Monday, May 17, 2004

The photo shoot yesterday
D. called me up over a week ago, to see if I'd be interested in doing a photo shoot for the folks at Hyphen - "a news and culture magazine that illuminates Asian America through hard-hitting investigative features on the cultural and political trends shaping the fastest growing ethnic population in America." The theme? "From swing to bling," - the staff would provide the "bling" outfits and it was incumbent on us to provide the "swing." The dilemma - not even when I was going out 7 days a week did I make any effort to collect any vintage garb - my emphasis was on the dance, not on the "look" and while the clothes I specifically purchased for dancing were cute, the emphasis was on comfortable, which usually meant - contemporary. I didn't want to be dropping loads of cash on delicate, 60-70-year old threads that would potentially get sweat-stained and ripped with my crazy obsessive exertions.

And so after a whirlwind albeit semi-halfhearted rush around the city yesterday, and a trip to Michael's craft store in Emeryville, I had perhaps 2 outfits which could pass, flowers for my hair, and thought I could bring up the rear with other stuff I had at home. My best purchase was a pair of vintage 3-tone wing-tip spectators which the proprietress at Ver-Unica assured me were "vintage 60s" shoes.

And so we met at Club Suede yesterday, near the Marina & Fisherman's Wharf. I brought a backpack, a dufflebag, and armfuls of clothing, and hoped that I had enough stuff that would satisfy Stefanie, the artistic director who D & I had been in touch with over the course of the week.

The guy who walked up to open the club was young, good-looking and clean-cut, wearing a simple white T, jeans and sunglasses. He also looked amazingly familiar, and when I heard Stefanie call him "John," things started to click. And when we were in the darkened club I said, "Hey, did you also use to swing dance ...?" He looked startled, wary - perhaps even a little annoyed - the same kind of reaction Nora & I sometimes give when people we don't know hint too much at our past histories in the scene... And yes, he eventually acknowledged it quite reluctantly. The rest of the time he seemed cordial enough and nice enough, and at times I would catch him glancing at me inscrutably, perhaps trying to remember the times we might have come into contact - at the HiBall perhaps? all those years ago.

The rest of the shoot was sooo fun. Derek and I danced the best we could to the neo-swing stuff (BBVD?) that J. put on; and nearly giggled ourselves silly in remembering/ reliving all the cheesey swing moves and poses from back in the day. The bling 'fits were HOT - and here the accessories were the key - Stefanie invested in a lot of costume ice, I was liberally sprinkled with loads of glitterdust, so D & I definitely sparkled during the 2nd half of the shoot. It was time-consuming indeed; I thought it would take 3 hours; it took 4, but the whole experience was highly enjoyable. I loved the different outfits, and can't wait to see the pictures. Everyone on the magazine staff was so friendly and wonderful - Jerome, the photographer, made me laugh to no end.

I only managed to take a couple of pictures of D & I ... hopefully Mia (the photo director) will send the other files soon.

posted by claudine |Added at 11:06 AM| | photographs, personal