just like jesse james » cher thursday

there’s a bridge i need to burn before i leave

jesse james — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:31:05 +0000

This video requires a warning: Not only does Cher look even more remarkably fabulous than she always does, but she is incredibly playful and adorable and kitten-cute to a breaking point in this video that may be too much for some, myself included, which is why I am watching it over and over. I am warning this mostly for those of you in the office right now so that you will be prepared for your uncontrollable oohing and awing while clapping your hand profusely like a little kid who all of a sudden hears the ice cream truck coming.

This song was not chosen randomly. You dig?

Happy Friday-eve, y’all! Happy Cherday!

shhh…

jesse james — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:31:52 +0000

I love this photograph. It’s quiet and soft and still, silent almost, all of which I am relating to this week (which is rare, let me tell you.) And so, no post, just a quick hello to blogland and a photo that I adore.

Happy Friday-eve, everyone. Happy Cherday.

a call to action: let the lesbians dance!

jesse james — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:42:00 +0000

Oh! Am I pissed. Ugly mad.

Ready for the headline? Here you go:

Mississippi Prom Canceled After Lesbian Date Request

Here’s the story, in (as) short (as I am capable): A high school in another Smallmindednowhereville, this time in Mississippi has prom coming up, like all schools do. A girl at this high school invites a person to go to the prom with her, like all kids that want a date for prom do. The girl invites a girl to be her date, because that is who she wants to go with her, just as we all hope to attend functions with someone we would like to be around. And then Smallmindednowhereville MS school freaks out at how ephing gay it would be if two girls went to prom together.

AND SO INSTEAD of sucking it up and keeping their personal(ly fucked up) beliefs to themselves, just like we all do when we personally don’t like something but that doesn’t matter because it is a free country, even if it is some guy picking his nose in front of everyone on the bus THAT IS HIS RIGHT. Personally, I think that is gross- BUT WHO AM I? (Please do not mistake this last example as a reasonable comparison to lesbians at prom, I was just trying to come up with something that might offend me in some way, and I’m not a homophobe so, I had to go the booger route.) SO INSTEAD of being reasonable and legally sound and humane and not a total bigoted prick about it, what does the school decide to do? Oh, you know, they decided to just CANCEL PROM. FOR EVERYONE.

At first the school warned Constance McMillen (that’s the lesbian-heroine’s name) that she was not allowed to go to the prom. They said that if the girls showed up at all, in any way shape or form, that they would ask her lesbo-ass and her lesbo-ass date to leave. But clearly someone on the school board woke up in the middle of the night, probably because he had to pee or something, when it dawned on him that they could be even more malicious and homophobic and hateful and instead of just violating the rights of this girl they could piss off the whole school by canceling what some kids think is the only good thing that ever happens in high school so that maybe every single person in that whole school will hate this girl for ruining what was going to be the best night of their life! Brilliant, you fuck! Just brilliant.

Here’s where the story starts to get better. Here’s where the ACLU steps in and says, in much more legally appropriate terms, “THE FUCK YOU WILL.”

ACLU Sues Mississippi School That Canceled Prom Rather Than Let Lesbian Couple Attend

So, yes, the ACLU is on it and they are a force to be reckoned with (and a non-profit so donate to them) but if you are even kind of sort of half as angry as me and have just had it with this I-hate-gays-and-somehow-attempt-to-get-away-with-acting-hateful-towards-them and just want to do something or say something, well, I’ve got something for you!

Here is a list of all of the bigoted assholes in charge of the decision not to have prom at all who also double as the school board, the superintendent and the principal. Please feel free to email and call them as much as you wish. You are a free agent, but I warn only this: the more rash and intelligent you sound, the farther your argument will carry. Basically, try not to sound as crazy as the bigots. That is all. Have at ‘em!

Teresa McNeece — superintendent
tmcneece@itawamba.k12.ms.us
phone (662)862-2159 Ext. 14

The school board:

Eddie Hood
a082315@allstate.com

Jackie Nichols
jnichols@itawamba.k12.ms.us

Harold Martin
hmartin@itawamba.k12.ms.us

Clara Brown
cbrown@network-one.com

Tony Wallace
twallace@nexband.com

And our dear bigoted principal, the lovely Principal Trae Wiygul

twiygul@itawamba.k12.ms.us

11900 Hwy 25 S
Fulton, MS 38843

(662)862-3104

Oh, and Happy Friday-eve, everyone. Let us not forget the things that matter, Happy Cherday!

it’s over, for good, until next year.

jesse james — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:36:29 +0000

The Lezzy’s are over. (Finally!) I was a finalist in two categories and still can’t figure out how that was rigged. I didn’t take the cake in either but really? Of course not. Did you see the real blogs that I was up against? Finding out I was in the final few made me feel like that little shrimpy guy that makes the cut because my dad is the business sponsor for the team uniforms or something. Only he’s not. And don’t get me wrong, I’ll take it and I ran with it. But, like I said, it was a bit surprising to be in the company of the Lezzy contenders and winners. And a big congratulations to all of them. They are all lezzy-worthy and I am flattered to have been in their company by any means.

Ok, so, good for the winners, ya ya, blah, blah. Happy happy, they deserve it, moving on… Here’s the important part: THANK YOU. Ya, you. Everyone from that one lost fellow looking for hot naked pictures of Jennifer Beals that got directed here accidentally to the “blazerwest folk,” of my blog, which is just my own blog-code-name for all of you that keep showing up here, day after day. Because when you do my day gets better and when you don’t I wonder and maybe after a while, I might even worry (and then I find your twitter account and tweet you a personal tweet to make sure you’re ok and you always are and then I’m like, right, ok then, this is awkward, see you around.) You all know who you are.

My life is my life and I could write about it or not, but I keep doing so here because y’all are good company and fun to hang out with. So, here’s to you. Here’s to us. Thanks for voting and clearly all of you will all need to come up with twice as many false email accounts next year and vote a whole lot more. Until then, mush mush, love love, you know I adore you (minus the creepy guy here for naked pictures of Jennifer Beals) now get over yourself, this is about me.

Happy Friday-eve, everyone! Happy Cherday!

This is one of my favorite Cher songs to just get up and dance around to like a fool, and I’ve been saving it. And right now it’s perfect, and just for you…

(there is a 7 second delay, be patient… it’s worth it.)

if i want to put my tits on my back it’s nobody’s business but my own

jesse james — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:24:32 +0000

For today’s Cherday post I am going to answer six of the most frequently emailed, commented and tweeted questions that I get about the Goddess of All Things Fabulous and Sparkly. Ready?

1. What is Cher’s full name? Well, it’s Cher. But she was born with the name Cherilyn Sarkisian.

2. What is your favorite Cher song? That depends on the day really. I never ever get tired of her cover of Walking in Memphis and of course, there is that one song, that I am a tad partial to, you know the one.

3. Do other lesbians (namely Violet) think it odd that you are obsessed with Cher? I wouldn’t describe it as obsessed so much as having a deep appreciation for the finer things. And yes, a few folks find my endless and always current knowledge of Cher a bit surprising, I guess. I remember Violet literally taking a step back when she realized I wasn’t kidding about this Cher business. I know she doesn’t feel the same way about her but she loves me enough that she has never said anything negative about Cher and just let’s me go on with my Cher-loving ways.

4. What is your favorite thing about Cher? Easy. That she is so freaking Cher. Everything she does is just so godamn Cher. And all of it, no matter what, who, where, why, when or how, she does so with no apology.

5. Do you seriously think Cher hasn’t had plastic surgery? I get this one a lot. I’ve never said either way. But, here’s the thing, WHO CARES! I’ve written about this before, but I am with Cher when she says, “If I want to put my tits on my back it’s nobody’s business but my own!” Exactly, Cher. Exactly. I think it is just the dumbest, most boring, anti-feminist thing in the world to think you have the right to decide for, attempt to dictate, point fingers or judge another woman for the decisions and choices she makes for herself and her body. Really, come on, there is more than enough judgment, endless condemning, policing and insanely impossible expectations and rules towards/for/of/on women that are so absolutely (and intentionally) unattainable in this world. And I refuse to participate. So long as Cher feels fabulous, she is fabulous.

6. What do you think about this Chastity/Chaz business and what do you think Cher thinks? I am excited for Chaz. I am also excited that he seems so willing to talk about his situation and his personal (private) experiences. It is dangerous, of course, to put one face to an entire population (hi Ellen!) but it happens and he seems like a good guy to be publically speaking about transgendered issues. I know Cher flipped a lid when Chaz (then Chastity) came out to her mom as a lesbian. I’m talking about lamps flying through windows-flipped out. But Cher said she was so upset about Chastity coming out because she didn’t want to watch the media be mean to her child, not because she was a lesbian. So, I don’t know what Cher thinks about Chaz transitioning but publicly she has been all support and I think that is perfect.

There we have it folks. Feel free to keep asking me questions about Cher, share with me what you know about Cher and most importantly, have a fabulous CherThursday!

Happy Friday-eve, everyone. Happy Cherday!

shoopin’ cause its cherday

jesse james — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:27:24 +0000

Way, way back in December I posted a desperate plea for help. I had NO idea what to get Violet for Christmas and in my sad public begging a whole lot of you kind folk offered your help. All of the ideas were nothing short of brilliant and I hope very much that you all use these talents for good by spoiling the world around you with your romantic, artistic endeavors and in return are rewarded generously (I’m winking profusely right now, if you can catch such a subtle drift…)

So, one of the collaborators in my final gift idea for Violet came from a fabulous reader by the name of Amber. I had little collateral and offered in return either a Cherday shoutout or an object of your choice balanced on the Seal’s head. Amber went with Cher. The Seal is sleeping off her rejection with an extra mid-day nap.

Amber asked for the Shoop Shoop song and the Shoop Shoop song she shall get! I encourage any and all of you to get up and clear large objects out of your way as you prepare to dance. (And remember, if you are able to listen to Cher without a sudden impulse to make the world a better place- something is very, very wrong with you.)

Happy Friday-eve, everyone! Happy Cherday!

if i could learn to rhyme

jesse james — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:40:43 +0000

Every now and then I check the background going ons of this little blog. My favorite thing to check is the web searches that folks type in that land them here (it doesn’t show WHO, just WHAT was searched, calm down.) Some are fairly obvious, some are pretty random and a few, to me anyway, are quite entertaining. My very favorite search of all time was just a few days ago, that read, “If I Could Learn To Rhyme, by Cher.” That one took me a second, but what they meant was, “If I Could Turn Back Time, by Cher.”

I don’t know how or why but a very frequent search is “jesse james the faggot” or “jesse james is gay.” I mean, yes, yes I am, but that is a bit of a strange pathway to get here.

I am very happy that, as of late, if you google “why do they call me gay” out of 50 million and some hits, my post on this question is the top result. I am relieved because when folks were searching that phrase online and somehow found this blog before I wrote about it I decided to google that exact phrase just to see what would come up. I wrongly hoped and assumed I’d find resources and legitimate information. What I found was the first several top results were so horrible and attempted to confirm all of the awful, nasty, ignorant, hateful things that can be used to answer that question. It was alarming really. So for now, ha! lesbian faggot blogger gets the first crack at answering that one!

And around graduation time plenty of folks land on this one.

Around the time I went to New York last fall I had a few searches that read, “Sugarbutch boyfriend” and “Sinclair loves Jesse” which I just assume Sinclair searched.

A few searches recently that I know must have really led folks astray were: “naughty lesbians” “caught with a woody” “pee on me.” Sorry about that guys, but this blog is fairly pg-13 minus my inability to refrain from swearing.

How in the world “Somebody’s gotta pay for the fog and the dancing fairies” is searched as often as it is, I’ll never know, but that entire phrase has come up more than 6 times in the last month. Every time anyone searches anything Cher and lands here makes me smile.

Do I have any point at all to this post? No. I just wanted to type and link “If I Could Learn To Rhyme, by Cher.” I have been singing it in my head like that for days and my guess is, you might now too.

Happy Friday-eve, everyone! Happy Cherday.

building bridges

jesse james — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:34:22 +0000

I love this blog. It is a wonderful outlet for me to say and do whatever I want to, yes, and I like writing here, which is a necessary ingredient for blogging, and that is what started my writing here (that and Sinclair’s nudging.) But it’s not really writing here that makes this space interesting to me anymore. I mean, interesting things happen to me now and then and I do like to share them, but more than anything it’s all of the amazing random connections that could not have ever been made in any other way in all of the world and in all of my lifetime that HAVE been made because of this space. THAT is what makes me continue to show up here. THAT is what I love about this little blogo’mine.

When I got emails from folks saying, “jesse! Did you hear about Blanche (or Dorothy or Sophia)?!? I’m so sorry!” I mean WOW! No, I hadn’t heard yet and oh my lord, thanks for thinking of me and for taking the time to let me know. Or when folks ask for updates on Marcus or Fraidy or Violet or the Seal. Or all of the wonderful emails and comments about my visiting the new GSA club at my old haunted high school posts, one email about how you are going to write one of your high school teachers and thank them for supporting your little closeted lesbian self after all these years. Or a heads up that Cher is in a new movie or video or that she brushed her teeth this morning. Or how if I didn’t hear from Blazer in some tweet or comment form for more than a few days I would start to worry. Or how someone wrote, “I’m not your gay googler, but I might as well have been a few years back. Where was that hot line then?” Or how one of my very favorite new friends, greg, will put me on email-chatting-hold so to finish her newest, fabulous post. Or that I am so lucky to have met a slew of amazing bloggers last fall with plans to meet a few more this weekend. Or how Jen leaves a comment, “this has nothing to do with your post or whatever it is that you are writing about but Kathy Griffin spent her birthday with CHER and I thought of you!” And I am a better, happier person to know this, let me tell you.

And on and on it goes. And really, is this not all just totally amazing? And with all of the ways that this let’s me reach back and is teaching me, daring me, challenging me to brave reaching out more, a little bit at a time, past where I sit so comfortably (and anonymously) behind this screen, and push myself in what I chose to write, in how revealing I am, in how much of me, what about me I’ll set free and hand over, well, it all just blows my mind a little.

On that same long-winded-as-usual note, Melissa, someone I have never met before, tweeted this video to me and damn if she didn’t find something Cher that I had never seen before. And to that I say, well done and thanks for reaching out.

Happy Friday eve, everyone! Happy Cherday.

dark lady

jesse james — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:30:40 +0000

I have mentioned before that I was the graduation speaker for my class in college, and as all graduation speeches go, I knew I needed to quote deeply profound words from a deeply profound person. And so I did. And because no one proof read my speech before it was presented I got away with quoting Cher. In the second to last line of my speech I quoted the Queen of All Things Fabulous and Sparkly by saying this: “If you really want something you can figure out how to make it happen.” See? Deep. Profound. Yes?

A few weeks ago, a favorite long time readers, Saintchick, chimed in with a fabulous Christmas gift idea for Violet. And although her very sweet, thoughtful and creative gift idea was both late and not what I ended up going with, she started her comment with “Please pick me… I want a chershoutout!” She could not have been any more to the point and I totally dig that. So, dear Saintchick, by request, this one is for you. You wanted it, you made it happen. Cher would be proud.

Happy Friday-eve, everyone, Happy Cherday!

Enjoy.

three hundred and sixty fifth again

jesse james — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:38:57 +0000

Once again I am without internet and am typing on my phone. Oh well.

I would love to write some grandiose post with my extensive reflections over the last year that would lead into what I hope for in 2010 but I haven’t gotten that far yet. I have ideas, snippets, flashes, things that make my chest swell, moments that make my eyes water, bits of the last year that flash underneath my eyelids like a movie, but I haven’t had the time yet, lately, to be still and in my own head, by myself. I will though, soon.

This i know: 2009 was hard. It was a lot of things, but significant in the way that makes me very excited to hang a new calendar. 2009 was not a bad year, not at all, but the taste it has left on my tongue is of loss. It feels like there is a lot that won’t walk into 2010 with me.

My godmother, Ruth, always says these two things:

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

and…

“The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)

I think of both of these simple quotes often and they bring me back down. I will carry them into 2010 along with a lot, an abundance of wonderful things really, namely love. With all of the loss I have felt, watching pieces of the world that make my little world make sense to me just disapear, I have been made very aware of the good, the love, the kindness that is everywhere if that is what you go looking for.

It might just be that I have cried more this year than any other in all of my life. I am getting quite good at it really, but I would bet safely that I have laughed just as much. I am lucky or blessed or something. But I am surrounded, covered, blanketed by love.

There is a song I will post when I have access to the internet again that I just found. It breaks me, open, and I love it. There is one line, “Follow your dreams, in through every out door, it seems that’s what we’re here for.” I am going to carry this very closely, in a safe warm place, into this coming year. And as I do this year, wake up, make plans, recount dreams and watch life happen I will keep you posted, like I do.

I am quite grateful for this space, this little blog. And I am grateful for everyone of you who stops by and takes the time to share in my life and my stories and random rants. The release it brings, the connections I’ve made, the friendships I’ve found are more than I could have ever thought to hope for. You all have a place in the creases of my smile. Thank you.

Happy New Year’s Eve to all of you, happy Friday-eve, and of course, happy Cherday everyone!

May 2010 be the most fabulous year so far!

jesse james