Katy Perry performing 'Firework" during her concert (Photo screen capture from video)
Happy Independence Day! Enjoy this moment! For the Fourth of July is not only America’s 236th anniversary of declaring freedom from oppressive England – but it’s also a colorfully explosive reminder that every year, every day every individual can also declare our own right to be free and equal. Today, we celebrate the possibility of transformation.
For me, Katy Perry’s “Firework” captures that longing for freedom and transformation. It is all the more authentic because, as she reveals in the documentary “Part of Me 3D” that opens tomorrow (trailer below), she, too, worked hard to achieve artistic independence and continues to meet pain and resistance head-on and make it work for her. For that – and her unabashed gratitude for the ability to live her dream - Katy Perry is an inspiration.
This matters, especially for LGBT people. Yes, throughout history we’ve had singers who’ve metaphorically articulated our experience – Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive” and Cindi Lauper “True Colors,” to name a few. And now there is the brilliant Lady Gaga, the love child of Cher and Barbra Streisand. But Katy Perry is Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” all grown up. She exists in Technicolor without acid or excessive amounts of alcohol. And she lives in a world of loving gay people, too. I know – her manager Bradford Cobb and her make up artist Todd Delano are my down-to-earth, delightful neighbors in West Hollywood. They’re in the documentary, too. (See more about them below.) So enjoy this day and this video and go see the movie, for Katy Perry might be a colorful reflection of the possibility of YOU!
Here’s the trailer for “Part of Me 3D” that opens July 5:
This is Bradford Cobb, Katy Perry’s manager – who is a really nice, down-to-earth good gay guy:
Katy Perry's manager Bradford Cobb (Photo from "Part of Me 3D" trailer)
This is a video in which my neighbor Todd Delano talks about how he was working at a make up counter until the lucky day he did Katy Perry’s make up and she like him and the job he did. This is a modern-day Schwabs story – which is ironic because we live not far from where that famous lunch counter on Sunset Boulevard where myth has it that Hollywood star Lana Turner was discovered.
Recent Comments