Masculinity and me

Over at the Museum of Camp, we are exhibiting some Oscars ephemera.

Here at home in Dolores Delargo Towers, we are wondering just why this sort of thing happens to otherwise apparently sane celebrities...



Let us instead dwell on Mr James Franco looking somewhat better!



James Franco on IMDB

Broadway Baby

Happy 63rd(!) birthday today to the lovely and vivacious Broadway Bombshell Miss Bernadette Peters.

With a myriad of theatrical roles behind her, from (as a child) understudying the original "Dainty June" in Gypsy and playing Liesl in the 1961 stage appearance of Sound of Music, right through to her triumphal concert appearances and her current role as Desiree in the critically acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory production on Broadway of A Little Night Music (replacing Catherine Zeta-Jones).

This year, Miss Peters continues her lifelong connection with Mr Sondheim (she won awards for her parts in Sunday in the Park with George in 1984 and Into the Woods in 1987, and returned to Gypsy for its revival in 2003, this time playing Mama), joining a new production of Follies that is predicted to transfer from DC to Broadway. It certainly appears that everything that Bernadette Peters turns to gold, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it isn't the "hit of 2011".

With her multi-million selling recordings, TV appearances ranging from the Carol Burnett Show to Will and Grace, and an occasional film career she is indeed one of America's "national treasures", and we on this side of the pond love her to bits too - particularly here in Dolores Delargo Towers!

Here is Miss Peters appearing in her sell-out concert series at the Royal Albert Hall...

Bernadette Peters - Fever

Bernadette Peters official website

Shhhhhhh!

...Mother's having breakfast!

We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of

Ho hum. Monday again.



Never mind, eh? The world is a much better place on this Tacky Music Monday, when we have Al Martino singing a disco version of Volare while (for some completely incomprehensible reason) flying through a snow-storm... Enjoy!

Al Martino - Volare (Disco version)

Volare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh
Let's fly way up to the clouds
Away from the maddening crowds
We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of
Where lovers enjoy peace of mind
Let us leave the confusion and all disillusion behind
Just like bird of a feather, a rainbow together we'll find

Volare, oh oh
E contare, oh oh oh oh
No wonder my happy heart sings
Your love has given me wings
Penso che un sogno cosi non ritorni mai piu
Mi dipingi con le mani e la faccia di blu
Poi d'improvviso venivo dal veneto rapito
E incominciavo a volare nel cielo infinito

Volare, oh oh
E contare, oh oh oh oh
Nel blu, dipinto di blu
E ci dice di stare lassu
E volavo, volavo felice piu in alto del sole con coro piu su
Mentre il mondo pian piano spariva lontano laggiu
Una musica dolce suonava soltanto per me

Volare, oh oh
E cantare, oh oh oh oh
No wonder my happy heart sings
Your love has given me wings
Nel blu, dipinto di blu
Fenite di stare lassu

Memories...

At home listening to Paul O'Grady's fabulous show earlier on Radio 2, and this song was on his playlist.

Instantly, all sorts of memories of the 1980s came flooding back - my dears, I was singing my little heart out!

Dee C Lee - See The Day

Don’t you see that I
I’m really worth a try?
And I say to you I know just what to do

Will you ever see the day?
Heartache leads astray
Good love will always come from me

Will you ever learn to love
Without a little doubt?
Good love will always come from me

Faboo!

And the award for Best Picture goes to...

As the world yawns again at the prospect of tonight's glittering back-slapping marathon, The Oscars, it is worth taking a little look at some of the notable errors of judgement the Academy have made over the years.

Remarkably, right from the outset the award for Best Picture has been given to some surprising nominees, with films that are (in hindsight) much more warmly remembered missing out. Indeed the very first award in 1927 was given to a movie called Wings, while the masterpiece Metropolis (with its Oscar-like robot) missed out.

My top five movies that should have been "Best Picture" but weren't:

• Citizen Kane (1941). A film that features regularly in polls of "best movie of all time", the Orson Welles masterpiece was overlooked in favour of How Green Was My Valley - ewww...
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Another all-time great in the history of cinematography, embarrassingly Mr Kubrick was sidelined in favour of none other than Oliver!. That must rank as one of the daftest choices of the lot - for although Lionel Bart's musical extravaganza is indeed a fab film, it pales in comparison.
• Some Like It Hot (1959). The iconic Billy Wilder film, a house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers and beloved of many millions of people, was not even nominated for Best Picture. Ben Hur won.
• Star Wars (1977). Another shock decision by the Oscars jury was the choice of Woody Allen's Annie Hall over the original (and best) of the multi-billion-dollar movie series.
• The Graduate (1967). Miss Bancroft's finest hour lost out to In the Heat of the Night. Two great films; I know which I prefer!

There have been many more surprise losers over the years, on occasions due to the fact that the jury had a far more difficult choice between classic movies. In 1946, for example, neither Brief Encounter nor It's A Wonderful Life won; The Best Years of Our Lives did. Yet in 1950 the magnificent All About Eve swept the board, and the stunning The Third Man was not even on the list.

In 1939, the most famous year in Oscars history for contending classic films, several all-time favourites were up against each other. Movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr Chips, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Wuthering Heights, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men and Stagecoach were all in the contest. Personal favourite The Women wasn't even nominated. Inevitably, the (in my opinion very over-rated) Gone With The Wind was the eventual winner.

More recently, who would have thought that Apocalypse Now would have lost out to Kramer vs Kramer in 1979? Or The Killing Fields as runner-up to Amadeus in 1984? The Shawshank Redemption lost to Forrest Gump in 1994; and in 2005 Brokeback Mountain was controversially beaten by Crash (for gawd's sake!).

Oscars trivia:

• The model for the Oscar statuette was a naked Mexican named Emilio Fernández, who had a platonic relationship with fellow Mexican and big Hollywood star Dolores del Río.
• The three movies that won the most Oscars were Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003), Titanic (1997) and Ben Hur (1959). All three movies won 11 statuettes. (Second place is held by West Side Story which won ten Oscars in 1962.)
• Walt Disney was the biggest winner in Oscars history. He walked away with 26 Academy Awards over his lifetime, and received 64 Oscar nominations in total.

The Oscars on Filmsite

Offical Oscars 2011 website

Tu M'as Promis

Having a very slow day indeed after line-dancing our tits off at the "Winter Ball" last night (held to celebrate the close of this year's LGBT History Month in the glittering Islington Assembly Hall), I've been in the mood for replaying some favourite videos.

Including this slice of artistic genius by the magnificent Pierre et Gilles for Italian diva In-Grid - I adore it!

Lamur feat. In-Grid - Tu es foutu

And here is the latest - fantabulosa! - single by the lady herself...

In-Grid - Vive Le Swing

The perfect present?

Maybe it is just me, but I was strangely drawn to this...

"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - Singing Camel Toy! Features the voice of Donny Osmond!"

I'm not making this up, you know - it is on sale at The Most Homosexual Place On Earth, Dress Circle music shop. Buy yours today!

One of my favourite shops in the world, Dress Circle specialises in showtunes, divas, musicals and theatrical ephemera - I could live there!

They are currently asking their fans and customers to vote for them in the "Indie Record Shop Awards".

Vote for them, or for your favourite indie store at the Indie Record Shop website.

Enfant terrible!

How the mighty have fallen. The enfant terrible of the fashion world John Galliano was arrested in Paris yesterday after a drunken brawl, and has apparently been suspended by Dior on the eve of Mode a Paris (Paris Fashion Week).

Oh those couture queens! Over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp, we have mounted a mini-exhibition of extravagances from London Fashion Week [including Julien MacDonald, Meadham Kirchoff, and Mr Galliano's own], which may serve to illustrate just why they all get so stressed at this time of year.

If you had to dress people in stuff like that for hours on end, wouldn't you get drunk? [No excuse for anti-semitism, however.]

Read about the arrest

Just to boogie wit choo

At the end of what feels like one of the longest weeks of my life, I am looking forward to celebrating the finale of Lesbian and Gay History Month tonight at Camden and Islington's "Winter Ball" gala, and to a springlike weekend.

Be assured I will be digging out my yellowest wide-collar shirt, my powder blue rhinestone tail-coat and stuffing a sock down the front of my flares - just like KC and the Sunshine Band!

Enjoy - and Thank Disco It's Friday!

KC and the Sunshine Ban - Boogie Shoes

I am what I play

This is becoming a regular feature here at Dolores Delargo Towers! Here's another round-up of the videos and music that caught my attention this week...

To kick off, the very welcome return of the BIG lady with the BIG attitude, Miss Beth Ditto! This is fabulous:

Beth Ditto - I Wrote the Book

Speaking of girls with attitude, this incredible dance number was never off the airwaves while we were in Spain - Luciana, we love you!

Luciana - I'm Still Hot

Changing the mood completely... I never ever tire of the adorable (and completely barking mad) Miss Róisín Murphy! Here she is collaborating with Aussie band The Bullits on a most magnificent adaptation of the theme from cult TV favourite The Persuaders(!)

The Bullits and Róisín Murphy - The Persuaders

[Read my blog from 2008 for more fabulous 1960s TV themes]

Now this next video is a little gem that really cheered me up! Courtesy of our chums over at The Hospital Club. With a fabby Blue Peter-style video and irresistibly catchy hook, here's Frankie and the Heartstrings...

Frankie & The Heartstrings - Hunger

Eternal thanks once more to the lovely Henry and his new-found enthusiasm for posting the weird and the wonderful in his very own Barbarella's Galaxy. This delightful electro choon by Pshycotic [sic] Beats featuring one of our major patron saints Bette Davis is very much in the genre that we call "our kind of music" here at Dolores Delargo Towers - I love it!

Pshycotic Beats - Bumpy Night

And finally, from the diva to the nightmare. This rather spooky little video for a haunting song is definitely worth a mention - earlier this week, Doorway by Planningtorock got into my head and refused to leave...

Planningtorock - Doorway

Have yøu mæt Miss Båbs?

On a little trawl last night through some of the regular blogs I follow, I came across an article about Scopitones - those fabulous 1960s predecessors of the music video. I have been a great collector of various Scopitones over the years, on the whole featuring long-lost starlets from France or the USA.

Imagine my joy when I delved into the catalogue on the Scopitone Archive website and picked at random a marvellously kitsch Swedish pop star by the name of Lill-Babs, and just had to share!

I had never heard of her before, but apparently everyone in Sweden loves her. At the height of her fame, she was more popular than the Beatles. In Sweden.

She had a bit of a wild life by the sounds of it, marrying several times and having three daughters by different husbands (or lovers, for I don't think all of them were born within wedlock). A bit Ingmar Bergman, but with sequins. She is obviously a camp icon - according to her Wikipedia entry she appeared at Stockholm Pride in 2008.

Here (appropriately) is the Scopitone of her version of Poetry in Motion [Wo Find Ich Den Mann] in which she gives us some clues why that may be...

Lill Babs - Wo Find Ich Den Mann

However, another very good reason for her popularity with the gayers may be this record - a big hit in 1971 and contender for the Eurovision Song Contest - for the lady's backing singers were none other than a certain popular folk combo known as "Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid"! I think they may have gone on to bigger and better things.

Lill-Babs - Välkommen till världen (with ABBA)

These days she appears to have morphed somewhat - into a larger version of Annie Nightingale, perhaps? Or Marianne Faithfull after a particularly heavy night..?

Lill Babs - Håll huvudet högt - Hela låten!

Lill-Babs on Wikipedia

Enemy of the average

Over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp among other recent exhibits, a very merry widow indeed is waiting to entertain you...

“I’m an enemy of the average”.

Prima Ballerina Assoluta

"Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike."

Dame Margot Fonteyn left this world (far too early) twenty years ago today.

Hers was a glittering career - famously she was due to retire in the early 1960s after more than two decades as the top ballerina of her generation under the tutelage of Sir Frederick Ashton and Dame Ninette de Valois, having been most acclaimed for her artistic partnership with Robert Helpmann.

Then, out of the blue, the Russian megastar Rudolf Nureyev defected (read more about him in my blog of three years ago), and that partnership (despite the eighteen-year gap between their ages) kept her at the peak of balletic excellence for almost twenty more years!



Her sad decline (she died of cancer in almost primitive surroundings in Panama, caring for her paraplegic husband) - and his (of AIDS) - has been well-documented, not least in that brilliant BBC biographical drama Margot in 2009.

So let us instead wallow in the brilliance of their partnership in the sublime Swan Lake...

Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev - Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky)

Margot Fonteyn biography on Britannica Online

I want one of these!

From USB Brando

I think today should be...

...a "say something hat" day!







Don't you?

I'm a mistress. I'm a princess. I'm a temptress.

Oh dammit! - first day back in work after a fortnight off, a fantastic break in Spain, the company of friends, a trip to Kew and a literary spectacular at Polari - and I feel cheated.

The Lottery numbers need shaking up, I tell ya!

Anyway, enough of the Monday Blues, we should cheer ourselves up on this Tacky Music Monday with a really cheesy number from recent discovery (and rapidly becoming a house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers) Miss Erika Jayne!! Pretty mess, indeed...

Erika Jayne - Pretty Mess

Queenie

Oh dear, a centenary that the world appears to have overlooked... For yesterday it would have been 100 years since the birth of that most glittering and beautiful of classic movie stars, Miss Merle Oberon.

Apart from being a stunningly beautiful and photogenic British export to America, the former Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson (nicknamed "Queenie" by her family) held a significant and ground-breaking position in Hollywood history, as the first leading lady of Indian origin to appear in mainstream movies. Although she deliberately tried to obscure her background (claiming to be Tasmanian), it seems that her mother was of Ceylonese origin, her father was a Welsh-Irish employee of the India Railways, and she was born in Bombay.

Miss Oberon's potential was spotted early on by renowned film producer Alexander Korda (who she later married), who cast her as Ann Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII with Charles Laughton, and the rest, as they say, is history. She starred in movies such as The Scarlet Pimpernel with Leslie Howard, The Four Feathers with Ralph Richardson and The Private Life of Don Juan with Douglas Fairbanks, was nominated for an Oscar in Dark Angel, and came to screen prominence as Cathy in the all-time classic version of Wuthering Heights, starring alongside a smouldering Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff.

Her star was almost blotted by a car crash in 1937 that left her face scarred, and later attempts to treat her skin left her with further disfigurements. Her second husband cinematographer Lucien Ballard even invented a new technique (which he named "the Obie") to disguise them.

During the 1950s, as parts gradually dried up for Miss Oberon, she retired from acting. She died of a stroke, aged just 68, in 1979.



Here at Dolores Delargo Towers, among our collection of tacky oddities is a treasured copy of the television mini-series Queenie, based upon Merle's life. Worth watching for the ham-fisted attempts at recreating the golden age of Hollywood alone, I'd say!

Miss Merle Oberon, we will never forget you... RIP.

Merle Oberon entry in the BFI Screenonline catalogue

Merle Oberon on IMDB

Here is a very camp appearance by the lady herself in an early Technicolour "masterpiece" Night in Paradise:

Merle Oberon - Night in Paradise

Blowjobs, weddings, pole-dancing - and a lesson on how to write about them

John-John, Paul(ine), (MySpace) Tony and I trolled off to the Fifth Floor Function Room at the Royal Festival Hall, with its spectacular views of the London Eye, for the first of Paul Burston's "peerless literary gay salons" Polari of 2011. In an almost packed room, we spotted loads of regulars - Jeannie, Joe Storey-Scott and his regular table, Suzie Feay with Paul's hubby Paulo and many others including previous reader Helen Sandler who joined us at our table for the festivities.

Paul B opened proceedings through a murky cold, before introducing the first reader. A new Polari discovery, the as yet unpublished Paul Harding began the evening with a bang with his slightly smutty, attention-grabbing story about a couple in Greece, an (unfortunately made public) illicit blowjob in a club toilet, superstition about how an exchange of fluids between men defines "tribal ownership", and the mayhem that ensues. Good stuff - hope to hear more of this man in the future!



Journalist and political writer Mark Gevisser's [pic above] story of his same-sex wedding to his partner in modern South Africa was at once very funny and also revealing. The sea-change in attitudes to gay people post-apartheid appears in sharp contrast to the dreadful wave of evangelical homophobia that is currently criss-crossing the rest of that benighted continent - read Mark's recent article on that very subject. His account of the jolly registrar practically demanding that they make more fuss about their wedding, and her pride in the way she created the displays in the wedding room itself was wonderfully pertinent:

"When I said I did not think we would be doing rings, she really thought she had my number. She looked up at me, in counselling mode now: “Do you think you are a second-class citizen just because you are gay? You have full rights in this new South Africa. You have the right to make a fuss.” Here I was, an entirely empowered middle-class, middle-aged white man, being lectured by a young black woman about my rights." Read more

Mr Gevisser apparently touched upon a the experiences of a few people in the room - not least Paul Burston himself, who likened it to his own experience in Lambeth Town Hall...

Lowering the tone somewhat - to our delight - the ebullient Lauren Henderson aka Rebecca Chance took to the stage to read from her "bonk-buster" Divas, which, even from the brief extract she read, appears to be exactly what is says on the tin:

"...the story of a beautiful, spoilt heiress - Lola. A sexy pole dancer - Evie. And Carin, the evil stepmother with the cold blue eyes of a Siberian husky who does her best to ruin Lola and Evie's lives. When Carin takes everything the girls have, their only hope is to join forces and fight back to regain Lola's inheritance and Evie's diamond pasties. With an action-packed plot full of wild sex, glamorous locations, and murder... it will take you on the ride of your life!"

Hilarious stuff! We all agreed this would make a ridiculously camp and glossy TV series worthy of the legacy of Dynasty, Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest. We were overjoyed when the lady herself came and joined us at our table (John-John and Tony both bought copies for her to sign) - she is every bit as sassy and saucy as her novels! She promised us that on her next appearance she would read a particularly smutty piece from either Divas or its successor Bad Girls, involving (female) fists up (male) bottoms just for us - phew!! Visit Rebecca's website for reviews, extracts and more.

After a bit of an extended fag and booze break, we settled down again for esteemed author Lois Walden (who has worked with major artists such as Dionne Warwick and Jane Fonda, and was part of the singing group The Sisters of Glory), reading from her (almost) autobiographical novel One More Stop. The story, about a woman's passage through the American Mid-West following the suicide of her mother, towards a gradual acceptance of and celebration of her own lesbianism with the help of flings, encounters and friends, was charming and very entertaining indeed! Read more on Lois Walden's official website.



Our star-billing author of the night however was Green Carnation Prize winner Christopher Fowler, who not only took us through the journey that led to his winning novel and masterwork Paperboy - read my recent review of this fabulous book - and read a lengthy extract from it, but also gave us a little teaser about his planned follow-up book, and a bit of a lesson on how to be a successful writer to boot! In his words:

"Don’t write about what you know. Write about what you feel, what you imagine... Write about what you don’t know".

Sage words to bear in mind... Visit Christopher Fowler's website to see how brilliant a writer he really is!

And so soon, it was all over again for another month. Apparently there are one or two surprises in store for the next one - currently only "Michael Arditti, Nick Alexander, VG Lee and more" are mentioned - and I cannot wait!

Polari

I don't want to be respectable

"I don't want anything. I don't want a job. I don't want to be respectable. I don't want prizes. I turned down the National Institute of Arts and Letters when I was elected to it in 1976 on the grounds that I already belonged to the Diners Club."
Gore Vidal

A selection of photographs by Hedi Slimane of the great writer, orator, political pundit and wit Gore Vidal has been published.

















I have the deepest admiration for this man, and have written about him before - here and here.

These photos are stunning, and thanks to the lovely people over at The Pandorian for alerting me to them...

Stop! I'm spinning like a top, we'll dance until we drop

As the week stumbles to its inevitable conclusion, and everyone looks forward to almost Spring-like temeperatures on the weekend (even if it is supposed to rain), what better than a little 70s nonsense to cheer us along?

The pride of Cypriot North London Miss Tina Charles (for it is she), with her stack heels, preponderance of chiffon and lovely flicks, continues to be a house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers - not least for this classic number. Thank Disco It's Friday!

Tina Charles - I Love to Love

Enjoy...

An arabesque in itself

A glorious day at the world's greatest botanical garden today...



"A garden is a complex of aesthetic and plastic intentions; and the plant is, to a landscape artist, not only a plant - rare, unusual, ordinary or doomed to disappearance - but it is also a colour, a shape, a volume or an arabesque in itself."
Roberto Burle Marx

Boogie with a suitcase, you're living in a disco

Ah, time for another Pick of the Pops, methinks!

Here's another selection of recent discoveries that have piqued my interest...

First, yet another remix (but a rather good one) of the marvellous Loleatta Holloway by a certain HiFi Sean:

Loleatta Holloway vs Noferini - Stand Up (Hifi Sean Gospel Bootleg) radio edit by Hifi Sean

An inevitable DJ concoction that mixes two top choons (Madonna Vogue vs Duck Sauce Barbra Streisand):

Madonna vs Duck Sauce - Barbara Streisand Strikes a Pose!

A remarkable discovery - Christina Aguilera can actually sing without wibbling! From the new film Burlesque, in which she stars alongside the almighty Cher, Miss Trembling-Tonsils does a passable version of Mae West's A Guy What Takes His Time:

Christina Aguilera - A Guy What Takes His Time

And a selection from the playlist at Dolores Delargo Towers wouldn't be complete without a couple of oddities (both courtesy of the lovely Henry over at MySpazz incidentally). Here's a catchy number from a cute French boy who goes by the name of Stromae - Alors On Danse:

Stromae - Alors On Danse

And finally, Denmark's latest answer to Cheryl Cole, Electric Lady Lab, with a remarkably dramatic mix and mash-up with a 90s classic from Snap!; it's You & Me:

Electric Lady Lab - You & Me

Enjoy!

Today's style tips for men...

...wear them with pride!

Do the sha-a-ake

Eternal gratitude once again today to Thom over at Chateau Thombeau for introducing me to this magnificent slice of campery...

Village People - Do The Milkshake

It's time to celebrate

Ah, it is time for a celebration methinks! Time to crack open the champagne...



...for tonight I have finally completed the transfer - manually I might add! - of (just about) every single one of the blogs I had posted on the benighted former social network known nowadays as My_______ [sic] to Blogger.

YAY!!!!

That is no mean achievement, especially since I was posting blogs daily (sometimes more than once a day) since the beginning of 2007 - 1400 in all...

So, to help us enjoy this very special occasion, and in the spirit of weirdness and campery that is our tradition - I have assembled some of our "very best in-house entertainers" here at Dolores Delargo Towers to play just for you.

Take it away boys and girls!

Les Rita Mitsouko - Marcia Baila

Sharmila Tagore, sung by Sharda - Leja leja leja mera dil [from An Evening in Paris, 1967]

Buttocks

Stefano e Bene feat Hard Ton - Why Your Love

A sad lullaby

And so farewell to the master of jazzy Blues, the marvellous Sir George Shearing, at the ripe old age of 91.

Battersea-born yet one of the most influential artists in America, among the friends who paid him tribute today were Dave Brubeck and John Pizzarelli. I wrote in celebration of the great man two years ago, and posted the sublime Sarah Vaughan version of his most famous number.

Here to mark this sad occasion is the masterful collaboration between giants - Mr Shearing and Miss Peggy Lee - on his most famous legacy, Lullaby of Birdland. RIP, a maestro...

George Shearing and Peggy Lee - Lullaby of Birdland

Sir George Shearing obituary in The Telegraph

Memories of Benalmadena

"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working." - Kenneth Grahame

Tres Senoritas

And so we're back, from outer space... Tanned and gorgeous from our week in Spain.

Not yet home - we decided to stay a few days with Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex in their new "Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" house in Essex... (actually it's lovely - so much bigger than their caravan!)

So we have yet to get ourselves back to Dolores Delargo Towers, yet I am still mindful that this is another Tacky Music Monday - and what better way to celebrate than with Spain's tackiest and finest girl-band?

Enjoy the magnificence that is Las Supremas de Mostoles!

Las Supremas de Mostoles - Eres un Enfermo

Agua fluorescente...

Corny it may be.

I have posted it more than once before.

I don't care! We're off to Spain at stupid o'clock tomorrow morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Normal" service is resumed at Dolores Delargo Towers in a week's time...

Loco Loco Loco

Ah... This time tomorrow we will be somewhere over the Bay of Biscay heading to the sunshine and fleshpots of the Costa del Sol! I can't wait!

So in the traditional spirit of celebration for the impending weekend, here is a little snippet of Spanish culture to end what has been a very long week indeed... Thank Disco It's Friday!

Loco Mia - Loco Mia

Have you met our mother?

As the countdown to Spain hurtles along, it is time, methinks, to re-visit another of the little treasures we brought back with us from a previous holiday - the lovely (and completely mad) - Señorita Maria Jimenez!

Mother, we love you!

Maria Jimenez - Mamarracho

Maria Jimenez - Con dos cama vacias

Deviertete!

Tasteless?

Oh.

My.

God.

Anna Nicole - the Opera???

It could be good, it may be not...

Anna Nicole trailer

It opens on 17 February at The Royal Opera House!

I think I just died and woke up on some kind of Hell...

Read all about it in The Guardian

Stritchy!!

We celebrate the 86th birthday today of the one, the only, the living legend that is Elaine Stritch!

Perhaps one the most celebrated of our enduring pantheon of showbiz goddesses here at Dolores Delargo Towers, I have (of course) blogged about her many times, not least on her 85th birthday last year, and back in 2009, reproduced here verbatim:

"Needless to say, the "Grand Dame of Broadway" has worked with them all - Noel Coward, Rogers & Hart, Irving Berlin, Ethel Merman, Jule Styne, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, John Lahr, Hal Prince, and of course Stephen Sondheim. She trained at drama school alongside giants of the acting world, including Marlon Brando (with whom she had a brief, if apparently unconsummated, flirtation) and Bea Arthur.

"In the 1970s she moved to the UK, taking up a long residence in one of the suites at the Savoy. It was during this time that she became most famous to British audiences, playing alongside Donald Sinden in the hugely successful ITV comedy Two's Company, and appearing several times on Parkinson, and in Tales of the Unexpected and Jackanory.

"After the death of her British husband in 1982, she returned to the US, where she has not stopped working since - a variety of TV shows from The Cosby Show to The Big Gay Sketch Show. And along the way she continued to appear on stage, most notably her award-winning one woman show At Liberty.

"It was at the UK run of this show at the Old Vic in 2002 that we were privileged to see the divine Ms Stritch on stage for the first time. Madame Arcati was particularly thrilled, having been a fan of hers since acquiring a copy of her eponymous 1960s album Stritch. And she certainly didn't disappoint! Interspersing songs from her long repertoire with snippets and anecdotes from her life and theatrical career, it was a magical occasion - and a rare opportunity to see a true legend perform."

Elaine Stritch - It's Today

Seven decades of entertainment, of bringing joy to theatrical queens everywhere - Stritchy, we salute you!

El fuego esta encendido

Just a few more days and we'll be off to Spain - the first trip in a year!

To continue our countdown in earnest, we are well overdue a return visit to the alluring talents of casa favoritos [house favourite] Señora Isabel Pantoja!

The lady herself is in a bit of a beleaguered state at the moment, facing as she is continued imbezzlement allegations related to her relationship with jailed mayor of Marbella Julian Munoz. Notably, even during the commencement of the legal proceedings early last year, the diva steadfastly carried on her triumphal concert tour of Spain...

Here are a couple of our favourites here at Dolores Delargo Towers - enjoy!

Isobel Pantoja - Asi Fue

Isobel Pantoja - Se Me Enamora El Alma

And of course, the by now classic remix of that same song:

Isobel Pantoja - Se Me Enamora El Alma (Pumpin' Dolls remix)