Vintage Monday: Viennese Gents

So, last night after a long day of working plopped down in front of the telly, thinking it was Saturday. Then I saw my Sunday shows playing and was very confused for a minute. Where the frak did the weekend go? And it's bloody Monday again--pardon my British. So I give you these two gents and back to the grind stone. Ta!

Vintage Monday: Holidays

Right ho, as Bertie Wooster would say. Let's get this holiday thing over with. I still haven't wrapped presents, and will start baking cookies tomorrow or so, but currently I have a lot of work to finish before I can take a breather.

Vintage Monday: Three Gentlemen in Top Hats

I'm too groggy this morning to say anything witty, or even try. So, enjoy the gents and their top hats.

Vintage Monday: US Sailor and his girl

I love the expression on his face and the dreamy look in his eyes.

Vintag Monday: Conundrum

I have no idea what's going on here. This could be a photo of a bearded lady, perhaps from a circus sideshow or a Victorian cross-dresser. Or a cross-dresser disguised as a bearded lady.

Vintage Monday: Summer Time

I wish I was that toddler in the washtub. He doesn't seem to have a care in the world.

Currently LA is experiencing a moderate heatwave with high humidity and weird wether. There were sudden downpours yesterday at some places and we don't normally get rain at this time of year. There was also lightning, and at least one person died from it at Venice Beach.

I pick the washtub in the backyard.

Vintage Monday: Victorian Dandy

I've been doing a research into men's Victorian fashion lately because of book cover designs. I uncovered a wide variety of collar and neckwear styles--they range from cravats to bow ties. Vests--I should say waistcoats since we're talking British--were commonplace among upper and lower classes alike.

I've just started writing a new story too, where bow ties feature. So I give you this fine Victorian gentleman with s bow tie and beautiful mustache.

Vintage Monday: Sheep

Another Pinterest find. I love this picture and it's truly unique. Not that there aren't plenty of old photos of farm animals, but someone took this sheep to a photographer's studio to have its portrait taken. And it's a good quality photo too, better than many I've seen of human subjects. I wonder about the reason. Was this animal a champion, did she (he?) win a prize at the state fair? We'll never know. Fabulous picture though.

Vintage Monday: Lifeguards

Continuing with the beach theme, here are a couple of lovely lifeguards. This was a Pinterest find. On a side note: apparently, in 1949 lifeguard was two words. Just comes to show you that language is a living thing.

Vintage Monday: On the Beach

This old photo was a rare find--it's such a perfect representation of a bygone beach-going experience, it almost looks fake. But it is real. I feel sorry for those people for having to wear so much clothes on a warm summer day.

Vintage Monday: Top Dog

Last week we learned how how cool pipes are--or at least used to be. Men smoked them even on the beach. Today I present further evidence that pipe smoking is the mark of a sophisticated gentleman.

Vintage Monday: Ladies Too

Another Pinterest find: an illustration of sapphic love and amazing coiffure. I can't imagine how long it must take create those hairdos every morning. No wonder people needed servants.

Vintage Monday: The Odd Ones

This is one of the more peculiar vintage photos I've discovered on Pinterest. That place is like quicksand for a visual hoarder like myself. It has a wonderfully clean interface, simple but easy to use search, and the option to both link and upload images. When you search one image leads to another till you've killed hours.

I've set up my own boards, covering subjects from food to street art, and I have them for my books too. Being rather visual, I tend to look up pictorial references for all sorts of stuff as I write, even if thing is question only appears for a few lines. Like the steampunk wristwatch that plays minor role in Spirit Sanguine. In the old days I kept the images in folders on my desktop, later in folders within Scrivener. Now I put them on Pinterest too, keeping the board private till the book's release day.

I have no idea how many readers actually look at the images I've put up to illustrate my stories. The Dead in L.A. board has a photo of the lookout spot in Griffith Park where Jon and Leander have a conversation, and the Dead in the Desert one has pictures of the library in the desert where Leander make an important discovery. They are both real places, even if the characters and events are fictional.

Now excuse me, I have important "research" to do.

Vintage Monday: On the Beach

Cyanotype is a photographic process going back to the 19th century. It's original purpose was to create technical drawings, and as far as I know it is the origin of the "blueprint."

Vintage Monday: Tussle

These guys are supposed to be wrestlers but they seem more like having a roll in the hay.

Vintage Monday: Vintage Selfie

Just to show that selfies predate digital photography. It must be a primal urge, encoded in our DNA to stand in front of a mirror and make a record of ourselves for posterity. Technically, all those painterly self-portraits were selfies too. All the digital age adds is a greater potential for future embarrassment when our self-revelations are a little too revealing.

Vintage Monday: Man with Magnificent Mustache

Isn't it just beautiful? That mustache practically has a life on its own. There's too much shaving going on nowadays.

Vintage Men: Men in Uniform

Four soldiers circa WWI.

Vintage Monday: Rice Lake, Minnesota

Hey, look at the size of my fish!

Vintage Monday: Two Kids in Matching Jackets

Flea market find. I picked this photo from a cardboard box full of old photos, simply because the kids' expression and their matching outfits grabbed my attention. There's something both enduring and sad of discarded old photographs. The kids have grown old and died, and there's nobody left to even remember who they were, yet the picture stubbornly remains. A long gone moment trapped in silver.