September 4, 2009

"Because just when you least expect it. Just what you least expect. Love comes quickly, whatever you do. You can't stop falling."-Pet Shop Boys

I arrived at Alireza's apartment. I was the first to arrive. We poured a vodka as my eye wondered around his house, which I'd never been to in the daylight. Dress forms draped, art books, magazines, Fornasetti plates, polka-dotted bedding. Visual overload.

Theron arrived and then Joe and finally Georgi. We posed for a photo with PSB vinyl and set out to Hammerstein. Joe and Theron and Ali are musical kindred spirits to me. We all obsess over singers and songs and live shows. We talk obsessively about bands. Music feeds many people, but there are some, like us, who it is necessary. Needed. Like food and water, we cannot live without.

A second vodka and t-shirt bought and the five of us descend into the crowd. Neil comes out in ridiculous hat and the set is made up of boxes that build and fall. He sings Go West and the crowd erupts. Georgi, younger than I, did not know the significance of the lyrics or the fact that the Village People originally recorded it. I love sharing things I love with him. He, in turn, seems happy to hear me go on and on and on about the Village People. Alexander Girard. Diana Ross. Furniture. Cyndi Lauper. Whoever I am currently obsessing over. It would annoy most. Not him.

New York City Boy. Always On My Mind. Suburbia. It's A Sin. Glorious, clear, still sounding new. We all danced and sung and clapped and jumped and went nuts. Felt young. Fed ourselves.

Georgi whispered in my ear on the floor last night something that made me feel like the most special, loved person in the world. Lights flashing. Friends jumping. An icon singing. And he there by my side. In my arms. Everything is right in the universe.

Afterwards, we pigged out on fattening food at a diner with Joe. He pressed us to tell him the full story of how we met. We obliged. And then he told us his own. Which for some time was shrouded in secrecy too. And it made me smile with the thought that others have what G and I have. Joe and John have been together for over ten years I believe. That thought makes me excited for our future.

The future looks bright, tonight. It's so bright. Tonight.