Oh, FFS. It's Monday again! How did that happen?
Never mind, eh? It's Fergie's birthday today [no, not that one - the one with the Black Eyed Peas], and, on this Tacky Music Monday, I think we deserve a boost of brilliant choreography featuring said lady to perk us up!
But there's more places to go with this, bien sûr...
...and, inevitably, the classic:
Have a good week, dear reader.
It's "Paddy's Day Eve", dear reader [and yet again; with the long history of this blog, which recently celebrated sixteen years(!) in business, it's understandable, here's a little bit of recycling] - time to wear green and drink stout, I believe.
Just as on previous celebrations, I turn to the marvellous French & Saunders for the most appropriate tribute to all things "Oirish" on this day.Here's their brilliant "Raspberries"...
...and here's the real thing - The Cranberries:
Sláinte ma Cara!
Indeed.
[We still miss Dolores]
...Federico Fellini was indeed one of the most influential film directors in European movie history. A pioneer of the so-called "neo-realist" style, he collaborated with Ingrid Bergman's hubbie Roberto Rossellini, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti, Anna Magnani, Anita Ekberg and even Goldie Hawn. His film Le Notti di Cabiria was later adapted by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields as the musical Sweet Charity.Fellini's legacy is vast and wide-ranging - everyone from Tim Burton to Terry Gilliam, David Lynch [with whom he shares a birthday] to Peter Greenaway, Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Baz Luhrmann owes him a huge debt - but there are one or two tributes that, for me, are the finest summations of a life's creativity...
Madonna made a surprise appearance at a 25th anniversary screening of her film Truth or Dare at the Museum of Modern Art in New York last night.I still can't watch it without thinking of French and Saunders...
The documentary, which was known as In Bed With Madonna in the UK, followed all the drama from her Blond Ambition Tour.
photo: Chris Blott
"If I had been around when Rubens was painting, I would have been revered as a fabulous model. Kate Moss? Well, she would have been the paintbrush."
It's Dawn French's birthday, bitches!
From The Comic Strip Presents and Murder Most Horrid to The Vicar of Dibley and latterly Roger and Val Have Just Got In - which I have never actally watched - she is one of the queens of British TV comedy.
Miss Dawn Roma French was born in Wales and brought up in Plymouth (two places very familiar to me in my life). She emerged from the right-on world of the Central School of Speech and Drama in the early 80s, and with friend and flatmate Jennifer Saunders went on to conquer the world of "alternative" comedy. With their singular brand of subtle zaniness [I hate that word, but it fits], and uncanny ability to not just impersonate but also actually look like the famous (and not-so-famous) characters that are often the subject of their sketches, Dawn and Jen have quite rightly emerged from the world of alternative cabaret to become "national treasures".
In tribute to the divine Miss French, here are a few classics from the French and Saunders show...
What Ever Happened to Baby Dawn?:
Lucky Bitches:
Bjork:
French and Saunders website
Faboo!
