Born On This Day- May 20th... Gay Icon Cherilyn Sarkisian Bono Allman

Today is a High Holy Day in Gaydom- The birthday of Cher.

Cher & I have something in common, I don't mean sleeping with David Geffen. We have both been on our Living Proof: The Farewell Tour for the past decade. Cher's tour is the 2nd most successful tour by a female solo artist of all time. I felt lucky to book my own back yard.

Cher dropped out of high school at age 16 & moved to L.A.. She had her initial taste of Hollywood stardust when she was involved in a minor car accident with Warren Beatty. He then seduced her. Cher remembers the encounter as "a disappointment".

Cher has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, & 3 Golden Globe Awards for her work in film, music & television. Cher is the only female solo artist to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in each of the previous 5 decades. I think she showed serious acting chops as early as the sketches on the Sonny & Cher Show. Cher was absolutely terrific (& Oscar nominated) as a lesbian in Mike Nichol's Silkwood with Meryl Streep. Moonstruck is on of my top 10 movies of all time list (& one of my favorite soundtrack albums).

Cher's career had some ups & downs, but all the downs were followed by another hit record or a first rate acting achievement (Robert Altman's Come Back To The 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean). The longevity of her musical career has given Cher some amazing stats: the oldest female performer to chart a #1 hit, with Believe in 1999, when she was 53 years old. She first hit the Top 100 with I Got You Babe in 1965, & had a hit with Song for the Lonely in 2002, a span of 37 years. She also holds records for the longest gap between #1 songs, from Dark Lady in 1974 to Believe in 1999. With a career lasting 40+ years, Cher has sold over 100 million records. Cher returned to Las Vegas in 2008 where she is currently performing her show Cher at the Colosseum. Cher & Las Vegas are perfect together.

Cher is an active member Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG), & has admitted to having had lesbian affairs in the 1970s. It is my understanding that Gay people really like her.

40 years ago today... Serious Moonlight

I remember it well. In the summer of my 15th year, on a hot July evening, my parents & I went to friends' house because they had a bigger & better & color television (although the broadcast was in B&W). I recall that the entire affair made me horny somehow & solidified my life long astronaut fetish. Now it gives me pause that the majority of Americans were not even born yet; they live in a world where a human having walked on the moon is a given. On July 20th, 1969- 93% of the population watched as Neil Armstrong (38) & Buzz Aldrin (39), in Apollo 11's lunar module, touched down on the surface of the moon, as Michael Collins (38) circled above in the Apollo 11 craft. All 3 Apollo 11 astronauts have now lived most of their lives since that major achievement of a lifetime. Buzz Aldrin: "It has been a challenge to carry on with the rest of your life. There is this uneasiness & this uncertainty as to what I really ought to be doing". Aldrin has battled depression & alcoholism. Armstrong has never weighed in on matters of politics, but he was a spokesman for Chrysler starting in 1979. Trivia: Armstrong had the only still camera & so most of the photos are of Aldrin. When Aldrin was given the camera for short time he mainly took shots of rocks. He took one photo of Armstrong. I would love to leave this planet & look back it from space in my lifetime.
"There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, & its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again." JFK

Stephen's favorite Moon Tunes:
Blue Moon- Ella Fitzgerald
Fly Me To The Moon - Tony Bennett
Walking On The Moon- The Police
Space Oddity- David Bowie
Rocket Man- Elton John
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft - The Carpenters
Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks- Brian Eno
It's Only A Paper Moon- Leon Redbone
Man On The Moon- REM
Moon At The Window- Joni Mitchell
Song About The Moon- Paul Simon
Moondance- Van Morrison
Moon On My Shoulder- Lyle Lovett
Moonshadow- Cat Stevens
Harvest Moon - Neil Young
Moon River- Andy Williams
Moon Over Bourbon Street - Sting
There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon) - The B-52s
Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Drunk on the Moon - Tom Waits
Moonlight In Vermont- the Andrew Sisters
Moonglow- Stephen Rutledge
Old Devil Moon- Frank Sinatra
Polka Dots & Moonbeams- Sarah Vaughn
How High The Moon- Chet Baker
Moon Of Alabama- Lotte Lenya

"If you want to write a song about the moon
Walk along the craters in the afternoon
When the shadows are deep & the light is alien
& gravity leaps like a knife off the pavement . . ."
Paul Simon

How To Write A Post For Your Blog

“I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn’t know this either, but love don’t make things nice – it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. The storybooks are bullshit. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed! ”

I plan some of them in advance, doing the bulk of the research ahead of time, & I have a list of possible future posts... but mostly a settle down with a cup of tea & just wing it. I had made a personal challenge to do a post on the blog everyday & some days, as the Husband says- "you just pulled that one out of your ass, didn't you?". I usually start with the NY Times page- On This Day In History to discover any birthdays of famous gay people. This morning I wondered if they ever talked about it on the set while filming, because today- June 20th is the birthday of Danny Aiello, John Mahoney & Olympia Dukakis, three of the stars in one of my top 5 movies of all time- Moonstruck. None of this trio is gay, but Happy Birthday to three actors that I love & admire their work.

By crazy coincidence, on Monday of this week, T (the housemate) came home & announced that he wished to have all of us "get in our jammies & watch a movie". We all changed into our pajamas (I own some, although I sleep naked) & we looked through the listings from the evil Comcast, & when Moonstruck came up we all yelled- "yes!". T had only seen it when it first opened & I had not seen it in a decade. I loved this film so much on first viewing in 1987. I was actually overwhelmed by how good every aspect of the movie was: great screenplay (an Oscar for John Patrick Shanley), great acting in even the tiniest of roles, pitch perfect direction from Norman Jewison, on of my favorite movie scores ever by Dick Hymen, superior cinematography by David Watkin). I remember getting in the car after the movie & the Husband turning to me & saying- "Cher needs to win an Oscar for this film!". Seeing this marvelous film again was such a treat. I laughed till I hurt & I cried like the big sissy I can be. Moonstruck is a timeless treasure & a classic. It received 8 Oscar nominations. Cher did win for Best Actress & accepted in an all time crazy Bob Mackie gown & headdress. Olympia Dukakis won for Best Supporting Actress. Trivia: Cher & Aiello play younger characters; in real life, she was approximately Aiello's character's age (42), & Aiello was approximately twelve years older (54) than his character. 23-year-old Cage (born 1964) plays a character about fifteen years older than his real age. In real life, he is eighteen years younger than Cher (born 1946) & thirty-one years younger than his on-screen brother Aiello (born 1933). There is only a fifteen year age difference between Cher and Dukakis (born 1931).

Early in the film:

Rose: "Do you love him?"

Loretta: "No, Ma".

Rose: "Good. 'Cause when you love 'em, they drive you crazy, because they know they can. But you like him?"

Loretta: "Oh yeah. He's a sweet man, Ma."

Near the end:

Rose: "Do you love him, Loretta?"

Loretta: "Ma, I love him awful."

Rose: "Oh, God, that's too bad."

I love full moons, Brooklyn Heights, Manhattan, Vicki Carr singing It Must Be Him, Puccini, Cher, the Met & the Chagall tapastries & I believe in the power & pain of falling in love.