Back in NYC

It's been a while since I blogged but i figure it's about time I get back on the grind.

Well readers (the few of you indeed), Last heard from me, I was in Japan. Well, since then I have traveled a bit visiting London, Spain and Greece and having a fabulous time. But no good time last forever and I have, since that time left the Trockadero and gone from being an international drag queen Celebrity to being an NYC drag Queen Socialite!

In the past 7 months I have had the amazing opportunity of Modeling, and performing all over New York. My most recent news is that I was the host of Mongrel Vaudeville, an amazing transgender group of talented artists, and I recently modeled for photographer Fernando Espinosa for the Garbage of Eden Spring 2009 Lookbook and for his (hopefully) Upcoming book. I've gone back to my stage name, the Mistress Astarte, but for you all, I will remain known as the incomparable Effie!

It's been a good few months, if you don't count the fact that I am helplessly unemployed. but other than that little detail, I'm doing good.

I will be posting more soon...just wanted to give a quick update!

Japan '08: Nagamo and back to Nagoya

After a quick stop through Nagamo and spending a weekend in Nagoya, I am back in Tokyo. Nagamo, was beautiful and seemed like a city that I would really like. Similar to Kyoto, it was one of the cities that maintains the beauty and culture of the Japans long history, as unlike, most cities in Japan is wasn’t bombed and rebuilt. I wish I had gotten to stay a little longer, but unfortunately not.

I will admit that my second stay in Nagoya was not as bad as the first. They must have seen me coming a mile a way and my sleepless, angry temperament might have scared them a bit (seriously). Typically we stay in the same room we are placed in for each reoccurring hotel, unless we specifically request another room. Well, the Tokyu Hotel Nagoya changed my room to a much nicer room than I had been in previously as well as providing me with a super thick cushion for the bed for which I was quite thankful. I also took more of an opportunity to visit the city which wasn’t too bad. It was a little metropolitan, but things were a little too spread out for my taste. I prefer a more compact city (like manhattan) where everything is accessible by foot. All in all, Nagoya is not too bad, but it’s not one of my favorite cities to stay in.

Japan '08: Leaving Nagoya, Aomori, Akita, and Morioka

So, it’s been a couple days since my last blog; Nothing much to post really. Travelling and performing through Japan. We did a show in one of my favorite cites in Japan, Kobe. I was unhappy that we had to stay in Nagoya though and just travel there. And also we had a Trocks first (at least to my knowledge), we did a school show. As of late, (at least this tour), I’ve noticed the splurge of younger audience members. On the prior tour, Our major audience had been mostly women. Now I am seeing a lot more kids and gentleman. Not bad for a drag ballet company! (I can only imagine the therapy those kids will need after seeing a six foot hairy-chested Effie prancing about oh so dainty and delicately.)

I left Nagoya, thankfully, although, on Wednesday. However, I will be unfortunately returning there after performances in Sendai, but luckily, just for the weekend. On a positive note, Nagoya does have some good qualities (we try not to be completely negative…) While in Nagoya, the company was treated to a dinner with one of our major Japanese presenters. It was a bit of a traditional dinner at a restaurant serving a food (that is very close to my heart) that Nagoya is famous for, fried chicken (seriously!) This was a dinner to be hold. It wasn’t my oh-so-dear Popeyes, but it wasn’t bad. Now the dinner wasn’t all chicken and actually for the most part it was just fried wings and seafood. But it was good! (One of the dishes looked like the sequel to a ballet we are doing this tour: The Underwater Scene from Humpback Horse). It was the one good time I had in Nagoya!

The day we were leaving Nagoya, I had travel by plane to go to Akita where we would stay overnight. It must be mentioned though, that traveling in Japan is one of the most pleasurable experiences to be had (aside from the super small seats). Japanese security is efficient and kind, you can arrive 20 minutes before your flight takes off and still make it (it’s exciting. Don’t have to waste an entire day at the airport!) I'd been up since early that morning (more like 5pm three days prior-thanks to the horrible beds at the Hotel Tokyu Nagoya!) In some crazy attempt I decide to get up and go to Mcdonalds (which was a 15 minute walk from the hotel), in the hopes that I could log on to the Apple store network which was across the street and have breakfast. Well, bitterly, exhausted, and starving I get dressed and head to leftthe lobby. I get outside to which it was raining (just to rub it in. Thank you Alicia Keys!) I walk in flip-flops, in the rain, to the Mcdonalds only to discover that I can't get the connection. (If you think that stopped me from sitting down right there to munch on my Sausage and Cheese McMuffen and Sausage McGriddle with my has brown and soda, you're wrong.) Now here's whats so remarkable. This McDonalds was almost fierce. I get inside and ( I swear i've never seen anything like this before) there were individual dinning cubicles. It was a little weird and scary, but had i gotten the connection to the apple store, it would have been the greatest place in all the world. I don't think I would have ever (save to go to the hospital for my triple bypass heart surgery, it is McDonalds after all!)

Aside from the traveling to Akita, there isn’t much to report on that front. It’s a pretty city, small and quiet. We arrived about 6pm so there wasn’t much looking around to do. Also, I was a little bitter, because the closest McDonalds was a 20 minute walk away. The concierge had the nerve to ask if I wanted a cab. To a McDonalds! Of all the oxymorons in the world. (I eat there to save money, not so I can go all willy-nilly cabbing around every little Podunk cities in Japan- land) In any case, we left there early this morning, (around 11am) to perform in Aomori. I did manage to find some entertainment in such a lack luster city. I 'd brought several games with me, and just happened to get back in to my World of Warcraft 3 game (which I stole from my brother Chris). You gotta do something to pass the time!

The day in Aomori was interesting, didn’t see much of the city, save for what was viewable from a moving bus. The theatre was quaint. The audience was good and it was interesting to perform in a place the company hadn’t been in over 10 years. In our typical locations we have an audience that has seen our show many times; a bit of a cult following similar to that of the Rocky Horror Picture show. (The audience members probably know the dance and choreography better than most of us do!) To say the least, as a comical troupe, to work with a cult audience that knows your every move and joke can get a bit mechanical. They know when to laugh and clap and all that jazz. Performing for this audience, and seeing how are jokes and shtick was taken on first time viewing made performing a lot more enjoyable.

After the show, we got on a bus and traveled to Morioka. Another mention to traveling with the Trocks in Japan is an experience. Luxury buses here are crazy, to the extent that they have installed chandelier fixers (not massive but still. I’ve included pictures!) So two hours (plus) later (most of which I slept through), we arrived at the Hotel Metropolitan Morioka (New Wing…whatever that means). We pull up to the hotel because there were two guys out front with chainsaws and blocks of ice. Apparently, they were making ice-sculptures (for what, you got me beat.) It was completely random, albeit (at 11:45pm after being on a bus for a few hours) quite interesting. Not something you see every day.

So I walk in the hotel, which is not the most lavish hotel in the world, (at least what I saw of it as I raced to get my key and get into the elevator, Although there is something to be said about a hotel with a lounge area that doubles as the breakfast buffet and a chapel.) but what they lack in beauty, they make up for in comfort. I’m in a fairly large room (by New York standards) with a comfortable bed and internet (thankfully). And tomorrow morning I have to be up fairly early (around 11ish…early for me!) to head to (from what I remember to be) another piece of hell. I got to Sendai (terrible theatre, earthquakes, boring city, the works.) So I’ll report on that later!

On a side note, Effie’s birthday is coming. Jumped over that hill to my latter 20’s and I am quickly falling into the thirties, bleh! And, if you think I’m happy about, you might be right (not really sure yet, got see how 27, 28, and 29 turn out!). In any case, as a first birthday present, Effie went out and Ebayed herself some Tiaras (you know my life isn’t much more than fluffy tutus, tiaras, and one night stands in random hotels across the world these days…) Just wanted to mention that, so you all can share in my happiness!

Special announcement!!!!

Ok, Special announcement! my friend from the States, Arron has a arrived in Japan on vacation, and now has a blog documenting his trip. It's quite funny, so definitely check it out after you're finished reading my blog. *wink*

http://acgoodman.blogspot.com/

And by the way, check out some of my blog roll for other great blogs, The Real Beautiful People by my friend Janice, and Better than Sex by my friend Vincent to name a couple! Fail blog and OMG! blog are two of my personal favorites!

Japan '08: Nagoya (Major, Supreme, Utter freaking K-Hole!!!!)

Day 1, arrive in Nagoya at 1am after travelling from Hiroshima to perform in some random city, then taking a 1 and a half hour train after show to get the the Tokyu Hotel Nagoya. Arrive at hotel, only to find out the charge for internet (700 yen for 30 minutes, 1600 for 24 hours, Already upset.) Get to the room, it's cute. Turn on the air to 16 degrees Celsius (I like the room cold). Leave hotel and look for a hotspot, and find it at the hotel across the street. Check e-mail and head back to my room. I take a shower and check the air, because 16 here fells more like 22 degrees. give up on the Japanese thermostat, fall on to bed, only to discover the bed is harder than the floor. Bitter!

Day 2, wake up with severe back pain because the bed sucks, go and perform (for the third day in a row), get back to hotel (and the rock that is my bed). Do to early call the next morning, decide to go to bed early. Eventually fall asleep around 9:30-10ish (I’m assuming, who really knows what time they fall asleep), only to be woken up at 11:27 by some drunk bitches across the hall laughing and giggling, slamming doors and such. Fall back asleep, only to be woken up at 12:31am, by drunk bitches across the hall. Call downstairs to complain:

Me: “excuse me, the room across the hall is being very loud. They already woke me up twice”

Front desk: “Sorry, please talk more slowly”

Me: (saying this uber-slow) It – Is – twelve – thirty- in – the-morning-!-the-room-across-the-hall-is –being –quite-loud-!-they-have-woken- me-up-twice-already.-can-you-do-something-about-this-?

Front desk: (silence)

Me: (waiting)

Front desk: would you like purchase internet?

Me: (major K-Hole!)

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Now at 3am, i'm up, (sitting outside in the muggy heat) taking advantage of the hot spot i found near the hotel. Three more days left here, but so far, things are not looking up!

Japan '08: 5 weeks in

So, it’s the beginning of week six here in Japan. I’ve been to several cities, while I’ve been here, but as I’ve been trying to stay frugal, I’ve hardly gone out to experience the culture. Not to mention that since this is my second tour here, it all feels a bit, “been there, done that”. Some of the cities I’ve been to on this tour are Chiba (been there), Oita (done that), Fukuoka (cute), Kagoshima(who…), Miyakonojo (where?), kitakyushu (what!?!), Kochi, Takamatsu, Okayam, NYamaguchi, Uwajima, Itami, Hiroshima, Kyoto (only dropped in this time L) and of course Osaka and Tokyo, and I’ve just arrived in Nagoya. Unfortunately, because I’m on tour, I haven’t stayed in most of these cities to get a real impression of them, but the there are a few.

We started in Tokyo, and for me Tokyo’s no big woop-tee-do. I actually prefer semi-smaller places and Tokyo’s just too big for my taste. Not to mention we are staying at the Hilton (another big boo!). I have no idea how Hilton’s got so big when they are so terrible. It’s too American to begin with. Not to mention there are no amenities that you come with the overcharging of your room. The breakfast alone is 3600 yen (roughly 34-36 dollars). Then the internet is about 1500 yen for 24 hours, and the gym can run you 3000 yen easy. Now, add this to the cost of your room and you have a whole lotta bullshit. First off, for the price of the room, the internet should be free. The breakfast was not so fierce that it needed to cost damn near 35 dollars, and while the gym is nice, 3000 yen for the day(with no hourly rate), I mean, c’mon! This is just outrages (I propose a boycott to the Hiltons) Like they need the money. Other than that, Tokyo is bleh. It’s nice to see, everything’s accessible, but it’s just not for me.

Osaka, on the other hand, on my list of top cities in Japan comes in at a very close 4^th; right after Kobe, Kyoto, and Sapporo (in that order). It’s just like Tokyo, but smaller (a larger version of Manhattan). I stayed at the Ramada Osaka (the only Ramada I actually like), and in general Osaka’s good fun. I also meet a very cool guy there, Akira, so always makes things a little more bearable.

The next place we stayed for a while was in Fukuoka. Last year, we only passed through Fukuoka for the night, but this time we were in and out quite a few times. I actually like Fukuoka, and the hotel we stayed, the Solaria Nishitestsu Hotel) at is my all-time second favorite hotel in Japan (the Kaio Plaza in Tokyo still holds down the number one spot). The first room I got here, was actually haunted (there are lots of ghost throughout Japan, more so than other countries. Why they stay in the hotels beats me.) So I got switched to a room down the hall (surprisingly the ghost didn’t follow). What made this hotel so nice was that everything I had requested from my first visit was always preset when I arrived back at the hotel. Which I thought was quite amazing. (Sure impressed the hell outta me!)

Hiroshima was the next place we spent an extended period of time at. I’m not a fan of Hiroshima for the most part because of the history. I kind of don’t like coming face to face with the atrocities of the American culture and the aftermath of the big nuclear bomb is purely evident here. The entire vibe of the city feels of it. The hotel was nice, the Hotel Granvia Hiroshima, but again outside of that I didn’t really see much of the city. I missed the opportunity to go to the Myajima island, which was unfortunate (I slept in), but hopefully next year I will get to go. One of the fiercest things about Hiroshima though was the Jupiter store in the train station outside our hotel. At 5 weeks into the tour, Japanese cuisine and McDonalds can get a little exhausting. So it’s nice to find a store that imports American junk (no matter how elevated the price is). They had Cambell’s soup, Ruffles, Tositios, Gummy Bears and that’s just the stuff I bought. The list goes on. It was awesome.

Spain '08 - The Canary Islands - Tenerife

Well, My first impression of Tenerife was not pleasant. I'd been looking forward to this trip only to get there and be told, we were there on the off season so most of the tourism was down, there weren't any beaches, the hotel was crap, I mean it was just the worst.(turns out i was just hungry. You know that low blood sugar will get you down).

So, we arrive to the hotel. The hotel was passable at best. My tour roommate was staying with his significant other who'd come to Tenerife to spend time with him. So, I had a private room, which was awesome. ( I was still a little bitter about the lack of a beach though)

I took a walk and after walking around for a bit (and getting some food in my system-TGFMcdonalds), my impression changed. It was quite nice actually. There were some beautiful sculptures all around. as to find a major event being set up in the square near to the hotel. Turns out it was a beauty pageant, and accordingly one of the first qualifying competitions in the long succession to the Miss Universe Pageant. The first night I sat out and watched the rehearsal as the real show wasn’t until the following night.

The next day, I got up and walked around, as we had the day off. I managed to find a beach, which I’d been waiting to go to since we started the tour. It wasn’t too bad. It was one of the man-made beaches, as the island is primarily dominated by rock coast. I did miss out on the black sand beach (which also happened to be a nude beach) that heard was quite lovely, but also very much out of the way on the other side of the island. I don’t know, maybe I’m getting too old to tan, because I was out there for three hours flipping and baking and didn’t even get a shade darker (shameful! unlike Rio where I wasn’t really able to tan, but burn, I did, and badly in fact). Needless, to say, I was bummed and headed back to the hotel.

The hotel didn’t really offer internet (which if you can’t tell, is one of my necessary requirements for a good stay in a hotel), and the McDonalds near the hotel didn’t offer free internet (which was a boo!), but I managed to find an arcade (of all places) with cheap internet so I made due.

After my day at the beach, I caught up with a little parade heading toward the square where the pageant was to begin and the festivities where on. Giant puppets with a marching band walking down a major shopping street all the way to the square. One they arrived; it turned into a big to do with big screen tv and music, fireworks and all that jazz. It was a little impressive. I was upset not to have a proper camera, but I got as much as I could with the disposables I bought (which wasn’t much).

This was a pageant unlike any I’d seen before. Starting in typical fashion with the parade of girls in evening gowns, it then took a twist somewhere where swimsuits and talent should have been. They started doing sketches with actors talking about the history of Spain, then the girls would parade out in traditional folk clothing. It was somewhere between hilarious and sad to see these girls parade around in huge traditional, puritanical garb, giving a sexy twist here and a ‘come hither’ eye there. I was fortunate to be sitting near a couple members of the company which made the experience a lot more bearable.

After the pageant got old, or just a little too long to continue watching (as they can do), We decided to go to a bar (not a rentboy bar) we’d found on the island. When we arrived it was quiet, as most of the gay boys were still at the pageant supporting their female friends. Slowly though it picked up. Now far be it from me to brag and all, but as a group, the dancer, when we go out, we manage to get the party started on our own. Even in places that are bad, we always manage to entertain ourselves. In typical fashion (after a few drinks), we did just his. The music wasn’t too great, but that didn’t stop us from dancing around. Now in the middle of the club, there was a little raised platform, and let’s be honest, you can’t keep me off a stage. First one up there I was jigging my little heart out. Around midnight, things got really interesting as more people started to arrive. Most just stood around and watched our little group as we busted a move or two on the floor, but occasionally, there was the drunk couple or random person that would get up there with us and try to keep up. Eventually, the drag queens went on, a show that consisted of two drag queens (one very pretty and the other a little more than rough around the edges) and two boys who did full-on dance routines. It was very nice. In all the cities of the world, as many different drag shows as I have seen, in Mexico, Rio, Lyon, Italy, and so forth, this was the first I’d seen with two full on dances performing in a space smaller than a new York living room (so small in fact, that one of the poor boys got kicked in the face by a drag queen in the final group number). It was impressive though. So different from American Drag, it was nice to see someone put the effort in to creating a show!

Well, after that we went on to perform in on of the most artistically done theaters I have ever been in; it looked like a spaceship right out of the movie Predator, I rapped up my tour to Spain by leaving Tenerife and heading to Madrid for a night before leaving to go to the states. I wasn’t in Madrid but a few hours but what I saw in the those few hours was really exciting, The vibe, the nightlife, everything. I am very much looking forward to heading back at the end of the year after my trip to London!