Fast'n'Loud!

I got this gorgeous Bettie Page jacket today! If you love rockabilly clothes and other cool stuff plus want personal, good service go to Fast'n'Loud on Kalevankatu in Hellsinki. Michael will take care of you marvelously! They also have a we shop up soon!!!

Glam.

Visited my Juha tonight. He is my friend and my hairdresser and as both he is worth double his weight in gold. I've slept ca 4h lady night, spent 8h studying at Sexpo so this is what it looks like when things go... Yeah, well. I need to get some sleep.
P.S Lady Gaga has been sporting Fiona Timantti's specially made hat!!! Awesome!!!!!!!

Why I love our studio

Here are a few of the reasons why I love our dance studio that we share with among others The Itty Bitty Tease Cabaret and the poledance group Lumea (even if, for me, the studio is a bit of a hike away these days):

Cool kitties every Tuesday

The posters on the wall part 1

...and the posters on the wall part 2

My girls

Because our new group number will be awesome AND have a surprice (-xtra feet in da pic?!?)

Because we have the coolest and best dressed handyman in town: Leo from Lumea

Movie premiere

Today finds me tired but happy. Last night was a hoot and a half: great film, great show and friends - what more can one ask for?!? I am so tired that I´m seeing double, cranking that caffeine since me and hubster are starting that long-awaited rockabilly class tonight! The ballroom dance class almost split us up, hopefully this will work better :) If you want to put your relationship to the test: take a dance class. I dare you. Anyway, wish us luck! Here are some of my iPics from last night, in no specific order since I don´t know how to do that on the app I have on my phone...if anyone does, please let me know!

Me and Sandy 

Randy of Finland, the pick up man. I wonder since the show was a chronological of Angel´s life...was Randy maybe Clint? :D

The absolutely stunning LouLou D´Vil

With Sandy and Lamey - that *wat <3

Big Bad Black Bettie Blackheart

Bent van der Bleu

Black Bettie

T.t Tassel and the lovely Rhia the Evil Dressmaker

Leopard ladies Tinker Bell and moi

Bent as the nice Catholic boy

Kiki Hawaiji -bananas and all!

She was lost in the supermarket.

And Lamey´s fingers...

Mizz Titania Hill

Frank and Bettie with the director of the film: Joshua Dragotta

Bant? No wait...

A few words before the film (loving Kiki´s hairflowers!!!)

The Godfather if Manlesque: Frank Doggenstein

The glam crowd

Wickedly wonderful Loulou 

Kitsch!

Hallo! It´s raining outside, real Fall weather. I have been playing domestic goddess all day and feel very productive and ...domestic, haha! Tonight we have a date night with my darling - we´re off to Hellsinki to see the Satan´s Angel movie and the burlesque show afterwards. Perfection! Yesterday was a work day for me, we had a wedding in the evening so it´s been quite a busy weekend once again. The upcoming week I´m attending my sex.councelor class again, and really looking forward to Tuesday: both practice with Thee Dizzies AND I´m getting a new corset! :) I´m not giving up on having a waistline just yet!

I have a certain love for all things kitsch. I´ve mentioned my love of pin up´s before and there seems to be a magnitude of different fridge magnets as well... I try -like, really, to stay away from knick knacks and not have a bunch of *stuff* piled up on tables, shelves etc because I´m a somewhat neat girl (not anal, just *neat*. I like clean surfaces, believe it or not!) and I don´t want to spend time dusting shitloads of things. I´m not always succeeding on this Quest of Clean Surfaces. Shops like Kitsch, day (in Helsinki), Sivletto and Designtorget in Stockholm and all second hands and thrift stores really test my ability to stay cool. Not to mention the endless glitter and glam found in the depths of the internet. Sigh!

So alas, here I give you my fridge!

Have a good Sunday <3 data-blogger-escaped-div="div">

P.S there are a few tickets left for the movie tonight so if you´re interested you can still get yours!

A Wednesday Dance

They say Wednesday is the Mini-Saturday. I don´t know about that but this Wednesday has been filled with emotional hick-up´s, awesome colleagues and lovely Fall rain. I´ll finish my day with some prana yoga, here´s a little Wednesday dance for ya´ll! The Addam´s family is the bestest <3

Victory rolls. Or something.

After feeling under the weather for a while it was good fun to roll up my hair and put on some lipstick again. I have been trying different versions of victory rolls, seriously - can´t remember how many tutorials I´ve watched on youtube :) That Vintage hairdo-book helps as well. But still they somehow always end up funny. Usually the one on the right hand side is fine, being right handed might have something to do with that. My hair also is pretty darn long right now so that makes the rolling a hazzle. Mental note: call my hairdresser. 

I didn´t use hot rollers here as I usually do, trying to be nice to my hair... Soft, spongy cold rollers work really good if you have time but here I just dried it with some hair mousse, teased it a bit at rolled up. A rat-tail comb and some extra hard core hairspray are must´s if you want to try any kind of vintage hairdo! Any kind of flowers to disguise a hair mis-haps are also a good idea to have in stock :)

The necklace was given to me the morning after our wedding by hubster. It´s specially made for me, black pearls and in between each pearl there´s white golden barb wire :) - for the old punk rock chick!

Where we come from

I grew up living in a house with a very old man. I consider myself very lucky. My maternal grandfather was born in 1906 and even if he (for sure!) had his own ideas about certain things (...men with long hair, for example...) he did give some very valuable perspective on things. I got to read his magazines, stuff like the German `Stern` that could have semi-nude broads featured on the cover. My mother said she used to draw bikinis on them as a girl :) We would play cards with him and his friends, even if they were 70+ and I was 10 it was fine. I would watch him do yoga and "airbathe" in the backyard because   that´s the kind of stuff what he believed would be good for the body, -sauna, honey and raw garlic. He had been in the war but never talked about it. He was very much in favor of new things, new technology and I remember him once saying that progress can´t and should not be stopped. I´m sure he had a lot of stuff on his mind that he never talked about, I think he was quite stubborn and must have been a child of his own times in more ways than one. Finland was a very different place when he was a kid.
But I remember a warm, eccentric and funny old man who always had time for me. Knowing him has for sure been a par of he things that made me the woman I am today.
If you are lucky enough to have elderly people in your family or around you take time to sit down and talk with them. They were not always old and wrinkly and I bet my tail feathers they have some very cool stories to tell you. I know some awesome 20-year-olds that have been around the block more than most, so wisdom does not always come with age but in most cases it sure does help.

My granddad, sitting in the chair. Handsome fellow, would you not say?

Satan´s Angel: The Movie

If you ever met her, you can´t forget her. Satan´s Angel is a legend of burlesque and a total force of nature - she´s loud, she´s intimidating and she´s quite fabulous :) I don´t think there is much she
* hasn´t * done in life and that just makes her one of the most interesting personalities I´ve had the honor of meeting. The movie about her has it´s European premiere at the Rakkautta&Anarkiaa-festival in Helsinki on the 23rd this month. There are still tickets so you should get yours, easy to do and more info on the film is found here. There will be a burlesque show at Dubrovnik after the film, those with movie tickets will be let in first so there´s a little extra spark if you need one! Me, Sandy and Pepper got ours so we will see you there!

Me assisting Angel at the last HBF... (photo by Emiliano Mel, I think)

Inspiration

Oh Thursday. My antibiotics are kicking in, can´t stop thinking about work (related things) - the thing with a job one just started is that being away creates more stress than anything else. It´s not that I don´t trust that the world will roll on without me, it´s more the thought of "did I remember to write everything down/order everything/leave everything to be found" etc.  It is a fault of mine, I confess, to rather do things myself to be sure everything is done "properly" and so I don´t have to think about it. Some would call it " a good girl syndrome" others just being plain anal but I have been trying to let go, learning to relax about things and not be so ...´planning´. I´m the girl who always counts when learning new dance steps and gets frustrated and flustered when plans change without warning. I adapt, for sure. After a while :)  But with a new job it´s not that easy to do when I don´t have those routines all figured out even for myself. It´s a little like performing a new number for the first time: no matter how hard you have practiced, you know the music by heart and you felt good about it yesterday...standing in line next for the stage I have that feeing I can´t remember ANYTHING and it will all go to hell. It usually won´t and with the mis-hap´s and wardrobe malfunctions one learns to cope and learn from. Those can happen anytime. I guess writing this down just made me a bit more relaxed about the work stuff as well.

From one thing to the 5th - I´m so thrilled about my upcoming number! Music is fixed (thanks you Sir Willy for helping me out again), outfit next! I´m sure nobody is surprised to hear that it will be more neo- than classic once again. I was listening through songs last night thinking about a classical number  I´d like to do but we will see... Anyway, here are some inspirational pictures I found for this upcoming one.... Have fun!

Tom image found here

Me as Lucia with sisters and neighbor kids back in the day. My youngest sis probably still hasn´t forgiven us for her role as the Xmas-tree :)

 

Wonderful pic from here. Nice blog color as well :)

Feelings, nothing more than...

I´m stuck on the sofa, drizzly rain outside... My sister wanted to visit for coffee but I missed her phone call. I´m in that mood again, as you can see, hehe.
The good news is that this is (according to my blood tests) just an ordinary cold which means that if I´m a good girl, take my medication and REST I should be fine and dandy come weekend. I will still miss my dear friend Jac´s birthday bash in Tallinn which makes me both sad and annoyed but I try to think about all those wonderful hot yoga classes and the rockabilly dance course that I can attend to when I feel like *me* again. Not there´s this 90-year-old grumpy old broad living in my body, no exercise for a a few weeks makes Gigi an evil witch :)
I do want to write about a thing that has been on my mind lately, it has to do with how people perceive burlesque and about people in certain professions that according to some should not have burlesque as a hobby. I´m talking about why I, as a teacher, get questions like if I don´t find it "inappropriate" to do burlesque or why some friends of mine have been told that they, - being mothers of small children, really shouldn´t do burlesque much for the same reason of being inappropriate. I won´t do it now.
I wan´t you to think about a few things though: first, how do you define "a professional". I´m talking about any kind of professional, workwise. What makes a person a "pro" at what they do. Second: define double-standards. And third: why is it more ok to show war and violence than bare skin and erotica?
I will get back to you on this, don´t you worry :) if you have any thought on the subject/s please let me know!!!  I´m open to all kinds of debate and ideas. Right now I just wanted to post a few awesome old movies posters that define how I feel about having a cold. Seeya soon <3

It lives in my sinuses!

Being forced to watch daytime TV will kill braincells!

Every morning I feel like this....