Wonder Woman toys for Grownup Ladies

MAC really tempted me with the Hello Kitty line, but I resisted. However, when they announced they were putting out Wonder Woman themed products, all resistance was futile.

Bought these last night- the lipstick is Russian Red, a color I'd wanted anyhow, and the polish is Obey Me red. Had to get that.

The Wonder Woman obsession started early with me- until I was old enough to realize it wasn't an occupational choice, I answered every, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with the whole hearted answer that I wanted to be the Amazonian princess.

So of course, when someone started making lady sized Wonder Woman underoos, I had to have them, since I of course owned a set of the originals way back when I thought I might get to wear the real satin tights some day.

Gypsy!

Last night was the book event at Tattered Cover LODO for the fabulous Karen Abbott and her wonderful book on my favorite burlesque queen, Gypsy Rose Lee. Gypsy was a DIY girl after my own heart, a fiercely individual artist and total trailblazer.





Me and Karen. Jo Weldon described her as having "The biggest and most beautiful eyes", and she really does!



I was honored to be asked to perform as part of the event and recreated  Gypsy's very funny and very PG (appropriate for the Tattered Cover audience) striptease "Psychology of a Stripper" from "Stage Door Canteen". I piled my hair up Gypsy style and found a few things in my closet that echoed her outfit. I was nervous as all heck and convinced I would never remember the whole monologue, but I did alright and only left out one line. As usual the striptease was much easier than the talking!



Check out Karen's brilliant version, taking Gypsy's act and spoofing it as the, "Psychology of an Author".





Smash Putt- LAST WEEKEND!!

I've been bartending the last few Saturdays at the amazing Smash Putt golf course and if you haven't been there you MUST GO!!! The last nights are tonight and Sunday. Tonight is their big blow-out party and Boba Fett and the Americans marching band will be filling the place with even more crazy sound than usual!

My favorite hole- the infinity hole!

As a (former? future?) installation artist, I adore what the Seattle founders of this wacky/arty putt putt course have acomplished- it really is a total experience- from the surprising and fun course, to the bar stocked with local and small distilleries (including my favorite Montanya Rum - also a favorite of the staff). The touring course will hopefully be coming back, but won't you be kicking yourself if you miss it and they don't come back? Yes you will.

I might pop by tonight to check out the chaos, but I'll definitely be there Sunday (superbowl? what superbowl?) smashing a few balls, drinking a few cocktails made with some of the finest booze in the Rocky Mountains (they also have Ransom Gin, which I mentioned in my last post, and I highly recommend you try) so please join me.

If you make it by- please do yourself a favor poke around every corner- I went the first weekend, which was super empty (lucky me! Every weekend after was packed) and didn't realize there were hidden lounges and other holes all over the place!

How I learned to love gin

In college I drank gin and tonics because everyone else was drinking them, and they kind of tasted like christmas, but when I experienced several episodes of excruciating late night leg cramps after nights of g&t imbibing, I swore off gin and switched to vodka tonics. The leg cramps stopped and from then on I avoided the juniper beverage. Looking back it was likely the quality of the Pinesol flavored well gin served to me at the Compound, Snake Pit and Rock Island that was messing with my muscles, so now that we're in an age where the gin category has exploded from a handful of choices to an incredible plethera of both large and small distilleries putting out really fine gin, I no longer fear the Dutch Courage.

I've explored a few of the gins out there- Leopold Brothers, Plymouth, Hendrick's, Bols Genever, Hayman's Old Tom, Ransom's Old Tom and a couple others- but it was a real treat to have a guided tasting yesterday with AKA Wine Geek Steve Olson. I knew a little about the history of gin, and was familiar with the wide variety of flavor profiles of the many gins out there, from dry to sweet, and everything in between, but for almost three hours, Steve filled my head (and the heads of nearly 40 stellar local bartenders filling the basement of TAG) with both an in depth history of the very old liquor category and tasting notes that had me inspired to rush home to play with the gin and vintage cocktail books I've got in my home bar.

I'd tasted most of the seven gins set out for the tasting (Tanqeray, Sapphire, Bols Genever, Ransom, Plymouth, (crap forgot #6!)) but the one I had not tasted was the Tanqueray Ten and it really surprised me. Not knowing much about it I expected it to be fairly similar to regular Tanqueray, but the flavor was really different. Steve described it as, "...a fruit basket in your mouth." and it really was. There was an astonishing variety of citrus flavors rising up with the juniper and coriander as I held it on my tongue and even more in the finish. Plus it's sweeter and someone who really jumped back in with gin whole heartedly when I tasted the old tom gins and Bols Genever, it's definitely a gin that fits my taste.

The Big Clean



Before

 I am a mess- and as my mother will attest, I have always been a mess. I'm generally not a dirt and mold and gunk kind of mess (ew), but I am the 'I'll put that away later' and never do kind of mess. Especially in my basement, where I don't have to look at it every day and so the mess can't taunt and embarrass me.

Last year I cleaned it up and organized it so that there was a place for all my costumes, supplies, storage etc. And it looked good for a while. And then it didn't, and I just let it pile up. Finally it was getting to be a hazaard zone, where every time I went down there I risked falling, being covered by piles of stuff and never getting up again. So I attacked. 

After



Things are in their place- I took all the costume making supplies out of the costume room (except the fabric bins- there's just no other place for them to live) so I can start building costumes again. It's still cluttered looking, I just have too much stuff, but at least now I can reach and find and use the clutter. I also have big plans for all the stuff I've accumulated with the plan to make them into hats, headdresses, costumes, etc. and the new clean space will definitely help. I even created a little makeup area in the costume room.

I've also got a small pile of stuff I need to fix, and discovered a few things missing that I need to go in search for. It's nice to know I don't need to dread looking for costumes for a show, or a pair of scissors. I unearthed my long lost swaravski ear buds, and created a basket of  'things that could become costumes'. I feel organized and ready to create!

Cheers to Gypsy Rose Lee

Tomorrow Gypsy Rose Lee would have turned 100. She was a burlesque dancer and producer, an accomplished seamstress and costume designer, the author of a play and several books (a couple that were turned into movies), she acted in films and TV, had her own television talk show and her life story was turned into one of the most popular and successful musicals of all time, Gypsy (which is about to be relaunched on to the big screen by Barbra Streisand).

I've always felt a great connection to Gypsy- I feel like I share her DIY attitude and her desire to do more and be more. Plus burlesque changed both of us for the better. For her it took an awkward girl who had no place in Vaudeville, gave her a stage and made her a star --and for me burlesque transformed my very shy and awkward self into an elegant, confident woman. We both cultivated stage personas that eventually we mostly transformed into, onstage and off. Burlesque made us both published writers, and while it defines who we are to the general public, we both have used that fact to achieve greater goals rather than letting it limit us, as it could.

When I went out to Exotic World in 2005 to help them pack up and make the move to Vegas, photographer Don Spiro was recording the museum pieces before they were stored away, and asked me to model Gypsy's gorgeous drapey green velvet dress and black shoes. Gypsy was just a half inch taller than my 5'9 and I have a similar frame, so the dress fit me perfectly, though her size 10's were a size large for me. I remember feeling slightly electrified thinking that I was literally standing in Gypsy's shoes and dress.

Author Karen Abbott just released an in-depth and entertaining biography of Gypsy American Rose:A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee and she'll be here in Denver on February 5th at the Tattered Cover in Lodo, where yours truly will be recreating a couple of Gypsy's numbers! If you happen to be in New York tomorrow, celebrate Gypsy's birthday with Karen and some of the city's finest burlesque performers at the New York Public Library.

And for a quick peek at this amazing woman, this terrific article from Life Magazine from December 14, 1942 catches her at the height of her success (plus check out all the holiday and booze ads- fantastic!).

She was an incredible woman and as I'm also a cocktail girl, I suggest lifting a glass to toast the great lady, maybe a gin and tonic (her favorite) or this cocktail, known as 'The Gypsy': Equal parts gin and sweet vermouth, and a maraschino cherry. Cheers to Gypsy!

2010 in Review

Started 2010 off in Helsinki in February for the publication of my book in Finnish, and the Helsinki Burlesque Festival. Then I was invited to perform at and judge the Texas Burlesque festival in the spring, and I started a short lived but much loved job as a tour guide for Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, which led to my current employment with Montanya Rum, Colorado’s finest rum- recognized and praised nationally and internationally. They took me to New Orleans for my first Tales of the Cocktail where I learned a lot, drank a lot of amazing cocktails, met a ton of wonderful people, including a ton of LUPEC ladies, at our first national meet-up, and basically had the time of my life.

Bartending at RumFest

Montanya also sent me to London for Rum Fest, where we were one of five rums nominated for a Golden Barrel award in the ‘Best Rum in North America’ category! Yes, it’s that good.

Montanya also made it possible for me to attend one of my favorite events, Tiki Oasis. I’ve always attended as a burlesque performer, and while that was always fun, it was even better as a sponsor. Tiki people love rum, and so they loved me!

I was honored to be invited to perform at the Burlesque Hall of Fame event in Las Vegas, The New York Burlesque Festival, The Southwest Burlesque Showcase, The Great Burlesque Exposition in Boston, along with the Texas and Helsinki festivals.



Locally, BurlyCute (who put me on a giant moving billboard downtown) and Immundo Burlesque gave me lots of stage time, plus Westword’s Artopia, the Cala Inn in Dillon, Fresh City Life at the Denver Public Library, Ginger Sexton’s Apocalyptic Ball and the Denver Modernism Show all let me shake my tail feathers (and feather fans) on their stages.

I was lucky enough to go to two burlesque weddings! The first was in the spring and was the wedding of burlesque historian, Jaye Furlonger- now Jaye MacAskill at the Little White Chapel in Vegas with Dixie Evans, Tempest Storm and Laura Herbert in attendance.

Then in San Fran in the fall, Sparkly Devil married the west coast’s most fabulous and foul mouthed export from Brooklyn, a gent known as Bones. I performed as part of the wild and wacky burlesque reception and the next night at Hubba Hubba in Oakland at the post-wedding show produced by Sparkly.

Trying April's makeup style

Just before the New York festival, I headed upstate to spend some time with April March, who when we first met a few years ago gave me one of the biggest compliments of my life. She said I move like she did when she used to perform! We’re working on a tribute act to her- she travels and speaks about her career, but doesn’t perform anymore, plus there’s not much footage of her performances, so I’m hoping to give the world a view of what it was like to see her live back in the day. We picked out music and the costume and prop and hopefully we’ll get to debut it at the Exotic World Weekend this year!

My burlesque school is really taking off with sell out classes and a ton of fabulous ladies graduating with honors and wanting to take it to the next level to be professional performers! I’m so excited!

Vintage lifestyles magazine, Milkcow called my burlesque school one of the top 10 in the world!



LUPEC Denver is more organized, connected and driven than ever before. I’m so proud of us!



Dita's Be Cointreauversial
costume at Contreau Prive



I took a side trip to Paris and stayed in the shadow of the Sacre Coeur with Forest, the author or Paris' finest cocktail blog, http://52martinis.blogspot.com/ and had a couple cocktails with burlesque mover and shaker Gentry de Paris. Plus I spent an evening at Dita Von Teese's fabulous temporary club, Cointreau Prive where I sipped great cocktails and had a chance to drool over a couple of her costumes on display.

I was able to see Dita, one of my favorite artists, in New Orleans performing three acts I’d been dying to see live. She’s the epitome of the self created showgirl. Plus I had a story published in the international online burlesque magazine, 21^st Century Burlesque about that Dita show in NOLA.

I had a bit part in Katharyn Grant’s movie Carolina Blue as a 70’s hooker!

Marie Vlasic painted my portrait

 which ended up on a billboard downtown!



I’ve always been fortunate enough to have great friends and colleagues and this year I feel like I’ve met more amazing people than ever before, mostly from the burlesque and the cocktail world.

As usual, I’ve really got no idea what 2011 will bring, but I’m hopeful for good things. I’d like to write more, and I feel like I’m ready to produce shows again after a long self imposed hiatus. Definitely stay tuned for at least a one night re-launch of Vivienne VaVoom’s “Burlesque As It Was”!

Happy New Year to you all, follow the golden rule, and above all else, do what makes you happiest!

Love,

Michelle/Vivienne