Swamp Things

We're breaking ourselves back in gently, darlings... "real" posts will commence in due time!

What Becomes A Legand Most?

I began Post Apocalyptic Bohemia with the idea of setting my story in print, well, in cyber-print. Before I go to that big Green Room on the other side, waiting for my next entrance, sure of my lines, I wanted to tell my story.

Besides anecdotes from my nearly 60 years of life so far (did I tell you that I once had sex in the back of a limo with a major show biz figure or that while living in LA, I got drunk in a Tiki themed lounge & 10 hours later I woke up in Hawaii?), I have been celebrating famous gay people on their birthday, & the birthdays of the figures that gay people love, because I believe that in a few generations there will no longer be Gay-ness. I wish to get my story told & I also want to get our story down.

When homo haters are at their most irrational, I always want to ask if they really want a world without: Leonard Bernstein, Jasper Johns, Michelangelo, Tennessee Williams, Rock Hudson, King James I, Virginia Woolf, Socrates, Lord Byron, Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Cole Porter, Tchaikovsky, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elton John, or James Dean? Probably… religious fundamentalists & assorted other bigots lack reasoning & imagination.

I have been pondering the individuals The Gays give their collective hearts to, asking myself- what makes a Gay Icon or What Becomes A Legend Most?

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on this day, 65 years ago. I love Dolly Parton. I love her big voice, her big hair, & her big boobs.

I also admire her. She’s passionate about early childhood education, & has done amazing work to give kids who are born in her Appalachian Hills a good start in life with the Dollywood Foundation, which runs the Imagination Library, providing children a new book every month until their 5th birthdays.

Parton is an outspoken proponent of women’s rights. A Christian, like Tammy Faye, she seems to have actually read the Bible & gets the message of the life of Jesus. She supports gay rights & same sex marriage, & has appeared on the cover of Out. Her production company, Sandollar Productions, which she started with her longtime manager/business partner/close friend- Sandy Gallin, an openly gay man, chose as its first project the 1989 Oscar winning documentary about the making of the AIDS quilt- Common Threads.

Drag Queens adore Parton, which is the highest compliment a human being can hold. The wigs, the costumes, the trashy makeup, the over-the-top, larger-than-life hair, & we still believe her sure-enough sweetness & love.

She built a Dolly Parton-themed theme park. I want a Steve theme park- SteveTown!, a place with Mary Jane tasting rooms, whiskey & pizza bars, a Daniel Craig ride & Steve singing songs on the Steve Stage every night . Every evening at twilight, Steve ascends to the top of the Magic Castle with a baby pink spot light following him.

Parton Is Fabulous, & fabulous come from self-invention. This is what the Old Style, Pre-Stonewall Gays cherish, getting kicked in the balls & then having the genius & artistry to remake yourself into a fabulous creature. Don’t you think Dolly Parton fits the bill? She is a Coat Of Many Colors, from her style to her stylish struggle against adversity & prejudice, plus her unabashed sexuality.

Do you think of Dolly Parton as a Gay Icon? What is your favorite Parton project? I am still over the moon for the Trio Albums with Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt.

September Song...Goodbye My Friend

Oh we never know where life will take us

I know it's just a ride on the wheel

& we never know when death will shake us

& we wonder how it will feel

So goodbye my friend

I know I'll never see you again

But the time together through all the years

Will take away these tears

It's okay now

Goodbye my friend

I've seen a lot things that make me crazy

& I guess I held on to you

We could've run away & left, well maybe

But it wasn't time & we both knew

So goodbye my friend

I know I'll never see you again

But the love you gave me through all the years

Will take away these tears

I'm okay now

Goodbye my friend

Life's so fragile & love is so pure

We can't hold on, but we try

We watch how quickly it disappears

& we never know why

But I'm okay now

Goodbye my friend

You can go now

Goodbye my friend

Karla Bonoff

1989

Lush Life

I was just moments away from posting on Billy Strayhorn's birthday, when I was visited by the  nasty computer virus. Strayhorn is a major figure to me & the writer of one of my most admired songs. I have chosen a Linda Ronstadt version, which is included in one of her incomparable Nelson Riddle albums from the 1980s. Here is a live version with a lovely intro from Joe Williams:



Songwriting genius Billy Strayhorn lived, unnecessarily, in the shadow of bandleader Duke Ellington. He was openly gay in an era when it was nearly impossible to be out of the closet & he moved in the homophobic jazz circle of Harlem. He was able to live & write songs because of the protection of the famous band leader. Ellington took credit for Strayhorn’s compositions & he worked without a contract. Ellington’s signature song-Take the A Train, was, unknown to everyone at the time, written by Strayhorn, who never received any royalties. Strayhorn worked without recognition or reward. He is responsible for some of the greatest songs of all time: Lush Life, Day Dream, Clementine, Johnny Come Lately, Maybe, A Love Like This Can’t Last & the ironic Something To Live For. Many of his creations were recorded by his close friend Lean Horne. In 1940, shortly after arriving in New York, Strayhorn & his boyfriend Aaron Bridgers lived openly as a couple in Harlem, when he was just 24 years old. He lived a life of heavy drinking & smoking, & he died of cancer of the esophagus at 51, in the arms of his partner Bill Grove. Strayhorn worked in the early gay rights (years before Stonewall) & civil rights movements. He wrote lyrics & music to what I think is one of the most perfect gay laments ever composed:


I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come what may places
Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life...
From jazz & cocktails.

The girls I knew had sad & sullen gray faces
With distant gay traces
That used to be there you could see where they'd been washed away
By too many through the day...
Twelve o'clock tales.


Then you came along with your siren of song
To tempt me to madness!
I thought for a while that your poignant smile was tinged with the sadness
Of a great love for me.
Ah yes! I was wrong...
Again,
I was wrong.


Life is lonely again,
& only last year everything seemed so sure.
Now life is awful again,
A troughful of hearts could only be a bore.
A week in Paris will ease the bite of it,
All I care is to smile in spite of it.


I'll forget you, I will
While yet you are still burning inside my brain.
Romance is mush,
Stifling those who strive.
I'll live a lush life in some small dive...
& there I'll be, while I rot
with the rest of those whose lives are lonely, too…