A Hoard fit for a Queen

We went yesterday with our Mother [that's not us arriving, by the way, in that rather charming artwork by Robert Peake the Elder] to view (at long last) the fabulous Cheapside Hoard - a vast collection of precious and semi-precious jewelled items dating back to Elizabethan times and beyond, miraculously unearthed over a century ago by workmen demolishing a building in the heart of the City.

It was utterly stunning, and many of the pieces were entirely the sort of thing one could easily wear today. If only security wasn't so tight, I would have definitely slipped the emerald salamander brooch into my bag...



Here to sing for us, with an appropriately jewellery-themed choon, is house fave here at Dolores Delargo Towers (a lady whose fiftieth birthday I shamefully neglected to mark a few weeks ago) Miss Natacha Atlas...

Natacha Atlas - Amulet

Natacha Atlas (born 20th March 1964)

The Cheapside Hoard is on at the Museum of London until 27th April 2014.

Unicorn tears

Madonna is flogging her beauty product - "made from unicorn tears, repels Little Monsters and turns everything black and white."

Charlie Hides - Madonna's MDNA skin care - parody

Charlie Hides TV.

Of course.

Sunshine and hair flicks

Oh, thank heavens for that. It's almost the weekend, and even though it won't be as warm as it has been all this week (ain't that always the case?) we still might be able to get out into the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers and get pottering.

Of course, it won't be anything like as sunny as the location Monsieur Patrick Juvet has chosen as the setting for this most bizarre video for Got a Feeling.

Nor indeed do we necessarily expect a troupe of rictus-grinning dancers clad head-to-foot in hand-made blue and white tight-fitting satinette to come hurtling our way. Unless we're really lucky...

No matter. Whatever happens, Thank Disco It's Friday!

Patrick Juvet - Got a Feeling

Have a fabulous weekend, folks.

Patrick Juvet on Wikipedia

A Very Special Day

It's a very special Doris Day!

For today one of our enduring favourites and Patron Saint Miss Doris Mary Ann von Kasselhoff is 90 years old.

I have celebrated the lady, many times over the years, so instead of cogitating on how much we adore the woman, her charm, her beauty, her sense of humour and her movies, let's just indulge in a cavalcade of the great lady's music...

Doris Day - Move Over Darling

Doris Day (with Gene Nelson) - Somebody Loves Me

Doris Day - Shaking the Blues Away

Doris Day - Young at Heart

Doris Day - Secret Love

Doris Day - It's Magic

And, of course...

Doris Day - Que Sera Sera

Facts about Miss Day:

• Apparently it was big band leader Barney Rapp who convinced her to change her surname, inspired by the song Day After Day which she sang with the group.
• She is officially top ranking female box office star of all time (according to the Quigley Poll list, whatever that is).
• Her screen debut was in Romance on the High Seas in 1948, and her last film was With Six You Get Eggroll twenty years later, although The Doris Day Show on TV went on till 1973 and she made numerous appearances on TV chat shows after that.
• She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for recording and the other for motion pictures; as well as an Oscar nomination (for 1959's Pillow Talk), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• She briefly dated Ronald Reagan(!) before becoming involved with her agent (and future third husband), Marty Melcher.
• With her faboo 2011 album My Heart, Miss Day became the oldest artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album featuring new material.

We adore her! Miss Day is our latest exhibit in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp (of course).

Doris Day (born 3rd April 1922)

Dowager de Jour

Today marks the centenary of the marvellous actor Sir Alec Guinness, here pictured as just one of the eight members of the D'Ascoyne family he portrayed in Kind Hearts and Coronets.

Read a tribute to the great man - as well known for his Obi Wan Kenobi as for Bridge on the River Kwai these days - in [unfortunately - I don't like the paper] The Daily Express.

Sir Alec Guinness de Cuffe CH CBE (2nd April 1914 – 5th August 2000)

Deep down where love lives

And so, farewell then, pioneering gay DJ and purported "inventor" of House Music Mr Frankie Knuckles, who has died at just 59.

Here is arguably his greatest production number - it's Alison Limerick and the classic Where Love Lives:

Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives

RIP Frankie Warren Knuckles Jr. (18th January 1955 – 31st March 2014)

Fool me, fool me, go on and fool me

It's April Fool's Day already...

As we wait for the spoof news stories and web stuff that usually pops up all over the place - although I doubt that anything foisted upon us in today's cynical world can match previous classic hoaxes - let's indulge in some far classier "fool-related" entertainment.

From May 1997 (that's seventeen years ago, peeps!), it's The Cardigans and the utterly fabulous Lovefool:

Cardigans - Lovefool

The Cardigans website