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!

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!

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....

Flying over the Andes, landing in Santiago

So we finally left Buenos Aires for, well, Sao Paulo via Santiago on LAN Chile. Rich and I had a plan to trick LAN in to letting stay at least one night in Santiago so when we arrived at Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires we started to sweet talk the agent, but found out quickly no sweet talk was actually needed. You see, every American needs a visa for Brazil and the airlines are the first line of enforcement. I have a visa and so does Rich, but not in the passport he is carrying! So, the agent checked us to Santiago only and told us we should figure it out there. Before we boarded the plane we ran to the Admiral's Club in Buenos Aires to ask for help. Basically, we needed a good two days to fix the visa/passport issue. The agent guaranteed that we would leave at 7am on Saturday and then the gate agent confirmed so we boarded happy.

This was the first time flying LAN Chile and was very excited to see what their business product was like. LAN has more space than American, but the seat is a bit more rigid and not as soft and plush as American. Nonetheless, the service was excellent, the seat laid completely flat, and the food was amazing. About 2 hours into the flight the plane started to approach the Andes which is an amazing sight! The Andes are so high the plane flies just over them and then a sharp turn down into the valley Santiago lies in right up against the majestic Andes. After landing, being shocked by having to pay the $131 per person "reciprocity" fee, and then being shocked by rental car process we went up to reconfirm with LAN what the Adminral's Club did in Buenos Aires. We found out LAN cancelled the flight, reverted us back to the original itinerary and blamed it on the fact we were flying on a ticket issued by American. Rich decided to yell at the LAN agents while I called up the American Airlines Executive Platinum desk on my cell phone. I told the agent that we really needed to fix the visa issue and she promptly rebooked us on the 2:15pm flight on Saturday (instead of the yucky 7am flight)! It appears LAN is not so helpful in the end, but American, especially lately has risen above and beyond expectations.

View of the Andes provided by LAN Chile

We finally checked into our hotel in Santiago and for the next few hours worked with our friends in Miami, especially Eddie Diaz (thanks big guy!), to find Rich's passport with the Brazilian visa and then figure out how to get it to Santiago by the time our flight leaves on Saturday. We then decided to have lunch, feed some homeless kittens, and go back for a well deserved rest. I must say that Santiago is very modern and very beautiful....more to come soon!

Poor Chilean Kitty!

My new haircut....finally

Ok, so I am finally ready to share my new look. About 3 weeks ago I decided to make some major changes to my look. For the past year I toyed with the idea of a mohawk, so I finally took the plunge and had my hair stylist create a mohawk. One week later I went to get my eyebrow and nipple pierced. Many like my new look and a very few don't. I live in South Beach so people think my look is cool, but I went to New York 2 weeks ago and even the most liberal gays stared at me very strangly. My first assumption is that my look was way to liberal to have a professional job in New York. My assumption was confirmed by a few New Yorkers letting me know that New York is all about where you work and how much you make and there is no way someone with my look could have a good job. (Just to let you know New Yorkers that I have a very fun job running my own business traveling the world meeting and filming hot men...so ha!) I'd rather look like a punk and work when I went, fly first class, and live two blocks from the beach than work for some nasty corporate boss that only thinks I do good work only if I stay until 8pm every night and dress in an Armani suite.

Last, but not least, please take note of the new look and feel of my blog. I finally decided to clean it up a bit and set my links to pop up and not redirect my blog to another website.

New York, Buenos Aires and Montevideo!

So after a quick trip to New York to visit retailers. Rich and I took off for Buenos Aires. Since I have been on a gym binge since I made the break up with my ex final I went to the gym right before heading to the airport. Personally I have felt for a while that I really to get my ass back into shape after traveling a ton over the past year, so we'll see what happens. After arriving at JFK and settling into the First Class Admirals lounge, Rich started chatting up this guy in the corner of the lounge. American kept delaying the flight and then told the guy that the flight would be on an older 767 making him think it would be a non-refurbished 767 without the flat bed, but rather a recliner seat. He even made me nervous, even though I know American finished their refurbishment of the 767s like a year ago and recently finished their 777 fleet, I was scared a bit. I asked the agent in the lounge and she told me it would be a "767 jet." Holy shit! I totally thought I was back in 1983! 767-jet, I mean really lady.

Pluna's website to see how much it would cost to fly to Montevideo instead of taking the expensive boat (buquebus at $160 round trip) and I found a web special for Friday to Saturday for $59 round trip including taxes! So the next day we hopped on a nice new Pluna CRJ and took a quick 30 minute flight to Montevideo.

With Steve and his partner Ben at The Faena

Anyway, not only was it a "jet" it was also a completely reconfigured business class with flat beds. Our new friend Steve (the guy Rich chatted up in the lounge) changed his seat based on the misinformation of the lounge agent ended up with the one broken seat that would not recline fully! Although the flight was perfect for sleep: 10 hours, leaving 1.5 hours after take off and 1.5 hours before landing to get full sleep, which I did get 7 hours of sleep, after arriving at the hotel Rich and I slept for another 6 hours! ahh! Later, we met up with Steve and his boyfriend Ben at the Hotel Faena for drinks then on to Kilometro Zero for some trashy fun.

The next few days we organized shoots, met with models, filmed a bit, lazed around a bit and then I went to

Pluna is the Fabulous Uruguayan Airline

Montevideo is actually a very small but interesting city with awesome architecture. Rich and I also cashed in some Starwood Points to stay at the Four Points Montevideo for free and ended up working most of the day, but did get to look around a bit during the day before heading out to a nice dinner at night and then to a pub or two after. The next day our special fare was for an 8:30am flight back to Buenos Aires so we went to bed early, but then took a nap after returning to our apartment and then I had to get some work done! Now its Sunday and we are taking the day off like most Argentinians and then off to Santiago de Chile on Thursday hoping to convince LAN Chile to allow us a 1 or 2 day stopover to see the city before continuing onto Sao Paulo.

Brush with Hurricane Ike

Well, it has been a wild week in Miami Beach. Just as I started to get some work done and take a few days at the beach the news started reporting about Ike. As Ike moved closer Florida declared a State of Emergency on Thursday and by Friday panic took over. We had a Category 4 Hurricane headed directly for us, so my business partner and I had to make evacuation plans, especially since we live 2 blocks from the beach and we work from home. Friday night I was coming home from, well I can't remember, but I stopped by Publix (our supermarket) and all the bottled water was gone, people were frantically pushing carts through the aisles, and about 50% of non-perishable items were ripped from the shelves. Ok, I'm usually not one to panic, but when I see other people panic I get nervous.

One of Ike's outter bands movin' in

However, the next morning we woke up to see that Ike started heading south. By mid-day we were almost out of the cone. Sunday morning rolled around and we were 95% sure we would miss the brunt of Ike. What better to do than to ask Eddie Diaz to head to the beach with me, but by the time we left home one of Ike's bands blew in and we headed to The Palace for shelter (and mojitos). We did get a quick dip in the turbulent ocean though!

One of the reasons I live on South Beach :)

Sunday evening I went to the closing party of Click at Dek 23. Omar, the promoter has been a friend for a long time so I agreed to bring my camera and film away! I had a great time playing with my camera and acting as interviewer (watch out Barbara Walters)! Later that night Rich and I popped by Twist to say "hi" to Pussila. Of course, she was acting as crazy as ever finding new ways to use colorful condoms! Monday night Rich and I went to Club Chat Noir at Dream. Chat Noir is the most fun on South Beach with a great mix of people. If you ever make it to South Beach Chat Noir is a must!


Now I am in NY writing this at a Starbucks and preparing for my next international adventure. More to come!