Fame or infamy, what does it matter? I shan't be forgotten.

We are less than two weeks away from "Gay Xmas" aka Gay Pride in London, and our outfits are all done and sorted. We can only hope that this new heatwave has subsided by then, otherwise we'll look less-than-glamorous, bathed in sweat...

Speaking of all things gay, we're well overdue another faboo classic film review by the lovely "Tired Old Queen at the Movies" Mr Steve Hayes - and when I saw his latest was one of the great British gay films of the 1980s [cf. Maurice], that coincided with my own coming-out, I whooped with joy! Some of the quotes alone are timeless:

Guy Bennett: "But you couldn't help it, could you? Because in your heart of hearts, like Barclay and Delahay and Fowler and Menzies, you still believe, in spite of your talk of equality and fraternity, you still believe some people are better than others because of the way they make love. Now, think of that for a lifetime. Think of the names: pansy, nancy, fairy, fruit, brown-nose."

Menzies: "You'd better take a pull on yourself, Guy!"
Guy Bennett: "I'd rather do it with you."

Fowler: "I have half a mind to ask Barclay for permission to beat you!"
Tommy Judd: "Well, you've half a mind. We can all agree on that."

Guy Bennett: "Fame or infamy, what does it matter? I shan't be forgotten."

Tired Old Queen at the Movies - Another Country 1984 Review

Wonderful...

Down Mexico Way - and an unexpected visitor

Brodiaea laxa “Queen Fabiola” is a sparkling joy! [click to embiggen]

It's been rather hot and humid in London again today - and of course, I spent hours in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers, potting-on more specimens that have rapidly outgrown their current space, and watering the whole shebang from end-to end [that's a lot of pots!].

There's one wall-pot that isn't going to be sprayed down with the hose for a while, however - for we have discovered, among the branches of our Fuchsia Viva Ireland (with its companion self-seeded fern), and shaded by a branch of the climbing Fuchsia Lady Boothby, directly opposite our back door to the garden...

...a Robin has made her nest!!

That's a first - for any garden we've had - and it will be lovely to observe [fingers crossed] the pair raise their chicks! If I can do so without disturbing her, I hope to get a pic at some stage.

Meanwhile, let's take a trip to exotic climes, in the company of the ever-wonderful Soft Tempo Lounge, shall we? I think we should:

Soft Tempo Lounge - Holiday in Mexico '63

Just what the doctor ordered.

I wonder if all that hideous brutalist architecture's still standing?

[Music: Orchestra King Zérand - Pop in Mexico]

But what kind of holiday is this?*

The weekend's almost upon us, the sun is blazing (it's 29C/85F, and likely to get even hotter next week!)...

...and it would have been our Patron Saint of Terrifying Head-Flicks Signorina Raffaella Carrà's birthday today!

Sufficient excuse (if any were needed) to revisit this - as La Carrà and her impossibly-tight-trousered safety gays show us how to party. Thank Disco Raffaella It's Friday!

Raffaella Carrà - Santo Santo (Ma che vacanza é)

Have a great weekend, dear reader...

[Ma che vacanza é = "But what kind of holiday is this?" in Italian]

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FOOTNOTE:

I'm taking bets on how long today's post will take to arrive in the Blogger Reading List... Wednesday's and yesterday's both arrived together on the dot at 9am - that's more than 36 hours for the former, and 19 hours for the latter! Someone needs a good kick up the arse at Google HQ.

Feel the room swayin', for the band's playin'

Sad news. The last surviving member of that fabled and eternally camp trio The Beverley Sisters, Teddie Beverley has shimmied her way up the dazzling stairway to Fabulon, at the ripe old age of 99.

True "national treasures", The Bevs (as they were known) gave a much-needed boost to post-War Britain with their close-harmony singing and their cheery personas, which made them an ideal Light Entertainment staple. They always dressed in identical outfits, had a string of hits in the 1950s, performed endlessly on the cabaret circuit, and were the highest paid female entertainers in the UK for more than 20 years, becoming "gay icons" in the process.

I actually saw them on stage, headlining the Gay Pride festival at Jubilee Gardens [where the London Eye is located today], at the first Pride I ever attended way back in 1985!

Another long-distant chapter of my life closes. Sigh.

Beverley Sisters - Hello Dolly/Mame

More Beverley Sisters over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp, including this footnote, that I simply have to repeat here:

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FOOTNOTE

Such was the "camp icon" status of the girls, even Rod Stewart, Elton John and Freddie Mercury desired their "look":

[In 1978 the trio discussed] "...the possibility of the three of us forming a supergroup; the name we had in mind was Nose, Teeth & Hair, a tribute to each of our most remarked-upon physical attributes. The general idea was that we could appear dressed like the Beverley Sisters. Somehow this project never came to anything, which is contemporary music’s deep and abiding loss."

Of pie-flinging, Dame Judi, pottery, Istanbul not Constantinople, gay spliffs and Who?

Only in Britain: The World Custard Pie Championship was held this week at Coxheath in Kent, where it was founded way back in 1967.

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• National treasure news: In a ground-breaking announcement - no theatre has previously been named after a living actress - the West End's Shaftesbury Theatre is to be renamed in honour of the sublime Dame Judi Dench in 2027. All hail!
• Potty news: RIP, Denby Pottery, one of the mainstays of the ceramics industry in Britain since 1809. Bizarrely, cheap-and-nasty household store chain Home Bargains appears to have placed a bid to save the brand (but not the actual factory, I bet!).

• Nobody's Business But the Turks news: The latest announcement from our beloved Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) is the first UK exhibition to tell the story of one of the world's most influential cities, Istanbul. Spanning 330 AD to 1922, Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires will bring together remarkable works of art, design and architecture to reveal the enduring creative legacy of an imperial capital that shaped the Mediterranean world and far beyond. Another one for the list! It's on from 7th November 2026 to 9th May 2027.
• Who's for sale? news: It's all change for one of the BBC's most iconic series, as Doctor Who is being put out to tender for a new production company to take over, Russell T Davies [who was behind the successful revival of the show back in 2005] has announced that he is departing, and the previously announced Xmas special has been cancelled. A regeneration is afoot, it seems...
• And finally - god-bothering bigot news: One of the US's many crazy self-proclaimed "Christian" pastors has said that marijuana makes you gay! Idiot. However, a word of wisdom comes to mind: "When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself." - Bob Marley.

And the weather? Still far too breezy, but there's been a noticeable rise in temperature - and more sunshine ahead...

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STOP PRESS:

Here we go again. I published this yesterday evening [Wednesday], and here we are, half a day later [on Thursday] - and it still hasn't arrived in the Blogger Reading List! Bastard Google Gnomes...

Typing in 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' gave me an embolism

None of the advances in technology of the last half-century have made it any easier to enter text via a remote control.

A technological black hole means anyone attempting to search for a film or TV show has to enter it letter-by-letter as if they were putting their initials by a Space Invaders high score in 1980.

Jim Bates of Congleton said: “I tell speakers to play music and they do so. I type a destination into my car and it shows me how to get there. But on my TV?

“There’s no slick user interface. To find a movie on Netflix I have to mash down flimsy rubber buttons while it brightly suggests movies that are not what I want or close to it. All the others are the same.

“Even on the PlayStation, a controller with at least 30 different inputs demands I do it one letter at a time. Why does all pretence of being user-friendly stop at the telly? Why has it remained in the Ceefax era?

“Every site online’s always checking I’m not a sophisticated bot buying tickets or logging into my bank account. They should get these fucking bots working on the telly. Then maybe I could watch 'Insidious 5' without first having to look up how to spell it.”

Technology expert Jack Brown said: “Now most of our technological agency is given over to machines it’s important to have such instances of human independence, even though typing in 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' gave me an embolism.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

He doesn't sound it, though, when you hear him

Fuck. Too soon, too soon - another week begins. We need a pick-me-up!

Among another "mixed bag" of names such as Neil Patrick Harris, Edvard Grieg, James Robertson Justice, Noddy Holder (who is 80 years old), Richard Baker, Johnny Hallyday, Simon Callow, Courteney Cox, Harry Nilsson, Lord John Redwood, Erroll Garner, David Rose, Waylon Jennings, Chris Morris, Yuri Andropov, Helen Hunt, Julie Hagerty and - erm - Xi Jinping...

...it would also have been the 80th birthday of the unlikeliest of sex symbols, Demis Roussos!

On this Tacky Music Monday, out of his lesser-known back-catalogue, I have discovered this! Lemon-and-brown flared outfits deserve a comeback.

Demis Roussos – Midnight Is The Time I Need You

However, we can never disassociate the man from the legendary summer of '76, fifty years ago, with its stand-pipes in the streets and months of sunshine.

Reflecting that magnificent heatwave, the great Greek mountain emerged from obscurity to hit Number 1 with one of the eternal summer anthems:

Demis Roussos – Forever and Ever

It always brings back thoughts of Abigail's Party to me...

"Laurence, Angela likes Demis Roussos, Tony likes Demis Roussos, I like Demis Roussos and Sue would like to hear Demis Roussos.

So do you think we could have Demis Roussos on?"

"It's a pity he's so fat."

Yeah, but he doesn't sound it, though, when you hear him."

Demis Roussos (born Artemios Ventouris-Roussos, 15th June 1946 – 25th January 2015)