fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
My favorite section of Hajdu’s Strayhorn biography Lush Life, the part with the strongest storytelling, is where he talks about Billy Strayhorn’s cancer diagnosis. For this chapter, he relied on the vivid memories of Marian Logan, Harlem socialite and wife of Dr. Arthur Logan, physician to both Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. Strayhorn took his diagnosis…
{Editor’s note: This piece in celebration of music was conceived and written before the horrific events of Saturday night, June 11, in Orlando, Florida. the gar spot conveys condolences to everyone affected by this unspeakable tragedy.} I have a cold. I hate getting late spring/early summer colds. The weather invites outdoor explorations, but the body’s…
In the numbing haze in which I found myself on that fateful day in June 1996 when Mom died, I managed to focus while packing for the trip to L.A. to join my family on that which was most important: Music. In those pre-MP3, pre-iPod days, I carted about a dozen or so CDs with…
