Manolo says, if you have not yet signed up for the Manolo’s Twitter feed you are missing out on some tasty 140 character amusement.

Here are the few sample of recent Manolo tweets.

To the man with the bowl-shaped, salt & pepper toupee: Sir, you are not even fooling yourself, much less the MILF you are attempting to woo

*****

Your hairpiece says, “Look at me! I am virile and confident in my behairedness” Her body language suggests, “I would rather not, kthxbai”

*****

And now the hottie MILF has left, leaving Toupee Man to contemplate his game. Sir, if the Manolo may suggest somthing: Bald is Beautiful.

*****

SYTYCD observation: Marie Osmond + Ethel Merman – Singing Ability = Mary Murphy

*****

Re the movie Funny People: because everyone loves those movies where the famous comedians get to be all maudlin & sappy sentimental.

*****

The commercial for the Julie & Julia movie? Ayyyy! This will undoubtedly make the Manolo’s agent very, very jealous

*****

Zappos is the excellent customer service company, truly one of the best on all the internets. Amazon customer service? In the word: Meh.

*****

Trust the Manolo, If Neil Armstrong had worn these boots in 1969, we would now have the permanent base on the moon… http://bit.ly/dNSCb

*****

Three things that have broken the Manolo’s heart: ugly tattoos on beautiful women, La Boheme, Kirk Gibson

*****

Intimate Gymnastics? What is that? ….. http://bit.ly/WdMXl …. Ayyyyyyy!

Hurry, go sign up for the Manolo’s Twitterings.

Manolo says, it is Friday in late July and you are itching to get yourself out the door of your office and to the weekend. But you cannot, because your Boss, Mr. Napoleon H. Stalin, is standing there asking you to work hard on his useless tasks until quitting time. The nerve of that man!

And you would like to shout, “Talk to the hand, you petty tyrant!” to be accompanied by the appropriate hand and/or finger gestures.

But then, you know that if you do that you will be out on the street looking for work in this economy, which you will probably not find. And then, slowly your savings will be eaten away, and you will fall behind on the bills and the mortgage, and then your house will be foreclosed upon and your entire family will be forced to move in with your parents. The fate worse than death!

And so you suck it up, and drive on, doing exactly that which your boss has specified, even if you can feel your soul slowly draining down into your toes.

What you need right now is to look at some fancy lady shoes! And the fanciest ladyest shoes are from Beverly Feldman!

Here are three shoes that will cheer you.

Above is the Milady, the flowerly suede number that makes the Manolo smile.

Here is the Fire-Isle, the kitten heeled thong sandal with the exuberant adornment.

And finally, here is the aptly-named Stunning from Beverly Feldman

Sandalicious!

Did the Manolo mention that all three of these marvelous shoes are currently on the sale, nearly 40% off of the regular price? Indeed they are, as are many shoes at the Zappos!

P.S. Do you know that sometimes the super fantastic Beverly Feldman herself leaves the comments on the humble shoe blog of the Manolo.

Manolo asked, whose shoes?

Manolo answers, it is the Padma Lakshmi!

Congratulations to the Manolo’s internet friend, Ruth, who was the first to correctly identify this week’s personage of note.

Manolo says, oh noes! Amazon is buying Zappos.

Amazon.com is trying the shoe retailer Zappos.com on for size.

The companies announced on Wednesday that Amazon was acquiring Zappos, based in Henderson, Nev., for 10 million shares of Amazon stock worth more than $800 million. Amazon also said it would give Zappos employees an additional $40 million in cash and stock.

The acquisition is the largest in Amazon’s history.

Online shoe sales hit $4.3 billion in 2008, up from $3.3 billion the year before, according to Forrester Research. Zappos, a ten-year-old private company that has won fans with perks like free shipping and personalized service, is the largest player in that market.

Amazon has tried without much success to burnish its shoe offerings in the face of competition from Zappos. In 2007 it introduced a separate site, Endless.com, to sell shoes and handbags. But while Zappos received 4.5 million visitors in June, Endless.com got 777,000, according to comScore. Amazon also sells shoes on its main site, and allows outside retailers to sell them there as well.

“I don’t think Amazon has gotten much traction” with Endless, said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research. “People will go to Amazon to purchase a lot of their core media products and consumer electronics. But it is not thought of in the same light when shopping for apparel, accessories and footwear.”

Zappos, Ms. Mulpuru said, “is one of the few sites out there that people think of first when they think of footwear.”

What worries the Manolo is that Zappos has by far the best customer service culture on the interwebs.

Look at this story for confirmation of the sort of thoughtful people who are working for Zappos, the company which encourages its employees to act in human and humane ways.

By comparison, Amazon’s customer service culture is less stellar.

Of the course, Jeff Bezos is claiming Amazon intends to maintain the Zappos culture intact.

Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, said in a video clip about the deal that Zappos “has a customer obsession which is so easy for me to admire.” He added: “I get all weak-kneed when I see a customer-obsessed company.”

Okay, but please allow the Manolo to take the wait and see attitude.

P.S. Here is the letter from Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos to his employees. As Manolo can tell you from personal experience, Tony is the good guy, and his letter goes some distance in reassuring the Manolo.

Manolo asks, whose shoes?

Manolo says, apropo of the Manolo’s recent post about Del Shannon’s Runaway, Manolo’s internet friend Litchee, of the French blog, L’Antre du Fruit Changeant , has alerted the Manolo to the French version of Runaway.

Released in 1974 by the Dutch entertainer Dave, under the title Vanina, this version sold over one million singles in France .

The flashing-crazy, runaway-bride eyes suggest that Dave does not feel Del Shannon’s existential pain.

And here is the 2007 version sung by Julien Doré, for the semi-final round of Nouvelle Star, the French version of American Idol.
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Manolo says, what better way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing than by celebrating one of the most conspicuous technological spin-offs of that landmark?

Thus, the Manolo gives you, The Moon Boot!

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Manolo says, for the past several days, the Manolo has been obsessed with Del Shannon and his 1961 super smash hit, Runaway, the song the Manolo considers one of the three or four greatest rock and roll songs of all time.

The opening guitar chords and electronic “musitron” interlude of Runaway are still utterly compelling at the distance of nearly fifty years, however, for the Manolo, it the intense and defiant vulnerability in Del Shannon’s voice as he sings his own plaintive lyrics that make this song more than the sum of its parts.

But judge for yourself. Here is the relatively early video of Del Shannon singing Runaway.

And here is the best of the later versions, from 1982 (it begins about one minute in).

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Mr. Henry considers the duck.

Duck is the perfect summer entrée – intense, toothsome, flavorful, but not terribly fatty.

Manolo says, the Manolo has long and loudly campaigned against the phoney-baloney fake shoes (even those produced by supposedly reputable companies), but recently the brazenness of the counterfeit shoe crooks has been too much.

Thankfully, the word is getting around, and today there is the article in the New York Daily News about this very topic.

Killer Louboutin heels with that signature red sole for just $177, delivered to your door at 80% less than the $860 retail price.

Strappy Jimmy Choo sandals at $143.99, 64% less than the $395.99 value at the label’s Fifth Ave. store.

Such are the boasts of flashy Web sites featuring red-carpet shots of J.Lo, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz in the wildly glamorous shoes. [...]

It seems too good to be true – and it is.

Tens of thousands of online shoppers are falling for the latest variety of fakes flooding the Internet.

Despite ultra-convincing pictures and claims that the Web sites are run directly by the designers and the footwear is individually crafted in Europe, it’s a scam.

The goods are neither handmade nor exclusive. They are mass-produced in China.

The “leather” often smells of toxic chemicals, the “hand-stitching” is replicated by sewing machine, and the sizing is inaccurate.

Return the purchase and, on top of the cost of shipping, customers are subject to a “restocking” fee of up to 20%. Little wonder most swallow the disappointment and don’t bother to send them back.

If disappointment were the only result of the fraud, it wouldn’t make headlines. Who really cares about image-obsessed fashionistas being ripped off?

On closer examination, however, this international con has a devastating and far-reaching effect.

Child labor, money laundering, prostitution and terrorist activity go hand in hand with the counterfeit trade managed by criminal gangs.

For several months now, the Manolo has been waging the war against these evil people both in his comment section (where they spam the comments with their links) and in his banner ads (where their ads are delivered to his websites by Google Adsense). With effort, he has been able to keep them at bay.

Remember, when buying the luxury good, only do business with the reputable companies, either those with whom you are already familiar, or those who have been recommended to you by people you trust.

P.S. Thanks to the Manolo’s internet friend the Susan at the always informative Counterfeit Chic.

Manolo says, the Manolo is updating his blogroll!

If you have the real life fashion blog and consider yourself the internet friend of the Manolo and would like to exchange links with him please leave the message in the comments.

Manolo says, here is the Manolo latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I am a lonely writer, and day after day I get nothing but rejections in the mail. It is extremely discouraging, and today’s boatload of rejections make me so sad I’m just sitting around, eating a stale muffin in my jammies. My shoe wardrobe consists of sensible pumps, sensible flats, and sensible kicks. Take me on a much needed flight of fancy. Get me out of my rut.

Lisa

Manolo says, everyone imagines that the life of the freelance writer is muy romantico. You wake up late, do thirty or forty minutes of typing, dress in your comfortably artistic clothing (perhaps with the leather elbow patches) your hair charmingly disheveled above your high-tech retro eyewear. Then, it is the late lunch with your agent, followed by the series of readings in quaint bookshops, given to throngs of adoring fans, all of whom have named at least one child after the hero of your first novel.

Sadly, if you are the average freelancer, you wake up early each morning worried about paying the bills and the decline of the American reading public, and then spend hours slaving away at the computer. Worse, none of your old artistically comfortable clothing fits because you work in the kitchen, only two steps from the refrigerator, and so naturally, you would be embarrassed to meet any of your fans, hypothetical though they may be.

For fancy-flying and rut-busting, the Manolo recommends the always amusing L.A.M.B. by Gwen Steafani, perhaps the Ladonna, the strappy, stiletto-heeled sandals in red patent.