Not Dead Yet

[beetiger]

lediva and I went to the opening concert of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors tour in Boston on Saturday night. Wonderful set up of the venue, with a bit of a mini street fair behind the actual concert area, plenty of space to walk around and for people to get up and dance, right by the water, and with a tent-like space that made the concert feel mostly outdoors while still keeping the flash thunderstorms totally out. (And there were no lines at the bathrooms.)

I found the whole thing really inspirational musically, both in terms of the length of the active careers of the two headliners (both Cyndi and the B52s have new albums out, and both of them are damned good, and they're performing with hugely high energy in their mid-late fifties), and just in terms of the political energy that was going on about just getting the queer vote out. One of the opening acts, The Cliks also just really inspired both me and lediva -- hard queer rock with a really tight feel, very alive.

The only downside to the concert is that I found Carson Kressley (from Queer Eye) really annoying as an MC. I guess I'm glad I never watched that show. He just...wasn't on board with the whole diversity thing the memo was about somehow, with his celebrity queer schtick.

Much as it feels kind of trite to have a peak moment at rock concerts, I kind of did. Dancing/trancing to Rock Lobster in my little space and my stripey socks, I had a moment when I was there with lediva but also back at a dance at summer camp, on crutches, dancing with a boy, letting myself down on the ground when the song called for it, knowing I couldn't get back up again alone. I was wearing a shirt with a unicorn on it. I was hoping he would kiss me, later on. He didn't. And I was in my room in college, alone, listening on the stereo, trying to convince myself that anyone would ever love me again. And I was dancing in a wave of color in the center of the universe, where love is the only thing there is. And then I was collapsing in a chair, and I wasn't sure if I could get up again, and lediva's looking at me amused, like I'm a crazy mad thing she's somehow ended up with. And she *did* kiss me.

So, yeah. Catch the tour if you can. The opening acts are varying from place to place, but they gave out an iTunes sampler with a song from each of them and I think any of them would be worth hearing. (And if you get to one of the concerts where Joan Jett will be there, I envy you. :) )

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Sunday afternoon I went to the opening of an art show of my father-in-law's collage work, entitled "Portrait of an Old Man as a Young Artist". He started doing collage about 5 years ago, when he retired from being a professor of Social Work at UConn, and he's produced an oeuvre of work that's both voluminous and impressive. Very proud of him, and inspired as well. Perhaps I've still got something entirely new hiding in my own life, somewhere. I wish I could find it.