One Man Band Bike of the St. Ann's Parade

I'll catch up with my Beijing posts soon.  But for now a little snapshot of New Orleans.  The week leading up to Mardi Gras includes numerous parades, and on Mardi Gras day several parades weave through the city.  The St. Ann's Parade includes hundreds of artists and musicians in handmade costumes who march from the Marigny / Bywater neighborhoods into the French Quarter. We watched for a bit, then joined them near the end and came across this man.

He played haunting music on his bike/instrument, constructed of found metal objects, including the colander he wears on his head.  As he rode past bubbles floated down from the balconies and people danced by in their bizarre costumes.  I love this city.  Here is a link to the video or you can scroll down to watch.

Inspiration for tonight's performance...

Still gathering inspiration for tonight's performance. Think: Japanese / Cabaret / Circus.
I wonder how the look will come out?  These pics are not mine, just inspiration, my will follow soon...

This one is from Doe Deere's Blogazine which, if you are into costume-y makeup, you must check out :)

Gaga Monsters...

Midori, Emily and Danielle (Jim McKenzie behind the video camera).

In response to the Lady Gaga "call-for-entries" we chose to create our own video submission. One of the things I love about her as an artist is the way she and her team continue to create unique concepts and material.  As a part of her current Monster tour she is accepting video content from the public which is incorporated into her tour video as an ongoing, ever evolving group project.  Amazing!

Emily, Matthew and Danielle. (Photo by Jim Mullin).

We shot the video in December and with the help of our amazing videographers (Jim McKenzie and Matt Cornelison) we were able to transform the interiors of my apartment into a surreal and urban backdrop.

Emily, Danielle and Midori. (Photo by Jim Mullin).

The theme Lady gaga chose for this project was "Apocalypse", so our costumes and makeup reflected a futuristic and urban look influenced heavily by, of course, Lady Gaga.  We were lucky to work with Emy CraCra (of Tres Jolie by Emy) and Angel Romero for hair and makeup and Jim Mullin supplied the wardrobe from his JM Couture line.  I will upload links to the final video once its edited, but for now, here are some "behind the scenes stills"!

Midori, makeup and hair by Angel Romero.

Here are some details of the makeup and hair concepts created by Emy Cracra and Angel Romero.

 Midori, makeup and hair by Angel Romero.


































Emily, makeup by Emy Cracra, hair by Angel Romero. (Photo by Jim Mullin).
















 





















Danielle, makeup by Emy Cracra, hair by Angel Romero. (Photo by Jim Mullin).

Matthew, makeup by Angel Romero.

This was such a fun project from beginning to end and came out even better then we expected.  It reminds me that sometimes we just need an excuse to round up or friends and fellow artists and get creative!  So get to it! For those interested, there is still time to submit your entries.  Just go to her link and upload your material: http://www.showstudio.com/project/ladygagasubmit/.

When Life Hands You Lemons... take pretty pictures of them and rant on your blog!

Attribute it to karma, klutziness or abundant physical electricity but for some reason I seem to be one of those people who occasionally stop watches or seem to cause multiple electronic failures in a room. 

I am admittedly klutzy in that my arms and legs seem magnetically drawn to corners of walls, shelves and coffee tables. And I have been known to walk into plate glass windows and wall mirrors, sober, mind you. As for electricity, I sometimes transfer a shock when touching people or things, my electronics acquire mystery afflictions and the last time my watch suddenly died both hands were directly on midnight. Really.

But truthfully, its probably just karma. When it rains it pours, right? This weekend (after putting together my best, most extensive costume to date) both my cameras broke.



Science of the New Thought (Erastus Whitford Hopkins, 1904)

My video camera just stopped recording image and my still camera flew out of my hand when I tried to photograph a guy dressed as Michael Jackson (but maybe that was his karma ;).

The upside is that, since we marched in the parade this year, there are numerous pictures that other people have taken of us, so will compile an album of photos from various sources. In the mean time I have been playing with filters and crops on the photos that I took with my iphone, which came out more arty than snapshots would have anyway ;) so there.

I'll post more detailed images of the costumes and the parade soon. But for now, please enjoy these images: Halloween 2009: Marie Antionette and Louis XVI march in the North Halsted Street Halloween Parade, Chicago!


COSTUME / HAIR AND MAKEUP UPDATE: 

Costume: I made the costume from a vintage dress (strapless floor length light blue satin), a long crinoline, flowers and ribbon. 
Makeup: The makeup included a sheer layer of white under powder and star shaped beauty mark (women of her era often wore a beauty mark, sometimes in shapes of hearts).  
Wig: The wig was actually 3 wigs: 2 braids used under the main wig as a "bump", a long wavy silver wig that wrapped around a platinum bob wig (for extra height) in an updo.  I puled some of my own hair up and around the sides and into the ponytail to help anchor the whole thing.  I then sprayed down the whole thing in white and silver hairspray... and tons of glitter :)


I was still feeling bummed here because my camera had just broken, but I tried to pull it together for a bittersweet Marie portrait.

I love these portraits of David and me as Marie and Louis. Believe it or not these costumes were his idea.

I can't remember the name of this band, it might have been Chicago Red Line Cabaret (so correct me if I am wrong), so I am just calling them the Rabbit Band, which played music as they marched through the crowd.

This couple was one of the finalists for "Best Couple" in the costume contest. They should have won first place in my opinion. They are dressed as Queen Elizabeth and Walter Raleigh. The costumes were handmade by Kai Wallace (one of the revelers here). Stunning and inspiring!

I'm not sure what this one was supposed to be, but I thought it was a Dr. Seuss character. He stood on 4 foot stilts for extra height. Amazing.

I like pictures like this that have that moving memory feeling, like an unspecific dream or thought you just can't seem to articulate.

This one I am calling "Marie Von D", after Kat, the tattoo artist. If Marie were alive today I think she would take many brave fashion risks, like tattooing her face.

Actually, my aunt has a tattoo on her face, which was her homage to her female mentor, Vali Myers. I would get a tattoo on my face, perhaps. Maybe like the one I have drawn here, a star over my beauty mark.. but then I would miss my beauty mark, which I have named "Elizabeth Taylor" (She has one in the same place)... but maybe I'll save this thought for another post ;)

"M-Alice In Wonderland": My Birthday Party 2009

 

I chose the "M-Alice In Wonderland" theme for my birthday party this year.  It was intended as a kind of bizarre tea party gone awry.  It lived up to that goal and then some.  Here I am as "M-Alice". 

 

 

I made my own cake, of course.  The cake itself was a checkerboard cake assembled from strips of white and chocolate cake so that when cut they resemble a checkerboard.  There are kits for this kind of thing but they only come in small round 9" cake pans and I wanted to do a larger rectangular cake, so I had no choice but to do it by hand.  It was tricky, and I miscalculated the number of layers I needed, so I ended up with a shorter cake and a surplus of white cake, but it worked out in the end and was a three layer checkerboard.  To do it properly I would have needed another layer of chocolate.  But it turned out fine since my carb-fearing guests didn't finish the cake anyway, opting more for liquid refreshment ;) 

I stayed up late making all of the integral Wonderland characters,my versions of them.  It is important to me when making novelty cakes and edible art that it in indeed is completely edible, making it a greater challenge.  Therefore I don't want to use anything plastic or cardboard or foam, etc.

Most of the figure forms are built of marshmallow and draped in fondant (Alice, White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat) while the other ones (Caterpillar, Mad Hatter's hat, Red Queen and King) are built completely of fondant.  Their feature and accent pieces are made of rolled and cut Mamba candy, or candy such as licorice, sprinkles, dragees, etc.  I also made a tiny tea set out of a meringue, fondant and dragees.  I really enjoy these tiny obsessive tasks I can get lost in.  I get it from my mother ;)

I also made cookies in the shape of playing cards (for Alice's croquet match with the Red Queen) and tiny chocolate cupcake "gardens".  

I can't believe David sat patiently for so long carefully placing the little flower candies and sprinkles in a specific color scheme and arrangement.  They turned out adorable.

 As you can see I have now reached the "flammable" age (where it takes so many candles to count your years that things get a bit... flammable.  It's a valid worry when you are at a costume party covered in wigs, feathers and highly flammable materials ;)

 I always like to document the aftermath.  I couldn't bear to toss the rest of the cake, but I couldn't bear to eat it either so it sat in the fridge for awhile.  Interesting how the figures in their melted disarray bore a striking resemblance to me and my guests at the end of the night ;)