END OF THE YEAR - MISSY SPEAKS

Hello My Dear "Steady" Readers!

This Holiday Season has been an unusual one for me.  I've remet relatives I haven't seen in years and met for the first time one I'm not related to, but a family member is: a son of my cousin's birth father came in from another country. I was not nervous about meeting him but others were nervous about it.  You see, my cousin's birth father and a relative of mine who was the birth mother many years ago when being an unwed mother was just not done in polite society were estranged. The two families would not even walk on the same side of the street back in the day. The unwed mother suffered terribly and never wed, while the unwed father did, again and again. And all these years later, a man in his senior years, their son, for the first time, had representatives of both sides of this long ago drama at the same table, holding hands as we closed our eyes and said a prayer before our meal.

I introduced myself to this man within moments of his entering the house, as a cousin from "the other side," and it took a while for him to realize what I was saying. No one had warned him. Now, what I was not prepared for was to like him very much.  In fact I was attracted to him, though of course not going to act upon it. Of course neither of us are actually responsible for what happened in those World War II years and none of us are responsible for the actions of people who were alive when we had not yet been born!

Still, it got me thinking about how much things have changed because so very many women are unwed mother's these days (and to be fair there are unwed father's involved too!).  As so many women who were Courtesans or Mistresses have had to, raising a child aside.

Home from the festivities that went better than anyone could have imagined, I decided to check on my blog here, MISTRESS MANIFESTO.  I know some mistresses are reading this blog as well as many more "mistress curious." 

Long ago I promised myself that I would not research and write only for hits.  (I even took down the Jim Morrison - Pamela and Patricia Triad for some time because that subject got too many hits, and I wanted my readers to go further in their reading and understanding.)  Well, I looked at the Google Stat's that are provided free with Google Blogger, and strangely I saw these extreme spikes of hits happening around Christmas.  In my heart I knew what was happening.  It wasn't those too busy with the holidays to read MISTRESS MANIFESTO, it was those who were at home, maybe even home alone for a week or so when the one they love is out of town.

A Mistress isn't always a Classic and Kept or living around another person. Adultery need not occur for someone to be a Mistress and these days with so many people living together without ever saying "I DO" it get's more difficult to even define a Mistress. But often Secret Romances go on hold around this time of the year when one person (or both) is more dedicated to family. Just as Secret Romances also often begin around this time; think about the Office Party and one too many, my friends.

Thank You for reading my blog.  I do work hard at it, and I know that it is appreciated.


Missy

YOU'D BE SO NICE TO COME HOME TO - JULIE LONDON

HOLIDAYS

G.K. CHESTERTON SAID

"Romance is the deepest thing in life, romance is deeper even than reality."

WARMING UP

I don't know about you, but once in a while I long to be stuck in a well stocked cabin in the woods, where no one knows where I am and can't find me for a few days. Not that I have the survival skills to endure before the long winter is over out in the wilderness, but sometimes I long for the quietude that our ancestors took for granted. No cell phones, no landlines, no radio, television - no interruption.


A fire burning to keep me warm.
A pot of chili or stew cooking.
A good loaf of fresh bread.
Butter.
Writing paper and pen.



I want to hear the snowflakes falling and hitting the window pane, hear the blood moving through my veins, but mostly know my own thoughts.


Missy

NO TWO ALIKE

SNOWFALL - SINGERS UNLIMITED

SNOWFLAKES

CHERI - BELLE EPOQUE MISTRESSES IN FRANCE : A FILM ABOUT AN OLDER COURTESAN AND A MUCH YOUNGER MAN

Lea, acted by Michelle Pfeiffer, is a French, pre- World War I Paris, Bell Epoch courtesan who has, until she meets a certain younger man, she calls Cheri, prideful of not ever really falling in love enough to be hurt.  Cheri was turned over to Lea by a somewhat older courtesan, a bit of a rival, who wants her son to get a good education in sex.  Now that she has fallen in love and done her job well, her rival match-makes her son with an age-appropriate and pure young daughter of yet another Courtesan. 

Lea uses all that she knows about being a woman, sex but not just, to get him back.

Taking place at a time when some Courtesans became wealthy, independent women by investing their money right, we none-the-less realize how small their world and opportunities are.  What they want for their children is a more normal life and a rise into respectability.

Lea wins the young man back. How can he forget his perfect lover when his wife is so, well, inexperienced?  In actuality Lea must turn him away when he comes back to her. an act of the most ferocious, selfless love. Her wisdom as she approaches mid-life is heartbreaking, which is why this is a good, thought-provoking and entertaining film.  And it's great to see the actress Kathy Bates in a role in which she is seductive.

C 2017  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  film review  Missy Rapport

FALLING

A GOOD WOMAN : MRS. ERLYNNE AS THE WISE MISTRESS

Mrs. Erlynne, is acted by Helen Hunt, as the 40ish Serial Mistress who sets her sights on Amalfi, Italy for a season in 1930.  Mrs. Erlynne hasn't actually been married for years and she understands what motivates her and why she has chosen the lifestyle she has, considering the bad reputation she must endure.  Marriages isn't for her; generally, it's boring.

Scarlett Johansson acts as newlywed Meg Windermere who is vacationing with her husband. New to marriage and assured of her status in her set, she's been raised by a relative believing that her mother died when she was young.  Beautiful, trusting and sweet, the town gossips fill her in on the wicked ways of the world, but before her innocence can be robbed from her, Mrs. Erlynne shows up, and the gossip about the woman intrigues her.

Mrs. Erlynne, a Serial Mistress, is also a wise woman. She is quite expert at having men pay her bills - until their wives shut down her lines of credit.  Said to have fled New York and unpaid hotel bills, why is she really in Amalfi?

Is she, as the gossips say, a common prostitute, or a woman trying to make her way up in high society by eventually marrying the right man, someone who can live with her sins?  

In the end, Mrs. Erlynne decides she will not reveal her important secret to Meg, and allow her to believe her dead mother is her guardian angel.

Helen Hunt's mistress rather aches with repressed emotions.

C 2017 film review Mistress Manifesto Blogspot

SNOWFLAKE

SHAMPOO - A MISTRESS FILM THAT STARS WARREN BEATTY, GOLDIE HAHN, and JULIE CHRISTIE

Are all hairdressers gay?  George *(Warren Beatty) isn't.  In fact women are seduced not only by his beautiful trendy looks, and we presume sexual experise, but because he makes them feel beautiful and look beautiful.  He's one popular guy.  Some of the greatest women in town want private appointments with him, only trusting their hair - and their bodies too sometimes - to him.  Carrie Fisher plays the daughter who quizzes him at a home visit to see if he's sleeping with her mom.

At home he has a girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn).

He's sleeping with the wife of the businessman he approaches for financing to open his own salon.  Jill is used to waiting around for him, or going by the salon he works at to see him and being brushed aside. It's not till the end of the film that she asks him to move out because he admits that he sleeps around. He thinks sleeping around is part of his job. 

Jill is shocked but behaves in a noble manner, even if it is the 1960's.  Called "one of the American Film Institutes Funniest Movies" to that date, and nominated for four Academy Awards, I didn't quite get that this was a racy farce.  George isn't just sleeping with the investors wife, but also his mistress - Julie Christie's character.

Now here is what I noted while viewing the film, which is still a very popular one to borrow or rent:

The business man Lester's mistress - Christie - used to be George's girlfriend and they still like each other and are sexually attracted to each other - but being pragmatic, she's moved on him because he can support her.  As George becomes more frantic to own his own salon, he begins to part from Jill, saying that she needs someone who can "Take care of her."  Finances are supreme in his mind.

One gets the impression that perhaps when George is through with a woman or she is through with him, he releases his responsibility by urging her to a richer man. Of course George isn't doing so bad even if he's just the hottest hairdresser in town at one of the busiest and best salons.

This film's worth a watch because it got all that acclaim years ago!


Through the years I've heard that the George character was based on hairdresser Jay Sebring who was eventually killed by the Manson Murderers along with actress Sharon Tate.  Can't prove it, but thought that was interesting. If so, I'll bet the detectives considered that the murderer might be a man jealous over a woman.

C 2017  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot  film review  Missy Rapport

LET IT SNOW - THE PUPPINI SISTERS

PUPPINI SISTERS

GEOMETRY

INTO THE HOLIDAYS with MISTRESS MANIFESTO

Run the word Mistress into your public library database and up will come a whole lot of fiction, depictions of Mistresses as strong women, ruled by desire and ruled by a need to compete with other women and win/deserve the love of a man worth waiting for. 

No doubt about it, many women have a fantasy of becoming a Mistress.  For some an escape fantasy.  From dreary job prospects, from a so-so marriage, from boredom. 

Coming up, I'm going to review three "Mistress Films" that you might enjoy seeing, and then I'm personally going to kick back.