Ashlyn Brady Author

Friday, 28 July 2017

Vintage Portraits - Opera Singer

Hello Friends,

Some vintage photographs are beautiful with their soft colors and fashions of the day. But it’s not always possible to find out information about the people who posed for the studio portraits. The images remain a mystery from another age.

This week I’m featuring the lovely, vintage photographs of Madame Scavizzi. The portraits are stored in the archives of the State Library of Victoria, Australia. I’m delighted to write there is a small amount of information to share about the 1920’s star of the opera stage.

Lina Scavizzi was a Soprano Opera Singer, possibly from Italy. The photographs in this post were taken sometime during 1920 to 1930 in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

Lina first started singing opera in 1919 at Venice. The next year she sang in a star role at Cesena, Italy.

In 1924, Lina joined the Melba Opera Tour and with the second Melba-Wlliamson opera company. The Melba Opera Tour traveled around Australia performing opera.

The main star of the company was the renowned opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba. She is a cultural icon and considered to be the first Australian musician to achieve international recognition for her performances in London, Paris and New York.

Dame Nellie Melba even journeyed to my outback town during the 1910’s. We have an ornate, Victorian-aged hall where she performed. It was a big event, and the local people didn’t want the concert to end.

Madame Lina Scavizzi was in good company for her Australian tour. In the three portraits so far, she wears a long theatrical dress, a hat with ostrich feathers, a shawl, a bouquet of flowers (maybe fern fronds and chrysanthemums) and has a walking stick.

From the archives, I found Lina posed for studio portraits with three photographers. Here’s some more images.

Title: La Tosca - Granforte, Scavitze

Photographer: Spencer Shier, Melbourne 1924

Summary: Couple on stage in opera "Tosca": Man in 19th century costume with lace cravat and wig seated at a table laden with food and branch of candles a woman in full length gown standing beside the table.

Title: Lina Scavizzi in costume as Maddalena in the opera Andrea Chenier

Photographer: May Moore, Sydney 1924

Summary: Three-quarter length, dressed in a shawl and lace wearing three-cornered hat and powdered wig.

In 1928, a portrait sketch of Lina Scavizzi was published in an Adelaide newspaper.

Source: Trove, National Library of Australia

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 6 October 1928

After Lina Scavizzi left Australia, she continued singing in cities of Europe and retired from the stage in the 1930’s.

Enjoy your weekend,
♥ Ashlyn

Archives sources of images used in this blog;

Ruth Hollick 1883-1977, photographer, State Library of Victoria

May Moore 1881-1931, photographer, State Library of Victoria

Spencer Shier 1884-1950, photographer, State Library of Victoria

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

More Vintage Portraits

This week I’m returning to vintage themes with a link about home sewn beachwear. During the Industrial Revolution of the 19^th Century, ready-made clothes start appearing on the racks of department stores. However, working class women continued making clothes for their families, because it was a cheaper than buying them...

Vintage Portraits-Bikini Patterns

Friday, 21 July 2017

Ares, Wonder Woman, Xena & the Greek Gods

Hello Friends,

This week I’m writing my final post about the Wonder Woman movie (for now at least). I thought I’d finish at Mt Olympus, the home of the Greek Gods.

Ares, Wonder Woman and Xena: Warrior Princess are three popular characters from fantasy movies and television. After seventy years, we’ve seen the first Wonder Woman movie and now the wait is on for the next one. The reboot of the Xena television series was mentioned in the media in 2015 but it isn’t happening yet.

The three characters had their beginnings in classical mythology. Ares, Wonder Woman and Xena represent archetypes that are part of the human psyche. Some of the archetypes include the Warrior, the Destroyer, the Liberator, the Advocate, the Challenger, the Master, Goddess and God, and so on.

Myths commonly include archetypes as reflections on human life—both the good and bad experiences. Myths and archetypes have the ability to reach people at deep levels and connect people together. They are a storyteller’s gold.

Let’s armchair travel to Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, and also the place where the control of the world was in the hands of the mythic goddesses and gods.

The mountain was no place for mortal humans but it was a paradise retreat for the immortals.

High up the rocky, steep slopes and above the clouds is where we’ll find Ares and Athena. The brother and sister were two of the twelve Olympian goddesses and gods that resided in the mountain kingdom.

The Greek Olympians
source: fotofolia.com

Ares, was the son of Zeus and Hera. Zeus was recognized as the leader of the Olympians. Hera was a daughter of the Titans and ruled over women and marriage.

Athena had no mother and was strangely born, fully-grown, out of Zeus’s forehead.

Ares, was a god with a bad reputation. He was known for his violent temper, blood lust and brutal warfare. Athena, his sister, was his natural opponent. The goddess of war was imagined as having a calm temperament, wisdom, intelligence and military strategy. She became the protector and patron of the city of Athens.

Ares and Athena bore a grudge against each other. During the Trojan War, Ares was on the losing side, while Athena celebrated victory. The classical fight between the two, has filtered down through time into the modern era of entertainment. The characters of Wonder Woman and Xena are fictional sisters to the Greek warrior goddess, Athena.

Ares and Wonder Woman

Variant by Alan Brooks

source: posterposse.com

In the Wonder Woman movie, Ares is the force of war. He doesn’t make men fight one another. He says mankind are corrupt and will destroy themselves.

Diana, Princess of Themyscira, is the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and was brought to life by Zeus. Diana is the counter force against war and Ares. In her origin story, she has hope for mankind and believes in love. Wonder Woman will fight Ares until the end, and win the victory like Athena.

I found a romantic and soulful video about Wonder Woman's battlefield.

Thanks to youtuber, Aida Dayai.

Ares and Xena: Warrior Princess

Xena

source: Pinterest

In the Xena: Warrior Princess Television series which ran from the 1990’s to early 2000’s, the character of Ares appears with Xena as a less than perfect model of Athena. Ares has his familiar appetite for violence and war. While Xena becomes the counter force against Ares’s wars.

However, once Xena was a warlord who abused her power and destroyed nations. The television series depicts her sacrifices and acts to redeem her past history as a villain.

Xena’s attempts to fight for the ‘greater good’ were hampered by her huge attraction to Ares.

They tempted each other.

Seduced.

Loved.

Couldn’t live without each other.

On occasion, they fought hard.

But they couldn’t kill each other.

Ares and Xena were the counter forces to each other’s dark, outlaw warriors. The inner conflict between the two made for some entertaining scenes on the television.

Here’s my favorite Ares and Xena video compilation.

Rest in Peace actor, Kevin Smith (Ares).

The TV series came to an end with Xena’s gruesome death. She sacrificed her life and went to the Underworld for the peace of 40,000 souls that were devoured by a demon.

Disappointingly, Xena: Warrior Princess will stay dead until a reboot brings her back to life.

Enjoy your weekend,
♥ Ashlyn

Friday, 14 July 2017

The Native American God in the Wonder Woman Movie

Hello Friends,

This week I’m blogging about another special feature of the Wonder Woman movie—the Native American Chief.

“The Chief” was recently introduced in the Batman versus Superman movie. Batman—Bruce Wayne finds an old photograph of Wonder Woman and her companions from Belgium, 1918 during World War 1.

Here’s the clip from the Batman versus Superman movie.

Canadian actor and stuntman, Eugene Brave Rock played the character of The Chief in the Wonder Woman movie. The director, Patty Jenkins, gave him the opportunity to move the character away from a stereotypical portrayal of a Native American Chief.

Eugene Brave Rock was able to make decisions about his character and how to dress etc. He took the opportunity to represent his people and language. The Chief character became the Blackfoot demi-God called Napi.

Napi is a god of creation, trickster and storyteller.

A culture hero.

When Napi was first introduced to Wonder Woman, he spoke Blackfoot language and she answered in his language. Awesome!

"Oki niisto niitanigo Napi" Hello my name is Napi.

from @genebraverock

I would love to see the Napi character in future Wonder Woman movies and learn more about the God.

Have a peaceful weekend everyone.

♥ Ashlyn

The Wonder Woman movie pictures used in this post are owned by Warner Brothers.

Friday, 7 July 2017

A Team of Amazons

Hello Friends,

It’s been over a month since the Wonder Woman movie was released and I find myself still blogging about it. The movie was revolutionary in its viewpoint of a female hero - the rise of the warrior - Diana, Princess of Themyscira. Her life values were shaped by her mother, her aunt and the Amazonian women living in the island paradise.

The movie inspired me as a storyteller. Because of the success of Wonder Women, I hope more different and interesting stories about women can be shown on the big screen and television.

As a mother and a woman, the production of the movie was also unusual and compelling. So many of the women involved were mothers in real life, the Director—Patty Jenkins, the Wonder Woman star—Gal Gadot, the General—Robin Wright, the Queen—Connie Nielsen and not to forget the mum members of the Amazon Army.

Professional and world champion athletes were cast as Amazons. The actresses trained together lifting weights in the gym, in martial arts and horse riding. When the cameras rolled, the Amazons were a united force.

Huffpost made a video about the Amazons—the fierce warrior gods in the movie.

The Wonder Woman movie had many themes worth exploring;

Women can be heroes.

Living by values.

♥ Love.

Truth.

Helping others.

Stop Ares, stop war.

World peace.

Here’s some pictures from twitter.

Big curly hair and Athena Greek warrior

source: @Demetriosis

The red-haired Wonder Woman

source: @sunbeam1013

source: @TSmithAnoai

Enjoy your weekend,
♥ Ashlyn

The Wonder Woman movie picture used in this post is owned by Warner Brothers.

Friday, 30 June 2017

Sword in the Dress

Hello Friends,

This week, I’m writing about another Wonder Woman social media theme called—“Sword in the Dress”.

In the movie scene, Wonder Woman attends a fancy social together with a purpose. She is intent on finding the god Ares to slay him. She wears a lovely, jewel blue dress with her sword strapped to her back.

Sword in the Dress had it’s fashion moment on social media as women and girls tried having a sword at the ready for themselves. All sorts of swords were tested, wooden, plastic, Scottish ones with cage handles, rapiers, light sabers, pool noodles and a tattoo.

The Sydney Morning Herald Newspaper in Australia, called the fashion trend, Wonder Woman’s sword trick has inspired an army of women on social media.

Other websites are warning women not to copy WW because of the dangers of injury with real metal swords.

The hashtag to check it out is #WWGotYourBack

Here’s some pictures from twitter.

The big sword.
source: @brandini0808

Medieval?
source: @Kirachan3

Wedding Dress & Rapier Tattoo.
source: @BigDamnHerosSir

source: @JackePaper

source: @tiffany12894

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Here’s a picture of my dancing sword, but that’s not me holding it of course. I get shivers at the thought of resting that cool metal blade against my spine. I might stay with trying to balance the sword on the crown of my head instead.

Enjoy your weekend,
♥ Ashlyn

Wonder Woman pictures used in this post are owned by Warner Brothers.

Friday, 23 June 2017

From Princess to General

picture credit: @MrsCharlieKing

Hello Friends,

The Wonder Woman movie has been an outstanding success and continues to feature in entertainment news articles. There are also some inspired social media posts coming from people.

There's a guy who used make-up to transform himself into Wonder Woman and impressed Gal Gadot.

More about the WW make-up here, Wonder Woman Inspired Beauty

I recently visited the twitter world and came across the interesting topic of, “From Princess to General”. The theme features two actresses (so far).

Robin Wright

From Princess Buttercup who needed saving in the Princess Bride movie to General Antiope in Wonder Woman’s Amazon Army.

Carrie Fisher

From Princess Leia who led the Rebel Resistance against the Empire and who was promoted to General Leia.

source: @ErikaChody

Princess/General Leia from the Star Wars movies is a much loved character. Peace and thanks to Carrie Fisher for giving movie world an iconic heroine, a long time ago.

source:@SoCalPete

Have a happy weekend everyone.
♥ Ashlyn

Friday, 16 June 2017

The Art of Wonder Woman

Variant by Alan Brooks

source: posterposse.com

Hello Friends,

Months before the film was released, the Wonder Woman movie trailer and posters captured the imagination of fans. Wonder Woman’s history—past and present has appeared on social media pages as vintage comic pics, video and image mish-mashes of the 1970’s television show starring Lynda Carter, and of course Wonder Woman’s solo and spectacular superhero debut in the new movie.

I came across two galleries of gorgeous Wonder Woman art on the Poster Posse webpage to share with you. The following artworks came from these sites;

The Poster Posse Celebrates The Princess of Themyscira On Wonder Woman Day

Lets Keep Celebrating Wonder Woman Day

As you scroll through the images, enjoy some music by a musical wonder woman, Tina Guo. The Cello sound is hauntingly beautiful. This version of the Wonder Woman theme song also has a rock and rock edge. Tina even looks like an Amazon warrior playing her instruments.