The PERFORMER

Some people come by it naturally. Others try but give up. And then there are those who keep trying when they seriously need to find something else to do.

Being a performer is not in the grand scheme for must of us. However, the shiny lights often draw us in as children before we become embarrassed by everything. I took ballet and hula dancing as a child. I had dreams of Broadway, but I would have never made it. But that little spark burns ever so slightly inside and I instead do my performances with the clerk at the store. Give me a smile and a laugh and my day is made.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday this week...late.

from Buckaroos and Buckarettes.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

CREEPY or Not Creepy?

I'll let you decide. I know when I bought it I thought it odd, but then I showed it to a friend and she found it very creepy. These days with what's going on in this country with a particular candidate I can say red flags did momentarily fly.

Click on image to see it larger.

I also have to say that his socks and shoes made me think of Gene Kelly so I could easily imagine the two of them breaking into dance.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

No Legs DANCE TOTEM

I think the title about sums it up.


Click on image to see it larger.

Saturday is LAUNDRY DAY

Saturday is almost always laundry day. These days with the drought I try to do one FULL load. I really push the stuff in hoping to not do a second load. Everything gets washed together. I don't sort different colors, unless there's a red item in the bunch. Just throw it in, wash it, get it out on the line.

Here in California we're being told to expect an El Niño this winter. I'll believe it when I see it. It has been stated that the rains will probably hit Southern California leaving the north still dry. If that's the case, and weather stays similar to what it's been the past few years, I'll still be hanging laundry out in January when the new norm is 70+ degrees.

All of these photos have been posted before, just not grouped together. This is my Sepia Saturday submission this week. Laundry and the lovely sun and wind that dries it. Perhaps even encouraging a bit of a dance. So if I don't get around to visiting other blogs until Sunday or later blame it on my laundry. Lots of sheets and towels to do this weekend, and maybe a little dance.

Click on any image to see it larger.

The BOHEMIANS AMONG US

Taking a one day break from the woman who had so many children that I didn't know what to do…honestly, she needs a rest.

Instead today I focus on the theme for Sepia Saturday.

It was easy for me to come up with photos of dancers, but not of cross-dressing dancers. I have quite a few cross-dressers in vintage snapshots, but none of them dancers. But women from the early part of the 20th century as so called free spirits dressed as bohemians and gypsies…eventually every collector will find them.

These shots come from the Louise Bigelow Schnabel photo album. I have no idea who any of these ladies are, nor do I know why pretending to be a bohemian gypsy was so popular, but it was. Take a look at this Pinterest page to get an idea of the driving force behind what some women were doing. And an "explanation" was found at Wikipedia under Bohemian Style:

The "Dorelia" look Among female Bohemians in the early 20th century, the "gypsy look" was a recurring theme, popularised by, among others, Dorothy "Dorelia" McNeill (1881–1969), muse, lover and second wife of the painter Augustus John (1878–1961), whose full skirts and bright colours gave rise to the so-called "Dorelia look". Katherine Everett, née Olive, a former student of the Slade School of Art in London, has described McNeil's "tight fitting, hand-sewn, canary coloured bodice above a dark gathered flowing skirt, and her hair very black and gleaming, emphasiz[ing] the long silver earrings which were her only adornment".

And to see an old post I did for Sepia Saturday which also featured women playing gypsy click here.

As to cross-dressing dancers, I don't think there's a more enjoyable troupe than Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.





And frankly, I just can't get enough of these guys.

The DANCE OF THE LAUNDRY

It's Saturday, laundry day. Sometimes Sunday is laundry day if Saturday looks as if there won't be enough sun or breeze to dry things on the line.

I love hanging laundry on the line. People these days think that's odd. Whole communities prevent people from hanging out their laundry. Children have grown up never knowing the fun of running amongst sheets hanging on the line. They are used to hearing the dryer running and not the sounds of a spring morning as you do a repetitive task without thinking.

I believe those of us who love the flapping of a white sheet in the sun can easily see the movement as dance. So, in honor of the Sepia Saturday prompt this week, I give you Laundry Dancing.


Click on image to see it larger.


Click on image to see it larger.

The TONY LIMARDI BAND

Both of these photos come from the Betty Schnabel estate. I'm guessing they belonged to her father.

There's no information given about when they were taken, just that they were both of the Tony Limardi Band and/or Dance Orchestra.

Click on images to see them larger.


Tony Limardi Dance Orchestra, 76 Inf. Div., Camp McCoy, Wisconsin


Tony Limardi Band, U.S.O., Sparta, Wisconsin

There's always been one thing I feel I missed out on being born when I was and that was the opportunity to hear the big bands play. It's the music I grew up with and the bands my mother went to see. Sadly you can't even find it on the radio anymore. For a long time there was a station in San Francisco that played the music, but I think the station eventually became an internet station. Admittedly those who remember the bands are passing away, but I hate to think the same will happen to the music.



This is my submission to this weeks Sepia Saturday "let's put on a show" theme.

It's shimmy and shake DANCIN' SUNDAY

This little lady was purchased on Thursday at my favorite antique store. She has style, she has grace, she has roof gravel between her toes. There is no information given on the back so she shall forever remain a mystery. The mystery dance pose.

Click on the little lady to see her larger.

Shake it baby...SHAKE IT!

To see today's dancin' lady at my ephemera site, Goldie, click here.

Anybody wish to suggest the appropriate music? I keep hearing over and over in my head "Everybody dance now...bump...bump bump...bump bump...everybody dance now!" and that's just driving me nuts.