Born On This Day- January 31st... Bodacious Portia di Rossi

There is something very engaging about a beautiful woman with great comic chops. She was born Amanda Rogers in Geelong Australia. When she was just a 15 years old lesbian, she reinvented herself as Portia de Rossi, choosing the name from her love of Shakespeare & all things Italian. She was cast in the Australian film- Sirens, & then it was off to Hollywood. I first took note of her funny work as lawyer-Nell Porter on Ally McBeal..She was slyly hilarious in the much missed Arrested Development, & is the comic glue on the underrated Better Off Ted.



She feared she would jeopardize her career if she came out of the closet. When she finally did come out of the closet, many people didn't believe she was gay. She told the Advocate, "I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay…which was so annoying! First of all, you live with the fear people might find out. Then you actually have the courage to tell people and they go, 'I don't think you are gay.'"

Besides being beautiful & funny, she was able to grab the attention of some woman named Ellen. Portia says when she first saw Ellen, she took her breath away. "That had never happened to me in my life, where I saw somebody & experienced all of those things you hear about in songs & read about in poetry. My knees were weak." Portia left Countess Francesca McKnight Donatella Romana Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna (Ringo Starr’s step-daughter) to be with & eventually marry Ellen DeGeneres (who had a birthday earlier this week). They were married in August 2008 in a small ceremony attended by family & a few close friends. They live in LA with their dogs.

Here is a very, very funny out-takes reel from Better Off Ted:

Gratuitous

Jason Statham

The Fall

I receive a text from Jake saying that he would like to come over “& hang” on Friday night, & that he would bring a movie that he wants us to see. I work a 12 hour day, starting at 4:30am, on Thursdays, & then get up & repeat this again on Fridays. I am sometimes of no use on Friday evenings, but Jake is cute, urbane, smart, & witty. Who am I to say I am too tired?

Unbelievable, but I decided to for go whiskey so that I would stay keen for the film. This was a good choice. Jake had decided to introduce the Husband & me to something called- The Fall. Produced by David Fincher & Spike Jonze, this visually stunning & audacious movie grabbed me from the opening credits. The Fall was shot in 18 countries, over 4 years, during breaks from the cast & crew’s other projects. The Fall is a big dash of The Princess Bride, with a generous sprinkling of The Wizard Of Oz, & like those films, it is neither precious, darling, nor twee. There is a through line of deep melancholy & dysphoria to the entire enterprise, & yet there a very droll, waggish & original moments.

An amazing & hallucinatory black & white credits sequence starts the film with a bold juxtaposition of reality & dreamscape. Set in a stylized early 20th century Hollywood at the birth of motion pictures, we meet Alexandria, the daughter of immigrants. She works the Californian orange groves with her family & has recently suffered a bad fall, breaking her arm. While running about the hospital, with her arm in cast, she meets stuntman Roy, played by Lee Pace, who also had a bad fall & may be permanently damaged, but already is, in several ways. Roy starts to tell Alexandria a fantastic story about an Indian (the unspoken disagreement over his ethnicity gives the film it’s best, &perfectly underplayed joke) , a former slave, an explosives expert, a mystic, a masked bandit & Charles Darwin (complete with a sidekick monkey), all who pledged to end the life of the evil Governor Odious. Roy will keep telling the story, but he needs a little favor from Alexandria in return...

Pace is utterly believable as Roy, setting up a story so that the young listener can fill in the visual details with the things she is familiar with. Child actor-Catinca Untaru is a revelation as Alexandria. She & Pace share scenes that are so honest & natural; it is hard to believe they were completely scripted. Because they are so natural, the preposterous adventure/fantasy storyline is allowed come & go as it wishes. The story within the story is inconsistent, weird & occasionally hilarious.


The director-Tarsem, his art director & design team provide a visual experience, the likes of which I have rarely seen in a film. This is not a Peter Jackson/James Cameron experience. There are no CGs. He shot the film all over the world so he could bring real world locations that look like they simply must be fake: the orange sands where Alexander the Great is stranded, the labyrinth of despair,& the mad staircase ridden city that forms part of the final battle…they are all jaw-droppingly stunning. There is a scene where Alexander & his men are framed so that they stand in the lower right hand corner of the screen, just an inch tall. Behind them & engulfing the rest of the screen is nothing but orange sand rising into the sky. Other images that stayed with me included a stone maze within a castle, a tiny island visited by a swimming elephant; the cityscape painted blue, all look surprisingly unified in their beauty. This film is filled with audacious, lush, & inventive images.

I kept dreaming the movie after I went to be last night & the images are staying with me. I give The Fall a B+ on the Steve Movie Report Card. Put it in your queue, & let me know what you think.

When I Grow Too Old To Dream

We have been gay, going our way

Life has been beautiful, we have been young

After you've gone, life will go on

Like an old song we have sung

When I grow too old to dream

I'll have you to remember

When I grow too old to dream

Your love will live in my heart

So, kiss me my sweet

& so let us part

& when I grow too old to dream

That kiss will live in my heart

Sigmund Romberg & Oscar Hammerstein II

Born On This Day- January 29th... Olympic Athlete- Gregory Efthimios Louganis

 It takes real tenacity to keep having a crush on someone for 34 years, but here I am, still dreamy over Greg Louganis, who continues to be devastatingly handsome as he turns 50 years old .He spends his mornings in a spin class, followed by 90 minutes of yoga. He takes daily naps. His afternoons are devoted to his true passion, training dogs in obedience & agility. Greg lives in Malibu with 2 Jack Russell terriers, & a border collie.

Greg Louganis is he greatest diver in US history . He broke on to the Olympic scene when he won a silver medal at the age of 16 in the Montreal games of 1976. He went on to win 2 back to back double Olympic gold medals & multiple world championships.


We watched in horror as it happened & it was shocking because Greg Louganis was true diving perfection. We love watching Olympic sports & the Husband had just said- "I just love to watch Louganis. He just pierces the water like a dart.” Louganis’s greatest moments came, ironically, after his worst dive. Seeking another gold medal in the Seoul Olympics of 1988, Louganis attempted a very difficult reverse 2 1/2 pike dive in the preliminary round. During the dive, he struck his head on the board, & suffered a large laceration on his head. Amazingly, despite his concussion, he finished the preliminary round & repeated the dive in the finals, receiving record-setting scores on the way to another gold medal. The performance earned him the ABC Sports’ Athlete of the Year in 1988. . Louganis described the embarrassment & fear that he felt after the aborted dive. "I knew I had a responsibility to tell the doctor about my HIV status as he sewed my head up."

In 1994 Louganis announced to the world that he was gay. In Breaking The Surface, published in the year 1995, detailed a relationship of domestic abuse & rape. His partner threatened to blackmail him if he tried to leave. "I boxed myself into the relationship with my feelings about my HIV status. I thought, `who will touch me?' But I knew that to survive, I had to get out. It was a big step for me to build the self-esteem I needed to have the confidence to leave." It was in that book that he disclosed to the world that he was HIV positive, having been diagnosed a few months before the Seoul Games. Most of his corporate sponsors dropped him as a client when they heard the news of his HIV status. Swimsuit manufacturer Speedo was the only exception & retained him as an endorser of their swimwear until 2007.

Louganis tours the country speaking about issues that affected him throughout his life: HIV, chronic depression, learning disabilities & diversity (he is Samoan & Nordic). Louganis also travels around with other athletes including Peggy Fleming, Bruce Jenner & Jackie Joyner-Kersee as they discuss living with long term illnesses. Louganis says he wants to be remembered as more than an athlete. “I want to be remembered as a strong& graceful diver, but as a person, I want to be remembered as someone who made a difference.”

New Music- OK GO's Skyscrapers

I enjoyed their video for the very catchy song- Here It Goes Again (I still have it on my Ipod), with its intricate treadmill choreography (done in one continuous take!), but I suspected that the Chicago Indy outfit- OK GO might be gimmicky or have a one-hit-wonder on thier hands. But, this new song- Skyscrapers is deliciously spare & funky. Here they are at Portland's own Wonder Ballroom:

New Music... Or, Somethings Don't Change!

25 years ago today, the #1 song in the USA was Sade's Smooth Operator. Oh my, how the Husband & I loved this song & we played the album (on CD!) over & over again. Here it is, the 2nd decade of the new century & I am still loving Sade. I am absolutely zany for this song. My 1st head-over-heals song of the teens, may I present Sade & Soldier Of Love:

Born On This Day- January 27th... One Of My Favorite Writers- Ethan Mordden

Do you remember Christopher Street Magazine? Near the end of each month, I would march myself down to The Different Drummer Bookstore on Broadway-Capital Hill, Seattle, to purchase my new edition of this magazine, unafraid for the 1st time in my life, of being seen buying homo-stuff. I had 10 years worth of saved copies before getting rid of them during a rare purging of material belongings event. The pieces started as short, journalistic nots in Christopher Street. Ethan Mordden would relate to readers, the semi- fictional tales of his “chosen” gay family in late 1970s NYC. For Mordden, creating such a family is essential for many gay men, as they can help to build "a stable, environment, somewhere you get accepted for what you are without qualifications."

The pieces became a series that I knew as- The Buddy Series & were published as: I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore: Tales from Gay Manhattan (1985), which was followed by Buddies (1986), & Everybody Loves You: Further Adventures of Gay Manhattan (1988). Mordden put aside the series for 9 years before offering Some Men Are Lookers (1997).


He has also written well-received studies of American film: Hollywood Studios: House Style in the Golden Age of the Movies (1988), Movie Star: A Look at the Women Who Made Hollywood (1983), & Medium Cool: The Movies of the 1960s (1990).


I have enjoyed collected his books on Broadway musicals: Broadway Babies: The People Who Made the American Musical (1983), Rodgers & Hammerstein (1992), & The Happiest Corpse I've Ever Seen: The Last 25 Years of the Broadway Musical (2004).


If you love the Tales Of City series by Armistead Maupin, I think you will enjoy the Buddy books. I actually re-read them once every decade. They are very funny & very human, superbly written & accessible. They make me laugh, they make me horny, & they make me cry.

Stop! Slow Down! I Think I'm Cumming!

The Husband & I caught the film- The Party the other evening, while channel surfing & we decided to stay with it, although we had rented it years ago. One of the stars is Kevin Kline, one of the great loves of my life. But I kept riffing on the the career & personality of Alan Cumming. I was 1st aware of Cumming in 1998 through his Tony winning turn as the emcee in the Sam Mendes-Rob Marshall revival of Cabaret. He certainly seemed to be a very arresting figure when I saw him on the Tony Broadcast. While Cumming has played his share of classical roles in an extremely eclectic career, including a very well received Hamlet in London, his main image seems to be: naughty scamp, a persona that holds my interest. Cumming has done nothing to discourage this, playing a variety of louche characters: Dionysus, Mack the Knife, the Devil, in theater & film. He wrote a semiautobiographical novel-Tommy's Tale, about a sex obsessed, drug ridden bisexual; & starring in a provocative campaign promoting the fragrance line that bears his last name.

Last week I downloaded his very good new album- Blue Car, with songs of love, loss & yearning by such songwriters as John Bucchino ("A Catered Affair"), William Finn ("Falsettos") & pop singer Jimmy Webb as well as originals by Cumming himself with his musical director, Lance Horne. I am impressed with his non-theatre singing & his surprisingly touching interpetations. I can be so juvinile, I still giggle at his last name, which I have had to type several times. Cumming lives in NYC with his husband of 4 years- illustrator Grant Shaffer Today is his birthday.He turns 46 today.

Born On This Day- January 27th... American Songwriting Great- Jerome Kern

Along with anecdotes from my life, Post Apocalyptic Bohemian is intended to be a celebration of accomplished & gifted gay people on the day of the birth. But, we live in a great big world full of people of different colors, sizes, shapes, & beliefs. On rare occasions, I am moved because o,f & absorbed by the great works of no-gay individuals.


Music is a driving force in my life & my tastes are all over the map. On Monday afternoon, I was making my way through the C section of my CDs & at one point I listened to The Clash & Rosemary Clooney back to back. Since early childhood, I have a had a passion for The Great American Songbook- popular music from the 1st 6 decades of the 20th century. I own a large library of books by & about composers & lyricists, & I have done posts on the birthdays of musical greats- straight & gay. All right, I gave a bit more attention to Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Lorenz Hart, Kander & Ebb, & Jerry Herman, but the gay spin that informs their work is evident to me & speaks to me.


The decidedly heterosexual Jerome Kern wrote the music to some of the most stunning songs of the last century. In 1915 with bookwriter Guy Bolton, he began a series of intimate musicals for the 299 seat Princess Theatre. Among Kern's songs for these charming shows were They Didn’t Believe Me (1914), which I consider the 1st modern ballad, & Look For the Silver Lining (1920)



In 1927, Kern teamed with Oscar Hammerstein II & they adapted an Edna Ferber ( a lesbian) novel into one of the greatest of all American musicals: Show Boat. Show Boat pioneered the concept of the fully integrated musical, with all aspects of the show working together toward a single artistic unity. Among the songs introduced in Show Boat were Old Man River, Bill, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, Make Believe, & Why Do I Love You?


After Show Boat, Kern continued to write for Broadway, contributing such classic songs as The Song Is You, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, & Yesterdays (all from Roberta, 1933 with lyrics by Otto Harbach).


In 1935, Kem went to Hollywood, where he spent most of the rest of his career, writing some of his very best music. For the 1935 film of Roberta he wrote I Won't Dance. For Swing Time (1936), he wrote A Fine Romance & The Way You Look Tonight (both with lyrics by Dorothy Fields). He was nominated for 9 Oscars & won 2.


On the occasion of or 10th anniversary, after a swell party thrown by our neighbors & dear friends- Robert & Margo, I found myself alone with the man who would eventually be my husband. He presented me with a piece of his own art, a beautiful & meaningful collage just for the occasion. I had planned this moment... but I doubted that it could be pulled off without interruption, giggling, dog barking or humiliation. I stood facing him in our little Seattle cottage, I looked him in the eye & without flinching, & in what I have to admit is my pretty amazing, if uncommon sounding singing voice, I did Jerome Kern’s- All the Things You Are, verse & chorus. I was more nervous than any stage performance. When I finished, the Husband had teared up. He said- “beautiful… how come you never sing to me? I love to hear you sing”. He then hugged & kissed me.

This is not me (my voice is not sweet, polite or angelic), but the very openly gay- Will Young from the film- Mrs Henderson Presents:

Music Makes The People Come Together

Today is the birthday of Lucinda Williams, who is not gay, but I know a cranky old gay man in Portland, Oregon that loves her & her music. Oh, the heartbreak & pain in that voice! This song- Are You Alright? & the album that featured it- West, helped get me through a very difficult, & one of the most troubled times of my life:



I do a fair amount of posts about music, the #1 passion in my life, including NEW MUSIC & BLASTS FROM THE PAST, but there is a blog that I visit daily that does it better than I do. My friend Howard at Soundtrack To My Day is nominated for a Bloggie Award. This is no little thing... this is the Oscars of Blogdom. I am so thrilled for him to be named in the final 4 for Best Music Blog. His little joint has introduced me to lots of wonderful, meaningful music & he has taken me back to visit some old favorites. If you go here you can see the nominees. But, check out Howard's blog & I am sure that you will agree that he deserves the votes, so add yours. I was nominated for nothing, but next year when there is a category for Best Blog From A Bitter Disillusioned Middle-Aged Man Unafraid To Shamelessly Promote Anything & Everything About Himself, I might be finding myself with a real shot at a nomination.

Born On This Day- January 26th... Yep, She's Gay- Ellen DeGeneres

''I didn't really have a plan. My point is, by the time I was your age, I thought I knew who I was. But I had no idea. Like for example, when I was your age, I was dating men.... So, what I'm saying is, when you're older, most of you will be gay! .... The way I ended up on this path, was from a very tragic event. I was, maybe, 19, & my girlfriend at the time died in a car accident. & I passed the accident, & I didn't know it was her, & I kept going.... I started this path of stand-up, & it was successful, & it was great but it was hard because I was trying to please everybody, & I had this secret that I was keeping that I was gay. & I thought that if people found out they wouldn't like me, they wouldn't laugh at me.... Really, when I look back on it, I wouldn't change a thing. I mean, it was so important for me to lose everything because I found out what the most important thing was it to be true to yourself.''


Parts of a commencement speech delivered by Ellen Degeneres at Tulane University, in her hometown of New Orleans




13 years ago… Ellen DeGeneres was on a fast track with a popular sitcom, club appearances, dipping her toes into feature films, & then came the Oprah confession (Winfrey would go on to play her therapist when Ellen came out herself in an episode of her own show), &  the public was drawn to the drama of a Hollywood celebrity coming out, a revelation that was not as common or acceptable then as it is now, especially for a woman Ellen's coming out ignited a storm of controversy, prompting ABC to place a parental advisory at the beginning of each episode of the show & then show took a dive in the ratings, & was cancelled in 1998. Pop culture pundits suggested that her public coming out, her heartfelt admission of her homosexuality on The Oprah Winfrey Show, had killed her career.

Ellen returned to standup &, in 2001, rebounded in prime time with The Ellen Show, a sitcom where she portrayed a lesbian. The show lasted only a year, & many dismissed it a nice try but conservative middle America just wasn't ready for a loud & proud lesbian TV star. But, times did start to change, & sexuality became somewhat less of an issue in Show Biz, although Adam Lambert could suggest there's work still to be done.

In 2003,with the closet door wide open door, Ellen stepped out as the host of crisp new daytime talk show. The Ellen DeGeneres Show is not only a ratings winner but it has turned the comedienne into a beloved mainstream star.


Part of the show's appeal, of course, is that Ellen does not apologize or shy away from her sexuality, joking about & sharing details about her life with wife- Portia de Rossi, whom she legally married in a ceremony at their Beverly Hills home in 2008.


As an interviewer, she is sweet & naturally funny, a perfect host who just happens to be a lesbian. Middle America, to my surprise, embraced her uniqueness & today, Ellen has a bunch of Emmys, & represents American Express & Cover Girl in commercial campaigns. She hosted the Oscars, the 1st openly gay person to do so.

Which may be why the announcement that Paula Abdul was leaving the judging panel of American Idol was ultimately less newsworthy, or interesting, than the show's decision to replace her with Ellen DeGeneres. America’s top rated show will feature an openly gay person… & there seems to be to be little protest or ripples of anxiety in the industry.


I have always found her to be funny & original, & think that she is a true hero to gay people. She looks smashingly good on her 52nd birthday! I guess lots of money, a hit show, awards, a personal trainer & a beautiful spouse is the secret to looking good after 50.

I Will Take Dowdy Early 20th Century British Writers Born On January 25th For $1000, Alex

Although W. Somerset Maugham rarely spoke publicly about his sexuality, he has been embraced as one of the most renowned gay authors of all time. "I was a 1/4 normal & 3/4 queer, but I tried to persuade myself it was the other way round," he said. "That was my greatest mistake."


Maintaining the habit of writing for several hours each morning, Maugham produced some 30 plays, 24 novels, & more than 100 magazine articles. With his cynical wit & straightforward style, he was more popular among masses than the literary set, & he always felt like an outsider to the establishment. Although Maugham's highly acclaimed works – including Of Human Bondage (1915), The Constant Wife (1927), & The Razor's Edge (1944) made him the most famous & wealthiest author of his day, he never received the honor of knighthood.










The moment I put down Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, I picked up Mrs. Dalloway to follow the connection, It was the 1st time in decades that I had read any Virginia Woolf, but in my early 20s I went on a serious Bloomsbury Group jag, reading everything by & about the remarkable group.

The Bloomsbury Group has gone down in history for the many contributions its members made to literature & art. The group's intellectual core was Virginia Stephen, who became Virginia Woolf when she married in 1912. Today she is recognized as one of the great modernist novelists. She & her husband, Leonard, founded Hogarth Press, a publishing house that brought some of the most significant literature of the era into print including T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland.


The group was also interesting because they demonstrated a sexual freedom that was very ahead of their time. Beginning in 1925, Virginia Woolf had a passionate affair with the dashing Vita Sackville-West. In the first flush of romance, Woolf wrote what has become a classic of gay fiction, the experimental fantasy Orlando (1927), which argued that love & passion ignore gender, & that gender itself is fluid.


Others in the Bloomsbury group gravitated to new ways of looking at love. Although Vanessa Stephen married Clive Bell, the great love of her life was Duncan Grant, who was gay & had been sexually involved with her brother Adrian. During World War I, they lived together at a country estate with David "Bunny" Garnett, who was a lover of both.


3way relationships with a gay twist were common within the Bloomsbury circle. Strachey was gay, but in the early days of Bloomsbury, he proposed marriage to Virginia. In the 1920s, he lived in platonically with painter Dora Carrington. When they both fell in love with the same man, Carrington married the object of their mutual desire, & the 3 set up housekeeping together. The cross-dressing Carrington had affairs with women, confiding to a friend that she had "more ecstasy" with female lovers than with men - "& with no shame."


Virginia Woolf was the center, the gravity & the soul of the group, which unraveled after she drowned herself in the spring of 1941.

When I Get Up Each Day, I have No Idea What I Am Going to Write About

I had been using a computer for more than a decade, & I was proficient at Excel, Word & Publisher, I could negotiate my way around shopping on line, downloading music & finding porn, but I didn’t know about the world of blogs until the 2nd half of 2008. I had Googled a subject matter that took me to a blog & I was immediately gobsmacked. This blog was a daily journal sort of thing that documented the life of a hot young American guy, living in Ireland with his hot doctor boyfriend when he wasn’t going out to sea on the ship that he worked on. This blog was butch (the author was obsessed with pugilism & football) & very gay (naked men & lots of same sex kissing). I still read this blog: American Irish. Soon I was reading about 10 blogs everyday & I was fascinated to get to know people from around the world & bits about their lives & their opinions. Little did I know what I was in for.

For years, I had been in the habit of challenging myself to do something different, & shake things up on the occasion of my birthday in early January. On January 3rd 2009, I vowed to start a blog. I had no idea how to proceed & it took me until the 24th to make my first post. I had challanged myself to do 1 post a day for I year. I failed miserably, with just 2 posts in January & 3 in February. I felt I had lived a fairly interesting life so far, meeting & working with some very talented people, living in several great cities & traveling to even more. I had deeply loved & been with the same man for almost 30 years…but I had no idea how to put my experiences into words that would engage a reader. My 1st posts were about my Husband, my dogs & our house. I didn’t tell the husband about the blog until March 2008 & he was, at the start, none too pleased, & he made me change a few things in my initial post about him. My very 1st comment from someone was on this very post.

Then I decided to celebrate the birthdays of famous gay people that mattered to me. I enjoyed the research & the connection I felt to these figures, but the Husband suggested that my posts were too verbose & encyclopedic. I began to streamline & put the emphasis on why these famous figures mattered to me.The Husband has the eye & the temperament of a good editor. The posts improved. One day, the Husband left a complimentary comment, & I was thrilled.

 Because of the blog, I have taken some flack from people in my life, mostly saying that I am way to candid & too open about my life & opinions. Someone once mentioned that the posts were always love- “ with you it is just love, love love”. But yeah, that was the idea… a celebration of what matters the most to me. I think the writing improved, the posts came more easily to me & I started having fun by having relationships with other bloggers.

Bloggers love to get comments & I started to note what sort of posts generated the most comments. I never geared a post toward the goal of garnering more comments, but I did notice that the most comments were on the posts that were the most personal. I also that discovered that I had many readers that never or rarest left comments. I was actually surprised & immensely pleased when my dear friend LJSM (whom I met doing theatre 26+ years ago) told me that she read me, but would save up for a week so that she could have a bunch of posts in 1 sitting. I found out that WCK3, who is often mentioned in posts, reads it almost everyday. Of course there is the bewilderment & heartache due to a small handful of major players in my life that NEVER look at it! I am torn between- “hey, reading the blog is not a requirement for my friendship” & “fuck you, this blog is my baby”.

I can honestly say that having Post Apocalyptic Bohemian has made me feel more authentically myself at exactly the time in my life that I needed it the most. I have made some very dear blogger friends. I have met 2 of them in person & was thrilled to be in their company & meet their spouses. I reviewed a favorite book- Someday This Pain Will be Useful To You & the author- Peter Cameron wrote me a thank you email. I did a post about one of my favorite recording artists from the 1980s- Karla Di Vito & she left a comment on the blog! I had record label write that they liked my music reviews & could they send me recordings to consider? & best of all, I was finding my voice.

A Few Of My Own Favorite & Most Personal Posts:

http://nopoboho.blogspot.com/2009/07/25-years-ago-today-my-best-day-ever-so.html

http://nopoboho.blogspot.com/2009/11/never-face-facts.html

http://nopoboho.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-life-is-david-lynch-movie.html

http://nopoboho.blogspot.com/2009/09/one-ringy-dingy-born-on-this-day.html

http://nopoboho.blogspot.com/2009/07/reflections-on-my-garden-in-summer.html

http://nopoboho.blogspot.com/2009/07/mr-steve-goes-to-town.html

574 posts, 84 followers & 29,750+ hits since I started counting in April… today is the 1st anniversary of Post Apocalyptic Bohemain. Thanks for having me. I am grateful. I'll drink to that!

Gratuitous

He is in luck! The Husband doesn't always finish his de-construction/construction projects around the house, so I have found some things for Carter Oosterhouse do aorund Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. I could keep him busy all day.

Born On This Day- January 23rd... Broadway Legend Chita Rivera

The husband & I caught the film version of Sweet Charity recently, which prompted a discussion about Chita Rivera’s career. The Husband commented that her looks were too odd & too sharp for the camera & that is why she lost out the movie versions of the roles she created on Broadway to Rita Moreno & Janet Leigh. Best known for her roles in West Side Story, Chicago, Bye Bye Birdie, The Rink, & Kiss of the Spider Woman, she has won 2 Tony Awards for best actress in a musical, & has been nominated for a total of 9 Tonys . President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 12, & she was the first Hispanic ever to win the Kennedy Center Award in 2002. She recently starred in the Broadway & touring productions of Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, & she will begin touring starting this month with her concert Chita Rivera: My Broadway. Her new solo studio album,  Now I Swing will be released in February. I never met her, but I saw the original Chicago 5 or 6 times. Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero is a force of nature as she turns 77 years old today.

We Have So Much In Common… It’s A Phenomenon!

I have posted before about my admiration for Cheyenne Jackson, but with the triple spike of his fabulous new album with Michael Feinstien – The Power of Two, his hilarious turn on 30 Rock as Danny- the irony free Canadian brought on to The Girly Show (the show within a show) to attract Middle-American viewers& his run in Finian’s Rainbow on Broadway. I saw him an Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen & I was again disarmed by his natural charm & charisma. How funny was it that he came clean as a Bravo watcher & that he was fan of all the The Real Housewives Shows? Click on this to read his funny interview on AfterElton.com & wherehe talks about his in their underwear encounter with Neil Patrick Harris at their gym.

Cheyenne & I might be fated to meet, as it seems that he has been chasing me across the cosmos. He grew up in a small town outside of my hometown of Spokane, & later moved to that city when he graduated high school. Growing up gay in that town "was very hard," Jackson told The New York Times, "but my parents were awesome."





My first professional job, at 17 years old, was doing summer stock in Coeur d’ Alene , Idaho. I was thrilled with this job. I was making $100 a week, plus room & board. I was making a living as an actor! Decades later, Cheyenne’s first professional show at age 18, was doing summer theater in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where he was making $280 a week. "I thought I was so rich!" he says.


In the 1980s & early 1990s, I worked steadily as an actor in Seattle including featured roles at Seattle Civic Light Opera (Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! & Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum) & at The Village Theatre. Jackson worked from the late 1990s on, in musicals & revues at Seattle Civic Light Opera, & at Village Theatre, playing leads in Grease, Joseph & His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat &West Side Story in 2000 & 2001… just as I was leaving to make the move to Portland. Late that year, he was in the ensemble of The Prince and the Pauper at the Fifth Avenue Theatre. In the spring of 2002, he starred in the Fifth Avenue’s production of The Most Happy Fella & its revival of Hair, just as I was starting over in my new city. I can only rest assured that we were NEVER up for the same role.



Jackson had one contact when he moved to NYC- actor Marc Kudisch, for whom he was once an understudy in Seattle. Kudisch set Jackson up with an agent, who signed him on the spot. Within a few weeks, Jackson was cast in his 1st Broadway show after going to only 1 audition. He was just shy of his 27th birthday. In more crazy parallels in our lives, I moved to NYC with only 1 contact, I had 1 audition for a Broadway show, I once had a 27th birthday, I once had an agent &… I have seen Broadways shows! I feel with so much in common, we must be fated to meet.

My New Extended Dance Single

It comes out this Tuesday, & I am getting very anxious, yet excited, about the release, on 7'' vinyl, of my new electro-disco single- Don't Put Things In Your Mouth (advice I have yet to adhere to)!

I am really pround of this record. It was re-mixed by DJ KITTY KATT (who has worked with Yma Sumak among others) & released on my own new Hairychest label... & don't forget to check out the flip side where I do a duet with the perpetually pregnant Heidi Klum of Tomorrow Belongs To Me/Edelweiss. Heidi & I will really get your bodies movin' out on the dance floor with this Teutonic ass shaker!

I Heart James Franco

How do I love thee James Franco? Let me count the ways. I first saw him a decade ago (& he made quite the impact) on a favorite TV show- Freaks & Geeks, a show written by Judd Apatow & co-starring Seth Rogen & Jason Segel. The Husband & I thought he especially good as the title character in a Mark Rydell’s TV movie- James Dean, for which he won a Golden Globe. In just the last year, I was astounded by his good work in Milk & his hilarious turn in the stoner comedy- Pineapple Express. But, why does he seem so nutty of late?

While pursuing a degree in Columbia University’s MFA Writing program, James Franco took on the bizarre but fascinating decision to join the cast of General Hospital as a murderous artist named Franco. He says the idea came to him while preparing for a new film with Catherine Keener- Maladies, where Franco plays a former soap star. “Now, just because I’m playing a character who was formerly on a soap opera doesn’t mean I had to go on a soap opera, right?” said Franco. “So going on General Hospital isn’t directly related to Maladies. But we got to talking, like, ‘Hey, what if I really did a soap opera? That would be kind of amazing!’” He approached the producers, who of course said yes.

His only stipulation:‘I want to play an artist, and I want him to be crazy.’ And they wrote this character that was better than I could have ever asked for. It was their idea to call the character Franco. I said, ‘That’s crazy. Thank you.’” It was only after he’d signed up that he decided to bring his own crew along to film the filming, he said, “because I wanted to really have ownership over the piece.” This footage will be performance-art piece at Deitch Projects' Long Island City space later this year, & even more surreal, that show will in then be taped for a special episode of General Hospital.

His next role, as gay poet Alan Ginsberg, in Howl (co-starring Jon Hamm, Mary Louise Parker, Treat Williams, Jeff Daniels, Bob Balaban, David Strathairn, & Alessandro Nivola) was just shown at Sundance. Franco is unafraid to play gay, & if his turn in the gay indie film Blind Spot & as gay actor James Dean weren't enough, he's even directed some hardcore man X man action. His student film for Columbia featured a boy dreaming in graphic detail about the jocks on the basketball court.

Last week he appeared on 30 Rock as a demented version of himself, in love with a Japanese body pillow named Kimiko-tan. The “Franco” character carried on a fake romance with Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) in a scheme concocted by their respective agents. Again, surreal, off-kilter & very funny.When Fey told him about the role, he said, “I thought it was pretty weird at first, but then I met Kimiko & she’s so pretty & sweet. I kept her. She’s at the apartment. I haven’t been around for a while, so she’s been a little lonely.”


I would like Franco to consider playing another little mind trip of an actor exercise & do a short film where he pursues an aging former actor because he wants to discover the experience of having a “daddy”.

It Is All About Meme

I just did a Meme a week ago thinking I was done with them forever, but I received this one as part of an award, & I love to receive awards. Plus, the rules were dictated… & I always play by the rules.


1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
Thank you to my new friend- the lovely & talented Philip in beautiful Hollywood, California


2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

It is rather homey & twee & not at all my taste, but is an award, & I do appreciate it. I was hoping for a certain statue of a little gold man, but I will take what I can get.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

Philip at Felix In Hollywood (check his fab blog out):

http://felixinhollywood.blogspot.com/

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

a. I have never been to a funeral. In fact, I went the first 40 years of my life without ever seeing a dead person, & then on September 15th 1994, I saw 2 dead people within 2 hours.

b. I have appeared in over 150 full stage productions, 12 films, a score of print ads & 50+ voice-overs. I have worked with some major talents & important directors… & yet I walked away from it all 15 years ago when I inexplicably developed debilitating stage fright.

c. I studied piano from ages 6 to 17 & I studied & can still play the string bass.

d. I have no fear of spiders, snakes, bugs, water or the dark… but I am so frightened of hypodermic needles & syringes that I can pass out from looking at a picture of them.

e. I have been to 49 states (sorry, Alaska!) & 8 foreign countries.

f. L.A., circa 1974... I had sex, in the back of a limo, with a major singer/show biz personality. I won’t say who, but I have never been able to hear MOON RIVER & feel the same way again. Unfortunately, this is not my only starfuck story, but you can’t give it all away in a single meem.

g. Except for crabs ( thanks, Stanley!), I have never had an STD, despite being quite in-touch with my inner-slut.

5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers and post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
I am sorry, but really, it is because I love you & your blogs:

Will @ http://designerblog.blogspot.com/

Mark @ http://talesofthesissy.blogspot.com/

The elusive, but always lovely- Al @ http://spiritofsaintlewis.blogspot.com/

Howard @ http://soundtracktomyday.blogspot.com/

Larry @ http://www.patentlyqueer.com/

Sean @ http://justajeepguydc.blogspot.com/

Michael @ http://michael-rivers.blogspot.com/

Froggy @ http://musingsontheporch.blogspot.com/

6. Someone forget to post rule 6

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.
OK, I did it. I was thinking that the 7 chosen would just stop by & visit my place, but I said that I would follow the rules.

This Gives Me Pause...

I share my life with 2 rescue terriers, that despite a difficult start in both of their lives, are total princess dogs. These 2 terriers don't like to go outside if it is raining! I see photos of Jack Russells working on a farm in England, all muddy from their hard work of catching the critters. My canines can barely lift their heads to acknowledge that Anderson Cooper's T-shirt is super tight as he saves a young Haitian boy from danger.



I have been thinking about the horror of the situation on the island nation of Haiti. I have had an inner dialogue concerning our finances & our economic woes at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. The fact remains that we have have a roof over our heads, & we own that roof, & somewhere in our house is jar of change with probably $30 in it. How rough can it be? Yet, can I imagine Larry & Junior coming to the aid of people trapped in the rubble, after a major earthquake in Haiti?


These impossible curs couldn't be less concerned with anything other than the next cookie or DVR-ed connections to Project Runway. What a duo of faggy, selfish dogs! Hey you dogs… how would you like to be living in Haiti right now?

Quote Of The Day From Miss Dolly Parton

"You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap!"

Happy Birthday to Dolly!

Don't you just love her? I feel like everyody does. My parents love her, my rock n' roll friends love her, young hipsters love her, the industry loves her! It's difficult to find an American country performer who has moved from deep country roots to international fame more successfully than Dolly Parton. Her  single Coat of Many Colors shows the poverty of growing up one of 12 children on a small farm in Locust Ridge, TN. At 12 years old, she was appearing on Knoxville television; at 13 she was recording on a small label & appearing on the Grand Ole Opry. Her 1967 hit Dumb Blonde (which she's not) caught Porter Wagoner's attention, & he hired Parton to appear on his television show, where their duet numbers became famous. By the time Joshua reached #1 in 1970, Parton's fame had overshadowed Wagoner's, & she had struck out on her own, but still recording duets with him.

 During the mid-70s, she established herself as a country superstar, crossing over into the pop mainstream in the early 1980s, when she smoothed out the rough edges in her music & began singing pop songs in addition to traditional country. In the early 1980s, she also began appearing in movies, including the hit 9 to 5. Though her smart marketing, image manipulation (her big, dumb blond stage persona is an act), forays into film, &her entry in the world of pop have occasionally overshadowed her music, at her core Parton is a country gal & a extremely gifted singer-songwriter. With 25- #1 singles, & a record 42 top-10 country albums.She has the distinction of having performed on a top-5 country hit in each of the last 5 decades & is tied with Reba McEntire as the only country artists with # 1 singles in 4 consecutive decades. Among her classics are Coat of Many Colors, Jolene, I Will Always Love You, 9 to 5, & Tennessee Homesick Blues, & they give a hint to why her contribution to bringing country music to a wide audience, not only in America but throughout the world, cannot be underestimated.

 My personal favorites are her late 1980s Trio albums in collaboration with Emmy Lou Harris & Linda Ronstadt. the 1st album was 10 years in the making & received strong sales & reviews when released in 1987.The album strongly revitalized Parton's temporarily stalled music career, spending 5 weeks at #1  the Country Albums chart, selling several million copies & producing 4- Top 10 country hits including Phil Spector's To Know Him Is to Love Him, which went to #1 in the USA. Trio won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal & was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Dolly turns an astonishing 64 today. Readers- what is your favorite Dolly Parton tune?

Brushing off gay rumors, Dolly has been married to Carl Thomas Dean since 1966. She keeps her private life... very private, but did say in an interview that infidelity is the secret to the longevity of their relationship:

"I don't want to know it, if he's cheating on me. If I'm cheating on him, he wouldn't want to know it & if we do, if that's what's making it work, then that's fine, too." She adds, "But actually I can't imagine that either of us would ever marry again."

Born On This Day- January 18th... Film Icon Archibald Leach

Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England. He remains the embodiment of “movie star”. He has always been a favorite, if not THE favorite, of the Husband & mine.

 "To play yourself—your true self—is the hardest thing in the world. Watch people at a party. They're playing themselves…but nine out of ten times the image they adopt for themselves is the wrong one."




"In my earlier career I patterned myself on a combination of Englishmen—Rex Harrison, Noel Coward, & Jack Buchanan, who impressed me as a character actor. He always looked so natural. I tried to copy men I thought were sophisticated & well dressed like Douglas Fairbanks or Cole Porter.”




"I cultivated raising one eyebrow and tried to imitate those who put their hands in their pockets with a certain amount of ease and nonchalance. But at times, when I put my hand in my trouser pocket with what I imagined was great elegance, I couldn't get the blinking thing out again because it dripped from nervous perspiration!"




"I guess to a certain extent I did eventually become the characters I was playing. I played at someone I wanted be until I became that person. Or he became me."


These are fascinating statements. He was box office gold for decades, & the Cary Grant persona was a consciously created phenomenon. He did it. The studios didn't do it, the marketing people didn't do it, Grant didn't even have an agent! The fact that he seemed so easy & commanding onscreen is just one of the many miracles of Cary Grant. It is even more startling to see him be awkward & sport a think Cockney accent when in his early roles, before he hit the right spot with The Awful Truth. Later in life, he expressed mild annoyance when Mae West would give herself the credit for "discovering" him. She had, indeed, pulled him out of the crowd to be the eye-candy in first She Done Him Wrong, then in I'm No Angel.

Grant was allegedly involved with costume designer Orry-Kelly when he first moved to Manhattan, & lived with Randolph Scott for twelve years. Richard Blackwell wrote that Grant and Scott were "deeply, madly in love",& alleged eyewitness accounts of their physical affection have been published. Arthur Laurents: " Grant told me he threw pebbles at my window one night but was luckless. I was out for the night". Alexander D'Arcy, who appeared with Grant in The Awful Truth, said he knew that he & Scott "lived together as a gay couple", adding: "I think Cary knew that people were saying things about him. I don't think he tried to hide it.The 2 men frequently accompanied each other to parties & premieres.

The Husband & I had the photo of Cary Grant & Randolph Scott on their pool’s diving board in a frame for a long time. Their relationship fascinated us. Ironically Cary Grant & Randolph Scott began their relationship while filming the movie Hot Saturday in 1932 & moved in together shortly after. Press reports during the first two years described the actors’ shared celebrity home & domestic using phrases like: “Hollywood’s twosome” & “the happy couple.” The innuendos provided details about the two actors’ personal lives which thrilled fans, making the actors appear to be 2 men sharing more than a home. The named their house- Bachelor Hall.

The pair continued their domestic relationship even after Grant’s marriage to Virginia Cherrill in early 1934. Reporters noted, “The Grants & Randolph Scott have moved, all three, but not apart.” Indeed, this choice for living arrangements appeared preplanned. An item from 2 weeks prior to Grant’s marriage observed that Scott would not seek any permanent quarters until he heard from Grant. Innuendos continued later that year. Shortly after Grant’s divorce from Cherrill, an article proclaimed that Randolph Scott had moved back in with Grant. This article’s title- A Woman Is Only a Woman, suggested that the 2 men formed a home life with each another that they probably could not have with a woman. These items associated the actors’ home with a forbidden sexuality, turning the place into an exotic experience.


The Paramount publicity department shot over 30 photographs of Grant & Scott within different rooms of their Santa Monica beach house. The studio focused of these pictures was on the stars’ personalities, bachelorhoods, & use of the house. The caption stamped on the back of each photograph highlighted that the actors were 2 of filmland’s most eligible bachelors who shared quarters but lived independent lives.

The actors’ living arrangement lasted until early 1942 when they moved apart for the remainder of their lives. Grant married 5 times. He died, on stage, at 82 in Davenport, Iowa while rehearsing his one-man show.

Is it telling that among Cary Grants films, we find these titles: I'm No Angel, Born To Be Bad, Kiss & Make Up, The Awful Truth, In Name Only, Suspicion, The Talk Of The Town, People Will Talk?