“The only thing better than singing is more singing.” — Aretha Franklin

1948 Cactus
1948 Cactus

My singing voice is somewhere between a drunken apology and a plumbing problem. – Colin Firth (www.brainyquote.com)

48Cactus051

Some of the wise boys who say my music is loud, blatant and that’s all should see the faces of the kids who have driven a hundred miles through the snow to see the band… to stand in front of the bandstand in an ecstasy all their own. –  

 Stan Kenton

1949 Redskin, Orchestra Leader Stan Kenton
1949 Redskin, Orchestra Leader Stan Kenton

All I Want For Christmas Is For Mariah To Dial It Down

http://atrl.net/
http://atrl.net/

We don’t need to rehash the Rockefeller Christmas Tree incident. Singers age and so, too, their vocal chords. I’ve winced recently when both James Taylor and Amy Grant tried to reach those old high notes. God bless them for trying but sometimes old goats can’t do young goat tricks.

Time catches up with the best and richest of us. And enough already with the 44-year-old decolletage. This is not a vision of love.

http://www.news.com.au/
http://www.news.com.au/

You’re a married mommy, remember? Yes, technically still married. You are better than this.

I wish you could stay the lithe, curlyheaded racially questionable five-octave pre-diva chanteuse that you were my freshman year of college, but it’s not possible. You remember her? The one who married the cadaver from Tales From The Crypt?

Ick. I could have told you marrying Smarmy Much-Older Tommy Mottola was a bad choice.

But nearly a quarter century has passed since my buddies and I would pass college bars where drag queens belted out “Love Takes Time” in strapless sequined dresses.  Time has been taken, my dear. It has been took.

So just be 44. Use a little more material. Cover it up. Stop trying to splash around in a bikini in the fountain of youth. You’ll just drown. Or worse, flail about pitiably while your middle-aged orbs spill out. From one 40-something to another: honey, just run for dry land. Let the fountain alone.

skirt
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Mercy, even the trash man is trying to scoop you into a recycling bin. At least let him take the dress. Or the duct tape Borderline gloves.

You still get to be Mariah. You just can’t be Forever 21. So sit back and collect royalties and obsess over glittery butterflies and Marilyn Monroe and raise dem babies. And don’t kick Nick to the curb. He seems like such a nice boy, such nice manners. I’d introduce him to my Nana. Why, I saw him help Lara Spencer on with her pink coat this morning on Good Morning America. With or without his ruby slippers and velveteen jackets, he’s the best thing to ever hit America’s Got Talent. Give him a second chance. You knew he was young when you married him. You knew you’d have to raise him up.

And if you’re feeling perimenopausal and hormonal, feel free to throw shade all over Nicki Minaj. I don’t care if it is her birthday today. Do what you do best.

mariah

Look on the bright side: you can still be beautiful with clothes on. You’re not dead like Whitney. You can sing better than all of us poor peons who don’t have a Morrocan-style hookah lounge; you just can’t sang like in days of yore. But that’s First World Problems, girl. While your peers are busy misplacing car keys, you can chuckle in your rainstorm of Benjamins. Who needs car keys when you have a driver?

You can still be the mistress of condescension. Time hasn’t slowed that down.

http://pixgood.com/
http://pixgood.com/

And look, I’ll go one better. I won’t tag this post “vintage” like I usually do.