Bittersweet beginning and end, Red Wind Casino and the Jacuzzi Party.

This week, I actually worried there might be something wrong with my feet. They hurt so intensely that after the Beres Hammond concert on Wed night, i hobbled back to my car, even wearing sneakers. But, on thursday when i took my first painful step out of bed onn the way to a day of pedal discomfort at Robert Leonard, I realized that It probably had something to do with being upright nearly 20 hours a day for four days in a row. Monday and tuesday I assisted Glynne, the makeup artist for whom I do wedding hair during the summers, at a photo shoot in Yelm. We had to be there at 5AM. Yelm is east of Olympia, and actually to be precise, I dont think we were in Yelm proper as we were at the Red Wind Casino on the Nisqually reservation. Glynne picked me up at three thirty AM so we could get coffee and not be late. I got in bed early but couldnt get to sleep before eleven. The shoot was an advertisment for the Red Wind Casino. I had never been to a casino before and was pretty positive that i hadnt been missing too much. Day was breaking as we drove through the skeleton crew of trees that logging left along side the highway to obsure the massacre of the forests, even on the rez. We showed up at about the same time as the wardrobe lady, a middle aged woman whose cuteness diminshed with each disparaging comment she made about herself and her career. After a slew of self putdowns about her hair, her thighs (a TINY woman,) she actually said that she was having her lifelong dream of earlobe reduction surgery and that after that she was sure that she'd have the self confidence she was lacking...her earlobes were exactly like mine except WITHOUT the scars I have from ill conceived peircings. SHe was totally serious. As Amani once said to a Vivaceite whose good looks paled next to his annoying personality: "You get less charming every time I see you."Then "the talent" arrived. I resent that term, is everone else NOT the talent? Only the people who have nothing else to do but show up, get made up, dressed and pull their teeth back from their lips when the light flashes are referred to as talent? Lets call the photographers and stylists talent and call them the models or something. On Mon the hired talent was an older bellevue couple, conservatively stylish and average looking, with nice smiles. The second day it was a pretty young blonde woman with a narrow face, a vey energetic redhead with an infectious smile and a hopelessly handsome, young looking thirty something man with salt and pepper silver hair who could have given richard gere a run for his money in the photogenic category. THe rest of the players in the shots were the young employees of the casino. Four local white Yelm girls, one short round and flawlessly beautiful indian girl, and a very muscular young man of mixed race who was totally ripped with high yellow skin and green eyes. From the looks of it, and judging by the (lack of) competition, that brother probably gets more ass than he knows what to do with. The girls were hopelessly inappropriately dressed with low rise jeans and tank tops revealing tribal and butterfly tattoos on lowerbacks, navel peircings. Their hair was uniformly long, fine and striped with blonde highlights. Exept for the indian girl who had her hip lenth black hair in a braided bun the second day after I braided it to get it out of the way the first. She was the dealer, she and a charismatic asian man named Dong traded off. Waiting in front of the huge flashy lodgestyle casino, complete with circular driveway and parking garage, stray dogs scuttled by, carless young indian kids walked down the road to one of the mobile home parks or ranch style houses that lie along the highway, reminders that we were on a reservation. The ad exec who booked all of us is a business minded, buxom, young czcech woman and the photographer a funny silver templed jewish looking guy who made "the talent" smile by saying things like "c'mon! were having a blast! Losing money is so much fun! I could stay here forever!" Glynne and I did everyones hair and makeup by 6:30 ish then perfected and smoothed so that we could change their looks for the second shoot and be out of there by the time the casino opened by 9. The talent looked perfectly goomed and ecstatic to be gambling. One of the girls who looked like a mini-Gisele and the yellow brother were clearly, ahem, involved, and it was so funny to watch all the internal communication between all the kids. they were good, though, very professional and cute. The casino on the other hand was exquisitely depressing. The indian theme is weird; medicine creek deli, chinook lounge, sqaw giftshop. The predominantly white trash and indian employees, all when asked said, i must say, that they loved their jobs, i wonder if there were jobs to love before the casino opened though. They are in the middle of nowhere. By 8:50 as we were wrapping, there were people lining up at the doors. Mostly retired people, all ages were clearly operating on low or fixed incomes with sweatpants, unkempt hair, mostly unsmiling. In stark contrast to the grinning, gleamingly coiffed, hwp talent that we had just captured playing roulette and slots with such wild and enthusiastic abandon. When I came back through the main doors to get the steamer, the waiting crowd showd signs of real agitation that I was being let in. I assured them that they werent open yet and I was just retreiving my things. WHen I asked them what the advantage was to getting there early, they told me they wanted to make sure they got on certain machines. Lucky machines I guess. I couldnt get the steamer in the car fast enough. Dont you see the big fancy new buildings? Does your house look that good? Dont you see the owners' expensive cars and nice shoes? Dont you notice the overflowing drinks and cornucopia of fried food and big steaks? THE HOUSE IS WINNING!!! ITS WINNING!! AND YOURE NOT WINNING, IN FACT YOURE LOSING!! Youre losing your money, your time, your fitness, your self eteem, your employablity, your credit, your kids, your dreams. My dad told us when we were very young that gambling was the worst form of robbery, because it gave poor people false hope while it took everything. It would let you taste a small success and then leave you with less than nothing. My great grandfather, who I never knew, on my dad's side, had a gambling problem, so it was just one of those things that "we dont do." I am so glad. What a charade. And its all on Indian land, that is just the worst. Why couldnt we negotiate some other, healthy thing that they could have a monopoly on? Why cant Theme parks or movie theatres only be located on reservations? Let the palefaces be responsible for the sins of gambling. Yeech.
Other notes about the Beres Hammond show, besides that my feet were killing me. First off; it was fan-fucking-tastic. Really. And Ill be the first to say that most live reggae sucks. His backup singers are amazing, he has a voice like a soul-angel, and the band was inspired and perfectly arranged.
Secondly, I did the electric slide on stage with Marcia Griffiths, queen of roots dancehall. What could I do?? Of course I know the electric slide! She was like "Who een heyre cyan do the eelectric slide?" "Yuh gwaan tell me nuhbody fi Seattle know deh eelectric slide?" I couldnt just leave her hanging, about to do her biggest hit thinking that no one here can do a dance that hit the floor TWENTY freaking years ago. So, I did it. With one other girl, a black girl who kept messing up. I had to stop us completly and make the crowd count to the one and restart. Marcia danced with me. It was fun. And funny. And a 60+ Jamaican dread asked Chloe for my phone number afterward. Hello? No!! Thirdly, in the middle of the show my attention was drawn to a somewhat handsome man wearing a BEAUTIFUL suit with a hankercheif which matched his tie and gorgeous pointy shoes. I told him he looked nice, we chatted. He was a New Yorker (of course) in town for business for a couple weeks. I gave him my number withthe hopes that hed make a good new york connection. He called me the next day to invite me to his JACUZZI PARTY with some of his homies and suggested (get this!!) that I should bring some of my GIRLFRIENDS and that it would be crackin!!!! What the hell do you think this is?? Girls gone wild Seattle? Do I look like a ho, or more specifically a madam, for your sausage fest hottub at the Fairmont!! NO THANKS!! Everyone is a complete disappointment. It leads me to believe, though, that invites like that are often successful! Bastard. He shouldnt dress so nicely, it was false advertising. Ariel pointed out that bastards come in all kinds of wrappers. I knew that. It was just an unpleasant reminder. He has since called SEVERAL times, even after my chilly message turning down his invitation, for tourism information with questions like "are there any good restaurants in the underground city?" Yeah, lots, bastard. Theres a brand new Bahama Breeze down there, and a Ruth's Chris.
Friday was my last day at school. Estelle brought me a card and a box of chocolate covered matzohs, :) and said "So, youre leaving the fifteenth, so youll be free the night of the fourteenth to give me my last cut? Or we could do it while youre waiting in the airport, you wont haive a thing to do!" Shes great. Mrs Alexander was sad and didnt want to get out of my chair. I will miss her the most. I'll be keeping in touch though, and Im gonna make sure I see her before I go. She gave me ten dollars and told me to go have a drink. Abena and Camille came in and sat at my station and chatted just like we always did, exept it was the last time. It was a very weird and nostalgic feeling. I cant beleive Ill never have to ask Ms V to check my cut again! It wouldnt be so bad if I werent moving, but I know I wont talk to most of these people again, and its been an intense year and a half together. Hopefully one of us will be organized enough to keep track of where everyone ends up so we can have a reunion one of these days.
I iced my feet and got a couple of good nights of shut eye. Im feeling a lot better. Aside from wanting to crack Crystal (the embittered and trashy other assistant) in the grill, robert leonard is a blast. I love watching becca and my cuts are better by leaps and bounds. I assisted Luke with a thermal reconditioning treatment on tuesday, an excruciatingly long straightening process which doesnt destroy your hair but takes out all whisper of wave and curl. THe key is, and this is why its called thermal, you flatiron the hair pin straight BEFORE you neutralize and after the relaxer (which smells like perm/ass) has processed, so the cystine bonds in the hair are reset straight, then you neutralise the dry straightened hair, cement the bonds and TA DA, your hair looks really weird and un-naturally straight! Thatll be $500 dollars please! I was there with him until 7 and we started at three.
I will be at RL Tue and Wed then...I"M DONE!! I have 14 hours left until 1650! Heavenly Father. Im not sure what to do next, Im considering Piracy..