J. by J.

Finally a picture, I was stopped by a bobby for being up early on a Sunday!

Ms J. is now in the house (he's my housemate's best friend) and he may actually read this if he uses the computer and think I'm just the total fag hag stalker. Huge day for me and I have to leave the house looking as hot as the devil's picnic-what if J. thinks I look naff or worst what if he doesn't even notice me?
(Actually he just did and I'm not so intimidated anymore!)


Ms J. has me transfixed. I saw him use an iron to iron his clothes with-he used an iron! Despite sometimes donning a dress he is really butch and has two plaits to frame his amazing face. He has an incredibly deep and rich voice. Tyra Banks scored.


From his ANTM bio:
J. Alexander began his career gracing the runway for Jean Paul Gaultier in New York City. After a modeling stint in Tokyo, he eventually decided to settle in Paris, and since 1991, is a preferred contact for casting and coaching runway models for well-known designers, including Valentino, Galliano, Bill Blass, Alexander McQueen, Chanel and Nina Ricci.

Bay Area Jewels at the Tower of London

Tuesday I was given amazing seats/backstage passes by my friend renowned Bay Area based drummer Scott Amendola to see him back the stunning Madeline Peyroux at The Tower of London music Festival. Scott has come up quickly in the Bay Area music world and also plays with his own eponymous titled band, the jazz sensation trio 'Play Monk' and Wilco's astounding Nels Cline in the 'Nels Cline Trio.'
www.scottamendola.com
One of my best memories from this past spring was watching the er uh 'comeback' of Sly Stone at this year's Grammy awards with Nels and Scott.
Scott likes everything from Ac Dc to Peter Gabriel to Weather Report to Van Halen to The Meters to John Coltrane. Discussing great music with him as well as talking shit about some of the more soulless commercial and accountant sponsored acts that have appeared on Bay Area stages was always fun too.


I really miss Scott and his wife Ari as they were such good friends to me over the past year. Scott's almost off the road and it was great to see him perform-he is a true artist and thankfully one that can do what he loves professionally.
I know Madeline's Peyroux's work from KFOG and her strong following in the UK and Europe is well deserved (there were a few thousand people there last night) she's mint original lady chanteuse par excellence.
Finally, my life in Shoreditch has become very exciting as I now know so many locals and I'm building some great friendships. How to acheive my goal of being well known in the UK is starting to become clearer. Like Ruby Wax before me I plan on being a Yank who knows her Brit culture inside out. And as I was recently refered
to as a 'salt' (apparently this is the highest cockney compliment you can pay a woman by comparing her to the world's most indespensible condiment...) the persona of the Princess of Shoreditch is starting to take shape.

Sophia Loren and Italian Women Rule

England has always loved Sophia Loren and so have I. In one of Sophia's earliest films, 'The Gold of Naples', she plays a lusty, busty pizza-making gal who just can't keep her wedding ring on. The end sequence has her walking through her village in a rainstorm, soaked to the nines, as all the men drool and stare with respect as well as ardency. I think that's a keen modus operandi as long as you know it's just a movie and not to try it in the East End ;)
It's no surprise that she is doing the Pirelli calendar at 71 years old. No female star has come close to matching what she has and every men's magazine knows no other woman ever will.


For starters most well known sex symbols today are to synthetic and too trashy leaving no mystery.
Secondly all these workout low carb addicted actresses have turned the modern female torso into a weird washboard square with no waist to hip ratio, Sophia always embraced her natural hourglass shape. Watch 'It Started In Naples' and you'll see easily the most voluptuous and HEALTHY A-list star that Hollywood ever hired. Other films had her slimmer but it was when she could kick of her heels, eat pasta and be Italian that we, as an audience, feel like we are in Italy having fun with her.


But mainly she is an astonishingly talented actress and down to earth woman, winning two Oscars and yet still doing her own hair and nails each week. I'm so glad she's proved that you don't ever have to stop being sexy.
And I also appreciate how she's been openly disgusted at the raunchy Paris Hilton/Madonna (only half Italian btw) 'walk around being skanky because that's the only way to stay famous' culture. Mystery is key or to quote Sophia: 'Sex appeal is 50% what you've got and 50% what people think you've got.'
THANK YOU SOPHIA LOREN!!
I'm so proud to be Italian today.