Thursday, October 30, 2008

Where to start????

I am trying to figure out how to start this blog entry. Why? Well, first, I'm in Spain at the moment, but between the last time I wrote an entry back in Miami Beach and now I have had a lot going on. So maybe I will start with where everything was going right...back on Miami Beach with Francois Sagat and Eddie Diaz the night before leaving for Berlin:

So it all started out innocent enough


Then we started to have a few drinks....



Then we went to go see Pussila at Twist...


more drinks... (free ad for Corona!)

and then more Pussila....

Probably not the best way to spend a night before leaving for Berlin, but luckily American Airline's flight to London does not depart until 8pm! I was able to accomplish a lot the following day before leaving to London, enough so that I was tired when I boarded and fell asleep. A side note: Someone commented a few posts back about how boring it was that I talked a lot about travel, that I fly business class and comment a lot about types of aircraft and different airlines and airplanes. Well, soon enough I will be posting a whole travel section on my website worldofmen.com for those of you that LOVE travel like myself. So not to bore the reader that posted the comment too much, yes, I never fly coach over 2 hours and especially not on an overnight flight....I did that too much in my past (and I will be telling you the secrets soon enough how to get into business or first without having to pay full price).

For the past 2 years Rich and I have made it a point to go to London for a half day to see his friend David on our way to Berlin. We get off the plane, take a shower at American Airline's arrivals lounge at Heathrow, do a bit of business and then board the tube for central London. This time we forced David to come to Soho and eat with us at Busaba Eathai, our favorite Thai restaurant. Rich and I grabbed a quick coffee at Costa and we ran into an Israeli guy we met in Rio at Le Boy just a few weeks ago! The gay world is totally small! After lunch we strolled down to the Thames with David, said bye and then as Rich and I were heading for the Tube we ran into my models Pedro and Daniel randomly on the street! Small world, eh?

David, Rich and I at Busaba Eathai

Running into Pedro and Daniel randomly on the street in Soho!

A quick flight to Berlin, then we were finally in for the night after a very long day and trip(s). The reason we go to Berlin is not for Hustlaball, but rather for Venus, but Rich and I agreed that this is the last year we will be attending Venus since porn trade shows have been going downhill very quickly in the past few years. So I guess we decided to make the best of the trip and go out a bit. Rich convinced me to go to a "bubble gum twinky" club. Ok, I had fun and it wasn't all twinks, but for some reason I am equally attracted to trannies as trannies are to me....now don't get me wrong, no tranny sex here, just love hangin' with them.


Paging all trannies!

Tranny, its Tranny form Transylvania! Hello!

Simmer down tranny, no smokin' in here!


Even Rich can shock a hot tranny mess!


But Rich prefers trannies before they put on make up...LOL

After all the fun times at the Bubble Gum bar, we went to the Hustlaball for 2 minutes. No comment. Saturday night turned out to be a lot of fun since we met up with friends at a club called Berghain at Panorama Bar. Cameras were not allowed but I snuck mine in so I will present a few pics I snuck when security wasn't looking!

A quick bathroom pic!


Hot guy dancing at Berghain

After a late night out Rich and I just walked around and got to see Berlin since Rich has never really played tourist there. Later that evening we headed for Tempelhof Airport for a quick flight on Brussels Airlines to Brussels (of course!). We didn't know until we arrived at the airport that the airport was going to close in just a week. I knew there was a fight to keep the airport open, but no one seemed to show up at the city council meeting to voice their opinion so subsequently the city of Berlin decided to shut the airport down. I will not go into the interesting history of the airport, but you can click here on TEMPELHOF and read about it on wikipedia.

In front of Tempelhof


The fabulous Art Deco interior

Miss Thang boarding Brussels Airlines



One last bye bye to Tempelhof from Brussels Airlines


I'm not exactly sure how many European cities you can fit into one day, but Rich and I seemed to fit in Brussels, Antwerp and even Amsterdam into one day! I felt like we were on some straight oriented 10 day tour of Europe being in a new city every day...even our European friends and colleagues made fun of us for being in Brussels and Amsterdam in the same day!



Driving in Amsterdam cannot be done without Tom Tom!

After visiting many retailers in the region I discovered my business was being sucked into the nasty banking crisis we are having in the US! While we were away we had a friend deposit a few checks that Bank of America promises to release the next day, but for some reason they put a 2 week hold on thousands of dollars that we needed. In addition to Bank of America being nasty with money, we also needed some items sent to us via FedEx that was going to cost around $200. I had a total nervous breakdown throwing my phone across the room breaking it. I quickly got on the internet to see how much it would be to fly home the next day. Amazingly a last minute ticket from Amsterdam to Miami and returning to Paris was only $840. So there I was on a plane from Amsterdam to Heathrow and then onto Miami the next morning at 7:20am.

When I arrived in Miami I stormed into Bank of America directly from the airport, luggage in hand, and asked them to release the funds. Magically, the branch manager took off early and I would have to come back the next day. I was so pissed I let off steam at the gym and then went out later that evening to Twist. The next day the manager did release the funds then I went to see my accountant. From that point on all was going well and I was able to get a lot done in the next few days. On Friday I called my mom to find out how all was going to only find out my great aunt was in the hospital. I made plans to go to California Saturday and then return to Paris Sunday but my mom assured me she would be all right, so I stayed in Miami and went back to Paris arriving Monday morning. By the time I arrived in Paris, my great aunt was much worse and the following day I had to fly to Spain for work. So here I am now trying to catch up on work and this blog. My great aunt finally passed away, but by doing so this incident pitted my brother, aunt and cousin against my mother that was acting out towards all of us. Some people never get to know their extended families such as great aunts, but my mother's side of the family is very small and very close. Now that the drama has ended along with my great aunt Betty's life, I can continue to get back to normal, but I promised my family I would go to California for the whole month to help organize everything.....

Trying to enjoy Paris...I'll miss you Aunt Betty!





Friday, October 17, 2008

I Love Saturday Night Live!

SOOOOOOOO politically incorrect, but soooooo funny....where do they get this shit from? I nearly pissed my pants the first time I saw it!



Monday, October 13, 2008

What do Barak Obama and Francois Sagat have in common?

Well, both are very much liked by me! Since I will be out of the country during this very important election I decided I should order an absentee ballot and cast my vote! After casting my vote for Barak Obama I went to go see one of my favorite people in the porn business, Francois Sagat, up at Boardwalk in Ft. Lauderdale. Not much else is happening except preparing to leave Miami Beach again for a full month, ugh!







Sunday, October 5, 2008

Vina del Mar, Sao Paulo and Rio...then home!

Since we were in Santiago Rich and I decided we wanted to rent a car and drive to Vina del Mar on Chile's coast. We both have always heard of it, but never visited it in our extensive travels. So we hopped in a car and took off through the rolling hills below the Andes to the Chilean coast right through Chile's wine country. First we drove through Valparaiso which is a very intersting city architecturally, but not enough to stop the car and wander. We continued about 2 miles northeast to Valparaiso which is modern and built up with tall condo units. We parked the car, walked along the beach and then down the boardwalk and ended up at a seafood restaurant. I'm not a huge fan of seafood, so I opted for the interesting crab lasagna.


Vina del Mar, Chile


After dinner we decided to drive back to Santiago for a quick rest before going out. As we headed into Valparaiso Olivia Newton-John's song "Hopelessly Devoted to You" piped in on the radio and Rich and I turned into total geeks and sang along to it (watch the video if you dare)! Later that evening we went out to Bunker, Santiago's premier nightclub only open on Friday's and Saturday's full of Chile's sexy men and women. The club starts out with hot tranny acts, male dancers, and other great stage acts then ends up playing great music until 5am. And yes, we left at 5am to get a decent rest before heading to the airport at noon for a 2pm flight.




We arrived at Santiago airport about 1 1/2 hour early. When flying in LAN Chile business class you actually have separate immigration and baggage screening lanes from coach passengers which took less than a total of 2 minutes for both! AMAZING! After 20 minutes in LAN's lounge we were notified the flight would be 3 hours late so we were given vouchers for lunch and had a horrible one at Ruby Tuesday's...gross! Anyway, we did take off in enough time to see the Andes at sunset which was even more beautiful than our daytime landing. 3 1/2 hours later and we landed in Sao Paulo. Rich's friends picked us up and took us into town and on to Danger a trashy nightclub in old downtown Sao Paulo. After about an hour we got bored, left, and continued on at Blue Space. We had quite a busy day so we went home early since we were suppose to drive to Rio the next day.


LAN Chile's Operations at Santiago Airport

Flying Over the Andes (the snow is reflecting the sun to the clouds)

LAN's Business Class. (I just can't fly coach anymore with how much I fly)

After waking up a bit late and then being scared to death to drive to Rio by our friends I decided that maybe we should fly to Rio and back. Since it is only a 45 minute flight I decided to book the cheapest airline possible to save our budget a bit: Ocean Air. We decided to stay one more day in Sao Paulo since we stayed one day longer in Santiago and decided to fly to Rio instead of driving to Rio saving us 8 hours or so. We spent the rainy day just lounging, going to Congonhas airport to buy the tickets, and then heading back to Blue Space. Blue Space puts on a cool drag show on Sunday but then the club shuts down pretty quickly after around midnight (I guess people in Sao Paulo take the work week seriously).

Blue Space in Sao Paulo....woo hoo!


With Friend at Blue Space. Below Right, a Proper Brazilian Breakfast


The next day we flew on the former American Airlines Fokker 100 that Ocean Air bought, but never changed the interior making the plane an obvious American Airlines antiquity. Taking off between the tall buildings of downtown Sao Paulo and then landing at Rio's Santos de Monte airport circling down around Pao de Azucar is quite an experience, especially in an aircraft American Airlines decided to retire! At least Ocean Air provides a sufficient hot meal (chicken pot pie on the out bound and bow tie pasta with meat sauce on the return).


Ocean Air's Fokker 100, which they now call an MK28. Anyone see the similarity with American Airline's 1980's era upholstery? (Oh, and minus the food and especially the cream puff!)


Rio is stuck in the 1970's, but hey, you gotta love it. There is no other place on this planet that is more amazing than sitting on Ipanema Beach surrounded by beautiful mountains that are surrounded by clouds. After landing we drove to the beach and had a nice 2 hours of relaxing sun. The next day was rainy all day so we just did some work and rested. Later that night we went out to Le Boy to have a few drinks and check out the boys. The next day was sunny and beautiful so we got 2 more hours out of Ipanema Beach before heading back to the airport in tank tops, havaianas, and dusted with sand. A quick 45 minute flight and we were back in Sao Paulo where we went to our friends' place, showered, changed, and then a large ice storm hit as we were out the door for dinner. After a quick dinner we drove out to Gaurulhos airport for our overnight flight to Miami. Only 2 days home and we took off to LA for business so here I am now....