Year In Rainbow

October 31, 2007

Today was the first Halloween that I can remember that I DIDN’T dress up ON the actual day of Halloween(though I did dress up last night, in white!) I guess my Halloween costume was not wearing Orange out(except for my Orange glitter Polly’s!)

I woke up early, with a bit of a hangover, last night I went out with Veronica and Simon and we drank $20 drinks(10pounds each!)

I got on the plane and people looked at me funny it may have been my all orange get-up or the fact that I looked and felt like HELL! It was fineI slept most of the plane ride and

I went through customs and the lady asked what I was doing there, I told her “I’m visiting my friend Karen Victorin,” she looked at me funny and corrected my Swedish,”ah Karin Victorin.” I blushed, Swedish is so hard I can hardly say Karin’s name correctly!

I took the bus( with rainbow stripes on it) to the central train/bus station where Karin picked me up. We went to her house and I met her cute son Elrich. Karin immediately asked me to take out Bearlinda, and showed me her ORANGE BED!

It was really nice to see Karin!

I then rushed off with her to rehearsals with the Hootchy Kootchy Hussies

After rehearsals we went to see Baby Dee, Baby Dee is so inspiring! I want to start singing more!

October 30, 2007

So I made these bright orange pants before I left, because I didn’t have any orange pants, so I wore them while I did my tourist sight seeing. I was going to go to see “Big Ben” but I ended up at the National Portrait Gallery, I just love portraits. I think that the human individual and even a group photo or painting is so fascinating.

Well on my way to Big Ben, there were so many comments about my “Trousers!” I even caught a tourist shooting a picture of me, while we were waiting to cross the street!
These were the pants!

My favorite moment was when a French kid was walking up these steps as I was walking down, and he starts yelling,”mama, mama” and pointing at me he runs up to his mom to show him my pants. I turned around and shouted ,”hi!”

The thing is, I was feeling the need to anonymously explore the city, but florescent pants don’t allow for that!

I didn’t actually make it to Big Ben, because I had to get back to Bethenal Green, and I really had to pee, and I was in a really touristy neighborhood and I really didn’t want any more attention.

So I left and went to Veronica’s place of work, a really awesome HUGE vintage clothing store!! I got a green wool dress for February and a yellow reversable to purple rain jacket for December and June.

Then I made some dinner for Fred and Veronica. Simon came over and we three went to Raquel’s this fancy club at a hotel that was designed by the folks who did the Titanic! I decided to dress up, becuase it was a Holloween party, I was my usual default costume “dead bride.” Veronica dressed up like a pearly, and Simon just looked nice!

Here we are on the Tube on our way!

Pictures here.

October 29, 2007

Another great day! Having that dream in color really made my year! I think it’s a sign that I’m finally relaxed, my eye twitch stopped!
Veronica/Fancy Chance is such a wonderful host. We went to the Serpentine Gallery to see Mathew Barney’s latest work. He does a ton of amazing installation/performance . . .well almost every medium, even rock climbing. . yes the brother set up a climbing rig in the art gallery! He also made sculptures with Vaseline! I then went to the Gallery’s book store where I looked at art books for hours, and found this book by Sparticus Chetwynd and holy goddess of creativity was I inspired to do more performance art! I just can’t handle the inspiration.

A couple of months ago, I was filled with this intense desire to got to Europe and perform, I knew I had to do it before I went back to the west coast(my home.) One of the things I did was sit down and talk to Julie Atlas Muz, who is one of the artist who inspires me most. She said, “go to Europe, see the Galleries, get inspired, and keep doing the work.”

So it’s what I’ve done, I’m kind of overcome with inspiration. I just can’t wait to get back to nyc and CREATE!

Scarlet told me that Orange is the color of new begginings and change, and I am feeling some intense change about to happen! Hurray!

Here I am at the park where the gallery is,and feeling inspired that I got a sunny day in London!

Then I went to see a showcase of the Whoopee Club at the Bethenal Green Workingman’s Club.

I saw BEARLESQUE, who I love and if I was a man, that would be the troupe I would most desire to dance in!

Here they are performing Mien Bear . .

Last night I helped Fancy Chance sew her CanCan costume and here they are performing the cancan!

Then we went to eat Turkish food, and there was this delightful tiny glove on one of the decorations!

As always more pictures here!

October 28, 2007

So can I first start out by saying that I had a dream in color last night! My dreams are usually very emotion based or action based, so this was really inspiring!

I dreampt about the time change that it was 10:30 but I had to be at work at 3, but I thought I was late. It was also a green month, and I was figuring out what to wear. Bambi the mermaid sent me a letter that was pink and purple felt tip marker with a rubenesque mermaid in the center of the page.

She had sent me a florescent green shirt that was a tourist shirt. Then I was watching a really bad play that was at 10am, and there were people eating with me at this weird cafeteria/ theater.

Then it was pay day and Tony Soprano was my boss, and he wasn’t sure if he could pay me. So I suggested direct deposit, that clearly wasn’t the issue!

Then I was at a Cruise ship/ Tate Modern (which is where I actually was yesterday!) And someone like Nasty Canasta mixed with Legs Malone was in Babeland’s Vagina costume. I took it from them, and I wore it, but then it was just awkward because there were children and parents and I kept
getting stuck in elevators!?

So here are pictures from yesterday, I went to the Tate Modern, Shakspeares Globe theater, St Pauls Cathedral and walked across the melenium bridge.

Pictures here.

October 27, 2007

With the speech behind me and the realization that I was on vacation I proceeded to have a delightful day!

We slept in till 1pm, Drank tea, and played with the cats.

Then we went to Pellicci’s to eat a classic English Breakfast, a cholesterol feast, fried ham, fried egg, fried toast, fried mushrooms, friend tomatoes and fried sausage! When I ordered a black tea with milk, they(the staff at the cafe) laughed, and laughed and proceeded to tease me endlessly. Apearently ordering a black tea with milk is actually like ordering a black coffee with milk! So if you want a black tea with milk in England, say white tea!

Then Veronica and I took a double decker bus to this big shopping district, the west end(I think?) to get a post maternity dress for Veronica’s friend. It was what Veronica called,”a hell hole.” Imagine Times Square crowds, mixed with the Soho shopping area, even the stores were crowded!

We stopped in at Selfriges to try on perfumes, I’m looking for a nice rose scent that doesn’t smell too grandma-ish. We decided to have a lovely glass of champagne at their cafe. While we were waiting for a table, Veronica asks,”so do you just wear a lot of orange?” I explained the year in rainbow to her, and she seemed really inspired(which is the point of the whole project!) We had lovely conversations about color and vanity(perfect setting at a posh London department store!) On the way out, I found a lovely rose perfume which I’ll have to check out in the states(because it’s twice as much here!)

Then it was time for dinner! Veronica and Fred’s friend Richard was turning 33, so he invited his friends to eat a whole pig! There was also lovely duck liver pate with crab meat on toast, potted hare(yes bunny rabbit!),yummy pickles, watercrest salad, delicious red and white wines and for dessert madelines!

Here’s Richard with the pig!

Richard was sitting right across from me at the table, and he proceeded to eat most of the pigs head. I have to say it did gross me out a little, mainly because it reminded me of that movie “The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover” where they cook a human and eat him! I guess it was how the pig looked so human and we were eating it, made me contemplate vegitarianism for a minute, but once the plate of pig was passed on to me, I ate it!

I was sitting next to Mike and Veronica, Mike shared the intense feelings about the pig and was also reminded of the movie.

Then dessert came, and Tamara (who did a project where she wrote and recorded a song once a month) and I really loved the madelines!

We all had protein comas and I thought the night was over, but it wasn’t! We went to a lovely classic East End pub called the Golden Heart! Tamara and I sang show tunes from Gentlemen prefer blonds. We taught the bartenders how to make hot totties, yes we had a couple of folks with a cold. Then we closed down the pub, and the owner Sandra took out her hula hoop, that lit up!

Sandra put on Amy Winehouse and we danced, danced, danced and sang, sang, sang! There was a vase of orange roses and I took one out to dance with, you know I put it in my mouth, well I got a thorn in my tooth! I couldn’t get it out so Richard(who’s dad was a dentist,) attempted to take it out with the tweezers from his swiss army knife! Didn’t quite work, but we had a good time and everyone pitched in! Veronica held me down so I would stop laughing, and Andreas held the flashlight so that Richard could see.

Sandra and I took this picture after she told me she’s got a picture with the pope, Margaret Thatcher and even mayor Bloomberg!

Just one of those perfect days! Man it’s a good life!

October 26, 2007

Yesterday someone said,”nice summer outfit.” Just because I was wearing orange! No one wears any color in this city, it’s so surprising because it’s so gray you would think that people would want the color to lift up their spirits?

What a wonderful day! I didn’t take too many pictures, because I was really preoccupied. (However there was a photographer there taking pictures so I’ll post them when I get them) I went straight to the university which was right across the street from the hotel that I was staying in. They let me rehearse in one of the music practice rooms.

After rehearsals I went up to the theater for my run through. That went well, then I hung out in the dressing room with Empress Stah and Rusella, both awesome performers.

They had to change the running order of the show, because both Empress and I had acts which involved our vagina’s. So they had signs up all over that said if you are under 18 years old you cannot watch this show, because of the explicit nature of the show!

The speech went really well. I was super nervous because I never have spoke on a panel of anything! Also because most of the people were academics with Dr. before their names! I just looked at it as another performance and that made it easy!

The thing about the discussion was that everyone pretty much agreed that burlesque can be a feminist act, that when women use their body to make a statement its feminist. It was still very exciting to be talking about it and to be having the discussion. It’s something that I would like to see happen in the US. Here is my speech, have a read, this is pretty much what you would have heard if you were at the discussion! I had to cut some of it because we only had 5-8 minutes to talk.

And after that we all went to a sort of cheesy bar/restaurant/club like a TGI fridays only a little nicer. It was such a juxtapose with all of the feministy people, and the place was just large enough for all of us, but I think we were the only people in that club that were wearing any color! We had lovely conversation!

Then I rode in the front passenger seat in the cab with some other fine feathered friends to the home of Fancy Chance. Where a man from Belgium, a woman from New Orleans, a man from Sweden, and Fancy Chance a fellow ex pat all had lovely conversation till 3am all in the backdrop of a lovely home in Bethenal Green!

October 25, 2007

I mainly spent the day rehearsing in my hotel room and working on my speech at this lovely coffee shop called Costa with free wifi.

After all that I went to the Vauxhall Tavern to perform with Bearlesque at their weekly show Vauxhallville, such sweet folks!

I actually found this article when I was leaving the plane, it was sitting on one of the seats.This is possibly the most hilarious article that I’ve ever read, and it fits very well with the moth of Orange! Firemen had to come rescue this kid, because he got a cone stuck on his head!!

Here are some pics from Vauxhallville!
Pictured here is Fred Bear(who helped me get home because there was no tube service after 10pm, and that involved riding a double decker bus!)

Here’s Timberlina.

And here I am with Misty Summers and Timberlina.

October 24, 2007

What a day, I got about an hour and a half nap in, woke up at 4am. Got on the J train to JFK. Checked in, ate breakfast, got on the plane, slept,watched the Edith Piaf movie, cried, slept, ate some yucky sandwich, drank about 3 glasses of orange juice, slept, drank some good tea and arrived in London at 8pm. It looked something like this.

I got went through customs which was easy. Got my luggage which was easier(no waiting!) Got on the Tube, lovely place, very clean, comfortable and easy to use. I felt as if I was still in New York, there are all different kinds of people in this city, just like NYC. The final destination of the Picadilly line(the line I was riding) was called “Cockfoster” which I found hilarious!

I got off at Swiss Cottage, the neighborhood that surrounds the University of London’s School of Speech and Drama. I was a little lost looking for the hotel, someone directed me to the hostel and the folks from the hostel directed me to the hotel. So I found my way to the hotel, checked in, unpacked Bearlinda and made the mess that I’m used.

I then went out to forage for food and found this cell phone company called Orange.

I ate took a picture of myself and went to bed.

October 23, 2007

Yes I’m off to Stockholm and London tomorrow, more info if you click on this text! I’m prep, prep, prepping and I might be up all night!

I took this picture just as I was walking out the door today, the feather is a feather thing I got for the Orangeacle, I lost one at Lotus and this one fell out of my panties on my to Gabrielle’s party . . .funny to see something on the ground that was once in your panties!

A bouquet from Allison’s wedding.

I’m just not in the mood to take a picture of myself, feeling run down and I still have so much to do, but here’s what I got!

October 22, 2007
I’m getting ready to leave for my trip on Wednesday, it’s exciting. I think that it will give me a lot of insight. Hopefully there will be lots of color. I’m a tiny bit stressed out, you can probably see it in pictures like this(on the train.)

I got some pictures up from the Orangeacle Oracle, Ed Barnas took this and there are more on his web site, here.