: stupid and funny and fun to sing along. Uhhuh.
4. “Smash It Up Pts 1 & 2″ is in the canon of great punk rock theme songs.
5. “Anti-Pope” is well, perfect, & was especially for a good Catholic girl with a lot of anger.
6. “Generals” is from the Strawberries album, which came in bright red vinyl. It’s a pretty record, & a good one. Dave Vanians’s Interview with the Vampire tribute is on that one, too. These last two are a bit of the politics I imbibed with the tunes.

Oh Bondage! Up Yours! by X-Ray Spex, and Typical Girls by The Slits.

I have to dedicate the 4th song to my dad. He was driving me somewhere – probably to a shop called Slipped Disc where I bought a ton of music when I was a teenager – and he was humming along with this track until he stopped and said, “is that really what they’re saying?” and promptly changed the station. (For the record, Slipped Disc sold all the great 80s punk & new wave I loved, including all the other crap that went with being a fan: calendars, buttons, patches, picture discs, t-shirts, books… all of that stuff. For anyone who’s been to Record Runner in the West Village, Slipped Disc was kinda like that. With a lot of metalheads.)

So Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Make yourself a cocktail, put on those big fuzzy slippers & dance to these tracks. Round out the evening by watching some godawful B-movie. Eat some cheese out of a can. Really, it’s good for you, once in a while.

Yes, that all goes together.

RIP, Lux. & May your heaven be paved in gold lame.

This is them doing “What’s Inside a Girl?” (which was one of my favorite tracks):

Nevermind that for now. I met a smattering of lovely people who are active in the LGBT blogosphere, some of whom I knew before and some who I didn’t: Dana of Mombian, a whole bunch of the folks at Bilerico, including Bil, Serena, Irene, and Alex; some of the Pam’s House Blend crew, including Pam herself and Autumn Sandeen. Among other I ran into were Allyson Robinson at the HRC cocktail party on Friday night, Mara Keisling of NCTE on Saturday afternoon (at the infamous Mayflower Hotel), as well as Tahlib Disney-Britton of Freedom to Marry, James from gayagenda.com,  and Tobias Packer of Equality Florida.

A more complete blogroll looks like this:

• BlogActive – Michael Rogers – http://www.pageoneq.com/ , http://www.blogactive.com/
• Boi From Troy – Scott Schmidt – http://www.boifromtroy.com
• Blabbeando – Andrés Duque – http://blabbeando.blogspot.com
• Burnt Orange Report – Karl-Thomas Muselman – http://www.burntorangereport.com
• Calitics – Brian Leubitz – http://calitics.com
• (en)gender – Helen Boyd – http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/
• GoodAsYou – Jeremy Hooper – http://www.goodasyou.org
• Greta Christina’s Blog – Greta Christina – http://gretachristina.typepad.com/
• InterstateQ.com – Matt Comer – http://www.interstateq.com/
• Pam’s House Blend – Pam Spaulding – http://www.pamshouseblend.com
• Nathan Strang – Buffawhat – http://buffawhat.com
• The Bilerico Project – http://www.bilerico.com
• UK Gay News – Andy Harley – http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk
• Gay Persons of Color – James Viloria – http://gay-persons-of-color.blogspot.com/
• The Mad Professah Lectures – Ron Buckmire – http://buckmire.blogspot.com/
• Mombian – Dana Rudolph – http://www.mombian.com/
• hunter of justice – Nan Hunter – http://hunterforjustice.typepad.com/hunter_of_justice/
• Project Q Atlanta – Matt Hennie – http://www.projectqatlanta.com/
• Existential Punk – Musings, Thoughts, Rants of Existential Punk – Adele Sakler – http://www.existentialpunk.com/
• Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents – Sue Kerr – http://www.pghlesbian.com
• Rod 2.0 – Rod McCullom – http://www.rod20.com
• JoeMyGod – Joe Jervis – http://www.JoeMyGod.com/
• Michael-in-Norfolk-Coming Out in Mid-Life – Michael Hamar – http://michael-in-norfolk.blogspot.com/
• That Gay Girl Tamara – Tamara N. Boynton -http://thatgaygirltamara.blogspot.com
• Get Busy. Get Equal. – Sam Ritchie (ACLU LGBT Project) -http://gbge.aclu.org/content/blogsection/1/76/
• Working Films – Lynn Casper – http://workingfilms.org

Really it was a stunning number of people who have a lot to say on various topics, but especially on LGBT politics & culture. Do go check them out – there’s a lot of people doing very interesting things.

But mostly I wanted to thank my lovely partner Betty, who couldn’t attend because she was in CO, but without whose help I never would have been there. She was the one who encouraged me to blog way back when, and who encouraged me to blog daily a while after that, & who continues to be my loving tech support.