Fury!

I'm with the Baboon

After a weekend of bleakness, storm-force winds, pissing rain and hailstorms, our return to the grind would appear to be greeted by a pleasant and dry day. Fuckit.

In an attempt to raise the spirits - and in the knowledge that it's less than four weeks till we're in Spain again [we have our boarding passes to prove it!] - on this Tacky Music Monday, let's have something that if not Spanish, is at least Hispanic...

Ricardo Montalbán, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse - Dance of Fury [The Kissing Bandit, 1948]

Miss Charisse! Mr Montalban! Miss Miller! All that, and Mr Sinatra in William Shatner's wig! Perfect.

Have a good week, dear reader.

She got legs, and knows how to use them

Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea, 8th March 1922 – 17th June 2008)

Fred and Lucille help us move

This Tacky Music Monday is a rather special one - as today we move lock, stock and barrel to our new abode!

To help us along, how about some footage of our gang at Saturday's glittering Gay Pride event?

Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire & Lucille Ball - Here's to the Girls (from Ziegfeld Follies)

OK, OK, so neither Fred nor Lucille (nor Cyd) were actually there, but...

Let's dance - put on your red shoes and dance the blues

Now here's a novelty - earlier on this week we celebrated the birthday of Miss Vikki Carr. Here she is singing, with a fantabulosa mimed dance number performed by none other than the much missed Cyd Charisse - an excellent combination, you must agree...

[From The Silencers]

"She personified dancing sophistication"

Sad news, indeed. Cyd Charisse, darling of the dance musical, is dead.

Born Tula Ellice Finklea in 1922, the exotically-renamed Cyd Charisse was a trained and skilled ballet dancer, and toured with the Ballet Russe in the 1930s.

But it was her emergence onto the silver screen, as dance partner of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, that made Charisse such a stunning star. With those incredible legs (reputedly and famously insured for $5million), to many she was Fred's best pairing, and her effortless grace and athleticism made every routine a magical experience - not least as the star of Silk Stockings, and as lead female dancer in Singing in the Rain.

Here are a couple of magical scenes for which she will be forever remembered. There will never be another Cyd Charisse...!

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse - Dancing in the Dark

Cyd Charisse - Frankie and Johnny (from Meet Me In Las Vegas)

Cyd Charisse obituary, LA Times