I can’t imagine a life on earth without it.  MUSIC makes the world go round!  I think of music as the method THE Creator chose to allow earthlings the ability to trip out on the vibrations which music plays in our brains. 

Music was a MUST on all of the Shows we did for the Military … and we were lucky and thankful to have had around a dozen+ Bands over the 7 years of Shows; I believed music would help the Marines take their minds off the War, if only for a few moments.  I honestly don’t remember the Names of all the Bands now and you can bet they had as crazy names back then as they do nowadays!   Around half a dozen Bands made the trip for the Shows many more than just one Show … and, three Bands were there month after month, only missing a few Shows.  Those three Bands were: SAGE, RON & THE ENTERTAINERS, and REUBEN RODRIGUEZ AND THE GUADALAJARA KINGS. 

By the way, when I’m thinking about this: I do know how to reach Ron and Reuben and their Bands are still entertaining … so, if you ever want a great Band to play for your Organization events, wedding receptions, or whatever … just give me a whistle and I’ll put you in touch. 

The Show music always had vocalists and the Bands always backed them.  The music was from all genre: Rock’N'Roll, Country, Pop, Latin, Black Gospel, Comedy, Broadway – - – the spectrum of America.  A rainbow of colors and sounds! 

In addition to Randy Boone, we always could count on JO MORTON, our little Country Music artist who did all seven years of the Shows.  She didn’t have a Band, but she did have her son, DALE with his accordion and in Country – that’s a Band!   The above photo was when our photographer, Joyce Widoff, would take our artists behind the amphitheater into the field behind and get them to pose.

Some of the Bands arrived with great looking female vocalists/dancers who would also get Marines on stage with them.  SAGE was the very first Band to join the Show, followed closely by RON & THE ENTERTAINERS and REUBEN & HIS GUADALAJARA KINGS.  Enjoy these photos of the Bands when they were youngsters … who are now in their definitely middle years.  LOL 

Lundon Calling is now a Podcast  Partner with Q Talk Arizona!

You can visit the Q Talk Arizona website here, and their Lundon Calling page here.

…it so I added a counter to the website today. The active counts starts from May of 2010.

-Mike

OKay, so we were hacked again…

As I told Ace, if we’re hated that much, we must be doing something right!

A majority of the website problems have been fixed, I still have some “house cleaning to do” and I still need to bring some things up-to-date, but…

We are back up and running!

With any luck (and a bit o’ skill) I should have everything back to “normal” in a day or two….

This weeks show will be added to the site once I’ve finished….

-Mike

Yes, we are what we have been becoming … and a part of us today is the result of the labors of activists who paved the way to our today’s. It is said that activists comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

For those of us who are queers, it may be said that WE are the “afflicted” whom the early-day activists stood up for publicly in a quest for our EQUAL rights; the “comfortable” are those who may not have even realized there were folks who were “afflicted”. The “comfortable” may also have included those who knew about the “affliction”, but their hatred and bigotry made them publicly and privately try to “KEEP US IN OUR PLACE”. “Our place”? Well I don’t know about you, but MY PLACE is being me and being an equal of all other humans in our quaint little animal kingdom.

Of course, over the Centuries there have been many brave queer individuals who provided drops of water to wear away the rocks of contempt and hatred in their times. Today, we think of the late 60′s & early 70′s as the “beginning” of the Gay Rights Movement … it really is a follow-up. However, activists from this time are thought of now as “pioneers” … and they most certainly have provided us with roots!

It has been the task of our straight ally webmaster, Mike, and my Co-Hosts, Lance and Phil and myself to do our best in providing pioneers for your listening ears; an opportunity to meet and learn a bit about these folks who, even in their senior years now, are still providing us with guiding lights.

Here is a list for you to check out in case you may have missed any … and there will be more pioneers to meet in our Year III.

S.SGT. ROBERT LEBLANC, a Vietnam Vet – holder of the Purple Heart and 16 combat ribbons. He was discharged in 1976 for being gay. COL. GRETHE CAMMERMEYER, who, prior to DADT challenged the Military Policy. PATRICIA NELL WARREN … author of “THE FRONT RUNNER”, a fiction novel which heavily impacted the queer community back then as we were experiencing an actual visual growth and seeing so many new empty closets. RAOUL “ROB” APPEL, who came from the world of Dance and music to be a Producer/Director of note for “gay events”. He also was the Publisher of the COAST TO COAST TIMES which became the 2nd largest circulation homophile publication in the 1970′s. The REV. TROY PERRY founded the Metropolitan Community church back then and today it is one of the fast-growing Denominations. He also performed “the Rite of Holy Union” for my lifemate Patrick and myself back in 1977. And DAVID MIXNER … I can’t even imagine what our queer community would look like today IF there hadn’t been this extraordinary activist!

And we bow our heads in respect to the memory of the many wonderful activists from this period in history who are now in Heaven enjoying the rewards of their lives well-spent.

As my previous blog stated: we have tried to put stars on the Show for your ears … hope you have enjoyed meeting them! More to come in Year III.

And mingled with the Stars, I hoped we might also sprinkle your ears with info which I don’t think too many listeners might know about … info on what’s happening for our family of University students who might be queer … and also help the parents of U. students learn what their children might be encountering to learn if they are safe or not.

It probably comes as a surprise for most of our listeners to learn there are now wonderful GLBTQA Organizations/Offices at so many Universities these days across our Nation. Hopefully parents should find comfort if any may have felt afflicted. I also have hoped that parents of straight kids would learn not to be worried about their kid being around queer kids.

In case you may have missed any of these Shows, we have begun to build a wonderful catalog where you might check and get a little edjukashon about this … students and family plus friends who know and support queer students.

We have had the President of PFLAG as a guest in our Year I to help listeners learn of this great Organization … and I had hoped to have the Director of CAMPUS PRIDE, Shane Windmeyer, as our guest to close out Year II … however, this got screwed up thanks to Murphys Law and we shall have to see about getting him back because this Organization is so very important.

I’ve wanted to have Campus coordinators and U. students on as guests from Universities across the Nation to help listeners learn what is really happening on their Campus. We have had a few which I hope you will check out. My Co-Co-Host, Phil Reese, was with us first as a student at Central Michigan University and we added two fellow-students – WILL CALHOUN and ERIC HESS – to learn what’s happening at CMU. We had STEVE LUCAS a then-student at PENN STATE give listeners a look at gay activism there. ANA GUERRIERO, the lgbt Center coordinator at U-WISC PARKSIDE has been a guest a number of times on the Show. JEN MIRACLE joined us from the UGA where she is the glbt Office coordinator. BRENDON JUNG with the QUEER STUDENT UNION at UNR brought Reno into our education. And last but not least, we had a great Show with DOT BRAUER and RAE ROSENBERG at the LGBTQA Center at the UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT.

To hear the 92nd Lundon Calling  Show please click on the link below:

Lundon Calling   92nd Show 10/06/10 – Season Two

Special Guest: LEONARD CLARK ARIZONA GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE, CONG. DIST. #3

To hear the 91st Lundon Calling  Show please click on the link below:

Lundon Calling   91st Show 09/29/10 – Season Two

Special Guest:  Dr, Steve Krantz

Guest Website:  PFLAG: Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays

Major update/upgrade to the website here,  ..let me know what you think of it……

-Mike