Traded my rose-colored shades for a wide lens

[sovay]

Oh, good, we're having pregnancy nightmares. Can't imagine where that fits in. Have a selection of links.

1. I suspect these photos of Australian female criminals of the 1920's have been colorized, but A. Cooke still looks great.

2. Bernard Hoffman, "A young female welder adjusts her goggles, Groton, Connecticut, 1943." I haven't been able to find her name, but she was working at the Electric Boat Co.; they built PT boats and submarines. Also, damn.

3. Merril Mushroom's "How to Engage in Courting Rituals 1950s Butch Style in the Bar: An Essay" (1982) is a masterpiece.

4. Courtesy of this article on camp, I am stunned that I cannot remember ever before reading about Marchesa Luisa Casati, because Tanith Lee so obviously knew who she was.

5. A useful refresher on lesbian/bi history from staranise.

I am indeed watching HBO and Sky's Chernobyl (2019), which turns out to contain Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson as well as Jared Harris. I hope to write about it, since two episodes in it's certainly complex enough, but I hoped to write about several movies I watched earlier this month, too, and that hasn't happened yet. My sleep cycle has gone weird again. I need to be not working and that is literally unaffordable.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

1. I suspect these photos of Australian female criminals of the 1920's have been colorized, but A. Cooke still looks great.

I would read books about all of these women. Mrs Osbourne will be played by Harriet Walter in the movie.

A. Cooke does not look sorry.

[sovay]

Mrs Osbourne will be played by Harriet Walter in the movie.

I'd like half a dozen tickets, please.

A. Cooke does not look sorry.

She really doesn't. And it looks good on her.

[gwynnega]

It's been decades since I've heard of Merril Mushroom or Common Lives/Lesbian Lives. It brings back happy memories of when we had women's bookstores in Los Angeles.

[sovay]

It's been decades since I've heard of Merril Mushroom or Common Lives/Lesbian Lives.

I never had. I definitely feel I should know more, though.

It brings back happy memories of when we had women's bookstores in Los Angeles.

Aw. Were they casualties of the independent bookstore extinction?

[gwynnega]

Sisterhood Bookstore was a casualty of Borders opening a store down the street from them (near UCLA). Bread & Roses (where I worked part-time when I was in college) was smaller than Sisterhood, and probably just had a hard time making ends meet after awhile. I saw Adrienne Rich read at Bread & Roses, and saw Rich, Angela Davis, Judy Grahn, Robin Morgan, and many others at Sisterhood. Plus I got to read my own work at both stores.

[sovay]

I saw Adrienne Rich read at Bread & Roses, and saw Rich, Angela Davis, Judy Grahn, Robin Morgan, and many others at Sisterhood. Plus I got to read my own work at both stores.

I am sorry they're not still around. I would patronize a bookstore called Bread & Roses on general principle. (And come hear you read, if I were in the right state for it.)

[kore]

Aww man. Yeah, we lost the gay bookstores in Seattle too -- apparently they were casualties of the internet.

[moon_custafer]

Merril Mushroom's "How to Engage in Courting Rituals 1950s Butch Style in the Bar: An Essay" (1982) is a masterpiece.

I need to dig out my copy of All the Sad Young Men by Anonymous, not to be confused with All the Sad Young Men by Fitzgerald (or with the song), because its uneven but entertaining tale of gay life in late ‘50s NYC includes a rather wonderful bit where the narrator resolves to finally check out a gay bar, gets picked up by a handsome Black dude who takes him home, has a pretty good one-night-stand and smokes marijuana with him; the punchline is that later, talking things over with a bar regular, he is shocked to learn that none of that happened randomly-- he’d inadvertently signaled interest by his drink order, and that it was just very good luck that the guy, who happened to own the bar and most of the block, liked his apparent nerve. The narrator’s guide tells him he could easily have been targeted for mugging, blackmail or worse when he came to the neighbourhood, but now that he’s favourably impressed the ruling queen he’s under protection.

I cannot remember ever before reading about Marchesa Luisa Casati,

The AGO has a couple of portraits of her. I think they’re in the same gallery with Otto Dix’s picture of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann.

I am indeed watching HBO and Sky's Chernobyl (2019), which turns out to contain Stellan Skarsgård and Emily Watson as well as Jared Harris.
I’m always torn between fascination and squick when it comes to radioactive disasters, so I may stick to reading your review.

[sovay]

but now that he’s favourably impressed the ruling queen he’s under protection.

That is so wonderfully feudal.

The AGO has a couple of portraits of her. I think they’re in the same gallery with Otto Dix’s picture of Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann.

Okay, I can see that.

I’m always torn between fascination and squick when it comes to radioactive disasters, so I may stick to reading your review.

I will endeavor to review it for you. It may take a couple of weeks; it's still airing.

[kathmandu]

This sounds so mysterious. If you can recall, what was the random drink order signalling? That bar had a code for "Hi, I'd like to sleep with the owner"?!

[davidgillon]

The instant I looked at the picture of the welder I got a shiver down my spine, because I've just been re-reading Seanan McGuire's Toby Daye series and the description of the Luidaeg, the Sea Witch (and Toby's aunt) fits her to a T.

[sovay]

I've just been re-reading Seanan McGuire's Toby Daye series and the description of the Luidaeg, the Sea Witch (and Toby's aunt) fits her to a T.

Oh, neat. Tell me how?

[davidgillon]

Here's the description from An Artificial Night:
The Luidaeg doesn't use glamours to make herself look human, she's a natural shapeshifter and as human as she wants to be. Freckles and a peeling tan warred for dominance over her features, and a piece of electrical tape barely held her oily black curls in a rough ponytail*. She was wearing stained overalls and heavy dock boots, leaving her arms and upper chest bare. She could have been in her late teens or early twenties. There was nothing fae about her and that was scary as hell.

* Sometimes her hair is black, sometimes it's brown, and as often as not it's braided into pig tails tied off with electrical tape.

Working as a welder, when she's one of Faery's scariest monsters, seems a very Luidaeg thing to do. She's a creature of the littoral, forbidden the sea, yet haunting the docks and the beaches.

[sovay]

There was nothing fae about her and that was scary as hell.

Okay, I can see how you got there. Neat!

[a_reasonable_man]

I found this image, too:

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f7/8d/5f/f78d5f56e2f3b57671d8a84d63c55b92.jpg

[sovay]

I found this image, too

I like that too!

[a_reasonable_man]

I'm surprised no one has identified the young woman. The picture was used as the cover of the book, Dress Like a Woman: Working Women and What They Wore (2018). I poked around a bit, and found some first hand accounts by "Winnie the Welders" ("Winnies the Welder"?) who worked at Groton Electric Shipyard, but no one claims the image.

[kore]

ooh, love those photos and the butch courting essay.

She was said to walk around Venice at night with her pet cheetahs, naked but for a fur cloak

#lifegoals wifegoals

[sovay]

ooh, love those photos and the butch courting essay.

I'm glad!

#lifegoals wifegoals

She was the next generation down from Isabella Stewart Gardner and I can't imagine they ever met, but I was reminded of Gardner walking her lion on Boston Commons, the exclusive sorority of legendary women and very big cats.

[pedanther]

I don't know if you spotted the link for more information at the bottom of the post, but it confirms that the photos are colorized, and gives some details both of the colorization and of the subjects.

"By the time she was 24 Alice Cooke had created an impressive number of aliases and at least two husbands, and was convicted of bigamy and theft."

[sovay]

I don't know if you spotted the link for more information at the bottom of the post, but it confirms that the photos are colorized, and gives some details both of the colorization and of the subjects.

I saw it, but it was unextractably broken at the time when I first saw the post, so I appreciate the pointer! That's cool.