Starting here, starting now

So many of my Brethren, or Sisteren as the case may be, were heavily influenced by Hollywood, movies, big musicals, and bigger stars I sometimes feel I was born a couple of decades too late because I missed the Golden Age of the Hollywood Musical.  I got the Progressive 70's and the New Wave, whatever the hell THAT was; and Mother and Daddy weren't big "movie people," except whenever Disney came out w/anything new, that was top of the list!  And the 70's were the 'Disaster Era' w/"The Poseidon Adventure," which I was too young for in 1972 and "The Towering Inferno," that was my first "PG" movie in 1974.  Also LOTS of 'horror': "The Omen" and "The Exorcist" and 'gritty realism': "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Straw Dogs".....none of these the stuff of which a young gay boy's dreams are made from.

So I immersed myself in television.  I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Batman, and The Addams Family....and that was just weekday afternoons!  Weeknights I had The Bionic Woman, Charlie's Angles (the REAL ONES!!!!!), Dallas, and Knots Landing. And Saturdays.....Saturdays were Mary Tyler Moore and The Carol Burnett Show!  There were Movies Of the Week, Miniseries (Oh my GOODNESS!!! Scruples, Princess Daisy, Hollywood Wives!!!), and I lived ALL of them!!  I'd act out different scenarios either w/myself or other kids in the neighborhood.  There was an entire year that the movie "Escape to Witch Mountain" was a shared obsession of me and my best friend in middle school.  And I'd be committed to whatever "part" I was playing.  And when I wasn't "bringing art to life," I was doing drag in my room before I knew what "drag" was.

Records.  Those old-fashioned, large, black vinyl discs that used to be how we listed to music, were always quite prevalent in our house.  My first forays were Tony Orlando but I quickly graduated to Barry Manilow, where I plateaued until I discovered Olivia Newton-John.  Olivia!!!!  I found her and my course was set!  It was me and female vocalists from that moment on: Linda Ronstadt, Pat Benetar, Sheena Easton and finally, ultimately.....Celine!  It would take me a decade to move my "Pat Benetar" from my bedroom onto a Ft. Worth stage, but  that's a story for another post.