Top Five Coolest Things About C&I Studios and Twilight Notes' Dialect

As you probably read earlier this week on County Grind (and if you didn't, shame on you!), C&I Studios Twilight Notes, and All Together Now presented a multidisciplinary cultural event called Dialect this past Saturday night. And given that it was part of Fort Lauderdale's FAT Village art walk, you might think, "Who cares; art is art." However, Dialect was anything but typical. What follows are five reasons the event was truly somethin' different.

See also

- Slideshow: Fat Village Art Walk and Dialect at C&I

- Adam Foster Delivers Body Paint, Star Wars, and DJs at C&I Studios With Dialect Art Walk

5. Super Sexy Bikini Photo Shoot

Yes, you read that correctly. During C&I's artistic Dialect event, women wearing the latest styles from local designer Ali Grief's line MONTCE swim had a mini photo sesh. The sexy mamas were shot in the nearly nude by C&I's very own Josiah Sampson. Talk about a great marketing campaign!

4. Funky Body Art by Keegan

In addition to the scantily clad females in bikinis was a woman in pasties with body paint covering her torso. Keegan, a local body paint artist, lathered her friend Renee up with art. When asked what it was like to be painted, Renee replied, "It's really cold." As a child, Keegan watched her mom do face painting on the weekends. She's also always looking for models. Anyone?

3. Live Art by La Mano Fria

Steven Castro, better-known as La Mano Fria, was performing for everyone by creating designs with tape. Furiously scrunching his brow as he pored over his design, it was clear La Mano Fria didn't have cold hands, as his name suggests.

There was also merchandise available created by the artist. Proceeds go to the homeless. The charity aspect hit home for Castro since he used to paint with those without abodes. "They [the homeless] gave feedback, hung out with us... It became embedded into the community." Castro also said his graffiti work partly gave way to the launch of C&I.

2. Free CDs

Adam Foster, as mentioned before, was chillin' like a villain at Dialect. He also DJ'd at Vibe afterward, a club where he's the mainstay music man. Yet we had no idea he would be giving away CDs too. Foster described the CD titled The Endless Summer as "South Florida disco stuff" and the other, Dialect, as new music. Both are perfect for listening to while you apply mascara, managing the wheel of your car, as you get pumped for tha club.

1. Weird Slow-Mo Movie

Dialect would not be complete without some original content from C&I studios. This particular artwork came in the form of a weird, slow-mo vid. Some images included closeups of someone blowing a bubble-gum bubble, burning pages of a book, someone in a Rick Ross-esque beard smoking a cig, and an egg cracking that actually looked like a condom. Josh Miller of C&I stated they were asked to create "slow art, through a video." Slow art, pornography, whatever you want to call it -- it was most definitely C&I's own.

• Arts
• Nightlife