Too Bad for Ewe

Seen in My Neighborhood

At the community center of the Bernal Dwellings public housing project. Do they have no idea how some might interpret this?

Out, Damned Word, Out

Tonight I went to a screening of the 1978 documentary Word Is Out that was being presented as part of it 30th anniversary and impending DVD release. I definitely remember it from its original release, perhaps having the most vivid memories of lesbian comic and military veteran Pat Bond and David Gillon, a sweet bearded guy with braces who recalled a first romance that involved daily visits traversing across Massachusetts that were never consummated with sex. Oddly, I was the only one at my debriefing dinner that related to Gillon's story back then. The others had the opposite reaction, thinking it was wacky at the time but finding it sweet today. My feelings seem to have reversed three decades on. But he does still seem sweet, albeit naive today.

The best part of the evening was seeing many of those interviewed in the film come up on the stage. At least one couple was still going strong more than 35 years into their union. They will be featured in a "where are they now" follow up video that will be a part of the DVD. Unlike so many chronicles of gay life of that era, it is encouraging to know that so many are still around.

A couple of hours after attending the screen, my reaction is similar to what it was three decades ago in that the stories stick with me and have more impact than I realized as I heard them.

Okay, I've done my Gay Pride event for the year and can now miss the rest of them without guilt.

More Jewels from 1979 - The Lost Paragon Cable Series

My dear pal Molene called last night as I was sitting down to read a little Wittgenstein over a glass of port. She got to recalling our glory days, and our conversation wove back to the year 1979. For some reason. 1979 was a seminal year for Junk Thief. First there was my great success with Ann-Margret in Italy on Sbalzi de Amore, but then Molene reminded me that she recently came across a rare BETA tape of the show New York by Night that aired after midnight in the fall of 1979 on Paragon Cable.

Though it really wasn’t all that racy, it did co-star Robin Byrd who’d recently come to grips with the fact that she really wasn’t hard wired to perform Ibsen and was, shall we say, starting to spread her wings or some other appendage. Our co-star was the late, now mostly forgotten (though not by those of us who were there) Dennis Parker. Like Robin, Dennis was a multi-dimensional talent, and he sang the glorious theme song that had one of my favorite lyrics:

“Women over 40/
Decadent and gaudy/
Still they love/
For them it’s not enough!’

How fitting that I have come to embody those very words.

Well, 1979 in Manhattan was a heady time. Granted, the place was falling apart, but that was what we loved about it. And it was a virtual movie set at the time, and we took advantage of having guest spots by Al Pacino, who dropped by in full Cruising drag, and Angie Dickinson recreated her famed cab scene from Dressed to Kill with Dennis and me. And that tiny titan Nancy Walker, making her directorial debut with You Can’t Stop the Music (truly, that woman was an auteur of the cinema) came by to explain how she was heavily influenced by Buñel and that many people simply didn’t grasp her surreal, absurdist approach.

It really was a great show, and I could never get enough of Dennis singing the theme song. He also had a modest hit with Fly Like an Eagle (not to be confused with Steve Miller's vastly inferior rip off of that classic tune) evidenced in the clip below. I never quite understood what Dennis was talking about in the lyric. What do you think? He liked birds, right? (Gonna getcha, gonna getcha, gonna getcha...)

Anyway, Mo's mailing me the tape. I'll see if I can get around to posting it. Though, of course you'll have to beg.

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Are the Lazy Bears Early?

Okay, Junk Thief is confused. Was this the celebration of the Year of the Pig or an early celebration of the wretched Lazy Bear/Folsom Street Fair/Up Your Alley events? Pigs..Bears? Okay, I got lost on the difference...

Our Lady of the Komodo

Oh come let us adore them! How glorious that the virgin Komodo dragon has given birth without exposure to a male. Now that bright star in the East makes perfect sense. Sadly, all I can offer is the thump of my little drum-a-tum-pum. Oh, I can't wait to see the pictures of them little babies. Worth 10 times the price of the ones of that ugly little Brangelina creature.

How fitting this news comes the same day as news about the research on gay sheep. And to think just last night Bush made an acknowledgment of global warming. Maybe nature is finally reordering the balance of the past six years.