July 2008~ Step Right Up!
Greetings everybody and Happy Summer! We have recently come out of a brutal heat wave where the temperatures were reaching 100 with heavy duty humidity.
It was one of those very days that we ventured to this year's GaGa Arts Festival! We thoroughly enjoyed it despite the heat and met some fun people including the crew at Rando Radio and wonderfully eccentric Frank Welles who is an extraordinary painter who also created a fabulous medieval character named Bruegel who became obsessed with his penis size. Mr Welles has created an entire museum devoted to this character, including Bruegel's collection of codpieces, and this exhibit, along with the Outside In segment were our absolute faves of the show!
With all of those seriously hot, uncomfortable days, I spent time in the nice and cool studio creating new things. There are 5 new Hoodoos, a new Art Card by Tink© and several Atomic Fez's for the Etsy shop.
The day before the oppressive heat, I was back with my little family at Jinx Proof getting my Coney Island "Tillie", Smiley Face and it is another amazingly inked piece by Eric Newman. It's so perfect, in fact, that Zak from the Shmaltz Brewing Co, the Brewhouse who's label on it's Coney Island Lager this image comes from, took note of it and told me it was "KICKASS". This image was drawn by Dave Wallin who is a tattoo artist in Williamsburg, NY. THANK YOU for the amazing artwork, Dave! Eric's detail is just incredible and I am thrilled with the piece. We started a bit of filler on the sleeve and I'll continue on that shortly. Eric has more recently done some hot rod flames for me along with 3 perfect little nautical stars which I like to call Circus stars or Carnival stars.
I love the circus, carnivals, sideshow history and anything related. Recently Cole Bros. Circus came through and I had to get over there to photograph it whilst it was being set up. Cole Bros is the largest circus still under the Big Top and has a very Old School feel. The only thing sadly missing are the freak shows of old that were always one of my favorite parts when I was a little kid. Recently we watched a film called 'SideShow Alive on the Inside' which was a wonderful documentary of the Circus SideShow from way back to the shows of today. Our own Red Stuart, sword swallower & human pincushion, was in the flick! Red will be performing at the Meadowlands Fair in Secaucus for those of you in the area.
I love to research and learn all I can about the things I am most interested in and recently I am reading a great book called 'Side Show my Life with Geeks, Freaks, and Vagabonds in the Carney Trade' by Howard Bone. It's a fascinating glimpse from someone who lived the scene in its hey day. Other books in my stack to read are 'Step Right Up: Stories of Carnivals, Sideshows, and the Circus' by Nathaniel Knaebel and 'Hubert's Freaks' by Gregory Gibson. One of my all time fave photographers, Diane Arbus, also photographed side show attractions many of which performed at Hubert's in Times Square.
Recently we had a family barbeque for my niece's birthday and Father's day. On the way to my brother's house, Skeetie and I happened upon a tool sale so we took a little detour. We grabbed some good stuff and I came away with a combination drill, sander, buffer set to help with my assemblage. Then it was on to the barbeque. It was another hot and humid day and we hung outside by the pool eating, chatting and drinking Skeetie's wicked homemade wine. Then a fierce storm blew in and we grabbed everything, ran and spent the rest of the evening inside! I expressed interest in photographing the "making of the wine" next batch for the archives and Skeetie says it's a "MEN only" thing. We Italians have odd rituals.
That barbeque was the first opportunity for me to try out my new DV camera. The footage came out amazing and clear. I figured out how to load and store the data but I am still working on trying to get the files to burn to the DVD writer. I'll get it. One of these days! I don't give up until I figure something out!
This year for Summer Solstice Skeetie and I went into the city for some street fairs and antiquing. It was an absolute perfect weather day and we found some fun things. That same day was the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and that came up on us so fast that we really didn't plan on getting there and battling the crowds and fighting for parking. My Strega sister, Michelle, is a mermaid freak and we had talked about going to this Coney event. Next year for sure, Mich!
My friend, photographer John Rizzuto, of Old School Galleries DID get over to the Mermaid Parade (AND got wicked sunburn in the process) but took some amazing pics! I felt like I was there just looking through his images. Thanks, John!
Speaking of Diane Arbus, I have just seen the film 'Fur' which is an imaginative take on events leading to Diane's photographing of the freaks at Hubert's Dime Museum in Times Square in the 50's and 60's. I loved the flick and recommend it to Arbus fans that have not yet seen it. My latest quest is to obtain a vintage Rolleiflex camera like Diane used. A camera I have just gotten my hands on is a beautiful old Mamiyaflex, The classic TLR portrait camera. I recently also obtained a copy of 'Revelations' for a good buck which was the massive catalog of Arbus work released just after her death.
Another great flick Skeetie found recently is 'The Road to Bonneville' which is a documentary about NY Street Rod builders, Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell of the Rolling Bones, who drive from New York to Utah to the Bonneville Speedway. The cars are just amazing and the film is awesome for the Hot Rod enthusiasts out there. You can get a copy at Atomic Hot Rods . We also took a cruise up to Nyack for the Vintage Car Store but alas, they were CLOSED!! So we went to the Nyack River Club for seafood, spectacular views of the Hudson River, some good talk and an unwind from the week! Another fun bit of news for the Hot Rodders out there is Rebel Rodz magazine is starting up a new publication called Backfire which readers will be providing all the content for! How fun for us that love our cars (and taking photos)!!
I guess that is about it for now. Skeetie will be away for some classes for a week this month and that means Tinkie will be missing him horribly but I will delve into the studio while he's away and keep busy. I have a bunch of canvas stitched up that I am messing with now in the way of side show banners.
Have a most MAGICAL Summer!
Namaste~
Tink
Tink's Recommended Item for July:
Tink's Atomic Fez Factory
~
If at any time you wish to be removed from the mailing list or need to change your address just drop me a line!
Your wish is my command!
~
Please visit Prior TWC News Letters.
{ June 2008 }
{ May 2008 }
{ April 2008 }
{ March 2008 }
{ February 2008 }
{ January 2008 }
If you do not see navigation buttons to your left,
please click here to be directed to the beginning of my site.
|
| |
|
|
|
