"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

I am now somewhere over the rainbow...well I'm certainly not in New York City anymore. I'm in Salt Lake City. I just got back a few days ago after the run of a lifetime. It's heaven being with my kids...and yet I miss the City. I have a tradition with my kids here in the City of the Saints. On Sundays I take them to "Music and the Spoken Word", the longest continuous radio broadcast in history. For over 76 years the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has put on a show for the world at Temple Square. It is one of the great constants in the world. Every Sunday at 9:30, glorious music and pithy, benign sermonettes presented by "America's Choir." We go hear the choir and then go to brunch at the Market Street Grill. I believe in exposing my kids to Mormonism through the choir because it represents the very best of the people from whence we come.

So there we are at the Conference Center (the largest indoor religious facility in the world--you can check your facts on this) yesterday and the choir sings, for its final number, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." My son who is 10 leans over to me an whispers, "They're good, but not as good as Judy Garland." I responded with a question, "And do you know who her daughter is?" He answered confidently, "Liza Minelli!" Now that is a son of a gay man. He has earned his gay merit badge!

The last show I saw before leaving NYC was a new Off-Broadway one-and-a-half person play called "The Property Known as Garland." I enjoyed it and meeting Adrienne Barbou after the show.

If the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (with all its closeted gay members) can sing a Judy Garland song, there is hope in the world!