I’ve been a music fan my whole life, and I’m sick of goddamn Ticketmaster. I was just about to buy tickets to go see one of my favorite bands, World Party, who haven’t toured stateside since, oh, 1998, and the f***ers at Ticketmaster want $8.25 handling fee – PER TICKET!!
Oh I hate ’em, hate ’em, and have my whole concert-going life (which is now 23 years, 23 YEARS of paying their idiot handling charges).
Now He's 64
48 years ago, Paul McCartney wrote the lyrics to “When I’m 64,” and today, he turns 64.
Rufus Does Judy
A couple of nights ago I went to see Rufus Wainwright perform Judy Garland’s 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall — at Carnegie Hall. For whatever reason I was kind of dreading going; I don’t know why, but my best guess is that the show just got too much hype beforehand. Betty opted out of going pretty early, so my very good friend and downstairs neighbor (who was a friend long before moving in downstairs) came with me. He’s both a Rufus and Judy fan. We were seated quite far away from Sarah Jessica Parker, but quite close to Justin Bond, which seemed quite a propos.
I may have been one of the only 100% Rufus fans there; I’d never heard the 1961 concert, which I suppose makes me a very bad faghag indeed. In the weeks leading up to it, I thought about listening, but decided not to. I would probably be one of the few who wouldn’t be comparing it to the original, and I kind of liked that.
Rufus has one hell of a singing voice. The songs where he could belt them out I love especially. In fact, I’ve been wanting him to do a recording of standards, because I love so many of those old songs and I love his voice. Finally, he’s taken my advice.
In a Time Out interview, he mentioned how singing “The Trolly Song” from Meet Me In St. Louis would probably be that gayest onstage moment of his life. Oh, and it was!
Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
Ding, ding, ding went the bell
Zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings
– as we started for Huntington Dell.
I didn’t see it so much as a gay seance (as the TONY journalist put it) but almost like a finishing touch to an era of gay awareness, and hopefully the beginning of a new one. As my friend said, on our way home, “The next generation doesn’t need Judy the way we did,” and while I think he’s right, I also think it’s a shame. We wondered too if there were as many gay men there that night in ’61 as there were tonight, and then wondered if maybe the only difference might have been that more of them are known to be gay now.
I’m glad at least that Rufus will be around to introduce this new generation of gay men to these songs he grew up singing, because some of them are not only touching, but sexy, and triumphant – and just remarkably pretty melodies with perfect lyrics. From what I hear, the event was filmed, so I expect both a movie version of the concert (probably with footage from both performances) and a CD of the music. Hopefully, anyway.
Other reviews can be found in my Rufus Wainwright thread on the boards.
Quentin Crisp & Sting?
Okay, maybe I’m the only one who didn’t know this, because I never saw Sting’s “Englishman in New York” video, but I didn’t know QC was the friend Sting wrote it about.
Which makes me want to say obscene things to all the people who don’t like Sting or make fun of me for liking him. I think he’s a decent person, & trans-friendly as all hell: remember the skirt he wore at the Victoria’s Secret show? The fact that he cross-dresses in Brimstone & Treacle? Oh, right, and then there’s these lyrics he wrote an album or so ago:
My skirt’s too short
My tights are run
These new heels are killing me
A second pack of cigarettes
It’s a slow night, but there’s time yet
Here comes the john from his other life
He may be driving to his wife
But he slowed down, take a look
I’ve learned to read them just like books
It’s already half past ten
But they’ll be back again
Don’t judge me
You could be me in another life
In another set of circumstances
A friend of mine, he wound up dead
His dress is stained with color red
The next of kin, no fixed abode
Another victim on this road
The police just carted him away
But someone took his place next day
He’s home by Thanksgiving
But not with the living
I mean, I can’t name anyone else who’s written a song from the POV of a trans streetworker, can you?
But I promise, no more 80s music references, at least for a while. Tomorrow, though, the first preview of She’s Not the Man I Married.
My 80s
I’ve watched with some horror as the 80s have been re-written as being all about Michael J. Fox – sometimes I wonder if I dreamt it all or if I was living in another universe.
Because to me, the 80s were all about things like The Belle Stars, and Haysi Fantaysee (the Boy George line, as it were), and beautiful things like Bananarama and Funboy Three doing “Aint What You Do.”
There were all the sweet (and sweet voiced) boys, like Terry Hall (of Funboy Three and The Specials), and Dave Wakeling (of General Public and The Beat) (“Never You Done That” is one of my favorite love songs, & so damned melodically happy it hurts) and Marc Almond and Jimi Somerville, Roddy Frame and Howard Jones.
The geeks had just begun to rule the world, too: Howard DeVoto and Devo and Gary Numan.
Anyway, my 80s were not about hot cars and coke. They were more about dredlocks, lip gloss and rants about Reagan. And I haven’t failed to notice that my 80s seem to be taking a backseat historically to the super-consumerist, “we won the cold war” bullshit. Of course they love Reagan; some days I think they all have Alzheimer’s, since the queer, genderfucked, international, happy 80s seem to be disappearing from the record.
When I’m an old, old woman, I’m going to be in a rocking chair saying, “But boys did wear makeup! And girls did shave their heads!” & Then they’ll give me another little pill to forget, & I’ll hum “Europa & the Pirate Twins” till I sleep.
Stand & Deliver!
YouTube is evil, evil, evil.
But this time you can blame it on Diana Lynn, who posted a link to a Pink performance, and got me wondering if there was any cool Ants stuff online.
And – through the wonders of modern technology I found the video for the song “Stand & Deliver!” that way back when turned on my hormones. Really, I watched it again, & again, & again.
If only everyone dressed like this all the time. Really, do watch it, even if it’s just for a “how retro” kind of moment.
Five Questions With… Lisa Jackson
Lisa Jackson was born in Fayetteville, Georgia, and her first
venture into rock n roll was as a Christian rocker. But at the age of 21 she followed her star to New York, where she formed the Steve Friday band. In 2000, she did her first gig in drag, and eventually began to transition in a very public kind of way. With the support of several downtown notables, like Jayne County,
Lisa has gone on to not only become a fantastic role model for the trans community but a fantastic rock n roller in her own right. Her band, Lisa Jackson + Girl Friday, regularly play gigs in New York and beyond, and her CDs rock. Her “Fabulously Done is also the endpage of My Husband Betty. If you’re in New York City during May, you can catch them on Monday nights at Arlene’s Grocery.
1) As a fellow 80s kid, which were your bands? Which band did you love that might surprise people the most? Were you Punk or New Wave?
Well the band that tops my list from that era would be Van Halen and that would be the David Lee Roth era only! But I was also a big fan of Men at Work, Till Tuesday, and even Journey.
Continue reading “Five Questions With… Lisa Jackson”
Pretty Boy Voice
So Betty & I both agree that Steve Miller Band is really fun music to listen to, and maybe the kind of music that people wouldn’t expect us to like. But we do, pretty regularly, & everytime we listen to him I’m struck by how damn sexy his voice is.
But today I also noticed – while once again noticing how sexy his voice is – that it’s damn high-pitched for a guy. You might even say it’s a pretty voice. That’s his singing voice I’m talking about; I have no idea what his speaking voice is like.
Put that next to Kathleen Turner’s voice, though, and you’ve got a deep woman’s voice that’s also considered very sexy. My point? None in particular, but if I can encourage more transwomen to drop the high pitched voices I’d be pleased indeed (& in good company, finally).
Weill & Brel
I had the pleasure last week of seeing Johanna Weller-Fahy’s Whisky Bar performance @ the Duplex, and I recommend people go to her last two performances – on April 5th & 6th. I’d go again except that I’ll be in Philly for the IFGE conference.
If you don’t know the music of Kurt Weill & Jacques Brel, you should, and this is a great introduction.
More information can be found here, and tickets can be bought here.
Put On A Little Makeup (and Have a Coke)
I assume most people saw the Coke commercial where the woman goes into the barbershop and gets a man’s haircut, and I’m kind of surprised no-one told me about it – because the background music is Adam Ant’s “Goody Two Shoes” (and I’m a lifelong Adam Ant fan, for those who don’t know).
While I won’t bother to go into the myriad reasons Adam decided to sell a song for what I
assume are the big bucks now, I am pleased that the commercial is about some version of genderfuck, since Adam was one of the prettiest versions ever, in his day, and the lyrics are pretty a propos:
we don’t follow fashion
that’d be a joke