While watching the Supermoon rise over the Na Mokolua islands off Lanikai Beach recently, I was reminded of another weekend over which loomed the mystical spectre of this Perigee moon. That, of course, was the weekend of the original Crystal Visions. This year Crystal Visions took place in February, and blame it on my wild heart, but I have been regretfully tardy in sharing photographs from this momentous event. Knowing that all the special ladies in my life were looking up at the same Supermoon that night prompted me to visit my archives and put together a collection of some of the moments and memories of Crystal Visions II: Leather & Lace. I only wish I could have captured an image of every woman that attended! Looking at 2012′s photo versus 2011, however, reminds me that capturing the essence of so many babes would have required the power of 100 Supermoons.

Some favourite highlights of Crystal Visions II: Leather & Lace included the psychic connection between all attendees so everyone  brought either champagne, sparkling wine or rose, Anja dancing so hard her dress actually started tearing off her body, the scratches in the wall behind the toilet paper from the glamourous rings all the ladies were wearing, the enormous pile of records curated throughout the evening for maximum dancing, the tarot reading corner, photo shoots set throughout Clarence, the fabulous costume changes, the continuous din of girls chatting, visitors from Portland and Victoria, seeing life through a disco filter, going from the loud party zone through the fringe into the cool chill out den, Kimberli and Katie emerging from my bedroom carrying a flower crown they just whipped up, all the woofing whenever a Christine McVie song came on, dancing so hard it hurts to Fleetwood Mac, herding 30+ ladies and one gentleman into the apartment lobby for the group photograph, everything Alana did and wore, especially her Disco Jane Austen outfit.

Yowza! Yowza! Yowza! Better words cannot be found to describe the absolute delight of a day that was the Victoria Tweed Ride. Blue skies and a bright spring sun smiled down on a dapper crowd gathered on the lawn of the stately Empress Hotel, a group drawn together by an affinity for the classy suits and frocks of yesteryear and a deep love for that new fangled contraption, the bicycle.

I must confess, although quite immodest of me, that I believed our party to simply be one of the handsomest groups present. After all, our ranks included the elegant Lady Caprice, a respected Professor and, of course, Dingus the loveable scamp.

However, I would be truly remiss to exclude the other wonderfully dressed participants of the Tweed Ride. Three piece suits, elegant hats, fitted coats, beautifully draped frocks, smart handbags, sharp socks and dashing shoes could be seen everywhere one looked! And not to forget the accessories, both practical and decorative in nature, that adorned the bicycles, from wonderfully weathered leather cases to a flapping proud and noble British flag (God save the Queen!). One bicycle even pulled a wicker trunk, from which emitted the jazziest of music to encourage the Tweed Riders along their journey through the streets of Victoria.

The highlight of the Tweed Ride was undoubtedly the tea party held beneath the watchful gaze of stately Craigdarroch Castle, built in the latter years of the 1800s. Riders, flushed from their trip through Victoria’s charming downtown centre and the leafy neighbourhood of Fairfield, spread out blankets to sip Tula Teas and nibble on candied salmon and pickled cucumber sandwiches (crust removed) from Red Fish Blue Fish.

Finally, after a much needed respite in the shade of the oaks surrounding the Castle, the Ride Master’s cry of “Yowza! Yowza! Yowza!” drew us back to our bicycles and we flew back into the city, weaving through James Bay, until we reached the door of the Bard & Banker pub. The Tweed Ride drew to a close over pints and to the good conversation of fine friends, both old and new. A huge huzzah to all of the organizers and supporters! Until next year!

I like events! I like vacations! Here are some things I’ve done or am going to do in the near future!

First Aid Kit: Jordy and I saw First Aid Kit at Venue in Vancouver. Like everyone else, I fell in love with the Swedish sisters’ cover of “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”, but Jordy and I have been particularly taken with them since reading “Kids” by Patti Smith and subsequently sobbing watching the video of Patti well up with tears as First Aid Kit perform “Dancing Barefoot” for her. Unfortunately this video appears to have vanished off the internet or I’d recommend you watch for a good cry too. First Aid Kit sang with effortless harmony and brought some great 60s vibes in their matching dresses (a mini for Klara and a maxi for Johanna) and long shining hair. Highlights included their gorgeous cover of The Knife’s “When I Grow Up” and, of course, Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot”, and an unplugged sing-a-long version of “Ghost Town”.

Openers Peggy Sue were also quite good, in particular their layered harmonies on a cover of “Hit the Road, Jack”. I was surprised to recognize one of their songs from Kate Miss’ excellent mix, Harmony. Me and Jordy coined them “Al & Kath” because they reminded us of our friends Alana and Katherine (I think it was their hair).

Jesus Christ Super Star: Last year my friends in Victoria blew me away with their production of Jesus Christ Super Star (or Cheesus Crust Pizza Store, as it was more subtly known). I had a grin on my face through the whole show and was totally stoked to hear they were mounting a second production this year. If you’re from Victoria, chances are you might know someone in the show or recognize some local musicians. JCSS is running April 19-21 and tickets are still available!

Island Chefs Food Fest: Another amazing event I attended for the first time last year, Food Fest was a sunny day spent sampling local food and drink, including beer, cider and gin. We rode our bikes to Fort Rodd Hill in a huge group organized by Habit Coffee and were rewarded with first crack at the sample tables. I can’t wait to see who is there this year!

Victoria Tweed Ride: I just registered for the Victoria Tweed Ride, which involves dressing in dapper finery and riding bikes in an equally handsome crowd all over the city. Basically I will take 1000 photos of this event.

Hawaii: As a kid I spent a lot of time in my Dad’s hometown of Castlegar, hanging out with family. While Castlegar is charming in its own small town Kootenay way, I wish we could have spent an equal amount of time in my Mom’s hometown of Kailua, Hawaii. We’re finally heading back at the end of the month on a family vacation. I can’t wait to sit on Kailua beach, eat plate lunch and shave ice, wander the swap meet and hopefully learn a Hawaiian song or two from some talented family friends.

Seattle: I’ll be spending May long weekend in Seattle, staying Real World-style in a crazy beautiful house on Capitol Hill with a big group of friends. We’ve got a sunken cedar hot tub!!! I’ll unfortunately be missing Doukhobor Festival, but sunken cedar hot tub!!! Basically the plan is to try some of Seattle’s best restaurants, ride our bikes everywhere and sit in that sunken cedar hot tub!!!

Finally, here are my most liked things at the moment:

TNG Season 8: The most genius twitter account that summarises episodes of an imaginary eighth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sample tweet:

Arrested Westeros: Games of Thrones/Arrested Development mash up. It works so well.

Annnnnnd #whatshouldwecallme is basically ruling my life right now. This tumblr is relevant to everything. For example, my fears about backpacking in SE Asia.

(First Aid Kit photo from here)

If anyone in the Vancouver or Victoria area is interested in working with me, please get in touch! And, by the way, I love photographing grown-ups and kids.

Please check it out: Rachel Rilkoff Photography.

I’m pretty bummed that I can’t get Instagram for my phone yet. Makes me sad I can’t share my own photos or comment on the daily minutia of other people’s lives. I’m nosy, okay? Here’s some photos from my non-iPhone (sob) so that I can feel like I’m part of “social photography” too.

Big thanks to Jillian for introducing me to Webstagram so I can at least follow my friend’s feeds and pull out the pictures of myself, ha ha. Here’s me and Al on my birthday at hot pot and me and Jordy practicing our favourite genre (duets).

Being in Victoria this weekend, with a view of flowering trees and morning sunshine outside the window, makes it hard to believe we were hiking through the snow a few weeks ago in Kamloops. Such a nice impromptu trip to visit our families, with delicious meals, snow every day and, of course, plenty of cat snuggling.

Here’s what we really went for: adorable pets.

Crystal Visions II: Leather & Lace finally happened and it was everything I dreamed it would be. Our apartment was transformed into a sensual den of hanging crystals, doors of rose lace and fringe and flickering candles. Each attendee brought an amazing vibe until the entire place was filled with incredible energy. The din of many girls gossiping at once rose to a cacophonous level… and it was glorious. My co-hostesses, Laura and Alana, were at their foxiest, and mingled with guests from exotic locales such as Portland and Victoria. Best of all, a constant stream of records found their way onto the turntable, resulting in the night cresting with a bounding Fleetwood Mac-dance-and-sing-along explosion. Oh yeah, and there was some serious tambourine playing too.

As part of her participation in VCAM, Laura used the ladies of Crystal Visions as her inspiration for that evening’s video. She managed to corral most of the party goers before her lens for some serious disco filter glimma.

Kim was such a Vision that she got her own video:

Such a magical evening! Don’t worry, there is still plenty of glamour to come.

My Continuing Education of the 1960s and 1970s

Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit by Catherine James
Miss O’Dell by Chris O’Dell
Bohemians: The Glamourous Outcasts by Elizabeth Wilson
The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth
The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night by Anthony Haden-Guest

A year later, I can’t resist the siren’s call of a groupie memoir. Catherine James was kind of useless in the grand scheme of everything, and boy, she had the meanest mom ever. Bob Dylan inspired her to walk out of juvie and into the magical world of musician boyfriends. Chris O’Dell sang on the chorus for Hey Jude! She was on the roof when the Beatles performed for the last time! She banged Mick Jagger! Or was it Keith Richards? She also managed their tour and found time to do Ringo Starr too. Renaissance Woman.

Bohemians covered the culture of Bohemianism starting in the nineteenth century up until Anita Pallenberg runs around with weird performance artists. What I took from this book is that everyone is a poser nowadays. Keef mentioned The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones a few times in Life, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was funny. Mr. Booth made everything sound so grand, it would have been a great blog. Any bands want to take me on a whirlwind tour as their official blogger? Duh, The Last Party was so campy and great. Studio 54 sounded like something caught between the best thing ever and a total nightmare world.

A Moment of Distraction, mid-1860s, Gustave Leonard de Jonghe/Junge Dame mit Zeichengerät, 1816 Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein

A Potpourri of Fiction

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
Beautiful Days by Anna Godbersen
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Another series which calls to me and I cannot resist answering is Sookie Stackhouse. I don’t even like these books anymore, it’s just an instinctive reaction or something. I can’t even tell you what happened in this particular installment but I think there was a plot line involving vampires being forced to work in a club and wear sexy uniforms. I swear, this has happened in multiple vampire series I have read and I cannot fathom why. Hey! Why did I never think of writing Gossip Girl set in the 1920s? Oh, someone did it for me? Thanks. I will read Beautiful Days in two beautiful days and hide its cover on the Skytrain.

Boy, I sure didn’t like Swamplandia! What a load of misery. But I sure enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, it helped fill the void of the Reichenbach Fall for about three days. Now I just feel empty again.

Carl Herpfer/Lesbia, James Sant. English

Non-Fiction Potent Potables

Beauty, Disrupted by Carré Otis
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model by Ashley Mears
Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

Carré talked about her chihuahuas a lot and man, Mickey Rourke sure sounds like a jerk. Once he made Carré’s purse shoot her. Mindy Kaling’s book was really cute and funny, but it spent a lot of time explaining dated pop culture references in order to set up jokes for current pop culture references. What will happen if someone reads that book in five, ten years? They will need to be continually reprinting updated additions with new pop culture references to explain the now dated ones. I know, right?

Pricing Beauty lacked the gaudy drama I’ve come to expect with my books about models (see: Carré Otis). Actually it was a pretty interesting look at the modelling industry from a sociological perspective, but no one’s purse shot anyone, so it’s a wash. Female Chauvinist Pigs felt like I was reading someone’s thesis. I had a hard time taking it seriously.

If you listen to any of Jon Ronson‘s bits on This American Life, your enjoyment of The Psychopath Test will soar tenfold.

This Books installment features books read from December 2011 to February 2012.

Today is my birthday. I am twenty-nine years old. The last year of my twenties! I know age is “nothing but a number” but there’s always a whiff of symbolism to me about entering a new decade in life. I made a big decision today. I turned down a job offer that, while interesting and related to where I would like to take my career, happened to come just as I had made another choice on where to take my life, at least for a little while. Anything can happen in the next six months, but come the end of summer, I am planning on taking a leave of absence from my work and spending a year abroad.

This weekend Jordan and I had a terrific party celebrating our birthdays. We rented a karaoke machine and turned Duncan’s living room into what amounted to a cleaner, plusher, more comfortable asian-style karaoke room. Some of my best friends were there (and many were sadly missing!) and I had an ear-to-ear grin on my face all night and the morning after, glowing from the joy I’d felt that evening. I love my life in Vancouver and Victoria, but there’s always been an itch to set out on my own. My wonderful friends and family will always be here. I’ve seen good friends leave and return and it’s made me realise that while things can change, most things don’t change at all when you’re away.

I don’t hold my regrets well. I tend to think heavily about things I should have done or could have done. This is something I know I’ll regret not doing, before my life takes on those responsibilities that tie you to one place. I want to learn about myself, about what I’m like on my own, I want to meet people I wouldn’t meet otherwise (and, as anyone who has traveled knows, meet those people that live down your street back home too), I want to challenge my expectations of myself and I want to see new places that challenge my view of the world. I want to take photographs and write and read 100 books and yeah, just take a break from the computer and desk for a while too.

So I might be celebrating my 30th birthday abroad, without my safety net of friends and family and karaoke machines with bitchin’ set lists. It’s pretty scary but it’s really exhilarating too. The world just keeps getting smaller though and I’m ready to explore.

Photos by Anja Verdugo

]]> http://www.clevernettle.com/rachabees/2012/02/the-future/feed/ 3 http://www.clevernettle.com/rachabees/2012/02/dallas-road/ http://www.clevernettle.com/rachabees/2012/02/dallas-road/#comments Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:52:10 +0000 rachel anastasia http://www.clevernettle.com/rachabees/?p=2744

In February we usually get a nice streak of sunny weather (wonderful in that there’s sunshine, terrible in that you’re like “Spring is here! Summer is right around the corner!” and then it rains for four more months), so we went down to Dallas Road to take in some of this fleeting weather. Congratulations to Liz (and Sandy)– since these photos were taken she’s had a second boy!