Cancan, part 1

I gotta start at the beginning when it comes to my cancan adventure. Not that starting at the beginning will make the adventure more understandable, but I like to think it helps.

I get this call from a friend of mine, “Hey, would you mind putting on some fancy clothes and having your picture taken? It’s for the Hugos.”

I reply, “Ummm…yeah, okay, sure.” and head down to the LASFS clubhouse with a pile of gowns and a couple of oddities. They loved the get-up I’d built for the 1999 Grammys for when I was a seatfiller.

And quite frankly, I love it, too. I rarely wear it because I really gotta have a reason to. It’s bright teal velvet and never fails to stop traffic because it’s so unique. When I designed it, there wasn’t supposed to be a shawl, but while sewing the neckline, I screwed up. By that point, there was no turning back. All I could do was hide my mistake by piecing together my scraps into the shawl. In the end, I’d created a sort of superhero look, but I still think it kicks ass.

This was probably the closest I’d get to having a Hugo of my very own…and how cool is it that I got to pretend they were magical weapons? (Or at least that’s what was going through my mind as I posed. I was conjuring a Hugo rocket-powered forcefield or something!)

Anyhow, during the course of this mini-adventure, Maria randomly asked, “Do you dance? …Or…wait…would you like to dance? You can sew and we’re doing a halftime show in the Masquerade at WorldCon. It’s a lot of fun and we make our dresses. Wanna do it?” (Or something like that. I just remember she kept describing it long after I’d stopped truly comprehending what she was saying. I was stuck trying to wrap my brain around dancing in front of people while wearing some kind of costume that I would build.)

And then this little thought goes through my head: “How utterly strange to be asked. When else would I ever be asked to participate in such an adventure? I should do it. I can’t dance, but so what. This’ll be fun, a great experience and probably an even better story to tell.”

In the end, Maria (second from the right) and Wendy (second from the left) roped me in and I’m so glad they did. The experience was everything I’d hoped for and more…it gave me a good excuse to put my yoga flexibility to work.

Y’know, putting this entry together makes me want to dust off some of my other clothes and snap some more shots. I wish there were more hours in a day.

Special thanks to Chaz Baden (aka Hazel) for all the wonderful pics.

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