A Big Ole Down Home Welcome!

Howdy fellow blogosphere followers, foodies, members of the cocktailia unanimous club, & fellow divas of dish, dirt, fashion, song, and other smashing hedonistic persuasions.   Fabulous things first:  I LOVE good food, stiff cock-tails, Dolly, Cher, Paula Deen, Ina Gartner, Elaine Stritch, divine madness, divine ramblings, & oh yes, the Divine Ms M (aka Bette Midler).   Like Dolly I am not a slave to fashion.   What I am, feel, and what is just plain comfortable will be what is on my body.   I have many divas I salute, adore and derive inspiration from; but over the years I have learned it is better to be yourself and be original.   I guess this is really at the heart of this first blog.   Owning and being yourself.  Having retired from the on-stage drag world, I took away one important lesson and that was being yourself.   It is fun to see our heroes and celebrities imitated; and stop short of admitting that there is a certain artistic talent for imitating those famous legends; however what became important to me over the years in the drag world was being able to take a song and honor the personality that first made the song fantastic and then find a few more layers to it and if I was lucky bring my interpretation to the stage.   I realized that from my hair down to my click clack high heel shoes that I had to be me no matter what sparkly frock I might be donning or how high my hair was jacked to Jeezus or how much makeup I had slathered on.   It sounds a bit lofty and admittedly maybe some would find it pretentious to see myself that way.   After all aren't drag queens supposed to be funny send up professionals in a way ?    I don't know if I achieved bringing across a message or artistic expression every time I hit the stage; but deep down I always knew it was Kitty Davis up there living the lyric and emotion of every song.

When I first started in drag in a small Blue Ridge mountain town in NC, they (meaning the bar owners, fellow drag queen legends and teachers) really had no idea where to put me or how to categorize me.   At this point in my life it was a good metaphor for how I felt about my life in general.   No direction and no idea about my "self."   I look back on it now and think that perhaps it was not such a bad thing, even though for years it felt like something I had to "overcome," rather than embrace and celebrate.   I sort of carved a niche for myself as being a comedic drag queen, meaning I would take tunes (especially show tunes) and put a humorous over the top spin to them.   However backstage I got pressure from many different sides of how to dress, material to perform, joining a pageant to compete and most of all coming up with a star I could imitate.   Well, not having direction or not knowing yourself has it pitfalls because usually when you don't know yourself you are much more malleable  to work with.   You begin to see yourself through other's eyes.   I naturally chose Dolly Parton because she is such a big influence and inspiration in my life.   My first few attempts to bringing "my" version of Dolly to life on stage were laughable and cartoon-ish; but not in a good or polished way.   However over time my version of Dolly became more tailored and precise and I had a few good gigs out of doing Dolly and spread my drag wings to also incorporate impersonations of Joan Rivers & Shirley Maclaine.  

I never felt comfortable being someone else.   I was always amazed when I did an impersonation that I got applause, laughs, cheers, and the obligatory "you go girrrrl," yelled at me.  I felt like my favorite was Dolly just because I had loved her from the age of five, she was from the same area in the South I was and foremost she was a songwriter.   She forged her own way in the world of show business and never lost sight of who she was.   It would be that Dolly Parton quality that would break me free of impersonations once and for all.   I really understood that Kitty, like Dolly, had to stand on her own 6 inch heels and wear her own aqua-netted wig!   Owning myself became a life long practice and in turn the Kitty Davis I had brought life to also begin to teach me, the man on how to be.    They have a saying in the South that goes : "don't git to big for yer britches,"  which I take to mean don't forget yourself when good things start to happen to you.   Having said that, Yes Me the Man and Me the Kitty Davis ate too much at the banquet of life, to steal a line from Mame.  

There are always stumbles along the way and those damned fall from grace moments!  

One of my favorite new writers to read is Augusten Burroughs (Running With Scissors, Dry, A Wolf At the Table) and so I often say that in my life there were times that I was running with scissors in 6 inch heels.   A sure fire kamikaze sprint towards those proverbial fall from grace moments.   They are a bitch, I will not lie; but like learning to bake a cake, you just keep adjusting the ingredients and you learn your lesson and move on to the next recipe in life.

I say all of this my potential readers to say that my blog is quite literally a buffet of thoughts and this first blog is just a lil ole taste to welcome you.    So come on in to this Southern Fried Diva's blogosphere and lets dish some smashing tales, rants, raves and every flavor in between!    Welcome to my kitchen of kitsch and bitch!