Author Archives: Alan Ilagan

March dazzles in its own blustery way, and this week will supposedly bring in some spring-like temperatures. Having been burned, or more accurately, frozen in the past, I’ll not hold my breath until such a heat wave deigns to descend. Until such time, let’s recap the previous week of dazzlement. 

The Monday Blues were turned on their head by Kylie Minogue and her disco stick. 

Feeling nostalgic, and mourning the loss of two more Ogunquit establishments, here is my homage to the Ogunquit Oatie. 

Approaching peace in half an hour. 

Channeling Hollywood glamour in black and white.

Madonna’s greatest album ever.

Listening to the birds before the lions arrived.

Putting on a flower show in my mind.

A green twist on a popular pasta dish.

The long-lost art of impeccable customer services breeds glamour. 

Bloody beauty.

Darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

Ambrosia x Watergate: an Easter salad. 

Dazzlers of the Day included Dr. Angela Davis, Regé-Jean Page, Audra McDonald, Tyler Hoechlin, Javier Muñoz and Margaret Cho. 

Restarting the mood on March 1st began with a step outside. 

The air was still and cold, but not unbearably so. It was above freezing, and water droplets hung from the Chinese dogwood branches. It didn’t feel like lion weather, so the old adage for March entering like that majestic beast had not yet come to pass. This early in the morning, before work, before the delivery trucks rumbled by, before the mailman made his stop, the stillness of the start of a new month – the month in which spring arrives – felt rife with a strange and almost-unfamiliar sense of hope. I think it was the birdsong that surrounded me.

Glorious, continuous, all-encompassing birdsong filled the air – birds were suddenly in the trees and the bushes and the sky – their chirping and calls a most wonderful symphony. It was service to the soul, a long deep drink that quenched a parched thirst I had’t quite realized was there from all the winter silence. Such peace was not to last, nor were these droplets on the dogwood tree. 

When the work day was done, I sat down to a meditation, while outside the wind picked up. It would continue to grow, howling and raging and announcing that the birds were gone and the lion had arrived. March begins again, with a roar.

“There are many things in your heart you can never tell to another person. They are you, your private joys and sorrows, and you can never tell them. You cheapen yourself, the inside of yourself, when you tell them.” ~ Greta Garbo

“I’m selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I’m out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.” ~ Marilyn Monroe

“Glamour is what I sell, it’s my stock in trade.” ~ Marlene Dietrich

“I can remember a reporter asking me for a quote, and I didn’t know what a quote was. I thought it was some kind of soft drink.” ~ Joe DiMaggio

“I don’t think that people generally realize what the motion picture industry has done to the American Indian, as a matter of fact, all ethnic groups. All minorities. All non-whites. People just simply don’t realize. They take it for granted that that’s the way people are going to be presented and that these cliches are just going to be perpetuated.” ~ Marlon Brando

“You try to be yourself, do only what you’ve always done and like to do, and right away, you’re tagged as an oddball.” ~ James Dean

“I was constantly falling in love, and it never occurred to me that this was wrong or bad.” ~ Grace Kelly

“Women like me because I don’t look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long.” ~ Jean Harlow

“You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams. And I know if I can make you smile by jumping over a couple of couches or running through a rainstorm, then I’ll be very glad to be a song and dance man.” ~ Gene Kelly

“The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.” ~ Fred Astaire

“When two people love each other, they don’t look at each other, they look in the same direction.” ~ Ginger Rogers

“All I wanted was just what everybody else wants, you know, to be loved.” ~ Rita Hayworth

“You can’t start worrying about what’s going to happen. You get spastic enough worrying about what’s happening now.” ~ Lauren Bacall

“We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.” ~ Katharine Hepburn

“Humor has been the balm of my life, but it’s been reserved for those close to me, not part of the public Lana.” ~ Lana Turner

“In this business, until you’re known as a monster, you’re not a star.” ~ Bette Davis (we love you)