Sunday 4th December 2016

Lulu was given at the ENO but might as well not have been. Finn Magnus, the hot boy doc, attended and was enormously comforting as always. Rufus Pitman entirely superseded Lulu with his remarks. He described a bear weekend near Barcelona. The bears were terribly boring. In many cases, their parts had been entirely obliterated by their overhanging embonpoint. ‘What makes a bear?’ Rufus enquired of one: ‘Kilos and hair,’ was the solemn Germanic reply. We met a musician of some fame who was dressed in the style of Rick Owens: i.e. draped and semi-skirted. ‘There should be a universal mother-service,’ Rufus remarked. ‘You employ someone to stop you going out of the house in the wrong frock. Or better, to stop other people.’

The next day was Rudi Patterson again: you remember him? He sat in a council flat in Notting Hill for years producing memory-paintings of his Jamaican homeland while hardly anyone took any notice. In the 60s, he was fashion model in the King’s Road. Hot pants. Royston King is the executor and has organised numerous sales of his archive. I went mad and bought a Van Gogh by Rudi in a gilt frame, plus one of red Caribbean flowers and another of a tin church in Jamaica. The exhibition was given at the Black Cultural Archive, Windrush Square, Brixton. I caused outrage by asking why a lady present is called Novelette. ‘All black people have to have fancy names,’ Royston said.  I said, ‘Novel’ would have been better. ‘It’s her name,’ another lady, white, said, outraged. She had planned, as a retirement project, to work her way round the world as a ship’s mate but got the time of year wrong so had to pay.

That weekend I went to Robbie Gateshead’s party. He is an Earls Court gay who has grown human. One of the guests had had half his ear bitten off by his best mate the weekend before. This was a scene from straight life. Robbie is currently lodged in Australia but over for his birthday. In Australia he appears to be working, which is odd because he’s corporate and ought to have given up by now. ‘Well, about half a million,’ he said impish. Money is as much fun as sex.

Genevieve Suzy: Timeless Elegance and Power