Of diamonds, cult cinema, Punk, Pooh, priest, sailors and a diva duet

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• A girl's queen's best friend news: The utterly gorgeous nine-carat Grand Condé Pink Diamond [pictured above] - a rare survivor from the former French ruling dynasty the House of Bourbon - has gone on display in the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris, for the first time since it was stolen a century ago. The gem was recovered soon afterwards - when a chambermaid at the thieves' getaway hotel bit into an apple, in the core of which the diamond was hidden! - but a replica has been on display ever since. It would match some of my outfits perfectly...
• Sing-a-long-a-salvation news: The cult favourite Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square - the West End's home of art-house and cult films, as well as sing-a-long versions of The Sound of Music and The Rocky Horror Picture Show - has been saved from closure and redevelopment by its landlord after a two-year campaign that included a 170,000-strong petition, massive publicity, and a listing by Westminster Council, culminating in a new 25-year lease. Let's do The Time Warp again, indeed!
• 'You have to destroy in order to create' news: A new exhibition coming to our beloved V&A Museum next year is Punk to Pop: Celebrating the creative explosion across music and fashion from 1972–85. From its promo material, it is described as "Bringing together around 300 objects, the show follows this trajectory from the confrontational aesthetics of punk's earliest years through to the polished, technologically-driven pop image-making that followed, tracing continuities as well as ruptures between the two moments." We'll be the judge of that... The exhibition opens on 13th March 2027.

• A Silly (very) Old Bear news: That worldwide favourite children's character Winnie The Pooh celebrated his centenary (of the first publication of AA Milne's book) this month. Tributes on offer include a series of themed programmes broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the inevitable official merchandise - and a set of Royal Mail stamps. Scrub all thoughts of "licking pooh" from your filthy minds, immediately!
• Judgement day? news: A Catholic priest was killed when a wooden crucifix fell on him during livestreamed mass in Ecuador. Ironically, his theme was a reflection on the fleeting nature of human life.

• And finally: Happy Trafalgar Day! Our Patron Saints Mitzi and Ethel know the perfect song to lead the celebrations...

Ethel Merman and Mitzi Gaynor - A Sailor's Not a Sailor (Till a Sailor's Been Tattooed)

And the weather? It absolutely pissed it down all day here. Yuk.

Let Go

Having heard the very sad news that Mr Bob Mackie has sewn on his last sequin and departed for Fabulon - see my tribute over at the Dolores Delargo Museum of Camp - I just knew I would have to post at least one of the gazillion outrageously OTT outfits for which he was famous in action this Tacky Music Monday...

...so how about one of my absolute favourites?

Mitzi Gaynor - Let Go!

Miss Mitzi Gaynor - whose 95th birthday it would have been on 4th September - never had a better frock to shimmy in!

RIP, Mr Mackie.

Have a good week, dear reader.

Shed those dowdy feathers and fly

It's blowing a hooly out there this morning!

Once again, a busy weekend of fun events has left me feeling I could do with another day off to recover...

Never mind, it's another Tacky Music Monday - and who better than our beloved, and much-missed, Mitzi Gaynor to help cheer things along?

Here, she and her safety gays take on Georgy Girl - and win!

Mitzi Gaynor - Georgy Girl

Have a good week, dear reader.

Can't Leave You Alone

As Miss Proximablue and I agreed yesterday, Mitzi always looked like she was having fun!

After the unseasonable warmth this week has brought, I awoke this morning to find a proper autumnal mist shrouding the garden. I thought that might be a sign of things to come, but happily the forecast for the impending weekend shows no sign of the temperature sliding back to "normal" October levels. Hoorah!

As my regular reader knows, I always look forward to weekends (no matter how fleeting they seem) - and this Sunday, a little gang of us is off to the delights of the historic and only recently-restored Alexandra Palace [aka "Ally Pally", the original home of the BBC] Theatre for a rare outing of the musical revue Sondheim on Sondheim.

Meanwhile, there's a party to plan!

Since tomorrow marks the 80th birthday of the "founder of Disco" himself Mr George McCrae, it would be curmudgeonly of me not to mark the occasion with two of his greatest hits:

George McCrae - I Can't Leave You Alone

George McCrae - Rock Your Baby

Those trousers! Those collars! Those dancers! Thank Disco It's Friday!

Have a great one, peeps!

Of mooning, emus, conkers and sad losses

RIP Liam Payne, former member of One Direction, whose premature death, aged just 31, has shocked the music world.

Another snippets post, dear reader:

• Celestial bodies news: Tonight's full moon, called the "Hunter's Moon" [though quite why we in the UK have somehow adopted names given by Native Americans to various phases of the moon is beyond me], will be the brightest (and appear largest) of the year.
• More glittering news: We're very sad to hear that one of our all-time house faves - and Patron Saint - Miss Mitzi Gaynor has departed these shores for Fabulon.

[More over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp. Of course.]

• Irony of the day: A brand new fire station in Germany burned to the ground in a fire, causing millions of euros' worth of damage - but itself did not have a fire alarm system to alert anyone.
• Awwww moment: An emu that was abandoned by her parents has been raised by a chicken named Nugget.
• Urban myths news: Apparently the much-mocked Yank who allegedly bought the old London Bridge thinking it was its much more splendid neighbour Tower Bridge actually knew full well what he had bought, rode the publicity wave, and built a whole new town in Arizona around it!
• And finally: The World Conker Championship is in disarray after one of its champions was accused of cheating!

And the weather? Unseasonably warm - it was 18C/64.4F last night!

She is my sweet patootie

Sparkle, Neely, sparkle!

Happy 2024, dear reader!

We've had a very slow day indeed, after our sparkling (and very late) "gathering of the clans" for the Dolores Delargo Towers Grand New Years Eve Party! I didn't even surface until it was getting dark at around 4pm...

Hey ho, we had no plans other than recovery, anyhow.

New Year's Day or no, it is still a Tacky Music Monday - so let's start as we need to go on, in the glitzy company of our Patron Saint of Bugle Beads Miss Mitzi Gaynor and her (banana-coloured) safety gays!

Mitzi Gaynor - Everybody Loves My Baby

Enjoy the last dregs of holiday before it all fades back to "normality"...

It's such a pleasure to see

Monday again. Groan.

After a lovely (and hot) weekend - on Saturday had a good time with our cousins from Canada, who are in the UK for a few days, and yesterday was really hot and very windy so was mainly spent chilling - it's back to "reality" again.

However, the countdown to "Gay Xmas" in London this weekend has begun - and who better on this Tacky Music Monday to open proceedings than our beloved Patron Saint of Bugle Beads, Miss Mitzi Gaynor and her magnificent safety gays?!

Mitzi Gaynor and her dancers - Pretty for Me

Have a good week, dear reader. It's the gayest time of the year!

The obvious reason is because of the season

Monday again...

As another weekend fades [one of mixed fortunes - a lot of rain, but we still managed to get some plants pruned and some new acqusitions potted-on], there may be another week of dreariness to come in the office but at least from today on the days start getting longer - and on this Tacky Music Monday, our Patron Saint of Bugle Beads Mitzi Gaynor (and chums Wayne Rogers and Roy Clark) knows a song about that! [Although you will need to turn the volume up...]

Have a good week, dear reader.

Not for just a day, but always

Oh, dammit. Back to reality...

Never mind, eh? We have a genuine treat to lift our spirits - for yesterday was the (91st) birthday of Our Patron Saint of Bugle-Beads, Mis Mitzi Gaynor!

On this Tacky Music Monday, here she is with a positive cavalcade of safety gays!

Mitzi Gaynor - Always

As I said way back in 2013: "I am certain that Irving Berlin never envisioned his ultimate torch song would receive this kind of treatment - trust Mitzi!"

Many happy returns, Mitzi Gaynor (born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, 4th September 1931)

Hold back, hold back - let go!

click any pic to embiggen

One of our favourite "all-rounders"; our Patron Saint of Bugle Beads, the ever-shimmying, uber-camp saviour of the career of many a "safety gay" - Miss Mitzi Gaynor is 90 years old today! Lordy.

Miss Mitzi is one of the rare stars for whom the epithet "legend" was coined - she began her Broadway career in 1946, starred in her first film in 1950, was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award for her role in South Pacific in 1958, became the highest-paid female entertainer in Las Vegas in 1961, starred in nine television specials that received 16 Emmy nominations in the 1960s and 70s, returned to cabaret in the 1980s, became a newspaper columnist in the 90s, toured the US with her one woman show Razzle Dazzle: My Life Behind the Sequins from 2009 to 2014, was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame in 2017 - and, despite her venerable age has never officially retired...

Time for a proper celebration of a monumental career, methinks!

Mitzi Gaynor - Honey Bun

Mitzi Gaynor finds herself in an Egyptian Discotheque

Mitzi Gaynor - Always

Ethel Merman and Mitzi Gaynor - A Sailor's Not a Sailor (Till a Sailor's Been Tattooed)

Mitzi Gaynor - I Don't Care

Mitzi Gaynor - Anything Goes

And finally, a house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers. I practice these moves regularly:

Mitzi Gaynor - Let Go!

Campness abounds!

Many happy retuns, Mitzi Gaynor (born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, 4th September 1931)!

Pretty?

Oh. Shit. The dreaded "first Monday" is here, and after a lovely couple of weeks of self-indulgence I am not ready for all this...

Never mind, eh? On this Tacky Music Monday, let us revel in the sheer insanity of this remarkable routine featuring our Patron Saint of Bugle Beads Miss Mitzi Gaynor (and her safety gays) to cheer ourselves up, shall we?

Mitzi Gaynor and her dancers - Pretty for Me

That almost makes the prospect of a week chained to the laptop more bearable. Almost...

I've seen the lights of gay Broadway, or is it Belfast?

A widely misunderstood fact about the United Kingdom (especially overseas) is that it is not just another name for Great Britain. The latter is the island that includes England, Scotland and Wales; add on Northern Ireland and you get the UK. Tiny as this conglomerate is, each bit of it has separate legislature - and today, despite the fact that in England and Wales the law came into force on 13 March 2014, and in Scotland in December 2014, equal marriage was only legally recognised in Northern Ireland TODAY! About bloody time, too.

Partly by way of celebration, partly because it would have been Miss Gwen Verdon's 95th birthday today, but mainly because we all need a bit of "va-va-voom" to get ourselves in the right frame of mind to get up and out and into work - on this Tacky Music Monday, here's the divine Miss V in a supporting role to our eternal Patron Saint Miss Mitzi Gaynor!

Mitzi Gaynor and Gwen Verdon - Beale Street Blues [from The I Don't Care Girl, 1953]

I've seen the lights of gay Broadway
Old Market Street down by the Frisco Bay
I've strolled the Prado, I've gambled on the Bourse;
The seven wonders of the world I've seen
And many are the places I have been
Take my advice, folks, and see Beale Street first!

You'll see pretty browns in beautiful gowns
You'll see tailor-mades and hand-me-downs
You'll meet honest men, and pick-pockets skilled
You'll find that business never ceases 'til somebody gets killed!

If Beale Street could talk, if Beale Street could talk
Married men would have to take their beds and walk
Except one or two who never drink booze
And the blind man on the corner singing "Beale Street Blues!"

I'd rather be there than any place I know
I'd rather be there than any place I know
It's gonna take a sergeant for to make me go!

I'm goin' to the river, maybe by and by
Yes, I'm goin' to the river, maybe by and by
Because the river's wet, and Beale Street's done gone dry!

Faboo!

Have a good week, dear reader.

Today's moves...

...brought to you by our Patron Saint of Bugle Beads, Miss Mitzi Gaynor (who is 87 years young today)!

That's plain to see!

It's raining. The bloody foxes have discovered a route in and out of the garden via the bedroom windowsill (despite the "prickle strip" we have laid on it) so we have crashing and banging noises in the middle of the night, every night, at the moment - until I get a shotgun. And it's time to go back to work, and straight into a very dull meeting.

Ho hum. But life isn't all "kvetching"...

...it's Our Patron Saint of Shimmying Miss Mitzi Gaynor's birthday today! So on this Tacky Music Monday, let's once again give the floor over to the fantabulosa lady and her "safety gays":

Mitzi Gaynor - Everybody Loves My Baby

Everybody loves my baby
But my baby don't love nobody but me
Nobody but me
Yes
Everybody wants my baby
But my baby don't want nobody but me
That's plain to see!

Now that, dear reader, is the way to start a week...

Many happy returns, Mitzi Gaynor (born Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, 4th September 1931)

Hold back, hold back

Lordy.

One of the most glittering of all our Patron Saints here at Dolores Delargo Towers blows out eighty-five candles today!

Miss Mitzi Gaynor (for it is she) has shimmied, shaken and high-kicked her way through myriad musicals, TV specials and award ceremonies in her long, long career - her screen legacy includes such classics as My Blue Heaven, There's No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, Les Girls and, of course, South Pacific, and she still makes occasional stage appearances to this day!

However, it is for this timeless moment of choreographed uber-campery - possibly one of my favourite clips, ever - that we celebrate her the most...

Mitzi Gaynor - Let Go

Many happy returns, Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber, aka Mitzi Gaynor (born 4th September 1931)

[See also our tribute to Miss Mitzi in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp, on the occasion of her 80th]

Shed those dowdy feathers and fly, a little bit

Just as warmer air starts to sweep across the UK, it's time to head back to the confines of work. All I want is to potter in the garden while we have that rare opportunity. In spite of everything, things have been burgeoning and need attention, but for the majority of the "summer" it has been too uncomfortable to spend time out there, even to enjoy the fruits of our labours...

Never mind, it's another Tacky Music Monday - and who better than our beloved Mitzi Gaynor (who was 84 on Friday) to help cheer things along?

Here, she and her safety gays take on Georgy Girl - and win!

Mitzi Gaynor - Georgy Girl

Have a good week, if you can...

You're just kind of wild

I am convinced that time moves far more quickly on a weekend than it ever does during our time at work in the week...

Hey ho, it's Tacky Music Monday again, folks - and here to ease the pain of having to face another five days of unending joy the office, by way of a celebration of the lady's 83rd birthday last Friday, we revisit one of our very favourite Patron Saints Miss Mitzi Gaynor's most sparkling moments.

It's her tribute to the great Gertie Lawrence - Limehouse Blues:

Mitzi Gaynor - Limehouse Blues

Oh, Limehouse kid
Oh, oh, Limehouse kid
Goin' the way
That the rest of them did
Poor broken blossom
And nobody's child
Haunting and taunting
You're just kind of wild

Indeed she is - happy belated birthday, Mitzi!

Have good week, peeps...

Mitzi Gaynor official website

Mitzi's Wild!

After a fabulous party this weekend for Eurovision, and a well-needed day of recovery, it's all over and back to reality...

However, we can always rely upon the boundless energy of Miss Mitzi Gaynor to lift our spirits on a Tacky Music Monday.

Here she is in her inimitable tribute to the 1920s - she's Running Wild!



Have a good week...

When the things you've planned need a helping hand

Still creaking with this frozen shoulder, I greet another week with a groan. I hope either a) the drugs finally shift it soon, or b) the doctor can recommend a good physio... Hey ho.

To lighten the day somewhat, here's a genuine Tacky Music Monday treat - courtesy of our eternal favourite Patron Saint Miss Mitzi Gaynor - who blows out 82 candles on her cake on Wednesday!

Mitzi Gaynor - Always

Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always.

I am certain that Irving Berlin never envisioned his ultimate torch song would receive this kind of treatment.

Trust Mitzi!

Have a great week, peeps.

Dreams can come true again

It's our house favourite Razzle-Dazzler Miss Mitzi Gaynor's birthday today!

To celebrate, here is a very young Miss Gaynor, sizzling on Too Darn Hot:

Mitzi Gaynor - Too Darn Hot

And here she is quite a while later, with Everything Old is New Again:

Mitzi Gaynor - Everything Old Is New Again (1976)

Get out your white suit, your tap shoes and tails
Let's go backwards when all else fails
And movie stars you thought were long dead
Now are framed beside your bed.

All hail the Patron Saint of Shimmying Sequins!

Mitzi Gaynor on IMDB

Miss Gaynor was of course one of our "exhibits" in the Dolores Delargo Museum of Camp on the occasion of her 80th birthday last year.