Sunday, June 10th 2007
"From Ginger to Candye to a Month of Special Moments"
Reviving exceptional moments by Jason Heath-Fitzgerald:
On May 30th 2007 Matthew and I were standing on the front row of the Stevie Nicks concert at the Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheater. Stevie began singing "If Anyone Falls In Love" and Matthew reached forward grabbing my hand with a firm squeeze, I leaned into him and we held hands until the song was finished and it was time for us to through our hands in the air in appreciation to Stevie. That was one of those moments.
It was in Kansas City several years back; I was on the front row of Tina Turner's farewell tour. Matthew and I had caught several of Tina's shows on that tour, but on this amazing night I was on the front row, the closest I had been to Tina since she jumped off the stage in Dallas during her Wildest Dreams tour.
The crowd was wild, feeding off of the energy that Tina was exerting from her presence. Then the band started a song, one that I now often call my favorite Tina Turner song. It was "Whatever You Need," a semi-ballad from her 'Twenty Four Seven' album. I, as well as Mark Lairmore and other friends that were with us, went crazy, we loved the song and was excited she was about to sing it, however a lot of the audience was not familiar with it, so they calmed and many took their seats. Not so for us. We danced, swayed, put our arms in the air and sang along.
Tina had only managed to sing a few words into the song when she noticed us and realized that we were the only folks truly 'into' the moment. With an energetic bounce, she popped up off of the bar stool where she was perched and crossed the stage to stand right in front of us with this amazing smile on her face. She seemed so pleased to see people singing along to this tune.
Tina sang to us. It was as if there was not another person in the arena and that was all I could take; tears poured from my eyes and then the moment came.
The point of this, I suppose is those moments; you know the ones I mean, those moments that last all of your life. Those moments you will never forget and sometimes late at night lying in bed you relive them in your mind and they are still as vibrant as if they happened yesterday. Those are the moments I'm talking about.
The moment at the Tina concert in Kansas City happened right after I started crying. Tina was singing to us and she realized that tears were pouring down my face, while the mike was away from her mouth she pointed, then waved at me and gave a hearty laugh, then she continued the song. Tina Turner had not only pointed and singled me out, but she had also laughed at me! I was the happiest person alive that night.
I'm a very fortunate person. I have many of those special moments in my life and this past month of May I have been graced with several new ones.
May had been the busiest month I can remember for some time. We closed on our new home and began moving in the last week of April, so any spare moment of the month was spent unpacking and arranging the new house.
The first Friday of May Matthew was in Sonja Martinez's "Sonja & Friends" show at Partners with my idol, Ginger Lamar. Then that Sunday, May 6th, we went to VZD's in Oklahoma City to see Candye Kane, one of my favorite Divas. See my BLOG 'Clean Boots For Candye'
One of those special moments happened on May 6th. Candye Kane noticed me and motioned me over to talk to her. A moment I'll never forget!
The month progressed. On May 10th Matthew and I hit the road heading for El Dorado, Arkansas to be apart of a very special event. The Timothy Higginbottom Memorial AIDS Benefit. Matthew had been apart of the benefit in 2006, which was organized by Timothy and his partner Gary. The 2006 benefit was truly a wonderful experience and introduced us to many new friends.
In the year that passed, we lost Timothy and this year in his honor the benefit was named after him, making this a very important event to be apart of.
We returned home from the benefit on May 12th which gave us a day and a half to get ready for the Get Along Gang's Spring Fling Camp Out!
We breezed through our new home, eying the unpacked boxes wishing we had time to get some things in order, but no time for that! We busied ourselves packing Robinhood, our 1979 RV, and in the process managed to get it stuck in the alley behind our garage. Of course, this was a set-back and a job for Harold! As always, Harold dropped everything and drove into town to help us out.
Then on Monday afternoon we were off to the camp out. We were the first folks to arrive and as we were setting up our site, in rolled Bill in his big white van pulling his pop-up camper. As always we were excited to see him and after helping him set up we all set back for a lazy evening of cocktails, etc.
On Tuesday Sherri & Harold joined us as well as a few others. By Thursday evening almost all of Arrowhead State Park's Echo Ridge was full of Get Along Gang campers.
The Get Along Gang's Spring Fling and Fall Ball camp outs are extra special events for Matthew and me. We have many friends we only get to see twice a year at the camping events. We're always excited when we see familiar RV's and vehicles round the bend into Echo Ridge and rush out to say 'Howdy' and when the camp out comes to an end we leave many folks with the farewell of 'See you in six months'!
This camp out was a special one, because Sherri and I had been crowned Emperor and Empress of the Camp Out in the spring of 2006. Therefore, we carried out our royal duties of beading the virgins, etc. as well as putting on a Frito Chili Pie supper for the entire camp out and parading around in our royal crowns and capes passing out beads for the masses.
When the following Sunday came, most of the folks moved out, but a few stayed for one more night, which has become a tradition for Matthew and me. On Monday we took Bill into Eufaula to eat at The Cowpoke Cafe, then back to the campsite to say 'Goodbye'. When Bill took off around the corner out of Echo Ridge, it left us as the last campers remaining. I watched Bill's van 'round the bend and Matthew said 'Are you gonna cry'? I told him, 'I think I could'. It was once again a great camp out and we had been surrounded by great friends.
Matthew and I returned to our new home on Monday, May 21st. The Spring Fling Camp Out had been wonderful, but we were exhausted.
We had a full week of catching up on work and unpacking boxes before the next weekend when we were to attend an event that was very important to me.
On Sunday, May 27th we headed to Oklahoma City along with Sherri, Paul, Bryant and Glenn to see the new play by Robert Matson, 'Ginger Exposed.'
'Ginger Exposed' is an amazing account of the life and creation of the legendary Ginger Lamar, my idol of idols. Robert did a wonderful job of putting the life of Ginger on stage. He was nice enough to thank me before the play and tell the audience that he was inspired to write this play after reading interviews that I had done several years back with Ginger Lamar. Many of the play's events came from those interviews and I was thrilled beyond words to see them take life with the wonderful actors onstage. That was one of those moments, I will remember that night always and I thank Robert for making it happen.
Ginger Lamar will always be the person I look up to most in life, he is absolutely amazing onstage and off. Years ago I was a young queer sitting in the audience at Angles in absolute awe of him and I never dreamed that years later I would not only be a fan, but be able to call him a dear friend. Greg (Ginger) and his partner JL have been an unbelievable part of my life and I am grateful everyday for that fact.
After the excitement of 'Ginger Exposed,' we returned home briefly only to head back to Oklahoma City the following Wednesday for another much anticipated event. We had months earlier purchased front row tickets for Stevie Nicks.
Stevie Nicks was appearing at The Zoo Amphitheater in Oklahoma City and we attended the concert with Paul and Josh. As many of you know, Stevie is one of my divas, so I was very excited. I've seen Stevie in concert many times, but I had never been on the front row before!
Much fun was had that night. Although Stevie didn't seem to interact with the audience as much as she had in the past, she sounded amazing. I can honestly say, I don't think I've ever heard her voice sound as beautiful as it did that night.
The next day it was back to McAlester. Paul picked up John from the airport and he came to visit for a few days, staying in our new guesthouse.
Then Friday brought the first day of June and little did I know that it was going to ROCK. Kelly and I had second row center seats for HEART with .38 Special, once again at The Zoo Amphitheater. A storm moved in as we drove to Oklahoma City, but it didn't stop us. We hung out in the VIP lounge area behind the stage and I sipped cocktail after cocktail watching the rain come down and folks fall on the wet deck. Right before .38 Special was to take the stage and just as I was switching from cocktails to Coors Light, the rain stopped.
The concert we were in for was not what I expected. It was better! .38 Special was great, keeping the audience on their feet and forgetting about the mud and wet. Then Heart took the stage. It was the first time Kelly or I had seen Heart in concert and I have to say, they were fucking un-believable. Pure rock-n-roll.
When the concert ended, many, many Coors Lights later, we headed out for 39th Street, where our room waited at The Habanna and some 'big girl' drinks were calling our names at Tramps. The next day we spent time in Bricktown eating, walking the canal and catching Shrek The Third at the cinema.
I am going to carry many memories with me from May 2007 and with the way June has come in, it seems that many more great memories are inevitable.
Thanks to all those folks in my life who make it worth living. I love you all and appreciate you ever day. Thanks to Sherri & Harold for the weekend in the cabin, June 8th and 9th, that Saturday night will go down as one of those memories!
For any folks out there who are not happy with their life, I urge you to do one thing: Get out there and live. That's what my husband and I do and it's the only way to to go through life. Don't feel guilty for having fun, just do it. Make some of those moments you will remember for the rest of your life.
Much love to everyone.
Jason Heath-Fitzgerald
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