Roving Church of Fun I: The Fools Guild Party

Photo by Roger Bourland.

We happened into a marvelous circle of friends, a few of whom I’ve known since 1981, collectively known as “The Roving Church of Fun.” The group formed around Southern California Renaissance Faires. I first met Jim Kelly, who later became one of the Jims of Jim and Jim who were responsible for teaching many gays and lesbians in SoCal how to dance for almost 2 decades. We lost Jim Layne some years back to AIDS, so Jim Kelly was “left behind.” These two were responsible for teaching ME to dance, they inspired “Left Behind,” Jim commissioned me to compose “Farewell” in memory of the other Jim, but more importantly, Jim Kelly is dressing us for this weekend’s Fools Guild Party (maybe it has another name, I can’t remember but I do know that the theme this year is Bedouin something). Jim has an amazing assortment of festive clothes for such occasions; Daniel and I don’t. So with the same courage it took me to do drag, I’m readying myself for this unique kind of costume party. Jim insists I have to wear shoes that curl at the top. (Aw c’mon, do I really have to do thaaaat?)

Here are a picture of two of our “church” members, Marnie and Heidi. I’ll report back later…

Photo by Roger Bourland.