Musical Monday

Today on Musical Monday: Living legend and musical queen Angela Lansbury… as stolen from Wikipedia.

Born on October 16, 1925 Angela Lansbury is an English actress highly noted for her work in theatre, cinema and television and widely respected for her versatility. To date, she has won four Tony Awards, six Golden Globes, nominated three times for the Oscar and 18 times for an Emmy Award.

Like a lot of folks out there, I grew up on the wholesome Angela Lansbury. You know Bedknobs & Broomsticks, Murder, She Wrote etc. So it was total mind blowing shock to me when I first saw a broadcast of her starring in dark and sinister Sweeney Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (for which she won a Tony).

I have loved her ever since.

What else does Angela Lansbury have to do to win a gay boy’s heart? Only originate the role of Mame in Jerry Herman’s musical adaptation of the same name (for which she also won a Tony) and co-star with Bea Arthur.

Oh yeah, and also star as Mama Rose in the first Broadway revival of Gypsy (for which she also won a Tony… you sense a theme here?).

Despite all of the above, do you know what moment sticks in my mind?

Ms Lansbury did a TV movie called, Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris. In that film (which wasn’t a musical) Mrs Harris saves her money and goes to Paris to buy a Dior gown… couture of course. But obstacles stand in her way, mostly with a horrible man at the design house.

At one point in the movie, the horrible man says something horrible to Mrs Harris and she walks out to a park bench and sits there. In that moment, in her eyes, you can see her shattered dream, life’s pain, embarrassment, hurt and frustration. That is the moment which always sticks in my mind.

Well, that and Ms Lansbury riding a bicycle through Cabot Cove.

Julia Child Making Omelette

Watch and learn.

Fabulous Friday... On Monday!

Today’s Fabulous Friday topic is… Omelettes!!

Omelettes are a versatile anytime food and have limitless varieties, but Ok, Ok, omelettes are not terribly fabulous.

Who here learned how to make an omelette in school? It was complicated! You had to let the egg set in the pan, then lift to let the raw egg fall underneath so that it may cook. Then when it was all done, you had to somehow fold it over without breaking it and flip it onto a plate.

Let’s not even mention the water or milk debate.

I had completely given up on the omelette ages ago, until last year when I vacationed at a nameless tropical resort and every morning was given an omelette made to order. These cooks used the same techniques I used in school, only they made it look so simple.

Once I got back home I rushed out and bought the best omelette pan I could find, and set off ready to make mass orders of omelettes. In my mind, just by watching these cooks for 10 days, combined with a faded memory of middle school home ec, was all the practice I needed.

I arranged a Sunday brunch for seven people, which included croissants, jam, sausages, bacon, has browns, freshly squeezed orange juice and the piece de la resistance… made to order omelettes, cooked by moi!

In my mind, I was prepared. I was Martha Stewart, I believed that all the ingredients were fresh, perfectly prepared and, best of all, everything came perfect.

My bubble quickly burst when the first omelette ended being more like omelette flavoured scrambled eggs. No worries, the first one is always the test round.

Well, normally the first round is the test round, in this case rounds 1 - 6 were also test rounds. Each one coming out broken, burnt, raw, over cooked or scrambled.

By round 7, I had finally somewhat perfected the art of omelette making.. Or at least the art of making the omelette resemble an actual omelette. Thank goodness the last one was for me.

After that traumatic brunch, I put away the pan and apron and retired from omelette making.

Last week, I came across a clip of Julia Child teaching us how to properly make an omelette. She used techniques I had never seen before and it was all over in less than 30 seconds… wait, are we still talking about omelettes?

Julia Child revolutionised omelette making to me! She has reinspired me to not give up on the omelette and in return, for the past week, I have not been able to stop making omelettes!

A new world has opened up to me, and that is Fabulous.

Muscial Monday (18/50)

Thursday is late night shopping here in the semi-great metropolis on the western half of the sunburnt country. This means that the shops are open until the un-godly hour of 9:00pm instead of the normal 5:30pm. What this means for most of this fair city’s citizens is the only chance to do some serious shopping. For me, this means a sneak into my favourite DVD store.

This DVD store, in the outer working class suburbs, never fails to be fully stocked on musicals and Hollywood classics (a task most DVD stores in the gayer than gay inner city fail to achieve).

This last outing proved an especially good journey for me as I found some long sought after Judy Garland musicals, as well as the movie version of Hair, and the Tim Burton version of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

I once saw the PBS recording of Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury and a community theatre production. I love this musical; I love its dark quirkiness and stunning melodies, particularly “Joanna” and “Not While I’m Around”. Plus I love any musical that can combine brutal murders and somehow flawlessly works in the word ‘shit’ into at least one of its songs.

I try very hard to write reviews of movies, but they always turn out to read more like a synopsis. So I will give you my opinions in fast, efficient bulletpoints:

Ø Johnny Depp’s vocal are surprising
Ø I can’t understand anything Helena Bonham Carter says (never could and I doubt I ever will.
Ø Visually stunning
Ø Very moody (in a good way)
Ø Quick to set the scene, but slow to get to point.
Ø Made me want to learn how to make traditional meat pies minus the cock roaches and you know, human body parts.

Was this the lamest post ever? I sincerely apologise.

Honey, You'll Hurt Yourself!

Enjoy!

Fabulous Friday!!!!

As promised, today is FABULOUS FRIDAY. Dedicated to all things fabulous, and by ‘fabulous’, I mean things that I love.

First up is this clip from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Which due to my incredible lack of blogging technologically efficiency, will appear in the post above this one.


Also, please note, that it IS in fact, already Friday in Australia.

What The...?

Query Number 2:

Why is it, that when I don’t have my credit card, I find super cheap flights, but three hours later, when I do have my credit card, the prices have doubled?