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01-13-02 Before I babble, a few shout-outs to the kids at the Lunatarium
(where I got two of my ambient tracks to the DJ just before our city's
thought police shut them down) and Roxy, who helped make my crazy-ass-dancing
weekend so fun. Thanks also to that boy who started
making out with me on 6th St. Friday night. (Are you reading this?
Email
me, I'm curious.)
First off let me apologize to Ru for young John's remarks. I know how it feels to be lambasted on the internet and it does not feel good. I try to avoid doing it. His remarks were not meant for a huge audience, and to his credit he does like your music. And as you've said in your weblog: MY MANTRA what other people think of me is none of my business. Very true. I met RuPaul once and I'm sure he wouldn't remember it because I'm basically a nobody. It was at the old Boy Bar on St. Marks and I was in a drag show competing against Varla Jean Merman, Candis Cayne and some other filthy drag whore. The judges of the contest were Nan Goldin, Bjork and RuPaul. Ru was backstage videotaping us. I suppose my incredible height impressed him because he was all smiles and kept going on about 'the higher the berry on the tree, the sweeter the juice!' As a side note, I must say that Bjork is very tiny. I loomed over her like the Empire State Building might loom over a pygmy child. I peered down and barely made her out mouthing the word 'photo' while holding what looked like a camera and giggling in that Icelandic way. I agreed by bending down a bit, raising an eyebrow and absorbing her flash. Varla dressed as a fat Viking woman, sang opera and won the contest. I was certainly the crowd favorite except for her octaves, damn her. In any case, after perusing Ru's website I wrote back to my sweetie:
Remember, RuPaul did get my part in 'To Wong Foo', so I have a right to bitch ! Plus, I don't trust people who never whine. I guess Ru has a therapist for that sort of thing but I'd encourage her to bitch and moan a bit more in her weblog. Bitching and moaning is AOK if its for the purpose of laughter, I say. It hurts no one. I'm sure she must have some great showbiz stories to tell. I'd like some behind-the-scenes crap about the decadence of Hollywood! How do celebrities relate to each other in private? And what about fashion? Fashion people are mean. Lets hear about it! My husband wrote back:
to which I responded: You're a doll! D. I bet underneath Ru's go-go happy exterior, a seething angry beast is raring to kill babies. Or, maybe not. I decided a well-written email to Ru herself would be appropriate. There had to be something we had in common. After much thought, I sent off the following: hi ru- i'm curious, what are your feelings on robots? xox D. to which I received this disappointing reply: you rock ! ru. Hmm. I responded in kind: thank you! but what about robots? xox D. A few weeks went by and I heard nothing. So I went back to his website looking for clues. There had to be something I could write that would elicit a real response. And then I saw my window. Ru was talking about how he was walking in midtown and came upon a religious nut who reminded him that God walked with him. Because of this simple reminder, Ru gave the guy $5. I wrote a new email, surgically designed to elicit a real response:
I even included a direct link to my PayPal account. A few days later I had received no money, but I did get this email from Ru: rubot walks with you. love, rubot. Clever, Ru. Very clever! I forwarded his response to my boy and he had this to say: that was rutastic *John to which I said: Now you're just being rudiculous! and he countered with: sorry, I suffer from cerebral rupalsy *John That week Ru quoted my email on her site as one of the 'best of the week'. Her other favorite email was this one:
Ru, I don't want to have anal intercourse with you, but you can still give me money. God does walk with you. Just follow one of these links to make a donation:
I'll be sure to send you an autographed picture of the world's only robotic drag celebrity! (That's me.) Or, since you like buying used CDs, check out my Amazon sale , with prices so low I'm practically giving things away. In the early-mid 90s I found RuPaul very inspiring. She wore a watermelon-themed outfit on Arsenio Hall. You don't get much more radical than that. 
I'm also probably in the minority on this, but I found her rude exchange with Milton Berle on the MTV awards hilarious! She was my hero after that. Fuck Milton Berle. He's a fat old homophobic loser and ought to be sassed. More power to Ru for that one. After Ru 'made it' all of the queens who worked the clubs with her back then were jealous of her success. I really didn't start going out in drag until after her success but I often heard them bitching about it. I think they all thought Lipsynca was the leading contender to break out but Ru came out of left field with a smash. Actually the first performance I ever did was to 'Supermodel' at Club USA. I was dancing on the stage in drag and the song came on, and suddenly a spotlight was thrust upon me, the stage cleared and I did an impromptu show. That was back when I would stand in the bathroom for an hour pretending I worked there to make tips. You'd be surprised how much I made. It was during that 'Supermodel' performance that photographer Remsen Wolff gave me his card, and soon after that I was getting paid to model for him. So I have Ru to thank for that. I also used to live on Clinton and Stanton back when it was dangerous, and whenever going home in drag a crazy old homeless lady would point at me and shout 'Look! Its DuPaul! Its DuPaul!'. I tried telling her that I was neither DuPaul nor RuPaul but her visions eclipsed even my stunning reality. I like to think that Ru designed her happy-happy persona for mass consumption. The ultra-glamour thing is easy to swallow especially when paired with an 'everybody say love' philosophy. Who can say no to love? And therefore, RuPaul? Its all very PC and 'gay rights' friendly, and that's what the early 90s were all about. In a way Ru is the anti-Divine, cuddling up to the mainstream instead of offending it. I must give her credit for succeeding. And occasionally she did sneak in something sassy like that watermelon dress on Arsenio. Sometimes she'll drop something bizarre into her weblog, like this: I AM NOT AN ANIMAL ! -the elephant man or
I'd like to hear more about that! I can't relate to Ru's endless positively, but I admire her for being herself (quite a character!) and such a success. The NYC club scene hasn't really created a star since the days of Deee-Lite and RuPaul (and Madonna before them). Where is the next one? Here is Ru's first appearance on Arsenio Hall . Her über-love persona is in full effect but the stuff she says about becoming the image of your own imagination still speaks to me. I also give you this segment from Entertainment Tonight in 1993 that shows how new it was to see drag hit the mainstream in the early 90s. Besides the Ru schtick it features appearances by drag stalwarts Lipsynca, Linda Simpson, Lady Bunny, and Varla Jean Merman. If you look closely you can even see shots from the greatly missed Club USA. And here's a photo of my former roommate Susan next to a photo of RuPaul. We used to make little videos and take pictures of each other. One favorite thing to do while wearing glamour makeup was to imitate RuPaul's huge, vacant smile. 
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