Danceland Days

Back in the day when I was much younger there was this magical place called "Danceland" where Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers and other classic rock and roll legends played. I remember back then it was not that big a deal to see them in person and in fact most kids danced while they performed but I was hanging on the stage in awe

In front of Danceland there was always the dance hall owners chopped coupe parked and a stream of cool rods and customs driving by as if in a parade to honor the royalty inside.

Now I am a bit older and I have a friend that builds old style rods of which I take many pictures. I did this one up for him the other day featuring one of his cars in front of Danceland.

very nicely done.

Cool shot. I'm digging the line up on the marquee. Art Kassel was a Chicago big band leader in the 30's and 40's. Chuck, of course, was 50's (and beyond). And Slade was a 70's glam rock band. Strange mix.

Thanks, Chuck was there back then, seen him a couple times but in the original photo he was not on the sign so I added him for effect.

Of couse Danceland is long gone but photos live on so I found one and changed the marquee a bit, added a bit of blur and soft trimmed the edges. I gray toned the car photo I had taken recently and did the shapen, contrast stuff, cut it out and layered it over the Danceland pic I edited. I then used layer properties to fade out the Danceland pic and bring out the car or make it pop a bit.

I use simple stuff for this. A Cannon G9, Paint Shop Pro 7 and the greatest free program I have ever came across, Photoscape because it has so many toys to play with that I sometime cannot make up my mind on the final look. damn this stuff is fun.