Lo que pidas muy barato lo doy*

Grrrr... Back to the office. Back to reality.

After a very pleasant weekend - Saturday doing fuck all, and yesterday spent absorbing the joyful musings of an erudite panel on the meaning and influence of divas on the lives of generations of gay men (and lesbians and others in the "alphabet soup" of labels these days) at the Southbank Centre - it's time for a wake-up call!

Who better to provide it on a Tacky Music Monday than one of those very divas - Spain's finest, one of our cherished Patron Saints, "La Leyenda" Señorita Sara Montiel (and her safety gays)?!

Sara Montiel - Rumba Chamelona

Fab-u-lous!

Have a good week, dear reader...

[* "Lo que pidas muy barato lo doy" = "I sell it really cheap" in Spanish; a lyric from the song]

Waiters?* In those outfits?

Back to the grind again...

Never mind, eh? As long as we have our Patron Saint of "if a thing's worth doing, it's worth over-doing" Señorita Sara Montiel - whose birthday it would have been today - and her "homosexuales seguridad" on a Tacky Music Monday, all's well with the world...

Sara Montiel - Las Camareras

Have a good week, dear reader.

[* "Las Camareras" - "waiters" (or, more accurately "waitresses", so we know what role those safety gays really play!) in Spanish]

Mucho Macho?

Shame he wasn't around to help...

I woke up to gorgeous sunshine this morning, and almost thought we were still in Spain! No such luck.

However, it did provide me with the impetus to get out into the garden to sort some of the dead stuff out, and generally tidy up ready for Spring. Four hours (and three black bin bags) later, I finally sat down. I would have had a more relaxing day if I had actually gone to work...

I haven't forgotten, of course - annual leave or no - that it is a Tacky Music Monday so, to that end, here's our Patron Saint of Spanish Sparkles the divine Sara Montiel and her trusty homosexuales de seguridad!

Sara Montiel - Macho

Macho? She's the butchest thing in the whole video!

Have a good week, dear reader.

An obliquely subversive descant

As today would have been the birthday of one of our fave camp icons, Senorita Sara Montiel, and since my tribute to the lovely Saritísima on the sad occasion of her death in 2013 appears to have gone completely unnoticed (or certainly, received no comments), I figured a little "recycling" was in order:

From an article by Anna Maria O'Donovan on the Iberosphere news site...

A woman of international stature [has] passed from the scene...Sara Montiel personified – particularly in her later chat-show-celebrity-magazine incarnation – the superficiality of pop culture, yet that very superficiality may have been the key not only to her commercial success but to her importance to Spanish society, particularly in the 1960s. Montiel articulated a kitsch but optimistic and o to the sombre music of official Spain.

The title of the memoir she published in 2000, To Live Is a Pleasure, sums up the commendably intrepid and upbeat philosophy of a woman born without many advantages in a country plagued by poverty, intolerance and violent class division. Sara and Sex, her second book, published at the age of 75, testifies to a refreshingly frank engagement with reality.

Montiel shot to fame first in Mexico where she made hugely popular films in the early 1950s, and then in Hollywood, acting opposite Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, among others, before returning to Spain to shoot the runaway success, El Último Cuplé in 1957, which propelled her to domestic superstardom.

She remained resolutely mainstream even though her private life at the height of her fame was at odds with the official morality of the day. Some might dismiss this as a dismal and inevitable example of the hypocrisy that riddled a ferociously puritanical society. Others would argue, however, that Montiel’s conformity was more interestingly anarchic.

With a seductive raising of the eyebrows she alluded, confidently if conspiratorially, to that vast undercurrent of everyday experience that wasn’t supposed to exist.

An inspiration to us all, we at Dolores Delargo Towers still miss her!

Sara Montiel - Pobre cita yo

Sara Montiel - Fumando espero ["Smoking, I wait"]

And I make no excuses to play once again my favourite of hers (with Fangoria)! How camp?

Fangoria & Sara Montiel - Absolutamente

Sara Montiel (born María Antonia Alejandra Vicenta Isidora Abad Fernández, 10th March 1928 – 8th April 2013)

Sweet Suite Andalucía*

We're getting ourselves in the mood for our trip to Spain...

Another work week begins - but for a change, I am not in such a maudlin mood. We're counting down the days until we depart for our long-awaited week in sunny Benalmadena this Saturday - and it's another four-day week to boot, as I am off this Friday to finalise the bag packing!

I feel a little trip on this Tacky Music Monday into the dreamworld of our Patron Saint Sara Montiel and her safety gays might well be appropriate...

Sara Montiel - Malagueña

Oh, yes. Bring it on!

Have a good week, dear reader.

[* Malagueña originally formed the sixth movement of Ernesto Lecuona's Suite Andalucia.]

Fumar es un placer genial, sensual

Gorgeous Crocus tommasinianus "Ruby Giant" - neither "ruby" nor "giant", actually...

We should expect it at this time of year, of course, but yesterday's glorious blue-skied sunny Spring weather has overnight turned back to murk and rain. Depressing. At least we managed yesterday evening to finish the job of clearing weeds from what laughingly passes for a "border" in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers [basically, a narrow strip of mud alongside next door's fence] and planted the rest of the sorry-looking biennials (foxgloves, forget-me-nots and evening primrose) into it, so hopefully we may have some flowers to look forward to in a couple of months...

Let's take our minds off the dankness, shall we, in the estimable company of today's birthday girl and Patron Saint, Señorita Sara Montiel:

Sara Montiel - Fumando Espero [clip from El último cuplé, 1957]

She needs to watch her fag, wearing that flimsy peignoir!

That clip being a mere soupçon of the song (interrupted as it was by that rude boy at the door!), here's another - even more camp - version [apologies for the quality of the video recording, but you get the measure of it]:

Sara Montiel - Fumando Espero [from the lady's own '90s show El último cuplé]

Fumar es un placer
genial, sensual.

Fumando espero
al hombre a quien yo quiero,
tras los cristales
de alegres ventanales.

...which translates as:

Smoking is a wonderful
sensuous pleasure.

Smoking, I wait
for the man I love
behind the glasses
of gaily-coloured windows.

How apposite.

Sara "Sarita" Montiel (born María Antonia Abad Fernández, 10th March 1928 – 8th April 2013)

Camarera! Dos más, por favour...

Where we should be right now

Okay, I know there's a pandemic on and all that and it is not possible, but my dreams of Spain are vivid at this time of year. When it's all wet and cold and horrid, who can blame me for wanting to be sat on the terrace of a beach bar, looking at the Mediterranean with a Tinto de Verano in hand?

As it is, at least I'm not glued to the bastard work laptop as I am on leave for a fortnight - and being a Tacky Music Monday, we have the delights of Spain's magnificently camp diva Sarah Montiel (and her bizarrely-clad homosexuales seguridad) to cheer us up!

Sara Montiel - Las Camareras

¡Que tengas una buena semana, querido lector!"

Let's not ask for the moon...

Oh, no! It's time to leave the world of dreams and return to the grindstone...

Well, almost. For on this Tacky Music Monday, we make one more welcome visit to Spain - and let the goddess Sara Montiel and her loincloth-clad "safety gays" transport us to another world!

Sara Montiel - Luna de España

Luna, indeed.

Have a great week, folks. I won't.

Spring, Sara and sequins

Magnolia flowers, Kew Gardens, yesterday

Two things to celebrate today - the arrival of Spring (at last) in the UK and the fact that had she lived, the utterly magnificent Señorita Sara Montiel would have celebrated her 86th birthday.

On this Tacky Music Monday, let us pay due homage to the sheer campness of this extraordinary lady with a suitably OTT video of hers, replete with her pink-clad safety gays - she's Super Sara!

Sara Montiel - Super Sara

We miss her.

Have a good week, folks!

Sara Montiel (10th March 1928 – 8th April 2013)

A previous tribute to La Leyenda

Smoking, I wait - no longer

Submerged by the acres of media coverage - in the UK at least - of the death of Baroness Thatcher last month was another sad piece of news about a passing that happened on the same day (8th April).

I just found out that Dolores Delargo Towers regular, the fabulous, the extravagant, possibly the most outrageous of our Patron Saints [Iberian chapter], Señorita Sara Montiel is dead. I am very sad.

On searching for tributes, I found this rather fabulous piece by Anna Maria O'Donovan on the Iberosphere news site, written on 12th April:

A woman of international stature passed from the scene this week. Admired at home and abroad, she touched the lives of millions, a champion of personal freedom who nonetheless came to terms with dictatorship, her instincts were conservative but her choices were often daring – Sara Montiel, the venerable icon of stage and screen, died at her home in Madrid on Monday at the age of 85.

Montiel personified – particularly in her later chat-show-celebrity-magazine incarnation – the superficiality of pop culture, yet that very superficiality may have been the key not only to her commercial success but to her importance to Spanish society, particularly in the 1960s. Montiel articulated a kitsch but optimistic and obliquely subversive descant to the sombre music of official Spain.

The title of the memoir she published in 2000, To Live Is a Pleasure, sums up the commendably intrepid and upbeat philosophy of a woman born without many advantages in a country plagued by poverty, intolerance and violent class division. Sara and Sex, her second book, published at the age of 75, testifies to a refreshingly frank engagement with reality.

Montiel shot to fame first in Mexico where she made hugely popular films in the early 1950s, and then in Hollywood, acting opposite Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, among others, before returning to Spain to shoot the runaway success, El Último Cuplé in 1957, which propelled her to domestic superstardom.

She remained resolutely mainstream even though her private life at the height of her fame was at odds with the official morality of the day. Some might dismiss this as a dismal and inevitable example of the hypocrisy that riddled a ferociously puritanical society. Others would argue, however, that Montiel’s conformity was more interestingly anarchic.

With a seductive raising of the eyebrows she alluded, confidently if conspiratorially, to that vast undercurrent of everyday experience that wasn’t supposed to exist.

She was one of our favourite sources of camp entertainment, and will be sadly missed...

Sara Montiel - Pobre cita yo

Sara Montiel - Fumando espero ["Smoking, I wait"]

And I make no excuses to play once again my favourite of hers (with Fangoria)! How camp?

Fangoria & Sara Montiel - Absolutamente

RIP, Saritísima Sara Montiel (10th March 1928 – 8th April 2013)

La Leyenda

Many happy returns (yesterday) to Señorita Sara Montiel, one of our fave divas from Spain. Renowned for her trademark cigar, her outrageous love life, her scandalous memoirs, and for continuing to perform even to this day - at the age of 85 - she is a triumph of art over nature!

She is also evidently a bit of a gay icon, and completely unafraid to parody herself or allow others to do so - she was even portrayed (as the transsexual "Zahara") in the Pedro Almodóvar film Bad Education by Gael García Bernal in drag!

On this Tacky Music Monday, to cheer us up before work, here is the genuine article - a young Sarita performing the very camp Rumba Chamelona, to the delight of the men in her audience, and the gay boys in her chorus line...

Sara Montiel - Rumba Chamelona

Sara Montiel, also known as "La Leyenda" Saritíssima (born March 10, 1928)

Read my previous blogs about Sara Montiel

Como si fuera esta noche

A countdown to our holiday in Spain would be incomplete without the incomparable Sara Montiel...

Sara Montiel - Besame Mucho

A girl after our own hearts!

Sara Montiel official website

Pop-a-licious

It's that time again, when I feel the need to share some of the newer music that I have picked up on recently...

What self-respecting son would take his elderly mum to a gay strip joint and get her pissed? Well, in the case of the lovely Zeus (who I featured a few weeks ago before this video was released), when your mother is the gloriously camp diva Sara Montiel, you dare not refuse! If she wants to, she will Sex Dance, and no-one can stop her:

Zeus - Sex Dance

Our favourite Madge impersonator Charlie Hides aka Kandi Kane Baxter has inevitably released his "tribute" to Gimme All Your Luvin':

Charlie Hides - Gimme All Your Luvin' (Madonna Parody)

Time for some Disco madness, as the Noo Yawk collective calling themselves the Phenomenal Handclap Band take a time machine right back to 1978 with their spookily authentic-sounding The Right One:

Phenomenal Handclap Band - The Right One

Closer to home (Manchester actually), here's the very weird We Have Band and their atmospheric Where Are Your People? (with a distinct nod to Tears for Fears methinks):

We Have Band - Where Are Your People?

Brightening up our soundscape as only she can, the marvellous Miss Gloria Estefan has another new single out - and this time she not only has taken a new approach by pastiching a 1920s sound (a la We No Speak Americano), but the video also pays a majorly camp tribute to movies beloved of us gayers like Rocky Horror, The Birdcage, Some Like It Hot and many more... Hotel Nacional is just brilliant!

Gloria Estefan - Hotel Nacional

We can never have enough of the fabulosa Amanda Lear in our lives - and here (at last) is the official video for her most recent delight - La Belle et la Bete (thanks, Henry!). And she looks just fab for a woman in her 60s (or 70s, no-one is quite sure):

Amanda Lear - La Bête et la Belle

And finally, house favourite "Ho" here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Mr Johnny McGovern aka Gay Pimp has a new album out - subtly called The Gayest Of All Time. And from it, a song that tells the story of an affliction that we, dear readers, have all suffered at one time or another - we've been Dickmatized! [The video is NSFW, so exercise caution]:

Jonny McGovern - Dickmatized

As always, enjoy!

Legendary diva

In this world, we can never have enough Sara Montiel...

Sara Montiel - Pobrecita Yo

The unstoppable Thombeau has launched another new blog dedicated to such campness - visit The Forgotten Musical today!!!

Modish musicality

It is time, dear reader, for the very first pick in 2012 of the newer sounds that have caught my ear. Not the best time of year for decent new music, admittedly - the record companies are still basking in the sales, accolades and awards that 2011 and the Xmas rush brought.

However the new remix of a track first aired in November, Desire by a strangely named duo calling themselves Woman E has a rather catchy early Kylie feel to it, so things look promising:

Woman E - Desire

With a bit of a "cutesy" video, the artist known as Dev has a new single Dancing Shoes. It is really rather good:

Dev - Dancing Shoes

Let's change the mood a bit and hit the clubs, courtesy of Swedish House Mafia vs Knife Party. Fab!

Swedish House Mafia vs Knife Party - Antidote

But enough of all that, let's get to the boys..!

This exotically camp little number rather perked me up, largely thanks to its video that features the gay porn star Arpad Miklos, albeit in a far less - ahem! - active role than his usual on-screen appearances... Here's Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius:

Perfume Genius - Hood

Off to the sizzling heat of Spain, and a brand new totty discovery, whose clothes just keep falling off (thankfully)!





Zeus Tous (for it is he) is none other than the son of one of our house favourite divas, Sara Montiel! [Read previous blogs about this fabulous diva here, here, here and here.] He has recently changed his musical direction away from sub-Iglesias crooner territory towards clubland, with his new single Sex Dance, and if those photos are anything to go by I can't wait to see the video:

[2019 - GONE FROM SOUNDCLOUD]

So let us finish with a corker! Making a very welcome return are Russia's bendiest of boybands, Kazaky with Dance and Change. I love our houseboys - gorgeously toned, fabulously camp, they dance better than Beyoncé - and in bigger heels!

Kazaky - Dance and Change

Once again, enjoy...

To you, my heart cries out Perfidia

Another weekend over... A visit from mother, rain, a very late night out at "The Elephant's Graveyard" aka The City of Quebec, more rain, a day with Radio 2, more rain. And suddenly it's back to work again... Ho hum.

Let us set our minds on somewhere warmer, as we visit Spain (I wish) on this Tacky Music Monday. And who else will help cheer us up other than the incomparable Senorita Sara Montiel?

Sara Montiel - Perfidia

Enjoy!

A year of musical memories...

I am reminded that I haven't yet posted my "Songs of the Year" for 2010!

How remiss of me... Anyhow, before January slips out of the back door, and while the slough of despond is still upon us as we wait eagerly for the first pay day of the year, here are ten songs that sum up my year for me quite succinctly.

This is not (and could never be) a complete and comprehensive list, as there are many more I could have included (and many more I have no doubt forgotten completely in my ditzy fashion!).

Nevertheless, enjoy...

Fergie - Be Italian

Sara Montiel vs Fangoria - Absolutamente

Janelle Monae - Tightrope

Bananarama - Love Don't Live Here

Kelis - Acapella

Newport State of Mind

Scissor Sisters - Any Which Way

Cleary & Harding - We No Speak Americano

Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand

Kylie - All The Lovers

What a year...

Sara smokes

On this gloomy Monday, as we begin our countdown to Spain (two weeks on Saturday!), and wonder how the smoking ban is going down in the country where it is practically compulsory to smoke, here is our favourite recent discovery from the land of Tacky Music divas with her own song dedicated to smoking...

I cannot get enough of Sara Montiel!

Sara Montiel - Fumanda Espero (2009)

Pick of the Pops

"Not 'arf, pop pickers!"

So we have survived the middle of the week (Wednesday is always the worst of all days), and we've had so much trouble with the cable connection at Dolores Delargo Towers lately (no TV nor internet again for three hours this evening!) I decided to embark on a new(ish) music fest to cheer myself up once I was back online!

It would be rude of me not to share my chosen delicacies...

The ever-reliable Freemasons have come up with yet another corker of a new single, Believer:

Freemasons featuring Wynter Gordon - Believer

Despite this being the big summer hit of 2009, not 2010, I am still madly in love with the charms of Romanian megastar (and it's not often you get those two words together in the same sentence) Mr Edward Maya...

Edward Maya & Mia Martina - Stereo Love

I am always cheered up by the news that our beloved Princess Kylie is releasing a new single. The next track chosen from Aphrodite is the fabulously chirpy "Scissor-Sisters-esque" Better Than Today - enjoy the Happy HotDog Remix Edit:

Better Than Today (Happy HotDog Remix Edit) by kyleongwl

Just in case anyone missed it in my blog about the fantabulosa 82-year-old Spanish diva Sara Montiel last week, I remain absolutely fascinated, nay obsessed, with this collaboration with the marvellous Alaska and her band Fangoria!

Fangoria & Sara Montiel - Absolutamente

Finally, here's a real work of art - a recent video by Brooklyn indie band The Drums, that pays a remarkably bizarre homage to another uber-cool band, the Shangri-Las. This is genius!

The Drums - Down By The Water

And here is the original - Out In The Streets by the Shangri-Las:

Shangri-Las - Out In The Streets

Thoughts?

La Leyenda!

Here at Dolores Delargo Towers, there is little we like better than discovering a new Diva!

Courtesy of a girl I work with, my eyes and ears have been opened to the delights of Spain's eternal favourite, the living legend that is Sara Montiel.

At the venerable age of 82, with a seven-decade career as an international movie, TV and recording mega-star behind her, she shows no sign of stopping! Senorita Montiel in her heyday co-starred with the likes of Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Joan Fontaine, Charles Bronson, Mario Lanza and Rod Steiger before retiring from movies in 1974 to concentrate on her television career.

Her private life is a feast for the gossip columns - she married four times, divorcing twice (outraging the deeply conservative Catholic country under Franco's dictatorship in the process), and carried on a long affair with Italian actor Giancarlo del Duca for 40 years. To top it all, husband number four (who she married when she was 74) was a Cuban videotape operator 36 years her junior!



La Leyenda's flamboyant image is legendary - she is famous for her scarlet talons and for puffing Havana cigars - and her music is embedded in Spanish culture. Her biggest hit Fumando Espero ["While smoking, I wait"] is apparently instantly recognisable to young and old alike.

A bar in Barcelona called "La Concha" is dedicated to Sara Montiel and has vintage photos of her on all the walls. A restored 16th Century windmill located close to Sara Montiel's birthplace in the La Mancha region of Spain has been officially turned into a museum of the star, housing memorabilia, gowns and many other items connected with her and her career.

Now that's a Diva!

Here she is as a young actress, playing the vamp in Carmen la Ronda...

Sara Montiel in Carmen la Ronda

And the vamp role persists - Alma Mia!

Sara Montiel in Alma Mia

Her classic Fumando Espero:

Sara Montiel - Fumando Espero

Just this year, Sara Montiel was invited to co-star in the latest magnificent production of Dolores Delargo Towers favourite Spanish band Fangoria - how fabulous is this?! Absolutamente!

Fangoria vs Sara Montiel - Absolutamente

Of course any diva worth her salt will always be clasped to the hearts of queens, and drag queens in particular... Here's the glittering Manuel Arte paying La Leyenda due homage:

Manuel Arte as Sara Montiel

Visiting Sara Montiel fan website