Summer songs, Farewell too soon...

Summer is hot days and swimming in the creek....Summer is hot sticky plastic seats your thighs stick to..... Summer is bugs in my soda pop....Summer time will be a love in there....and Summer is fruit flies in my face !

Words to live by....
Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac Gangsta whitewalls TV antennas in the back You may not have a car at all But remember brothers and sisters You can still stand tall Just be thankful for what you've got Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac Diamond in the back, sunroof top Diggin' the scene With a gangsta lean Gangsta whitewalls TV antennas in the back...



  For those who come to San Francisco Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair If you come to San Francisco Summertime will be a love-in there If you come to San Francisco Summertime will be a love-in there





Summertime, And the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' And the cotton is high Your daddy's rich And your mamma's good lookin' So hush little baby Don't you cry One of these mornings You're going to rise up singing Then you'll spread your wings And you'll take to the sky

more starry, more immortal

If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself.
said Henry David Thoreau in Walden.

the seasons are about to change...I can already see the day a bit shorter from mid-July...I see the vegetables in the garden coming into full ripeness.
.........and autumn.......
Stay in your shorts and sandals as long as you can....Rage Rage Rage against the shorter days....but fall will come....and it could look like this:

Vintage Floral bucket purse crossbody huge Duffle bag

Basset Hound Scarf

Walden -- The one who came from farthest to my lodge, through deepest snows and most dismal tempests, was a poet. A farmer, a hunter, a soldier, a reporter, even a philosopher, may be daunted; but nothing can deter a poet, for he is actuated by pure love.

 

80s vintage Rose Jean Shorts Floral Black Denim high waist

 

Vintage Lace Blouse White Camisole Ralph Lauren 70s boho top

Walden -- I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
 

Vintage Black Gladiator buckle strap sandals shoes 7

 

Vintage Linen Black Boots canvas fabric Ankle booties 6

Walden -- Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

Vintage NIKE running shoes 80s sneakers White Leather

Vintage 1950s Ivory white Leather T strap Heels slip on 7.5

Walden -- If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Neon lace 1970s vintage Bodysuit stretchy Blouse

 

Army Military shirt vintage Olive green fatigue field shirt

Walden -- if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Ralph Lauren ruffled Blouse Vintage 1970s Blue Chambray

 

Vintage Blue Rose Skirt floral Beautiful Ralph Lauren long gathered cotton

 

Cognac Snake purse vintage 40s 50s

Brighton Leather Belt Vintage 90s

Walden -- There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness

70s vintage watch Helbros self winding

Vintage 70s leather Belt boho handpainted butterfly and flowers

In the background of our lives....

I spent all my money and a lot of my time watching my oldest in dance class and in recital, so that means I heard a lot, and I mean a lot of SHOWTUNES !
I love showtunes so it wasn't a bad gig...Showtunes get you there quickly, and they're songs about things that happen in daily life...Like..."here I am peeling potatoes and What I did for love ! "
2 favorites are Chorus Line, and The Sting....the music provided by the darling Marvin Hamlisch, who just passed on.


 He was a rare and talented bird who won in all 4 categories of major US performance Awards: the Emmy^® (4), the Grammy^® (4), the Oscar^® (3) and the Tony^®. He is one of only 2 who have received a Pulitzer Prize (for A Chorus Line) for a play.

If you've never seen 1973's The Sting.....go see it now! (it's actually playing in Seattle right now!)
But it's available somewhere ...streaming...somewhere....
and it's another reason why the 70s were the best Decade Ever !! 
Marvin adapted Ragtime genius Scott Joplin's piano music....and brought it back to popularity in  America long after it was forgotten.
The soundtrack should be in your personal collection!







The movie stars

• Paul Newman as Henry "Shaw" Gondorff
• Robert Redford as Johnny "Kelly" Hooker
• Robert Shaw as Doyle Lonnegan
• Charles Durning as Lt. William Snyder
• Ray Walston as J.J. Singleton

• Eileen Brennan as Billie

photo of Redford and Eileen Brennan in costumes by Edith Head from this ebay seller

• Harold Gould as Kid Twist, aka Les Harmon...........
• ...and Costumes by Edith Head !!!!!  
• 

"Can't regret...Won't forget...What I did for Love..... "
Here's my favorite version of "What I Did For Love"...by Ethel Merman....luxuriate in the stunning piano and the orchestra that rises and falls and stuns you into submission....THAT'S Marvin Hamlisch, my friends.

England Swings

The Olympics are Here ! The Olympics are here....

I generally ignore them. I don't really do sports except Giants baseball when I was young, and swimming. always swimming. Archery.
Horseback riding. Canoeing.
Bicycle riding at a comfortable pace. Walking. Climbing trees.
Power shopping in thrift stores. Grocery shopping in record time.
Gardening. Ignoring housework. Reading.
Matching my underwear to my outfit for the day.
Some of these activities are Olympic events.
Still, I'm not interested.

I haven't ignored them. I check the news and I watch videos.

I agree that NBC is a mean-spirited asshole corporation, but what else is new.....

The balance beam ladies are amazing. Sexy men in Speedos. The ladies in bikinis playing Beach volleyball. Yeah, Something for everyone in the family !

This is a pair of Olympics, orange and yellow  vintage aviators sunglasses by B & L  RayBan, the Vagabond model. Awesome, eh?

The best thing about the Olympics are the Swag Bags.  We made about 350. bucks on 2 vintage Nike Munchen tote bags back in the old Ebay days.

It has a story...those Munchen 1972 Olympic bags.  That was the Olympics (this is the 40th anniversary) when the Black September Palestinian militant group killed 11 Israeli athletes in a terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Back in the 90s we were goofing off on a Sunday afternoon going to estate sales. When we walked in, the gals at the front desk were a bit burned out and smoking. They tried to interest us in Hummels....oh please! so we just walked around...it was empty!
No people were there but us. We loaded up on light bulbs, note pads and envelopes...the usual crap no one thinks about, but everyone uses.
We were about to go back downstairs when we spotted them on a bed......2 plastic tote bags with the Nike symbol, the Nike name, and the Olympics rings and Munchen printed on a typical plastic airline tote bag.
Only later, did we figure out what they might be worth. And the ebay auction was very nice...back in the old days, we'd sit and refresh the screen every few minutes...then every few seconds...at the last hour.....WEEEEeeeeee!

so continuing on the sports theme, the first of the new listings I've done for about a month....Vintage Nike shoes, Vintage Converse, and a tennis themed hanky....

Vintage Swimsuits............

and the wackiest Pidgin Hawaiian dress from the 60s...I love novelty fabrics and the novelty dresses in goofy prints...and this one is wild !!  'As Why Hard!'  'Crack Seed'  ' Time for Au Au'

Roger Miller sings England Swings...

Catch me if you can, I'm going back....

 

Taking the summer off is a tradition with me.....I need time to plant and gather, and soak up some sun, and see the wide water of the planet.  I need to see the naked stars and the big moon.
It takes a lot of juice to charge me for the hard-working 9 months that are to come on .
there's changes a-brewing....there's lots of good vintage to come for the fall and winter and spring....and all my handmade projects are coming along...
The big debut will come about mid-August.
Catch me if you can....I'm going back.
But first ....let's take a mid-summer trip to Sugar Mountain...via the Neil Young Express.....

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain ....With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain....
 Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon, you're leaving there too soon.
It's so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss you had
And your mother and your dad.





Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And it's your first cigarette.


Now you say you're leavin' home
'Cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out it's real?
***************************************

HyperRust







Neil Young unofficial....place

Neil Young talks about his California ranch and the Bridge School

Neil Young’s 1959 Lincvolt Hybrid

Traveling without leaving home....

the 1973 Winnebago was purchased to be our home.....but we need to search for great vintage goodies farther afield now...it's been that way for at least 5 years. Good stuff is not so much around Tacoma, and well, the good stuff is a diminishing supply. So travel we must.

....and I tell ya, it does feel weird to drive your home down the highway. I'm driving my bathroom, my kitchen, my dinette, my bedroom....down the highways and byways.
As we drive, we always get a lot of looks from other people driving....every time we stop for gas someone wants to chat, and when we pull up to the rv park, folks wanna talk about the Winnie.
It's fun!
I'm happy to talk about my mobile home. She's a sweetie.
Our last foray towards Portland allowed us to stay 2 days at the Sou'Wester lodge and vintage trailer park. It has been a "secret" place to stay for people who value experience over fancy and luxury...so it's perfect for people like Mark and me.

Now, under new ownership as they say, I was worried that it was gonna go the way of the Ace Hotel hipster hell bent for boring ass hipster cliche. But no!
I'm happy to report, the Sou'wester is still artfully down home, and it is slowly being cleaned up and all the deferred maintenance of the trailers and the grounds are being worked on and freshened up. And, uh, the Pacific Ocean !! is 3 blocks away....

While at first glance, the 'wester might seem like High Concept, and in other hands all would be lost....but it is still retaining its sweet lo-fi charm.
What should take center stage are the sturdy old simple buildings and the mid-century trailers....and they are the Center Stage...That big lodge building is so sweet and the decor is simple. They're sticking with the rustic and unassuming, and no taint of self-conscious hipster pre-packaged Anthropologie/Pottery Barn can be found anywhere.

Oh sure ...there's old typewriters, there's funky 70s Salvation Army decor, but on the whole, it feels real and it feels comfy. We were there in the middle of the week so we didn't attend the music or the other activities that are scheduled .....in...
AUGUST
Sat-August 4th – Flash Flood and The Dikes
Sat-August 11th -The Golden Bears. AND… Our First Vintage Travel Trailer and RV Classic.
Sat-August 18th – Joseph Appel (from Swing Papillon, AnnaPaul and the Bearded Lady, and the Clambake Combo).
Sat-August 25 – Old Light

I wish we could go back for this....  the Sou'wester is having their....
 FIRST VINTAGE TRAVEL TRAILER RALLY!..

• August 10th, 11th and 12th. We are very excited to see some beautiful trailers and to meet the people who have taken so much care with them!
• It should be a fun weekend. And we plan to have live music in Saturday night in the pavilion. There will be an Oyster Bar, a local vendor whose Willipa Bay oyster concoctions are amazing!

***************************************
Here's the perfect example of that hipster goofiness that the Sou'wester Has None Of....the way the Ace is over-the-top...and not in a good way....

so pretentious...





I should have taken more pics, but here's a few of the old girl herself....if the shots of the trailer interiors don't get your heart pumping....you must not like vintage !



 

Summertime...right in the thick of it.

these have been on the turntable this week......here's a few vids to experience the aural and optical beauty that is soothing, and inspirational....and so very Summer....

and in between the songs are pictures of my garden right now....
the rainbow swiss chard is going strong...so damn tasty.

striped nasturtiums ....I love nasturtiums...so much reward for such a tiny bit of work...

relaxing with my thoughts in the back yard....

bright purple allium....a tall plant with a tiny head....
crazy !!
dusty miller yellow flowers in the back ground...

the side yard.... rusty gate, old pots, an old coffee can, big clay pots, the old tricycle, a few rusty junky water sprinklers...blue lobelia and a dark purple lily, and the johnny jump ups have gone wild.....and my little sassy kids horsey...he's losing parts but he retains his charm!

a tower of hot pink and red petunias....a few pink and coral geraniums and long trailing creeping charlie....
and a cracked pot of succulents....

in the background, an Autumn Joy sedum....those green flower buds will change to pink in the autumn, and then fade to rust...this is another joy! ;-)
and the daisy is a Magnus echinacea...so purple..and I love the big center orange cone!