Robert Manners

Merrily We Roll Along

Wandered off for a bit, there... so much to do! Places to go! Things to watch! La, the dizzy polonaise! That, and when my nails get this long, I find myself somewhat disinclined to type. But they look ever so fabulous, so I guess it's a fair trade. But this morning I find I have a bit of time on my hands (along with all the acrylics), and so here I am.



Saturday was San Francisco Imperial Coronation, and so Caroline and Angelique and I put on our gladdest rags and popped across the bay to revel in the revels at the Gift Center. It was an amazing display, as one might expect from the Mother Court (San Francisco Imperial was the first drag court), drawing the cream of the Courts from across the nation... I experienced a twinge of Tiara Envy when I saw so many three-foot-plus crowns floating around atop vast wigs and dazzling gowns (Angelique saved her towering wig with Royal Grand Ducal crown embedded in it until we got there, since it wouldn't have fit in the car with us, but I neglected to take a picture of her in it). And since this is the Outrageous Court of S&M Leather, there was a lot of very sexy costumery walking about (in particular three rather petit pretty boys wandering around with just enough leather between them to make a proper wallet). The dazzling Empress Snatch put on a hell of a show for her Final Walk, not to mention her entrance for the Third Act on the back of a gleaming black-and-chrome motorcycle.



Well, a good time was had by all. It was a feast for the eyes, and time well-spent with worthwhile people. Caroline particularly enjoyed having another opportunity to wear her rubber bustier, though Angelique and I didn't have anything to wear "in theme" for a night of Leather Fantasy, so we didn't bother (though check out this picture... I think we look like the Drag Mafia). And once we got there, surrounded by custom-made leather evening gowns and thousand-dollar tiaras and truly amazingly fabulous accessories, I for one was glad we didn't even try... better to be a non-contender than to lose by comparison, if you ask me.



So then on Sunday, it was that Gay High Holy Day, the Oscars. I wasn't as interested in the Oscars this year as I have been in the past, largely because I only saw one film that had been nominated (LOTR: Return of the King), and had no stake in what happened. But I nevertheless settled down for the red-carpet parade and watched the whole program. It was rather nicely put together, I thought... they didn't try too hard with overproduced musical numbers and sight gags that couldn't possibly work. The gowns were lovely (except for Jada Pinkett-Smith's Victorian lampshade and Uma Thurman's...what was that? Tablecloths?), most of the tuxedoes were lovely (Stuart Townsend was unspeakably scrummy in his white dinner jacket, it wasn't until later that I realized that it's still Winter and you can't wear white dinner jackets until Spring), and most of Billy Crystal's jokes were funny (except the ones that weren't).



Monday I decided to stay home and do some tedious typing-work I had on my plate, working from the assumption that I wouldn't be interrupted at home as much as I am in the office. Unfortunately I was interrupted, but by something fun and fabulous instead of prosaic and irritating: the mailman brought me my complete set of Brideshead Revisited on VHS from Amazon. O how I love this miniseries! Such beautiful people (Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, they were so wonderfully young), such beautiful settings (Castle Howard and Oxford), such beautiful costumes, such beautiful acting, such beautiful speech, such beautiful writing! Too bad it was the BBC series and didn't come with the old Alistair Cook intros from Masterpiece Theatre.



It took all my self-discipline to not just brew a pot of tea and get into bed for the rest of the day, immersing myself in Waugh's sad but gorgeous world. As it was, I had to set up a reward system... for every hour of typing I did, I could watch an hour-long episode. In that way I got five hours of typing and five episodes of audiovisual ecstasy under my belt by the end of the day.



My other big project that's taking up a certain amount of time and brainspace is my continuing exploration of iTunes. I'm working on a collection of songs that make me happy, like the B-52s' "Rock Lobster" or Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation (DJ Scribble Remix)"... and in the search, I am finding all sorts of interesting things that I want to have even though they don't fit into the theme, like the Oscar-winning best song "Into the West" from LOTR or Maroon 5's "This Love." Last night, for example, I downloaded the entire soundtrack to Candide (twenty-three songs from one of the world's most obscure musicals, for only $9.99! Can't beat that with a stick). And whenever I get where maybe I don't feel like have to go visit iTunes at any given moment, my nephew comes by and gives me another handful of Pepsi bottlecaps with free songs in them (and in my typical fashion, I've redeemed eight bottlecaps, but have downloaded over forty songs... among which are two full albums, mind you, but it's still a burgeoning collection).



So that's what I've been up to. How about you?