Catfight!

Austin burlesque troupe sues Bay area act over use of name.
Great minds, bad timing, or a sincere ripoff? Who knows why there are two burlesque troupes named Kitty Kitty Bang Bang? The first one I heard of was, naturally, the Austin-based one, with whom I've had the pleasure of sharing stages several times. I particularly enjoyed their Burlesque the Vote performance in 2004.

photo by antastik
The San Francisco troupe came to my attention on a Teaseorama schedule (definitely before 2006, when the Austin kitties say they became aware of it, but not before 2003, when I first heard of the Texas troupe) and I did wonder who came up with the name first, and why both continued to use it. Perhaps it's because they're separated by half the country that both troupes have kept it for so long. Regardless, I doubt the SF troupe has the assets to pay the damages requested. Maybe in sequins and feathers.

Early presents!

I suppose they weren't intended as such, but my birthday is coming up in a jiffy, and I had a fun book and a sweet pair of shoes waiting for me when I got home last night. Thanks, gifters! Pictures TK.

I'm home, for a minute

The first week of May I spent out in North Dakota. It is, always, constant work out there. It's not likely that anything more than grocery shopping will get me out, not when nine hours of the day are spent in the club, two in preparation for work (showering and shaving, washing costumes, etc), eight sleeping, and three in front of the computer. That's all fine, though. There's not a giant cultural life out there waiting to be enjoyed. Drive into town Monday, work work work work work work, drive out on Sunday.
Then it was back across Montana, but in a leisurely fashion, since there wasn't an immediate need to be anywhere. And it's always nicer to drive across Montana leisurely, because it's huge, gorgeous, and, in its western half, mountainous. Mountain passes do not inspire great speed, not in me. It's also got Bozeman and Missoula, and getting to them is like getting to Austin and Houston after driving west to east across all of Texas. I made myself get up extra early to get to Bozeman in time to eat at the Nova Cafe, one of my most favorite breakfast restaurants in the country.
I left the trailer in Missoula (oh, yeah, I've been in a travel trailer for several of my long trips; not sure if I've mentioned that lately) and went back to Portland for ten days, during which I did very little thanks to some nasty allergies and the worst sore throat I've ever had, which resulted in my discovery of viscous lidocaine, a foul and ugly substance which does indeed numb the throat, and which I instantly suspected of being exactly what they market in those Pure Romance catalogs as an aid to deep throating.
Then back to Missoula in time for Memorial Day weekend up until Sunday night. It was a really pleasant work experience and I'll so definitely be back. Strangely enough I even ran into Mimi while there; I'll trip report our Fred's visit later.
One huge pain-in-the-ass detour yesterday later, I caught a flight back to Portland, and here I shall remain for all of another 22 hours until heading out to New York and New Jersey for a week and a half. It's a good thing that I spend so much of the time in between traveling sitting on my ass. Balance and all.

Two months later I describe Vegas a bit

Someone wanted to know more about my experience in Vegas. He claimed to know a friend of mine but didn't make himself identifiable to me -- feel free to, "Randy." Hah, I guess I whined in my post about my first night there and then didn't talk about the rest of the trip. I was pissed on that first night after having an hour sale go bad. Boo. The next night was somewhat better, and then we took a night to hang out with a bunch of our hottie friends (kind of like my MySpace page come to life) and eat sushi. On our last working night we hit one of the smaller clubs and had a blast. I had a totally excellent time working there and when it is no longer 100 degrees in Vegas I'll go back. I was entertained in the dressing rooms of both clubs before even setting foot on the floor

Club 1 is very large, very nice, though not the most popular of the large clubs in town. We're getting ready for our "audition," which is where you put on a two-piece outfit so the manager can eyeball you. A very wasted girl says, "You don't wanna work here! No money here. You girls're hot. Go to the Rhino (the Spearmint Rhino, hardest club in town to get on the night shift, we didn't even want to bother with the soul-crushing "audition" there after hearing from hottie friends who'd been rejected). Go somewhere else. You're hot, you don't wanna work here."
We try to ignore her, move on to murmuring "Uh huh, you don't say," when she doesn't stop, and sigh in relief once she slumps on the counter and shuts the fuck up.

Club 2 is smaller, pretty nice, but definitely not considered a top tier club in town. We've heard great things about it from a local friend, though, and want to be amused on at least one of our nights in town. Our audition here consists of the manager asking us how old we are and if we have any children or large tattoos. We tell him we'll be happy to change but he declines and just hires us without ever seeing us in less than jeans and tops. We're in the dressing room changing when we hear a girl say, "What the fuck is up with that? Shit has to be bad here if they aren't over at Sapphire or Scores. Why would they want to come here?"

In the first case I can see the gal perhaps trying to run off new hires; in the second the girl was clearly befuddled that we would choose to work at her club and figured the only reason we were there was because we couldn't get hired elsewhere. Both instances had us giggling furiously.

Club 2 turned out to be a blast as there were lots of touristy couples coming through, so I danced for a lot of women, ranging from an international tourist to a Midwestern schoolteacher. I don't know what those girls didn't like about it; if I think a club sucks, I leave. There's a lot of them, you know.

If I weren't committed to another couple of weeks where I am I'd head down there this weekend for the stripper summit; a lot of my friends are getting together for a party. My pleasure travel will wait 'til the end of the month.

It snowed. I understand that it's summer in some places, but a crazy storm swept through the Northwest yesterday. This morning I went outside and saw some ice on the ground, and, having just awakened, thought, "Why is there ice on the ground? Did someone dump it here?" before seeing the mountains covered with snow. It looks like November, not June. It's gorgeous, though, the view I have right now.

I'm feeling pretty happy and rejuvenated halfway through my small-city stay. It's so strange -- I've been keeping such a consistent schedule that I've almost developed a routine, which is something I almost never have. Wake up, breakfast, computer time, head into town, work out at the gym (also something I never do), shower, eat, go to work, come home, dick around online until it's time for bed. Wow, a routine. I think it's working as the burnout is about gone. Also, I had a really nice weekend capped by going to see an unlikely rock show last night -- Times New Viking in Missoula, a pleasant surprise. It's probably not a great time to play here, being that school's out of session, but there was a completely respectable crowd at the cool old bar downtown.

Wow, snow. On June 10th. Nuts.