Sunday, May 13, 2018

Redux 2018: M is for...



M is for... first appeared on May 10, 2009 and has become my Mother's Day tradition. Once, again, Happy Mother's Day, Mother Muscato, wherever you are...

This year the day brings a bit of a double punch, for it's also my birthday - 55! Imagine being so old. Mother Muscato always got the closest - being a rather flinty sort - she ever got to sentimental on the occasion, every six years, when Mother's Day and the anniversary of my first appearance happened to coincide. "My little Mother's Day present," she'd say, either earnestly or with a tinge of sarcasm, depending on her mood, my behavior, and, truth be told, exactly where we were in the afternoon's Old Fashioneds. I hope you all are enjoying the day and well in general; we are, for the most part, more of which, perhaps, anon.

In any case, here it is again: a memory of my mother:


Monday, April 16, 2018

Birthday Girl: Trouble Proof


Our very dear TJB has reminded me that today is Dusty's birthday. Here puts a wistful, almost anesthetized, and very, very effective spin on a song I don't otherwise associate with her.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

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.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Tell Mary to Call Diane!


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

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

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...

Sunday, February 11, 2018

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.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

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.

Friday, February 2, 2018

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...

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Monday, January 8, 2018

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.