life updates..

Hey all, I realized it had been a while since I've had time to update this crazy thing..There's a reason for that and it has to do with me finally finding someone of the opposite sex who's cool enough that I actually want to spend time with them. I'm officially now dating one of the fire-spinning crew, which I initially put off doing for fear of upsetting the group dynamic, but that seems to be a non-issue and everyone's cool. Oddly, I'm seeing Dave, not Ian, who was the one I was lured into the whole fire-spinning scene by in the first place. Ian's nice don't get me wrong, but he's really only good at looking out for himself and therefore not super appealing romantically.. Dave on the other hand has turned out to be one of the most noble people I've ever known. He can come across a bit weird initially, but once he turns off the show-y persona he's quite the guy. I'm having a blast and it's nice to be with someone I consider an equal...

I'm also madly trying to put together show proposals for two very different submission-calls: one for Northbound Leather's Anniversary party and one for the Steamwhistle Roundhouse, which is a venue I've performed in before. I think the spinners and I could put together a nice little 45 min. show. We're thinking of using the Chinese elements as a loose theme. Comments?

I also have a show this thursday downtown that I'm hoping lots of people come to, as well as a fundraiser in December before I go on vacation with my fams. In the new year I have one show in Jan. booked, another burlesque show where I'll attempt to do hoop in heels...And I may be putting together either a new spanish web act with one of the spinners setting (either Ian or Dave) or a handbalance-y contact improve thing for a show in Feb. that's supposed to be about the relationship between Cupid and the Absinthe Fairy. That's what happens when you let hippies plan Valentine's Day parties. And for now, enjoy this super shmoopy shot. Shut up, I like it.

AHHHH!!

Why, why, WHY is the Piemaker going to be in the upcoming Twilight movie?? Why Lee Pace, must you commit the ultimate sell-out? Why am I nevertheless inappropriately interested in seeing you in vampire make up and contacts? Gah!

because I'm vain like that..

hey all, so even though I posted the same pic on my other blog, I don't know how many of you still read that thing, so I'm posting it here too. I think it's too awesome to not be seen by one and all.

It's from a cyber- punk photoshoot a few weeks ago and was finally edited and sent to me today. I'm not posting this on facebook, only my modeling site and here.

For those who are curious, I'm hanging upside-down on my rope (which was turned into a cable) and the photog. was on the floor beneath me.

Enjoy!

random typo.

Here's an excerpt from the Groupon listing for Cirque Eloize's new show, "ID."

"Stunning visual effects pepper each athletic performance, with massive set pieces seemingly manipulated by magic or puppies"

That's right, massive set pieces controlled by puppies. Diabolical puppies.

weird hippy music festival

So I got talked into going to this thing named Harvest Festival by my fire-spinning friends. They all said it was the bees knees and that it was super fun and a great time.

Hmmm...

Well, it had its highlights. Saturday night was awesome. Three different all night music tents, international DJ's and fun clothes. I wondered, though, what I had signed myself up for when we rolled up on the friday night. It was already dark, my tent was set up, which was awesome, and my tent-mate, Erica, was super cool the whole weekend. The douch bags around us, though, were another story. I tried to go to sleep after hanging out around the fire (which was nice) at 2am-ish, but apparently this was not meant to be. For 6 hours straight, all I heard from the charming people around me was stories of their past drug exploits, their drug-fulled plans for the weekend, and where they got their drugs. Occasionally, I heard about their sexual exploits while on drugs, funny things they had done to their friends/pets while on drugs, their drug of choice, and how to try to pretend you're not on drugs. I knew I was going to a hippy fest. and totally expected lots of "activity," but I heard, on more than one occasion, people talking about some pretty hard stuff, and I was admittedly, shocked. Once again, I felt like the odd one out; the only one at the party who was in their right mind.

It's a real shame that all these people need to alter their state of mind because the grounds of the party itself were so amazing. Floating sharks, lights on the water, lit balloons in the sky, colored lights and lanterns on miles of walkways, amazing music and cool looking people. I don't know, I just think there's other, more important things and person can spend their money on.

I don't know, am I wrong? Am I just being a stick in the mud? I've seen this stuff seriously mess with people; people who otherwise had the world at their doorstep and lost it because they couldn't control their habit. I'm not looking to "do" anything about my point of view, but if anyone wants to share their own, that would be cool!

show and par-tay report

So after growing frustrated with being poor and not having any performing jobs, I declared to the powers that be that I was "tired of being poor and I wanted someone to hire me." Two days later, I had 4 shows booked from now to October, one of which happened on Friday at the awesome venue, the Great Hall on Queen st.

It was with Starlight Burlesque, a troupe I had only heard of but had never seen. They're not a "new" burlesque troupe; they keep it old school with a big show every few months where they bring in a live band and invite international and other guest artists for a big blow-out of a show. It was really quite an ambitious production and I think if we had had more rehearsal time, it would have been an even better show than it was. The performances were great, all the girls put a lot of effort into making or buying authentic-looking costumes and props. I felt a bit lame as my costume was decidedly last minute and therefore not as awesome as I would have liked it to be. I was on silks, of all things, and I was super nervous before hand since I don't really DO silks that much. Luckily all my rope moves, for the most part, translate pretty well to silks, so I was ok. It felt like I was only up there for 30 seconds but it had to have been more like 4 min or so. The response was awesome, the other girls were all happy with what I did and I'll likely be doing their christmas show with them! yay!

You all have to check out the headliner guest artist, Pearle Noir. Here's a link to an act similar to the one she performed on Friday. She brought the house down and I can't possibly see people leaving the show thinking they didn't get their money's worth after her show. AMAZING!

Saturday was a lazy start, but that night there was a big goth/fetish party at the Revival on College. It's weird that I've been to enough of these things that I'm beginning to recognize and be recognized by other people that are involved, but since Torture Garden back in May, and Halloween coming up (and now, valentines day, on which I hope to debut a new double hoop act with Heather) Craig, the event organizer/all-around fetish king of T.O. has labeled me one of "His" in-crowed. Although I had to pay to get in last night because it was a joint party between Craig's Subspace and Northbound Leather. Sad face, cover was expensive and I didn't even have any intention of using the 'err' facilities in the basement which was the cause of the high price. I commented to Mere at the shindig that you could totally tell which people were from the Subspace parties and which were Northbound regulars; Subspacers were younger and trendier, with gear that was cheaper but more "now," while Northbounders were typically older with expensive, often custom leather outfits and, dare I say, really snooty. The two crowds mixed well, though, when we left, the floor was packed. Don't kill me Mere, but just for fun I'll mention that the night had a distinctly Scott Pilgrim-ish feel, as Mere's evil ex's 1-4 showed up in sequence. But no drama ensued.

So that's that. performance-wise my September's a bit dry but I've got my random fire-spinning retreat the last weekend (how did this happen??) for which I have to get something done on the aerial rope/fire spinning act I'm creating with Ian ( the boy mentioned in some previous posts, who is still fun to look at, but, alas, still chasing anything with reproductive organs on the inside) for the Halloween show. We're going to get some feedback on hopefully the first half at the retreat from fellow performers, which should be helpful. For those who read this that actually live in T.O., check me out at the Gladstone on Nuit Blanche. I'll be doing hoop in an all-night variety show! I'm also looking forward to my groovy new hair, which is being installed on Sept. 18th. I'll post pictures asap after it's done. It shall be sunset-colored epicness!

randomocity..

No news yet on the Decker front, I'll keep you posted.

@Oscar- Super yay about the moving back earlier than thought..Would you be back in T.O. in time for my halloween extravaganza? That would be so awesome.

In other news, I stumbled upon this photoshoot done in Italian Vogue whose theme is a model caught in an oil spill. At first I thought "oh, bad form, Vogue, bad form" but then I looked at the pictures and thought that, since they are rather disturbing, they might do some good in jarring people into caring about such things and maybe even getting people to sit up and do something about the whole oil problem. Like, say, protest against the ridiculous notion of more off-shore drilling? I'm just sayin', seems like a v. bad idea at this point. Here's a photo so you can judge for yourselves. Comments?

Douchey bosses suck.

So once again my current douchey boss is making horrible business decisions and alienating his artists yet again. There's a show coming up, and apparently my hoop act can't be in it as it was performed the last time we were in this area. I proposed a few other options including my new rope solo only to be told that not only could my proposed act not be used, as a similar act was performed over 6(!!) years ago in this venue, but that an outside rope artist has been hired for the show. WTF? Why have a company if you don't give them work? I think because I had the audacity to market myself on my own, suddenly I'm a traitor. Also, I responded via e mail upon finding out about this rope person that I was really disappointed that I wasn't thought of if a rope act was wanted and that it should be known that such an act exists if future gigs come up. I have to have a chat with boss-man, but honestly if this level of douche-baggery keeps up, I'm done. I have other options and a business to start up and frankly I don't make enough money teaching class and getting, like, 2 shows a year to have to put up with such disrespectful treatment. I'm getting 2-sentence e mails about how I have to pay for my own work permit but not to do anything yet as he'll let me know if he's "going to use me" in the show.

What a dick.

massive squee!!

Hey all. Remember the handbalancer guy I blogged about in the veeeery first post on this thing? The one I toured with? The nerdy one who was glorious and rippling and super awesome?

He may be coming to visit in September. This is very exciting news!!

I'll keep you posted on details, but if it happens, it's gonna be epic.

awesome cosplays I simply had to share!!

Ok, so these people are awesome, let's all bask in their greatness:

This is NOT Tilda Swinton. It's some chick from T.O. I can't believe it, she looks just like her! And the costume; she recreated accurate scorch marks! Awesome, I give her massive props!

Ok, this guy's cosplay is good, but he's super pretty so that's why he's here.. Sorry.

and finally, for Oscar: SATSUGAIIII!!!

more man issues and circus news

So first, I'm really tired of finding cool guys to fill my current dating void, only to have them end up identifying as poly in their preference or some such crap. I hate how it's trendy to whore around, so much so that now there's a hip new name for it, because I guess "swinger" went out of style in the '70's. I'm talking about fire guy, who I'm still tentatively hanging out with, but he's basically got a girl in every port so to speak yet still identifies as single. Uhh, dude, if you've been screwing the same girl for a year and seeing two others on and off, you're many things, but single is not one of them. Sigh. I guess that's what I get trying to draw from a pool of crunchy, "alternative" people like fellow performers and fire people. Oh well, they're all still fun to hang out with, so at least I've made some new friends. A silver lining of sorts.

As far as circus, I had a meeting today with Lexi, the other aerialist from TG about starting a company of our own that would hit up 2 main markets: the fetish scene and, get this, the anime convention circuit! I was looking at a page that had a list of every con in the world and there were at least 200 links. Even if one out of every 10 cons brings us on board, we'll still have enough gigs to, hopefully, keep the company afloat. Lexi's meeting with a graphic designer of tuesday to get a website up and running, but we need a name for our company, because right now it's just a number. Actually, we need 2 names, one for the overall company, something gender neutral, maybe a word that implies a group but not one that as anything to do explicitly with circus. The site will divide into 2 parts from the main page, with the more fetish-y area labeled as "skybound" but we need something similar for the anime section. Anyone know of a japanese word that might work? Or an english one, I'm not picky. Something implying the air or sky but with a twist that would be recognizable as anime-specific...

Grr! I'm still a bit bummed about fire-guy. Am I being too prudish? Is monogamy out of fashion/an unexceptable expectation? Should I pursue him anyway? Suggestions?

oh, and here's a pic of octopus lady from TG...Some/many of you seemed intrigued..

Finally..Torture Garden in review!

Ok, so it's taken a while for pictures to be approved and posted, but I found some good ones so here we go:

Friday: was at the swingers club Wicked, on queen, and was slightly awkward because the venue let their members/anyone who wanted to use the upstairs facilities for actual swinging..which would have been fine had our changing area not been the locker room where all the soon-to-be- swingers changed as well. Stretching is much harder when trying not to make eye contact with the dis-robing man beside you as he prepares to go have sex with a random stranger. Got a decent picture out of it, tough, note the man groping the girl in the background. Classy.

Saturday went well, Heather's neck was better by this point and I think we had a rather inspired wardrobe idea. We used elastic to make shibari knots so that as we moved and bent, so would the elastic. It worked really well and looked, from what I've seen, really awesome. The outfits that night were out of this world. My fave was the guy in the custom latex Anubis costume, full body-suit complete with Jackal head piece with raised hieroglyphic applique. Awesome! Also made friends with some fire spinners, one of whom had commissioned through Northbound a latex corset in red and black leopard print. It was nice..and reeeally expensive. I also hit it off with one of the guys, Ian, who has super mad staff spinning skills and has agreed to teach me in exchange for aerial lessons. Needless to say I will do my best to remain in the company of this rather attractive individual. Here are some pics from saturday.

Heather and I after silks. Silks plus very little clothing =massive burns.

Ian in ninja mode.

Saturday had, by far, the most extreme performances, from the fire guys' fire swords act to the suspension guys (for those blissfully unaware, suspension is where grown people hang themselves from hooks implanted in their own skin. It was gross and disturbing in a compelling kind of way. )

Another performance was a girl who did blindfolded self-shibari, which I found impressive, but then finished her act by bringing out a giant dead octopus and doing inappropriate things to it, including having it ink all down her front as the finale..It was rather shocking, even to Heather' who has seen more of this stuff than me, but it had the audience talking and I guess that was the point.

Sunday was my big day, my hoop act went well, I made some good connections, including with the owner of Northbound Leather, who said he wanted me for his Halloween party, the Holy Grail of fetish nights and an event I have wanted to perform at for a long time! Yay! No pictures of hoop yet, but I'll keep you all posted. I really enjoyed the whole process, and for the first time really felt like I could make a go at this whole full time performer thing. Hopefully, if my place sells for enough I can start a business for real and get a website going and sell sell sell to the various events like this one around the planet. Lots of the other performers follow the TG dj's around from city to city. They don't make a ton, but they're living an awesome life and get treated pretty well as they go..I think Heather and I make a good team, here's hoping she agrees and all goes well. I need to have a meeting with her about where she would like to go from here, if anywhere, but hopefully she realizes that this market, the fetish scene, is starved for quality circus. I say we fill a void!

yay a new post and...showtime!

K, so don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to this weekend, Torture Garden Toronto, I really am, but can the circus gods please let me catch a break, for once? Please? My stuff is fine, but the other aerialist, the girl who got me the gig in the first place, just f-ed up her neck and can't perform tonight and may be sitting tomorrow out as well. This is v. not good since I'm not really in my element until Sunday, when I debut my hoop solo. (Go me!) Massive sigh. Now I have to do all the last min. running around because Heather's laid up, unable to look up or down. I hope she can perform tomorrow, I really do, because as you all know (or ought to) I really don't like silks, and that's the apparatus of choice for Saturday. On the up side, my make up should be, as the french say, le awesome. I'll try to take some pics of my own and post them here. I'm thinking they should be relatively nudity free, we'll see.

Hey, and I just re-read some of my older posts, the ones concerning the dress of doom and fabric copification..problem solved! When life hands you a creepy stalker copy-cat who keifs your fabric and makes a eerily similar historical re-creation dress; send them to Germany. Yes, Mike and the stupid-face girlfriend have gone to Germany and will be there until after the Casa Loma ren. fair! Yay! Just thought you all would like to know how that worked out. quite nicely, actually...Now if only the circus gods would be so accommodating.

ramblings

Hey all, just posting for the sake of keeping this thing fresh. Hopefully, something of note will be on here in approx. 2 weeks, I'll keep y'all in the loop about that.

There's a chance I'm going to be walking in Toronto Alternative Fashion week (or, FAT, for some reason) for a designer named Artifice Clothing. Check out their website, they make really cool and unique pvc designs, the likes of which I've never seen and which are shockingly reasonably priced. I want to buy their Lee-Loo cosplay option in red to wear on the saturday or sunday for the upcoming Toronto Fetish Weekend that I'm performing at.

That's about it, although for my own sanity I need to mention that Mikes stupid-face girlfriend is creeping me out more and more. Now, along with starting a blog, learning to sew, amassing a corset collection, going to ren. fairs, creating a modeling profile, and attending Anime North for the first time in May, she apparently just LOVES Dr. Who.

My urge to punch the both of them is rising...

massive hyperventalation-inducing freak-out of doooom!!

OMG!! ok, so I'm posting a link to a facebook picture of stupid mike and his stupid new girlfriend, the one who is a diluted version of me in many creepy respects...she's wearing some dress she made, it looks pretty well put together, good for her, except that raging who-ore has seemingly made it out of THE SAME F-ING MATERIAL as the dress I spent the last 3 months putting together, and to make matters WORSE, there's been rumblings that Mike is bringing her to the Casa Loma ren. faire...That means we could end up wearing dresses made of the SAME FABRIC!!! This shall not do! ARGGHH, Wench, saucy, damn, hobby-copying troglodyte!! I can't believe this is even an issue!!! I know he saw my dress because he left comments on the pictures that I posted forever ago! What do I do? Is it in fact the same fabric??

Worst day ever.

here's my dress to compare.

on second thought

Ok, so I officially retract the majority of last post, although after talking to some girls at circus, a lot of guys really do expect you to put out or get out on date #3, which is ridiculous. Anywhoo, Grant had the best excuse ever for not calling until yesterday, being on a mountain in Kentucky makes cell reception a bi-otch. So we're still doing the awkward pseudo-dating thing which I'm happy about.

But the majority of guys, in my experience and in others', still blow...

ARRRGGGHH

Why are boys so dumb? I like to think that I'm a pretty groovy gal, relatively low maintenance, all I ask is the occasional dinner out and some time to myself every so often and it's all good. I really didn't think the myth of the dreaded "third-date" still existed, ay know, where you're expected to put out solely because you happened to like a person enough to see them three times...I'm sorry, but if I don't even know your middle name, there's no way I'm hopping in the sack. Nuf said.

So yeah, now, after some really fun nights out climbing and movie-seeing and whatnot, this guy hasn't called or communicated in any way and it's been almost a week. I'm genuinely saddened that this person, who seemed cool and down to earth is willing to never see me again because I wouldn't risk a close encounter with syphilis or something just so he could get his rocks off. ARRGHH indeed. Where are the decent guys? The ones who realize it takes more than a grand total of 15 hours spent with a person while clothed to equal 1 hour with clothes off? I feel like I'm constantly stuck at that damn school up at Downsview with no one around but other female performers or students I couldn't date if I wanted to, for fear of losing my job. I've tried the internet scene to no avail...This is truly annoying. If I can't get a date, me, a fucking aerial CONTORTIONIST; well educated, decent looking, willing to dress up like a total whore if the occasion calls for it (read: Mer's par-tay), then who the hell can find someone to spend time with.

Sigh.

Gigs!!!

Whatsup my faithful followers, thought it was about time for an update, although with stupid school keeping me down not much of note has happened recently...Still "seeing" Grant, it's in that awkward "are we dating, I don't know" phase, but things are good nonetheless. Suzy, it was crazy seeing you at Cafe crepe, we must catch up on morrow next..
Anywhoo, my big (ish) news is regarding an upcoming show in May..it's not my usual thing, I was contacted by a girl who used to perform with Sublime but left due to "difficulties." At this point, I understand how she felt. So, the gig is the T.O version of the popular world-wide fetish party/convention ominously called Torture Garden. I talked to some girls who performed there last year and they said it was all in good fun, just like a normal act/ambiance stuff but with weirder (read: less) clothing. The hair-falls are definatly going to make an appearance.
Should be fun. The former Sublime chick also has a sort of quasi-agency that she wants me to be a part of as a bookable act and she has carved out a nice little niche for herself in the "alternative" scene which has, up to now, been subject to some really sketchy circus. Think Sterling ren faire and you'll know what I mean. So hopefully they like seeing a legit aerialist along with the suspensions, peircings, rubber mouldings, shibari and other cookiness that seems to occur at this event.
Do NOT tell the 'rents.

Sigh. Fine, I'll stop being cryptic for my ladies, because you guys are the only one's who know this thing exists...It was Grant Dunstan (I think that's how you spell his last name...)
He had very little to do with the music/visual arts people that we all hung out with, I remembered him to see him but other than that, nothing came to mind when he showed up in my class. He's about 6', curly brown hair, thin (of course)...He was on the cross-country ski team. Yup. He wore a cow suit. I was a bit jealous that the downhill team never got to wear those.
He has facebook. Go stalk him.

Yay! A quasi-date!

So, yeah, I went on a sort-of, not-quite-sure but I think-it was-a-date date with a guy who I originally went to highschool with, but whom I never had anything to do with at all, and then met again years later in a Hinduism class. We just keep meeting up and now that I think about it, it's all a bit too weird to be purely coincidence...
1) Went to the same highschool, saw, but hardly ever spoke to each other
2) met in 2nd year general Hinduism class
3) a year later, in same class again, hung out a bit
4) Another class together, this one a fluke that had nothing to do with either of our subject posts
5) He was the runner at Sassafraz two years ago when I went there with my family for my birthday
6) he graduates, but we meet again at the rock climbing place while we're both climbing with our respective siblings
7) He e mails me out of the blue saying he found my info and that we should hang out. So we did.
It was fun. He's super into climbing anything that can be climbed (rocks, ice, mountains, towers...he has a couple friends who are "urban ninjas"- they scale buildings downtown at night) and is really active and outdoors-y, which is a nice change from the males I generally consort with who are more, shall we say, indoor creatures. Shockingly, he also looks like a dude. He has
- wait for it-
facial hair.
I know.
Shut up, Katie.
Unfortunately he's heading out for more climbing for a week, so I'll keep all of ya'll posted if any more goes on.

so...student show

Yeah, it's great that the student show looks like it's going to be a coherent, well-planed, organized affair, but where were all these great things for the last 2 PROFESSIONAL shows? Shows that were slapped together (although not so much the last show...) and then taken on the road, in front of paying audience members where the first show was pulled out of our asses...Yeah, I'm a bit errked that D-man has obviously put some thought into this show and yet is satisfied with doing the bare minimum for our shows. Although by bare minimum, I'm referring to a costume, make-up, scenery respect. Rigging, lighting, and equipment-wise, I've always felt safe and taken care of, but I wish more thought would be taken in regards to what's going to be ON stage. Yes, an old costume won't affect your act trick-wise, but it makes a huge difference in how you present yourself if you have the costume, lighting, staging trifecta in your favor. 

If Eloize doesn't end up happening, I'm going to have to bring this up the next time a tour is brought up. I'm tired of feeling second-class compared to past artists with the company who had costumes made or altered for them and a show that wasn't a re-hash of an older concept. 

Sigh.

I am genuinely excited about doing some designing for the student show, and I'm hoping that what is made for this show can be used in future professional shows. At least we would then be able to pull from a wider selection of costumes...

Ok, here's the deal

So, this is going to be the place where my friends and ONLY those people I want to read about some aspects of my life can come to lounge. No ex boyfriends, no parents, no grandpa, awkward pseudo-friends who I haven't seen in years, no people I don't know, no current girlfriends of said ex boyfriend. 

Just my peeps. 

So, who wants the real details of tour?

Let's just say I was taken a little aback when the single, straight male hand balancer wandered in and was instantly cool, laid back and wonderfully nerdy. That's him in the pic. Dudes, his routine music was from Bebop. No joke. 

I needed a new costume.

He got my Dr. Who jokes, became enamored with my beloved Noob, knew all the words to "Don't Bother None" and thought my secret idea to one day start my own cosplay-circus hybrid company was a really good one. 

Curse him and his need to sleep. If only he had answered the phone on our final night on the road this story would be infinitely more interesting. Alas, he fell asleep and didn't even hear the phone when I called his room to see if he was still, err, up. Sigh. 

There's talk of his teaching a workshop in T.O. and if that happens he'll totally be staying on my futon. And by futon, I mean bed. With me. 

Wow, it's nice to be able to type what I want and not have to censor stuff...Sweet! Basically, this is going to be my dirty circus anecdote-blog, so check back often!