May 3, 2011: 24 years later....

Graduation is just around the corner. I'm not sure what's happening next as far as employment goes but right now, on the 24th anniversary of the death of international gay icon, Dalida, I am beginning my work on her.

Some of you who know me from FB will remember a feature I did a while back called "Dalida of the Day" in which I would post a youtube video of a song of hers, along with some fun facts. The work I will be doing is going to go deeper than that. I will begin writing a memoir about Dalida & what she means to me, and why. I will have to look at just how having those few Dalida CDs I brought with me on when I evacuated NOLA for Hurricane Katrina saved my life. She is timeless to me. The more I listen to her, the better I understand not only the language in which she is singing (usually French, but she sang in 9 others) but also myself. The more I learn of her biography, the more I learn of myself. I hope I am able to make all this make sense. Most of the French or French-speaking people I know think of her as "dépassée" or outmoded, something from yesteryear. But for me, thanks in large part to the Internet, she is brand-new, eternal, incandescent in her candor. She speaks with candor about herself in interviews, she is amazingly honest with the public in a way I will have to be with myself if this is going to work properly. There are still plenty fans worldwide,  and I hope I can also interview at least a few of  them along the way as well, in order to give me more insight into this phenomenal artiste.

Clearly, my Gemini mind won't let me just work on one thing at a time, so I have already begun to translate David Lelait-Helo's beautifully written "Dalida--D'une rive à l'autre" with the hopes of being able to submit it to a publisher someday. It is a bit of a big task for a first time, but it's like I said when I put on those Wonder Woman bracelets right before I went in front of the cameras on The Weakest Link: No Guts, No Glory.

One year from today, barring illness or natural disasters, I will be at the Montmartre Cemetery to commmemorate that terrible night and pay hommage to the woman who saved my life even though she couldn't save her own.