Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Three-Quarter Time

"The old-style dandy hated vulgarity. The new-style 

dandy, the lover of Camp, appreciates vulgarity" 

- Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp

Of course, if Vienna isn't more less exactly like this, I shall be bitterly disappointed.

The Last Rose of Summer

How is it possible that autumn is nearly on us?  Where have the long, lazy summer nights all gone?

Nur du Allein

Apparently it's time to drag out (as it were) my white satin and monocle, for it seems that the wise folks at Golden Handcuffs Consulting Amalgamated International are sending me on the road.

Together as Salt and Pepper, Just as You Should Be

"Two loves have I," she sang, "My country and Paree..."  One day brought those loves together like none other.

The Story Begins...

Oh, if this isn't the start of too many stories I know.  And so few of them end well.  I'm guessing you know one or two yourself...

Birthday Girl: Vissi d'Arte

Marguerite Seligman Guggenheim Vail Ernst, 115 years old today, had the great good fortune to have been born at exactly the right time and in exactly the right place - and to have had a great good fortune, to boot.

File Under "Correspondents, Unlikely"

Consider my mind blown, courtesy of the endlessly fascinating Joan Crawford Best.

Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Drag Rant

What is extravagant in an inconsistent or an unpassionate way is not Camp.

- Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp"

A few snippets of Camp at its most classic for this lovely August Saturday...

Room with a View

It was an overcast, gray today at the home office of Golden Handcuffs Consulting Amalgamated International.

Tin for Ten

Oh, I know it seems like just yesterday that we were getting married, but Mr. Muscato and I woke up this morning to the remarkable realization that today is, in fact, our tenth anniversary.

Birthday Boy: Now We are 93

It must be hard having your name become synonymous, for reasons wholly beyond your control, with a particularly idyllic kind of childhood.  That's certainly a lesson to be taken from the life of Christopher Robin Milne, born this fine August day in 1920.

Of Hams and Gams

So I've been reading a book (shades of Kitty Packard in Dinner at Eight - no Marie Dressler double takes, please; I can be very literary when the fancy strikes me).

Ladies First and Otherwise

Whatever their political opinions, the membership of the Ashtabula Literary Society thought Mrs. Roosevelt displayed admirable composure when she came to their monthly Book Night.

And Now, a Word from Our [Birthday] Sponsor

It's a two-for-one birthday special today!

Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Tokyo Cha Cha!

Okay - here's the deal:  click here, then come right back!

The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious.

- Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp"

Thanks to the vagaries of YouTube, today's SSCE requires an extra step: our feature is, sadly, victim of the "embedding disabled by request" option, and so you'll have to run over there, experience the madness, and then come back.  See you after the jump.

Birthday Boy: Aged Beef

Many happy returns today to longtime Café bollycrush, the remarkable Mr. Upen Patel.

Redux: Keep on Cooking

I first posted this a year ago today, when dear Miss Julia Child would have turned 100.  Today, when I'm distracted and a little sad, I find it has really cheered me up.

Oh, I know.  This one is all over the place and you've already seen it ten times today.  I don't care.  I think it's genius, and a fit and cheerful way to celebrate the centenary of someone whom I geniunely think a Great American, the late and so fondly remembered St. Julia of Child.  Gimmicky, I know, but catchy enough I can almost imagine it being performed in some other context - the lyric, for example, is both witty and, at least to me, oddly moving:

Freshness is essential;
That makes all the difference.
I like to smell something cooking -
It makes me feel at home!

Bring on the roasted potatoes!  Bring on the rosé! 
This is what good cooking is all about!

Cook and cook and keep on cooking!
This is the way to live!

Cook and cook and keep on cooking!
This is the way to eat!

Bon appétit!

Remembering the City

Not an easy day for those who love Egypt, and while it's night both here and there, it's more uncertain than ever what tomorrow will bring.

Treat Her Rough... Please.

One of the joys of returning to the U.S. of A. is, without question, access to real, live Turner Classic Movies.

O Eastern Star!

A momentous day today, a couple of millennia ago - an event that if nothing else has provided fuel for myth, legend, and a string of movies that have provided some truly over the top moments.

Doppelgänger

Welcome to my nightmare...

Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Oh, Lord

In naïve, or pure, Camp, the essential element is seriousness, a seriousness that fails.

- Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp"

Well here's a curiosity.

Poor Little Rich Boy

King Farouk was Time's cover boy 76 years ago today, in a pensive study that is captioned with his grandiose formal title.

There's No One Left to Fly the Plane

Karen Black, alas, has gone back to the Five and Dime.

Birthday Girl: A Very Good Witch

Life is mad these days, darlings, but just getting under the wire this evening to wish a very happy birthday to this fetching creature - dear Miss Billie Burke is 129 today.

Another Fifteen Minutes for the Vagabond Lover

Have a spare couple million?  If so, as has been widely reported this morning, this charming sketch could be yours.

Meanwhile, at a Nearby Tea Room

"Really?!"

"Oh, yes, Irene.  I'm sure that's her.  Sitting there cool as a cucumber in her Daché hat and summer furs.  The nerve!"

"And it's true she used to work at Black's?"

"Oh, indeedy-do, my dear.  Standing there at the perfume counter, palming that putrid Summer Rain off on Park Avene playgirls who don't know any better.  Oh, I've seen her kind before.  I wasn't born yesterday!"

"Well, what do you know.  So I guess it really is true - Stephen Haines is stepping out on Mary!"

The Moving Diaries, Continued

So, the fun never stops at the Villa Apartment Muscato.  Just ask Midge.

Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Zarah with a Zee

To emphasize style is to slight content, or to introduce an attitude which is neutral with respect to content. It goes without saying that the Camp sensibility is disengaged, depoliticized -- or at least apolitical.

- Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" 

 It struck me this morning that it's been far too long since we spent a little time with that Nazilicious star of stage and screen, Miss Zarah Leander.

Birthday Girl: Flying High

Today's birthday girl apparently flew herself to Fabulon, but had she remained among us, she would be a doubtless glamourous 108.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll

32 years ago today. Feeling old yet?