rockabilly

Bat Adventures and Bats in Silent Movies

We’ve recently been walking more east of our place on our bat adventures and for some reason, there aren’t as many bats. West of our place, there are a lot. I’m starting to wonder if it has to do with the fact that there are many more larger and older structures west and more newer builds east. I’m going to start keeping track of this.

I thought I would expand a bit on my Bat Adventures and Bats in the Movies post. I wanted to talk a little bit more about bats in silent movies in this blog post.

Bats in movies are usually a symbol of something bad about to happen. Many horror or suspense movies use them. Sadly, this has lead to the bat’s bad reputation. It’s why I am always educating people on how bats are in fact good for our environment and ecosystem! But alas… in the movies they will always play villain, especially in the Silent Movies.

Bats appear in many Silent Movies, however I’ve decided to post my top three favourites.

Le Manoir du diable (1896) The movies begins with very clever Silent Movie special effects. It was 1896 and something like that would not have been easy to do. I’m still in awe of those effect. Georges Méliès was a genius!

The entire piece runs around 3 minutes and 17 seconds. Which was quite lengthy for the times and well worth your time. I am posting the cleanest copy I can find of it. There are several over on YouTube.

Trivia: This article has some great trivia about the movie. https://morbidlybeautiful.com/eerie-essentials-le-manoir-du-diable/

Nosferatu (1922) Nosferatu is still one of my all time favourite German Expressionism horror movies. It is creep and absolutely stunning to look at. I have watched it several times and cannot get enough of it. For me personally, when I think of a vampire, this was what I envision. Don’t get me wrong, I like the suave Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, but for me, it should be a demon!

Trivia: All known prints and negatives were destroyed under the terms of settlement of a lawsuit by Bram Stoker‘s widow. However, the film would subsequently surface through second-generation reels in other countries.

Here is an HD version of the movie.

The Bat (1926) is a 1926 American comedy-mystery silent film directed by Roland West and starring Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda. The film is based on the 1920 Broadway hit play The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood, which itself was an adaptation of Rinehart’s 1908 mystery novel The Circular Staircase. (source Wikipedia)

This movie is a lot of fun and inspired reboots, such as The Bat Whispers (1930) and The Bat (1950) with Vincent Price.

I’ve tried to find an HD version of this movie. All of the ones currently on YouTube are not the best quality, but worth the watch. So are the remakes.

Trivia: Director Roland West best known for his possible involvement in the death of Hollywood actress Thelma Todd in 1935.

Each time I post, I am going to also suggest music that goes with bat adventures! Today I’m suggesting The Ichibons!

In the summer I feel that rockabilly/surf goes well with bat adventures! https://ichi-bons.bandcamp.com/releases

Type of bats: Big Brown Bats
No. Mosquito bites: Still none, but they are buzzing, especially on the hotter, more humid nights!

Here is a link I’ve created to all of our bat sightings.

Important: Do not handle bats. They can carry the rabies virus. Only those who have been properly vaccinated and have knowledge of bats should be handling them. If you find a bat in your home call a bat rescue. Do not call an exterminator, call a rescue. Bats are important for our environment. I have links below for rescues.

Types of bats in Ontario: https://onnaturemagazine.com/bat-guide.html
High Park Nature Centre: https://www.highparknature.org/wiki/wiki.php?n=Mammals.Bats
Bat rescues: http://www.ontariowildliferescue.ca/wildlifecentres/?care=bat

Stay The Fuck Home Honky Tonk Music Edition

This one is for you Kirsten!

Toronto’s multi-diversity also applies to it’s music scene. You can find every genre of music available and once we are out of pandemic jail, please get out and support local, indie musicians. My favourite genre/scene in Toronto is the Rockabilly and Surf Scene. It just makes my heart happy. A little side note, one of my goals this year was to start learning Jive and Swing dancing, then… well we are all aware of what happened.

There is a new style of music I am also a fan of, though I’m sure this is a shock to my father. If you are a Rockabilly fan and get out to see bands playing at places such as The Dakota, Cadillac Lounge (sadly closed now), The Tennessee, The Cameron House, The Local (to name a few) you will have definitely heard some Honky Tonk!

Due to COVID-19, we unfortunately can’t get out to see live music right now, but in the meantime we can stream it! Below I have put together a list of Toronto (and area) artists who are known for their amazing Honky Tonk stylings! Please support them by buying their music and merch!

Matt Allen plays Blues/Rockabilly and Honky Tonk! You can stream his music on ReverbNation!

The Honky Tonk Zeros can be seen playing often in Toronto. They have a new album coming out soon! http://www.thehonkytonkzeros.com/

Red & The Ramblers has a new video out at the moment and it really hits on what is happening in Toronto right now. https://www.redandtheramblers.com

The Hamstrung Band can be seen quite often at The Local in Roncesvalles.

Sean Burns is not local to Toronto, rather in Winnipeg, but you should still check him out! http://www.seanburns.ca/

Colonel Tom and the American Pour can also be seen in Toronto and can be found over on Bandcamp! Right now 100% of sales goes to the bands. Bandcamp has kindly waived fees. He may even pop-up on Facebook doing a live performance from time to time!

The Rizdales are from London, Ontario and are another fun Honky Tonk band that play in Toronto often! https://www.rizdales.com/info

There are so many more incredible musicians playing in our city. This is just a taste of some Honky Tonk style music. If you have others you want to mention, please post them in the comments below.

A Pinch of Punk, a Squeeze of Tiki and a Shake of Rockabilly!

Living in a Metropolis that basically never sleeps, you can step out of your front door any day of the week and find some kind of entertainment. The city of Toronto boasts an eclectic mix of music, theatre, spoken word, poetry, burlesque, nerd bars and many other forms of the arts. Even though our city isn’t lacking in interesting things to see and hear, what it is lacking is getting people out to support it. I’m going to be doing a few different posts over the next while about the Toronto Arts and Music scene covering many different facets.

I’ve recently seen a few people complaining on Social Media that a few famous acts are selling their tickets for outrageous prices. I saw numbers such as $300 and $400 for nose bleeds. Rather than spend that amount of money on a not great ticket, why not throw that $300 or $400 around on local entertainment. Better yet, check out some of Toronto’s amazing Punk, Tiki and Rockabilly scene.

If you aren’t sure where to start, I’m going to help you out and include a list of local and almost local bands. The beauty of going to a show for one of these bands is there are usually 3 or 4 bands on a bill. Heck, I’m even going to include some upcoming events for you.

{As I was creating this list, I realized… I have a lot of friends who are in really cool bands}

Upcoming Events:

Feb 27 Tiki Rockabilly https://www.facebook.com/events/587900695275781/
Feb 29 Ceol Kids Kickoff Party https://www.facebook.com/events/2537062366617473/
Mar 7 Action Packed Vol 2 https://www.facebook.com/events/531269964160699/
Mar 19 Trainwreck Tiki https://www.facebook.com/events/470798086930466/
Mar 21 GLSB 2020 https://www.facebook.com/events/2778131848973652/
Mar 27 Rock n Roll Car Crash https://www.facebook.com/events/2441241052648626/

Bands to check out:

Conflicting Plaid http://www.conflictingplaid.com/myTemplate.cgi/index.html

House of Haunt http://www.thehouseofhaunt.com/

Mark Malibu & The Wasagas https://www.facebook.com/Wasagas/

The Ichi Bons https://www.facebook.com/ichibons/

The Shook Boys https://www.facebook.com/ShookBoys/

Christian D and the Sinners https://christiand.ca/home


Bunny Brown https://www.facebook.com/Bunny-Brown-21288089271/
Champions of Justice https://www.facebook.com/championsofjustice/
Sharny Sharn https://www.facebook.com/sharnysharn/
The Men in Gray Suits https://www.facebook.com/GraySuits/

The Royal Crowns https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-Band/The-Royal-Crowns-307820119773680/

20 Flight Rockers https://20flightrockers.ca/
George Westerholm https://www.georgewesterholm.com/

The Cliff Divers https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-Band/The-Cliff-Divers-216218588415326/
The Swinging Blackjacks https://www.facebook.com/swinginblackjacks/
Luau or Die https://luauordie.com/


The Treble Tones https://www.facebook.com/The-TrebleTones-542760309484661/
Ginger St. James https://www.facebook.com/MsGingerStJames/

Day 23

Day 23. Today was about focus and for me focusing on the good things. After the fat-shaming, I had to remind myself that I am in fact focusing on my health and working really hard to get rid of weight and get back to my healthy weight. My reminder yesterday was putting on two dresses I recently made. Reminding myself that I am almost two dress sizes down. When I made these dresses I actually made them 2 dress sizes down. It helped me focus on the fact that I am doing something positive. I’m running a make a vintage/vintage reproduction dress a month with two sassy vintage loving ladies. I am hoping that by dress 12 I will be at my healthy weight. I’ve included a current photo of me wearing the dresses.


Continuing on the theme of sassy ladies. When most think of Rockabilly, they think of the male artists and forget that women were a huge part of the beginnings of Rock and Roll and it’s continuation as Rockabilly. I love Rockabilly and Surf music. They are happy, be a rebel, get er done music to me and the women who are the part of it all, are exactly that, rebellious and getting it done! Wanda Jackson is a very recognizable name and she only recently retired from playing. We were lucky to catch her last show at The Cadillac Lounge. Other women you should know are Janis Martin, Bunny Paul, Sparkle Moore, Lorrie Collins of the Collins Kids, Jo Ann Campbell, and Alis Lesley just to name a few.


The photo is of Sparkle Moore.


Here are a few links:
https://ravishly.com/2015/04/16/move-it-over-11-women-who-made-rockabilly-history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockabilly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparkle_Moore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_Jackson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janis_Martin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Ann_Campbell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alis_Lesley

Show-a-long

We’ve had many requests to do a certain type of sew-a-longs AND the most popular has been to do a themed SAL and one that is based on a television show! The most requested show is….

Drum roll, please!

To create a  garment from The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel! I’m excited to say that our February 2019 SAL will be just that!  Once we decided it was time to do this SAL we did a poll to ask if you all wanted to do specific garment or a choice from a selection of options. The winning poll selection is to choose your own garment. The idea of this SAL is to replicate an outfit, though it doesn’t need to be an exact replica, please show us your inspiration from the show and your finished garment.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You will find the sew-a-long over at https://www.facebook.com/groups/killerkitschvintagewips/.

As always, here are some links to both self-draft tutorials or places to purchase patterns to help you along! Please feel free to use your own patterns as well.

The SAL will run from February 1 to 28. As always, if you post on Instagram please tag @killerkitsch13 and use hashtags #killerkitschsewalong #mrsmaisel-a-long.