You're no tramp but you're no lady

It's bleak out there - dank, wet and windy - but it's not meant to last, the weekend's almost upon us, and it's pay day!

Time, methinks to get this party started - so let's let our hair (or our braids) well and truly down, enjoy a classic choon from this week (gulp!) 47 years ago and...

...Thank Disco It's Friday!

Odyssey - Native New Yorker

Runnin' pretty, New York City girl
Twenty-five, thirty-five
Hello baby, New York City girl

You grew up riding the subways running with people
Up in Harlem, down on Broadway
You're no tramp but you're no lady talkin' that street talk
You're the heart and soul of New York City

And love, love is just a passing word
It's the thought you had in a taxi cab
That got left on the curb
When he dropped you off at East 83rd

Oh oh oh (Oh oh oh)
You're a native New Yorker
You should know the score by now
You're a native New Yorker
New York girl, ooh ooh ooh

Music plays, everyone's dancing closer and closer
Making friends and finding lovers
There you are lost in the shadows searching for someone
To set you free from New York City

And, whoa, where did all those yesterdays go?
When you still believed
Love could really be like a Broadway show
You are the star, win the applause

Oh oh oh (Oh oh oh)
You're a native New Yorker
No one opens the door
For a native New Yorker

(Runnin' pretty, New York City girl)
Ooh ooh ooh
Native, native, native New Yorker

Where did all those yesterdays go?
When you still believed
Love could really be like a Broadway show
You are the star

You're a native New Yorker
You should know the score by now
You're a native New Yorker

Have a good weekend, dear reader!

Of iguanas, the Hit Factory, presidents and Tina

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Killer reptile news: A chilly cold snap in Florida has led to an unforeseen hazard - iguanas, unable to warm up enough to move, falling out of trees! It sounds amusing until you find out that adult male Green Iguanas can reach five feet in length, and weigh up to 20 pounds. I wouldn't want one falling on my head, thanks...
• History lesson: the tiny Somerset vllage of Barton St David (population 600) has a major claim to fame - its historical links to no fewer than five American presidents! Not Trump. He's German.

• Pop legends news: Stock, Aitken and Waterman - one of the most successful songwriting and producing partnerships of all time, with more than 100 UK Top 40 hits, including thirteen UK No. 1 singles (and three US #1s), who launched the musical careers of the likes of Our Princess Kylie, Dead or Alive, Mel and Kim, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley and Bananarama [or made the latter into superstars, at least] - have unveiled a Historic England blue plaque in their honour, at their old studio in Southwark that became known as "The Hit Factory".
• Basic biology news: A US court has ruled that elephants are not people. Well, there's a surprise!
• And finally - a posthumous discovery from an icon: A never-previously-heard track by the sadly-missed Miss Tina Turner, believed to be lost, was premiered on BBC Radio 2 this morning. And here, for your delectation, it is!

Tina Turner - Hot For You Baby

And the weather? Miserable. [But thank heavens we're not in Northern Ireland or Scotland!]

Impudence!

As the weather here in London remains stubbornly cold and miserable, our thoughts (of course!) continue to be preoccupied with our pending return to the delights of the Costa del Sol (one week on Saturday) - and I feel in the mood for one of Spain's most entertaining bands, one of our favourites, and one we haven't featured for a while...

...the ultra-camp sort-of-Goth-cum-dance duo Fangoria!

It may be nowhere near Hallowe'en, but that's not going to stop the terrifyingly startling Alaska and her chums. They're in full haunting mood - forgive their Desfachatez [impudence]...

Fangoria - Desfachatez

Facts about (lead singer) the magnificent Alaska:

• Born Olvido Gara Jova in Mexico, of Spanish/Cuban exile parents, she apparently told her mother when she was a child that she would love to be a boy just to be gay.
• Her earliest bands Los Pegamoides and Dinarama were heavily influenced by punk and post-punk bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and Depeche Mode; on forming Fangoria her musical style changed more towards electro-dance.
• Alaska is widely regarded in Spain as a "gay icon" and is a fervent supporter of Madrid Gay Pride.
• She had a starring role as Bom in the Pedro Almodóvar film Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón.

Fangoria on Wikipedia

Dickheads

How to write a triumphant column about Trump that will make you look a dickhead in four years or less

Are you a journalist? Right-of-centre? Looking to write a gloating column about President Trump that will age very, very badly? Follow these tips:

Skip over the inconvenient
Whether it’s the attempt to overturn an election or his bromance with Putin, move smoothly past the awkward fact that he proudly stands for multiple policies you’re theoretically dead against. Stress instead his mandate, his restoration of traditional values, how lovely his wife looks in her gangster hat, and let cancelling elections come as a lovely surprise.

Dismiss valid concerns
The promise to retake the Panama Canal by force? No more than the aggressive opening of a negotiation by a renowned deal-maker. Trump’s no more going to send troops in an act of war against a peaceful neighbour than he would pack the judiciary with pals and arrest political opponents on false charges. Stay sure of that until it happens.

Praise his restraint
Trump loves praise, so lavish it. Tell him how wonderful he is for not imposing martial law, how statesmanlike for not appointing his sons to key cabinet posts, that by not ordering his face to be added to Mount Rushmore on the first day he is acting in the tradition of Jefferson and Lincoln. Then watch him do all those things because you gave him the idea.

Revel in the defeat of the wokerati
Never mind what Trump will do, what about your enemies? The columnists for rival newspapers who disagree with you? The twats who insist on having different opinions to you on social media? This is a time to mock, to belittle, to taunt them for their ridiculous claims of incipient fascism. You definitely won’t regret those words.

Stake your reputation
Dizzy with success, make predictions. Elon Musk’s random firing of half the government will have uniformly positive consequences. Appointing a vaccine-skeptic will be a massive boost to America’s health. Making it clear the rule of law doesn’t apply to thugs on our side will work out brilliant. Then sit back and wait to reap the wonderfulness you have sown.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Will it be love?*

Amen.

Another delightful week begins, and I don't even feel like I have had a weekend [I have actually done bugger all - and yesterday was a complete write-off]. But hey ho! Whatever this week in work throws at us, it's less than a fortnight before we are in Spain again...

...so on this Tacky Music Monday let's have a suitably OTT wake-up call, shall we, courtesy of one of that country's campest-of-camp "national treasures"?!

Carmen Sevilla - ¿Será el amor?

Have a good week, dear reader.

[¿Será el amor? = "Will it be love?" in English]

Classics Nouveau?

WTF?!

It's a gloomy Sunday, all dense cloud and chilly dankness. I only got out of bed around 3 o'clock, there being no light to awaken me.

Time for a selection of "newer" (and not-so new) choons that have caught my ear of late to brighten the horizon, methinks...

Let's open proceedings with our ever-reliable "house band", with their take on one of my all-time favourite songs, ever:

Postmodern Jukebox ft. Chloe Feoranzo - Enjoy the Silence (Depeche Mode 1920's Jazz Age Cover)

Speaking of "80s vibes" - there appears to be a wholesale revival of such sounds around at the moment. Not least with this one, which, if it were not for the demi-drag makeup and feathered hat, might well have been a Tears for Fears album track:

VOYA - Too Shy for Love

Taking us more down the path well-trodden by the likes of Bauhaus and their 80s Goth compatriots, this:

Night in Athens - Words Unspoken

Next, a lady who has obviously listened to Depeche Mode's Violator album on repeat:

Madeline Goldstein - 1996 Expectations

The wonderful Miss Kim Wilde [coincidentally just featured in Ms Scarlet's 2025 comeback] has delved back into the decade where she started, too! If Gary Numan wasn't involved here, someone's nicked his synthesisers...

Kim Wilde - Midnight Train

[see also: Ms Scarlet's Wonky Words. Spooky coincidence.]

And, finally, a song that is actually from the 1980s [and one that was played on Gary Davies' Sounds of the 80s show on BBC Radio 2 just this week] that - much like my little "mixtape" I put together towards the end of last year - is one I have never previously played here, despite it being a favourite of mine for 37 years!

Desireless - Voyage Voyage

As ever, dear reader, I welcome your thoughts!

Hair-hoppers

Ah, the 80s...

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