Dear Constant Reader,
Thank you so much! We couldn’t have gotten on the ballot without your help. And now comes the hard part — we need your vote. We need you to vote every single day, not just once. Hey, it’s The Phoenix’s rules…
I’ll be reminding you to vote every day and providing you with some incentives, like silly campaign promises, the real promise of a big Victory Party, photos, and whatever else I might think will bribe inspire you.
Let’s make it 4 years in a row.
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. I *think* today is the last day for nominations, but don’t quote me on that.
Yesterday was Mardi Gras, so today is Ash Wednesday. For your humble correspondent, that means 40 days until… The Expo1!
Although it’s Wednesday, I don’t have a book review for you. Instead, here are some books for you to consider reading that I haven’t read yet, because they’re hot off the press (so to speak). I’m fortunate to know a number of talented writers (much more so than I) and several of them have brand new books out!
Andrew Kirschbaum has just released the second novel in his Fifth World series, Monday and the Counterfeit Corpse. Zack Monday is a hard-boiled detective in a city where magic is as common as technology and he’s apt to use a spell as often as his fists to solve a mystery. If you want to catch up, the first book in the series is Monday and the Murdered Man.
Teresa Noelle Roberts is known for her paranormal erotica, like Lions’ Pride and Foxes’ Den, but Knowing the Ropes is a kinky story set in this world.
Andrew Shaffer inspired a nation-wide Naked Girls Reading event with Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love. Now he brings us Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors. Look for it at a NGR Boston in the future, maybe even on March 16th.
1Really 38, but who’s counting.
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
Happy Mardi Gras! Or Shrove Tuesday! Or Maslenitsa! Or just plain Tuesday! There might be pancakes (or beignets or blini) at stately Babydoll Manor tonight. Any excuse to celebrate!
Because I’m feeling festive, here’s Scratch’s recipe for blini.
1/3 c. buckwheat flour
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tps. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. plus 2 Tbsp. milk
1 egg
1 stick unsalted butter, clarified*
Combine flours, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. In another bowl, whisk milk, egg, and 1 Tablespoon of butter. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
Heat 1 Tablespoon of the butter in a medium pan and when it’s sizzling, pour the batter into the pan by Tablespoons to make little pancakes. Cook over medium-low heat until the batter starts to bubble, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook for another minute, until brown. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter as necessary.
Serve with sour cream & caviar.
P.S. Scratch reminds me that Maslenitsa isn’t until next month (forgot about the Orthodox calendar) and that these are quick blini; proper ones are made with yeast.
* To clarify butter, gently melt the butter. Strain the melted butter through cheesecloth and toss the white solids left behind in the cloth. The clear golden liquid is clarified butter. It heats to a higher temperature and keeps longer than regular butter.
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
Well, a lot of snow fell on Boston. There was a driving ban, a parking ban, and no public transportation. This meant that out of the 4 shows we were supposed to be performing in this weekend, we had exactly zero.
However, tonight The Bod of Avon is back on! And the Mardi Gras Ball will be rescheduled!
Allow extra time to get to Naga tonight — we’re still starting at 8 sharp, because we still have to be done in time to turn our theatre back into a nightclub.
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
Here in Boston there’s more than 2 feet of snow, high wind, a driving ban, and no public transportation. Sadly, that means that tonight’s performance of The Bod of Avon is canceled. If you have tickets, please fill out the form here to reschedule.
We’re still planning to perform tomorrow (knock on wood, fingers crossed, et alia).
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
A show consisting only of striptease can become as monotonous as a dinner consisting only of dessert. Variety acts provide a “palate cleanser” for the audience.
The Boston Babydolls like to put on a show that’s about 2/3 striptease and 1/3 variety. The Bod of Avon has magic, singing, comedy, and straight-up dancing scattered amongst the stripping.
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
A big snow storm is headed our way. People around here are panicking as though it weren’t New England and we didn’t usually get snow in the winter. The French Toast index is high (following predictions of dire storms, supermarkets get wiped out of bread, milk, and eggs — clearly blizzards trigger a desire for French toast). Joking aside, the predictions are up to 2 *feet* of snow Friday/Saturday.
The Babydolls are waiting to see if we’re performing. Friday night we’re scheduled to be at the first night of the annual Mardi Gras Ball. Saturday is a performance of The Bod of Avon followed by an appearance at the second night of the Mardi Gras Ball. At this point we have no idea if we’re going on or not.
Waiting and seeing,
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
I’ve run out of burlesque books to review, so I’m trying non-burlesque, but related books for a bit.
Vintage Hairstyling: Retro Styles with Step-by-Step Techniques, 2nd Edition by Lauren Rennells (2009).
I bought the first edition of Vintage Hairstyling when it first came out and was quite happy with it. When the author asked for feedback for a second edition, I jumped at the chance, especially since she was offering a copy of the new version as thanks.
The first edition was the best book on retro styles around, head and shoulders above the once-much-sought-after Daniela Turudich book. Lauren Rennells shows how to create hairstyles using modern equipment like curling irons and velcro rollers. Even a hair dunce like myself was able to produce some great looks. With clear and beautiful photographs she demonstrates the styling basics, like finger waves, victory rolls, and pin curls before turning you loose on a vast array on styles, growing ever more challenging as you move deeper into the book. As an added bonus there is a section on finishing touches, like hair ornaments, makeup, and nails.
The second edition has even more details on the basics. I notice she added steam rollers and soft rollers to the arsenal of equipment. She has extended her time period and included some ’50’s and even ’60’s hairdos (with the popularity of Mad Men how could one not). I was particularly pleased to see that the hairdo staple, the French Twist, was taught as a stand-alone ‘do before being used as the basis of other styles, like “Beehive” and “Golightly”.
Some of the styles from the first edition have been rewritten. “Film Noir”, a style I liked, but hadn’t tried because it involved numerous wet-set pincurls, has been redone using velcro and soft rollers. She did edit out a couple of hairstyles, like “Casino Owner’s Wife”, from the first edition, so that volume will be staying on my bookshelf. She has introduced some new techniques, like working with fake hair and making marcel waves, and has expanded the “extra” information.
I do have one gripe with this book. It’s has a very attractive design and a lot of lovely photographs, illustrating each technique or style step-by-step, as promised. But it’s a poor workbook. It doesn’t lie flat while one is styling one’s hair. The perfect binding makes it look like a “real” book, but sometimes I wish it was spiral bound, so I could have it open on my vanity while my hands are busy with curling paraphernalia and pins.
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
Yesterday I told you how we set up the venue for a show. The audience is sitting on chairs or benches, or standing along the bar. There’s a narrow aisle between the seating area and the standing room so the performers can get from the dressing room at the back of the room to the stage and back again. Also, when the stage lights are off, it’s very dark.
Opening night, we’ve just concluded the opening number of Act II (a humorous foursome inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and I am gaily skipping back to the dressing room when — WHAM! something strikes me in the shins and I fall forward. Ginny, directly behind, nearly goes down on top of me.
Someone, desiring a better view, had moved their bench so the end of it was sticking way out into the aisle.
I have a charming bruise right below my right knee and another one slightly further down my shin. I collided so hard with the bench, it took several days for them to come to the surface. Since I am not that sort of girl, I will not regale you with pictures of my injuries. Instead, I will share some photos that were taken at our second preview at Oberon. Have fun figuring out which plays inspired the acts!
All photos by Hans Wendland.
King Evie in action!
Mina, Queen of the Fae
Stella sings of how she hates men
Betty and her pyramids
Devora causing toil & trouble for Mina and Ginny
Brigitte & Butch
Dear Constant Reader,
Here’s your daily reminder to nominate The Boston Babydolls for Best Burlesque. You can vote once per day per email/IP address. Thank you.
It’s been a while since I actually told a tale of how glamourous my life is. The Boston Babydolls are currently performing The Bod of Avon at Naga. Naga isn’t a theatre; it’s a nightclub. This is important.
You might expect that before a show The Babydolls retire to their private dressing room to nibble delicacies, sip champagne, and make ourselves gorgeous at dressing tables with those mirrors with the lights around them.
Here’s the reality. We (performers, tech crew, ushers & other volunteers) show up at Naga about 3 hours before the show. The space is in nightclub mode with padded benches and low cubes they use as drink tables all over the main space and stage. There are huge leather couches in the VIP area at the back of the room.
We clear everything off the stage, except one bench that we’re using in the show. We move the biggest couches onto the floor. We move all the white cubes up into the VIP area and line them along one wall under some light fixtures — that’s our makeup station. We sit on the floor & use little personal makeup mirrors.
Someone unlocks the basement in the building next door and we start hauling our stuff out and bring it over. (Did I mention it was snowing last night?) Stuff consists of everyone’s personal gear (makeup cases, dance bags, hat boxes, &c), 2 trunks and one box of costumes, a small table (a set piece), a clothing rack & hangers, props that are too large to fit in the trunks, microphones for the performers, headsets for the techs, pipe and drape, and probably more that I’m forgetting.
Then 75 chairs and half a dozen cabaret tables. This all goes up a flight of stairs, down a flight of stairs, over to Naga, up a few more stairs, into the venue proper.
Some people set up the chairs, couches, benches, little drink tables, and cabaret tables, wondering how the heck we are going to squeeze so many people in and make sure they have a good view. (I believe the venue exaggerated their seating capacity, but we sold the tickets so we’ll make it work.) Some people set up the pipe & drape in the VIP area to make us a dressing room and make sure all the costumes and props are organized. During all this Hunter is setting up the audio, video, and lights.
Once that is all set up, then we can warm up on stage, do hair & makeup, have a little snack (the folks at Moksa, the restaurant attached to Naga, have generously been providing some scrumptious light refreshments), and be dancers instead of roadies.
After a normal show, we hang out with our fans, pose for pictures, and hawk merch. These shows we have 30 minutes to reverse everything we did a mere few hours before. Fortunately we have some of the Naga staff to help move the seating around and schlepp the chairs back to the basement. We performers pack up the dressing room and dismantle it. You’ll hear cries of “Act One packed?” and a chorus of “Yes!” followed by the trunk latching or “Everyone dressed?” with a positive response means that the pipe & drape starts to come down. We bundle into street clothes and start hauling all our stuff back to the basement.
Then the drinking begins.
Tomorrow I shall tell you a bit about the show itself. I know you’re breathless with anticipation. I might also have a special treat for you.
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 