Starts with S...

Last week went by with a flourish, and I was eagerly anticipating Friday arriving, simply because it was the weekend, and I was going out with one of my best friends- Woogie.

I was listening to the entire catalog of Eurythmics albums and finally finished listening to them on Thursday. The next thing on my list was what my oldest brother (the Priest) sent me for my birthday from my Amazon wish list- “Original Sin” by Pandora’s Box, written and produced by (one of my idols) Jim Steinman. Pandora’s box was a girl group put together by him and they released this album in the late 80s and contains the original version of “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” (later covered by Celine Dion) and is even more theatrical than any of the stuff he’s written for Meat Loaf. I know Steinman’s sort of an acquired taste, but I totally love his over-the-top Wagnerian themes, Phil Spector-esque soundscapes, big choruses, and his adolescent lyrics (and I don’t mean that pejoratively). This album really is B-I-G big and is a thrill to listen to. It’s been on replay in my car since I started listening to it on Thursday. (Download “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” and “Pray Lewd”- get it? | Purchase CD).

Thursday night, I was dragged out to the Office by my other House Manager and stayed out way too late, talking television with Filmdom Ryan and I didn’t get to sleep until 1 A.M.

Figuring I’d be paying dearly for it, I was surprisingly awake for work on Friday, and stayed so. I met up with Woogie to catch the new John Cameron Mitchell film, Shortbus (AKA, the “sex” movie where actors have actual penetrative intercourse throughout the narrative).

While not as masterful as “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” his first movie, it was well done and the sex wasn’t really too distracting from the story and it was fairly involving. I must admit that, at first, the sexual imagery was in-your-face, but it was never titillating and I’m not sure if that was just me being jaded (thanks to porn, heh heh) or just part of the film’s role. Grade:B.

After the movie, I was trying my damnedest to get Woogie to go see Barbra Streisand, since the Verizon center was right around the corner and it was really a pretty opportune time to see her, with tickets still available and who knew when she was going to tour again. He didn’t bite while we had dinner, but did wait for me while I made my final decision to purchase a ticket at the box office at 8 P.M. As I was waking to my section, knowing that at least the overture would be missed someone behind me was saying how they had missed almost a half an hour of the concert. I then looked at my ticket and noted that the start time was 7:30 (“aha,” I thought to myself, “that explained the huge crowd at the center at 7.”) I found my seat as she started singing “Evergreen,” and the rest of the concert was pure bliss. Unlike the New York concert where she told some hecklers to “Shut the F&%$# Up,” the D.C. crowd was very well-behaved, even during the George W Bush impersonator segment, which felt like an overdone SNL skit after about five minutes. She ended the first act with an excellent medley of 4 songs from “Funny Girl,” including “The Music That Makes Me Dance” and “Don’t Rain On My Parade” (natch)- that’s when I started getting chills.

While she is getting on in her years, her voice and singing are literally “like buttah.” Granted, her lower range isn’t what it used to be, but Barbra more than made up for it with her delivery and just very laid-back attitude. For this show, she concentrated on songs she hasn’t performed in a long time, which meant a lot of show tunes and stuff from the 60s (so no “Woman In Love” tonight) and, when she sang “Happy Days Are Here Again,” I was almost in tears. She was joined by that bland-but-hot popera group “Il Divo” throughout the night but the concert was, rightfully, focused on Miss Streisand and the 50-piece orchestra backing her up. Her first encore was the “Don’t Rain On My Parade” reprise from “Funny Girl” the musical and that was one of the biggest surprises, which led me to my feet and hollering, even though I was in the last row of the center. I left on a high and satisfaction that what I witnessed was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Granted, this experience is probably what will get me my lifetime queer card in the mail.
(P.S. I didn't take a picture during the concert, that was during intermission and I wanted to show how far up I was.)