Göteborg tomorrow

Getting ready for more Mustasch down south. Packing (miniature packing to fit in the car), burning CD:s, making set-lists, getting glitter spray, slimming the make-up case, etc. etc.

It'll be the same show as last Saturday, except Baby is doing a solo instead of Contessa, so quick changes, but fun. Hoping it'll work out as well as it did in Stockholm.

Kept dreaming we (a bunch of Kittens) were shoplifting fur coats all night, maybe because I can't decide which coat to bring tomorrow. Should it be the ozelot? The white "mink" or the brown mink? It's all Lana Turner's fault for having all those coats in Ziegfeld Girl... I know they're making her miserable but they look soooo goood...

The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs...

Ah, the life of a showgirl... And the inspiration for my Christmas routine dress! Yummy!

Preparations...

for the new Burlesque Basics course at Burleskakademien starting today!

I'm super excited about meeting these seven brand new stars-to-be. Some of them I've met before at workshops and clubs, some of them are new to me. Either way, it's exciting.

Reverend Duchess getting ready for the tent...

This is what showgirls do...

...when you let them babysit your dog.

Shucks!

Bugger. My telly malfunctioned (froze) and I missed the entire ending of Rebus!

Mustasch Annexet, October 17, show

We started off with Rosado without any introduction, which was nice, because the song in itself is so... Good! The drums at the start - I just love it, it makes me all excited. It worked well, despite the stage being quite shallow.

Magduschka had her work cut out for her with the initial introduction, since Pepper had a direct change AND her shimmy belt decided to dig its heels in and prolong the change. It worked out fine, but Madame M was not loving it...

As soon as she got her costume on properly, Pepper did her fast paced Switchblade routine while some of us got changed for Minnie.

Minnie the Moocher also went well, and Georgettes fancy moustasche-pasties were much appreciated.

Contessa brought our whiny glitter girl in under gun-point and after making her pick up our things she proceeded to perform her Mambo Italiano while the rest of us changed for Pussies.

Miss D made her solo debut as a Kitten with her Cellblock routine, much to the audiences delight! Marvellous! She's a real diamond, that's for sure.

We finished the set with our awardwinning Pussies on Parade routine, and got roaring ovations.

You'll find some showphotos here.

Back to the dressingroom, sorting out the costumes with two most unfortunate MIA's - one heartshaped tassel and one entire bra which is a tragic loss. Still hoping they'll resurface.

I walked the stage area with a tech guy after Mustasch played their set and he helped me search with a flashlight. We found nothing but he assured me that if the things were still there they would be found as the stage was dismantled.

"Great", says clever me. "Well, it's a red and pink bra with satin bows and rhinestones, and..."
"I'm pretty sure we'd suspect anything of that general description to be yours."
Ah. Yes. Well, you never know what those metal blokes might be donning underneath. Right?

Anyways, after packing up, we headed over to Clarion Hotel for the afterparty, had some drinks, danced a bit, behaved silly. I found a pair of 3D-glasses on the floor which really made my evening (although obviously not in a 3D-capacity, but rather in being fun glasses). They played soul and then they played lots of rock so we sang a lot too and played air guitar.

Manager H left early, but Martin, our most dedicated live photographer who had been shooting us in the dressingroom and on stage, came to Clarion and had some drinks with us. We love him, he's Kitten family.

The guys in the band (or bands rather) we're super nice and seemed pleased with our show, and we're all looking forward to Gothenburg next Saturday.

XoXoX
D

Mustasch Annexet, October 17, pre-show

General nail polish application after soundcheck, waiting for dinner-time.

Some Chilean Chardonnay for the ladies. No complaints there. Everyone (except Baby) was starving, and had some instead of a starter. Me, Lola and Manager H stand by the dressing room door having a look at the evenings schedule.

Heading off for dinner across an afternoon deserted venue.

Pepper is hungry and happy. Ericsson Globe Arena is ugly. We're seated at a table that has room for all ten of us, nicely enough, and we're the first ones there so we snag it. Pannbiff and svampsås with potatoes and salad. We manage to be quiet for a solid fifteen minutes or so, because we're all starving and busy stuffing ourselves.

But as soon as we were fed properly we got loud and giggly again. Miss D's wearing an outdated tee shirt, but it is good looking. As soon as we were done we went back to the dressingroom.

It was wigs all around. Lola was a red-head, Ingrid went white-blond, I went for the Marilyn-straw-blond, and Georgette wore her nice 60's bob in her own hair colour.

Quick change behind drums and amps. Not much light but we've got that change-in-the-dark special showgirl fingerspitzgefühl. Lucky. A sneak preview of the audience from behind the drums...

Soundcheck was unsatisfactory. Holes in the floor, cables and bulky monitors. Everyone had a case of wobbly feet. But come showtime things were just right and the whole show felt really good!

The audience was really amazing and loud and we had a blast. Looking forward to doing it again in Gothenburg on Saturday Oct 24.

NYBF 2009

Once again, we had a spectacular time at NYBF. We were on Friday night at the Bell House in Brooklyn, introduced by our beloved Scotty, and he did it in Swedish! Yay!

Scotty on stage, and Kittens getting changed in tiny corridor.

Getting ready for the stage.

We opened the second set. The crowd was awesome! And so were the sponsors, Jägermeister and PBR, or at least Lola and Miss D thought so...

Dixie & Minnie Tonka. Lola, Georgette & Indigo Blue.

We had the most fun week, and week-end, with lots of pancakes and omelettes, fucking amazing workshops at the NY School of Burlesque (run by hot tamale Jo Boobs) with BOB, Indigo and Lux La Croix, shopping and more shopping (me and Georgette brought home a total of seven new wigs...), and more omelettes and pancakes.

We stayed in a "hotel" that seemed to have inadvertently dropped the s between o and t, which looked a little nightmarish when we first arrived (oh, how I detest the shared bathroom!). But when all five Kittens turned up we got our hands on a dorm room with its own bath and things were hunky dory again.

First time for me uptown. We stayed at W 97th St (and Broadway) so I got to know a new neighbourhood, at least a little, because we still ended up spending most of our time further down. The Metro Diner was only two blocks away, so we had quite a few breakfasts there, and Texas Rotisserie, which didn't look like much to the world, was right on our corner and had the most delicious grilled chicken with tomato and cucumber salad, and avocado wrap. (Yes, I remember, and judge, my travels greatly by the culinary experience).

Nearby was also Alice's Tea Cup, where you could get delicious scones (coconut and banan flavour, for example) and a pot of tea for $10. And, most importantly, they had like a ten page tea menu! Heaven! I brought some of the house blend with me home.

More later, time to walk the dog...

XoXoX
D

World's lousiest/laziest(?) blogger...

Yup, that's me!

Still so behind the times, trying to catch up since April. I'm realizing it's just futile to try and get everything on here, because no matter what, I will always lapse when I'm busy. So, brief update:

Just back from Vegas and the wonderful, magical, amazing Miss Exotic World/Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend - and this year we packed a trophy when we went back home! I'm sooo proud of our troupe! Yay!

All kinds of things went wrong that day. Litterally five minutes before going on stage Ingrid Ignition's zipper split on the dress. Un-fixable. We panicked. Baby, ever the resourceful seamstress, put the dress on her and did some sewing - it was stitched on when we went on stage. Everyone was SO nervous until she successfully ripped it off, and it looked like nothing.

Me, I couldn't get my bra open! I had to push it down on my tummy, and I did that so forcefull i tore it open in front. It slithered down and got stuck in my tail-piece, weighing it down.

But it worked out nicely anyway! We won the "Most Classic" award! So it wasn't the troupe award (won by ninjas - ???!?!!? okay...), but we'll get that another year. But we competed against everyone instead!

I'm so proud! SO proud.

And I'll pick this up later, got to run...

XoXoX

Kittenville Newcomers' Night 3 April

Finally it was upon us, the moment we'd all been waiting for, me and my showgirl students. It was graduation time and it was on stage at Judy's. Fancy, Jolie, Francesca and Miss D had completed their routines, rehearsed in front of a discerning audience of one (Ingrid) the previous Sunday, and now they were ready to do it in front of an audience of both familiar and unfamiliar faces (I'm not sure which is most intimidating).

They all did great, and we had a fabulous Kittenville evening!

Jolie Étoile was the first newcomer to take the stage with her exotic routine to Summertime. She had an all-black costume with a gorgeous Spanish-style veil and stunning red star tassels (star=étoile, get it?). She was wonderful and I was so proud!

Jolie Étoile unveils her gorgeous self.

Crafty Lady Francesca was the second newcomer to take the stage. Not only was she an amazingly thorough French Maid with oodles of attitude, she also made her costume herself - including the gorgeous corset! And she does custom work too, so you should ask me for her number!

Lady Francesca cleans up her act, French Maid style.

Miss Fancy Lane was third to go on stage. She did a wonderful classic glamour routine and I am so extremely proud of her! She went through a journey in the classes and I'm so happy I got to be a part of that. A once shy lady now took the stage every inch a spotlight diva, full of sass and stage presence.

Fancy Lane does a glamour/burlesque version of Beautiful
- and she does it beautifully!

Miss Diamond was the last newcomer to take the stage with her stern, bossy secretary look, which she tears off to show everybody the glittering showgirl underneath. Very well executed indeed, to the sounds of Honey Rocks.

Miss Diamond shows everybody what she's made of...

They were so darn great, all four of them, and I was soooo proud of my girls! There was a lot of work in those routines, and I've decided to take it as a positive reflection on my teaching skills that four girls who have gone through the exact same classes have all come out so individual on the other end. Yay, ladies! Go, burlesque!

Happy debutantes receive cheers, applause and flowers.

The newcomers weren't the only debutantes - I did my first stint as a compere and ended up somewhere in the realm of 'don't quit your dayjob', but I was happy to do it, because those were my girls taking the stage for the very first time! Georgette had a new job too; glittergirling it to perfection. She is the funniest lady I know.

Georgette is the evening's hilarious glitter girl.
Isn't that blond wig just Gorgeous on her?

Ingrid Ignition and Pepper Potemkin took the stage after our debutantes to give the evening an air of experience. Ingrid's bride routine to Make Love to Me was very cute and gorgeous, and Pepper's One Mint Julep routine was brimful of sass and attitude - they were radiant and made us all proud!

Ingrid Ignition

Pepper Potemkin

The rest of the Kittens hung out backstage, got drunk, gave each other Easter gifts and made funny faces for the camera. As you can see, the burden of glamour is on us in the concrete dressing room...

Dixie & hubby Freddie the Heartbreaker

Pepper, Contessa, and her bazookas.

Ingrid & Georgette listening to sweet
music on Ingrid's top-modern CD walkman.

The mandatory raspberry pic.

Kisses and razzies, Ingrid, Lola, Georgette and I.

Just in case you were wondering
'smoking is fucking prohibited'

Next Kittenville is on Friday, May 29th at Judy's. We'll be doing a dress-rehearsal for our Vegas competition, among other things, so don't miss out!

XoXoX
Duchess