Burlesque, making art and cocktails in the afternoon

So yesterday I had the great pleasure of taking part in just the kind of DIY cultural venture that is my favorite thing about New York: braving the frigid windswept streets of Williamsburg to go to Dr. Sketchy, the bi-monthtly figure drawing salon at the Lucky Cat Lounge. Co-organized by A.V. Phibes and Molly Crabapple, a pair of classically New York multi-hyphenates (illustrator-comics artist-sideshow performer and illustrator-sideshow and burlesque performer-model), Sketchy is a three-hour figure drawing session in the intimate back room of the Lucky Cat. On this Saturday's session, gorgeous burlesque star Scarlet Sinclair reclined and posed onstage in pasties, stockings, and a brief amount of red and black lace and silk topped off by perfectly arched eyebrows and a spray of black feathers. sketch pads open, a group evenly divided between men and women sprawled around the stage on the floor or on worn couches and rickety easy chairs, lounge music playing, beer and cocktails flowing...frankly the perfect way to spend a blustery February afternoon. By putting together a couple of fun disparate elements, A.V. and Molly have fashioned a unique, laid-back creative outlet for artists and non-artists alike. Get online at DrSketchy.com to check it out, before it gets bigger and less intimate-it's been written about all over the place and there was some talk this week about listings in the New Yorker...