By Dana Miller

I guess progress, or at least process, is slow in every city and West Hollywood is no exception. One of my favorite restaurants in our Village is Marco's. It's in a fairly ugly strip mall between Crescent Heights and Havenhurst on the south side of Santa Monica Boulevard. It was set for demolition to make way for a mega Walgreen's store. Losing the donut shop didn't bother me and a joint I dig that delivers, Chef Ming's, had already moved to Olympic. But I was kinda bumming about Marco's. The food is great, the staff is always nice, and for being in a strip mall, the ambiance is totally cool and comfortable. The crowd at Marco's always seems eclectic to me ... I just always seem to enjoy the place. I figured Marco's would surface in a year or so. I was resigned to the fact that soon I could get great toilet paper, just not great Italian at the same place ... so thus, I was bummed. Well, apparently Walgreen's has bailed on the concept and Marco's has a bit of a reprieve. Sometime next year Marco's will move just across the street to where their Buzz Coffee is. Buzz will stay around and they are days away from beginning the build-out of the kitchen for the new Marco's. All any of this means is that now I find comfort in the fact that I won't have to do without Marco's for months at a time. I'm happy in the strip mall for now and pleased that they have ample time to do it right across the street. It's progress at a speed to me that feels selfishly comfortable.

There is a fairly new reality show on that isn't doing so well in the ratings, but I made certain I Tivo'ed it last week. It's an NBC summer throwaway titled, Hit Me Baby One More Time. The premise is simple: have "former" music stars perform in a sort of battle of the bands. I watched the first week but I found the appearance of the lead singer of the '80s mega-band Loverboy so disturbing I had to turn away. Apparently "Everybody's Working For The Weekend" except singer Mike Reno. He looked like Dick Cheney in spandex -- sorta like a balding Hyundai with a headband. But then I saw a promo plugging Thelma Houston last week so I knew I had to check it out. Heck, Thelma isn't a "former" anything and I was convinced that she would kick ass! I used to be Thelma's manager back in the day. We would travel all around the world with a cassette tape of the backing tracks for "Don't Leave Me This Way." Almost every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night she would appear in a gay club for $5,000, plus hotel and airfare, to sing two songs. It was a $15,000 weekend all of the time for Thelma ... still is. She always gave 100 percent. She never phoned it in. I still see Thelma a few times a year at benefits, birthday parties, and performances. I booked her a couple of years ago on an ABC show I was a producer on, The Disco Ball. Every single time she honestly gets better and better. So I just had to check her out on a show that comes close but doesn't actually say these folks are "has beens." Glass Tiger, Club Nouveau, Greg Kihn, and Billy Vera performed, but it was Thelma who threw it down. She is still and always will be a star. Lord, what a great performer, singer, and mega gal. Thelma was also always there for our community around HIV and AIDS. She totally blew me away with her passion. So it made me happy to see her in prime time and hitting it out of the park. Again.

For a while now my crew and I have been housed at 5515 Melrose Ave. at Paramount Studios. It's the old KHJ building directly across from Lucy's El Adobe Restaurant. Over the years I've parked myself on the Paramount backlot for a ton of shows, but being in 5515 has had a very strong and strange effect on me. Today my gang of seven sit alone in this 50,000-square-foot building. I find myself breaking away to breathe in the historical and nostalgic vibe that means so much to me. This place was the former home of Capitol Records. Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Bing Crosby, and even Elvis recorded here. Sinatra recorded a ton of hits here including, "In the Wee Small Hours" and "Only The Lonely." When I was a little kid, 93 KHJ became the most important Top 40 station on the planet with The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, and my old friend, Sam Riddle. They made serious and significant radio history from where I sit right now. KIIS would not exist if not for KHJ. After school we would run (or skip) home to watch dance shows like The Groovy Show and 9th Street West. They all originated from right where I'm hangin'. Blows me away. Years later, K-Earth the WAVE and KCAL were here. Decades ago Jerry Dunphy, "From the Mountains to the Sea to All of Southern California," read the news here in my seat while sipping sangria from Lucy's across the street. I'm fairly certain that this will resonate with only a few reading this. But alas, we do have history in L.A. and for another few weeks I'm sitting in one of entertainment's extraordinary epicenters. We are moving soon to another locale and there is talk of bringing down the 5515 building. What a shame that would be. "Paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Before I finally leave, I'm gonna walk these halls alone with a bottle of bourbon and a cigar. Neither one is my thing but hell, I gotta do it. No one is here, so when I sing "One for My Baby, and One More for the Road," absolutely no one will care but me. And I really, truly will.

I have been wondering lately why we don't have real honest to goodness city-run theater here. Why isn't there a West Hollywood Civic Light Opera that offers a season pass to popular musicals with well-known leads? We can get the funding I'm certain ... from my parking tickets alone. But seriously, generous theater-going folks with money live and love right here. Yet we traipse off to who knows where to see great theater. I'm willing to work on it. I'll bet a bunch of you are. God knows the talent is here and most certainly there are patrons from so many diverse communities that could and would like to be be entertained. Imagine a whole season of wonderful musical theater right here -- not Fullerton or Thousand Oaks, but right here. The Plummer Park joint is perfect. So why don't we have a West Hollywood Performing Arts Center? Who the hell knows? It is hard to believe, in this scientific, literate, psychiatric, let-me-entertain-you age this isn't a done deal. We are the "Entertainment Capital of the World," plus all this talent and cash. Just doesn't make any sense. Wanna pull it together? I'm totally in!

I was both bashed and praised for my take on our Pride parade last issue. I offended some folks and for that I'm truly sorry. I am simply trying to get across that we desperately need production value in our parade. Corporate sponsorships can pay for floats that better reflect the creativity of the gay community. Already, I personally know of major corporate sponsos who would pay to have their names on well-designed, visually exciting floats. That said, I stick by my assertion that the parade sucks and it's time for a change. But I do owe a gratitude of thanks to the editors and publishers of this magazine. From time to time I indeed tend to stir stuff up and yet these guys have never, ever asked me to reconsider my thoughts nor have they taken me to task. I do sometimes gently toss my own silly guilt out there as this is a for-profit venture of theirs and I am just a cog (albeit occasionally annoying) in their wheel. I'll buzz them to say I'm sorry for my missive (I know, I know, very passive-aggressive), and they basically say, "Shut-up," and hang up on me. This is a terrific community magazine representing thoughts from a whole slew of folks ... including this one. It's what we need and have and I'm proud we all can enjoy it and/or be pissed off by this single voice in our community. There is so much wrong in our world, only dialogue can begin to make it right. If you disagree ... screw you! (Kidding)

Contact me at: Malibudana@aol.com.

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