They aren’t in your attic.  I have them:

Hello.  How are you?  Me, I’m doing fine.  My shower has been misbehaving lately, but otherwise, all is well.  Yourself?  Nothing new. Well, I have some news for you.

I, yes I, Wrong Side of the Camera, broadcasting from an undisclosed location, have OUT VOGUED YOU.  How did I do it?  Well, of course by using deception and underhanded trickery.

No of course not.  I stood with my camera and waited for a good image to appear in front of it.  And it sure did.  And that image OUT VOGUED YOU:

Last night we met many characters from the landmark miniseries “Garden Party.”  They included an aviator, a lady with a secret, several fashionable ladies, the ingenue and the rich guy up to no good.

Tonight we are going to meet several more.  Will the aviator find love?  Will the Garden Party find out the LADY’s secret?  Let’s see who else we will meet.

The schemer up to some real no good, but with innocent schemes, like selling bibles.  He knows your husband really wanted you to have the bible.  He knew it:

These look like mere ice cream sellers, but they know more.  A lot more about the revelers that they would be willing to disclose:

Is this the lady looking for lost love?  Is she perhaps looking for the aviator:

The complex poet:

The scheming inquiring photographer willing to get a photograph at any cost:

The lady just returning from far off lands, with many secrets:

Perhaps a young athlete, with a dark secret.  I say athlete because this is how athletes dressed in the time of a movie like Chariots of Fire.  Could he be an Olympic runner?  Could he be a romantic rival of the aviator:

The fresh faced band member who just hopes to get his chance to be in the spotlight:

And finally, the partygoers for whom the drama does not matter one bit.  They just people watch, but mostly enjoy one another:

 

I’ll admit it.  I get star struck.  Without getting too hoity-toity, I’ve had the chance to meet some well known people.  Well, not now, but in a previous life I got to meet them and seeing them up close I was struck by how normal some of them were.  Then others I was really impressed by.  But very rarely did I get honest to god star struck.

This past Sunday, I had a real star struck sort of a moment.  I got to see and briefly speak with this man:

Were you expecting a movie star?  Well this is a movie star in my world.  His name is Bill Cunningham and he has been the Style page photographer for the New York Times for the past 40 or so years.

Bill Cunningham’s stock in trade is photographing the look and style of people, not necessary famous people, just people. Frequently in the New York Times there are bunch of photos of puffy coats and ballerina slippers and I think to myself “I need to start wearing puffy coats and ballerina slippers.”  The man has an eye for style, that is very true.  Which is why I was extremely glad that I wore a lovely dress to the festivities and not shorts.  However, Mr Cunningham chose not to take my photo, but as is usually the case, I was more interested taking his photo than I was in him taking mine.  Of course I was checking out his camera as well.

Honestly, I was afraid of taking this man’s photograph.  And I’m not usually timid when I am safely behind the lens.  I usually pretend like I didn’t even take the photo.  I did get a few good ones off, I think:

It was funny because I was initially very star struck and kept saying to myself “there’s Bill Cunningham, there’s Bill Cunningham.” And then I wanted to photograph the band leader for the shindig (more on him in an upcoming entry) and I said to myself “hey Bill Cunningham, don’t step into my photo.”  But he’s Bill Cunningham, he can do what he wants.

And I did get him doing what he obviously loves to do the best:

Documenting.

Today, soon to be yesterday, I attended an annual event in New York called The Jazz Age party.  Obviously it is an event where the period styles, be it clothing or music of the Jazz Age are celebrated.  This event takes place on Governor’s Island, which has an insane retro charm and is the perfect backdrop for such an event.

Now let me explain something.  The Jazz Age and Governor’s Island are two of my favorite things in the entire world.  I mean sure, yeah, Piazza San Marco early in the morning, a midnight Danish sunset accompanied by the guttural laughter of a charming Dane do score up there pretty high in my esteem.  But the Jazz Age, with the sights and sounds and Governor’s Island, with it crumbling retro charm ring my bell just as much.

Early on in the day the whole island crowded with people in period costume and I started to think of them not as people in costume, but sort of players in a play or a movie.  I tried to put them together into a movie, perhaps called “Garden Party” but then I saw so many wonderful characters that I just decided to turn into a television event miniseries called “Garden Party.”

Let meet the characters.  First we have the stereotypical rich guy:

The ingenue who has seen a bit of the world:

The out of towners:

The beautiful, but doomed youth:

The ultra-fashionable ladies, unafraid of taking risks and other people’s opinions:

The mysterious guests with a BIG secret:

The new kid in town, looking for fast money:

The establishment, unwilling to accept a young parvenue into their midst:

The Wild Fruits:

And last, but certainly not least, the aviator just back from a wild adventure in the Far East, where he battled many foes in battle and in matters of the heart.  He comes now to the party to rejoin the love of his life but has she gone off with another?:

Well, you’ll just have to tune in tomorrow to see what’s next for our heros.  This is just part I of the landmark television event “Garden Party.”

State Administered health care

Rain all the time

Places called Ipswich and Hampshire

And guys that wear these things:

England.  Change the name to England.

You know.  The well known Italian landmark.  The coliseum, St. Mark’s Place, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Cannoli Pyramid:

Well, a lie because this isn’t Rome, but there are scooters and it does seem to look vaguely Italian: