The new film Spider-Man: Homecoming, featuring Tom Holland in the role, has been all over the papers today.
I wonder if its theme will be as good as this:
Thursday, 14 April 2016
Is he strong? Listen bud, he's got radioactive blood
The new film Spider-Man: Homecoming, featuring Tom Holland in the role, has been all over the papers today.
I wonder if its theme will be as good as this:
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
Rule Britannia is out of bounds to my mother, my dog, and clowns
As the line-up for this year's Proms Season is announced, so we rejoice in the fact that Mr David Bowie will be celebrated in a Prom of his own on 29th July - featuring Anna Calvi and Amanda Palmer, among others.
Here, in anticipation, is the London Symphony Orchestra's own arrangement of Life On Mars:
Other highlights from the 2016 Proms programme include:
- A tribute to French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez, who died in January aged 90.
- US music legend Quincy Jones presents an overview of his career, from his solo works to collaborations with Miles Davis and Michael Jackson.
- A season of music inspired by Shakespeare, marking 400 years since the playwright's death.
- Bryn Terfyl performing the title role in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.
- A celebration of Latin American music, to coincide with the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
- Ten cello concertos, starting with Elgar's Cello Concerto, performed by Sol Gabetta on the First Night.
- The John Wilson Orchestra performing the best of Ira Gershwin, marking the 120th anniversary of the composer's birth.
- A night of Gospel music, featuring a hand-picked selection of singers from the UK's leading gospel groups.
- All three of Stravinsky's landmark ballets for the Ballet Russes, performed over one weekend.
- Headlining the Last Night of the Proms is tenor Juan Diego Flórez.
The BBC Proms Season is on from 15th July to 10th September, but the headliners and other acts for our own "season closer" Proms in the Park won't be announced until Monday 2nd May.
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Sometimes you made me glad
Helen with Dick Haymes
In the famous company of such a melée of birthday celebrants today, including Miss Ann Miller, David Cassidy, Herbie Hancock, Alan Ayckbourn, Tiny Tim, Jane Withers, Lily Pons, Andy Garcia, the lovely Paul Nicholls and uber-diva Montserrat Caballé, it is easy to overlook another favourite of ours here at Dolores Delargo Towers - Miss Helen Forrest, who would have been 99 years old.
Hers was an estimable career, possibly equivalent today to the (far less talented) likes of Rihanna or Sia; at her peak, her voice was everywhere. During the "Swing Era" of WW2 she was the lead singer with not one, not two, but three of the biggest Big Bands in the world - those of Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Harry James.
And here she is, first with Artie:
...with Benny:
...and with Harry:
Facts:
- Born into a Jewish family, her upbringing was tormented: her father died young and her mother transferred her grief into blame upon her daughter; later, with her second husband, mother ran a brothel and stepfather tried to molest Helen; so she left home.
- Her big break was when she replaced Billie Holiday in Artie Shaw's band - and out of deference to the heinous "colour bar" that denied black artists a place on stage until they actually performed, she too stayed off-stage until it was her time to sing.
- In 1942 and 1943, she was voted the best female vocalist in the United States by Down Beat magazine.
- Helen was in a relationship with Harry James while she was part of his band, and referred to him later as "the love of her life".
- She kept on singing until she was in her 70s, only retiring due to hearing loss and vocal chords weakened by rheumatoid arthritis.
Monday, 11 April 2016
Puts you there where things are hollow
For a change, the fact that it's Monday again is of no great significance to me, being off work with the broken foot and all.
However the start of any week must still be celebrated with glitz'n'glitter, as is traditional here at Dolores Delargo Towers...
What more glittering - and tacky - could you want this Tacky Music Monday than a double bill [I spoil you, dear reader!] of the pearly-white-teeth-led eye-popping "entertainment" that was provided by The Donny & Marie Show?
First up in this cringeworthy mélange is my childhood crush [I know, I know!] Donny, dressed in an illuminated cape to die for, and his own "tribute" to the most influential musician of all time Mr David Bowie! [To his credit, he doesn't completely massacre it...] Here's Fame:
[2019 UPDATE: the video has gone from the interwebs, but Donny posted a 15-second clip on his Instagram]
And what would a Donny & Marie Show be without a suitably overstuffed-with-guests finale? [Made even more bewildering by the fact that I have no idea who Roy Clark or George Gobel actually are/were.] Worth watching from 3.11 alone for a fab appearance by none other than Charo!
Space. The final frontier. Indeed.
Have a good week, peeps!
Sunday, 10 April 2016
Totty of the Day (high-brow variety)...
...a recent discovery, the very cute Mr Anthony Roth Costanzo, counter-tenor and (at times nude - no uncensored pics unfortunately; this being the best out there) star of the recent English National Opera production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten.
But it's not to his usual world of high opera we turn today. Here (thanks to our friend Al and my erstwhile other half Madam Arcati) the lovely Anthony camps it up brilliantly on a rather unexpected version of Gershwin's I Got Rhythm (with help from his chums Elliot Peterson and Danny Lindgren):
Saturday, 9 April 2016
Friday, 8 April 2016
Gawd Save The Queen
As the fab news breaks that Our Princess Kylie has been chosen to headline HM the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations, let us mark the end of what has been a troublesome week pour moi (broken foot and all) in the most appropriate fashion.
What better than Kylie's gayest anthem?!
Thank Disco It's Friday, indeed...
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