Lipps, Choki, and Gatsby

Although the title sounds like some sort of bizarre rival to Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, it is in fact all about my modeling job yesterday.

For the last few weeks, I've been going to a dance studio to rehearse for an event put on by Choki Choki magazine, and sponsored by GATSBY. I was recruited by Harajuku Lipps a month and a half ago, and got to know the staff as well as that of ETC Dance School.

Yesterday was the event, and it was at Shibuya O-Crest. First, though, I had to meet up with everyone in Harajuku at the salon itself.

Takeshita-dori at 7:30 in the morning ranks up there as one of my creepiest experiences in Japan. There was absolutely nobody around, and the silence was overwhelming.

Once at the salon, I got my hair braided and pinned, got my makeup done, and got some tattoos:

Then we hopped into taxis and went over to the venue.

That's Ken, the vocalist/guitarist from that band I mentioned the first time. There were talks of playing together in the future. I don't know what will come of that, but it's exciting nonetheless.

It was really cool playing in a venue that big again. Well, not playing; dancing, I guess. The staff other salons that were presenting were good buddies with most of the other salons including Lipps so it was a whirlwind of getting introduced to ridiculously cool-looking dudes and distressingly pretty girls.

It's interesting how many contacts you make at events like these. You meet other models who want to meet someone with similar experiences, or you meet people with other interests that you share, or you meet people who can cooperate with you and help you out, and you meet people who can learn from you. You fulfill a wide variety of roles at the same time. Yeah, sometimes you meet people who are just there to act all cool, but they tend not to get many more jobs after that.

The performances consisted of us 4 dancers, some hairstylists, and a painter: as we danced/got the wigs cut, the painter was toward the back of the stage, painting a big picture. Watching the video later it was quite impressive.

But that was but one of the extra things we had to worry about. As dancers, we hadn't thought about the fact that there would be real paint, and real plastic under out bare feet, and of course since there would be a lot of fallen hair, it would be easy to slip. I didn't realize how easy it really would be to slip on a bunch of hair until I stepped on some as I was moving across the stage. I didn't slip or lose my balance or do anything out of the ordinary at all, but I do remember thinking "wow, I could easily fall and make the 'blooper' reel of the DVD."

There were cameras and video cameras on us at almost all times, it seemed, as the thing was filmed to be a DVD. No idea when that'll come out, though.

The performance went off swimmingly; no mistakes and we were all riding a pretty positive feeling.

That's our choreographer, Yusuke, who I had a total mancrush on. Afterward, when we were leaving the after-party for just the salon, he took me aside and gave me his business card! I couldn't have been happier.

Right after the performance, though, some of the Gatsby people had bought us a bunch of beer and we went to the bar in the hall and got to chill out with all the other salon peeps. Then we went to the one for Lipps only for shabu-shabu and sukiyaki and lots of really amazing conversation. I go in tomorrow to get a free haircut/straightening on the house! Awesome.

I thought about how great that experience was, and compare it to the toughness of doing the band. Sometimes I wonder if I'm making the right decisions, but right now I'm coasting on this good feeling and new agencies. I don't anticipate too much more work coming my way on that front, but what a great memory. :)