We are playing live on KPIG tomorrow afternoon. As I was writing our Mad Alert newsletter for the gig I got to pondering porcine metaphors which led my hungry mind to pork pie hats.
A pork pie is a meat dish baked in pastry crust. The hat gets its name from its flat-topped resemblance to that savoury comestible. I won’t recommend eating pork but I will recommend wearing this quintessentially hip topper.
Call me sentimental. The year I started to play the accordion was the same year the Cotati Accordion Festival began. That would be 1991. That same year GDub and I fell in love. 17 years later I’m still squeezin’, GDub and I are still squeezin’ and the Cotati Accordion Fest is still rockin’.
Sat August 23 and Sun August 24
Downtown Cotati all day gates open 9:30
I’ll be participating in another multimedia extravaganza on August 23 and 24 at 1512 62nd Street in Emmeryville, featuring text, film, theremin and of course tuba. It’s 7:00 Saturday and 3 pm Sunday. It’s a benefit for the La Casaita Preschool, so the admission is a rather steep $35 for the premiere and $20 for the matinee, but would hope anyone reading this knows the magic words, “Hey, I’m with the band!”
As promised, you will see a couple small versions of me as a pin up for the Accordion Babes Calendar project but first here’s the pitch.
The Accordion Babes calendar will include 12 full-color pin-up photos of women and their accordions; previews of some of the content are available here. Not all of these are final photos, but they start to give you an idea.
A compilation CD of the calendar artists will be attached to the inside back cover of the calendar.
Participation can happen in two ways: presales and sponsorships. For shops and accordion clubs who would like to order advance copies at a wholesale rate, we are selling copies of the calendar at $10 per unit; the list price of the calendar will be $20. (There is a 6 calendar minimum for presale orders.) For businesses who are interested in having ad-space on the calendar, there is a pricing scale for sponsorships.
Please pass on this info to any potential sponsors you can think of.
For more info and inquiries: accordionpinupcalendar@gmail.com
These will make wonderful gifts.
And now for the teasers. They are tiny because they are, well, teasers
I’m hoping you’ll buy the calendar to see all the accordion goddesses at full size.
Renée de la Prade has asked several of us local accordion-playing women to be part of an “Accordion Babes” Pin-up calendar for 2009. Her plan is to bundle a sampler CD with the calendar. All very cool. I love the idea of beauties and the bellows! So yesterday I went to the studio of photographer John Clayton and did my pin-up best. I will happily share the results when I receive the final photos from John in a couple of days.
What was fascinating about the process was choosing provocative but not too serious looks and then striking poses that were flattering. Not easy! There’s a fine line between a sexy and a silly outfit. The twists and turns that are appealing in a photo are not naturally occurring to this body, looking relaxed standing on 4 inch spikes took serious “core strength” and hoisting a 16 pound accordion into demure positions required ingenuity. As for seductive, well, thanks be for those wonderful soft light filters.
Here’s a few links to the world of pin-up artists and their fans:
As part of the Cotati Accordion Festival’s grass roots promotional push, I participated in the Cotati Kid’s Parade today (7/12/08) with festival organizer Scott Goree and his daughters, Renee and Rachel. The theme was the above mentioned Magical Kingdom hence that lovely millinery fantasy I am wearing.
Perfect weather again, Rachel played her vintage “Nobel” 120 bass accordion, Rachel tossed candies to the kids and I played “Street Dog” many times. It’s a song I know the late Jim Boggio liked.
