JAN 27 2014 - CARPER JIMMY

Jimmy Carper Tribute

January 13, 1948 - January 27, 2014

The last photo I took of Jimmy, in August 2013, having lunch at Baba Yaga's.
By the way, the pink background for this page is in honor of his favorite color.

Gee, this is a tough goodbye. Jimmy Carper has been a friend and mentor for many, many years.
We first met in February of 1987. That he is in that second category is always with me, so much so
that when writing my bio for the Grand Marshal candidacy I mention him in the second line. He stars
in my "how I got into radio" story, which likely anyone who knows me at all has heard. It goes:
First, I had absolutely no radio experience whatsoever, but a friend of mine, Jimmy Carper, had been
hosting his show, After Hours, on KPFT for many years. In late 1999 I started calling him during his
show to request he play a certain gay or lesbian artist. My reasoning was those artists do not
get played anywhere else, he should play more of them. I kept doing this for several weeks, when
he finally said "why don't you come on and play some?"

So I did. I put together two half hour segments, of old and new music, and "put a little history" behind the
songs. As I'm very comfortable with Jimmy, we had a good time, and the producer of the LGBT show that
airs on that station on Monday evenings, Jack Valinski, heard us and invited me to do a monthly segment
on their show, then called Lesbian & Gay Voices. And the rest is Queer Music History.

But my point is that through Jimmy I discovered a niche I could develop within myself that has given me a
driving passion in my life, and it keep growing. I cannot imagine how ordinary my life would be if he had
not kicked me out that particular door. I loved whenever I was on the radio with him, just to watch a master.
He was so incredibly supportive of all his guests. That he cared was genuine, and his trademark laugh was
always readily available. And, he was my friend. I shall miss him greatly. So, thank you, Jimmy.

*********

This is an audio tribute as well. I want to share first a clip from the After Hours show of
January 12th, which turned out to be his last show. And you can also hear all of the show.

After Hours, 1/12/14
Intro only, 2 minutes
Entire show, 3 hours

And next I go way back, to the two guest segments I did with Jimmy in September and October 1999,
which led my my now 14-year gig on Queer Voices. This is the first time these have been on my site.

Click to listen to September 1999 and October 1999
each about 35 minutes long

Over the years I guested many times on After Hours, often just coming on and just playing music for
two or three hours, and it always felt that it wasn't radio, it was just two good friends gabbing about queer music.
And we had kind of an arrangement. Whenever he had a gay or lesbian artist on as a guest, I would be there to
help with the interview. Some of those guest spots can be heard on a page of my site for live interviews, with folks
including Tim'm T West, DC Anderson, and there were some not captured. I remember being there with
Horse McDonald and Miss Money and Dutchboy

Above, JD, Tim'm T West, Jimmy, from 12/21/08

Video of Celebration, 2/10/13, Honoring Jimmy, 23 min
Watch

This and That

Jimmy was Male Grand Marshal for the Pride in 1997, the first night-time parade.
I took the upper photo, not sure who took the much better one, below.

Below, Grand Marshal photo

Below, founders of the Gulf Coast Archive & Museum (GCAM)

1999 Houston Voice article

And just a few photos, from various sources,
the first two taken by me

below, with Jon Ginoli (of Pansy Division) in May 2009

With Judy Reeves

and, this one is great, because Jimmy laughed a Lot