Streisand at her best… a slight connection to my latest Blog Post on m other blog; MySouthernGothicLife.com
Category Archives: Style
“The Last Station”: A DVD Recommendation
“The Last Station”, one of my favorite films from last year is now out on DVD. If you missed it at the theatre, I strongly urge you to buy or rent the DVD.
The film is a multi-layered look at the last days of Count Leo Tolstoy and the people around him.
It’s also a fascinating glimpse at Russia in a certain time and place.
History buffs will love it as much of fans of great acting and great storytelling.
Christopher Plumber, Helen Mirren and James McAvoy, among others, are just wonderful….
Filed under Entertainment, Movies, Style
Karen Carpenter and Ella Fitzgerald: Together
Fabulous duet between Karen Carpenter and Ella Fitzgerald.
Two of the greats, each in her own way, together.
This is amazing…
Thanks, to my friend Madonna, for finding this and making me aware of it’s existence.
Filed under Entertainment, Style, Television
The Most Expensive College Dorm Rooms : Planet Money : NPR
I am totally amazed at what College students expect from their dorm rooms today. My room at Washington and Lee had radiator heat and no air conditioning. It was about the size of our bathroom…but it worked fine for me!
We were too busy being out and about exploring our new world to worry about where we slept!
Room and board at U.S. universities has climbed 11% over the past three years, nudged along by expectations that dorm rooms will have amenities like heated pools and plush lounges.
Those costs have helped contribute to the nation’s outstanding student debt— at $829.79 billion— overtaking outstanding credit-card debt— at $826.5 billion, as the Wall Street Journal reports.
via The Most Expensive College Dorm Rooms : Planet Money : NPR.
Filed under Social Commentary, Style
Selina Hastings’s ‘The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham’
I just finished this excellent, entertaining and extremely readable biography of Somerset Maugham. I highly recommend it….
Here is an excerpt from the review by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post and a link to the full review:
During the second half of his life, William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was the most famous writer in the world. Not only did readers love his sardonic tales of sexual passion and dark secrets, of desperation and sudden violence, but so did Hollywood: More of his stories, novels and plays have been filmed than those of any other author. Just one short story, “Rain” — about the prostitute Sadie Thompson and the preacher obsessed with saving her — has provided star turns for Tallulah Bankhead, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth, among others.
As this excellent biography by Selina Hastings makes clear, Somerset Maugham lived a life of quite astonishing richness and variety. Over the course of his 91 years, Maugham moved effortlessly around the world and in society: He dined with Henry James and Thomas Hardy, clashed with the sinister Aleister Crowley, argued Russian politics with Alexander Kerensky, discussed art with Sir Kenneth Clark and managed to enjoy the longtime friendship of both Winston Churchill and the Duchess of Windsor. Maugham’s luxurious home on the Riviera, the Villa Mauresque, offered guests beautiful gardens, first-class cuisine, delicious conversation and multiple sexual opportunities. It also boasted a fabulous collection of paintings, including a Gauguin that Maugham had discovered in a farmhouse when visiting Tahiti.
Throughout his life, Maugham always managed to look the perfect English gentleman, exquisitely turned out in bespoke suit and tie, punctilious about social conventions and just a bit shy because of an embarrassing stammer. But he was also exceptionally cosmopolitan in a decidedly continental manner, being absolutely fluent in French, Spanish, German and Italian and possessing enough Russian to work as a spy in Petrograd in 1917. Once he started to earn serious money, he traveled constantly, gathering material for his fiction and happy to be away from England. This was, in part, because he had been trapped into a wretched marriage with Syrie Wellcome, a noted interior designer and the mother of his only child, Liza.
via Selina Hastings’s ‘The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham,’ reviewed by Michael Dirda.
Filed under Entertainment, Social Commentary, Style, Travel
Daddy’s Dying, Who’s Got the Bourbon? | My Southern Gothic Life
New Post up on my other blog: MySouthernGothicLife.com. Here is an excerpt with a link to the full post:
My Father died in the early 1980′s when he was about 54 years old. Technically, the cause of death was cancer. I always told people that, after more than 30 years with my Mother, I strongly suspected he really just really wanted some peace and quiet.
See, my Mother truly believed in “till death do you part.” She even had some questions for our Pastor about if, perhaps, the marriage bonds extended into the afterlife. I could never figure out if she was concerned with avoiding the effort of finding a new husband in Heaven or just trying to hang on to my Father forever. Literally.
via Daddy’s Dying, Who’s Got the Bourbon? | My Southern Gothic Life.
Filed under My Journey, Style, The South
Why Sarah Palin Needs to Take Parenting Lessons From Hillary Clinton!
Great Blog from Bonnie Fuller over on the Huffington Post. Funny how the Family Values crowd hated Hillary, but loved that idiot Sarah Palin and her tacky, trashy family….
Here is an excerpt and link to the full post:
Need proof that the Secretary of State is an A+ mom? Check out her daughter Chelsea who didn’t get pregnant at 17 or announce her engagement on the cover of a magazine, and who isn’t shopping a reality show like Bristol Palin.
Isn’t it ironic that uber-working mom Hillary — who took heat as First Lady because she didn’t take her cookie recipes seriously — should be the mom of a Stanford and Oxford University grad, who is getting married on July 31, at the age of 30?
And Chelsea’s not pregnant! She has a great job at Avenue Capital Group, a hedge fund, and her husband-to-be is a 32-year-old investment banker — Marc Mezvinsky — who has not stripped naked for Playgirl or any other form of media. Sarah’s future son-in-law, on the other hand, after his adventures as a nude model and D-Lister Kathy Griffin’s date, is currently unemployed but is planning to get his GED and be an electrician.
Furthermore, Chelsea’s wedding, in which 400 guests are expected, is a personal and private affair — in other words, the photos and story are not being sold for the cover of US Weekly, unlike Bristol Palin and her baby daddy Levi Johnston’s.
via Bonnie Fuller: Why Sarah Palin Needs to Take Parenting Lessons From Hillary Clinton!.
Filed under Entertainment, Politics, Social Commentary, Style
How French Women Age: The REAL Secret
I found this article totally fascinating, on so many levels. I firmly believe we, men or women, should age naturally and as gracefully as possible. Maybe it’s because I’m a quarter French by heritage. Or because I’m a rabid Francophile. Or maybe I just have an appropriate sense of how one should adjust to how time passes. In any case, I love this article:
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of two things: Articles about aging women that shout about being “Fantastic at 40!, “Fabulous at 50!,” Sensational at 60!” And articles about aging French women along similar lines. Several pieces have made recent headlines in the latter category, with familiar fare about how the older French woman ages gracefully thanks to her life-long beauty regime, her au-naturelle make-up routine, and her Royal Don’t-Get-Fatness. Invariably, they all miss the point.
After living over a decade in France, I’ve learned that the point is as much about us as it is about French women. While older French women do, indeed, generally enjoy lives of accrued sensuality, we American women are often busy whipping ourselves into shape with a vengeance (or feeling guilty for not doing so). And that’s because a wicked feel-good paradox sears its way through our culture. Take a look at any American magazine for women forty-plus. Celebrations of age usually come with a clarion call for emulating youth in all its age-defying Fantastic-at-Forty-Plus firmness. As we age-defy (which, let’s face it, is just shorthand for age-deny), we can finally “Be Ourselves,” because after all those decades we’ve earned it, right? We’ve finally figured out who we are. We can finally not give a damn, as long as we still look Absolutely Fabulous!
Filed under Entertainment, My Journey, Social Commentary, Style
Karen Carpenter
I’m glad people are finally starting to realize what a great voice Karen Carpenter had…
For years, The Carpenters were a guilty pleasure of mine. Now I no longer feel guilty.
People seem to be catching up to me and realizing what a great talent we lost when Karen died due to the complications of Anorexia.
Here are a few videos, that I enjoyed, that show both her great talent and her unfortunate physical decline.
Who knows where she might have gone if she’d been able to stay with us a while longer…
Just listen to that voice and her phrasing and tell me I’m wrong…
Filed under Entertainment, My Journey, Social Commentary, Style
The Fag Hag: How a Girl’s Misguided Friendship Choices Can Lead to a Lifetime of Loneliness | ChristWire
Another great post from one of my favorite satirical websites:
Click the Link for More…..via The Fag Hag: How a Girl’s Misguided Friendship Choices Can Lead to a Lifetime of Loneliness | ChristWire.
Share this:
1 Comment
Filed under Gay, Social Commentary, Style