Greetings music slutinos, and welcome to the first Manor Music post for the new year! It's back to work for many of you today - and I know, blech. Myself, I want at least another week off, but, hey, music can be a vacation, right? No, really, it can. Tonight, at the Manor's exclusive "Bush Diver" after-hours bar and taquitoria, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing just want you need to hear as you start the work week. Something effortlessly light, something to sweep away the drudgery, something with giggles.  How about "The Girl With A Giggle In Her Voice?" That's what she was dubbed in the early 1950s. Behold the chucklesome Alma Cogan, here in her dressing room just seconds before hitting the stage. She designed all of her fetching costumes, by the way. Never once was she seen in the same outfit twice.  I 'm still trying to wrap my noggin around the fact that she was, for quite a long time, the highest-paid female performer ever in the UK (until th...

Credit: Getty Here are Rihanna and A$AP Rocky on the red carpet at the 35th annual Gotham Awards last night. Rocky was sporting Chanel and Rihanna wore Balenciaga.  Now, look. Riri is beautiful and she has a long history of bold and interesting fashion choices. But sometimes I have to wonder WTF she is thinking when she wears some of these ensembles. For something so baggy, this still looks very uncomfortable. And don't even get me started on the feather hat. What do you think of this look, Peckers? 

Jezebel had a headline last week that the coverage of Taylor's new relationship was starting to get weird. Huh? The coverage of her has been strange for years, and I have never understood it. It started being weird almost a decade ago. Why? I rarely contemplate or question the fervor over this woman, mainly because it feels so manipulative and orchestrated, and I have always thought she came off as a mean, spoiled, backstabbing, popular high school homecoming queen who bullies people and stays forever 16. Still, she is everywhere all the time doing nothing notable, so it is hard to ignore her even when I actively work hard to do it. I really don't give two damns who she pretends to fuck or fucks for real or contracts or blackmails to be her partner in pap strolling. I don't even like her music because, to me, it is formulaic and boring, and her songwriting reminds me of the overwrought poetry we wrote in 9th grade, heartbroken because your boyfriend has decided (sob) ...

Rihanna, the former musician turned make-up and lifestyle mogul - I said what I said and until she drops another goddamn album, which will be never, this designation stays - recently popped a squat and had her second baby with her husband A$AP Rocky after being pregnant for what seemed like ten thousand years (or more) (and at times looking so humongous, I thought she was carrying an entire litter of crotch critters). But one thing's remained a mystery: the baby's name. Until now.  Drumroll, please, because RZA (pictured above and looking cute as a button) can now call his wee little brother Riot. So RZA and Riot. Truthfully, I was never into the name RZA - how the hell do you pronounce that? - which is a "tribute," supposedly, to Wu Tang Clan rapper Robert Fitzgerald Digs, and I'm not all that sure how I feel about Riot. How does one contend with this name at, let's say, the grocery store? You know, when he reaches the toddler stage, runs off for the candy ai...