Wednesday 6 November 2024

Laughs all the way

The world is preparing for a fun-filled four years after the US re-elected the rollicking slapstick clown who proved so hilarious last time.

Donald Trump, with his orange face, white eyes and enormous ego is once again under the spotlight on the world stage performing his farcical antics to the unabashed delight of everyone.

Jack Browne of Bournemouth said: “Is he back? Brilliant! I was so hoping he would be. The last guy barely elicited a chuckle.

“But this one’s hilarious. You can’t take your eyes off him. Whether he’s injecting bleach, serving McDonald’s banquets or getting his overlong red tie caught in the door of a speeding limousine until he spins like a top, it’s laughs all the way.

“Remember when he pretended he couldn’t understand the election result? That one got funnier and funnier the longer he did it until that big foam party with all his absurd dressed-up clowns at the US Capitol. Riotous!

“Oh, we’re in for a jolly few years with this fellow in charge. I can’t wait until he re-does Mount Rushmore so it’s his own face four times! Hysterical!”


Humourless scold Thomas Booker, who always brings everyone down, said: “Actually this is a serious threat to democracy and the free world. So there.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Tuesday 5 November 2024

Weapons of mass destruction


Happy Bonfire Night! Enjoy the fireworks...

As well as watching all nine episodes of Agatha All Along on Saturday, John-John also dug out an old "X-Men" movie I hadn't seen - X-Men: First Class, that ostensibly covers the "origin story" of the mutant superhero team.

It has many flaws - not least playing "fast-and-loose" with the original comics version, including characters that were only written decades after the original team's debut, and dropping other integral characters altogether, which infuriated me throughout.

It might have helped if the dialogue, (some of) the acting, and the zig-zagging plot had been better. At times towards the end, I felt like I was reliving the utterly dreadful Independence Day, but with mutants.

It really comes to something when the best performance in the entire film was given by the lovely Michael Fassbender's impressive groinage! My kind of mutation....


Speaking of groinage...

It would have been Robert Mapplethorpe's birthday yesterday.

His 1989 touring exhibition The Perfect Moment, a retrospective following his death, caused huge furore and much clutching of pearls over the inclusion of the rather charming "Man in Polyester Suit" [as featured, left] (among other somewhat near-the-knuckle photos).

Portrayals of gay erotica were anathaema to the establishment in the Reagan era!

The exhibition's cancellation by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington provoked a censorship battle about national funding for the arts that was front-page news for the next year.

[click any pic to embiggen]


...and here's an appropriate number for the occasion:

All hail Priapus!

Monday 4 November 2024

Fill my heart with song, and let me sing for ever more

Grrr. Monday again, and to make the mood even more sombre than usual we are greeted by sad news - the genius that was Quincy Jones has departed (at the venerable age of 91) for that great Montreux Festival in the sky.

He worked with just about everybody in the business in a career that spanned 70 years, from Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, to Anita O'Day, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne, to Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Patti Austin, James Ingram, Diana Ross, Brothers Johnson, George Benson and even Amy Winehouse.

His collaborations with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie were regarded as the pinnacle of their recording careers, not least for this:

A masterclass in how to arrange a song around a singer - his complete revision of Noël Coward's classic paean to unrequited love; a gift for the diva Dinah Washington:

His work in the Disco era and beyond (that made him such a fortune, courtesy of Michael Jackson's massive-selling Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad albums) also saw Quincy step out from behind the scenes to gain a few hits of his own, including this one:

A few decades later, and a certain toothy 1960s spy gave Mr Jones's very first single back in 1962 a new lease of life, to huge success:

And finally, no - I haven't forgotten that it's a Tacky Music Monday, nor the (surprising) fact that one of Mr Jones's earliest ventures into the big time was as the producer of the archetypal purveyor of tearful teen ballads, Miss Lesley Gore!

RIP, Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (14th March 1933 – 3rd November 2024)

Sunday 3 November 2024

El cariño que te tengo

Sad news last week of the death of another of the founding members of the legendary Cuban band Buena Vista Social Club, trumpeter Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal, gives me an opportunity to feature some of the fabulous music that emerged from their triumphal reunion in the '90s (as featured in the 1996 Wim Wenders film documentary), to which he contributed so much:

By sheer coincidence, happier news: it was also the 94th birthday of one of the last survivors of the band (and house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers), Señorita Omara Portuondo:

Perfect "Sunday Music"...

RIP, Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal (5th May 1933 – 28th October 2024)

Feliz cumpleaños, Omara Portuondo Peláez! (born 29th October 1930)

Saturday 2 November 2024

Dead People, Scissors, Raccoons and a Taylor Swift cake

I'm off to John-John's this afternoon, to "binge-watch" the whole of Marvel's Agatha All Along series (among other geeky things, no doubt!) - so it's another snippets post today, dear reader:

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Faboo!

And the weather? Mild, but autumn's in the air...

Friday 1 November 2024

We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks

Hoo-bloody-rah for that! The weekend's almost upon us, and it's time to celebrate!

As today would have been the birthday of that great "rock opera" composer Mr Jim Steinman - what better way to kick off proceedings than with a dance version of one of his most flamboyantly camp numbers, that he wrote for Swansea's finest Miss Bonnie Tyler - in a Stock Aitken Waterman production, no less:

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Have a great one, dear reader!

Thursday 31 October 2024

Goolies!

Happy Hallowe'en, dear reader! The night of witches, bitches and ghosts with goolies.

It's all bollocks, of course - but at least it gives me a chance to play a bit of spooky music - like this old fave from the vaults...

However, there's one tradition I always uphold at this time of year...

...it's time for the clip that scares my dear sister witless, every time:

{{{evil cackle}}}