Something Not Unlike A Phenomenon, Baby

[Hint: if you can arrange your life so that you can avoid moving for the first time in five years during a heatwave, when your relationship has seen stronger days, when you've just started your third year of law school, and when you've just begun a professional internship in which you've invested a lot of self-esteem juju, you might want to do so. Just so you know...]

[Amidst all that, John and I managed to consume three brilliant shows in the last week. Graham Norton at the Alcazar was as hilariously, queenily off-color as we knew he'd be. If you've seen his show on BBC America, you pretty much know what it was like; this show was just dirtier, with no celebrity guests. Sandra Bernhard at the Brava was, well, Sandra. (Specifically, Low-Maintenance Sandra, like when I saw her at a UCSB Arts and Lectures performance ten years ago - no costume changes this time, and only two musicians. Her T-shirt read "Dude, Where's My Couture.") The woman's not perfect - as John pointed out, much of her schtick feels like "Mad Libs" Sandra, with her inserting the pop culture of the moment into her nevertheless magnificent template (for example, does every one of her shows have to feature her wacky interaction with a Woman of Rock and Roll?), but 'twas certainly worth doing, as every few years I return to her like a pilgrim.]

[And yesterday was the Now & Zen Festival in Golden Gate Park. Yes, it was one of those concerts packaged by a radio station featuring disparate recording artists with little in common. Yes, it was HOT outside, and we (John, Maria Gomez, Rachel-from-London, and I) huddled on a dusty blanket trying to avoid heatstroke and wondered what we were doing there. No, we didn't even arrive until all but the last two acts (Seal and Duran Duran) had already come and gone. (We were sorry to have missed Liz Phair, whose new album isn't at all the sellout critics have accused it of being.)]

[Didn't matter. We had a fantastic time, and it always shocks me to realize how many Durannies there are still floating around out there. It was rather surprising to look around and see the number of people lip synching even non-hits like "Careless Memories" and "New Religion." And, finally, something like eight years after they shot themselves in the foot again with an ill-advised covers album, their version of "White Lines" felt not like the ill-advised appropriation it has always seemed, but somehow appropriate, as the crowd jumped around.]

[A necessary release, and (I hope) one that will help us now that all we have to move to the new house is every single loose article of media and bric-à-brac John and I have managed to collect over five years at the downtown apt. I'm tired all over again just thinking about it...]

Previously Next

[Later: Omigod, the above entry suggests yet another drag name. (Picture an emcee, Heklina at Trannyshack or Cockatelia at Rendez-Vous, for example.) "Please welcome to the stage a lady who's the needle in your hayride, the girl who put the 'back' in Back-Seat Betty, ladies and gentlemen...DUSTY BLANKET!!!"]

[Later still: Just got around to looking something up. The item's buried far down the column. I'm just sayin': don't believe everything you read...]