Happy Peepster!

For Easter this year, the Chicago Tribune held a peep diorama contest; basically you create a story or scene, but the main characters must be peeps!

The originators of the contest were editors over at the St. Paul Pioneer Press in my home state of Minnesota! Loving the idea, the next year the Washington Post hosted a contest, and that is when I first saw the wondrous pics and uber cool ideas: think Reservoir Dogs 'peep style.' So when I saw that the Chicago Tribune was hosting a contest it was beyond my power but to create my own peep diorama. After some drama with some hardworking, creative peepsters, aka my super smart co-workers, and some mulling over of what to create, I had a vision and thus Dita Von Peep was born—an homage to the beautiful burlesque performer Dita Von Teese. Seeing the fun I was having, Frank got in on the fun and made his own Peep Diorama.

Dita Von Peep in her Peep Show Burlesque Revue; By J

One evening I had a vision that a peep was longing to live out its true destiny and be the ultimate ‘Peep’—thus Dita Von Peep was born. An homage to burlesque star Dita Von Teese, Dita Von Peep dons a tasteful peep outfit adorned with diamonds and enough lace to cover her bodacious bosom. The most difficult part of this peep diorama was the actual photography, I made the mistake of choosing a glitzy, glamorous backdrop, that crazily bounced light when snapping a pic, but, in person, the diorama is very cute with Dita the star. Men and women peeps look on as they sip martinis and smoke pipes.

American Peep Stars; By Frank

"I knew I wanted my peeps as rock stars and began to play with different costumes and ideas…eventually I came up with these punk looking rock peep stars. With the popularity of American Idol, it seemed appropriate to make my peeps an American Idol stylized band with a slew of fans. While it was difficult to get them to cooperate and keep them from drinking during the photo shoot, finally I caught the American Peep Stars at the height of their popularity singing, of course, American Peepwoman."

In the end, it turned out that Frank's peeps saw the fun was happening at Dita Von Peeps' cabaret... as you can see things starting getting a little out of hand... While the diorama above wasn't submitted, it was quite funny to see the different peeps interact with one another, sip martinis, share tobacco pipes, and have some good laughs.