Living in the Moment

I came upon this arresting image at some point this week, and I can't get it out of my mind. Somehow, it explains Joan Crawford to me in a way I'd never considered so clearly.

Tell Mary to Call Diane!

The fabulous Miss Dina Martina gives us her... unique... perspective on this most invented of all long weekends..

Once More, With Feeling

From all of us here at the Café (that is to say, the Yorkie, the Mister, and me), it's once again my pleasure to wish each and every one of you a happy and enamored Karen Valentine's Day.  May your celebrations be more successful than the ill-fated and utterly unremembered Karen...

Birthday Girl: The Pre-Teased Superstar

Well, it's deepest gray and pouring rain here in Our Nation's Capital, and I have to admit that my seasonal funk continues. If anything, though, were to drive away the clouds, I think it would be spending some time, as I've done this afternoon, in the very personable company of today's Birthday Girl.

Birthday Girl: The Miraculous Miss Mercer

As part of my ongoing cheer-up efforts - and in recognition of her 118th birthday - herewith a half-hour with Miss Mabel Mercer.

Medley Madness

It's hard to not to feel at least a little more cheerful in the presence of the divine Josephine, I find. Isn't she just too too too? If you're not grinning helplessly by the Big Finish, I'm not sure we can be friends...

Complaints Department (With Bonus New Drag Name)

So, O Best Beloveds, I won't lie to you: la vie is rather bleak chez nous at the moment. I'm in a slough.

Of Flaring Pains and Old Flames...

So 2018 has gotten off to rather a pesky start, chez nous...

Birthday Girl: The Dame

Insofar as a force of nature can have a birthday, Dame Shirley Bassey is doing so even as we speak - 81 going on eternal.

New Year's, Baby

Just look at the red cheeks on that bellboy...

Fast Away...

Another one, already. Where, as the song says, has the time all gone to?

Where the Music is Bright

I suppose one occasionally does miss things not watching (non-Arabic) television, so I'm grateful that the YouTube gods conjured up this lovely profile in my Recommendations this morning.

Redux: Heavenly Peace

Another year! How quickly they pass. This is a damp, gray Christmas Eve just outside Our Nation's Capital, but here at home it's warm and still. 

Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Christmas Eve She Lit the Candles....

Well, not technically a holiday number, I suppose, but it's candy-colored enough to pass for one, and it does remind us of the importance of fire safety whilst celebrating...

A Pain in the Ice

Two formidable ladies join forces, and the result is... curious.

Meanwhile, on Pennsylvania Avenue

Just so you don't think I've gone too soft-hearted about this whole Holiday season...

(Courtesy of the ever-startling Deven Green; if you've not yet been Welcomed to Her Home, well.. you're in for an experience.)

Cloud and Majesty and Awe

Perhaps, just a little, I'm getting a sense of the season. As is so often the case, art helps; in this case, the ineffable and magisterial art of Miss Leontyne Price.

Go the F*ck to Sleep (in Heavenly Peace)

I'm having trouble getting into the holiday spirit this year; somehow, this little gem sums up it all up nicely.

Seen in the Souq

A pile of ottomans in Ottoman old Cairo...

Cities of the Living and the Dead

At some point it stops being travel and starts being just living...