Southern Fried, Lady Lay, Taste, and other things that will amaze you!

After Southern Fried Burlesque Fest...which was amazing and I cannot say enough good things about everyone that was involved.  Frankly though it deserves it's own post, but I just am so far behind that's just not going to happen for me.  Our special guests: Roxie D'Lite, Russell Bruner, Toni Elling, Juith Stein, Orchid Mei, Talloolah Love, Kisa von Teasa and all of our amazing performers in all the showcase and the competitors for the crown.  So proud that Atlanta's own Lola le Soleil won the Southern Fried Queen.  It's our first time keeping the crown in state!  The hotel was amazing and we will be going back next year, our dates are March 20-23, 2014 and we hope that you will all save the date.  In lieu of the fact that I'm so far behind, go see the pretty pictures that StunGun Photography took, you can click the link and see their awesome show shots.  They were also nice enough to take some studio shots as well.

So why have I been so far behind?  Well, as I started to say before I got distracted...after Southern Fried Burlesque Fest I immediately started working as Lighting Designer for an awesome production over at 7 Stages called Lady Lay.  This was moderately terrifying as I had never designed a full show before, especially of this magnitude.  There's stuff flying in from all over the place, crashing all around and ruining all of my standard sites lines and creating shadows.  So that was what I had to work around.  Did I also mention that the last two weeks of tech were on top of my finals for school?  Yeah, that was fun.  So I get the show open, finish up my finals and then there are more events!

Taste of Theater is 7 Stages annual fundraiser which somehow, during all of this craziness, I agreed to help out with by booking and wrangling performers, helping herd cats (aka stage manage), costume about 15 people and make sure everything was loaded out at the end of the night.  Lady Lay opened on April 27th, my last final was on May 2nd, Taste of Theater was on May 3rd.  It was a lot of fun and we raised some money for the theater and everything was amazing.  There were performers from Musee de Couer, The Imperial Opa Circus and many Syrens of the South alumni.  The thing I love the most about Syrens not being a troupe is that we get to work with everyone.

So yeah, that's been my past month.  Coming up?  Tonight I am going to a fundraiser for Southern Fried Burlesque Fest...oh yeah, I'm producing it so add that to the list of things that I've been working on the past month.  We still have a few bills to pay off from 2013 so we need to get those straightened out ASAP.  $3000 and then we need $2000 to get the deposit for next year, total of $5000.  I sadly just can't do out of pocket any more so here's hoping that everyone has really enjoyed the past 3 years so we can raise the money to keep it going.  It costs around $15000 to put on the festival, it's a lot of money but it's a lot of fun too.  Sure, I don't get paid for it, none of us do,  and the fest owes me a little over $10,000 for the past four years of work, but we have a great time and it's the most expensive b-day party I could possibly have!

Hopefully things will be calmed down enough for a minute that I can get caught up on life.  So many people I haven't gotten to see, more theater gigs coming up, more burlesque shows and teaching more classes at Studio Burlesque.  It's crazy and it's busy and moderately insane, but I love it and it makes me happy.  If I could seriously just get paid to be in a theater all the time and make a living that way I would.  Someday....but until then I'm going to continue being insane and having a great time doing it.

2013-02-02 PinUp Girl Cosmetics Photoshoot

So back in January, Pinup Girl Cosmetics was offering a special Valentine's photo shoot for only $150.  The $150 included hair, make-up and eyelashes, styling, props, 2 edited photos plus champagne and tasty snacks which would normally have been over $200 and you wouldn't normally get snacks!  Did I mention there was cheese and shrimp?  SHRIMP!!!!  Sorry, I don't eat shrimp very often because of the cholesterol so I get excited!  So yes, with my Christmas money, I bought the package so I could have some new pin-up/burlesque publicity photos since my last ones were done in Jan of 2011 when Ursula Undress and I did the cover of Pin Curl Magazine.  I love that thanks to burlesque these are BUSINESS EXPENSES!!!  There are perks to everything!  It was as if the stars were aligning to help me out for the shoot, Secrets in Lace was having a 30% off all their clearance items which is wear the amazing out fit I am wearing in the photos came from.

So day of photoshoot, I get up super early (9am) so I can dye my hair to make sure that my color is even, bright, shiny and new!  I get done dying my hair JUST IN TIME to jump in the car and haul butt over to Studio Burlesque so I can teach my 11am Go-Go Shimmy Shimmy class, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to teach.  You should come see me for it sometime, it's silly!  Anyway, after class I fly back to the apartment to gather up my clothing choices for the shoot.  I had a few ideas in mind, but then realized that I couldn't remember what the back ground color was going to be and the last thing I wanted to do was clash or blend in, so I just packed everything.  Everything consisted of: 2 bullet bras, 3 garter belts, 2 demi cup bras, 3 pairs of stockings, 4 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of opera length gloves, and 6 pairs of panties....all by Secrets in Lace because I have a love of pretty lingerie and honestly I was packing light, that is what happens when you are unsure of what you're walking into.

After the packing it was time for the nail salon!  I know a lot of people have mixed feelings about acrylic nails, myself included, but I am going to explain why they're important.  My world, 90% of the time, consists of school and work.  Neither of those things requires, or even encourages me to have long beautifully painted nails.  However, look at the top picture, look how well my nails pop against the white on the garter belt.  The picture at the bottom, it would look weird if my piggies weren't painted with those open toed shoes, even with the stockings on.  If you're going to go for a look you should go all the way; especially, as in my case, since these are professional publicity photos.  So yes, I got a mani/pedi, a foot and leg mud wrap, a full set of acrylics and an eyebrow wax, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap!  Finally, I was ready to go have my picture taken!

Pinup Girl Cosmetics is a well oiled machine.  One girl was having her pictures taken as another had just finished hair and was going to go get in costume so I could plop myself directly in the chair of hair goodness.  Kellyn, the owner, is the Hair Whisperer.  If you see a picture of me with amazing hair it's either Lee Press On Hair (what I call my wigs and pony falls) or Kellyn did it!  She got me in curlers and then sent me to make-up.  Gina did my make-up, she was super sweet and very efficient!  After make-up I was sent back to Kellyn so she could finish my hair and then I scampered off to change.  I was being a bit indecisive  Kellyn helped me pick out my outfit and then loaned me the necklace and earrings since I had forgotten accessories in my rush.  I went from off the street to a fully realized pin-up in around an hour.  Seriously, they have the transformation down to a science!  One of the things I loved is that the other girls and I all looked like individuals.  We were not all done the same way, we had hair and make-up that showed our personalities and that was flattering to each of us as individuals.  To be that efficient and still keep each girl fresh is what was truly impressive.  My shoot itself was about an hour of well directed poses to make sure that I was comfortable.  I got to do some with and with out my gloves and some with and with out the super awesome gold antique phone they had.  It was fun, relaxing and they took requests!  This was my third photo shoot with Pinup Girl Cosmetics and I highly recommend them.

I was chatting with everyone after my shoot since the girls scheduled after me were running behind and they had a moment.  There are approximately 200 pictures taken for each girl.  200!!  You are given the choice of a proof sheet or trusting Kellyn to pick out which ones she thinks are best.  I always let Kellyn pic, she's never let me down.  The photo shoot came with two (the ones posted here) and in a few weeks I'll have the additional 3 images on a disc with the ones shown for a total of five.  It was only an extra $25 and I feel it's worth getting the extra 3 pictures.  You've already gone through all the hair, make-up and costuming, you might as well get the extra shots.   They do a few special shoots like the Valentine's one I did with them a few times per year so keep a look out to get the extra bang for your buck.  If you're super lucky you'll find a Groupon on Living Social deal which some of my students bought for me a while back which is how I got my Dracula photo shoot I did back in October.  So keep your eyes peeled and let them make you look and feel like a princess...and maybe eat some shrimp and drink some champagne while you're at it!

Studio Burlesque Atlanta

Back around the end of November, beginning of December, I'm sitting in Ursula Undress' kitchen and she's about to explode with excitement.  For a few months she had told me that she'd been working for a new client, what I didn't know was that the client was going to change the face of Atlanta burlesque.  She had been approached by a gentleman that wanted to start the first all burlesque studio in Atlanta and she had many meetings and had become the Artistic Director of what would end up being Studio Burlesque Atlanta.

She said she was a little nervous about talking to me as I've been running the ABCs and 123s of Burlesque Classes through Syrens of the South for years and have trained a great majority of the Atlanta Burlesque scene at this point.  However, we no longer had our own dance space and relied on other studios to allow us rental time in order to be able to have the classes.  I spent a great deal of time working on classes schedules, wrangling teachers, press, and having to try to wrangle up students.  I love teaching, I really do, but I got paid just like all the other teachers, any additional money went to studio rental or in the kitty to make sure that we had money in case a class came up short.  It was very stressful.  The idea of just getting to show up somewhere and teach was wonderful.  So I closed up shop and threw my hat in with Ursula and hoped for the best as she began collecting additional teachers.  (I do still offer private one on one classes and group classes for parties and stuff, I'm just sayin')

One of the things that Ursula and I have been pushing for is a greater sense of community in the Atlanta burlesque scene.  That was one of the reasons we've worked so hard over the years to get the Southern Fried Burlesque Fest up and running and now she had the opportunity to bring in performers from all over Atlanta and give them a home in which they could teach their individual styles of burlesque and give students and opportunity to find the teacher that suits them best since not every teacher and every student are going to be that perfect mesh.  People teach differently and people learn differently and you need all types to get everyone in the game.  I think this is going to be an amazing opportunity for not only the students, but for the more experienced burlesque performers in town to share their love and knowledge and to give out of town guests a place to teach when they pass through.

The studio opened on January 7, there is currently a Living Social deal for 5 classes for only $29 (saving you $46 or 61%) if you get it before Tuesday, January 22nd.  Some take some classes for cheap and find your burlesque style!  Wednesdays I teach Beginning Burlesque at 6:30pm and Fun and Flirty at 8:30 (Sadie Hawkins' GoGo class is sandwiched between) and Saturday at 11am I teach GoGo Shimmy Shimmy (I tend to go more Shimmy and Sadie's more GoGo) which is sandwiched between Ursula's Fun and Flirty at 10am and Beginning Burlesque at noon, so you can come take from me or one of the other amazing teachers at the Studio.  Personally, I'm addicted to Fonda Lingue's Ballesque class at 6:30pm on Mondays.