Twentieth Century Blue

You know, when you think about it, I very rarely ask much of you, Gentle Readers, so I hope you won't mind if today I do.

Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Joey, Joey

Camp discloses innocence, but also, when it can, corrupts it.

- Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp"

Lady, Sing the Blues

Today is Lady Day's day - 97 today, had things gone differently.  Funny to think that she's of a generation that, while undeniably thinning on the ground, still has a few vigorous representatives here and there among us.  Her singing remains tenaciously of the moment, current, here; the woman herself, though, to me has always seemed impossible to imagine beyond the years of her too-short lifespan.

Here, one American legend takes on another.  Holiday never did much acting, but this is a performance that to me rivals Louise Brooks as Lulu in depicting a well-intentioned feral creature, hoping for the best, saying all the right things - but knowing, that when he comes around again, she'll go...

So I Say to Hot-cha-cha...

I've had this song in my head for no very good reason the past few days, and I pass it on here - in a rendition by arch UK soprano/crossover sensation Lesley Garrett - so you will too.

Sadly, Maureen McGovern's startlingly funny version hasn't been Youtubed, although you can, if you like, catch a rather more elegant singing of it by the exquisite Dutch diva Elly Ameling (I adore how those ladies bring such a genial, "look Ma, I'm dancing!" air to their encore numbers).

Knowing you, though, you'll probably click right through to the (maddeningly unembedable) dance-spectacular featuring the improbable trio of Steve and Eydie and Gene Kelly. Nothing says Gershwin like a 1975 TV special, after all.