Well hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a TumbleDryLow post, but here is something worthy of consumption!
My dear friend and bandmate, Miss Kristen Adam, has launched Rococonouveau Design.

She says:

For as long as I can remember I’ve felt a particular connection to things of the past: vintage and period fashions, early 20th century classic film, vintage erotica & pinup photography, art deco architecture, art nouveau textiles & jewelry, and the gilded splendour of the rococo era. The goal in all my work on this project is to merge the essence of these core inspirations with the modernity of the 21st century. Thereby preserving the beauty of these bygone styles in a way that is relevant to today’s aesthetics. Hence, the name rococonouveau!

She makes these super rad little collar accessories that are the perfect thing to dress up an outfit, or lack thereof!
I had the privilege of modeling a bunch of these collars, along with a whole bunch of my sassy ladyfriends.

You should go visit her shop and get one of these. They’re reversible and super well made.

Dear readers, go forth and consume!

A few months back, Katie West came to visit California.

She came and stayed at my house for a night, and the next day we took a bunch of pictures together.
She said some really lovely things about it, and managed to do so in a much more timely manner than I.

I’ve shot with a lot of photographers at this point in my life, and looking at what they capture always surprises me.
In looking at the ways they show me myself, I suddenly realize what about each photographer is different from the others.
Sometimes they have signature color schemes that can cast a mood really easily. Other times, I marvel at their compositional craft.
Sometimes, I see myself transformed into someone else entirely.

Katie was no different.

When we started shooting she said: “Things to know about shooting with me– I’m very unprofessional, and I laugh a lot.”

When I got the pictures back, I looked at the above photo and felt like it was one of the most honest ones I’ve taken all year.

I’ve got more than an inch of roots, my hairdo is coming undone, my dress is wrinkled…but there I am– hanging out with a naked mannequin and a pile of red instruments. That’s who I am, rumpled dress and all.

For the first time in a while– I was able to look at a photo someone took of me and see not a character or a story they created– but instead, myself looking back.

She was unprofessional. We both laughed a lot.

I will have a lot more to say about shooting with Katie whenever she has time to unload the pictures we took, but in the meantime, Lydia posted a bunch of shots of me that I thought I’d share.

You can see the rest of the shots at the end of Lydia’s Blogger collaboration set.
Thanks Lydia!!

This weekend, Kristen and I spent an afternoon in lovely Port Costa, CA.
More on our whole adventure later this week, but for now, enjoy this impromptu photoshoot we did.

He was only in the bay area for a couple short days, so we didn’t have much time to plan any on location shooting.

Instead, we just set up my studio lights and made do with what I had lying round the house.
I am SO PLEASED with what we came up with.

Flip is a great friend and an amazing photographer.

Many many thanks to him for a great time and a stunning set of pictures!

1. I am a cowgirl. Not really, but I’ll have you tied up in under 10 seconds.
2. I am a sucker for anatomical models, typewriters, and anything you’d find in a riker mount.
3. I have almost no sense of smell. Sometimes I can smell stuff when I hold it up to my nose, but I can never smell anything airborne. There are a few things I can’t smell at all, ever, including by not limited to: Body Odor, Marijuana & paint.
4. My most-listened-to song of 2008 was “Oh My Stars” by A Weather.
5. The first cassette I ever owned was Weird Al Yancovic’s “Fat”. My first Cd was Green Day’s “Dookie”.
6. I collect words & phrases that are magic to me. I can’t describe what this means except that I know whem when I see them. For example, L’esprit de l’escalier, Diacope, & Hypallage.
7. Some fictional heros of mine are Pippi Longstocking, Johnny Truant, Bucky Wunderlick, Tank Girl, Primavera Bobinski & Billy Chaka.
8. I will only offer to teach you the guitar if I have a crush on you.
9. I am in the music video for Beirut’s “Elephant Gun”, and Maroon 5’s “Won’t Go Home Without You.“
10. One time, when I was a kid, my mom described me as 5-going-on-20. I didn’t know what this meant, so I repeated it to anyone who would ask me how old I was. This happened at least a dozen times before anyone explained it to me.
11. I have never broken a bone.
12. I cannot roll my “r“s
13. I can clap with one hand. also both, individually.
14. I have extreme difficulty swallowing pills.
15. When I was 4, I convinced my mom that I had been replaced by an identical twin of myself. I gave myself an absurd name, which I sadly cannot remember. My mom played along so well I truly believed I had convinced her, and later I had to tell her that I swapped places with my twin once more. I didn’t figure out that she was smarter than me about this until I was at least 7.
16. My senior year of college, I had to write myself a 5 year plan for what I planned on doing after graduation. My plan was: “Stay Awesome!”. I got an A.

Thanks to Marie for tagging me.

Design That Kills Photoshoot with Agent Lover from Star St.Germain on Vimeo.

I had so much fun hanging with Marie and Kristin & I hope we all get a chance to spend more time together really soon.
Here’s a small sampling of the photos we shot:

Marie came to visit me for New Years!
You’ll get to read all about our adventures very soon, but for right now, suffice to say we RAGED for her entire visit. This girl rules so hard. <3<3<3!

Top photo by Designthatkills.

P.S.

Pat was nice enough to document what was going on:

There are more pictures from Erin’s shoot with me over on flickr.

If you want to see more images from Erin’s 20something LGBTQ project, visit her blog at rine.wordpress.com (some images NSFW!)

Thanks, Erin!

Here’s a little preview:

I’ll post some more on Monday!
Have a great weekend everyone!

This was shot at work, in one of our sets. It’s so handy to work somewhere with so many awesome places to take photographs!

The bathtub was sorta full of glass when we set it up though. haha.

This story ends with Maroon 5.…but It starts with J-lo.

One day I got a call from a casting agency asking me to come audition for a Jennifer Lopez video.
David LaChapelle was directing, and since I’d worked for him before, they wanted me to come down.

This ended up being the video for “Do it well”.

I went to the casting office dressed, as they requested, like a hooker. There I was, among a whole lot of other people in all sorts of colorful outfits.
What was so fascinating about it for me though, was that everyone had their lovely and wholesome headshot in hand. It was totally surreal walking past everyone all tramped up, with a huge color photo of themselves looking like a commercial for toothpaste or insurance. Oh, and The a/c was busted.

I did my first screen test & I met alot of interesting people. That said, I didn’t make it in. A J-lo video was not in the cards for me…

But three days later, the casting agency called.
“we have ANOTHER hooker video coming up that you’d be PERFECT for!”

Awesome!

The next week I was on set and shooting for Maroon 5’s “Won’t go Home Without You”.

Like an idiot, I forgot my camera at home…So all I have for you is the one photo they posted on their site, and the video itelf. I’m in the distance in the middle of the above photo.
Truth be told, the camera wasn’t in love with me this time around.
Watch extra close at 2:01 and 2:07, and MAYBE you’ll spot me.

I did take a photo in the bathroom when I got home with all my makeup & teased hair.
I should try the hooker look more often.

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