Of Di's revenge, scary spiders, ancient silver, a TV icon, BB and "I won't lie to you"

Princess Diana's "revenge frock" is on display this week at Sotheby's in London, ahead of its sale at auction in New York in December - with a sale estimate of $150,000–300,000 (£110,000–220,000)! [click to embiggen]

It's another snippets post, dear reader...

• Arachnophobia news: The huge Wasp Spider - native to the continent - has been spotted for the first time in Cheshire, the furthest north in Britain it has been recorded. Harmless, apparently, but you probably wouldn't want to walk face first into its web while pegging out the washing!
• Cross my palm with silver news: An amateur detectorist in Germany has discovered a horde of Roman silver coins, weighing almost 7lb (3.1 kg) - the biggest ever such discovery in the country's history. Don't spend it all at once, Mein Herr!

• Waiting for God no more news: RIP the lovely Stephanie Cole, beloved actress here at Dolores Delargo Towers, not least for her roles in Tenko, Talking Heads and Waiting for God; she also appeared in Doc Martin, and even Coronation Street. All our old faves are dropping like flies, it seems...
• Sex kitten's slippers, anyone? news: An auction of French screen legend Brigitte Bardot's personal items fetched nearly €1 million (£858,000, $1.15m) in Paris on Monday, almost 20 times the estimate. There was some right old tat among the 284 items that were for sale - I wonder who bought her old typewriter, or paid seven grand for two dog collars?
• Tidy! news: Happy 60th birthday to the simply faboo Ruth Jones, comedienne, actress - and creator of one of the best characters on telly in the last decade, Nessa!

The Best of Nessa [Gavin & Stacey]

• And finally: It's the Autumn Equinox tonight! It's all downhill from here, folks - the days are officially shorter than the nights from tomorrow until March... Dammit.

And the weather? Very warm and sunny in London, and the signs are good for the rest of the week. On Friday, it's forecast to hit 26C/78F! Hurrah!

Lo que pidas muy barato lo doy*

Grrrr... Back to the office. Back to reality.

After a very pleasant weekend - Saturday doing fuck all, and yesterday spent absorbing the joyful musings of an erudite panel on the meaning and influence of divas on the lives of generations of gay men (and lesbians and others in the "alphabet soup" of labels these days) at the Southbank Centre - it's time for a wake-up call!

Who better to provide it on a Tacky Music Monday than one of those very divas - Spain's finest, one of our cherished Patron Saints, "La Leyenda" Señorita Sara Montiel (and her safety gays)?!

Sara Montiel - Rumba Chamelona

Fab-u-lous!

Have a good week, dear reader...

[* "Lo que pidas muy barato lo doy" = "I sell it really cheap" in Spanish; a lyric from the song]

Pictures came and broke your heart

Being adored must be such a burden for a diva

The Madam, John-John and I are off early (for a Sunday) for a most intriguing event this afternoon - a panel discussion at the Southbank Centre hosted by our old friend Rupert Smith titled "Why Do Benders Love Divas?".

Why indeed? We know already, of course, but it'll be interesting to hear what panellists Neil Bartlett, Sadie Lee, David McAlmont and Travis Alabanza have to say about it.

Meanwhile, speaking of "divas"...

...how about a little "Sunday Music", courtesy of our "house band" - and a vocalist who takes on the legendary Freddie Mercury's vocal theatrics very well, but on a most unlikely song indeed:

Postmodern Jukebox ft. Cunio - Video Killed The Radio Star (Buggles - Queen/Freddie Mercury style cover)

Enjoy!

De nouveaux morceaux

It's a gloomy, grey, blustery day here in London, so what better to take our minds off it than a selection of some of the "newer" music that has caught my ear of late?

Let's open with a corker! Courtesy of Mr DeVice, who flagged it up in his own blog just recently, the latest from our current "fave eccentrics" is faboo, of course:

Haute & Freddy - Touch Touch

Striking a more mellow tone, the latest release from Soft Cell's final album Danceteria is a melancholic trip down memory lane for Marc Almond, and is rather lovely:

Soft Cell - The Rainbow Room

Now for something completely different! A new discovery, courtesy of BBC Radio 3's esoteric Late Junction programme - here's a jolly number from one of Mali's finest artistes:

Fatoumata Diawara - Djanne

Another excellent mash-up from the genius Mr Bill McClintock:

Donna Summer and The Police - Roxanne Works Hard for the Money

From the familiar to something totally bizarre... I love this!

Jamie She - Inner Poison

And, saving the best to last [despite the lack of a video] - the 'Boys rip the piss out of a dictator. Brilliantly:

Pet Shop Boys - A top secret washing machine

Who washes Putin’s underpants?
Who has to keep them clean
deep in the bowels of his residence
in a top secret washing machine?

Who keeps his secrets secret?
Is nothing or everything true?
Is he fatally ill or strong as a horse
impossible to know or get close to?

When he poisons an opponent’s underpants
does he laugh at his brilliant scheme
knowing he’s got to the root of the problem
deadly but somehow obscene?

Is it difficult to sleep at night?
Does he always sleep alone
with nightmares of a prison cell
summoned to be be judged and to atone?

No, he’ll get away with anything
like Stalin and Peter the Great
He’s the only one that ever matters
He knows what he must dictate

Meanwhile his underpants are washed
by a loyal woman or man
and his secrets will be secret until
that one unfortunate day his shit hits the fan

As ever, I love to hear your thoughts, dear reader...

Going, Going...

Another dire week in work staggers to its conclusion - and we need to get ourselves in the party mood!

How about this unexpected hit from this week - gulp - forty-seven years ago?

Who would have thought that the "King of Crooners" - who is 91 years old at the end of this month - would ever have ventured into the glittering world of the discotheque, to such great effect..?

Thank Disco It's Friday!

Johnny Mathis - Gone Gone Gone

Have a great weekend, dear reader!

The fast pace of technology

At last!

Only NINE DAYS after it broke - the Blogger Reading List is back!

[UPDATE, 17.30pm: Well, I say back... It is indeed now showing everything up until yesterday. This post from this morning, however? Not yet...]

Of bloomers, lost rooms, George, a London village, freak mice and Marcia dancing

Our Nerine bowdenii has flowered for the very first time in five years, and has cheered the garden up just as everything else is starting to look a bit tired [click any pic to embiggen]

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Behind closed doors no more news: A gallery at the Natural History Museum has reopened to the public today after 83 years [having been used since WWII as the storeroom for an archival collection of dried plants]! The new exhibition Nature and Us is the first of many new galleries planned to open in the run-up to the venerable institution's 150th birthday in 2031.
• Will they ever be "Putting It Together"? news: After all the hype that Wicked co-stars Ariana Grande and the gorgeous Jonathan Bailey were to star in the latest attempt to revive Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George at The Barbican Centre next year [for which I had earmarked our Theatre Tokens - a Xmas gift from Mother - to buy tickets as soon as they were released], plans have gone tits-up! First Milady Ariana decided to "take a step back from visibility" after a barrage of social media scrutiny about her appearance and health. Now Mr Bailey has withdrawn from the project, and it has been cancelled! After the ill-fated plan for the previous Broadway production starring Jake Gyllenhall to "cross the pond" was thwarted by the COVID pandemic, we're beginning to wonder if we'll ever get to see a big production of the show in this country at all...

• Farewell to "London's seaside village" news: Gabriel's Wharf [pictured above], one of the quirkiest, most artisanal and unexpected places along the South Bank of the Thames - a collection of jolly hand-painted "shed-like" shops, bars and restaurants, huddled in a sort-of-village-square, complete with bandstand - is to be demolished at the end of this month, to make way for redevelopment (with proposals to build a nursing home on the site) after 40 years of operation. What a shame. Gentrification gone mad!
• Frankenstein or Danger Mouse? news: Eek! Neuroscientists in the US have successfully adapted mice to have part-human part-mouse brains. "These are not mice that think like humans", according to the scientists. Gosh, that's reassuring. The mouse we currently have under our bookcase [thanks, most likely, to having the back door open to cool down during all the heatwaves this summer] isn't actually reading our books and planning a world takeover! Like A.I. Only smaller.
• And finally: RIP, Mademoiselle Catherine Ringer. Who? I hear you ask. She was an avant-garde artist, performer and jazz singer, and one of the musical geniuses behind this beloved house fave here at Dolores Delargo Towers! [In fact, she wrote the song.]

Les Rita Mitsouko - Marcia Baila

Now I have that as an earworm for the rest of the week.

And the weather? Not bad at all - some good bursts of sunshine today. Make the most of it while we can - it's the Autumn Equinox next week!