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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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“Everybody now! Pop Music!” — July 7th

Before crawling into bed the night before, I had set two alarms; the first to notify me in time to hope on the train and get down to Bondi Beach for an hour or so before my next scheduled event and the second, a few hours later so that I could sleep in a little after the excitement of seeing John again.

I’d like to say I’m the type of person to self rise early—in any time zone—and go do yoga on the beach, but…I think we all know which option I chose.

I turned off the second alarm, put the electric kettle on and had the small box of Australian Kellogg’s cereal that had been left for me as I got myself together.

My plan for the day had been to go to the Sydney Olympic Centre and do two activities: archery, which I’ve always wanted to try and a massage. When I initially booked the trip, I had selected the massage as a last minute add on so that I didn’t feel like I was wasting all that time going down to the Centre for one thing. After carting around my luggage and having the tension of just getting to Australia go straight to my shoulders and back, I was looking forward to the massage as much as the archery.

There was only one piece left to potentially slot in—seeing Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The movie had long been a favourite of mine since discovering it in high school in the middle of a Hugo Weaving binge. It was one of my first experiences with drag since no one else in my household was particularly interested in watching Drag Race and my social life even then was that of a shut-in.

The world described in Priscilla the movie was one that I could relate to. I had kept my sexuality an open secret in school, those who were close to me knew and those who weren’t assumed what they liked about who I was interested in. Boys I rejected or refused to show an interest in assumed I was a lesbian and classmates who overheard my frequent minutes long monologues about David Tennant, David Bowie, or classic rock band Queen assumed that I was as boy crazy as any other high schooler. Baffling, more than one person in this same crowd had assumed I was English because of my interests despite a total lack of accent. Still, when I was younger than that even I had experienced a distinct sense of othering from my peers. Less because of sexuality and more because of not having much in common with my classmates when it came to interests. Going to high school for me was like the queens going to Sydney again: sure there were parts that could easily be slagged off, but on a whole, it was better than where they’d come from.

Besides, the fast paced script was funny, Hugo Weaving was very attractive as Mitzy Del Bra, and having met and experienced so much more to do with queer culture since that film, I found that the way the characters were written rang as true for 90s Australia as it did for 2010s America.

I looked up the performance times on my phone as well as transit times from my hotel to the Centre and from the Centre to the Hotel to the theatre, ultimately deciding the only way this would work would be if I took a taxi. And the only way I’d take a taxi would be if I had a ticket. The showing I could make wasn’t close to sold out, but who knows? Maybe in Sydney people rushed the box office last minute to go to shows on a whim.

After enlisting Risa’s help to calculate how much it would cost to get to the theatre, I decided it was worth a try. I’d tried stagedooring for the first time by myself and it had worked out. I’d tried flying to a foreign country by myself and that had worked out in spades.

I packed up the things I anticipated needing for the day, including a few things I’d need at the show, and headed out intending to book the show ticket between activities since there was over an hour between them and a less than five minute walk between stations.

The first train transfer went smoothly enough, but arriving at the station before the Sydney Olympic Park, I found myself lost. I walked down a corridor that seemingly was going increasingly nowhere and was marked for what seemed like a completely different stop than the Olympic Centre.

I missed what would have been the train I needed as I flagged down a janitor and asked him how to get to where I was going. He agreed that it was very poorly marked even if you did know where you were going and confirmed that I had been on the right path to begin with.

I set off again and arrived at the Olympic Centre with enough time to find where Aquatics was supposed to be and get checked in for my archery lesson. I pulled up the map in google and started out in the direction it pointed. I kept walking and walking….at no point was I seeing the turn I was supposed to have taken in a few meters and by then had easily gone a quarter mile.

I attempted to reorient myself with the posted signs. I had navigated Japan by myself, mostly successfully. I had navigated every street so far successfully. But there was something about the way that sign was marked after the train stop that messed me up each time.

Finally I ended up in the building that I assumed was where main events like gymnastics must have been held for the 2000 Olympics and took the opportunity to be out of the overcast day. I found a very empty front hall, a mostly open sports merchandise store, a set of Olympics worthy bathrooms that were in the middle of being cleaned…but no Aquatics Centre.

I sat down in a waiting area arranged with grey chairs and attempted to book the ticket. TicketMaster Australia wouldn’t accept my out of country mailing address and for a moment, it seemed like three activities would be wasted that afternoon instead of just the two I had already missed.

I called the number listed on the website and chatted with the ticket lady about booking the ticket, why I was in Australia…. She helped me select the seats I had seen online and mentioned that the theatre had a very strict curtain time. I thanked her for the tickets and the information and just sat there a moment, thinking about what to do next. I still had over two hours before the next event, but that also meant two hours to find the bloody Aquatics Centre since that was also where the massage was supposed to be.

I walked back to the train station, figuring that if all else failed, I could try the other direction from the one I had come. At this point, what did I have to lose?

Unfortunately that simple change of the fork in the road was what fixed the problem and I arrived at the Aquatics Centre soon enough. I booked into the massage early, received my ticket for the massage, and asked about the spa portion of it that I had seen online. I was super early, but I could still take advantage of the spa.

The spa was downstairs past the pool and, in typical fashion for the day, after getting turned around and reclarifying directions, I found what had been talked about on the website wasn’t A spa like an American spa, but spas. As in hot tub. As in in the middle of the room with a giant amusement park pool and an Olympic standard lap pool.

Well…that just wasn’t going to do, was it? I decided to go to the massage room early.

Too early in fact. When I knocked on the door to avoid startling whomever was inside the small cubical of a room, I found the masseuse was already in the middle of another appointment. I was surprised that there was no secretary until I saw just how small of an operation this truly was on the inside.

I sat down and started to play with my phone quietly. After a couple of minutes, the masseuse came back and suggested that I go play in the pool until it was time for my massage. I took her suggestion, went and bought a suit at the upstairs store, and lounged in the hot tub for forty minutes and swam for an additional twenty. It still wasn’t time, but it was closer. Within fifteen minutes.

I changed out of the black and white design patterned swimsuit, thinking back on how I now had confirmation that John and I were the same dress size via the sizing for the suit and headed in.

I was still too early. This time, I chose to wait in the room until it was my turn, at which point the masseuse very patiently gave me instructions about exactly what I was supposed to do.

I apologized for barging in on her appointment and thanked her for holding on to my things while I went for a swim. She asked me how I had liked the water and I said that I liked it, that it helped relieve most of the tension in my back, but that I was still feeling considerable strain in my shoulders and legs.

She could tell that I was nervous and I had already admitted this was my first time doing this and I had no idea what I was supposed to do for it. She put me at ease by telling me what she was going to do and later when it came to massaging my glutes, forewarning me that she was about to touch me butt in case I had objections.

We chatted, again, about what I was doing in Australia, what had brought me there, how much I had enjoyed seeing John perform so far and how nice it was to find out he truly was as nice as everyone had been telling me for years. I asked about her, about the tension she had displayed before we started. She said her daughter was up to something she didn’t approve of and we chatted a little about her life, about how she was from New Zealand and that she had done a lot of things in her youth, including being a human sushi table at one of those go-go bars. The first and only time she did it, she had noticed one of the patrons looking at her with the look you have when you know someone but can’t quite place them until he finally realized, this was one of his best friend’s nieces. She had smiled up smartly at him brightly saying “hello!” and not acknowledging that they knew each other beyond him eating raw fish off of her naked body. It did make for an awkward meet up two weeks later when she was visiting her uncle as scheduled and the gentleman showed up. He very quietly left before she could engage him beyond another smile as he had gone to sit with a different girl after realizing he knew her.

I asked her some questions about the experience, about what sort of fish they had used, if she would do it again….

She mentioned being bisexual after I had casually mentioned it in relation to something else. At first, I wasn’t sure if she was having me on or saying she was bi to try and put me more at ease for the massage, but eventually I realized she was genuine.

We talked about dating, about interests, about travel. She mentioned that when she travelled, she usually stayed in hostels and that they were a nice way to get around places cheaply. I mentioned my discomfort with the concept, but largely shied away from disparaging a concept that clearly she had never run into issues with.

At the end of the session, I put my clothes back on and we walked out together. I asked if she thought the front desk would call a cab for me and she said that she thought they would.

We checked and that phone did not have call placing capabilities to places outside of the building. I checked the taxi website from earlier and it still wouldn’t load on my internet nor would the other taxi sites for the Sydney area. She suggested Uber, but when I tried to download the app, it was taking so long I thought it would never download. She started it on hers, but had the same technical difficulties that I did.

Her friend came over and he suggested both a taxi and an Uber before we explained that we had tried both of those already. He pointed out that taxis often stayed in front of the nearby hotels and that if I didn’t spot one, I could always have a hotel call one for me.

I walked to the hotel they pointed out to me and sure enough, there was a taxi waiting outside that was free from any fares or obligations.

He drove me to the show and as we drove up, it became immediately clear which building was set up with Priscilla as the entire exterior was bathed in a hot pink light. I laughed to myself as I got out of the taxi and went to collect my ticket. Inside, the venue was decked out in all manner of Priscilla merchandise from posters to postcards to CDs and one of the venue stage security calling out that they had programmes for the tour readily available. I decided to wait until after the show to decide on getting merchandise, thinking that I might add the programme or one of the other items to my collection or attempt to stagedoor this show as well.

The show did not start as billed directly on the dot, but about fifteen minutes late. Ah well, better to be early and wait around a little than to get to the theatre and have to wait until the start of the second act to be let in.

Before the show started an old friend, a Tommy rper, reached out looking for my Hedwig. I told him that he would have to wait a little bit as I was currently in Australia and about to see a show.

The show started and immediately the chances were evident. As opposed to starting with lead character Mitzy singing I’ve Never Been to Me, a form of a jukebox ‘I am’ statement, the live show started with the three women that formed the stage addition of a Greek chorus singing It’s Raining Men. Not one of my favourite songs, but there was no denying that it does have a certain amount of staying power as a gay anthem.

The next immediate chance was to Mizty’s choice of act. Since drag is a more respected artform world wide than it was in 1994, they couldn’t have her get the same reception she did in the film for the same performance. Instead of having her be a very talented, but underappreciated lipsync queen, they made her an untalented and unloved drag queen that had Avenue Q style puppets sewn into her outfit. Immediate reaction: what the fuck is that?

Still, I knew there had to be changes to do this live. Not only because of differences in format, but because the runtime was significantly longer. (Another first song change I didn’t care for was revealing Mitzy’s son Benji way early.)

Act 1 changes that I thought were particularly cute or funny included a new entrance for my least favourite queen Felicia that saw her performing Kylie Minogue’s Better the Devil You Know, originally in a nun’s habit surrounded by alterboys and soon dressed much more salatiously surrounded by gogo boys in red leather hot pants with devil tails she used as a leash. Very Felicia. And gave an amazing sense of how while she can be an annoying person, she is indeed a ‘bloody good little performer.’ I also loved the change that saw Trumpet’s funeral change from a glum graveside event to a partial musical number set to Don’t Leave Me This Way. Outside of the Blackpool vibes, it was a nice way to work in both Bernadette’s dismay over Trumpet’s death and Mitzy trying to talk her into coming along for the ride.

The titular bus Priscilla was done with a prefab bus cut out with wheels that spun to show motion. On the “closed” and front sides of the bus were LED lights that the director could change to display the bus’s name on the marquee, to turn the whole affair pink, and to use a muted version of the homophobic ‘AIDS fuckers go home’ from the movie. Much like the still months off RENT Live, this had to be sanitised to a certain extent for the “family audience” demographic.

Those changes aside, the stage version of the show largely flattened the best lines and visual gags from the movie. How do you make Felicia riding the bus with an absolutely ridiculous white fabric train flowing out behind her while lipsyncing to opera? The absurdity alone is enough to make a person giggle and yet somehow the director fucked it up.

I considered leaving at the intermission, but ultimately figured it wasn’t so terrible that I had to leave. It wasn’t so offensive that I was sitting there fuming. And it wasn’t like I had anything better to be doing that night. I might as well see it through considering that I had paid for it.

The second half was no better than the first with the show doubling down on its biphobia towards Mitzy, its racism in having an Aboriginal character portrayed by one of the very white actors to play one of the Swedish Lars-es, its offensive portrayal of Asians with its singular Eastern character in Cynthia, and its general mediocrity.

The changes in the second half I liked were: Cynthia’s music changed from generic stripper music in the film to her dancing to Pop Music while she shot ping pong balls out of her vagina at the on stage audience, Bernadette’s backstory with Les Girls was shown for a split second while she’s talking with Bob about her past and him having seen them back in the day, and the McArthur Park reference getting underlined by Mitzy singing the song and dancing with green cupcakes as she elates that she has waited her entire life to say that someone has left their cake out in the rain, even if the sequence did go on for far too long. The new sequence of Felicia getting ready for her ill-advised night on the town in Coober PD to Hot Stuff by Donna Summer made for another missed opportunity where instead of heightening the character’s sense of invincibility and later fear when she realized she had fucked up, it strangled out any concern for the character. Of course she’s not gonna get hurt, this is a family musical.

At the end of the show, I left the theatre, pushing past the crowds lining up to purchase from one of the merchandise spots and those milling around after what they considered to be an enjoyable experience. While the film was focused on the hyperreality of gay life written and directed by a gay man, the stage musical came off as a well-meaning straight person’s—perhaps an ally, but a straight person none-the-less—attempt at doing gay “camp.” Everything was so over the top, there was no sense of danger, no sense of meaning, no sense of gut punching horror over what the small minded towns people in the small town or the fictional version of Coober PD had done to the characters. And because of this, there was no genuine sense of funny because the characters were so flat, any attempt at painting life into them rolled off like watercolours on slanted surface.

Clearly there was something that someone found appealing about this version of the show, but even putting down some of the things I disliked to poor directing or bad acting, the show itself had very little to justify its existence other than to make a shitton of money for the producers.

I walked around the Chinatown downtown thinking to myself how ironic that a musical that did Asian and Native characters so dirty was playing in a predominantly Asian area of the city.

Finally it was time to head back and I realized, I had no idea where in the fuck I was. And I was hungry.

I ducked into a hotel and asked to use their bathroom, taking the opportunity to refill my water bottle. While I had left my massage pleasantly sore, I was now about ready to collapse. I sat for a moment in a chair and cracked open a tin of peri peri flavoured Pringles learning both that Australian Pringles are smaller than American ones and what peri peri tasted like.

After a few minutes, I got back up, refilled my water bottle again, and headed out. When Google Maps failed me and the headphones I had brought with started to die on the one side, I ducked into a corner shop to ask for directions. The shopkeeper asked me where I was going and I told him the end station I needed. He said that there were no trains that would take me there at this time of night. Having already done this for the past two nights, I knew that I just needed to get to Central Station and from there could find my way back. I insisted that if he could please point me in the direction of any train station that would take me to Central, that would be what I needed.

His directions weren’t the best in the world, but they were clearer than Google as to where the entrance to the train station was with all the construction that was being done in the area. I found my way in and onto the train, back to my station, and finally back to Edgecliff.

At the station, I watched the banner ad for Younger thinking to myself that it was terribly funny to see an ad for original Yitzhak Miriam Shor’s new show when I was in Australia seeing John talking about their old one.

I got back to the hotel and set my alarm for the extremely early time I’d have to be up to get to the train station the next morning to get to Melbourne. After packing, I wouldn’t have much time to sleep, but after getting on the train, I more or less had seventeen continuous hours to make up for it before arriving at my destination. I’d be fine.

#travel diary #Australia Travel Diary #australia day 5 #sydney travel diary #sydney day 3 #priscilla queen of the desert

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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All the World is a Stagedoor — July 6th

After the show, where I'd gotten some of John's glitter on my hands and transferred each piece carefully onto the sticky side of the gaffer tape, I went down to stagedoor. Unlike Canberra, there was a bright, lit-up sign announcing that THIS was the stagedoor. And that this was where you were supposed to queue.

There were no Hedwigs that night, but there was a blue haired Yitzhak, dressed in almost perfect replica of Miriam’s look. Outside of the blue hair that is. I wanted to jump into conversation with one of them, be able to share this experience with someone, but they all seemed very involved in their own happiness bubbles.

We waited outside for maybe ten minutes before a woman with black coifed hair and a flowy yet punk rock vibe came over and asked if the small, gathered crowd was there for John. A few people said yes and she said they were trying to get him to meet people back upstairs where the merchandise booth had been set up. It wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been in Canberra, but I wasn’t going to protest.

I thanked the woman, Sam, for letting everyone know where they should be and for moderating the event a little. It was unspoken, but I feel understood that I appreciated that she was watching out for John in a situation where however unlikely, people might become the bad sort of weird instead of the delightful.

Sam recognized me from Canberra and said that she had photos of me with John on her phone. We chatted a little bit more, with her asking where I was from and why I had come to Australia for a concert. I told her about seeing John in Japan, how I'd been a big fan of his for awhile now, how David and I had been emailing a little after the last show and David had said that I could meet John privately at some point, but not Sydney. We talked about how the front row hadn’t sold at all. She thought that it was very strange and I mentioned that for me, it was unbookable. Just fully unbookable. She said that made sense and that with certain shows, possibly because of the angle for the seating. I admitted that the angle from the second row had been a little steep, but it was definitely worth it to see John up close. She asked my name and when David came over with the fans she had just sent upstairs in tow, Sam made Sure that David saw and recognized me. “You remember Hansel.”

David gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. He asked if I had liked the show, I said I loved it. He asked if l liked the new songs, I said I loved them. Especially hearing Angry Inch. I said that when I saw John in Japan, the shows were always amazing, but Angry Inch was always where it’d kick off just a little bit more. David said he was still trying to set up the meeting, he hadn’t actually asked John yet and was planning on asking the next day. And “well, you see why you couldn't meet up in Sydney?”

We went over my schedule briefly and he remarked that I ended up having the same travel schedule more or less as John, even down to leaving Australia on the same day. I remarked that given the show dates, it had only been logical. I added that John had added the movie premiere for Japan only a week before the trip and it had cost me like $500 to rearrange my plans, get tickets, get hotel accommodation…. So this time I'd planned smarter, staying an extra couple of days just in case. It was probably the most expensive movie ticket I’d ever buy, but it was worth it.

Everyone went upstairs and again, I chatted with Sam, chatted with David, with the merch guy, who I teased about not being able to get his luggage closed after repacking all the left over t-shirts. I chatted with another fan who had worn a Lena Hall t shirt that John teased her about and she told me about her girlfriend and squared me away on how to pronoune Brisbane. (Briz-bin.)

Again, I was dead last.

“Hello..again~~❤,” John said, greeting me with a smile. I beamed back as my brain struggled to full process that this was actually happening. That I was for real interacting with John instead of dreaming or daydreaming about him. Immediately after acknowledging me, John pulled me into a big hug, where I was allowed to remain more or less for the rest of the interaction, sometimes switching to him having one arm wrapped around me for photos, more often with both of mine around him.

“You were in Canberra?”

“Yes. And I'm going to all the shows. And I went to Japan last fall. So Korea?”

“Don't go to Korea,” he warned.

“Why not?”

“It won’t be like this, I'll need a translator.”

“You needed a translator in Japan and you were brilliant.”

We continued to chat for the next few minutes where he mostly asked me questions about myself, about my life. I volunteered information about myself and mentioned that I had thought Ataru was a wonderful performer.

The interaction couldn’t last long enough. It could have just as easily been twenty minutes as five with how absolutely entranced by him I was. We parted and soon I found myself wandering around the area near the Opera House absolutely in a daze that this whole thing was even happening.

After an obscene amount of time spent walking around, I walked back to the train station and headed back to the hotel. Later undressing and getting ready for bed happy in the knowledge that John knew who I was and for some reason liked me well enough to have a short conversation with.

#travel diary #Australia Travel Diary #australia day 4 #sydney travel diary #sydney day 2 #sydney stagedoor

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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And Here We Find Ourselves Standing in the Cleavage — July 6th

I woke up the next morning to the sound of my alarm. I had changed the tone from the melodic beeping I use when I’m at home to Bermuda by Amber Martin since it features so prominently in the new show and her voice on it was beautiful. I figured why torment myself with the alarm I use when I have to do things when this was supposed to help me get up so that I could do things I wanted.

I had one of the cranberry breakfast flats I had bought the previous night at Woolie’s as I got ready. I felt more relaxed having had the opportunity to relax in the bath and now that both the pressure of getting to Australia and the pressure of meeting John for the first time was off.

I picked out the clothes I expected to be wearing to the show that night and did my usual semi-punk makeup of eyeliner and a small star by my left eye in honor of the dearly missed David Bowie.

I headed out to the Opera House with more than enough time to spare just in case walking in the daylight tripped me as much as walking there at night had. Luckily I arrived early. After walking around the lower level to take a look at the breakfast offerings from the various in-house restaurants that were open, I decided to take in the beautiful view of the harbour as I waited for my tour group to start. I had never really gotten the appeal of sitting by the water, but there was truly something about lying down on the manmade steps and listening to the water peacefully moving nearby. The vivid blue of the water made even the winter sky look incredibly saturated.

When I had booked the tickets to go to the Sydney Opera House, I had had the option to book a backstage tour at the same time. Since I wasn’t sure of my schedule, or if I’d even be able to keep Sydney was one of the dates to go to, I opted to table any thoughts of a tour until I had firmer plans.

When I got around to booking the tour of the Sydney Opera House, I found out that there were extremely limited spots on the early morning tour and that I had waited too long to decide that it was something I wanted before attempting to go. Fortunately they had the option of touring the venue without going backstage, but the version I had wanted was the version that might allow me to get another glimpse of John outside of the stagedooring after the shows. Regardless, because of my travel schedule and the dates that the various venues actually allowed the public to tour their venues, this would be the only chance I'd have at seeing how things ran behind the scenes. And regardless of my intent in trying to get into the backstage tour, it was very likely John wouldn’t have been there at the same time I was anyway — he had gone down to Bondi Junction to do yoga on the beach. And to watch the cute surfers play in the waves.

For the tour, I had to check my bag. That was fine by me; the bag was more so that I could bring things back if I decided to do shopping after the tour and so that I could have my water bottle a little more easily accessible than sticking it in the deep pocket of my pants. And I was able to clarify that during the show the bag that I had brought should be more than okay to take in and stick under my seat it was just during the tour, allowing bags made it harder to coordinate.

Throughout the tour, I tried to stay close to the guide so that I could easier see the things he was pointing out. I learned about the history of the Opera House, how the project came to be, how the architect had won a contest by a landslide in design, but that it wasn't actually structurally sound and had to be made so later. How he had felt shunted by the myriad of changes and that the people building the Opera House didn't care about his input any more so he'd left. His designs were too fussy. In as many ways impossible as they were grand. He pioneered or inspired a lot of pioneering in the building of the House, but he'd also run over budget quite and wasn’t an easy person to work with. In the end, the builders had tried to stay as true to his plans as possibly feasible from the pattern effect with the tiles on the outer shells to the colourful carpeting and chair colours that he had picked to evoke certain emotions as patrons took in the various shows.

I asked a lot of questions of the tour guide, made remarks where appropriate, and found out that John was not only playing the première venue in Australia, he was playing the première theatre in the première venue in Australia. One that had hot pink seats and a massive (pipe) organ. Because of course it did. Of course Hedwig would have to have a theatre with hot pink seats and a massive organ behind her as she performed.

At the gift shop after the tour, I did a little shopping for myself and for gifts for friends. So many people had commented on my trip to Australia and I had felt like I had bonded with so many of my coworkers, I wanted to bring back mementos of an incredible experience that working that job had helped me to achieve. I also uploaded some of the things I'd taken, videos and pictures and such, since getting to Australia since for the first time since arriving, I had wifi.

Eventually though I decided it was time to move on. As much as I probably could have made an entire day lounging by the Harbour and poking in and out of the various shops while I waited for the show to start that evening, it felt like a waste of the limited time I had in Sydney to spend an entire day in one spot.

As I headed out, I popped into a corner shop for a drink and added a few more interesting snacks to take back to my stash at the hotel.

I dropped off the things that I had brought from the Opera House and made out one of the postcards I had bought the previous day inscribing it, Remember, no matter what else happens while you’re in Australia, you’ve now touched John before setting off.

On my way out, a different front desk lady from the night before greeted me. She asked me where I was from and I told her, offering to show my passport and license since I figured it might have been as unusual for her to see my American and Kansas documents at her job as it would have been for me to see Australian and Sydney ones at mine. She showed me her ID card and offered to go over the Australian money with me. She told me what all of the coins were called and explained that while the silver cent coins got bigger as they lost value, the two gold dollar coins went the opposite way with the one being a larger coin than the two and jumping from coins to dollars at the five dollar mark.

We chatted a little about America and Australia and I mentioned how it was nice the previous night to hear the theatre pay tribute to the Aboriginal tribes that had settled on the land before it became “Australia” and “Canberra” and a playhouse. She said that it was very nice, but that Australians weren’t that great at following through when it came to actually making policies that were inclusive of their native peoples. I mentioned the hypocrisy of my own country of origin continuing to shit on the Native Americans and then putting a quote from one of their greatest known leaders as a heading on their international passports.

I thanked her for the discussion and the information and headed out again in search of a post office where I could mail my newly addressed postcard.

Yesterday, the front desk woman had said that there was supposed to be a post office in the mall attached to the train station. I had thought that I had done a relatively through search the previous night between the many arrivals and departures, but I took her advice and headed in that direction.

As I walked up along the sidewalk next to the train station entrance, I noticed more shops just beyond where I’d go to get on one of the trains. Sure enough, there was the mall the front desk lady had been talking about the previous day. I entered and glanced at the food stalls feeling hungry, but not quite hungry enough to stop for lunch. But I picked up a couple of the menus for a bento box and spring roll focused place and a bubble tea vender at the next counter. I weighed those options against going back to the sushi place I had seen just before the train station or the Indian restaurant just before I would get back to my hotel.

I found the post office and mailed my postcard. The man behind the desk let me take photos of the interior so that I could compare them to my local post office and I thought to myself that the girl I had just met today at the hotel desk was right about Australian mail costing an arm and a leg for what it was. I hoped that she wasn’t also right about their propensity to lose things in the mail instead of delivering them.

I wandered around the mall, ducking into a pet supply store very cutely decked out with toy animals in place of real animals to sell crates to see about getting a toy for Dimitri and finding the outer limits of the mall where the store fronts started to be for lease as opposed to open.

I walked out the back of the mall and realized how close to a residential area I had been this whole time. I took some more photos and went back the way I had come. It was still early enough in the day that I could get a little lost, but I still needed to find something to eat.

I decided to try my luck down at Bondi Junction. I knew that enough time had passed it was unlikely that John would still be there — in fact that was the point. If I had gone immediately after the video had been posted that morning not only would it have likely come across as stalking the man, I would have felt a bit stalkerish stepping off the train into a spot he had just announced his presence at. And that wouldn’t be cool.

When I got to Bondi, I found myself in another shopping plaza cum train station. I made my way up to the upper levels, this time passing by all of the shops and noticing that the higher I went the less retail and more business oriented they became. Instead of pet shops and drug stores, I saw masseuses and private gyms that appeared to be empty. And a cosmological office in what would otherwise appear to be the dead end of a private office building.

Eventually, I found myself in a food court with a McDonald’s visually screaming for attention amongst three or four other comparatively huge restaurant outposts. And a large airport style news agent because why not. This way also lead finally to the outside.

I walked along an alleyway very aptly graffiti’d with the phrase “Let the children boogie” and all the buildings for lease before emerging into what appeared to be a small Chinatown style market with hanging pennant flags and Asian style buildings. By now, my back had been hurting for awhile, but when I had stopped off at the hotel I couldn’t find my small Advil bottle with assorted pain relievers in it.

I stopped into the first drug store I saw and purchased a slim blister pack of pills that seemed more suited to gum than Advil and quickly swallowed two after I was out of the store. I continued to wander around and came across the Australian version of what had been one of my favourite stores in Japan — Dasico.

The Dasico in Australia was dingier than the ones in Japan. While the Japanese stores had seemingly prided themselves in tidy sterile or sterile-adjacent appearing environments, this store was disorganized with use weathered white walls and higher prices to reflect that the goods here were imported as opposed to domestically made. The general vibe was more like a Dollar General than the Dasico I was familiar with from Japan.

I shopped around and found another couple of drinks to try and a few packages of cheap ramen that would hopefully defer the cost of eating out every night in Australia. While my room in Sydney had a small kitchenette, I wouldn’t have had the slightest idea of what to cook or how to get a good deal on kitchen staples when I’d only need them for the next couple of days.

My back pain had not alleviated yet and it was starting to get to be the time I’d have to head back to my hotel in Edgecliff. I found the spot where I’d have to transfer to buses to get to Bondi Beach if I wanted to follow in John’s footsteps the next morning and do yoga on the beach. The buses had me more leery of the prospect and the price didn’t seem to be a reasonable addition for what I was hoping to experience there. But still, it was something to consider.

On the way back, I took a closer look at this city’s promotion of Priscilla. I must have either looked at something wrong on the website or they had changed the dates after I had looked in April, but they were performing Priscilla in the same town that I was going to be in! I made a mental note to see how it would fit into the next day’s plans after I had had my fun that night.

I went back to the motel and realized that I hadn’t picked anything to eat. It was too late in my mind to go out and get something and still come back and change before heading out, so I made one of the ramen bowls that I had just bought at Dasico as I set up the things I was taking with me that night to the theatre, carefully balancing what things went in which pockets to avoid going through the metal detector at the door or possibly getting stuck in coat check while I was at the show.

Finally, it was time to head back down. I changed back into the Station to Station shirt from the one I had been wearing about town, spiked my hair, and headed down to the venue.

I wondered if anyone would recognize me outside of the Hedwig makeup. It had taken Jonathan, the front desk guy in Canberra a second to realize who I was, but would anyone attached to the show? I put the thought out of my mind. It didn’t matter whether or not they’d recognize me by sight, I had had such a distinctive look and experience only two days earlier it should be easy enough to jog someone’s memory if I had needed to.

I picked up my ticket from will call and once inside the doors, bought the single new item of merch that had been added since Canberra—a black edition of the poster t-shirt. I chatted a little with the merchandise guy. As it turned out, he had recognized me after a second and when asked commented that both of looks were good.

That night’s pre show music was again very Bowie heavy, new songs from what had played in Canberra, but still The Prettiest Star, which had been the first song I'd heard after the Osaka show. To me, David would always the prettiest star, but at that moment walking away from NKH Broadcasting having witnessed the last in a series of amazing shows, John was the brightest star.

I paced a couple of times waiting for the doors to open, but I largely lurked by my door ticket in hand and played with my phone to defray some of the nervous excitement that was only building moment to moment as I waited for the show to start. Again, what was I so nervous for? It’s not like I was performing. And I was pretty certain that I had already made a good impression….

The show, of course, was amazing. My long standing position since the show was on Broadway was that even when John was having an off day, he was an amazing performer. But he was not having an off night. Not even close.

Something about having a venue that looked almost sold out—something about almost selling out the Sydney Opera House—truly brought out the best in him that night. If he had seemed nervous or self conscious at all in Canberra with the small audience, none of that was evident here. He was funny, smart, he told interesting stories and asides that hadn’t made it into my first night’s show. He talked about his mother’s Scottish aphorisms mimicking her accent as he recalled for the audience her scolding him or generally expressing a very Scottish view point of the world.

There were three or four new songs; one from Shortbus (performed by the original, Sydney native, singer), one by Amber and Brett from their CD different than Bermuda (from HtTTGaP and also their CD), and two by John. The first was announced as a song from HtTTGaP, exciting because he hadn’t actually sung on the soundtrack. His voice is on it a few times, but speaking, not singing. And then it merged into Angry Inch. If I was the sort to scream at concerts, I would have. I might have… I did in Japan and I'm usually a pretty quiet concert goer aside from clapping.

As intense of a moment as Angry Inch is in Hedwig, somehow that night John managed to build the tension and suspense of the performance higher. Surpassing even Exquisite Corpse in delivering a sense of dangerous anything-could-happen-just-watch-me. And he took the bridge farther than he ever has before. Stopping and starting it. Repeating lines and generally teasing the audience to the edge of their seat before shouting the final spoken line.

It was incredible. That song alone rivaled some of the best concert experiences I had had in my life and the rest of the show was performed equally well.

Something odd had happened with the ticketing though. When I had gone to buy my seats, there were no first row seats available. And as the audience had started filing in, the first row never showed up. So in effect for the second night, I was in the front row. And again, John held onto my hand as long as we were still within range of each other when he came out to touch the audience. I noticed after the show that I had gotten some of his glitter on my hands, that it had transferred from his lips to his hand and then from his hand to mine sometime in the last part of the show. I also had water thrown on me this time by John and it was incredible. Well, we all knew after Japan seeing him gets me a little wet….

After the show and the surprise encores were over, I quickly gathered my things and shoved them into my bag, carefully hoping over the empty front row and onto the equally empty stage to take a second sheet of John’s notes as a souvenir. And when I was in the bathroom a few minutes later and noticed the large pieces of glitter still sitting my palm, carefully peeled back the electrician’s tape they had used to stick the piece of paper to the back of the amplifiers and adhered my smallest souvenir to it so that it wouldn’t get lost or washed away, carefully folding the electrician’s tape back over the back of the page so it wouldn’t grab at things and cause the page to tear.

#travel diary #Australia Travel Diary #australia day 4 #sydney travel diary #sydney day 2

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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It’s a Travel Day for John, So It’s a Travel Day For Us — July 5th

The next morning, I woke up to packed luggage that only needed a few additional pieces re-added and checked out of my hotel. I chatted briefly with the front desk woman, the one who had chatted with me the night before about John.

That chat morning was shorter. I recounted some of what had happened while waiting for a taxi. My luggage was still small enough that I could nest everything except the backpack with the small wheeled luggage going inside the big wheeled luggage and the Hedwig bag sitting empty in one of them.

As I had planned the previous night, I stopped by the theatre before going to the bus depot to pick up the poster. The front desk guy did a double take seeing me out of the heavy makeup I had worn for the show. He had to check that it was actually okay to give me the poster and we chatted some more about the show the previous night, how much I’d enjoyed John, how much I’d enjoyed meeting him after…. I would have loved to have chatted more, but…I had left the meter running and had to get back so I would make the time for the bus.

The bus ride back was smooth and uneventful. It had taken them a little while to get there again and again, the designated lane for where my bus was supposed to be was largely irrelevant.

Once we got going, I thought about opening the movie version of Priscilla again to pass the time, but thought that it might be a little too on the nose to be on a bus in Australia watching a movie that largely takes place on a bus in Australia. The only way it could have been more cliché would have been if I had watched it while I was leaving Sydney.

Instead I listened to music, attempted to get my phone to play Moulin Rouge, and replied back and forth with David as to when I would be able to meet with John, confirming that I was going to all of the shows and forwarding my ticket information so that he could see which cities I’d be in when.

Arriving at the Sydney airport was, again, easy. I collected my things and headed for the nearest shops. We appeared to be on the other side of the airport from the last time. Any other airport, I’d have thought I was already past security and into the giant mall that most airports have lurking behind the security checkpoints and before the gates.

I walked into a very large convenience store that featured travel accessories like small luggage, travel adaptors, neck pillows, translation books from other languages; a small book and news section; large aisles filled with chips and candy bars and any amount of food that could be taken on the plane, some of it in quantities that really shouldn’t.

I scanned the entertainment magazines for anything that looked like it might have press on the show. Still nothing. And being in Sydney, they didn’t have any press from Canberra. I had had to duck out before checking to see if there had been a printed review of my show, but put it aside as something to maybe look up at one of the local libraries if I had the chance.

I then set about collecting candy bars, drinks, and crisps for the trip. Remembering my mother’s trip to England from 2003, I also bought a few things to bring back with me to try. On this first round, I tried to stay away from American foods unless it was a flavor that I absolutely could not get in the US or in the case of Raspberry Coke, couldn’t get in a bottle in the US.

The next thing on my list was getting chips with chicken salt. Aside from prepackaged stuff, this was recommended to me specifically as something to get. I love chips. Of course I had to try them. As I sat in the food court, I texted a couple of people about what I’d done so far, how Canberra went, how meeting John went, and then headed out to find the trains chips still in overloaded hands.

I walked for what felt like forty minutes to get to the ground transportation station. And then another ten trying to figure out where the trains were compared to the more obvious bus depot, cabby stops, and parking complex. Finally I caved and asked someone for help.

They directed me back towards where I had been and said to take the elevator to the second level.

I got on the second level and was in no great hurry to find the train. I wanted to regroup my stuff to a more manageable configuration and finish my chips. I had had so much stuff that I bought in the convenience store that I had to purchase one of the big plastic bags to carry it all. I repacked some of the stuff into my luggage to make the bag less overflowing and fished out a different battery pack from the one I had been using. Two days in Australia and I still didn’t have a travel adaptor, having thus far relied on my batteries and USB charging ports on the planes and on the bus.

My first glimpse of truly friendly Australians were was at the Central train station. I had to change at Central from the airport line to get to the station I was actually staying at and while I waited for the elevator, I met a lovely older couple waiting to do the same.

We figured out that we were headed for the same platform and while we were in the business of getting there, I was asked about where I was coming from, what I was doing, where I was going, what I’d be doing for three weeks in Australia. The woman mentioned that she had used to do a lot of traveling when she was younger, but not anymore. She thought that it was great that I’d done all this by myself and that I’d been to Japan by myself. That I was very brave and that she wished that she could still travel on her own. I thanked her for the comments and the help with the elevator as we parted ways. Australia was so much more friendly than the US. Or at least more genuine in their interests.

A couple more stations and I was at my stop for the hotel. I stopped off at a newsagent to check once again if John had made the newspapers as they had a different selection and some of the ones here were the monthly editions that might have had previews. Unfortunately, it was still too early in the month for the newer and possibly more relevant ones to have been delivered.

Having selected a few pens and a couple of post cards, I asked the news agent if all travel adapters were comparatively priced to the one he had for sale. He said that they were and warned against the ones you get out of a vending machine as they might fry the electronics, but that I could get one at the music and electronics store JB HiFi if I didn’t want to buy one from him. I thanked him and went on my way.

The walk to the hotel with the bags felt more dangerous than it ended up being. The sidewalks were incredibly narrow once I got beyond the juncture closest to the train station, it was barely wide enough for my bag to follow behind me and the cross streets were slanted one-ways like Westport.

But soon enough, I checked into the hotel checked into the hotel, settled in a moment and then with some direction tips from the lady at the front desk, headed out.

I wanted to go to a record store in Australia. So I went to JB HI-FI. And Woolworths. And the newspaper stand by the airport. And finally a proper record store.

I bought a few DVDs and CDs at JB Hi-Fi, ones that I couldn’t find in the US. I confirmed with one of the sales guys that the USB charger I had picked out would work with my devices, suddenly second guessing myself because of what the newsstand guy had said.

At the Woolworth’s, I spent time taking photos of the interior as well as shopping the aisles mostly picking up small things to eat back at the hotel, but also a couple of souvenirs of the trip for my friends.

The record store that I had been aiming for was less than half an hour from closing by the time I found it. I poked around a couple of sections, pulling out things to buy there or to find off of ebay finally making my pick with two higher priced CDs. The shopkeeper was very not impressed with my timing.

Having decided that I hadn’t had enough to do that day yet, I went back to the hotel to drop off my newly stuff and took the train to the Opera House.

I hadn’t intended to walk to the Sydney Opera House for the first time as late as I did, but I felt like I needed to see it at night and walk there first, before going to do my first activity there. I was so close to it geographically, that going 20 minutes out of my way to not be late when it mattered seemed the thing to do. And it was truly spectacular. I walked to the wrong side of the harbour at first, circling what felt like the long way round until I hit the deadend of a neverending expanse of water. It seemed just small enough that someone could conceivably think they could swim there from where I was. And just turbulent enough for someone to get swept away in it.

I ended up using the bathroom in a restaurant that was just about to close before heading over and walking around for the first time.

Once I was on the right side of the harbor, I found not only where I was supposed to be meeting the tour group that morning, but also where the stagedoor was.

Even if John hadn’t been playing the Opera House, I would have wanted to have gone. It’s iconic and beautiful and referenced in one of my other favourite movies, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

I took a lot of photos and headed back to hotel finally ready for bed. I still had to be up early for the Opera House tour the next morning.

#Australia Travel Diary #australia day 3 #sydney day 1 #sydney travel diary #travel diary #travel day #not a show day

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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"I Get a Lot of People, Even During the Press For This Tour Asking 'You Really Got Ahead of This 'Trans' Thing Haven't You?'"— July 4th (Stagedoor)

After I pulled my Junction City shirt over the tiny cosplay to buffer against at least some of the wind outside, I looked at my phone. It was chilly when I left at dusk, but now close to four hours later, it was only a few degrees about freezing. I had wanted to stagedoor every show in Australia and truth be told, the very under sold Canberra show was probably my best bet at having any significant time with him given how few people had shown up and that even fewer appeared to be sticking around.

Instead, I found the man I had been chatting with before the show.

"Did you like the show?"

"I loved it, he was amazing. Can I go backstage?"

"It's not up to me -- I'd say yes, but you'll have to ask the guy at the t-shirt booth..."

----

"Did you end up liking the show?"

"I loved it. He was great. He's always great," I stopped myself from rambling at that moment. Of course it was great!! It was the best moment of my life!! I mentioned that John had laid on top of me. ("Oh that was you?" "Yeah...that was awesome.") "Can I go backstage and meet John?"

"It's not really up to me, it's up to David Hawkins, the producer? He's just over there, you'll have to ask him. David! This girl wants to know if she can go backstage and meet John."

"Were you the one with the dolls?"

Dolls? "No, I'm the cosplayer? The first Hedwig look?"

"Ah yeah. I'll see if he wants to meet you, there's already a group back there."

"Oh, okay."

It didn't take very long to hear back. Of course I could go back and meet him.

I was personally ushered backstage and left with a group of two girls who had yet to see him.

"I'm so excited, I could punch John Cameron Mitchell in the face."

Emmm? Okay, then? Please don't hurt John? The actual sweetheart I've been hearing stories about from all my friends for three and a half years? Just??

Internet speak…. Often jarring when encountered out in the real world.

The two girls that had been standing there before me chatted a little amongst themselves before asking about me. Until they asked my name, I wasn’t sure they had even noticed me they had been so excited. Not that I could blame them.

"Very on-brand, I love it!" the chattier one declared when I told her my name.

"You wanna talk about on-brand...." I showed off my Junction City biplanes shirt straight from Junction City itself on a previous trip.

We chatted a little bit more and John came out. There was a collective lean forward....

He wasn't quite ready. He was in his socks, wanting to go ask something of one of the other people backstage.

"Sorry guys..."

I made a casual gesture like "pfft, no, take your time...." I mean, he has no obligation to do this, does he? There's nothing about doing a show like Hedwig, even as personal as it is to a lot of people or doing a show like Origin of Love, where it's extremely personal to him, that says that he has to spend any amount of time with fans afterwards.

He does this a couple of times and I'm nervous, what am I going to say to him? How to start? But I'm no longer scared of talking to him, I mean, he was in my lap less than half an hour ago, how could I possibly be scared of him after an introduction like that?

Finally he comes over, eating a protein bar and having a cup of green tea. He introduces himself to everyone "Hi, I'm John.. And you are?"

The first girl, the overly excited one, tells him her name. And then the second. I'm about to speak my name when he goes "I know you~~❤" I went to hug him again, but was told no since he had the tea. "Scalding."

"Oh, okay,” I stepped back to where I had been next to the other two.

The first girl spoke again, thanked him for Hedwig and said that it helped her to come out. John talked with her a little, thanked her for that.

The second girl went and told him that Hedwig didn't save her life or help her come out, but that it had helped her learn to accept bi people. John commented that not everyone even within in the gay community is nice to bisexuals, but he doesn't get it. What right do they have to police bi people's attraction? Why shouldn't they be accepted?

Off to the side, I smiled. How often do you get that kind of validation from your favourite (living) artist spoken in your presence, not once but twice in a night and at a time it's not even meant to be validating to you? Just..talking. Just things he was thinking in the moment or had written into the show before learning I existed.

The second girl's mother then told the story about how she was born and they'd thought she had her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, but she was just an impressive baby.

"What, she came out singing?" John asked.

"No, she was fat."

I snorted. Both at the slight misunderstanding and at the bluntness of the woman's reply.

I had been hoping to be next, to actually talk to him next. Tell him how much Hedwig had meant to me....

But, it was time for him to go, but we could do a picture.

I hung back. I figured I didn’t know these people very well and it would be awkward for them to look back in a year or even a week and have a photo of themselves, the man they had come to see, and some random person who had the fortune to tag along with their moment. Despite my reluctance, John insisted.

I put my arm on his back as everyone crowded in for the group photo and said to him, "Would you believe I've never met these people before in my life?"

"Seriously?"

"I'm serious. We just met a few minutes ago."

"Well now you're going to ask become best friends, exchange numbers afterwards."

We did the pics and as he turned to leave, I touched his arm.

"I just want to say thank you for Hedwig. The movie saved my life. And thank you for Wig in a Box tonight."

"Thank you, darling."

And he gave me the world's biggest hug.

"Exchange numbers."

And the way he said it, it was like "there's no way you're not giving her those photos."

I exchanged information with the second girl's mother and she emailed me all the photos.

The music promoter asked what I'd thought of it, what I'd thought of the show, what I'd thought of John.... Was it everything I had been hoping for? I said yes, that I'd loved it. Thank you got letting me go back stage, but is there any way that I could meet John again privately? I didn't really get to say what I had wanted to say to him. He told me I'd have to ask David, that it wasn't up to him...

He walked me back to the venue as we had already started head out into the night. He helped me find David again so that I could ask about meeting John again privately. I’m not sure what about a less than ten minute meeting had emboldened me to think that I could ask about seeing John privately as opposed to stagedooring like I had initially planned, but it seemed the best way to go. If he was too busy getting himself ready to leave after Canberra, he might be too busy to really stagedoor with people at the other shows.

David said sure! of course! where are you from then? I told him about being from Kansas, that I had seen John in Japan as Hedwig nine months ago and he was so talented.... I said that the girls had dominated the conversation and that while I wanted to tell John so much, I didn't really want to tell a group of teenage girls my entire life story. He said that he understood, that he had thought the girls were a bit much too, and that I could get in touch through the production website and he'd set something up for me. I thanked him again.

On my way back towards the entrance, I asked the front desk guy about the poster for the show that had been sitting behind him all night for who knew how long. He said that I was probably more than welcome to it, but that I would have to come back the next morning as the desk was currently alarmed. (Whereas in the morning after some rest, the desk would have calmed down.)

Once again, Jem walked me out, this time offering to buy me a drink at one of the local bars. I accepted and along the way he asked me questions about myself and the show and I asked him about him, about how he got into music promotion. He told me that he had come over from Canada when he was young and had done quite a few things before getting into music promotion, which he loved. He complimented John’s ease on the Playhouse stage remarking that he had seen many seasoned performers lose their composure on that particular stage since it was so close to the audience compared to even the other stage in the building.

When we got to the bar, he introduced me to his friends and we listened to a punkish band while having the drink. I listened to him catch up with his friends, engaging and asking questions when the opportunity arose and answering the ones put to me while I worked furiously at cataloguing the extraordinary events of the evening into my phone via conversations with Risa and my mom.

Afterwards Jem helped me find a cab. I thanked him for his generosity.

"Of course. We gotta take care of each other, right?"

I'd thought that was a very nice, very John way to end the evening.

#Australia Travel Diary #Canberra Day 1 #Canberra Travel Diary #australia day 2 #stagedooring part 1 #stagedooring australia

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

Text

'Ladies and Gentlemen and Those Not Beholden to the Bianarchy"— July 4th

When we arrived in Sydney, I saw the women from Kansas City again just past customs. I waived happily as I passed them and they cheered that we made it. I gave a huge sigh of relief.

My biggest immediate problem became that I couldn’t get into my luggage. Not knowing what time to book the bus from the airport to Canberra, I had chosen 10am, which by the time I got through customs meant that I had two hours left to kill time. And after a twenty hour plane ride, what I wanted more than anything was to wash my face.

I grabbed a few items from a convenience store, intending to tide myself over until getting to Canberra, and went to the hotel across the walkway from the arrivals gates. The hotel had set out newspapers and I quickly skimmed them to see if John’s show had yet rated as news. As of the Australian 4th of July, it had not, but it was also still two days out.

While I was at a natural stopping point where I wouldn’t be dumping all my things into a highly populated walkway, I decided that this was as good a time as any to recombine my luggage and fish out my face wash. I found the luggage key in my backpack, found the lock on the larger of the two sets of luggage and….nothing. To compare, I tried the other key on the small ring to the same result. I tried again with both keys from a second key ring stashed with my wallet and still nothing. I tried all the keys on my smaller suitcase since all of the keys were supposed to have worked with both of those locks and the smaller suitcase popped open with ease.

I spent the next twenty minutes looking for someone with a bolt cutter so that I could get into my own luggage. Finally, the Australian version of the TSA were who I was directed to. I explained my problem and offered to show any documentation they needed to prove that the suitcase I was having trouble with was mine. Within a minute of getting to the desk and within five of entering their very bureaucratic feeling office, my lock was cut. I thanked the agent who helped me and saved the pieces to potentially file a claim with the manufacturer when I got home. I still had over an hour before it was time to go to Canberra.

I walked back to the hotel across the way and quickly washed my dried out face. Something about the recycled dry air of an airplane always makes my face feel not only like it hasn’t been moisturized in three days, but the same level of scummy you feel after a particularly intense crying session regardless of the length of the plane ride and I wondered if I had done it any damage not working through my skincare routine while on the plane. I made a note that I needed to shower again when I got to the hotel in Canberra.

Having found the bus depot three times already, I found where my coach bus was supposed to depart from and sat down to look at the news on my phone, eat one of the things I’d bought, have a very ecofriendly strawberry-banana smoothie, and generally pleasantly kill time waiting to move onto the next stop in the journey.

The bus arrived, and just like it said on the booking, a few hours later arrived in Canberra at their bus depot. I walked around the few shops for a couple of minutes looking over the food and drink and cleaning supplies offered by an off-brand 7/11 while the clerk eyed me suspiciously as I took photos and wheeled my wholly too big luggage around his store.

Eventually, I made my way out and as opposed to catching the bus like my plan had been, I opted to walk in the direction of the hotel, taking in the very brightly saturated landscape and blue waterfront that only Australian sun can provide.

I made it over an hour into my walk, for which I was thoroughly unprepared in terms of clothing choice and water provisions, before I finally caved and called a cab. All of the other cities I had checked out in Australia had a public transport system that consisted of trains and subways. I had unwisely forgotten to check to see if the very late addition city of Canberra had a rail system as well, given that my track record with non-coach buses was questionable at best.

A few minutes later, I arrived at a hotel that would not have been out of place on Priscilla’s trek through the desert. One that featured small town values, an attached liquor store, and—despite indoor smoking officially being prohibited—a mild visually smoky interior.

After checking myself in, my first order of business was sorting the stuff I had brought with me. It had felt so heavy from the time we landed to the time I set it down, I was already chastising myself for the amount of crap. My shoulder hurt and it was only day 1 of 17 and I would need to move the stuff five times plus whatever else I bought along the way. I wondered if I'd lost muscle as well as definition in my arms since quitting Michaels.

I went to make a cup of tea, trying round one at the provided electric kettle. No heat. Also no patience, so the mug went into the microwave while I went to the bathroom and showered off some of the stress of what it had taken to get there. While they had turned out to be minor problems in the long run, they hadn’t felt that way at the time.

and then saw to my horror how late in the day it had gotten. I now only had four hours to get ready and to the venue before the show started. I wanted to arrive at least an hour early, like I had for all of the shows in Japan, and I knew I needed at least an hour to apply the punk rock aesthetic of the first Hedwig look. Ideally, I’d make it to the theatre two hours early. I wasn’t sure what I was hoping to achieve getting there that soon, but I wanted to be there regardless.

I made my cup of tea and started applying the makeup. I focused on my face first, blending the foundation down onto my neck and chest before moving on to applying the various writing, slogans, and drawings I had designated that Hedwig as having based off of photos and filled in with things that went with the vibe of the character if not strictly the punk rock vibe of the Squeezebox shows.

t felt like it was taking an eternity to pull my Look together. I lost time when I had to reapply a significant part of my cheek having written its message backwards. I added a couple more smudges, I wrote Try and Tear Me Down on my back, I added another band to my upper arm.... The same, but more. Hedwig, but also me.

My look finally complete, I headed downstairs and through the bar to the distinct distain of the presumable locals. Perhaps the world’s shortest skirt wasn’t the best thing to have chosen to wear to this specific city, but given that the other two cosplays I had planned revolved entirely around a wig that never came together in the way I wanted, this would be my one and only look. And given that I wanted to do something unique if I was going to dress up for the shows at all, the one and only time I’d be cosplaying this trip.

Along the way down, I got dirty looks from a mother with her son at the vending machines, male patrons in the attached bar, female patrons in the attached bar.... I walked out to the attached liquor store that on the drive up, I had mistaken for another convenience store and had planned on getting a sports drink, probably Gatorade and a snack before calling a cab to the theatre. Going in and not seeing what I needed, I headed back inside the hotel to more dirty looks and went for the vending machine by the elevator. By this time had attracted the attention of the woman working the front desk.

I then went up to talk to the front desk clerk. I asked her if she could call a cab for me. She asked where I was going, if it was a club, and I said no, I was going to The Canberra Theatre Playhouse. She asked if something was going on there since I was all dressed up. I told her about the show and she mentioned that they had had a poster for it. I asked if I could have it and she would have given it to me, but it had already gone in the bin and been recycled. I told her a little bit about Hedwig, about seeing John in Japan last fall, about how incredible of a performer he is, and how nervous I was too meet him.

I explained about my outfit, that I was mimicking his first Hedwig looks, but that I wasn't sure if John would like it. Like me. She said that she was sure he would love it. I said "well.." and showed off the rest of the graffiti that I had completed before coming down complete with two anarchy symbols, one on my chest and one on my stomach, both parts of words. "Oh wow.... I'm sure he'll love it."

We chatted a little bit more about John and about what made the show so special to me while we waited for the cab to arrive and I promised that if she was still there when I got back, I’d tell her all about what happened that night at the show before I left town.

When the taxi arrived at the venue, I walked up to the desk and said that I was there for the show. I couldn't remember which name the tickets were booked under since I had wanted to user my chosen name, but the confirmation addressed me by my given name (but correct "Mx."). The front desk guy looked it up and it had been booked under Hansel. I asked where the Playhouse was and he pointed at a screen behind me and said that they were still setting up, but it should be open in about 15.

So for 15, closer to 20, I paced the front hall, looked at all the posters and videos and pamphlets...mentally remarking that I would have liked to see Priscilla while in Australia, but oh well.

I put in my mp3 player, trying to not feel so nervous. Up until I left for the theatre the whole thing seemed so far away. I'd had glimpses of excitement, but not a full nervousness until I was in costume.

While I waited, I weighed in on the desk guy's hair (I liked it, one of the desk managers, Charles, didn't and teased that I was a terrible liar. I laughed.)

I also got a chance to weigh in on the fung sei of the waiting room once it finally opened.

I looked at digital drink menus, watched the same promo ads that had circulated in the lobby, I lay down on the massive sofa until it was broken apart into its two different parts…. An hour till the show and I was still the only one there. The staff teased that if I wanted, I could have a cheeky nap before the show it was so quiet.

40 minutes till people started showing up and I went to the merch table, which was almost finished setting up. I bought the things for myself and for Risa and ended up helping the man running the booth with the maths. The posters were cheaper there than on the international order website.

"That's not right."

"What do you mean?"

"That's too low."

"Let's do it again."

I broke it out into the easier to mentally add numbers first so that I could keep track. "$50 + $50 is a hundred plus another hundred is $200."

"You're good at this."

"I work as a cashier."

The show producer helped fold the t-shirts and roll the posters. He offered to put everything in one of the tote bags I purchased, but I said it would all fit in my Deny Me and Be Doomed bag.

I went to stand in front of the doors to be let in. A couple of people complemented me on my cosplay. I asked one girl if it was better with the sunglasses or without. She liked it better with.

I was the first person let in and found my seat easily. First row. A10. Of ten front row seats. Originally, I had picked a seat with a slightly less great spot, on the other side of the aisle from where I was now seated.

Soon after a man and his wife came in and say next to me.

"Fan of the show then?" he asked, gesturing at my very out-of-season outfit.

"I've seen it a couple of times," I teased back.

"Not a lot of people here tonight."

"Unfortunately not. You know the movie?"

"Yeah. I've seen it hundreds of times. And I have the soundtracks."

"My mother and I were joking that tonight's show would be like at the Menses Fair." I gestured forward and then for an imaginary person to sit next to me mimicking Hedwig's interaction with Goth Boy.

He laughed and asked if I'd ever seen the show live before. I mentioned about Japan and how the tickets had sold out in minutes when they went on sale. That I saw the show five times and it was amazing each time. He asked if I had ever met John and I said no, he wasn't stagedooring in Japan, but I had gone to the premiere of his movie while I was there.

He told me that he and his wife had seen the show on Broadway, but not with John or Neil. The one after.

"Andrew Rannells?"

Blank look.

"From Book of Mormon?"

"Oh! No, not him. Black guy."

"Taye Diggs."

"Yeah, he was great. Not as great as John Cameron Mitchell, but...."

"He was the last."

"We saw him the last week."

"I had wanted to go, but I didn't have the money to go to New York at the time."

He asked where I was from and I told him. He had been to the United States a few times and was there three days ago. "By some freak coincidence, so was I!"

"When did you get in?"

"This morning. Into Sydney."

"You're a long way from home then."

"I really wanted to see the show. I was tired of missing out and now I don't want to miss another show again." Perhaps a touch hyperbolic, but true. And I hadn't wanted to miss Adelaide, but.... I've wondered if I should have gone, if I should have gone earlier and just stayed, but the way it turned out, I'd say it was a great welcome to Australia. Getting ahead of myself….

I asked him about where he had gone in America, chatting about what he had seen and done while there. I remarked briefly on the state of my country of origin.

I glanced up at the stage, one so close my knees nearly touched it as yet another David Bowie song started to play after Time. "Is the whole preshow setlist going to be David, John?" I asked rhetorically.

The man remarked that he didn't mind and I confessed that I didn't either. I told him that David is my favourite performer of all time. We talked about David records and how hard it had been to get them in the 80s, about how he had built up quite the back catalogue of David's work.

I asked what he thought of David's latest live album. He hadn't heard it; the last one he had bought was Blackstar. I said that I had bought it on the day it came out, but had only listened to it once and then he died and I haven't listened to it since.

"It was a great album."

"It was! I loved it completely, laughed out loud at some of the lines. But there's just not all that often that I want to just start openly weeping. I usually cry at Hedwig, but that's cathartic. With David, it's just.. over."

"And never coming back."

"Yeah."

And then the show started with Origin of Love. John looked so serious during the song. The costume coming apart almost immediately where he takes the sleeves with the two split faces off and Amber sets them off to the side of the stage.

He pulled a foamy beer from one of the blocks on the side of the outfit—and a straw. He opened it spraying part of the stage, fiddled with the straw "these things are so cheap...," and took a sip. Apparently awful. "Why didn't anybody tell me?" Later Risa pointed out that someone did tell him on the stream, that it had been part of the joke for the show from the start.

John told the story of how he and Stephen met in the 80s, how they were avoiding the in-flight movie, and how he asked Stephen to write The Origin of Love.

You don't wanna hear every beat of this show tho. Especially since I'm sure you all are going to go see it when it plays closer to where you are. And if you are, let's meet up.

During Wig in a Box, John did the thing where the audience can touch his hand. Being the end of the first row, I was first. I looked at him eyes wide like "Can I....?" and he nodded. “C’mon,” he said exceedingly gently. I extended my hand to touch his, lightly touching the back of his hand as well. I didn't pull my hand back until he had passed out of reach. I did accidentally have my foot extending out too far and so I ended up touching his leg with the side of my foot. I hadn't even thought about it until it was already in the way.

He went back up on stage to do the sing along part and afterwards, without really thinking about it, I started lipsyncing the rest of the words for Wig in a Box.

Then he did the intro for Midnight Radio. I couldn't believe it, my two favourite songs from the show stacked together. For lift up your hands, I looked around and no one was doing it. I didn't because I didn't want to be the only person to do it.

At the end, everyone stood up to give a standing ovation. I had had my jacket on my lap to keep warmer and shoved it quickly down between my legs so it wouldn't fall on the floor.

John encouraged everyone to sit back down, that this wasn't the end of the show just yet. I put my jacket over my legs again, only picking it back up after a few minutes cos I was cold. Boob top, miniskirt that barely covered my underwear.... I was freezing. I pulled it on.

The song after was the last. I wouldn't know until later, but John had gone over by about 20 minutes talking, adlibbing, shooting the shit a little with the audience.

He does Tear Me Down and pauses partway through. After Amber does "on August 13th..." and John's chanting "NO. WALLS! NO! WALLS! FUCK THE WALL!", he pauses, stops in front of me and without the microphone asks (just to me) "Are you ready?" I have no idea what for, but I say yes. In my hesitation, he falls over, in what I think at first is a bit of a slip. He was lying so still, catching his breath, probably, but I was concerned for him. I reached a hand out to touch his again, this time checking that he was okay.

I retracted my hand after a moment in which I think I realized either the band would have stopped playing, or a stagehand would have come out, or Amber would have come over if something was actually wrong.

He stood up and stood in front of me again. I reached out slowly, cautiously. Not-verbally repeating what I'd said earlier. No matter what he was going to do, I was ready. Or I'd make myself ready in a heartbeat.

He came off stage and lay on top of me for what was easily 30 seconds, probably longer. In all my years of watching Hedwig bootlegs and videos of John performing as himself, I'd never seen him do something like this. At most, I'd have thought it would have been a stagedive attempt....

I froze for about ten seconds, torn on what to do. On how to act. He was pressed so close to me, I had his entire weight on top of me. I could feel him breathing and I was absolutely in heaven. His makeup smudged off a little onto my glasses.... He rested his head on my shoulder. I..hugged him.

This was a man who had meant So Much to me from the moment I hit play on the movie. A man who seeing him perform in Japan last fall gave me the last little piece I had needed to get over and let go of my ex. A woman who'd inspired me to figure out that queer little part of me that I had been holding back on since I was 14 and newly enamored of David Bowie.

I cuddled him a little, rubbing my cheek against his. If this was where he wanted to be for awhile, I wasn't gonna object. Hell, if this was where he wanted to be for the rest of the night I wouldn’t object.

But all good things must come to an end and at the end of that unexpected wonderfulness, the show ended. John received another standing ovation, naturally. And everyone walked off stage.

"So did you like the show, then?" my seatmate asked.

"I loved it," I said. Still riding the high that can only come from touching a person who's quite possibly the most human person I've ever met....

We talked about how lucky I was to have had that interaction with John, not mentioning the initial one where he touched my hand. He talked about being surprised he was called out during the show too, thinking it might have been his cardigan that caused John to make a joke about accidentally turning off the man's pace maker when he deluminated the plastic, glowing heart on his costume. We talked a little bit more and my seatmate grabbed one of the sheets of John's notes from the amplifier. One of the amps that had made me feel the show in my chest.

I asked if he thought anyone would mind if I did the same. He pulled a piece down for me. "There. Now they'll yell at me, not you."

Everyone made their way outside, I found my way to the bathroom. Another person complimented my outfit, bringing the total to around five... I looked at my phone and the temperature outside. I was already bloody freezing, did I really want to attempt to stagedoor? No. So I did something else instead.

#travel diary #Australia Travel Diary #australia day 2 #Canberra Travel Diary #Canberra Day 1

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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And By the Time We Get to Canberra, Love Will Keep Our Time Tables Together — July 3rd, 2018

My plane was set to leave Kansas City, Missouri at 7:30pm, Monday July 3rd. This fact had not changed from when I booked the plane ticket in April and asked off for the block of time I’d need.

Originally, the assistant store manager had said to leave him a note as to what time I could work until on the day I headed out and he’d schedule me for the morning shift. Having flown a number of times already, I was confident that I didn’t need to take any time off in front of the trip. Going to Japan all it had done was leave me an extra day that I wished would pass sooner.

By the time it came to make the schedule in late June, Gary had been transferred to another store in the district for a month. His replacement, Paige, was not able to make a store schedule as she was still in training and the store manager, apparently never got the note that I had left as to exactly what time on that day I’d be able to work.

It was relatively easy to sort out, explaining that this was something I had previously discussed blah blah….

The work day went relatively smoothly. Much like the lead up to Memorial Day in May, not a whole lot of shoppers came in and the ones that did were relatively happy to be there since they were preparing for parties and seeing relatives they didn’t get a chance to see all that often and in a generally happy holiday mood. Or maybe they weren’t and my excitement at being able to get away was something I projected onto them to make my experience easier.

There was also a general return to happy for the customers now that we had stopped asking for donations with every transaction – for a policy that was supposed to be about community outreach, it came across as a little… tone deaf.

As I headed out the door, my coworker Bob asked why I was heading out so early compared to my usual schedule of staying until at least six. I told him that I was going on vacation for a few weeks to Australia. He wished me a good vacation and to enjoy my time away from the “craziness that is here.”

My mom drove me home and we grabbed the luggage I had already packed for the trip. I had a few things that needed to be transferred over or transferred to a different pocket in anticipation of the TSA pat down and ultimately the estimates of how long it would take me to get out the door and up to the airport were more or less on track. Things were running smoothly. We chose to play the extended RENT mix I had made for a previous trip up to Iowa to see the show live.... Things were good.

At the airport, things continued to go well, I got my boarding passes from the airline kiosk, I made my way through the line…much like the other recent times that I had been to the airport, I was selected for pat down. Not because of a low hanging crotch on my usual workpants now safely stowed at home to avoid any airline snafous but because of a slight bunch up of my shirt at my back. I shrugged this off, just glad that I didn’t have a luggage search to go along with the brief pat down, Heaven forbid I was attempting to travel with M&Ms again….

At the gate, I met two women from near my hometown who were also going to Sydney. Oh, what a conscience! What are you going to Sydney for? They told me that they were going for a work event. The one sister worked for an international company and they had decided to turn it into a weeklong vacation taking in the beauty of Australia. What was I going to Sydney for? I explained about how I was going down to see my favourite performer perform at the Sydney Opera House. They asked who it was and I said his name and that he was best known for Hedwig and— “That’s who we’re seeing too!” They asked a little bit more about John and about Hedwig, I mentioned that a lot of Hedwig was inspired by various parts of Kansas, most notably Junction City and Wichita. That she was a musician and trans, that in the show she talked about her life and how her ex, a musician called Tommy Gnosis had stolen her music and gone on to international fame. I asked how they decided to see John above all the other performers that were going to be at the Opera House that week and they said that his show was just the most interesting looking.

We chatted for a good ten to fifteen minutes with me explaining that I was seeing most of the Australian shows including one that actually came before the Opera House and that I’d have to get on a bus after getting off of the plane in Sydney to get to and that I had traveled to see John before and that he was such a dynamic performer, it was incredible.

After we parted, I sat down at the first empty seat a few rows away and updated my mom as to what had happened. A couple of minutes later, I got a text that the plane to San Francisco was going to be delayed by about ten minutes. Okay… it would make my forty minute gate time closer to half an hour, but it was workable. I might not be able to stop off to go to the bathroom or get food before getting on the second plane like I had planned, but that would be okay. They’d feed me on the plane and I was certain I could find something to eat in Australia. And no matter how small it might be, they’d certainly have a bathroom on the plane. I knew because I’d booked my seat right by it.

A few minutes later, I got another text saying the plane might be delayed another five minutes. That one made me more nervous because it meant the difference between not having time to browse the airport and basically having to sprint off of one plane and onto another. But again, doable. Nothing worth stressing over and everything worth strategizing over. I’d figure out the best way to get from one gate to the next based on the terminal map in the United app.

A third text put the plane from Kansas City to San Francisco arriving ten minutes after the plane from San Francisco to Sydney would have already left.

I approached the gate agent, attempting to stay calm because none of this was her fault. None of this could even be blamed on the air traffic controllers doing their best to ensure everyone’s safety, but I still had some place I had to be and a lot less buffer time than I had initially planned for.

I asked if the plane to Sydney would be delayed since multiple people were also coming off of the Kansas City flight. She said no, the airline tried extra hard to make sure that international flights left their gate on time. I asked when the next flight to Sydney was. She said that it would be 12 hours from when my plane was supposed to leave and out of Chicago. I did the math. My plane in Sydney was due to arrive a little before 7am. John’s show in Canberra was scheduled to start at 7 or 8 and it was a three hour bus ride from Sydney to Canberra. I asked if there was a flight to anywhere else in Australia that might get me there sooner and mentioned that while Sydney was my ticketed destination, my initial plans had changed and I actually needed to be in Canberra first. Adding that information did not help. There were only three flights that that airline did out of the United States to Australia at all during the week and those were San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle. There was one other flight by United that was scheduled to leave MCI before the end of the night at that was the Chicago one that had just boarded and was about to leave. The problem with that, if I could get a seat on board, was that even if Chicago has an immediate flight out to San Francisco, it would run into the same landing problems at SFO that my flight would potentially have, meaning I’d be no better off taking that one. And there was no way that she could rebook my ticket to any of the other carriers at either airport as none of them had flights that would get me there in time. My only option for getting the airline to reimburse me for any potential monetary loss would be to go to San Francisco and see what happened once I got there. It was always possible that whatever weather would potentially prevent landing in SFO, would also prevent takeoff from SFO. Of course, getting my money back would be a very small consolation prize to me having already missed the first show in Adelaide a couple of weeks earlier.

Suddenly overwhelmed, I called my mother, who was driving and let it go to voicemail. Once in the driveway, she called me back and basically told me that I had asked all the right questions, all the questions that I could ask in that situation, but that there was no way to make the plane come faster. I’d just have to get on it once it got there and find out what would happen then.

The plane, for its part, arrived at the KC gate a little after the time it was supposed to and we were all boarded more or less five minutes after we were supposed to have been. The pilot mentioned the same weather that MCI’s United hub had texted me about and said that he would try to get there on time as a lot of us had connecting flights.

We landed ten minutes early.

I took a large sigh of relief and was able to go to the bathroom before my next flight took off – and buy a book, Eddie Izzard’s biography.

Once settled into the plane with my overhead things stored and myself arranged into the chair I’d be spending the next half day seated in, the pilot made an announcement. They had been able to get boarding done early and everything was ready for takeoff, but they were going to sit at the airport a little bit longer because while flights in the US could take off or land whenever the airlines and the air traffic controllers saw fit to schedule them, Sydney had passed a noise pollution ordinance which meant that they couldn’t land the plane in Sydney until after 6:30 and right now, we were on course to get there almost an hour early because of the headwinds. People swiveled their heads to look at me my eye roll was so loud.

Despite feeling that that had been an unnecessary amount of stress for what would have ended up being a non-issue even if the plane had run into issues getting into SFO, I also felt particularly lucky. Short of me not getting on the plane, there was no way that I wasn’t going to have gotten to Sydney on time. Something was on my side and wanted me to get to Canberra.

On the flight over, I took the opportunity to watch some films I hadn’t seen that had come out the past year, namely A Fantastic Woman and The Shape of Water. I’d been hearing about both since that year’s Oscars. Both had been nominated and very well received in the circles I ran it. Both films were rendered beautifully for their genres with The Shape of Water a science fiction fairy tale about a deaf woman who falls in love with a water creature from the dawn of time, presumed to be a god on Earth and A Fantastic Woman as a realistic drama set in this world with unfortunately still modern prejudices against transgender people. I related to both films, more so immediately to A Fantastic Woman as I felt more direct pushback on being trans than on being in love with a sea creature.

I didn’t get around to the book, largely because the motion on planes gives me a large scale version of car sickness if I try to focus on a written page, but beyond the in-flight entertainment I did watch some of the films I had brought on my phone from my home collection. And when I wanted a change of pace from those, a couple of old standbys from the in-flight menu.

#Australia Travel Diary #australia day 1 #leaving kansas city

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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Pre-Australia

When I was sitting on the bus coming back from Osaka to Tokyo, I asked myself whether I would do this again if I had the chance. Clearly coming to Japan to see John as Hedwig would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even if he played Japan again, seeing the show under the extraordinary circumstances that I did would be a once-in-a-lifetime event. And I didn’t regret coming for a single moment.

But I asked myself between attempting to sketch on a moving bus, reading a little more on the book I’d brought, and generally reflecting on what had gone down if I would basically pick up everything and run to see John as Hedwig again. Just seeing him perform as her was everything I had hoped it would be for over two years and more. Hearing him speak her words and sing her songs even within a framework where he didn’t speak the majority of the dialogue was absolutely entrancing. I’d follow him as her anywhere. But would I do the same for him? Out of drag, performing his own songs?

That one I had to sit and think a little bit more on. Despite wanting to see him perform pretty much anything for so long, I found myself questioning whether or not I’d travel any great distance to Korea or Argentina to go see him perform if he wasn’t as Her. Ultimately I compromised with ‘it depends on the place.’

When the shows were announced in February, I found the speed at which I was immediately on board and wanting to go to Australia surprised me. Not anyone in my immediate circle, who once concerns that I could afford it were dismissed, knew even quicker than I had that I would be packing my bags and going to Australia. After all, wasn’t that the entire point of switching from two jobs to one higher paying one? Wasn’t that the point of buying a matching luggage set so that when an opportunity like this arose again I could pack up a small amount of belongings , hop on a plane, and see my favourite performer?

Later that first day, as I stood behind the checkout counter at work, I used on of the little yellow legal pads I had bought to aid in my roleplaying to work out my potential expenses. Much like when I went to Japan, I budgeted the hotel rooms at around a hundred dollars a night, the food at around 200 a week, the plane ticket at two thousand…. I worked out a very high, but surprisingly makeable budget that would allow me to get there and stay, by my estimates for three weeks.

On my lunch break, I corrected/firmed up/adjusted the budget taking the flight cost from Kansas City to Sydney, booking six weeks out and adding $200 for price increases or seasonal changes. I then took a quick survey of hotels generally in Sydney, assessed that a room would cost me about the same per night as it had in Japan – or possibly less depending on where I stayed. I blocked out a potential three weeks of costs, figuring that it’d cost me at least $100 per day to eat, about $20 to do two loads of laundry, and about how much I estimated it would cost to take public transport for that amount of days. Then, after planning out the minutiae of the budget I was expecting, including an eBay budget based on my general spending habits the last few months, I looked at my expected payroll. It would be tight, but it would still be workable. And if I was smart, I could even come home and have some cash left over, like I had from Japan.

The biggest monkey wrench to the trip at that time was staying at the same job. Between starting to plan the Australia trip and my first sojourn to New York, I found myself facing sudden hour reductions which affected all non-managerial positions across the board and a newly intolerable middle manager because of whom I almost quit less than a week after the trip was announced. Seeing John was one thing, but having to be miserable the next four months to be able to do so? Probably not worth it.

Of course, I stayed at the job; the hours reduction was solved by a few members of staff choosing that time to leave for better options, the middle manager problem was solved by being scheduled almost exclusively with my favourite middle manager since I was one of her favourite people to work with too, and any potential money problem were solved by full heartedly jumping on any and all overtime possibilities such as staying late, coming in early, covering shifts, and missing as little time out that I was allowed to be working as possible. Instead of having to get a part time second job like I had considered, I found myself with enough surplus to take the second trip to New York, allowing me to see the David Bowie Is museum a second and final time.

Shortly after the trip itself was announced in an early afternoon Instagram post, the first show location and ticketing info was released to the public. I had signed up for the early sale alert fan page that John had linked to shortly after announcing the shows. I bought tickets for the best seats available at the time, second row, and then began reconfiguring my trip for going to Brisbane.

Starting and ending in Brisbane was going to be six or seven hundred dollars more expensive than starting in Sydney no matter how it was budgeted. Brisbane wasn’t an international hub with the US and regardless of how I wanted it to be plotted either way, I’d be going through Sydney. The added expense had me second guessing my budget, but not my resolve.

But for only one show, the neither price list seemed worth it. I mentally went back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to spend that much and be on a plane for so long for one show. The last time I had thought about going to Australia was when I was in high school and deep in the depths of my Hugo Weaving obsession. I had wanted to see him in a stage adaption of what ended up being one of my favourite all time books, Les liaisons dangeouse. But I wasn’t in high school and this wasn’t going to be a case of “this is the only place I’ll ever be able to see this man.” Worst came to worst, I started to prepare myself to give up the Brisbane ticket. No matter how painful not being in that room might be, the amount of money I’d spend on a single ticket and expenses down for Brisbane could get me four or five trips to New York to see him doing something else. And if he was doing a concert series abroad, a concert series at home certainly wasn’t out of the question.

Clearly, there had to be more shows announced, but this one…wasn’t selling well. I thought for sure that the whole thing would end up being cancelled and refunded as I continued to make minor adjustments to my budget and make early morning notes at the gas station across the street from my job to where in Brisbane I wanted to go just in case I was actually able to make it.

A little while later, the next show was announced for the end of June at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. I secured my tickets to that after having emailed the directors to find out when the tickets were due to go on sale to the public. Whoever was in charge of answering emails that day gave me the link to the presale and I got a front row seat. So far, that location one was winning out over Brisbane, if for no other reason than proximity to the performer. I’d seen John from the second row in Japan in a very fortuitous stroke of luck, but I’d never seen him from the front row before…. Still, with more shows promised I was reluctant to make a commitment to one show or the other, and as such, couldn’t buy the plane ticket.

At the end of March, I took my first domestic trip to see Mason Alexander Park, David Bowie Is, and my best friend. While I was waylaid getting back to Kansas City by airport construction and weather events, two more show dates were announced – Sydney on my mother’s birthday and Melbourne four days later on July 10th. As disappointed as I was to be missing my mom’s birthday, I was pleased that I would have a chance to see the Sydney Opera House. If John hadn’t announced a show in Sydney or had it not been at the Opera House, I would have had to have structured a separate time into my schedule to go see it specifically as it was the one thing in Australia I was most looking forward to seeing. Outside of John, of course.

Back in Kansas with an absurd amount of new Bowie merchandise, I reconfigured the trip some more. Adelaide would end up being the earliest date out on June 22nd and Brisbane the last one on July 17th. I had originally budgeted for three full weeks/21 days of being away from home. Extending it to nearly five weeks took me not only to the very edges of my monetary budget, but far beyond the amount of time I had ever spent by myself. The previous record, the now six months prior weeklong trip to Japan where I had the distinct advantage of knowing someone. And as much as I loved the experience, by the end of the week I was definitely ready to spend some time at home.

With the dates I had, there was no way to group it where I’d be spending less than three weeks in Australia to see the shows, but did I want the first three or the last? Based on John’s prior performances on Broadway and during the Japanese tour, I firmly decided that the last three shows would be the better performances to be at, especially for a show that wasn’t Hedwig where he’d have more time to find his rhythm and comfort zones within the material. I still wished I could go to the Adelaide performance ….

Late-April, I booked the flight to Australia now having committed to leaving MCI on the 3rd, arriving in Australia on the 4th and staying until the 19th, two days past when the last show was supposed to go on. I added an extra day past the last show in case something was added last minute to this trip like it had been in Japan. Booking the trip took longer than it should have since I kept typing my credit card number in wrong on United’s website, but I got it booked and somehow still made it to work on time.

Late-May when I was due to go out to see Risa and the Bowie museum again, the final show date was announced for John’s show — July 4th. Canberra. Tickets already on sale.

I nearly threw up getting tickets, it was so stressful. Neither my laptop nor my phone would let me pay for the seats once I had them selected. They both gave me the error message that since I was coming from overseas, I couldn’t use a credit card, but gave me no other options to pay with. Finally trying my mother’s computer, I was able to get the PayPal screen to pop up. Now the question became how to work Canberra into a schedule that for nearly three months had not included it.

Adjusting the plane ticket would have been the easiest solution. Going through United’s site, it would have cost me somewhere between twice and three times the amount of money I had paid just to get to Sydney to adjust the ticket to now fly into Canberra. Backing out of that reservation completely, it would cost me almost four times as much and with worse air accommodations to book a completely new ticket as so much of my other travel was tied into that reservation. And getting a separate flight just to Canberra from Sydney would be almost a third of the ticket down. Just how important was Canberra in the scheme of the shows? Some thing was telling me it was very important to make it to Canberra.

I took a mental step back and put that as something to worry about once I got back to Kansas from visiting Risa. Hopefully, no other show dates would be announced after Canberra. Or if they were, hopefully they would slot into the times I’d at least already be in Australia.

Getting back to the matter at hand, I ruled that taking public transport was right out as it would take almost ten hours and cost nearly as much as the plane ticket. Plus since I couldn’t reasonably expect to get out of the airport before eight because of customs and baggage, I couldn’t guarantee that I could make it to the theatre in time. In a moment of inspiration, I remembered what Miya had recommended when I went from Tokyo to Osaka. Maybe there was a coach bus that could take me there….

And for $80AUS both ways, there was. Overall, it was the cheapest solution and by far the easiest given the options. They even had a stop at the airport that I could take that would go directly from there to Canberra. But now I had the problem of intending to bring two pieces of luggage that would have to be checked for the bus and another fee. Or I could book the Sydney hotel room, pay no fee, rid myself of my literal baggage for a day while I went to Canberra, but…. I’d have to worry about my stuff being in a completely different city for a night as well as the hotel expense for an additional night that would be about the same both ways to bring the luggage along.

Eventually, a much simpler solution presented itself – just nest the fucking luggage since the large one was going to be mostly empty by that point anyway!

By the time, I had already started to have the dreams. I’d never been away from home this long and I knew no one in Australia. If something happened that I needed help with, the majority of my support system was half a world away and the sole person in the general time zone I could contact would be potentially unreachable as I wouldn’t reasonably be able to give her the heads up for three weeks straight. What if my debit card never worked in Australia like it never worked in Japan and this time we couldn’t get it worked around? I should have signed up for a second credit card through a different provider….. I should take out more in cash-cash than relying on my cards…. What if I took out enough cash, but my money belt was stolen or accidentally left on a bus somewhere? What if my phone was stolen or dropped? What if I got lost somewhere overnight and nothing was open? Like nearly happened my last night in Tokyo because of an unforeseen curfew at the hotel. I had dreams of wandering a deserted, but otherwise oddly accurate dream depiction of Australia without one or more resources.

I had dreams of walking the Michaels stockroom talking to my former store manager Tina while she was on her way to a meeting and suddenly I was also in the meeting but our store was now an hour away in Independence and it wasn’t laid out like a Michaels, it was laid out like a warehouse version of Toys R Us where she had worked before Michaels and we were attending a seminar that was being held in an area of the store that was at once a cross between a Greek open air oratorium and a modern theatre like the one at NHK Broadcasting in Osaka all the while talking to her regional boss about whatever the upcoming meeting was going to be about.

The most interesting of these dreams was that I was back in Japan, about to ride the train system with Miya. We had gone to Mos Burger, like on my real first night in Tokyo, and now were getting ready to go see a performance of the original cast of If/Then, which was likely inspired by Miya’s If/Then t-shirt that she was wearing when we first met. In the dream, we got on the train at Tabata, which was looking more like a blend of a bunch of stations that were decidedly Not Tabata, but other parts of Tokyo or Osaka. Almost immediately in the nearly empty car, we spot Anthony Rapp.

I went over to talk to Anthony since I’d already met him when If/Then came to KC on its tour (in reality, I was too nervous to say anything beyond hi.) He greeted me with a friendly surprise at seeing me so far away from home and asked why I had come over and what my friend and I were doing that evening. I said something about having come over to see John performing as Hedwig and that it had been a lovely coincidence that he was going to be playing in If/Then in Japan since I had enjoyed seeing him a couple of years previous and Miya was a big fan and…. He stopped me there and asked if he had heard correctly that we were seeing JCM. I confirmed and he offered to introduce both of us as he and John were friends from way back. I was so excited I woke myself up, unable to recapture the dream when I lay back down to see what happened next.

Around June the dreams calmed down and I stopped waking up panicked and worrying that I was making the right choice in spending so much time and energy doing this. What was done was done.

I booked the rest of the hotels and the coach buses and the cross country train. I added a trip to the Australia Zoo where I would have the chance to meet three different types of animals up close. I fully finished one of the three cosplays I had started with the intention of dressing up at the shows, gave up on the custom Hedwig Funko figure for the time being, and packed my bags for the trip of a lifetime.

#travel diary #Australia Travel Diary #pre australia #context australia

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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Bowie Museum Pt. 2 — May 17th through May 19th, 2018

When I was initially planning my spring vacations, it was largely around a monthly cycle of Bowie Exhibit and Mattachine experiences. Since the Exhibit was scheduled to run from early March to the middle of July and since I had been enamored of Bowie the majority of my life, this was an expense I was more than willing to take on. In fact, now that David was no longer alive, this would be the closest I would be able to get to seeing him perform live — a pale comparison, I was certain to actually being in the same venue as the man….

But…as with the last travel experience, plans change. They have to. Either by a change in financial status, a change in emotional status, or a change of larger plans. For me, larger plans meant going to Australia to see John. By this time, four of the five dates had been announced and the tickets released for purchase. The first and second being the absolute bookends for the trip with Adelaide and Brisbane. Naturally I had tickets to all of them, but I knew that when push came to shove, I’d have to pick whichever grouping of dates gave me the most concentrated amount of shows for the least amount of time. I didn’t think that I had been with my current job long enough to justify taking that much time off — even with the explicit reassurance that I knew perfectly well that I would be taking a significant part of that time as unpaid. Even if I had been with that job long enough to justify taking what would amount to five weeks, I wasn’t sure that I would want to.

So plane tickets were booked and budgets adjusted around the understanding that my first show would be on July 6th in Sydney and I would have what more or less amounted to a show a week for three weeks (even if they weren’t quite spaced like that.)

In lieu of the extra couple of weeks in Australia, when it was announced that Mason and Mimi would be bringing back their Taboo staging, I jumped at the chance to go again. I confirmed the tickets were available and then a couple of days later booked the plane ticket. The first time the show had sold out, but only within a couple of days of the actual date. I had felt confident that it wouldn’t sell out that quickly this time and that I could secure a good rate for the plane tickets before purchasing the show tickets. When I went to book them though, something had come up. The original link that had been posted for the tickets routed to a dead end that wouldn’t allow the tickets to be finalized and the website for both the venue and the production company had been all but scrubbed of the existence of a second show.

I thought about cancelling the trip, refunding the money, and having more money to play with when I got back to Australia. But instead, Risa and I planned a trip that would be an extended stay at David Bowie Is where we would take a full afternoon at the show, bringing both Advil and water into the exhibit and then later take in a live talk with one of David’s most prominent designers. The one that had designed the first outfit you saw when walking in. And the second day, instead of being spent seeing Mason would be spent taking an informal tour of Hedwig history, one where we would visit the now-remodeled Jane Hotel, the Belasco, the West Village that featured so prominently in JCM’s videos, but not Mattachine now that the ticket had been booked for the week before the Thursday we were expecting it to be.

This time going up to New York, I came into the Philadelphia airport and witnessed a much longer drive up to Brooklyn. The flight in had free wifi for the majority — a pleasant surprise given that a child on the plane was having what sounded like the worst experience of its young life. Instead of screaming baby, I was able to listen to nonstop David Bowie music. Just the thing to set the mood for the afternoon.

Risa and I took great pains to stress that we were capable of walking to the museum ourselves. The last time, we had been a little…escorted and given that we were both adults within the very safe confines of a museum, we were safe in the assertion that we got this. The only thing to call that into question was my nice new, still weeping thumb scar — a product of my being relatively careless with a craft knife while shaping a custom Funko Pop doll.

After we convinced her parents, we went upstairs to the exhibit. This time having untimed tickets, we were able to go in whenever we pleased. I checked the time on my phone and deemed it far enough away from the start of a fifteen minute block to go in. We received our headphones, but this time paid significantly less attention to them. Being the Bowie enthusiast of the pair of us, I gave Risa a mini-tour, filling in some of the information left off of the exhibit cards, disputing information that rang false (which given that the exhibit was put together from Bowie’s archives, but not his fact checkers was necessary at times), and tying things back not only to Hedwig and John, but to other cultural touchstones that Risa might have known.

Without the urging of her parents to take less time exploring the minutiae, we spent more time examining the video footage and getting close to the items we wanted to see. And since we had already been there before, we were able to be more confident that we were seeing every section of the show as opposed to passing over rooms due to crowd movement.

We left after inching our way through the exhibit, we made our way out to the gift shop. I took the chance to ask what the difference was between the hardbound and softbound versions of the catalogue other than the obvious one was hardbound and the other wasn’t. It took two different exhibit workers to get an answer but apparently in terms of content, they were the same. I had a list of memorabilia that I had purchased the last time and a list of things I had wanted to buy the first time, but they had run out. Originally, I had placed a $300+ order through the website, but it had been cancelled after a few days due to a high volume of sales.

After the last time, the lady in charge of upstairs merchandising recognized me. I wasn’t sure if it was the fussiness of asking over a $1.50 button or the amount that I had spent. This time, she helped me find a record that I had rethought my position on buying and telling me the price of a t-shirt that was significantly higher than the other ones the exhibit had on offer. After some difficulty getting checked out, we exited.

Immediately getting into the more traditional museum fair, it felt like the building’s fever had broken. We sat down in the relative coolness. Risa texted her parents that we were out and I texted my mom. Her parents wanted to know what we were going to do for lunch as they were going to come and get us if we were going someone. The last time we had eaten in Brooklyn, it took us close to forty minutes to find a restaurant that wasn’t crowded and even then, it wasn’t one that I had an easy time finding something to eat at. My position was that Risa and I could find one on our own. And we did, agreeing that Popeye’s sounded nice as we passed a gentleman eating a box of chicken in the downstairs café.

Her parents thought it was too far to walk compared to the time we had to be back for the talk. Regardless of whether it was or not, after significant back and forth over what to do it became too late to leave the museum for food at all, let alone to leave and come back for dessert like had been my plan.

A few more moments of quibbling over whether or not we’d want to actually at the overpriced café, the overpriced café with items specifically designed to go along with this exhibit, we just stood up and decided it would be then or never. Good timing because if we had waited any longer, we would have missed out on that night’s talk for sure.

In the café, we ordered a Blackstar cake — a dark chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and an orange glaze with little dark chocolate cookies spelling out David’s name in the Blackstar font — and a Thin White Duke drink for me that comprised a coconut rum, vodka, lime juice, and a cherry. We were both thrilled with the food selection and the well-timed service of our very nice waiter.

Just on time, or perhaps a touch late, we went down to the auditorium where the talk was being held. Kansai Yamamoto, the designer we were seeing, had more than a few antidotes memorized in English that he told at the start of the talk with impeccable timing. He was less interested in answering the host’s questions and more interested in delivering interesting stories tangentially related or on topics that he wanted the audience to know about. He told us about his design history outside of working with David, what his inspirations were, how proud he was of his daughter…. He talked about his first impressions of David and the ones he held later as they worked together on more projects. He talked about hosting David when both of their children were small and showed a photo of Duncan with his own daughter.

After the part that he had preprepared, he turned the English talking over to his translator, a very attractive and funny man in his own right to whom he had been introduced to only that morning. While he was able to understand the majority of the English around him, he explained that his brain wasn’t fast enough to translate the sentences he wanted to say, which was why he used the translator. Kansai also admitted that he was answering the questions in ways that interested him over more straight forward answers.

At the end of the speech, Risa and I chose to wander around the museum looking for things of interest. They were having a Bowie ball of sorts with dozens and dozens of people dressed up. We walked past where they were setting up and when we ran into him, personally thanked the translator for what he added to the talk.

Walking around, we looked at exhibits centering around Egypt, again with less than impressive captions and saw the tiniest mummy figure, a miniature dildo, and some of the pages of the Book of the Dead. That was the sort of thing that if I knew more about Egyptology, I would have been highly interested in studying at length.

We meandered our way downstairs, checking out the final part of the museum that had caught our eyes — the exhibit on Korea. That one again the captions were lacking, but added context that in terms of how anthropologists looked at Korea, they have only recently started to have their own cultural relevancy with the majority of their history being under the reign of China, Japan, or other Asian forces that had invaded them over the years.

We went downstairs and caught up with Risa’s parents. While we were seeing Kansai Yamamoto’s talk, they saw the free talk downstairs talking about David’s influence in fashion. Both had sounded appealing. The last thing we bought at the exhibit was a grapefruit margarita that Risa bought for me before we headed back to her car. The majority of our things were already in the car from earlier, which made a very easy post-event depositing into the car.

On the way back, we got McDonald’s and once we were back at Risa’s house further discussed David and the museum, this time with added youtube links for songs and photos that hadn’t been exhibited when we went to go see. Another few hours and we didn’t even make it out of the 70s in terms of content.

The next day, we chose to sleep in late. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before the flight and was up more or less for 24 hours before I was able to get into bed. Plus after the lack of agency we had at the museum, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to take a New York tour that very much would have to be guided by her parents.

Instead, we chose to go to Risa’s favourite Asian market. Knowing my fondness for the Asian grocers near me, Risa was eager to show off the shopping plaza that she and her anime group often went to. I agreed and late in the afternoon, we left for Mitsuwa.

Once we arrived, we got lunch and I found one of the things I had been missing most from Japan — coffee jelly. The coffee jelly in Japan was cut up into cubes and placed into a nice milky base as if the cubes were acting like ice cubes in a drink. The one here was a denser selection of jelly with soft serve ice cream swirled on top.

Among the other food I purchased was three additional drinks I’d never had before with the idea that three was reasonably the limit I could get through before going home, a bag of gummy lychee candies because I’d wanted to try them for awhile, and a box of my other favourite Japanese food, raisin sands.

We looked at the makeup, cookware, booze, and other sections of the store, sometimes with me explaining what a product was or could be used for and other times with Risa pointing out that she had seen something before or that it was something she had tried at the anime mart. We found no end to things that would have to be tried later either for a lack of immediate funds or, more often, a lack of time in which to do it.

We stepped outside of the food market portion of Mitsuwa and back into the food court. Risa insisted that I try a fish shaped waffle with red bean paste called taiyaki. I was surprised at how well the flavours went together.

The next place we went was the bookstore. At the very back of the store was a separate paper and stationary store set up not unlike how Borders used to have their stationary, but with greater detail and actual variety of items and not just casings. I could have bought the entire tiny store with its brightly coloured papers, meticulously lined notepads, rainbow of ink selections in gel and ballpoint and all manner of cute. I limited myself to a floral plastic folder for papers, a small lined notebook to make my attempts at learning Japanese and Korean seem more authentic—and so that my letters didn’t dwarf the page, and a small corn shaped eraser for my mother since it reminded me of the Dekalb corn signs that she’s so fond of.

In the outer bookstore, there was less of interest. It was a beautiful store, but given that whatever I bought I would have to carry on my back back to Kansas and the high prices in a real bookstore as opposed to my usual used bookstores, there were automatically less appealing options. I did find two books on Yuri!!! On Ice, one of which I bought to make up for the lack of show merch I was able to find when I was in Japan.

Last was the general items store. Again, Risa and I spent a long time looking over times like sushi themed socks and cute luggage that might have made travelling easier had I not already had my obnoxiously unique purple hearted luggage. We stayed until the store was ready to close, apologizing that we hadn’t realized that it would be closing so soon and I picked up another button for my coat jacket — a pink Hello Kitty produced by a drink company I was familiar with. It soon found a spot next to the Bowie pin and the clay Hedwig pin that I had bought off of Etsy.

We went back to Risa’s, me eating on some of the food I had acquired at the Asian market and carefully trying to balance starting a new drink so that I could have a different new one at Rocky Horror and the last in the morning before my flight.

For evening plans, Risa’s mom had suggested either a live performance of Cabaret, which neither Risa nor I was super enthused about or a shadow cast version of Rocky Horror. We opted for the Rocky Horror experience.

In between goings on, I created a new punk/glam makeup look, applied a fake tattoo to my stomach, and changed into the blue Origin of Love shirt I had brought with me. I figured why not combine my two favourite musicals?

We drove out slightly past midnight to a dead looking strip mall movie theatre. Risa’s mom dropped us off and said to text her when the film was over knowing from past experience that the show started at eleven, but the actual film could start anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half later than that.

We bought our tickets and another pin for my jacket and Risa and I went to sit down. We picked the back row, naturally.

The show started and they had an “impromptu dance party” that lasted a few seconds, a Rocky Horror baptism where they placed rice on the new baby of two former shadow cast members, and a few quick announcements before having their virgin activity and starting the show. The shadow casters and the audience weren’t exactly the stuff of legend that I’d been hearing about for over a decade in regards to Rocky fandom. The cast didn’t know their lines and the audience seemed to be going through the motions of “this is what we do on Friday night.”

So I decided it was a sing along. And I decided that whichever songs I wanted to get up and dance to, I would. I shouted a few new things or things I’d read in my Rocky Horror books to liven up our experience with the showing. For the most part, it didn’t interfere with the other movie goers since we were seated so far back and the things people did observe were met well. We left very happy and I felt like I had mentally reclaimed a film that had been tarnished by a bad experience with an ex and the atrocity that was Fox’s attempt at a remake.

We went back to Risa’s house again for a few hours before we all had to leave for the early morning flight back to KC. Given how much trouble we had had getting me back the first time, we left extra early to make sure I actually got on the damned plane the first time around. Naturally, I was almost through security as soon as I got there.

For airport food, I chose a coffee and some Popeye’s fries and during my layover, I grabbed a bagel and lox. From the moment I got off the plane in Kansas City, I would have to be up and awake until at least one in the morning due to volunteering to take the late-late shift to avoid missing any work. It took until I got back to Kansas City since the airport one was only serving breakfast, but I finally got the Popeye’s I had wanted for three days.

#bowie museum pt. 2 #New new New New New New New New NEW New York #travel diary #travel diary new york #new york day 1 #new york trip 2 #new york trip 2 day 1

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justfollowmyhansel · 5 years

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Taboo — March 30th through April 3rd, 2018

Coming back from Japan, I was already planning the next trip. I wanted more. Not just more John/Hedwig but more travel, more independence, more new experiences, less… missing out and seeing the coolest things modern life had to offer solely and completely through an LED screen or hoping that somehow the things I wanted to see came within driving distance.

But first things first; I had to pay off the small amount of debit I had gotten myself into going to Japan on such short notice, which was relatively easily done. The harder thing was that I had an informal embargo put on my travel until the spring due to unpredictable weather and road conditions. It was all well and good if where I was going was going to be sunny and bright, but if I couldn’t get to the airport to get there it wouldn’t matter.This pushed my next trip into 2018 and I already had just the things I wanted to see.

Asked in December, my ideal spring trip would have been Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal: 20 Years of Friendship, going to the David Bowie Is exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, and experiencing my first Mattachine Party.

Plotting in February, the concert was already sold out — and had been sold out for months. Onto crafting plan B…. Two of my other favourite Hedwigs had announced shows in the past week for the general timeframe Risa and I were looking at. The first was Lena Hall performing her March selection of her Obsessed series. The second was seeing Mason Alexander Park performing songs from Boy George’s musical Taboo. While we both liked both performers, the decision was left up to me and I chose to see Mason.

This presented us with two different problems: neither one of us knew Taboo nor had a particular interest in Boy George’s music and it was scheduled for the week after Mattachine whereas Lena was scheduled for the night of meaning that we could easily go see her and then sneak over to the Julius a little after John would usually get there. What pushed Mattachine off the table as a consideration was that John hadn’t actually gone to Mattachine since at least the September before the Japan trip, possibly before.

Day 1

I woke up a little before 4 to get ready to leave at 4 to get to the airport at 5 to leave for New York a little after 6 to arrive a little after 10. Travel…a great way to completely burn six hours of time….On the way up both my mother and I expressed that this was too early to get up.

Arriving, I checked in and then we debated how much time we wanted to stand outside of the Delta check in line before I actually went in. The line wasn’t that long, but it wouldn’t hurt to be early. I went through the TSA screening and my mom hung around outside the check point until just after I was on the plane and ready for takeoff just in case there were any mishaps.

I wasn’t quite off yet as the plane needed to be deiced before it could take off and as a head’s up, I texted Risa. To my surprise she was already up. In planning the first of what we hoped would be multiple trips out to see each other, we had failed to coordinate which airport would actually be the best to fly into and as it turned out the cheapest one was a significant distance from her house. For the majority of the three hour flight I’d be experiencing, Risa and her parents would be in the car.

Shortly after arriving (and taking my least favourite mode of transportation – airport bus), I met Risa and her parents at the arrivals gate.

We drove from LaGuardia to Brooklyn with Risa’s mom, Cindy, pointing out some of the sights of New York along the way. Risa and I were largely too busy in the backseat catching up to notice.

We went to lunch and then headed to the museum. Risa and her parents has booked tickets for a specific time as opposed to the package deal that I had chosen where I would get the tote bag, the catalogue of things, and admission to the exhibit whenever I wanted. We waited downstairs until it was closer to the time they had on their tickets, waiting for her parents to check their coats and listening to the almost on shuffle selection of Bowie tunes in the lobby.

We got upstairs and saw that there was a game put forth by the Brooklyn museum for David Bowie trivia via text message. I played three of the ten questions before losing interest. It was very basic Bowie facts and left me wanting something…more challenging for an exhibit about the man who had influenced so much of my life.

While we waited upstairs for the designated time, I went up to one of the people working the door, asking where I was supposed to get the bag and the book as I wanted to go through the exhibit with the option to open up the book and get a deeper understanding of the articles . After much back and forth that yes, that was exactly what I wanted to do and yes, I understand the book is heavy, I don’t care, I went downstairs to the coat check to collect the missing items.

An unusual facet of the exhibit was the sound experience. Provided by Sennheiser and geo-mapped to specific locations within the museum’s layout, the sound would play on whatever video, interview, or other Bowie related artefact you happened to be standing by, often working as a blend of spoken quotes and snippets of songs. Despite no obvious differences between the headsets, the experience worked much better for me on my $85 (no tax, but pre-insurance cost) ticket than it did on Risa’s $15/per. I mean, it makes a certain amount of sense, but it’s still relatively shitty thing to do. If I hadn’t wanted the stuff to go along with the experience, my ticket would have only been $10 more expensive than hers and for such a minimal difference, I would have expected a more equal experience.

I though the layout of the exhibit was odd; once you got beyond the initial introductory hallway showcasing frequently reprinted baby photos, early photos of David with his pre-solo work bands, and past the Space Oddity video it ping-ponged between various stages of David’s life.

Particularly frustrating for this day, and I would assume every day one visited the exhibit, the things that attracted the most eyeballs and crowds were things easily accessible via other media – music videos long collected on YouTube and the Best of Bowie dvd, movie clips equally accessible via legal means – meanwhile one-of-a-kind lyrics and art work, photographs and costumes Bowie were covered up by someone watching Life on Mars seemingly without realizing that they were in the same room as the iconic suit. No room was this more fitting in than one where yet another video display was sucking up everyone’s attention away from the Saturday Night Live display featuring a nice blazer/skirt combo, an animatronic poodle, and David’s drawing for TVC-15, a song about a girlfriend-eating television.

At the risk of sounding even more pretentious, it was the crowds more than anything that made this exhibit particularly frustrating. There were simply too many people forming too many clusters to truly see so much of what was being shown. I wondered if there would have been a significant difference in experience if I had entered either off-cycle to the 15 minute timed entries or if we had chosen a different date.

There was a notable lack of coverage for certain eras. Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, “Heroes,” Outside, and Earthling are well represented with costumes, lyric sheets, sketches, interviews, video clips, and photographs, but other albums, including the seminal, career changing album Let’s Dance were diminished, not only in their representation (one of the Zoot suits, the skull and cape he used for Cracked Actor…) but in their importance to David’s life and career. Others still, such as Never Let Me Down or hours…., aren’t represented at all. Interestingly enough, Never Let Me Down got more representation in the merchandise for the exhibit than in the actual museum with a pencil and a coffee mug.

I would have liked to have gone through the exhibit a second time, this time marking things down in my copy of the catalogue, but not only had my hosts gone downstairs to wait for me to finish my lengthy first examination of the exhibit, my back was hurting badly and I wanted to get off of the concrete floors.

$460 at the shop later and we were on our way again, this time to Risa’s house. On the way, her parents asked questions about David’s life and the exhibit, particularly why some eras were left out. Without knowing for sure, I gave the best answer that I could – the eras exhibited were the ones that David was most proud of in his life. Let’s Dance was an era he came to see as one where he didn’t create music he could embrace as his own nor fans that he recognized from when he was still that queer glam weirdo. It and the subsequent albums Tonight and Never Let Me Down ended up becoming the red headed stepchildren of his back catalogue, something to move past and break free from. Tin Machine got more love in the exhibit than NLMD and Blackstar, which had been released after the David Bowie Is tour was already three years underway.

Given the choice between a hotel and her house, Risa and I made the decision to stay at her place. And stay up until all hours chatting and watching bootlegs.

Day 2

Risa and I got up later and opted to watch the Hedwig movie while eating breakfast. By the time the movie was over, it was already time to get ready. My outfit was more or less the punk rock look I had been sporting since the How to Talk to Girls at Parties premiere featuring black non-descript outer layers, a dark red and black plaid shirt, a skull tie, and blue lipstick.

The ride to the city was almost as long as the ride back from it had been the previous day. Any hopes that we might be in a better traffic pattern were quickly dashed. We parked, and went up to the theatre. It was going to be about 20 minutes before they opened the doors to the theatre so we decided to look for around awhile as opposed to waiting at the very loud and slightly crowded bar. We went to Starbucks and I got a Horchata Almondmilk frappuccino, which Risa and I split before the show.

As we waited in line, the performers moved past us back and forth between something upstairs and the downstairs bathroom that was functioning as the dressing rooms for the performance.

After the host checked our ticket status, we were seated near the front of the small venue. With a mandatory food total, I was having trouble picking things that were both interesting and expensive enough ultimately deciding on a raw salmon display and mushroom risotto balls with an overpriced cup of tea that was the thing to push it over the edge in price.

This was probably one of the few shows I’ll ever go to where the performers explicitly say ‘bootleg this show.’ Ostensibly, it was because in putting this staging together, they found out that the rights to the show had been so mismanaged, no one quite knew who owned the legal rights to the show and when/if they were sued for an illegal performance, they’d find out!

The performance was amazing with a completely standout cast of actors, most of which we had never even heard of before stepping into the small space. The standout to me, aside from Mason, was Kaley Ann Voorhees. Now she’s playing the principle Christine in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, but at the time, she was a standby. The single solo that she had in the show moved both Risa and I to tears despite the context of the show in which it would normally sit being almost completely absent in the concert staging.

For me, the best Mason song was The Fame Game because despite it being an ensemble instead of a solo, it offered the best opportunity for him to show his range of talents going from playing George as very cocky to breaking down during the course of a three minute song, again without the normal context of the show to build up to the emotion. If I hadn’t thought he was incredibly talented before walking into that room, there was no doubt in my mind when we left it.

Of the other amazing performers we saw and were introduced to I finally got a chance to see Shannon Conley perform live having been a fan of hers for many years, again, because of Hedwig. We saw Mimi Imfurst deliver a few witty and complex songs complete with audience banter. We debated the merits of coming out to see her recently announced run as Hedwig, but I passed because I’d be going to go see John again in Australia for three weeks and Risa passed because she didn’t want to go without me. Caroline LeRoche delivered a surprisingly sultry performance and belt for someone we had up until seeing her thought was solely a very talented makeup artist and fitness instructor. And last but not least, Cleophatra delivered an absolutely gorgeous performance on her singular solo

The show had been announced as having special guest performers and both Risa and I were lowkey hoping that that would mean John as this would be a lovely way to meet him with fewer people than there would be at an American show and potentially fewer people than the yet unknown quantity of people at the Australian shows. Regardless, we were very happy with the show as it was delivered and wished it was longer so that we could see more of the very talented people whom we had come to enjoy that evening.

Afterwards, I had the chance to meet one of my other friends, Cait. We had all been friends since Hedwig was at the Belasco, Cait having met Risa in person a time or two before this, but me being the odd person out living so far away. I thanked Cait again for helping me with my job applications. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to go to Japan. And without her advice, I didn’t know if I would have been able to jump from having three part time jobs down to one full time job with minimal damage to my bottom line. Risa’s dad offered Cait the extra pass we had to go meet Mason and Mimi, but since Cait had come with a group, she couldn’t go with us to meet them.

I went quickly to freshen up and then rejoined Risa in waiting to go meet Mason.

It was a quick moving line and shortly after joining it, we were at the front. I offered my phone camera to take the pictures on as it took slightly nicer ones than Risa’s and we both told Mason how good he was and how much we enjoyed him not only in this, but in Hedwig as well. He was exceedingly nice and very flattered when I mentioned that he was one of my favourite Hedwigs, second only to John and tied with Lena. “Well, now I gotta go cut Lena,” he joked.

He invited both of us generally out to see Mimi in Philadelphia, but we were noncommittal. I said that I wasn’t sure if I could go because of work and Risa agreed that she also had reservations because of her work.

We parted ways after what felt like a longer time than some of the people before us had had and were thanked again by Cait for the extra wrist band. Some of the other cast was up at the bar, but Risa’s parents wanted to go and I felt like we had probably already inconvenienced them enough with how long I had taken at the Bowie museum the day before.

Instead of walking back to the car, we took a stroll up to Times Square. They all knew that it was my first time in New York and that I’d never seen any of the things that made the city so famous and internationally interesting. I thought it was interesting that the crowds weren’t really more dense than a night in Kansas City, Missouri until we got almost on top of Times Square. I took photos of a couple of digital billboards for the shows I watched on Netflix, but that was really it.

While TS was interesting, I was more interested when we got to see a bit of Broadway just off of where we were. We found a Broadway themed shop while we were walking around. A couple of things caught my eye, namely things for the 20th anniversary tour of RENT, but nothing that I thought was reasonably priced for what it was. New York as a whole was more expensive than I was used to in either the Midwest or Japan.

After a couple more minutes walking around, we made our way back to the car and drove back to Risa’s house. Again, we stayed up all night watching Netflix and horsing around.

Day 3

We got up a little bit later than the estimate we had been given the night before as to when we’d have to get ready. Risa’s parents had heard how late we stayed up and decided to be nice and let us stay in bed a little longer. We were ready relatively quickly, but getting out the door took longer than it should have.

Unfortunately on the way to the airport we ran into a poor GPS navigation, road construction, AIRPORT construction, misleading signs, and finally a gigantic line because in all of our planning, the biggest oversight that we had had was that that weekend was both Passover and Easter meaning that there was significant delays in getting through the security clearance.

After what felt like an eternity, I made it through the line, shoved my feet back into my shows and bolted for the gate my plane was supposed to be at. According to one of the neighbouring gate agents, I had just missed the door closing. Wonderful….

The next flight they could book me into would be one in about four hour’s time. It would work for me, but it wouldn’t work for my parents as Kansas City was expecting an ice storm. After a heated conversation on the phone with my mom and a less composed conversation on the phone with Risa and her mom, Risa’s parents came back to the airport to help me figure out what I could do to get back to KC. Eventually, it was rebooked for two days out for free with the option that either Risa or I would pay extra to get me back sooner.

I updated my mom and we went back to Risa’s place feeling significantly more defeated than we had before.

Extra Vacation

The next couple of days were spend at Risa’s house, going out for IHOP, taking Risa to her job, planning to see a different Lena concert that we originally thought we wouldn’t be able to go to, booking tickets to two of John’s Australia shows, going out to Walmart with Risa’s mom (again), cancelling our plans to see Lena as she cancelled the show, and Risa’s parents treating me to my first meal at a hibachi place.

Risa had long been a fan of hibachi, but I had never gone despite having a strong love of sushi. I convinced her to try the soup and the salad, something she had never done before, and while we both liked with Miso soup, neither of us liked the salads. The hibachi part of the hibachi experience was amazing. The food was incredibly fresh and the meats were cooked to be almost melt-in-your mouth. There was an offer of ice cream as a dessert, but despite happily going for ice cream after Taboo, I passed knowing that dairy often makes me sluggish the next day and that we all had to be up in time to take me to the airport before Risa went to work.

The next attempt at going to the airport went much smoother. The line was slightly shorter, I had more lead time to get through it, and this time finally made it on the plane.

I arrived in Kansas City and had an hour or so wait until my mom could come to pick me up from her job. She bought me lunch and then I slept under her desk at work until it was time to go.

#taboo #New new New New New New New New NEW New York #travel diary new york #new york day 1 #new york trip 1 #new york trip 1 day 1 #travel diary

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