Caput Mundi International Burlesque Award - Part 2

Saturday morning - the second day of the burlesque festival - I woke up in a heap of glitter! After a later breakfast, and a bit of Rome sightseeing, it was time to get ready for the evening's show. Most of the performers of the festival stayed at a hostel called The Yellow, and when it was time to head over to Teatro Centrale Carlsberg, we were all picked up by a long row of Fiat 500 cars from the 50s!

The cars then drove us in parade through Rome to the theatre. At one time the engine died in the leading car, so the drivers of the three following Fiats ran out to run-start the first car, and then rushed back to their own cars to continue the parade. Haha! These old Fiats might not be so trustworthy, but now I really want one too! My dress is a vintage one from the 50s, by the way. From vintagebluemoon on Etsy. And yes, I know I'm smoking in the bottom pic. Bad! BAD! Don't follow my horrible example! Anyway. Moving on...

When we got out of the cars outside the theatre, there was a red carpet (which was actually black and sparkly) with photographers lined up to let us bask in the camera flashes before we stepped inside. I could get used to that! Just like the night before, Jack Woodhead started the show by singing a lovely song! The other Saturday performers were:

Our fabulous conférencière, Vibrissa Eccola Qua!

Fräulein Frauke!

Lilly Bulle!

Nuit Blanche!

Bana Banal!

The producers of the whole festival - Dixie Ramone and Albadoro Gala, here together with Jack Woodhouse!

Mrs Rose!

Bianca Nevius!

Raven!

Greta Qamar!

Eliza DeLite!

Clea Cutthroat!

And the evening's guest star - reigning Queen of Burlesque 2013 - LouLou D'vil!

A big applause to the creators of Caput Mundi Burlesque Award - Dixi Ramone and Albadoro Gala (pictured above), aka The Missunderstanding! We had two amazing evenings at the theatre, ending on the Sunday with a laid back farewell party at The Yellow. I hope this festival will take place next year too, and that I will be able to go back and see all - or at least some - of these wonderfully crazy people again! And Rome itself of course! Me and my sister did have time for a bit of touristing, but more about that another day...

All photos marked "Bichard" by John Paul Bichard.

Caput Mundi International Burlesque Awards - Part 1

November 1-3 Caput Mundi International Burlesque Award went down - for the first time - with a bang in the middle of Italy's beautiful capital, Rome! I had never been to Rome before, so going there to perform was great! The organizers behind the festival were Albadoro Gala and Dixie Ramone - aka The Missunderstanding, and they did a great job!

So, here is what happened on the first day - Friday. The event took place at Teatre Centrale Carlsberg in the center of Rome. The stage looked old fashioned and was perfect for a bit of burlesque striptease!

Photo: Christine Engström

My sister Christine had come with me to Rome - something I was very happy about since my Pain Demon was being very annoying! Having someone you can trust close to you when you're in a lot of pain makes things easier. Sis had brought her camera, and here she caught me backstage putting red glitter on my lips.

Photo: Christine Engström

Here I am with the lovely Mrs Mystique, just before she attacked me...

Photo: Christine Engström

Don't get too close to pretty geishas! They might turn out to be demons. I learnt that the hard way...

Then the show started, with Jack Woodhead on the grand piano! Other performers were:

Red Juliette!

Before mentioned Mrs Mystique!

Betty Q!

Vesper Julie!

Vanille Plaisir!

Adoria Amoria!

Lady Francescca!

Giddy Heights!

Sally Van Tassel!

And me! I did my "Arabian Nights" act, which I end by pouring glitter over myself out of an Aladdin lamp. Since I was too tired to take a shower when I came back to the motel that night, I woke up with very sparkly sheets the next morning. Haha!

Erochica Bamboo did a guest performance, and in the intermission there was an auction to collect money for the building of a school in Dharavi, India. Most performers brought something to sell. My object was a pair of worn out pointe shoes. 

The Friday was actually a competition, to crown the best newcomer with the title "Papessa of Burlesque". The winner was Betty Q, who here can be see with her crown - a pink, sparkling replica of the Colosseum! 

All performers got goodiebags too! Inside it I found some very useful stuff: Pretty pasties from Zou Zou, and a 10 Euro discount card and a Power Bullet - a little vibrator - from Alcova. Tired, but happy, we then returned to our hostel - The Yellow - where most of us stayed. The next day was the second show day of Caput Mundi. But more about that on Wednesday...

All photos marked "Bichard", by John Paul Bichard.

Fabergé Friday

There are many, many Fabergé egg pendants left to go. So here comes another one - made by workmaster Henrik Wigström, sometime between 1908 and 1917!

The egg is covered in pale lilac enamel over a guilloché ground. Around the center leaps a matte gold band of finely chased acanthus leaves with white opaque enamel borders.

The size of the pendant is 13/16'' (2 cm), which is bigger than the usual Fabergé egg pendants - as you can see in the comparison picture above. The price for it is 18,500 USD, and it's for sale at Romanov Russia.

Source

Children's Worst Nightmares

Remember when you were really young, and monsters lived both underneath your bed and in the closet? Photographer Joshua Hoffine has made a series of photographies that depict all the things that exist in children's scary imagination. The series is called Children's Worst Nightmares, and I strongly suggest you don't look at these pictures just before going to bed! You never know, those nightmares might come back...

Source

The Penn Pals

Came home from my little burlesque trip to Rome at 3 am this morning. Of course I'll tell you all about that soon. But until I'm done writing those posts, here is something else...

Recently I got the honor of being put on the cover of a book - a book that doesn't really exist... This book, the story behind it, and the web site made to promote it, is a project created by the very inventive photographer, retoucher and web designer Pelle Piano, and is called The Penn Pals. The made up story behind this "book" is that the photos of the fictive photographer Sven Boqvist were thought to have been lost in a fire. Now, fifty years later, they have been found though. And this book is a compilation of these "lost" images, together with the stories about the persons portrayed - whom Sven Boqvist met during his travels in the 50s.

One of the characters Sven met and photographed in New York, in 1955, was the Russian born ballerina Tatiana Baronova, sister of Irina Barolova. Irina was a real ballet dancer, but in this project I got to portray her made up sister. And here are the photos Sven (or in real life - Pelle Piano) took of me/Tatiana...

All photos were taken in Mr Piano's home studio, against a blue screen, and then photoshopped into lovely surroundings by this talented man. I love shooting with him! Getting to see the final pictures, with the plain blue background magically replaced by amazing backgrounds is always so exciting!

Of course I'm not the only person portrayed as a fictional character in this "book". Go ahead and follow this link to The Penn Pals, and discover the rest. If I didn't know it was all a scam, I would believe this story was true. It's very well made!

All photos taken by Pelle Piano.