66 (or, as I like to call it), "Sexy Sex"
The First Time | Like you, I could bitch (& do), call it quits, but I'd rather have some fun.
“If you only have 40 minutes… Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain does the trick.” - Kirby, Music To Give Head By
Sunday morning, an intimate calls, “What are you up to?”
“Making coffee, drop by.”
By 2pm, a dozen or so in my then apartment on Homewood, spiking coffee. Me rotating CDs, a multi-disc tray on shuffle. She loves to play hostess.
“Coffee at Kirby’s! Come over.”
Tunes. Raucous laughter. Pass a baby-blue bong named “Flipper.”
First course. She whips up some righteous fried egg sammies.
Boys step out to pick up a two four of Molson Dry at the Beer Store on Gerrard.
More dance music, frivolity. Sweet love, puffs, cheers between friends.
“To Coffee!” We all slap happy.
Second course (7pm?), grilled cheese (it’s all she had in her gay fridge, that and condiments, a “tub” of Hellmanns I was made fun of/shamed for).
This 12-hour day referred to as “Coffee at Kirby’s” evolved to “Pretty Sundays” where I would spin and entertain on my (iconic) balcony on Church Street.
As CHIC exclaimed, “Good Times.”
That’s how queers thrive. We make/bring good times:
Good times, these are the good times
Leave your cares behind, these are the good times
Good times, these are the good times
Our new state of mind, these are the good times
Happy days are here again
The time is right for makin' friends
Let's get together, how 'bout a quarter to ten
Come tomorrow, let's all do it again
Like you, music has always been central to my queer being. My first mix tapes/discs to tricks and lovers, nights at the Eagle. Flaming bottles of poppers across the floor of The Barn. Funky 70s porn soundtracks. Beats pumped through tinny speakers at the baths. Soaring divas. Jazz throughout the day, and every single night streaming the new & familiar that always reminds and transports me to fairyland.
And I heard that there's a special place
Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day
And like the angel Chappell Roan (all the flowers, I’m living for it)
Oh mama, I'm just having fun
On the stage in my heels
It's where I belong down at the
How music has been not only an essential lifeline, but the maker/marker of movements, how we got through things, what lifts, carries us forward, the stuff of life itself.
Marching down 5th Avenue, the first time ever for NYC’s Gay Pride Parade, I had joined the Judy Garland Kazoo & Tambourine Marching Band tooting my sweet ass off behind a flatbed of ginormous speaker towers entering a gauntlet of mounted police protecting St. Patricks on one side, “FAGS BURN IN HELL” believers on the other, “TOOT-TOOT (hey, BEEP-BEEP!)” and a gay scoot past their bible-thumping hate-filled ugly as fuck faces.
White. X-tian. Hate. Kills. Anything. Everything. Other. Still.
Sister Sledge “I got all my sisters with me.” Slays. Not with a AK-57. Not a pipe-bomb. A rapturous queen on a kazoo shirtless in boxers giving as though their very life depends on it. Did then. Does now.
“Dance with me and my sister Jesus!,” named LeRoy, in full cop regalia, mirrored glasses, leather cap/skirt, sucking back a cherry cola and a smile.
Why Madonna matters.
“Dance and sing, get up and do your thing.”
To celebrate, I’m launching this new series, Music To Give Head By, mostly because at 66, I simply want to have fun (while providing a much needed public service). Everybody knows: A good playlist sets the stage for great head.
That, and it brings such joy to share with you the origins of such, that which keeps me, my fairy, here.
“I’m going to carry on.”
Liberation baby. Nothing less.
I did go see the new Liza doc at the Revue. For fans of Liza (we are legion), familiar terrain focused entirely on her early career with mother Judy Garland and subsequent breakout performance in Cabaret. If anything, it shows the significance “handlers,” including mentors/friends, are, and how fame is its own centrifugal force that once in a while lands (however briefly) but is just as likely to carry you off. Still, unmistakably the one & only. My Liza (with a Z).
Support Send My Love to Anyone
Support Send My Love to Anyone by signing up for a monthly or yearly subscription, liking this post, or sharing it!
Big heartfelt thanks to all of the subscribers and contributors who make this project possible!
Connect
Bluesky | Instagram | Archive | Contributors | Subscribe | About SMLTA
and don't you find it's hard not to fall for musicians?