Starry, Starry Night...

I opted for my starry-eye look for Step Up For Autism: Benefit for Autism Speaks.

Each performer in the line-up donated their performance to help raise money for this important cause.  Additionally 100% of the proceeds were donated to the cause.  The entire event was planned, managed and emceed by Kate "Sebastian Las Vegas" Versage, who also performed in the line-up, which was filled with some familiar faces in the Chicago scene including Zander Mander, Mid-Tangent Productions, Yuri Lane and Angelique Munro.

More to come ...

"They can't take that away from me..."

Miss Midori singing on stage at Olive, 1998? 99?

Its been a minute, but I had a chance to get back onstage for a song on Thursday for the opening of Dion's new club, The Shady Lady.

Its a small venue with an even smaller stage, and I sang over a recorded track rather than with live accompaniment, but it was good times :)

Back in the day I led the house band, performing every Saturday night at one of Dion's old clubs (the now defunct) Olive, a jazz club in Chicago.  I Dj'd there during the week and booked talent for the venue during the day. With my band, "Miss Midori & The Jazz Inquisition", we recorded a CD at Chicago's Southport Records, a label known for its jazz and blues artists. I played venues around the Midwest, opened for some of my favorite bands at the time such as Indigo Swing and Southern Culture on The Skids and sang on stages as far afield as Paris, France at Le Caveau de la Huchette. Eventually though, I moved on, pulled up roots, left Chicago, traveled the country and tried my hand at being an grown-up.  I'm not sure its going to stick, but I'll keep you posted ;)

In the struggle between my private and public personas (and I do mean plural personas), I wonder whether performance is something I want or need in my ongoing future.  There is something wonderful about allowing yourself to become someone different through performance.  Its a freedom few people get to experience.  Either way, whatever happens, I'm just going to enjoy it.

*Side note: This is one of the "Dresses with Stories".  It was a vintage red velvet dress (which I still have, btw).  It ripped up the side seam while playing a show on the road (it might have been in Milwaukee or Detroit) and I had to tape it up from the inside with silver duct tape.  Works pretty good if you don't plan on sweating or breathing much ;)

More Sketchiness ...

I found this sketch among some old drawings I did when I lived in Mexico.  After college I lived in a very small town on the Baja called Todos Santos with my boyfriend at the time.  He would pay the housekeeper extra to bring her children along to sit as models and would paint them while their mother cleaned.  This is one of a few sketches I did of her children at the time.

I like the tension in her hands.  Its a mixture of self-consciousness and boredom, perhaps.

As with many experiences in cultures where the financial situation is in contrast to our own I felt uncomfortable that we paid her so little to clean the whole house, even though the rate was well above he standard for the area.  There was some issue as well concerning the sexist viewpoint that she could not be paid more than her husband, who was an oyster diver earning $6 a day.  If so she would suffer his wrath at his humiliation of earning less than his wife, if that makes any sense.  No, its not 'right' but at the time I think we felt it was not our place to assert ourselves into their culture in a disrespectful way.  We did buy his oysters though and use her services... and drew and painted their children.

It was a very different time.

Silent Scream

Sometimes, when you are really frustrated and want to scream, but you can't, do you imagine it?

That's what I am thinking when I look at you like that.

This piece was done years ago, as part of an attempt at collaborative work with my friend Sean Watson.  He did the photography and photoshop.  I mostly just screamed ;)... (and did hair and makeup).

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 ;)