I poop glitter

Over at Cafe Muscato, a sinister contest-of-sorts is looming - as our erstwhile host throws into the ring the first challenger for "Most Horrifying Xmas Toy" with the "Devil Giraffe"!

"Il Duce" at Suffering Fools Gladly has an equally appalling contender in the "Flesh-Eating Green-lipped Bear"!

Never one to refuse a challenge, I've found a few "choice" gifts myself out there on the interwebs. Do not, under any circumstances, purchase any of these for a loved one...













I wait with bated breath for more horrors to emerge over this festering season!

Huh!

Gloom descends. After a great weekend, with Sally's party the pièce de résistance, it's time to get back to the grindstone...

However, on this Tacky Music Monday thank heavens for yesterday's birthday celebrant Señor Pérez Prado!

To cheer us up, as only he (with his frilly sleeves and - as Anne Marie described - "his signature HUH!") can, let's shimmy along to Mambo No 5:

Pérez Prado Y Su Orquesta - Mambo No. 5

¡Perfecto!

Bigger than life is not difficult for me

"Retirement is just not in my DNA."

"It is through art that we will prevail and we will endure. It lives on after us and defines us as people."

"I could do it all, but Hollywood still didn´t quite know what to do with me."

"I deliberately state my age because it keeps me honest. I think lying is a bad idea. Sooner or later, someone's going to catch you."

"Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life."

One of our Patron Saints here at Dolores Delargo Towers Señorita Rita Moreno celebrates her 85th birthday today!

To celebrate, how about a "leetle" medley from the magnificent lady herself?

Rita Moreno - 4th July medley: Strike Up The Band, Don't Rain On My Parade, and America

Rita Dolores Moreno (born 11th December 1931)

I met her, you know...

More than a woman

Thank Disco it's, um, Saturday...

As we gather our best sparkly outfits and get ready to boogie-on-down at Sally's mega-Disco 50th birthday party tonight, I think we need a little time in the company of Pooch, Chubby, Butch, Tiny and, errr... Ralph [whose 75th birthday it is today] - aka Tavares - and (appropriately enough for Our Sal) their mega-hit More Than A Woman!

Tavares - More Than a Woman

I'm twirling as we speak!

Embrace the good things in life; come on and dance with me

Oh, how I love getting to the end of a week...

It's the centenary today of Kirk Douglas (eternally immortalised as Spartacus).

It is also the 50th birthday of "professional kook" Sinéad O'Connor.

However, as the weekend hoves into view and all thoughts traditionally turn to glitter, sequins, boob-tubes, lurex and really odd hair, let us instead pay homage to another recent arrival at that half-century-milestone (on 28th November), Miss Stacy Lattisaw!

She is forever Jumping to the Beat, and we should too - and Thank Disco It's Friday!

Stacy Lattisaw - Jump To The Beat

Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me
Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me

You're unsurpassed in style
The price you paid was dear
You make the moves come alive
Yet movements dance with fear

Your speciality's lonely nights
As you and pride compete
Neglect the pain you hide
Come on and dance with me

Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me
Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me, yeah

Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me
Won't you dance with me
Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me

You'd rather dance alone
When love steps too near
Communicate with me
Your doubts will disappear

If it's love you're searchin' for
There's plenty love in me
Embrace the good things in life
Come on and dance with me.

Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me
Come on and jump to the beat (jump)
Come on and dance with me, uh-uh-uh

And tomorrow we have the gathering of the clans for yet another forthcoming semi-centenarian - with a real, genuine, 100% Disco-themed party at which this will be played (I ought to know, I put together the playlist!) - our Sally, so there's extra reason to really "make the moves come alive"...

Have a faboo weekend, dear reader! We will.

We’re all clinging to a rock

“It feels like the mainstream has been hijacked by hit-makers, people who are really good at writing songs that all drop in the right places, they’re all pleasant, but there’s not many people who really give of themselves, if you know what I mean. When I was 19, there was still the mystery of rock’n’roll, there was still the wizard behind the curtain. Kids now, they know how to make records, they know where to get their clothes. They don’t have to walk to Deptford High Street to look at the platform shoes in the window, they can go online and get them from Asos, whereas we had to dream about it: is this possible? Now, it’s like: ‘Yeah, you can be famous, you get on this show, you do that, you do this,’ but I think the thing is, I don’t think it necessarily means that much. I’m glad I had that exciting first part of my career in a decade when you could make a cultural difference of sorts, you know?

"...I’ve always been positive. I wouldn’t still be here if I wasn’t. I think you’re always who you are, but life distracts you, particularly because of fame – everybody treats you different, therefore you end up with a distorted idea of who you are. Don’t you think that life’s about growing into yourself in a funny kind of way? You’re looking for answers and I think as you get older, you realise there aren’t really answers. You just have to kind of get on with it. Life is kind of like clinging to a rock, isn’t it? We’re all clinging to a rock, and some people have got a better grip than others. Some people look bedraggled, and other people look like Jerry Hall dressed as mermaid on that Roxy Music album cover.”

Boy George, interviewed by Alexis Petridis for The Guardian.

Culture Club - Time

Don't put your head on my shoulder
Sink me in a river of tears
This could be the best place yet
But you must overcome your fears
In time we could've been so much more
But time is precious I know
In time we could've been so much more
The time has nothing to show
because
Time won't give me time
And time makes lovers feel
Like they've got something real
But you and me we know
We got nothing
but time

Plucky little Malta!

From the BBC:

Malta has become the first European country to ban gay conversion therapy.

The bill against the practice, which aims to "cure" a non-heterosexual person of their sexuality, was voted through unanimously.

Under the new law, anyone who tries to "change, repress or eliminate a person's sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression" will be fined or even jailed.

Professionals will face heftier fines of up to 10,000 euros (£8,450/$10,700).

They could also be jailed for up to a year, according to Malta Today.

The bill also enshrines in law that "no sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression constitutes a disorder, disease or shortcoming of any sort".

Malta was named the best European country for LGBT rights by advocacy group ILGA-Europe in 2015.

To celebrate, how about the Maltese Eurovision Song Contest entry from 2012? It may not have ranked very highly in the official scores, but on the night itself our gang voted it in at sixth place in our "chart". Here's Kurt Calleja and This is the Night...

Kurt Calleja - This is the Night