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Special Sales, Salumi, and... A Stripper?
October 18, 2007
I don't get out on school nights as often as I should, but I didn't want to miss the book party for
Kelly DiNardo's Gilded Lili: Lili St. Cyr and The Striptease Mystique held at
Sonoma on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Kelly and I knew each other online for years as freelance writers, but didn't meet in person until a couple of months ago -- and then found out we both grew up in the same dusty, moth-hole-ridden corner of New York State, and bonded. She also regularly hosts get-togethers for
D.C.'s girl-erati in media and PR. I knew any party Kelly threw would be fun.
Crosstown traffic was surprisingly light, so I arrived unfashionably early, while Kelly, her dapper boyfriend JP, and indefatigable publicist Amber Pfau were still arranging rows of cookie favors from
Buzz (I'm sorry I don't have a picture to show you of these sugar cookies iced with shapely dancer's legs, but they were actually even more delicious than they were beautiful... ). I didn't want to get in the way, so I wandered over to the book table, bought my copies, and spent a happy half hour chatting with
Olsson's Tony Ritchie about real estate prices on Notting Hill, the challenges of sell-through, and
the brand-new Olsson's Crystal City store. I plan to head down to it for their October 29th Halloween event with Eric Nuzum (
The Dead Travel Fast), which is being catered by Roberto Donna's Bebo Trattoria. (There are, after all, a few perks to living in D.C.)
I hit the hors d'oeuvres table with USA Weekend editor Michelle Haddie (whose name I may or may not be spelling correctly), remarking to her that the
salumi platter looked like something out of a Tony Soprano dream sequence: prosciutto, bresaola, salami... it was yummy. However, the real treat came at 7, when
Miss Kitty Victorian carefully descended the stairs in heels, coif a marvel of curls and twists, to perform. After all, what would a book party for a book about one of the most celebrated burlesque performers ever be without... a burlesque performer?
Ritchie and I decided to keep our front-row seats, for the sake of learning about the book, of course. Miss Kitty Victorian performed a fan dance correct in every detail, from the black-feather plumes she brandished to her metal pasties to her legs... tattoo'd with stocking seams. And yes, those were definitely tattoos. Like Kelly's lively biography of Miss St. Cyr, Miss Victorian's style reveals enough to entertain... and inform.
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on October 18, 2007 | Comments (4)
