Mondays

The past two weekends have been jam-packed and as a result, I wrote this and last week's Monday installments of the blog on Monday morning while the first cup of coffee sinks in.

I saw Chicago and REO Speedwagon in concert Friday night. I am a big fan of the former, but never saw them in person until now and they were great. REO was very good, too. The two groups jammed as one for six songs during the encore.

Forty-five years ago Saturday, I saw Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Country Joe and the Fish, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, John Sebastian, Mountain, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Who at Yasgur's Farm in Bethel, NY.

45 years!  I have been letting that number sink in all weekend! Yikes!

I was with family Friday night, so I attended the Chicago concert in boy mode. But I will be on my own on Thursday and will attend the stamp show en femme. I am looking forward to that.

 

 

 

Wearing Leota.

 

 

 

Actors Ram Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh
femulating in Humshakals, a 2014 film from India.

Beatlemania

I loved The Beach Boys' music first, then I fell in love with The Beatles' music. I have been a Beatlemaniac ever since.

During the height of Beatlemania, I acted indifferently towards The Fab Four. My indifference was part of my disguise.

I worried that if I showed any interest in The Beatles, people would perceive that as a girly thing. Next thing you know, they would put two and two together and figure out that if I was doing girly things, then I must be girly. The fact that I had feminine speech and mannerisms would just confirm their conclusion.

In my late teens, I abandoned my disguise (because it was not working) and was completely open about my Beatlemania. I bought all their LPs, 45s, EPs, tapes, CDs, DVDs and as many bootlegs as I could find. When I visited the UK in the mid-1980s, I found Abbey Road and had my photo taken crossing the famous crosswalk. And on and on and on.

Anyway, I finally saw The Beatles in person on Saturday night! Well, more like one-quarter of The Beatles or one-half of the surviving Beatles.

Ringo Starr performed at a local concert hall and I had almost a front row seat to see the show. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the show immensely.

Two things stuck out in my mind about the show.

• Ringo is petite. He is short and amazingly thin. When he came out on the stage, I thought that he looked more like a college kid than a 72-year-old.
• Although most of the audience were my peers, there were a lot of younger people in the crowd who seemed to be big fans. For example, in the row in front of me there were three girls in their late teens or early 20s who twisted and shouted throughout the show and knew all the words to all the songs --- not just the words of The Beatles' tunes that Ringo sang, but his solo hits and non-hits as well!

So, goo goo g'joob.

 

 

 

Wearing Brahmin.

 

 

 

 

Femulate reader Fiona femulating at Royal Ascot.

Namoli Brennet: In the Flesh

Singer-songwriter Namoli Brennet performs intimate folk concert at Congregational Church in Cornwall,  CT

Cornwall,  CT  (September  2013)—Dubbed  “among  the  best  folk-rock  artists  in  the country,"  by  the  Tucson  Weekly,  singer-songwriter  and  Connecticut  native  Namoli Brennet is known for the honesty and intensity of her live shows, as well as her quirky and comedic performance patter. A trans woman who was named one of the inaugural Trans 100 on the first ever list highlighting accomplished members of the transgender community across the United States, Brennet will perform a live concert of her soulful, witty songs on Saturday, October 19, 2013, at 7 pm at the United Church of Christ in Cornwall, Connecticut.

***

I  lunched with Namoli at  the True Color Conference in 2007. Here is what I wrote about it back then:

"I had lunch with D and J, two girls from my support group, and Namoli Brennet, a Tucson-based trans/genderqueer songwriter, who has been touring the country since 2002 when she released her first CD, Boy in a Dress. It was the first time I ever rubbed elbows with a rock star.

"Namoli performed at the conference and also conducted a workshop. She is a very nice person in person!

"Funny thing is that I am familiar with the song Boy in a Dress (I have it on my iPod), but I did not connect the song with her, the person with whom I was breaking bread."

I doubt if Namoli remembers me, but I sure do remember her and plan to attend her Connecticut concert next month. If you are in the area, I highly recommend that you attend, too, and hope to see you there!

 "Boy in a Dress" photographed by Anna Mimoumi.

 Wearing Boston Proper.

Beach Weather

I saw my first love in music last night: the Beach Boys in concert at the Mohegan Sun Arena. My family gave me the tickets as a birthday gift and my daughter accompanied me to the show, while my wife and sister played slots. It was a great concert with all the living original Beach Boys performing 42 songs in in approximately 2-1/2 hours.

After the concert, we discovered that my wife and sister had done very well playing slots while we were in the arena. My daughter insisted on playing the slots, too. It was after 11 PM with a 75-minute ride home ahead of us, so I was not too keen on delaying our departure, but we agreed to play for about 15 minutes and then head home.

Instead of killing the 15-minutes watching her play the penny slots, I decided to play the quarter slots in the next row. I slipped a $10 bill in the first machine and five minutes later, I went away with $43.

I found my daughter and she was winning, too, so I let her be and slipped another $10 bill in a different quarter slot machine. On the third play, I won $150.

The night could not get much better so I decided to quit while I was ahead.