One Year

Walking out of the office that cool Tuesday afternoon, this is something I saw. Heading home, it seemed like such a good omen.

Redux: Severe Clear

[I wrote this in 2015; with every passing year it recedes a little. It will never really fade. The sky so blue...]

A day so perfect, so crystalline; one on which there's truly not a cloud in the sky.  That's what it was.

Redux: Now We Know How Happy We Can Be

I wrote this two years ago. Yesterday was Loving Day, and the fiftieth anniversary of that momentous decision. It's a complicated day, though, June 12, and I'm still unpacking what I think it might mean - if anything at all - that it's also the birthday of Anne Frank; the anniversary of the death of Medgar Evers; and, since last year, the day when we will long remember the hopes and dreams of 49 people who went out one night to dance and never came home. It's not a simple world, but with all the madness, I do still believe there's a place for simple songs. And hope. We have to hope. "That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."

Yes, it's two cute boys singing a ukelele-based cover of the Monkees' immortal "Daydream Believer." Just in case you don't think we're up on all the hipster trends here at the Café.

Fifteen Years On: The Hour of Lead

All these years, and still I think Miss Barry, and Miss Dickinson, said it best. Fifteen years, remembered, if outlived.

All the Sluts and the Saints

For no good reason other than it was released forty years ago today, let's spend a few minutes with Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band and their curious semi-hit, "Cherchez la Femme."

Octoblog

It's an auspicious day, my dears, and I thought we all deserve a little eye candy. Meet Mr. Mohamed el Bably, who apparently ranks among "8 of Egypt's Top Male Models, at least according to online rag CairoScene.

So This Happened

One year ago today, this, O Best Beloveds, was my view.  It had not been a good day, and there was worse to come. But, as dear Mr. Savage has so eloquently and consistently reminded us: it gets better.

A Bad Day Remembered

Do you know where you were five years ago today? I do, and not (just) because it's Groundhog Day. Some days you relive each year when the time comes 'round, and this is one of those: the Day of the Battle of the Camels.

Severe Clear

A day so perfect, so crystalline; one on which there's truly not a cloud in the sky.  That's what it was.

Still Reigning

Well, she's done it, and if it the "it" is simply having lived this long, the manner in which she's done it comes as close as I can imagine one human's efforts could to actually deserving the global outpouring of praise and sheer affection that's coming her way.

Redux: Thar She Blows!

In honor of today, the 132nd anniversary of the eruption of Krakatoa, a cataclysm that killed thousands and had repercussions as far away as Europe and the Americas, this admittedly only marginally related little gem (and accompanying favorite memory) that originally appeared here on August 4, 2012.

The Marriage of True Minds

Because I have a useless mind, one that retains bits and pieces from the distant past, but not, unfortunately, vital information put before it yesterday, I can tell you that today would have been my paternal grandparents' 95th wedding anniversary.  This happy couple, I should note, is not they, but it might as well have been, for isn't there something almost wholly interchangeable about most wedding pictures?

Miss and Madame

Perhaps it's just that I'm getting a little stir-crazy in this five-star gilded prison, but today I'm feeling literary.  Fortunately, there are not one but two significant moments of which to take note, and they have a certain unlikely symmetry.

Positively, Absolutely, Undeniably, and Reliably... Perfect

This hasn't been the brightest shining week hereabouts, what with one thing and another, so it's nice to take a moment and experience some pure joy.  The picture had its premiere at Grauman's Chinese 75 years ago today, and I hope you'll agree that it really rather holds up.

A Sunny June Morning Like Any Other

They traveled separately from Vienna, she and her husband.  They left the children at home.

Where Were You?

I honestly had no idea that Mattel had started pimping out the most obscure of its Barbie spin-offs - her baby sister Kelly, the doll for people who found Skipper too stimulating - but seeing that they have, I can't think of anything more fabulous than these faintly terrifying tiny-tot Charlie's Angels.

Million Dollar Baby

I don't know about you, but I don't think I've ever seen her looking so glamourous.

Who's That Girl?

Doesn't she have the most marvelous expression?

Suddenly, a Year Passed

Insert your favorite cliché about time passing here, kids...

What's My Wednesday? #5: [Sur]Reality TV

78 years ago today, the London International Surrealist Exhibition opened to a startled public, marking according to many the apex of the movement's success.