Imag­ine my delight and sur­prise when my sis­ter pre­sented me with a God­dess Mother’s Day gift (I call myself God­dess Mother instead of “God­mother” to my almost 2 year old Dinky Diva niece). A com­plete vol­ume of every­thing Elvis, all Elvis, all the time.

I may have men­tioned, a time or ten, that I am a devoted Elvis fan. Not the creepy, know every detail, groupie, obsessed kind of fan…but with this ency­clo­pe­dia, I am am equipped to become one, if I so desire.

Just about every detail Elvis’ life has been met­i­clously researched,  detailed and chron­i­cled.  As the author, Adam Vic­tor notes, ” this ency­clo­pe­dia is longer than the Old Tes­ta­ment”; a com­par­i­son to higher pow­ers? I will leave that up to you to decide. I know my vote is in on that count *wink*.

I have already made a spot on my cof­fee table for this hand­some com­pendium, if some­one could just help me by pry­ing it out of my hands.

There was a time those words would be answered with shrill screams, waves of applause & knick­ers being tossed on stage. The likes of which, Mr. Pretty-Boy, Justin Tim­ber­lake, has never seen.

But that’s just it, Tom Jones is a man, not a boy-toy. With an albeit cheesy past related to tight trousers and the afore­men­tioned panty-tossing (which, as a kid and now, as an adult, I think is weird), but it was Tom’s schtick and he rode it.

I’m not sayin’ that JT or (insert any cur­rent teen-heartthrob’s name) is any less tal­ented, or that I am proud of Mr. Jones’ too-tight trousers and panty-tossing fans. I’m just sayin’, Mr. Jones had grown women in the palm of his hand…and still does today. They are just a bit more reserved, like he is now.

I have long been a fan of Mr. Jones, not a knicker-tossing fan, but a fan non-the-less. About 10 years ago, he was at the top of the charts with a crit­i­cally acclaimed album called Reload. Well, not the top of the charts in the U.S., but in a much cooler place music-wise, Eng­land and the rest of Great Britain. I just hap­pened to be there on a trip when I heard Burn­ing Down the House in a way David Byrne could never have imag­ined. It was the top video, and you heard it every­where. The same hap­pened when Mr. Jones recorded Prince’s KISS a few years ear­lier. It was far more con­vinc­ing com­ing from Tom than Prince. And did you know that was Tom Jones singing SexBomb which was fea­tured in Sex and the City?

Repack­aged and renamed in the States as Reloaded, it is a very dif­fer­ent CD than the one I picked up in Lon­don. I guess the pro­duc­ers were afraid of not includ­ing his ear­lier works that most Amer­i­can would rec­og­nize like What’s New Pussy­cat, It’s Not Unusual, etc., which makes the Amer­i­can ver­sion far less impres­sive and inno­v­a­tive than the British release.

In the MP3 player, above, pay atten­tion to Mama Told Me Not To Come, Burnin’ Down the House, Moth­er­less Child, Some­times We Cry, KISS & Baby, It’s Cold Out­side. Reload was orig­i­nally a “duet” type of cover album where Tom was paired with a wide range of musi­cians, such as, The Cardi­gans, Van Mor­ri­son, Rob­bie Williams, Stereo­phon­ics, Cerys From Cata­to­nia, Natalie Imbruglia and Sim­ply Red. The orig­i­nal CD is avail­able on Ama­zon, click here: Reload.

Tom Jones has a new CD out called 24 Hours with all orig­i­nal songs. I didn’t want to jump into this rec­om­men­da­tion with­out a lit­tle back­ground for you. Those that know me well, know I like to pass on every tid-bit of infor­ma­tion I have on a sub­ject, so that they can have just as much use­less infor­ma­tion stored in their heads as I do. Although, I don’t think that would be possible.

I received 24 Hours as a Christ­mas gift from my friend, Evette. Fun­nily enough, she had called me a few weeks ago to let me know that Tom Jones was going to be on the Today Show. “Oh, Prob­a­bly because he has a new CD com­ing out. I have it on my Ama­zon wish-list. It’s on pre-order right now..”, I said. To her credit, she did not con­vey an “I’m laugh­ing with you-not at you” tone in her voice as she answered “You would.” No, I would say it was a straight-up “I’m laugh­ing at you” tone. She can’t laugh too hard though, because she actu­ally asked for a copy of the orig­i­nal Reload CD and she went with me and my Mom to see Mr. Jones in con­cert a cou­ple years ago.

When I first lis­tened to the new 24 Hours CD, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. There were tracks that I liked imme­di­ately, and the ones I didn’t, have grown on me. It is an inter­est­ing com­bi­na­tion to a throw­back ’60’s beat but with more sophis­ti­cated arrange­ments, sound, and pro­duc­tion with a cool club vibe that I could sing along to, all the while, sound­ing like true Tom Jones. His voice is pow­er­ful, play­ful, soul­ful and fun. One of the few singers today that can rock out and sing a soul­ful bal­lad of a man who has lived life to the fullest– I’m just guess­ing here.

My favorite tracks on the CD are Style and Rhythm, Sugar Daddy, Sea­sons and Give a A Lit­tle Love.

Like my other favorite singers, Elvis and George Michael, Mr. Jones is all voice and charisma. I think he has been sold short on the true tal­ent that he is. Pack­aged and sold as a sex– sym­bol early on in his career, I think it has been harder for him to be taken seri­ously by the Amer­i­can pub­lic. In Great Britain, he is iconic, in the States, not-so-much. But I will do my part to change that and encour­age you to open your musi­cal taste up to a man who’s con­tri­bu­tion to music can­not be denied.

Will Justin Tim­ber­lake be able to deliver Rock Your Body, Señorita, Cry Me a River or any of his hits, as con­vinc­ingly in 30 years? Time will tell.

But as Tom tells us in Sugar Daddy, “Don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.”

I’m just sayin’.

Darla at Chic Cri­tique was kind of enough to give a fab­u­lous review of our Dolce Div­ina Tiramisu Collection!

Chic Cri­tique gives beauty prod­uct reviews for the mod­ern woman.  They are very hon­est (they loved our prod­ucts– so of couse they are totally hon­est *wink*) and humor­ous too! I think you will enjoy read­ing about La Dolce Diva as well as their other reviews.

I espe­cially liked their recent pic­tures on wear­ing “nat­ural” and com­pli­men­tary col­ored eye-makeup.

Enjoy…and thanks again Chic Critique!

How do some of us become aware of what brands are cool, trendy, sta­tus, lux­ury, cheap, knock-off, while oth­ers don’t have a clue? Maybe we are the ones that don’t have a clue. Or maybe we have an appre­ci­a­tion for an art form that seems super­fi­cial or com­mon­place to a lot of peo­ple who do not see fit to give it any thought or value. And some of us are just label-whores who could care less about the soul or aes­thetic of a brand and just wear it like a badge of sta­tus. We won’t com­ment on what that sta­tus is.

In our world of com­mer­cial­iza­tion and mass pro­duc­tion, there are many designer brands that have been so worn down that they barely have a glim­mer of the orig­i­nal spark that made them spe­cial. In some cases, the lux­ury brands we know today were known for a spe­cialty far dif­fer­ent than we know them for now. For exam­ple: Gucci; leather, Her­mes; eques­trian and arti­san leathers, Louis Vuit­ton; steamer trunks, Chanel: hats, bell-bottoms, lay­ered cos­tume jew­elry.  What– you think Madonna came up with that? Puleeze!

As pop­u­lar­ity and noto­ri­ety of the dif­fer­ent brands grew, their clients came to depend on them for qual­ity mer­chan­dise and requested they expand into other areas or there was just a nat­ural growth that occurred. While some of these brands made the deci­sion to stay small lux­ury shops, oth­ers licensed their names to every­thing from cars to dog col­lars.  This dis­tinc­tion did not always lead to a cheap­en­ing of the brand, some­times it sim­ply broad­ened it. The real eye-opener is where the money comes from. For the most part, all the licens­ing of per­fume, acces­sories, watches etc., is what pays the bills and for the mar­ket­ing that keeps the brand’s iden­tity in the lux­ury column.

All this was a long way around to rec­om­mend a book that I found utterly fas­ci­nat­ing, Deluxe: How Lux­ury Lost Its Lus­ter.

Deluxe, takes you through the story and growth of many of the well-known lux­ury brands. Dana Brown is unflinch­ing and unbi­ased in her rev­e­la­tions of where some of those brands are today and how they got there — good and bad. Under­neath it all, I still sensed that she held a respect and regard for the fash­ion business.

In Ms. Brown’s easy story-telling man­ner, you will learn how lux­ury leather-goods are pro­duced in the same fac­tory as well-known Pri­vate Label brands. How Chanel No. 5 came to be. Why actresses started being “styled” by design­ers instead of dress­ing them­selves. The rea­son high-end per­fume cost so much. The use of Logos for brand­ing. That Cae­sar only wore silk togas. How mega-luxury-brand cor­po­ra­tions were  formed by scoop­ing up the low-hanging fruit of floun­der­ing sta­tus names. The man­age­ment and mar­ket­ing of brand iden­tity in mag­a­zine adver­tise­ments. That fash­ion is a busi­ness first, but must have the art to be successful.

As some of you may already know, I attended The Fash­ion Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy in New York for four years. So, for me, fash­ion is my liveli­hood, a busi­ness, an art and a pas­sion. I am def­i­nitely not a major sta­tus fash­ion plate, by any means, but true lux­ury brands are impor­tant to me. Even though so many lux­ury brand name items can be acquired for not-so-luxury prices, at the heart, there is still a his­tory and an aes­thetic that I respect.

I real­ize that many find fash­ion super­fi­cial and triv­ial. But the truth is, fash­ion is one of the first ways we assert our inde­pen­dence as a child. It is a pow­er­ful force in social sit­u­a­tions through­out our lives. Remem­ber that Benet­ton Rugby Shirt, Calvin Klein jeans, Polo oxford, Reebok high-tops, Pap­pa­gallo purse you just had to have? Is that too much of a throw-back?…How about Manolo Blah­niks, Seven for All Mankind jeans, Juicy Cou­ture sweats? Ring any bells? Whether you actu­ally acquired the objects of your affec­tion or not, can you admit that at some point in time, fash­ion has had some impact on your life?

I am La Dolce Diva and I am addicted to fashion…are you?

What lux­ury item did or do you just have to have?

Remem­ber George Michael? Well, I just saw him in con­cert a cou­ple months ago and he was totally FAB! He looked great, his voice was phe­nom­e­nal and the show was such an eight­ies flash­back that I felt like I was a Diva-In-Training again! You have to admit the eight­ies were one of the most fun decades we have lived through.

Take a lis­ten to a few sam­ples below from his most recent release of Twen­ty­Five Live. There are 2 CDs, 1 is for Lov­ing and the other is for Liv­ing ~ I think you will like it.

You may be sur­prised at some of the songs included on the Twen­ty­Five CD or if you choose to down­load an MP3. Check out, Feel­ing Good, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me and, of course, your favorites, Care­less Whis­per, Faith and A Dif­fer­ent Cor­ner.

Let’s face it, George Michael is not always at the top of our mind when we think of a great gift and even if we do think of him, we shake our heads at the “unfor­tu­nate “sit­u­a­tions” Georgie-Boy has put him­self into.

Well, don’t pity the boy…think of the good times. When he debuted with Wham! in the 80’s we all thought he was a doll, includ­ing my 10 year baby-sister who declared, “He is going to be big!”  Well, 25 years later, he is still a major tal­ent with a beau­ti­ful voice.

I also rec­om­mend the Twen­ty­Five Com­plete DVD Col­lec­tion of all George Michael videos includ­ing those from his WHAM! days with Andrew Rid­g­ley. You will smile and dance to your old favorites and have fun see­ing some that were never shown this side of the pond.

I recently spent an entire evening watch­ing all 205 min­utes. It was like the old MTV days when they actu­ally played Music Videos. Before “Real­ity” killed the Video star.

Have you ever read a book about wine? Yawn…I’m sorry, were you say­ing some­thing? Yes, I agree, in gen­eral read­ing about wine often leaves you feel­ing over­whelmed & under-educated, until you read Leslie Sbrocco’s,  Wine for Women: A Guide to Buy­ing, Pair­ing, and Shar­ing Wine. The title sounds like a sex­ist ploy to get women to fall into a trap that some­how this book is writ­ten in a lan­guage just for women..and it is. Not the sex­ist ploy part! No, no, no, cara mia, this is not a ploy at all. It is indeed writ­ten for women– or at least those that like to shop, love clothes and appre­ci­ate rel­e­vant descrip­tions in reg­u­lar words peo­ple use every­day instead of sound­ing like an episode of Frasier.

With chap­ter names like, Chardonnay~The “Basic Black” of White Wine, Merlot~The “Wrap Me In Cash­mere” Red, Dessert Wines~The “Paja­mas of Vino”, this book reads more like a fun con­ver­sa­tion with girl­friends where you all are able to fin­ish each oth­ers sentences.

Each chap­ter is orga­nized into 3 sec­tions, Buy­ing, Pair­ing and Sharing.

The Buy­ing sec­tion of each chap­ter gives a mood set­ting descrip­tion of the type of wine, which is related back to our clos­ets and directly to our hearts. Then Sbrocco goes on to explain the story of the grape, wine and region. The mean­ing of the labels or Label Links, “con­nect­ing taste to place makes wine buy­ing easy”.

The Pair­ing sec­tion offers advice on the pair­ing of food and wine. This is more com­pli­cated than it may seem, but it can make the dif­fer­ence between a mediocre meal and a fab­u­lous feast! Sbrocco guides you through this with full-bodied descrip­tions on the types, tex­tures and taste of the food to con­sider when pair­ing. There are even Design-a-Dinner menus and wine shop­ping guides.

Lastly, the Shar­ing sec­tion answers FAQ’s, about stor­ing, serv­ing and thought­ful gift-giving for many occasions.

This Diva’s favorite chap­ter is Chi­anti– The Sleek Ital­ian Heels. Here is an excerpt:

“While some say clothes can make the per­son, I say, what about the shoes? Many of us con­sider footwear the ulti­mate fash­ion neces­sity, espe­cially when it car­ries the dis­creet badge of honor “Made in Italy.“
I grav­i­tate toward styl­ish Ital­ian heels that mirac­u­lously seem to make any out­fit look ele­gant. Granted, it may take time to break them in, but it is a small price to pay for beauty. That’s the same way I feel about San­giovese, the grape respon­si­ble for pro­duc­ing Italy’s clas­sic Tus­can reds. These tightly wound wines often need time in the glass to soften up but show their true beauty when paired with food.
Unlike other reds that pum­mel you with power, Sangiovese-based wines seduce with style. Just like a pair of Ital­ian heels.”

Wine for Women is a won­der­ful book about wine, but after read­ing each chap­ter or even a page, Sbrocco writes with such a pas­sion and flair that you feel as if you have taken a mini-vacation to California’s Cen­tral Coast; Haut-Médoc, France; Brunello di Mon­tal­cino, Italy or Coon­awarra, Australia.

To quote Tony Coltrin of Seña win­ery, “Good wine tastes like a grape, but great wine tastes like a place.”

This Diva couldn’t have said it better.

Do you have a book about wine you would like to rec­om­mend? Leave a comment!