Hubby put this Dinner Time Jazz on the little Bluetooth Bose just before dinner.
We were both standing there near the speaker in the dining room when I took his hand and started to slow dance with him. We both got into it, however briefly as dinner was about ready. It was sweet.
We held each other close and danced like it was our first date.
I cannot recall the last time we danced, if ever. Before we met I would do the disco thing at Gay Bars or attend dances sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian organizations back in Connecticut. Leon and I might go to a gay club now and then, but he was never one to go out on the dance floor.
And I can't remember ever slow dancing with Leon in our 35 years together.
We need to do it more often.
An Italian couple hubs and I have become friends with came for dinner last evening.
They have become like family and we shared conversation about language, travel, food and work among other things. They really love living in the States - I think more than some of us disillusioned citizens.
And I really enjoyed serving Italian ethnic food (antipasto, homemade ricotta and spinach filled egg crepe manicotti, meatballs, sausage, homemade bread, wine, sambuca, Italian Christmas cookies) to these friends as they gave me their approval of authenticity for my cooking.
So often in New Mexico I feel like I can’t relate. Our non-Italian/American friends
have said they like my cooking, but somehow the compliments coming from
native Italians carry extra weight!
It was nice to have a cultural connection for a change -- like what I was used to back East.
We had what our Christmas Day meal would be if we weren’t going to a neighbors on Monday.
Today, Christmas Eve we’ll have maybe only three (out of seven) fishes (anchovies in fried bread, salmon, shrimp) with a couple of guys from Texas who don’t have a clue why we eat fish!
And in closing...as I likely won't be posting again for days...I will share again the video of my niece Andrea singing a beautiful rendition of O Holy Night. She is truly talented. To all who read and listen: Have a peaceful and restful Christmas and always be there for those you love.
I admit I listened to too much Simon and Garfield back in the 60s and 70s. I think their music is rather introspective and depressing but it seemed right for those those times.
Remembering those times, I guess I'm feeling rather introspective and depressed.
...And I know I’m fakin’ it I’m not really makin’ it I’m such a dubious soul And a walk in the garden Wears me down Tangled in the fallen vines Picking up the punch lines I’ve just been fakin’ it Not really makin’ it No, no, no Is there any danger? No, no, not really Just lean on me Taking time to treat Your friendly neighbors honesty I’ve just been fakin’ it, fakin’ it Not really makin’ it This feeling of fakin’ it I still haven’t shaken it ... I know I’m fakin’ it, fakin’ it I’m not really makin’ it This feeling of fakin’ it I still haven’t shaken it, shaken it ...
Tony Bennett passed away this morning at the age of 96. He had a beautiful, warm and melodious voice. (I think he was always better than Sinatra). A beautiful singing voice is such a gift and singers like Bennett generously share that gift with us and even those like me who are tone deaf can be moved.
It is sad losing a legend like Bennett. I'm not sure why his passing is making me teary-eyed because he was never particularly important or influential in my life. But I did appreciate his talent and enjoy his recordings. We will have his legacy to enjoy for years to come. Thank you Tony.
I just learned that Astrud Gilberto, one of my favorite singers passed away at the age of 83 on June 5th, 2023. Her version of Corcovado is one I listen to often...it soothes my soul.
My niece Andrea has a beautiful voice and has made two videos on YouTube of this Christmas classic.
Personally I prefer the video of her singing rather than the religious slide show, but musically and vocally, the first one with the religious iconography is "WOW" Beautiful.
Andrea, you are so talented. I hope you find a way into the larger music world.
New Mexico goes legal
and it's not an April Fool's Day joke.
Cannabis, marijuana, or as we used to call it, pot, is now legal in New Mexico.
Personally I smoked more than my share of weed back in the 70s and spent many hours with my hippie freak friends listening to music and getting all philosophical and paranoid and spouting words of wisdom and frivolity.
That was when a an ounce was $20 and there were "dime" and "nickle" bags. I think they had just invented zip-lock bags for the purpose back then.
I remember saving some seeds from a particularly nice bag of pot and growing a few plants. I went up to the college town over the summer and planted the marijuana plants on a hillside near a lime quarry. It was just across the road from the rural college I attended. It turned out to be quite a crop ready for harvest when college resumed in the fall!
I've always loved growing things.
We were "One Toke Over the Line" pretty often back then.
And here's one you never heard of. If you can suffer through this you might get high just listening to it without smoking anything...The lyrics are interesting to say the least...Wait for when the Captain walks around the wheel house....
I have to stop looking up nostalgic things and people from my past on
the internet.
I looked up "Smalltown Boy" on YouTube, only to find that Steve Bronski of Bronski Beat died just a month ago in December of 2021. I must admit that I was initially confusing Steve Bronski with Jimmy Somerville who is more well known as the singer with the falsetto voice on the album Age of Consent. None the less...
"Legendary Bronski Beat musician Steve Bronski died in a fire,
friend confirms. Steve Bronski, co-founder and keyboard player of pop
group Bronski Beat, died after a fire in his flat, according to a
friend. The musician's passing at the age of 61 was announced last week,
but no cause of death was given at the time." Dec 14, 2021, PinkNews, UK.
"Steve
Bronski, part of the 1980s British synth-pop trio Bronski Beat, whose
members were openly gay at a time when that was uncommon and whose early
songs unabashedly addressed homophobia and other gay issues, died after a fireon Dec. 7 at his apartment building in the Soho section of London." NYT Dec 22, 2021.
I have been nostalgic of late and focused on remembering the most joyous times of my life. One of those was Disco.
There was the period just after I came out, late bloomer that I was, in 1984 when I would go to the clubs (a lot). The beat of disco music and I could not help but to dance - man, I loved to dance. The music, the beat, and dancing and the sea of sweaty men would get me high.
I would be thoroughly elated, energized and exhilarated. As they say, "Those were the days."
One of the tunes that had a hypnotic beat and great lyrics was "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat.
It was a gay anthem of sorts, a lament of sorts, the story of a kid who didn't fit in. It wasn't exactly my story, but I could relate.
I have the tune in my iTunes library, on my iPhone, and on my Honda USBdrive along with most of the classic disco tunes of the era. I still love them all. I had been just listening to "Smalltown Boy" while riding my bicycle in the garage*.
Then I was curious to check out "Smalltown Boy" on YouTube. There were several videos and in the comment section I was seeing many people signing off with RIP...it was the first I'd heard about Bronski's passing.
Here is an extended version of "Smalltown Boy" featuring Jimmy Somerville, in memory of Steve Bronski:
*doing my physical therapy routine for my bad left knee using a bike trainer stand; ten to fifteen minutes on a stationary bike is like an eternity in HELL; but music makes the medicine easier to tolerate.
Watching Willie Geist interview an English singer I've never heard of despite his record-breaking world tours, I remarked to Leon: I bet there are a hundred other singers, much more talented than that guy, who will never see the light of day." I get philosophical about these things...how very talented people
remain forever in obscurity and many others, some with questionable
talent get fame and fortune.
I was immediately reminded of Jeff Krassner, a gay musician and songwriter whose music I have in my iTunes Library and which we played during our wedding ceremony in 2014. In particular the songs "Strong for You" and "I Hear the Angels Sing".
So I went to Google and found only two references: one was a 1998 article about Krassner getting the opening of Gay Games in NYC and the other was an obituary. It seems that he really had to put out extraordinary effort to see a glimmer of limelight and produce an album.
I could find only a handful of references to him or his album, most of which were dead-ends and not much else. Even his obit was a mere three sentences. Too bad he came before social media and other outlets for artists.
Snippets of the songs on his album "Strong For You" can be found here
But I do find his album for sale on Amazon. I think he was a fine singer and songwriter and am sorry that his life and career was cut short. I join him in obscurity.
This was his only music video I could find on YouTube:
The garden provided the theme for this year's Thanksgiving photo. All the Butternut, Acorn and Spaghetti squash were "Volunteers" so they are appropriately the earth's gift to us on this holiday. And we are thankful for that and so much else.
This pretty much sums up how I feel (the actual Fireworks, not the song, as I cannot understand but half the words she sings...I think I have chronic "lyric impaired hearing" especially for voices like this that are shrill and piercing...and painful).
Now, Lady Gaga, I understand perfectly. Her voice is gorgeous, and has a range that is pleasant and dynamic and filled with emotion. Probably the best rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that I've ever heard. No exaggeration.
There won't be any parades or festivals this year, but I still need to have a little Pride this month.
So I offer some of my all time favorite music selections for your listening pleasure - if you are as old as I am these will "bring you back" to a time that, for me at least, was as exciting and joyous as I have ever experienced. (See the excerpt from my memoir below.)
“I just love those Stand and Model types,” Bobby J. said, in case someone didn’t get the S&M reference.
“But Backstreet was different,” I continued. “It was the first big disco club I’d ever seen. And the location was like a secret that only we gays knew about. I remember seeing this big, plain, one story brick industrial building without any signs or bright lights. Nothing on the outside to let you know it’s a popular gay nightclub and disco on the inside.” ...
“I was with Joel, you know, Joel Comeau, my first and only ex. After paying our five bucks and getting our hands stamped, we walked past the bouncer into the main bar and I felt like Alex in Wonderland. It was like walking through some enchanted portal into a world invisible to most earthlings... It was like Dorothy going from a black and white world to Oz, which was suddenly in Technicolor and stereophonic sound.”
Carl said, “I’ll tell you, Backstreet was nothing next to the big clubs back in the seventies, especially down in the City, and I’m not even talking about Studio 54. Sorry, Fran, go on with your story.” ...
“Well, I had nothing to compare it to,” I said. “There had to be hundreds of pulsating bodies on the dance floor and plenty of guys without shirts... The DJ was playing It’s Raining Men by The Weather Girls, which was already a classic. I think the whole building was vibrating. You could feel the thumping base of the disco music and the energy of the crowd on the dance floor. And everyone was just letting it all hang out, as we used to say, and everyone was echoing Martha Wash, ‘It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah!’” ... “Dancing among that crowd was such a thrill, such an exciting feeling. And knowing that we were all frickin’ gay and that there were thousands more like us in gay clubs everywhere, it was like being let out of solitary confinement. Like, for the first time in my life I could say ‘fuck you’ to all the straights in the world, whether they deserved it or not. Like there was solidarity in our numbers and we were really fucking special!”
“Yeah, Fran,” Carl kidded. “They gave that coming out party just for you.”
Bobby J. thought that Carl’s comment was a hoot and gave out an audible “hoot” for emphasis. I gave it back. “Fuck you, too, guys. It was just so great. And the feeling of being free to just let go! It was amazing. I took to being out on the dance floor like it was second nature. Shit, who needs booze or drugs, I can get high just dancing my buns off to High Energy and You Spin Me Round. Yeah, remember that one, ‘like a record baby,’ you know?”
“Yeah, Fran, like a record, you’re still spinning ’round,” Lee said with a knowing smile. We all laughed. But I couldn’t resist adding, “Well, we should be thankful we have places like Backstreet and the Chez Est. There are, no doubt, poor, disadvantaged homosexuals in rural areas of North Dakota who have never seen the inside of a gay disco.”
“Deprived homos,” Bobby J. said, “or should I say, depraved homos?” We all laughed again, even though it wasn’t that funny. Bobby J. hooted again.
I absolutely LOVE this song. I have Italian ancestry but I think I have a Brazilian soul. Laura Pausini is nice but Gilberto Gil has such a sensual, sexy, enticing voice, he gets right into my romantic groove. I'm including the lyrics and translation as I am studying Italian....The video also has the Portuguese lyrics which have beautiful sound.
Give it a minute to load...it takes some patience....
Non dire no
Don't say no
Che ti conosco e lo so cosa pensi
I know you and I know what you think
Non dirmi noDon't tell me no È già da un po'
It's already been a some time
Che non ti sento parlare d'amoreThat I haven't heard you talk about love or Usare il tempo al futuro per noi
Using the future tense for us
E non serve ripetere ancora And there is no use in repeating again
Se ami sai quando tutto finisce
If you love, you know when it all ends Se ami sai come un brivido triste
If you love you know like a sad shudder
Come in un film dalle scene già viste Like a movie one's already seen
Che se ne va, oh noThat fades away, oh no Sai sempre quando una storia You always know when a story
Se ami sai quando tutto finisce If you love, you know when it all ends
Se ami sai come un brivido triste If you love, you know like a sad shudder Come in un film dalle scene già viste
Like a movie one's already seen
Che se ne va, oh no
That fades away, oh no
I've been getting back to my roots, so to speak, even though my particular roots are in Connecticut, my family roots are in the Southern regions of Italy, namely Calabria, Campania and Apulia.
So I've been watching lots of YouTube videos of Italian mamas cooking, making bread and pasta and various sauces; documentaries, news reports and music.
And I am taking a refresher course in Italian on Monday nights.
Today, I attended a concert by Newpoli Mediterranean Pulse - Ritmi Della Terra. This contemporary group takes traditional Southern Italian music, e.g. the Tarantella, and gives it a modern flair. Despite my almost adequate knowledge of Italian, I have a hard time understanding it when the speaker is speaking fast, and an even harder time when they use any of the many dialects - of which Southern Italy has many. The music of the group Newpoli is a celebration of those many regions and dialects, and while I had a very difficult time understanding the lyrics (actually I probably only picked up a handful of words here and there) I found the sound of the language, the sound of the dialects, somewhat familiar.
The music itself has a very plaintive quality and I would call it a mix of Italy/Greece/North Africa
Here are a few YouTube videos of Newpoli.
I would caution that they may not appeal to most people's taste and I do find the female vocalists a bit shrill at times.
Much better in person.
Mediterraneo
Nun Te VutÃ
'Na voce sola
My grandparents and their contemporaries would often
revert to their first language when they got together; I recall the
cadence, the sing-song rhythm, the sometimes guttural sounds, the melody
of vowels.
I recall the many weddings of older cousins which I attended
when I was young and the fun we had pretending to dance the tarantella
when the live band finally played C'è la luna mezz'u mare, Mamma mia mi maritare.
Here's a version that will give you an idea of the various potential spouses one might marry:
Went to Pride Festival in Santa Fe with Denise and the dogs, Benni and Gilbert (our house guest while his dads are away).
New York it ain't...but....It is amazing that this festival takes place (or can take place) here and around the globe 50 years after the Stonewall riots.
Stonewall...the protest that came as a result of so many years, so many centuries, of oppression. It is an oppression that we all carry within our collective and individual memory and in our consciousness and in our viscera.
Liberation from that oppression is sweet. But we are definitely not there yet.
It is amazing that I can be there with my rainbow hat and a young woman comes up to me and says "I love your fedora!" and high fives me. We've come a long way baby.
I wonder if the youngsters know that the music they're dancing to is by Bronski Beat and released 35 years ago in 1984!
(Sorry for the delayed flip - it will go horizontal momentarily)
I remember going to Gay Pride in NYC in the late 80s or early 90s with a group of the kids from Your Turf - the youth support group I and Leon and Joyce and Robin facilitated. One of the "graduates" of the group had a job driving school busses and was able to rent a bus for the day. About 15 kids and 10 adults went to Pride on that bus. We never even thought about getting "parental permission" or whether we needed special insurance, or if it was illegal to transport kids across state lines. Most were in their late teens or early twenties, so I guess we were OK.
Me and Leon
I was moved when the "Gender Non-conforming" contingent marched by.
I was thinking how wonderful that these individuals can express their "I Am What I Am-ness" and how they deserve the basic human right to be who they are and who they choose to be without some right-wingnut, fundamentalist christian judgmental bigot telling them otherwise and trying to deny them that right...so...
It's summer and thoughts of salt water waves, sandy beaches, romantic sunsets, fresh seafood, cruising the bay, driving over the dunes, and listening to beautiful music by my favorite artists takes over my thoughts frequently while living here in the high desert. Sigh.
Songs by Antonio Carlos Jobin, artists Laura Pausini, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Sergio Mendes are among my favorites.
Laura Pausini and Gilberto Gil alternate in this song which is so beautiful in the romance languages of Italian and Brazilian Portuguese. Gil's voice is sooo sexy.
I have never been to Brazil, but Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto transport me to a quiet, steamy nightclub overlooking Rio de Janeiro. Is it the saxophone that makes me feel so romantic?
Pure fantasy but I could put myself in the place of the morning sun....
Dindi, (pronounced chin-chi or gin-gee) ...telling stories that no one believes...
This is for my hubby, Leon, in celebration of our 4th Anniversary and 30 years of sharing our lives with one another. So I am posting this little slide show of some of our moments together. It maybe a bit pretentious, but hey, it's my blog.
I, we, Leon and I, have been truly fortunate.
During my many years of self-doubt and anguish I never believed I would have a boyfriend, a lover, a partner, a spouse, let alone 30 years of friendship and love. Such things were not even in my realm of imagined possibilities.
But here we are. After 30 years, still going strong for one another.
Thank you Leon, with all my love:
Music: Jeff Krassner, I Will Be Strong For You from the album of the same name.
