Before I forget about Hultsfred Hayride

Oh yeah, I went to rockabilly weekender Hultsfred Hayride on Saturday. The HepCat Store was on the road again!

Rob, Jens, Skratch and Dan drove up on Friday afternoon but got slightly delayed when Rob filled up the car with ethanol instead of diesel. Way to go!

Jens and Skratch are thrilled with Rob.
Photo by Dan.

Johan and I missed all the excitement because we left Lund for Hultsfred at 6.30 in the morning.
That means I had to get up at 5.45 to do my make up.
After a long drive on roads that looked more or less identical and one or two wrong turns we arrived at Metropol in Hultsfred.

There's nothing like crawling out of a car all sweaty and hot after a four hour drive, simply to head inside and start unpacking merch and arranging it along the 12 meters of hallway that is your shop for the day...
And I kept banging my head on the contraption we use to hang t-shirts. They're made of wood and metal chains. Small ones, but still. Ouch!

Johan with some of the t-shirts from the HepCat Store. We do a lot of folding on the road.

We sold a bunch of clothes, magazines, music and pomade. The weather was awesome and Skratch striped a bunch of cars outside. Dan acted as his assistant and sold merch, translated and made everything run smoothly.

He's pretty damn good.

I'm not sure what that look means...

The weather was lovely and hot. It was even hotter inside, because we had our stuff set up next to a big glass wall that got plenty of sunshine all afternoon.

But I did some shopping of my own and found some new hairflowers and three movie star cards with Esther Williams.

Esther Williams x 3

We had time to watch one of the bands before we packed up the shop and got back on the road again. At this point we had been awake for 17 hours and knew we had a 4 hour drive on small, dark roads ahead of us. And then some unpacking to do once we got back to Saint 21.

That's the rock n roll way of life for you - we just make it look easy.

By the way, MAC liquidlast eyeliner is amazing. It even looks good when you've been awake for 23 hours. At that point it was more or less the only part of me that did.

West Coast Riot and the Bouncing Souls

You know you're gonna have a great time when you see your favourite band for the first time, and they open with your favourite song.
And when you show up at the stage on time because you met the guitarist in the beer tent and he told you that the band's set is starting an hour early, it almost feels like some higher power is looking out for you.

The band I'm talking about is the Bouncing Souls and I was in the front row when they played West Coast Riot festival in Gothenburg. It was their first ever gig in Sweden and the first time they've made it to Scandinavia on tour. Did I mention that I was there?

The Bouncing Souls - live in Sweden.

I had a real fangirl moment when I spotted guitarist Pete Steinkopf in the beer tent. Rob said I should go over and talk to him, and I did. Pete was super nice and more than happy to pose for a photo with me.

Fangirl and Pete Steinkopf from the Bouncing Souls.

I was up front for their entire set and got pushed around and bruised, but it was worth it. Their last song was "True Believers" and singer Greg jumped off the stage to say hi to the audience, shaking as many hands as he could. All of a sudden he was right in front of me with the microphone and I sang part of the last verse!

Bryan on bass.

It was wonderfully strange to suddenly be a part of music that I have listened to for years. I hope they'll come back and do a proper tour.

My day at West Coast Riot was awesome and the lineup of bands was really good. I drove up with Rob, Christian and Skratch and we met up with Patric the barber and his brother in Gothenburg.

Christian, me and Rob checking out Raised Fist at West Coast Riot.

We saw Suicidal Tendencies, The Living End, Sick Of It All, Raised Fist, Pennywise and Social Distortion. Oh yeah, and there was beer, sunshine and meeting a lot of friends.

I dragged Christian to see The Living End, who played an awesome set and announced that they are coming back in November for a tour.

System cameras are banned at festivals so I had to use an old compact camera. This would have been an awesome photo if I had used the Nikon.

Social Distortion were headlining and they gave an outstanding performance as the sun was setting over Gothenburg. They had just the right mix of songs and for the encore they did "Prison Bound" with a piano intro, adding a whole new mood to the song. I had goose bumps, that's how good it was.

It's Mike Ness on the big screen.

Let's hope Social Distortion will come back for a club tour like Mike Ness promised.

New Shoes!

I went shopping with my sister after lunch yesterday and found a new pair of shoes, just in time for summer. They're not quite as authentic as the shoes from Remix Vintage, but not bad considering they're from a high street shop.

And since the summer weather has finally shown up I wore my new shoes to work today.

Quick photo with my cellphone camera.

Enviken and the Dream of the Fifties

Yesterday my local newspaper ran a great story about rockabilly in Enviken. Rockabilly was huge in this small town in northern Sweden in the 1980s.
The scene is not as big as it used to be, but the dream of the 1950's is still alive in 2009.

Enviken, population 600, is home to a 1950's cafe and two rockabilly record labels, Enviken Records and Vintjärn Records.

Photo by Åsa Sjöström, taken from sydsvenskan.se

Little Andrew and the Rhythm Boys, a band whose members are between 15 and 18 years old, may be the last band to emerge from Sweden's capital of rockabilly.

Little Andrew and the Rhythm Boys.
Photo by Åsa Sjöström, taken from sydsvenskan.se

The article can be found here. There is also a slideshow with more great photos by Åsa Sjöström. The audio is part of the interview with Little Andrew and the Rhythm Boys and some music from the band. Click here to see the slideshow.

You can check out Little Andrew and the Rhythm Boys on their myspace page.

Vintage Cosmetics

The lovely Helen of Pin-Up Parade wrote about the archives of three cosmetics companies being made avaliable online, thanks to a collaboration with London College of Fashion. The photos date from 1939 to 1952.

That means lots of inspirational photos for those who are interested in vintage cosmetics!

Member of the W.A.A.F (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) shown with make up as an experiment by Reveille newspaper to see whether women in the forces should wear make up following criticism of a Red Cross nurse. Used in Reveille 1 Feb 1941.

"The archive consists of eight volumes of editorial publicity cuttings, dating from 1939 to 1952, along with three volumes of advertising and point of sale product photographs, assorted loose photographs and other ephemera. It is the photographs that have been digitised and made available in this collection.

Some of the photographs were accompanied by a Gala Publicity Department press release which has been included in the metadata, where available. The publicity cuttings show where the images were used and this information has also been included, along with the name of the photographer or photographic company, where identified.

The photographs, together with the accompanying text, will be of interest to those studying the history of cosmetics, advertising photography, fashion promotion and women in the Second World War."

Click here to read more about the photographs and search the archive.

Model posed with a selection of three Outdoor Girl presentation boxes about to wrap them up as Christmas presents. 1940.

Showcard, promotional leaflets and two compacts;
one still in the packaging and one without packaging and with the lid off.

You can find all the images in the collection here.

Speaking of bank robbers...

The Clash and their friends may not be as smooth as John Dillinger when it comes to robbing banks. But they wrote some awesome music, so I can live with that.

Public Enemies

I go past my local movie theatre every day, and they have a teaser poster for "Public Enemies" out front. Too bad the movie doesn't open in Sweden until July 24.

Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, some great vintage cars and that decadent 1930's glamour. And did I mention Johnny Depp? In a three piece suit? As a charming bank robber? Yes please!
Let's just hope the movie is as good as the ingredients.

Jokers Car & Bike Show

I'm recovering after a weekend at Jokers Car & Bike Show in Tidaholm.
Johan, Jimmy and Kristopher got there early on Friday and set up shop in time to catch the bands, including the rockin' guys and girl from El Ray.

The rest of us got delayed trying to find a piano for Nosey Joe & The Poolkings. We rode up in Eddie's van and I had the entire backseat to myself.

View from the backseat. Rob is driving.

We slept on the floor and in the vans, carried a lot of boxes, unpacked, sold clothes and pomade, ate pizza and cookies, checked out some cars and watched Jimmy become a member of Cardinals Car Club.

I got to know Angelo from Sinner Supply and his lovely wife, and they gave me a top as a present!

Angelo, Eddie and Magnus are talking about cars.

We didn't get any rain at Jokers, but the weather has been bad the last few days so I guess a lot of people made other plans. There were fewer cars than last year, and business was a little slower.
And yet my feet hurt like crazy at the end of the day.

Cars in front of the HepCat Store's red tent.

We drove home through a cold June night. We were back at Saint 21 at 3.30 in the morning, unpacked the vans and then we headed home to sleep. In beds.
Nothing makes me appriciate my bed like spending a night or two in a sleeping bag on a stage floor. In the company of friends who snore.

Packin' up and heading home. That's Eddie's van to the left.

More Striping

This week has been really busy, and it ain't over yet. The Saint 21 Crew is heading to Jokers Car Show this weekend.
That means we'll be up all night packing merch, going over the tent and cramming stuff into cars. Fun, fun, fun! (Hopefully in the sun, sun, sun.) *

Meanwhile, here are some photos of Skratch in the office.

Workin'

Hands.

Red and gold.

*If the above link didn't make any sense to you because you've never seen an episode of Red Dwarf, let me explain; "Fun, fun, fun; In the sun, sun, sun" is a line from the the show's theme and closing title.

Fleur's Chocolate And Peanut Butter Swirl

Since there wasn't a single man around the house this weekend, I decided it was time to make a mess in the kitchen. Cake time!

I finally got around to trying the recipe I asked the lovely Fleur for back in April. It's so good, and it doesn't look to bad for a first try. Here we go, my first attempt at chocolate and peanut butter swirl.

Sticky, messy and delicious. To the left, white chocolate and peanut butter.
My flapjacks are lurking in the background.

I layered the melted chocolate in this cake tin and let it cool.

Once the chocolate was solid, I cut it into pieces. Sorry about the shaky photo.

The finished product.

You can find the recipe here. Fleur de Guerre has a wonderful blog called Diary of a Vintage Girl. Check it out!

I also made some of my classics like flapjacks and banana muffins. I'm getting ready for Jokers Car Show this weekend and home made cakes work wonders when you need new energy after a day of hard work.

Yum.

What I Learned This Week

As my old hero Alanis Morisette sang, you live - you learn. Some call me a Little Miss Know-it-all, but I know that I don't know everything. Discovering new things is one of the best parts of life.

So here are some of the things I learned or re-learned this week. Enjoy!

Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman and his Hebrew name is Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham.

The Peace of Westphalia, often called the birth of the modern state, was signed 1648.

Kusmi tea can convert coffee drinkers. Or at least make them appriciate tea.

Some grown men have a hard time communicating with the world and each other without me. And this is somehow my fault? Pfft!

Illum Bager in Copenhagen does amazing cakes.

I've also discovered a new way to freak out guys, introduced a Texan to The Ataris and finished two books. How was your week?

Joen's First Tattoo

My co-worker Joen got his first tattoo today. It's his son Noah's birthday, done by Björn at Tattoo Shop in Malmö.

I brought my Nikon along to document this event. And to support a nervous Joen.

Björn at work.

Joen claims it didn't hurt that much.

The finished product.

One happy customer.

Joen is on paternity leave during the next couple of months, that's why he's got time for essential things like tattoos.

Skratch does some secret pinstriping

Those of you who check out the Saint 21 blog from time to time know that pinstriper Skratch is here in Sweden as our guest.

Skratch in the office.

Last night he striped an item for me, but I promised I wouldn't tell anyone what it is.
Anyway, here's a close up Skratch at work. I don't know how he does it, it's all freehand.

The photo is cool but the real thing is even better. Awesome, as Skratch would say.

To see more of Skratch's work, check out skratchsgarage.net