Current Mood

Courtesy of Miss Minnelli, keeping it together quite admirably in 1986. At the moment, I really don't want to know.

Birthday Girl: Shine On

The planet spins, and the world goes 'round - and suddenly, Miss Minnelli is 70. Happy birthday, Liza May.

Keep It Together... (Holiday Edition)

Oh, God - even Liza's got her shopping done!

Who's Afraid of Junie Moon?

Playwright as Hot Clone

The Broadway Baby Goes Burlesque

It has to mean something that these two share a birthday - it just has to.  They are the polar opposites of American showbiz - and yet I can't help but thinking there would be few more amazing nights out than some kind of Albee-Minnelli collaboration, although I have no idea what that could possibly be.  That he's 85 and she 66 only makes the prospect that much more interesting.

A Word to the Wise

On this day in which weather figures large in so many minds, a little good advice from Liza.  I hope all my dear Gentle Readers on the U.S. East Coast, at this trying moment, keep in mind those words to live by:  Keep it together, Minnelli.

"The bodily message of what it means to be a star..."

"Watching Liza triumph and then crash, crash and then triumph, we witness humiliation's fiery presence within the mother-daughter bond. ... As we watch her sing "New York, New York" again and again (even as we cheer, even as we shiver with uncanny pleasure), Liza passes on to us the bodily message of what it means to be a star. ... It might mean private planes and Harry Winston jewels, but it also might mean delirium tremens at the Betty Ford Center, and garish caricatures of yourself in the minds of others.  Not always garish: in many hearts, there are genuine shrines to the fallen star, shrines tended without irony, and without unkindness."

- Wayne Koestenbaum, Humiliation

4 Girls 4

Something tells me that, whatever else is going on, this is not the beginning of what, in the end, proved an astonishingly long evening...

The Ladies in Red

Is it just me, or does it seem a little World Turned Upside Down to see a photograph in which Liza Minnelli is significantly more tastefully dressed and looks calmer and more self-assured than Audrey Hepburn? She must have, for once, have gotten the meds just right.

It's Grand, isn't it?

I feel like dear Liza at just about 1:48 in this vintage little slice of Dinah Shore, for something rather wonderful, something almost too good to be true, has happened: just like Mrs. Levi to the Harmonia Gardens, Thom has at long last come back to us. Yes, it's so; he has descended from Fabulon to take up residence at the Chateau Thombeau.

And so, just a tad, I like the life I'm living, just a little bit more, nowadays...

Trailer Trash: On the Brink of Something Fantastic

It just seems appropriate. She was sensational. Come to think of it, I think I saw her a couple of times at the parade, too...

The Many Friends of Lena Horne

Everybody loves Lena! And why not?

She's stunning, but not so much that she pulls focus entirely from - I'm guessing on the timeline here - Mrs. Warner;

She's equally at home tossing one back with Tony...

...or kindly leading a guest who may already have had enough to the nearest exit.

She's happy leaning on a guest (bonus points for anyone who can explain why Shirley showed up in a T-shirt, velour housedress, blazer, and pearls - maybe it's one of those reincarnation things?)...

...or herself providing a suprisingly strong knee on which to perch.

God knows she's more patient than I, not batting an eye at being nearly swept aside by Lucy's furs -

Or having her audience distracted when a pal stops by in an outfit only marginally more comprehensible than Shirley's.

And, like all genuine divas, she bursts into living color when at least she meets a true peer. Title this one "when goddesses embrace."

I like knowing that Lena is still with us, albeit quietly, her days of entwined cocktails and evicting junkies, perhaps to her relief, behind her. She's the real deal.

Three on a Match

Well, definitely three on something. If I had to guess, I'd say the Quaaludes were just kicking in. Still, wouldn't you kill to have been there?

And the Planet Spins...

After a good night's sleep, we're ready for our big number.

Isn't this, by the way, exactly where she belongs? I happened on New York, New York the other night just as the "Happy Endings" number, a still from which is seen here, was starting up, and it absolutely blew me away. At her best, Minnelli was unstoppable.

Funny thing, too; there's an odd parallel here with Mama's Star is Born and its "Born in a Trunk" number. Both excised from films alternately loathed and venerated but often seen as flawed masterpieces, and both later seen to be about the best things in each picture. It might be instructive to see them back to back, although I'm not sure I'll ever have that much concentration...

Playing the Palace

Liza by Warhol: Think Pink!

When, as from time to time happens, I decide that the single biggest mistake of my adult life was leaving New York City, it's usually a phrase like this that's the catalyst: "Liza's playing the Palace!"

And she is. And here I sit on the other side of the world; granted, we have a real Palace hereabouts (several, in fact), but it's hardly the same thing.

The reviews mostly aren't in yet, but early signs are good ("Liza Minnelli reigns in opening at The Palace Theatre" - Newsday). I'm not an absolutely rabid Liza queen, but these days, her kind of razzle-dazzle is in sadly short supply, and if nothing else she's an incredible link to a show-biz tradition that stretches back, when you think about it, a century or more.

New York has a terrific profile in honor of the new show, and soon enough shaky YouTube videos will be helping bridge the gap between here and there, so I really can't complain about a Liza-drought.

And of course, I have to think of all the things that wouldn't have happened had I stayed ensconced in my little West Side flat - Mr. Muscato chief among them. Thanks to Liza, I do know that Life is a Cabaret, but thanks to him, I'm equally aware that there's not a thing in the world wrong with knitting, a book and a broom (with the right guy around to hold your wool), and that, for the moment, at least, I'm not going like Elsie.

And neither, it would appear, is Liza. Three cheers for that!

Yesterday, When We Were Young

Sadly, Liza found out that everyone did, in fact, love her baby. Especially the boys.

I guess that's what you get for marrying someone so fond of your mother (when your mother is Judy Garland). But aren't they something?

Image du Jour: Flashback

It was a time when goddesses roamed the earth...

... clad in Halston, insulated from reality by pharmaceuticals, and staring at the off-camera shirtless cater-waiter and his tantalizing tray of cocktails...