Remembering trivia, forgetting things I need to know
Good day beautiful people. Y’all, the old gray mare just ain’t what she used to be. I think my mind is turning to mush — probably from watching too much TV and drankin’. My biggest problem is learning new music for the shows; it takes me forever to learn new music.
I wish I could delete certain things from my brain to make room for new things. I am never gonna need Romeo’s “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” speech from that damned Shakespeare play. I had to learn it in 9th grade, and it still sits there in my brain taking up space. I can recite it on command as well today as I could at 14.
I know every single song and breath to Grease 2. I can recite every word in every scene. As a gay man and a drag queen, that actually has come in handy. But that is a large file that takes up a lot of room in my cranial laptop. I’m not sure who could possibly be impressed with that, but I did great in biology because of knowing the words to “Reproduction.”
My mind is full of useless trivia and an uncanny ability to tell you about some random actor in some random series and who his sister is and how he got the part and even some fandom fact about him like he has webbed toes.
But I can’t do math.
I kill at the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. I remember the most useless facts about stuff that has happened to me. The first wreck I was ever in, I was wearing one of those Hypercolor shirts that change color when the temperature
changes. It was pink and turned red when heated, so it always looked like my arm pits were bleeding.
I remember drag queens and what songs they were doing the very first time I ever watched them perform. The first time I ever saw Celeste Martinez in a show, she was doing “Fever” by Annabella. The first time I saw Tasha Kohl, she was doing “Why” by Annie Lennox, and she was wearing a geometric-shaped costume that only showed her face and had tassels on the end of every finger. I also remember that the combat boots I wore that night were missing the shoestring eyelet, third down on the right of the left foot.
Stupid, useless knowledge that I still think about for whatever reason.
I used to be able to learn a song in three listens. No joke. I heard Taylor Dayne’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” on the radio the Tuesday morning that her single dropped. Back then, new music came out on Tuesdays, and you had to go to a music store to buy it. So, I took my little gay ass over to Sound Warehouse and bought the cassette single. I listened to it twice then went to work in the Rose Room and turned it in for the first show. I did it and knew every word and every beat.
Fast forward to January of this year: Asia O’Hara wanted me to learn the Megan Thee Stallion part of “WAP” so we could do it in the show. I still have not been able to get those words right.
There are many factors as to why: The song is a little out of my comfort zone; it has a lot of words, and I like the song, but I don’t love it. I cannot commit those lyrics to memory for more than a few minutes. Oh look, something shiny! Now
I have forgotten them again.
My “like” for so much of today’s music is barely there. My tastes have changed so much. It is hard for me to connect with songs that will be good to do in the show — you know, upbeat and familiar. I just need to push myself more and focus. I need to get out of my comfort zone and try some new music.
I really love the song by Olivia Rodrigo called “Brutal.” It’s such a cute song, but she talks about being 17. I am gonna be 50 in February. It feels weird, but do people even listen to lyrics anymore?
The point I was trying to make before I went on a pity party rant about being a drag queen of a certain age is that everything is so much work now. My memory is not as quick as it used to be. I’d take ginkgo biloba if I could remember to take it.
I blame smart phones. I used to know a billion phone numbers, and now I have to really think when I give out my own number.
Everything is right at your fingertips: Who was the third president? I dunno, google it. When was the moon landing? The moon landing never happed … the innanets said so. Who played Darrin on Bewitched? I know that without googling it:
First it was Dick York, then Dick Sargent.
I may be full of useless knowledge, but I am fun at parties.
Here is to me working on my memory and not getting complacent when it comes to new music. Hell, y’all have figured out by now I am not really singing in the shows. So I guess y’all will buy what I am sellin’. We will live in the fantasy together … if I can just learn the words.
Remember to always love more, bitch less and be fabulous! XOXO, Cassie Nova