FINALLY! THE BLOG!
After the overwhelming (in more ways than one) success of our September 29th launch, November 16-17 marked the 2nd Dr. Sketchy's Shanghai event, BARE BONES, presented with the help of our amazing production partners, Basement 6 Collective.
ALL PHOTOS BY RACHEL GOUK, THE WORLD'S MOST EXTREME PHOTOSOLDIER.
Our evening(s) began with co-hosts M.M. Plumm (left) and Elaine Chow (right) introducing our Dr. Sketchy's Shanghai mascot, Lam's Chairman Mao. Mao was a gift from our good friend Lam, a bartender at our first venue, who took a scrap piece from our foamboard props and made us the coolest silhouette cut-out of the Chairman we've ever seen.
Basement 6's Katy Roseland, Anneliese Charek, Arlene Fiddes, and Megan Dodd outdid the hell out of themselves by turning the main dining room of Bloc Shanghai into our 3-stage Boneyard for a two-night stretch.
Thanks are due to Pete Jackson of Shanghai247.net, who put together the evening's playlist, three hours of pencil-pulsing music sourced exclusively from Shanghai- and China-based bands. Which bands, you ask? Well, how about bands like...
-Ren Min Beats (whose song "Let's Get It On (Collective Souljah Mashup)" is featured on the BARE BONES video that you should definitely check out right now)
-AM444
-Reykjavictim
-Chacha + Wordysoulspeak
-Laura Ingalls
-Death to Ponies
-Friend or Foe
-Wanderlust
-Caliph8
-Threshold of Forest
...how about that? (Go visit their websites and download their music. It's good.)
Our project manager/costume designer, Arlene Fiddes of Basement 6, bedecked our star skeletons with custom-made cloaks and animal-inspired costumery for the first half of the show.
The magnificent Ms. Apphia Campbell served as our sultry snake.
The striking Silent Lion turned heads as the falcon...
...and when a miscommunication required a temporary substitute for the first half of night two, Katy Roseland was a heroic stand-in.
Superstar Sketchy's production assistant Shayla Alfonzo pulled overtime, helping in all aspects of organization as well as posing as our fiesty fox.
You can trust us. We're professionals.
During intermission, Basement 6 Collective grabbed our party animals and transformed them into the skeletons we had promised.
One hero even pulled up a spare stool and tried out a 10-minute pose for herself, which everyone admitted was pretty much outstanding.
Over the course of two nights, 120 artists produced over 800 pieces of art that were judged by a rotating selection of people we had working for us. Not quite sure who judged what. It was pretty chaotic.
What we do know is that lots of neat people won fabulous prizes from our sponsors Twin Horizon, Colorbox Arts, Factory 5, Simply China, Play the Spotlight Theatre, and Expat Cucina. We asked the lucky winners to stop by the photobooth for some excellent mugging of their own.
All in all, good times and fun art were experienced by all...
...even the butler. (Thanks, Mike.)
And that's what happened.
BIG BIG SHOUTOUTS to Rachel Gouk, who isn't in any of these photos because she took them, and Leia Luo, who translated everything into Chinese and then got so sick that she was in the hospital for two weeks. Thanks also to Ryan at Bloc, Basement 6 Collective, Christoph the Art Monkey, Mike Corayer, John Shea, Katy/Arlene/Megan/Anneliese/Rebecca of Basement 6, all our generous, sexy sponsors, the bagilions of artists who came to the event, and everyone else who's been blessedly patient for this blog to come out. You guys are tops.
See you on February 15-16 at 390 Shanghai for our next event, DragLove! PLUMMOUT.
With all my exhausted hugs and kisses,
M.M. Plumm
