back in business - part deux

So this in honor of Mel's return to the blog, who might just be the only reader of my blog :) and I do mean that smile in a nice way, not a snarky way . . .
Anyways, she's back and I wanted to post "Back in Business" from the movie Dick Tracy with Madonna and Warren Beatty. It was silly fun, pre-"Chicago", and I was a gay little 4th grader, worshipping my "I'm Breathless" Madonna inspired-by soundtrack. It had a trampy little song about S&M that I thought was so titillating as a youth, as well as all kinda campy tracks, and three gorgeous tracks written by Sondheim, who I wouldn't get to know till Bravo turned me into a big mary sissy fag in high school and I'd watch musicals all during the month of June in honor of gay pride month.
There was one long, hot summer where I watched so many "pink" films and tv shows, that truly shaped the person that I am now. I watched every episode of Twin Peaks on Bravo AND Melrose Place on E!, I sobbed at the hiv tragedy Longtime Companion, loaded up on musicals (Godspell, Pippin, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar, all the Rodgers and Hammerstein I could rent, West Side Story, Into the Woods(!), Camelot) Prick Up Your Ears!, My Beautiful Laundrette, The Piano, oh the Merchant-Ivory sumptuousness of Maurice . . . I raided the library for D.H. Lawrence for it's latent homoeroticism, I trolled the Sexuality section of the new Hastings in our mall to peek at "The New Joy of Gay Sex" and discovered my nipples were sensitive, I uncovered Pansy Division, found porn on the Internet (of all places!) I started "getting into" 8os music, especially all that ultra-fem and oh-so-fab New Wave . . . . I wish I woulda just come out back then, instead of delaying it for so long . . . but, it was a different time and a very different place. Anyways, back to Sondheim . . . .
That old grey girl can sure write some tunes that stab you in the heart. Inside the Actors Studio had him on its' inaugural season, before it became such an SNL gag (and really, c'mon, Jennifer Lopez? please, girl can dance and shake her ass, but acting? and teaching anyone anything about acting?) Anyways, they had a couple sing some of his signature songs ('Barcelona' ahhh), but it was only later I'd discover a few that just, *sigh, can't be ignored.

"Being Alive"
The current production of Company, starring Raul Esparza, is particularly "relevant" in that the lead actor /closet case is actually gay in real life, so the fact that he hasn't met the right woman, or "person" cuts to the heart of Sondheim, the composer and lyricist. It's hard not to turn it into a showstopper, it begs and demands and shouts itself into the theater . . . witness, children

Being Alive - Patti LuPone



I always wondered why the mom from Life Goes On was such a great singer on the show . . . woman is famazing, fantestical, but that hair is NOT electrocute. No, m'am!


I just tossed this in cause I remember watching a lot of figure skating back then, and c'mon, the Yamaguchi was a fucking bad-ass!

"I'm Still Here" - Yvonne De Carlo



you gotta love a dame in a tunic . . . and you can't sing this if you're not an old broad with a pack-a-day habit and a story to tell.

"Johanna" - Hugh Panaro (I wanna call him Huge Canary)



i dunno about the package, but what a great voice and some good acting, and fuck, the tune Johanna gets my goat everytime . . . . i feel you . . .. . one day, I'll STEAL you .. .. . mercy

Songs from the Big Chair

as the days pass, longer and longer as the summer stays just out of grasp, i return to the songs of my youth. this song came back into my life a few years ago but I still cannot (or refuse to) shake it from my subconcious. When Orzabal shouts "men of stone!", when Oleta sweetens and covalesces with that harmony that is neither high nor low, just blends in . . . when the faux flutes at the beginning begin the haunting, twisting eighth note ostinato, when the cute bass player with my hair cut frowns at the camera . . . it's all too much, mini-soap opera in 5 minutes that could be taking place next door or in any west european hovel . . . .Oleta, who just seers into 'Get Here' which i tagged under the video, really makes this song, such an evocative power ballad from a group famous for power ballads (Sowing the Seeds of Love (piccolo trumpet!), Shout, Head over Heels, and the 8os song to end all 8os songs, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, all of which I'll probably remark on soon) Sometimes I hear a song that I can't say I know, but when I hear it, I know, I've heard it, it's in my head and I know the words. When I was young I used to leave the radio on at night, and I think I know a lot of music because of that. I know my mind shuts down and my hearing cuts out, but if that actually worked, I think I'm proof.

I adore the line, cross the desert like an Arab man . . .

I'm talking to you, hello?

yeah, uhm, yeah this is like, most of my friends . . . .

you can't take it with you

. . . . in light of the events of the past week, after reading this, I don't feel so bad, though the thought of adults acting like little children still shakes my core a little.


"According to a New York Post report, O'Donnell's chief writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly led out of the building on Wednesday after she was caught drawing mustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck in "The View" studios. ABC executives didn't return repeated calls for questions on the incident Friday."

made me smile . . . .

Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church has announced plans to picket the funeral of Reverend Jerry Falwell. They say: "WBC will preach at the memorial service of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like 'God loves everyone'. There is little doubt that Falwell split Hell wide open the instant he died. The evidence is compelling, overwhelming, and irrefragable."

I don't think "irrefragable" is an actual word, but it makes me want to dance my cares, worry, it's for another day, maybe I'll let the music play . . .


On NPR I heard a cute story out of NOLA about KIPP schools, part of the Knowledge is Power Program.

Two little black girls were fighting, and one girl was in the wrong so she apologized, not just to the other girl, but . . .

"Not just the school, but New Orleans. We're supposed to change New Orleans, and how I'm going to change New Orleans if I'm fighting all the time?" she says.

The other students respond to her apology by snapping their fingers in a round of quiet KIPP applause. C'mon, NOLA, forgive this girl already!

We need LESS fighting, and MORE snapping. Or more Snapple!


Now I'm gonna go cry over Melissa Doolitte and Coach Asshole Capello some more . . :(

comments from the 2007 Eurovision contest

synthorium (3 minutes ago) marked as spam

111bosanac fala vam za 12 bodova haha
ako je ova pesma losa kakva je onda mogla bit bosanska?!
mislim da nije bila bas dobro plasirana :)

amakeer (7 minutes ago) marked as spam

And also in the end she is doing smth strange. Look all back vokal is holding her. Like she has problem with stomach and can't make shit.
Really i liked this song but after watching whi is singing it . i got frustrated

DonJuan93 (8 minutes ago) marked as spam

I am profesor of music in Texas and this song is OK.

archigabe (13 minutes ago) marked as spam

Yes, I agree...mediocre song,mediocre voice...Magdi Ruzsa was the real talent!

111bosanac (14 minutes ago) marked as spam

hate serbs

synthorium (28 minutes ago) marked as spam

Ticket to Helsinki - 500 Eur...
Ticket to the eurovision - 100 Eur...
Serbian winn - Albanian jaelousy - Priceless!!!
There are some things money cant buy!
For other theres MasterCard!

Karta za Helsinke - 500 Eur...
Karta za Evroviziju - 100 Eur...
Pobeda Srbije-Siptari se pojedose - Neprecenljivo!!!
neke stvari se nemogu kupiti novcem!
za sve ostalo je tu MasterCard!

it's oh so quiet

«he» yo
«me» sup
«he» watching weird Bjork videos
you?
«me» all bjork videos are weird bjork videos
was actually listening to her new one earlier, funny
it's BADASS
«he» I love it
«me» right now, just getting ready for bed
«he» Earth Intruders?
«me» fuck that chancla
«he» ???
«me» pneumonia
vertebrae by vertebrae
fucking dull flame of desire
i LOVE antony and the johnsons
«he» what the hell are you talking about?
«me» 7 minutes of pure rhapsody
«me» there are other songs on the album
earth intruders is cool though
timbaland is a great producer
it's very Maneater
«he» youve seen the video?
«me» yeah, it's alright
but the rest of the album is amazing
«he» is it out already?
«me» nothing beats the vidoes from Medulla
uh, yeah
it came out yesterday
why do you think I was at your store?
«he» we have it?
«me» no
i got the last one
«he» oh

Stem the rose

Seems to me you learn something new every day, if you don't you're likely dead or too ignorant to notice God is teaching you a lesson . . . so listen here . .

Was riding to lunch today with two coworkers in the back seat and riding shotgun to a well-respected ( but roundly despised) retired band director who acts as a consultant for our staff once in awhile. He has made an effort to brag about all the work I've done and helped me make a name for myself amongst the other Valley band directors, and I admire him the years of success he achieved while teaching and for acting as a mentor to me when he's around.
So we're driving to Weslaco for lunch and he's got his iPod plugged into the audio jack in his spiffy new Rav4 (much like I have in my new FJ, but anyways) and he's spinning some old Arturo Sandoval tracks so I take the time to explore his playlists . . ..
He's been retired for 3 or 4 years now, and been coming to help us since I was first hired, but this is the only year I've got to really work with him one-on-one. He's in his early 60s, I believe, lives alone and has never married. He's getting a cataract taken care of soon, and has no one to really look after him . . . see, when you work with people, you learn more and more about them than you realize, what they like, what sets them off, you start to dig deep . . .
Anyways, in the playlist menu I note a few interesting items. First was a the East Village Opera Company . . . older women (think Oprah crowd) and tacky gay men LOVE this shit, Amici Opera Band, Il Divo, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban . . . it's lets people say they like "opera" or classical music. Hell, I like Metallica but I am no rocker, it's very lowest common denominator, very Lord of the Dance, Yanni, Enya, very PBS Telethon . . . it's catchy and popular but it's like, ugh, not really classical music . . . anyways, I put that on, and it was pretty fey, but the guys in the back seat didn't seem to mind, and we talked amongst ourselves . . . which brought me too Eliot Yamin. I was a big fan of his on Idol despite his dental shortcomings, and I like his first single, but my mentor (let's call him Hank) had purchased the whole album, which I called up and we began to discuss, which led to a whole weird discussion on Idol.
Not only did he like Elliot (sp.?) but he noted that he'd fixed his teeth. He asked me what I thought of Blake's clever arrangement of "You Give Love a Bad Name", whether I'd noticed if LaKisha had lost weight, and whether I thought Melinda Dolittle would win it all . . . . it was surreal only in that I never expected to have this conversation at work, or with someone not my age or younger, female or gay . . . digging deeper into his iPod while I feigned interest in more Idol chatter (hehe, idle, hehe) I noticed in his artists menu Bucky Covington (gross) and Kimberley Locke . . . amongst David Sedaris and Annie Proulx audio books . . .
That chex mix kinda threw me . . . I never 'assumed" he was a confirmed bachelor, but it did make sense. Granted, this is all assumption and conjecture, Brokeback Mountain was a popular story last year and the short story is stunning and soul-wrenching in its terse prose and honesty . . . and Dave Sedaris is quite popular outside the gay community, but . . . I won't say it broke my heart (or my back *snicker) but it did strike me as being . . . anomalous.
I decided that (with this being the exception, and a quick conversation to Mel that was all too brief) I had to keep it to myself. Trying to out him after who knows how many years to even just the confidence of my coworkers or friends didn't feel right or even halfway important. It just made me sad. He loves coming to our school to work and interact and see what we do. He's fought (and lost) a battle to help us do more challenging literature, and he's pushed me out of my rut and inspired me to give my students a desire to do more with music. He . . . he's a nice old man. I don't . . . I look at myself, and the life I live right now and I can say I have freedoms he never enjoyed decades ago when he started teaching. I can be nearly openly gay around my students (no, not like, being gay with them, I guess I just mean being myself) as well as around my family and friends now. I can drive an ubergay vehicle and overdress and mince and spend football season wearing short shorts and cutoff shirts and dance around with a flag and just be ME. He's lived a buttoned up life, for the sake of band music and directing and now he's in, well, not his twilight years, but close and he's . . . alone.
I don't want to be alone . . . I don't mind living alone, but I was looking forward to Ernesto moving in, and still do once my father moves out . . . ugh, that old topic. I am, well, I have to be anyways, pretty satisfied this is something I can keep to myself and not expose to anyone else. It's always funny how someone else's experiences can make you shift the focus on yourself. Granted, the focus is ALWAYS on me . . .but I am making an effort.

Songs for the day

Old: "Buffalo Stance" - Neneh Cherry
New: "In the Morning (Hot Chip Remix)" - Junior Boys
In Between: "I Will Survive" The Puppini Sisters
My jam: "Lost Without U" - Robin Thicke (oh yeah, U = You = GAY!!!)

bellyache

"When I want to run away, I come back to the place where you are. "

I missed a hell of a storm last night. I have vague recollections or sirens, the alarm beeping, I think the a/c shut off but it didn't bother me (cause I sleep desnudo) and woke up late cause my alarm reset with the power . .. anyways, still got up with enough time to shower and shave and work it in an old spiffy neiman marcus tie that's seen better days . . . texted mel on the way, too bad I can't remember all the words to "Smile" (no not the Lily Allen version) but then again, neither could Gina Glocksen, but I never made it on Idol, anyways, the cute "Fix Me" video with a motley crew of viejitos I found yesterday, singing my dad just showed me he received from mon oncle Art. How circular, granted it was the Twilight Acres crowd rehearsing The Who's "My Generation" but still, was kinda weird.
Oscar Herrera (my boss, ergo BOSCAR) rehearsed the high school band through next year's marching show music, and as usual it was thrilling and akward as he picked apart my notes. But could be worse, he's happy with it, it just all needs tweaking. One of my coworkers was sick, so he asked me to take over his class and the 6th grade in the afternoon. I am a band director. I am a band director. I AM A BAND DIRECTOR. I can be awfully critical of others when rehearsing their students, but, by god if I still don't freak out when I get in front of a group these days. Granted, I haven't had my own group for a few years now, but I may have my own group next year. God they pay me too much, I really don't do enough work . . . but, ugh, I dunno., I do a lot of things no one else can or will do ( arrange and compose, do the guard)
His band was fun to do. The kids respond to my humor . . . well, doesn't everyone? but I still wasn't sure if my ears were "turned on" enough to merit accomplishing anything with them. BUt the 6th graders, that was a fun group. It sucked because in the "advanced" class, which really isn't all that far ahead at all, ONE little girl decided to test me. She hates band, though most of her friends are in it. Girl decided to just SIT on my last nerve, crossing her feet, leaning back, playing lazy and intermittently . . . I scolded her and sassed her in class ("Kamicka, if you wanna know why you're last chair out of 25, if you stay up late at night wondering, all you gotta do is think about how you sit and what kind of attitude you're showing me right now . . . if that doesn't convince you, why don't you try ask.com?") not the best way to get my point across, but, she's not a mean child, just kinda stupid and in a bad situation. I held her after class and talked to her one-on-one, queen to queen. Without a crowd, I settle down, and she wasn't as quick to smart off, and I just asked her to, for one more month, for 45 minutes, to act right, sit up, and try. Then quit. Band isn't for everyone . . . I deep down think it can be, with the right teacher and parents and the right attitude, but, you pick your battles . . . . but why cause problems? I can't seem to lose kids this year, nearly all my kids want to stay. I loved teaching this year. I hope I can do even better next year and convince my students to work harder and smarter for me.

oh yeah, good/bad day for my food journal:
des: TWO chorizo tacos (so bad, usually I have a kashi bar and raisins)
lon: quiznos sub, chips and diet pepsi
com: scrap leftovers from my dad, some meaty tamales and barely a mouthful of cheesey shells

slowly but surely I'm coming back around, but today was not so good, think I need a heavy fiber shake tonight!