The Lady Satine hails from New Orleans and came recommended by the esteemed Sabrina Chap.
Normally we ignore email from Sabrina—we have enough trouble in our lives, thankyouverymuch—but this time, for whatever reason (we were drunk), we read this one message and I’m glad we did. Â We’ve never had a polesque performer at Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore, simply because—well, Russell didn’t install a pole for some reason. The Lady Satine had her own, though, and the results were amazing.
If I recall, that August session started out a little bumpy—Satine’s side view mirror exploded on her way to the Windup Space (mysteriously, with no warning) and I accidentally got on an express bus and ended up getting dropped off somewhere around Loch Raven and got to the Windup over an hour late. Maeve is a dynamo, though, and everything got set up in time anyway.
. . . and The Lady Satine. Look at those damn poses. Just look. You know that hurt for at least a few days after. I seriously doubt there are many drawing sessions like that in the history of the planet. No, really.
We had an assortment of drawing contests too, with the winners receiving either concoctions from Russell behind the bar, a pound of addictively delicious coffee from our new sponsor Turtle Creek Coffee, or a neat art book from Baby Tattoo Books, who runs the LA branch of Dr. Sketchy’s.
Special thanks to The Lady Satine for risking life and limb for your drawing pleasure; thanks to our generous sponsors Turtle Creek Coffee and Baby Tattoo Books; thanks to Russell of the Windup Space for slinging booze and tunes; thanks to Maeve for holding down the door and helping shove around chairs and stage crap; thanks to Alexis for emceeing; and of course thanks to everyone who sent in drawings, most of which can be seen in the video above.
This was Cherie Sweetbottom’s first time posing for Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore, and it was a doozy. Â We pretty much got a landslide of great drawings after the July session. Â Take a look at the video—it’s one of the ones where all the pieces definitely came together, from the music, to the lighting, to Cherie being an awesome model.
Wow.
By the way, this was the first session sponsored by Turtle Creek Coffee, a happy coincidence since Cherie Sweetbottom happens to be the official Honey Badger of Turtle Creek Coffee.
Don’t know anything about Turtle Creek Coffee? Â Let Mab Just Mab fill you in…
I swear to God, I had no idea who Turtle Creek was before I saw that—I laughed so hard that a few a weeks later, when I realized I was running out of coffee, it seemed only fair to order it from someone who’d amused me that much. Â There are, at my count, FOUR folks who’ve modeled for Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore in that video, including Cherie. Â If you need some coffee, buy some from them. Â It’s honestly amazing coffee.
We had contests for Baby Tattoo Books as well, who, if you didn’t know, run the Dr. Sketchy’s LA branch. Â They have a pretty amazing line of books. Â Check them out.
Tons of thanks to Cherie Sweetbottom for doing a great job and inspiring some stunning drawings; thanks to Hot Todd Lincoln for doing a cameo in her act; thanks to our generous sponsors, Baby Tattoo Books and our brand new sponsor, Turtle Creek Coffee; thanks to Russell of the Windup Space for slinging booze and tunes; thanks to Jeff for some of the great photos you see below; thanks to Maeve for running door and helping coral chairs and stage props; thanks to Alexis for emceeing; and finally thank you to everyone who sent in drawings, most of which should be in the video above.
We took off the month of May since our Dr. Sketchy’s date fell on Memorial Day, and though everyone swears the opposite, we learned a long time ago no one shows up on Memorial Day. 🙂  Our June session, though, was the fifth anniversary of Dr. Sketchy’s Baltimore and GiGi Holliday of Gilded Lily Burlesque helped us ring it in.
The video below is a little different than the normal ones—in the early days, years before we started making these videos, first Bill (our first door guy), and then I, filmed a lot of the sessions, but when we tried to assemble the footage into something watchable, it just plain didn’t work.
I mean, let’s be honest here. Â No matter how gorgeous or talented the model is, they’re just sitting or standing still for twenty minutes. Â How do you make that into something interesting? Â It took a long time to figure out, but eventually we did. Â Sadly, that left mountains of footage from Dr. Sketchy’s early days that never got used.
So, for the anniversary, I cobbled together a bunch of clips from any older sessions that never got to be assembled into a video and made a little opening reel for the fifth anniversary session video.
Five years, technology-wise, is a pretty long span as well, so some of it’s a little rough. Â Still, the sprint down memory lane is pretty neat. Â Take a look.
Most Dr. Sketchy’s sessions go off with only minor hitches. Â You might not know this, but for whatever damn reason, our past few anniversary sessions have been cursed. Â Last year, the City of Baltimore towed my Zipcar with the stage and all the stage props 45 minutes before start time—it cost $300 to get it back.
This year? Â Freaking tornados over the Inner Harbor.
I mean, REALLY?
Not only that, but the battery in the video camera failed (permanently), which almost stopped there being a video record of it at all.
[sigh]
Hopefully the curse doesn’t apply to our 100th session in a few months. Â Oh, did you know that? Â In February, we’ll have our 100th session.
You might want to go to that one.
Back to the fifth anniversary—GiGi can get anyone out of a bad mood. Â Watch that video again—I swear, she’s laughing and hamming it up in every clip. Â The clip at the end cracks me up every time. Â She put on a hell of a performance, too.
We had drawing contests of course, too, where brave souls in the audience won weird concoctions from Russell behind the bar and the truly blessed won books from our generous sponsor Baby Tattoo Books, who happens to run the LA branch of Dr. Sketchy’s besides being an awesome art book publisher.
Humongous thanks to GiGi Holliday for being a hell of a model and a hell of a performer (not only that, she put on our wedding after-party just a few months later); thanks to our generous sponsor Baby Tattoo Books; thanks to Russell of the Windup Space for slinging booze, tunes, and drunks; thanks to Maeve for doing door and helping do all those behind-the-scenes things that make everything work; thanks to Hot Todd Lincoln for helping me get the second half of the striped stage to the Windup with his car (we ended up not using it this session but, Lord, did it come in handy at the Comic-Con session a few months later); and thanks, of course to, Alexis for emceeing.
Lots and lots and lots of thanks as well to all the folks who sent their drawings in, which you can see in video above.
Dr. Sketchy's Baltimore 