Tag: my mother

She danced under the stage name Astri Laine, even headlining at Baltimore’s 2 O’Clock Club a few times. She never worked the same venue for more than two weeks, and had an agent that was constantly scheduling her tour in different places.

So, my mother was a burlesque dancer way back in the day, from the late 1970s – mid 1990s.

She and I didn’t have the greatest relationship. As a matter of fact, it was really abusive. She died with me hating her. I still can’t forgive her, but I found some of the old contact sheets and some newspaper clippings from some of her old photo shoots and I didn’t know what to do with them. This seemed like an appropriate place to share them.

I grew up in clubs. It’s probably a big reason why I work in them now. I’ve pretty much lived my entire life in clubs, around topless women and a certain degree of excess. My very first childhood friends were bouncers and DJs. As much as I disliked my mother and how much she blamed me for the end of her career, I don’t think I’d have lived quite as fulfilling of a life if I’d gone the normie route and did the desk job/picket fence thing. I work nights. I always will.