fierce ruling diva
Another week o' work over. No more calls at home. I don't know that any of the problems that caused me to be called at home have actually been solved, or even addressed for that matter. But it doesn't have anything directly to do with me. I mean, a general air of chaos never makes my job easier but it's both out of my hands and located a coupla rungs higher up the chain o' command than where i live M-F 9-5. Neither of which it now is so I'm shutting up about work.
Watched Paris is Burning last night, an excellent documentary from 1990 about the "ball" scene in NYC in the late 80s, the black & Hispanic gay culture of drag competitions. Which was later appropriated by Madonna for "Vogue." I was living in NYC at the time this movie was shot, and some of the street scenes and locations are familiar. But, even though I remember reading about the balls and the Houses at the time, it really was a whole other world from mine. Overall it's a very "up" movie, very much about how these people have formed their own community/family. There are a few moments where things do get pretty heartbreaking, but the director (Jennie Livingston; this seems to be the only movie she's done) does a really good job of letting the people speak and not editorializing but just leaving it to the viewer to notice the tragic distance between dream and day-to-day reality for some of the "children" (as they call themselves) in the movie. Watching the movie now, 15+ years from when it was filmed, is tinged with the sad realization that many of the people you're watching are quite possibly dead. According to IMDB, several of the cast died in the early 90s. And Pepper LaBeija (far and away the most fabulous in the film) died just last year.
Not out on DVD and the VHS is out of stock at Amazon. We saw it on IFC. If you can track it down, it's highly recommended