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How'd I Miss My Coming Out? (Part 2): They Call It "Xanadu"
Originally I had something completely different planned for Part 2 of How'd I Miss My Coming Out?, but then I watched the Tony Awards on DVR and it sparked something. It doesn't help that AfterElton's love for Cheyenne Jackson has slowly created my own mini-obsession with that tall drink of water so this week we're getting a little light in our skates as we reminisce about Xanadu.
There were a couple things I worshiped as a kid that were pretty damn gay; I'm talking things I would have traded a whole set of Garbage Pail Kids cards for or possibly even sold my little sister on the black market if it meant keeping these things in my life. Yes, I was that dramatic in grade school. One of these treasures from my youth was Olivia Newton-John and the other was roller skating. So imagine my glee when in 1980 I realized that these two great tastes go great together!
Not only did I think I could sing just like Olivia, I thought I was a roller skating king! I was like lighting on skates (just ask Gina P., whose tail I whooped in the Chestnut Hill Elementary School gymnasium with the entire school watching ... that's what I thought) and practicing moves was as common as piano lessons in my house. Linda Blair had nothing on my Roller Boogie! I had the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on vinyl and knew every word by heart. I can't tell you how many nights were spent singing those famous love songs into my pillow and thinking in my head that I sounded exactly like my girl Olivia. "Suddenly" never sounded so good as through the vocal chords of a pre-pubescent girly-voiced boy who thought he could match Olivia's wispy soprano. In my bedroom I was a singer and in my driveway a disco dancin' derby boy who could skate in circles while clapping and chanting "X-A-N-A-D-U" until the sun went down. My head was full of singing, dancing, skating through walls and lots of neon, it was fab-u-lous! I'd seen the film so many times that I could recite the hilariously cheesy dialogue and alone with a broom stick, I too could dance like Gene Kelly, who knew? I wanted to be Kira, that renegade Muse who couldn't help but disobey the parental unit (in this case Zeus) for a chance at true love and one last perfectly choreographed group skate. One summer I created homemade fliers and posted them around my quiet suburban street inviting all of my unsuspecting neighbors to a special basement treat. I didn't care that my magazine cut-out method made it look like I was kidnapped like Patty Hearst in a basement - I was putting on the most entertaining show of 1983! A one man show, reenacting the visionary musical masterpiece that had captured my little pink heart, and the housewives of Upstate NY would love it! I'd call it Danadu! Long before Cheyenne Jackson strapped on his tube socks and roller skates, I had a vision of bringing the forbidden love of a Muse and a mortal to the masses. Kira and Sonny Malone would live forever ... in my basement! I laced up my skates, put the needle on the record and rolled through the musty sleeping bag I'd flung over a pipe as my stage curtain and made my magical entrance. I 100% believed that Kira and her Muse sisters were magic and that nothing stood in their way. I brought that to my performance as I skated past the washer machine, dusty weight bench and Christmas decorations belting out every word of the Grammy Award-winning "Magic" with style and grace.
I was a vision cloaked in the faint neon glow of a black light! Seriously, it's amazing what kind of special effects I thought a stupid black light would make in a damp dark basement because I was certain a big neon blue aura was surrounding my 50 pound frame, just like in the movie! Sadly, the only person there to witness my broadway debut was my Mom and the dog. *record scratches and I stumble over a disembodied Barbie leg* In the moment I didn't care that, much like the song, my basement was "a place where nobody dared to go..." It was just about living and breathing Xanadu. It brought all of my dreams to life and it made me a happy little unsuspecting gay boy. Looking back on my obsession, there's a slight chance that the burning sensation Xanadu gave me had something other than a love of skating and incredible pop ballads to do with it. It may have had a little something to do with Olivia's leading man, Michael Beck. Michael Pec Beck With his feathered Farrah do and exposed muscular chest, Michael Beck was quite the sex symbol in the early 80's. That "tortured, poor artist" thing was attractive even to a 10 year old; little did I know how that would play out over and over again in my 20's. HELLO! I think he's why I fell in love The Warriors when I was barely a decade old. Obviously a film about rival gangs roaming the boroughs of New York was highly inappropriate viewing material for a child but it had Xanadu's Sonny Malone all sweaty and hot, baseball mimes and roller skating bullies! What's not to love? In high school my friend Mo and I would sit in my car and sing Xanadu at the top of our lungs. It was fun and reminiscent of our youth. It was magical how we used to float across the roller rink with the wind in our hair as Olivia Newton-John drifted through the stale air. It was a world that was a little more Gene Kelly than R. Kelly and one where a boy could be schooled in mythology and the ways of love thanks to a movie musical called Xanadu. Cheyenne Jackson I have yet to see the Broadway production starring Kerry Butler and out fave Cheyenne Jackson and I don't know that I ever will. I'm worried that the tone will be one of mockery and that it will be too campy to capture the spirit of the Xanadu I know and love. And to be blatantly honest, I highly doubt either star can hold a candle to the hot hot heat I created in my basement over 25 years ago. I'm just sayin'... Submitted by on Thu, 2008-06-19 11:43. |
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as i have said....
as i have said many times here....Olivia newton-john was like the smack across my face when it came to me finally knowing about my sexuality.
as for xanadu, i was also very obsessed with that movie. (after Grease which was a more scarier obsession than xanadu...good times)
Now, I was born in 85...so eh....my obsession was a bit strange in middle school for people. (everyone was into N'sync and i was into songs like "physical" and "have you never been mellow")
Also like you, i memorized every freaking line and song in the movie....i'd go around my house actually imitating the way olivia newton-john spoke. (we should have a contest for biggest dorks here)
xanadu is also what introduced me to gene kelly....and then later, i was introduced to fred astaire and ginger....and yeah, the rest is history. :-P
anyways, I haven't seen the movie in years. i graduated high school in 2004...by then, i was a full on judy fan....so i probably last saw it in 2000 or something.
*goes to imeem.com* great, now i gotta go back in time at work....thanks a lot. ;-)
My own Xanadu memory...
I was just a wee one when the movie came out, so I didn't know much about it. All I knew is that one night my babysitter Missy Frick came over to our house with a gaggle of her girlfriends, while my parents were home. My 7-year-old mind reeled. Turned out that Xanadu was premiering on HBO, and my parents had graciously let Missy and her gals come over and watch it in our rec room. I was given explicit orders NOT TO GO DOWNSTAIRS.
Now I know that my parents were just trying to protect Missy and her pals from my precocious (and charming!) ways. But at that point HBO meant one thing to me: Porky's, which I had caught my brother sneaking downstairs to watch in the middle of the night. So I immediately connected Xanadu with Porky's, and for years suffered from bizarre feverdream images of a bunch of teenaged girls watching a T&A movie while my family sat upstairs.
Now I've seen Xanadu at least 100 times and own it in every available format. See how this works?
a couple of things to mention about livvy and xanadu
there's a new two disc dvd "magical music" version of Xanadu out next week, it includes new special features and the entire soundtrack.
Livvy has never gotten her due as the influential pop goddess she is. it's hard for me to pick my favorite Olivia album, but i think it would have to be her most critically reviled album SOUL KISS. it came out in late 85, and was torn apart by the critics, who called it trashy, tawdry, and tasteless. coincidentally, it's also one of my favorite albums of the 80's! you can see the title song HERE, which was also, sadly, her LAST TOP FORTY HIT!
visit my personal blog!
Olivia Newton-John
I fell in love with Olivia from the first moment I heard Let Me Be There back in the day. I loved Grease, tolerated Xanadu for the tunes. At the ripe old age of 40, when I started coming out to my family (Long story, short -- I grew up in Evangelical Land), my older sister commented on my ONJ fandom as she was piecing the pieces together. You mean I had a "tell?"
Snicks, maybe I was too old, but Soul Kiss is probably my least favorite of Olivia's CDs, though it had its moments. The Rumour, a CD that received great reviews, but little popular attention, ranks near the top for me, with Olivia's voice at its prime.
For more Olivia fun, check out the song Burn, Baby Burn on YouTube, written and performed for the Sordid Lives series. The girl still has it 30 years later!
THE RUMOUR is another classic...in fact..
i think the song on that album "love and let live" was one of the first safe sex songs by a mainstream artist aimed directly at the gay community
visit my personal blog!
I've never seen Olivia live...
...but she's one I WOULD pay more than $100 to see (not Madonna, who I like, but not that much). Years ago, she performed for the first time in the Tampa Bay area, and the critic for the St. Pete Times--a total rock chick--gave her a pretty good review, putting in a sweet aside about a middle-aged man who approached the stage with flowers and just stood there for something like 5 minutes totally enraptured.
I didn't even see Xanadu the movie until last year; like the music, but, wow, does the movie ever suck! Personally, when it comes to campy musicals, I've always loved The Pirate Movie (1982), which I watched endlessly on HBO and The Movie Channel back in the day--so cheezy, Kristy McNichol giving her all for such a thankless project, Christopher Atkins strutting around half-naked, and glorious songs such as "Pumpin' and Blowin'" and "Happy Ending." Pure bliss. Now that's a movie I'd love to see on-stage.
Check out my blog: http://radicalsexy.blogspot.com/
We Are the Pirates
The Pirate Movie! *nostalgic sigh* If Olivia Newton-John and Xanadu was one of Dan's "I should have known" moments, The Pirate Movie and Christopher Atkins was one of mine. To this day, I'll quote "Happy Ending" if the circumstances are cheesy enough to warrant it. I remember watching that movie almost incessantly on HBO, and singing along to most of it. Pure camp fun.
Gar vethed e-chunen; go hon bedithon na meth.I can out-geek other Olivia fans...
...by pointing out that the backup vocalist on "Soul Kiss" is none other tham "Married With Children" star Katey Segal. Also, Livvy gave a fine straight dramatic performance in "It's My Party", directed by Randal Kleiser, the same guy who directed "Grease". ONJ played the mother of a gay teen. She also wrote and sang the closing song.
As for "Xanadu', well, I already mentioned in the comments thread for the Cheyenne Jackson interview that it wasn't MY coming out that I missed with that one. But I still have the soundtrack, on vinyl, no less. Which makes me wonder...how did my FAMILY not know, at the time?
Okay, I have to admit...
Priceless
I'd call it "Danadu"! << -- funniest thing I've read all year.
- Kirby, moviedearest.blogspot.com
livvy
Hey guys I've been a fan of our girl since 1971 and didn't even know she was a gay icon until I came out in 99.
I love all her albums but pre Grease more than post. Her gorgeous tones on the "Come on Over" album are superb I recommend if you don't have it buy it and go straight to "Smile for me" then start at the beginning again.Just discovered this site and love it
Woohoo, new Xanadu
Man, a lot of you guys are making me feel old, since I was just starting high school when the film came out! I do remember how extremely catchy I found the title tune---and most of the rest of the soundtrack. You have to admit this really is a terrible film, taken from an artistic point of view (it has one of the dumbest fade-outs in film history, I think), but it's still a heck of a lot of fun to watch. And I'll no doubt be buying the new "special edition" DVD that is to be released in just a couple of days.
I'm like a superhero, with no powers or motivation...