Gregarious Expressions

OK, Dolly, I’m not denying there’s a certain romance about the notion of freewheeling lifestyle but GLAMOUR? Those hobos you’re talking about from the ’20s-’40s didn’t go to burlesque shows. They didn’t have disposable income because they didn’t have jobs. That’s why they were riding the rails. They weren’t out celebrating freedom — although its true some wouldn’t be tied down if their life depended on it — they were looking for work so they didn’t starve to death. Sometimes they even had families"back home" who were starving while waiting for money to be sent home.

Such is the danger of trendy.

Ugh.

-ag

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Burlesque group to host holiday honoring hobos
"We often perform to older music, from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, and I wanted to hold a big event that threw back to that time period and the glamour of riding the rails and hobo life," Derringer said.

What a great way to cross promote the arts! I’d love to see Scranton’s Industrial Arts festival grow up to be so sexy. OK so maybe not scenes in whcih "a man wielding a handheld piece of machinery with whirring parts rub a burlesque dancer’s metal cone bra, sending sparks into the air," but … Hey, it could happen.

-ag

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Crucible benefit fans the flames of creativity
The "Fire Cabaret" – held in the group’s 56,000-square-foot warehouse on Seventh Street – featured four short musical vignettes performed on a stage that alternated with demonstrations of industrial arts by the center’s faculty members in other parts of the venue. But even the demonstrations were often paired to music, as in one room where blacksmiths pounded enormous hammers on red-hot metal, while a woman danced on a table in African print dress to several men playing rhythmic drums and shaking maracas.

***COMMENTS AT A NEW YORK MAGAZINE Vulture response to this poster suggest it is a fan made poster.

Not to beat a dead horse but — ew.

It looks like A Chorus Line crossed with that groovy poster of Dorothy Dietrich after King Midas went around and touched everything.

I’ll assume there’s something covering Christina’s crotch because that’s the last thing I need popping up in my nightmares right now.

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A Screamin’ New Burlesque Poster Arrives | Shockya.com

I’m not a big Counting Crows fan, personally, but this art work sure did catch my eye.

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Counting Crows Traveling Circus & Medicine Show

08/06/10

featuring Augustana, The rock band

Counting Crows’ Traveling Circus & Medicine Show with Augustana kicks off the Sands RiverPlace lineup at Musikfest 2010 with an 8 p.m. show on Friday, Aug. 6. Price range: $25-$52 ($5 service fee per ticket will be added to these base prices)

RiverPlace Garden & Cafe areas include concert ticket & dinner.(Cafe $134 – Garden $164)

Scheduled Concert Time: 8:00 pm Gates open at 6:00 pm

Madly in love with these photos featured on Flavorwire yesterday. 

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Flavorwire » Pic of the Day: Coney Island and Other Magical Places
Bucharest-born, Brooklyn-based artist Mina Georgescu calls her work “decorative photography.” We call it everything that we love about summer without the crazy heat. Her nostalgic, faded images are created using a combination of photography and digital painting. “My works recreate moods, feelings and memories,” Georgescu says. “The textures, blurriness and saturated colors are all part of the charm and modern-vintage feel of the photographs.”

You have to see this to believe it.

I especially love the peacock made of horns.

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Mad Genius Creates Orchestra of 70 Steampunk Birds | 1-800-Recycling
On U.S. Highway 12, about 5 miles south of Baraboo, WI, behind Delaney’s Surplus and across from the Badger Army Ammunition Plant lies a very special roadside attraction: Dr. Evermor’s Scrap Metal Yard. Here, there are hundreds of amazing sculptures that have steampunk written all over them.

Looking at Trunk Show by Misty Greer. Hard not to drool over some of these designs.

They are, the main page of her website states, "Clothing for those who prefer to be the spectacle, not just the spectator."

"Fashion should be like a good strip tease: slow, deliberate, and captivating."

Indeed.

If you want to buy, visit her Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/MistyGreer.

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Burlesque meets punk in Trunkshow’s retro-sexy style | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com
According to the burlesque-inspired Vancouver fashion designer, she’s an “everyday showgirl who loves the ritual of getting ready”. And that’s exactly who she creates for. “For me, it’s an evolution of all that old punk rock, that old goth, that hyper-cheesecake pinup look that everyone rocks at some point, and then taking that to the next level by bringing in modern elements,” Greer says. “It’s kind of like mixing Dita Von Teese with a club kid from the ’90s in New York,” she explains. “I call it ‘lowbrow high fashion’.

Nice collection of examples of the aesthetic collected here.  

Is it the search for authenticity and substance beyond style that has resulted in so many examples of this trend?

You know, that "anything to distance myself from Heidi Montag" mentality.

Immediately after 911 there was a great sentiment expressed toward simplyifying our lives. Abandoning our materialistic consumption for a more pure, equanimous lifestyle. The powers that be quickly assuaged our guilt by reminding us that in order to save the economy we had to be good shoppers, but in the back of our minds we remember.

We know why they hate us and even if we insist freedom is being allowed to have while others have not, the idea of downplaying our wealth is an attractive one. Maybe if we don’t look like spoiled rich brats they’ll stop picking on us.

-ag

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Hobo Chic – TREND HUNTER PRO
Rather than dwelling on the depressing nature of the vagabond lifestyle, which has traditionally been a subject ignored by the market, some brands are now using it as a source of inspiration. The fashion industry, especially, has turned the idea of destitution into a direction of styling that many have labeled as “hobo-chic.”