To Be A Princess, You Have to Be Born A Princess!

02.08.2025 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

Meghan Discusses the George V Convention re: Titles/Styles

The purpose of this blog is to address the runaway assumptions, effrontery… ignorance of many of the Sussexes’ supporters, #sussexsquad who insist on referring to Meghan as Princess Meghan. If you are going to be focussed on a subject, any subject, do know about whom or what you speak or you simply lose credibility and are dismissed as ignorant and a waste of time. Blindly referring to Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex as Princess Meghan serves to incite animus towards and ridicule of both Meghan and Harry. For all that they have been through and all that they have survived, just please show both humans their due respect by correctly referring to Meghan as she is correctly styled: Meghan, HRH The Duchess of Sussex – the HRH style was agreed to not to be used as part of the Sandringham summit in early 2020. She was not born a princess, therefore it is a disservice to her and those so born to refer to her as Princess Meghan.

**To Be A Princess, You Have to Born A Princess**

Into that sparkling May sunshine in 2018, Meghan walked into St. George’s Chapel and remained unaccompanied up the aisle until she was escorted by then HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, her father-in-law. She walked in born a commoner, a self-made, independent woman, an American, a Black American. To be a princess, Meghan would have to have been born to a prince, Queen or King. It is a great disservice to Meghan, if you are truly a supporter of hers and respect her, to doggedly insist on referring to her as Princess Meghan.

Meghan has never once referred to herself as princess. When did any of you, #sussexsquad, hear Meghan refer to herself as princess or Princess Meghan? Meghan knows the importance of these things and would never incur further animus by doing any such thing; to do so, would further embolden the racially predatory detractors to increase their attacks on her and question her credibility. I do know, however, that a lot of animus towards Meghan comes from royalists, especially those in the UK and Commonwealth, who watch Meghan being referred to as Princess Meghan when this is not the case, all thanks to #squaddies thinking that they have a damn right to inflame already febrile animus towards Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex of whom one claims to be a supporter.

Honestly, you don’t get to decide that Meghan is Princess Meghan because you are American and no one is going to tell you what to call her. You, whether supporter #sussexsquad or detractor do not own Meghan! She is a human being, a wife, mother, entrepreneur and humanitarian… she owes none of us anything. However, at the very least, you can have the decency to respect who she is and not call her Princess Meghan. It is just as disrespectful as the British Media still referring to The Princess of Wales as Kate Middleton fifteen years on, simply because she is not of aristocratic birth. Trust me, I am old enough to remember these things, but Fleet Street did not go around year in, year out referring to Diana, The Princess of Wales as Diana Spencer – even after her divorce, the tabloids did not resort to calling her Diana Spencer. That, indeed, is testament to the viciousness of classism in the United Kingdom.

Back in summer, 1986, I was invited by Cabbagetown neighbours to come for tea and champagne to watch the royal wedding on the CBC. They were all a crusty clique of old monarchist queers who were just thrilled for another royal wedding, five years on from Charles and Diana’s wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Some liked ‘Fergie’ because she was so refreshingly normal; others thought her a right kook. Either way, it was a lovely gathering. No one then referred to Sarah as Princess Sarah and never once has anyone ever done so nor has she ever referred to herself as Princess or Princess Sarah. Sarah, like Meghan, married in and was not born to a blood prince, King or Queen.

**Riiibbit Ben Davidson. Hope Robert Davidson. T’sing Ben Davidson. Winter Moon Susan Point**

King George V was the grandson of HM Queen Victoria and grandfather of HM Queen Elizabeth II. It was George V whose convention established the current system of titles and styles how and when they are to be used and more importantly by whom.

“The children of any Sovereign of these Realms and the children of the sons of any such Sovereign and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales shall have and at all times hold and enjoy the style title or attribute of Royal Highness with their titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names or with their other titles of honour”

**Heron Alex Colville. Sockeye Salmon Bill Reid. Prismatic Loon Kenojuak Ashevak**

Edward, the firstborn was The Prince of Wales, but as he had an energy body of 5, he was a wanderer. He was also madly in love with both Edward ‘fruity’ Metcalfe and his relations with Louis Mountbatten, the Viceroy of India were an open secret. The same Louis Mountbatten with two 7s, one of which was his fourth number, was violently assassinated for his proclivity for minor meat. Wallis for being American was shown the wrath of Britons with their obsessive inferiority complex towards Americans since King George III lost the American colonies – though they’d never admit to it, Britons have never gotten over that defeat. Edward VIII became HRH The Duke of Windsor. Edward VIII, of course, abdicated and had no issue… so that was that. Edward, a sixth mature sage soul with 5 energy body would have found the whole notion of sovereign and monarchy far too restrictive for him; Wallis was a welcome get out of jail card as he would have perceive his life circumstance.

Prince John died as a child; he had been afflicted by illness. King George V had six children, one of whom was a daughter. As female line royals may not pass on their titles, Princess Mary, The Princess Royal wedded The 6th Earl of Harewood. Because of primogenitor and female line royals being precluded from perpetuating their titles, Mary’s husband, Henry Lascelles did not become a prince or duke on marrying in, only male born royals are made dukes and usually at their wedding so that their spouse on marrying in, can become titled. Also, as she has married in to a blood prince and afforded a title, thus her sons and daughters will be royals. Hence the prince’s new bride is made a duchess so that she may be titled on becoming a mother. The Lascelles have gone on to distinguish themselves but Mary’s issues were not permitted to be styled prince or princess, though, they technically were.

**Raven Song Susan Point. Promenade Kenojuak Ashevak.**

HRH Prince Henry, The Duke of Glooucester
Princess Alice, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester (1935)
HRH Prince William of Gloucester

George V’s son, Prince Henry was styled, The Duke of Gloucester on marrying the daughter of the 7th Duke of Buccleuch. Alice at birth was styled Lady Alice Buccleuch as the daughter of a non-royal duke. On her husband’s death, as it was customary for widowed duchesses to be styled dowager duchess, Queen Elizabeth II permitted her as widow to be styled Princess Alice, The Duchess of Gloucester as her son, Prince Richard’s wife Birgitte was also Duchess of Gloucester. The couple’s firstborn, Prince William of Gloucester tragically died in a plane crash in 1972. Prince William, the current Prince of Wales was named in honour of the tragic prince; the Gloucester prince had no issue at his passing.

**TRH Prince Richard & Birgitte, The Duke & Duchess of Gloucester**

The current Duke of Gloucester, as the grandson of a monarch, is styled HRH; however, his son Alexander, The Earl of Ulster will not be similarly styled an HRH when his father dies. At such time, he will merely be known as Alexander, The Duke of Gloucester.

**Lenin Dorette Pollard. Shore bird on the Tundra Kenojuak Ashevak. 4 Standing Figures Henry Moore**

Windsor, HRH Prince George The Duke of Kent 20/12/1902<O>25.8.1942

Michael: This fragment was a second-level mature slave – third life thereat. George was in the caution mode with a goal of growth. A pragmatist, George was in the moving part of emotional centre.

George’s primary chief feature was self-deprecation and the secondary of was mild arrogance.

George’s body type was Saturn/Mercury.

The fragment George is second-cast in the fourth cadence. George is a member of greater cadence three. George is a member of entity one, cadre six, greater cadre 7, pod 418.

George’s essence twin is a slave and the priest task companion was known to him.

George’s four primary needs were: security, communion, exchange and expansion.

There are 5 past-life associations with Arvin and 4 with Merlin.

__________________________________________

I’ve included Prince George, The Duke of Kent’s Michael overleaves herein as he is an entity mate of HLM Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry & Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. Also, in cadre 6, greater cadre 7, pod 418 are, along with the aforementioned: King Edward VIII, Prince George of Wales, Prince Archie, Princess Lilibet and Doria Ragland. Like Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince George, The Duke of Kent was a second level mature soul, but a slave soul – Diana is an artisan soul. The Queen, too, is a slave soul. George, The Duke of Kent was one of the most fascinating members of the House of Windsor in the 20th century. Though she married in, George’s wife was a princess at birth, Princess Marina of Greece & Denmark. Thus she was styled Princess Marina and when she became widowed as she was a princess at birth, though not British, HM Queen Elizabeth II allowed her to remain styled as Princess Marina as it was her birthright. I especially love that her great-grand daughter Flora Vesterberg elegantly mirrors her grace and nobility.

11.6.1903 Year of the Rabbit 2.8.3 = 4.

Darlings if you are going to pass a lifetime as a royal… take notes. Like Princess Charlotte of Wales recently holding court at Wimbledon, two energy-bodied ladies are the most innately stylish, witty, great conversationalists, self-aware, funniest and the most fascinating woman in any room. Just look at the neck on Princess Olga!

Princess Charlotte of Wales holding court at Wimbledon, 2025

Princess Charlotte Wimbledon Men’s Finals, 2025

Katharine HRH The Duchess of Kent, until Diana, Princess of Wales arrived on the scene, was my favourite royal. Her husband, HRH Prince Edward, The Duke of Kent is a very contained human; his numerology betrays just that 9.1.1 = 11. Possessed of master number 11, he does though have a 9 in his makeup – his energy body. 9 and 5 are two numbers that are found quite liberally in royals/aristocrats. 9 is about being a gatekeeper, an alarming snob more often than not. 5 brings the potential for debauchery of spirit and it most certainly has been manifested in House of Windsor senior royals. Keen to note is the fact that both Prince Edward, The Duke of Kent has two numbers in common with Catherine, The Princess of Wales. Both have the same energy body and both have mindset of 1. They are kindred spirits of sorts, though, I really don’t know his Michael overleaves. 9 energy body men are less socially aggressive than the female, simply because it is a man’s world and 9 energy body women literally feel themselves threatened at every turn. Furthermore, with mindset of 1, such persons are not showy and are more private than most. Both these persons would rather stay in than be out, like Diana, Princess of Wales, being here for ‘battered this, battered that’ as the beloved Diana put it. We 1 mindset people do find the idea of being around crowds and all manner of humankind icky at best. My numerology: 2.8.1960 Year of the Rat 2.1.8 = 11.

Part Doris Day, part Caroline Stanbury, her look that is, Katharine was the original epitome of the royal mystique. In my youth, I religiously watched the Wimbledon finals just to see her walk onto Centre Court and hand out the trophies after having congratulated the players. Never before nor since her reign at finals day, has there been a more gracious, elegant, ethereal patron.

Katharine 22.2.1933 Year of the Rooster 4.6.4 = 5. Whenever you see 6 in someone’s numerological makeup, you are dealing with someone of great empathy, compassion and it is always indicative of someone whose soul has chosen to be devoted to a life of service. This is why Prince Harry, Queen Letizia of Spain and Crown Prince Daniel of Sweden were all born on September 15, affording them the focus to be devoted to a life of service and compassion, whilst simultaneously having two 6s. It is about healing the spirit and uplifting the vibration at large through a life of service. That mindset of 6 is why Katharine HRH The Duchess of Kent openly extended herself to a distraught Jana Novotna and in the process healed her spirit and uplifted all our hearts by her gracious, selflessness and empathy. Not surprisingly, she is the only royal of the United Kingdom whose aura has ever been readily discernible in the few dream encounters that I have had. She is the real McCoy! Again, as a commoner marrying in, she has never once been referred to as Princess Katharine by anyone. Nor for that matter is she ever mistakenly referred to as Duchess Katharine.

**1 Susan Point. 4 Kenojuak Ashevaks & 1 Benjamin Chi Chi**

HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent 25.12.1936 Year of the Rat 7.1.2 = 1

No woman is more reserved, refined than a seven energy-bodied lady. And as there is always a but, they also happen to be the most amoral of all women. They will have multiple affairs with a host of married or single men, send the former home to their wives and always emerge in society looking unruffled and not the least bit concerned as to what it might look like or god forbid what others will say. They think it highly uncouth for a woman to become enraged and want to seek revenge against them. That is the numerological portrait of a 7 energy body woman, which is not to say that this applies to the rather refined and inordinately gracious Princess Alexandra of Kent.

As Princess Alexandra is a female-line royal, the moment that she married Angus Ogilvy, her heirs and successors lost all right to be styled with royal titles; this would also have been the case if she were to have married a royal from any other royal house across the planet. I always thought that James Ogilvy, her son, is the most handsome royal male. His daughter, Flora Vesterberg is among the most elegant ladies of the extended royal family and true to her heritage, which exudes her paternal grandmother’s reserve, she is equally cool and reserved – unlike Lady Amelia Windsor, who with a moustache is the reanimated spit of King Felipe IV, socially flitting about in drag…

Prince Michael 4.7.1942 Year of the Horse 4.2.9 = 5. Princess Michael 15.1.1945 Year of the Monkey 6.7.8 = 3. Prince Michael has almost serene numerology. Like many high-born aristocrats/royals, he does have 9 in his numerology; they are all snobs and can tend towards being conceited gatekeepers. However, they do not all have to be, and usually aren’t unpleasant. He does though have 5 in the fourth position, which is always about scandal and being debauched of spirit. This is the classic example of someone being socially exposed and embarrassed by the scandal(s) created by their partner. This most definitely is the case of baroness Marie-Christine his wife – a right blasted, pretentious racist snob.

TRH The Prince & Princess Michael of Kent at royal wedding in Monaco, 2011

There we have the parvenu, racist gilt cakewalk down the stairs of Monaco’s Hotel de Paris. Imagine her great fortune, two high-profile royal weddings in the same year and both televised. She plays up for the camera, even going so far to look off to the footmen and fake laughing as though she’d do more than spit at them if the cameras were not rolling. She is a pretentious, show-off with zero awareness how revoltingly hideous her flat-assed, no-calved hybrid-reptilian body is.

Revolting racial predator

There is the haughty baroness Marie-Christine, bringing the House of Windsor into disrepute. All that HLM Queen Elizabeth II had done to solidify and promote inclusivity across the commonwealth and along comes the racist boor openly attacking Meghan at her first family gathering after her announced engagement to Prince Harry the month prior in November, 2017. She has a well-documented history of being racist and though she has no 5 in the fourth position, her vulgar racism implicates her noble husband and the rest of the royal family all the way to The Queen. She has done irreparable damage to Prince Michael; regardless what he thinks, it is not her place to implicate him as a racist boor by her ugly displays time and again.

All three women married into the royal family to blood princes and thus they were titled as befitting the wife of a prince. In the case of Marie-Christine as her husband, Prince Michael of Kent, was the grandson without a ducal title of a sovereign who at the time of his marriage was deceased, his wife could only be styled by his name. Thus, she is HRH Princess Michael of Kent. She is not Princess Marie-Christine and is never styled Princess Michael; it is always Princess Michael of Kent. With Sarah on marrying a blood prince, Prince Andrew, he was made the Duke of York so that she could be styled as an HRH royal duchess but not a princess. Similarly, when Meghan married HRH Prince Harry, The Queen conferred the title of Duke and Duchess of Sussex so that she would become a royal wife but not a princess. No one has ever referred to Sarah as Princess Sarah; it has always been Sarah, The Duchess of York, losing the article ‘the’ at her divorce. The Late Queen made no dispensation for Meghan such that she could be styled as Princess Meghan. It is not the done thing and it was not done.

As they, Lord Frederick & Lady Gabriella, are the children of a grandchild (HRH Prince Michael of Kent) of a sovereign, King George V, they are not styled as HRH. This is the case with all male-line princes who are the grandsons of the sovereign; their heirs are never styled as HRH.

**Pink Chair Artist Proof I/III ©1990 George Hawken**

*Recently, whilst at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, I suffered an attack when a guest proved both bipolar and a serious drug addict, got drunk and totalled my pyramid and did serious damage to some of my art collection. This piece, having been the most damaged, had to be reframed, but all is well. END.

George VI 14.12.1895 Year of the Goat 5.8.4 = 8. Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother 4.8.1900 Year of the Rat 4.3.4 = 11. That’s right, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother had the exact same numerology as Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and her gorgeous bestie, Abigail Spencer who was born on the same day as her Suits castmate, Meghan. When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon wedded into the House of Windsor, she was made The Duchess of York, which is usually the ducal title afforded the sovereign’s second son. Prince David was, of course, The Prince of Wales and briefly became King Edward VIII but as he clearly was made to abdicate to be with his American fiancée with whom he was intent on spending his life, Wallis Simpson, his brother became King George VI, after having been The Duke of York.

David, The 2nd Earl Snowdon
Antony, The Earl Snowdon & HRH Princess Margaret, The Countess of Snowdon
Lady Sarah Chatto

Though the children of a blood princess, Princess Margaret, as David & Sarah were female line born royals, they immediately were not styled as prince or princess. Also, for marrying in and a commoner, Antony Armstrong-Jones was merely styled Antony, The 1st Earl of Snowdon. On marrying in, Antony Armstrong-Jones did not become a prince anymore than did Sarah, Meghan and Catherine became princesses on marrying in.

Not only did she have fantastic Michael Overleaves but HLM Queen Elizabeth II had fantastic numerology. 21.4.1926 Year of the Tiger 3.7.7 = 8. Like all mindset of 7 persons, Elizabeth could see auras and was able to quite accurately read persons, which also included strong intuitive insights to everyone. She was an extraordinarily sublime human. Like all mindset 7 persons, she knew to keep her mouth shut about ESP data to which she was innately privy; after all, her name was not Princess Alice of Battenberg! Energy body of 3, she was gracious, radiant, diplomatic and always unruffled. What HLM The Queen perfectly understood was that she was but a caretaker, her role was transitory and her duty was to uphold the institution, leaving it in better stead than she had inherited it. The role was more than herself. She, her ego, was not the Sovereign because true slave soul that she is – and will always be from lifetime to lifetime, she innately understood that as sovereign, her role was one of service, of serving the common good, the common man and that is why she was such a phenomenal monarch.

**HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh**

As Prince Philip was a Prince of Greece & Denmark on marrying Princess Elizabeth in 1947, he was styled HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. He was not styled a prince though foreign born. It was not until, well into her reign did his titles change and he was then styled, HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. King George VI did not allow Philip, though a foreign born prince, to be styled an HRH Prince on marrying his daughter and heir. As the Prince of Wales is only ever held by a male heir to the sovereign, Princess Elizabeth was not styled Princess of Wales. Also, a King’s wife is styled Queen Consort or Queen; however, a Queen regnant’s spouse is never styled king because in a patriarchal monarchy, that would designate a Queen and wife as subordinate and a King more senior to her, which can never be the case; that is why Philip was elevated from The Duke of Edinburgh to HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as the spouse of Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen regnant. Again, as with Meghan, no one in his sixty-eight years of being married to The Queen ever once erroneously referred to Queen Elizabeth’s spouse, Philip, as King Philip.

**HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Portrait**

Prince Philip 10.6.1921 Year of Rooster 1.7.1 – 9. Again, like many aristocrats/royals 9 makes up part of the numerological energetic portrait in the chosen life therein focussed. Of the royals whose Michael overleaves I am aware of, Prince Philip is the only one in pod 408. Each pod has 2.4m souls within which are 49 greater cadres with each greater cadre containing 7 cadres. What I do know, is that not only are Princes Philip and Harry warrior souls, but they also have an attitude of sceptic; these persons are all very irreverently blunt and do not gladly suffer fools. Philip was fourth mature on his second life thereat whilst Harry is fifth mature on his fourth life thereat. Charles is seventh mature and in pod 404. William & Catherine are in pod 208 and task companions, which makes them entity mates – task companions have a very strong push/pull attraction. King George V is in pod 380. Diana, Princess of Wales is also in pod 380 and she is an entity mate of singer Chris Martin, Dodi Fayed, and Charles, The 9th Earl Spencer her brother. Interestingly, Jacob, The 4th Baron Rothschild is a cadre mate of theirs. Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed were entity mates with 26 past lives in which they were related in some fashion. Because of that exceptionally high past life bond, Dodi became magnetised to her to facilitate her rather violent exit, as one would be a fool not to conclude that she was murdered, especially so when her fourth number was 7, which is more likely to be associated with assassinations than not. Of course, who had Diana removed, is the question. Then again, one is more likely to be murdered by an entity or cadre mate than not. The ties that bind are not always readily discernible…

**Buster (2006-2024) chilling in the collapsible pyramid**

A bit of Michael Teachings clarification. There are seven soul types, also referred to as fragments or essences. As in numerology each role corresponds to a number which roughly translates to Michael Math. Slaves are 1 and pair with Priests on the inspiration axis; priests are the 6th role in essence adding up to 7 – perfection. Artisans are 2 and are on the expression axis with sages who are 5 which equals 7. Warriors are the third role in essence and on the action axis; also, on the action axis is the King soul whose numerical value is 7. However, kings for representing perfection do not pair with warriors as such though they are both on the action axis. The warriors often pair with scholar souls who do not pair with any role for being the fourth essence role. 7 souls of the same type make up a cadence which are part of a greater cadence of seven and all of the same role. There are roughly 1000 souls in an entity, usually anywhere from 3 to 6 roles in an entity. No entity ever only has one role. 7 entities make up a cadre of 7 thousand souls which would contain all 7 role types. There are seven cadres in a greater cadre making that roughly 49 thousand souls of all 7 roles. There are also 49 greater cadres that make up a pod which is roughly 2.4 million souls. You will more likely run into entity and cadre mates during the course of lives, venturing during the young soul cycle and beyond to encounters with souls from other pods. See end of blog for royal examples of royals and soul age.

**HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal**

Though a blood princess, for being a female-line royal, Princess Anne’s children are not titled and her husband was not made a duke on marrying her on Prince Charles’s 25th birthday on November 14, 1973. That explains why her children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, are not styled prince and princess respectively. Captain Mark Phillips was a commoner marrying in to Princess Anne, thus as a male, there was no ducal title bestowed on him.

HRH Prince Andrew, The Duke of York. 19.2.1960 Year of the Rat 1.3.1 = 5. As son of the sovereign, HLM Queen Elizabeth II and the second son at his marriage to commoner, Sarah Ferguson, he was styled The Duke of York. As that 5 in the fourth position alludes with his numerology, Andrew wasted little time in exposing himself as the quintessential debauched and scandalised 5 in fourth position male – of course, his being of royal birth nicely facilitated his illicit proclivities.

At no point was Sarah ever styled by herself or anyone anywhere, Princess Sarah. She has been Sarah HRH, The Duchess of York. On her divorce after her adultery was exposed in the tabloids, she lost the all-important ‘the’ and HRH, becoming on divorce, Sarah, Duchess of York. On becoming divorced, Sarah has not thereafter been known as Princess Sarah, just as she was not on becoming Prince Andrew’s wife.

Both Jack & Edo wedded into the house of York and as their wives are blood princesses, owing to them being female-line royals, their spouses were not bestowed titles and were not styled as HRH. More importantly, they were not gifted with a dukedom to have made their children styled as princes and princesses. Both Beatrice and Eugenie for being blood princesses and granddaughters of the sovereign, can never have their two daughters, Sienna and Athena and two sons, August and Ernest respectively be styled princesses and princes. Two very admirable couples, to be sure.

**TRH Sophie & Prince Edward, The Duke & Duchess of Edinburgh**

As the dukedom of Edinburgh had been intended for The Queen’s lastborn, HRH Prince Edward, at their marriage in 1999, Edward and Sophie were styled the Earl & Countess of Wessex. Naturally, for having married in, Sophie has never been erroneously styled, Princess Sophie. Again, Edward in an agreement with the sovereign, his mum, accepted the earldom, on the proviso that his children would not be styled prince or princess. To be so styled, one would have to have been born to a blood prince and his ducal wife; at the time of their marriage, Sophie was not a duchess. The ducal title allows the commoner wife of the blood prince’s children to be styled prince and princess.

**HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales**

Diana was, as in all things, utterly unique compared to all the other women who married in. Unlike Catherine, who only became styled as Princess at the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Diana for marrying The Prince of Wales, was styled Princess from day one, July 29, 1981. Again, being styled princess for being the wife of the Prince of Wales does not make one a princess; thus it is erroneous to have called her Princess Diana as it would be to call the current Princess of Wales, Princess Catherine.

**Diana, Princess of Wales, and future King Mother**

Unlike Sophie, Sarah, Catherine and Meghan, Diana married the heir, The Prince of Wales and thus she was unique. Too, on June 21, 1982, she became King Mother, on the birth of Prince William the future sovereign; Diana will ever be King Mother, albeit posthumously and that will never change. To be clear, though, the Princess of Wales in both instances, princess is still not a title that either Diana or Catherine possess. Neither is Princess Diana nor Princess Catherine, though, they are so styled for being the Princess of Wales, but as neither was a born royal they are not truly Princess Diana or Princess Catherine; however, this is a style which distinguishes them from other wives of the House of Windsor.

Elizabeth, HRH The Duchess of York (1923)
Princess Alice, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester (1935)
Wallis, HRH The Duchess of Windsor (1937)
Katharine, HRH The Duchess of Kent (1961)
Birgitte, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester (1972)
Marie-Christine, HRH The Princess Michael of Kent (1978)
Lady Diana Spencer, HRH The Princess of Wales (1981)
Sarah, HRH The Duchess of York (1986)
Sophie, HRH The Countess of Wessex (1999)
Camilla, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall (2005)
Catherine, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge (2011)
Meghan, HRH The Duchess of Sussex (2018)

All other women who married into the House of Windsor since the Letters Patent of King George V, in 1917 were style in the manner of a commoner: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, HRH The Duchess of York, Alice, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester, Wallis, HRH The Duchess of Windsor, Katharine, HRH The Duchess of Kent, Birgitte, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester, Baroness Marie-Christine, HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Lady Diana Spencer, HRH The Princess of Wales, Sarah, HRH The Duchess of York, Sophie, HRH The Countess of Wessex aka The Duchess of Edinburgh, Catherine, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, Meghan, HRH The Duchess of Sussex. Their blood prince husband is presented a ducal title, thereby making the bride a Duchess as she cannot be styled princess in her own right. Thus a blood prince’s wife becomes as per the following, Sarah, The Duchess of York, Katharine, The Duchess of Kent, Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge. However, Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge proved that most rare of royal brides for having married, Prince William, the future sovereign. Thus Catherine joined Diana, Princess of Wales on September 8, 2022 as Catherine, The Princess of Wales. For being The Princess of Wales, both Diana and Catherine are the only two royal wives who for having married in are styled Princess in their own right and in the case of Catherine not a day before Prince William became The Prince of Wales. Princess of Wales is the style of the wife of the sovereign heir and applies to that time when Wales like Monaco was a royal principality. Again, the moment you separate/divorce you lose that all-important ‘the’ in the title; more than all that, you are no longer styled HRH and are not permitted to wear a tiara as per Diana, Princess of Wales and Sarah, Duchess of York.

HM Queen Mary HM King George V’s Queen consort was Princess Mary of Teck; she was born a princess in Europe. So too was Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark born a princess when she became the wife of HRH Prince George, The Duke of Kent. All other royal wives who married into the royal family from King George V’s daughter-in-law Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to Meghan, the daughter-in-law of HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales aka HM King Charles III were commoners on their wedding day. Only two have become princesses, Lady Diana Spencer, and Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge when she became The Princess of Wales – Diana on her wedding day and Catherine at the death of Queen Elizabeth II, eleven years after her marriage to HRH Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge aka The Prince of Wales.

Charles Attempts to Change the King George V Letters Patent

**HM King Charles III (Detail) ©2024 Jonathan Yeo**

Meghan was so very shrewd, true to her master number 11, to have made clear during the Oprah interview that Charles and likely William, wanted to change the King George V convention. The reason for wanting to do so, was so that Archie and Lilibet, Harry and Meghan’s children and Charles’s grandchildren would be excluded, though the grandkids of the Sovereign’s heir would be styled as prince and princess respectively. Of course, Meghan was not lying. Just look at what Prince Harry discovered during the disclosure in his case before the courts: Charles his father contacted all the world’s governments, requesting that they not afford Harry and Meghan security if they were to decamp there. The same Charles whom we learnt via Omid Scobie’s strategic exposé in the Dutch edition of Endgame that Charles and Catherine were the royal racists in question. Surely, if it were that important to Charles to streamline the monarchy going forward, at the time in 2011 when the primogenitor rules of succession were changed, by Queen Elizabeth II, why not have insisted that the exclusion of grandkids not born to the sovereign’s heir, The Prince of Wales, be denied the title of prince and princess.

Never underestimate the sensitivity of the royal family towards Americans joining their ranks. One of the stipulations of Wallis, an American, marrying Prince David, The Prince of Wales which would have made her the Queen Consort to Edward VIII, was that she was not allowed to be styled HRH when the King, her husband, King Edward VIII abdicated. Indeed, Wallis was only allowed to be addressed as HRH within her household… just outside Paris! How rich is that? Naturally, the institution and courtiers saw to it that the couple did not marry until 1937 when Edward had conveniently abdicated. There is no way that Wallis being an American, apart from also being a divorcée was not the dominant reason for Edward being forced to abdicate. A citizen of the former colony, which they lost in the War of Independence, was a non-starter. There is no way that the American, Wallis, would be permitted to be wife of a King and bear a future sovereign, even though she was 41 years old at her marriage to the future king, all of which were circumnavigated with Edward VIII’s abdication. Similarly, the need to exorcise the shame of King George III’s defeat and lost of the American colonies, Meghan was told by Prince Harry that there were open discussions about changing the George V convention so that only the grandchildren of The Prince of Wales’s heir, rather all the children of the sovereign, and so on would be styled prince and princess accordingly. Added to all that, Meghan’s Black heritage proved disquieting and lead to Charles and Catherine being exposed in Omid Scobie’s Dutch edition of Endgame. Yes, indeed, the royals loathe Americans and are unmistakably racist. The American wives of Windsor have certainly taken a bruising from the island kingdom.

Unlike his mother, King Charles III is a 7th level mature warrior soul whose numerology and overleaves did not leave him inclined to being focussed on his duty as caretaker of the institution of monarchy as his late mum, HM Queen Elizabeth II. King Charles III, 14.11.1948 Year of the Rat 5.7.2 = 5. Like HLM The Queen, Charles has a mindset of 7, he knows his place relative to history and performs his duties well. The 2 leaves him inclined to indulge in gossip, pettiness, drama, subterfuge, bigotry and to have two fives in his makeup, especially so when one of them is in the fourth position, meant that he stood no chance in not becoming debauched and corrupted over time. I do believe that his corruption of spirit had much to do with the long decades he passed, waiting to become monarch. Too, as with the pen outburst, at the time of his impatient display at St. James’s Palace and later a similar outburst in Northern Ireland, that’s the result of the impatience that comes with having an energy body of 5, think Prince Louis his grandson – such persons can be royally short-fused. 5 also introduces the element of greed and being both obsessed and debauched by outré proclivities.

Meghan became a duchess May 19, 2018, Catherine a duchess April 29, 2011. Catherine became a King Mother, July 22, 2013 and The Princess of Wales September 8, 2022. Meghan is not a princess; there is no one named Princess Meghan. If she cared to, Meghan could be styled Princess Henry (Harry) but never Princess Meghan. The title of Princess has been afforded to only two women who married into the House of Windsor, since King George V, they are Diana, Princess of Wales and Catherine, The Princess of Wales… no others. Though princess is in both princesses of Wales’s title, they are neither styled princess Diana nor princess Catherine of Wales. All duchesses do not have their title before their Christian name, because the only title that goes before a royal female’s name is princess. For that reason, it is always the Christian name followed by the title. Thus it is Sarah, Duchess of York, Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge, Katharine, The Duchess of Kent, Sophie, The Duchess of Edinburgh and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. It is never Duchess followed by the Christian name of the royal wives who married in because only royal born females have their title before their christian name. Again, Duchess Sarah, Duchess Catherine, Duchess Katharine, Duchess Sophie and Duchess Meghan are all incorrect. For the love of Meghan, please stop calling her either Princess Meghan or Duchess Meghan, no such person exists. Princess Anne, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Princess Margaret, Princess Elizabeth aka Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Alexandra, Princess Mary were all born princesses, they did not marry in, and for that reason they and only they are styled with princess before their Christian name.

HRH Princess Mary, The Countess of Harewood (1897)
HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent (1936)
HRH Princess Elizabeth of York (1926)
HRH Princess Margaret of York (1930)
HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal (1950)
HRH Princess Beatrice of York (1988)
HRH Princess Eugenie of York (1990)
HRH Princess Charlotte of Wales (2015)
HRH Princess Lilibet Diana of Sussex (2021)

The above nine ladies are the only princesses born to the House of Windsor since the reign of HM King George V.

To Be a Princess, You Have to Be Born a Princess!

Meghan Through the Years

Happy birthday Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, fellow Leo, myself, (2.8.1960 Year of the Rat 2.1.8 = 11) congrats on being focussed here in this world for 44 years. As ever, the very best and every continued success to you, Meghan, HRH The Duchess of Sussex! Meghan 4.8.1981 Year of the Rooster 4.3.4 = 11.

**The World Is As Sharp As The Edge of A Knife ©1993 Robert Davidson**

Wynton Marsalis Solo JLCO @ Massey Hall

Slaves/One 25% of all souls

Artisan/Two 21.5% of all souls

Warrior/Three 17.5% of all souls

Scholar/Four 14% of all souls

Sage/Five 10% of all souls

Priest/Six 8% of all souls

King/Seven 4% of all souls

Of all the royals of whose Michael overleaves I am aware, Prince Archie happens to be the oldest soul with the grooviest overleaves. He is also an entity mate of Prince George of Wales his cousin with a high number of past lives shared and priest souls are notable peacemakers in times of crisis.

**Manawanui ©2005 Roi Toia. Susan Point & Todd Cooper**

You cannot believe how many moons passed before I finally saw the eagle in this masterful piece. Art is everything, indeed.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra June 2025 Massey Hall

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You are to Jazz what wings are to an ostrich; what the fuck do eagles care that queer, unaware ostriches have wings?

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K_’aax_ada awg_a

03.11.202404.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

K_’aax_ada awg_a (Dogfish Mother)

Serigraph

27.5 x 22 Inches

Edition: 95/95

IG: @tysonisnotbrown

Provenance: The da Brgha Collection

It’s all here, ovoid, formline; Haida excellence and agedness of spirit, elegantly, masterfully expressed.

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Ray Charles & Betty Carter – Baby It’s Cold Outside.

Ray Charles – Vocals & Piano

Betty Carter – Vocals

ABC Records

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You are to Jazz what wings are to an ostrich; what the fuck do eagles care that queer, unaware ostriches have wings?

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Bitch! I Don’t Need Fucking Gaydar!

18.08.202410.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

President Obama bestows the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Vice-President Joe Biden

What you would want to do, is take you, your teeth, your crossdressing beard, take your private jet and vaffanculo in Italia. Keep the usual tumescent fare in your mouth, but do keep Biden’s name out your fucking mouth! Ton blasted cul… Lèche! As I once turned to someone at a dinner party at Les Karpinski’s Sentinel Hill home in tony West Vancouver and eloquently stated with vituperative panache, “Bitch I don’t need fucking Gaydar, I have had a life in showbiz and I am quite confidently in the know on this one.” At the time, there was discussion about the sexuality of a film actor with whom Merlin had had an affair. When I shared what I knew of said subject, I was readily dismissed by yet another pinched, bigot of the lisping and cum-farting brigade as telling tall tales. Thank you, President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden for your service to America. For five decades of the highest civilian service of putting nation above self. Love, respect and history will always honour you for what you’ve done for the American people.

Human civilisation comprises one planet in one star system; there are no secrets. Long years ago, I briefly worked in the theatre, and a friend of Merlin’s, I came to know; contacts like these, which are all about the best gossip to be had, are most assiduously curated. I happen to know that someone whose relative is a famous international plastic surgeon, who resides in Britain, is confident that Catherine had a facelift. It goes without saying that this is woefully obvious to anyone not a somnambulant, mere mortal on the Isle of Baby Reindeer. Truly bizarre how preventative chemotherapy can leave one looking, 173 days later, on the backend of a facelift.

Alleged cancer-stricken Catherine initiates kiss with Wimbledon champ, Barbora Krejcikova

Again, please explain to me which woman having or having had chemotherapy goes about initiating kisses with strangers whilst being immunocompromised. I have friends and relatives who have been in remission for years and would never think to handshake, let alone kiss, a stranger. Of course, this is the same workshy, charlatan, liar who after claiming Hyperemesis Gravidarum was known to have jetted off to Mustique and observed frolicking in the Sun with no signs of HG.

**Walking the facelift at Horse Guards Parade, 2024**

Just look at her on leg one of her post royal racist PR makeover. Looking for all the world like an aggressive-pussied femme au foyer; there was fraulein Naugahyde, swishing away as though arriving for a long afternoon visit at her gynecologist’s.

Catherine, the White Queen, is NOT racist as the White tribe attests

Then here she is, the lying, vile racial predator, who not only made Meghan cry but whose pegged and bothered illegitimate husband was curtly told by Meghan, “If you don’t mind, keep your finger out of my face,” putting in her only appearance at Wimbledon, the men’s final match. Like clockwork, she came in playing shy and demure, an act that she can deftly pull off for being of 1 mindset. Such persons, myself included, are not only lone wolves, but they genuinely do not like crowds, being on and all that. However, make no mistakes about it, this was about finally vanquishing the assault by a slave’s descendant of being a racist royal. Nothing infuriates and drives Whites to ready denial than being accused of being racially predatory anti-Black racist boors. But, you are darling, all nine parts, mumbled hissing, venom and aggression. There is positively no way in high hell that had Jasmine Paolini won the women’s championship that Catherine would have initiated a kiss.

**Prince Harry & Meghan, The Duke & Duchess of Sussex at the 2024 ESPYs**

Of course, two days prior, an ocean away, the slithering Lady Naugahyde looked on at the ESPY Awards and the call was made to fight back. Morning, noon and all goddamn night, they weaponise the media and her racist social media sycophants to vilify, demonise and have at Meghan. How exactly does it make the mumbling bore any less inarticulate than a pretty frock and fascinator make the Beard and Merkin’s cockeyed daughter any less ugly?

Prince Harry accepts Pat Tillman Humanitarian Award on behalf of the Invictus Games Foundation

Anyway, after their weaponised Fleet Street hacks’ febrile campaign to demonise Prince Harry for being this year’s Pat Tillman Humanitarian Award recipient, there was Harry, cool, suave and slaying in his Armani suit with, Meghan, the most elegant royal bride this century by his side. Graciously, he shot back at the same Fleet Street hacks who made of Mary Tillman an identical racially predatory boor as they have coached and handsomely paid Thomas Markle Sr. to be. By acknowledging Ms. Tillman in the same breath as a reference to his elegantly ennobled mum, Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince Harry temperately told the racist royals and their weaponised press to go fuck themselves.

One only has to look at the guests in the royal box at Wimbledon, 2024 to see the inscrutable way the Waleses taunt the Sussexes with their racism. Three separate days Baroness Marie-Christine attended Wimbledon and was ever given pride of place. The plan, of course, was for Catherine not to have attended the tennis championships altogether with The Duchess of Gloucester lined up to hand out the championship awards.

Naturally, the ever predatory and jealous Catherine could not have had Sophie, The Duchess of Edinburgh do the honours as she is more senior than, Birgitte, The Duchess of Gloucester. As Sophie is blonde and far better-looking than the older minor royal, she could not be tolerated to step in for Catherine. This gives further insight to how threatened Catherine was by Meghan being so senior a royal, Black with kids whose exoticism would have been a threat to the coverage of her children.

Day 12 and Day 14 of Wimbledon championships, the dates of the men’s semi-finals and final, Prince Michael of Kent, who is 52nd in the line of succession and his unabashedly racist wife, baroness Marie-Christine were in attendance. Always they were sat in the front row of the royal box and never on the fringe seats of the royal box where consistently, Earl Snowdon, Princess Margaret’s creative son is sat each year. David Armstrong-Jones, The 2nd Earl Snowdon is 25th in the line of succession.

On day 4 of Wimbledon, the grandparents of the future Sovereign, King George VII, Catherine’s son, were sat in the royal box. There sat Carole and Michael Middleton but once in Wimbledon’s royal box, yet the entitled, pretentious boor, baroness Marie-Christine, attended twice; she is not even wedded to a minor royal of note who unlike the Duke of Kent, his brother, does more royal duties. The 2nd Earl Snowdon is seen on arrival at Wimbledon’s royal box on day 12.

On days 6 & 14 of the Wimbledon tennis championships, there were Baroness Marie-Christine’s odd-looking son with the bizarrely deep-set eyes sat in the royal box. Naturally, for the DailyFail, they got maximum coverage and as the 53rd in the line of succession’s wife is Jewish, they were treated as though, he, rather than Prince Harry, were the Sovereign’s second son. Good god there were even photos of them at their wedding. Indeed, it is not enough to lynch Meghan at every opportunity, but it is as if their Jewish princess and her coke-headed hubby deserved to be made Duke & Duchess of South Kensington and moved into the unoccupied 21-room renovated apartment, next door to apartment 1A, the Waleses’ home at Kensington Palace. Her hubby is neither 5th nor 6th in the line of succession, yet there they are given coverage as though they are regularly on tour throughout the commonwealth, in service to King and Country. To whom pray tell is this couple’s existence important in the scheme of things that it warrants multiple photos, fawning remarks, replete with a photo of their ancient wedding as though it were a true royal wedding? I suppose in due course, Peggalicious can adopt the 53rd in the line of succession as his true brother, an adopted half-brother, and create a duchy for him as is the custom for sons/brothers of the Sovereign and future Sovereign respectively.

Now to the business of royal racism and using Wimbledon’s royal box to one-up Harry & Meghan, straight on the heels of their successful appearance at the ESPYs. Day 3 saw the ever glorious Maria Sharapova & her super cool hubby, Alexander Gilkes in the royal box. Others were not so lucky, like Marvin & Rochelle Humes, Jodie Kidd, Hannah Waddington and the always intoxicating, Emma Weymouth, Marchioness of Bath. This early in the championship, the big names are not out in force; furthermore, there was no need on the part of Peggalicious to eclipse Harry & Meghan’s appearance at the ESPYs.

Day 4 saw the grandparents of the future Sovereign, King George VII, Carole & Michael Middleton. The next day, 5, saw Oscar winner, Dustin Hoffman and wife, Andrew Lloyd-Webber recently installed as a Knight of the Garter and NFL Kansas City Chiefs champion quarterback, Patrick Mahomes & wife Brittany. They did not make it to the royal box.

On day 6, the royal box began the daily parade of sports luminaries, of which there were a few. Among the attendees was Sir Ben Ainslie whose suspicious closeness with Catherine, The Princess of Wales has seen him relocate to America, supposedly in preparation of the America’s Cup; but did it require having to sell his house, too? Also, in attendance, Chris Hoy. Cricketer Ben Stokes, an exceptionally handsome human and wife, Clare Ratcliffe. Gareth Edwards, Skater Jayne Torville along with Christopher Dean – not featured herein, Jos Buttler with wife. Rugby champion, Lawrence Dallaglio also in the royal box. Tennis great Mark Philippoussis also on day 6. Lastly, Peter Fleming was sat in the royal box.

Day 8 saw an actual royal in the royal box, Prince Albert II of Monaco with a female relative. Actor & philanthropist Lenny Henry with partner and Oscar winning actor, Mark Rylance all occupied the royal box.

Day 9th at Wimbledon saw the 28th in the line of succession, Lady Sarah Chatto and husband, Daniel Chatto. Michael McIntyre & Stephen Fry held court in the royal box. Also, in the royal box were Princess Beatrice & Edoardo Mapelli-Mozzi who’s commendably effected the princess’ blooming empowerment. On Stephen Fry’s other side was American actor, Lena Dunham. The other luminary couple in the royal box, actress Sienna Miller and beau, Oli Green.

Day 11 and the Wimbledon royal box was well attended. Queen Camilla & her handsome sister, Annabel Elliot sat front and centre at the ladies semi final matches. Also present was Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame attended. Camilla was sat between her sister and Deborah Jevans. Jemima Khan and actor Richard E. Grant were sat behind statesman, William Hague. After having been dumped by his wealthy sugar mama, Lindsay, Peter Phillips and his rebound fuck du jour were also present in the royal box. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and his spouse were also spotted in SW19. Elusive actor Keira Knightley attended with her rock musician hubby. Former Governor of Bank of Canada and Bank of England, Mark Carney attended and chatted with William Hague.

On day 12, the men’s semi final, Annabel Goldsmith held court; she is the mother of Jemima Khan and Zac Goldsmith who also attended, same day as his mum and not the day prior along with his sister. Elisabet Ebenstein accompanied the dry-witted actor, Hugh Grant. Edward Norton attended with his mum, as did actor Rami Malek attend with his mum-in-law. Shirley Bassey was wrapped in a shawl. Birgitte, The Duchess of Gloucester was present; I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen, Prince Richard, The Duke of Gloucester, her spouse, in attendance at Wimbledon. Actor Stanley Tucci attended along with Tristram Hunt. The men’s semi-final was fantastically gripping.

Day 13 and the ladies championship. The young Black Italian, automatically precluded Catherine putting in an appearance. Win or lose, she was not prepared to go handshaking or make like nice to another Black female tennis player, in this case, Jasmine Paolini, who frankly choked for making it to the big time.

My lovely sister, Pandora da Brgha, her hubby, James van Hammer and our doctor niece, Edwina de Lavallée, who jetted in from New York City attended the ladies final at SW19. Persons who attended but were not in the royal box: Zendaya, looking as ever chic and elegant. Also, in attendance was actor, Pierce Brosnan who made a rather commanding 007 in his heyday. I am not certain if Tom Cruise was sat in the royal box that day, though, he definitely was the day following. Hugh Jackman was sat with the ravishing Kate Beckinsale, who days later demanded that that little twat, Lady Windsor, the royal kiss-ass and Middleton lapdog, retract an article in the DailyFail, in which the lying guttersnipe and anti-Black racist with an arch animus against Meghan, was called out for telling lies on the actress, Ms. Beckinsale. The Fleet Street vermin never learn. Also, in the royal box were broadcaster, Trevor McDonald and entertainer, Cliff Richard. Back for more, was actor, James Norton, looking less formal than the day prior. Lastly, in the royal box were Darcey Bussell one of the Royal Ballet’s true gems of her generation and fellow dancer, Johannes Radebe.

Finally, day 14, men’s championship; sadly, Carlos Alcaraz’s good luck charm, King Felipe VI was not present. Over the years, I have come to truly love Novak Djokovic, despite his vaccine politics. Myself, owing to my spouse being 24/7 on oxygen, we both have to get the latest Covid shot and I wear multiple masks at all times when out my front door. So no more annual subscriptions to the BOTS – Ballet, Opera Theatre & Symphony, but I will make the odd exception then take every possible precaution; the alternative is simply not an option.

Catherine looked sensational in one of the two official Wimbledon colours. The gold earrings beautifully complemented the purple dress. There was one odd moment where, when briefly in closeup, her mouth did this involuntary square smile, which she neurotically covered by abruptly collapsing her mouth shut. This sort of quirk, I have witnessed after persons have recently had work done when the new tautness results is muscle twitches as the new normal is being adjusted to.

On the final day, the royal box was flushed with powerful guests. After the Sussexes triumph at the ESPYs, you knew that the Waleses would respond. Catherine was accompanied by Princess Charlotte, who like her mother seems to be a warrior soul. Warriors and King souls are always the dominant partner in any relationship/dynamic. Future Sovereign or not, Catherine’s overleaves validate her being the dominant partner in their relationship in this incarnation; William and Catherine are, after all, task companions. Though she has always reminded me of Wallis Simpson, you first have to die before reincarnating; that rules out Pippa Middleton-Matthews having been Wallis Simpson in her immediate past life, the latter passed in 1986 whilst the former reincarnated in 1983. Really good to see Andre Agassi at the men’s final. I remember when his rock star vibes ruled at the SW19. Julia Roberts was a big get for the royal box; this only validates the BAFTA president, Prince William, The Prince of Wales, using his clout to try and show up the Sussexes. Does he not realise that Julia grew up knowing Martin Luther King Jr.’s family and would never countenance the anti-Black racism that the Waleses make no bones about projecting to the world, despite their denials. Tom Cruise was definitely in the royal box on the final day of Wimbledon. Benedict Cumberbatch and his wife were also sat in the royal box on the Wimbledon’s final day. Rod Laver, the Australian tennis maverick was present; good to have seen him.

**Supremacist Baroness Marie-Christine’s relations**

As ever, the royal family’s racist Baroness Marie-Christine and her gang were in full force, acting as though they were senior working royals. Then again, their presence was all about taunting Harry and Meghan; never forget how utterly obsessed, racist and petty William and Catherine are with Harry and Meghan. Finally, it is always good to see London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who thankfully is not a chav-like, blasted buffoon like a predecessor of his, who whored as Prime Minister in a bid to keep up support payments for his brood with multiple women.

That’s right, Peggalicious, losers never win and “never coming home” proved true of the UEFA trophy and Prince Harry, who made it perfectly clear that he has no intentions of bringing Meghan and his children back to Britain anytime soon. Indeed, congratulations to HM King Felipe VI and the Spanish football team for having won the 2024 UEFA Championship trophy.

Prince Harry Tabloids on Trial ITV Documentary, July 2024

Despite Harry making it perfectly clear during a sit down interview for ITV’s documentary, Tabloids on Trial, which aired on July 25, 2024, the tabloids still cakewalk as though, they had no knowledge of the documentary.

**Fabricated headline based nowhere in either fact or reality**

Furthermore, as though Prince Harry is not now engaged in legal proceedings against the Daily Mail, they persist with attacking and lying about both him and his wife. Meghan’s numerology is 4.3.4 = 11. There is nothing wishy-washy about this woman; for Meghan, no means “fuck off, you are dead to me.” Of course, the next day, DailyFail then published an article that Catherine was going to be able to spend the long summer spell at Balmoral Castle. This suggests two things: her cancer treatment is going splendidly and more importantly, the Sussexes are snubbed because they cannot be allowed to be around Catherine after the ‘negress’ had speciously alleged that there were racist concerns about Archie’s skin tone and what that would mean and look like for the royal family. Catherine has never had cancer and this was used for two reasons, to eclipse her revelation as one of two royal racists and to allow her plastic surgery procedures results to fully heal.

**Catherine The Princess of Wales Wimbledon 2024**

Never forget that Charles will never forgive Meghan for having outed him as one of the two royal racists – which eventually Omid Scobie in Endgame did, during her sit down interview in March, 2021 with Oprah. This is why when The Queen passed, Meghan was not allowed to attend Balmoral, why she was not invited to Charles’ coronation and why he will never see her blasted little pickaninnies. Charles is a fucking petty, vindictive, racist boor. Above all else, we Blacks know that you can never, ever expect Whites not to be White. Omid is truly commendable in having exposed the two royal racists’ names. After all, Prince Harry chose to backtrack and state during his ITV interview with Tom Bradby at the press rounds of SPARE that his family perhaps unknowingly suffered from unconscious bias. Well, thank goodness Omid cleared that up for Harry and Meghan in Endgame, leaving no doubts as to whom those royal racists are, Charles and Catherine; of course, they can hardly be expected to be the only members of the House of Windsor who are anti-Black racist boors.

As predictable as flies on shit, along comes another Meghan thrashing in that shit-stained Fleet Street cumrag, DailyFail, gloating over the fact that the royals yet again have not wished Meghan a happy birthday. Master numbered persons are thoroughly dismissive of persons who do not count for fuck all, Meghan included. Next day, along comes yet another article, crowning the racist baroness Marie-Christine’s daughter-in-law for her birthday. Of course, said article also had throwback photographs of her wedding in a dress that looked like cheap silk curtains that are usually seen in photographs with linoleum-covered floors. Even on her birthday, there was our darling princess on the cover of Tatler – that ode to White classist British snobbery, being celebrated for her desirability over the likes of the American whose birthday it was the day prior. You certainly won’t be hearing Chelsea Handler, Bethenny Frankel, Sharon Osborne, Angela Levin, et al, bitching with unbridled hatred about how the untrustworthy bitch, whom they do not like, is not deserving.

Let’s be very clear, the House of Windsor principals, Charles and William are letting the world know that they do not give a fuck about being perceived as anti-Black racists. By parading baroness Marie-Christine, she of the blackamoor brooch and the two black ewes named, Venus and Serena, they are telling the world that being anti-Black racist is not an issue. After all, this is a world where Apartheid existed in South Africa and the racism in Britain, from the ’70s riots in Brixton to the current racist attacks, the Sovereign(s) have not part lips, thereby showing their firm resolve that they do not give a living fuck. Tough! The fact of the matter is that Prince Andrew has all but been rendered invisible; he is not allowed to public functions as his exposed paedophilia is a source of embarrassment. More importantly, Andrew cannot be allowed to provoke the public’s wrath as to do so, will get people starting to talk about Charles’ association with Jimmy Savile, Gary Glitter and others who were/are known paedophiles. Mere mortals are readily played but parading racist baroness Marie-Christine and her ‘exceptional’ actress daughter-in-law who with her offspring were not problematic for the House of Windsor. Never mind that her kids are right little gubbiloutettes*, she is paraded front and centre and in the company of senior most royals as Charles, William and their spouses let the world know that they do not give a fuck about Blacks being butt hurt by their racism. Go fuck yourself is there staged response. Baroness Marie-Christine and her daughter-in-law do not end up at Wimbledon more than any other royals in the royal box in 2024, then turn up on the cover of Tatler if it were not sanctioned by Charles and William. William, of course, was quickly shielded way back when, as it emerged that he was doing cocaine in the company of baroness Marie-Christine’s son!

**William & his horribly scraggly beard**

Go on, you two, go out of your way to spite Meghan even more, by making your darling Jewish princess, The Duchess of South Kensington. If only one would read the fucking planet because in this post-October 8, 2023 paradigm, no one, having seen what – thanks to social media being at the epicentre of genocide, we have borne witness to, have long ago ditched what was a most suffocating jaundiced status quo. Go on, as Olivier a Montréal friend always sarcastically said in imitation of Oprah of Hollywood and its Brahminism, “You get an award! You get an award! You get an award!” Blasted murderous thugs.

**Never mind Tom Cruise, what has Catherine had done to her face?**

Again, please explain why this tactic was not taken on Catherine’s return after 173 days. There was that photo in Berkshire where her face was unusually bloated. At that time or since, any number of plastic surgeons could have been employed by the Fleet Street thugs and done an honest assessment of what work Catherine had done and by a number of leading plastic surgeons.

Instead, we keep to the line that she has cancer; of course, Tom Cruise can also be savaged as he is, after all, a mere Yank at the end of the day. I will say this much, as is clearly obvious, no amount of plastic surgery ever succeeds in glossing over the look of a hard-faced drunk. For her petty, racist obsessive grudge, which clearly extends beyond Meghan to now include Blake Lively, you can never fathom how petty these senior royals are.

Blake Lively for having provoked the wrath of the royals and their Fleet Street thugs, has found herself in hot water. Of late, she has been character assassinated, on a daily basis, with the DailyFail going to great lengths to show what a dishonorable person she is; all this because she made a quip about Catherine, The Princess of Wales when she was in hiding recovering from her facelift and not cancer as they have speciously alleged – there is no such damn thing as preventative chemotherapy. Let’s face it the House of Windsor has for generations had serious credibility issues.

She said what the hell she said and there is no reason for her to have turned around and obsequiously apologised when Britons do not give a goddamn about ‘Yanks’ and are having quite a go at eviscerating Blake’s character. Look at the campaign by British tabloids to have Blake cancelled for having given offence to their boring, inarticulate princess whom they damn well know does not have cancer but had a facelift and they fully understand, it was all a PR stunt. Blake is American, a proud self-made one at that; why should she be lynched by racist boors whom Americans defeated near 250 years ago. All this BS because the Waleses are toxic bullies and vindictive in the extreme. This headline is precisely why Blake’s SM presence is being swarmed by legions of royalist zombies hurling abuse at her. Don’t they realise that Blake is a core friend of Taylor Swift’s and her husband Ryan Reynolds will scrap with anyone in defense of his wife?

The Misogynoir Hatemongers’ Ball, an affair about as socially relevant as Pluto is to Sol. They peddle in lies, anti-Black racism and hatred and vilification of the first Black woman who broke a glass ceiling, in this case, marrying and bearing two children to the son of the Sovereign. Naturally, their stock in trade is to deny the existence or the legitimacy of Harry and Meghan’s children. Meghan for these vile trolls is no different to Michelle Obama, Dr. Jocelyn Elders, Vanessa Williams, Kamala Harris, Oprah Winfrey and many others. They are all firsts in their own right as Black women and for that, they are reviled, and no end of hatred and lies are told about them all. As Merlin said of bad productions like that masquerading on YouTube and elsewhere, “They may think it’s theatre but it is no more than farce!” Just look at it, lady my ass… Bitch you neither bleed nor breed!

When I was a child growing up in St. Kitts with its French, English and most definitely mysterious African influences, there was the most fascinating event that occurred when I was an eight-year old boy full of laughter and most lucid dreams. A family which had relatives in the U. S. Virgin Islands and travelled there from time to time, then received a parcel, at the holidays as one does. These parcels are seen as major status symbols. Well, the most fascinating spectacular soon befell that family. At all hours of the day and with no regularity, there would be screams from the house and clothing and suitcases, thrown from the house into the yard. They would be ablaze with the most white-hot looking blue-white flame. The flames had the most peculiar smell, which I have never smelt since; oddly enough, the flames made no sound. The flame would last for several minutes soothing up the item(s) aflame and then abruptly the pyrotechnical oddity would suddenly cease with an abrupt plopping out of existence. There were times even whilst fully clothed, the family members would be set ablaze. As school children, my chums and I could not wait for recess to rush across the street and take in the spectacle of the jumbie fire*. There was no getting around the fact that there were unseen forces at such times when the flames were active. This only ever occurred within the confines of the family’s home and property. Then at the exact six-month anniversary, the ‘obeah*’ induced jumbie fires simply stopped. During the course of that time, the family lost its status with at least one member fleeing the island and going off (going crazy). The tale was that the family had provoked someone’s wrath and as a result they were obeahed and that was that. For these vile racist trolls, who relentless lie and racially prey on Harry and Meghan, what a pity that Meghan’s maternal family were not West Indians…

So you know that Catherine and William are nasty people, there was Catherine in Soho on the eve of the coronation, familiarly speaking for long minutes and taking selfies with the subject on the far right in the photograph taken at the hatemongers’ ball. That troll spends night and day online, inciting anti-Black racism against Meghan, which like all cowardly racist Whites, will be readily denied as having any basis in racism and besides they always have some fucking absurd anecdotes about their Black friends and, of course, like Blacks for Trump, they’ll always be some self-loathing fool glad to be within the clique by hating Meghan even more vociferously than most. William made an attempt to have Catherine stop speaking to said troll and move along. Finally, when the Waleses were returned to the Range Rover – duct taped sideview mirror and all – as they began pulling away, William could be heard reaming Catherine as she looked out the window, doing her usual, “Fuck you, I’m a rich White girl and I don’t give two fucks,” rictus smile. The photos were captured from TikToker London City Walks livestream that day. All those professional trolls are a testament of just how much we Blacks are obsessively stalked and hated by the racial predator. I cannot think of anything more base a displacement of humanity than to make money off someone you actively hate with consuming ugliness of spirit. Truly, not fit to piss on… except on their graves.

Well, will you look at that. Perhaps, in the pre-October 8, 2023 paradigm, Kamala Harris would feel obliged to choose Josh Shapiro as her running mate. Of course, from the word go, the misogynoir surfaced, with the same accusations as levelled at Meghan being regurgitated about Kamala. Then there was the all-out racist vitriol in the comments at English language Israeli newspapers online. The usual canards were ubiquitous: she is an anti-Semite. We know the Blacks hate us. We are all voting for Trump. Well, if you are going to be so selective, could it just be that Harris and Shapiro simply would never get along? Oxes (Josh) and Dragons (Kamala, and Walz, for that matter) do not make good business partners of any kind; their numerology is also at odds.

Joan Rivers Lies about Michelle Obama

Oldest trick in showbiz, as Merlin would say, how does a Jew be racist towards Blacks? Tell a lie and make a joke of it, “ha ha ha” and readily one is believed and, of course, it is true. Well, there is the little wingless monkey from The Wizard of Oz, rotting in hell and ugly the fuck as ever. Go fuck yourself, racist gilt! That, and never having found the time to pull a second best actress Oscar from high up your ass to award a Black actress, couldn’t possibly be reasons enough why Shapiro is not on the ticket.

**Racist Briton not voting for Kamala. Truly shocked…**

Treat people like shit, being racist boors and expect them to either forget or suffer you… In what world, pray tell, would this even make sense? Seriously, how does your boohoo grudge even matter? 70% of the American electorate, you are not. Straightaway, the markets went into freefall, and did anyone even give two fucks? It is after all SOP. The ugly grudge behind Joan Rivers’ ‘joke’ is that Michelle Obama, like Meghan is a Black woman and first – first Black First Lady and first Black to marry the Princely son of a then future Sovereign, and for that on this planet, she will be the subject of the most virulent misogynoir.

**Vanessa Williams, first Black Ms. U.S.A winner, 1984**

Just look at what happened with another first, Vanessa Williams. Vanessa having been the first Black Miss U.S. A. had to be cancelled. Her victory was an affront, and by whatever means, she had to be disgraced and fall from her Icarian heights. Near the end of her reign as Miss U. S. A., Penthouse magazine published nude photographs of Ms. Williams, which were grounds enough for her to have relinquished her title and be disgraced. Had this ever happened to any of her predecessors? Of course not. Had any of her predecessors modelled in the nude prior to having been crowned? This very likely had been the case, but there was no scandal to be had in thusly exposing a White Miss U.S.A. Penthouse publishing the photographs, was about letting Vanessa Williams know that all she was, was a cheap whore and not deserving of the Miss U. S. A. title.

Kamala, Meghan, Vanessa, Michelle Obama and many others, including Oprah. They will always racially prey on these trailblazing Black women and lynch them in the media and by any means necessary, especially if they can do so via sexual scandal. That is the ugliness of misogynoir. Another trailblazing Black woman is Dr. Jocelyn Elders; she was appointed by President Clinton as the first Black female Surgeon General of the United States and only the second woman. Her appointment was seen as controversial. Everything this woman said was met with consternation and ridicule as though she were an uneducated, unqualified, unemployed woman from the sticks, who had been appointed to the job as a prank. Eventually, Dr. Elders had to resign because of her comments on masturbation. It is not just a matter of NIMBY (not in my neighbourhood), but it simply is a matter of being lynched and disgraced for having made it into the history books. Of course, we are today arrived at a chilling moment where racist boors like that homo-repressed jackass, Ron DeSantis go around banning Black books and there is a White tribal campaign that would like to remove Black history from the American education system altogether. Please then stop insulting us by squatting all over Jazz; positively nothing is more repugnant than having Black culture thusly violated.

**Jeremy Clarkson incites anti-Black racism against Meghan**

Another example of DailyFail’s relentless campaign to defame and incite racial animus against Meghan. Jeremy Clarkson, that ugly racist White male asshole, launches a second attack on Meghan, criticising her baby shower in New York – five years on, and positively every comment becomes an excuse for racist mere mortals to rabidly regurgitate lies and indulge in racist animus towards Meghan, the Black woman who dared to shatter the mythos of their princely fairytale.

**Harry, Meghan & The Queen royal ascot, June 2018**

No assholes, the baby shower was a way to escape the surveillance and racially predatory hellhole of courtiers and the Waleses so that plans could be put in motion – one always needs a Plan B when possessed of master numbers. Clearly, for Meghan, the experience of life at court was insufferable. The Queen did as much as she could; however, both The Queen and The Sussexes knew that there was no getting around Charles and William when she was fast en route to the crypt at St. George’s Chapel. Like a true entity mate, The Queen knew the wisdom in bestowing her blessing on The Sussexes’ union, because with little time left her, there could be no lengthy courtship. The Queen knew that were she to die, neither Charles nor William would have sanctioned the marriage of Harry and Meghan.

Pimped by gangsta playa, Snoop Dogg

So many moons later, just look at the desperate for approbation, “we are very much not a racist family” go out and lasso Snoop Dogg. Do these clowns not realise that their racism is an open secret in Hollywood, Black Hollywood most of all? Baldy tryin’ to flex and as ever, coming up short. They are racist boors and people never forget the way you made them feel or the wrong you did to them and continue to as you persist with pimping out your Fleet Street whores on the Sussexes.

Ms. Thiel’s log cabin hussy, never goes tricking without her Maybelline

Goddamn those log cabin Christian Nationalist Fascists; first they wanted closeted Mike Pence a heartbeat from the Presidency. Now, they want this pretty-eyed crossdresser with eyeliner like Elizabeth Taylor’s on the ticket. Certainly, he is not gonna set off Gaydar before November 5. What this log cabin madness has brought to the surface, is the abiding open racial animus from White Gays towards Blacks. Naturally, as Kamala did not choose Pete Buttigieg, White Gays have been pissed. Twice I was openly verbally attacked in the Gay Village for merely being on the sidewalk with my bike en route to or from a store. Come 2025, I hope that director, John Waters is able to convince J. D. Vance to star as Martha in a crossdressing musical remake of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Kamala could not for being Black and female have chosen Buttigieg as a running mate. She would readily lose centrist, Christian voters for whom Gay marriage, lifestyles and politics are a compromise that they are not able to morally address as open-minded as they see themselves.

Lena Horne Believe in Yourself 1981 Tony Awards

Another incident occurred post-Kamala’s campaign kickoff, which coincided with the 77th anniversary of Merlin’s birth, as I stood in line waiting my turn at the depanneur. Without fail, bigots emboldened by whatever they’ve seen and said on social media or on TV, they head out into the world intent on being racially predatory. Sure enough, along came Karen number 1 billion, 8 hundred million, five hundred thousand and sixty-one; just shy of six feet, she vulgarly barked down at me, “Look buddy, I was in the line first, get out of my spot!” Slowly, I turned and looked, “Yeah you, I’m talking to you!” Naturally, as she is White cisfemale, no one said fuck all, which made it my turn. “Bitch your ass is flat for a fucking reason, go the fuck home and take more cock up your fucking flat ass. Do I look like I just ate a goddamn Rodney King sandwich for fucking lunch?” Born a West Indian, I rudely sucked teeth at her and soon it was my turn to ring in my purchases. Her little scene not quite going as she had intended, the racist boor began baying blah, blah, blah, over which I loudly drowned her out by reworking the lyrics with a coloratura coda of vocalese, “What a little sunshine wouldn’t do….”

**Spiritual lightsabres and music to keep chakras, aura centred & fortified**

The Asian male cashier, acting as though the vituperative contretemps had not occurred, nervously said hello then graciously wished me a good day, as I took leave – you’re damn right, it was a fucking good day. Every goddamn day I head out my art-filled home, I will experience racial aggression in varying degrees of intensity; that is simply the state of the world and both a world and personal truth. I am also acutely aware that every goddamn day on this planet, White males in alarming numbers are on every continent, having sex with minors without little to no repercussions or media the world over addressing this sexually predatory pandemic. Somehow, this 5’4″ Afro-Sephardic Queen is being treated as though I had just humped that lunatic racist boor’s fucking chihuahua. Da fuck? Thus, I came home and had Lena Horne’s magic repel that low-vibrational ghoul and her hideously dense energy the fuck off my aura.

**Charlie Drinkwater & Doug Wilson, 1977**

Charlie Drinkwater and Doug Wilson were two of the most gloriously idyllic friends and lovers from my youth. I met Charlie when I would sneak off to The Quest disco on Yonge Street after studying at the Metropolitan library on Yonge at Asquith, I would then hightail it down to Yonge and Hayden Streets, where I danced my heart out oftentimes with Charlie. They were the loving and most nurturing role models of mine. I was not yet eighteen, when I met Charlie and years later, I would meet Doug in about 1985.

Doug came to a garden party at our Cabbagetown home with a mutual friend, who had actually set up Merlin and me on the blind date that started it all. Doug and I looked into the other’s soul, said hi, kissed, purred and our past-life bond was reaffirmed. Charlie was the first person whom I kissed who smoked cigarettes; it took some getting used to. Charlie loved foreplay and a super kisser of the rarest kind, he certainly was. Doug was the most flagrantly idealistic, gentle-souled lover imaginable. It goes without saying that he is an entity mate with whom I have shared many past lives, our late 20th century encounter being the 36th, which is a lot. Charlie and I were sharing our 19 reincarnational association in fin de siècle Toronto. Charlie, like Doug, is an artisan soul in my entity. Doug and I had a robust, casual sexual relationship, which was always about the most soul-soothing intimacy imaginable. They protected me and watched out for me in a way that was not commonplace in the Gay community. They made me feel at home by having me contribute to their passionate activism by helping to make posters for the marches and demonstrations. Also, among my role models was the actor, Errol Ramsay; the Bajan was the sweetest most kindhearted human imaginable. Thus, quite jarring it has been for me with all these persons long passed of AIDS, to currently experience the open racist hatred from twentysomething and thirtysomething White Gays.

Two days running as I did errands on my bike, I was accosted by tall aggressive bottom-looking White Gays who predatorily approached me as I rode on my bike. One told me to get the hell off the sidewalk and out of the neighbourhood. The day following, the three Gays who likely lived in the Vaseline Tower in which the depanneur is situated, aggressively made for me. One of them shoved his hand in my face as I hopped on the bike to ride it off the sidewalk. It is a very wide sidewalk and there was no one save the three of them and a few others coming towards me, and at a distance to the three Gays’ rear. “Get off the fucking sidewalk!” There was so much hatred in his tone; of course, I knew that it likely was rage at Kamala Harris not having chosen Pete Buttigieg as her running mate, Ducking my head as his right index finger came at me, I broke and hopped off my bike, and shot back. “Yeah, you want some, come on, you fucking backward-pussied, ass-eating cunt! Come on!” “Keep off the fucking sidewalk,” he shot back as they kept walking away. As though he so much as owned the damn sidewalk. “Trump’s gonna win and too bad for you,” called the blond in the middle. “Becky shut the fuck up and crawl the fuck back in your Vaseline log cabin,” I called after them as they kept walking away. The level of animus and racist aggression has since July 21, when President Biden stepped aside, is palpable; I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like in America.

Serigraph

32 x 32 Inches

Artist Proof: II/III

Provenance: da Brgha Collection.

Before he passed last August, my oldest friend and lover requested that I purchase a First Nations piece that I could use when meditating and on reflecting on his life and our abiding love. Sweet and blissful dreams my darling.

*Gubbiloutette – unfortunate looking. (Posh patois of creole origin; St. Kitts was both a French and English island).

*Jumbie fire – Jumbie is patois for ghost or occult/obeah phantoms.

*Obeah – patois for voodoo, the occult, sorcery.

Modern Jazz Quartet North Sea Jazz Festival 1982

Modern Jazz Quartet grooving the souls of the spiritually evolved.

Percy Heath – Bass

John Lewis – Piano

Milt Jackson – Vibraphone

Connie Cay – Drums

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You are to Jazz what wings are to an ostrich; what the fuck do eagles care that queer, unaware ostriches have wings?

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KARL LAGERFELD: A LINE OF BEAUTY. Met Gala 2023

14.05.202310.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most eccentric, creative geniuses of the 20th/21st centuries. This is a tribute to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Benefit, 2023. Who can forget the 90s each Saturday evening, watching Toronto’s Jeanne Beker on CityTV’s FT: Fashion Television. I always looked forward to any segment that featured the gloved, fast-talking eccentric with this fan and clipped laughter. His fashions are, of course, legendary and the Chanel suit was reborn with understated elegance thanks to him. What’s more, always in Lagerfeld’s orbit were exciting personalities and eccentrics like André Leon-Talley, Anna Piaggi, Baroness Amanda Harlech, Inès de La Fressange & the archly eccentric Isabella Blow.

This year, the Costume Institute’s Ball was co-chaired by Roger Federer, Penelope Cruz, Michaela Coel, Dua Lipa & Anna Wintour. Later this month, KARL LAGERFELD A LINE OF BEAUTY celebrates Lagerfeld’s reign as creative genius at Balmain, Patou, Chloé, Fendi & Chanel.

Yung Miami, I loved the theatricality of this costume. She carried it off handsomely, has a great personality and was escorted by the ever debonair, Diddy!

More fashion brands by the season, it would appear. Chi Ossé is a New York City Council member and his numerology suggests a lifetime in politics. I love the cut and tailoring of his bespoke attire.

Eddie Redmayne and his wife, Hannah Bagshawe are beautifully dressed; his suit’s detailing is elegantly understated and there is a lot of lines and textures going on with her Alexander McQueen, none of which outdoor each other.

Ariana DeBose though having won an Oscar for her explosive star turn in Steven Spielberg’s remark of West Side Story, earned herself no end of scorn for turning up at the 2023 BAFTA Awards and turning her performance into some ‘woke, hip hop, American affair. When are Americans going to dispense with Britons and their stinking sphinctered condescension. Beautiful gown. Love her style.

Vittoria Ceretti, is one of the next wave of catwalk goddesses strutting, vamping and leaving us all besotted. She is über chic and then some. Elegant.

Though previously ruled by the inimitable Karl Lagerfeld, Balmain is now the house of young creative genius, Olivier Rousteing. His creations are truly futuristic yet grounded in practicality, sensuality and function. Above all else, humour reigns.

New York City Ice Spice beautifully evokes Lagerfeld’s fluid style with the camera prop, which was definitely not in common use by the time of her reincarnation – whoever she last was. Love her curves and attitude. Elegant.

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Conan Gray’s existence was sheer mystery to me until he appeared, dripping of fluid style at the 2023 Met Gala. His fluidity and fan are marvellous odes to Lagerfeld, indeed.

This devastatingly handsome, phenomenally multifaceted performer, Jeremy Pope, is a joy to behold whether onscreen or onstage. Here’s to the next generation’s of sexy leading man. The Costume Institute’s ball is a theatrical event, who better to bring be this year’s showstopper. Ingenious creativity on the part of Olivier Rousteing yet again.

Usher chose to highlight the designs of a young African-American designer. As ever, he looks suave, cool and as sophisticated as crooners before him: Teddy Pendergrass, Barry White and Marvin Gaye.

Emily Adams Bode, fashion designer and next generation industry superstar. She is ethereally elegant in this pale yellow design.

Toronto Born fashion designer and activist, Aurora James, is elegant, understated; she brought some Canadian content to the Costume Institute Ball, 2023.

Isabelle Boemeke aka Isotope, young nuclear clean energy activist also attended the ball.

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Dynamic American photographer, Tyler Mitchell was stylishly elegant in an eclectic design by Bode.

Los Angeles Clippers basketball star, Russell Westbrook arrived in a colourful but subdued, was part of the collection of athletes in attendance.

NFL championship quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany arrived outfitted in BOSS designs.

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Coming on strong, the devastatingly dashing Italian tennis player, Matteo Berrettini serves up nothing but aces in this superb Boss suit.

Columbian heartthrob, singer, entertainer, Maluma turned out looking elegantly fluid in this Boss ensemble. I still do not get the appeal of tattoos but there you have it.

What would a costume ball be without Queens turning up and boy does Mary J. Blige deliver show stopping theatrical style.

The riveting actor, Jodie Comer turned up kitted in Burberry and looking every bit the thespian.

British born, BAFTA award winning actor, Naomi Ackie seems to have been the only attendee whose Burberry outfit was not the current deep dark blue and black schemata.

British model, Liberty Ross and her American music producer husband, Jimmy Iovine showed up rockign Burberry.

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BAFTA Award winner for best supporting actor, 2023, Barry McKeoghan came through wearing the blue and black Burberry of the season.

Burna Boy, one of three African kings rolled up in Burberry.

Up next, Skepta full of style and swagger as ever.

Completing the troika, the most dynamically charismatic Stormzy, the third of the African kings.

A man of exceeding charm and cool, Dr. Dre rounds out the Burberry brigade.

Britney Griner & Cherelle Griner were delightful – so glad her adventure turned out handsomely – Both were rocking bespoke Calvin Klein.

African model, Adut Akech brings her warm beauty to the proceedings, owning her Carolina Herrera gown.

Anna Wintour & Bill Nighy walk the red carpet at the Costume Ball.

Andy Roddick & Brooklyn Decker; she is pitch perfect… lovely.

Angéle, Belgian singer, goes for an edgier more avant-garde approach; it works.

Film producer, Fabiola Beracasa Beckman’s approach was mature and elegant.

The Brazilian amazon, Gisele Bündchen, went for a gorgeous vintage Chanel affair that did not disappoint.

Eaddy Kiernan Bunzel’s, Vogue contributing editor, approach was sleek, elegant and it came together beautifully. Gotta love those shoes!

The One! The Icon! Queen. Naomi pulled out another vintage design; She was stunning…. but of course.

TV producer and philanthropist, Christine Chiu, handsomely pulled out all the stops! #BAM

Seemingly, a funny thing happened on the way to the ball for Marion Cotillard… The hair? Whatever.

Bollywood meets little red riding hood and who else but powerhouse, co-chair Penelope Cruz can winningly pull this look off. Fabulous!

I am reminded of Irina Shayk’s leather outfit at last year’s Met Gala by Lily James’s black leather ball gown. Wow!

Chameleon Nicole Kidman wore the dress that featured in her Chanel perfume ad back in the naughties directed by Bazz Luhrmann. As ever, stylish, cool and elegant.

Korean singer/rapper Jennie Kim went for a edgy girly/sex kitten look. Cool!

Everybody’s Queen, living her best life and proving an inimitable inspiration to us all. Lizzo rocks the glamour of Chanel pearls and comes up winning as always.

Another co-chair, Dua Lipa, opted for Chanel and it worked beautifully. One very stunning woman and look at that Tiffany & Co necklace.

Baroness Dambisa Moyo was elegant in a Chanel with colours that a reminiscent of African fabrics. Elegant.

90s catwalk Queen, Carolyn Murphy came out rocking that amazing yellow, layered tulle affair. Her presence brought back some sweet memories of the 90s.

Canadian actor, Whitney Peak, magically pulled off the bejewelled flapper decked in tulle and diaphanous cloud of white. She was a dreamy vision of beauty.

Gossip Girl castmate of Whitney’s, Margaret Qualley, nicely pulled off the ballet ribbons and short cocktail dress, even at the Met Gala it worked beautifully.

The most exciting actor of her generation, Margot Robbie always seems on the cusp of explosive, infectious laughter. Elegant. Sophisticated.

Lauren Santo Domingo, maverick, editor and philanthropist was coolly elegant, especially so when being unintentionally photo-bombed by Lil Nas X’s painted arse.

Kristen Stewart’s turn as Diana, Princess of Wales was one of greatest revelations to say nothing of a truly commanding performance. Elegantly, this artist disappears into her roles and, more importantly, her private life is a non-negotiable.

Baroness Amanda Harlech turned up to pay respect to Karl Lagerfeld, wearing a Chanel haute couture gown which I am almost certain she modelled when his muse and later working for Lagerfeld after having been introduced by André Leon Talley as a result of a fallout with the astounding creative genius, John Galliano.

Who else but Cardi B. can stick her mile-long nails into cucumber and swirl it about a plate of gravy, sopping it up and then get that slice of cucumber into her mouth without disturbing her flawless lipstick? No one beats Cardi B. that’s who. Always, she is a welcome and refreshing sight.

Maude Apatow’s appearance was more elegant relative to last year. I do not know her work as an actor but she a quiet dignity that is readily admirable.

Vanessa Kirby to date has turned in one of the two three acting turns on Netflix’s The Crown. Her turn as Princess Margaret was riveting and totally engrossing. What a thoroughly fascinating actor and she looks damn good here too.

Though this actor’s personal life seems to have taken up permanent residence in the tabloids over the past 1.5 years, I have no idea what her acting chops are like. Not because of lack of interest, as a lucid dreamer, the less I look at films and TV the less intrusion there is on my dreamlife’s integrity. This though is a rather beautiful Chloé dress chosen by Olivia Wilde.

Margaret Zhan, Editor-in-Chief Vogue China and other impressive accomplishments aside, this star turn at the Met ball was impressive. I love her dress.

Choupette!

Jared Leto as Choupette & Karl Lagerfeld whom he will portray in upcoming biopic.

Karen Elson’s Christian Siriano dress seems slightly to have missed the mark; will she be invited back?

Ava Max’s cottony confection is a truly delicious indulgence worth pursuing.

Something tells me this woman doesn’t get out much. One does not wear a goddamn hat and certainly not one to rival Nicki Minaj’s Yosemite Sam’s affair from last year to an evening event. Come on Alex Newell. Just no!

Darling, it’s called a tea cosy, it’s not meant to be worn to a ball. Grace Elizabeth on the tail end of her 15 minutes. Next!

Gabriella Karefa-Johnson clearly did not get the memo; white next to mounds of rolling fat is not slimming. Clearly, she does not have a stylist.

Actor Alexandra Daddario opted for a pale, layered Dior and it actually beautifully works.

The ever elegant Miranda Kerr swanned to the ball in an ethereal white Dior.

Vogue marketing editor, Alexandra Michler Kopelman shows off her baby bump and expectant glow, both shown off in a beautiful two-toned Dior.

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Costume Institute Ball co-chair, Roger Federer was exceptionally refined in Dior attire.

The man with the best ‘whatever’ attitude to life circumstances, Pete Davidson exudes his unmatched cool in masterfully cut Dior.

Hey you only live once in each lifetime. I’m loving the audacity but if it were me, I would have opted for some silver talons hauts; the nails are truly next-level glam. Bravo!

Like his ex, Kristen Stewart, there is so much that’s mysterious about Robert Pattinson. He is, though, a stunning actor and beautifully attired here in Dior.

English actor, Harris Dickinson is decidedly tall and unmistakable in his Dunhill gear. I am not in the least familiar with his acting chops.

Scotsman, James McAvoy who packs serious metal, came admirably attired with a fan in an homage to Karl Lagerfeld. A winner all around, of course and he is wearing Dunhill at that.

Glenn Close always goes big and this year’s Met Gala found her in her element. She was escorted by designer Erdem Moralıoğlu whose elegant design she wore.

Fendi creative director Kim Jones, is also joined by Fendi family director of Jewellery design (r) Silvia Venturini & Delfina Delettrez. They are on a work assignment; they are not there to look glam.

Suki Waterhouse attended with her lover, Robert Pattinson in a flowery Fendi that was both cool and breezy.

Uma Abedin returns this year in a glorious Fendi design which along with hair, makeup and earrings is pure flawless elegance.

Eva Chen’s silver and green with matching green opera gloves are Audrey Hepburn chic; this colour combination actually works and beautifully set off glowing complexion.

Gwendoline Christie flesh-toned gown does her no favours. This colour next to her pale complexion renders her almost invisible. Stylist fail.

Yet, again, this Korean actress does not put a foot wrong in the style department. Song Hye-kyo is always elegant.

Precious Lee chose handsomely when opting for this Fendi design. It is flattering of her commanding presence and both elegant and restrained in all the right proportions. Stunning woman and the black leather opera gloves only add to her fierceness; she is gifted and self-aware model.

Kate Moss and daughter, Lila Moss were demure in their pale pink Fendi outfits.

Christina Ricci is chameleon; she is a boss. Lovely Fendi design.

Sometimes, you only need one Hadid to bring it. Gigi definitely came through in this memorable Givenchy design.

What a difference a year makes, and some Disney funding, Halle Bailey this year has scored a style coup in Gucci design. Showtime!

I positively love every film this Oscar winning actor stars in. Jessica Chastain’s Gucci is flawless.

Though not familiar with the British actor’s work, Daisy Edgar-Jones’ Gucci here is daring without being risqué; she’s on point.

By far, one of my favourite couples: great actor, gorgeous model whose their chemistry is sizzling. Dapper and ever debonair, he is handsome to her cool intoxicating beauty.

Three-time Emmy award winner, Julia Garner, is fittingly commanding in this caped Gucci ensemble.

Like Viola Davis and Angela Bassett, Salma Hayek has been cheated out of a deserved best actress Oscar for her star turn in Frida. That notwithstanding, she remains the most ravishing film actor of her generation and always a joy to behold on or offscreen.

Show the children how it’s done, Jordan Roth. Why it is so difficult to stand on the red carpet and not be pigeon-toed? Sienna Miller and others take note. Seriously!

Congratulations to the G.O.A.T Serena Williams on the good news of adding to her beautiful family with Alexis Ohanian. As ever, Serena looks marvellous.

Bad Bunny is the moment. Bad Bunny is hopping! Style and so much more!

Kylie Jenner brings the glam factor wherever she vamps. This is a beautiful Jean-Paul Gaultier design.

I’ve not really seen Yara Shahidi walk the red carpet before; I don’t know if it is just a matter of her being a face but this design and her body are not harmonised. Then again it could just be me and the fact that her right foot has triggered my number one pet peeve, it is sickled in.

Devon Aoki, that most exotic of oiseaux, walks the Met Gala 2023 carpet with designer Jeremy Scott whose design she clearly here favours.

Carla Bruni had the gall to diss Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on her IG page then quickly pulled it down and featured Prince Harry’s SPARE shortly afterwards and offered a review that haemorrhaged obsequiousness partout. Of course, it did not go either unnoticed or unchallenged by yours truly. The blasted, vile depilated macaque Couchon. You don’t like Blacks… Fuck You!

That’s right, keep doing your Icarian turn, Cara Delevingne; no one can ever resist a delicious slice of schadenfreude…

Caroline Lebar, team Karl Lagerfeld honcho, coming through owing the place and spreading her light.

Amber Valletta, another 90s catwalk champ; always good to see her.

Survivor. Legend. Boss. Diane von Fürstenberg. G.O.A.T that’s who!

Last year, in her Prabal Gurung pink outfit, Michelle Yeoh was not only a standout but she had winner written all over her aura. And just like that, she returns to Met Gala having become the first Asian to win best actress Oscar. Go Lady! Always, she is exceptionally elegant.

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Bryan Tree Henry got the memo. Go big or go home! Solid!

Alton Mason ain’t funning. This gorgeous star means business. This was one of the most beautiful costumes on the night. This is a Lagerfeld bride that gives Claudia Schiffer a run for her dimpled gorgeousness.

Oh my darlings, it’s the deliciously arousing Manu Rios back to keep our pulses racing. Gosh but he’s delightful.

African-American beauty queen turned actress, Rachel Smith, was a regal vision in a smoky silver strapless Lavin.

Then along came that delightful amazon, Karlie Kloss in a long black Loewe sheath. Her jewellery was spot-on and unlike Kim Kardashian’s, her pearls did work. The bowed shoes handsomely added to her allure.

Nichapat Suphap contributing editor for Vogue Thailand was smartly elegant in her black opera gloves to set off the black and white Louis Vuitton gown.

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Sino-Korean Hong Kong rapper, Jackson Wang, did not disappoint when it came to delivering his trademak style and swagger. Gorgeous.

Curvaceous model, Paloma Elsesser arrived on the arm of the designer Raul Lopez whose LUAR designed her très chic gown.

John Galliano, creative director Maison Margiela. Genius. Visionary. Shaman.

Great-granddaughter of John Paul Getty, Ivy Getty models and focusses on chiefly being an artist. For Met Gala 2023, Ivy chose this exquisitely elegant one-shouldered, tulle-covered Maison Margiela grown with multiple tassels of dripping sable-toned fringe. Details. Details. Details.

TKF Twigs, like Jennifer Lopez, one always get the feeling that at some point FKA Twigs will resume relations with Robert Pattinson. Time will tell. As with Ivy Getty’s design, there is a lot of details in this masterfully constructed design. These are the designs of a truly master couturier and that John Galliano has always been and remains. So very good to see his creative genius having a home to flourish. John Galliano is as equally eccentric and just as ravishing a creative genius as was Karl Lagerfeld.

Fiery Brazilian singer, Anitta, came through in a sculptural Marc Jacob designs with contrasting white opera gloves and the most handsome Tiffany & Co. diamond necklace with sizeable ruby pendant. Yes!

At long last, Paris Hilton is a mum and looking just as ‘hot’ as ever. I could not believe that during her interview with La La Anthony, she declared that it was her first time at the Met Gala. She looked beyond elegant whilst being walked by Marc Jacobs in his eponymous designs.

Giving Kylie a run for her money, Kendall Jenner arrived taller than usual in a shimmering minimal design by Marc Jacobs. How she and Paris Hilton managed those heels is a true mystery.

Kim Petras’s Marc Jacobs design was a bit too busy and crunched at the bustier. Just as long as she wasn’t with that triffling they/them/it/other blob was just fine. Besides, the Met is not about the alarmingly drab.

Ew! You bred with that? Georgina Chapman in Marchesa. Moving right along.

Erykah Badu doing Erykah Badu; I should think that her shadow has grown bored by now. Thankfully, no shadow has had to hang around moored to a put-through appendage for centuries… so there’s that.

David Byrne pulls up on a white bike and what’s not to love? He sports an eye-searing white bespoke suit from Martin Greenfield of Brooklyn as only he can carry off cool.

Michael Kors in Michael Kors; of course, the best dressed men always wear shades.

You can always count on Emily Blunt to bring on the hold Hollywood glamour; the lace is everything. Elegant.

Artist (singer/actor) Kaitlyn Dever decided to set pulses racing in this dramatic red gown and work it did. What a truly stunning gown.

Vanessa Hudgens came through laying on the glamour with a serious side order of sexy; that train and the eyes are fierce.

Lea Michele has survived much and still standing she does rather elegantly. Stunning; just look at that shower of shimmering metallic silver.

The very versatile actor, Ashley Park, evokes the old Hollywood glamour vibe and beautifully so.

Actor/producer, Kerry Washington’s look at last year’s Met Gala was more dramatic than her look this season. I rather favour her Tory Burch drama gown from last year to this fishtail gown. Either way, she is as ever stunning; her smoky eyes and that choker are everything.

Emma Chamberlain, internet phenom, wore a faux two-piece Miu Miu in powder blue.

Sydney Sweeney, young versatile American actor with the dreamiest eyes, wore not surprisingly a dreamy pastel Miu Miu affair.

Ashley Graham, another model, effectively used by designers to best ‘walk’ their designs at the Costume Institute Ball’s red carpet. Obviously, as arrangements go, it is a win win. I personally do not like the look of fishtail but this Nina Ricci design’s colour schemata against Graham’s tawny complexion works beautifully.

This Oscar de la Renta design chosen by Lily Aldrige is far superior than her Kaithe design worn at Met Gala 2022. The elegance of this off the shoulder affair cannot be denied. The contrasting giant salmon bow and train may, though, be distracting.

Every time I see her, I am readily disinclined to become focussed on either her or her music. Even her ode to Choupette is off; why not choose a design from one of the houses with which Karl Lagerfeld was associated. For me, she never draws you in and I have no idea what her music is like, old fossil that I am becoming. Her feline prosthetics and makeup are spot-on.

Though this is a very beautiful design worn by gifted actor, Amanda Seyfried, sorry, I just can’t get past the pigeon-toed pose. How does this daft archly gauche pose ever look good to either photographer or subject? Beautiful colour, the cut is superb and her hair is gloriously styled.

Allison Williams, American actor/scream queen, is elegantly presented in this ode to couturier, Karl Lagerfeld in this beautiful Patou design. I love the cut and colour.

Alia Bhatt, Indo-British actor, is beautifully turned out in this Met Gala favourite designer Prabal Gurung design. The shimmering princess ball gown of white tulle is ethereally chic.

Quinta Brunson nova onto the TV cosmos, bagging Emmy awards along the way. I do believe that this is her first Met Gala. Sheer black overtop creamy pink with matching two-toned train works handsomely.

After last year’s powder blue princess, tulled affair, also by Prabal Gurung, Quannah Chasinghorse has opted this year for an edgier look and this time in pink. I suppose that I am more partial to last years look, as here was more southwest jewellery on display then. Perhaps, it is the opera gloves but then lend an air of punk which may not have been the intention; nonetheless, love her energy.

Yellowstone actress, Kelsey Asbille Chow cuts a dramatic figure with her fire engine red Prabal Gurung with train. So who exactly doesn’t like a garter?

Rita Ora and her haute exoticism looked truly drop-dead gorgeous in this double-trained black number.

Gorgeous African model Anok Yai is all that and lots more. Loving the dark shades adding more drama to her fringe and gold bustier Prabal design.

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Taika Waititi is boldly debonair in this long flowing smoky gray coat with double stranded pearls and more confidence than a can of sardines. The man is damn fine.

Gabrielle Union has always been a favourite actor of mine; she is so readily engage from role to role. She really earned a major supporter in me when she and her dashing husband, Dwayne Wade, spoke very passionately at the NAACP Awards this year in support of their MTF daughter, Trans and LGBTQ+ rights. These is nothing demure about an extra thick red leather coat atop red gown with tail. Bravo!

Maya Hawke, actor daughter of Uma Thurman & Ethan Hawke, in this pose looks no dissimilar to a young Shirley MacLaine. That aside, I love the white-on-white look and the feathery details plus train nicely carries it off.

British actor, Letitia Wright is one of these born somnambulant Blacks who are forever grateful for being over lorded by the god of what is clearly one’s enemy’s religion. Trust you me, if it were that important, you would not be afforded access to their religion, anymore than a Black is afforded a best actress Oscar. Her choice of Prada design merely betrays how self-restrained her perceptions. All alas is choice.

This woman swans through life, being feared/adored for being a moneyed Jew but she will never be nothing more than a vile anti-Black racist. One does not forget! All the moneyed men in the world and she will never rise above the repugnant conceit that had her sat for that pose.

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Coming on strong, it’s none other than Chinese singer/dancer/rapper, Kai Xu Kun. What’s not to love, we share the same birthday! Beautifully attired, love the jewellery, coat’s detailing and those Prada shoes are everything.

Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury will standout in time as one of the best biopic performances in cinema. Clean, unfussy elegance.

Kodi Smit-McPhee’s appearance this year soars stratospherically above his Met Gala 2022 appearance. The shoes and the blue detailing are restrained… elegant.

Broadway actor, Jeremy Strong successfully transitioned to TV and in the process won himself Golden Globe & Emmy Awards for his turn on Succession. There’s flair but he is a man with a family to support and seemingly not the slightest focussed on celebrity. Admirable.

Dwayne wade continues to impress and inspire millions. Tall, dark, devastatingly handsome, he drips nobility of spirit like no one else. His is such a beautifully cut coat. Fabulous human.

Was anyone else wearing Ralph Lauren? Does even matter? Jennifer Lopez looked regal and hers was the only fascinator/hat worn to an evening event which proved not to be a faux pas. Jennifer was the moment at this year’s Met Gala 2023. The lines, the fabrics, the colour co-ordination all made for the most handsomely elegant look. Queen!

Grammy Award-winning, Broadway/TV singer/actor, Julliard alumna, Phillipa Soo showed up. That’s all that matters, love the riot of black and white getting it on for a handsome design for Richard Quinn. Go Mama!

Eileen Gu’s Robert Wun red polka dots design is not what I expected of an explosive athlete. She looks beautifully poised and elegant.

This is a massive turnaround, after that unaware indulgent horror at the 2023 Oscars, TEMS does not here commit a fashion faux pas, as these feathery tendrils though fascinator, do not obstruct and look glaringly out of place. Will she ever live down her Oscars appearance? Lips, nose, eyes, brows, love her look and the feathers at the bustier, plus the fishnet face veil do it for me; she has the most alluring eyes. I want those opera gloves… Keep doing you, Darling.

Model/Actor Camila Morrone came through rocking her Rodarte design: lace, velvet, slight fishtail and train. Sensational!

Always stylish, Alexa Chung opted from an eclectic design that’s both busy and avant garde. What does it matter, it’s Alexa that’s who and it works.

Chinese model, He Cong comes on strong. This is an awesome outfit.

Ghanian-British actor/filmmaker, Michaela Coel is also co-chair of this year’s Met Gala. Her diaphanous cocoa design by Schiaparelli nicely sets off her gorgeous complexion. Her cornrows are exquisite and those golden heels are perfecton. Love her, simply stunning!

Well, much like her relationship with her escort last year, her beading did not hold up too well. Ms. Kardashian has looked way more stunning at past Met Galas.

Natasha Poonawalla, India’s vaccine Queen, showed up in a futuristic mirrored Schiaparelli and cast shards of her light partout.

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Jordan Roth is Showbiz incarnate. And boy does he know how to infuse the right dash of drama into his theatricality. Go on, show them how it’s done. What better ode to Karl Lagerfeld could there be than being a human fan; hands down best dressed attendee at Met Gala 2023.

Diddy arrived representing Sean Jean with the grandest gestures. What was most refreshing was him grabbing the black battery operated fan from production as he chatted with hostess, La La Anthony who was a gorgeous vision in white. God was she light years more sophisticated than last year. Brilliant. Back to Diddy, the black on black on black is divine.

La La Anthony’s praises I cannot sing enough. This year’s chosen design knocked it out of the park, relative to last years design which left her looking shorter and it was way too busy and the hat was just so wrong. Not to knock Derek Blasberg but La La Anthony by far was the better host this year. Go on Lady, rock it!

Comedic actor, Rachel Brosnahan came through in cape, starburst pasties all in black with come hither eye makeup. Rather alluring.

Singer/comedic actor, Keke Palmer came through in a strapless multi-beaded column gown accompanied by a billowing powder blue and mauve cape. She looked marvellous.

Julia Carey also chose a swirling geometric Simkhai and did not put a foot wrong, right down to being accompanied by her charming partner, James Corden who opted for a brilliant blue jacket to match his cool.

Mindy Kaling made a massive revolution in her Met Gala appearance this year over last year when she chose a Prabal Gurung design. Accompanied by Jonathan Simkhai, An intricate layered design, there is a lot happening here; most of all, Kaling looks light years more body confident and this photograph does not do justice to the amount of weight loss that she’s successfully shed. Simply stunning.

Billie Eilish opted to attend in a Simone Rocha design that looked better suited to a themed gathering at Halloween. Perhaps, my taken on her look is coloured by the fact that simply do not get the draw of this artist.

Model Imaan Hammam chose a sleek white column with train Standing Ground design. The stark white handsomely set off her tawny complexion and gave added drama to her amazing locks.

Designer Stella McCartney wore a beaded black jacket/mini dress with dramatic leggings and chunky footwear as she walked with Madelyn Cline & Audrey Plaza.

Actor Madelyn Cline opted for a gun-metal gray and black strapless sheath with modest train as she walked in with Stella McCartney.

Quirky actor, Audrey Plaza, I believe that her social behaviour is chiefly rooted in her personal vibrational dynamics than anything else. Interesting design they are not standouts, this speaks more to the design elements rather than not.

Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and his wife Catherine Martin came fully kitted in Thom Browne (he at least did) and looked marvellous for it.

As with last year’s Met Gala, Thom Browne was heavily represented this year, starting with Korean model, So-Ra Choi. Hers was a massive oversized coat which asymmetrically draped about her body in heavy fabric, all of which was winningly capped off with a black fishnet face veil which nicely highlighted her heavy lipsick. Powerful.

Writer, Amy Fine Collins, 30-year veteran at Vanity Fair Magazine came with the general black & white theme with stabs of red a braided hairstyle that matched the ribbing in her beautiful Thom Browne skirt.

The ever fluid Janelle Monae chose another oversized jacket/coat dress with its hoop exposed. Then, darlings, she moved the coat from atop the hooping and began vogueing with the malleable hoop exposing her body-hugging outfit. She like Amy Fine Collins opted for a dog bag that completed the little girl in adult clothing theme to this masterfully cut Thom Browne designs.

Disney alumna, Jenna Ortega, has that magical aura which allows her to convincingly inhabit whatever role she is focussed in. Here, her costume is evocative of the swashbuckling pirate thanks to the sweep of her train and her confident swagger.

Bella Ramsey’s pose more than her costume is the winning photograph. She seems as though a mere child wide awake at the ball, neither groggy nor fazed. She is stunningly august-souled.

Another Disney alumna, whose matured into a pop princess, is Olivia Rodrigo whose costume is utterly marvellous. Love Thom Browne’s use of prime colours black and white and the range of combinations are incredible. Ms. Rodrigo is seriously fabulous…. what a great dress.

Not really classic tweed, there is something about the fibres and fabric that’s evocative of another age. The tailoring, the ribbing, the oversized stitches, to say nothing of the fishnet face veil are all winners. The real standouts are the exposed hips compensating for the monochromatic gloves is an ingenious detail that successfully works, especially so on singer, Teyana Taylor.

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Athlete Shai Gilgeous-Alexander brings it in this elegantly cut Thom Browne where white rather than black predominates. Gorgeous ensemble.

African Writer and entertainer, Trevor Noah looked decidedly handsome in his cornrows and the usual innocent smirk.

Pusha T. sports the rapper’s signature cornrows which nicely complements his two-toned Thom Browne suit.

Here’s a rather straight forward Thom Browne outfit being worn by actor Alexander Skarsgård.

The master himself, designer Tom Ford adding commanding power, style and elegance to the costume ball.

Pierce Brosnan wears Tom Ford whilst his beautiful wife, Keely Shaye Smith, is adorned in Monique LHuillier. Gosh she’s glamourous.

Next up, Seth Meyers and wife, Alexi Ashe. He definitely is attired in Tom Ford, she though I’m not certain of.

The always elegant, Joan Smalls brings her light and glamour to the gathering. Who doesn’t look sensational in black lace? Smashing!

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Always expect Bradley Cooper to be among the most stylish at any gathering. Suave and elegant.

Dee & Tommy Hilfiger appropriately attired in Tommy Hilfiger. Still going strong.

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NFL wide receiver, Stefon Diggs looking ever bit like a power athlete. Handsome man in a very beautifully cut suit.

Singer Jack Harlow returns to the Met Gala, looking even more dashing than last year. Here he does look like the subject of a 17th century Flemish painting.

Tory Burch of her eponymous design house came through as last year, looking next-level poised and glamourous. That is a very beautiful dress.

Indie folk Queen, Phoebe Bridgers wore one of the more elegant designs of Met Gala 2023. The beading and shoulder details evoke flapper/Edwardian glamour.

Emily Rajatkowski, of course, showed up. I think that I am being to get this human. This design is a bit understated for her ‘out there’ persona; it is beautiful.

Model Liu Wen, chose wisely. Off the shoulder, bouquet of white roses wrapped in a black column, black opera gloves capped off by perfect makeup.

What a difference a year makes. Just look at Nicole Peltz Beckham. She has so grown into her role of being on the world stage and a recognised actor. She glows, is more relaxed and clearly comfortable in her skin. They are genuinely a couple, Brooklyn looks ever more comfortable being her plus one. Her black ribbon choker is everything.

Go Priyanka! The Citadel is some serious chops! The white opera gloves and Nick Jonas’s leather jacket, to say nothing of the Bulgari necklace beautifully complement their synergy.

Rhianna and A$AP Rocky have graced the costume ball this year… and she is yet again expectant and it shows. Rhianna always seems to be most comfortable at the Met Gala and enjoying herself.

EGOT(Emmy Grammy Oscar & Tony) Viola Davis is coming through that’s who. No one does pink and red like Valentino and no one wears colours better than the masterful actor, Viola.

Oscar-nominated actor, Stephanie Hsu presented a beautiful interpretation on Hollywood Glamour, which in the age of gender fluidity was celebrated with the tie’s inclusion. This dress was magnificent.

Another actor at the Costume Ball, Florence Pugh certainly brought that drama in a headdress that worked at night for its theatricality and much reminded of delightful Poppy Delevingne’s blue feather fascinated worn at Jack Brooksbank and Princess Eugenie’s delightful wedding. Pugh’s black fascinator was nicely set off by the floor length black ribbon that kept her business in check as this seemed to want to spill out from the exquisite white gown with train.

Designer Vera Wang attended in a design that light and airy; mostly tulle there was an ode to Karl Lagerfeld with the use of an oversized pearl-like necklace and his first name on ther train.

Actor Lily Collins wore a black and white version of Vera’s gown with Karl’s name on the black rather than pale train.

Donatella wore a beaded pink column that was minimalist and elegant.

Actor Anne Hathaway, who rarely does events like these, looked radiant as ever in a pearl ribbing trained gown that was a clear ode to Karl Lagerfeld.

Charlotte Tilbury wore a jade green Versace which handsomely set off her healthy red mane. Exuberant.

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Sino-Canadian actor, Simu Liu looked naturally refined in this snug Versace; love those shoes.

Vivienne Westwood 8/4/1941<O>29/12/2022 Snake 8.3.9 = 2

Actor Elle Fanning, who attended Vivienne Westwood’s London memorial February past along with Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, Anna Wintour, Chryssie Hynde, the ever bewitching Lily Cole, Bob Goldof, Bianca Jagger, Zhandra Rhodes, Edward Eninnful, Vanessa Redgrave, Bella Freud, Marchioness of Bath Emma Thynn, Stormzy, Twiggy, Marc Jacobs, Farida Kelfa, Yasmin, Amber & Simon Le Bon, Erdem Moralioglu, Tracy Emin, Paloma Faith & Alexa Chung. Elle’s floral crown and bouquet is a fitting tribute to the departed creative genius, Karl Lagerfeld.

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Finneas O’Connell always looks Straight outta the closet as he hides out in this Vivienne Westwood coat.

Chloe Fineman did a horrible job of hosting the red carpet at Met Gala 2023 along with the unflappable Derek Blasberg who did his elegant best to make sure that none of that shit got on his shoes. Her Jackson Wiederhoeft was chic and understated, all eclipsed by her deplorable social skills on the evening.

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Broadway star, Ben Platt was memorable in his white with black trimming suit proved a smash.

Unlike last Met Gala’s leather clad dominatrix chic, this year, Irina Shayk went for a totally different approach and opted for Yohji Yamamoto’s ethereal white design.

Hugh Jackman here is attired in Zegna, his wife, Deborah-Lee Furness’s attire I never discovered. As ever, the partners always look blissfully harmonious. Elegant.

NOTABLE

Agnes Chiu, president Entertainment, Condé Nast & Tom Gilmore also attended the Costume Institute Ball. All these notables are here gathered as their outfits’ designers were not readily found anywhere. Look good they did nonetheless.

When you mum is Anna Wintour, you are going to show up. The lovely Bee Corrozzini and filmmaker partner, Francesco were cool, relaxed, adding the wow factor to the evening.

Everyone’s favourite crooner, Josh Groban, who currently stars on Broadway, arrived with Natalie McQueen, tatts and all. He’s marvellously attired… smooth as ever.

Willow Bay & Bob Iger turned up in honour of Karl Lagerfeld. Gosh her gown is next-level fabulous whilst he kept it real in Karl Lagerfeld sneakers.

Kargo Global CEO, Harry Kargman and partner Jill Kargman attended the Costume Institute Ball celebration of Karl Lagerfeld’s creative genius. She looks marvellous.

Condé Nast CEO, Roger Lynch & partner Cathleen Lynch attended this year’s Met Gala. Her dark blue gown is supremely elegant.

Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri & partner Monica Mosseri graced the evening with their dignified presence. There is a lot of detailing her her dark elegant attired nicely complemented by the black opera gloves.

Grace Murdoch and her mum, Wendi Deng Murdoch attended the affair in beautiful pastel gowns looking ethereal with mum anchored by that exquisite necklace.

Tony-nominated (win it) Wendell Pierce stepped away from starring on Broadway to attend the evening’s Gala. He was joined by the chic, Erika Woods. Good luck, June 11th Mr. Pierce!

Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman was accompanied by the shimmering Christine Schwarzman in a gold one-shouldered gown. Glamourous… mais oui!

Charles Shaffer, Anna Wintour’s son and partner Elizabeth Cordry bringing their warm glamour to the ball.

Entertainment executive, Casey Wasserman & partner Jennifer Chandler brought their warmth and glamour to the ball.

Adrienne E. Adams, speaker of the New York City Council attended the ball in a beautiful single shoulder lace affair. Elegant with a most warm beautiful smile.

Dr. Lisa Airan attended in a beautiful yellow flowing gown, radiating her light. Beautiful earrings.

Model Montana Cox breezed through in a minimalist lean black sheath.

She’s just a Broadway Baby! Yeah, Micaela Diamond is coming through that’s who. Currently, on Broadway in Parade, she wore an exquisite lilac gown to the ball.

Vogue & Teen Vogue director, Lisa Love was chic in vintage coat dress attire. Refine.

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Broadway Tony-nominated actor, Jonathan Groff came through with a touch of theatricality to his suit and looked every inch the winner.

Well, of course, Vogue creative editorial director Mark Guiducci would attend the glamourous ball. The white tie was sublime.

Two-time Emmy-nominated E! presenter and Variety executive, Marc Malkin came through and did not disappoint in his red carpet turn at this year’s Met Gala. From the tie, to jacket to nails, he wore dignified iconic style like a pro.

Norwegian billionaire, Gustav Magnar Witzoe must be the obsession of every latter day Andrew Cunanan, working the 1% sugar daddy circuit. Gustav, of course, is a model… no shit! Darling… does it even matter if it is not art?

Karl was many things beyond eccentric and creative genius of he highest order; he was also the godfather to Hudson Kroenig who along with Choupette has inherited the majority of his vast fortune. Sweet and blissful dreams Karl; thank you for having grace this world with your stellar magic. No not adieu, à la prochaine!

Hand in Hand – Mulgrew Miller Full Album 1993

1. Grew’s Tune

2. For Those Who Do

3. Thinkin’ Out Loud

4. Leilani’s Leap

5. Like The Morning

6. Hand In Hand

7. Return Trip

8. Waltz For Monk

9. Neither Here Nor There

Christian McBride – Bass

Lewis Nash – Drums

Joe Henderson – Tenor Saxophone

Eddie Henderson – Trumpet, Flugelhorn

Mulgrew Miller – Piano

Kenny Garrett – Soprano & Alto Saxophones

Steve Nelson – Vibraphone

This past week, I had the most lucid of dreams; this was decidedly beyond the norm. It was set at the cosy intimate funkiness of the Village Vanguard; this reanimation was, though, set on the astral plane. As in all astral plane-focussed dreams, the basement Jazz club had ridiculously high vaulted ceilings and the ambiance in the place seemed millennia old. Everyone here was of 9 strand DNA heritage and the most refined of souls. I sat at a deuce, alone, nursing a glass of Henny and smoking a decent Cohiba. Onstage the divinely gifted astral plane habitué Mulgrew Miller was alone, playing the most mind-altering Jazz not often heard this side of the dreamtime. I drew on a quickened breath as walking to join me was Merlin; he wore a panama hat and a parrot brooch, both favourites of his and his loose slacks were held in place with suspenders. What was different here, was Merlin looked as he did in the life prior to being reborn in Toronto. In that life, Merlin was born creole (high yellow) in Louisiana and made his way to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance; he was an amateur Jazz musician. He sat, put his arm around me and we kissed; it had been too long since I had felt such quiet ecstasy on kissing a lover most rare. Just like that, I awoke and began flooding my art-filled home with Mulgrew Miller’s Hand in Hand.

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As ever, life is like a flying dream; if you look down, you’re fucked. Enjoy the ride and fear no one!

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Theft of the American Crown Jewels…

10.04.202310.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

These are America’s Crown Jewels.

1. Cambodian Crown Jewels, British Art Dealer 2. Koh-i-Noor Diamond, Imperial State Crown of UK 3. Benin Bronzes, British Museum 4. Elgin Marbles, British Museum

Like the Cambodian Crown Jewels, the Kohinoor, the Benin Bronzes and the Elgin Marbles, the rapacious barbarians of the island kingdom must have them. If it is of value then it is theirs for the taking as it has been for 1.5 millennia, most especially so for the last century with regards American awards and the last half millennium through enslavement of African peoples, the spoils of Apartheid at the dehumanising expense of South Africa’s millennia aged original inhabitants. Justifying that rape and pillage has occurred with a reanimation of Brahminism.

When Will Smith walked onstage at the 94th Academy Awards and slapped Chris Rock; he kicked opened the doors for a sea-change; however, at the time, no one could quite perceive the event for the golden opportunity it actually is. Within days of the shocking event, the violent Black man who to that point had the squeakiest image in Hollywood, at least for a Black man, was dealt with. The Academy board of governors decided to ban Will Smith from appearing at the Oscars for ten years.

Back in the autumn of 1983, Merlin and I were holding up in actor, Joe Morton’s Upper West Side one-bedroom apartment that looked south. It was there that we took vows and became committed to each other until one of us passed… we kept those vows. Joe was off in England filming a television series whilst I nursed an injury caused when in a nasty car crash. We looked at a lot of film from Joe’s library, one of which was Black Orpheus. One evening, Merlin cooked a chicken paprikash and had two other couples over, both Black. There was talk about the Oscars earlier that year and how exciting it was that Louis Gossett Jr. had won best-supporting actor Oscar for An Officer And A Gentleman, which was a landmark first. After dinner and more great sex, we returned to the discussion about the Oscars that year and Hollywood politics. I had failed to see anything exciting about winning a best-supporting actor rather than best actor Oscar. Merlin in his charming way made an analogy after he declared that not in our lifetimes would a Black woman ever win best actress Oscar; Merlin was also just brutality pragmatic and honest that way.

Hollywood, Merlin stating the obvious, was a business of make-believe where one staged the desired outcome. In that sense, Merlin shared it was the greatest propaganda tool. It is a world where reality is made in the image of what those in control, would want it to be; in such a reality, Blacks could never be seen to be triumphant. Merlin then touched on the 1936 Olympics in Berlin where Jesse Owens won four gold medals before the debased terror, Adolf Hitler, thereby shattering his belief and propaganda of a master race that’s superior and always the winner. That event, said Merlin, was a real time event which could not be manipulated to achieve the desired outcome as Hitler would have it. Then, said Merlin, Hollywood and its awards are the antithesis of real time events like the Olympics. In the world of Hollywood, even if nominated, Blacks simply were never going to be allowed to win Oscars, just being nominated was good enough and a show of Hollywood elitists’ largesse. Hollywood said Merlin is a Jewish town, after all, and thus Blacks could never be expected to win Oscars, unlike winning Grammys or even Tonys. Besides, said Merlin, Hollywood elites were obsessed with making it in London society and were in bed with royals and getting to play in the truly big leagues. At the time, that angle escaped me; however, he had made the reference to Ben Kinsley winning best actor Oscar that year for his phenomenal performance in Gandhi which Merlin and I had seen the autumn prior at the Ziegfeld Cinema on West 54th Street at midnight, which I then thought the height of sophistication.

The following afternoon, Shawn Kerwin dropped by whilst we listened to the marathon live matinée broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala. Shawn had designed the golden rolodex which was on display at Lincoln Center and dropped by as she would soon be designing a play back in Toronto that Merlin would be directing. The concert was mind-blowing; we made more love, napped into evening, made more love and then had dinner in the neighbourhood, came home and talked long into the night after he finished devouring another book. As was customary in those nightly discussions, we revisited the talk of the Oscars. Merlin apologised if he sounded pessimistic but he assured me that not during our lifetimes would a Black woman win best actress Oscar. Alas, that proved true for him and just about true for me; truth be told, if 9/11 had not occurred, Halle Berry would not have won best actress Oscar at the 2002 Oscars.

Along with Will Smith slapping Chris Rock – as well he damn well ought to have, based on the latter’s hideous Netflix special of March 2023 – the unfolding drama of the Sussexes has made total sense of Merlin’s predictions of four decades earlier. I have come to see how Hollywood keeps Black actresses at bay by favouring Britons and other White non-Americans. This is not just a disservice to American cinema but it is also illegal activity. I came to see how in Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s lynching at the hands of the Prince & Princess of Wales in concert with the Courtesan Queen cast greater insights to what causes the embargo on Black actresses winning a best actress Oscar. William is president of BAFTA which has its only foreign branch in Hollywood, which it dubiously called BAFTA North America – it has nothing to do with Canada and everything to exclusively do with Hollywood.

So why after their wedding and their first royal tour to Canada did William and Catherine, now Prince & Princess of Wales, travel to Los Angeles? As the newly minted president of BAFTA he had to be feted in Hollywood where he was expected to continue the tradition of British film artists, being disproportionately represented and winning at an American awards. They had to continue a relationship begun by Prince Philip in 1959 as first President of BAFTA. As a fledging awards, BAFTA desperately needed the cachet that the Oscars afford; old world Hollywood glamour, worldwide brand recognition and star power that remains unsurpassed.

From Prince Philip 1959 to 1965, the baton was passed on Prince Louis Battenberg (Earl Louis Mountbatten 1966 to 1972, Princess Anne, Princess Royal 1973 to 2001. Next up was Lord Richard Attenborough 2002 to 2010; the current BAFTA president, Prince William, Prince of Wales from 2010 to present.

So with the current BAFTA president, we get Tom Hanks sitting in the royal box at a Aston Villa game and we all know that this football team has been BAFTA president, William’s favourite team since childhood. The day after, Tom’s wife, Rita Wilson, attended the 2023 BAFTA Awards where its President, which is customary, rowed with his hawkish wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales. Another example of influence peddling, Mr. Hanks is a multiple Oscar winner, two-time Oscar winner Michael Douglas and his Welsh wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones live in an apartment at St. James’s Palace. Again, Oscar winners are favoured and you can bet that these American Oscar winners have been afforded honorary membership in members clubs like Annabel’s as part of the influence peddling as the BAFTA president hobnobs with Hollywood movers and shakers, in a bid to secure work and Oscar nominations for Britons working in Hollywood.

Well, if the angry Black male, Will Smith, is going to be censored for disrupting the Oscar telecast then Tom Hanks and the Douglas Zeta-Joneses should lose their Oscar vote for clearly engaging in influence peddling with the president of BAFTA. The Windsors are notorious for engaging in sketchy business deals, what with the now King Charles III, taking bags of cash from Saudi members of the Bin Laden family. There would also be nothing to stop William and his predecessors from engaging in accommodating Hollywood A listers for the sake of securing nominations for Britons at what is an American awards, the Oscars; of course, in keeping with all that elbow rubbing offered by royals, the Tonys, Grammys and Emmys will gladly favour British talent. It is not America’s responsibility to provide work for British actors and industry professionals. With a population five times as large as the UK’s, there is clearly a dearth of talent out there, such that America never needs to go courting or employing Britons over Americans. And that it is all about influence peddling and getting to hobnob with royals, where do you see Americans favouring Canadian talent, which relative to UK’s is considerable with a population twice as large as Canada’s should see more Canadian actors being nominated and winning Oscars all this time.

1. The Great Ziegfeld Luise Rainer, 1936 2. The Good Earth Luise Rainer, 1937 3. Gone With The Wind Vivien Leigh, 1939 4. Suspicion Joan Fontaine, 1941 5. Mrs. Miniver Greer Garson, 1942 6. To Each His Own Olivia de Havilland, 1946 7. The Heiress Olivia de Havilland, 1949 8. A Streetcar Named Desire Vivien Leigh, 1951 9. Butterfield 8 Elizabeth Taylor, 1960 10. Mary Poppins Julie Andrews, 1964

Just look at this, 20 best actress Oscars afforded British actresses for an American award.

11. Darling Julie Christie, 1965 12. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Elizabeth Taylor, 1966 13. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Maggie Smith, 1969 14. Women in Love Glenda Jackson, 1970 15. A Touch of Class Glenda Jackson, 1973 16. Driving Miss Daisy Jessica Tandy, 1989 17. Howards End Emma Thompson, 1992 18. The Queen Helen Mirren, 2006 19. The Reader Kate Winslet, 2008 20. The Favourite Olivia Colman, 2018

Naturally, with the House of Windsor involved, acquiring Oscars is infinitely easier accomplished than trying to spirit the great pyramids of Giza to London, which if it were possible, there’d likely be one at the expanded forecourt of the British Museum, one on The Regent’s Park and the other in Hyde Park. Obviously, Princess Anne’s tenure as BAFTA president likely saw her innate disdain for Yanks and general arrogance rule, which resulted in little return on investment. The same was true when Louis Mountbatten was BAFTA president. Of course, with Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg on Epstein’s flight manifests and Roman Polanski being too ‘special’ to prosecute, Old Dickie was in his element in Hollywood. Let’s face it, the IRA had nothing to do with Mountbatten’s explosive demise, born 25.6.1900 Year of the Rat, as ever numbers never lie. 7.4.5 = 7. Two 7s and a 5 alluding to sexual scandal; one or more 7s especially if one is placed in the fourth position, will indicate assassination of a public figure. In Mountbatten’s case, the poor villagers were sick of their sons being preyed on by a known paedophile and that was that.

1. Amorous Prince David, Prince of Wales & Earl Mountbatten in India. 2. David & Louis frolicking in Hawaii. 3. David & Louis playing. 4. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales & Earl Mountbatten. 5. Charles & Mountbatten. 6. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales & Jimmy Savile. 7. Gary Glitter. 8. Jimmy Savile & Gary Glitter. 9. Steven Spielberg & BAFTA President, Richard Attenborough. 10. Steven Spielberg & Harvey Weinstein. 11. Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Woody Allen, Bill Clinton & Donald Trump. 12. Prince Andrew & Jeffrey Epstein. 13. Jeffrey Epstein & Donald Trump. 14. Prince Charles & Equerry Jonathan Thompson. 14 Prince Charles & Valet Michael Fawcett.

Prince Louis of Battenberg aka Earl Louis Mountbatten was human and it would certainly not have been the first time that persons associated with the House of Windsor, have had a preference for minor meat or favoured paedophiles. Sexual predators who are deemed untouchable for being of royal, Queer or Jewish persuasion rule a town called Hollywood and you can bet your bottom dollar that there is no room in their worldview for Black actresses being worthy enough for best actress Oscars. I’ll always remember going to an Upper West Side dinner party in winter 1983 whilst Merlin was in Toronto, working on Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson and talk of Hollywood came up. I was with a dancer who was transitioning to the world of fashion and design and successfully at that. Before then, he had lived for a couple of years with a famous actor in Hollywood; he hated having a sugar daddy so returned to New York. Aaron, who was great fun, died too young of AIDS but I’ll always remember his assessment of Hollywood: the world’s most exclusive escort service successfully masquerading as an entertainment business. “It is nothing more than Mecca if you are a sexual predator.” Two others at that dinner party wholeheartedly agreed with Aaron’s perception. Aaron had the thickest cock I have yet in all my years seen; thankfully, he happened to have been the most aggressive bottom yet encountered.

Indeed, what Merlin implied by not in our lifetimes, would there be a Black best actress Oscar winner, is that the Oscar is the penultimate icon of White female exclusivity and superiority. It is the most racist iconography in American culture. It is also tied to the UK Royal family in a display of American inferiority complex after having fought a war to be rid of Britons and their monarchy. Especially sobering is the fact that the very President of BAFTA, Prince William, Prince of Wales has been outed in his brother, Prince Harry’s phenomenal royal memoir, SPARE, as being the leader of the racially predatory campaign of harassment, mental, emotional and likely physical abuse, all of which was glaringly accomplished with the tacit collusion of the Fleet Street abattoirs and persons like Princess Michael of Kent who happens to be the mother of the Prince’s known closest royal friend, Lord Frederick Windsor.

Meghan, an American actress has been treated like absolute filth, yet no one in Hollywood has spoken up in her defence. Meghan’s articulateness and impeccable social skills are seen as reasons enough to resent the ‘Yank’. Moreover, Meghan is that most unacceptable of propositions not just to the British royal family but to the very core of its collective consciousness, Meghan is Black and descended of slaves of which no nation profited more mightily from the enslavement of displaced Black Africans than the British and its royal family. Of course, Hollywood does not care to get involved because the only sanctioned troubled history that is celebrated by the Academy, is the pain, struggle of Jews in Europe which resulted in the Holocaust. For that reason, it is almost an existential threat to the Academy and Hollywood’s sense of self and entitlement to ever have to acknowledge Black American history in America cinema. Indeed, Hollywood has never even done more than exploit the indigenous American population’s rape and pillage of culture and genocide of a people, because as with Black Americans, it would prove more worthy of American cinematic focus for obvious historic reasons than sectarian European history.

Anything and anyone who remotely threatens Hollywood’s sense of self and its agendum of focussing almost exclusively on the Holocaust with respect to what is deemed disturbing history and worthy of being focussed on and highlighted, is simply cancelled. Good god, look at Tom Cruise in what clearly is sectarian bias, no matter how much of a box office champ and how compelling his acting chops have been, an Oscar continues to elude him. Apart from his blockbuster actions films, all of them, what I love about Tom Cruise is how exquisitely he captures young soul angst with his acting. From Rain Man (1988), to Jerry Maguire (1996) or the exquisitely cinematic, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) the man’s a brilliant actor and no one but a young soul would so daringly do his own stunts in film after film after action film. All this deliberate denial because he is a Scientologist; just imagine if Jews were being so targeted and overlooked by the Academy but there it is in bold, unmistakable reality.

Similarly, James Cameron, a Canadian, is simply not great enough of be imbued with genius such that his towering greatness must be celebrated. In 2009, that society that serves as a paragon of racialised superior consciousness (Britain) and arrogantly so, did not award a single BAFTA to James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic though receiving 10 nominations. In America that year with 14 nominations, Titanic was awarded 11 Oscars. As far as Britons are concerned, it is not a British film, therefore they do not care and their grudge and disdain for ‘Yanks’ is all the more reason why Titanic was shut out of the BAFTAs. How is this even possible when there was a direct involvement with Britain with this very real and ground-breaking film? The Titanic did set sail from Britain for America; Britons were lost at sea when the Titanic sank.

Not wanting to seem like an afterthought and god forbid a third-tier awards, on taking over as BAFTA president, Richard Attenborough had the awards moved up to February, post Oscars April or May, thereby preceding the Oscars. This afforded the BAFTAs cachet as they were seen as a forerunner of how the Oscar winners would be determined. In a bid to maintain relevance and continue its role of influence peddling in an American industry, BAFTA has set up a wing in Beverly Hills and had the balls to call it the North American wing; leave Canada out of your influence peddling racket, the objective is to influence the Oscar nominations and winners. Of course, in turn Oscar winners find themselves being afforded the exclusivity of the royal treatment as with Tom Hanks at the Aston Villa game on the eve of the 2023 BAFTAs and Oscar winners Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones being allowed to live in an apartment at St. James’s Palace. So that no one should go getting ideas, she is a Briton and he, of course, is Jewish Hollywood royalty and it certainly would not be extended beyond such persons. Certainly, not when the current BAFTA president and his wife and known anti-Black racists.

Thanks to Britons’ gross sense of entitlement and flagrant superiority complex, they do not care what the world thinks. Their awards criteria and their members decide who is deserving of winning a British award and you can bet it won’t be a damn Yank. From Beyoncé being snubbed at the Grammys in favour of Harry Styles then having the Brit Awards favour Harry Styles over anyone else. This fruity little drip regardless how flagrantly he swishes his AMS (arse-munching ‘stache) and cross-dresses, above all else, he is a White male and he will not be ridiculed by radio DJs the world over. I’ll always remember my proud First Nations brief lover whilst at a pow wow in Merritt, B.C. saying, “Gay people are first and always White people… people like you and me do not count at the end of the day.” Sage words indeed. Look at this silly photo of the flagrant little industry-used manwhore, I am reminded of the swell little, ridiculously hysterical French-Canadian actor friend of Merlin’s. From the moment we met, it was evident that it was merely a matter of time before we would be carrying on like gibbons en chaleur. A friend of his had approached Merlin and asked if I would step in for him whilst he covered elsewhere for someone whose lover was severely ill and dying of AIDS. It was supposed to have lasted all of two, at the most, six weeks.

Standing in for a friend of Merlin’s, dressing on Cats at the Elgin Theatre, was a memorable experience because Jean-François and I would be sharing the same floor backstage as the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical printed money like it was going out of style. Post intermission, JF and I would have the most fun. As all theatre folk are predominantly sage souls, which he was, he was entertainingly witty and given to reciting dialogue from a range of Bette Davis films. Mostly, Lauri whose wife also did wigs and makeup was fun to be around as JF and I carried on. One Wednesday, after matinée performance, JF and I returned to the theatre off the Victoria Street tech entrance. We had just rushed down from the top of the street where it dead ends into Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, which now goes by whatever name du jour – Toronto Metropolitan University. As we returned, we were laughing hysterically which Lauri with a sly wink declared, he could well imagine what trouble we’d been up to. Truth be told, we were detained by aggressive security as JF, Toronto Dance Theatre dancer René Highway who was a lover of Merlin’s who preceded me by at least two others, actor Denis Simpson of TV’s Polka Dot Door were caught in a stall together being riotously salacious. Little did I know that as I banged on the side of the stall, “Oh fuck yeah, put your fucking tongue right there!” there was a security guard in the stall next door spying on us. His radio went off, giving away the plot and to prevent my raucous laughter, Denis began aggressively kissing me. The damage was done though, because before we could scramble out of there, the security guard’s colleague had come to join him as he braced himself against the door in an attempt to have us detained. In no mood to be messed with, I grabbed JF’s half finished Styrofoam cup of coffee and tossed it over the stall door onto the killjoy guard. Though we tried to bolt, his backup had locked us inside. Denis copped hauteur and feigning outrage, demanded to be let out at once as he had nothing to do with any of this. The cheek! Tall, imposingly debonair, just like that Denis abandoned us with René, who never said more than two words at any given time, slithering out with Denis. Merlin said of René, you have a great fuck then afterwards, there’s nothing there; simply no signs of intellect. You can bet your bottom dollar, I howled at his assessment. After too much silly cop-playing nonsense, JF and I were released and told to never set foot on the campus again… as fucking if.

Stage left alcove with Lauri close by, JF fell to his knees, doing a deadpan Bette Davis impersonation from Jezebel, “Arvin. Arvin, I’m on my knees… I’m pleading to you…” All the while he kept looking from my crotch to my face his eyes large and yearning whilst suggestively licking his lips; Lauri’s laughter in the corner almost drowned out the caterwauling coming from onstage. Next, it was my turn to be witty, removing the band that gathered my recently permed hair, my Bette Davis rebuttal came from Cabin in the Cotton as I giggled and replied, “Well, of course, I’d love to hogtie and fuck you silly but I just permed my hair… bye now.” Turning, I made towards Lauri in the alcove whose laughter was continuous and just then, JF put his hand in my hair, making it an unruly mess. With that, he took off rushing to the back and through the door onto Victoria Street with me giving spirited chase. As it was the mid-1980s the street was a darkened affair with the foreboding sight of St. Michael’s Hospital across on the east side of the street. Facing north on the west side on the street, JF squatted on the kerb and began offering his arse whilst I grabbed his hips and soon we both dissolved in laughter, working off the stress from being earlier held hostage by aggressive security up the street.

Of course, today Victoria Street is no longer a deserted affair after dark. Last year, Massey Hall at the southwest corner of Shuter and Victoria streets reopened after 190$m renovations. Of course, it is just in time for the 70th anniversary of the most phenomenal live Jazz concert recording with the famous ‘Salt Peanuts’ performance. To Massey Hall’s rear and half a block down Victoria Street is the back of the Elgin Theatre. The 60-storey Massy Tower condominiums sit on the east side of Yonge Street and two doors north of the Elgin Theatre’s marquee between Queen Street East to the south and Shuter to the north. Jean-François was devastatingly funny and vulgarly laughed at everyone and everything; he was as intimidating as he was diminutive. He favoured me as ours was a physical relationship that was purely fraternal and nothing more than robust, healthy sexual play.

A couple of years after Merlin’s passing, I was then habituated in the Beaches, one of Toronto’s more glorious neighbourhoods which, like Moore Park, is lorded over by the tallest oaks, and bordered to the south by the boardwalk, beach and Lake Ontario beyond, which proves a putrid malodorous cocktail in springtime. The Beaches’ high street is Queen Street East with its noisy 501 streetcars; I then lived just beyond the end of the Queen streetcar loop at Neville Park on the south side of Queen. To the north the Upper Beaches was the tonier part of the neighbourhood with the most commanding views of the city and lake beyond or below. I really loved living there. About that time, in 1991, I received a call with news of Jean-François. I had last seen JF a couple of months earlier as he came by and visited but we didn’t have sex; Merlin was dead of AIDS, which meant that I had unredeemably become perished fruit. Years earlier when we had just moved to Cabbagetown’s 20 Amelia Street, JF dropped by unannounced whilst we visited with chef Gary Martin who was a source of playful raucous man-loving. Having heard about me JF came calling, whilst we visited in the back garden, Merlin cock-sucking a joint, Gary sharing on it, JF lit up a cigarette and offered it as he tried charming me; grabbing his hand at the wrist, I elegantly moved the cigarette away and coolly stated fact, “Sorry, I never suck on anything less than nine and a half inches… ever.” Jean-François tossed his head back and roared and declared that he was besotted. Gary cooked yet another sublime dinner and after, Merlin continued enjoying a joint whilst onlooking at me ploughing Gary who always had to have the large mirror in the hall on the floor to look at himself being ploughed right; Jean-François leapt in and kept his faced hungrily buried between my pumping buttocks.

Luckily, in a big city, you can nicely experience a new incarnation which has positively nothing to do with your previous existence. Soon enough, lovers aplenty were de rigueur and I began exploring my true metier, the world of S&M. For Jean-François, in a bid not to become HIV-infected, he began going after barely legal youth, freshly arrived in the big city and on the make, whom he enticed with his snazzy motorcycle. So it was as JF brought home a couple of straight boys to his lovely apartment above a drugstore along Eglinton Avenue West just west of Upper Forest Hill, his couple of tricks stole his sporty motorcycle after murdering him, cutting off his cock and sticking it into the gash of his slit throat. There unsurprisingly was blood everywhere and my response on hearing the news of JF’s demise, was to have done as he would have, “Well thank god those fucking forensic guys carry a tweezer in their toolbox…” a quip at JF’s tiny, boyish cock. The laughter the friend and I roared, was a fitting tribute to JF and also the only way to have responded to such shocking news of such a violent passing… Jean-François honestly would have appreciated the humour of the situation.

So there was the BAFTA President, Prince William, Prince of Wales with his combustible wife kitted out in her ‘fist-me-now’ black opera gloves, onlooking as Cate Blanchett won best actress BAFTA for TAR, a film which frankly is much ado about fuck-all. It is about her iconic whiteness – her blondness and blue-eyed superiority which is what the Oscars are about; however, when it comes to best actress the BAFTAs afforded the royal seal of approval. Thus Michelle Yeoh sat there at Royal Festival Hall and watched Cate win best actress BAFTA and that was that. Britons do not give a damn; besides, they are royals and all that, never mind that that blasted uncouth boor will break protocol more frequently than a duck shitting, lui même Madame Plotte-Visage, the Courtesan Queen – more of that later.

1. Kerry Condon 2. Dolly De Leon 3. Carey Mulligan 4. Angela Bassett 5. Hong Chau 6. Jamie Lee Curtis

So the BAFTAs decide that this is a good enough field for best supporting actress BAFTAs 2023. Of course, Kerry Condon is not a Yank and is close to being British for being Irish and that’s that. In this pre-Oscars awards, both Angela Bassett and Jamie Lee Curtis were passed over.

1. Cate Blanchett. 2. Viola Davis 3. Michelle Yeoh 4. Danielle Deadwyler 5. Emma Thompson 6. Ana de Armas

With the Oscars, Cate Blanchett who had been favoured was defeated by Michelle Yeoh. Of course, though much was made of Angela Bassett being a sore loser to Jamie Lee Curtis for the best supporting actress Oscar, Jamie Lee won it for two reasons, she is second generation member of a Hollywood acting dynasty; more importantly, she is Jewish and in Hollywood that trumps everything else. With Michelle Yeoh’s historic win, no one dare levelled accusations that it was mere tokenism or some woke agendum.

1. Ana de Armas 2. Andrea Riseborough 3. Cate Blanchett 4. Michelle Williams 5. Michelle Yeoh

For that matter, there was no talk anywhere of Cate Blanchett having been cheated out of her rightful best actress Oscar award. Naturally, the argument is that Black actresses are just not good enough or worthy enough to be cinematically lauded. Of course, Angela Bassett, Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler, in the case of the latter two, they portrayed not just strong Black women but they were also historical figures. This for Hollywood is wholly unacceptable; American history simply cannot expand to cinematically include African Americans. What’s more, avoiding American history at all costs is preferable, this explains why a film like Everything, Everywhere All At Once fared so well at the Oscars, it had positively nothing to do with American history and did not in any way threaten what Hollywood deems the only history worthy of being cinematically celebrated by the Oscars. As the saying goes, in Hollywood – the land of make believe, Shoah business is the only American history worth celebrating… cartographers be damned. And unlike the unpredictability of Jesse Owens’ performance before Hitler in 1936, Hollywood does not do real-time events. Hollywood as 1968’s best actress Oscar tie validated, is about manipulating reality to serve its need and one’s heroic place within the culture: better than, special, innately entitled.

Broadway Actor, Audra McDonald

Though Hollywood would like to keep Black actresses oppressed and give the impression that they are not capable of commanding the screen and thus not deserving of Oscars for best actress, that is all challenged by the fact that Audra McDonald, is the most decorated leading actress on Broadway in its history with 6 Tony awards. Naturally, if Audra were an actress in Hollywood, she would never have been considered for any Oscar nomination above supporting actress. Hell, even Viola Davis won best supporting actress Oscar for a role which was always a lead on Broadway and won a Tony award in that category for the play adapted to film, Fences.

Halle Berry Best Actress Oscar Acceptance Speech 74th Academy Awards, 2002

Just look at how Briton, Helen Mirren looks on at Halle Berry during her best actress Oscar acceptance speech in 2002. She was clearly displeased and thought that the award ought not to have gone to some Black upstart, who was making some ridiculous ‘race’ speech or other. There, too, was that blasted little garden gnome whom we know is a favoured inner circle member at the court of the ugly-no-blasted-motherfuck Courtesan Queen, who has time and again made no effort to hide her disinterest in the otiose Persons of Colour the world over.

Maori Dancers Performing Haka at Commonwealth Service, Westminster Abbey, 2023

Just look at the way she walked past the barefooted Maori celebrants outside Westminster Abbey at the Commonwealth Day Service, 2023. It was heart-warming to see the Duchess of Edinburgh bump her left shoulder into HM King Charles III’s right shoulder and humour him as he clearly needed to be pulled away from the displeasure, he no doubt would have been experiencing for being born in the Year of the Rat and disrespected by that blasted Couchon, who has been unrelentingly wrecking the House of Windsor for near half a century. The damage ‘Ugly Duchess’ continues doing to HLM Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year legacy, is incalculable.

Perception Is All.

The video above is of French colonials in the then French colony of Vietnam. That was in 1900, not 1900 years ago or 19,000 years ago. In less than 6 generations tribal perceptions change little. This is how the White tribe perceives non-Whites with varying degrees of scorn and animus. What most Whites have had to do, is aggressively adapt such that this primal perception of their place in the scheme of things, is deeply guarded, camouflaged and made to seem irrelevant. Of course, the power of the gun assures them that this sense of self and place in the scheme of things are little challenged.

Indeed, the House of Windsor has been possessed of this entrenched sense of self and place, in its most recent incarnation, since the reign of Queen Victoria. The two White females tossing grain and coins at the ‘natives’ in Vietnam, were contemporaries of Queen Victoria’s, whose misogynoir was emulated and upheld by Queen Mary who groomed both Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother and HLM Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Elizabeth II Sharing Racist Anecdote

One should not be surprised at the Queen’s 1969 documentary in which she tells a racist joke, to which Charles heartily laughed. Charles’s heir, rather than son, Peggalicious & Fisted is an avowed anti-Black racist; of course, so too is the Courtesan Queen, who has made no bones about giving no fucks about the otiose little non-White peoples.

Royal Tour 2019: St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent, Grenada, St. Lucia & Barbados

The four minute mark of the above video and on their arrival in St. Vincent, Camilla carries her trusty parapluie and to make sure that she doesn’t have to shake any of the ‘natives’ hands, she carries a handbag in the free hand. This woman is a right piece of work and a true heir of the French colonials tossing grain and coins at the Vietnamese.

Just look at her! Couchon…

The infamous open ridicule of Inuit throat singers, causing Governor-General Johnston to look at her as though she were a lunatic from Mars will not soon be forgotten.

Just Look at the Old Kook; Always Looking As Though She Just Fell Off Her Broom

Her most recent I’ve-no-fucks-left-to-give moment: 2023 Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey. She just walked past the irrelevant persons of colour and of course compensatorilly clutched her hat as though it were Dorothy’s cabin about to take off; as if she’s not always got a broom to hand.

1. Norma Shearer 1930 2. Luise Rainer 1936 & 1937 3. Judy Holliday 1950 4. Simone Signoret 1959 5. Elizabeth Taylor 1960 & 1966 6. Barbra Streisand 1968 7. Marlee Matlin 1986 8. Helen Hunt 1997 9. Gwyneth Paltrow 10. Natalie Portman

There is much that you can glean from the line up of the best actress Oscar winners above. They are an insight into where power lies in Hollywood and one should never be mistaken about that. This power block is whom, much like the two French colonials in 1900 decide what pittance Blacks in American cinema receive. Of course, had 9/11 never occurred, there would have been no need for Halle Berry to have won best actress Oscar in 2002. This was hastily done as there was great fear that if terrorism were to become de rigueur, a guaranteed weekly affair across America, one would need to lay low and not provoke wrath from the American public at large. Of course, by the 76th Oscars two years later, there was no such threat and it has been back to the norm of Black actresses chances of winning best actress Oscar decidedly negligible.

How Like French Colonials in Vietnam, One Tosses A Best Supporting Actress to A Black Actress Now and Again

That Hollywood does not have two fucks to give what it looks like, was validated when in 1968, it was speciously alleged that there was a tie and just as with Gwyneth’s Cinderella Oscar, so too was Barbra Streisand awarded an Oscar because one can and did. Obviously, it is not a question of Black actresses not having acting chops, deserving of best actress Oscar, just as with the French colonials of 1900 Vietnam, Hollywood’s elite have long decided that Black actresses are not deserving of any such accolade; goddamn it, they are just not people enough. Goodness, that would make them more than maids, whores, junkies and dumbasses.

Hollywood as throughout human history, is just another society with its various strata and the one stratum that gets you lifetime membership at LouLou’s, Annabel’s and Maison Estelle is the one that sees you awarded best actress. In the case of best actor Oscar that’ll get you membership at Mark’s, Harry’s and Oswald’s. Alas, Black women need not dream; as Meghan has validated, Black actresses are the one group of actresses who are most undesirable whether for senior royal status or Hollywood’s ruling elite. Don’t ever fool yourself into thinking that Hollywood’s elite are a liberal bunch; they are the most vile, racist, royal sycophants on the planet – this is why Oscar winners Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas live in an apartment at St. James’s Palace. They have wanted in, have gotten in and it’ll all culminate with Prince George marrying a nice Jewish girl – actress or otherwise. It will happen; in the meantime, they – royals and Hollywood elites – have seen to it that Meghan’s Cinderella moment could be undone and how handsomely they toiled and won. It’s a perfect business arrangement, Hollywood wants the exclusivity of royal sanction and access and for the royals and their shitty, third tier BAFTA awards, Brits get Oscars in return for preferred Hollywood elites sitting in the royal box at an Aston Villa game, living at St. James’s Palace and everything else in between, including all the minor meat they favour.

Hell, what’s all that to Harry and Meghan; they’ve got each other and are growing richer in spades with every venture they explore. Meanwhile, when the Pegged & Fisted Bourbon bastard finally gets a divorce, the inarticulate Edward Gorey silent era ingenue will draw on her coalminer pedigree and go full Jerry Springer on the House of Windsor. No Sir, Catherine will not go quietly and doe-eyed like her mother-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales did. She will fight dirty and shake up the pantomime in ways that not even Hollywood could fathom.

Whether Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Oscar Awards or Tony Awards (EGOTs), American awards are about celebrating American culture with the able contribution of American actors and artisans being cited. Clearly, as demonstrated by repeated instances mentioned herein this blog, there is a clear-cut case of influence peddling on the part of the Presidents of BAFTA past and present, resulting in examples cited, be it Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones Oscar winners living in an apartment at St. James’s Palace to fellow Oscar winner Tom Hanks, being afforded VIP access to Aston Villa matches. If indeed Armenian-Americans were the most powerful group in Hollywood, American Cinema, then there would doubtless be greater inclusivity and all American actresses being celebrated for their work. Indeed, all aspects of American culture would be celebrated in such a paradigm. As is obvious from Viola Davis winning a best supporting actress Oscar for a role which is a leading role, clearly there is a validated case of discrimination and double-standards at play.

Warriors of the High Country

Oil on Canvas

24 x 20

American cinema has to reflect American culture in all its pandimensionality and this is not the case. From the number of British and Jewish actresses who have won best actress Oscars relative to Black and Hispanic/Latina American, there is a definite case for legally challenging the discriminatory practices of the status quo. When is there going to be a film about the human drama that unfolded as a result of the terror attacks on 9/11? When are there going to be historically accurate films, telling the story of Indigenous Americans sacrifices and genocide. Heroic films from varying perspectives have yet to be made that dealt with the human costs of the American civil war. It is incumbent on the actors unions and others in the industry to challenge this discriminatory practice by way of legal action, ACLU, class action lawsuits, hearings in congress and legal action going all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The exclusion of Viola Davis or Danielle Deadwyler at the 95th Oscars is a clear example when they were passed over in favour of a British actress, Andrea Riseborough who appeared in a utterly dismissible film and performance about which no one knew a damn thing. Two Black actresses were passed over at the Oscar nominations for very strong roles where at the BAFTAs they were celebrated by being nominated.

If any practice is an insult to intellect, demonstrates influence peddling and proves a clear-cut case of discrimination based on race and or gender then there is no dearth of lawyers in America, who cannot take on an American actors union class action suit to address and correct so glaring an ugly case of racism in America, to say nothing of that decades long practice being an injustice. Hollywood elites do not fill movie theatres, nor for that matter do Britons seeing American films lead to blockbuster box office results… Americans do! Unlike the Festival International du Film Cannes and Toronto International Film Festival, the Academy Awards, despite tacking on international to the name, is not an international film festival. Furthermore, the Academy Awards are an American film awards and not obliged to be featuring and awarding prizes to Britons as the awards have become. If you want an Oscar then damn well choose to reincarnate an American. Period. Just as if you want to be elected American President, the onus is on you to choose to reincarnate an American born citizen. The House of Windsor has no right to be wielding influence on the Oscars or any other aspect of American society; a damn war was fought and won about being bullied and over-lorded by Britons and their royals. If this is not challenged in due course, the problem of Black actresses being passed over in favour will endure for the foreseeable decades of this century and well into the next. Of course, if Blacks protest this, Hollywood’s elites in collusion with the British royals will simply see to it that all many of non-Black non-Whites will suddenly be favoured and awarded Oscars.

Brits Are Not Played Off At An American Awards, Or Are the Academy Awards Exclusively An American Awards?

Darling, the rules are very clear; if you don’t like Black people, fuck you!

Samara Joy live in NYC [full concert] | Trinity Church Wall Street | Nov 8, 2022

Samara Joy – Vocals

Ben Paterson – Piano

Felix Moseholm – Bass

Evan Sherman – Drums

At long last, a griot of the highest order has incarnated among us; long live Black high art, Jazz!

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As ever, life is like a flying dream; if you look down, you’re fucked. Enjoy the ride and fear no one!

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#BestDespinaEver!

08.02.201909.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

Opening nights are always such fun… Tuesday night past, I was reminded of all the opening nights that I would attend with a slightly neurotic Merlin as some show or other that he had directed was being presented to the world… As ever, it was great to see my plus one, Lucian Mann-Chomedy as the ideal partner for these occasions. Always reserved, pleasant and just the right amount of chatter and wit.

Whilst Lucian enjoyed the pre-show lecture in the Four Seasons Centre Amphitheatre, I slipped next door into the warmth of the Sheraton Centre Hotel and warmed myself on a glass of sherry whilst finishing off 2018’s Scotiabank Giller Prize winner on my KOBO.

What an utterly stunning tour de force. It was a moment to reflect, this Black History Month on just where we blacks are in the scheme of things. God only knows, it has been bruising to watch Meghan, HRH Duchess of Sussex become the print media’s most reviled and hunted fugitive from justice of that most vile creature, the racial predator.

I was still smarting at the events of a week earlier during the winter season’s first major snowstorm. I had been recalling to friends how strange it now was, compared to my first winter in Canada. December 1, 1974 and it snowed that day more than 8 inches. Back then it generally was guaranteed to snow once if not twice weekly. Now at end of January, 2019 and we were finally having our first major snow. This was not like snow from years past… Now it was a dirty, sooty-looking hard mess that lingered, largely in part because the city has contracted out its snow removal services.

As there are no windows in my apartment – Sol’s too damn bright by far and besides, boarded up windows afford me more art-hanging space – I got down in the early afternoon that Monday with my bike, only to be met by falling snow and several accumulated inches. Back up I went, retired the trusty chrome steed and returned and hopped into a snazzy Audi A6 Uber ride with a Macedonian whose spirit was as smooth and elegant as matchingly was his car. The mood set the tone for my day. As I am known to work 16-hr days, I called another Uber at the end of gig one whilst hoping to get to gig 2 in good time. The snow was still coming down; it was also bitterly cold and windy.

When finally, Uber #2 arrived, cold and dark with icy pellets mixed in with the snow, the driver rolled down his passenger side window and declared, “Sorry Buddy but I am going to have to cancel this ride…” Already running late, with my wheeled suitcase at the ready, he edged along as I tried to open the door and raised his voice, his eyes almost feral-looking beneath his turbanned, narrow skull. “I said I am cancelling you. One: I never take people like you in my car. Two: you have a shitty rating… Sorry, not sorry. Fuck you Buddy.” With that, he stepped on the gas and I had to swiftly haul me and suitcase out of the way as the rear of his red older model car whose interior did have that blasted malodorous melange of curry, dirty armpit, dirty arse, smegma and whatever the fuck else that passes for immigrants of choice these days. Finally, after having struggled out onto a still-not-ploughed Bay Street, I managed to hail the fourth cab whose West African driver insisted that I call Uber and report him… Days later, I was afforded assurances that the racist Dravidian was no longer part of Uber’s fleet. Similarly, when calling a Beck Taxi with a fairly generic name as Arvin, on coming downstairs the Indo-Canadian drivers on several occasions as though staying on script would feign obsequiousness and state that they were deeply sorry but owing to a family emergency, they were having to take the cab out of service. No sooner than having refused me a ride, they would then be observed heading out to Wellesley, turning on their unoccupied light and picking up a fare off the road. As if the blasted motherfuck, the likes of your overbred arse invented Jazz.

Each and every time that one experiences racial animus, is preyed on racially, it always harks back to that first winter in Toronto. My best mate from two summers earlier, when I would come to Canada to visit with my dad during school break, had been sick. After Sunday church service at Knox Presbyterian at Harbord and Spadina before returning to our beautiful home at 122 Mortimer Avenue, I would visit – my dad and I – with Tommy who was holding up at Toronto Sick Kids Hospital on University Avenue. My father explained that Tommy was sick with the winter flu, which sometimes could last for months and well beyond winter. I was a scrawny little fourteen-year-old who looked like most ten-year-old Canadian kids as I crawled the halls at Harbord Collegiate where among my mostly Italian-Canadian chums was future lawyer, Rocco Galati. As Tommy, who was a couple of years older than me, had gladly shared books with me the two summers prior that I would take to Knox summer camp and read then have a good stroke off, lusting after my inamorato, Tommy, I readily agreed to do his newspaper route for him until he came home. My first Saturday, the cart was overflowing with the thick Toronto Star newspaper and there was a good foot of snow everywhere. It was hellish but for Tommy, I was game to go the distance – who knows what hot frottage, docking and more was in the offing for having done his route for him! When I got to the northeast corner of Floyd and Bater Avenues that first Saturday to collect the funds, the door opened to a woman whose response to me was the most hideous display of the displaced madness that is white bigotry. Screaming at the top of her lungs, the woman in her upper seventies, vituperatively cursed my black bugger arse off and laid down the law. Never again, “you dirty little nigger” was I to set foot on her verandah.., I was to put the paper between her screen and front doors, knock then return to the top of her steps and wait for her to pay the bill. That first Saturday, she ripped the paper from my hand, flung the money at me. She was terrifying, in her faded blue A-line dress, black spectacles that had those upturned pointed edges at the sides; she wore faux pearls. Most of all, she wore the most hideously terrifying eyes. I remember how much they looked like eyes of a rooster, especially so for being such puffy eyes. Like the evolved, winged and feathered reptilians that roosters are, her eyes truly did look not the least bit human. She was so consumed with racial animus that it was truly frightening. By the time I made it home, I found myself regurgitating. Thereafter, every Saturday, I would take my spot at the top of the steps and consistently she would hurl out pennies mostly at me rather than the verandah where that first winter I had to suffer the indignity of picking through inches of snow on the verandah, steps and lawn to collect my money. Naturally, without fail she called most Saturdays to the Toronto Star, complaining of either not having received her paper on time or that it was missing altogether. This would mean having to buy her a replacement at the corner store, take it and only to be fed on by the hideous-of-spirit racial predator. Like a true cockhound many an indignity I suffered in hopes of my spectacled, full-lipped and scholarly inamorato, Tommy hooking up with me for having been so loyal to him. The summer prior, I had ventured to the public pool on Broadview at Riverdale Park with him and a couple of others and thrilled beyond belief was I to spy his large pendulous balls and that hammer-headed girthsome salami that pummelled his bikinis. Indeed, for Tommy I would suffer much indignity. There was a low-rise apartment building at 1111 Broadview where on the ground floor, there was another predator, this one equally septuagenarian who lived alone, smoked incessantly and always answered the door in various stages of undress, mostly ever only wearing a soiled merino. He was always a generous tipper; a whole 2$ bill in 1974/75 was serious cash. Naturally, in the pre-Ciaslis epoch old anorexic, drunken paunched predator would sometimes tug on the old bulbous semi-flaccid/semi-tumescent, though, pendulous but perfectly useless appendage, trying to lure me in. Sitting there in all that squalor and acting as though he was sugar daddy material… indeed. He was always keen on trying to grab me when giving me the “tip” and I was ever sly and crafty enough to get away from him each time. He, too, lead me to regurgitate, which I had not done since age nine and suffering my first racial attack. Of course, to this day, neither academia nor medicine will concede that there is any such a thing as the racial predator and the effects it has on those preyed on – mostly blacks – and the psyche/mental illness of those who prey on others chiefly non-blacks in varying degrees of severity based on otherness.

Finally, the house lights went down and I was met by the whimsical vista of the COC’s production of W. A. Mozart’s glorious opera, Cosi Fan Tutte. Previously, I had caught productions of this Mozart gem in Chicago, Montréal and New York City. I was not expecting much at this rate. The Frida Kahlo connection was a bit of a stretch but the butterflies fast won me over.

From the moment that she stepped onto stage, my spirit soared aloft higher than Mozart’s glorious music to that point had spirited me. Never before had there been so captivating a Despina. My eyes teared up and I was ever on the cusp of explosive giggles. Then what made me truly come undone was the moment Tracy Dahl took to the stage as the notary… by now, I was losing tears and beginning to emit choked snorted chuckles. Each Saturday back in 1974/75 when doing Tommy’s newspaper route, I would end off taking the Saturday Star to Giovanna an octogenarian Italian, who was plump, charming and more adorable than any mere mortal ought to be. Soon, we were fast lovers and she loved fussing over me, baking me each Saturday nice, warm, oven-fresh biscotti washed down with a glass of ice-cold “gingah raleh”… her thick Italian accent was part of her charm. Hers was a large black and white cat, simply known as pussy gatto, who always sat nesting on the armchair. Each week, Giovanna sat transfixed as I read her the newspaper; her vision was to that point fairly deteriorated. As a way of better forging our bond and because most of my mates at Harbord were Italian, for three years, I studied Italian and that really impressed Giovanna, who was simply known as “Mama Mia.”

As the opera progressed, Ms. Dahl as the notary, dashed and took cover beneath the table at which point, I buried my face in the program with explosive laughter. Straight away, I was reminded of each Saturday when the ever silent pussy gatto would bolt from the armchair and take cover beneath the sofa where I sat as Giovanna began an explosion of long-winded farts. Even the singer’s voice sounded much like Giovanna’s as she sang the role of notary. Remarkably, it was as though she was channelling Giovanna. In that moment, I was healed of the bile, which the recent Uber incident had caused to surface, bile that dated as far back as 1974.

In the end, Tommy’s parents sold their house and it was not until a couple years later that I discovered from the neighbour next-door that Tommy, who had never returned to their Mortimer and Logan home, had died of Leukaemia. Indeed, the winter flu was my dad’s way of protecting me from the callousness of having to lose a friend so early in life.

Apart from the catharsis that Tracy Dahl’s performance personally effected, I don’t think that it would be biased of me to state that hers was the runaway performance in the COC’s fantastic, and fast-paced I might add, production of Cosi Fan Tutte.

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As ever, mischievously push down and melt with laughter in celebration of the joy that is life and start having yourselves a most glorious of flying dreams. Thanks for your ongoing support of this happening astral joint on this side of the astral plane. I love you more.

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Two Weddings, A Baby, A Gaggle of Racial Predators & Hadrian’s frightful ghost.

24.10.201809.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

The recent wedding of the Duke of Huescar to his handsome bride was a stunning bit of theatre. He is, of course, the future Duke of Alba, grandson of one of the grandest nobles of the last century, the inimitable Duchess of Alba.

The cut and design of the bridge’s dress is truly elegant; apparently, it was designed by her creatively gifted mother herself. They make a truly handsome couple.

At this juncture, I have not yet found any video of their nuptials on the Internet; perhaps, it will surface at a later date. The sublime elegance of her dress deftly reflects the undeniable harmony between this couple. So good it is to see a couple of souls who after having suffered lost through death in recent times, return to find each other anew, to further explore their loving bond.

Whilst awaiting the second royal wedding, I passed much time reviewing the coverage of the royal wedding of TRH Duke & Duchess of Sussex last May. I was ever intrigued at the notion of an even larger guest list for the marriage of Jack Brooksbank and HRH Princess Eugenie of York.

A simple wedding, I was moved by how vastly different it was to that of TRH Duke & Duchess of Sussex’s months earlier. The most obvious difference in both ceremonies being the latter’s carriage ride; a rather simple affair. This, of course, was an affair filled with aristocrats – some of whom had attended the earlier wedding last May.

Along with Tom & Lara Inskip and Guy Pelly with a wife more noticeably pregnant, there was the ever stylish Sofia Wellesley, this time equally stunning in a Dolce & Gabbana dress.

Tom & Lara Inskip processing towards the Lower Ward and St. George’s Chapel.

Guy Pelly attending the second royal wedding of the year.

Guy’s expectant wife, Elizabeth Pelly accompanied by Astrid Harbord.

Also, attending their second royal wedding for the year, Zoe & Jake Warren.

Back for more, Pippa Matthews with her younger brother James Middleton with that Tsar Nicholas thing going on with his look. For me, a woman is most beautiful when expectant – fecund, voluptuous, primal she is then most powerful; she is then truly the creator of life. How beautiful is that Kelly green?

Perennial favourite Chelsy Davy with Melissa Percy, who wasted little time in saying, this mum don’t babysit and there went Tom van Straubenzee. Gorgeous periwinkle dress.

Cressida Bonas radiating the light magical essence of artisan souls everywhere.

Franz Albrecht & Cleopatra zu Oettingen-Spielberg, young Bavarian royals attending their second royal wedding at Windsor Chapel this year.

Holly Candy – hands down, the best dressed lady at this royal wedding. Those matching pink bow gloves took her outfit stratospherically to the next level of |über soignée. I really did not think that Amal Clooney deserved that honour at the royal wedding of TRH Duke & Duchess; for one thing, her hat was worn on the wrong side of the head – always on the right side!

Coming on strong in second place, like Secretariat was phenomenon, Naomi Campbell. Readily, so many people were carping on about what is she doing at the royal wedding; hello, how many times has Sarah, Duchess of York not been a guest of Ms. Campbell’s whilst holidaying on some yacht or other in the Mediterranean. I love the way that Ms. Campbell feigned disbelief when asked by an attendant to leave the seat in the front row of the royals’ side of the quire where she sat speaking with Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and his family.

Made in Chelsea star, Oliver Proudlock and his fiancée Emma proved among a couple of the best-dressed men.

Admittedly, though, not the best photograph, the urbane Alexander Gilkes, Paddle8 CEO, arrived in the company of artist Tracey Emin.

Cara Delevigne – another dead-ringer for magical artisan soul with the planet’s most ubiquitous plus-one, Derek Blasberg.

Kate & Lila Moss bringing the glamour.

Poppy Delevigne sporting one of the best fascinators at the royal wedding of Jack Brooksbank and HRH Princess Eugenie of York.

Other notable royals in attendance, Princess Marie-Chantal, Crown Prince Pavlos and their daughter, Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece. Also, the Crown Prince’s younger brother, Prince Philippos of Greece attended.

Lady Gabriella Windsor and her fiancé Timothy Kingston; yet another royal wedding is on the horizon. By far, the most statuesque of the Windsor ladies.

Lady Helen & Timothy Taylor; the minor royals whom we never see enough of. Love her dress.

Ricky Martin and his artist husband.

The always witty thespian, Stephen Fry and his husband, Elliott Smith.

Holly Branson coming through.

And her brother Sam Branson

The irrepressible mother of the bride, Sarah, Duchess of York and her firstborn who seems resigned to the fact that there is always an opening for spinster lady-in-waiting. Back in the 80s when Merlin was then incarnate, I shared with him a dream had that night of ‘Fergie’. Set somewhere in east Africa, she was riding atop the roof of a Land-Rover with several others… it was a dusty, tree-lined road and they were loud, happy persons all – her husband, Lord Porchester’s offspring was not present in the dream. As the vehicle hit a bump in the road, Fergie went flying from atop the vehicle’s roof and landed on her head; it was the most startling affair – we all screamed.

There was deathly silence as her khaki-clad body remained motionless for what seemed an eternity. Suddenly, as though jolted by lightning, much as a ginger cat with a few lives yet, Fergie shot to her feet, ramrod straight then began rushing about from one side to the other of the parked Land-Rover, mugging and waving to the perfectly immobile and non-human trees. I awoke from the dream laughing, the image was so bizarre. Seated across the Cabbagetown breakfast table from me, Merlin casually declared whilst remaining focussed on the Globe and Mail in hand, “So that’s how she became unhinged…” Yet again, I was reminded of that dream as Sarah, Duchess of York bounded from the Rolls Royce and made a mad dash, mouth ajar, mugging and waving to god-only-knows whom at the foot of St. George’s Chapel’s west door the day her daughter took possession of her man. This eccentric behaviour, much as in that dream, was on display as she entered the quire at St. George Chapel at the wedding of TRH Duke & Duchess of Sussex on seeing Misha Nonoo and her date, oil heir Michael Hess. These days, she always seems only too happy that she has not ended up like Diana, Princess of Wales.

Another soul who seemed spooked to be at the ball was the groom’s gin-blossomed father whose daft expression throughout was more than a tad distracting. One was reminded of how odd Thomas Markle would have looked, had he been allowed to attend the Sussexes’ nuptials.

Here’s to the lovely young couple; here’s to life indeed. Happy for them that they have found each other anew in this life experience. To paraphrase Prince Seeiso of Lesotho when speaking of the Sussexes, I wish them buckets and buckets of healthy, happy children.

Even more glorious than their beautiful wedding was the recent announcement of the pregnancy of Meghan, HRH Duchess of Sussex. You cannot begin to fully fathom how excited this makes me for HRH Prince Henry, Duke of Sussex. He has always seemed so alone, so vulnerable and emotionally fragile for having suffered the tragic, violent and sudden loss of his fantastic mum at age 12. So happy to know that they will be parents, and so quickly, and am fully confident that they will make the most fantastic parents. What more than two parents truly in love does a child need on coming into this world… again.

In all of this, what has not been cool, has been watching her racially predatory white relatives act as though she is nothing but a runaway slave. There is no doubt in my mind that were the Markles a wealthy family with a net worth of more than 200$m, would any of this acrimonious dreck be taking place. How dare she, the otiose, racially impure step-sibling, Meghan, end up doing better than them in life? Not only had this runaway slave managed to have escaped capture but she had gone and married the scion at an even more wealthy plantation.

Alas, nothing was more abhorrent than having to watch the most venal racial predator interject herself into the Sussexes/Markles’ “drama” as she opined on the ABC TV documentary, The Story of the Royals. So what if a twelve-year-old Meghan Markle wrote to you about a dish detergent ad; she also did same to then First Lady, Hillary Clinton. Straight away, the puppet-master orchestrating the Markle step-family’s media campaign of slander, grudge and none-too-succinct racial predation became fully focussed. Who else but this vile racial predator, who uses the U. S. justice system to wage personal racially predatory campaigns, against blacks with heretofore impeccably clean public personae, seated there in its invisible grand wizard Klansman’s hooded costume, could be directing this media putsch to sabotage the Sussexes’ marriage? Well near the end of the 9th decade of racially obsessing over blacks, you would think that having finished off Michael Jackson, made a joke of Tiger Woods and a jailbird of Bill Cosby would be enough; no thank you, there is bigger game to prey on. Clearly, the clown knows nothing of the BRF.

Enough about those who truly do not matter.

Hier soir, as I live an almost exclusively nocturnal existence, I got into a compensatorily parfumé Uber, driven by a recent Dravidian arrival with rather pleasant overleaves. I was stunned by how much traffic gridlock there was at pushing six in an already dark, autumnal and cool, too, evening. The driver could not figure out why traffic was so bad in Toronto and as I have always been a most vocal backseat driver, I soon began educating him on why Hogtown is the only major North American city without exclusive one-way streets in the downtown core. Back in the 60s through 70s when streetcars were being removed from streets like Avenue Road, Bloor Street, Sherbourne, Parliament, the city’s old WASP guard decided that for nostalgia’s sake some streetcar lines ought to be maintained a little while longer.

Well in excess of 40 years, the city still only has the two subway lines, two million more citizens and what seems like the fungal viral growth of condos. Naturally, the city’s constabulary and the TTC (Toronto Transit Commmission) made an unwritten alliance to keep themselves gainfully profitable by maintaining the streetcar lines that were left. Hence, each summer, kilometres of tracks are ripped up and replaced with the necessity for TTC outdoor workers and police staff on hand to maintain traffic. Well into the 21st century, a woefully inadequate 19th century technology clanks away, holding up traffic and as recently was the case this past monsoon season – climate change is truly upon us – the new streetcars were caught in feet of flooded water with faecal matter afloat their flooded interiors. All this so we never end up with new subway lines, one way streets with the discontinuation of streetcars. At least, Montréal can be commended for having owned up to the crippling corruption at the municipal level of government.

Finally, after directing him along streets that he didn’t even know existed, I got to the southwest corner of University and Queen Street West, hopped out, crossed the city’s widest boulevard and made it into the lobby of the Four Season’s Centre for the Performing Arts at 1831. Lucian Mann-Chomedy who happens to be a scholar in my entity and a professor emeritus at University of Toronto, who also happens to be an unrivalled Voltaire scholar glowed as I dashed inside. We hugged and kissed and it was good to see his eyes light up; he does have more than a passing resemblance to Merlin… vibrationally. Gave him his ticket to the first opera of the season that we’ll be seeing, Hadrian. Whilst he took to the amphitheatre for the pre-opera lecture, I swiftly made it west along Queen Street West and got myself some very deliciously spiced beef teriyaki washed down with a dash of prosecco.

Returned to the theatre, Lucian shared that he found the lecture rather stimulating; heaven only knows what that meant, I was though too busy creating a post of the evening for my Instagram. What then unfolded was the most god-awful unmitigated bullshit conceivable. Look this was nothing more than effete poseurs of Toronto’s gay mafia, throwing government money around to keep their friends afloat. Watching this bit of bold-faced arts larceny was at times cruelly embarrassing. Of course, it was staged by consummate professionals, thus there were truly sublime moments when the production was marvellously realised. However, I was reminded of all those downright dogfests at Toronto Dance Theatre in the 80s – do they even exist anymore – where god-awful retro-Neanderthal movement was set to, of all things, J. S. Bach.

Act I opened with vaguely lissom dancers upstage posing overlong as Roman statuary. Naturally, they were lit such that when they finally began moving downstage on the diagonal, in movement that had been first realised by Vaslav Nijinsky (he is a mature sage, in my entity and currently reincarnated and an actor on the Portuguese stage) a century earlier, you really had to squint and try to make out if they were truly nude. Naturally, there was no such luck. That was just as lame as the opening of Act III after an intermission where there was much cruel laughter at what a dog’s breakfast we were having to slug our way through. There was the none-too-fey/verile or lissom-looking Antinous cavorting on a bed that was reminiscent of a couch I frequented in the late 70s where the city’s only queer psychiatrist and I had an ongoing affair. This bit of uninspired staging in the post-AIDS paradigm was as lame as having to watch two bored manatees going at it. Goddamn, where is the frottage! They seemed to be sleepy hobos, trying to make out which side of the bed they wanted to sleep on rather than obsessed lovers engaging in the gay world’s paedophiliacal obsession – let’s not go there just now.

Well, if you can’t hack a pop career in these parts, the next best thing is, go compose an opera. Lord Jesus… why? I am only too grateful that he didn’t set his sights on appropriating black high art and opting for a Jazz career. Last evening, Tuesday, October 23, 2018 proved without doubt that the kinder of minor Canadian celebrity should never be indulged when they elect to pursue whatever line of work mama or papa pursued. I am reminded of “Bathhouse Pierrette” as he is charitably dismissed, playing party leader in these parts and forever looking gripped by stage fright. I was much humoured this past summer as he followed the future Duke of Sussex about Buckingham Palace at the Commonwealth banquet desperately trying to score an invite to the royal wedding and being clearly snubbed by HRH Prince Henry of Wales who was gruffly dismissive of his attempts to score a pair of tickets – in the 11th hour – for him and his insufferable fag hag wife.

There were points where persons in back of Lucian and me were laughing at how embarrassingly bad the opera was. Small-time, one guy to my rear readily dismissed. Goodness, if there was one more unpleasant reference to “the Jews” in this horrid farce, I was ready to get up and walk out. The opera was frankly a reflection of the archly conservative and frankly sphinctered worldview of Toronto’s incestuous gay elites – many of whom I went through in the 70s through early 80s and who then were just as smegmaed as a can of freshly opened corned beef – those, indeed, were the pre-plague years.

Getting on the elevator to make it to the basement where I collected my pea coat, I remarked, to one woman who asked my verdict, “You know, it would truly have been great theatre if that strobe light in Act IV had suddenly flashed brighter and erased this entire madness from memory. Trust me, dreams are never this bad!” You can fool those of your tightly incestuous social crowd all of the time but never those too shrewd to give a damn about you and your BS.

As ever my darlings, dream like you’ve never dreamt before and by all means, push off and start flying for at least there, you can readily escape the madness that’s got this paradigm saturated to the gills with BS. Thanks so much for your ongoing support, I love you more!

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Here’s to You!

09.01.201807.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

Just a wee glimpse into my magical life where dreamquests are all begun in the groovy comfort of my collapsible pyramid. I have had a pyramid since 1984 in one form or another. This incarnation of my dream chamber, I rather love. Being surrounded by art is about being greatly inspired.

Happy New Year! Thanks for your ongoing support and here’s wishing you the very best this year! Sweet dreams as ever!

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Put Your Complaints ‘Ere

02.02.201707.12.2024 Arvin da BrghaLeave a comment

Put Your Complaints ‘ere

Lithograph

41 x 29 inc

Edition: 13/67

Provenance: Collection Arvin da Braga.

My but this makes me purr… Lovely way to start Black History Month.

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In Memoriam: George F. Hawken

26.12.201607.12.2024 Arvin da Brgha2 Comments

George F. Hawken – February 5, 1999, Montréal, Québec

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This past Friday, December 23, 2016, I went to my doctor’s to get my test results for HIV. The doctor whom I had not seen in long ages was unusually engaging. When he finally cut to the chase, never had he announced that my test result was HIV negative with so much pleasure; I thought it odd at the time. Brushing past all that, I then inquired of him how George Hawken was doing; after all, George years earlier on my return to Toronto had insisted that I have the handsome Sino-Canadian for a GP as well.

Marta. Intaglio on Paper. 1974 George Hawken

As he paused, I told him that I could appreciate his patient-client confidentiality considerations; however, forging ahead, I told him that I had sent George an email more than a week earlier and had not heard back from him. Pressing on, I inquired if George was doing well of late as I had last been in touch a couple of months earlier. In that way that the good doctor had mastered, he haltingly stammered back that yes, George was doing well… We then left it at that as clearly he did not want to pursue the matter further – he had actually stood up to conclude our visit.

Pink Chair 1992 George Hawken (Arvin)

About a week earlier, I was feeling especially uneasy about not having had a reply from George to my last email; he would always answer within 36 hours at the latest. By then, it had been about a week; we hardly ever spoke by phone on my return from Montréal. Previously, when we spoke by phone our conversations back in the late 80s and through to mid 90s resulted in an invitation from George to immediately get together where our passionate physicality was intense beyond the norm.

Gordon and Janet in their Garden. Lithograph 2009 George Hawken

To still my worrisome mind, I began playing Joseph Haydn’s Paris symphonies; George favoured the Paris symphonies where I favoured the London Symphonies. George had actually introduced me to Haydn’s music; he insisted that I become better acquainted with the 18^th century composer’s works. When first I sat for George in 1986, at his Brock Avenue loft in the Queen Street West neighbourhood, he always played Haydn… I would always love the way, he would play imaginary keyboard whilst enjoying a cigarette break as I privately sat for him.

Franz Kafka – Kafka Suite. Intaglio 1982 George Hawken

One of the funniest memories of George is lying in bed with him after passionate play at the Brock Avenue loft and laughing hysterically whilst we listened to CBCFM and a Florence Foster-Jenkins performance. Afterwards, we indulged another round of Rottweiler style passion that was part Greco-Roman brawn. On my return to Toronto, George and I never resumed our physical relationship; though, I had at least hoped that I could serve as muse to him again. Alas, it was not to be.

Book Cover Illustration. 1980 George Hawken

One morning after work, with Haydn symphonies swirling about my mind as my apartment was sodden heavy with the Paris symphonies, I suddenly made a right whilst coming up Yonge Street and headed along Adelaide Street East. Then, I went one better and hung a left up Sherbourne Street for the morning ride home; never had I done this. Riding up Sherbourne, the familiar strains of Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 B flat major ‘La Reine’ spirited me along as I leisurely rode up the moderately icy, dedicated bike lane.

Fly. Etching. 1976 George Hawken

Just above Shuter Street, George suddenly fell into my mind and I crouched forward towards the handlebar to best face into the cold winds barrelling down the avenue. Whilst coasting up the bike lane opposite Allan Gardens Park, my mind as I whistled Haydn’s symphony began recalling moments of passion with George long years earlier. I thought of those glorious nights of noisy, sweaty passionate play at his McCaul Street loft; I crouched forward even more as my face warmed into a smile at pleasurable memories.

Beethoven Asleep. Etching. 1975 George Hawken

If only, I still had George’s numbers, I would call him on getting home; it was so unlike him not to have responded to the email that I had sent him on December 13, 2016. Peddling harder up the tough stretch of bike lane between Carlton and Wellesley Street East, I suddenly began slowing down as a large black hearse slowly negotiated its way from the Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home & Chapel property at 467 Sherbourne Street; it waited in the middle of the bike lane for northerly flowing traffic to ease up.

Pink Chair I/III AP. Lithograph. 1990 George Hawken (Arvin)

I rolled up and paused looking squarely into the hearse where a cardboard coffin was bound and en route to the St. James Cemetery and Crematorium over on Parliament Street. This was the same route that my father’s cadaver had taken after his funeral in August 2008 which George had attended. I was so appreciative of the fact that he had asked if he could attend my father’s funeral. After the lovely service, I had approached George and we hugged and he seemed really pleased to have made the outing.

Woman. Lithograph. 1980 George Hawken

Moments afterwards another of my lovers, Owen Hawksmoor came by to start lecturing me about the importance of having many friends; after all, said he, look at all the people who had turned out to my father’s funeral. Then said, Owen, as can ever be expected of him, “you should at least have six people who would be prepared to pall bear for you.” Brushing him and his big sex cockiness aside, I rebutted, “trust you to always make for a bitter after taste. What’s it to me, I’d be dead; it really wouldn’t matter anymore than it does now.”

Yonge Street Mask. AP Etching. 1971 George Hawken

I broke and hopped off the bike and intently looked inside at the brown cardboard coffin; it seemed an eternity waiting for the hearse to finally make it off the bike lane and into traffic. In those moments, I again thought of George and that was when it suddenly dawned on me that I was never going to hear from George again. Further, I had the distinct impression that what had prompted me to route-change for the first time, to be humming and whistling one of Haydn’s Paris symphonies: symphony No. 84 in B float major is because George’s corpse lay in the hearse before me en route to St. James Cemetery and Crematorium.

Myself (Self-portrait) AP Etching. 2008 George Hawken

Without doubt, this was why I was in this place in this moment before an austere black hearse straddling the northbound bike lane on Sherbourne which I had never used before en route home from work. With that, as the hearse slowly pulled out onto Sherbourne and then made a right turn onto Wellesley Street East, the traffic in the icy snowy street was sufficiently slow that I rode alongside the hearse along the side of the cardboard coffin and accompanied all the way to the black wrought iron gates of the cemetery on Parliament Street.

Baudelaire II. Etchin. 1975 George Hawken

After I got in, had a shower and had my lovely home infused with Hoju incense, Haydn’s symphony No. 104 in D major ‘London’ played on repeat as I grounded anew. Though it was not especially windy out, there was a loud noise on my balcony and wrapping up in my lovely woollen pea coat, I took to the balcony to investigate. The first sight that greeted me was a heavy plume of sooty black smoke from the crematorium’s chimneys as they were being swept southerly in the cold wintry morning air. I lost a tear and on returning indoors, though my Google search on coming home produced nothing for ‘George Hawken Obituary’ I still felt firmly that there was no coincidence to the sequence of events and synchronicity of the past several days which culminated in the black hearse across the bike lane.

Colin Campbell. Etching. George Hawken

As it is always tough to close shut, I gave the door to the balcony a bit of encouragement by heaving my right shoulder into it. On turning away from the door, I noticed one of George’s gifts to me “Woman” was titled off its hook on the cement wall where moments before taking to the balcony it had sat perfectly aligned. Yet another sign indeed. Finally, today at work, as I kept checking the folder which bore all George’s email correspondences, then did a Google search for ‘George Hawken Obituary’ alas there was confirmation. George had died the day before I had sent him my final email; it was one in which I offered to buy a copy of an illustration which he had done for an anthology of emerging Canadian authors.

George Hawken, 1970s.

Again, today after work, I rode up the Sherbourne Street bike lane and it all fell into place. Almost always when I went to our shared doctor, there would George be. Finally, when I saw him after a long spell of not having been in touch, he sat birdlike in the doctor’s office and he was just as stunned to have seen me walk in as I was to have seem him looking so gravely ill. George had said that it was cancer; we there and then made arrangements to get together and did. I was so pleased that he had finally met my lovely sister, Pandora and it was lovely going to George’s Camden Street penthouse suite for dinner with my lovely sister when she was in town from Ottawa.

Self Portrait 5. Etching. 1984 George Hawken
Today, whilst riding up the bike lane on Sherbourne Street, the doctor’s excitable congratulations to my testing HIV negative made so much sense. Too, his response to my query how George was doing of late and his response that he was doing well, indeed, made perfect sense. By Friday, December 23, 2016, George was doing well and in a better place no longer suffering from the wear and tear of his end-of-life monadal illness. Ours was a very private relationship and there were only two persons in George’s life with whom I enjoyed cordial relations: his son and his lover, Colin Campbell. I rather suspect that Colin is George’s task companion.

Grete. Etching. George Hawken

I will ever be proud of having been an inspiring muse to George and for having facilitated the energetic work that he did in the late ‘80s to mid ‘90s. Our passion fuelled his creativity; what’s more, our passion kept me focussed and grounded in this life as Merlin and his ravaging illness and the hideous ghouls who betrayed him in his illness made life at times more harrowing than already the illness made it. George and his compassion and support were invaluable for me and Merlin was aware of it and openly and unselfishly encouraged it; he knew that I needed that support as with his passing the vipers in his circle would readily dispense with me. Alas, all things being mutual, dispense with the ill-evolved lot I gladly did.

Hearts and Flowers. Intaglio. 1976 George Hawken

Sweet and blissful dreams my darling ennobled George; I am honoured to have fostered and enabled your creativity to have lotussed into greater flower. Yours was a most rare and beautiful spirit and yet again our love shall dance and soar to higher octaves. My heart centre is wide open to facilitate your journey in whatever capacity of our choosing in the dreamtime. Ever, will I love you more.

Hawken, George 9/2/46<O>12/12/2016, Owen Sound

This was a first level old artisan in the observation mode, with a goal of dominance, a spiritualist in the emotional part of intellectual centre.

George had a Mercury/Venus body type.

George had a primary chief feature of arrogance and a secondary of stubbornness.

He was sixth-cast in his cadence and his cadence is second in the greater cadence. He is a member of entity two, cadre four, greater cadre 7, pod 414.

He has a discarnate artisan essence twin and a scholar task companion who is alive and they do know each other but have not worked together in this life.

This fragment is an artisan with priest casting, so his art will always manifest a spiritual component no matter what the medium. This fragment was a well-known painter of placid rural landscapes in the latter part of the eighteenth century in England, and several of his works hang in noble houses.

You were once a student of this fragment’s, in a life in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century and you were lovers for a short time in that life also.

Twice this fragment has illustrated books written by his task companion and he was also an illuminator of manuscripts in the twelfth century of the Common Era.

He was an architect during the reign of Augustus Caesar and several buildings he designed still stand, although one was rather badly damaged by the volcanic eruption that buried the city of Pompeii in the first century of the Common Era.

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Dreams are the poetic expression of the soul.

Category: 21st Century Canadian Artists

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Theft of the American Crown Jewels…

#BestDespinaEver!

Two Weddings, A Baby, A Gaggle of Racial Predators & Hadrian’s frightful ghost.

Here’s to You!

Put Your Complaints ‘Ere

In Memoriam: George F. Hawken