Wait, Kathy Ireland was on this show? What the heck is Tom DeLay doing here?!

Oh right, the Dancing With the Stars finale is when a whole season’s worth of contestants come out of the woodwork and remind the viewers just how right they were in casting these folks aside long ago.

With that behind them, Donny Osmond, Kelly Osbourne and Mya gathered tonight for one last spin around the floor and awaited to hear who would be bringing the illustrious disco-ball trophy home for good.

Kelly danced the Viennese waltz more gracefully than ever; Mya brought new sharpness and confidence to her and Dmitry Chaplin’s nerd-meets-seductress jive; and Donny performed his Argentine-tango ass off, somehow managing to look intense but not hammy.

But, as Len Goodman said earlier, “There can be only one.”

And that one was Mr. Showbiz himself, Donny Osmond.

Instead of sharing his thoughts, the 51-year-old grandfather with the baby face ran out to the audience and grabbed his wife of 32 years to share in his disco-ball hoisting glory.

Then a big hug for runner-up Mya, and back to the audience to grab sister Marie, who finished third a few years ago.

This marked the first Dancing With the Stars win for Donny’s partner, Kym Johnson.

Kelly Osbourne, whose sporadic swears are far more endearing now than when she was one of the loudest members of The Osbournes, ended up in third place, just a few spots shy of the crown.

“It’s been the most beautiful, amazing experience,” Kelly, demure and gracious as always (these days), said in her exit interview. “Thank you, America, thank you so much for voting me in every single week. It’s because of you that I’ve grown so much, it’s because of you that I’ve had this opportunity. So thank you, really, from the bottom of my heart.”

But though Kelly was indeed a longshot, it was Mya who was the queen of the ballroom throughout, technically, and last night ended with Donny trailing her by two points. He also finished off the freestyle round with a flourish, prompting suspicion that he was being set up as America’s star of choice.

And after tonight’s final dances, the judges re-ranked the contestants based on those performances, putting Donny in first place with a 30, Mya in second with 28 and Kelly in third with 26.

They even had Donny come out and croon “Puppy Love” while—who else—Louie Vito and Chelsie Hightower danced a jive.

Playing favorites much?

Keeping in mind our distaste for gimmicks that serve no purpose other than to kill time, this finale—despite the two-hour running time—had more substance than some.

At least most of the clips and interviews were devoted to reviewing this season’s contestants, and despite the Cloris Leachman-Steve Wozniak-Jerry Springer-Joanna Krupa dance-off (guess who won), we didn’t feel as if the producers had gone out of their way to insult our intelligence.

Whitney Houston’s presence was also greatly welcome. What better way to punctuate what Dancing With the Stars is all about than a performance of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” by the diva herself?MUSIC WORLD Read More…..

This movie is so magical

via non solo kawaii

you can’t go wrong with a pink disco ball!

via beauty in everything

This pretty bow. I wasn’t intending all these pictures to be pink..

artwork by Mary Blair via lavender days

a little humor…

via fantasy action

via we heart it

cred

cred

colorful imaginations via Motley Photos

hope you all have a  Monday! xoxo

Ever since I heard that some people were collecting AOL CDs, I joined in the crowd. Now I have several boxes of old CDs that no one wants (okay, so I have maybe half a dozen that would go for $4 on eBay). So, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with them. Here are a few ideas:

• Make some wall art – Okay, so this lovely fish sculpture uses old vinyl records, but CDs would be more colorful (and smaller)
• Make a lamp – This has a nice blue glow to it. I think I’ll put it next to the lava lamp I one day hope to own.
• Build an iPod/iPhone dock – I could use one of these. I keep forgetting my iPhone because it’s lying down on my desk (behind the printer cause that how far my recharging cable reaches).
• Make a Disco Ball – Why didn’t I think of this one?! Just cut the CDs into little squares and glue them onto a ball! That is so much easier than dealing with a bunch of expensive little mirrors.
• Or here’s a CD rack made out of CDs – I know, ironic isn’t it.

Last week I went to Healthworks with the plan of meeting one of my friends and co-workers who has been a member of Healthworks for 12 years. We had a plan to do our own “mini-BURN” session where we challenge each other on the treadmills. She is a faster runner than me, so by going on the treadmills we are able to work out together while challenging ourselves personally and encouraging each other to do well. We’ve done this routine a few times, and when we are walking in between intervals, we catch up about what is going on in our lives.

However, when we arrived, we were invited to a special Healthworks Open House event called “Rock Star Spin” with master trainers Diane, Jane, and Nicole. They had dressed up in fun outfits while we spun with a disco ball going – for over an hour! We also got free Powerade samples and free t-shirts for answering Healthworks trivia and for participating in the event. Just another example of why I enjoy going to Healthworks – I was pulled into the event because all the trainers knew my name (and my friend’s name) and that I love spinning! And of course, they know I love a challenge, too.

Afterwards, my friend and I did some weight training for our arms and got to catch up a bit. Weight training in front of a mirror is important so I can check my form and make sure I am doing my workouts correctly. However, I am of course faced with my image in the mirror, which can be distracting! Even if I start out checking out how sweaty I am or if my hair is staying up in the ponytail, I end up also looking at how my body looks in the mirror and how my clothes fit. When a negative or critical thought pops into brain, I try to refocus on what I am doing in the gym and what muscle groups I am working in order to think positive and focus on the positive change I am making by being at Healthworks! Does anyone else have ideas about how to think positively when you look in the mirror and are faced with critical thoughts about your appearance? I would love to hear from you!

-Kelli

Leave your comments and advice for Kelli!

Sonny Randon Studio: WEDDINGS.

Note the woman’s legs and waist that have been cut off in the lower left hand corner.

machine embroidered textiles and handsewn beadwork stretched over a 40cm x 40 cm, 16 inch x 16 inch canvas

Unless otherwise noted Circa71 does not claim any copyrights to images that appear on Circa71.wordpress.com.

Here we go. Day 4 started off with a bagel and a decent chai latte at a local hipster coffee shop. Then the other band member and I walked around the Wicker Park area for a while. Since it was Sunday the farmers market was happening in the namesake park of Wicker Park. Park!

I managed to brighten the day for a couple of farmers by not purchasing any of their products.

No church is complete without a disco ball...that performs exorcisms.

I interpreted this as meaning that if I drive at night it's ok for me to pee in a cop's eyes and then put their eyeballs in an urn.

Friday through Saturday was La Nuit Blanche in Paris.  I went with 5 friends from Rennes; Martin, Maire, Barbara, Rob & Nick and met up with two of my Tri-Delt friends in Paris; Jackie & Rachel.

There were enough ppl in our group that had never been to the Eiffel Tower so when we first arrived in Paris, we went directly there.  It was only my second time going up (and my first time at the very top) but I hope I don’t go up again for a good long while.

I advocated for the elevator but my friends thought it would be more fun to take the stairs.  So 1,665-ish stairs and too many hours later we had all “done” the Eiffel Tower.  We also really wanted to go to Les Galeries Lafayette and Le Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise but there wasn’t enough time.  Unfortunately we only had enough time for dinner at the Galeries Lafayette.  Père Lachaise will be for our next trip to Paris- I can already feel that there will be several such trips, if not many  Going to Galeries Lafayette was definitely worth it, though.  The one in Rennes, although nice, truly does not compare with the flagship store in Paris. There are no words to describe it.  Here is my meager attempt to capture the building’s beauty:

Afterwards, we went in search of programs for that evening because we thought it would be a good idea to plan out our course a teeny bit.  This caused us to go on the most epic wandering of Paris. Ever.  I think it was about two or three hours later that we collapsed at a café, ordered glasses of champagne and toasted to our comic defeat.

Next up, we met Rachel and Jackie at Notre Dame.  It was so great to see them!  We chatted a bit & I introduced them to the group and then we got in line to enter.  There was an organ concert going on inside and an artist’s exhibit in the alcoves around the cathedral.  I found it absolutely amazing, although the organ music was a little too reminiscent of Frankenstein for my liking lol.  Can you even imagine being able to say that you had an exhibit in one of the most famous religious buildings in the world?!  Check out these awesome colored light crystal thingies that were part of the artist’s exhibit.  There were crystals of different sizes and shapes, although I just now realized that I only took pictures of the pinkish ones lol.

We did so much, its hard for me to put it in chronological order…Instead of doing the rest in paragraph form, here are a few highlights of the evening:

1.  Waiting in a line for over an hour to see an enormous disco ball hanging from a crane.

2. Meeting a semi-drunk French guy outside Subway and watching him try to get a bite of Jackie’s crêpe & then talking to him and his friend for a good 30 minutes afterwards.

2.5 The excursion into the Louvre parking lot. LOL

3. The time warp at the Irish cultural center (really, I have no idea how long we were there) and the nervous breakdown that followed.

4. The creepy gas mask things at the Irish cultural center that appeared to be mice or horses from afar, but it turned out that they were meant to be wolves.

5. Witnessing what appeared to be a fire from near the Pont Notre-Dame.

6. Also witnessing a beat-down taking place and quickly turning the corner.

7. Finally finding programs (Note how happy we look lol):

8. Overpacking my Longchamp bag to the extreme.

9. Continually losing each other in the crowds- Thank God for cell phones!

10. Bloody Mary around 4am.

11. Almost getting screwed over by a waiter and witnessing one of his teapots being stolen

12. Walking through Pigalle aka Paris’s Red Light District at 6am. Let’s just say that was an experience!

13. Witnessing the steps of Montmartre being power-washed of their filth.

14. Struggling to keep our eyes open during the 7am Mass in Sacre Coeur.

15. Sunrise in Montmartre.

16. Big omelette breakfast at an awkward restaurant near the gare (train station), that was decorated to make us feel like we were eating on an actual old school style train.

17. Swapping out our 2pm train tickets for 10:05am tickets.

18. Falling asleep on the train and then waking up in a panic because I thought I’d missed the Rennes stop.

19. Getting back to Rennes, dragging my body through the station, on the metro, off the metro, through three parking lots, into my dorm, up two flights of stairs and into my room.  Dropping my bag, shedding my clothing, wearily updating my facebook status to “Ann-Charlotte has not slept in 31 hours” and then literally falling into my bed only to finally wake up 21 hours later.

There are so many little things that I don’t have the energy to incorporate into this post that made the trip really great.  I doubt I’ll ever “do Paris” again without getting a hotel or a hostel, though.  It was definitely a one time thing.

xxo

Hey!

We are nearing 600 hits now!!!

Only a couple more, and again tell your friends about us.

Now for the Top 5 Weirdest World Records

#5

Loudest Burp

Paul Hunn of the UK has a burp of 104.9 decibels!

#4

Largest Collection of Traffic Cones

David Morgan has a collection of 137 traffic cones, thats 2/3 of all the designs ever made

#3

Heaviest car balanced on head

John Evans balanced a 159.6 kg Mini on his head for 33 seconds. He is a professional head balancer

#2

Most live rattlesnakes held in mouth

Jackie Bibby held an amazing 10 rattlesnakes in his mouth by their tails

#1

Largest Disco Ball

This disco ball is 7.35 meters in diameter and actually is used in a dance club. 

Those are some weird records,

-Storm

So these rings are a quick and easy way to make a statement with ANY outfit. Whether it’s in the middle of the day running errands, or going to an upscale art opening.

So versatile, goes with anything, takes drab straight to FAB!!! You’ll see what I’m talking about! Beware though, they are for sure conversation starters! So be ready!!!

Each ring will be made to order special for you!

Custom, hand-made with LOVE in Venice, California

http://confectionjewels.bigcartel.com/product/disco-ball-gold

Seriously you can wear this with anything!!! $40 bucks!! Can't beat it!!

http://confectionjewels.bigcartel.com/product/disco-ball-gold

Seriously she can carry her coke in this disco ball and have a party all night long. I’m so mean but dammit she give fuel to the fire ja ha ha. Anyway, this Judith Leiber Sphere Clutch is a disco bag and you can buy through Net-a-Porter for $2495.

Source: luxist

I’m back! I know… You’ve been breathless with anticipation for my return. Well, I’m back with a make-up for Friday.

I read the blog Showawa almost religiously.  They showcase the latest  shoe trends, new releases -even the bad ones- and offer suggestions of where to find less expensive versions of popular shoes. In a post last October, these gorgeous sparkly studded heels were featured and I knew I had to have them.

photo via shoewawa

They are diamanté and stud-encrusted pieces of AWESOMENESS from Balmain’s Spring/Summer 2009 collection.  The last time I checked, they were £1,370 on Net-a-Porter (Yeah, that’s $2,215 US dollars…) which is just a tiny bit (read: WAAAAY) out of my price range. Plus, they were very silver-y and I’m not much of a silver person. (I prefer gold.)  So I was very excited last week when I stumbled upon these shoes from Bakers:

Image via Bakers

At $79.95, these are totally affordable! However, if these are still too expensive (These multiple plane tickets to Boston are starting to clean me out!) I found an even cheaper version at Aldo for only $59.98 (on sale) They are a little less bling-y but still have that WHOA-I’ve-Been-Blown-Away-By-Studs-look to them.

Image via Aldo

I think the bottom line is that I want to dress like a disco ball!! I love sequins, mirrors, and anything shiny.

It’s ok, though. I tend to wear solid-colored clothing (patterns bug me) so I can get really fancy with my footwear without feeling like I’m a contestant on a reality-show version of To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar.

I was recently told by my friend about fashion photographer Tim Walker… Up till now I have been blissfully unaware that Tim Walker was the illustrator of almost all my favourite images! You know when you stumble across a picture that is just so inconceivably detailed, interesting, crazy and beautiful all at once? That is Tim Walker’s style and the first time I noticed it was in Vogue when Lily Cole was the next big thing and she’d been photographed in India…

Just look at all those colours, details, the pose, the train, its all so beautiful!

Tim Walker for Hermes Campaign (above)

This is what dreams are made of…

For more inspiration please go to my website: www.phioro.com

The best moment of my life thus far.

There is an artist that I LOVE who I’ve been listening to for at least the last year and a half who is amazing, who is brilliant, who is my inspiration. He is from the UK and for a year and a half I was trying to figure out how/when I was going to get over to London to see him play. Then Perez Hilton’s tour brought him to NYC tonight, so I went to see him. His name is Frankmusik and if you don’t know about him, you bloody well should, because he’s just the best in every way. (www.myspace.com/frankmusik) I had corresponded with him a bit over myspace and facebook (he’s a fan of mine on facebook, which just blows my brain out of the back of my head), and hoped to meet him one day, but didn’t know how or when it would ever happen. Well, boy, did it happen tonight! Here’s how it went down:

My delicious friend Lane and I went to the show, waited for an hour for it to start, and then Perez Hilton came out and announced that the first act would be Frankmusik and I just lost my shit. He did his set and I screamed so loud and so much I partially lost my voice. I jumped longer and higher than I ever knew I could, getting plenty of extra stamina from the excitement of the show. I just couldn’t believe that after a year and a half of watching his videos and hearing his songs and meeting him on myspace, here he was, right in front of my face, performing the songs I loved so much. It was sort of killing me that he was ten feet away from me but probably didn’t even know I was there, since when you’re on stage you can’t really see the audience. So I just waved and yelled as much as I could, and hoped the light would catch my disco-ball visor that I’ve worn at my last few shows (see pics). Then the end of his set came, and Lane and I left to go get some dinner. I figured I’d come back to the venue after eating to see if I could say hello after the rest of the show.

So I come back from dinner after about an hour, and as I’m walking along the street toward the venue, I just looked at the sky and prayed in my head that somehow I’d be able to find him and say hello, even for a second. I get back in front of the venue and who’s coming right out the door but FrankMusik!!!!! And before I say anything he looks up, sees me, his jaw drops and he says “JC?!?!?” and lemme tell you, that was like the best fuckin’ moment of my life. I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE TO SAY HELLO FIRST BECAUSE HE KNEW WHO I WAS FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT’S LIKE IF BRITNEY SPEARS SAID HELLO TO ME FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!

Breathe, breathe. So anyway, he says, “JC?” and I was like “Hey!” and we hugged a big wonderful hug and chatted a bit, and I said “Did you see me in the crowd?” and he was like “Yeah!” and we talked about my disco ball visor and I was like “Now, I’ll give this to you, but you have to wear it, because it will look fabulous on you!” And I gave it to him he really liked it and we took a couple of pictures (see pics).

The second best moment of my life thus far.

Then he said he was really hungry and I said we could get a bite, and he said sure, after the show. So then he went back in and I saw him around the show a bunch of times while the other acts were playing, but other people were always talking to him, so I didn’t want to hog him, haha. But the whole time I was trying to get my head around the idea that this amazing artist I’d only known through the internet, who’d been an ocean away the whole time I’d known of him, was standing in the same room in the same building in MY city, and had just spoken to me! It was so surreal. If you’ve never gotten a chance to meet someone you idolize in real life after only knowing them from the internet, I recommend it. It’s like living inside a wonderful, ridiculous dream.

So after the show I waited for him to come out of the venue, which he finally did, and asked if he still wanted to grab a bite, but he was tired and wanted to go to sleep. I did get to chat with him about how his album had done in the UK and what he’d be up to now (HE’S COMING TO AMERICA TO RECORD!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!), and he was so sweet. “It was so great to finally meet you after all this time–it’s been years!” he said. I just wanted to give him hugs, which I did a few times, and each time we hugged he’d give me a peck on the cheek. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) It was such a funny position to be in, talking like friends but me freaking out inside because I’m also such a huge fucking fantard of his, but him being so sweet and friendly and remembering everything about how long we’d been in touch etc. I was blown away by how sweet he was.

There are certain people I know that I’m just wild for and when I see them I just overflow with love and affection. I get really enthusiastic about expressing that love, because, well you know, because love is the most important and wonderful life-affirming, life-sustaining force there is. So even though we’d hugged a few times already, before I let him go, I was like “I just wanna give you one more hug before I go,” and as I hugged him really tight and my face was right by his ear I couldn’t help but say “Iloveyouyou’resofuckingawesooooooooooome!!!!!” which he was very sweet about. I fucking love this guy. You have to buy his album right now!

But the story doesn’t even end there!!! I started walking west down 15th street, still just dizzy from joy and amazement, and when I got to Union Square I hear someone whistle at me and he yells out “Hey JC!” from his cab. I turn around and there he was, hangin’ out the front window, talkin’ to me. Can you fucking believe it???!??! So my brain was just on auto-pilot I was in such shock and I was just like “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey FrankMusik!” in my silly voice. And then I kept walking while his cab was at a stop light, and then his cab caught up to me and we waved and said hello again, and then he said something else I couldn’t hear as his cab sped away and I went into the train station. Standoffish he is not. He is THE BEST. SO SWEET. TOTALLY AMAZING. MADE MY NIGHT, WEEK, MONTH, YEAR. LIFE!!!!!

FRANKMUSIK, ILOVEYOUYOU’RESOFUCKINGAWESOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!!

Cannot WAIT till you come back to New York!!!!

And also, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Milhares de disco balls serão distribuídos para traduzir o conceito do novo Sony Ericsson W395 Walkman™: sonzeira em qualquer lugar

São Paulo, 11 de setembro de 2009 – A Sony Ericsson promove uma ação divertida nos principais shoppings de São Paulo e do Rio de Janeiro. Promotores performáticos com uniforme “disco” irão circular pelos corredores e invadir as lojas das operadoras transformando-as em balada. Os consumidores serão convidados a experimentar a qualidade dos potentes alto-falantes estéreos do novo Sony Ericsson W395 Walkman™.

Para tornar a experiência inesquecível, os clientes que participarem da ação ganham um chaveiro em formato de mini globo espelhado, daqueles usados em pistas de dança. A iniciativa acontecerá durante todos os finais de semana de setembro.

Desenvolvida pela Aktuell, a ação faz parte da campanha Disco Taxi para a divulgação do aparelho celular.

Quinta, 10/09: performers no primeiro dia da ação nos shoppings

Informações para a Imprensa:

Alisson Avila e Thiago Arikawa
comunicacao@aktuellcomunicacao.com
(11) 3775.9889, r. 9950

Miniaturas do globo espelhado, objeto que é sinônimo de balada, serão entregues em shoppings para traduzir o conceito do novo celular, “sonzeira em qualquer lugar”

IMPRENSA – A Aktuell buscou nas ruas, o melhor lugar para descobrir do que as pessoas gostam, a idéia de ativação que apresenta o novo celular Sony Ericsson W395 Walkman ao mercado.

Atenta à febre dos diferentes usos que as pessoas dão às disco balls – objeto que já se transformou em embalagem especial de bebidas, adereço de carros e mesmo bolinhas de Natal -, a Aktuell decidiu distribuir milhares de chaveiros, iguais a um globo de pista de dança, para consumidores do Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo. A ação acontece durante todos os finais de semana de setembro nos shoppings Villa-Lobos e Ibirapuera (SP) e Norte Shopping (RJ).

Quinta, 10/09: performers nos shoppings, no primeiro dia da ativação

O presente espelhado, entregue por promotores vestidos para a balada aos consumidores que experimentarem o novo celular, traduz com perfeição o posicionamento do novo Sony Ericsson W395: ele tem como seu principal feature os potentes alto-falantes, capazes de animar festinhas de amigos em qualquer lugar.

Este projeto é parte da campanha “Disco Taxi” e se soma a outras ações bem sucedidas de ativação de marca e invasão de cenário desenvolvidas pela agência para o lançamento de celulares Sony Ericsson, como a “Purple Invasion” e a “Música por Todos os Lados”. A Aktuell cria o design de peças de ponto-de-venda e desenvolve outros serviços de marketing para o cliente desde  2007.

Informações para a Imprensa:

Alisson Avila e Thiago Arikawa
(11) 3775.9889, r. 9950
comunicacao@aktuellcomunicacao.com

Get creative … type & hang your story
Back to the classic typewriter  or scribble your thoughts on the scrapbook

Party begins in Rosemount Hotel

P.S. Incredible night. I’m bursting with ENDLESS energy, don’t know where they come from. Recharge again?! ♥ Amplifier!!! I went really crazy when they started playing “Heartbeats”. Feel the music flowing in, heads were swaying all around and i was led into a  world of indulgence. Glitters. Toms. Disco balls. More glitters. It all make sense now.

Last night I had three very random dreams, the most recent one being the fuzziest.

The first dream was about Disneyland.  I was there with my dad and a group of high school kids.  We were all wearing a bright blue T-shirts with the school’s name printed on it.  There was some sort of large festival that they were preparing for this day.  The kids ran back and forth, signing up for the dance troupe they wanted to be part of. There was going to be a dance parade down Main Street.

My father said I should go with them, it looked like fun, and so I went along.  They let me into the dance practice area because I was wearing the blue shirt like all the rest of the students.  I figured eventually they would notice I was not one of them, but they never did. The dance routines the kids were working on were fun to watch.  They all had themes based on movies or cartoons.  One troupe was made up of a set of blonde girl identical quadruplets.  Bright soft lights shone on their faces, transforming them into ghosts from the haunted mansion.  They danced in a line, like frames from a stop motion film.

Another larger group did scenes from High School Musical.  I heard the girls say  they thought the movie was dumb, but they really wanted to be part of the parade, since they thought it would be good for their resumes.

I spent the next couple of days hanging out with this group of high school kids.  I felt a bit silly, as I was 25 in this dream and they were all under 18. By this point, I had found out that in order to be in the dance groups you were supposed to be under 19.  I kept wondering when they were going to make me leave.  I didn’t even want to be there, I just sort of ended up in the group.

Sacha (who was with me now) came with me to a high school party.  I talked with a man carrying old history books about the Borgias.  Sacha pointed out old tin types in another book he was carrying that showed pictures of famous people in the 1800s;  she could tell by the illustrations which disease the doctors of the time thought they had.  She and the man talked about how many of diagnosis had been wrong, and they had really died of diseases they had never heard of.   She pointed to the illustrations where the symptoms were obvious.

Above, fireworks exploded spelling out the latin-esque words used in Harry Potter movies.  I translated them for Sacha.

Still none of this made it obvious that we didn’t fit in.  I realized nobody cared enough to notice.  They were all too absorbed in talking about themselves.

Later, back at the high school, I noticed a chart with my name on it.  They were trying to get my signature for the dance team, but they didn’t know who I was.  I ignored it, and went home.

The second dream involved talking with my father and his business partner about my career. They had decided that people might want to hire me if I was more popular and visible.  They wanted me to go to New York and hang out with Lindsay Lohan and a bunch of fashionable girls.  I would need new clothes.  And to learn to walk in heels.  They wanted me to take a trapeze class in Santa Monica that was very popular with celebrities.  Deborah (my Father’s wife) had taken it already.  They told me it was a very hard class, but when you complete it you get a physics degree.  I thought that my class in Eagle Rock sounded good enough, and it was just down the street.  But this didn’t seem to matter. I told them I really did want to get a job, but I was not sure having to be a totally new person to do it was really worth it.

The third dream, just before I woke up is very fuzzy.  All I remember is that it involved tunnels in a cave with rooms filled with treasure.  Me, Sacha, my friends Trex and Jessica were all exploring it.  They found a sort of broken disco ball, and danced under it until it broke and threw silver silly sting all over them.  And in another cave there was the ghost of a King and when I walked in I somehow became the new King of this cave.  I didn’t want to be King. And there was a pile of tortilla chips guarding the entrance.  I ate them, and the cave was angry that I ate the guard.

I woke up thinking I had to buy tortilla chips for Melanie’s birthday party I am hosting today.

A: You play on the street in New York for 3 hours!

So today I did my first real street performance from 1pm-4pm on 49th Street and 7th Ave. The day began with me feverishly constructing my outfit, which consisted of most of the materials I got from the amazing M&J Trimming store on 36th and 6th. I sewed 4 pink sequin belts to be combined to make a sequin corset of sorts, and made cuffs and a headpiece out of this awesome silvery disco-ball-looking material, which makes me look like a robot when I put it over my eyes.

I rolled my amp down to 49th and 7th and started my show and immediately knew that all that trouble I went through to get that permit was worth it, since the second I turned on my music, a bunch of teenagers started dancing with me and singing along, which made me so happy. Immediately I got a few dollars in my case, which was great! If only it had continued that way, but then it started to rain on and off, which threw things off a bit.

When it rained, I moved under the building overhang near the subway entrance, which was acoustically much better, but financially much worse. If it hadn’t kept raining I think I would have made more money, but I’m just happy about how well the performance went.

My dad came by in the middle of the first set which was great, and soon afterwards a few friends showed up to hang out as well. The Times Square security guy said that Britney Spears was a few blocks away watching the Wicked matinee and I almost died.

At the end of the day I had made 12 dollars, 37 cents and 1 Rupee. Now, just so you know, a Rupee is worth about 2.5 cents. But you know what? I’ve never even seen a Rupee before. And now I have. And it has a cute little animal on it. AND, I can totally use it as a quarter and no one will notice.

So here’s what I learned from today:

1. Street performing is fun and not scary and totally doable.

2. Here are the people that like my music: gay guys, teen girls, some women, very old men. Here are the people who don’t like my music: 40-something dads from the Midwest who probably think I’m going to hell for dressing like a weirdo and thank their lucky stars their daughters are boring and timid.

3. I would do much better if I could busk in places where people are more apt to stand around rather than keep walking, and where there is a far higher population of gay men. Ain’t nobody from Chelsea hangin’ out in Times Square.

4. It is really fun to sing my music at the top of my lungs on the street in the middle of the day with lots of people around.

5. Street performing is more about handing out business cards and talking to people who want to talk to you than about getting people on the mailing list or making money. People who are going somewhere won’t stop and write their email down and won’t always throw money but I brought about 200 of my business cards with me today and I don’t have any of them left. Also, you have to go up to people and physically put the card in their hand. They generally will not come get a card from you.

So, next time I do this, I’m going to try to find a location in Chelsea or the West Village or a bathhouse or RuPaul’s dressing room.