There are occasions when time seems to slow to a crawl.
Recently, in Charleston, time broadened and deepened to all SMID and I the opportunity just to be.
It felt as though the universe was allowing us all the time in the world to go here, see that, take thousand photographs (literally) and still have the luxury of sitting in a swank lounge, sipping Mint Juleps.
There were very few things on our must-do list that we didn't get to, plus many others we weren't planning on. At times, when we needed something - like the right place to have a bite to eat when we had planned that exactingly - it simply appeared. Like the fabulous rooftop bar at the Market Pavillion Hotel on our first night in town.
We spent what seemed like half a day in the Unitarian Universalist Cemetery...only to walk out and discover, much like leaving Narnia, that no time had passed at all. Seemingly.
Sadly, now that we are back in the real world, time has sped back up - and in some ways, it seems to be going even fast than before SC, in the sole attempt to make up for those blessed few days.
There are songs that I love that I don't have anywhere on any other form of media - and so, I've turned to iTunes for help.
Meh.
Why are the really good - albeit sometimes more obscure - songs NOT ON iTUNES?!?!?!
OK, I feel better.
That being said, there are some wonderful tunes that I remember fondly from my first few years here in New Orleans. From Sunday Tea Dance out at Lafitte's and the Bourbon Pub.
Ah, my long lost 20's.
So, from this blissful period...Justified & Ancient (MuMuLand), by The KLF featuring Tammy Wynette. I found numerous versions available on iTunes...but if you want this one, you have to purchase one of Tammy's entire albums...Not so much.
There are way to many tunes on my iTunes. I keep going through my stash of CDs and loading more and more things that I haven't heard in years. I've had to create multiple play lists for different frames of mind - and while I am not out running like SMID, each list serves its purpose.
Getting ready for the Symphony? Various big boisterous classical works.
Busy, must-focus work day? A list of almost all Sondheim that I know so well it's almost like white noise.
Bopping around the Quarter and Marigny, stalking things to photograph? Pure guilty pleasures -upbeat, catchy and wickedly infectious.
The movie Flash Gordon was so deliciously cheesy - but the music by Queen really made it so iconic of that time.
For the 3rd year, I spent some quality time out at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, volunteering at one of the beer booths. The Beau and I are a shameless, huckstering team as we draw people in with our barkering and general showmanship. Other teams ask not to be stationed next to us.
Way fun.
Usually, we only do the Fridays of each weekend, but this year - like last - at 6PM on Friday, Debbie - volunteer wrangler extraordinaire - mentioned that they were seriously shorthanded for Sunday and would we be willing to pitch in...
How could we say no? Free admission to the Fest - our own cooler, port-a-let and tents? Pretty sweet deal.
Then.
For the first time all this Fest, it rained. Not hard, just enough to make it messy and really steamy. We had a ball none the less.
Leaving the Fest grounds, we headed for the bike parking lot - Beau said it looked like something out of Amsterdam. We unlocked our bikes and wheeled them out of the lot, only to discover my back tire was flat.
Not just out of air, but flat. Pumped it up at a service station nearby and it lasted 5 blocks.
So we walked the rest of the way home. Only a mile and a half, but after a long day and weekend working at the Fest, it was a bummer.
This morning, I could have waited for The Beau to give me a lift to work, but I thought I'd walk (again, another mile and a half in a different direction). I did have to pick up a few things on my way in and just needed to work some of the kinks out.
I don't spend a lot of time plugged into my iPod, but this morning it was a nice accompaniment to my walk, keeping me at a relatively mellow pace.
Too mellow it seems. By the time I walked out of Walgreen's, it was much later than I thought. And when I turned my iPod back on, it was on some Shirley Bassey ballad that wasn't helping the effort.
So, I toggled through until I came to a song that I knew would get me there in time. This is a remake of the classic Diana Ross hit "Chain Reaction" - performed by the British pop group Steps - and I didn't know this until recently, but Chain Reaction was written by the Brothers Gibb (BeeGees...).
So, I hope this perks up your step too - it made the last 6 blocks fly by! Thankfully, I was almost to the office - the next song was Chains of Love, and if I'd had much further to go, I'd be dead for the rest of the day...
So, it's been a joy to see the scattered works of Banksy around New Orleans - I haven't had the pleasure of seeing all of them, since a few were painted over or on building that have since been torn down.
One (#6 in the link below), on the former Teen Drop-In center, is protected by a heavy acrylic cover. So far, no one's messed with it.
I really want to find the one of the child chasing the umbrella. (17th in the line up here.) That one speaks to me.
So, it was fabulous to spot one this weekend (and even if it's an imitation Banksy, it pleases me) in the heart of the French Quarter. So, with no other gifts in hand, I send this to the birthday girl on vacation:
Donnie was not a close personal friend, but I feel this loss deeply. He is an icon of a time that this generation of young gay people don't know or understand.
It is on the shoulders of Donnie Jay and many men and women like him that we stand now, able to look the world straight in the eye - so to speak - and demand to be treated like equals. There are things that Donnie had seen in his lifetime that I cannot begin to comprehend.
Always the consummate entertainer, Donnie did some of the most hilarious (and at times, hilariously inappropriate and dreadful!) drag - even after losing half his foot due to diabetes. I heard him once quip that he was headed out on the town to "kick up his heel"...
And he just didn't care what the world thought - he is the personification of Stephen Sondheim's stunning "I'm Still Here" from Follies, but that's not the song I associated with his passing last week.
There are many definitions of bravery, and exponentially more quotes about it too...I found this one via Google, and didn't know the author's names so I googled that too. There's something deliciously fitting, and somewhat campy in the way that would tickle Donnie Jay - it's from Meg Cabot, author of the Princess Diaries.
“Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all. For now you are traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be."
Meg Cabot
Donnie Jay knew who he was - and lived and lived and lived. And the world is a little dimmer without his light. And here's what I have had playing in my head since hearing of his passing: George Hearn, and no other, singing "I Am What I Am" from La Cage Aux Folles.
