This is my blog where I write about music, jewelry, and myself. Vaudeville, burlesque, blues, jazz, songs about baltimore, novelties, and whatever else I feel like posting. Mostly from my own LPs and 78s. Subscribe via any of the methods in the right-hand column. Please do not link directly to the mp3 files.



Back to jewelry...
I am going to be doing my first craft-fair type thing on December 5th, Handmade Mart.


So I have some packaging and display considerations to be thinking about.. as well as having enough items to sell.
I'll be sharing a table with my pal Bendependent so hopefully I won't feel too awkward. This stuff is old hat for him so that would be embarrassing. I'm not exactly nervous but I am a socially awkward person and no kind of salesman so we'll see how I deal.
I really want to get some sales rolling so I can continue my hobby.
I've made some photo-jewelry pictures from my beloved frogstyle frogs, and some victorian cigar labels
100_2451 100_2448
and continue on with the rings and rhinestones


Be back soon with more music if my computer will let me.

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7 songs 


I pulled this 10" 33 1/3 compilation out of a box of records I haven't looked at in a long time. It reminds me of record shopping, and when I used to get really thrilled in record stores and seek them out in my travels. I believe I got this at Rock & Roll Collectibles in New Orleans but that's just a hunch. The best thing about discovering old music was knowing nothing about it... I had no idea quite what I actually liked, so any venture to buy music would result in some random purchases. Those times may be behind me, but this is the kind of record I get excited to find even still. I'm sure it's not rare. It's not really that great. But it's got this.. essence. It's a 10", so it resembles a 78. It must have been promotional - it has a press clipping pasted onto the sleeve. That's probably the clincher for me.
And here I am turning it into a cluster of heartless mp3s. As if it still has some value without the motion of setting a needle on it. I left it nice and scratchy so we can pretend.
Download:
Curtain Call Series Volume 4
Marlene Deitrich - Ben Bernie - Libby Holman - George Jessel

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Back, Back, Back to Baltimore 


This song appears to have no relation, other than title, to "Back, Back, Back to Baltimore" sang by those racist vaudevillians Collins & Harlan.
I'd seen that sheet music before and assumed that this recording would be my peek into it's questionable content. I had already formulated thoughts in my head about the times when people decide it's appropriate to re-record racist songs, changing the lyrics to make it seem okay. And whether a song is worthy of doing that. That can be a post for another day, because I've got some examples.
So..... Zeb Turner is some rockabilly guy, and apparently a local DJ here in Baltimore (and DC).
I guess this record is from the early 50s. It's cool that he wasn't just some guy who was cised on the original "Back to Baltimore," but it leaves me with little to say.





Zeb Turner
Back, Back, Back to Baltimore
King Records

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hey a burlesque thing 




I've been trying to finish more items to list on etsy and so I haven't sat down to put any records into the computer lately. I have been listening to a lot of Pissed Jeans "King of Jeans." That inspired me to put together a jewelry-working/driving playlist including some Surgery, Slug, Eyehategod and Drunks With Guns.
On the complete opposite of the spectrum, when I'm walking to and from work or the grocery store I am still listening to Metric's Fantasies. I pick a song and listen to it for a few days then start feeling another song and so on.
There are times to put on background music and there are times to listen to songs. My mom used to get irritated with my dad's repetition of particular songs. I think she associated it with the irritating way the radio forcefeeds pop songs to the public, and perhaps with the airheaded pop music zombies that she detested.
I wanted to agree with her about the shallowness of song repetition, but before long I couldn't help myself. Whenever I was home alone I'd have my stack of records ready, waiting for my family to pull out of the driveway so I could queue up my current favorites. The knees of my jeans always became worn out due to kneeling on the floor and scooting around to gather my music. The holes created from doing that were never in the spot where cool people cut their jeans. My holes appeared lower than that, so I could never really play off my holey jeans.
When I am repeating a song that I like - (or even just a part of a song that I like), I am hearing the different parts. I'm memorizing the structure and I am homing in on whatever it is that made an impression on me.
Sometimes I ponder what it means to like a particular band/musician/group/whatever. Am I a fan of ___ or do I just like some of their songs? Sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both.
Well anyway I'm going to go see Wye Oak this weekend and Eyehategod in a few weeks so you know.. music music I still care about it a little bit.

I made a heat box to cure my resin, since I've finally got some professional grade stuff to work with.
100_2311
I used it a few times with Easycast anyway, and it made things cure up faster but with more bubbles. I should have known better.
100_2313
However, it did help harden a piece that I may have mixed poorly or put too much pigment in. It came out of the mold kind of bendy and bad for filing/finishing but it came out of the heat box ready to get sanded up:
100_2317
I decided to make a Christmas ring:
100_2320
I'm working on more picture jewelry:
100_2321
I got a stupid potpurri candle warmer because I think I can use it for creating/duplicating my wax models.
100_2312
I have some other pieces to finish but I'm basically fixated on my rings.
peachy
aces side
N90
those are the last three rings that I put on etsy.

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I was happy to see that my favorite resin artisan, Jasmine Scott has relisted her collection on etsy. Not that I hadn't been checking her website, but having all my favorites in one place is convenient.
I admire the jewelry and I envy the reputation she has rightfully earned. (just look at the number of views on the items in her shop)
Using my birthday as an excuse, I bought this ring in July:

I don't have any flimsy excuse to order any more rings so I just admire from the computer monitor.
I think these are the current rings that I covet the most, although my preference roves from day to day:







More Jasmine Scott on Etsy..

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lady gaga if I may 


I don't think I've expressed my love for Lady Gaga on unicornmeat, so I thought I would make it known.
I enjoy a fun pop song, and some of her songs are decent or have good parts in them.
But anyone who may know about my past obsession with burlesque costumery, fetish wear, glitter, wigs, lace and high heels could surmise that I'd be all over this one.


Amplified beauty to the point of ugliness and back again.
Thank you for existing Lady Gaga and please stick around and don't do anything too stupid for me to keep liking you.

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Baltimore & Ohio employess shout it out with glee. 


The B & O Railroad. If you have any interest in such things, I encourage you to read the wikipedia, because I really can't pick out the fun facts to include here, let alone facts relevant to the song/glee club.
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad employees' Glee Club is referenced a lot in this book on corporate management, of all things. It looks like it could be an interesting book.. I at least find the preface engaging. However an amazon reviewer condescendingly notes: "A word of warning as stated by the author in his preface: This is NOT a "choo-choo" book!...... This is a MUST READ for all those in corporate venues who want to get ahead." Uh okay guy.
Well anyway, it appears that the B&O Glee club formed during the mid-twenties, was successful in glee club competitions (perhaps in part due to the "selected non-employees" that had been added?), had a record on Decca in 1945 and this self-released record from.. also the 40s?
The song is kind of fun, not to mention the wanton self-references to B&O, and Baltimore, and Ohio. That's how I like it.
The guy who recorded this record is someone special, so if you really want to get intense on reading about some 78s, check out this page on Orlando Marsh. And even better, this one. Hell yeah.






The Baltimore & Ohio Glee Club
Casey's ghost Comes Back
year: ?

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email subscription to unicornmeat.. 


I added this thing on here. I guess it emails you when I post stuff.. if you don't like to use rss readers and stuff.

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Messenger of Truth: A Masie Dobbs Novel
by Jacqueline Winspear
As murder mysteries go, this was a lot better than Sunset and Sawdust. It had some serious flaws, such as an ending that comes out of nowhere, but I kind of enjoyed it anyway.
This book is the fourth in a "Masie Dobbs" series of detective novels. As female crimefighters go, Masie has everything on "Sunset," probably because this book was written by a woman and not a gross old horny loser. Like that other book, this takes place in the 1930s, but the setting is completely different. Instead of Texas, this story happens in Merrie Olde England.
An artist is murdered and Masie delves into the exciting art world, as well as encountering the high society that propagates and patronizes this art. Masie and her assistant get bitter about the class divide, but ultimately some humanity of the entitled rich jerks touches her.
It could be slow moving, and I don't know much about mysteries but I thought they were supposed to give the reader more clues so we can feel smart and try to crack the case.
I guess I'd give it a 3 out of 5 but luckily I read it soon enough after that last 30s murder mystery to contrast this one in a pretty positive light.

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