Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Promises, Promises

Time liberates the work of art from moral relevance, delivering it over to the Camp sensibility.

- Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp"

Now you know what an Abba song created and delivered without one scintilla of charisma might have sounded like.

Consider My Mind Blown

Sometimes I'm startled by my own ignorance...

Question Time: Ask the Oracle #2

Hmmm.  to the best of my knowledge, I'm guessing the answers are:

no; only in spirit; no; no; more so than her career; no; up to a point; hells yes; that's the rumor; and probably not technically, but for all practical purposes, yes.

Birthday Divas: It's Raining Queens

If the inimitable (thank heaven) Mistress MJ is to be believed, the is indeed ample cause for celebration, as it marks the natal day not just of Gloriana herself (seen here in what to me is still the portrayal against which all others - even that of Mr. Crisp, who comes close - are to be measured) but also of our own dear Thombeau.

Emperor of Fabulon, lord of Chateau Thombeau, and your urbane host over at the Redundant Variety Hour, Thombeau is a true polymath - a writer, musician, artist, and all around flâneur whose work, in whatever medium, is a constant inspiration, frequent amusement, and regular cause of envy.  Did you know that you can yourself beome the proud owner of his remarkable photographs here? Or of his extraordinary music - as Arcanta - on Amazon?

Well, now you do.  And I think you know what to do.  Besides, of course, wishing the dear old thing the very happiest of birthdays...

Namesake Superstar

This resplendently semi-clothed gentleman is, as many of you may already have recognized, Mr. Shahrukh Khan, a top Bollywood star for several decades but a relative latecomer to the exhibitionist and muscular tendencies that have made such favorites around here of Messrs. Abraham and Patel.  Still, he's no slouch, although I'm not sure the combo of leather pants and a kind of windowpane-eyelet puffy shirt is really a total success.  Frankly, clothed, I find him rather a bore.

He appears here today, in fact, only because (a) I was able to find a snap this fetching and because (b) today is the 635th birthday of someone I've never heard of, who ruled over (and this is what I found surprising) a realm I'd never heard of.  Having come into this world just before Labor Day 1377, he was Shah Rukh of Persia and Transoxonia, which was apparently a kind of joint empire along the lines of the late lamented Austria-Hungary.

Have you ever heard of Transoxonia?  It seems that it corresponded approximately to Uzbekistan and some other -stans.  I can't get over thinking it sounds like a spoof name out of a minor mid-century novel, along the lines of The Mouse That Roared's Grand Fenwick.  It's certainly, however, more euphonious than some of the region's other names over the years, like Prdry, which is practically Welsh in its impracticability.

So now you've learned something and had a chance to see a little BollyBeef.  You're welcome.

Question Time: Ask the Oracle

Hmmm... Mostly not terrribly surprising, but I have to admit that last one threw me for a loop.

Guess what - she is!  And so was the second Mrs. Woodrow Wilson.  It really is a small world after all.