The Tour

The Royal Tour

Is there anybody outtheere who has a grasp of the Big Picture.Or anybody looking how the gay 'scene' in the fleshpots of the country continue.
After touring the likes of Auckland K Road and after the backslapping glamour of Christchurch's Oscars I might claim at least a cock eyed opinion of what it is to be out...on the scene...nationally. False Modesty aside,I also managed t perform for each crowd to some acclaim...yet still as ever wondering...what it actual fact audiences shoot and hollar at....as I stomp clamp and declaim on stage...Anyway in what appears to be my performance card.....I can say that I have formed an opinion...IN THESE SHOES....although I admit to having a blister or two to show for it.
But publish and be damned I say.
So what nationally has the world left our expectation since'Priscilla Queen of the Dessert 'left town.

Dorothys sister on Ponsomby Road has to be the high point of charm and good graces...with Vera and Doreen ....who's ability to charm and rise up in the face of business despite weather whichtend to keep the best inside glued to their pcs and dvds.....come Saturday night...Still its quaint camp charm is a jewel in Ponsomby Road for all to enjoy...be it as cafe bar or entertainment venue....You my dear sisters, are heroes.....and your old world charm could teach many a lesson to many of my sisters up and down the country.
But...moving along I was suprised to be greeted at K Roads fleshpots with such charm and elan from the management,especially the Trump Tower of the Auckland Drag Scene.Miss Ribena.
Despite the brickbats this often beleagured diva recieves....I cannot say that I was under all circumstances treated with the utmost respect,and given the opportunity to throw my 'lot'around on their stage....was thrilled to be part of the sweaty glamour that fills the imaginations of the bevy of gay larrikans,dudes,hotties and dare I say wall flowers.
Now of course Iam notwithout some observations
Take the fact that I was travelling south the next day to the Christchurch Oscars..and Miss Ribena after some altercation with her southern sister Mole was not....was notsuprised to see her dressed in her Oscar Dress for the occasion...andalso was spread across the Gaynz foldout in the same outfit....Not a word said...but the note was taken.
BUT THAT BEING HALF A WEEKENDS EXERCISE....
I travelled south to Christchurchs annual Oscars.Now seeing this as a high point for performance I was endeared by my southern sister...the trashy flashy and forever realistic Mole....but found that many of the other performers were taking the opportunity to create mayhem.....making the awards arduous...rather than a joy for all.....So I feel that in all fairness.....to our scene....girls..get off the pot and take a reality check.....we have few spotlights on our industry in this country as it is...why make it such a trial.....we should celebrate....and not spend valuable time exercising the worse aspects of our egos.....in the words of the old song
ITS NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT......
and I wonder who actually appreciates even that.
Go try find workin the straight world girls.......its all a different reality..
But Mole.........you are a wonder.....a true sister...if my antithisis.....
but the highlight of my night was the lection of the queen of the year
Here one is chosen for a years work.....and not for a one off performance...
and rightly it went to a dear queen and friend...
Miss Fur Purse.......
If I thought she was able to bring her charm to a national standing...
I am only there to encourage her....its drag not as we know it...but it is drag
Now to the big picture.....
WHY ARE THOSE UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT IN THE DRAG INDUSTRY SO BOUND UP IN
BULLY BOY STYLED COMPETITION......
Its likely to offer more negative than positive....
and attitudes...sorry girls only tend to fester insecurites
I for one worry enough about my own 'shit'....who's got time for
anything else
Life isnt a rehearsal.....And drag queens play all three acts at once...
and dont appear to have the grace to appreciate to whom they are entertaining....
but keep going girls...
Times may change

hahaha

and thats as they say showbiz

The Search for a Ninth Life COSI

It is never far from my mind that any writer or diarist will recognize the harrassing,bullying,cajoling and smother one's significan other makes on the creative process.
In my cas it has to be the muse of my dearest companion.
My cat.
Cosi.
Named for the opera Cosi FanTutte,a comic piece about decpetive wives and boorish husbands she has been aptly named.Unless you consider the Aussie slang 'cosi' or costume which isnt suprising consider her rather dusty persian coat....or the fact. I had often instructed her, in the way people do with animals.That as a no nonsense measure.I would consider her death painless,and for her to be remembered as a costume piece, for wear. The taxidermist will have to wait. That particularly ghoulish idea idea met its match ,after an afternoon tea with a friend ,who's cat had recently been tranmorphed into the latest fashion accessory.A fur purse.

Yet an incident came to show me how I react in the face of immediate demise.
Or in this case what should be a memorium to the foibles of my cross to bare for companionship
in fact becomes a celebration of her unique place in my domestic life.

Picture this. The horror as the curb side road kiill is mistaken for the said COSI,the companion of my last decade by my departing mother after a more human concern. This visit has also been a point in which the domestic arrangements between her lap dog and her were given a test.
After the morning vets' visit.The dog is healthy and likely to live another five years ,and not
ready for a exit via vet as a mercy.In her mid seventies I wouldnt want my mother to be campaigning for Uthenasia.
Mind you this, and my mother'sown brush with cancer in the last twelve months would have seemed to have drawn a paralell with her amusement at the companions well being.
Sorry...A dopple ganging cat lies inert at the curb side. I look. I feel nothing.
Not a concern.Infact did the maths on how many cat tins I had bought very morning.
Neighbours emerged bloodied like extras in a 'Tarantino' classic.
Next the flatmates.Acqauintances who instant sympatico appears comic in the extreme
as her lady ship.
Cat.
Companion and feline yawned lazily and walked out into the sunline.
Now at this point.Is one fluffy cat like an another.
Or had my clever friend found a way of disguarding her former self for another.
No.She chose the same bag of bones to do so.
However during the rest of the day.
An acquaintance arrived in to visit teary eyed because he thought
His 'mate' was laid stiffly at the road side.
My own reaction would have to be one of bi partison which has somewhat shocked
companions and friends. But I have always,in most things shown a pragmatic approach to human tragedy.
Meanwhile my aged companion sneezes.
Reminding me....One fluffy cat might look like another but one the other hand...
There has been only one COSI

The Original Gloria

If I was ever to say genesis for a character,then when I heard Carol Channing sing the original sountrack of Jerry Herman's Hello Dolly I was hooked.
Here she is....a voice that could only be said to be crossed with a bandsaw,a cats meow and brass band.AND YET WHAT DELIVERY....
At five foot nothing/pint sized for the last 50 years this extraordinary entertainer has
romped,squawked and sold her broad delivery to some of the biggest stages in the world
Here's to you....
even the movies couldnt capture her....
to the glamour...pizazz...and your dynamo of originality
you have always been my inspiration

MISS CAROL CHANNING......................

The Drag Queen as Geisha

I have often considered the high art and lessons learnt in becoming a geisha: JAPANESE ICON
as not very dissimilar to those as garnered by the average drag queen.
In fact have though that comparisons
could be drawn.

Consider the young geisha who set apart and drawn into the geisha house under the watchful eyes of elder mother figures and geisha still exhibiting their craft,to high paying clients.
That craft can be for highly polished performance to entertain,in the ways of dance,musical accomplishment,and charm.The fact that such geisha may in the course of her duties,offer sexual favour for a variety of reasons: not least of all.Power.Position.Esteem.

Young gay men,in the process of discovering their sexual mores often desert their biological family and seek other role models and mother figures.Such is the lot of the young geisha trainee.
Despite what ever frustration homage is paid to age and experience,and also relevant disrespect
when trying to climb to a rung higher on the ladder.Of course this can be public,or for the better
and more established...thought of but never exposed.

So a geisha is a paid entertainer.Who's skills in music,dance and sexual favour are highly prized,yet spend a lifestyle away from their biologocal families....as simple as that...
it would seem that we have paralell lives.....

To my sisters...consider the life of a geisha

Fuschia

Well there it is...the flower.

Needs watering daily.

and oh the sun would help it in so many ways.

To Miss Fushchia Fucada

so apt.......with love as ever

was more in admiration.

Now fuschias have always had a large part of my life.

In fact it saved my mother from going quite mad...or at least out of current control

Gave her creative gardening for years.

But soon proved that once you are able to name more than a dozen

species....you might as well collect stamps....

but without watering like most creative things gardening or not...

are prone to a short life....

so delicate is this flower.....

and always good to know...

cheering the verandah of many a country town.

Gardens 4 us

Now here's a race to the finish.

In trying to stretch the carpet out beyond exp-ectation.It is difficult to see

the fabulousness of night drag during the day....

But give the girls a great project..and voila

they have organised themselves a gig.....

This is great moment.......

Lets start....

Remembering incidents in ones childhood can have a number of effect I have found.
Having been discovered painting my nails as a teenager , I found from my mother's discouraging tone,that it was the same as playing dress ups.This in fact was the territory of the'queen'.
I did hear the tome and possibly that was one of the factors in delaying my ascendence/descendence into the 'world of the drag queen'
At least I have thought that it made some delay..and offered me a number of life experiences that have helped to mould a sense of reality in a world populated with painted faces,clownish wigs and smiles that can make you question their reality.
From isolated child in need of attention,often mistaken for an intelligent human trying to create his own environment through amateur actor with a suitcase of bad reviews,schoolteacher much admired,author,artist and theatrical director.....I HAVE IT SEEMS ..made use of as building blocks in maintaining the precarious emotional world of a drag queen.
Many venture but few remain to make their mark.Those who achieve nationally are knowned to guarded and in some cases fierce.Such behaviour is often respected when exercised with grace and charm,or reviled if recognised as schoolyard bullying.
Such is the need and ambition of the wannabe that such behaviour is often mirrored.
I tend to think and look back over my shoulder...to what has passed before me,and walk happily in it's shadow,

An example being.Recently a young performer who has named herself after a designer label managed to 'rubbish' the arrival of 'Carmen' as an icon. Thinking that life is the here and now,I should imagine.Well..truth is...without the likes of Carmen and her trailblazing heyday ...I doubt if said handbag would so happily shopping for corporate Save Mart items. Let alone,recieving the positive attention she now expects.
To those and those who follow.
Drag did not start with the success
of Priscilla Queen of the Desert........
Get that
Cheers