Photographer: Bethany Walter | Frivolous Universe

BETRAYED

By: Jessica Holmes

28-03-2012

Tiger, tiger, burning bright / In the forests of the night, / What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry? –William Blake

Better look… (twice…) (also, behind you…)

before this dress leaps.

Rawr. Eyes gonna getchya.

Story Story Night‘s BETRAYED: Stories of Et Tu, Brute? was on Monday. To prepare, I watched several episodes of “Who the $%!*! Did I Marry” on Netflix, half-assed practiced singing “Everything’s Alright” from Jesus Christ Superstar with Dan, and bought this Honeycomb tiger print and eyes vintage dress ($11, LUX). Job well done.

Fan photo by Jay Saenz. During the Jesus Christ Superstar bit. I am Mary Magdelene, and Dan is Jesus, also Judas. Talk about dual nature.

After a tumultuous BREAK-UP, this show was as smooth as butter. But I knows to pull out the claws when I needs to. Armor Bijoux claw, glass and silver necklace (borrowed, Bethany Walter).And the eyes have it. Rawr. Ralph Lauren black suede and wood clog pumps ($7, Good Samaritan).
Look, it’s my infinity awesome pen bird tattoo and frantic Story Story Night face, both apparently newsworthy, as featured in a revelatory personal article in the March 11 Sunday issue of the Idaho Statesman.

Unbelievable photos by FU’s Friday vixen, Bethany Walter.

So uh, sorry for “betraying” you by not doing a post last week. I’ll make it up to you by actually doing it someday. Then I will delete this very paragraph so internet posterity never knows I am perpetually tardy. (Insert evil laugh.)

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These Colors Don’t Run (but they do get damned tired….)

By: Anna D.

27-03-2012

Anna

Just 62 miles south of Boise is Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park – a sprawling wonder of a windswept centerpiece that juts loftily away from the high desert plains and rolling foothills of archetypal Southwest Idaho. The unpaved, rut-stricken Sand Dunes Road leads directly to the base of Bruneau’s tallest dune – an impressive 470 ft. mass of sand, whipped into long, billowing peaks by the relentless and torrential wind.

It appeared to me a towering sandcastle, shaped by massive, ghostly hands, and just looking at it stirred in me an overwhelming desire to conquer – to run up its sloping sides as quickly as my sturdy leather boots could carry me, feeling with each step the sucking, shifting deep of the sand.

Upon reaching the crest of the dune, my entire body was smacked hard by the phantom hand of the wind, my ankle-brushing turquoise skirt and true red jacket acting like sails on the mast of my body. I leaned forward, shut my eyes against the stark sunlight, and gave my weight to the wind. Standing on the crest of Bruneau, my body suspended by the sheer force of the wind, I felt free….it’s moments like these that keep me here, in this hopelessly flawed and endlessly awe-inspiring state of Idaho.

My feeling on the place I’ve chosen to call home often wavers greatly between paroxysms of joy and utter despondence…..but most days I hover directly in the middle, in a state of comfortable acceptance. Lately though, this state has shown its abrasive side more effectively than the sunbleached sandscape I fell in love with last weekend.

Idaho Senate Bill 1387 has severely shaken what little confidence I had in our state’s ability to focus on actual issues. I’m disgusted and insulted that the majority of our spring legislative session was caught up in the vacuous mire of this absurd argument. I find it particularly despicable that such an emotionally charged issue is being so hotly debated at a time when vastly more important discussions should be taking place. It’s such an unbelievably stupid argument, I wonder how anyone can take it seriously long enough to state their case on either side.

I love my home. I can drive less than an hour in any direction and be surrounded by sand, hiking deep in the mountains, lounging in natural hot springs, routing world-class rock climbs, and countless other incredible assets that make Idaho an unbeatable place to live. But it’s a damned good thing this state has so much to offer, because there’s plenty else in this little corner of the country that make Idaho an exhausting home as well….all the more reason to savor my blissful, fleeting moments lying contentedly in the sand.

Thanks so very much to Bethany Walter and Jeanne Glitzow for
capturing this glorious day with these lovely photos.

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GENDER BENDER: How RuPaul Taught Us to Let Go of the Perfect Woman

By: Kelly Lynae Robinson

18-03-2012

Kelly: Before the Story Story Late Night show, Jason and I spent all day (and the evening before) watching RuPaul’s Drag Race on Netflix. UH-MA-GAAHD, those queens are so fierce. When Bethany started taking pictures, I thought, “Channel RuPaul, girl. Werk it out. There’s no reason why you can’t pose as good as those queens.”

Nicole: I of course had to jump on the RuPaul drag wagon so Kelly and I could gossip over whose fake T&A we liked more. Watching those lady boy’s made me want to dress in drag, too. But the queens are just too good at bein’ ladies. So my inspiration for the week was lady as ladyboy:

K: I love you as a drag king! I feel vaguely samuri-inspired in my vintage black acetate, um… robe? jacket? kimono-y thing?

N: Honey, who cares what you call it, yous is workin’ it!

N:Part of my goal with this look was to fuck with gender roles a bit. I After using my minuscule make-up collection and shoddy skills to painstakingly paint my face into the worlds sorriest drag queen, I tried make my body as masculine and flat as possible. I’m wearing Jason’s old pin-stripe trousers with silk shell and second-hand Levi’s vest.

K: I love that you’re perching your beat-face-but-still-in-street-clothes-ass on a jungle-gym. There’s a lot going on this picture and I just wanna xoxo all of it it! Like this picture of RuPaul as Barack and Michelle Obama. I want to squeeze it!

N: Even as a man, Ru has been lookin’ fierce since at least 1979, when this shot was taken:

K: In keeping with the theme of the night, NAKED, I picked a nude princess dress. It’s rare that I go for all neutrals, so I wanted a bulky, dramatic silhouette to keep it interesting. I liked feeling so covered up on a night of stories about being in the buff.

N: I love the play with proportion here. Long legs, tiny waist, broad shoulders. I also stuck with a neutral color palate to keep my look androgynous. My mint-green nails and Liz Clairborne watch are my two feminine details.

K: Plus the shoes! Girly!

K: RuPaul is such a glimmering specimen of femininity, that when I see her, something in me lets go of that pedestal-perched supernatural female, perfect in form and expression. I no longer subconsciously strive for a platonic form. It originated from men, and it has been fully realized by a man.

N: I say, let the queens be the only ones to strive for an out-of-reach standard of feminine beauty. It takes so much padding and make-up that no real woman could ever expect to fill it. I’ll pull what I like best from everyone, girls, boys, girl-boys and boy-girls alike.

K: Here here! It’s all fair game. Ties, spats and suspenders. Sequins, petticoats and corsets. I’ve recently taken home a pair of Dan Costello‘s slightly-shrunken trousers. I can’t wait to wear them in a gender-bending ensemble.