alma

i christened a new book tonight, lovers. i was working with limited supplies, all the same, i think i came up with a great-looking cover. the star is none other than mr. alain whyte. he was morrissey's guitarist and close collaborator for a long time. if my recollection is correct, i think this picture was taken backstage, sometime in the mid-90's. that's as close as i can get right now, as a time frame. i love alain whyte. according to the ghostly computer sources, he was born alain gordon whyte on july 3rd, 1967. he was not a performer on morrissey's latest tour, but is apparently still a collaborator. sort of like the 'mccartney' to morrissey's 'lennon.' i don't mean to imply anything, but the two men have been very close. it is even rumored by some that hot alain was 'the one' who broke morrissey out of his spell of long-suffering self-induced celibacy. but that's just a rumor. but hey, morrissey could do a lot worse, don't you think? alain is a brilliant songwriter and instrumentalist. he's a dreamy singer with an exquisite vocal range. and he looks great. he can be seen, prominently featured in the must-have dvd of morrissey's live show 'who put the M in Manchester?' (if you haven't seen it, then you haven't seen 'recent morrissey.') he's done a few rockabilly-flavored solo projects, but to me he'll always be one of morrissey's band. he's just marvelous. oh, and i almost forgot... the book title, 'alma,' comes from my own name, almadora. (mmm, no kidding.) and lets see who else is featured in the little medallions. okay, from left to right, we have: a young miss jane fonda, just starting out in new york, then we've got the one and only mr. neil innes in drag, then the one and only miss georgina hale, then mr. john (duran) taylor, getting his makeup on, in a still-frame from the 'girls on film' video, then just an aqua star, and last but never, never least, we've got a shot of davy jones from the monkees' classic 'fair tale' episode. so that's it. a brand new book with all those clean pages. wish me luck. (and click to enlarge)

the snap inhale

here's the sexy miss jane fonda from 'the china syndrome.' i hope you're not trying to quit.

rebel with a cause

hey, i don't want to criticize miss jane fonda too harshly. i mean, nobody knows how it feels to be jane fonda except jane fonda. it couldn't have been easy to grow up as her. hey, i dig her the most! despite who her father is, was... i think she's worked damn hard all her life and has legitimately earned her stardom. sure, daddy might've been there to get her little foot in the door, but once she was in there, she more than proved she had 'the right stuff.' she's versatile, beautiful, feisty, demure, coquettish, calculating, shrewd, shy, sharp, and very sexy. like, sometimes i have to remind myself when i'm watching 'klute,' that she's also 'barbarella,' and judy bernley from '9 to 5.' (and to be honest, i never even think about her 'workout' days. i do like her in 'on golden pond,' though...) where was i? yeah... hot, swinging jane is always welcome to strut by the planet and join in the pillowfight.

soldier jane

yeah, i looove jane fonda. i love her sweet sexy looks, i love her 'power to the people' political dealings. i wasn't too big on her when she 'went fitness,' ( ala 'body fusion') but i loved her as the original electric barbarella, i loved her hooking it up in 'klute,' and i loved her playing it 'calm' in '9 to 5.' she's truly great-looking. just for your information, she made this amazingly cheesy movie in 1962 called 'the chapman report' which was a not-so-thinly-veiled picture about the kinsey report. (it also starred shelley winters, henry daniell, and cloris leachman, if you can imagine.) jane plays a painfully frigid housewife who seeks therapy to find out why she can't have an orgasm. and she smokes a lot and wears amazing hats whilst spilling her 'frigid housewife' guts to her therapist. i've only seen it once, but i'd love to see it again. i remember it as a super-entertaining cheese-fest. but she looked great in it... very young and pretty. rock on, soldier jane. i dig you the most. (and did you see her in 'they shoot horses, don't they?' man, what a hard movie that was.)

k is for 'klute'

directed by alan j. pakula in 1971, 'klute' tells the story of an intelligent and streetwise call girl, bree daniels (played cooly by jane fonda) and a cop who comes into her life as a detective, and, as corny as it sounds, evenutally becomes 'much more.' the cop is played in a very genuine, rooted, and understated way by the great donald sutherland. both jane and donald look great in this 70's thriller that crawls around through an underworld of prostitutes, pimps, and homicide. this film is gritty where it needs to be, scary at all the right times, and doesn't flinch. the scene where klute and bree have to go question a couple of strung-out junkies who are waiting for 'the man' is heartbreaking, desperate, and all too real. even those who have never struggled with the torture of addiction would surely squirm during that particular part. its been a long time since i've seen 'klute,' so i should probably seek it out sometime soon. in my opinion, its 'right up there' with 'the french connection.' and jane looks slinky-great in her sequins and boots. mmm, hookin!

f is for fox ...james fox (and fonda)

okay, this is a little unfair to james fox. you'll see below that i just paid a sincere and dignified tribute to james' older brother edward, and i was going to be equally sober in paying tribute to james, but then i found this photo. it was taken during the filming of the 1966 arthur penn film 'the chase.' that's james there on the right. the dude holding up janie's other buttcheek is robert redford who also starred in the production. i've never seen the whole movie, so i can't say much about it, but i thought this picture was such a 'backstage party' scream that i just couldn't let it go. swig on, with that brown bottle of beer, janie baby! man, i can only imagine what deep emotional scars might have been left if one of the male co-stars had commented upon setting her back down, '...wow, honey...you're a lot heavier than i thought you would be.' it does kind of look like james is having a hell of a time keeping her up there. i should be fair to james and mention he sparkled and rocked as chaz in one of my all-time favorite films, donald cammel and nicholas roeg's 1970 counter-culture masterpiece 'perfomance.' i guess little miss janie deserves her own 'F ' spot, doesn't she? (mmm, am i the only one who think that sounds eee-dirty?) click to enlarge.

swinging jane

someone told me they liked the rare photo of jane fonda i posted a few nights ago, so i dug around a little bit and found this one. i wanted a blaze of orange in here anyway. what a fox, you know? i'm sure there were times in her career where she was insecure about her looks, weight, etc., whatever. but i think she almost never looked bad. even if she could never have acted her way out of a paper bag, she still could have had a brilliant career as a model. but she can act. even seemingly lightweight roles like Barbarella bring out some real light and attention to 'craft' or whatever. in any case, enjoy this punch-colored splash of sweet jane.

tame jane

ahhh, miss jane fonda. i love seeing shots of jane that i'm pretty sure i've never seen before. this is one of those shots. i love jane. she's super-cool in my book. i know this might not fall in line with her feminist

'message' or whatever, but i think she was a terriffic model as well as a great actress. i just found this shot last night, and had to airbrush some weird palm tree out of the background. but i just love the mod ponytail 'do.' she made some bizarre movie in the late 60's called 'the chapman report,' which was obviously cashing-in-on... and-somewhat-obviously-based on, the controversial 'kinsey report,' ...also known as the big deal 'sex' report, that shed light on the intimate practices of the post-war American public. (that's WWII.) its the schlockiest-melodramatic most. i wish they'd release it on DVD. her performance as a frigid housewife trying to 'come to terms' with her inability to experiecne 'fireworks,' to put it delicately, is great fun. if you can find it, dig on it.