My eyes and brain just don’t want to wake up. Too much sunshine I guess. We’re passing through Dayton, OH – a town that I think we’ve not played in since the last time we toured with Keola (?!). Too long ago for me to remember, too remote to bother looking up in the Journal. Even though our past experiences here have been off-and-on negative, we should land a home here just to break up the drive.
We’re on our way to Louisville, KY where we plan to play the open mic at the Monkeywrench – the infamous Church on the Rocks: “Can I get an AMEN!?! Can I get an AWOMAN!!!? Can I get an ATRANNY?!!” More open mics should be run like revolution-revivals. Unfortunately, the Lovely hostesses, the Troubadours of Divine Bliss are probably out of town celebrating their wedding anniversary so we’ll probably not see them at all on this trip, but their spirit tends to run hot through the event with or without their actual presence.
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Ready for the show at Coffee Amici. A Lovely room and great sound and such wonderful people. I’d like to bring this one home with me, please.
I’ve been thinking a lot about gay rights in the past couple of days. With the suicide up north and my friend Bambi’s writings I couldn’t help but be. I crashed with my friends Dave and Patrick (formerly of WDAV, now WGAY) who are turning into an old gay couple before my eyes – the world needs to see THAT kind of Love and not the trashy relationships so popularized on tv. And I’d sure as Hell trust a kid growing up in THAT environment over most of the other home-Lives available in America today…
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After playing at Coffee Amici we went back to our hotel to find a wedding reception somewhat the inverse of the one Keola and Joanna threw. Much disco, 80s-tastic hip hop and Guns N Roses were all perpetrated. No Bon Jovi. Sigh. Much booja.
The majority of the buildings in Short North, the arts district in Columbus, OH, are owned by well-off gay men and I had another couple of gay men to take me on a short walking tour of the area. I was glad to find this pocket of tolerance (apparently Columbus has the second highest per-capita GBLT population of any city in the country) in what is perceived as the shores of the Midwest. I’m always glad to see when places don’t Live up to their popularized intolerant clichés. Louisville is similar – an incredibly accepting, beautiful and vibrant arts town – not what Kentucky’s known for. Wilmington, NC… these havens exist across the country while pockets of deep hatred and bigotry crop up where it’s not “supposed” to. I had to sadly recount that my first glimpse of real homophobia wasn’t encountered until I got to art school. The near-death of the first guy I ever kissed at the hands of a bunch of football jocks, or the sheer venom expressed by other students at MICA came as a rude attack on my faith in my artists’ community environs.
Last night on television I watched a standup comic whose homosexuality appeared to be far more part of his schtick than a legitimate part of his personality. It was used the way a woman uses being a woman, the way a fat man uses his fat – as a not-very-funny prop in a show. I was disappointed at the stereotype. I just don’t think that stuff’s very funny anymore.
Heather, late to the fluffy rage party, speaks up for a moment “Fuck Dayton!”
Honey, we just passed through it! You’re too late! It’s red-shifting behind us somewhere in the rearview mirror. Still, Dayton’s not the last place I heard one guy yelling “FAG” at another. That was back home in “Charm City” Baltimore.
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