#eartha land

[lasudio]

VeronaHills, Round Eleven: Land (B)

It was tee shirt weather and uncle Scot was coming over for morning tea: both very, very good things.

Eartha was out of bed, bathed and dressed before mama was. She liked all her aunts and uncles but uncle Scot took the cake. For one, he often brought confetti cake over. He said he had to stay up late for the dorm's kitchen to be free and would apologise in advance if it wasn't the best, but it was always delicious. It made mama smile too.

On this morning, along with coveted confetti cake, Scot brought a baseball to play catch with. Mary took the cake inside to plate up - she was going to make pink lemonade too, as a special treat - and Eartha led her uncle to the garden's best stretch of lawn to play on.

"Thanks for playing catch with me," Scot said. "I used to do this with your pop pop when I was your age. It's great exercise!"

Eartha cradled the ball in her hands. "Is pop pop too old to play?" she asked, pondering over each word.

"Well - maybe some games are a little harder than others now. I'm sure he has some ideas of what he'd like to play with you. Maybe you could ask, next time you see him?"

Eartha nodded and lobbed the ball back, seeming satisfied with Scot's answer, and he was immensely glad he'd been reading up on parenting lately. It would take more than morning tea and lawn games to be the World's Best Dad one day, but he was grateful to be the Favourite Uncle for now.

Mary called the two in for their sweet treats and the visit concluded with three very happy Lands. Eartha was still fizzing at bedtime; the visit seemed to continue in her dollhouse, with doll uncle Scot bringing a rainbow unicorn into the living room.

When bedtime was finally observed, Mary wished her daughter sweet dreams, knowing she would definitely have them.

[oceancentury]

Eartha Kitts favourite present 💝

[dbguidebook]

The Gospel According To Eartha Kitt. #Societythings

[hotvintagepoll]

now I'm curious to see a poll between eartha kitt, toshiro mifune, and vanilla extract

sounds like you’re looking forward to the ULTIMATE HOTTIES BRACKET! which will land sometime later this summer.

[kiraastro]

Venus in Shravana: Foreign Spouse

Venus in shravana can give a spouse/partner that is:

Born in a foreign country

Of foreign ethnicity and or race

Comes from a different cultural background and or speaks a different language

"Shravana's yogatara is faraway from the ecliptic (plane). So there is some connection with far-off or foreign lands with shravana." —Dr. Aditya Togi

From: "Nakshatra Series: Shravana Nakshatra by Pai Team", Youtube.com

☆ミ

Men with venus in shravana:

L: Mel Gibson and ex-wife Robyn Moore (Australian)

R: Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind (Danish)

L: Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton (English and Ugandan)

R: Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz (English-born with Hungarian and Austrian ethnic background)

L: Daniel Craig and ex-wife Fiona Loudon (Scottish)

R: Harry Styles and Taylor Russell (White Canadian and Jamaican)

Women with venus in shravana:

L: Yoko Ono and John Lennon (English)

R: Kate Moss and her long-term partner Nikolai von Bismarck (he comes from the house of Bismarck, German noble family)

L: Eartha Kitt and John McDonald (White American)

R: Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi (Australian-American)

☆彡

[innervoiceart]

"Nature Boy" was Nat King Cole's first big hit, since then it has been covered over 1223 times! The story behind the song is even more sensational

Joe Moondad has the strange story of eden ahbez:

"In the late 40s, there was a rumor that there was a "hermit," disenchanted and disillusioned with the world, supposedly "out-of-sync" with society, living in California in a cave under one of the L’s in the Hollywood sign.

No one really cared about this strange man, until one night in 1947, when someone tried to enter backstage at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles. Nat King Cole was playing there, and the man said he had something for Cole. Of course, the employees didn't let the strange man see Cole, so he gave whatever he had with Cole's manager.

What he had was a song sheet, which Cole would later take a look at. Cole liked the song and wanted to record it, but he had to find the strange man. When asked, the people who saw the man said he was strange, indeed, with shoulder-length hair and beard, wearing sandals and a white robe.

Cole finally tracked him down in New York City. When Cole asked him where he was staying, the strange man declared he was staying at the best hotel in New York - outside, literally, in Central Park. He said his name was eden ahbez (spelled all in lower-case letters). The song he gave Cole was titled, "Nature Boy." It became Cole's first big hit, and was soon covered by other artists through the years, from Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, most recently.

Of course, the media went crazy about the strange, mysterious man who handed Nat King Cole, one of the biggest hits during that time. Everyone went out to try to find out more about him.

What little they found was that he was once an orphan, who never stayed at one place very long, living in various foster homes. He explained he just never fit in and was always searching, for something.

["They say he wandered very far...

Very far, over land and sea..."

They found out he would hop freight trains and walked across country several times, subsisting solely on raw fruits and vegetables, then one day he completely vanished.

["A little shy and sad of eye...

But very wise was he..."]

He finally showed up again in the Hollywood hills. When a policeman stopped the strange, long-haired man with beard, sandals, and robe, ahbez simply replied, "I look crazy but I'm not. And the funny thing is that other people don't look crazy but they are."

["And then one day...

One magic day he passed my way..."]

He then showed up backstage at Nat King Cole's concert in Los Angeles, to present him with the song, "Nature Boy." No one seems to really know why he selected Cole, there were some rumors that he came out of hiding when he began to hear about the racism going on and trouble throughout the world, and he thought "King" was the best person at that time to pass his message along.

["While we spoke of many things...

Fools and Kings..."]

When he was asked about racism, he replied, "Some white people hate black people, and some white people love black people, some black people hate white people, and some black people love white people. So you see it's not an issue of black and white, it's an issue of Lovers and Haters."

It was that theme of love that he continued to talk about, what was missing in the world, and what would be needed in the future if we are to survive.

ahbez would eventually get his message out, especially after the counter-culture finally caught up with him and the hippie movement began, when other artists such as Donovan, Grace Slick, and the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson sought him out. He also wrote songs for Eartha Kitt and had another song recorded by Sam Cooke.

In 2009, Congressman Bill Aswad recited the last lyrics of the song before the Vermont House of Representatives at the passing of his state's same-sex marriage bill in '09.

Author Raymond Knapp described the track as a "mystically charged vagabond song" whose lyrics evoked an intense sense of loss and haplessness, with the final line delivering a universal truth, described by Knapp as "indestructible" and "salvaged somehow from the perilous journey of life."

["This he said to me...

The greatest thing you'll ever learn...

Is just to love and be loved in return."]

"George Alexander Aberle (April 15, 1908 – March 4, 1995), known as eden ahbez, was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s to 1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential in the hippie movement.

He was known to friends simply as ahbe.

Ahbez composed the song "Nature Boy", which became a No. 1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat "King" Cole.

Living a bucolic life from at least the 1940s, he traveled in sandals and wore shoulder-length hair and beard, and white robes. He camped out below the first L in the Hollywood Sign above Los Angeles and studied Oriental mysticism. He slept outdoors with his family and ate vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He claimed to live on three dollars per week.

In the mid-1950s, he wrote songs for Eartha Kitt, Frankie Laine, and others, as well as writing some rock-and-roll novelty songs. In 1957, his song "Lonely Island" was recorded by Sam Cooke, becoming the second and final Ahbez composition to hit the Top 40.

In 1959, he began recording instrumental music, which combined his signature somber tones with exotic arrangements and (according to the record sleeve) "primitive rhythms". He often performed bongo, flute, and poetry gigs at beat coffeehouses in the Los Angeles area. In 1960, he recorded his only solo LP, Eden's Island, for Del-Fi Records.

This mixed beatnik poetry with exotica arrangements. Ahbez promoted the album through a coast-to-coast walking tour making personal appearances, but it sold poorly.

During the 1960s, ahbez released five singles. Grace Slick's band, the Great Society, recorded a version of "Nature Boy" in 1966 and ahbez was photographed in the studio with Brian Wilson during a session for the Smile album in early 1967. Later that year, British singer Donovan sought out ahbez in Palm Springs, and the two wanderers shared a reportedly "near-telepathic" conversation. In the 1970s, Big Star's Alex Chilton recorded a version of "Nature Boy" with the photographer William Eggleston on piano. The song was finally released as a bonus track on the 1992 Rykodisc re-release of the album Third/Sister Lovers.

In 1974, ahbez was reported to be living in the Los Angeles suburb of Sunland, and he owned a record label named Sunland Records, for which he was recording under the name "Eden Abba." From the late 1980s until his death, ahbez worked closely with Joe Romersa, an engineer/drummer in Los Angeles. The master tapes, photos, and final works of eden ahbez are in Romersa's possession.

Ahbez died on March 4, 1995, of injuries sustained in a car accident, at the age of 86. Another album, Echoes from Nature Boy, was released posthumously."

[domquixotedospobresblog]

Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt (1927-2008), and Lee Meriwether, the actresses who portrayed DC’s Catwoman in the late 1960s ‘Batman’ live action franchise (1966-1968), attending the 2004 TV Land Awards.🐈‍⬛📺 #Caturday #Catwoman #Batman66 #Batman #DC

[jesterlesbian]

i made a playlist of all the needle drops (in order) in fellow travelers!

list of all songs under the cut

If It's Magic - Stevie Wonder

Pretend - Nat King Cole

Rags to Riches - Tony Bennett

You Turned the Tables On Me - Anita O'Day

'Tain't Nobody's Business - Billie Holiday

Land of Love - Nat King Cole, as performed by Chelsea Russell as Stormé DeLarverie

I Couldn't Say It To Your Face - Arthur Russell

Take the "A" Train - Duke Ellington

The Train Kept-a-Rollin' - Tiny Bradshaw

Kiss of Fire - Georgia Gibbs

Four - Miles Davis

Walk The Night - Skatt Bros

Blue And Grey Shirt - American Music Club

Mad About the Boy - song by Noël Coward, as performed by Chelsea Russell as Stormé DeLarverie

Lover, Come Back To Me! - Nat King Cole

Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes - Perry Como

Please Love Me - B.B. King

Ain't This A Wonderful Day? - Anita O'Day

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Doris Day

The Great Pretender - Freddie Mercury

Dig That Crazy Santa Claus - Oscar McLollie

Good Morning Blues - Count Basie

Heartache - Violent Femmes

Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

The Christmas Blues - Dean Martin

Silent Night - Klaus Nomi

Speak Low - Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass

Leap Frog - Charlie Parker

Out - Steven Grossman

Pictures of Matchstick Men - Status Quo

The Letter - The Box Tops

I Thank You - Sam & Dave

Loving Grows Up Slow - Sylvester

Boys Keep Swinging - David Bowie

Relight My Fire - Dan Hartman

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) - Sylvester

Found a Cure (12" Disco Mix) - Ashford & Simpson

MacArthur Park - Donna Summer

Maggot Brain - Funkadelic

They Are Falling All Around Me - Michael Callen

I Look At You - Johnny Mathis

I Can Dream About You - Dan Hartman

Love Is Overtaking Me - Arthur Russell

[eatmangoesnekkid]

Writing and curating “The Melody of Love” series has cracked me open again and again, so much light has entered. I never anticipated how the medicine of this book series would need to ‘work’ first on me in deep ways that I can no longer hide from myself. It has been this ongoing life-death-rebirth journey of renewing my commitment, doing what is excruciatingly hard over settling for what is easy and comfortable, stepping blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back into the archetypal unknown, not allowing my ego to lead over my heart, and letting go of the things I “think” I know in order to stimulate creative ways to feel safe inside the mystery. I have to bend, spread, and go all the way in it, submit to every whisper, and let life carry me. I keep crying and sweating (in other words, detoxing) every day —this is good news. This, too, are birthing pains. 🥹

Thankful to my ancestors, especially my Igbo-Hausa Mum, Miriam who preferred people to call her “Mary,” my council of Beloveds like Minnie, Donna, Eartha, and Marilyn, my herbal/plant allies like the gardenia, peony, rosemary, dandelion, lavender, and marijuana (yes a non-smoker can love marijuana, such a gorgeous, fragrant, and nourishing plant, a plant I spent 3 dedicated years bonding with, singing to, speaking life into and growing, and harvesting💃🏿), my fae spirits, my land companions, all stray and roaming dogs and cats, my winged loved ones, bees, hawks, and all blue-colored birds, my water spirits and mermaid kin, and my woodsy rootsy totems, deer, bumble bees, bunny rabbit, and rat (yes rat, ugh but it’s true). Grateful to my lover-warrior, sex/creative Goddess lineage. Grateful to the sky and tree tops. Grateful for the fire that lights my heart, hips, and spine. Grateful to the sun, moon, and night time stars I merge with in the mountains every night. Grateful to The Charming Lover for adoring me and allowing me to adore her in this life. —India Ame’ye

[lasudio]

VeronaHills, Round Eleven: Greenman

The Greenman children liked to invite their peers for greenhouse playdates.

Kids loved sitting under the large tree that anchored the bespoke build; even those who couldn't sit still in the classroom were content to lie down and look up at the leaves and listen to their faerie friends translate what the tree was saying. Rose was particularly relieved that mother earth's language had come just as naturally to Basil as it did to Daisy and Aster - not that being like Jason was a bad thing! Only, it would be a shame to be a faerie who couldn't "speak leaf".

The language barrier between humans and plants resulted in a job offer for Rose. A scientist focusing on the river that partly named the village was interested to know if she could communicate with marine algae. She visited the coast to coax some communication out of a tangle of seaweed, confirming the theory, if only at a base level (the seaweed didn't like sand and wanted to go back in the water).

Vibes were no scientific measure but the scientist was keen to get to the primary source in a way never seen before, so Rose was hired in her very first job as part-time research assistant. She would contribute a different kind of green to the household, one that filled wallets and bank accounts.

Among playdates and professional development, the greenhouse tree also witnessed Daisy asking Rocky out, officially. Teases of "boyfriend-girlfriend!" whistled through the leaves, then claims of Daisy needing to borrow a branch to beat away her admirers.

Mother earth was just like any other member of the family.

[pxgeturner]

blue christmas — austin!elvis x fem!reader

you attend a christmas party w your best friend. you encounter your ex, and hear his new song. you two talk about the shitty way things ended.

an. hey y’all. i’m in the thick of exams but i’ve had this finished for a while n didn’t know if i should post it. but yk i like it so this is ur update. i’ll have another thingy coming up soon too.

warnings. this is an angst piece. now it’s not sobbing at three am type beat but this did make me feel actual pain in my heart and in my palms while i was writing this. but then again i was kinda super in my feelings. that being said this has a happy ending. but this isn’t really a romance piece.

wc. 1039

you adjust your santa hat, and smooth your velvet skirt as the elevator ascends. when the elevator arrives at your floor, you throw your matching sack over your shoulder.

the door opens, “ho, ho, hi everyone!” people cheer at your arrival

your best friend pulls you aside, “hello, ms. sexy santa!”

you wiggle your shoulders at the complement and give bea a cheeky smile, “thanks,”

“i can’t believe you though, we agreed not to do the costumes!”

you shake your head and wag your finger at her, “nuh-uh, you just decided not to be my little helper. i never said anything like that.” you tell her you’re going to go make rounds. but she grabs your arm.

“wait! have you heard it?”

“heard what?”

“elvis released a new song.”

oh.

“ok,”

“it’s gonna suck when you hear it,”

“i’ll survive.” it’s highly unlikely rock ‘n’ roll is going to play at a christmas party. you figure you have at least a day or two if you hole yourself in your apartment.

she links arms with you, and you two go find some people you know. you let yourself drown in the music, in the glamor of it all. you’re out on the dance floor, bobbing happily to eartha kitt, when part of you decides that you should spin, so you do. you spin and spin and spin. and it supplies you enough serotonin to last you for a few days. you wipe out, landing in a pile of “presents”. you see a red and white mass that your tipsy mind faintly recognizes as:

“santa!” you ungracefully put yourself (mostly) upright, and are about to march over to the mythical philanthropist, but you realize that is not, indeed, actually santa claus.

it’s elvis aaron presley.

you can’t let him see you. so, naturally, you run away from santa.

bea finds you in a bathroom, on the floor. “you saw him,”

“how could i not,” you sniffed, “he’s a giant and we’re wearing matching outfits.”

she nodded in sympathy, “you are,”

you sigh.

“maybe this is like, fate or something,”

“fate for what?”

“for you two to be together again. you two are perfect for each other.” bea takes a spot next to you and rubs your back.

you rest your head on her shoulder, “maybe on paper, in practice, things didn’t go so well.”

she wrapped her arms around you, rubbing your shoulder. “maybe things changed on his end.”

you start getting up, and shake your head. “he’s even bigger now.” your hand reaches for the doorknob, “c’mon we can’t hide in here forever.”

bea and you go back to rockin’ ’round the christmas tree. narrowly, you manage to avoid santa from noticing you. as it starts to get late and the energy starts to wind down, santa joins the band on the makeshift stage.

“hello, everybody.” he takes a spot on the stool in front of the mic. “i’d like to take this moment to play you a little something i wrote, called blue christmas.”

he starts, his voice melting your heart like butter on toast. as much as you wish you weren’t captivated by him, you were. him being up there with his pretty face, only feet away, makes that deep-set pain he’s left in your heart ache a little more.

“and when those blue snowflakes start falling

that's when those blue memories start calling

you'll be doing all right

with your christmas of white

but i'll have a blue, blue, blue, blue christmas”

that little fantasy you built in your head cracked. he thinks you left just because you wanted to. he is the one that feels abandoned, not you. he rewrote the story to the entire world without knowing. you escape out onto the terrance. feeling the sting of the cold winter air on your cheeks, you laugh a short, bitter laugh into the wind. you sip on your rosé a bit more, hearing heavy footsteps behind you.

“i thought i saw you mrs. claus.”

“that’s lady santa to you.” he laughs.

“my apologies, ma’am.”

“it’s alright, ‘i’m doing alright’, naturally.” elvis was quiet.

“you’re blue though,”

“you left,”

“you were always gone.”

“i was working. work is important.”

“work is important. that’s true, i’m not important.”

“i-i never said that, mama.” he uses his old nickname for you. you miss being his ‘little mama’.

“you didn’t have to, work must've been way more important than me if i felt lucky to see you one night a week.”

“is that why you left?”

your brow scrunched up and you turned to him, “you couldn’t, in your wildest imagination guess why i left. you actually thought i just impulsively left one night.” he rubs the back of your neck and you shoot the last of your wine. “when did you notice i was gone?”

“aug-august 16”

“i left on the last day of july, el.” he runs a hand through his hair, turning around a few times.

“gosh, mama, i– can’t say anything. i should have been a better man to ya.”

“i know you wanted to be, but you couldn’t.”

“yes, yes i could. i could've cancelled some shows, or at least actually come home instead of sleeping at the studio or going out with the guys.”

“okay,”

he freezes, and stares at you, “how was how i treated you okay?”

“what’s done is done, there is nothing either of us can do to undo anything. there’s nothing i can say.”

“let me make it right, mama.” he steps closer, curling a strand of your hair on his finger,

“elvis when I say ‘what's done is done’, that includes us.” you gently separate his hand from your hair and he blinks at you with his puppy dog eyes. part of you doesn’t want to say goodbye. but instead you put a palm to his chest, bridging the gap between you two and kiss his cheek. “i’ll always love you, my rockstar.”

you tuck a rogue strand behind his ear, taking your glass and your leave. you go and find bea, and link arms.

“you talked to him?” you nod and hum, “how’d it go?”

“he’ll be onto bigger and better things, and hopefully, so will i.”

[the-badger-mole]

The Godmother of Grunge

If any time in the history of the US something really, truly innovative and cool took off, you will never go broke if you bet on a black person having had a hand (elbow, shoulder and foot) in it.

This is Tina Bell

(I know. Take a moment, drink in the awesome)

Tina Marie Bell was born in Seattle, WA in 1957. Like most black singers, she got her start as part of her church choir, where she honed her talent and her love of music. As she got older, her love of performing found her participating in her school's theater club, cheerleading, and eventually majoring in Drama at Washington State University.

After graduating college, Tina landed a spot with the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, in the late 1970s. As she was preparing for a performance of her rendition of C'est Si Bon (a song which was performed by another black queen, Eartha Kitt). In order to make sure her French was strong enough for the song, she worked with a tutor named Tommy Martin- the man who would later become her bandmate and her husband.

In 1983, the pair would go on to form Bam Bam, with bassist, Scott Ledgerwood and drummer, Matt Cameron (who later went on to perform with Soundgarden and Pearl Jam). Bell was, of course, the lead singer, and her dynamic voice and unparalleled stage presence soon made her a staple in the Seattle music scene in the early 80s. Her ability to mix the smooth sultry sounds of her gospel and R&B background and the jarring sounds of punk garnered Bell and her band a lot of fans, including their roadie, Kurt Cobain. In 1984, one year before the band Green River would be credited with introducing a "new sound" to the Seattle music scene, Bam Bam recorded and released their first and, unfortunately only EP Villains (also wear white). Four years after that, Nirvana would release their debut album Bleach and the new musical genre, grunge, would be introduced to the rest of the world.

Why don't more people know about Tina Bell? C'mon...you know why more people don't know about Tina Bell. As a black woman moving in the largely white space of punk rock, Tina faced racism even as she became a star in the underground punk scene. At one particularly memorable show, bassist Ledgerwood recalls how a couple of skin heads came to harass Tina, shouting racial slurs and other verbal abuse at her. Tina stopped her set, whipped her microphone around and knocked both of them in the head (I WISH I COULD FIND A RECORDING OF THAT!!!!! I WOULD KILL!!!!!) before composing herself and delivering a fiery performance that I'm sure the people lucky enough to be in the audience that night still dream about.

The racism was latent as well as blatant. The industry didn't know what to do with a black woman who wasn't hip hop, r&b or pop. She drew comparisons to acts like Tina Turner (because they're both named Tina? 🤔) The inability of the public at large to accept the wild, otherworldly concept of a black woman singing rock music (even though black women also pioneered rock music) kept the band's star from rising much beyond the Seattle, in spite of their local popularity. Tina Bell quit the band in 1990, just as grunge, the musical genre she helped birth, was taking off. She moved from Seattle to Las Vegas, where in a turn that is all too common among talented artists, she fell into a cycle of alcoholism and depression. She died on October 10, 2012 at the tragically young age of 55, alone and literally written out of the history of the genre she had such a heavy hand in shaping.

Fortunately, that's not where her story ends. Through the efforts of fellow Seattle musician, Om Johari, Tina's son TJ Martin (who himself is an Academy Award winning filmmaker), and ex-bandmate, Scott Ledgerwood, Tina Bell is being restored to her rightful place as in history as the Godmother of Grunge.

Hear her music here, here, and here (my favorite)

[thechanelmuse]

My Book Review

I finished this book a week ago. I’m still struggling to put my thoughts into words because this book jam packs a load of history in 430 pages. Where does one start? 

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams travels back in time to the founding of what would be Los Angeles in 1781 by a group of eleven families—forty four Black Spaniards— before building upon the land and establishing what would be the home of the film industry. This book spans six decades within the history of Black actors in Hollywood beginning with Madame Sul-Te-Wan, the first. It even includes those surrounding the Hollywood scene like dancer Carmen de Lavallade and Paul Williams, the foremost trailblazing Black architect who created the blueprint for the eye-catching structures and homes of the stars still standing firm today. 

Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams is a lot to take in from the bad to the good. It’s partly because the wealth of info would be more digestible had it been fleshed out further without creating a sweeping effect (like snippets) through moments in time to build the larger framework. After all, we’re talking sixty years. 

I’m a cinephile so I would’ve enjoyed more focus into the actual creation of a number of films, particularly the all-Black productions in those days. As for the gossip scene and the 👀 happenings in their world, here’s a snippet: Duke Ellington had an affair with Freida Washington, whom she felt was the love of her life. Duke wouldn't leave his wife so Freida did work in Paris to keep busy and get over him. When she returned, she ended up marrying a member of Duke’s band 🙃. Also, Lena Horne had an on and off-again affair with heavyweight boxer, Joe Louis. Might be hella messy and pearl-clutching in our world, but you gotta remember Hollywood is its own world. Small. They operate differently and nothing is swept under the rug in their society. Though discreet, everyone knew everyone’s biz.

I can’t even imagine the amount of research that went into making this book. It’s def worth the read. Just know that it may feel a little dense because it’s so many actors, gigs ands so forth spanning decades.

PHOTOSET: Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Ernest “Sunshine Sammy” Morrison, Ethel Waters with Freida Washington, Daniel L. Haynes with Nina Mae McKinney, Mildred Washington, The Nicolas Brothers, Eartha Kitt with Sammy Davis Jr, Joe Louis with Lena Horne, and the Dandridge sisters: Dorothy and Vivian.

SN: Off-topic. The author’s surname, Bogle, caught my attention when I first got this book, which had to be about about 10 years ago now. (Yes, this book has been sitting on my shelf for that long...among the other 600+.) The only Black Americans I’m familiar with with that surname are from Philly dating back to chef Robert Bogle, the creator of catering: 

Whad'ya know? The author too is from Philly. I’m curious if they’re related. That’s a book in and of itself.

[jedivoodoochile]

Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt (1927-2008), and Lee Meriwether, the actresses who portrayed DC’s Catwoman in the late 1960s ‘Batman’ live action franchise (1966-1968), attending the 2004 TV Land Awards.

[loudlooks]

Fake Mistletoe, Real Kisses

*grinds teeth* Okay, more than a month late, posting as is.

Tiva fluff at the Christmas office party.

Word count: 1782

.

The appallingly modern rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock” coming from the speaker next to him made Tony wince. Taking a slow sip of his eggnog, he quickly scanned the bullpen before once more focusing all his attention on the hallway to his left. His gaze flitted upwards, making sure the mistletoe hadn’t mysteriously gone missing.

Eartha Kitt’s unique vibrato flowing from the speaker made the corner of his mouth quirk up. Warm memories of dancing with a teenage crush flooded his mind, until movement in the hallway pulled him back into the present. His body tensed, then slumped as he realized the brunette approaching was Sally from accounting.

He glanced at his watch, noticing fifteen minutes had passed already. Where was she?

“What are you doing?”

He startled, a drop of eggnog landed on his tie, and he swallowed hard, trying to focus on anything other than the way her warm voice had trickled into his ear.

Turning around to face her, excitement and disappointment warred within him. “You’re taking years off my life, Agent David.”

She pursed her lips, then glanced at the hallway he had been staring at. “Are you stalking someone?”

He blinked, harrumphed, licked his lips. “No.”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing.” Her gaze drifted down his body, landing on the small, newly formed stain on his tie. “Tsk, tsk, can’t take you anywhere,” she said with a sly grin, before taking a napkin and dabbing at the stain.

He vaguely pointed over his shoulder at the hallway she had disappeared into earlier, distracted by her nimble hands . “Where did you come from?”

“Autopsy,” she said matter-of-factly. “Checking in on Ducky.”

“Oh, right, long way around.”

Her brows furrowed briefly. “Why are you standing here by yourself?” She pointedly looked over at where McGee, Abby, and Jimmy were talking animatedly.

“Erm, avoiding technobabble.”

Her eyes narrowed at his casual shrug, and he evaded her penetrating gaze.

“Whom are you stalking?”

“I’m not stalking anyone.” He tried to straighten his tie, accidentally brushing her hand that had lingered there. “It’s more like a stakeout.”  He cleared his throat as she pulled her hand back, and he held out his drink for her. “Eggnog?”

Her mouth opened, and closed as something behind him caught her eye.

He glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Ducky and Betsy from HR peck each other on the cheek underneath the mistletoe. When he faced her once more the smug look on her face made his skin tingle.

“You are trying to kiss someone under the mistletoe,” she said, a dark gleam in her eyes.

“Oh please,” he said casually as a beehive exploded in his stomach. “As if I need mistletoe to kiss someone.” Holding her gaze steadily, he wondered why he was even trying to keep up the charade.

Thankfully, Sally interrupted what was about to become an uncomfortable standoff. They broke eye contact when Sally hooked her arm in Ziva’s, and his partner all but glared at the newest member of the accounting department. Clearly the young woman hadn’t gotten wind of Ziva’s reputation yet.

Sally looked up at him, giggled nervously as her face flashed red, then leaned into Ziva, and asked, “can we talk?” A furtive glance in his direction, “in private?” She nodded towards the hallway.

Ziva looked mildly irritated, Tony simply smiled widely at her, while raising his eyebrows, hoping to soften her mood a bit. It was almost Christmas, after all.

She rolled her eyes. Barely had she uttered the word “fine” and Sally was all but dragging her towards the hallway. Ziva glanced back and glared at him.

He chuckled as he watched them both disappear into the stairwell. The mistletoe caught his eye like a flickering neon sign, and he grinned widely at the prospect of another opportunity.

After positioning himself more strategically, he waited patiently. A flutter in his stomach accompanied the reappearance of both women mere minutes later. The look on Ziva’s face was hard to read, a mixture of confusion and exasperation. Forgetting his initial goal, he cocked his head at her as they closed the distance.

“Merry Christmas, Tony,” Sally said cheerfully, her face turning bright red again before pulling him towards her and kissing him full on the lips.

He froze, wide-eyed, painfully aware of Ziva taking it all in.

Sally let go, and he took a step back standing to full height, straightening his tie. She gave him another nervous smile, and he smiled back tightly before she dashed off to the other side of the bullpen.

Ziva walked up close to face him, eyes swirling with emotions.

Tony glanced in the direction Sally had left, then pointedly looked at Ziva, because clearly their private get together had something to do with it. “What the hell was that?”

She frowned. “Was that not what you were waiting for?”

“What? No, why would you even think that, she’s like twelve years old,” he said with exasperation.

“She’s twenty-two,” Ziva said testily.

“Exactly! She may as well be a baby.” He scrunched up his face.

“I was around her age when I joined NCIS.”

He met her fiery gaze. “Yeah but you were born holding ninja stars and a Colt .45. You’re in a league of your own.”

Ziva glanced away shaking her head. “She has a crush on you, I thought you were interested in her.”

“Again, why would you think that.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You were stalking her.”

“I was not,” he hissed back.

“Fine! Staking out, then.”

He straightened up briefly, took a deep breath, and leaned in. “I was not staking her out.”

“You moved closer to the mistletoe when we came out of the hallway.”

“Yes.” He said, looking at her intently. “I did.”

The confused look in her eyes told him he wasn’t getting anywhere without spelling it out. Which he very much did not want to do surrounded by co-workers.

Tony sighed. “Never mind.” He took a step back. “I’m not interested in Sally, at all, okay?”

The people and music were getting to him, he needed a break, a few minutes to clear his head. He couldn’t do that with Ziva looking at him all confused and angry. Turning on his heels he headed for the stairway, and bumped right into Dorneget.

“Agent DiNozzo, Merry Christmas,” Dorneget said, and kissed him on the cheek.

“Yeah,” Tony replied tightly as Dorneget walked off. He looked up at the mistletoe and rolled his eyes.

From the corner of his eye he saw Ziva watching him. When he met her gaze, she cocked her head and her lips parted, the confusion and anger cleared from her face.

She glanced at the mistletoe with a frown, then looked around the bullpen as if searching for something or someone. Watching her speed off in the direction of the elevator, he shook his head and continued to the stairwell.

As the door closed behind him, he sighed in relief as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” was muted to a barely audible whisper. He sat down on the stairs and rubbed his face with both hands, then continued to mess up his hair.

All he had wanted for Christmas was to steal a little kiss from his best friend. How had he let it become so complicated. It had seemed straightforward when he had thought of it that morning when Ziva had pointed out the mistletoe.

The door clicked open behind him, letting in the last of Carey’s melismatic singing. “Go away,” Tony said without looking.

The door shut, all but silencing the music. He tilted his head, trying to stretch the tense muscles in his neck.

“Tsk, tsk, where is your Christmas spirit, Tony?”

He jumped to his feet and did a 180. Standing two steps lower, they were now face to face as Ziva stepped into his personal space. The warm, gleeful look in her eyes sent warmth down his spine, and he couldn’t help but smile at her.

She smiled brightly in return, and held up a small branch.

Tony’s brow knit. “Did you vandalize the office Christmas tree?”

She opened and closed her mouth, then shrugged with a coy smile.

“Why?”

Ziva held the branch above their heads. “Pretend it’s mistletoe.”

Tony looked up at the branch. “What?”

Ziva’s gleefulness was replaced with mild annoyance, as once again, the door opened letting in Elvis Presley’s baritone voice as he sang about falling in love. “Go away!” She said impulsively.

As the door closed, they both heard a muffled “Grinch” coming from the other side.

Ziva’s eyes narrowed and her mouth opened as she turned to look.

His hands on her waist drew her attention back to him like a magnet.

“Tsk, tsk, where’s your Christmas spirit, Ziva?” He smiled widely, taking the tree branch from her and holding it above her head.

She wet her lips as he leaned in closer, and as much as he wanted to feel her lips on his, he couldn’t resist teasing her. He kissed her softly on the cheek, right at the corner of her mouth.

Ziva pulled her head back slightly to look at him disapprovingly. “Seriously?”

He grinned, a lightness filling his head and heart. “I didn’t want to be presumptuous.”

Ziva pursed her lips, a desire to drag out the teasing evident in her eyes. But then a softness he had rarely seen took over her features. She placed a hand on his cheek, and as soon as she touched her lips to his, his arms wrapped tightly around her, pulling her close, careful not to lose his balance and risk tumbling both of them down the stairs.

When they finally broke apart, Tony held out the branch for closer inspection. “Kinda sappy.”

“It’s plastic.”

“I meant figuratively.” He gave her another quick kiss. “I like sappy.”

“I know.”

He chuckled. “I don’t understand why you didn’t just steal the actual mistletoe.”

“You can call me a ninja all you want, but even I couldn’t steal that mistletoe in a room full of federal agents without being noticed.”

Tony laughed, and softly kissed her forehead. “You’re adding years to my life, Agent David.”

Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “Good, I have big plans for you.”

Whether brave or stupid, he needed clarity, once and for all. “For me, or for us?”

Her soft smile warmed up the harshly-lit stairwell and his ever cautious heart. A slight flush appeared on her cheeks, and her voice sounded full of promise. “For us.”

He kissed her slowly, deeply, threading his fingers through her loose curls, and pouring all of his feelings into her.

[pilferingapples]

tagged by the excellent @counterwiddershins! thank you!!

favorite color: It's Green!:D

song stuck in my head: ...well it's "The Gambler" now, thank you very much XD Before then it was the reprise of "Kaput" from the Schmigadoon / Schmicago finale.

last song I listened to: Lullaby of Birdland by Eartha Kitt over on Radiooooo!

three favorite foods: but....I love them all...uh... Cornbread and beans with jalapenos my dear spouse's pecan pie tacos al pastor!!

Last thing I googled: ..ok this is VERY basic, it's just "pumpernickel bread" BUT I gotta share this here because it led me to find a BLACK FOREST PUMPERNICKEL DESSERT?? With cherries and whipped cream and such?? I'm so intrigued but also concerned, is anyone eating this? I need Reports Back!

Dream trip: WHERE'S MY PORTAL FANTASY, no darn deconstruction, I want to go to a land of magical wonder and complete some random quest with, importantly, no one dying, although acquiring a Cool Aesthetic Scar would be acceptable. There should be dragons and they should be chatty.

...if I'm stuck in this reality, I just wanna go to the coast and eat seafood and swim in the Gulf until I turn into some kind of extremely questionable mercreature. The cats, alas, would probably hate that.

tagging people uh um @eirenical @fixaidea @wilwywaylan @everyonewasabird @badassindistress, if you want to! if you don't then just consider this me waving hello <3