Born On This Day- December 31st... Jule Styne

Readers have been in the know that my favorite musical is Gypsy, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim & music by Jule Styne. Before he left us, Styne had written 2,000 songs, published 1,500 & had 200 hits. Styne: "I'm talking about hit hits, the others were popular, but there were 200 hit hits." Those hits included: It's Been a Long, Long Time, It's Magic, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, Time After Time, 5 Minutes More.

In Hollywood, he teamed up with Sammy Cahn on romantic ballads: I've Heard That Song Before, I'll Walk Alone & 3 Coins in the Fountain. On Broadway, he shifted from satire- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, with Leo Robin, to drama- Funny Girl, with Bob Merrill, also working with the great Betty Comden & Adolph Green on musical comedies- including 2 on the Aisle & Bells Are Ringing.

Styne: "I had 15 # 1 songs with Sammy Cahn. He loved that big-band sound, so every song had that big-band sound. Then I read lyrics by Yip Harburg & Leo Robin & I thought, 'I'd like to write to those kinds of words.' Yip's syllables & sounds tingle with music. Leo had a wonderful edge, a suave & very sophisticated way of comedy."

His songs often shared the stamp of the singers who introduced them: Carol Channing, Judy Holliday, Doris Day, Mary Martin, Barbra Streisand & Ethel Merman.

Born in London to Russian Jews in 1905, Styne moved to NYC & became a vocal coach & conductor for the Broadway musicals, which led to a job in Hollywood with 20th Century Fox, coaching Shirley Temple & Constance Bennett.

He said he changed his name at the suggestion of an executive of the Music Corporation of America, who told him that "Stein" seemed "too Jewish." He was also being confused with Dr. Jules Stein, the head of the Music Corporation.

Paramount borrowed Styne for the 1942 musical- Sweater Girl. He wrote songs including I Don't Want to Walk Without You, with Frank Loesser. The team turned out hits including: It's Been a Long, Long Time & I've Heard That Song Before. Many of their songs were written for Frank Sinatra, with whom Mr. Styne had a close if uneven relationship over the years.

Styne said he never liked working in the movies, even though he received an Oscar for 3 Coins in the Fountain & 7 nominations. Styne: "I didn't like a director telling me what song goes where. I was not pleased with Hollywood's adaptations of Gypsy & Funny Girl. The movies destroyed every musical they ever made from the stage.”

In 1959, Gypsy, his only collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics, the pairing brought out the best in both of them. Frank Rich: "They brought out something in each other's talent that cannot quite be found in their extraordinary separate careers."

Hallelujah, Baby!, his 18th show, finally brought Styne a Tony. He was among the 5 artists honored in 1990 by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington for their cultural contributions to the nation. In 1992, he received the New Dramatists Lifetime Achievement Award. Styne was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the American Theatre Hall of Fame, & he was a recipient of a Drama Desk Special Award.

He was still composing in 1994 when his spotlight was shut off. Styne in 1990: "I've had a goodly life & I'm working as hard as I've ever worked. A sunny day when I can sit down & write, that's what makes life so good. The brain is an amazing thing. I could sit down to write 9 songs right now, & I don't know what would come out. That's the wonder of it all."

My favorite Jule Stein song is Neverland from Pete Pan, lyrics by Comden & Green:

I have a place where dreams are born

& time is never planned

It's not on any chart

You must find it with your heart

Never Never Land.

It might be miles beyond the moon,

Or right there where you stand.

Just keep an open mind

& then suddenly you'll find

Never Never Land

You'll have a treasure if you stay there

More precious far than gold.

For once you have found your way there

You can never, never grow old

& that's my home where dreams are born

& time is never planned

Just think of lovely things

& your heart will fly on wings

Forever in Never Never Land.

You'll have a treasure if you stay there

More precious far than gold

For once you have found your way there

You can never, never grow old

& that's my home where dreams are born

& time is never planned

Just think of lovely things

& your heart will fly on wings

Forever in Never Never Land

Styne/Comden/Green

1960

Bebe & Me

When I lived in NYC in the mid-1970s, & I was studying at HB Studios, I was living with my friend- WCK3 ( who was studying at Julliard) & I working at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers). This was a fabulous job as a “music monitor”. I had a small cubicle in the ASCAP building, with a huge window that looked out at Lincoln Center & a smack on view of the Chagall tapestries at the Metropolitan Opera House. It remains one of my favorite jobs of all time, & one of the perks was frequent house seats for Broadway musicals.

The big musical of the moment was a little thing called- A Chorus Line, but my own favorite current broadway show was the somewhat less popular- Chicago. I loved this show, directed & choreographed by Bob Fosse & I saw it when ever I got a chance. It starred Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach & Gwen Verdon. At some point,Gwen Verdon fell ill, the victim of swallowing a feather from her costume & she was replaced for 1 month by someone named Liza Minnelli. I was so excited to see Liza up close & personal. ASCAP secured, for me, 2 tickets for her 1st night in the role. WCK3 could not attend, but he suggested that I bring his friend & classmate at Julliard- Bebe.

I felt bad that I had been taunting Bebe, because she shared a name with the Seattle Zoo’s famous gorilla. Beebee & BoBo were a very famous gorilla couple at the Seattle Zoo, & WCK3’s friend had to suffer through my gorilla jokes. I was glad to have a date for Liza’s Chicago debut, & Bebe seemed to have forgiven my ribbing. We had a great date at the theatre, with drinks at Joe Allen’s after the show. I wish that I had been portentous at the time, about my date was Bebe Neuwirth. I would loved to have told her that she would someday go on to win a Tony Award as Velma Kelly, in the most successful revival in Broadway history- Chicago (She would also be the 2nd Sheila in that other show- A Chorus Line): “Hey Bebe… someday, you will win a Tony award for this show & you will go on to be a big Broadway & TV star (winning 2 Emmy awards for her take on Dr. Lilith Sternin on Cheers), how about a kiss? She was a swell date. I regret not trying to make out with her at the end of our evening.

Things turned out pretty well for Bebe. Last year she has starred with Nathan Lane in The Aadams Family on Broadway. Bebe never thanks me in her award speeches, although I was the perfect date, footing the cost of the tickets & the drinks, & every bit the gentleman. Today is Bebe Neuwirth’s birthday. I will never forget our date.

Born On This Day- December 31st... Canadian Polymath Douglas Coupland

I certainly love our neighbors to the north. Margaret Atwood, Kurt Browning, Michael Bublé, Raymond Burr, Kim Cattrall, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, k d lang, who would want a world without Canadians? The Husband & I were married in Vancouver BC on our 25th anniversary of couplehood.

I first came upon Vancouver B.C.’s Douglas Coupland when the vacation home he shares with his husband was featured in the NY Times. The article revealed that the couple’s second home was directly behind their primary residence. In Seattle, The Husband & I had a second home, a 150 square foot barge on Lake Union, that was within walking distance of our 700 square foot cottage in the Wallingford neighborhood. I knew that I would dig around & get to know this Coupland fellow.

Coupland’s first novel- Generation X was published in 1991. I guess the title had some impact on our culture, giving a name to the post-Boomers & the term McJobs. In the next 2 decades, he wrote 13 novels, a collection of short stories, 8 volumes of nonfiction, the official guide to the Vancouver Olympics, stage plays, & screenplays.

It isn’t enough that he has created books & scripts, Coupland is a visual artist. Recently he designed the Monument to the War of 1812 in Toronto, iconic sculptures in Canoe Landing Park in downtown Toronto. His tribute to Canada's fallen firefighters in Ottawa is unveiled in March, 2012. Coupland, in collaboration with Roots, designed a popular collection of summer streetwear.

Hornet Nest 1 & 2

Downy Bottle #1

Blocks

Coupland claims to work 7 days a week & to never have taken a vacation.

Coupland has written a series of suggestions for surviving the future. Here are a few that I have taken to heart:

“It's going to get worse .No silver linings & no lemonade. The elevator only goes down. The bright note is that the elevator will, at some point, stop.”

“The middle class is over. It's not coming back. Remember travel agents? Remember how they just kind of vanished one day? That's where all the other jobs that once made us middle-class are going – to that same, magical, class-killing, job-sucking wormhole into which travel-agency jobs vanished, never to return. However, this won't stop people from self-identifying as middle-class, & as the years pass we'll be entering a replay of the antebellum South, when people defined themselves by the social status of their ancestors 3 generations back. Enjoy the new monoclass!”

“North America can easily fragment quickly as did the Eastern Bloc in 1989. Quebec will decide to quietly & quite pleasantly leave Canada. California contemplates splitting into 2 states, fiscal & non-fiscal. Cuba becomes a Club Med with weapons. The Hate States will form a coalition.”

“Your sense of time will continue to shred. Years will feel like hours.

“It is going to become much easier to explain why you are the way you are. Much of what we now consider “personality” will be explained away as structural & chemical functions of the brain.”

“You're going to miss the 1990s more than you ever thought.”

“Stupid people will be in charge, only to be replaced by ever-stupider people. You will live in a world without kings, only princes in whom our faith is shattered.”

“IKEA will become an ever-more-spiritual sanctuary.”

“Dreams will get better”

“Being alone will become easier”

“Expect less… Not zero, just less.”

Born On This Day- December 31st... Taylor Mead

I met him at a holiday party hosted by my acting teacher- Austin Pendelton & I figured that we might possibly become friends & he would be my entrance to Andy Warhol's Factory, another step closer to fame.

Tennessee Williams: "All art is a scandal. Life tries to be. Taylor Mead succeeds. I come close". It took a long time for any one to have any reason to think of Taylor Mead as something other than a lonely old barfly living in a squalid apartment, feeding cats & mining mumbled memories.

In fact, Mead has been at the heart of the American avant-garde and counterculture for over 6 decades. A bridge between the Beat movement & the New York art world of the 1960s, he has remained an important creative force, as a writer, a performer & a muse for filmmaker Jim Jarmusch who featured Mead affectionately in Coffee &Cigarettes (2003).

Mead was initially discovered as a poet, but he soon became a leading onscreen figure in American experimental & independent Film, as well as an important collaborator off-screen, contributing to the editing & soundtracks of the films in which he appears.

Born in 1924 to a prominent Grosse Point family, Mead grew up gay at a time when it was not just scandalous but dangerous. He was disowned by his family & he left & fled to the freedom of NYC’s bohemian circles in the 1940s where he became a fixture on the poetry scene. He relocated to San Francisco like so many The Beats. In California, Mead began a collaboration with aspiring filmmaker Ron Rice, starring role in the sensitive The Flower Thief (1960). The film’s tremendous success brought Mead to the attention of artists working in NYC experimental film & theatre. Mead began to appear onstage with major roles in plays by LeRoi Jones & Frank O'Hara, eventually landing a "contract" as one of Andy Warhol's first superstars.

Mead's raunchy & droll performances, are completely unsophisticated & sincere. He has made over 100 movies, 10 with Warhol.

Those who think American indie film began with Quentin Tarantino in the 1990s will be surprised to know that it was the1960s underground cinema that laid the groundwork of what would become the entire independent film movement.

Mead turns 87 years old today. He lives in NYC, & still performs & read poetry regularly at The Bowery Poetry Club. His latest book of poems is called A Simple Country Girl. He was the subject of a documentary- Excavating Taylor Mead, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005. The film shows him engaging in his nightly habit of feeding stray cats in an East Village cemetery after bar-hopping, & features a cameo by Jim Jarmusch, in which Jarmusch explains that once, when Mead went to Europe, he enlisted Jarmusch's brother to feed the cemetery cats in Mead's absence.

Mead is a beloved icon of the downtown NYC art scene since the 1960s. He continues to be charming, with a wry outlook & dry delivery Mead: “Warhol was a genius. Of course, Hitler was a genius, too ...".

In the mid 1970s, Gary Weis made a short film of Mead for Saturday Night Live that featured Mead talking to his cat in the kitchen of his Ludlow Street apartment on the Lower East Side. The film is titiled- Taylor Mead's Cat.

Gratuitous

Top 10 Songs Of 2011

The Husband & I had a New Year's ritual for decades We would prepare a list of our top 10 albums of the year & our favorite track from each. On the evening of New Year's Eve, when we would return home after working, we would open our envelopes & starting with #10, we would announce & listen to each of our choices. We would do this while drinking Champagne. We would become rather intoxicated by the time we got to our #1s & we would become woozily sentimental, bursting into tears from spending time with our favorites, which of course often overlapped, but the choices were almost always ranked differently. Then we would make out & have drunk sex while the music played on.

The ritual fell aside with the downloading of tunes instead of buying LPs & eventually moving to CDs. I have not purchased a CD since Amy Winehouse's Back To Black (a nearly perfect album) in 2006. 

In that spirit, I offer up my favorite songs of 2011. You don't have to get drunk (well, maybe a little Champagne), make out or have sex... but, I would be interested in your choices for Best Songs of 2011. Care to share?

Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2011:
Pumped Up Kicks- Foster The People
Rolling In The Deep- Adele
I Won’t Let You Go- James Morrison
The Lazy Song- Bruno Mars
Moneygrabber- Fitz & The Tantrums
That Is Why We Fight- The Decemberists
Shake It Out- Florence + The Machine
Poison & Wine- Civil Wars
Calgary- Bon Iver
Our Day Will Come- Amy Winehouse

Blame It On My Youth

If I expected love when first we kissed,

Blame it on my youth.

If only for you I did exist,

Blame it on my youth.

I believed in everything,

Like a child of three;

You meant more than anything,

All the world to me!

If you were on my mind

 All night & day,

Blame it on my youth.

If I forgot to eat & sleep & pray,

Blame it on my youth.

If I cried a little bit

When first I learned the truth,

Don't blame it on my heart,

Blame it on my youth.

 

Chet Baker, I just love it... but you should here me do it. Really.

Levant

1934

Born On This Day- December 27th... Oscar Levant

"Roses are red, violets are blue,
I am schizophrenic, & so am I."

One of my favorite people of the 20th century-Alexander Woollcott, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, once said of him: "There's absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix."

Open about his neuroses & hypochondria, Oscar Levant, was addicted to prescription pills & was frequently committed to mental hospitals. Despite his afflictions, Levant was considered a genius in many disciplines. Levant: "There's a fine line between genius & insanity. I have erased this line."

Levant was sad, ironic & self-deprecating & wildly talented. I have every reason to think that he was gay. Levant's life proves to be more interesting than that of his good friend, the legendary George Gershwin, whom he possibly was involved romantically. Perhaps this is because he lived for so much longer, & because of Levant's numerous talents other than music.

Levant was a notorious wit; he was so funny that he could afford to be obnoxious & insulting & still count on being a welcome guest in the homes of his many celebrity friends.

A perceptive musical theorist, Levant knew the art of composing for films; it was he who coined the phrase "Mickey Mousing," in reference to movie scores that slavishly commented upon the action. The longer he stayed in Hollywood, the more he became famous as a "character" rather than a musician.

The public first became aware of Levant's acidic wit when he was a frequent guest on the Information Please radio program. After 1940, he spent more time as an actor: Humoresque (1945), Rhapsody in Blue (1945), The Barkeleys of Broadway (1949) & O. Henry's Full House (1952), in which he co-starred with Fred Allen in the Ransom of Red Chief segment. He was at his best in 2 classic MGM musicals: An American in Paris (1951), where he appears in a dream sequence, playing every member of the orchestra in a performance of Gershwin's Concerto in F; & The Band Wagon (1953), in which he & Nanette Fabray play characters based on Adolph Green & Betty Comden.

Oscar Levant's personality can be summed up by a pair of his most oft-repeated witticisms: "In some moments I was difficult, in odd moments impossible, in rare moments loathsome, but at my best unapproachably great;" & the self-deprecating "I am the world's oldest child prodigy."

The son of a Pittsburgh repairman, Oscar Levant went to NYC at 16 to study music under such masters as Stojowski, Schoenberg & Schillinger (I just can’t stop with the alliteration). Before reaching his 20th birthday, he had gained renown as a concert pianist, teacher, band leader & composer. In the early 1930s, he played a minor role in the stage play Burlesque with Cher. During his time in Hollywood, Levant became BFFs with George Gershwin & by the mid-1930s Levant was perhaps the greatest interpreter of Gershwin's works in the world.

While he continued with his popularity & circle of friends into the 1960s, Levant's mood swings & increasingly erratic behavior began having professional repercussions. He was nearly banned from television when he quipped about Marilyn Monroe's conversion to Judaism: "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her". As time went on, only late-night host Jack Paar would risk having Levant as a guest, & when Paar left TV in 1965, so, for all intents and purposes, did Levant. Paar in later years would sign off by saying, "Good night, Oscar Levant, wherever you are."

In & out of mental institutions during his last 2 decades; his final film, Cobweb (1955), was set in a sanitarium, in real life he became dependent upon pain-killers & other prescription drugs. Despite his deteriorating physical & mental condition, he was able to turn out 3 terrific memoirs: A Smattering of Ignorance, The Unimportance Of Being Oscar & The Memoirs Of An Amnesiac. Oscar Levant died of a heart attack in 1972 at the age of 66.

He composed one of my favorite songs of all time - Blame It On My Youth, a song in my own repitoire.

Here are just some of his quips:

“Spinoza said rituals are all based on fear. My faith destroyed, I put down the book.”

"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left."

"So little time & so little to do..."

"I'm a concert pianist, that's a pretentious way of saying I'm unemployed at the moment."

"I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin."

"I have one thing to say about psychoanalysis: fuck Dr. Freud."

"The only difference between the Democrats & the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too."

"Everyone in Hollywood is gay, except Gabby Hayes... & that's because he is a transvestite."

"It's not a pretty face, I grant you but underneath its flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character."

When asked by Jack Paar what he does for exercise, he replied, "I stumble, then fall into a coma."

"Leonard Bernstein is revealing musical secrets that have been common knowledge for centuries."

Asked by Jack Paar to describe his reaction to Milton Berle converting to become a Christian Scientist- "Our loss is their loss."

"The best kind of guests are the ones that know when to leave!"

“Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.”

“I don't drink. I don't like it. It makes me feel good.”

“I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on.”

“I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.”

"Strip away the false tinsel from Hollywood, & you find the real tinsel inside."

"It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts."

“Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome.”

“I am no more humble than my talents require.”

I've been in 4 hospitals in the last 6 years. I've had insulin shock therapy, electroshock therapy & psychotherapy. One of these days, I'm going to do this show in white tie & straitjacket."

Born On This Day- December 27th... Marie Magdalene Dietrich

Don't you continue to find her to be fabulous? She had quite the gay life... Marlene Dietrich, the smoky voiced Gay Icon who ending her cabaret show in the very dangerous 1950s, with this: “Please try to be gay tonight as I know it is so difficult to be gay in the morning.”

Dietrich is an ultra-icon & she had personal relationship with Gay-ness. She chose her men for show & her women for love, lust & laughs. She was a film star when film stars were film stars. Dietrich’s shtick was to be idolized, indomitable & indifferent. She didn’t like mistakes. She was a perfectionist. When her mentor- Joseph von Sternberg, the director of early films: The Blue Angel, Morocco, The Devil Is A Woman, would not relinquish control to her, she gave him up. Like Mae West, Dietrich didn’t let a little thing like a Hollywood run by men dictate what she could do.

Dietrich possessed a profoundly complex personality, including her attitude about sexuality. She had a big attraction gay people from the start of her career: the campiness of her films, her devil-may-care attitude to convention, her trouser-wearing that nearly got her arrested in post-war Paris, & her fabulous voice.

Dietrich’s was bravely anti-Nazi during World War II, she turned her back on her native Germany & for 3 years she worked against Hitler. For her courage & commitment to the Allied cause, she was awarded the Legion d’Honneur in France & the Congressional Medal of Honor in the USA, the highest honors that can be bestowed on a civilian.

Dietrich became an atheist, abandoning her Lutheran faith: "If God exists, he needs to review his plan.” She had honor, humor, &humanity. At a time when it could not have been easy, she gave the world her eye-popping style of sexual liberation. Fred Astaire stated that no one wore a white tuxedo as well as she. She was a woman ahead of her time.

Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally & personally. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage & in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg, brought her international fame & provided her a contract with Paramount Pictures. Hollywood films such as Shanghai Express & Desire used her glamour and exotic looks, cementing her stardom, making her one of the highest paid actresses of the era. Dietrich became a USA citizen in 1939, throughout WWII she was a high profile frontline entertainer. Although she still made occasional films after the war, Dietrich spent most of the 1950s ,1960s &1970s touring the world as a successful cabaret performer.

Dietrich’s love affairs included women: Mercedes de Acosta, Garbo, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, Colette, & Edith Piaf. Throughout her career Dietrich had an unending string of affairs, some some lasting decades; they often overlapped & were almost all known to her husband, to whom she was in the habit of passing the love letters of her men, along with biting commentary.

During the filming of Destry Rides Again, Dietrich enjoyed a love affair with Jimmy Stewart, which ended after filming. In 1938, Dietrich met and began a relationship with the writer- Erich Maria Remarque, & from 1941-1949, with the French actor & military hero Jean Gabin. Her last great passion, when she was in her 50s, was Yul Brynner. Her love life continued well into her 70s. She conquests included: John Wayne, George Bernard Shaw & John F. Kennedy. Dietrich’s household included her husband & his mistress, first in Europe & eventually on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley, California.

Dietrich was made an honorary citizen of Berlin on 16 May 2002. Her memorial plaque reads:

"Where have all the flowers gone?"
MARLENE DIETRICH
December 12, 1901 - May 6, 1992

Marlene Dietrich, anti-fascist, bi-sexual, movie star, Vegas headliner, fashion icon, recording artist, & Gay Icon. She was friendly with Ronnie & Nancy, but I like to think of what someone like Michelle Bachmann would think of Dietrich, if Bachmann was smart enough to know who she was.

December 26th

Today's the big day... that day that we eagerly await for as soon as the Halloween pumpkin is tossed on the compost heap- the Feast of Stephen or Boxing Day or Wren Day. Well actually, this is the start of The Week of Stephen. It begins today - the Feast Day of St. Stephen, to whom it shall be noted, was the first Christian to be stoned, no small significance to me personally.

At Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, birthdays are celebrated with a week long celebration honoring the recipient with a series of celebrations & kindnesses. We start today with St. Stephen’s day & wraps up on January 3rd with the birthday of yours truly. Today, I am going to start to prepare for my birthday with a week of being celibate, doing a cleansing fast: no alcohol, no pizza… unless I should slip up & end up getting drunk & getting laid.

St. Stephen was stoned to death in 34 AD by a mob led by Paul (when he was still Saul). In Acts 1 it says:
Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses & against God." So they stirred up the people & the elders & the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen & brought him before the Sanhedrin. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place & change the customs Moses handed down to us." Since Stephen was the first martyr, he's referred to as a protomartyr, a word we only get to use once a year.

Good King Wenceslas is the big musical number for St. Stephen's Day. The tune was originally written for the song, Tempus Adest Floridum (It is time for flowering), a 13th-century spring carol first introduced in the 1582's Swede/Finn co-production: Piae Cantiones. Perhaps you have seen it? If you've never really listened to the lyrics to Good King Wenceslas, they deal with the Bohemian King going out on St. Stephen's Day to give alms to the poor. A rich Duke’s page is freezing to death but Wenceslas's footprints provide magical warmth…. or something like that.

If you live in the Anglo-land, then you don't need to have Boxing Day explained... unless you're from the USA or Ireland, the only Anglo-ish countries that do not celebrate it. On Boxing Day, you give a gift to your inferiors. This seems to me to be very patronizing & classist, or rather-very English. "Oh it's nothing. Just a little something I, your superior in class, got for you, one of the lower orders." Even the English seemed to have realized this seemed a bit condescending, now they just use today to take advantage of after-Christmas sales, to buy stuff for themselves. Back in a time far way, the Husband & I would travel from our home in Seattle to one of our favorite cities- Vancouver BC, to enjoy the Boxing Day sales. Merchandise at the Canadian stores- Eaton’s & The Bay Company etc, would be marked down 60%, which with the strength of the US dollar against the Canadian(those were the days!), would make for terrific savings. We would then spend our saved money on dining out at the swellest spots in Vancouver, & leaving tips for our inferiors.

In Wales, the people of my own heritage, they have their own peculiar brand of St. Stephen's Day acknowledgement. On what they named- Gŵyl San Steffan, it is customary to bleed the livestock & slash female servants with holly branches. How can we can explain the Welsh?

Why no Boxing Day in Ireland? The Irish celebrate- Lá an Dreoilín, or Wren Day. Before I looked it up, I thought- "Oh, Wren's Day. They must venerate the little birds on this day." Actually, traditionally on this day, young hooligans called- Wrenboys got together & hunted down the tiny, defenseless creatures. Then they'd go around with the dead wren's tiny corpse fastened to the end of a pole, singing songs & drinking. Wrens have a reputation for treachery in Irish culture & legend has it that wrens betrayed Irish forces during a Viking attack & so the Irish on this day kill the wrens out of revenge. By the 1930s, wrens were almost extinct in Ireland. That will teach a lesson to those traitorous wrens!

& now, at the end of the feast day of Saint Stephen, I leave you to be stoned & go to bed. I am to pooped to post.

Winter Song... Money Can't Buy It

Money can't buy it

Sex can't buy it

Drugs can't buy it

You can't buy it

I believe that love alone

Might do these things for you

I believe in love alone

Take the power to set you free

Kick down the door

& throw away the key

Give up your needs...

Your poisoned seeds

Find yourself elected

To a different kind of creed

I believe that love alone

Might do these things for you

I believe that love alone

Might do these things for you

I believe in the power of creation

I believe in the good vibration

I believe in love alone

Won't somebody tell me what we're coming to

It might take forever

Till we watch those dreams come true

All the money in the world

Won't buy you peace of minde

You can have it all

But you still won't be satisfied

Money can't buy it

Sex can't buy it

Drugs can't buy it

You can't buy it

Now...

Hear this

Pay attention to me

'cause I'm a rich white girl

& it's plain to see

I've got every kind of thing that the money can buy

Let me tell you all about it

Let me amplify

I got diamonds...

You heard about those

I got so many

I can't close my safe at night in the dark

Lying awake in a sick dream

I believe that love alone

Might do these things for you

I believe that love alone

Might do these things for you

I believe in the power of creation

I believe in the good vibration

I believe in love alone

Lennox
1992

An Englishman In New York

I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear

I like my toast done on one side

& you can hear it in my accent
 When I talk

I'm an Englishman in New York

See me walking down Fifth Avenue

A walking cane here at my side

I take it everywhere I walk

I'm an Englishman in New York

I'm an alien

I'm a legal alien

I'm an Englishman in New York

I'm an alien

I'm a legal alien

I'm an Englishman in New York

If, "Manners maketh man"
 As someone said

Then he's the hero of the day

It takes a man to suffer ignorance
 & smile

Be yourself no matter what they say

I'm an alien

I'm a legal alien

I'm an Englishman in New York

Modesty, propriety can lead to notoriety

You could end up as the only one

Gentleness & sobriety
 Are rare in this society

At night a candle's brighter than the sun

Takes more than combat gear
 To make a man

Takes more than a license for a gun

Confront your enemies,

Avoid them when you can

A gentleman will walk but never run

If, "Manners maketh man"
 As someone said

Then he's the hero of the day

It takes a man to suffer ignorance
 & smile

Be yourself no matter what they say

I'm an alien

 I'm a legal alien

I'm an Englishman in New York

I'm an alien

 I'm a legal alien

I'm an Englishman in New York

Sting

1987

Born On This Day- December 25th... Denis Charles Pratt

When I arrived in NYC in the late summer of 1976, I didn’t even know how to get from the airport into Manhattan. I was 22 years old & one of another hundred people who just got off of the plane, ready to become a Broadway star & recording artist. I ended up taking a taxi into the city to the Tudor City Hotel, which I had chosen to make a reservation because it was in the same area as Truman Capote’s apartment. My room at the hotel was the size of the bathroom of my L.A. apartment & had one tiny window that looked at an air shaft.

I checked in & immediately headed down 42nd street to Time Square to imagine my name in lights. This was Time Square of the mid-1970s, so very different than the Disney-ized Manhattan today. I was so overwhelmed to find myself alone with 2 pieces of luggage & my dreams, but no plan, that I called the only person I had any connection to in the city. My mother’s cousin- Michael, whom I had met when I was 10, lived on Central Park West at 80th Street. I called him & confessed that I was a bit freaked out at finding myself in NYC. He turned out to be a very handsome sweetheart of a guy & he invited me to stay in his apartment’s maid’s quarters until I could find my own place.

I took him up on the offer, but stayed my one already paid for room at the Tudor City for one night. I turned on the tiny black & white TV in the room & watched a moving & mesmerizing film- The Naked Civil Servant, starring John Hurt, about the early life of Quinton Crisp, of whom I knew nothing. The film was unlike anything that I had experienced. Like me, Crisp had arrived NYC not knowing a soul, but he arrived with a plan. Crisp was ready to become famous.

Quentin Crisp was born Denis Charles Pratt on this day in 1908. He was the author of the classic & flamboyantly eccentric coming-of-age memoir The Naked Civil Servant. The award-winning film version made him an instant international celebrity. Crisp also wrote many books & articles about his life & his opinions on style, fashion, & the movies. Crisp was famous for his concise, compact, & dare I say it, crisp witticisms.

He performed his one-man show- An Evening with Quentin Crisp, to acclaim in theaters around the world, all the while spreading his unique philosophy: "Never keep up with the Joneses; drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." During the second part of his show, Crisp answered questions from the audience & gave advice to audience members about how to find their individual style & live a happy life. I saw him twice in this vehicle, in the early 1980s & again in the late 1990s. He was always in the "profession of being."

Crisp was Oscar Wilde's perfect descendant. With his calculated caustic confabulations, open homosexuality & witty, winning obstinate opinions toward any kind of conventionality, Crisp caused a bit of a stir in the traditional Britain of the 1950s, 1960s, & 1970s. In 1981, Quentin Crisp moved to NYC, bringing along his familiar & witty remarks & his eccentricity. Quentin Crisp charmed the city & became the essence of the modern rebel.

During his 2 decades in Manhattan, Crisp wrote books, reviews, appeared in several movies, including playing a touching & dignified Elizabeth I in Sally Ann Potter's Orlando & The Bride, where, during filming, he became friends with Sting who was playing Dr. Frankenstein.

Crisp remained fiercely independent & unpredictable into old age. He caused controversy & confusion in the LGBT community by jokingly calling AIDS "a fad", & homosexuality "a terrible disease". Crisp commented after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales: "She could have been Queen of England & she was swanning about Paris with Arabs. What disgraceful behaviour! Going about saying she wanted to be the queen of hearts. The vulgarity of it is so overpowering." He was always in demand from journalists needing a sound-bite, & throughout the 1990s his commentary was always in demand.

He entertained publicly & privately with his inimitable decorum, dignity, dexterity, drollery & drive. Crisp spent his 90th birthday performing his show. He died on the eve of touring his one-man show in Manchester, England, a few weeks shy of his 91st birthday in 1999.

Crisp was the inspiration & subject matter of Sting’s song Englishman in New York. Crisp: “I had looked forward to receiving my naturalization papers so that he could commit a crime & not be deported." In l986 Sting visited Crisp in his apartment and was told over dinner, & the following 3 days, what life had been like for a homosexual man in the very homophobic Britain of the 1920s -1960s. Sting was both shocked & fascinated. The song includes the lyrics:

"It takes a man to suffer ignorance & smile, Be yourself no matter what they say."

Sting: "…it's partly about me & partly about Quentin. Again, I was looking for a metaphor. Quentin is a hero of mine, someone I knew very well. He is gay, and he was gay at a time in history when it was dangerous to be so. He had people beating up on him on a daily basis, largely with the consent of the public."

Essential Crisp: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), How To Have A Lifestyle (1975) How To Become a Virgin (1981) & The Wit & Wisdom of Quentin Crisp (1989).

Merry Christmas!

I admit to being a corporeal curmudgeon, but I wish to diverge from my usual selfishness & wish all of the readers of Post Apocalyptic Bohemia a Most Merry Christmas. Writing for my little spot on the Internet & telling my story has made me very happy, although I don't think of what I do here as writing, but rather more like graffiti.

This Christmas was very different than my wondrous childhood Christmases or the holidays past, especially Christmas 2010, with all of the heartbreak. The Husband had his first day off since early November. Boys' Fort was an artistic, commercial, & popular success. We met so many talented people & it was an adrenalin rushing, headlong emotional experience.

Several decades ago, admitting that we had the same taste in music, books & clothing (we wore the same size at that point), The Husband & I gave up giving each other Christmas gifts. We would instead, purchase something major for the house. This year, being very frugal, I was surprised & staggered by his offering. He gave Post Apocalyptic Bohemia the gift of 2 fruit wood chairs, circa 1790s, Italian hand carved chairs, for our tiny dining room. They were purchased from Steve & Harvey, 2 smart, handsome, talented men who offered their jaw-dropping works of 19th century art for sale at Boys' Fort.

The Husband closed his Pop-Up shop earlier than I wrapped things up at my store. I arrived home to a fire in the fireplace, the house aglow in candle light & a bottle of champagne. How lucky am I? I feel slightly bad about being such a son-of a bitch-Scrooge. Slightly. Not to get too tender... but I love you all, & I wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Rapping

What follows is my post from a year ago today. It still stings 12 months later. An update: RCK has been in jail since August 17th. He did a very bad thing. His trial is in early January. The Husband, who writes RCK every other day, has been called to testify, I guess as a character witness. I am not quite sure why there is a trail, RCK was caught while in the act... I am not understanding why anyone believes he will beat this. I rather love The Husband for his generosity of spirit, if not his reasoning.

Michael still lives on the streets & appears every few months at my place of employment. He asks for money. I give it to him. Did you understand that cash can pay off guilt? I am glad to know that little maxim. He will be 18 in a few weeks.

We have RCK's cat- Henry living with us. Henry is ancient & wise. Junior hates Henry, but Lulu, The Husband & I like him. Henry told me today that the true meaning of Christmas is: "You can buy love." I wish memories were like text messages. I could delete the ones I don’t like, & save the ones I love. Last Christmas Was The Worst Christmas Ever. Here is my post from one year ago today:

How can I keep it simple? There are so many layers. This story is right out of Dickens & I title it: The Worst Christmas Ever, or A Tale Of Two Shitties With Great Expectations at Bleak House.

He was brought into our lives by the most nefarious of people- RCK, one of several in a cast of characters that land on the doorstep of Post Apocalyptic Bohemia when something is really wrong & they are need help. I call them- The Strays.

RCK dropped back into our lives after dropping out 3 years ago. He disclosed that since he had left us in a blaze on Christmas Eve 2007, he had lost his job, his house, his automobile & his cat. After stints in the psych ward, rehab & jail, & after spending a year sleeping in parks & under bridges, he was going to attempt to put his life right, & even though he had screwed us over in the past, RCK was beseeching us for help. Right out of Oliver Twist, RCK had an orphan attached to him. He introduced us to Michael.

Michael’s story is one of the saddest to be told. He was given up for adoption at birth, but never adopted. Michael was in & out of foster homes the rest of his life. He was placed in a good Christian home in Coos Bay, where he was passed around to family members to be sexually abused. Released from that horror, he was next sent to central Oregon to a family that beat him so badly that he lost the use of one arm, which stayed the same size as Michael grew; he can’t use that arm or hand at all & he keeps it tucked into the jacket that he never removed in our view.

Michael, who will be 17 years old in less than a month, has been living on the streets of Portland since he was 13. At some point, he briefly found shelter with a gay couple, who got him hooked on crystal meth, & who took turns using him. RCK seems to have found him in a park in late summer & took to being his protector. Hooked on meth himself, RCK was moved by Michael’s story, & took to giving Michael solace & looking out for his best interests.

We allowed RCK to store what he had left in his life in our garage, do his laundry, & shower at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. He declined offers to sleep on our couch, I imagine because he stayed up all night, & I was more than a little relieved.

I see now that RCK was grooming us. A master manipulator, he was methodical & knew just how to play us, working at the Husband’s predisposition to feeling guilty, & around my desire to do the right thing while protecting my own subtle, susceptible sympathies.

We slowly got to know Michael. He is a tiny little bird: 5’6’’, 120 #, & looks to be around 12 years old, pretty, sly, intelligent, street smart, a deeply, & mournfully damaged. RCK would bring him by & the Husband would make them food. I had a dewy-eyed, dreamy reaction to the sight of Michael as redesigned by the Husband. The Husband, it seemed, had purchased a pair of Levi 501s, a tight black nylon shirt with zippers, & pointy black boots for the boy. When Michael proudly modeled his new outfit, I realized that the Husband had created a petite, pint-sized, pocket version of himself. He had made a Husband mini-me.

RCK continued to drop by our home to shower & regroup, with the lad in tow. RCK slowly insinuated that we could/should foster/adopt Michael. It immediately seemed out of the question, but the Husband was moved by some guilt about his role as a father in the past, & even I saw the possibilities in saving this young life. I realized that I would need to become a role model, a position I never dreamed of fulfilling. I would need to give up whiskey & Mary Jane!

I didn’t need or want to move too fast, much to RCK’s ire. I started asking questions: was it legal for us to harbor a 16 year old, does DHS let you choose your foster child, are we out of our minds? I went to the owner of my business, who has fostered a child & is married to a former State Supreme Court Judge. She advised against it: “what will you do if you discover he is Bipolar, very possible considering his life so far? Are you prepared to deal with that?” This proved to be true when we discovered that Michael had been off his meds for Bipolar disorder & ADD.

Agonizing over my selfishness, I advised RCK that we would like to be Michael’s Gay Uncles, but due to our finances, health problems, small house, & emotional state as a couple, we felt we were not a good choice for foster parenting or adoption. We would help with clothing. I would help him with his paperwork & the money to file for emancipation. We would help get him into a school or get his GED. We could take Michael to movies, plays & museums. We could act as family, if not The Family.

RCK had texted that Michael had bolted & had not been heard from. Would we contact him if we heard from Michael? Last week, Michael, who does not have a phone, was able to call the Husband & ask for help. He had spent the very cold & very rainy night in a park & wanted help. The Husband had Michael locate the closest intersection signs; we Google mapped his location & drove on I-205 in the most ghastly traffic as the heavens opened up with profound, pelting rain. I texted RCK with news that the boy had made contact us & we were on the way to get him. Michael called once more & I instructed him to stay put, we were on our way.

At the location, Michael was nowhere to be found. We drove around a ½ mile radius, in the winter rain, praying that we had not got it wrong. We were deep in SE Portland, not in our hemisphere. We were in a panic & crying when RCK texted with news that the boy was back safe with him. Michael always returns to RCK. We had already surmised that the kid was in love with his benefactor & we saw this as a possibly insurmountable obstacle to his moving forward.

Mid-week, we heard from RCK . Michael wanted to spend the holiday with us & the husband didn’t even blink when we understood that we could provide Michael with a real Christmas. We spent the 23rd gathering cool clothing for the kid.

I worked 3:45am-6pm on Christmas Eve. The Husband brought Michael to my store & I introduced the kid to my staff, including a young Puerto Rican Gay Boy. They had lunch & were off to a movie. I noted that Michael seemed calm & happy. I even saw him laugh. Late afternoon, I saw the husband & his mini-me walking across the plaza at Director Park. My heart was once again opened up to the possibility of fostering or adopting. The staff had remarked that the Husband & the kid looked alike.

I returned home after a 14 hour workday to a fire in the fireplace, holiday music playing, candles lit, homemade spaghetti on the stove, & wrapped Christmas gifts waiting for the kid. The Husband met me with deep sadness & a touch of panic in his demeanor. It seems that the kid had spent the day attempting to get away. Michael had talked about nothing else all day. The 3 of us sat down & had an honest discourse. Michael: “Please don’t hate me. I can’t do this. I have a friend I need to see. I can’t stay here. I have serious problems & I can’t be at your house. Don’t hate me. I am selfish. I need to do what I need to do.”

The Husband & I realized that Michael would be fleeing no matter what we did; & I understood that stopping him would be tantamount to kidnapping. I gave Michael my Tri-Met Transit Pass, which allow him to travel on any bus or train. I collect $2 bills, & the kid had been fascinated by them. I gave him a $20 bill & a handful of $2s. The husband gave Michael a sweatshirt to wear under his jacket & my favorite pair of boots that the orphan had been eyeing. The Husband drove Michael to our Max Train station.

When the Husband returned home, he was in deep despair, we stared at the pile of gifts for the kid, we both sobbed, & I took 2 doses of Citalopram, crawled under the covers & cried myself to sleep.

Sometime in the night, RCK texted that Michael was with him. On Christmas morning, the husband handed me my tea, hugged me & whispered- “the worst Christmas ever?” I had to concur. “God Bless Us, Every One!”

2010, Michael & RCK... so, sue me.