IMPULSIVE!!

[Anonymous]

Hellllo All!

SO…I just got back from an exciting week in NYC…first trip to that city and I LOVED IT!!!! So meant for people with ADD…well maybe not since it just feeds your senses constantly…like an IV stuck to your arm! Bogged down with the constant stimulation…LIGHTS, SIGNS, PEOPLE, NOISE! bah! Feed me! Feed me more! Soooo much stuff to have your eyes and mind shift too! Craziness!!!! What a high though! and what a crash! I came home feeling half refreshed, but rejuvenated in the way that I felt the sense of possibility again. Meeting new people, getting out into life again. It was pretty amazing. I’d like to back to take pictures and just tour around in a more relaxed fashion. We were power travelers!!! 15 hour days…exploring, bickering, laughing!! We even were able to get tickets to Letterman! How fun! I was pretty happy too when I got back because I actually had some money left after the trip AND I had money in my bank account that I put away to spend for the week. Wooohoo!! Go me! Yeah go me UNTIL I talked to my friend the night after I got back, who talked me into booking a RETURN trip from Vegas for June. YEAH…RETURN…like DUH!!!! There was a seat sale with Westjet…and I all that money I had for the week is gone to a RETURN trip. It’s like the thought process was Oh my god! There’s money in the bank! There’s money in the bank! Of course I can live on 40 dollars for the next week and a half!!!! Ummm…pretty sure I’m going to have to get TO VEGAS to be able to return…so dilemma. Of course I do it backwards!! I now feel anxiety more then rejuvenation and wish I would have thought about that a little more. It’s like I NEED to be behind in my life because that’s where I’m most comfortable…and feel the most familiarity!!!! I was banking on getting some tax money back. too..however….I owe 2 dollars I found out. Great. Awesome Lianne. What am I doing?? boooooo!!!! BOOOOOOO!!! Ah well…need to have fun right? Pft.

Just had to share this wonderful example of impulsive behaviour. I will learn one day!

I hope everyone has a great Monday!!!

Lianne

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[veronica]

awe, focus on the fun you had, not the slight hiccup.

it sounds like you had a blast! *insert cheering smiley here*

it’s a great monday! i hope you have a fabulous one, as well.

~v

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[Anonymous]

LOL. I just luv the way you write Lianne!

You did learn something. You just wrote about it. The trick is to remember what you just wrote about!

Have a great day all! I’ve got a blog post to write.

R

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[Anonymous]

Thanks gals/guys!!! You both are amazing I did learn something and yes it was a blast! And actually I have been realizing that I’ve forgotten how to play and have fun! SO this impulsive decision will lead me to be able to play and have fun. ALTHOUGH I still have to find a flight there! Bahaha…ah well. It will work out. What blog are you writing R??

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[Anonymous]

<stong>Lianne, I write on one of the 250,000,000 lonely insignificant blogs sprinkled about the Net at http://www.flyfree.biz/blog/

I’m doing it as my own self-directed self-diagnosed self-attended therapy sessions. I have to force myself to do it. I have tons of ideas for posts …. and so many more that I know I had, but forgot. Big ideas! But I have to force myself to do it.

Anyway, no big deal. If you want to read a really talented writer, go see wolfeshade’s blog at http://www.wolfeshades.com/ Amazing writer.

R

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[Patte Rosebank]

Lianne, Vegas is an amazing place. I went there in January, and the only gambling I did was to feed $10 in nickels into slot machines. It was fun watching the wheels spin, but I didn’t win a damned thing. The only place I did win a little something was on “Let’s Make a Deal”. The episode airs on March 31st. I’m the one dressed like Carmen Miranda.

Anyone with impulsivity issues should strictly limit their exposure to the temptation of gambling. I set a limit of $10 and stuck to it. I was there more for the shows and the pilgrimage to the Liberace Museum, where one of the ladies who works in the Costume wing gave me a one-on-one tour, and even let me touch one of Liberace’s costumes—which is completely unheard-of, but I guess she figured that anyone who works with feathers and rhinestones so much that she can identify bird (in the case of the feathers) and colour & size (in the case of the rhinestones) probably wouldn’t break anything.

Look into discounts on show tickets. There are heaps of them out there, but beware of people handing out vouchers for free tickets to a show. These require you to buy a drink or two, at $10 each. So it may be cheaper to just buy a ticket and go without the drink, especially if your drinks of choice are non-alcoholic. $10 for one of those is really pricey.

Mack King’s comedy magic show is wonderful. Penn & Teller consider him a god of prankster magic, and he lives up to that distinction. It’s a G-rated show, and he has a wonderful rapport with the audience, which often includes children…or, in my case, children who refuse to grow up. After the show, he comes out into the lobby to sell and autograph his magic sets and books which teach you how to do things like swallow goldfish, or puncture your eyeball with a fork very graphically. Of course, I got one of those books. You never know when you’ll need to know how to do stuff like that.

You should also see “Jubilee”, at Bally’s. It’s the last of the old-style (topless, but far from nude) showgirl revues, and the costumes are truly breathtaking. When they were first mounting it, about 30 years ago, they actually caused a worldwide rhinestone shortage, primarily with Bob Mackie’s finale costumes. With coupons, you can get a $90 seat for around $40, and there’s even a backstage tour you can go on. I saw this show twice, but then, I really love my feathers & rhinestones & excess.

I couldn’t afford a ticket to see Donny & Marie at the Flamingo, but I did see Donny’s “Technicolor Dreamcoat” and Marie’s “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” costume (from “Dancing With the Stars”), in glass cases in the lobby of the Flamingo. I noted that the rhinestones on Marie’s costume were size 20ss Swarovski crystal flatbacks in Aurum, with a few in AB Crystal along the cuffs, and some 30ss in Jet on the tie. (I really have worked with rhinestones too much…)

Vegas has a weird sort of perspective. Things look really close by, but once you start walking towards them, you discover they’re actually a mile or more apart, which is great if you’re looking for exercise, but can be hard on the feet. And everything there is fake. Like a movie set. It’s a really odd feeling to be in the middle of it. It also has some great cheap eats, but you have to take the Deuce (the double-decker bus that runs along the Strip) to Fremont Street (old Vegas) to get them. Still, it’s worth the trip for 12-ounce prime rib and all the trimmings for a mere $7.99.

Just focus on the shows and the touristy stuff, and leave the gambling alone—especially on the Strip, where the odds are higher and the slots are tighter. It’s all a mug’s game anyway.

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[Anonymous]

Hey Larynxa!

WOW! Thanks so much for all the information! haha…that’s great! Yes I’m looking forward to this now…we are going for a birthday and I know a few other people going down as well. I will have to print out all this information! Sounded like you had a great time! AND I definitely don’t gamble and usually stop myself at $20 for the slots. I’d rather spend my money elsewhere So that’s good! I appreciate this! How do you like being a burlesque dancer? That sounds really fun! Great that she let you touch all that stuff in Vegas too! You must have been excited about that!

Thanks again!

Lianne

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[Patte Rosebank]

I’m not really a burlesque dancer, Lianne. My dancing days are long behind me. I was laid low by flat feet, exacerbated by the fact that the dance studio had a concrete floor. But I can still tap a little bit, and I can at least put “moves well” on my resume. Even so, it was a real shocker when I had to sit out most of the finale when I was in the Canadian premiere of “Jerry Springer – The Opera”. My joints and muscles rebelled to the point where I could just manage to march on to join the kickline across the front edge of the stage, at the very end of it. The second shocker was realizing that I was twice as old as some of the cast members, and at least 15 years older than the rest of them. (But socio-emotionally, I’m still only 28.4!)

I’m a burlesque singer, with songs like “Otto Titsling” (from “Beaches”), “Bring On the Men” (from “Jekyll & Hyde”), “I Never Do Anything Twice” (a rare bit of Sondheim, from “The Seven Percent Solution”), “Sweet Gypsy Rose” (from the wife’s point of view), and Liza Minnelli’s “Ring Them Bells” (with strategically placed jingle bells on my red sequinned mini-dress). And I can ad-lib some great banter with audiences.

Though I know how to twirl tassels, and do on rare occasions, I always keep my corset and tights on, because if I were to remove them, the resultant jiggling would cause a tsunami in Lake Ontario. I sang in the last (actually the first) two Toronto International Burlesque Festivals, and I’m applying to perform in this year’s, which will be in July. I’ll also be making and donating something fancy to the Festival’s bra auction in aid of breast cancer research.

If you feel like doing something wild and impulsive, and you’re in Toronto, the Toronto Burlesque & Vaudeville Alliance is having another “Strip Search” contest, to find new talent for the Festival. There are Burlesque (for girls), Boylesque (for boys), and Variety divisions, and the winner of each division gets a place in the Festival. I won the Variety division in the first contest, and that’s how I got into the first Festival. Even if you don’t compete, it’s still amazing to watch people come out of their shells the first time they do burlesque onstage. They start out a little timid, but by the time they get to the tassel-twirling, they’re flushed with triumph and exuberance and the thrill of just letting themselves go and have fun, and to hell with what anybody else thinks. It’s the same thrill you can get from playing a character who has hysterics in a sketch or a play (wonderfully cathartic, especially if you get big laughs or a soothing, “Awww…” from the audience while doing it), or from singing in a crowded karaoke bar. And you need to be totally sober to really enjoy it.

One more Vegas tip: If you’re in Vegas on the first Thursday-to-Sunday in June, you’ll be there for the Miss Exotic World burlesque festival, at the Plaza Hotel, in old Vegas. I won’t be able to make it, but many of my friends will be there, along with many of the legends of the burlesque world of the 1940s-1970s.

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