The Wedding List(s)

Hooray! More photos from Dory's wedding are up for browsing and ordering.

I like this one, because you can see The Bride and The Man-Bride and me and Sarah and everyone is very happy. Plus, this was after the official part so they are now no longer living in sin.

This one may be my favorite. I'm not sure what's happening, but this is when I met Dave for the first time.
The mysterious thing? That's almost the same face I made at a DIFFERENT wedding. Here's me with Amber, reacting to my mother dancing to Usher at my sister's nuptials.

I guess Open Mouth Gape Face is my Signature Style at weddings. Congrats again DD!

Amazing. GRACE.

So I've seen some pretty great concerts in my thirty plus years. The highlights are all the times I saw Blossom Dearie, when Sarah and I saw Dolly Parton at Irving Plaza in Summer 2002, the Blind Boys of Alabama that same year, and the half-dozen times I've seen my chum Carolyn Mark.

Lemme tell you, last night's Grace Jones show at Hammerstein Ballroom is up there, and worth all nine thousand pennies or whatever I paid. I've seen all those lazy-a$$ new kids out there who have their dirty hair and just slouch over their guitars and play their records without even looking up. Not our gal.

Not all the pictures I took were so exciting, but I did a web-trawl this morning over coffee and found some goodies. I think we now have all seven or eight costume changes documented.

For starters, she did the opening song completely under a silk cloak.

Then she popped out wearing what was a cross between her Andy Warhol graffiti outfit of yore, a skeleton suit, and My Little Pony...


A few songs later she put on this glitter outfit for a few numbers - which threw off some pretty fun sparkles when the strobes hit it.

Then what else would you wear for La Vie En Rose, but this fun one? Eat your coeur out, Edith Piaf.

And really, what else would you wear for "My Jamaican Guy," but a Jamaican Flag Costume? I think this was right after she called out her friend "Miss M," aka Bette Midler, who was in the audience. I looked around but she wasn't up at stage right in front of the speaker with me.

"Corporate Cannibals?" This of course:

I was excited to see Grace show her pun side when she danced with a mannequin of herself for "I've Seen That Face Before."

My personal favorite was this costume for "Hurricane" - she sang it while walking into a wind machine with this satin parachute trailing behind.

There were a few more songs and costume changes, then it was time for the encore.

You know when Grace busts out the symbols and the confetti you're dancing to "Pull Up to the Bumper" and "Slave To The Rhythm."

My ears are still ringing, but they do that anyway. And it was worth it.

Dames, Shirleys, & Not So Easy To Be Hard

So, like most people, there are a lot of similarities between some of my favorite things.

Sometimes it's obvious, like Bacon Cheeseburgers and Regular Cheeseburgers, or Orange Kitties and Black Kitties.


Sometimes it's not so obvious, like Dame Shirley Bassey and Two Time Academy Award Winner Shelley Winters (Who was of course, born a Shirley - Shirley Shrift).


Now, recently I went to see Hair on Broadway. I liked it enough, but I had never seen it before and so was kind of expecting the show to be more, um, better. It was definitely a spectacle though, and of course there was a nude bits, and overall I enjoyed myself.

The one downer for me was the version of "Easy To Be Hard." I'll admit, I didn't know that song was from Hair, I first learned it as a wee lad from my parents' Shirley Bassey 1970 record, Something.


This of course was followed up by Something Else one year later, but that's another tale.

Anyway, Something was Dame Shirley's comeback record (first of many), featuring her take on contemporary hits (first of many for that too). And really, it's unfair to judge the poor girl from Hair with trying to top Dame Shirl, but that's how it goes.

Anyway, this set me on a whole Dame Shirley festival on Saturday afternoon as I did laundry. And I realized, just like Shelley, sassy Miss Bassey can tend towards the melodramatic when not reeled in by her producers / directors. You want the full on Shirl when she's singing "Goldfinger" or "Diamonds are Forever," but sometimes she needs to reign it in a bit, or she ends up like Shelley on The Lucy Show.

Here she is putting a bit of irony into the title of this song, best known as performed by that other dame. Really, you just need to hear the first few lines to get my point.



Anyway, that's my Shirley Bassey story and I'm sticking to it.

The Penguin Suit To Beat All Penguin Suits

WHAT a little cutie Pierre is.


Pierre first came to my attention this summer, when Sarah shared his story at Cape Cod Club.

Pierre is not just another pretty Penguin Face. He's a 25 year old African Penguin who lives at the California Academy of Arts & Sciences. Yep, that's right, the same CAS that Sarah and I visited back in November.

Well, a few years back the CAS was closed for its big renovations, and Pierre and all his chums were moved to a temporary facility. Sadly, Pierre didn't adjust so well, and his nervousness at the new digs manifested itself with bald patches all over. Now, you may recall from Penguin Class that their waterproof feathers are what keep them warm and buoyont in the pool, so this was more than an aesthetic problem for our buddy - he wouldn't be able to play any of regular Penguin Games, which clearly wouldn't do.

So what happened? Well, some nice lady who worked with him called some nice company, and they created a one-of-a-kind wetsuit for the little buddy!

He used the wet suit for a few months, and lo and behold he calmed down and all his feathers came back!

I just think this is just the sweetest story I've ever heard. God Bless you, little penguin buddy!

CRD & Homecoming Hippos

Oh hai. It's me ALH. I iz guest-blogging fur CRD.

CRD is coming home today. Hooray! Yesterday, he blogged about how much he loves hippos. I had this great idea to decorate his apartment while he was gone with a total hippo-cuteness theme. Diana says CRD's signature style is already cute animals, so why not expand on that theme?

To start, I would replace his fig soap with lilac-scented hippo soap in the bathroom for bathing fun. Hippos love baths!


Next, I would replace his orange backpack with this hippo messenger bag which I find to be both stylish and hippo.


Then, I would crochet him a bunch of amigurumi using this pattern and place them around the house.

Finally, I would buy him this wrist cuff to put on to unwind after his long journey home.


Only, I woke up late and have to go to work. Sorry, CRD.

First We Take Your Birthday

One thing is clear from the past year's worth of posts, I love Birthdays. I wrote about this a little bit back on the 8th, and I meant it.

Today is the birthday of my good friend from school, David. Back in April, I went to see him in Charleston. Next month, he's going to come up to NY for Thanksgiving, and we might just take a little road trip then.

When I first met David back during our freshman year at UC Sunnydale, we both had long hair. Inexplicably, people used to get us confused. I still don't quite understand that, but no matter.

The Signature Style of our friendship is Road Trips. In college, we would pile into his Saturn (hee hee) and drive all over creation, playing Leonard Cohen real loud the whole time.

Once, we went to Graceland. You can see us down below with all our loot, which we then used to decorate our dorm room.

On that same trip we stopped by Tupelo and visited Elvis' birth place. I still have this shirt, and wear it as jammies.


The following year we drove through Pigeon Forge, TN and stopped in Dollywood. One of the best parts was tuning into WDLY Radio once we were in the city limits: "All Dolly, All The Time."

I have to say though, this one here was probably the strangest trip we've ever been on.

Many happy returns, David!