Greetings, music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today with two - count 'em, two - wonderful, mostly forgotten jazz songbirds. Yet they're not forgotten by DJ Li'l Scratch, who's lived many lives, as you know, and has seen and heard so much, and in fact was born with a brood of five wee kittens in the smoky backroom of " The Green Mill Jazz Club."  But that's a story for another day.  Tonight only at the Manor's "Shuck 'Em and Funk 'Em" after-hours lounge and taqueria, DJ Li' Scratch will be spinning tunes by two chanteuses from the "cool jazz" period in the late 1950s through the early 1960s, or tunes with hushed tones, smooth, steady tempos and complex harmonies. First we have Joy Bryan, the epitome of the All-American girl-next-door, don't you think? Yet looks can be deceiving - and all is not vanilla. Joy was yet another one of those terrific, highly regarded late 1950's-era West...

Getty Images It will be the end of humanity if we let it. Well, it'll be the end of road-tripping white people, that's for sure.  Gas. Station. Food. Just ask Dr. Bernard Hsu, better known as Chubbyemu. He's a toxicologist and former competitive power lifter whose YouTube channel  with 3.9 million subscribers is a wonderland of horrifying medical emergencies. Many of these cases originate with, you guessed it, gas station food.  As someone who's constantly on the bus going from one gig to another, and who used to routinely take the four hour bus ride from Vancouver to Penticton, I have regularly taken my life in my hands and availed myself of an innocent-looking sammich, or perhaps a plastic clamshell of Caesar salad. In fact, I did so just yesterday.  Then I turned on the tv. That was my big mistake. It's dry, but is jerky really safe either? Nachos, apparently, are not . We surely all know to wipe off the top of a pop can before taking a swig, right? What else can...

  You've heard of the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, but there's a new disaster in town: the Quebec Mac & Cheese Powder Disaster of 2026! This Friday, a truck travelling along Route 32 in Brossard, QC was overturned, spilling cheese powder all over the ground. The driver was taken to hospital with minor injuries and luckily no one else was hurt in the crash. Now you Peckers know I love me a bowl of Kraft Dinner. Paired with cut-up hot dogs?! Michelin-starred meal right there. If I lived closer to this crash I'm not ashamed to say I would have scooped up some free powder. I am better than no man! Let's hope the driver is doing OK and there won't be a mac and cheese powder shortage.  Tabar-Mac, amirite!

The Inheritors, 2022 Salman Toor

 

I saw this (I think) 1979 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham in the parking structure one Saturday night (I ran out there to have a very brief smoking break), and though it's not my idea of a beautiful car, it was big and boxy and flashy, so I had to take a pic. In 1979, Fleetwood Mac had a big hit with the "Tusk" album, and though the reaction from critics and buyers was mixed, I do love the title song's video: So how's your Wednesday going? Tell us all about it. After all, it's Open Post and it's almost September, darlings! Photo Credit: AK

  Here's a snap of Connor Storrie on the set of Heated Rivalry this week. The second season of the hit show is currently being filmed in Hamilton, ON. Fans are already hysterical at the sighting and have mixed feelings about Storrie's haircut. Lord knows he can rock the curls, but this look ain't so bad either. What do you think, Peckers? Curls or not? Sources: Cathie Coward, The Hamilton Spectator

Welcome, sloots, to another edition of The Peckerwood Book Club, today with a vital question: do you judge a book by its page count? I'll admit that I do on occasion, much as I might judge a book by its cover art. For instance, I wouldn't be caught dead at a cafe reading this , since the cartoony cover makes it look like a twee book for halfwitted knobs (I haven't read it and likely won't, but that's besides the point). Similarly, if I find out that a novel is over 350 pages, I pause, just like I do when I learn that it's under 200.   Of course, this makes no sense at all. A novel shouldn't be judged as if you're ordering up piles of lumber or piping or bolts of fabric. The length is irrelevant, as I've learned from some terrific long-ish books, such as "Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler," which is over 500 pages, and  "Of Mice and Men," which clocks in at a supermodel-slender 107 pages.  Do you ever think twice about reading ...

 It’s the Sunday Roast, and today it’s four times throbbier than normal! Not that we’re ever normal around these parts. These parts right here… Where was I? Oh, right! Throbbing. In the 60’s you had The Monkees (who were musically under-rated IMHO). In the 80’s you had Milli Vanilli, who were at least stunning to look at. And in 2026, we have BoyThrob, which may actually be nothing more than a four-headed practical joke. Yes, in These Trying Times™ even manufactured bands have evolved. Morphed. Mutated.  These pleasant-looking lads come to you from the hellmouth known as TikTok, where they have gone viral, more for their backstory than for their music (which is pleasant enough, I guess). For four part harmony you need, yes, four people. And BoyThrob IS four people, but there’s a problem. Three of them are American:  Anthony Key, Evan Papier, and Zachary Sobania.  One of them,  Darshan Magdum,   is Indian. And trying to bring him to the US to perform with hi...

Credit: Heart US-UK on facebook Country singer Kacey Musgraves certainly kicked off her Middle of Nowhere tour with a bang! Here she is performing her song "Dry Spell" from a set of disco testicles. How cryptic! I wonder what will happen to these balls after the tour. They would make a lovely conversation piece in someone's home. Or they could be repurposed as the world's largest truck nuts!

Cottoncandy Rigamarole, 2026 Naya Green

 

I've got my new Chevy Corvair fully stocked with Fresca on ice, Nabisco Vanilla Wafers and my famous ambrosia salad in a Tupperware! Oh shoot, I gotta turn up the radio, that new song by Del Shannon just came on! So let's hit the open road, possibly drive to the beach to have a torch-lit luau this evening, or maybe stop for a picnic in the country under a weeping willow. Heck, we can go wherever we want! And wherever we decide to go, we can laugh and chat and talk about whatever we feel like, just like it's Open Post or something!

  Source: reddit This has been making the rounds on reddit/tiktok for, well, obvious reasons. Did you ever have wild hair? Perhaps a bright colour? A mohawk? A skullet?!

Greetings music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday! Can you hear birds whistling tuneful songs? Or little animals singing cheerful ditties in three-part harmony? If so, then you are psychotic and should really speak to a doctor about your visual and aural hallucinations. I kid, I kid, because we all see and hear singing birds and animals, right? Right? Anyway-I-swear-I'm-not-on-Thorazine, the songstress we're celebrating today is both famous and not famous. And sang with animals.  Confused? You won't be if you swing by "Rumpy-Pumpy Wowza-Powza," the Manor's newest after-hours club and sausage-sizzle eatery, where DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing this gal's sweet-as-syrup and twice-as-nice LP that just might make you feel all kinds of gentle and good. "It was another time," as they say, and gentle and good was allowed. Look! Singer Ilene Woods was so pretty she just popped to life. "Wait," you ask. "Ilen...

  Credit: Santiago Felipe Here's Björk all dressed up to celebrate Echolalia, a one-day Icelandic festival celebrating the solar eclipse on August 12. The 60-year old sported a balloon dress designed by Robert Wun for his Fall 2026 collection. Glass of wine in hand, the singer performed an hour-long DJ set that kept 7,000 people dancing during the exact moment of the solar eclipse. How incredible does that sound! What do you think of this look, Peckers? Would you wear this to brunch?

Berdie with Straw Hat, 1956 Larry Rivers

 

I saw this car quite a while back, driving up the hill from the beach and I remember thinking, "That's not really an old car, it's a fake old car," and I guess I was right. Apparently it was a 1983 Zimmer Golden Spirit Limited Edition. In 1983 there was a ton of great books, tv shows and movies, including the monster hit "Flashdance" ... ...which starred the luminous Ms. Jennifer Beals and had a killer soundtrack, including this smash hit by the divine Ms. Irene Cara (I love the video because you can see how much she loved singing and dancing). La Cara, you were magnificent: She was Solid Gold, as are all of you, so let's all have a Solid Gold afternoon. After all, it's Open Post, darlings! Photo Credit: AK

  Credit: Wattie Cheung Suri Cruise Noelle is making her onstage debut! The 20-year old daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise has just started her run in Midsummer!  an adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream . Noelle plays Helena, Mustardseed, Flute and Thisbe in the student production, which runs from August 6th-19th at the Edinburgh fringe festival.  She's certainly a chip off the old block! Congratulations!