March Mix

Members of my closest circle of comrades have given me notice that the March Mix is a hitting a nerve. Independent of each other, I have heard from several sidekicks saying this mix hits the mark & the music makes their bodies move & leaves their cerebrum challenged. I am listening to it this afternoon:

Kyoko's House- Phillip Glass
Blessed- Lucinda Williams
Lovesong- Adele
The Afterlife- Paul Simon
MoneyGrabber- Fitz & The Tantrums
The Roller- Beady Eye
100 Other Lovers- DeVotchka
UBerlin- R.E.M.
Addicted To Love- Florence + The Machine
Pumped Up Kicks- Foster The People
Relax- Dinah Washington/ Thievery Corporation Mix
What'll I Do- Julian Yeo
Just One Of Those Things-  Blossom Dearie/Brazilian Girls Remix
One Million Miles Away- J. Ralph

Dame Shirley Bassey Has A Birthday

There is a list of British acts that have eluded popularity in the USA: Celia Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, & Robbie Williams come to mind. But why hasn’t Shirley Bassey caught on in this country after 50+ years of recording great pop music & being the #1 Female Artist in Britain? Especially with American Gays? The Husband & I really dig her.



We were zany for her cover of Pink's Get The Party Started in the party summer of 2007. Shirley Bassey won an entirely new generation of fans when she guested on a 1997 song from British techno act, Propellerheads. History Repeating charted in both Europe & North America, & appeared on the soundtrack to the popular 1998 film There's Something About Mary. Yet Bassey had already enjoyed a long, 5 decade career as a performer before this point, recording a string of hit singles in the 1960s & garnering a devoted cult following for her torchy, often slightly risqué songs, glamorous looks, & compelling stage presence. Sometimes called "Bassey the Belter" for her strong alto voice, Bassey had previously enjoyed a huge international hit when she performed the title song to the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. She went on to record 3 Bond themes songs, more than any other artist. Don Heckman, writing for the Los Angeles Times, calls Bassey "an extraordinarily powerful live entertainer with one of the most instantly recognizable voices in popular music."

Shirley Bassey is still working as she turns an astonishing 74 years old today.

Born On This Day- January 8th... Music Icon David Bowie

“Interesting…. On announcing that I am bisexual, I don’t think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was a lot tougher in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners or be a representative of any group of people. I knew what I wanted to be, which was a songwriter & a performer, & I felt that bisexuality became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, & I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do.”



It is funny, but I seem to really fully embrace artists when they are at their core fans’ & critic’s low ebb: The Beatles- The White Album, The Rolling Stones- Some Girls, U2- Achtung Baby, REM- Automatic For The People. I have listened to & collected David Bowie since 1969 with the release of Space Oddity (a song I still listen to). That is 40+ years of living with David Bowie in his many incarnations & personas. But, my favorite era for David Bowie was not Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke, Alladin Sane, or the Brian Eno lean years of Low. I love David Bowie of the Let’s Dance era of the mid-1980s. That album, along with Tonight were the soundtrack of the very best time of my life. Modern Love, Let’s Dance, China Girl… songs that mixed blue-eyed soul with an Industrial edge & pop sensibilities. I thought David was in his best voice & his sexiest during this time.

He always bristled, although I can't imagine why, but in the day the Husband was often told, often by strangers, that he strongly resembled David Bowie. I still think he does, although the Husband always dismisses this suggestion.

The End Of The World

click on the image to enlarge

Of course, the 365 days of 2010 did offer up some lovely moments. That’s life. I said that's life, & as funny as it may seem, some people get their kicks, stompin' on a dream. But I don't let it get me down, 'cause this fine old world it keeps spinning around.

It brings me all sorts of pleasure to write posts for this little blog thing. Post Apocalyptic Bohemian is more than an avocation & slightly less than an obsession. I read at least 50 other blogs at least weekly, & I find solace & delight in my friendships in the blogging community. So many interesting people & so many opinions make for lively relationships.

I have experienced the joie de vivre from meeting other bloggers face to face, a sometimes scary proposition akin to dating. Will he like me? This summer we entertained the stimulating, stirring, & striking couple Arnie & Blair with a casual vegetarian dinner in the Boy’s Fort. The only time I had run into this blogging couple, we were all wearing red dresses & having cocktails. I adore both of them.

The very nicest moment of 2010 came late in the year. I had hired RAS to be my assistant 3 years ago. It was a perfect choice. We worked together for 2 years & never had an unkind word, an intrigue, or a disappointment in each other. He was so winning in his role as an assistant, that he moved up in the company & was made a manager, doing essentially what I do at one of our company’s new venues. We see each other at meetings & we email often.

RAS has a formal demeanor & a conservative streak. We are genuinely fond of each other, but I believe that I am often scandalizing to him. The one time that we socialized outside of work, he came to Post Apocalyptic Bohemia for dinner by the fireplace. RAS had his usual single glass of wine as I got a bit lit. I ended up telling him about my short but passionate affair, in, my youth with a major figure in the world of classical music.

The evening was shared with the Husband & T who, along with his much loved standard poodle- Louis, were living with us at the time. T is handsome, talented & charming, & later RAS asked about how I was acquainted with T. I explained that T had been late night take-out food off that internet thing, for the Husband & me a few years ago, & that he just basically never left. RAS was scandalized for sure, which was just the reaction I was going for.

RAS was pleased to discover that I have a passion for the gifted musician Matt Alber. Alber is a masterful & powerful singer/songwriter who I not only admire, but he is responsible for the most gorgeous song that I have ever heard. Alber’s composition-  End Of The World moves me like no other song, & I have bounteous favorite tunes. RAS has a long time friendship with Mr. Alber. I was impressed.

In early November, RAS had emailed me & summoned me to lunch with Matt Alber. Now, I have worked with & have met many famous, talented people, but I was actually more than a little taken aback with the notion of meeting this impressive singer/songwriter. At lunch, I tested my old acting skills by appearing nonchalant about our meeting, but I was truly rattled. Mr. Alber is not only accomplished, but also beautiful. He was accompanied by his equally dazzling boyfriend Phil. I felt out of my league, but Alber could not have been more charming, & I, of course gushed. How else could I react to meeting the creator of a piece of art that moves me so deeply?

I savored every moment of our meeting, & more amazing… I behaved. Thank you, RAS for providing me with my best moment of 2010. Thank you, Matt Alber, for your beautiful music & for not being baffled by a bewitched, broken down old man.

,

Born On This Day- November 22nd... Composer Benjamin Britten

I do not have a driving passion for “serious” music, symphonic work, coral pieces or what is blanketed as “classical music. I am interested in Benjamin Britten, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, because his story is also one of the great loves stories of the last 100 years & because he was working during a golden age of gay, mostly American & British compser who all knew & fed off of each others artistic energy: Aaaron Copeland, Virgil Thomas, Paul Bowles, Samual Barber, & Leonard Bernstein. Britten composed a series of masterpieces ranging from works for solo piano, oboe & cello, to pieces for chamber ensemble, to concertos & compositions for orchestras both tiny & monumental, even a full ballet. His vocal works encompass folksong arrangements to several song cycles setting poetry by Michelangelo, William Blake, W.H. Auden among others, to the great choral masterpiece, War Requiem. The form for which he is best known is opera: Peter Grimes is arguably one of the most powerful musical dramas of the last century, & he wrote at least 5 other landmark operas that are a part of the major Opera companies' repertory.

The extraordinary tenor- Peter Pears, was Britten's musical partner, life partner & muse. Britten wrote many of his greatest vocal works, from his song cycles to his finest operas, specifically for Pears & his unique & expressive voice. Pears seems a man who has found the acceptance that eluded Britten; in a way, the always present yearning that is a major defining element of Britten's music (he does yearning better than any composer since the also gay Tchaikovsky) is resolved in Pears's comfort with his life & Britten's death. Pears & Britten were understandably reticent to talk being gay, they had lived in a Britain where sodomy carried a career & life destroying prison sentence. It was an era where they were forced to hide their love.


Benjamin Britten visited North America in the spring 1939, & found more than he hoped for. He came from Britain to perform & present some of his compositions in Canada & the USA. It was planned as a relatively short trip, but ended up lasting several years. War broke out in Europe while he was away, & he not to come back to England. Britten was 26 years old, & he would have had to enlist in the military in some form (he returned to England in 1942 & claimed conscientious objector status).


During this visit, Britten & his traveling companion, the tenor Peter Pears, started the love affair that lasted 40+ years, until Britten died in 1976. There is a hotel room in Grand Rapids, MI, that is a place of pilgrimage for gay musicians, where they supposedly consummated their union. Pears wrote later: "I shall never forget a certain night in Grand Rapid. Ich liebe dich, io t’amo, jeg elske dyg, je t’aime, in fact, my little white-thighed beauty, I’m terribly in love with you." How mushy, but Britten was a Brit, & of course his legs were probably very white.

Pears with Britten at the piano

The Britten/ Pears had gay “marriage” that gave life to some of the most magnificent music of the century. Homosexuality was altogether prohibited in England at the time. Still, in a letter to Pears in 1943, Britten writes to a traveling Pears: "Think of all the other married couples who are separated for ever so much longer!" When Britten died, a decade after the repeal of the buggery laws, Queen Elizabeth sent condolences to Pears under the thinly veiled guise of sharing sympathy with "a representative of all who had worked with Lord Britten."


This prohibition of homosexuality is partly responsible for Britten's monument of the 20th century music, the opera Peter Grimes, whose conception started 2 years into the Britten/Pears relationship. It's during the US trip that George Crabbe's poem- The Borough, was pointed out to Britten, & became the inspiration for the opera. The libretto gives us a Grimes not as a murderer, but an outsider, alienated from the life of his fishing village which rejects him, as Britten's homosexuality had isolated him growing up in the conservative seaside.

Britten was recognized as a gifted composer all through his life. He won the only scholarship offered by the Royal College of Music in 1930, at 17. The following year he met W. H. Auden with whom he collaborated on the song cycle Our Hunting Fathers, radical both in politics & musical direction, & other works. Of more lasting importance was his meeting in 1936 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his musical collaborator & inspiration as well as the partner with whom he was to spend the rest of his life. In early 1939, the pair followed Auden to the USA. There Britten composed Paul Bunyan, his 1st opera, with a libretto by Auden, as well as the 1st of many song cycles for Pears.


The Britten/Pears returned to England in 1942, Britten completing the choral works- Hymn to Saint Cecilia, his last collaboration with Auden, & A Ceremony of Carols during the long voyage. He had already begun work on his opera Peter Grimes, & the premiere at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success so far. Britten was encountering opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment & he withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 & the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly to showcase his own works.


Peter Grimes marked the start of a series of operas, including Billy Budd (1951) & The Turn of the Screw (1954). These operas share common themes, with the theme of the 'outsider' particularly prevalent. Most feature such a character, excluded or misunderstood by society.


In the last decade of his life, Britten suffered from  bad health & depression. His late works became progressively more sparse in texture,including the opera- Death in Venice (1973),


Having previously refused a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage in July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk. A few months later he died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh. He is buried in the churchyard there.

Jeff Buckley doing Britten...

Born On This Day- November 14th... Composer Aaron Copeland

Unlike many gay men of his age, Aaron Copland was neither ashamed of or tortured by his sexuality. He apparently understood & accepted it from an early age. Throughout his life he was involved in relationships with other men. His affairs were mostly with younger men, usually musicians or artists, whom he mentored, including composer Leonard Bernstein, dancer & artist Erik Johns, photographer Victor Kraft, & music critic Paul Moor.


Copland was an American composer of concert & film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers". While his orchestral music & his ballets found success on the stages & in the concert halls of America, Aaron Copland sought to enter another arena, the emerging industry of motion pictures. He saw this as both a challenge for his abilities as a composer & an opportunity to expand his reputation & audience. However, the tendency of studios to edit & cut movie scores went against Copland’s desire for creative control over his work. Copland found a kindred spirit in director Lewis Milestone, who recognized the benefits of allowing Copland to supervise his own orchestration & refrained from interfering with his work. This collaboration resulted in the notable film Of Mice and Men (1939) that earned Copland his first nomination for an Academy Award. In a departure from other film scores of the time, Copland’s work largely reflected his own style, instead of borrowing from the late Romantic period. Additionally, he rejected the common practice of using melodies to identify characters with their own personal themes.

His score for William Wyler's 1949 film, The Heiress won an Academy Award. Several themes he created are encapsulated in the suite Music for Movies, & his score for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel The Red Pony was given a suite of its own. This suite was one of Copland's personal favorites. It is difficult to overestimate the influence Copland has had on film music. Virtually every composer who scored for western movies, particularly between 1940 & 1960, was shaped by the style Copland developed.


Copland was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in composition for Appalachian Spring. His scores for Of Mice and Men (1939), Our Town (1940), and The North Star (1943) all received Academy Award nominations, while The Heiress won Best Music in 1949.Copland's best known piece of music is probably Fanfare For the Common Man (1942), a popular choice for opening ceremonies, with its dramatic opening fanfare, & turned into a worldwide pop hit in the 1970s by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Copland's homosexuality was documented in Howard Pollack's biography, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man. Copland died of Alzheimer's disease & respiratory failure in Sleepy Hallow, New York (now Sleepy Hollow),  December 2, 1990, just weeks after his 100th birthday.

Happy 112th Birthday, George Gershwin

He would have turned 112 today. I can’t imagine what Brooklyn's own George Gershwin could have produced if had not died at 38 years old. In his short life he produced a huge catalogue of theatre & popular songs that are among the best ever composed. He worked with several lyricists, but it was his life long collaboration with his brother Ira that are, for me, the cream of American theatre music: Swanee, The Man I Love, Embraceable You, But Not For Me, I've Got A Crush On You, Our Love Is Her To Stay, Somebody Loves Me, & Fascinatin' Rhythm. The brothers went to Hollywood & made musical films like Shall We Dance, which included such hits as Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off & They Can’t Take That Away From Me. The brothers were often associated with the work of Fred Astair, on Broadway & in Hollywood.

When he was 25 years old, his jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue premiered in New York’s Aeolian Hall at the concert, “An Experiment in Music.” The audience included Jascha Heifitz, Fritz Kreisler, Leopold Stokowski, Serge Rachmaninov, & Igor Stravinsky. Gershwin followed this success with his orchestral work Piano Concerto in F, Rhapsody No. 2 & An American in Paris. Serious music critics were often at a loss as to where to place Gershwin’s classical music in the standard orchestral works. In 1935 he presented an opera- Porgy and Bess in Boston with only moderate success.  It is now recognized as one of the most loved works of American opera & is included in the repertoire of the major opera companies around the world. It included such memorable songs as It Ain’t Necessarily So, I Loves You, Porgy, & Summertime.  He planned a string quartet, a ballet & another opera, but these pieces were never written. At the age of 38, he died of a brain tumor. Today he remains one of America’s most beloved popular musicians.


My favorite Gershwin song (I think it is a very perfect song, really):
Someone To Watch Over Me. But what version? It has been covered by everyone from Ella to Pink, even Amy Winehouse does a stand-up job on this rather difficult tune. Men do it also; I dig Frank Sinatra's take on it. I did it for audtions for a while without changing the pronouns. But, I think I like Linda Ronstadt & Nelson Riddle's the best:

Wake Me Up When September Ends... Songs Of Autumn

Today is the last full day of Summer. I feel the melancholia seeping in, which comes easy to me. Yet, the charms of October are not lost on me.

I am a Green Day fan, & this is my favorite of their songs, & I am moved by this acoustic version by Billy Joe Armstrong's amazing voice moved to full focus. It seems perfect for this week's transition into autumn:




summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends


like my father's come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when September ends


here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are


as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends


summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends


ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when September ends

From My Collection Of Vintage Photos of Men Together

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are


as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends


summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

20 years has gone so fast
wake me up when September ends

Billy Joe Armstrong
2005

Happy Birthday, Michael Franks

I was very much into him before I met the man that would become my husband & lifemate. Lucky for me that man had also already found this music. His music was a soundtrack to our 1st few years as couple & when I re-listened in preparing this post, I felt that his music had become timeless, even if it brings me back to the late 1970s/early 1980s. Michael Franks is pigeonholed into the smooth jazz genre, but I am not sure that fits. I think of him more as Singer/Songwriter with a jazzy edge with a big nod to Antonio Carlos Jobim.





Over the long meandering journey of 35 years & 18 albums, Michael Franks has mesmerized & seduced me. Seamlessly weaving lyrics of stunning sensuality, satire, shadow, & sophisticated style over music that tastefully incorporates shadings of jazz, soul, pop, chamber & world music, Michael Franks the songwriter is simply a statesman of song craft. His best known works include Popsicle Toes, When the Cookie Jar is Empty,Tiger in the Rain, Rainy Night in Tokyo & Tell Me All About It. His work has been covered by artists from Diana Krall & Natalie Cole to Manhattan Transfer & The Carpenters). As if that weren't enough, Michael Franks the singer is gifted with a gentle, deliciously expressive voice identifiable from the 1st note. As a singer, I have been influenced by the economy of his singing. He was a huge influence on me when I was singing jazz & standards.

Michael Franks is also very much "my type" ( & I don't just mean male & still breathing), I find him very attractive.I love a rainy day at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, with a glass of whiskey & Michael Franks on the sound system. I can get lost in his exotic, intoxicating world.

Old Men... Happy Birthday to Robert Waltrip Short

 He is a favorite of mine. I am feeling it, & never more so than when I am trying to explain pop culture from the 20th century to my young wards- the group of 14 20-30 year olds that I hire, train, schedule, counsel & maintain as part of my job. Despite the fact that I am able reference to Green Day, Rhianna or Weezer, they just stare dumbly, vacant eyed, & with a touch of disgust, if I try to explain to them who Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Iggy Pop, the Clash or Men At Work are in our cultural history. I am truly old hat, old-fangled, old-fashioned, out-of-date, outmoded, & outworn.


 I wasn’t dismayed that they didn’t know who Bobby Short was. I didn’t expect them to. I am sure that few in my own circle know of Mr. Short. I just couldn’t get them to wrap their heads around the idea of nightclubs, supper clubs, or Café Society. I was just attempting to give them a jumping off place in today’s lesson.


Mr. Short liked to call himself a saloon singer, a moniker I would have loved to have lived with. His was my 1st choice for an avocation. His saloon, from 1968 until his death in 2005, was one of the most elegant in the country, the intimate Cafe Carlyle tucked in the Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There for 6 months each year, in a room where he was only a few feet from his audience, he sang & accompanied himself on the piano. I saw him perform there 4 times in the mid-1970s.






Mr. Short transcended the role of cabaret entertainer to become a New York institution & a symbol of civilized Manhattan culture. In Woody Allen's films a visit to the Carlyle became an essential stop on his characters' cultural tour. He attracted a chic international fan base that included royalty, movie stars, sports figures, socialites & jazz fans. He also appeared in small roles in TV commercials & movies.


Mr. Short's hobnobbing with the cream of society overshadowed his significance as a jazz pianist, singer & scholar. He dedicated himself to spreading an awareness of the African-American contribution to New York's musical theater. In his list of great American songwriters, Cole Porter stood side by side with Duke Ellington, Eubie Blake, & Fats Waller who wrote- Guess Who's in Town?... Mr. Short's unofficial musical greeting.


Mr. Short had a bout of notoriety in May 1980 when Gloria Vanderbilt sued the River House on the East Side of Manhattan, which had refused to sell her a $1.1 million apartment. She accused the management of racial bias because of her friendship with him. The building's board said it wanted to avoid "unwanted publicity." A month later, she dropped the suit. Mr. Short generally stayed out of the fray but said, "I'm old enough to be sophisticated about these things." This phrase is my new motto.

Reflections On A Summer Sunday Afternoon

 My favorite song about summer, from the musical- The Golden Apple by Jerome Moross & John Treville Latouche.

What a difference a week makes, 168 little hours. I am taking a rare mini-staycation. I have 5 days in a row, in which I must work about 12 hours.The owner of the business that I work for (who I like) is on vacation in another state, a situation that always makes me feel a tiny bit more relaxed.

Some details of scenes around the garden.

My idea of perfect happiness is a summer day off from work, with no list of things to do & no agenda, with a couple of $20s in my jeans (just in case a little shopping calls to me). I am enjoying just such a day as I post this, mostly because I warned the forces that might make a mess of it- I am going to have my day, my way. A hot summer afternoon in late July is condusive to doing little & enjoying small things in a big way: never leaving the house or garden, listening to my choice of music, read favorite blogs, do a blog post, not getting in trouble for being on the computer too much, watering the garden, sweeping The Boys’ Fort, going for a dog walk, smoke a bowl, make the August Playlist, being-in- the-now, taking note the temperature, the plants, the sky, the Husband, the dogs, being ecstatic, being calm.


The August 2010 Playlist::


Between My Legs- Rufus Wainwright


Crossfire- Brandon Flowers


I Burn For You- Sting with London Philharmonic


Machines Can Do The Work- Fatboy Slim & Herve


DJ’s Got Us Fallin’ In Love- Usher featuring Pitbull


Misery- Maroon 5


Tweak Your Nipple- Faithless


Next To Me- Alan Cumming


Senegal Fast Food- Amadoum& Mariam


You Are Not Alone- Mavis Staples


Your Love- Nicki Minaj


Show & Tell- Al Wilson


Straight No Chaser- Chet Baker


When I Get Low I Get High- Jane Krakowski


If You A Viper- Erin McKeowan

Thank you to the readers who commented & sent best wished & sympathy to the Husband. He reads Post Apocalyptic Bohemian, even when recovering from surgery for Dupuytren’s Contracture. The Husband uses the fact that he in agonizing, difficult pain all the time, to be a bit of a shithead… but I am not allowing that to matter during my little summer respite. Below are photos of the Husband's hand 3 weeks after surgery. He wouldn’t let me see it before now. Yikes! Call James Whale, it is time to make Hand Of Frankenstein. I know life has been kicking him in the gut in 2010. I brought him a beautiful Blueberry/Peach pie, hoping it would keep him busy & happy for a while.

The Husband did, at long last, receive some scraps of good news: he won a judgment for back wages from a past employer, & he has a freelance job doing French style bistro signs for a café. They are quite stylish & smart, & not all that easy to produce with one hand. Even with his extreme pain & current state of mine, the Husband manages to relax also, it is after all, a very Lazy Afternoon. Even in repose, the Husband puts his best side forward.

3 dudes who are old enough to know not to be out in the sun without sunscreen. Bad Dogs!

Someone To Watch Over Me

Linda Marie Ronstadt has been giving me listening pleasure for 43+ years, often taking a leading role by giving me a soundtrack to my ups, downs, fears, & tears. Folk, Rock, Punk, Country, Traditional Folk, Broadway, Standards, Opera, Jazz, Mexican Folk, Pure Pop, Tropical Latin, even Children’s music, no matter the genre, I went along for the ride. She is the perfect artist for my eclectic tastes. She is often political, a liberal advocate, & a rabble rouser.


Linda Ronstadt writes great music & her songs have been recorded by other artists as diverse as Trisha Yearwood & Sarah Brightman. Ronstadt has collaborated with a zany list of other recording artists from Frank Zappa to Rosemary Clooney: Billy Eckstine, Emmylou Harris, The Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, The Eagles, Andrew Gold, Hoyt Axton, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Mark Goldenberg, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman, & Nicolette Larson.


Ronstadt has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations & has won 11 Grammy Awards in fields including Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children, & Mexican-American.


I admire her own compositions, but her greatest talent for me is her work as an interpretive artist.I don’t know which albums I love the most. Certainly the 3 albums with Nelson Riddle, & The Trio albums with Dolly Parton & Emmylou Harris, & Living In The USA- because it played constantly during the happiest time of my life. Her cover of Elvis Costello's Alison gave me the courage to sing the song in performances & auditions. Today in honor of her 64th birthday I am listening to What’s New with the Nelson Riddle’s arrangements. I am having a whiskey, feeling old, feeling wistful, feeling nostalgic for a better time, & crying a bit for innocence lost. I love Linda for being in my life & because like me, as she expanded her horizons, she also filled out a bit.

My favorite Gershwin song by one of my favorite singers

Born On This Day-July 10th... Broadway Songsmith Jerry Herman

As a little 10 year old musical comedy queen, I would practice kick stepping my way down the staircase at our house as my imaginary chorus sang my character’s name (I think sometimes they were actually singing-Steve). I had just been presented the Original Broadway Cast album Hello, Dolly! & I was having a difficult time recovering from the excitement of such infectious tunes. I had been raised on Lerner & Lowe & Rodgers & Hammerstein, but this new guy was really getting to me. I didn’t know then, but Mr. Jerry Herman would be providing me with a musical number for descending a staircase for the next 4 decades.

Jerry Herman, who writes music & lyrics, produced super successful & contagious tunes for the musicals: Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Dear World, Mack & Mable, & La Cage aux Folles. In these musicals our misunderstood leading lady would introduce a song early in the first act that stated her life philosophy: I Put My Hand In There, It’s Today, Each Tomorrow Morning, Look What Happened To Mabel, & A Little More Mascara. The first act would end in her big soliloquy, where our heroine lifts her own spirits: Before The Parade Passes By, If He Walked Into My Life Today, I Don’t Want To Know, or I Am What I Am. That brings us to the big “staircase” number, when the chorus celebrates how their lives have been changed by the mere presence of this woman with the title songs from Dolly & Mame, When Mabel Comes In The Room, One Person, & The Best Of Times. The song One from A Chorus Line is a parody & an homage to these songs.

Despite the formula, these shows & these wonderful & skillful songs make for superior theatre experiences. Some were super hits & others became cult favorites. He is the only songwriter to have 3 musical on Broadway at the same time. Many of his compositions have become pop standards. Louis Armstrong’s version of Hello, Dolly! outsold The Beatles in 1964. The movie versions of Hello, Dolly! & Mame are considered, by most, to be duds, but as a very young man I was thrilled by the film of Hello, Dolly! & saw it about 20 times. I still love Barbra (decades too young for the role) as Mae West as Dolly Levi. I was very touched that Wall-E discovered emotions from a dilapidated 20th century tape containing a loop of Put on Your Sunday Clothes.

Mr Herman has stated that he will no longer be writing for the theatre:
“I think my style of musical has come and was very, very good to me, but is gone now. I think it's better to know when to leave than to end up with two or three shows that didn't make it. I left at my height."



I was fortunate enough to play Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! at Seattle Civic Light Opera in the late 1980s & during performances, of course I would close my eyes as the male chorus was singing the title number, & what I was hearing was “Hello, Horace!” or better- “Hello, Stephen!” & I was step kicking down that staircase.

“Ten Men Waiting For Me At The Door? Send One Of Them Home, I'm Tired.” Mae West

This afternoon, I have been doing a mind riff on the Husband’s door art & the recognition that tomorrow is Portland Pride, & was attempting to think of songs about doors. I got the 2 subjects mixed up in my jumble of a brain:


Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door- Bob Dylan
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking?- Rolling Stones
Society’s Child- Janis Ian
Who Can It Be Now?- Men At Work
Changed The Lock- Lucinda Williams

& the greatest “door song” & the great gay anthem (I never grow tired of it) of all time:
I Will Survive




Can you think of more? Happy Pride!

It's My Life... A Custom Mix

The Husband has suggested that I am sending him messages with my custom playlists. How could he conceive of such a thing & make that assumption?



1. Pure Imagination- Maroon 5
2. Just Say Yes- Snow Patrol
3. P****y- Brazilian Girls
4. Kiss With A Fist- Florence+ The Machine
5. Your Thing Is A Drag-  Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
6. Where We Belong- Thriving Ivory
7. 2nd Thought- Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
8. Passing- Grizzly Bear
9. Why The Wind?- Tracey Thorne
10. The Book Of My Life- Sting
11. I & Love & You- The Avett Brothers
12. It's My Life- Talk Talk
13. My Little Hope Chest- The Clevelanders
14. Stubborn Kind Of Fellow- Marvin Gaye
15. Angels- David Byrne
16. Gay Love- Bing Crosby
17. This Guy's In Love With You- Herb Alpert
18 .Everything's Coming Up Roses- Bernadette Peters
19. Pure Imagination- Gene Wilder

Pure Imagination

The Husband left his company last month to strike out on his own as an artist & designer. Well, not quite on his own all the time. He looks forward to future collaborations with his friend & colleague- Kimberlee, &  he is in the start up phase & working out the details of making a Branding firm with his former co-workers Little Jake & Syslee. The Husband gave me 24 hours before his final day, so as to save me from undo anxiety. I later discovered that he had a long standing, &possibly slightly unwise exercise to ease his dread at work. The Husband would write an Email venting his frustrations with his company & the owner, with no varnishing or censoring. He would save this document as a draft, re-read it one more time & then delete it, having felt better for having released his feelings.


Well, of course, just like in one of those plucky, yet yucky Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan films,& to his horror, the Husband accidentally sent one of his loose cannon Emails. I surmise that this was the beginning of the end, & the start of the new beginning. It has been a bit of an adjustment for both of us to have him home almost all the time, although the dogs love it. & I must add, the Husband has been keeping himself quite busy with projects around the house, & he has had a couple of hours here & couple of hours there with clients. He rarely sits still, unlike me.


I don't really understand what product this commercial is trying to seduce us with, but the ad & the song- Pure Imagination makes the Husband curiously, & conspicuously captivated & convivial... if not downright gay. When the Husband mentions a song, I try to get it worked into a custom mix CD as a surprise. The song is from the soundtrack to 1971's Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory by Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley, & was nominated for an Oscar for Best Score, which also features a jaunty little tune- The Candy Man, a hit for Sammy Davis Jr.. In the film & in the TV spot it is sung by Gene Wilder.

Pure Imagination has been covered by Lou Rawls, Buckethead, Maroon 5, the punk band- Smoking Popes, Mariah Carey, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, Ben Vereen & Miss Piggy, Kenny Loggins, the UK electronica band- Crazy Penis, the Irish band- The Frames, Jass pianist- Bill Charlap, Fatboy Slim,  Micheal Feinstien & The Swell Season. The Husband & I agree, the original Gene Wilder version is beyond compare. I watched Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (with a screenplay by Roald Dahl, based on his book) several times in it's original release. At the time, I saw it as a drug taking allegory, but who knows... I was mostly likely stoned. I do remember that I really dug it.

Come with me, & you'll be

In a world of pure imagination

Take a look & you'll see

Into your imagination

We'll begin, with a spin

Traveling in a world of my creation

What we'll see will defy explanation

& if you want to view paradise

Simply look around & view it

Anything you want to, do it

Want to change the world?

There's nothing to it

There is no life I know

To compare with pure imagination

Living there, you'll be free

If you truly wish to be

There is no life I know

To compare with pure imagination

Living there, you'll be free

If you truly wish to be

Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley

1971

Born On This Day- May 14th... Artist & Musician David Byrne

David Byrne is a very important musical artist & a major influence on us as individuals & as a couple. In 1977 at a party, I heard a song- Psycho Killer that actually changed my mind about the way I listened to music. At that time in my life my musical menu was full of Sondheim, & my high school & college favorites: Carole King, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Paul Simon, & lots of old school R & B. When I heard my first Talking Heads single, I am sure I was quite high, but the song made a very strong impression under any condition. I had never heard something so raw & primal & yet tuneful. I have remained a life long fan.



We saw Stop Making Sense in the theatre several times. It was playing in the Pike Place Cinema at the time that we lived in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. I sort of remember eating mushrooms & dancing in the aisles, actually I am sure I did that. Brilliantly directed by Jonathan Demme, it may be the best concert film of all time. this concert film is different from other concert productions through its carefully scripted performance, framed by references to Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, employed few quick cuts, audience shots, applause sounds or unnecessary props (apparently Byrne insisted all objects not central to the movie be painted flat black). It is most famous for Byrne’s eccentric & electric showmanship, choreography, & costuming.


I have every album by Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Byrne's solo work, his collaborations with Brian Eno- The Catherine Wheel & My Life In The Bush With Ghosts & his Oscar winning score to The Last Emperor with Ryuichi Sakamoto. I have never stopped listening. 3 David Byrne songs are in my Top 25 All Time Favorite Songs. My favorite song of all time is Once In A Lifetime & I still get shivers every time I hear it.

David Byrne’s post Talking Heads work includes:


• The Catherine Wheel, a ballet written for Twyla Tharp (1981)


• Movie & TV soundtracks such as The Last Emperor (Oscar, Best Original Score) & Big Love for HBO


• Re-released & remixed My Life in the Bush of Ghosts with Brian Eno for it’s 25th anniversary in 2006, & made 2 songs fully available for sampling & remixing by anyone.


• 2002, he created a giant flowchart to cover scaffolding at Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC, called Everything is Connected, that attempted to show how designers & there brands could be connected to various trends & people in pop culture, notably, he connects Donna Karan with Karl Marx & Prada with Reality Television) .


• Gave multiple lectures at universities, festivals & museums on the relationship between culture, art & advertising, 2002- 2005


• Here Lies Love, a sympathetic song cycle about Imelda Marcos, in collaboration with Fatboy Slim, debuted at Adelaide Festival of Arts in Australia, 2006 & then was performed at Carnegie Hall, NYC in 2007


• His latest album- Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with Brian Eno released in 2008.


I have every reason to believe, although it has never been discussed, that David Byrne is the Husband’s favorite musical artist & the biggest influence on his psyche & his own art. We saw David Byrne in concert last summer & the experience was transcendent, I could tell that the Husband was quite & quietly moved.

Born On This Day- April 28th... Cabaret Great- Blossom Margrete Dearie

I am going to become a recluse. I can feel it coming on. Under the new austerity program, I have to diminish my participation in 2 of my favorite activities: cocktail sipping & shopping, & I look so damn feeble, I figure… why not just stay home? I think I am going to spend the summer at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, receiving only the occasional guest, although I would love for any of you stop by for a glass of wine or a libation in the garden.



On the positive side, I am taking on the monumental project of dealing with my CD collection. The husband recently moved an extraordinary piece- a 15 foot long merchant's table with 20 drawers, European pine from the early 19th century, from the den to his studio. This major piece of furniture has long been the home to my music collection. I have decided that since I deal with mostly downloads in the new century, I would move the CDs into storage in my dressing room & free up the many drawers for his art supplies & found objects.


I like to look at each CD & think about why it is the collection & what it means to me, why the artists matters, & what moved me about the music in the first place... or else it goes.


Today is the birthday of a wonderful artist from my collection that was famous for being a bit of a recluse & guarding her privacy. I saw her perform at NYC's Danny’s Skylight Lounge, a number of times in the mid-1970s, at the very apex of her talent.

Singer, pianist & songwriter with an independent spirit, Blossom Dearie had a career that blurred the line between jazz & cabaret. An interpretive minimalist with caviar taste in songs, she rarely raised her sly voice, & she confided song lyrics in a playful style with layers of insinuation. But, just under her fey mask was a needling wit. It brought a breezy sophistication to all of her songs. If you listen closely, you can hear the caustic contempt she brings to her signature song- I’m Hip by Portland’s very own- Dave Frishberg. Mr. Frishberg wrote another of her classics- Peel Me a Grape.




All 6 of her albums on Verve- Blossom Dearie (1956), Give Him the Ooh-La-La (1957), Once Upon a Summertime (1958), Sings Comden & Green (1959), My Gentleman Friend (1959) & Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit Songs(1960) are cult classics. Check out the Vereve remix albums with the Brazylian Girls remix Blossom Dearie - doing Just One of Those Things. The last song Ms. Dearie recorded was -It’s All Right to Be Afraid, a comforting ballad dedicated to the victims & survivors of 9/11.


The jazz pixie with a little girl voice with a bit squeakiness & pageboy haircut was a fixture in New York for decades, she died last year in her Greenwich Village apartment of 50 years. She was 84.

Born On This Day- April 25th... Swingin' Ella

I think I know such an awful lot about the Great American Songbook, & then I will be introduced to some gem that has eluded me for decades. This winter, my friend- Little Jake brought me When I Get Low, I Get High, as sung by Ella Fitzgerald. He had thought the lyric was-“when I get HOME, I get high”, which Little Jake thought would have special relevance for me. I didn’t know this Harlem High Life tune, but now it is a favorite. Nice to have something old that is something new.



Certain artists just seem to reach through the restraints of listeners & fans of specific genres. It doesn’t make a difference if the bulk of your music collection is Heavy Metal, Rock, old style R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Gospel, Show Tunes, Folk, Opera, or Symphonic Music; every music aficionado always has, at the very least, the Greatest Hits package of Patsy Cline, Aretha Franklin, & Ella Fitzgerald.

She was in my parents’ album collection & I remember hearing her from the earliest age. She possessed a true diversity in range & style, & a pure voice. She started as a swing singer, did bebop, perfected scat & jazz, but she sang modern songs as well as classics, plus Blues, Bossa Nova, Gospel, Calypso, & Christmas carols, She covered Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love with as much skill & feeling as she did songs by Cole Porter. She could sing with a full orchestra, a band, a trio, or just with a guitar."


I am decidedly not into scat, it even says so on my Manhunt profile, but her scat is simply magnificent. She obviously made it up as she went along, & never stumbled, never repeated, & never became monotonous.


Johnny Mathis: “She was the best there ever was. Amongst all of us who sing, she was the best.” From her early days on Harlem streets to the adoration of all other top musicians, Ella Fitzgerald gave us 58 years of music, & with13 Grammys & 50+ million records sold; she remains, undeniably, the First Lady of Song. My favorite Ella recording I would have to be How High The Moon.

Born On This Day- April 7th... Singer/Sonwriter Janis Eddy Fink

I bought my 1st JANIS IAN album at 12 years old, & I never picked up a Janis Ian record in order to get the party started, unless it was for my depression support group & I was severely depressed to begin with. My favorite Janis Ian tunes is- Stars. It is one of my favorites. Here is Barbara Cook doing a beautiful cover that I first heard her do in her cabaret act in 1977 (Fuck, I am so damn old!):



In 1966 at age 15, Janis Ian released her 1st album. Her controversial song of interracial love- Society's Child, topped the charts & set in motion, a long recording career.

Now at almost 60, Janis Ian continues to record. Her 2008 album- Billie's Bones is a tribute to Billie Holiday with whom she shares a birthday today. Billie's Bones is a collection of whispered meditations, sparsely arranged & hauntingly sad. In an eerily slow jazz tune- Matthew, Ian pays tribute Matthew Shephard:


What makes a man a man?
It's not who you love, but whether you can
What makes a man a man?


My favorite on this album is My Tennessee Hills, written & performed with Dolly Parton. The women's voices compliment each other like moonshine & a porch, full of twang & heart. Janis Ian is a musical icon who happens to be gay. For more than 45 years she's been making very special music.