Pride week!

This week is Pride week in Hellsinki but this year I won´t unfortunately be able to march since I have a gig in Tampere that evening, nevertheless I wish everyone a good time for all the events! It´s really important to spread the message of equality -even in Scandinavia the LGBTQ-community is having some real issues about getting the message -and rights, through. Finland more than e.g Sweden, unfortunately. Here the rights of trans-people are being stepped on in some medieval ways: before you can change your gender one has to go through serious amounts of therapy and worst of all you have to go through an operation that castrates you! Plus if you are married before the change, -even if you are happily married, you have to divorce because the Finnish law of marriage is different for same-sex couples. Then if you want you can register your partnership even if it was with the same person you were married to in the first place. It´s utter bullshit.

We still need to explain why Pride is needed. There still is those remarks of "there´s no hetero-pride!" or "why do people need to flaunt their sexuality?". It´s not about flaunting, it´s about raising awareness that yes, even if in many parts of the world things look much more grim, it´s not all peachy here. People have, depending on their sexual orientation and gender preferences STILL not the same value or rights in the eyes of the state (or people, for that matter) and that is a serious issue. I´d like to make a leap into the matter feminism and how women face the similar, hypocritic issues as well but that will be a whole other can of worms and I´ve opened it quite a few times already :) Shortly: feminism is NOT about women (or any other gender for that matter) being "better" than any other, it´s about working towards changing attitudes, norms and right out hrm, "small issues" like getting the same pay for the same jobs as every one else. Or that it won´t be the girl getting raped and then getting the blame for dressing a certain way. Or getting shit for not "giving sex" when some moron goes and shoots a bunch of people because he was " a nice guy but never got any".  Or why she is being "slutty" when he is just "a player". Ohboy. I went there, didn´t I? ALL genders should be feminists! This includes boys/men being able to be all they want to be as well: not just masculinity in one way but to be all those attributes that our societies often lable as "feminine". Stop trying to put people in to boxes and except that we are all different, all equal.
A note 15min later: I just read this article about The strenght in being a feminine gay man that both Meth and Bent van der Bleu posted and its a great summary from another corner about the same issue <3
Added about an hour later: this really starts to feel like one of those "everyone-has-the-same-brain"-moments....Scotty the Blue Bunny just posted this with one of Exposed! the movies performers Rose Wood.

WELL. Before I get too carried away politically here´s some pictures from the Boylesque festivities (from Wednesday) that took place in Vienna this May! Huge love to everyone involved <3

OH! And do NOT miss the Pling Pling Party at Dubrovnik this Wednesday! My gals Bettie Blackheart, Lola Vanilla, Laila-Annikki Koivunen, Linnea von Kattendam and Minna Kivelä will be there for your entertainment as well as Elsa Gaselli and Lollers <3 No tickets before the event, just bring cash and love to the door!!!

My little tribute to Tom of Finland

The whole crew <3

World Famous *BOB* and the wonderful stage kittens clearing the stage of my stuff

All different, all equal

Damn right!

In and out of drag

Last weekend was very emotional! Friday night ended in a wonderful proposal on stage after curtain call for two very dear friends of mine: congrats Jari and Jac <3 Met the wonderful Lou Safire and I think I´m in love -he´s such a fabulous perfomer and a total sweetheart. Meth blew my mind with the scary, bloody amazing shows of hers! FIERCE! Thank you to all the performers and of course Lola Vanilla for organizing! I had so many giggles that night, friends showing up in stuff that I hardly recognized them -go check out Cherry Turrrbocherry´s beautiful Mr. Freelancer on her blog...she, Tinker Bell and Vera de Vil could have started a boyband called LADZ or maybe just The Itty Bitty Boyz :)
Saturday me and Pepper performed at a local event (for me) so I was very nervous about it - our first number was not introduced at all, we just kinda BOOM! Heere´s Johnny!, or rather here´s "Naked" the fan dance but you know what I mean. The audience had not seen burlesque and since the average age was a bit higher I had my concerns ...but was proven wrong -again! I had one of the BEST responses ever from an elderly lady afterwards who thanked me for "Such a refreshing show! I told my husband to look! and remember this at home! If I would do that (hand-gestured meaning twirling) they (boobs) would be in my armpits!" And then she laughed hard and heartidly <3 It just showed me once more that you *never* know what resonates in an audience and that just because of age one should not assume anything! Lesson learned! We have had a revue-theater Punainen Mylly (translated from Moulin Rouge) in Helsinki from ca 1946 to the mid 60´s so this kind of entertainment is not unheard of here. Thinking of my own future I will surely be the one granny found rather in rock clubs than the opera.
And more talk on gender and closets: take 10min to watch this TED tv talk. Have a wonderful, sunny week <3

(c) Kaylin Idora

Love has no gender

So come and show us some love tomorrow night at Dubrovnik where drag meets burlesque at the amazing shows of Drag me to HEL! There might be some tickets at the door so come early, doors open at 8pm!
In the meantime, watch this interview about burlesque (in Finnish only, sorry) with Sir Willy Waterlily and Bettie Blackheart!

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

Pepper will be performing her "The Chap" tomorrow... Photo: Tinttu Henttonen

Fo´ REALZ?

Sometimes all it takes for raising the blood-pressure is an article. Today my blood pressure hit the roof due to a story published by 21st Century Burlesque about an Alabaman judge who banned burlesque performer Ida Claire from doing *anything* burlesque in order for her to be able to keep the custody of her kids. First, when I looked at the article -maybe due to the old, black-and-white-photo, I thought this is something that has happened in the past but NO. It´s happening now, way into the 21st century. I am appalled and annoyed. Please read the whole article here.
I cannot believe that women are being penalized for their sexuality ...I don´t know what word to put here...again? STILL? I have been talking about the subject of both norms and gender on several occasions. In the rant about "teacher goes burlesque" there also is a bit about motherhood and it still blows my head off to think about how extremely narrow-minded people are!!!! I have a gnawing feeling I shouldn´t be this surprised, then a pang of "I knew it dammit!" and then it just leaves me de-flated and tired and pissed off that this is as far as we´ve gotten as a human race.
I´m off to work this annoyance off at my yoga flow class. Please stay open-minded, wonderful and work with me to end the madness! Let´s work work for equality!

Trying on my annoyed face. Photo: Adam Monaghan

Talk about it

Hello again!

The week has started somewhat busy and so it continues! Next weekend I´ll be performing at two private perties which means that unfortunately I´m missing the Turku Burlesque Weekend including the Newcomer´s Night on Friday and the "Neon Safari" on Saturday. If you are on the West coast do NOT miss this! There will be amazing performances from the Luminous Pariah and Hedoluxe and many, many more!!!

Pepper Sparkles, Sir Willy Waterlily and the Itty Bitty Tease Cabaret will be all at the Stockholm Burlesque Festival this Friday - nice Finnish line up there ;) I´ve heard it´s sold out... Drop a tassel, my friends!

On a more serious note I´ve read today a great column by Carina Kolodny on The conversation you must have with your sons. It´s a very good read that I recommend for EVERYBODY, even you who don´t have any kids of your own. It´s spot on about the double standards we -maybe often unintentionally-, carry on to the next generations. Why do we tell girls to "be careful how you dress so you don´t give the wrong impression" while "boys will be boys"? Girls and women still get more easily labelled "sluts" and "easy" -often totally without any real justification, while sexually active (straight) boys and men are easier called "players" which carry a totally different tone (and less labelling). We really need to stop demonizing female sexuality as something that needs to be kept "under guard". We need to stop putting guilt and shame on girls who choose to be sexually active. If it´s ok for boys why is it not for girls? We might judge fundamentalists in other cultures for misogony but often fail to see that our culture is not that perfect, either. It might be different but that does not mean the work with this is done. And I´m on purpose not even going into the heteronormativity of this but I´ve talked about it before.
  It starts with things like teaching our young ones how to talk and how to act with other people. It´s VERY MUCH about the words we use and adults letting slutshaming go "unheard". Girls can be as cruel to other girls, it´s not acceptable, either. And as adults we need to start paying attention to the norms  (as in unwritten rules) we portray and start thinking about the stuff we say and how we say it.
 There has been horrific examples of gang rapes where the victim has been blamed (by the whole surrounding community, none the less!) or where girls are held accountable for the way men objectify them (link in Carina´s post) - it NEEDS TO STOP.
So if you do nothing else tonight, read this.

Other than that, it´s toodle-doo and have a grrreat night! Love, peace and happiness to ya´ll!!!

För alla er härliga som ska uppträda i Stockholm i helgen <3

Pin Up Boys and Gender Rant

A few posts down I talked about gender roles (the spoof video of "Blurred lines" in which the roles were swapped, half-naked men and fully clothed women, to show the sexism in Thicke´s original video) and how we often take somehow for granted that it´s the female role to be objects and the male role to be the "viewer". Yes, yes I´m aware of the fact that we actually have more genders than just these two but let me cut some corners here.
You also, my dear reader, by this time must know that I have absolutely nothing against the naked body (male, female or something other) or that a pair of naked breasts won´t upset me. That´s not the point here. The point is how *it´s done* and how we keep up old, dusty gender roles if we never question them. Norms, those unwritten rules about what is ok behavior and looks. What´s wrong with the old models? you ask. Well, they are a bit unequal, would you not say? They keep up the image of only one kind of masculinity and only one kind of femininity and I dare to say that most of us won´t fit into those categories. And to not-fit-in makes one feel of less value, to feel ugly and to have low self-esteem.
To keep showing women as objects is something that lessens the value of feminine. To use "feminine" words to describe negative things (e.g when someone is a "pussy" or "a twat", not to mention the "bitches", "ho´s" and "sluts") and masculine ones for positive attributes (to "have balls/be ballsy", be "a man" or "dude"). Surely I have been on the subject before but as it never seems to become old (since there´s no change to be seen) I´ll keep yapping ´til you all just tire of me ;)
Feminism does not mean that feminine should be treated with more value than masculine. Feminism does not mean "men-hating lesbians" as one so often hears. I know a lot of men who are feminists. It´s simply because it´s about equality DESPITE gender. We are more than our sex or gender, unfortunately culture and history has gone the way that things OTHER than masculine are often perceived as "less" or "wrong" or silly, stupid, girly,whimsical, soft, emotional, gay or pick-any-given-word-you´ve-heard-to-describe-something-non-masculine.
There are as many ways of being "a man" as there are ways of being "a woman" and everything in between. Not all of us "naturally tend" towards playing with Barbies or truck-toys. I do believe that we are brought up  in a way that we notice a positive re-inforcement when we do something that society deems appropriate behavior for our gender. Most of us do this without even thinking about it. I´m totally fighting the urge to always compliment girls´dresses and try to compliment them on something they´ve done well instead, as well as trying to find something else to say to boys then just asking about how well they did in ice hockey :)  It´s not easy but it is doable. Society´s norms change slowly but one has to believe that at some point, small step by small step, we will get there. As girls has earned the right to wear pants without judgement, boys still are snickered upon if they wear a skirt. I hope this will change, soon.
Ok, rant over! But to pick your brain a bit further: go check out this fantastic site that shows "the feminine in men" here! I will leave you with some pictures of men posing as pin up girls do. I have posted these before but they are just too good NOT to post again ;)
Have a splendid Saturday!

Pictures from: http://9gag.com/gag/a8W46GQ

Fallish

 It´s been raining all day and there is a distinct smell of Fall in the air. I don´t mind much, it´s my favourite Season (although after our long winter the Spring does seem like a blessing!) and the colors to come soon are amazing! Work started and it´s been crazy busy- I try to look at one day at a time in my calendar since this week is pretty hectic. Long days at the "office" to get everything done and to get the feeling of actually "knowing what you are doing" after the long Summer break.
Tomorrow I have a gig with Tinker Bell and this Sunday will be Raspberry Fields Burlesque Fleamarket Vol2 - also with treats to buy since it is Ravintolapäivä (restaurant day in Helsinki). So take some cash with you and come find us AND some great second-hand at Vattuniemenkatu 15, Lauttasaari!

I was scrolling through some photos and found some of Emiliano took this past July. It was a warm day but the water was cold :) I´ll leave you with thoughts of that, a song and will continue to make currant juice and pickled cucumber...farmlife, what can I say!

Have a beautiful Wednesday, dispite the rain!

P.S the song is a great spoof of the original R.Thicke-video where women parade around more than half-naked. It was on the radio nonstop in the States, that´s why.
This version (with gorgeous Sydni Deveraux and Luminous Pariah, among others) shows quite clearly how blind we have become to the sexualization of the female body. And I do like the female body but the original video had me raising eyebrows...not very classy nor very funny. Just plain...sexist. So if you find yourself thinking *this* video is strange ask yourself: why is it OK to show girls in thongs and nothing else, but not boys? Just sayin´.

Pulling up a submarine was not included in the Sailorette training!!! (c) Emiliano Melandri

Strong girls

My friend just posted this beautiful new video from pink on facebook. I do love that woman, she has a great voice, sassy attitude and she puts herself out there. I have been day-dreaming about taking acrobatics for a while now... Almost went to acroyoga with my honey but then work came in the way. This video, as I guess it tells a story about violence in a relationship, has some beautiful acrobatics in it. I wish I had her stamina and balance! On a more serious note, domestic violence is never acceptable no matter who it is who hits you. Phsycological violence can be as bad, with scars harder to see. It´s of course easy to say, but I do hope that if you, or someone you know, are being abused in any which way that you can find the strenght to find help. In Finland such places are e.g Turvakoti ("safehouses") that can be found in different cities and Tukinainen for rape- and sexual assault victims. 

Take action and participate in Slut Walk and Amnesty´s campaign against violence against women (in Finland) found here. Talk about it and help remove the guilt that still surrounds the victims. Also remember that men can also be victims not just offenders and the shame felt can, -if possible, be even bigger. Still all about old time gender roles, isn´t it?

Well, this is my Wednesday rant for now. Do enjoy the video, it´s quite amazing!

P.S The Suomi Burleski Gaala is totally reserved. If you don´t have a ticket keep an eye out for those tickets that can come up for sale!

The Good, the Bad, The Body

Well howdy-ho everyone! Sorry for having been quiet, Easter and all. Too much chocolate to digest. Also it took me a few days to get over Boom Boom Burlesque that was a true pleasure! The venue was sold out, place was a-steamin´  and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves a lot. I know I did! Apart from having a nice reception for my new number I also got to see a cute punker-boy with a huge mohawk strip so my evening was as good as it gets! Thanks to Lamey Crackhouse for making both happen: she introduced me in a way that left the whole audience wondering about what kind of vegetables I grow at the farm...as well as she made all who crossed her stage strip. 

Lately I have been thinking about two things. The first I want to talk about is something a friend of mine talked to me about. Let me point out that he has never seen burlesque live and that he referred to a discussion he had had with some friends that had been to a show. They had been talking about *what people applaud to* when at a burlesque show. I don´t remember the conversation we had word-to-word but it went in the lines of 'are you applauding people outside the body ideal have the courage to take their kit off or are you applauding a good show'? This, to be honest with you, made a bit uncomfortable because we have all heard it, right? "Burlesque is ugly fat chicks who are too ugly and fat for normal stripping but have this urge to take their clothes off". I´ve seen this and I´m sure you have seen it if you have ever been brave/stupid enough to scroll down and read the comments on some interweb-articles and blogs.

It got me thinking. Why do people feel the need to EXPLAIN why they enjoy a burlesque show? Why is it, that when people go to see a play at the national Theatre and applaud, nobody asks them"why"? When was the last time you had someone explain you why they watch all football games they can find on tv? What makes gardening more socially acceptable than being a Star Wars-enthusiast? Or is it?

Is it because we feel squeamish about looking at (often) semi-nude persons that we have to find a reason for being there? Why is "because I find it FUN!" not enough? Why do a lot of people over-analyze it? Yes, it might be political. It might be sensual. It might make you feel really uncomfortable. Or it might make you do it yourself. Some people see it as pure stripping, some see it as an art form. I think it might be a bit of both. 

Why do I choose to spend a lot of time, money and false eye-lashes for something that makes me really nervous beforehand? Brace, brace this will be historical: BECAUSE I LIKE IT!  Woom! There! It´s out in the open! I don´t feel emancipated or united with Mother Earth (though I realize some might do and all the power to them!). For me it´s fun. It makes me laugh. I like it for a lot of reasons but one big one is the fact that people whom I met during this time are wonderful, openminded crazy-ass human beings who embrace quite similar thoughts on life. And nobody tells you how to live yours. 

So what did I tell my friend about applauding? Not much I realize now retrospectively. But T. -if you read this I´ll give you an answer now: come see a show and then you´ll know what YOU applaud to! 

The other thing I´ve been thinking about is body image (everyone look surprised! She´s at it AGAIN!) I know I´ve been writing about this subject a lot but as long as it´s fucked up, you´ll hear me moaning. So if you´re bored you should stop reading now and scroll down to the pictures. I still get really pissed off when one body form is compared to another as "better" or "hotter" or what not. Why can´t we just learn to accept that people look different and that it´s a good thing?! I get the fact that women feel stressed out because of all the skinny models in papers but it´s not OK to answer that with something that bashes skinny. You don´t fight stupid with stupid (stupid in this case meaning warped body ideals). Unfortunately it´s not just men doing this bashing, it´s also us women. That makes me really sad since women should stand up for other women, right? So why do we gloat when a celebrity didn´t lose that post-baby fat or feel joy at the realization that Halle Berry has cellulite (as most of us do - it´s just not caught on paparazzi camera)? It would be easy to blame the tabloids but come on...someone is buying those tabloids or they would not make them, right? I do realize that calling out some hippie-all-women-unite-thing is both naive and silly but the punker in me believes that a change happens when it´s being DONE. Ashley Judd came out with a great article about this (read the whole thing here): 

"The Conversation about women’s bodies exists largely outside of us, while it is also directed at (and marketed to) us, and used to define and control us. The Conversation about women happens everywhere, publicly and privately. We are described and detailed, our faces and bodies analyzed and picked apart, our worth ascertained and ascribed based on the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification. Our voices, our personhood, our potential, and our accomplishments are regularly minimized and muted." 

Thank you Ashley for writing it down so brilliantly. Next time you read about a C.E.O or the leader of a World Bank or a President see if they mention gender and/or clothes. If it´s a girl I´ll bet ya they´ll mention both. I´ve never seen a man being referred to as a "male President".

I leave you with a couple of photos. Also a small reminder that you should get your tickets for Spring Awakening at Kaisaniemi-restaurant the 11th of May! Ta!  

Me & Lamey at Boom Boom last Thursday <3 Pic by Andrea H.

Pic by Jari B. Miettinen

HBF part 2 and some sex

Spent the night at Raspberry Fields practicing both "Naked " with Sandy and Pepper (upcoming gig live with The Capital Beat at Virgin Oil 17th of March!) and doing my new number that I´ll perform for the first time the 16th at a private party in Turku. Helluva lot of sewing and glueing still!

There is some good stuff a-coming this Spring but I´ll get you updated later on that. Now I will continue to read my sex books...yup, all I have been reading and don´t you go calling me names-
it´s for my sexual counceling education. I hope to graduate next Spring and continue to study sex.therapy. Since I´m so far out of a job from next Fall this all is up in the hands of some greater power and I try to concentrate on glitter and feathers to avoid a total panic. My next seminary is going to be (among others) about the multitude of gender, BDSM as a lifestyle, sexual preferences and parafilias and trans- and other identities. I´m so excited about this class! For once it´s all *really interesting*, you know none of that mandatory statistics ;) Also planning to do my final graduate work about burlesque performers body image and if burlesque has changed that and if yes- how? If any of you have good ideas about questions I should ask or other points you think I should take into consideration please let me know! You can e-mail me on gigi.praline@gmail.com and it will be hugely appreciated!

But alas, here are the pictures from HBF, Saturday 17th Febuary! Enjoy <3

Pepper, Sandy, Miss Anne Trophy and Cleo Viper

Scarlett Martini

Welma Jackpot (as a carrot!)

Brion Bonaventura of the Itty Bitty Tease Cabaret

Lucy Goodness

The Itty Bitty Tease Cabaret

Scotty the Blue Bunny & Pepper

Hedoluxe as the very funny but disturbing Carlo Amore

Satan´s Angel and Fiona Timantti

Frank Doggenstein

"...talking to us?"

Very shiny imaginary animals, Rudie Ruthless as Unicorn with Scotty

LouLou D´Vil

Luna Rosa

Christopher Wonder

Hubby with the Queen

Ta Da and The End

"We´re DONE for the night"

Girl power damn it!

Hello lovelies! 

It´s Friday again, and I´m down with a cold again. I have no idea how this is possible...it seems that my Autumn has been filled with cough, snot and headaches. But I´m not here to complain, no Siree! Well, not about the flue anyway. 

When I was in California on my honeymoon (it´s a while ago for sure!) I found a great bumper sticker that I´ve been proudly flagging on my little VW: "Well-behaved women rarely make history". It´s been somewhat of a mantra for me because it´s so true: niceness in all honor but I would have missed so many fantastic things had I always behaved as people expected of me. Women are still expected to "behave" in certain ways -trust me I know how deep those norms about "nice girls" live: I teach teenagers and get a dose of gender preconception every day. And yes yes: boys get that too. But this time I want to write about the girls.

Finland is one of the most gender equal countries in the world. This does not mean that it would be paradise. Sometimes I hear people say stuff like "Oh but women are treated so equally here in comparison to other countries, you really shouldn´t complain". Well I´m very sorry but until both sexes and all in between have exactly the same rights and equal paychecks there´s work to be done. And the prejudges live on. Proof follows:

Have you heard of ski-jumping? It´s a funny looking sport where a person jumps down from a high tower while attached to a pair of skies. Sounds weird,right? It´s very popular in Scandinavian countries and mid-Europe I guess... Some Japanese jumpers I´ve heard of but as you guessed I´m not a big fan. So why on earth do I take up ski-jumping in a burlesque blog?! Besides from being pretty camp it´s a sport that has -at least in Finland- been very male-dominated until lately. Then The International Ski Federation Council decided that one of the competitions should be carried out as a mixed competition. With girls AND boys! This didn´t sit well with the Finnish coach Matti Pulli who now openly moans about how it´s not a "feminine" sport and that girls really should not attend since "After all, we are talking about the World Championships here”. You can read the whole ugly ordeal here: Helsingin Sanomat International edition

Okay. Let me get this straight. Since it´s a big competition women should stay home and not come mess up the boys hard work?!?!?!? 

Let me remind you: this is said by a dude living in the TOP 3rd gender equal countries of the world: Huffington Post: Top Countries for Gender Equality 

It leaves me speechless. Women have been put "into their places" and forbidden from taking part in politics, social life, religion...you name it and very often it´s been with some lame-ass cockadoodle about what is perceived as "feminine" or that the uterus might get hurt or Goddess knows what else. Same reason but reversed is why teenage boys are afraid of hugging each other: because it´s perceived as not-masculine aka feminine aka "gay".  It drives me MAD. This stereotypical labeling of people just because you happen to be born with *something* between your legs!!!! Wake up people! A lot of us don´t feel we want to be defined by our bodies only! Some of us don´t even feel like we have or want to have "a gender". Maybe I have more than one. My darling says to me sometimes I should stop scratching my balls.

I love to play around with my feminine side. My big dream is to grow up to be a Faux Queen.

 I don´t have a problem with having boobs, I just have a problem when I´m banned from doing stuff because I have them. 

 So I will leave you with some of my idols: Mitzi, Felicia and Bernadette who prove crystal clear that Simone de Beauvoir was right: One is not born a woman, one becomes one.

P.S I know, I know...who gets to define "feminine" and "masculine", how we perceive it, what is sex/gender anyway, cultural differences and so on. I know, ok? I just needed to get this out of my system :)

Inspiration

Sally Rand

If you´ve never (or rarely) been out in the Finnish archipelago you should definetly get out there. I´m not sure how long I´d be happy on a small island with cirka 50 people but for a weekend it was perfect. Gorgeous nature - and a lot of birdwatchers. Which gives me the perfect opportunity to bring up fan dancing (you know...birds --> feathers...)

The Finnish Burlesque Gala (as mentioned here) is coming up this weekend and Thee Daisies have been practicing... I feel that I still have to get more time on my part since it really looks easier than it is. The whole *point* is that it should be airy and sensuous.
Easier said than done.

So I have been watching some old videos of Sally Rand: the legendary lady of (nude) fan dancing.
I really hope I can pull my part and look more like the swan I spotted on Utö island last Saturday and less of the crow.

You should see this: Sally Rand fan dance

Talking about birds and feathers Fiona Timantti posted this wonderful picture in her facebook profile and I had to steal it. It´s just hilarious <3 One really shouldn´t judge the book by it´s covers. Have a lovely evening folks!

Men-up, gear up!

It´s been a really looong day! Lots to do at work but the day ended in a really nice thing: a meeting at our new rehearsing studio! There´s The Itty Bitty Tease Cabaret, us Dizzies, a poledance group called Lumea and Bollywood-dancer Katri who all rented a space together! I think it will work out really good; a lot of creative, crazy people sharing and practicing - and even the idea of learning from eachother came up tonight <3

The other thing that made me smile today (well, I also got some workout done AND sushi, so xtra bonus there) were these manly pin-up´s aka "men-up´s" that have been cirkulating Facebook. The photographer Rion Sabean quite nailed it down to the facial expressions and extended toes :)
Check it out, I´m sure you´ll enjoy them as much as I have!

Pic by: Rion Sabean

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickandclash/5658642294/in/set-72157626584908000/