The atmosphere was good. Harlow’s was dim, but not dark, and the stage lighting cast a tint of green throughout the club. The Harley White Jr. Orchestra was on the floor, playing an upbeat jazz number to signal the beginning of the show (and though there ended up being a 15-minute delay, no one seemed to notice). Sizzling Sirens were running around everywhere, attractive women dotting the crowd in rhinestone and fringe, lingerie-inspired getups. “I Love You Mary Jane! Cannabis Cabaret” was performed by the Sizzling Sirens Burlesque Experience late last Friday night. The show was described on the Sirens’ website as “a one-of-a-kind tribute themed to expose a variety of Mary Jane’s manifest

Love and lust were in the air Thursday night when Crocker Art Museum hosted its Art Mix series with the theme of “Love & Lust” in celebration of Valentine’s Day. The evening both warmed hearts and taunted mischief with a melange of performances and activities for a diverse audience, many of them couples. As DJ Mike Colossal spun sensual sounds, visitors posed affectionately in a photo booth by Beatnik Studios, drank pink pomegranate martinis and wrote Mad Lib love letters to each other. On the third floor, Crocker featured selected amorous works in “Couples in the Collection.” The show includes Otis Oldfield’s portrait of his wife Helen in “White Dress,” John Bankston’s “Into the Rainbow,

In a newly designed Midtown studio, dancers of all ages and levels, dressed in their finest fishnets, enter to explore the mystery of sensuality through a modern take on one of history’s most misunderstood yet brazen art forms: burlesque. Burlesque Fusion dance class, taught every Thursday evening by the Sizzling Sirens burlesque dance troupe, creates an open space to unleash your inner imagination and confidence, all while providing a healthy workout. The potential for personal power and feminine freedom afforded with the dance intrigued me, and I wondered, could this be my new catharsis? So this January, charged with curiosity, I stepped out of my comfort zone and my usual sweats and p

Sizzle. Serenade. Seduce. Puffs of neon smoke cloud my eyes as I slide through the bustling doorway of Harlow’s Sunday night. The room brims with burlesque bombshells of all ages, men in fedoras, pin stripes, faux-leather collars. A woman wearing crimson nurses a gimlet, no ice. Next to her, a man dressed as the late Hunter S. Thompson bumps me with his long cigarette holder while he tucks it nonchalantly behind his ear. He pays no notice as he urges his eyes through the clamoring crowd in anticipation of “Stick ‘em Up!: A Criminal Cabaret,” Harlow’s first show of the year by Sacramento’s only burlesque troupe “Sizzling Sirens.” The Sizzling Sirens, founded in 2008 by Jessica Swanson who

The Sizzling Sirens delivered hell-raising hilarity and sinfully sultry stage sensations to Marilyn’s on K Saturday night. “Hell on Heels” was a burlesque variety show combining song, dance, music and mask work and original corsets from Isabella Corsetry, to create a modern burlesque experience. Jay Siren, executive director of Sizzling Sirens, said she founded the Sirens to create original, entertaining and themed pieces to incite a freshness of perception for their audience. Siren said that in March of 2008 she cast the first Sirens, and by July of that year they celebrated their debut with the Red & Black Event at Parlare Euro Lounge in downtown. “Discovering burlesque, I felt an inst

To quote Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses, “The world is such a wonderful place/ The world is such a wonderful place.” Through and through, he’s absolutely right. But there are just some tragic and unfortunate elements of this world that we sometimes have to live with – the kind that tend to perpetuate the sale of cheap gin and handguns. I of course refer to the fact that Arco Arena is hosting back-to-back concerts on Friday and Saturday night by Justin Bieber and Nickelback. Hard to stomach the fact that we’ll probably see more heads each of these nights at the Big Gas Pump than at your average Kings game, all packed in to see a squeak jockey on anti-puberty meds and wearing a hair-met,

Sacramento’s Sizzling Sirens heated up Shady Lady Saloon Sunday night. For their one-year anniversary show, the six-person burlesque troupe took the stage for an hour and a half of flirtatious numbers and plenty of naughtiness. Attendees, who were encouraged to dress in '20s-themed attire, were decked out in suspenders, fedoras, sequined flapper dresses, pearls and pin curl. The bar's authentic saloon decor was more than fitting for a Cabaret show. The celebration started at 9 p.m., and a sexy jazz performance by The Harley White Jr. Orchestra  set the sultry mood for the evening, further set by the Saloon's dim lighting. The spotlight went to the corner stage, where the sirens took tur