Gerald also captures the fancy of visual artists, especially photographers. When he sent an email with the recent portrait by painter Robert Lambert, I realized that there were enough Busby photos in my inbox to make a gallery. So here’s a visual tribute to you, dear Gerald.

Robert Lambert

Mia Hanson

Mia Hanson

Deirdre O'Callaghan

Ves Pitts

The following shots are of Gerald in makeup for the film, Cafe du Diable.  Yes, film directors are also drawn to him, starting with Robert Altman who put him in A Wedding back in 1978. Here’s how Gerald describes his scene in the film:

In the middle of the bacchanal of food and sex, I sit at a piano, periodically reciting monologues that comment philosophically on life.  At one point, an opera singer (a soprano), the personification of vanity and narcissism, enters and we perform an aria that is a parody of baroque opera and its emotional conceits — an air that seems the inner drought, this dreadful blend of acuity, in matters of details and indifference, seems to matter more than any achievement. We all wear stylized make-up and costumes.  My music plays in the background as I speak my monologues.

Ves Pitts

Ves Pitts

Thanks to the following for use of their work:
Robert Lambert
Mia Hanson
Deirdre O’Callaghan
Ves Pitts

Previously on MyBigGayEars:
Queeries for Gerald Busby

But the issue actually has something worth spending a bit of time and thought on – a 22-page spread called “80 American Classics” celebrating “the spectrum of queer talent who taught us who we are.

Along with Tennessee Williams, Robert Maplethorpe, and Andy Warhol among others, there’s a revealing look into the early love affair between Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.

And there are actually a few classical music items.  Well, make that two.

Number 12 is a 100-word blurb on Aaron Copland by Nico Muhly (who is on the verge of getting more than a little over exposed).

And Number 65 is “The Diaries of Ned Rorem,” written by, of all people, John Waters.  Actually “written by” is probably too strong a description. After Waters’ name it says “As told to Out,” which suggests that he spent about 5 minutes rambling on the phone.  Whatever. I love what he’s got to say, and here’s a bit of it:

“(Rorem’s) music is beautiful, but it’s his Paris and New York diaries that changed how I thought gay people were supposed to act.  He was elitist, but incredibly smart and hilariously snobby… I always say old chickens make good soup, but with him I’d say old smart chickens make even better soup.”  Who knew Ned Rorem inspired John Waters?!

I don’t want to fault OUT for being OUT, but in the Rorem/Waters spirit of being fussy, smart and snobby, I’m going to critique the “American Classics” feature a bit and then offer to fill out it with some more high-brow types.

What’s annoying is the randomness of it. The jumping around between artistic fields is fine, as is the variety of lengths of copy for the different items.  But some “classics” are just artists, listed by name, while others are works of art.  Examples:

No. 14. “Sweeney Todd.”

No. 15. Philip Johnson’s Glass House.

No. 17. Merce Cuningham.

No. 19 Paul Lyne. (But not Paul Lyne’s Center Square”)

No. 24. “West Side Story.” (And not Leonard Bernstein in his own right??!!)

No. 46. Elizabeth Bishop.

No. 48. “Pink Narcissus” (James Bidgood).

No. 58. “The Radiant Baby” (Keith Haring).

No. 61. Alvin Ailey.

And on so.  Strange editing.

No surprise that there are some inclusions from the world of popular culture, including No. 25. “Strange Fruit,” No. 52. “Harold and Maude,” and No. 75. Divine. But some things are just not old enough to be classics, like No. 63. “Sex and the City,” No. 64. “Voguing” and No. 67. “Love Shack.”

And just plain weird are the following:

No. 28. Rolling Stone Magazine (Maybe Out’s parent company Here Publishing is just kissing up and hoping for a buyout savior in the form of Jann Wenner)

No. 29.  The Jeapardy! Theme Song (so what if Merve Griffin made a zillion off of it)

No. 53.  The Career of Tom Cruise (though it’s always nice to see him dancing in his underwear from “Risky Business”)

And then there’s the long article within an article that’s No. 59 Tom Brown (the designer who made Pee Wee Herman suits chic, briefly), which seems like a feature they had hanging around and decided to throw in. Likewise, the long hymn of praise to No. 69 Rostam Batmanglij, the 20-something gay member of a band called Vampire Weekend.

Still, it’s fun to pour over it and pick it apart and nice to know there are some folks at OUT who know something culture.

Now a few additions:

TED SHAWN

Who led the way for all male dancers to frolick.

GIAN CARLO MENOTTI.

He may have become an angry old queen, but he wrote American opera like nobody else.

JOHN CORIGLIANO’S SYMPHONY NO. 1 “OF RAGE & REMEMBRANCE”

The highest summit of musical works about AIDS, it’s manic, in your face and when stuffed shirts and closet cases face it in concert they have to sit through it.

DAVID DEL TREDICI’S  ALICE IN WONDERLAND CYCLE

Just like his inspiration Lewis Carroll, DDT disguises a world of sexual longing and erotic explosions beneath a harmless children’s fantasy.

“THE MOTHER OF US ALL”

Building on their avant garde background, Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson showed that an expatriate butch lesbian poet and corn-fed mid-Western sissy were the perfect pair to depict the American struggle for rights and deliver it with color, flair and humor.

LOU HARRISON

Because he turned to the east for musical inspiration but listened to his heart for beauty.

GORE VIDAL

With “The City and the Pillar” he created the gay American novel  and later went on to become our nation’s queer conscious.

]]> http://mybiggayears.com/archives/outs-american-classic/feed/ 0 http://mybiggayears.com/archives/blitzstein-welles/ http://mybiggayears.com/archives/blitzstein-welles/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:00:01 +0000 jody http://mybiggayears.com/?p=1040 Look for an actor playing Mark Blitzstein in the current feature film “Me and Orson Welles.” The movie is about the final week or so of production leading up to the opening night of the Mercury Theatre’s 1937 production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” which Welles directed and for which Blitzstein wrote music.

Early on in the film a playbill for “Caesar” has the clear statement “Music by Marc Blitzstein” and later the leader of the pit band (never addressed as Marc, but presumably the composer) gets into a brief shouting match with Wells as does just about every other character in the movie, except when they’re kissing his talented brilliant ass.

It’s a sweet film, with lots of period detail that reminded me a bit of the brilliant 1999 adaptation of “The Cradle Will Rock,” but without the political messages, just the feel of the Manhattan arts scene during the Depression.

Cute Zac Efron plays a naive youth hoping he can make it in the theatre while also standing up to the boss.  (Don’t count on it kid.)  It’s the first Zac Efron film I’ve seen and it says something that I wasn’t always thinking, “Oh, that’s Zac Efron.”

The producers of the film didn’t go to the effort of finding Blitzstein’s own original score for the Welles production.  Even if it survives it’s probably only some fanfares, drum rolls and sundry entr’actes. The film’s suitable but not memorable soundtrack is by Michael J. McEvoy.

According to Internet Movie Database, the bandleader in the film is played by Jools Holland. While the actor in the film didn’t exactly resemble photos of Blitzstein, other than the pencil moustache, I don’t think he much resembled the Jools Holland who’s a band leader with a show on USA. But I’ve never seen that show, so I am now out of my league.

Still, it was a nice touch including Blitzstein’s name on one of the film’s properties.

“God bless Matt. Hey, it’s easy for me – he’s in his prime,” says Douglas to Sun Media of Canada. “I said to him, ‘Matt, I love you, man. Boy, that Bourne must really be going strong.’ But good for him. He’s right taking chances. All those young guys – (George) Clooney – they’re taking risks … It’s smart trying to mix it up a bit and maintain those franchises and still get to do a picture that turns you on.”

As for any risk to the career of Douglas, he says, “At this point and at my age, why not? It’s not all autographs and sunglasses.”

I caught a screening of “Wild Combination” on November 11 as part of the quirky little iEAR series at RPI, here in Troy. The filmmaker Matt Wolf was on hand and took a few questions.  During his final comments he revealed that he’s currently making a documentary about Jerome Robbins who he’s not liking (news flash: nobody did). But Wolf says that he probably would have liked Arthur Russell, even if they might not have been close friends.  Based on Wolf’s beautiful film, I feel much the same way and am also reminded of how tricky it is be very friendly with an artist when you don’t grove to his work.

Russell died of AIDS in 1992 at age 40.  As with so many other gay men of his generation who passed on way before their time, it’s hard to know what more he might have accomplished and whether he’d ultimately find a mature musical voice. Judging from this distant vantage point, Russell’s challenge was to bring together his disparate interests in folk music, the avant garde and disco.

Wolf’s film is a loving tribute that made me root for Arthur and be touched by the tragedy of his life and the still palpable grief of those loved ones left behind, namely his parents and his partner Tom Lee.  It’s based primarily on archival footage and Wolf said that every scrap of film that exists of Russell is in the movie. Admirable work, for sure.  We see Russell singing as he plays cello, also playing guitar and generally hanging out at venues like The Kitchen and Experimental Intermedia.  There’s footage of Ginsberg speaking at Russell’s memorial, and the dozen or so talking heads who were interviewed include Philip Glass. There’s also plenty of colorful original footage and enough keen editing to show the hand of a smart and promising filmmaker.

What’s not present is much of an understanding of the gay experience. The memories of Arthur’s slightly trouble childhood in Iowa — being too smart, picked on at school, etc. — are set up to suggest the youthful presence of a great artistic persona. But what it really sounded like was just another fag child suffering on the playground.  Painful but very familiar.  Wolf also includes two comments from interviewees that simply aren’t believable.  There’s Arthur’s mother saying she did a double take when she heard, second hand, that her son was gay. As if every mother doesn’t always have more than an inkling.  And then Arthur’s companion tells of how he spotted (cruised) Arthur three times in the East Village before finally approaching him. But then he adds something like, “whether or not we might both be gay never crossed my mind.” Hello?  You were chasing him around your neighborhood hoping for what? An evening of watching the Yankees.

Anyway.

After setting up his subject as a mighty innovator and iconoclast for the first two-thirds or so of the 71 minute film, Wolf does let his interviewees talk about Russell’s difficult personality (he could lead a band, but not be a member of one) and his jealousy and paranoia (at one point he was convinced the Rolling Stones were stealing his ideas).  Besides the friendship with Glass and Ginsberg (who admits to a crush), there’s documentation of two brief collaborations of interest:  he played with the Talking Heads a few times and he wrote music for a Robert Wilson creation, “Medea,” though Wilson pulled Russell’s music after only one performance.

“Wild Combination” (the title comes from a Russell song, by the way) also puts forth the facts of Russell’s death from AIDS with admirable clarity and matter of factness. I liked how one friend said that Arthur was always rather spacey and dissasociative and that AIDS ultimately made him more so.  And my eyes got moist when Russell’s dad recalls a brief final conversation with his son in the hospital (“You’re a good sport.” “Really?” “Yeah, really.”)

The recent revival  – or new but long overdue? –  in Russell’s music serves as a kind of coda to the film. This section runs a little long, but is still heartening.  Russell was a finicky dabbler and made numerous takes, edits and mixes of his music, so there’s thousands of tapes that might be fodder for still more releases to come.

Hearing his mumbly but soulful voice, jumping between registers and heavily laden with echo, I thought of Antony and the Johnsons.  Bridging avant garde and disco, or serious and pop (or whatever the latest terms are) is a never ending effort and apparently younger generations are seeing something prophetic in Arthur Russell.  If not for AIDS, he might have been right there with them.

Her wife.

The coupling of these words may cause your tongue to stumble, but for many people in committed gay or lesbian relationships, the terms are longed-for alternatives to euphemisms like partner, companion or lover.

Yet there’s far more at stake in the cause of same-sex marriage than just better terminology. Filmmaker and Troy native Jim de Seve, whose documentary “Tying the Knot” opens today at the Spectrum 8 Theatres in Albany, named his 4-year-old production company 1,049 Films because that’s the number of federal rights and privileges afforded to married couples.

“That number’s now risen to 1,138,” said de Seve, who will attend tonight’s screenings. “There’s Social Security benefits, hospital visitation rights, fishing licenses just a huge number of things. And because of the Defense of Marriage Act, gay couples get zero.”

Between 2001, when De Seve began work on “Tying the Knot,” and the film’s debut at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, same-sex marriage went from the margins of public debate to become a fierce legal battle, a central issue in the most recent presidential election and an international cause. Since filming began, gay marriages have been sanctioned in Amsterdam, Canada and Massachusetts, while a countervailing movement has added “traditional” marriage definitions to several state constitutions.

De Seve and his collaborators “really just walked into this issue,” the director said. “We were chasing footage on a couple of different levels. We wanted to include personal stories, but also have bits that would explain the history of marriage. We’d go on these `marriage movements’ where people go to city hall (for a marriage license) and get turned down. There are funny moments, because the clerks can’t make heads or tails of a couple of women coming in together.”

Like a Michael Moore for lavender audiences, de Seve uses both original and archival footage as well as humor to make his points. “Tying the Knot” makes the case that the precepts for marriage have changed dramatically over the centuries, and mixes in potent human drama.

“We tell the story of Sam, a rancher in Oklahoma, who was with his husband for 25 years,” said de Seve. “When he died, a will said Sam should inherit everything – a huge farm, a barn and a house that they had built together.” But relatives of the deceased man prevailed in court to deny Sam any inheritance.

Then there’s the story of Lois and Mickie, a couple who were both police officers in Tampa, Fla. After they had been together for 10 years, Lois was killed during a bank robbery, the first woman ever killed in the line of duty in Tampa. “It was almost a state funeral,” de Seve said. “Mickie sat in front, was handed a flag by the police chief, and was treated like a survivor in every way except the pension.”

De Seve believes both couples had marriages based more on love than on laws. “I came to understand and believe that the real marriage happens in peoples’ hearts, and if two people are entering into what they term a marriage, they are in fact married,” he said. “In terms of having your marriage recognized by the state, that’s the next level.”

“Tying the Knot” played at more than 60 festivals before going into general release. When it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, de Seve and Kian Tjong, his co-producer and partner of five years, took the occasion to tie their own knot. Tjong is Indonesian; the couple is acutely aware that if they were straight, Tjong could become a U.S. citizen.

“We’re feeling it right now,” said de Seve, referring to the lack of those 1,138 advantages to marriage. Tjong’s father in Indonesia is seriously ill; even though he is in the United States legally, if he were to visit Indonesia he might not be able to re-enter America.

“Kian hasn’t seen his father for seven years it’s just really inhuman,” said de Seve. “We pay the same taxes as everybody else.”

Tjong helped raise the $250,000 budget for “Tying the Knot.” The funds were cobbled together from a variety of investors and donors, including celebrities such as Liam Neeson and Yoko Ono. Tjong “went around and hand-delivered a small chrysanthemum with a fund-raising packet,” said de Seve. “Yoko sent us a check for $5,000 with a picture. She signed it, `Celebrate life. Love, Yoko.’”

Earlier this week, de Seve and Tjong sold their home in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in anticipation of a move to Troy, where they’ve already purchased two fixer-upper houses off Hoosick Street. “I love that I’m coming home,” said de Seve. (Co-producer Stephen Pelletier and story consultant Amy Halloran are two other “Knot” participants with roots in the Capital Region.)

His mother, Geraldine de Seve, is looking forward to her son’s return to the Capital Region and bringing along “his husband.” The phrase seems to flow easily for her.

“I’ve been practicing for a long time,” said Geraldine de Seve. “My daughter has a husband, and my son has a husband.”

Originally appeared in the Times Union, April 15, 2005

Also available in Artists & Activists: Making Culture in New York’s Capital Region.