Lush Life

Happy Birthday, nojo?

Didn’t everyone have to read this in high school?

@ManchuCandidate: Read the book, saw the first movie, was meh with both. Fitzgerald wrote what he knew, apparently.

@JNOV: Stand back unless you wanna get scorched.

I would rather have my eyes & ears poked out than to see any Baz Luhrmann film.

A couple of minutes of Romeo + Juliet was more than enough. When I visited some dear friends who were playing Moulin Rouge*, it gave me a splitting headache & I excused myself within two or three minutes. “I love you, but this movie is shit and I can’t stand another second of it.” I went back & continued my visit a couple of days later with no hard feelings. My friends loved it, but since they actually watch & enjoy TV & commercials their taste & judgement is highly questionable.

* While I was watching it I had no idea what it was until they told me. The Baz Luhrmann connection came later so I doubt I can be accused of prejudice against him at the time. I am proudly prejudiced now that I have experienced more than one piece of the brain damaging shit he directs.

@nojo: I’m pure asbestos.

Happy Birthday for Real.

@nojo: Happy happy birthday, my dear hamster in the machine! Would you like some new socks for your present?

@jaycubed: Romeo + Juliet thank you very much.

Moulin Rouge is the reason that movies should be banned.

I do think that Gatsby is overrated. I think his masterwork is Tender is the Night. Curry on the beach with champagne is the most glamorous thing ever. (Tip: If you can’t be on the Lido it also works in bed. Take Sunday off. Takeout curry. Make it vindaloo. Very cold champagne. Ice and fire. Note to Catt – Domestic does not count. Lots of napkins. Also towels. Lube. You’ll find out why it’s tender.)

@SanFranLefty: How do we send Birks?

@Benedick: Why would we enable his addiction? I was thinking you could send him some snappy smart shoes that he might actually wear. If not you, maybe HomoFascist (have you seen HF’s seersucker suit on the Book of Faces? Adorable!) or Tommy could help out.

@SanFranLefty: @Benedick: Let’s send him a man purse. He needs a man purse.

@Benedick:
I sit corrected.

@jaycubed: Let’s hope you’re sitting on something fun. And thick.

@Tommmcatt Can’t Believe He Ate The Whole Thing: Nobody needs a man purse. Especially when he’s just coming out. Baby steps. When he’s in the bodega he does not need to go into some man purse item to find his wallet to open it up to pay his nine forty for a six pack of domestic. That’s just cruel.

Plus I met Billy Strayhorn. My mother insisted on calling him Sweetpea. As did Ellington.

Now here’s a thought: Why is the Strayhorn/Ellingotn cannon not revered as is Copland’s? ‘Tis a Gift to Take the A Train.

Meanwhile, 3,000 miles west, 8-year-old Nojo is preparing to watch Batman when his evening is rudely interrupted.

Noje, this interruption: By men in tights? Muscles straining against spandex? Heroes restrained and whipped? Wrestling in unconventional venues: aka Motel 6 – We’ll leave a light on for you?

How does this lead to Birks?

If y’all really must insist, here I am, now unavoidably in my MID-FUCKING-FIFTIES, and I’ve never tasted civet-arse coffee.

No socks, please. That’s Mom’s job.

@Benedick: Probably by David Brinkley.

@nojo: Darling, we love you. In all your troubled ways. You are the spellcheck to our lives.

@nojo: Did your mom give you socks and underwear for Easter? That’s when I got mine.

@Benedick: You met Billy Strayhorn? Tell us more.

@karen marie might be peeking just a little: Annual Christmas Care Package: Socks, cheese, beefstick.

Literal, not metaphorical. Shut yer dirty minds.

@nojo: Many happy returns, darling! And ignore the Birks-haters. I was able to break out the (sockless) sandals this weekend and I couldn’t be happier. Spring in Orygun!

happy happy Noj

someone is paying attention: he doesn’t put on socks unless the temperature dips below 60 degrees in sandy eggo!!! except when he visits the ancestral home, where he keeps them. amirite?

@ManchuCandidate: yes, we did. but I didn’t appreciate it. I re-read it in the past couple years and the beauty of every sentence gave me writers block for 6 months. say what you will about the story of irrelevant people or Robert Redford. FSF is a genius.

@Benedick: please tell me your thoughts on FSF. you know how I hate disappointing you mumsi. do I have to go to my room?

wait. ratbastard has been carrying a man purse since I met him. have I done it again?

@baked: To my mind man purse = eurotrash not gay. Or California. California gays are still impressed by tight trousers.

It’s not a fave of mine. I found it all a bit overwrought. My loss. I should probably try to read it again. I also really admired This Side of Paradise. In these days of Madoff, Enron, Goldman Sachs, etc, what we’re supposed to find shocking with Gatsby seems almost quaint. The same isn’t true with, say, The Age of Innocence or House of Mirth.

@Dodgerblue: I was a kid. I just remember a day in summer when he and others from the band came to the house. My father hung out with them all when they were in London and it was Ben Webster who sponsored him when we emigrated. As a child I remember their concerts and also seeing the Basie band with Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan. The Strayhorn/Ellington partnership is an extraordinary story and their music is being ignored. When we talk about the greats of the 20th cent they should be at the top.

Pop quiz: Who was Ellington’s favorite orchestrator? Ferdy Grofé of Grand Canyon Suite fame. What else did he orchestrate? Rhapsody in Blue! Full disclosure, I don’t know if he ever worked with the Jook (as my mother insisted on calling him) but I know he admired him.

@baked:

Current temperature: 61.

Socks: Yes.

Ellington: New Orleans Suite.

@nojo: ¡Feliz cumpleaños, amigo!