Take a Nosy Inside My Home, The REAL World of Kitsch: Taxidermy Piranhas, Castle Grayskull, & Haunted Paintings from the 1970s

My blog, when it started out in August 2009 was a place where I posted the charity shop finds I would return home with triumphant every weekend after scouring the Oxfams and Heart Foundation stores of whichever town we would drive to on our family day out.

I would have certain things in particular I’d look for. Art work wise I would keep an eye out for anything 1960s or 1970s, JH Lynch, or Shabner, the gypsy women, or glamorous glossy haired beauties that hung in every home in those decades, mass produced much like the more famous Tretchikoff Green Lady, which ironically I don’t own.

So I have a nice little collection of Shabner and JH Lynch ladies. I’ve also a small collection of Dallas Simpson big eyed kids. 

So, anyway, years ago I shared all my Kitsch items as I bought them, but I realised recently my blog is The World of Kitsch, and I blog about things like Karen Mabon, and Magda Archer, but really my newer readers might not know me as being truly a Kitsch lover, which is why I would love to share with you my home, and invite you to my Instagram account here, where you can see that side of me, and see more of my home and life, where you can see that side of me. 

So back to the art work. Two of the Shabner girls are downstairs but most of my 60s and 70s ‘faces’ are now upstairs in the third bedroom. Our house is a rental, and this spare room is a little empty. One wall is all book cases, and I use the other wall as a dressing table with makeup, so I’ve arranged the ‘faces’ as a kind of wall of them. 

In the decades of their popularity there was an urban legend about the portraits of sad children and that if you had them in your homes your house would burn down. I like to think if you have two then they cancel each other out.

So what else do I collect? Well I love taxidermy. I know it’s a controversial one. It skirts the topic of fur. It’s also very rare to find it in a charity shop, and you won’t find it in somewhere like Oxfam, but maybe somewhere like an ‘unbranded’ smaller charity shop, a junk shop, or house clearance. There’s always the auctions, and where I’ve found my pieces is either eBay, or car boot sales. 

Taxidermy isnt cheap, and that’s why I own very little. I have a fox head, a two headed duckling, a duck, another few birds, a stoat, another few other small pieces and a fake full size flamingoes. I would of course love more. I would love a house full. I’ve also two piranha that Smix hates with a passion. Oh! And I’ve a jackalope too! How could I forget!

Candle by Kat Kirk Addiction Tattoo Bangor

I also have three cabinets filled to the brim with Kitsch which I am refeaturing on Instagram at the moment, and a snowglobe collection. I started collecting them a few years ago cause I wanted to actively started collecting something properly tacky on purpose.

I’ve one cabinet that’s filled with awful properly mad Kitsch stuff, including a rotating glitter Last Supper clock, and another cabinet (a few photos below) which houses vintage Fisher Price toys and a Castle Grayskull. 

I also love World’s Fair souvenirs because of the retro furturistic stylings of all of the stuff to do with it. I have trays, ashtrays, scarves, and of course, snow globes.

My absolute pride and joy piece of furniture, which my parents bought me for my 30th birthday is my 1960s home boat bar. It’s amazing. I don’t even drink but it’s just the best.

So come join me on my Instagram and I’ll share a photo of it this week, I need to get a good shot of it! There’s a clothes’ horse in front of it right now! 

*Edit* here it is! Plus some more snaps from this week

Rudedoodle.tk- The Belfast Local Music Scene 2001-2005

Yakuza, The Front Page, playing ‘Curfew’ a yearly pre-12th of July look-down type affair

I read ‘I’m With the Band’ recently, and it made me suitably nostalgic for my time when I would turn up to The Front Page no matter who was playing, at local gigs at least three times a week.  

I saw hundreds of shows, probably hundreds of bands, and loved the local bands more than the huge touring shows. Thirty of us dancing to a band playing their first show in the upstairs in Auntie Annies was my idea of heaven.  

The Dangerfields, Belfast’s hardest working, most on-the-road touring band, with dozens of members throughout the years

The Killing Spree

I started loving only punk and rock, but as I met people, made friends, and agreed to go see their friend’s shows, I started loving dance music, indie stuff that I spent years mocking before, and by the end I would have turned up to see a guy banging a bin if it meant a good night out. 

Lightyear in Auntie Annies

Back then I had a blog, this is 2001 onwards, so it wasn’t called a blog, but it was a website that I updated with all the photos I would take at whatever gig the night before. By 2003 I found taking snaps of my friends, and strangers in the crowd, became almost as fun (and easier) than my always blurry digital camera photos of the actual show. 

Tracer AMC in Giros

So my site really took off then, as people would log on to see if there was a photo of them the next day. I blogged a lot on MySpace in the later years, 2004 onwards, and I wonder are there still photos on there. ... I’ll have to look.

Clockwise from top- Alan LaFaro & me, Cathal & Johnny Behind, Iona & Graeme (the proper photographers), Andy & Steven from Clone Quartet, and lastly Fastfude message board night out in Laverys. 

Cave In, Auntie Annies. 

But for now, here are some of my favourite pictures from that era, and if you want to see more, there are hundreds and about a hundred bands on the remaining site. 

There are three sections, local bands, touring bands, and snapshots, which are some of the crowd shots I treasure the most of all now. 

At the time 2000-2005 didn’t feel like it was a scene. It wasn’t the sixties, or the grunge era, but we definitely had such a beautiful music scene in Belfast, I will always keep fond memories of Skibunny, The Front Page, my stint working in Liberty Blue & that Little Pack we ran in for a while. 

I hope these photos bring you as much joy as they do me! Even though they are such terrible quality! 

Dirty Stevie in The Empire,  Fallout in Katy Dalys, The Debonaire's in Auntie Annies.

Feline Dream, The Limelight

Gavin from Panda Kopanda backstage in the Limelight, on stage in Katy Dalys. 

Ciaran from Bloodbath Callaghan on stage in Auntie Annies, and Ciaran & Cathal near The Rotterdam

Duke Special at The Waterfront

Clockwise, Los Cabras The Front Page, The Vichy Goverment, The Uterus Women, and Goatboy in The Front Page

Clockwise, Iden Green in Giros, The Evangleists in The Empire, Corrigan in Auntie Annies, Funeral For a Friend in The Mandela Hall

Want To Get To Know Me Better....?

Tonight I'm being a bit meta and the topic I'm promoting is- myself!  My Instagram account to be exact. My username is @rudedoodle and on there you'll see snippets of what's coming up on here, but also bits and pieces you don't get to see on my blog.

For example this photo from last night, when Smix had a go at putting fake eyelashes on me. I was hoping that I might secretly have a little beauty technician living under my roof, but sadly not!

So you'll see me, more than I am in photographs on here. I also love snapping new and cool products when I'm out an about so my Instagram is a wonderful place for ideas. You will definitely see plenty of cliched food pictures, and the odd bit of beauty too. 

Mostly you will see what Smix & I get up to of a week, so  come on over, you'll be most welcome.

Pirate Golf & Blue Cheese Burgers. A Little Life Update Behind the Scenes of The World of Kitsch.

I haven't blogged much since the new year. There has been a lot going on in the background that my Twitter followers might know a little of, but that I haven't really gone into a great deal of detail about anywhere. In November past my son & myself had a big shock of our family being split apart. It wasn't something I wanted, expected, or had a choice or say in. Now I am a single parent, the main carer of my son, and we have even moved house to our own little kitsch home that we love. 

Things have been hard, but we are in a better place than we were, and we are strong together, but mostly thanks to my mum, dad, brother and his wife supporting us every step of the way. 

So thank you to all four of them, and an extra thanks to my brother Michael for taking Smix and I out this evening for some pirate golf and burgers & ice cream. I love you. 

We ate at Wolfe's in Dundonald. I really need to hit them up for a proper review blog post, because the food was outstanding.