midnight bike rides: suit style

most people who know me know that i use any and every excuse to dress up. halloween, zombie walks, drag shows, theme parties... in fact, even just any regular dinner party at my house often ends up in me and my friends going through my closet, trying on all of my hats and vintage frames. so when i heard about les "cavaliers de la pleine lune," my heart went all aflutter! bike rides AND costumes??! yes! from the invite:

Le temps est venu de chevaucher vos montures pour une autre randonnée nocturne sous l'oeil protecteur de la pleine lune. Le départ se fera samedi 29 mai à 23h sur le parvis de l'église St-Roch. Vous êtes invités à apporter vos lumières, lampes de poche, costumes bigarrés et autres éléments festifs qui feront de cette randonnée une réussite!

loosely translated for you non-frenchies: "the time has come to saddle up and go for a (k)night ride under the watchful eye of the full moon... bring your bike lights, flashlights, fancy costumes and any other festive elements to make this a successful night!" this pretty much amounts to what my ontarion cyclist friends referred to as Midnight Bike Rides, but with some added "fance" as natalie would put it (definatalie is definitely rubbing off on me these days). so i invited a bunch of friends and delved into my closet to see what would be most cavalier for this occassion.

i ended up finding my bow tie and immediately knew what i wanted to wear; my tuxedo style white button up dress shirt, high waisted pencil skirt, backseam stockings, beaten up boots. i decided against suspenders and decided to braid my hair kind of femme-y in the back even with the men's hat. here are some pictures. (excuse the crappy webcam photos!)

karina and i know how to have fun.

i got tons of compliments all evening, lots of comparisons to charlie chaplin and being asked what i was all dressed up for/who i was dressed up as. in reality, i was trying to channel one of my style inspirations. the one, the only, janelle monae. she's has been making the round on fashion blogs (like here at the always wonderful threadbared and over here at dapperq) these days, but i've been a fan of hers for years now! (don't make me prove it)

honestly, i would give anything to have access to janelle monae's closet these days... she rocks spotless saddle shoes, perfectly tailored suits (which do not come cheap, my friends... even the crappy suit i have cost me more than i would like to admit) and beautiful bold bowties.

and of course, if you haven't already seen it, here her latest video for "tightrope" that everyone is going crazy for.

also: the longer my hair gets, the more i want to wear suits, suspenders, ties and bowties... but this topic deserves a post of its own.

speaking of bowties: the lovely dapperqueers blog is having a bowtie contest for the month of june! check out their blog if you want some bowtie wearing inspiration, they post amazing style.

so without further ado, here are some more pictures of the wonderful saturday evening i spent with karina and a dozen other midnight bike riders. what friendly and lovely strangers.

waiting for the other midnight (k)night riders




the crowd assembles! we can soon begin our adventure


as we waited around, two people asked me if i was part of a performance, if there was going to be a play. i suppose wearing a bowtie and hat will do that.




taking a water fountain break after a little ride


we decided to make a little fire by the side of le fleuve st. laurent and ending up having lovely conversations for hours! a really nice group of people.



we headed home around 2:30 in the morning, and will hopefully reunite in a month's time, under the full moon!

winter's a drag

on saturday evening, i threw a drag themed belated birthday party at my house entitled "winter's a drag." i'm really trying to start this winter off on a good note, and face it with positive energy instead of "wah wah it's cold and winter and long and dead" attitude that i normally have. warm boots, good coats, nice hats, and most of all, affection from friends. movie watching, activist organizing, dance parties and warming our bodies with the wonderful exilir known as booze. i did all of the above this weekend, but the highlight by far was doing drag with some of my great friends. for many of them, it was their first time doing drag! i was very impressed.

the inspiration for my ensemble was my very favourite silent film chap, buster keaton. i threw my outfit together thanks to the thrift store i work at and some old suspenders i had never gotten around to wearing. so while i was looking at this picture for inspiration, i was trying to tuck my hair under hat to pass for a short haired chap. this has never, ever been a problem for me doing drag before, as i've always had a bob at longest or short hair. frustrated, i take all the bobby pins out and let my hair fall.

as i look in the mirror, my jaw drops.


i'm sam from benny and joon!

which, if you've never seen the film, is ironic in itself since sam (johnny depp's character in the film) is an eccentric young man who models himself after buster keaton! so i decide to roll with it, even if it means i look more like a woman dressed as a man that as a full-fledged drag king.

but my friends, on the other hand! they were impressive. here we have aj, inspired by aj from the backstreet boys of course, but also a dash of justin timberlake a la "dick in a box."


yeah, you can totally see it, can't you?

here are a few more for your enjoyment:

it was a really lovely night and i feel pretty lucky to know all these great people.

this was the 6th or 7th time i've done full-on drag. the last time was in toronto, just before i moved to québec city, at the wonderful COLOUR ME DRAGG. it was a really wonderful event to showcase qpoc performers and i think it has been redone since! i tried to go as a greaser type character but it didn't really work out. i think my friend morgan has better photos but for the time being:

i'm the one with the beer in my hand and the other one covering my mouth, scandalized!

i helped organize and participated in drag shows in peterborough, ontario, and aside from my very first one, always went with my queer friends. on saturday, in québec city, i'm pretty sure nearly everyone at the party identified as straight, which made for an interesting atmosphere in itself. at first it was really hard adjusting to having left the queer communities i had found and felt at home in in ontario, but now that i feel comfortable enough with a lot of my newer friends i feel like i can do things like throw a drag party and everyone will have a great time.

there are a lot of ideas i'd like to unpack about drag; namely, this idea of feeling "at home" in a certain kind of clothing. there were a lot of discussions around ideas of comfort, like "i feel comfortable wearing a dress, but not makeup" or "sure, i'll put makeup on, but there's no way i'm putting on a dress." anne-marie, who dressed as a holly golightly inspired drag queen, wasn't even comfortable walking half a block in the hat and heels she was wearing. two female friends who took a cab to my house were called "monsieur" by the cab driver and corrected him, and we talked a bit about if we would feel "comfortable" walking around late on a saturday night in drag. where does the line between comfort and safety blur? or are they parallel lines that simply follow the same path?

we all have our own ideas of our personal sense of style and how we want to present ourselves, but when it comes to gender bending we have to confront ourselves with questions of our own choices and influences. why do we feel more comfortable in item x, and incredibly uncomfortable in item y? what wouldn't we ever wear, and why? is it our own embodied comfort, the actual physicality of it, or is it how we think others might see, or read us? and of course, is it simply a combination of both.

clearly i haven't quite fleshed out these ideas yet, but they are occupying my mind and i think the more i do drag the more i'll work them out.

i'd really like to start using flickr again, but i don't have a paid account. but feel free to add me as a contact, as with any luck i will be rolling in the dough soon. see all the photos from the set here.

last but not least, i recently made a mix of the songs i couldn't stop listening to in 2009. click here to download it if you'd like to hear it! i've shared it everywhere else, so why not here?

thanks for reading!

late night walks in my city

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i just came home from a long late night walk in le vieux; the city i live in is the oldest one in north america, and sometimes i forget to look around and admire it. but once the snow starts falling, i feel like i live in the world's most beautiful snowglobe and can't help but fawn over everything. this time last week, there was no snow on the ground! right now i am kept awake by the sound of snowplows taking care of the 40 or so centimetres that fell largely on wednesday.

anyway, my friend salima has recently decided to move apartments and i had always said i should bring my tripod over and take pictures in her amazing old building. so now that there is a deadline, i took some. i'm not so satisfied, but i think there are a few worth sharing.










i always wished i was a hitchcock heroine






watching over my city
stop following me

a very rare sight in québec city: a canadian flag


anyone home?






safe and sound, my home.

sorry for the poor quality editing, i don't have photoshop and hope to remedy this over the holidays. but! i hope you understand why i love my city so.

also, coming soon! my top ten thrifts of 2009. there have been some pretty epic ones this year. the coat in the above photos is definitely up there.

zombie walk 2009

zombie silent film stars

i am a big fan of zombie walks, even though i've only participated in them twice. my first venture into the world of zombie walks was last year in toronto, when i went with my friend morgan. as you can see above, we had a lot of fun getting dressed up and walking the streets scaring small children.

recently, i was complaining to my friends in québec city that it is too bad there isn't an annual zombie walk here... and then a week later i discovered there was! this past friday, i failed in convincing 99% of my friends to come with me, but successfully got my good friend ashlee to come. and boy were we the happiest zombies you've ever seen. most everyone else had tons of blood or dirt or other various things but ashlee and i were limited to white face paint and eyeliner. i think we did well with what we had!



yes, you are seeing things properly: there is snow on the ground. in october. it snowed all day on thursday and made for some great eerie photos. here are some of my favourites. i wish i had taken some of the group but it would be out of character for a zombie to be taking group photos! braaaaaaaaaainssss!!!






pre-zombie, post-zombie


zombie team! zombie widows







edited to add: just found some group photos! some are great, this is my favourite



can you find me among the happy zombies? it's like where's waldo... but with zombies!