On the Town with Buddy Beaverhausen: a John Waters Christmas

John Waters again proved what a witty and clever raconteur he is, bringing his hour-long stand-up comedy act to the stage at City Winery in NYC.

A tall, slim figure in a garish holiday suit. wearing his trademark pencil-thin mustache, he played to a very appreciative packed house, regaling us with his sharp, off- beat monologue. There were no videos or music; just Mr Waters on-stage with his comic patter.

I wanted an image of him onstage, so I took a photo, thinking no one would ever notice, even though we'd been notified that pictures and videos were strictly forbidden. I figured that, in the spotlight, the director would never see that little, old flash from my cell phone. Guess what? He did.

As we were right aside the stage in front seats, he looked at me and firmly reminded me of the club's policy. Mr Waters asks us to unleash our inner rebels and iconoclasts. But, obviously, not when he's performing. I was secretly pleased to have unleashed his inner diva, but let a word to the wise be sufficient. Upon reflection, though, I thought it might be fun to proudly say I got 86'd at a John Waters show. After all, what could possibly offend him? Well, now I've tested the Waters so that we all know.

However, he must have cast of spell. The photo never came out after all that trouble.

Kevin at City Winery 

The director was back with his updated obsessions of celebrity worship, sex, movies, music, politics and pop culture, making the season bright... and gay! The show, entitled "A John Waters Christmas: Holier and Dirtier" was also funnier.

The q&a with the audience at the end of the show displayed John's ability to think on his feet and still be brilliant. He payed homage to Andy Warhol, an obvious influence, when he talked about Holly Woodlawn, who died this night in one of the show's rare touching moments.

When asked if he thought any of today's politicians had ever seen Pink Flamingos, he quipped: "Bill Clinton definitely. Hillary probably not." Then he moved on to mention what a great First Lady Bill would make. "Like our new Mamie Eisenhower!" Advice to today's rioters: "I'm with you but don't burn down your own neighborhoods! Burn down a country club!"

You gotta love this guy!

Video Beaverhausen: Anita Eckberg IS the Killer Nun

Believe me, growing up Roman Catholic, I know from killer nuns! When I was around seven, I passed a tin soldier to a friend that he'd left in my backyard. Mother Superior saw this and dragged me to the back of Our Lady of Lourdes church in Paterson, NJ. "Playing with toys in the House of God?" she asked. I tried to explain. "And lying too," she then added. "Put out your hands," she insisted with sadistic glee. I did, knowing what was coming. WHACK! My hands were sore well into that night.

In the Italo-horror nunsploitation film Killer Nun, Anita Eckberg is even more lethal and has quite a shelf to show off in her habit. You see, Sister Anita decides to take taking care of sinners into her own psychotic hands.

Joe D'Allesandro costars and Alida Valli (The Third Man) is in this!

This film is Eurotrash of the highest order, as Eckberg chews up the scenery with great gusto, a long way from her La Dolce Vita heyday.

Anita begins by murdering those whiny seniors in her ward but, naturally, things escalate as the religious nutcase takes things in hand, much like the Republicans in the USA today!

Recommended to camp lovers but few others.

Audio Beaverhausen: Kylie at Christmas

Kylie Minogue's new Christmas album is a most pleasant piece of pop for the holidays. Ms M is certainly doing everything to promote it across The Pond, including get an enthusiastic kiss and a hug from Prince Harry at the Royal Variety performance, catching his eye while wearing a snow-white, feathery headdress that any drag queen would envy.

With sweeping orchestration, the album is as tastefully delectable as a candy cane. Although I'm no fan of the trend toward duets with dead celebrities, Kylie's "Santa Clause Is Coming to Town" goes down easily enough.

I much prefer her cover of The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" with Iggy Pop or her duet with Sister Danii. "Only You" with James Corden is pleasant all right though seems a bit off-topic.

Kylie's interpretation of Chrissie Hynde's "2,000 Miles" is just plain wonderful as is her covering holiday classics like "Winter Wonderland" and Irving Berlin's "White Christmas." There are numerous beautiful ballads sprinkled throughout. "Santa Baby," a single released previously only on holiday compilations, is a bit of a pop classic by now.

Kylie at Christmas is recommended by Buddy B, who's giving it two hands in the air. Available at Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble. The deluxe edition, which I bought, contains a bonus video.

The Hills Are Alive with The Sound of Gaga

Lady Gaga continues to be a viral Internet sensation after her performance of songs from The Sound of Music at last Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony. Almost everyone seems to love it. Even that stupid anchor on Fox "News" who described the famed, over fifty-year-old Oscar (no relation to the awards) and Hammerstein numbers as a relief from Gaga's usual "jigaboo music." When confronted about her ugly and offensive word, Fox newsbimbo Kristi Capel broke down and said she had no idea what the word meant and apologized.

Excuse me?! Who uses words during a broadcast that they don't understand? It's a special kind of stupid, isn't it? By "jigaboo" music, I assume Ms Capel is including all of Gaga's electronica/dance music as well as her work with Tony Bennett. Singing Cole Porter for example. But when it comes to Broadway theater songs from a play about Nazis chasing a white, all-singing Christian family through the Alps, even a Fox anchor knows to draw the line.

Nonetheless,  Lady G has positioned herself as a major talent and prominent diva of our time. Moving on from her pop/ disco career (that I love), she has impressed the critics and public alike with her latest middle-of-the road/ nostalgia album, Cheek to Cheek, with Bennett. Her Sound of Music moment at the 87th Oscars was a complete coup! It's kind of a Sixties throwback, to a time when female singers like Vicki Carr, Lesley Gore, Shirley Bassey, Ann-Margret, Mitzi Gaynor, Barbra Steisand (all for example) frequently transversed musical subgenres to show off their versatility.

People's Climate March NYC 2014

I just had to say, so that there's no misunderstanding, that I completely support the People's Climate March in NYC and around the world. This was a great moment of civil protest that is so very necessary to our survival and to the world we leave future generations.

I've long been an environmentalist, even buying recycled ecological notebooks in college in the early '70s. My Aunt Eleanor was an environmental activist long before it was fashionable. She was also the first person to introduce my family to brown rice -- an exotic dish in 1950s America.

I knew going to the march would not be possible for me because of my neuropathy; the only reason I didn't actively participate. I truly thank Facebook friend Jo Ellen Berryman for keeping me posted throughout the day as she was there.

Since my simple trip to the local supermarket today left me with severely swollen feet, the Columbus Circle-to-United Nations walk would have been impossible for me. Oh, de agony of de feet!

But I'm thrilled to see the day was a success with over 400,000 marchers in NYC alone and more in other key international cities.

Marchers, relax tonight as you deserve. Have a cocktail on me, sit back and watch Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster on video. Yes, even Godzilla wants to save the environment.

Polly Bergen, Rest in Peace

This is becoming an obit blog, sadly, as one celebrity after another leaves this mortal coil to go beyond the studio gates of heaven. I loved Polly Bergen since childhood. I mean, I had a schoolboy's crush on her. And it's never gone away.

Obviously the week's supermarket tabloid, The Globe, didn't pick this death up on their deathdar.

I vividly remember my own mother, who left us in 2011, taking me to the drive-in so I could see Kisses for My President, a 1964 sitcom co-starring Fred MacMurray in which Polly was elected President of the USA, which proved awkward for hubby. Old sexist flavorings but in some ways very modern and relevant. Anyhow, I loved it in my jammies and a blanket in the back.

Ms Bergen (nee Nellie Paulina Bergin of Knoxville, TN) had a career that spanned six decades. She began on radio at age 14. She was born the same year as my mother (1930) and died 11 days shy of the same date, though three years later.

She had her own cosmetics line and published articles on cosmetics and beauty. She co-starred with Joan Crawford in The Caretakers. She was a patient/inmate at Joan's mental institution. Drama! The film opened with Polly going polly-wack-a-doodle at the movies and running up in front of the projected movie on-screen, to scream and act out badly. I loved every second of it. Perhaps her finest role was as Gregory Peck's wife in the original Cape Fear (1962), also opposite Robert Mitchum. She played Mitchum's wife in the mini-series The Winds of War and its sequel.

Polly was part of the romantic triangle in Move Over, Darling opposite Doris Day and James Garner. She co-starred with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin in three of their feature films. She was a star and she always looked like and comported herself like one. She came across as highly intelligent, down-to-earth, and her natural beauty and sultry brunette persona could not be ignored.

Polly was in John Waters' Cry-Baby. She had a recurring role in Desperate Housewives though I think I last saw her in a stand-out episode of The Sopranos, playing Tony's father's mistress who was also mistress to JFK.

She was a recording artist as well, and performed many shows in clubs and cabarets throughout her life, mostly in NYC as she lived in Connecticut. She died, surrounded by family, of emphysema-related illnesses. She was a life-long smoker.

Rest in Peace, pretty Polly, I loved you from afar all my life.

The Vampire Facelift

So, I heard from a friend about this new treatment that gives your face a lift without all that nasty, puffy botox. Not that my skin, still wrinkle-free after all these many years of debauchery, requires an uplift. Why, I don't even have crow's feet! Well, you know, black don't crack. Oh, wait a minute! I'm white. Maybe it has something to do with that portrait of Buddy Beaverhausen in the attic that is starting to look groaty to the max.

The Vampire Facelift is a trademarked name for a procedure with a US patent. And so trendy, you gotta love it!  I mean, you know how cool vampires are these days. Straight out of L.A. (the treatment, not the vampires I meant although, come to think of it, actually, both). I believe Elizabeth Bathory was onto this idea of how blood keeps the skin rejuvenated centuries ago in Hungary when she bathed in the blood of slain virgin peasant girls. (Really? They were that plentiful?) Something tells me Joan Rivers would do this if she could find enough virgins in NYC.

Thankfully, the Vampire Facelift is cruelty free. The plasma comes from your own body and works off the stem cells in your blood! The Facelift's site does mention some little thing about a filler, and I'd like to know more about that. "Filler" is not usually good. Filler is, like, shredded carrots. Hopefully not what is in this procedure.

From the official Vampire Facelift site: Although this procedure is tagged as a Vampire “facelift”, it is not a surgical face lift nor does it  create the same effect as a face lift. The procedure helps restore or enhance areas which require rejuvenation. Dermal Filler will provide more immediate results, bridging the rejuvenation effect until the PRP starts to kick in. Improvement of skin texture and tone from the PRP become apparent after about three weeks and improvement continues for the next several months as more collagen and keratin is laid under skin. The results typically last 18 months or longer. Areas of treatment include cheeks and mid-face, wrinkling around the eyes, smile lines, nasolabial fold, neck and jawline, chest, acne scarring and more. The process takes between 60-90 minutes, including the 25 minutes set aside for application of numbing ointment.

Ok, numbing ointment sounds scary. But, hey, this is the Vampire Treatment, after all! And, as we all know, you must suffer to be beautiful.

Vampire fans, let's admit it. Dracula was onto something.

Boots & Saddle Says It's the End of the Trail

Boots & Saddle

Boots & Saddle, on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, right off Sheridan Square, will be the latest gay landmark bar to close. The classic leather-and-levis dive bar still packs 'em in on the weekends but, as with the recent demise of Rawhide in Chelsea, will be forced into closing because of stratospheric Manhattan rent increases.

According to Boots' long-time manager, Robert Ziegler, talking to DNA Info, the building's new landlord plans to raise rent by thousands of dollars monthly, into the "high twenties." The exact date of the increase and the bar's closing have yet to be announced.

Known for its raucous atmosphere, stiff drinks, occasional live djs, go-go gods and drag queens, the bar once boasted a hitching post before one of its interior make-overs. Boots & Saddle (sometimes sardonically called Bras & Girdles by friends) is on the route of the annual Gay Pride March, in June, where it gets seriously overpacked, and getting in and out, and to and from, can be more than a bit of a struggle due to police barricades and herds of non-stop pedestrian traffic passing by.

Boots is in close proximity with the Stonewall Bar, The Monster, The Duplex and the homo-monuments in Sheridan Square Park.

Most importantly, of course, my promo cds frequently played at the bar from 2005 through 2010 during my dj phase. It was a neighborhood hang-out for me, as well, when I lived in the Village for many years, because it was within walking distance and I had befriended several other regulars who made the place comfortable and friendly.

Boots and Saddle won a bevy of Get Out! Awards last December at a ceremony at XL in midtown, at which I was present with promoter Barbara Sobel. http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2014/01/eric-alan-at-xl-get-out-awards.html  There are rumors that Boots and Saddle may reopen at a new address but, so far, nothing in that regard has been confirmed.