sweetheart redux

I have a few boxes I keep hidden away in the closet even thought they're full of beloved treasures -- this is because, while I love these treasures, I wouldn't have the concentration to think if I lived in a house where all these things were not kept in boxes.  Instead of thinking of them as being hidden away in a closet, I try to think of them as being kept in treasure boxes.  Over the weekend I had to delve into a couple of these boxes while looking for a photo album I really needed, and here, I have selected a few unearthed treasures to share: My grandpa gave this to me and my husband the day before our wedding -- i may be a little confused but i think it's a commemorative George Gershwin envelope that he sent to Gershwin's son to have signed.  These are a couple pages from a full diary my mom bought me at a flea market when i was a teenager.  It is  "Line A Day" diary -- its title page says "copyrighted 1892, by samuel ward company, Boss, MA...

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 "SHOWGIRL CONFIDENTIAL"  (Cover Photo by Dusti Cunningham) PLEASANT GEHMAN, AUTHOR OF “SHOWGIRL CONFIDENTIAL” BIOGRAPHY Pleasant Gehman is a true renaissance woman: writer, dancer, actor, musician and painter. A Hollywood icon, during the 1970’s, she was one of the first punks in Los Angeles, documenting the scene she helped create in her fanzine “Lobotomy”. During the 1980’s, she toured across North America fronting her three bands, all of whom released multiple recordings: The Screaming Sirens, The Ringling Sisters and Honk If Yer Horny. She was also the booker for the seminal Los Angeles clubs Cathay De Grande and Raji’s.  Since the early 1990’s, under the stage name Princess Farhana, she has appeared internationally as a professional belly dancer and burlesque performer and teacher. She has danced and acted in numerous motion pictures, in music videos and on television. She has appeared in many documentaries on belly dance and burlesque, performin...

I often use the word 'camp,' and I particularly used it in Grad School to describe Kurt Vonnegut's loving but critical portrayal of normal people, but I could never put it into good words until I came upon this essay, by the amazing, real genius writer Susan Sontag.  I thought her essay may be useful to those of you who try to describe why gay guys love Liza Minnelli (stereotypically) or why you covet Aunt Rose's collection of Hummel Figurines. super-camp hollywood-camp                                                                                     Notes On "Camp" by Susan Sontag Published in 1964. Many things in the world have not been named; and many things, even if they have been named, have never been described. One of these is the sensibility ...