WOOD, RUST & YELLOW

Chevy truck photographed by Lydia Marcus.
June 15, 2008 in Lake Balboa, CA.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY 2008

Happy Fathers Day Dad!

Me and my Dad on our bikes in the front yard, sometime in 1977. I'm 7 years old, he's around 54 or 55. Taken with the family's Polaroid Super Shooter Plus. My Mom was probably the photographer. My Mom bought the bike at a garage sale, it was a purple Schwinn with monkey bars and a banana seat that was covered in a floral pattern.

A portrait of my Dad taken June 14, 2008 in Encino, CA at Libbit Park

CORVETTE SUMMER

Last night I went out with my longtime high school friend Cathy. She called me up spur of the moment to see if I wanted to go to dinner. The super cool thing was she decided to "borrow" her husband's Vette for the night while he was out working late. Getting to go out cruising in a Vette, the day after Jay's memorial just felt right. Cathy and I had the most incredible night. First we went to Sushi at Octopus in Encino, then we took the targa top off the Vette, drove to Bob's Big Boy in Burbank and did a quick pass through the parking lot to see all the vintage rides, drove into Hollywood, went to legendary Yamashiro restaurant in the Hollywood Hills for a panoramic view of the city lights and dessert, drove back to my house, decided to continue the drive down some empty back streets at insane speeds, ventured over to Sepulveda Blvd to drive the twisties, then down some curvy road back to Ventura Blvd, went to Cathy's family's house and hung out with her Dad and brother Paul, then stopped at IHOP in Encino for Cathy's late-late night snack and then she dropped me back at my house at 4:30am! The Vette (a 2002 electric blue) is so blistering fast and smooth at acceleration it's exhilarating to take a drive in it. Yamashiro turned out to be the best choice of the night - Cathy and I shared two desserts - I had a chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream and she got a fancy smores that was topped with the most orgasmically delicious toasted marshmallow fluff. I can easily say that her dessert was the best one I've had in my entire life. It was off the charts. The entire night reminded me of being young and carefree and in high school but still old enough to appreciate how special everything was. Too bad the night had to end, I could have gone on cruising 'til the sun came up.

GEOMETRIC

Jeep on Melrose photo by Lydia Marcus. Photo taken on June 8, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA.

NUTS!

Today I'm attending the funeral of a friend. My ex's Uncle Jay died a few days ago, he was only 49 years old. I met Jay nine years ago and he instantly felt like family. Jay was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when he was just in his early 30's. Jay had severe MS and he took a lot of prescription drugs to stay functional. In many ways, those drugs were worse on his system than the MS but he needed them to be functional. Even though Jay had horrible physical problems and pains related to the MS you would never think of him as a sick person - Jay was ALWAYS the life and fun of any gathering. He was truly a one of a kind person. Jay LOVED to tell jokes and funny stories and whenever you met him it was like someone pulled the string on his back and he just regaled you with tales. Sure some of them I'd heard more than once, but it didn't matter, they were always interesting because he told them with such enthusiasm and gusto. Jay loved cars and that's something that we had in common. Corvettes were his favorite and he owned many of them over the years. His last Vette was a triple black convertible. Jay was such a huge influence on my ex and there are certain things she still says like Jay. I'm pretty impressionable when it comes to phrases and speech patterns, so of course I even picked up Jayisms I still do.

Over the years, Jay had many MS health related problems that landed him in the hospital and in near death condition. I don't mean he was really sick and then snapped out of it, I mean he literally was expected to die and then he'd come out of it and literally cheat death. The first time it happened, I referred to him as the "Energizer Bunny" because he just kept on going. After it happened a few more times, I started calling him the "Cockroach". Whenever there was another hospitalization and everyone thought Jay was a goner I'd think, "No, he's the Cockroach, he'll be okay." Well Jay's body finally gave out. Yes he's gone, but he'll never be forgotten. I think his spirit has reunited with Sue, one of his best friends who also died too early in life. And I think he's still telling some damn good stories. In tribute to Uncle Jay, here are a few photos of him and some Corvette shots.

Serena and Jay in his Calypso Red BMW 750 IL - one of many cars Jay owned over the years.

Serena, Jay and his sister Barbara at the Keno machines at the Orleans in Las Vegas in 2001

Jay and Sue at a Dodger Game in 2000. A typical Jay expression! I can imagine him probably saying NUTS! and doing that face.

Serena, Jay, Me, and Susan at the Gold Coast in Las Vegas in 2003.

Jay and Serena in Las Vegas in 2005.






Me in a Vette at the L.A. Auto Show in 2007

I love you Jay and I'll never forget you.

THUNDERBIRD LODGE

Summer 2003 in Laramie Wyoming - Gas was $1.44 - $1.64!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thunderbird Lodge photo by Lydia Marcus. Shot July 31, 2003 in Laramie, Wyoming using a Canon PowerShot S400.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN FEVER

Saturday I watched the documentary version of "When I Knew" part of Cinemax's Reel Life series. If you have video on demand through your cable provider, you can find "When I Knew" on Cinemax's VOD channel plus an extra clip "When I Knew: Miami" shot in a sort of filmic photo booth (I'm guessing at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival). Unlike the book, the documentary (by those fabulous World of Wonder filmmakers) was incredibly balanced between gay and lesbian recollections. Also different from the book, it featured a lot of younger people (plenty of 20 somethings) telling their stories. And for even more "When I Knew" stories, World of Wonder has a bunch of video booth interviews posted on their site. I noticed that actor/comic Jason Stuart has posted one there.

Sunday eve I went to the Pride Festival in WEHO.

Even the Pacific Design Center got into Pride by lighting up their building in the colors of the Rainbow Flag.


The first person I ran into was Jason Stuart, right after he had just won free round trip air fair at the Orbitz booth - lucky guy! Here's a shot of me and Jason.

Even though I'm still getting over a nasty virus, I just had to go to Pride on Sunday to see Olivia Newton-John perform on the WAMU main stage. Pride has gotten some big acts in the past (I've seen Deborah Harry and The Motels perform), but getting Olivia was pretty huge. I think she must have been there primarily to support the launch of the new LOGO TV series "Sordid Lives" where she has a recurring part. LOGO had a pretty cool "booth" in the form of a mock trailer park complete with Airstream trailer and pink flamingos!


Considering my energy was really low, I wasn't very into the Pride festival, but it was so worth going to see Olivia who sounded awesome and played all her big hits including Xanadu, Magic, Hopelessly Devoted To You, I Honestly Love You, You're The One That I Want, and Physical. Hopelessly Devoted To You was the most connected moment between performer and audience. The audience sang along with as much passion and pain as Olivia - I guess it's just one of those songs that everyone who's ever experienced a broken heart or unrequited love can relate to. Everyone was jumping up and down when You're the One That I Want Came On, but the most fun had to by Physical as many people in the audience started doing very eighties-esque aerobics as dance moves! It was hilarious. Even Olivia did some of her signature moves we all know so well from the Physical video. Olivia is turning 60 later this year, so it's amazing how great she looked and moved onstage. I was standing pretty far back in the crowd so my photos from my little point and shoot weren't so great.


Thankfully, photographer Brian Putnam is letting me show off some his great shots taken from in front of the stage.

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

photo credit www.putnamphoto.com

I shot some videos too - and the sound is great - but I was too far back for any good details, so I'm sharing a few better videos taken from You Tube. Enjoy!

Hopelessly Devoted To You

Xanadu

Physical

...And going back in time, here's Olivia performing Physical on Solid Gold!

HAPPY PRIDE!

This weekend is the 38th annual L.A. Pride. I was actually at the first one in 1970! I was just a baby, my parents and Uncle went somewhere to eat on Hollywood Blvd and L.A.'s first ever gay parade (dubbed Christopher Street West) was in full swing. The first pride I have memories of is 1986. My best friend Robert Pavlick (R.I.P.) drove us down to West Hollywood in his Peugeot (I think a 505). On Sunset, he was driving pretty wild as usual and going way too fast on the way to a red light when the car next to us crossed into our lane and cut us off and Robert slammed on the brakes and threw us into a complete 360 spin! We survived the drive and walked up and down Santa Monica Blvd watching the parade. Afterwards we went to the festival, then an open, free event. I remember they even had carnival rides (like the Scrambler). While everyone was dressed casual summer, I recall being way overdressed in my new wave finery - a nice dress shirt (brown and black - some sort of animal print) buttoned up to the chin, black culottes, and my funky mod styled black and white clubbing shoes.

A couple of days ago I received a copy of the book "When I Knew" by Robert Trachtenberg - a compilation of coming out (to others and to oneself) anecdotes. HBO sent me a copy and a screener of the documentary directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (from World of Wonder) based on the Trachtenberg's book. They're screening it in honor of Pride Month (actually I think their affiliate Cinemax is the one screening it). I haven't watched the film yet, but I did read the entire book on Thursday. I love the concept and it shows that most people's memories of their queerness goes back to early childhood with plenty of stories recalling ages 5-8. Many of the stories are funny, a few are sad, and some are downright poignant like this one:

1971, Abilene, Texas by Stephen Orr:
"My father was tossing a football with my brothers in the front yard. Seeing me sitting alone on the steps, my mother took my dad aside, "Dub," she said, calling my dad by his nickname, "I think Steve is feeling a little left out. Why don't you ask him if he'd like to play too?" So my dad walked over. "Wanna throw the football some?" he asked. "I'd really rather go pick flowes," I replied. And we did. My father, a former football coach, spent the rest of the afternoon picking flowers with me in a nearby field.

My only issue with the book is that within 120 pages, only about 10 stories are from women. Hopefully the documentary is a bit more balanced.

In honor of L.A. PRIDE weekend, here are some of my shots from a few of the last Pride events.






Everybody's favorite "Momma"

The grand dame - "Madame"






My Aunt Lisa always took me to this library when I was a kid.

West Hollywood "The Creative City"


Now that's one gay Pinto ;-)

POLA DOG MEETS POLA WOMAN

I just got my copy of Helmut Newton's "Pola Woman" in the mail today from Amazon.com. Excellent book. Lucy seemed to like it too. :-)

Lucy and the Pola Woman Polaroid photo by Lydia Marcus. Photo shot with a Polaroid Spectra Onyx using expired (7/06) Spectra Film. Photo taken June 5, 2008 in Encino, CA.

AH THE SEVENTIES!

My Mom and Dad never throwing anything away has been both a curse and a blessing. For your viewing pleasure: the best of the 70's medicine cabinet. If you've got a burn, need fresh breath, or want to get rid of a tummy ache - the Marcus clan has got you covered!

Health Aids Polaroid photograph by Lydia Marcus. Shot June 5, 2008 in Encino, CA using a Polaroid SLR 680 SE and Polaroid 600 Film.

DIGGING INTO THE PAST

Been under the weather since Friday - I rarely get sick - but I caught a rather virulent bug that has really gotten me down. My Dad's immunity is even stronger than mine and even he caught the bug too (from me - sorry Dad). He sounds like a really ill frog - just hearing him talk hurts my ears. So with not much energy to spare, I've just been going through some old family photos. I found close to 50 Polaroids I either didn't remember ever seeing or barely remember. The shots are all from the 1970's, a combination of Time Zero Film shot with the family's One Step or peel apart film shot with the older Polaroid in the family, the Super Shooter Plus. They had been tossed in with a bunch of photos from the 1930's - 1950's so I didn't realize they were there. Finding that lot made me go search out other various Polaroids stashed in different places. I'm trying to group them all together and get them all scanned. Today I put together a little over a 100 images and actually organized them according to date (or approximate date). Thank God my Mom had actually put dates on a lot of them! I used to have a really good memory for when stuff happened but as I get older, that gift is going out the window (or just getting lost in 38 years of memories being stored in my brain). What really helped organize them is that each pack of Polaroid film (10 images) has the same number printed on the back. So sometimes a print had a date, sometimes it didn't, so if it didn't, I'd just look for the corresponding Polaroid number on the back of other shots and match them up. The photos span 1976 to 1983, the latter being probably the last year I used the One Step before moving full time to my 35mm Canon Sure Shot. Back in '83, I thought that my One Step was broken and stopped using it. About 23 years later, when I got back into Polaroid film in a big way, I took my One Step out of the closet, put a new film pack in, and it worked! I guess when I was 13 I didn't realize that the battery pack built into the film pack could go bad, instead I thought the camera was dead.

On a separate note, I ordered a couple of photography books from Amazon last week and the first one arrived today - "Suburbia" by Bill Owens. I was supposed to take a weekend seminar with Bill last year at the Julia Dean workshops but it got canceled (I think because not enough people signed up) - what a shame. My first exposure to Bill's work was at the Getty Center last year. I'll let you know more about the book after I get to dive into it.

Here's a random shot for today. I rarely crop anything, but I did crop this shot (brought the top and bottom in a little). I think it has more tension and better composition now. As I start to scan more and get more involved with Photoshop, I'm learning (or accepting) that it's okay to tweak stuff a little now and then. I think sometimes my eye sees a composition a certain way and the camera is limited in capturing what I see because of different factors. I think people can go kind of overboard with changing stuff - I mean if I shoot a landscape of a lake and the sky on a rainy, cloudy day, I don't intend to turn it into a "sunny" shot. But slight crops or color tweaks can really make or enhance a shot. Now with so many people shooting RAW, everything is being modified anyway.

VA parking lot photo by Lydia Marcus. Shot May 26. 2008 in Westwood, CA with a Sony T100.