A Smidgen of Very Low Class Old-Fashioned Gay Culture
I think that a smidgen of very low class old-fashioned gay culture every now and then … is just what the doctor ordered. It’s our version of the ‘apple a day’ … but to keep the pomposity at bay.
And I think Prince Poppycock will do very nicely for today’s medication.
You may very well know HRH P. C. from his recent dipping a toe into mainstream popular culture - ‘America’s Got Talent’.
So to start low, how bout a club performance version of 'Largo al Factotum' – a club performance as it’s not tidied up for general consumption …
… and then, to descend lower, ‘Yankee Doodle’ …
… with a bunch of high kicks are thrown in just to go even lower still!
What for me is really great about Prince Poppycock (aka John Quale) ...
... is his commitment to those who feel marginalised by being different, as this inspirational video for the ‘It Gets Better’ project shows.
If you don’t respond in the least little bit to all this, please hand in your gay membership card as you close this blog post - LOL!
What a hoot! I don't think I've ever before seen someone strip while singing opera! & not a bad voice either. Interesting how he sanitizes PPC's 18th Century accoutrement by invoking the US's Founding Fathers--very sly that!
ReplyDeleteJust one question. You refer to "very low class gay culture." I've not sure there is such a thing. Wouldn't any "gay culture" automatically be on a certain exalted level, just because it's gay and therefore...ummm...special?
On the other hand, there was the performer at a Gay Pride celebration in a beach town in California where I once lived who was announced as twirling his flaming batons to Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I mentioned this improbable feat to a (hunky) acquaintance. "Oh," he replied, "I've seen him do that before. It's FABULOUS!" I asked what part of Beethoven's 9th was used (assuming it would be the last few minutes of the Ode to Joy). "Oh, it's the whole piece I'm sure. It last a LONG time, four or five minutes."
hi Paul
Deletei too love the concept of mixing widely diverse genres and costume - and not a bad bottom either (as well as voice), if my practiced eye is not out of practice. though the older i get the better ones of the very same standard look
i must say i rollicked along with the crowd to the club performance - my gay membership well and truly in tact!
'a smidgen of very low class old-fashioned gay culture' was written with many/all tongues in cheek of course. a little modesty for our side on my part, though modesty is not my usual stock-in-trade. your arguments about 'gay culture' and 'special' are wonderfully irrefutable!
being the Rabelasian i've confessed to being, i misread 'batons' as singular, and saw a whole other performance to the one you witnessed in the beach town in California! four or five minutes - must have been at the speed of light, though i keep in mind was it Toscanini's break-neck conducting of a Beethoven symphony at the end of the war? i think i have the conductor wrong here?
in all, the very essence of a hoot indeed!