Summer's end

Now that the end of the summer is in sight, I am trying to squeeze in more fun things to do. KD Lang was dreamy in concert on Wednesday night. I have now see her five times since the 80's and she continues to enchant and entertain. Her enthusiasm for her music and her freedom as an entertainer, an out entertainer are truly wonderful to partake. We saw her at the Paul Masson Winery, an outdoor theater which was a perfect setting for Ms KD. The crickets were chirping, the weather was perfect, ah bliss in California.

Tonight we went to see a blast from the past, part of the British invasion, Herman's Hermits. That's Herman, or rather lead singer, Peter Noone in the pic. Again, a perfect setting, at the beach in Santa Cruz. So many people my age, singing along the entire concert.

"Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter..."

We were all 16 again, with our hair its natural color, sitting on the beach, swooning over the cute singer from Britain. OK, I'm over the cute boy thing but it was still fun to be 16 for a while tonight. And even better to go sit on the boardwalk, eating crap food like funnel cakes, talking about baseball, old friends, school, jobs and dinner in the coming week together. It is magic when a person can have friends like Marie and Roxane for 25 or so years and know they have loved me for all those years whether I saw them or not.

"I'm Henry the eighth I am, Henry the eighth I am, I am...."

I noticed, though, that there was one element missing from tonight's concert, no gay men. There should have been gay men my age there who liked the cute boy singer. So I wasn't 16 anymore, I was 51 and missing my generation of gay men. Those guys should have been with us on the beach tonight, dancing the night away pretending to be 16 again.

"Baby, baby, can't you hear my heartbeat....."