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.

500 Plastic Jewelry Designs: A Groundbreaking Survey of A Modern Material
Lark Books

I finally got this new book in the "500 Series" jewelry books.
Just about every plastic material imaginable is in use somewhere in this book. Styrofoam, silicone, legos, rubber, acrylic sheet, repurposed materials, resin.. even the exhausted "resin with candy sprinkles" approach is artfully presented here.
To put it cheesily, it's like having my dream gallery exhibition at hand.
It makes me feel like all my hours each week of looking at jewelry online is in vain, that I have only ever come across a handful of these artists.
A review without photos doesn't do the book justice. Unfortunately there aren't many online so I'll demonstrate some items by some of the jewelers in the book:


LianaKabel


margauxlange


Karen McCreary


Liaung Chung Yen


Mary Donald

Labels: books, jewelry

Posted by: Kara Mae 11/16/2009  (0) comments

The Other Side of Silence by John Loughery

I recently finished this book on "Men's Lives & Gay Identities - A Twentieth-Century History." It wasn't the best book for my interests, but I did serendipitously find it for cheap at Daedalus books. I'm slow at non-fiction so it took me forever to read this book.
I always wanted to read more about gay life in the 20s and 30s. This book had interviews that offered some insight. But really, the book got most interesting in the 1960's, when everything gets all passionate and real. I guess it just takes a really spectacular book to impart a sense of time and place for me, especially when I have very little "pre-concieved notions." (I love that term)
This book had some stuff that I ought to have known about so I'm glad I read it. But I wouldn't recommend it to fellow jazz-age enthusiasts for depictions of that era.
Unrelatedly, I found it weird when a semi-scholarly book is using terms like "fucking and sucking."



Sunset and Sawdust by Joe R Lansdale
I can't believe I had this book sitting around for well over a year. Well maybe I can believe it. It's some bargain bin book. But I always need some period fiction to mix it up.
I found this book to be kind of trashy, but not in a good way. I really don't have much to say about this book actually. A red-headed lady kills her abusive husband then takes on his position of sherrif which leaves her faux-empowered. Lots of attempts at sexual tension and gritty reality of crappy people.
They uncover this whole mystery-scandal stuff. And then it kind of ends. Oh also there's this one villain character who has some kind of split personality and talks to himself. It's like some David Lynch business but doesn't achieve the mood of some Blue Velvet Frank shenanigans.
Overall I agree with this amazon reviewer: "Landsdale's descriptive style is generally crass and rude. Why use just a word when a cuss word or vulgar word can be put in. For example, a dying man thinks, "Goddamn, taken from behind, that's not right, not me, I'm always ready, but goddamn, I feel it, a knife in my back, tight as a bull's dick in a chicken's ass". Such needless vulgarity cheapened the scene, which should have been moving, as well as making it unrealistic. The overusage of "pussy", "bitch" and "dick" and over-focus on sex and attractive women made this appear to the be the work of a hormonal teenager. "
So don't read this. Or do.. it's a quick read. So if you do we can make fun of it together.

Labels: books

Posted by: Kara Mae 9/28/2009  (0) comments

Amazon.com removed the review I wrote of this Jayne Mansfield book.

Here was the review:

I am writing this review so that others who order this book may know what to expect, since I did not and was a little disappointed.
This book appears self published, and unfortunately seems entirely unproofed. The grammar is full of run-on sentences and misspellings, which is distracting from an otherwise nice story.
The book is written by one of Jayne's biggest fans. He has the facts straight, and has access to insider information from the family of Jayne. Unfortunately he editorializes often. Having not been present for the actual events, writing in the first person in a biography comes off as unprofessional.
My final gripe is the mentions of latter-day celebrities Tara Reid and Anna Nicole Smith. By referring to current events, the book trivializes and dates itself.
I've read all the biographies of Jayne, and certainly agree that they're altogether inadequate. My disappointment in this book resulted from my hope that it might be "the one."
What it is, however, is a loving tribute and a quick read. It's worthwhile as a brochure for those curious about the true story of Jayne's life.
Maybe one day the book can be proofread and expanded upon, with the photos printed in higher resolution.
In the meantime, I must say that this book put forth the life story of Jayne in a very honest and linear way.

I can only assume the author had it taken down or something. Pity. So I thought I'd post it here for posterity, since it's irritating that they would do that.

Labels: books, cinema, Jayne Mansfield

Posted by: Kara Mae 11/17/2008  (4) comments

I haven't done a song in awhile, and I promise I will in the near future. I've been busy with all kinds of things: work, metalworking, cooking classes, weekend jaunts with family and friends.
For now I'm going to catch up on other things. First I'll bring up Archeophone's timely release of "Debate 08: Taft and Bryan Campaign on the Edison Phonograph." I just got this (along with this collection of banned 1890's recordings!).

The recordings are great and eye-opening, but the booklet that comes with it is not to be missed. If you have any interest in history, politics, or the evolution of recorded sound and its impact on society (I fall into this latter category), I highly recommend this. Archeophone is the BEST. I wish I could afford to own every single thing they released. I've got my eye on Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891-1922.

In modern music news, my mom took me to see The Avett Brothers on Sunday. Holy wow what a show. Those dudes can sing. And scream. And rock a cello and a banjo and break a lot of strings and stir a crowd into a frenzy. According to Wikipedia they're 'folk rock'. So if you're into that kind of thing in any possible way, you might want to check them out.

Books:


American Vaudeville As Seen by Its Contemporaries
Totally cool. Got this from the Pratt Library. This was full of reprints of old timey articles related to vaudeville, culled from autobiographies, newspapers, trade publications, and more. It's divided into sections such as beginnings, stars, decline, legacy, etc. See, this is why the Pratt Library rules. Because I wouldn't have found this book if I hadn't been browsing around that place. And this is my favorite kind of stuff, "contemporary" time capsules. Truly it added to my mental vaudeville experience.

Gossip Girl books 2 & 3: "You Know You Love Me," "All I Want Is Everything"

I am so embarrassed when I ask for these at the library. For some reason some of them aren't always out for the picking so I have to have the nice lady go get them. Asking for "You Know You Love Me" was the worst.
But obviously I keep coming back for more. It takes like 45 minutes to read one of them so I kind of break up the nonfiction with it.
On to my summary:
More hijinx. Lets see.. uh this goth girl Vanessa takes a video of her friend Dan's little sister Jenny "doing what looks like the nasty" in the park with Blair's ex Nate in the park. But Vanessa didn't know it was Jenny she was just being an artful filmmaker. So Vanessa's older sister Ruby lent Vanessa's camera to a friend and the video got on the internet. And Dan was devastated that Jenny and Vanessa were such sluts so he wrote a poem about it and it got published in the New Yorker.
Serena and Blair became friends again and went on vacation to St. Barts, wherever that is, and some rock star fell in love with Serena but she was all like "whatevs." Actually I forget what else happened because I simultaneously started renting the TV show and watching those but basically they're all great and totally scandalous good times.
Seeya later xoxo.. unicornmeat.
That's a little Gossip Girl joke for you.
I haven't had any comments or emails lately... is anyone out there? Did I ever post that video of me singing from 2003?

Labels: books, history, teens, vaudeville

Posted by: Kara Mae 9/23/2008  (1) comments

Rank Ladies: Gender and Cultural Hierarchy in American Vaudeville
by M. Alison Kibler
I just can't get enough vaudeville lately.. this book satisfied my obsessive urge, although it didn't entirely live up to the title. A few female performers were showcased, but it could have used more commentary on the subject from actual women in vaudeville.
Ruth Budd, a strong and outspoken acrobat, was my favorite part of the book. Her life sounded pretty interesting and even included a controversial engagement to a female impersonator. Which stirred people because since she was strong, they already thought she was totally a lez. She actually was really pretty, judging from the pictures in the book. Anyway, she was neat.
There was lengthy explanation of the fact that the moral cleaning-up of vaudeville was therefore seen as a "feminization," since at the time, women represented moral judgment and offended sensibilities. That was new to me. There was a lot of quoting from actual reports written by theater owners, which was a totally awesome source. The footnotes were worth reading.



Gossip Girl #1: A Novel
by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Remember, I love teens! I want to start familiarizing myself with the modern-era of teen "literature", starting of course with this seminal work of the new millennium. Man, did you know that the girl Serena in this book goes to an art opening and gets her anus (or maybe bellybutton) photographed? Then the artistic anus portrait is displayed on buses and cabs. But Serena doesn't care, she's so cooool. All the guys love her. She's the prettiest.
Because of this, I sympathized with the bitchy character Blair. I know all too well what it's like to be outshined. Blair's boyfriend is even secretly in love with Serena. That sucks!
The "gossip girl" gimmick was pretty pointless but I guess without it the book would lack 'zing'. I was embarrassed to check this out from the library but it's important for my education. I'm glad I took the plunge.

Labels: books, teens, vaudeville

Posted by: Kara Mae 8/14/2008  (0) comments

Candy Barr: The Small-Town Texas Runaway Who Became a Darling of the Mob and the Queen of Las Vegas Burlesque by Ted Schwarz
I was hoping to write a story on this book for Bachelor Pad Magazine. By the end of the first chapter I realized this was too bleak for Java the Bachelor's "Booze, Babes & Burly-Q."
Candy Barr (nee Juanita Slusher)'s life was tragically full of rape, forced-prostitution and exploitation. Even her alleged relationship with gangster Mickey Cohen was, by her account, not of her own will.
At times I was confused about the whereabouts of her child. The birth of her daughter is briefly mentioned, leaving me wondering about Candy working as a dancer during her pregnancy. During later events, the presence of her daughter wouldn't seem to fit in with the events.
Most of the events in the book were told to the author by Candy Barr, which accounts for some of the confusion.
Her life in prison is the most fascinating era. During this time she wrote a (later self-published) book of poetry, leveraged the prison's desire for her to perform in the annual rodeo in exchange for a job in the prison library, and grew as a person.
The best part of the book, on the part of the author, is compellingly describing Candy/Juanita's heartfelt passion for dancing, and how her natural talent at it helped her to overcome the obstacles to join the ranks of the most famous exotic dancers of all time.
If, like me, you like reading everything you can get your hands on about the lives of exotic dancers, or you're interested eventful life stories, this is a worthwhile book. It is not a romanticized tale of stripping or "burlesque." Very little glitz, glamour and rhinestones


Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls, and Other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s by Angela J. Latham
One person who reviewed this on Amazon lamented that it sounded too academic. That excited me because I like stuff that reads like that. However, this was a little too school-paper-y, complete with the author explaining the point that she is trying to present. I didn't like the concept she kept stressing, about "performer" as a term used for the traditional sense of performer as well as "performances" in every day life. I don't need some abstractions, just some facts about flappers and stuff!
The discussions about bathing suit censorship in Atlantic City and elsewhere was my favorite part. The author presented some other abstract point about how calling some ladies too fat to wear revealing bathing suits was a form of censorship. That sounded good to me, but then I tried to explain that to someone else and it just sounded dumb and I felt dumb.


Eat The Document by Dana Spiotta
This book was a gift from a longtime correspondent. Before this blog was a twinkle in my eye, and before I got into reading about burlesque and even old music, I used to do a zine. Not the "burlesque fashion" zine... I did a corny zine about local bands and hanging out in suburbia and considerations in political involvement and goofy fake ads.
So this kind gal (and onetime contributor!) sent me this book. I enjoyed it. It was a compelling read. It's about this lady who has to go into hiding after a political protest action goes wrong in the 60s. It then delves into her modern-day revolutionary counterparts, living in group-houses, selling out their hacking skills to corporations, or just appreciating obscure media (hello).
I think it was a little over-ambitious.. a few of the ideas explored in this book should have been left out and saved for the next one.
However, the main story was intriguing, and the superfluous stuff did rouse memories and thoughts about all that zine-making, patch-sewing, show-going, group-housing 1990s good times.

Labels: books, burlesque

Posted by: Kara Mae 8/06/2008  (0) comments

Last night I finally finished "Flapper" by Joshua Zeitz.

I enjoyed this book a great deal overall, although the final "conclusion" chapter was a little bothersome. I guess the authors of nonfiction books these days are obligated to write a last chapter with latter-day comparisons to try and convince the readers why the book they just read is relevant. I don't care if it's relevant though! Now I want to read more stories by the crappy Scott Fitzgerald, and even more importantly, Lois Long of the "New Yorker" who sounds like a zany obnoxious precursor to bloggers of today.
After reading it, I went to netflix to try and rent one of the great flapper movies by Colleen Moore and co., and they were nowhere to be found on DVD. I read Colleen Moore's book a few years ago but haven't seen any of her movies. All I remember was her going on and on about her splendid dollhouse. I think "Mantrap" and "Pandora's Box" are the only flapper-related films I've seen.

I want to read a lot more 20s stuff now but I've got a few other books in my queue.
Here's some other ones I read and may as well mention:


7000 Clams by Lee Irby
I got this book from book thing about 2 years ago. It had a lady in a martini glass on the front and it was 1920s period fiction and I wanted to write a novel myself of dark 1920s period fiction. I wanted to write a book peripherally involving Bix Beiderbecke and some obsessive fan who has a one night stand with him or something. So I thought this book might give me some inspiration. I read half of it on the bus home from New York in 2006. It was kind of lame and corny. I made myself finish it a few months ago and it was still lame and corny. It's about some zany smalltime crook who goes to Florida to try to blackmail Babe Ruth. It also involves his lameass whiny rich girlfriend, a weirdo serial killer, and a feisty broad who seems ok but (spoiler) in the end it turns out she's not on the run because she's an awesome badass but because she witnessed a crime.



1929: A Novel of the Jazz Age by Frederick Turner
I went to return 7000 Clams to bookthing and wandered around there a bit and found this book. What the hell, sweet more period fiction. I read the book-jacket on my walk home. What the hell! Dark 1920's period fiction peripherally involving Bix Beiderbecke. Can this be a genre or did I miss my chance?
Well anyway this book was way better than 7000 clams. More lyrically written yet less cartoony. No weirdo serial killer, yet the book is much more macabre and believable in its depictions of the criminal, sexual and alcoholic antics of its characters.
I still wouldn't say it's a great book. I think any fiction set in the past is just bound to come off pretty cheesy. Incorporation of "real people" is always embarrassing although I must admit he did include a lot of true facts. Problem is I'm going to confuse this book with the facts I read in "Remembering Bix," which was actually an annoying memoir by this guy who knew Bix Beiderbecke. So ultimately I guess I need to read a real biography of Bix to set me back straight.

I have another book about Vaudeville to read, and another piece of fiction entitled "Sunset and Sawdust" about some sassy broad in the 30s. It was on sale at Barnes and Noble. I also have an issue of Cometbus and a book called "Eat The Document", sent to me by a most awesome lady who has been reading my zines and blogs longer than just about anyone. Thanks, maam. Books in the mail rule, everyone send me books I should read.

Labels: books

Posted by: Kara Mae 5/23/2008  (0) comments

A few weeks ago I read this book:



"No Applause- Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" by Trav S.D.

I can't recommend it enough, especially to readers of this blog. It revived my interest in Vaudeville, educated me quite a bit, and riled me up over the timeless tale of corporate takeover of entertainment.

Before Vaudeville was of much interest to me there was Mae West. I believe the second book I read about Mae was "Becoming Mae West" by Emily Wortis Leider. In reading this book I became intrigued by a Vaudeville superstar influence on Mae that kept popping up: Eva Tanguay. In the words of Trav S.D.: "She was crazy." She's basically like... the queen of Vaudeville. I've read tidbits about her, seen a lot of photos where she looks weird and/or unattractive, and as with Lillian Russell, I've always hoped to hear her for myself. Thanks again to "They Stopped The Show," I can. Now, if only there were some footage..

I Don't Care
Eva Tanguay
from "They Stopped The Show" Audio Rarities compilation 1969

the gang's all here

P.S. Speaking of books about Mae, I absolutely loved "Mae West: It Ain't No Sin" by Simon Louvish. It's my new favorite Mae Biography. Louvish is a good writer, he had access to newly released documents, he focuses on the early years and Mae West the writer. Good stuff.

Labels: books, mae west, vaudeville

Posted by: Kara Mae 4/22/2008  (4) comments

I set up my record player goods the other day. I'm not too good with wires but I always figure it out eventually.
I have that usb turntable but I don't use the usb port. That record player sucks anyway and if I had loose change I'd buy a different one.
It goes in through the receiver and out to my computer. Same with my Califone. It has a 1/4 headphone jack so I plug it in there like that.
As I settled down into my new home I got a few blasts from the past.
First and foremost and oh-so-exciting is that the Lili St. Cyr biography finally came out.


I played a part in this however small and for that I am proud and grateful. Kelly DiNardo did a great job and I really encourage you to check it out.

Photographer Ed Fox has a new book out on Taschen featuring yours truly, circa 2001. Good memories of that wonderful trip to LA.

And oddly enough I got a little mention in the City Paper mail section just this week. A photographer I once worked with gave me a nod in regards to a story the City Paper had done about "neo-pinups" in Baltimore.

Meanwhile I've been making jewelry, painting house, tending houseplants and reading.

...and mp3-ifying some records. Nothing appropriate for here, yet though. I'll get right on it, I promise.
In the meantime here's a Doris Day song.

When I was 19 I knew nothing about "old music" but I wanted to learn. I'd search the internet for things like 'life is a bowl of cherries', and for Irving Berlin, who I learned of from songs performed by my beloved Eva Cassidy on the Live at Blues Alley record, (a record which changed my life for real.)
So the familiar name of Doris Day sounded like someone I would probably like, and I bought a CD called "Cocktail Hour" because that sounded like something I would probably like. Today, the first track from that CD evokes the memories of sitting around in my old apartment on Park Avenue with hot cups of tea during the cold winter, discovering new old music, getting excited about jazz and Irving Berlin and Tin Pan Alley and burlesque and just about anything that happened before I was born.

Doris Day
Someone Like You

Labels: books, burlesque

Posted by: Kara Mae 1/20/2008  (3) comments