"High School Musical" LIVE

It all started as a casual nite on the town. On the uptown.

The Professor and I decided to catch up over some Soul Food. Given the two options she knew well, I decided to try "Billie's Black" since it sounded less "wham-bam-you need some jam for that corn bread, honey?" and more like a place where we could chill and re-cap the days of our lives (the real shit because our lives are way more epic than any soap could ever be).

So there we were listening ghetto tales being recounted on Kiss FM and savoring our fried seafood. For the record, I had the fried catfish, collard greens and mac-n-cheese, while the scholar feasted on crab cakes and the mac... we shared the garlic mash. MMM. Somewhere between my fourth bite of my catfish and my sudden hankering for a "ta-ta-tini", a book labeled "Karaoke with Wes Black" was delivered our table. $CHA CHING$ JACKPOT! Soul Karaoke in Harlem World, NYC. What What!!! Omg.. What a dream come true.

A seasoned Kara-okay-er from my days of living the mountains of Japan, I had been dreaming of the day when I would be in a black setting swooning and crooning my attempts at R-n-B. What I never guessed (foolishly so) is that the event would turn out to be not only a black thing, but a gay thing as well. Yes, the homo thugs were in the house. As well was an older fag-cum-oddity who seemed to rock Mardi Gras beads like it was Fat Tuesday in New Orleans. Also along for the ride were some soulful sisters with their booties tucked in the back, but their voices upfront for all to hear. And then there was Ray Charles. Honestly, this guy summoned the great one's spirit.. freakishly so.

And now for the highlights:

Homo Thug 1: "Heartbreak Hotel" (be sure to whisper those words for the added whitney effect), "Unbreak My Heart", "Say My Name", and some others that I don't remember. This guy definitely stole the show with his "little body and big package". I'm talking about his voice, of course.

Homo thug 1 + 2 did a rendition of "I Will Always Love You" (Whitney from "The Bodyguard" soundtrack). Yes, they did. They concluded their performance with "That was good, I liked that." and a boy on boy hug. Homos in hood. Gotta love it.

Mardi Gras did an un"believe"able double whammy of "Believe in Yourself" form The WIz (!!!) followed immediately by Cher's "Believe". I think I can still here his tone deaf voice ringing out "in love in love in love in love" on that one. I also would like to mention that this dude had to glance back at the lyrics for The Wiz, but was totally fine with the Cher. I know, Cher's diddy is a piece of cake compared to that heartfelt classic of melodious encouragement. Not to mention the fag anthem gets more play in boyland down (Christopher Street), somewhere that I think Mardi might be found when he's not adjusting his specs on 119th street.

Oh, and there was also "The boy is mine(s)" performance by Homo Thug and Mardi Gras. Seriously, if I had captured this on video I might be in the running for the Hugo Boss Prize for Contemporary Art as it weaved together so many issues of sexuality, race, pop culture, and the marginalized. A hot mess. (mental note: need new digital camera).

The Scholar and I performed four songs in total.


"Bag Lady" by Erykah Badu
Now if we did more booty grinding on that stage to that song, we might have just gotten some free cheesecake. I'm talkin' to my Gucci bag lady. Four Stars (I'm judging this).


"Sweet Thing" by Chaka Kahn
I'm not sure about the Prof., but I was doing the Mary J. Blige version of this classic. We harmonized and soul sistered to this track. After singing we came up with our new group name, "High School Musical". Not to be confused with the move y'all; merely a reference to our track selection as it proved to be the soundtrack of our adolescent pasts. I just want to satisfy ya, cuz you're not mine and I can't deny it. Four stars.


"All Around the World" by Lisa Stansfield
Could a white woman have ever sounded so black. Could a fag and a black gurl ever have sounded so good? We were joined on this track by MissFitt. With her addition, H.S. Musical became more firece and racially diverse. I'll never give up looking for my baby. Four Stars.


"Hold On" by En Vogue
To close out our night with Wes and the crew, we did the song that put those four sisters known as En Vogue on the map. Sure it was hard to hit those notes at the beginning of the song, but that did not stop our new legion of fans from getting up and miming the the dance moves from the low-budge video. Give him love everyday, remember he needs space. Be patient and he'll give his heart to you. Four Stars.

With that H.S. musical bid Sayonara, Adieu, and Asa Lama Lakim to Billie's Black. But we will be back. So you hold on to your love, you bag lady sweet things! We been around the world, and we'll be back for more.... Love, H.S. Musical