Some Pictures from Japan...

This was one of the pages from a childre's coloring book that was giving to me from one of my cast members, it really is Found Porn. I don't think that the people who drew this had me in mind, nor do I think I even have to point it out how homo this is...or do I?

The toilet on here is not your ordinary run of the mill toilet. He has a bidet added to him and I named him Henry. He is probably one of the things that I'm gonna miss the most, he even had a seat warmer! I need to get one of those. I post more as time goes on, have fun...DF.

I did it for the SHOES......!!

I've been back from Japan since Monday night, but I've been having so many little novela dramas whilst I've been home that I can finally commit to writing most of what happen this past week. Are we ready kids?? Okay here we go!!

• Sayonara- We closed the shows and then I decided that I wouldn't come back and I told management that I would not be joining the show for the European leg of the tour, which was rather difficult to do, but all I had to do was feel how my leg and hip felt and I knew why I had left the "Street". Besides more than half the cast wasn't coming back and this cast was the best of the worst and the worst of the best. I couldn't have asked for a better group of performers to work with, they were all professional and could work it out!! The last show was INSANE!!! I wish that we would have taped it because we were all on fire! The show had three original cast members that helped to originate the show, including me, and we made a pact that this was the last one. I mean four years of marching is a long time, AND I got four pairs for brand new tennis, I totally did this tour for the shoes!
• The long journey home!- Well, on Monday after waking up with the craziest and worst hangover from the closing night party. Those of us that were leaving then got our shit together for this trip, we were to take the bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo then a another train to the airport. The trip all in all took four hours, then we had to get our luggage that had been shipped ahead and reorganize our bags so we could check in. The lines were CRAZY!! Thanks to the Northwestern Strike all our flights were a little, what's the word? Fucked Up!! We didn't know what was going on, after checking in we had some McDonald's, our last meal as a group, and went on in to get checked again, then head through immigration. Well we made it through and I thought that I would have sometime to go the bathroom and take care of the kids. Well they started to announce all of our flights and we had to give each other quick hugs and sad " See you laters...". Which I think was good cuz if we had had more time it would have been over! The plane was packed and I had the aisle seat, but I was sitting next to two little Asian girls that were part of a group that was coming to the states to no doubt come shopping in my store and ask for samples. Anyhow, I'm already upset, disoriented, hungover, sad, bloated and sleepy. All I want to do is take a small nap, but as soon as we get going and we're in the air I start to fall asleep wouldn't you know that both of them had tiny bladders!! I let them know that I was very unhappy, but I did it was a big sigh and an evil look, which those of you know can freeze a bird in the sky. But did that stop them? Nope, throughout the flight they needed to get up and use the john, so I didn't get to sleep. I did get to watch three movies that I wouldn't have otherwise, Guess Who?, The Ice Princess, and Madagascar. We finally flew into Detroit, because heaven forbid I get a direct flight home, two hours before I had left Japan. I had gained 26 hours!! I was confused to say the least!! Cell phone worked and I started calling my peeps!! I was so excited to hear everyone's voices, but I had to wait another four hours before I could get to fly home. Stupid strike!! I had been awake by the time that I got home after taking a shuttle home from La Guardia, ( which took another two hours) over 40 hours or something unheard of like that. I got to catch up with Roommate and give out his presents and went to bed, after taking the best shower ever!!
• The rest of the week- Got up on Tuesday at six in the morning and was still jet lagged, Rommate and I had " Get it DONE Tuesday", which is when most of our chores get completed, I unpacked, did all my laundry, cleaned the apartment, and hung out. I was supposed to go hang out with Tam that day but I fell asleep around 8pm and didn't wake up until the next day. Wednesday I woke up and went to the Apple store to get my Ipod Esmeralda looked at, she had stopped working when we were on the way to Nagoya. I had a little moment when the guy told me that she had basically died and needed to call HP to get a new one sent out. Went to the gym to get rid of the six pounds that I gained in Japan, damn those carbs!! I came home and figured out that my computer is fucked, every time that I launch Explorer it shuts down and I lose all my work, which is what kept happening with the blog. I'm now on Mozilla and I am in love!!
• Work!!- Since I've been gone, my store has been cutting hours like crazy. Thank GOD, that I went around the world to earn my rent money, because I only got 20 hours this week! It has to do with us not making our goals, but I'm supposed to be fulltime. I'm not some high school kid, I gots to pay my bills. This is were my good friend Ryan comes in, he's the one that we used to sublet from, he booked me a freelancing gig with his modeling agency helping them wrangle their models and just be his assistant. I was able to get my time off from my store, and frankly, they're so happy that I got this. I'm helping them by not coming in to work. I'm hoping that if this works out I can do some more work with them in the future, this will be good exposure. Especially since I only worked one hour today before I was allowed to go home since it was SO slow.
  

Well that is about it, I think? I hope that everyone is caught up. I'll be posting some pictures from the trip later on. I'm home now, bored, #3 is not here, Colorado is nowhere to be found, Roommate is at his Kabbalah meeting and going over to Flacas house in Queens. I'm nervous about tomorrow with this new gig, hopefully I can hang. Love you guys!! DF

Nagoya-Osaka...

I haven't had internet access for a couple of days now and let me tell you that I wouldn't have had time anyways to write. After the party on Sunday we all went out to go dancing and get some drinks. We all got down up and we went OUT!! I spent around 1,000 yen, which comes out to about 100 dollars. I was SO drunk that I couldn't walk or talk but somehow I was still trying to go around and ask the people at some straight bar that we were at if they knew where the gay bars where at. All I kept getting were some blank stares and quick and hushed excuses, the only thing I found was this beat down tranny who ended thinking that I was cute and kept buying me drinks, shit, I'll sit with a tranny for a spell if she buy me some Coronas. The next day we went off on some great adventure and had some fun..I'm gonna bullet point the rest because I'm not on my computer and can't load up pictures.

• I Hart Bullet Trains- We took the high speed bullet trains to Nagoya from Tokyo and it was the must eye catching ride ever, we saw the country side and the ocean as well as some amazing houses. The ride was over two hours but the train was so clean and passenger friendly that it puts anything that the U.S. has to shame, the only thing that we couldn't stand was that for some reason, in most parts of Japan, the don't believe in air conditioning.
• Earthquake on stage!!!- In the northern part of Japan there was a big earthquake about 7.5 on the Richter scale. We are so far south, luckily, that we didn't feel anything, we were on stage when it happened and only felt some weaving and we thought that we were just tired form having to do three shows in one day again. I didn't get a chance to call everyone and tell them that we were all alright until a day later when the news hit the U.S., but as you all know, I'm from California, I eat earthquakes for breakfast.
• TIRED!!- Slept for 12 hours last night, and had a travel day today. I got most of my shopping done for souvenirs today at an antiques market infront of temple in Nagoya. And I also got the rest done here in Osaka. I got some great things for some lucky people back home. I ran out of my per diem today, and I think that I did well considering all the stuff that came out of it, namely a camera and all of the crap for other people. I gotta get off this thing my time is almost up...write more later..love df

Harajuku and all the rest...

We didn't go out last night as planned. In fact, we got home and passed out and woke up at four in the morning to finish packing. We leave the lovely city of Tokyo in the morning and our producers have sent our luggage ahead off us via a FedEx type of company. We are to travel to the city of Nagoya on Monday by train, which is two hours away. We had to pack an overnight bag with the stuff that we would need. We're off to the Harajuku district today, it's a must! I need to get some gifts for the clan back home, my Roommate would have a fit if I didn't get him something fierce from there. I think that tonight we are all gonna get smashed, Sake anyone? They put the offer for the European leg of this tour, it would start the middle of December and possibly go until March, if not then it would end the beginning of January and start up again in February. We've done 24 shows this week, and it would basically be the same schedule over there as well. I can't do that to myself, not anymore. I feel that I've accomplished SO much in the past year since I've been off this crazy ride. I finally have a life, got some great friends, and am happy. This tour has helped me realize how good I have it, and that all my hard work has paid off. So I'm calling this my farewell tour. I am Cher this time and since I called that last one the final, I can come back and call this my farewell tour. I'm having my closure with this show and I feel more than okay to do this, I'm in better shape than I was when I left tour and I have to keep getting better, and being on this thing does not let me accomplish my short range goals, let alone my long range ones. I gotta run, I got one more show to do..see you guys in Nagoya..love df.

Still Standing..

We have been worked to death!! We already have one girl out of the shows due some weird blister thing that got really infected over the course of two days and now she can't walk on it without pain let alone run around in a stupid Muppet costume. I haven't written 'cuz we don't have internet access at home, and here at the theatre I'm trying to stretch, eat, and rest before and after each show. Today is Saturday and I've already performed two shows, we got one more and we'll be happy. It's supposed to be Japan's gay pride here this weekend after having a two year break. I'm not sure if we're gonna have the energy to go out and be faggy, but I have to go out and trip the light fagtastic sometime in Tokyo, everyone tells me that I'll have a blast. I'm still loving this city, and country and culture. Our promoters have treated us like gold while we've been here, there has been almost no need for us to go out and buy snacks. Every couple of hours some new type of food just shows up on the tables, be it juice, pastry or some alcoholic jelly shots. Our live performers family members keep bringing us some interesting traditional Japanese snacks that are either hit or miss with us, but hey, when shit is free, we ain't complaining.
We all have been having a great time here, I'm SO happy to be here. Every morning we wake up and can't believe that we lucky enough to be where we are. One other thing, apparently our promoters have also brought another show here besides us at the same time. Chicago, the musical is here with us and at the same hotel. I was hoping to meet some of the cast, but it turns out that some of them were kind of rude and bitchy when they found out what kind of show we were. Now, don't get me wrong, if you're bitchy and fierce then you got a reason to be bitchy. But when you're bitchy and more or less mediocre. Well then, that's just plain ugly. We got to see this show( for free, lord knows I don't pay for theatre, I AM theatre DAMMIT!) and it was not what I expected. I lived next the Chicago in NYC when I lived in Hell's Kitchen. I walked past it at least twice a day to get to work and home. And I never once went and saw it, I saw the movie, that I thought was hot. So I guess I was expecting some fierceness, there were some that gave you a little something-something. But other than that I was kinda bored and not impressed with the guys or some of the girls that were on stage. Except the leads were good, the lady that played Velma could sing, but dance, well, she's no Bebe. And the other woman who played Roxie, she had good timing, reminded me of a Goldie Hawn/Pattie Lupon. She could kinda dance, but acted her ass off. The chica that played the Kitty part, she had legs for days and amazing technique. Of the boys I only liked Tyce Diorio, and that's because I took his class when he was teaching at BDC. I gotta run, I can't seem to be able to post pictures from the last night, so I'll try after the show. Love you guys..df

Another Opening, Another Show!

So we opened this morning to a three show Wednesday. It's harsh, but all the performers on this tour are veterans and can get through it. It's sort of the like the march of the dinosaurs, everyone is awesome at what they do, but we are also old and snap, crack and moan. We've all been in costumes for a while and know how to work it. Anyhow, today our live performer Rei, pronounced Lei, gave everyone in the cast a traditional Japanese gift when you open a show. It was a cute black box with her name and good luck on the cover in her language. Inside was real sushi, not the kind that we're used to back home, you know California Rolls and such. This was full on stuff that was still moving and came neatly packaged like it was from a picture. The only person besides my Asian roommate to eat it, was I think, me. I decided that when I got off the plane I would try almost anything from this culture, and since I'm a Goonie, am not afraid to try new things.
Here are the pics from me eating it, I finished all of it. I feel fine and a little proud of myself. I just hope that I can finish the next two shows without hurting myself. We also have an opening night party from the promoters and I will try not to make a fool of myself. Hopefully the sushi won't make my body freak out. I gotta run, write more later, I'll be taking pics at the party..love you df.

Lost in Translation...

I'm finally able to get on the internet. Our hotel doesn't have access, and my wireless card wasn't picking up shit, but at the theatre it's smooth sailing. It's actually 10am on Tuesday August 9, 2005. I'm a whole 13 hours ahead of New York City. It's weird trying to adjust to the time difference as well as the language barrier. I love it here, the people are so nice and polite. The streets are amazingly clean, there are NO trash cans to be found, so you have to carry your trash with you until you come across one, or take it back home. I even saw the cutest little garbage truck with the cleanest ever sanitary workers, they pick up your trash and then sweep and wash your sidewalk for you, it was SO considerate. I will add some pics later when I have time, I'm actually about to have rehearsals for the show, we have our finally dress tonight and we open with three show manana...I'm gonna die here, it's early morning and it's already 90 degrees outside. Let me just say that the hotel here is five stars and it's wicked cool!! The pics are from the hotel and the electronics district, Akihabara, where I bought my nifty new camera.
I'll add more pics later...gotta run..Sayonara!! df

I MADE IT!!!

I'm here in a JAPAN!! Actually I'm at the Tokyo airport waiting for the rest of my group to arrive. I haven't had much sleep, it's a twelve hour time difference here and for some reason people think that I speak and understand Japanese. I guess I must look Asian with my tired eyes. I hated flying Northwest Airlines, the flight attendants were horrible, except for the one gay guy who I had yell at some kids that were fucking with the bathrooms. The movies didn't work and neither did that pain killer with the two bottles of white wine that I had. I could not fall asleep. Funniest thing that happened before we took off, I was praying with my rosary and I forgot the prayers, couldn't bring up any memories for Hail Mary, or the Our Father. I kept jumping in and out of the flag salute and some prayer in Spanish that my grandma used to make me say when I was little. I'm tired, and we are on our way to airport....Sayonara!! DF.

Almost there!!

I had a delicious weekend. I went upstate on Saturday with #3 and Dad along with his friend Red. I'll write more about that experience when I get the pictures from #3 so you can see how butch I was climbing rocks and being one with nature. I was SO Goonies!!! I work until Wednesday and I leave for Japan on Friday, I can't believe that I'm going. I got my passport back with my work visa from Japan last Friday and it's almost worth going on tour again just to collect those stamps from around the world. I'm off to bed, I'll have to get the pictures back from my trip cause you won't believe it, even when you see it...night df