Music! Summer!

I haven´t been to too many festivals this Summer (none, to be exact!) but right here at the end of it I managed to get my bum into a couple of awesome gigs! Last weekend we went to see Jon Spencer Blues Explosion play Tavastia in Hellsinki and today I spent the evening at the Hori Smoku Summer Boogaloo-happening with Sandy. Great punk bands <3 I think my favourites were our very own Finnish Heartburns as well as Räjäyttäjät (thank you to the singer who stripped all full monty to our viewing pleasure) and of course the punk legend Death from Detroit. The whole thing had a really good vibe to it, great atmosphere and I felt right at home. It was also REALLY hot and sweaty so unfortunately we had to go outside in the middle of the gigs for some air :) But hey, soon we´ll have 3cm of snow on the ground so shouldn´t complain, huh?
Enjoy while you can <3

Pic by Sandy

Girls of Summer

Inspirations

I´ve talked about how much music inspires me when I´m making a new number but sometimes it´s a character, a trait in someone (or something) that gives me the specific kick. When I was making my "Lucia, faithfully"  I went through a lot of different materials, some given to me by my mentor for that number Bent van der Bleu and some that I just kept finding in the secret stashes of the interwebs... One person that I´ve always have loved and admired is Freddie Mercury - for his amazing charisma, his voice, his va-va-VOOM and showmanship as well as that fabulous gayness about him. So, for this Tuesday-night I thought I´d share one of my biggest inspirations for my little Lucia, maiden of light: Queen and "Crazy little thing called love"  <3

Anniversary

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary so instead of posting the photos from our gig on Friday I´ll share this :)  Yes, yes...gig photos will appear later!
What I´ve learned these past eleven years together is that a relationship is hard work and you should NEVER take the other person for granted. I also hope, remembering how great our day was that sunny September in 2007, that Finland will take it´s head out from it´s arse and legalize marriage for  the rainbow-community as well. It´s an important issue, and the civil union that we have now is not the same thing since it´s not giving the same legal rights as marriage.  I don´t care what it will be called but everyone should have the same rights since we all pay the same taxes. It´s appalling that we stand closer to Russia than Sweden on this subject, and I hope it will be changed soon!

Much love on this rainy, autumn-y Sunday!

Music! Video!

Yes, last Sunday I took part in Orkestar Bordurka´s music video shoot. It was pretty crazy :) Thanks Hannu, Sara and the gang! Looking forward to seeing the video when it´s ready!

Farmlife: location by our mailbox

Buying jogurt

Paying with a horse head (it´s plastic, btw!)

Woop!

Bores yogurtlady at work.

Sleaze II

For Friday, here´s an icon of sleaze rock. Hanoi Rocks blew my mind back in the day and still does, and Michael is still a force of nature! Have a good one, peeps <3

Ballad of the Lower East Side

Queens: Thee Dizzy Daisies, Fiona Timantti and Queen. Idea: Jason Burton, photo: Antti Holma

Sleaze!

I grew up on rock music. Pop never really got a hold of me... there was a slight fling with Wham! for sure, Duran Duran yes... But what really kicked me in the stomach in my early teens was hard rock. Sleaze rock, as I have heard it be called as well. Oh yes. Later there came punk, funk and hard core but the first love is, well, -you know. Always there. So for your Thursday entertainment, in my post-hot-yoga-happiness I present to you two awesome sleaze bands, one from the past and the other my new found love. See, I do listen to other than just 40´s jazz :) Guns ´n ´ Roses and Harcore Superstar!!!

 

When Axl still was hot. 

                                                                Thank you, Sweden!

Ricky-Tick!

Friday.
Always so loaded with expectations and hope :) You might remember my love for lindy hop and that me and hubby took classes in both that and rockabilly? Now this is out. It melts my heart. It wants me to get out there and do lindy again, to learn it good and proper! Friggin´ AWESOME!

Have a great evening folks! <3

Ricky-Tick Big Band & Julkinen sana

Photo: Jirina Alanko

Between panic and despair

Sorry guys and dolls, it´s been hectic since I got back. I have been trying to up my excersise-routines (after Berlin, quite needed haha!), do the coreo practice and work on my costume. Sometimes the grand ideas one has at the planning faze just ain´t working when tried out...and the first practice with the outfit usually tells you your faux pas´ so one piece of advice here: don´t do it the night before the show :) Usually there is some (read: a lot) of adjustments that has to be made. I´m really happy this week has been a vacation week for me!
Currently I´m somewhat panick-y, not totally but a bit since it´s one week to showdown and there is still A LOT to do. It´s back to work next week, -which is great! and the evenings are pretty booked with   everything from a fitting (new dress for the festivities, yey!), practice and then four workshops with Angie Pontani, Tigger! and Dirty Martini. It pretty much means I have to get everything together before Tuesday when I have my last time at Raspberry Fields...Oh! And those classes are already sold out BUT there is still place in the vaudeville masterclass by Mr.Pustra!!! Contact Helsinki Burlesque for more information. It´s unfortunately at the same time as Tigger!´s class so I can´t take both :(
Taking classes will cost you some but from my own experience I can say that it´s money well spent. You really learn from more experienced performers and even if you are not in to burlesque per se, but do some other performing (music, theatre...) I´m sure there will be something to work with since themes can vary from presence on stage to how to move and everything in between.
And talking of that, I have to get going. I´m meeting Tinker Bell for a final time to see that all is as it should be coreo-wise. Tomorrow  Thee Dizzy Daisies are going on a road trip to Turku to attend Alli Ruth´s ´how-to-make-a- performance-bra´- class. She will have one in Hellsinki later this Spring so if you are interested, take it! Performance-outfit IS NOT the same an lingerie!!!! If you are thinking about getting up on stage in that pretty HM bra, how blingy it ever is, -do think again. It will give a more professional and less cheap impression when you have done work on your outfit yourself.

Ok, off my soapbox again. Really wasn´t my point starting this post to sound so ...teacher-ish, sorry! but I shall be a good girl and have lost more of coffee and calm down. I think after meeting Tink I will feel better.

Leaving you with a song that really made my day! Ta!

Sunny side of Saturday

If last week found me gloomy, this Saturday is really good :)

The sun is shining, the kitteh is feeling better, I´m off to bodybalance and then just stuff...as in the calendar is empty and I can choose myself what to do. I think that includes laundry and pimping my shoes for the festival outfit - or at least starting that!

I hope you have a great day,too!

How it looks outside right now

 

Go Go Dancing

Last summer at Nastolan Rautalankafestarit. Photo: Minna Kivelä

Hello folks! My Saturday begun with a foot massage, I hope yours has been as wonderful :) And no, not the kind of foot massage they talked about in Pulp Fiction haha!!! 

In a couple of weeks me and Sandy will be shaking and shimmying for the Dangermen at Instro A Go Go at CLub Liberté in Hellsinki. There will be a lot of surf bands playing so do come and enjoy the night. It´ll be a good way to forget this January-gloom that´s going on outside....  

Some more Kaylin

As I was surfing I found a post from  Kaylin Idora about a video shoot with the 69 Eyes they have made in New Orleans... beautiful location and beautiful women, among others the amazing Perle Noire...not to mention a very nice song, mellow and somehow a bit sad. Maybe it´s just this darkness :) So cool that rock bands are using burlesque performers in their videos. I stole the link to the video, you can go check it out.
Came to think of all those wonderful photos Kaylin has taken while visiting Finland, so I snuck in on a couple of friends facebook sites and stole these pictures, thanks Tink and Sandy <3
And Kaylin, baby you need to come back!!!

Shake it, Sandy!

The amazing Tinker Bell

Doing what must be done....

My "Kiss (of a shy girl) outfit.

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!

Weapon of Choice

This Saturday finds me ran over by shitloads of STUFF to do :) I was just thinking that my weapon of choice for getting everything done is a) coffee and b) the sofa (for reading). Which made me think about one of the best music videos ever made: Christopher Walken in Fatboy Slim´s "Weapon of choice" (funny, that). Just look at this brilliance!
P.S for some reason youtube only allowed me to add this video here. There might be better versions about.

Sailorettes at Porispere 2012

Thank you everyone who made last weekend at Porispere so fun! Me and Sandy had a blast, - some sore feet for sure but that comes with the territory.
Friday was music-wise more up my alley with Marky Ramone and Turbonegro but I was positively surprised my Amorphis on Saturday. Fast metal music has never been my thing, more into the hard core (Helmet, Unsane, Crowbar...) and even found a Henry Rollins-look-a-like strolling around :) Also noticed some cute mohawks, corsets that must have been held up by the Holy Ghost (or tape) and just a pretty cool ambience of a summer festival. We had our little rum kiosk just by the main stage and Lord fatty kept us entertained in between the sets on stage, very cool.

As usual, there was a lot going on at the same time so hope some of you found your way to Ship Ahoy! at Tampere where my girl Pepper Sparkles among others (The Magician Christopher Wonder! Nooo! I missed it!) were performing. Next thing coming up is the Velvet Tea Room at Wäiski (Hellsinki) the 25th of August, come see us there! And if you are from Pori keep your eyes peeled for some burlesque action this Fall! I´ll post further info here as soon as I get it. I have one more week of holidays before I´ll start my new job... looking forward to teenage riot again :)

Have a good start of the week everyone!!!

With the Blitzkrieg boys backstage (pic: Sandy)

With the boss, Lord Fatty and Porispere Kilju... WTF?!? (pic: Sandy)

Thi guy wanted to have his picture taken with us. Here you go :)

Sailor beware! 

Ready to ROKK! Friday with DJ Lord Fatty

We had some pretty good looking bartenders working with us - thanks guys for all the help!!!

...leopard printed night gowns for both me and Sandy--- funny, that.

Marky Ramones Blitzkrieg <3

Turbonegro! 

Saturday, heavy metal day :)

The Best Little Rum Bar at Porispere!

Sailorettes of Saturday! Ahoy! (P.S Sandys top and shorts and my pants are from Fast´n´Loud in Helsinki! <3)

                    

A good shopping day

"Fatidomen e ingen fröjd och pilikukkun e ingen leksak" one of my grandmother´s best friends used to say, in a thick Västranyländska accent.  It translates somewhat into "poverty is not a joy and the dingus is not a toy". I have lately been remembering this wrong and saying that *age* is not a joy! Well, that´s just wrong because I actually enjoy getting older. Parts of it, at least.
I don´t mind the wrinkles but when I get huge, sore zits AND have wrinkles I find that extremely unfair. That French woman who lived to be 104 or something years-old, smoked a cigar and drank a glass of calvados a day used to say that "I have only one wrinkle and I sit on it!" and this is the spirit
I´ve been trying to keep. Boobs, well. I´ve never was too happy with them. I was flat as a plank in my teens and used to pray to God for having big boobs...as they say you have to be careful what you wish for! They started growing in my twenties and haven´t stopped since. There´s also that sagging aspect to think about these days but that´s quite OK. Thank goodness for that little thang called Victoria´s Secret, shhhh - don´t tell anyone! I also found a marvelous bra from Secrets in Lace (Bettie Page, in leopard print of course) that gives the boobs a fantastic sugartop-silhouette and makes my whole upper body seem somehow smaller. All in all I feel more at home in my cranky temple of dust these days than I did 20 yeas ago.
But the eyesight. Last Spring I had a lot of headaches after a work day and it took me a while to understand that it actually might have to do with my eyes! Duh! I´m so used to seeing properly that it really did not cross my mind, stupid is as stupid does. I realized soon that I need to squint to look at things further away and that reading something and then lifting my eyes to look at things further away took a minute of focusing to do. Yeah, I need glasses. Not a biggie, I think glasses can be one sexy accesory. But where to find those?!?!
I remember admiring Miss Indigo Blue´s cat glasses last February at her workshop:

 

But where can I find similar? The thing with me and real vintage, especially clothes, is that everything usually is way too small for me. A lot of the original 50´s glasses I´ve tried on have been waay too small for my face so I´ve given up hope. Until now! First of all: I found a great pair of (leopard) printed glasses in a small shop in Delray! They were not as "catty" as I had wished for but for sure have a vintage feel over them. Then my mother called me the other day saying she had found a pair of glittery glasses and that I should go try them on! And they fit! Perfectly! So I have now not one, but TWO pairs of wonderful eye-wear and don´t feel bad at all for having to wear them :)

Teacher look. Have to practice :)

There´s bling on them even if it´s hard to see in the photos.




I´ve also had a huge urge to go gay-clubbing tonight but unfortunately that has to wait :(
This has been playing in my head half the day so here you go!

Mi-a-mi

This has been, what one could shortly describe as an "emotionally exciting" day. Waving good-bye to my students and colleagues and feeling very blue about that but then again I got that phone call saying I did get that job I applied for in the Fall so I´m really, really happy as well. I´m looking forward to new shenanigans and this means some security to my anal mind set. The firm with sex. counseling, cosmetics and burlesque is postponed for a while but not forgotten. It´s too good of an idea to let go!
Tomorrow, veery early (too early, I plant to spend the night with my soon-to-be-ex-colleagues) I´m off to Florida and just because of that I´ll share this earworm that´s been bugging me for a few days... Hope the weather is better in that part of the world! Ta!

Thank you for the music

The passing of many great musicians within a year got me thinking about how important the role of music has been in my life. We are all children of our times of course and one thing that really makes me feel my age is realizing I have no idea what my students listen to. They seem to be in to 90´s techno and then theres that odd band t-shirt stolen from the parents closet but those "new" bands or singers are totally beyond me. I asked them to name a band they listen to and I had never heard that name. Oh yeah, middle-aged I am :)

Inspiration to a new number often comes to me in a song, but music has been with me pretty much since childhood. My mum used to work for CBS so we had plenty of LP-records at home when I was a kid. The cool cover of Wild Cherry (even if I learned to love funk only a bit later), the LP-boxes with Santana and Olavi Virta... I remember putting on Baccara, staring at the gorgeous women on the cover and lip-syncing (in to a round candle!) to ´Yes Sir, I can Boogie´...

 

Actually, we had a bit of a Baccara-moment with Sandy this Spring when we were on a gig in Turku. She was wearing her white fan dance outfit and I was in jeans with my my new black "Kiss" pasties and I just burst in to laughter looking at us in the mirror. 

 

My first C-cassetes were Jackson 5, Wham! and Duran Duran - how appropriate for the times. I remember listening to Cyndi Lauper, Madonna and those Swedish pop-wonders that were featured in Frida-magazine...Herreys, Tomas Ledin (´Sensuella Isabella´ anyone?), Gyllene Tider... So I guess it started with pop but nothing really rocked my world like Bon Jovi a few years after. Seriously, 

I´m not very proud of that but what can I say? It got worse in my early teens though, when in came hair-metal bands like Skid Row, Extreme, Mötley Crüe and Guns´n´Roses. I loved Hanoi Rocks (still do!) and Aerosmith. When ever I would have a little money I ran to the record shop and am now the proud owner of LPs such as The Cult´s `Sonic Temple´, Ugly Kid Joe´s ´ As ugly as they wanna be´ and one of my all time loves Faith No More´s ´Introduce yourself´. 

The next Big Thing was -of course- Nirvana. I doubt if any of us who spent our late teens or early adulthood in the change of the 80´s and 90´s could miss grunge. Simultaneously punk came in to my life: Ramones, Pelle Miljoona, Buzzcocks, Nina Hagen, Sex Pistols, the Clash and of course later the East Bay punkers e.g Black Flag, Bad Religion, Rancid, Green Day, the Descendents, NOFX and those ska punkers such as Sublime, Operation Ivy and Skankin´ Pickle.  The list os looong and varied. 

 Close to my childhood home we had a wonderful library with a really large selection of music so I would carry home shitloads of cd´s and just listen through and copy whatever sounded good to me. That´s how I fell in love with Sonic Youth. My mother didn´t appreciate this turn though, she enjoyed my Beatles-faze much more.  Going to live gigs wherever in the world I have happened to live has been important as well. From Tavastia, Hellsinki to the Berkeley Square, Berkeley CA (RIP) I´ve been able to find great new bands just by going open mindedly to check out stuff I´ve never heard of. 

Music can in an instant bring back memories, just like smells do. I get all nostalgic with certain songs and teary-eyes with others. I might not be as eager to argue over music anymore as I was but I have some passionate NO-NO´s (Mariah Carey- I think the fillings in my teeth are popping out when she sings) as some passionate YES! (give me Mike Patton in any form. Please.) Movie music is a whole other matter, - I get goosebumps with Tarantino´s soundtracks and what would Dirty Dancing or Flashdance be without that music?!

 

Another category if you will is of course music videos, that whole MTV-thing that for a little while made us teens feel like we belonged to a universal culture of adolecents. This of course was when MTV still stood for Music Television and not Mindblowingly Stupid Reality Shit. 

I want to leave you with one of the most memorable videos (and songs) of those early days of my life. He still is the King and OMG I was in love with him watching those movies!!! *kiss*

Desperately seeking...

...something. I´ve been feeling top notch the past days! This afternoon my mood swung on a dime and even if I ate shitload of carbs, listened to good music and tried to be positive it seems it´s bedtime for me. But before that I wanted to share one of my all time favourite feel-good-movies with you: Desperately seeking Susan (1985) with Madonna and Rosanna Arquette playing the leads. I don´t know HOW many times I´ve seen this, I know the stuff by heart and it makes me feel great every time.
This will blow over and probably tomorrow after a good nights sleep I´ll be good as new :)

Christmas is all around you?

Tomorrow is my last gig before this stripper is having her vacation! I´m really looking forward to performing with some awesome burlyQ-ladies, meeting some new strippers and, of course, the fantabulous Lamey Crackhouse will be there! The event is Pussy Buffet and you can read all about it here. If you ever wondered if there is a difference between traditional stripping and burlesque I recommend you come figure it out! It´s time to shake those prejudges out the door!!!

Then I shall start packing my bag with my new Tyra Therman bikini, some summer dresses...I´m actually thinking (for the first time in a decade) NOT to pack a single pair of heels but we will see how that goes :)

Leaving you for now with this funny little jingle from a real feel-good-movie. Kiss <3

Over the Rainbow

I have the immense and utter pleasure and honor to be a part of next years Helsinki Burlesque 

Festival´s main events! It´shall be special since it´s the 5th anniversary! Thee Dizzy Daisies will shake their tail feathers: the planning has begun as we speak and I can´t say how superduper-excited I am...

There will be workshops, wonderful people and a whole lotta bling let me tell you. The theme is "Over the Rainbow" - can´t wait to see peoples outfits! And Miss Indigo Blue will be there, I took her workshop last time she was in Helsinki and loooved it!!! Hugely inspirational! Not to mention the legendary Satans Angel! And Scotty the Blue Bunny! And many many more! Wow!!!!

Just the thought of it makes this icky November darkness seem a bit lighter. Well, I was just moaning today about how people already have put up Xmas lights in their gardens...I know it´s the drill in the US (out comes Santa, his reindeer and elves on the green lawns!) around Thanksgiving but I really can´t get used to it here at home. Maybe I´m just being boring. In my family even the tree wasn´t decorated until the morning of the 24th so maybe I´m just not used to it. Shit. Maybe there is a point to "holiday lights" - it is the darkest time of the year?! 

Or maybe it is, as someone I know pointed out, a matter of taste. Or lack there-of. As much as I love bling and glitter I just can´t see the beauty in the neon-lights shaped as candy canes blinking away... So I feel a little like the Grinch, moaning and groaning and peeing on peoples Holiday parades :) 

I´m going to wait until the beginning of December for my garden lights, until then I´ll settle for candles -and glögg (Scandinavian version of Glühwein: warm, spiced up red wine)! That should warm up these moaning bones! 

Now, I shall leave you with the lovely Dorothy and Toto who already went over the rainbow (and whose red ruby slippers I might have to steal...)  and bid you good night for now! Ta!