Sunday 30 April 2017

Sleep, perchance to dream


The amazing Nicotiana mutabils is sprawling six feet across the front garden and shows no sign of stopping!

Despite the cloudy greyness that dominated the day, I spent a lovely warm Sunday pottering in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers. Until it started raining, I busied myself basically clearing off some of the vestiges of Spring. The Brompton Stocks that have been scenting the air for months are gone or are soon to go (to be replaced by dahlias, Ammi majus and cleomes), pots of primulas that brightened up the front of the house on wintry days have been split up and the least faded re-potted for a last-gasp bit of jolliness on the windowsills, and I planted up the first of the summer displays - including, yes, some fuchsias - in various pots and troughs. Whew!

[And it's a Bank Holiday tomorrow, so I anticipate more of the same...]

Throughout the day, I was accompanied by a selection of "space age pop and incredibly strange music", courtesy of the faboo Retro Cocktail Hour and our own extensive lounge music collection - including this one. With a rather swishy accompanying video of some "interpretive dance" performers, here's Eartha Kitt's accompanist-of-choice Monsieur Henri René and his Orchestra with Sleep Walk:


Sunday music at its most soothing...

Saturday 29 April 2017

Guess what? I'm still hot



Putting Betty White's "randy granny" persona into the shade (our Patron Saint of innuendo is a mere 95 years old, after all), the UK has not one but two 105-year-olds getting their rocks off - courtesy of some firemen!

Ivena Smailes, known locally as ‘Aunty Ivy’, had only one wish for her 105th birthday last August - a sexy "fireman with tattoos" to deliver her cake. Ivena had her wish fulfilled when a burly fireman from the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service climbed through her third floor window and delivered her Victoria sponge cake:


...and not to be outdone, Newport-born Mary Hayes had her cake-and-hunk-combo today, courtesy of Avon Fire Service!

There is hope for us all yet...

Friday 28 April 2017

French Friday



Blessed relief! The weekend is looming... It's another special one too - as Monday is the May Day bank holiday, so we have three days off. Yay!

Today, it is to our Gallic chums across the water to whom we turn for a stylish way to start the party - here's the mononymous one-hit-wonder Jennifer [nope; no idea]. Ooh la la - and Merci disco c'est Vendredi!


Well, that's today's "earworm" sorted...

Have a good weekend, mes cheries!

Thursday 27 April 2017

Stuff of nightmares


The Archbishop of Canterbury is to exorcise the unquiet spirit of Tony Blair that is haunting the election, he has announced.

The apparition of the former prime minister continues to appear across the media and even in voters’ homes, exhorting them to return to the centre-right so he may rest.

Archbishop Justin Welby said: “We have been troubled by this spectre for long enough.

“He demands we rediscover his legendary ‘Third Way’ so he can depart this plane forever, but frankly none of us really knew what that was in the first place and it’s too much trouble so we’re doing an exorcism.

“Once we’ve lit the candles and said the Latin his wraith will be torn from our world into oblivion, with only a final cry of ‘I won’t apologise for deposing Saddammmmm’ left echoing in our ears.

“Hopefully it’ll be a lesson to other ex-PMs to shut up and stay dead.”


Gordon Brown said: “After I lost the election, I went straight to Hades and have remained here.

“Well, Fife, but same thing.”
The Daily Mash

Of course.

The "real" story

Wednesday 26 April 2017

Spot the difference...

...it's around £1,364.60!





From today's Guardian:
Remember the last time you lugged a bag of stuff around Ikea? Remember how your back strained; how the scratchy handles tore at the skin on your palms and turned your fingers blue? Well here’s some interesting news from the world of fashion: that, right there, was you living your best, most aspirational life. That was your big style moment.

Because Ikea shopping bags are where it’s at in fashion in 2017. The hottest name to drop right now is not Kate or Naomi; it is Frakta.

Balenciaga – the most influential label in fashion at the moment – has released a $2,150 (£1,365) tote that looks uncannily like an Ikea shopper. With its trapezoidal shape, giant size, and colour – a vibrant shade of EU-flag blue – the similarities are impossible to ignore. The double strap feature, with one long set of handles to hoist over the shoulder, one short to be held in the hand, cinches it. The internet has exploded, of course, and Ikea has reacted cannily, issuing a handy guide to spotting a real Frakta shopping bag.


I can't imagine many Balenciaga blue bags flying off its shelves at the moment...

And then, this.

Tuesday 25 April 2017

This room is full of memories, and shadows of the past remind me



It's a very apposite timeslip moment again...

We've been kidnapped by the She-Wolves of the Wasteland and transported back to the wilds of 1988 - the year of Section 28; of the "Free Nelson Mandela" concert; of the Piper Alpha and Lockerbie disasters; of perestroika, when the cracks really began to show across the Soviet Bloc; of Bush vs Dukakis; and the year that Adele, Al-Qaeda and Internet Chat were born (and look how - ahem - far we have come since).

In the news in April twenty-nine years ago: plans were revealed for a huge development involving Britain's biggest commercial tower block at Canary Wharf in East London; Soviet forces committed to withdraw from Afghanistan; Kuwait Airways Flight 422 was hijacked, leading to a sixteen-day international stand-off; Nazi war criminal "Ivan the Terrible" (Ivan Demjanjuk) was sentenced to death in Israel; and in the ascendant were Sonny Bono (elected mayor of Palm Springs, California), Slime Dion (who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland) and The Last Emperor (which won nine Oscars), but we bade a sad farewell to that camp comedy legend Kenneth Williams. In our cinemas were Wall Street, Flowers in the Attic and 3 Men and a Baby. On telly: the controversial documentary Death on the Rock, Ben Elton's Friday Night Live and the last-ever episode of (the original series of) Crossroads.

And in our charts this week in 1988? S-Express had barn-stormed their way to Number 1, knocking Pet Shop Boys' Heart from its perch, closely followed by Hazell Dean, Danny Wilson (who???), Natalie Cole, Climie Fisher, George Michael, Michael Jackson and Fleetwood Mac.

However, also present... in this week when our favourite pop-tastic girl band Bananarama announced their comeback as the original threesome, we re-visit their Top Ten hit from the charts all those years ago. How appropriate that it is I Want You Back [the girls' first hit after the departure of Siobhan]!


The room has suddenly grown cold
And outside in the street it's raining
You packed your bags and said good-bye
You took my heart without explaining.
How could you go?
How could you go?

We had a love most people never know.
Stop
Before you break my heart!

I want you back
Don't care what I have to do
I want you back

I want you back
Gotta get it through to you
I want you back

If I can make you see only you can fill the need in me
If you walk away you'll regret it someday
Please
Stay!

This room is full of memories
And shadows of the past remind me
Of all the love I gave in vain
And all the hurt I feel inside me.
I want you back
I want you back

We had a love most people never know.
Stop
Before you break my heart!

I want you back
Don't care what I have to do
I want you back

I want you back
Gotta get it through to you
I want you back

We had a love most people never know
Stop
Before you break my heart!


Indeed.

Bananarama on Wikipedia

Monday 24 April 2017

An "Old Time Music Hall Prom"?



The 2017 season of the BBC Proms has been announced!

It is far too early, of course, to get any idea who may be appearing on stage at our much-anticipated end-of Season highlight, the closing night gala Proms in the Park on 9th September, but - as ever - there appears to be a wide-ranging and eclectic mix of stuff so far announced: from Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim and Lisa Batiashvili, to Jools Holland, John Wilson and Jarvis Cocker. Highlights include:
  • The 'Godlike Genius' of Scott Walker - Conductor and arranger Jules Buckley returns for two Proms: a Late Night with the Heritage Orchestra, exploring the music of 1960s icon Scott Walker; and a concert with the Metropole Orkest, featuring the music of jazz giant Charles Mingus.
  • In their Late Night Prom, Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stax/Volt Revue and pay tribute to this pioneering label that championed the funk, gospel and rhythm and blues movements.
  • Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves and virtuoso trumpeter James Morrison join the BBC Concert Orchestra under John Mauceri for a double tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie in the centenary year of their births.
  • Proms favourite John Wilson returns with his orchestra for the first European performance of the recently re-constructed stage orchestration of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!
  • A tribute to Proms conductor Malcolm Sargent to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, with a recreation of his 500th Proms concert and a Last Night tribute.
  • Marking the 450th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi, French period-instrument ensemble Pygmalion and director Raphaël Pichon present Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and I Fagiolini under director Robert Hollingworth dedicate the first of this year’s Monday-lunchtime Proms at Cadogan Hall to the composer.
  • All four of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos performed across the season and a day dedicated to his music with the Latvian Radio Choir and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard.
All this, and the Proms will (in addition to its regular and "not-so-regular" outreach performances at Cadogan Hall, Imperial College London, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park(!), Southwark Cathedral and Tate Modern; as well as a visit to Hull, the UK City of Culture 2017) for the first time make an appearance at one of our fave venues in the whole world Wilton's Music Hall!

Here's the launch video:



Tickets for the Proms go on general sale at 9am on Saturday 13th May.

BBC Proms calendar 2017 [Friday 14th July to Saturday 9th September 2017]

It's been said she knocks 'em dead when she lands in town



Oh, nooooooooooo!

After an absolutely lovely sunny week off, spent almost entirely in the garden, it's time to wake up to reality again. It's back to work time...

Let's leave it to today's birthday girl, our Patron Saint of high-kicks Miss Shirley MacLaine to give her best shot on this Tacky Music Monday at cheering the situation up - with a jazzy, all-action dance version of Sweet Georgia Brown!


Have a good week, peeps. Think of me.

Sunday 23 April 2017

Saint George and Shakira


"Is that a cricket bat, or are you just pleased to see me?" The Boy With a Bat by Walter Hawkesworth Fawkes

On this, the feast of Saint George - patron saint of England (and of Portugal, Bulgaria, Malta, Georgia and - um - Lebanon) - what could be more English than to have a load of Oxford college boys camping it up on acapella versions of popular diva tunes?

Here's a double-bill of such cavorting, courtesy of the faboo Out of the Blue, starting with Lady Marmalade:


Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?, indeed!

And, of course, here's their classic - Shakira's Hips Don't Lie:


Comprising students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, Out of the Blue has performed on the West End and on Broadway, reached the semifinals of Britain's Got Talent, and toured around the world to places including Switzerland, Canada, India, Hong Kong, and Japan. Their principal aim is fundraising, and donate their annual profits to Helen & Douglas House Hospice for Children and Young Adults.

Out of the Blue

Saturday 22 April 2017

Some handicrafts for the weekend







[Courtesy of the weird and wonderful Liartown USA]

Friday 21 April 2017

She's a Disco Queen!



The end of another week beckons - and, despite not having been to the office I feel as though I have done more than a usual full week's work! Gardening is fun, but there's no slacking, that's for certain...

Anyway, a weekend is a weekend is a weekend - and today it also happens to be the 91st birthday of our own glittering Majesty, HM The Queen. So let's "queen" it up in the most (in)appropriate manner with some bizarre dance nonsense from someone or something called ISHI... and Thank Disco It's Friday!


Remarkable. I love it!

I hope Her Maj did, too...

Thursday 20 April 2017

Creaming one's knickers at a garden centre


I had to resist buying one of these splendid Echiums

There are garden centres, and there are garden centres... and then there is The Gardening Club in Crews Hill, near Enfield in North London!





Occupying a site of more than 30 acres (1,400,000 square feet!), this phenomenal expanse of glasshouses - which Madam Arcati and I visited today - is a horticultural cornucopia on Dutch proportions, with every conceivable type and range of plants: from bedding (which we came back with; at three substantial trays for £5, how could we not?) to herbaceous, to houseplants, to shrubs, to trees (including a fine array of tree-ferns to make one salivate); featuring both exotic and commonplace species, and generic colour ranges.

It quite rightly claims to be "one of the largest covered garden centre clubs [one pays £5 per household for annual membership] in the UK open to the public".







Imagine a Westfield shopping complex, only just for plants. And dirt cheap, too! A gardener's wet dream.

Crews Hill itself is known as "Britain's Horticultural Mile". For many years it supplied London's markets with fresh flowers and produce, before things changed and selling direct to the (mainly car-driving) public became more profitable. Now, in addition to the Gardening Club there are dozens of outlets of the garden and garden-related variety all down the road, in this last final northern outpost of Greater London before it becomes Hertfordshire. Why have we waited so long to discover it?

Greedy though it may be, we did also purchase a further four fuchsias (only one more named variety and we will have 50).

However, when one discovers something plant-focused on a scale such as this [we walked miles - I'm knackered!], surely we are forgiven? If we had not been on foot, carrying these purchases a further mile back to the railway station, just picture the car-load of stuff we would have acquired...

Crews Hill Gardening Club website - featuring a video tour!

Wednesday 19 April 2017

Another pinny has been hung up for good







One of a long line of "formidable British battleaxes", as portrayed by the likes of Mollie Sugden, Violet Carson, Irene Handl, Stephanie Cole, Edna Dore, Joan Sanderson, Yootha Joyce, Patricia Routledge and (of course) Peggy Mount - as well as fellow cast member, that stalwart of the "shooing duster", Kathy Staff - Jane Freeman's tour-de-force as Holmsfirth cafe owner "Ivy" in Last of the Summer Wine was one of the strong female characters who held this show, and Corrie, and so many other UK telly series, together.

Miss Freeman, a graduate of Cardiff's College of Music and Drama [a familiar campus for me, overlooking as it did the infamous cruising ground that was Cardiff's Castle Grounds, but I digress], had a long career on the stage before television success beckoned. Among the parts for which she was renowned were "Kath" in Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane and "Amanda Wingfield" in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie; before she gained her foothold on screen, and appeared in (among others) the first Blackadder series.

With her demise, we have a mere handful of actresses who can play this dying breed of matriarchs...

RIP Jane Freeman (born Shirley Ann Pithers, 12th June 1935 – 9th March 2017)

Tuesday 18 April 2017

A moment of calm



I think we could all do with some peace, every now and then.

Here's the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Sir Charles MacKerras at the BBC Proms 2009) and a masterful rendition of Venus by Gustav Holst, to do just that:


I feel a lot more mellow now.

"I know how much you hunger for politics"


‘More politics? How absolutely fucking fantastic’, says Britain
An ecstatic Britain has thanked Theresa May for calling an early general election because it just cannot get enough of politicians on the news.

The prime minister told an excited, trembling nation that it had been almost a year since the country voted on anything important and that Britain now deserved to be rewarded for its patience.

She said: “I’m sorry I took so long. I know how much you hunger for politics to dominate the news. I know you love the debates, the special editions of Question Time and the party political broadcasts that show so much respect for your intelligence.

“And I know the absolute joy you experience when a pasty-faced weirdo knocks on your door and gives you a leaflet about how much Jeremy Corbyn loves Hitler.”


Delighted voter Tom Logan said: “I’m already planning a spectacular Leaders’ Debate party for all my friends.

“But what on earth am I going to wear?”
The Daily Mash

Of course.

Monday 17 April 2017

I believe in me!



It may be a Bank Holiday, the final bit of the Easter weekend [Buona Pasquetta if you're Italian - a time for picnics; 'tis a bit chilly here for that today], but it is still a Tacky Music Monday...

And, as I have extra cause to celebrate - having the rest of this week off as leave, so not back to work for another seven days - I think it's time for a really joyful number, courtesy of Miss Leslie Uggams (and her extremely energetic safety gays)!


Now, that's the way to do it. Hallelujah, indeed!

Sunday 16 April 2017

A bunny, a panther and an elephant


What Easter is all about - chocolate!

April is doing what April does - immensely strong gusts of wind and a general air of grey drizzle overhung this Easter Sunday. Never mind, in the shelter of the greenhouse I got some more potting-out done, and spent it in the company of a variety of "easy listening" artists such as the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, Barbara Cook and Nat King Cole.

And today would have been the birthday of one of the maestros of that beloved genre - Mr Henry Mancini!

So without further ado, let us continue this "Sunday Music" theme with the great man himself and just two of his most recognisable hits...



Enrico Nicola "Henry" Mancini (16th April 1924 – 14th June 1994)

Saturday 15 April 2017

A Spring in our step


A gorgeous (and huge) white Aquilegia in the gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers

Another day in the garden, and despite a slow cold start, it was a lovely sunny one - I occupied myself washing pots and planters, potting-on seedlings, and generally enjoying the plants almost growing before our eyes... and the wildlife! We have a host of different types of bees, hoverflies and butterflies pay us a visit, a regular pair of blackbirds, robins, tits and even a wren. And they are all helpful in their own way. Our rambling rose "Veilchenblau" was covered in a thick coat of aphids a few weeks ago, and then they began to disappear. Here is the reason why...



Hoverfly larvae are not the prettiest of beasts, I can't deny - and easily mistaken for a nibbling caterpillar. However, being basically a stomach with stubby little legs, this unlovable creature's capacity for eating greenfly is remarkable! Together with a couple of ladybirds, the grubs polished off every last one of those sap-suckers - and the rose is saying thank you, with what promises to be a wonderful show of blooms next month.

I love our garden. So - while this good mood is still upon us - Let's Dance!


Sixties TV show clips include:

The Avengers (Diana Rigg, Patrick Macnee)
The Andy Griffith Show (Don Knotts)
The Addams Family (Carolyn Jones, John Astin)
The Dick Van Dyke Show (Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore)
Gomer Pyle USMC (Jim Nabors)
The Patty Duke Show (Patty Duke)
The Doris Day Show (Doris Day)
Gidget (Sally Field)
Batman (Adam West, Victor Buono, Ziva Rodann)
Bewitched (Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, Joy Harmon)
Gilligan's Island (Tina Louise, Bob Denver)
I Dream of Jeannie (Barbara Eden)
Mr. Ed (Alan Young)
The Beverly Hillbillies (Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, Max Baer, Bea Benaderet, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs)
That Girl (Marlo Thomas, Slim Pickens)

Friday 14 April 2017

Thursday 13 April 2017

Feckity Feckity Feckity Feckity Feckity Feckity Feckity Feck


A Ryanair passenger has confirmed he would not mind being forcibly dragged off.

Wedged in a stained middle seat the size of a pizza box, Tom Booker has been idly fantasising about being forcibly removed from the plane and saved from a two-hour sweaty ordeal.

Booker said: “It’s only a boring work trip, and a couple of minutes of pain and humiliation are definitely better than being treated like a battery-farmed hen and trying to ignore my neighbour’s body odor while cabin crew try and make you buy a £30 cheese roll.

“At this stage I’d happily accept being dragged by my neck down the aisle rather than have to take this flight.

“I’d try and open the emergency exit and slide to freedom, but the cruel irony is I’m far too boxed in to get anywhere near it.”


Crew member Emma Bradford said: “Mr Booker tried to cause a disturbance by letting out a blood-curdling yell and banging his head repeatedly against the seat in front.

“I don’t think he realises that we’re Ryanair, that’s just normal behaviour for us. When he manages to get out on the wing with a bottle of Smirnoff, then we’ll talk.”
The Daily Mash

Of course.

[And in case you do decide to brave the in-flight food - here's a salutary warning.]

I think there is no excuse but to re-visit an old favourite - by Fascinating Aida (who else?):


Begorrah.

Wednesday 12 April 2017

How can I forget the hours


How life should be

Having had a hectic day - a long meeting in nearby Hackney, which took inordinately longer than necessary due to the vagaries of public transport in and around that bit of London, then to the joys of our local "Wood Green Shopping City" [it rhymes with...] to replace our favourite garden solar-powered "disco" lights that suddenly gave up the ghost despite all the brilliant sunshine we've (intermittently) had over the past several weeks, then some more humping'n'shifting in the garden - it's no wonder I'm weary and in need of some calming music...

What better than the combination of today's centenarian the lovely Miss Helen Forrest, together with her favourite bandleader accompanist Harry James? And all in glittering Technicolor, too!


Oh, that's the equivalent of a lovely soak in a hot bubble bath. Sigh...

Helen Forrest (12th April 1917 – 11th July 1999) - see my blog about her on the occasion of her last birthday

Tuesday 11 April 2017

Dangerous wine-making monks



A little divertissement courtesy of today's Telegraph:
Buckfast monks should be stripped of their charitable status, campaigners have said, following claims that they are profiting from selling "dangerous" wine.

The Charity Commission is launching a probe into the Buckfast Abbey Trust, where monks produce wine which has been associated with a surge in alcohol-related violence.

The National Secular Society - which works to challenge religious privilege - has claimed Buckfast Tonic Wine, known as "Buckie" in Scotland where it is most popular, is a scourge on society.

The drink has been linked to 6,500 reports of antisocial behaviour and violence in just two years. Yet Buckfast Abbey Trust, which produces Buckfast Tonic Wine, does not pay tax on its income because it is a charity, something which the National Secular Society claims is an "abuse of the charitable system"...

...The Trust justifies its charitable status by saying its aim is the "advancement of the Roman Catholic religion".
Ha!

It certainly may be someone's idea of "religion" - not least Mr Dean Martin...


Cheers!

Monday 10 April 2017

King of the Tiki Hut



"The man who brought the name "exotica" to this genre. The King of the Tiki Hut." - Space Age Pop website.

After yet another all-too-quick weekend, it is time once more to trudge our weary way to work. One good thing is that (for a change) while we were able to enjoy it, the weather was superb, but we're expecting lower temperatures and cloudy weather all week while we're in the office.

But enough of all that. On this Tacky Music Monday we trust the "Father of Exotica" (and birthday boy) Mr Martin Denny (and his rather frivolous dancer) to whisk us off to hotter climes...


Ah, that's better.

Have a good week, dear reader!

Sunday 9 April 2017

Filth (I'm glad to say) is in the mind of the beholder



We had a beautifully sunny day today, and, as is our wont when the two of us have a day off together we enjoyed it in the gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers (despite the students next door and their noisy, smelly BBQ party) - today Madam Arcati planted a whole host of new Fuchsia hanging planters to add to our collection along the back fence and did the watering, while I cleared more spent soil from the planters (which we use as mulch on the beds) and sifted out the gravel to put back when we re-plant them, pruned the Iochroma australe and some potted Fuchsias, moved some Salvias and Verbena bonariensis, and planted out Penstemons, Night-scented Phlox, Virginia and Night-scented Stocks, Scilla peruviana, and some burgeoning seedlings of Orlaya grandiflora and the fabulously named Forking Larkspur (or, in German, Feldrittersporn)!

As per usual, our accompanying music was eclectic, veering from disco to Blossom Dearie to Celia Cruz to showtunes, but (surprisingly) nothing from today's birthday boy. Sharing his celebrations with house fave Robert Helpmann, Valerie Singleton (who, rather scarily, is 80 years old), Hugh Hefner, Carl Perkins, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michael Learned, Hannah Gordon, Les Gray of 70s popsters Mud, Dennis Quaid and Marc Jacobs, we wish many happy returns to the comic genius that is Mr Tom Lehrer!

Here is the great man on a subject close to all our hearts...


Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer (born 9th April 1928)

Saturday 8 April 2017

Love is a tune you hum-de-hum-hum



Having spent the day in the company of arch-Abba-fanatic our friend John-John, expert Carl Magnus Palm and a host of anoraks enthusiasts for all things to do with the Swedish super-quartet, at the international launch of Mr Palm's updated version of his magnum opus "ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions", I thought it only fitting to visit one of their extremely early ventures into pop soon-to-be-super-stardom...

Here's the fabulously lyrical Bang-A-Boomerang, for your delectation:


Making somebody happy is a question of give and take
You can learn how to show it so come on, give yourself a break
Every smile and every little touch
Don't you know that they mean so much
Sweet sweet kisses so tender
Always will return to sender

Like a bang, a boom-a-boomerang
Dum-be-dum-dum be-dum-be-dum-dum
Oh bang, a boom-a-boomerang
Love is a tune you hum-de-hum-hum
So give it away, I think you'll learn
You'll get love in return
So bang, a boom-a-boomerang is love
A boom-a-boomerang is love


If you say so, dears.

Friday 7 April 2017

All it had to take me was just one look



In this world of bad news, awful news, even more horrid news and Katie Hopkins, it's always good to have a fine and sunny weekend to look forward to...

...particularly when it is heralded in by the impeccably stylish Drifters, whose co-founder Charlie Thomas celebrates his 80th birthday today. Remember, dears, to sneak a peek in his "little red book" when he's not looking - and Thank Disco It's Friday!


Have a good one!

Thursday 6 April 2017

The nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation



According to the Guardian:
A picture depicting Vladimir Putin in full makeup has been banned in Russia.

The picture is cited on the Russian justice ministry’s list of banned “extremist” materials – a list that is 4,074 entries long. No 4,071 states that the poster, depicting Putin with painted eyes and lips, implies “the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation”.

It’s unclear exactly which image the ministry is talking about – but it is believed to be similar to one used on signs during protests against Russia’s anti-gay laws. It turns out there are quite a lot of photoshopped images in circulation that depict Putin in drag.
An offer too tempting to resist, methinks...









It's also a perfect reason to post this old fave once more...

Wednesday 5 April 2017

She was a showgirl



What?!



Barry Manilow is GAY??!!



Who ever would have guessed..?


We did.

Tuesday 4 April 2017

An ideological glory hole

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