Velvet: good gala, poor posing

The nice thing about writing this blog is that I have 100 percent control over what goes in it (the downside, of course, is that I can't blame anyone else for it).

I get to decide which pictures show up (read: the flattering ones) and which ones don't (read: the ones in which my arms look like bloated watermelons).

Of course, I'm not the only one out there taking pictures. And I have no control over any of those.

You know what I mean. We've all been victimized by the Facebook bad-photo-tagging phenomenon. We've all seen three-chinned, lazy-eyed, stupid-grinned pictures of ourselves show up online thanks to the kindness (evilness) of friends. And we may have used "remove tag" once or twice.

It happens. We should be better trained to spot those roving cameras and know how to handle them.

Last Thursday, local photog Samuel Cousins was out at Velvet doing what he does: taking multitudes of photos. He did a nice job capturing the event, the fashion show, the dancing, etc. [view them all here].

I failed to bring my own camera that night (too consumed with making sure my skirt wasn't tucked into my pantyhose to remember to bring it). So I'm thoroughly appreciative of this nice pic Sam snapped of some friends and I hamming it up a wee bit for the camera.

This picture is good for the memories.

I'm similarly appreciative for this photo==>

It's good for teaching me how to stand like a moron in a photo.

Ah well, can't win 'em all. But I can refuse to include the third photo (in which my arm does, in fact, look like a bloated watermelon). It's my blog, dang it!

[In case you missed the previous reference, see all of Sam's photos from Velvet X on Flickr]

Velvet's back, sans the porta-potties

It's Velvet time again - the annual fundrasier for Rippleffect. And if I were forced to quote 'Heathers' in my effort to describe the event, I'd say, "It's only, like, the social event of the season."

This is Velvet's 10th year - and is sure to be a reinvention.

I've been lucky enough to attend the last two Velvets at Portland Company on India Street. Sure, it was a sparse warehouse space, but organizers and volunteers always did a bang-up job transforming the place.

The room would soon fill with swanky people-about-town, dressed to the nines and tossing money to the cause. Of course, the leaky roof and porta-potties were always a treat, too. But hey, it was part of the experience.

This year, the Portland Expo will witness the transforrming effects of the Velvet crew. Yes, it will look stellar. No, it won't look like the gymnasium you rocked out in during your senior prom.

I volunteered yesterday to help with some of the set up. Four of us tackled some monster backdrops that will stand tall along the walls.

They look cool, but after wrestling four of them over the course of an hour or two I have to admit I'm still holding a slight grudge against them. (Why do you have to be so difficult, backdrops?!?)

The folks from Moonlighting were busy setting up an intricate lighting system.

And of course, what would Velvet be without the piles of incredible auction items. I got to peek at some of the goods and had to step away from the table to stop myself from man-handling everything.

There was still much going on when I left, but you could already see how the place was going to come together.

Tonight will surely be talked-about experience. If you don't have tickets already, GET THEM.

Tickets and more info are available on the Velvet web site.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, check out some pics from last year. Good-looking group of folks, ain't they?