Reminiscing of Vegas during the Rockabilly Weekend!

What’s up, Hive? Where did I leave off? Have I written a blog since I returned to Minnesota? I can’t even remember. Well, @guthrie and I did make it. It is surprisingly nice to be home. I’ve seriously had an awful year with dramatic life changes, identity collapses and heartbreak. Even though we made the trip to the east coast to visit my Opa following a hip surgery, the change in scenery and seeing my mom, @bonni and friends like @joshbalz was very therapeutic. @guthrie is the best traveler. I hate driving but he makes it fun. 25 hours later we’re back in Minnesota and I’m feeling hopeful for the first time in months. Soon, @ghostfish and I will be foraging for morales together.

This weekend was Viva Las Vegas. The first Viva Las Vegas I’ve missed in over a decade and let me tell you, I didn’t miss it. There were a few friends that I was sad to not see but overall, that chapter in my life is gladly behind me. People come from all over the world for the Rockabilly Weekend but for me, it’s just work. I don’t drink, smoke, dance, party of gamble so it’s basically just booking shoots from beginning to end. I’ve been thinking about the friends I do miss and I wanted to honor them with a short blog about my favorite friends and models in Las Vegas with this summary of our work from over the years. First is my friend, Sunny.

Sunny is a Korean pinup that lives in New York, but most the time I’ve hung out with her it was in Vegas during Viva. For years I would consider her one of my best friends even though we’ve lost touch since COVID. One of our mutual friends is the second model in this series, @vintagevandalizm. I actually brought her to Hive back in the day. She was the foundation of my Vegas life during the last ten years. She was a big name in the pinup scene and modeled for all the biggest brands. Now, she has her own clothing line and has blossomed into a well rounded force of nature. A designer, artist, model, spokesperson and business woman.

Lastly, is my friend Cervena. A mutual friend of @joshbalz, we tried for years to coordinate a shoot together and it never happened. We’d always miss one another by a day or two. Ironically, our first opportunity to cross paths was in 2020 when she first moved to Las Vegas. I was passing through because I was driving from Minnesota to LA for a wedding I was paid for in 2019. Fortunately, Vegas was one of the few cities that wasn’t entirely shut down and we managed to pull off this unlikely collaboration. We’d gone on to shoot since in Ohio and LA, but this was the first and in my opinion, our best work together.