=patti smith=

At 69, still a rock icon, probably more than ever, still full of energy, passion, piss & vinegar. Still an alternative sex symbol, a beguiling & unapologetic mix of masculine and feminine, an alchemy all her own. (By her own account in "Just Kids," Allen Ginsberg once tried picking her up in an automat thinking she was a boy). She could be transgender if you define "transgender" in its wider sense, not as merely denoting the transcending of the physical manifestations of gender, but the imposition of psychological and societal roles as well. Why, for instance, can't you wake up a boy one morning and a girl the next? Why can't you be both at the same time, or neither? Why is it necessary to "define" who you are at all? Definitions, by definition, are defining. Once you're defined you're confined. And who wants to be confined by anything? Who wants to be limited? Do you really want to live your life under a tombstone already carved "Here lies so-and-so"? Who thought it was a good idea to tell me that I was a boy before I even knew who I was?  Before I even knew that I was?

I saw Patti Smith last week at an impromptu benefit concert at Le Poisson Rouge in downtown Manhattan & she several times reduced me to cathartic tears of joy. Long-faced and lanky, her unstyled graying hair cloaking her narrow shoulders, she was dressed in a shapeless black coat, but she radiated sexuality, compassion, and magic. Everything she sang, whether written by her own hand or another's, was transformed into an anthem dedicated to the principle of following your own path in life—artistic, sexual, political, personal.  Right now, I'm reading her second memoir:

It's fantastic. I like it even better than her first. Incredibly inspirational. Makes you want to live in the world she lives in—a world where everything is alive and has its own special wisdom to share. Makes you want to open your eyes. Talk to a flower box. Take a picture of a coffee cup. Ask William Blake or William S. Burroughs a question. Even though they're dead.  She makes you believe they just might answer.