The first time I saw the press-kit photo of Jimmy Page on the wall of the School of Rock, I was in love. Not with Jimmy, though his sloppy, many-layered solos and his squinty eyes are timeless and sexy. With the suit, the suit of dragons and poppies. It’s not a suit just any man can pull off, especially without good reason.
But a girl? A girl could wear the hell out of that suit! So when Serena signed up for the School of Rock’s Tribute to Led Zeppelin, I knew what had to be done—and, true to form, I waited until the last minute to get on it. Last Saturday, with a week to go, I dragged a friend to some thrift shops in search of white pants and a white jacket, and when I blew ten bucks on three pairs of too-tight white jeans, I dragged my kid with me to the Belair Road Goodwill. I hit the jackpot.
In case you want to know the details so you can try this at home (and you can!), I did a Google search for “dragon” and “dragon art” and “dragon clip art” and “dragon suit” “jimmy hendrix.” I didn’t find a single beast I liked, so I combined the perfect clip-art dragon head with the body of some guy’s back tattoo, using a cut-out filter to turn the photo into art. When I liked the results, I printed the dragon out (it took four transfers—it’s about 26″ long) three times, and ironed it on the clothing. I did the same thing with some clip-art poppies. Then I painted over everything with fabric paint, slopping some glitter-filled house paint on the dragon scales.
Every day, my daughter walks by the pants hanging on the door of the armoire in the living room, and she says, “Those are some fucking awesome pants.”
Hey, I make some good stuff. My kid is the best of the best stuff I make.
Serena—and her suit—are on about a third of the songs at this weekend’s School of Rock tribute to Led Zeppelin (4:00 Saturday, 1:00 Sunday at the Recher; $10). If you are in the area (and not watching the playoffs), come watch these amazing teenage musicians show off the chops they’ve been polishing since September, and throw yourself right back to 1975, at the Capital Centre. If I’d been born yet, I’d have gone with Andrea Palefsky.
I heard Page didn’t wear The Suit that night. We’ve got that show beat.