Happy Birthday Joe!

There are two consistent factors when it comes time to make a birthday card for Joe each year. One is that I always use this high contrast photo taken when we were dating:

The second is the theme of the card usually has something to do with one of his many obsessions. The turban that I made for our son’s Halloween costume was very popular at our house as we all took turns wearing it, but no one wore it more than Joe. It got me thinking about his obsession with Korla Pandit, the godfather of exotica music. Joe posted a video of Mr. Pandit playing Miserlou last year.

So I knew the card would have a turbaned Joe seated at an organ. But what other elements to put in the card? Luckily, I remembered that men are simple creatures, and this being a birthday card, it would have a pretty girl – and cake! The girl was from a bra ad I ran across in a 1955 copy of True Story magazine while looking for something else. The organ is from a 1947 Wurlitzer press release I found sitting on top of a stack of two dollar photos in an antique store that I wandered into one Sunday afternoon. Both were a lucky happenstance!

Happy birthday Joe!!!