Lupercalia Roundup: “Live Fashion TV” With Dusty Childers at Pop Friday, JMSN Concert, Spanish Masters for Michael’s Birthday.

Lupercalia is a pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed from February 13-15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility.

Lupercus, a Roman god central to the celebration, is the equivalent of the Greek god Pan. As god of shepherds, his festival was celebrated on February 15, the anniversary of the founding of his temple. His priests would be nude save for a girdle of goatskin.

How appropriate on the Ides (last Friday) of February (a month named after Februa, an earlier spring cleaning ritual), Claire Fleury organized Pop Friday, a fashion, art and performance evening at Vitrina NYC on Stanton Street, near where I live.

Dusty Childers would be doing some live interviews as a “Live Fashion TV” performance, and he asked me to participate. I was honored and flattered, and for the occasion, I wanted to wear something unique.

Since Koos van den Akker, the Dutch fashion designer known for his collage and texture melanges, had passed away on February 3rd, I borrowed from Dominic one of his personal belongings, a felted wool jumpsuit he made for himself. I wore the outfit with Monochromatic Dr. Martens boots, a necklace from Jimi Hendrix’s personal belongings, a Bunratty wool hat and vintage Gap Body lounge shirt in Sunrise.

After a performance by Shane Shane, where he sang his surrealistic, bold hip hop wearing an outfit by Claire and a charming sun halo, Dusty interviewed me. I spoke about Koos and Scooter LaForge as fashion influences, as well as the reasons I love dressing up.

Among the highlights of the evening were a discussion of Kyle Supley’s collection of 700 disco shirts—which is nothing short of outstanding—and a performance by the duo Yackez, comprised by the dynamic Larissa and Jon-Velez Jackson, who raised the party atmosphere bar.

After saying my goodbyes to Bubi, Dietmar and Ellen, I went home and took a bath. The next morning, Valentine’s Day, I got up early and met with Scooter and Johnny at The Native Bean for coffee. After lively chat, Johnny took my picture in front of the Essex Card Shop, a stalwart business from an earlier time.

I went to work for a bit and later met with Bubi in Williamsburg to see the music group JMSN perform at the Cameo Gallery. They put on a marvelous show, delivering solid R&B sounds with a contemporary twist. Bubi took a picture of me with drummer Chris Wilson, who was so friendly and exchanged smiles while playing the hell out of the kit.

On Sunday, I had promised Michael I would spend the day with him, as his birthday had been on Wednesday and he had been working late during the week. He wanted to see Scooter’s show at Munch; it was lovely seeing the paintings in the bright snowy light and saying hello to Lia.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum afterwards and got lost in looking at paintings by El Greco and Fragonard, whose respective paintings, The Vision of St. John and The Love Letter, struck a chord. I asked Michael to photograph me in front of them.

Nurtured by art, we walked across Central Park. I took a picture of icicles by the side of the road.

We went to the Chinese-Cuban restaurant La Dinastía China on 72nd Street, where we shared chicken cracklings and house special fried rice. Delish!

Under the frigid weather, we walked to the subway station to catch the 1 and were intrigued by the cacophony of robotic announcements saying trains were running slow due to cold weather measures. We thought the train ride home was fast, regardless.