In two days it will be exactly 25 years since my first real love took his own life. There’s been a lot of water under that particular bridge, since then. Almost seems like another lifetime ago. 15 years ago I was still haunted by that dark event in my young life. Ten years ago I exorcised those demons by writing a play about the incident. Five years ago, I decided to stage it and a year later, Rain Damage made it’s premiere at Soul Invictus, in Phoenix.

It all seems so remote now. I face this anniversary with much less angst than previous milestones. There’s a tiny bit of melancholy at the thought, but nothing debilitating. I went through all that anger and recrimination years ago. I realize now that I am no more responsible for his actions than I am for the movement of the clouds across the arched windows before me. It took a while to get here. I’m glad I didn’t follow him into that dark place. Just think of all that I would have missed. ‘Nuff said on that topic.

Life continues to be challenging in a very good way, down at the theatre. Still putting in long days and even longer weeks. Making a lot of headway. The rewards are subtle, but hardly insignificant. The new season is coming along beautifully. My dreams of having a real green room, instead of the half-assed storeroom/holding pen the theatre now has, are beginning to come to fruition. The new partnership with the local community college will be adding much-needed support staff in just weeks. It’s all good.

I suppose it comes along with the territory, but somehow, in the process of trying to find two minutes of relaxation time, I’ve managed to re-immerse myself in the world of music. First, I was thrilled to discover that The Cliks have finally released their sophomore album, Dirty King, which I promptly ordered from Amazon and put into heavy rotation the minute it arrived via U.S. post. I have a fantasy about luring them down from Canada for a show at the RGT. Long shot, but we’ll see…

I also discovered, quite by accident, a group from Germany that has been around for twenty years, called Corvus Corax. Never heard of them until I stumbled upon one of their albums in a box of cds at the theatre. These guys are HOT! And though their music isn’t necessarily for every taste, I’m completely smitten. Who knew bagpipes could be so damned sexy? Seriously. This video was included on the cd I found, which cinched the deal for me.



Still salivating at the prospect of picking up the latest from Namoli Brennet, who will be playing the RGT next month. It’ll be good to spend time with her again. Haven’t actually seen her since moving from Phoenix. She’ll be playing songs from the new album and I’ll score a copy at the same time. Life will be good. Very, very good. Add to that the possibility of bringing Daniel Cartier to town in the Fall and Matt Alber in the Spring it just keeps getting better and better.

My recent phone conversation with Daniel made it sound very promising. His new album should be completed in October and he really wants to get out of Nashville for a while. Fingers are crossed. Matt has been e-mailing with Donny and it sounds like he’s very interested, too. That’s a WHOLE lot of Queer Music for this little town. They’ll never know what hit ‘em. Literally, if I play my cards right. It’s shaping up to be a very interesting season.

Now, if I can just find a little time to catch up on much-needed rest. That, in and of itself, would be fantastic.